Saying goodbye in kind

True landmark moments don’t come around too often. Events that change the course of history or an entire peoples perception or realities simply CAN’T come around too often, we’d be living in a world with constant upheaval if life changed at the drop of a hat. Yesterday’s LeBronathon was one of those moments. No, LeBron announcing he was going to the Heat on ESPN didn’t alter the course of history (as far as we know anyways), but is anyone ever going to look at sports and athletes the same way again? The idea that modern sports fandom is ultimately nothing more than rooting for laundry isn’t a new concept but neither has it ever been so plain to see, dangled mockingly in our faces. What happened? Yesterday LeBron James did his best to murder sports in the state of Ohio. His home state, the state his friends and his family live it. The state he grew up in.

I’m as sarcastic and cynical as the next guy but even I feel bad for Clevelanders. No sports fan deserves the emotional pain that LeBron has caused them over the past 2 weeks. It’d have been one thing if the pain was a necessary evil, an exorcizing of the demons so to speak that would allow all parties to move on. It wasn’t.

At this point I can’t imagine many people other than the very young or very naive thinking that LeBrons decision to go to Miami wasn’t made until the morning talk with his Mom. Clearly there is some basis to the rumours out of the 2008 Olympics that there was some pact between Bosh/Wade and LBJ to play together.

Still, if LeBron was even 50% sure he’d be leaving Cleveland, how could a native Ohioan risk destroying the lives of the people he grew up with, the people he lives(d) with. He’d have to have been completely blind to not see the potential damage that he would be doing to his loved ones, his former classmates, the teammates he played with growing up by leading the Cavs along, then ultimately dumping them at the alter. He had to have been able to see what such a move would do to his family, his friends, his co-workers and the employees of the Cavs. Hell the dude who goes grocery shopping for him, let alone the people who have loved and supported him for 9 years (yes, maybe he was only a Cav for 7, but he was a celebrity and a cause celeb in Ohio for at least 2 years previous). He could have even made two LeBronathons, the first to announce he was leaving Cleveland, the second to announce a team. ANYTHING to mitigate the damage of his leaving and dumping HIS team and HIS city, live, as the world watched.

On it’s own, with no LeBronathon or anything, his leaving the Cavs puts their existence in Jeopardy. This was obvious to everyone, everyone but one man apparently. If he isn’t as egotistical an ass to not be able to see the bomb he was about to drop, then he simply didn’t care. Didn’t care what anyone thought of him, didn’t think of what it’d do to the state of basketball in his home, didn’t think of a potentially very real and very dangerous situation he was created. Clearly, he is more important then basketball fans in the Midwest. They were lucky to have the opportunity to pay ridiculous prices to see him not win a title while wearing his jersey and emulating his every move. They were lucky to be along for the ride. Time to get off.

Fair warning: I am a casual Heat fan. I consider Miami to be a 2^nd home and support all their teams from The U to the Marlins. Obviously I don’t care even half as much about Miami as even the Suns, let alone the Raps but still, I’m happy that the Heat will be good and I look forward to watching and supporting them. That said I truly believe yesterdays announcement special was a tipping point in how athletes will be viewed by their community. If there was any athlete who could REALLY ‘get it’, now just on the court or field but in the stands and on the street, it was local boy made good King James. If even he not only didn’t ‘get it’ but could act so callously, so selfishly and with complete disregard of not just his time with the Cavs but his life as an Ohioan, who can we trust?

Sure there are guys like Kevin Durant, who without fanfare signed an extension with Oklahoma City, even leaving an opt out clause on the table, but we all know whether we want to admit it to ourselves or not that we are more surprised at KD’s acting without fanfare then LeBron’s embracing that same hype and media buzz.

After all, now that LeBron has set the precedent are we as a society naive enough to think every narcissistic athlete won’t try to pull the same stunt? It’s not like the world is short of narcissistic athletes. The NFL might be safe from this new phenomenon, simply due to the lack of impact that a single player can really have on the game (though god knows Dion Sanders would have been on that like a fat kid on cake). The NHL might also be safe from this, due more to a different cultural attitude that seems to prevail in the sport as well as how much less money is involved compared to the other Major sports. It’s the Basketball, Baseball and Soccer players that are going to go nuts. You don’t think CC Sabathia is kicking himself right now for not thinking of this first? Or A-Rod? Hell, the majority of the Yankees and Red Sox could do it. What do you think will happen when Jayson Heyward becomes a free agent? What if Cristiano Ronaldo hit the open market? Half the world could be shut down.

What’s going to happen when LeBron hits free agency again? Assuming the Heat win multiple titles, it’s unrealistic to expect 3 superstars to continue to take less money to win. Conversely assuming they don’t win anything it’s unrealistic to expect 3 superstars to continue to take less money to win. No, no matter what LeBron will hit the open market again in between 3 and 5 years. As will Bosh.

I don’t know what will happen when he’s back on the open market, but I know a few things. Firstly, I know people won’t be surprised by ANY decision and everyone will be expecting the worst. Secondly I don’t know if fans will put themselves in a position to get hurt like Clevelanders got hurt ever again. The North American sports world woke up this morning 10x more cynical then it was when it woke up yesterday. As a sports fan, I hate this. I love being optimistic. I love hearing my friends say “Eric, in all our years of knowing each other I’ve learned 2 things. 1) you know a LOT about sports. 2) you are totally incapable of evaluating any Toronto team”. Some might take offense to a statement like that, I look at it with pride. I don’t understand how people watch sports without that passion.

James and I have a longstanding argument about what makes sports GREAT. To me the passion is what makes sports great, the rollercoaster ride of living and dying with your teams. The hope, the jingoism, the xenophobia, the irrationality, the prayers, the impossible sadness, the terrifying lows, the dizzying highs and the creamy middles all mingle with the tension and poetry of the actual competition to make it mean THAT much more. I know some of those characteristics aren’t exactly considered the ideal values for people to have, but you know what? That’s what sports is! It’s about saying “my city is better than your city”. You find it offensive, I think So You Think You Can Dance is on.

It didn’t used to be like this. I may be youngish but I know how sports used to be made up of mostly local players due to economic considerations. Athletes had lives and full time jobs, they weren’t making enough money to warrant moving cities simply to play a game, so teams had to find local guys to play. Back in the day it really WAS Toronto vs Montreal in hockey. Nowadays, athletes come from all over the world and coagulate under one common logo and colour scheme for contracts with more 0’s than the code this site’s written in. Sure we pretend the feeling of belonging and the passion hasn’t changed, that sports today is the same thing it was, but in our heart of hearts we know it’s not. I know that they’re only representing ‘my’ city because my city offered them the best opportunity to maximize their potential for money and fun.

I don’t begrudge them that at all, I would do the exact same as them, as much as I wish I’d act differently. And that’s fine, as long as they’re still carrying the banner for my city I could care less where they’re from. It’s not like the majority of North Americans are natives, we’re all immigrants from somewhere at some time. We all move cities, and provinces or states, or even countries. In fact I’d go so far as to say in this day and age I’d say it’s pretty rare for a person to call one city home for their entire lives. That’s not what this is about though.

