David Aldridge takes a moment to respond to this week’s batch of questions from his readers …
Goodbye, Derrick Martell. From Raul Nuevo:
What do you think of the Rose trade? I get the Knicks, but can´t understand the Bulls at all.
They’d reached the end of the road with D-Rose, Raul. He wasn’t the player he was before all the injuries, he didn’t get along with Jimmy Butler — in whom Chicago invested $90 million last summer — and the Bulls weren’t going to re-sign him after next season. And, in truth, the word from his camp throughout the season was that a change of scenery was probably best for him. It’s sad, considering Rose’s MVP season in 2011 and the good feelings everyone had that a kid from Englewood became a star for the hometown team.
The MVP press conference Derrick had in front of his family and with his mother remains one of the best moments to witness in recent years. But the ACL tear changed everything. Derrick will get a shot in New York to re-establish himself as a premier point guard alongside Carmelo Anthony and Kristaps Porzingis, but we’ll all lament what could have been in the Windy City.
Watch out for the shills, traitors cut a deal.
Or agents planted, manipulating games from the field. From Peter Westberg:
Sir, I have to say that being a fan of you for years, I was severely disappointed in your company-man approach to the NBA conspiracy question. I get it, if I were working at a restaurant and people thought something was wrong with the food I would defend it if I thought it was the right thing to do. But I would also hope that I would at least consider the fact that they have a point and let the Chef taste it.
First off, it was clear to me, and more than one former NBA player (Reggie Miller) that the reason Green was suspended in The Finals was the same reason he wasn’t in the Western bracket. They wanted to extend the series. How you could draw, let alone defend, any other conclusion there is beyond laughable.
To say that the Cavs couldn’t lobby for Green to be suspended is also funny. Especially when LeBron has two mouthpieces disguised as journalists running around for him on ESPN citing unnamed sources all the time.
In my opinion you also make the mistake that many people do when talking about whether specific games are messed with. You assert that it would be a crazy conspiracy too vast to contribute to deciding every game. You’re right. I don’t know if anyone is saying that the NBA really wanted the Cavs to win. I think they wanted the time slot on Fathers Day full. Just like they wanted Memorial Day for the previous series.
And don’t insult our intelligence by talking about how the NBA already has their network money because only an idiot would believe that they didn’t profit either through advertising or exposure by having a Game 7 in The Finals. No one is saying LeBron didn’t have some great games. I think a lot of people think that these series are being extended in an unnatural way. I think it’s strange that people like Tim Donaghy and Bill Simmons are able to predict which officials will be working based on the circumstances of the series.
In closing, I have been a huge LeBron fan since he entered the league. I take nothing away from the man’s accomplishments because as I see it now, this is just business as usual for the league. And I have been a huge fan of yours for years despite our disagreement here. I truly believe that down the line the NBA will have to deal with all of this, much like baseball dealt with the steroid issue and the NFL is currently fumbling through the concussion issue.
But as far as I go, I think I’m done. NBA was my favorite for about 29 years. Always suspected things, this year I think they went too far. I can’t take it seriously anymore.
Yeah, Reggie didn’t say that, Peter. He said that he didn’t like the retroactive punishment assigned by the league the day after Game 4, and that if the referees who worked the game didn’t think Green’s foul was a Flagrant 1, the NBA shouldn’t have stepped in and triggered an automatic suspension by upgrading the common foul to a Flagrant. Which is fair criticism. And he said he didn’t think the league would have acted if The Finals had been tied 2-2 rather than the Warriors being up 3-1. But that is radically different from your inference that he said the league acted because it wanted to extend the series. Get your facts straight.
As I said, the league was crystal clear after it didn’t suspend Green for kicking Steven Adams in the groin during the Western Conference finals: do not hit anyone else in the groin. That was not the first time Green hit someone below the belt. I’m not sure how a player couldn’t understand those instructions. That’s on Draymond. Sorry.
You say the league “wanted the time slot on Fathers Day,” but in the tradition of all conspiracy theorists, offer not one shred of proof as to how they brought that about. How’d they do it? By making Harrison Barnes shoot 2 of 22 from the floor in Games 5 and 6? By throwing J.R. Smith (accidently) into Andrew Bogut’s knee? By forcing the Warriors to get outscored 31-11 in the first quarter of Game 6? The same two teams played in The Finals last year: did the league not want the time slot on Father’s Day last year? Oh, that’s right; it couldn’t show a game on Father’s Day last year because the series was over by the time Father’s Day came. So … they want it every other Father’s Day? Finding a set of facts around which to twist whatever theory you have is not difficult, but that doesn’t make it right, either.