What we learned yesterday is that it’s not just non native athletes who see sports as purely a business decision anymore, it’s the local ones too. The principles that built big sports, a neighbourhood creating local clubs that come together and challenging other clubs for local supremacy, the winner ultimately picking up the flag of their community and representing it in their field of battle wherever that battle may take them, is dead and gone and it’s not coming back. Part of that vital connection between athletes, teams and fans has gone with it. I’d lament the passing of the ‘pureness’ of sport but I’m 25 years too late to jump on that bandwagon.

What worries me is that this morning I asked myself the question, if I could go back to when I was 5 and do it all over again would I invest so much time, energy and money in sports? Would I give half the emotional investment? The answer sadly, is no I wouldn’t. I’ve known for years that ultimately sports wasn’t really worthy of the pedestal it’s placed on, the love its supporters show it. I’ve KNOWN that. And yet, I ignored that feeling in my gut that I was wasting time and energy, I continued to hope that it wasn’t ALL of sports that was being corrupted, merely one aspect of it.

Yes the almighty dollar runs the show. The money was inexorably tied to pro sports and while it may not have been ideal situation, it was an acceptable compromise. They make a lot of money, we get great arenas, awesome TV’s with great HD feeds, hours and hours and hours of entertainment and talking points and some fun. We get something to love, to hope for, to look up to, to aspire to. This morning we woke up to the realization that the money isn’t merely a part of sports, it IS sports. That’s not what I signed up for. That’s not what any of us signed up for.

Like in any bad relationship, I can’t just wake up and not love sports. I can’t. Sports is part of my DNA, I’ll love all competition till the day I die. Yet I can feel in my bones that I don’t CARE nearly as much about any sport, any team as I did yesterday. The images of jerseys burning, of baseball games being paused while everyone, fan and player alike watched with bated breath to see what would happen. The images of bars around North America, maybe even the world, full of people speculated and hoping and praying, and all of them coming away disappointed, hurt, let down and a little more jaded is… I don’t know how to describe it other than saying that the sports world lost the last vestiges of its innocence yesterday.

I’ve put a lot of thought into what my reaction would be to this whole fiasco if I was a Clevelander. The only conclusion I can come to is that I’d stop watching basketball at least, potentially even sports in general. If the greatest player in the world, who happens to be a local kid, who carried the local team to the finals, to 2 MVPs, could cut and run in the bloodiest way possible, what is left for you to hope for? Remember what sports is about; pride, nationalism, honour and hope. We knew pride and nationalism/patriotism walked out that door a long time ago, now I guess I have to go pour one out for honour and hope.

The only hope I’m holding on to right now is that the chain of events that LeBron has started doesn’t end in the disintegration of the major sports in general. That a profound the disconnect between Fans and Players will cause us all to go “wait, I could NOT spend $100 on tickets, go to a buddies house with a 24, order a pizza and some wings, play some cards, pause, fastforward or rewind at our whim and spend $20 on the game!” With how economically top heavy the league is, if fans decide to slow down the turnstiles, decide they’d rather invest in a TV than a jersey, the advertisers will follow. And then what happens? Well, eventually the whole thing topples over or collapses. The jig would be up.

The real problem we’re facing now is that for the life of me I can’t come up with a single good reason why that scenario would be a bad thing for any of us.

What a tweet.

A broken hand, a dislocated elbow, and a sprained wrist. A season ended terribly, and terribly prematurely. A group of teammates who must go on without him, possessing heart, hustle, and skill, but now in need of a low post presence and defensive anchor. This is what Andrew Bogut is dealing with.

It sucks.

Now, more than 24 hours removed from the horrific fall, I could easily mope about how unfair it is, how it should’ve been anyone but him, or how we seem to be losing all our quality big men one-by-one. I could mourn the fact that this picture doesn’t get me nearly as excited as it did the first time I saw it. I could be depressed.

But I won’t do that. I did the miserable bastard thing yesterday; now I’d like to spend some time appreciating Bogut’s work this season. And I’ve seen a lot of his work. As a fan/blogger/obsessive freak, I try to follow the entire league, but invariably end up watching some teams more than others as the season goes on. My favourite teams generally have some combination of young talent, scrappiness, and aesthetically-pleasing play that make me tune in even if they’re playing against a team lacking in most or all of those areas. Bogut’s Bucks have been a favourite since November. I saw them start off strong, lose a bit of steam, learn from their mistakes, add firepower, and peak at the right time. I saw the questions surrounding the team change from “is Brandon Jennings for real?” to “can this team make the playoffs?” to “do these wins against subpar teams mean anything?” to “can this team win a playoff series?” Very recently, the responses to the last question have usually ranged from “I don’t know, but no Eastern team wants to play them” to “of course they can, and if they play Atlanta or Boston it’s going 7 games.” Along with those questions, there have been questions raised about Bogut. And unlike in prior years, when words like “bust” and “injured” often preceded the question mark, these questions were largely ones that made me happy: Is he the second-best center in the East? Is he an All-Star? Can he keep putting up these numbers? HOW did he not make the All-Star team?! Should he win Most Improved Player? Should he be on the All-Defensive Team?

The Bucks are sitting at 42-34 right now and Andrew Bogut has been their most important player. On offense, he’s their lone inside presence. When things are going well, it’s often because the offense is run through him. When things aren’t going well, it’s often because he isn’t getting enough touches. He runs the pick-and-roll very well with Brandon Jennings and can make the game easier for his teammates when double-teamed in the post. He has games where he misses numerous shots close to the basket, but he has more where he absolutely DESTROYS defenders with left- and right-handed hook shots. He’s a handful down low. If you don’t believe me, ask Kendrick Perkins.

On defense, it’s hard to overstate Bogut’s impact. Milwaukee is third in defensive efficiency and there’s no one more responsible than him. Dwyer called him a B+ Dwight Howard and Dwyer is pretty much right about everything all the time. Allow me to throw some stats at you: Andrew ranks 2nd in the league in blocks and 4th in charges taken. That’s INSANE – most prolific shot-blockers try to block almost everything that comes their way and most prolific charge-takers learn the skill to compensate for a lack of shot-blocking ability. Doing both as well as Bogut does makes you a defensive master. Last week, John Schuhmann rated him the 2nd-best defensive center in the league and pointed out that, at the time of writing, the Bucks were was a full six points per 100 possessions better on defense with him on the floor. If you watch the games, it’s easy to see why. There are few big men who are able to cover as much ground as he does. His long arms and his quick feet enable him to protect the basket at a very high level and guard multiple defenders at once. He shows on screens, he guards the big guys that drift to the perimeter, and he plays terrific, tough post defense. You can’t ask for more from your center.

And yet, this center has delivered more. Along with the stats, the little things, and the wins, he’s brought an excitement to Milwaukee home games that simply wouldn’t be there otherwise. The crazy NCAA-style noise you hear in the Bradley Center is coming from Squad 6. I’m sure you’ve heard about it about it by now, so I don’t even really need to get into how awesome it is.

Point is, Squad Six will still be there next season. As will Scott Skiles, Brandon Jennings, and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute. It’s a crime against basketball that we will have to wait another year to see him back to the playoffs, where he hasn’t been since his rookie season. That’s the reality of the situation, though. This hasn’t ended Milwaukee’s basketball revival – the Bucks are still going in the right direction, even if they’ve been temporarily derailed. We may as well take this opportunity to appreciate the guy who has, in my eyes, been severely under-appreciated up to this point.

Sports is a funny thing. It’s like real life, only it’s not real life. We are drawn to sports because it is a microcosm for life. We get to play voyeur and watch a person develop from a kid to a man to a grown-ass man. We see him learn the ways of the world on his journey from being a wide-eyed rookie to a hardened, smart veteran. The other thing we like about sports is, unlike real life, there are clear winners and losers.

Since wins and losses are black and white and our lives are constantly filled with various shades of gray, real life/sports comparisons don’t normally hold up. When I felt lazy at my previous job, I’d sometimes think to myself, “I’m no better than that whiny, entitled bitch named Vince Carter.” This isn’t really an apt comparison, though. There are surely mitigating circumstances – Vince had reasons for his behaviour and they are probably totally different than the reasons for mine.

As far as mitigating circumstances go, there are none better than those annoying things we need to do our work but have no control over: our co-workers. In real life work settings, no matter what our industry, job or pay scale, we all know some people who just drive us up the wall. The people who have seniority and don’t seem to ever do anything other than hang out by the coffee machine. The people who never get asked to do ‘special projects’, who seem to escape the criticism that accompanies the rest of the employees. The people that seem ‘untouchable’. The people who never seem to do anything, but when it’s job cutting time they always seem safe and when it’s pay raise time they always show up. And while they never show up with a bunch of coffees for the rest of us, they’ll be first in line when someone brings in a box of doughnuts.

You know someone like this, I know someone like this, we all know someone like this. Well, the Toronto Raptors have someone like this. His name is Hedo Turkoglu.

I had an ex-girlfriend who was obsessed with this karma and energy stuff. Since she believed in it so strongly, I’d have to hear about it fairly often. One of her favourite target in her rants was the “energy vampire,” someone who manages to sap other people of their strength and energy. My opinion was that it was a bunch of crap (I kept that to myself since I am sane – telling your girl she’s crazy tends to not work out well). That was until I met the person I described above. No, not Hedo Turkoglu, the person at my previous work who made it so unbearable to work there that I had to tell my boss off and walk out.

Before it got to that point, I (at that point the hardest working member of my ‘team’) lost all will to work. The work environment became hopeless. Here I was, a competent and capable worker putting in a full day’s work every day and loving the challenge whilst other people took a more laid back attitude. It didn’t bother me much because we were all equal and if I’m stuck at a desk for 9 hours every day I’d rather be busy than not. Besides, I love having responsibility. Even if I wasn’t making any more money than the rest of my small team, I enjoyed ultimately being responsible for our relative success.

This lasted for almost 2 years, until a small promotion shook things up. One of my better friends received what was essentially a promotion in title only, no added job duties and a very small raise. My boss however, in his wisdom, decided that my friend would be too busy to continue doing his old duties and that they would have to be moved to the most capable person on the team. I got all of them.

Again, I didn’t mind this since I love responsibility and a good challenge. Life continued on normally but when it was my turn to talk to the boss about what my raise would be, I was told there was no room in the budget to give me a raise. Despite my doing about half of my boss’s job and all of the newly promoted guys’ jobs on top of my own job that already involved more time and energy than anyone else’s.

My thinking was, “Fine, there is a recession and money is tight.” So everything remained good in Eric’s World. The problems didn’t start until I found out that the laziest, most frequent absentee person in our team had managed to get a 5% raise. This guy was the weak link; he would nap and frequently use his cell phone at work. He passed off work to other people after he’d been too lazy to do it himself, ruining people’s days. After a few months of this, the rest of us began lobbying for him to be moved. Six months of the entire team lobbying for the guy to be removed and he got the raise the rest of us were denied.

Suddenly, our little team was far from equal. Two of our six were making fairly substantially more money than the other four, despite the other four of us doing roughly 85% of the work. That’s when the laziness started creeping in for me. I explained to my boss that I didn’t have time in the day to complete all the tasks I had on my plate. “Fine,” my boss said. “You do a lot, let’s shuffle some responsibilities around.” A band-aid was put on the situation.

The problem really began when the newest member of the “I got a raise” club saw what I had done and went and tried telling my boss the same thing… SUCCESSFULLY! He managed to get half of his work passed off to the other three people who were already over-worked. Now not only had I become lazy but the other three members of our ‘team’ became lazy and, worse, disgruntled. The first person to leave was a friend of mine named Ragoo. She told off our boss something fierce on the way out. Since she quit, naturally there was work to be split up. Which was split between myself and the other two remaining competent workers.

Within six weeks all four of us who actually functioned at work were gone. In January I was told that my boss fired my friend who had been promoted and our department, which had previously been the best of roughly 20 others in a national company, was now consistently near the bottom. In three months one lazy guy receiving a raise managed to cause four good employees to quit and one good employee to get fired. My experience there is why I’ve been sounding alarm bells about Turkoglu for so long.

I am a notorious homer. I defend the Vernon Wells contract. I defended Wade Belak. I defended Milt Palacio. There generally isn’t a single person who wears a Toronto jersey I won’t support. I may not support the management who brought them in, but anyone who plays for my team is someone who is part of my extended family. After all, if a player is in over their heads, it’s not his fault he is being put in a situation he can’t handle. Players are at the mercy of a coach and general manager and no-one guaranteed that the people in those positions are always going to be competent.

An athlete’s job is simply to show up and do their best. That’s it. As long as they meet that modest modicum of success for athletes I have, I will have their backs any day of the week. So what if Vernon Wells is overpaid? True, his offense has dried up, but who’s been protecting him in the line-up? He is still one of the best defensive centre fielders in baseball and he hustles out every ground ball. Again, it’s not his fault JP “I’m functionally retarded” Riccardi wasn’t able to find a single decent power hitter in 8 years.

Turkoglu on the other hand doesn’t even PRETEND to be busy when the boss walks by. He IS the jackass from my office who got a 5% raise despite being useless and after getting the raise managed to do even less. In real terms, a 5% raise on a $25 000 salary isn’t even very much money, and it wasn’t a results-oriented business. In sports, his lack of effort directly affects the ability of his teammates to do well, and in turn directly affects their own abilities to earn raises. Not to mention that his pay isn’t a few hundred dollars more than his colleagues, but millions of dollars.

How is Antoine Wright supposed to feel going into a free agent year, when he is killing himself for his team but can’t get minutes over someone who not only doesn’t pretend to try but doesn’t pretend to care, let alone pretend to actually be productive.

How are Amir Johnson and Reggie Evans supposed to feel when they both have half the skills of Turkoglu, yet work five times as hard while making one-fifth of his overall salary?

How is Andrea Bargnani supposed to improve when he sees his closest comparison on the team, a potential mentor for him, spend his days loafing around and acting lackadaisical?

How is Chris Bosh supposed to feel when he sees the guy who was supposed to be his second banana, the missing piece on a talented team, playing and acting like he’s on a stroll with his wife? Bosh is a guy who looks like he goes home and practically cries after every loss, you don’t think his main help on the court not ever showing up might upset him after a while?