There was nothing “unnatural,” as you put it, about Cleveland kicking Golden State’s butt in Game 6, unless you’re a Warriors fan and looking for something or someone to blame for your team’s collapse. And, again: you do a disservice to LeBron James by claiming that the NBA had a hand in the Cavaliers’ victory rather than his amazing performance. You do take away from his accomplishments when you suggest Cleveland won not because of what he did on the floor, but what the league did off the floor. If the NBA didn’t “really want the Cavs to win,” what would the point of the conspiracy be? The only way the league could assure a Father’s Day game — the Holy Grail, as you see it — was to make sure the Cavs won Games 5 and 6.
And: you can predict which officials will work playoff series later in the postseason once you know who the crews for the first game or two are. The best refs get multiple games in series. It doesn’t take especially thorough detective work to know that if Monty McCutchen or Danny Crawford work early in the Finals, they’re likely to work late in the Finals.
None of this will convince you that I’m anything other than a paid shill for Adam Silver’s Rock n’ Roll Wrasslin’ Carny Show. Nothing I can, or want to, do about that. But I hope you enjoy the rest of your NBA-free days.
A Voice of Reason. From Dave Long:
As they say on talk radio: long-time fan… of college and NBA hoops; first time writer…
My personal theory is: no conspiracy, but utter incompetence plus outsized referee ego.
Having the same few referees call all the games is like marrying your cousin. They get locked into a mindset.
For some reason, the Cavs were “allowed” to physically bully the GSW. Case in point: Nearly every pick Tristan Thompson “set” at the top of the key looked like an NFL lineman blocking the opposing player, not at all stationary. (I’ve always detested the Spurs for their moving screens.)
The referees did seem to have it out for Curry. The calls that fouled him out of Game 6 were ridiculous. And when the star of one team gets two fouls early, especially touch fouls like that, it impacts the entire game; that momentum thing again. In Game 7, Tristan Thompson bulldozed Curry who wasn’t moving, actually ran over him, and the foul was called on Curry. WTF is up with that? Do I believe the ref or my lying eyes?
Now, this is reasonable. I can have a conversation along these lines, Dave. Some playoff games this year were officiated poorly — Exhibit A being Game 2 of Spurs-Thunder. And I agree that some refs bring a little too much bass into games, if you get my meaning. It’s not a secret that there are some refs who still think they’re Marshall Dillon when they work a game — but they drive both teams crazy with that attitude. And every referee has his or her own preferences for how a game should be officiated (allowing more incidental contact/tight whistle, etc.) I agree that two or three of the fouls on Curry were ticky-tack ones and should have been “play on” no calls. Referees do miss calls, and certainly, Curry being in foul trouble impacted Game 6. But he wasn’t in foul trouble when the Cavs went up 13-2 in the first quarter and when the Warriors trailed by 20 by the end of the quarter. Curry also has to be smarter in those situations; if you know a game is being called tightly, you have to adjust on the fly and back off. But Golden State’s opponents have complained for the last two years about Andrew Bogut’s moving screens, without success. It cuts both ways. It cuts all ways. And thanks for making critical arguments without descending into ad hominem attacks and Looney Tunes Land.
Send your questions, comments, criticisms and Do Not Disturb signs to keep those unwanted overnight guests at bay to daldridgetnt@gmail.com. If your e-mail is sufficiently funny, thought-provoking, well-written or snarky, we just might publish it!
I’M FEELIN’ …
1) Fifty-two years in the making, Cleveland threw a hell of a parade for the Cavaliers Wednesday. Congrats to a city that needed to feel good for a few days. You have a champion. Now go stand over there with Boston. You are no longer allowed to whine about your sports teams’ cosmic failures.
2) The hope of USA Basketball for the last two years was that the 2016 U.S. Men’s Olympic basketball team be headed by Kevin Durant, LeBron James and Kyrie Irving. Two out of three ain’t bad, I guess. There were a lot of notable players who passed on potential team participation, but of those, only Steph Curry’s absence is tough to swallow — and as he would have been an Under Armour guy on a Nike team, they’ll somehow manage to go on without him. Much of the rest of the roster was fairly predictable. USAB wanted Paul George to finish what he started before suffering that gruesome broken leg while training for it two years ago. DeMarcus Cousins earned a spot with his strong performance for the gold-medal winning U.S. team at the FIBA World Cup. Carmelo Anthony has always been ready and willing to drop his summers for international play and the Warriors’ ascension the last two seasons made Draymond Green and Klay Thompson locks. (Harrison Barnes was a bit of a surprise.) It’s still a very strong team that will still be a strong, if not prohibitive, favorite to win the gold in Rio.
3) Way to own it, D’Angelo Russell.
4) On this issue, I agree with Steve Kerr. But whether or not I agree, or you agree or do not, it’s better when people in sports do not muzzle themselves about issues of importance to all of us, and speak their minds. If Tom Brady supports Donald Trump for president, good for him. He’s entitled to express his opinion. Same here.
NOT FEELIN’…
1) So after two years of painstaking and meticulous planning, the Wizards don’t even merit a meeting with Kevin Durant? Not even a courtesy, ‘I’m not signing there but I’m not gonna diss my hometown’ get together for show? They better have a hell of a Plan B in their back pocket.