How is Jay Triano supposed to feel knowing he HAS to play Turkoglu lest Turk become MORE of a disruptive force in the locker room? Knowing if he doesn’t find a way to turn Turk into SOMETHING somewhat effective he could get in trouble with HIS boss for not utilizing a $50 million asset?

How are Jarret Jack, Jose Calderon, Demar DeRozan, Sonny Weems and the rest of the roster supposed to feel when they’re asked to defer to a glorified pylon with legs? What are they supposed to think when they watch Turk again not bother to get a hand up? Again not hustle back on defence? Again laugh off a bad loss and a bad effort? We’ve all heard basketball commentators talk about how energy is contagious; doesn’t that mean the inverse is true too? If I was a professional athlete getting sat behind someone who loafed around but was very well paid, and thus needs to be on the floor, to say I would be displeased would be akin to saying Kevin Garnett doesn’t enjoy losing very much.

I like to think of myself as a bit of a realist. While we like to think of athletes in different terms than ordinary people, ultimately they ARE ordinary people who just happen to be extraordinarily skilled. I wouldn’t expect a pro athlete’s mental makeup to be too different from my own. Are they mentally tougher, stronger and basically everything more than me? Of course, they’re pro athletes. But they are still humans and we’re all wired using the same technology. My reaction when I saw laziness being rewarded was to gradually stop caring. I was mentally tough enough that it didn’t poison the work environment for me, I still enjoyed coming in every day, but the rest of my team didn’t. Not only did they stop caring but they began to loathe the company. They began to loathe coming in to work every day. I don’t know that this is the situation that the Raptors are dealing with, but I have a hunch that it is.

Sports is a results-oriented business and the recent results speak for themselves. The other day, after weeks of crappy effort and blowouts, Turkoglu didn’t play against the Denver Nuggets. Against one of the top teams in the league conventional wisdom said another probably bigger blowout was on the horizon, but somehow the Raptors found an energy and effort that had been lacking since the All Star break. What changed? Well, Turk wasn’t there. There’s a different energy, a different vibe around the team that just disappears when Turk-a-do-do is around. Not just last game but also in the various other times that Turk was away from the club for his varied and borderline plausible reasons. While my theory as to his laziness and lack of emotion may be wrong I don’t think that any Raps fan could disagree that there is a different vibe around the Raptors when Turk isn’t there.

As a result of this, Turkoglu has reached new ground in my history of sportsfandom. I am, and have been for some time, cheering for him to get seriously hurt. When I say hurt, I mean as in out for the season hurt. I’ve never wished that on the players that I’ve ever ‘hated’ in my life, let alone a player on my own team.

Sports is similar to real life, after all. Again, we all know people who we love working with but, god bless ‘em, they just aren’t great at their jobs. And, no matter how great of a person they are, YOUR life would be much easier if they were in a different department or a different job entirely. There’s no inconsistency in real life with liking someone as a person but not as a coworker. That’s how I view sports hatred. When I talk about hating athletes I’m talking about hating them as an athlete, not as a person. I’ve never met Vince Carter. I don’t know what kind of man he really is, if he’s cool to hang out with, or if he’s generous with his time and money away from cameras. I only know him as an athlete. As such I loved him as an athlete and now I hate him as an athlete. While I may drunkenly scream obscenities at him from my seat, I’d probably very politely say hi and thank him for his time in Toronto if I saw him on the street, despite my ‘hatred’ of him.

Turk however has transcended sports hate for me. I have realized that I legitimately hate Hedo Turkoglu. If I saw him walking down the street I would either scream obscenities, spit, or just turn red and walk away to avoid somehow making him worse. Remember, this man plays for MY Toronto Raptors! Turkoglu has managed to personify everything I hate about modern athletes. Entitlement? Check. He needs the ball to be effective, doncha know. Laziness after a big contract? Check and check, no explanation required. Lack of hustle and emotion? BIG check. But hey, jogging 60-70 feet to get back on defence once every ten to fifteen minutes IS something. Lack of desire to fit in to a ‘team’, and a system? “Ball”. I’d call him a mercenary but mercenaries are actually EFFECTIVE.

I’m no coach or General Manager, hell I’m not even a real writer, but I know a problem when I see one and I know a solution when I see one. The only addressable problem the Raptors have is Turkoglu, assuming Bargnani continues to develop, particularly on the glass. This Energy Vampire is a cancer that has infected the locker room and the only solution is to operate and remove the cancer permanently. Whether that’s through injury (paging Shane Stant, Shane Stant there is a phonecall for you), trade or even in a worst case scenario a buyout he needs to be as far from the Toronto Raptors as possible. I mean restraining order far. This team will NEVER be able to succeed as presently structured unless Turk makes a serious attitude change.

The Raptors are an emotionally fragile team. Maybe on Orlando it didn’t matter if Turk had a bad attitude or was lazy. After all, Dwight’s personality is a bit strong if you hadn’t noticed. He’d be happy if you told him he had to get 4 teeth pulled. But Toronto isn’t Orlando and Chris Bosh isn’t Dwight Howard. Bosh is a brooder, from what I can see. He WANTS to win. Scratch that, he NEEDS to win. He’s the type to dwell on losses to attempt to figure out what he could possibly have done to change the outcome of the game. He lives and dies with the success of his team. And when he sees his teammates uncaring while he goes home and agonizes over what he has to do to make the team win, it has to hurt. And what hurts him hurts the whole team. And what hurts the whole team hurts the city. And me. So please Mr Colangelo, I’m begging you. Remove this cancer from me; it’s eating away my insides. If this cancer isn’t cleared up, I fear Bosh will have to flee for safety. And so might I.

Pat Sullivan/AP

We know Houston’s trade deadline deal was very, very good. Few would argue that Carl Landry is a better fit than Kevin Martin and it’s not hard to understand the value of a 22-year-old big man with potential and future first-round picks, especially considering the track record of the man who has the power to use them.

It’s important to note, though, that Daryl Morey would have done the Landry-Martin swap even if he had not received all those goodies from the Knicks. If we’re to believe the reports that surfaced late last Tuesday night, the Rockets were prepared to receive Sergio Rodriguez and Kenny Thomas (and their expiring deals) from Sacramento to complete the trade if New York was not going to be involved.

Noam Schiller analyzed this version of the deal and came to the same conclusion as I did: it’s good for the Rockets. Martin is a better player than Landry and he fits better with their other core pieces. But here’s the thing: Martin makes way more money than Landry, at least until the end of next season. And while I prefer Martin overall, I wouldn’t argue he’s THAT much better than Landry. In fact, I agree with Tom Ziller when he says that Carl Landry is essentially the power forward version of Kevin Martin. They’re both extremely efficient scorers who play below-average D and don’t create for others often.

Here’s where it gets tricky. If you’re a GM, should you prefer the power forward version of Kevin Martin or the shooting guard version? Conventional wisdom in the NBA dictates that you never trade big for small. Yet the most revered GM around has done just that, with players who have similar strengths and weaknesses, and he reportedly would have done it even without getting other assets as sweetener.

Morey, as a guest on The B.S. Report, said the following about the deal: “We lost a lot with Carl, but we felt like between Jordan Hill, draft picks, and a good trading situation that we could address that situation a little bit easier than picking up a 2-guard like Kevin Martin.”

As I heard this, my mind immediately jumped to the scarcity of excellent 2’s in the NBA. I’d very briefly brought this up in a previous post, as a reason why Marco Belinelli’s below-average defense off the bench might not hurt the Raptors too much. This blockbuster trade just gives me an excuse to think about it again. To get an idea, here’s a table of the players who have a PER above 17.0 and play at least 20 minutes per game (sorry, DeJuan), sorted by position.

PER By Position

• First glance: Wow. That’s unbalanced, right? You have your mega-stars in Wade, Kobe, and Roy, and then there’s a drop-off. Only 7 shooting guards are in the table, compared to 20 power forwards and 18 point guards. We always hear about the lack of good centers, but they outnumber the SG’s. And as for the other wing position? Only 10 make the cut.
• Let’s get this out of the way, though: PER isn’t perfect. I think it overrates big men a little bit, it doesn’t account for defense (which is why you don’t see Varejao or Perk here), and it’s not meant to be a substitute for watching basketball games. It’s pretty good, though, as far as catch-all stats go. I’d go on, but I’d prefer to direct you to Matt Moore’s post from this morning.
• Kevin Martin, part of the inspiration for this post, doesn’t even make it. You should treat him as if he did, though, as he’s right there at 16.9. Martin is generally a standout in this metric – in the three seasons previous to this one, his PER sat at 19.2, 21.0, and 20.1, respectively. This season, he’s regressed in his free throw attempts and his shooting from distance. I expect his numbers will start to climb back up soon.
• I expect a similar improvement from Monta Ellis down the line, who is also at 16.9. He undoubtedly is a quality player, but is having one of the strangest seasons in recent memory. His inefficiency is dragging her PER down, but we know that he is capable of being an efficient scorer because we saw it in 2007-2008.
• I should mention that SG’s also suffer here because of down years from Vince Carter, Ray Allen, Ben Gordon, Jason Terry, and Rip Hamilton. At Ben Gordon’s age and considering the injury-plagued season he’s had, there’s a good chance he eventually gets back to the 17.0 mark he had last year in Chicago, but the others are questionable. We’ve seen very good and very bad performances from those veteran SG’s, so we can’t be sure if they are going to return to that 17+ mark. Also, it’s worth noting that there are good players at other positions who don’t make the cut: Lamar Odom, Rashard Lewis, Chris Kaman, Stephen Curry, Rudy Gay, Caron Butler, Jameer Nelson, Paul Millsap, Kenyon Martin, Andrea Bargnani, and Mehmet Okur come to mind.
• You can quibble with the positions if you like. I used the ones listed at hoopdata.com (which is also where I got the stats). The only player I switched was Marcus Camby, who is listed at power forward but is playing center now for the Blazers. You can argue that Tyreke Evans and Nate Robinson should be shooting guards, but I can just as easily argue that Andre Iguodala and Joe Johnson are small forwards. Positions are blurry now. Even though LeBron is listed as a SF, it’s obvious that his true position is simply “LeBron.”

With all those caveats, I think that the PER table does a pretty good job showing the scarcity of quality two guards in the NBA. To further illustrate this, take a look at who Kelly Dwyer would have chosen for the All-Star game this season.

The wild cards for the East reserves: Al Horford and Josh Smith. The snubs: David Lee and Paul Pierce. Oh, and he would have had Rajon Rondo starting in place of Allen Iverson. For the West’s wildcards, he chose Deron Williams and Zach Randolph. The snubs? The Gasols and Nene. He also mentions Greg Oden, Kevin Love, Carl Landry, and Carlos Boozer as playing All-Star quality basketball. None of these players are shooting guards.

Here’s the point: the league doesn’t have many two-guards who do two-guardy things at an All-Star level. If I’m a GM, I ideally want my starting 2 to be able to shoot, slash, and get to the line at a very high rate. Hopefully, he’d play good defense as well. There just aren’t a lot of players like that right now. I’m not arguing that a good two-guard is more important on the basketball court than a low-post scorer and I’m not saying Minnesota should dump Al Jefferson this summer for a wing.¹ I’m not arguing, either, that this is particularly different from other eras.² What I’m saying, though, is that because of the dearth of quality shooting guards around, they have more value. We should start thinking about overpaying good shooting guards the same way that we think about overpaying good centers.

All of this means that if your favourite team employs O.J. Mayo, Eric Gordon, or DeMar DeRozan, you should be rooting extra hard for him to become a star if only to make your GM’s job easier. It also means I’d happily take the shooting guard version of Kevin Martin over the power forward version of Kevin Martin.

Ron Turenne/Getty Images

July 3, 2009, Adrian Wojnarowski:

“Turkoglu had agreed on a five-year, $50 million deal with the Blazers, but changed his mind and is headed for a five-year, $53 million deal with the Raptors. Toronto would have to renounce three free agents – Shawn Marion, Carlos Delfino and Anthony Parker – to create the cap space for Turkoglu.”

This is a surprise, and I’m not happy. It’s not that Turkoglu is a bad player; it’s that I think this is a bad signing. He’s 30 already, was never really worth $10 million a year, and the thought of renouncing all the free agents and losing the right to use the mid-level and bi-annual exceptions makes me sick. Assuming everything goes forward as I expect it to, my home team will look like this:

PG: Jose Calderon, Roko Ukic, Marcus Banks
SG: DeMar DeRozan
SF: Hedo Turkoglu
PF: Chris Bosh, Reggie Evans, Kris Humphries
C: Andrea Bargnani, Patrick O’Bryant

Of course, that’s only 10 guys. 11 if you count guard Quincy Douby, who is on the team but has a contract is not guaranteed. The remainder of the roster must be filled with minimum salary players. And while it is certainly possible to Morey it, finding a rotation player with only a minimum deal at your disposal is a difficult thing to do.

The roster has gaping holes. Point guard depth, wing play, rebounding, and athleticism were lacking in 2008-2009. The only player I’d be comfortable calling a “good defender” here is the third-string point guard. As much as I love the DeMar DeRozan pick, I am terrified of counting on just him and minimum salary guys to fix all of this. Turkoglu represents an offensive upgrade over Shawn Marion, but downgrading in rebounding and defense makes little sense for this squad.

I don’t see this team making the playoffs and, if I’m right, I don’t see Chris Bosh wanting to stay in Toronto. And if I’m right about that, well… fuck. I don’t want to be right about that. He might be the best player this franchise has ever had and I can’t bear to see him leave as he approaches his prime. Blah.

July 9, 2009, Chad Ford & Marc Stein:

The Dallas Mavericks and Toronto Raptors, living up to the wild tenor of the past few weeks in the NBA, have hatched a complicated sign-and-trade arrangement that went through numerous constructions Wednesday before resulting in an agreement in principle that will send Shawn Marion to Dallas and absorb the Raptors’ much-anticipated signing of Hedo Turkoglu.

This is a surprise, and… wow. Memphis facilitated another big deal? Didn’t Otis Smith say he wouldn’t do a sign-and-trade? Antoine Wright’s coming, too? Devean George’s agent can’t nix this, right?