2) As ever, the Dallas Mavericks have made it clear through selective leaking that they’re going to be aggressive in free agency, and at the front of the line for players like Miami’s Hassan Whiteside. But the Mavs have been saying this for four years now, and have had very little to show for it when July was over (though, in fairness, you can’t blame them for DeAndre Jordan’s about-face last year after verbally agreeing to a deal). Dallas needs a home run this year after a whole lot of free agent strikeouts.
3) Sonny Hill, the Philadelphia hoops legend and historian, used to always correct me: “not Hal Greer; Hal Lear,” he said once if he said it a hundred times. Sonny respected Hal Greer, the Syracuse National/76er guard and Hall of Famer, to be sure. But one of his heroes growing up was Lear, who starred at Temple in the mid-’50s alongside guard Guy Rodgers. Lear didn’t star in the NBA, but became one of the Eastern League’s all-time great players. Lear died on Saturday at the age of 81.
4) Pulling for you, Coach Summitt. You are as much an inspiration as you fight to live the rest of your days in dignity and privacy as you were on the sidelines for the Volunteers.
5) A young woman was being interviewed on TV Friday morning, and she was talking about how much she and her whole family regretted their pro-Brexit votes, because the reality of Great Britain now leaving the Economic Union was becoming clear. Um, wait a minute. Brexit was a referendum on whether Great Britain would leave the Economic Union. It wasn’t a vote about anything else. This isn’t about whether you were pro- or anti-Brexit; this is about lack of common sense. To regret a vote because the result of the vote brought about exactly what the referendum said it would is beyond nonsensical. Perhaps you shouldn’t vote on things about which you have no understanding.
BY THE NUMBERS
25 — Number to be worn in New York by Derrick Rose, changing from the number 1 he wore with the Bulls. The number 25 has special significance for Rose; he wore it at Simeon High School in Chicago, as tradition at that school dictates its best player wear 25 in honor of Ben Wilson, the school’s star player who was murdered in 1984 before the start of his senior season there.
26 — International players taken in the Draft this year, the most ever, including a record 14 first-round picks, starting with Dragan Bender, taken fourth overall by Phoenix. The flood is explainable, per sources: with the NBA’s salary cap set to explode further in the next two years, more international players want to come over now and cash in rather than remain overseas.
30,800,000 — Viewers for Game 7 of the Finals between Cleveland and Golden State, making the Cavs’ victory over the Warriors the most watched NBA game since Game 6 of the 1998 Finals — Michael Jordan’s last game with the Chicago Bulls, when the team won their sixth NBA title. The Cavs-Warriors series as a whole was also the most watched since the Bulls-Jazz Finals in ’98.
TWEET OF THE WEEK
— DeMarcus Cousins (@boogiecousins), Thursday, 9:13 p.m. Now, he could have been asking for the strength to cope with a grill that wouldn’t light, or a car that wouldn’t start. But his post did come after the Kings had announced they were taking Greek center Georgios Pappagiannis with the 13th pick overall in the first round. Center is not the Kings’ primary area of need, given that they have DeMarcus Cousins, an All-Star and Olympian, currently starting for them at that position.
THEY SAID IT
“Tell J.R. and everybody to put on a shirt. You can’t just be walking around without a shirt for like a whole week. Now Shumpert is taking off his shirt, Kyrie is taking off his shirt. Come on man.”
— President Barack Obama, at the end of a congratulatory phone call to Cavs Coach Tyronn Lue following the team’s championship parade — during which several players including J.R. Smith and Kyrie Irving gave the Cavs’ float a shirts vs. skins look.
“We’re excited. Despite the fact that we’re losing an icon that’s been with us for 20 years, this is a new chapter for us moving forward.”
— Lakers GM Mitch Kupchak, to local reporters, after Los Angeles took Duke swingman Brandon Ingram with the second pick overall in last week’s Draft, the first major move by the organization since Kobe Bryant’s last game with the team and subsequent retirement, two decades after the Lakers maneuvered to acquire his Draft rights from Charlotte in 1996.
“Some of the guys looked at me sideways. Some of the guys I already knew from high school, so we were like friends. So they were happy and some guys gave me dap. And other guys were like, it should be them. I don’t know, if I were in that situation, I would have been like, congrats, you know, you’ve made a step. Now go make a name for yourself.”
— Thon Maker, the unlikely 10th pick overall in Thursday’s Draft to the Bucks, to CBSSports.com, on the reaction in the Green Room when his name was called by Adam Silver.
MORE MORNING TIP: Is Cleveland on the cusp of a dynasty? | 11 thoughts on 2016 Draft
Longtime NBA reporter and columnist David Aldridge is an analyst for TNT. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter.
The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its clubs or Turner Broadcasting.