The deal means that the Raptors don’t have to renounce their free agents and they get to keep their mid-level and bi-annual exceptions. Bryan Colangelo was prepared to fill the roster out with minimum salary guys, but now he doesn’t have to. Suddenly, the future isn’t quite so bleak. I still don’t like Turkoglu’s contract, but he can play. Anthony Parker’s rumoured to be headed to Cleveland, but he loves Toronto and maybe he’ll spurn them like Turk spurned Portland. Delfino’s a decent wing guy and it seems like he wants to come back. I’ve heard Rasho Nesterovic would probably take the bi-annual exception and this team could use his post defense. And there are a handful of players I’d love to sign with the mid-level.

I wonder if Colangelo had been trying to do this all along. It seems crazy that Orlando would help out an Eastern Conference rival like this for a trade exception they might not use. The Raptors have a chance to have a pretty good off-season now. Thank you to whoever gave BC this idea.

July 10, 2009, Dave Feschuk:

“After (the league) said yes … I said, `I’m stunned. This is the first time any of my crazy ideas have ever passed muster with you guys.’ I’ve had a lot of them over the years, `Can we possibly do this, this and this?’ And (the lawyers will) eventually find something to stop it. When they actually said yes, I was very surprised.” – Steve Fruitman

Here’s the guy I have to thank. Of course, it took number-crunching from four teams (five if you include the Chicago Bulls, the team that didn’t end up in the final version of the trade) and the man himself says that Bryan Colangelo “worked his tail off” to get it done, but it seems as if these talks would not have happened without a chartered accountant named Steve Fruitman.

It’s up to Colangelo now to use his newfound flexibility to fix some of the flaws I talked about. I’m very impressed that he got this done while dealing from a position of weakness after committing to Turkoglu, but this means nothing if the rest of the summer is, um, fruitless.

So, what happened between then and training camp?

The biannual exception, as expected, went to Rasho Nesterovic. The mid-level exception was used to sign his teammate from Indiana, Jarrett Jack. Bryan Colangelo was given the go-ahead to essentially buy Marco Belinelli from Golden State, sending Devean George and cash to the Bay Area. The Raptors couldn’t retain Anthony Parker, but they were able to sign Carlos Delfino and trade him and Roko Ukic to Milwaukee, in exchange for Amir Johnson and Sonny Weems. Here’s the Raptors’ roster heading into the season, again excluding Douby and his unguaranteed contract:

PG: Jose Calderon, Jarrett Jack, Marcus Banks
SG: DeMar DeRozan, Marco Belinelli
SF: Hedo Turkoglu, Antoine Wright, Sonny Weems
PF: Chris Bosh, Amir Johnson, Reggie Evans
C: Andrea Bargnani, Rasho Nesterovic, Patrick O’Bryant

Oct. 16, 2009, Kelly Dwyer:

“They can play. They can play solid ball on both ends, help teams, and most of all? They sop up minutes. And what most teams and fans fail to understand when a squad supposedly underachieves is that minutes don’t actually end with the two best players. They trickle all the way down.”

This quote isn’t actually about the 2009-2010 Raptors’ bench, but it may as well be. Not only are two of the players in question from Indiana’s 2008-2009 squad playing for the other side this evening at the Air Canada Centre and Tuesday at Conseco Fieldhouse, I see some parallels between these two clubs.

Last year’s Pacers were one of the league’s most fun teams to watch, even as a non-playoff team. They had the 3rd-fastest pace in the league and played in an abnormal number of close games. They were able to beat teams they probably shouldn’t, securing wins over the Celtics, Lakers, Magic, Cavaliers, and Nuggets. Obviously, it was great to see the continued ascendance of Danny Granger, who made his first All-Star team and won the Most Improved Player award. But even in losses, I always enjoyed the team as a whole, including the reserves. With injuries and role changes, I saw Jarrett Jack, T.J. Ford, Brandon Rush, Roy Hibbert, Jeff Foster, Rasho Nesterovic, and Marquis Daniels both start and come off the bench. No matter the combination, the Pacers were worth my time.

Now, back to the Raptors. It’s been a season of highs and lows, but even when people were writing pieces like these and I agreed with them, I loved the bench.

Jan. 30, 2010, Holly MacKenzie:

Jay Triano on the difference between the first few months of the season and now: “We’ve gotten used to each other, where to play guys, what their strengths are. I also think our depth has been a major factor. If we’ve struggled with starts, our second unit has come in and played very well.”

Read that whole thing. Triano mentions Amir Johnson, Sonny Weems, Antoine Wright, Rasho Nesterovic, Marco Belinelli, and Jarrett Jack. None of these guys would be here without that Fruitman-inspired four-way trade. All of them have contributed to the Raptors’ recent surge, which has led to people writing pieces like these.

I named Amir Johnson to my All-OTN Team because of his effort early in the season. If you catch a Raptors home game, pay attention to the crowd noise when he checks in and out of the game and you’ll see that the city has fallen in love with him, too. I don’t have much to add to what I wrote about him months ago – aside from Chris Bosh, you could make the case that he’s been the most consistent Raptor this season.

Sonny Weems has been a pleasant surprise. His effort and athleticism on the wing is similar to Johnson’s in the frontcourt. Can’t say he’s been an efficient scorer but he’s fantastic on the break and he’s an active defender. He’s found a role on this club and that’s not bad for a dude who only played 55 minutes all of last season. It’s worth noting that he and my rook DeMar DeRozan are best friends off the court and that he has a highly amusing pre-game dance routine. Seriously, it’s awesome. From the start of the pre-game introductions until the ball is tipped, he does his thing, with just a brief pause for a team huddle. I’ve been to a fair amount of games at the ACC this year and I have yet to get sick of this.

Antoine Wright had a horrific start to the year on the offensive end and I’d still advise you to stay away from his basketball-reference page. Still, he brought toughness and a commitment to defense and was a valuable guy to have in the locker room. Lately, he’s knocking down his open shots and not trying to do too much. I’m not quite ready to say he’s turned the corner, but his play has been encouraging. The Raps probably don’t get that win against Miami the other day if they don’t have Wright guarding Dwyane Wade in the fourth quarter.

You can check Rasho Nesterovic’s basketball-reference page because he has a hilariously awesome PER of 18.9. Unfortunately for Rasho, though, this is mostly a function of small sample size – he’s racked up 22 DNP-CD’s and his 8.9 minutes per game is by far the lowest of his career. As a fan of his heady, underrated game and the way he’s improved throughout his career, it disappoints me to see him riding the pine. I understand it, though – with the way Chris Bosh, Andrea Bargnani, and Amir Johnson have been playing, it’s hard for Jay Triano to find minutes for Nesterovic. Still, the coach raves about him and you have to love his professionalism. He sits for a few games in a row and, when a matchup or foul trouble dictates that he gets some minutes, he produces. At 33 years of age, but he still has that soft touch, basketball IQ, and post defense. Let’s NBA… occasionally.

Marco Belinelli totally drives me crazy with the shots he takes. Lots of leaners, lots of fadeaways. Often contested, and often from behind the three point line. I’m not sure I’ll ever get completely comfortable with this, but I can’t deny he’s entertaining. Also, about half the times that I yell at him as he shoots, the ball goes in. I haven’t done a study on this, but I’m quite convinced that the difficulty of his shot attempts has no correlation at all with his success rate. He can be a terrific passer, too, which kind of makes up for the fact he’s a liability on D. Oh, and this probably could be a separate post, but there’s kind of a dearth of quality shooting guards in the NBA so having a bad defender at that spot on your bench isn’t that big of a deal.

Jarrett Jack has had the biggest impact of the Raptors’ off-season acquisitions and this is particularly satisfying to me because of the way the season started. For the first three weeks, he struggled to find his place as the team struggled to develop chemistry. His shot was not falling, his assist totals were inconsistent, and he didn’t provide the defensive upgrade Raptors fans were looking forward to. I absolutely loved the signing in the summer and now had to grit my teeth as the Raptors lost games and fans ripped him to shreds online. I still believed in him, but I was worried. He didn’t seem like the same player I had been watching for years. Now, though, all of that is a distant memory. Jarrett supplanted Jose Calderon as the starting point guard when he went down with an injury and even I, a long-time Calderon supporter, can’t argue for changing the rotation now that he’s back. The Raptors’ tear has coincided with Jack getting more minutes and becoming more comfortable with his teammates on the court. He has been doing a great job running the offense (he scripts plays!), getting to the basket, and being a leader. He’s playing his heart out, as he always has, and he’s developed a bond with Amir Johnson, Sonny Weems, and DeMar DeRozan that has led Raptors Security Consultant Willis Richardson to dub them the Young Guns. Raptors fans love him now and I start twitching when I think about where the team would be without him.

And where is this team now? 25-22 heading into this Indiana game, good enough for 5th place in the Eastern Conference. They’re on a 4-game winning streak and they have the league’s 2nd-best record since December 18th. The offense? Elite. The defense? Much improved, even though the early-season incompetence still leaves them dead-last in defensive efficiency on the season. And the bench is producing. They’ve beaten the Cavaliers, Spurs, Magic, Mavericks, and Lakers, with all but that first one (opening night) coming in 2010. With a soft February schedule, the Raptors have a good chance of keeping this momentum going. People are legitimately excited about this team now and I love it. We have an honest-to-goodness entertaining team in this city, with guys who will hustle and can jump out of the gym. Raptors fans, enjoy this. While you’re at it, be very appreciative of Steve Fruitman.

Ned Dishman/Getty Images

Oh, Gilbert, Gilbert, Gilbert. With the news of what happened on both the team charter on that fateful Dec. 19 or what happened in the locker room on Dec. 21 changing almost hourly at this point, no-one really knows what to make of the whole situation. Least of all James (Ed.: No arguments here). However, since white people everywhere seem to be reacting with revulsion and abject horror to the entire situation, I figured I would weigh in here. I have problems with a couple of claims that have been made.

I: Arenas crossed a line that no-one in sports ever does.

Uh-uh. For while we may not have any proof to the contrary, given the prominent role guns have in the United States in general (and ESPECIALLY in sports) we would be pretty remiss to think that no athletes bring weapons with them to work. Especially in Major League Baseball, the NFL and NBA. Why? Well, most pro athletes didn’t grow up in the suburbs. Many of these guys come from pretty shitty areas in society: Compton, generally poor rural areas in the south and Midwest, the various ghettos of New York, the Greater Miami area, and Chicago. I’ve heard over the years plenty of times people in media proclaim how so and so ‘left the ghetto behind’. It doesn’t work like that. Even though they left and may well have brought some family and friends with them, that’s still where they are from – that’s where their friends live and, more importantly, that’s where their enemies live. Street rules say you have to protect yourself. It’s just the way it is. Who knows if someone from the past, jealous over success or in need of some money, would try to jack a pro athlete? For their and their families’ safety, most would be crazy to not own some protection. And while gun laws may say a gun needs to be kept in a safe, with a trigger lock and with a clip of ammo in a SEPERATE safe, if the goal is protection that doesn’t do particularly much. For a gun to be effective as a means of defense it has to be visible (as a warning) and accessible (should it ever be needed). To think no other athlete in another sport ever did something like bring a gun to a locker room, or even horse around with it, is naïve as all hell.

II: Athletes don’t do dumb things that endanger themselves or the public.

Uh-uh. A few names for you:

• Plaxico

• Ray Lewis

• Pacman Jones (1)

• Pacman Jones (2)

• Pacman Jones (3-6)

Vehicular Manslaughter anyone?

According to this, there have been 308 NFL players arrested since the year 2000 for various charges.

Hell, even commentators get in on the act.

To single out Arenas is unfair to Arenas and to the victims of ACTUAL crimes committed by athletes. Stallworth got 30 days in jail for KILLING someone! Gilbert could be facing more than that for being an idiot. Hell, Jamaal Tinsley unloaded a HUNTING RIFLE in the middle of the street and nothing happened. And don’t even get me started on Marvin Harrison. (Aside: the witness suffered an unfortunate accident in August of 09 when he got in the way of several men with guns. In an interview with police shortly before his death, he named Harrison as the likely person behind it. At the time, there were news stories about it galore, now I can find none. Read into that what you will.)

So now you’re wondering why I’m defending Gilbert, right? The answer is I’m not. My point that he isn’t a bad person or didn’t do anything uniquely horrible for a professional athlete doesn’t mitigate the fact that he is a raging moron who fully deserves whatever penalty he incurs. What we as a society are doing, though, is placing some of our fears on Arenas and persecuting him for that rather than what he actually did.

When we were kids, we all went through the years and years of anti-bullying campaigns. We all are well aware of the psychological and physical dangers of it. Yet here we have a PRIME example of bullying in public that we can use to educate the next generation and we’re too busy lynching Arenas to notice. Look at the facts that we know:

1. The dispute started over a card game where the rules weren’t preset, apparently Gilbert disputed and left early.
2. Gilbert enjoys a position of power, strength, and financial security that the teammate does not (i.e. he makes 100000x more money).
3. Rather than mediate the situation, Gilbert needled and mocked the person owing money mercilessly. He allegedly threatened to torch Crittenton’s car (in jest) and, when he didn’t respond to the joke kindly (with the “I’ll shoot you in your bad knee” line), he took the joke to the next level rather than backing off.

What is that? CASEBOOK BULLYING! Arenas pushed around his weaker teammate, mocked him until the guy almost snapped, then continued laughing. When initial reports were that Crittenton threw the gun across the room, my reaction was, “I would have done WAY worse.” No wonder Washington’s locker room is falling apart. And aside from that, even if he did want to continue the joke, the incident occurred in a public area shared by his co-workers, with numerous people around. An incredible lack of respect for the people around him (who were put in an awkward and potentially dangerous situation) as well as to Crittenton who now has had his manhood challenged in front of his entire team.

A few months ago, a few friends and I took a road trip to Miami. While we were there, we decided to go to a shooting range (best $50 I’ve ever spent). I’ve handled guns before so I wasn’t too nervous, but my friends were a bit skittish. They had never seen a gun close-up before, let alone fired one. After getting our guns from behind the counter and being shown they were unloaded, one of my friends turned around, and, while turning, briefly pointed his gun at me. He immediately apologized multiple times and I was pretty rattled by it. Why? Well, even though I knew the gun was unloaded, and knew that I had my own gun in my hand, and knew that he is one of my best friends and wouldn’t shoot me, I was still EXTREMELY uncomfortable having a gun handled that way and aimed in my direction. Even he, who had never handled a gun before, recognized that while I was in no REAL danger, there was enough threat of danger that I could potentially be angry at him.

A man who owns four guns should realize this too. Even if he was challenging his friend in jest, he still challenged him. He created an incredibly dangerous situation, mostly for himself. It wouldn’t likely be a bystander who would have gotten hurt had things continued to escalate, it probably would have been Arenas himself who’d be shot. While I don’t think his teammates now have ill will towards him, there must have been a bit of distrust after that. They must have been watching him out of the corner of their eyes. Surely Washington is going to try to void his contract and cut ties, but what if they can’t do that? And what if they can’t trade his huge contract? If he returns to the Wizards, every eye is going to be on him every time he gets a razor from his locker. The players might still be friends, but that’s a poisonous environment.

He created a media circus in Washington for the first part of 2010 and that had to wear down, irritate and distract the team. When he apologized and said he would use better judgement in the future, that should have been it. But he called out Al Sharpton, said he wanted to sue the New York Post for defamation of character, pretended to shoot teammates in a pregame huddle, and called David Stern “mean”. Even though his character WAS defamed (see above, he isn’t a murderer/rapist), when the District of Columbia is convening a grand jury to indict you, IT’S TIME TO SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH!

I used to quite like Arenas. Great player to watch, very likable guy. But the same qualities that make him a great player to watch and likable – his brashness, his swagger and his arrogance – have shown that he is, in fact, immature at best, stupid most probably and socially retarded at worst. I understand that he wants to represent himself, thus having no agent, but at a time like this wouldn’t it have been prudent to hire a PR firm to help repair his image? Shouldn’t he have run his twitter binge idea before a lawyer and a publicist first? Shouldn’t he have made sure that he didn’t further anger the league’s higher-ups? Isn’t it common sense to not make fun of a situation WHILE IT’S STILL GOING ON? Arenas has, for the past few weeks, acted with the same foresight and common sense possessed by 5 year olds. And it’s not a good look for him.

Jesse D. Garrabrant/Getty Images

Allen Iverson vs. Denver, Dec. 07, 2009: 11 Pts, 5 Reb, 6 Ast.

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FreeDarko: “Pro basketball is not 22 Pts, 6 Reb, 4 Ast.”

See that up there – Iverson kissing the floor? That’s one hell of a moment. It’s a moment I thought I’d never see and I’ll cherish it forever. And I know I’m not alone.

I had a couple of friends over last night and, as they were talking about whatever it was they were talking about, my eyes were glued to the screen for AI’s re-introduction. I sat on the floor, right up close to the TV, and excitedly yelled “He’s kissing the logo! He’s kissing the logo!” the same way I nightly yell about incredible dunks and blocks. This is, undeniably, childish behaviour. You should know that I routinely exhibit childish behaviour while watching basketball games – you might laugh at how I stand up when it goes down to the wire because somehow it makes me feel more connected to the game, or how I jump around and grin like an idiot whenever DeMar DeRozan hammers home a dunk, but it’s involuntary. It normally doesn’t hinder my ability to analyze the game – I still see how plays are developing and think about matchups and strategies, even if I look like a mindless fanboy. As I sat up close to the TV last night like I did when watching AI as a rookie, though, I wasn’t doing much of that. I can’t offer you much in the form of analysis, aside from telling you that Iguodala was amazing, Dalembert seemingly blocked every third shot in the first half, and the speedy Ty Lawson was great and caused the not-yet-in-shape AI some problems. These are things my grandmother could probably have told you if she was watching. Last night, I was just like every Iverson fan in the Wachovia Center. Every play, my eyes were on AI. When he had the ball in his hands, time slowed down. When he picked up his second foul on a questionable call, I was furious. It was all about him.

I felt the energy in that building coming right through my TV. I could sense Allen’s nervous anticipation and the excitement of the crowd before the tip. I truly didn’t care what his numbers were, or that he seemed a bit tentative, rusty, and unsure of the plays/defensive schemes his team was running. My guy was having fun. He was playing hard. He was smiling at people he recognized from his last go-round in Philly. He was soaking in the love from the standing-room only, sold-out crowd. It’s no coincidence sports columnists in both Philadelphia and Denver called Iverson’s return a “smash(ing) success”. Just as his brief retirement felt so terribly wrong, this felt exactly right. AI back home, playing against his former teammates from Denver? Perfect. Obviously, I would have loved a win, but that hardly matters to me today. What matters is AI is in Philly, Kobe is in L.A., and Steve Nash is in Phoenix. Just like in 1996.

The 1996 Draft is not only one of the very best drafts of all time; it has a personal significance for me. As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been a devoted basketball fan for as long as I can remember. When these guys came into the league, I was learning more and more about the game. I was playing ball all the time and I had a few friends who were almost as into it as I was. I could argue about things such as if the Raptors made the right decision in drafting Marcus Camby (I thought they did; everyone else seemed to think they should have taken the high-scoring Shareef Abdur-Rahim). I could watch these guys play, often in person (I know, spoiled), and then imitate their moves on the court. When I was practicing my AI crossover at 10 years of age, I had no idea that a handful of these faces would become the faces of the NBA in the post-Jordan era, but I felt a connection with these rookies because I got to see them from the beginning.

So, with that in mind, here’s a text message exchange I had two weeks ago:

Me: Apparently AI is retiring and I want to cry.

_

Friend: Omg. Noooooo. Childhood over.

Exactly. And I wasn’t anywhere near ready for that. Especially with the way it was going to happen. I’ve already had to come to terms with the whole Marbury thing – what if AI just vanished while he still had more to give? What if he had gone out with a whimper, unwanted and demonized? The man has said he was content to leave the game if he had to because he would focus all his energy on being a great husband and father, but I damn well would not have been content. And that’s an understatement. I realize that in the next few years I’m going to see the retirements of Kobe, Nash, and AI (along with KG, Duncan, T-Mac, and Vince), but I’d like this unfortunate inevitability to approach me slowly from a distance rather than darting out suddenly and punching me in the face. That’s what AI’s “retirement” felt like – you can say I was stupid and should have expected it all along, but I really never believed it would come to that until it did.

After hearing AI’s words on the subject, I trust that he was genuinely prepared to step away from the game he loves so much, even if he knew it shouldn’t have had to end that way. Not one other team, not even the pathetic Knicks, would give this man another chance, and he didn’t want to sit around in limbo. I hate that it took a Lou Williams jaw injury to make this happen, but I’m thrilled that it has happened. I can’t tell you with any certainty that this makes the Sixers a playoff team, or that Iverson will get the storybook ending we want for him, but at least there’s a chance. At least it didn’t end with a wasted season in Detroit and 3 games with the Grizzlies. At least we’ll always have last night.

“That’s the best feeling of it all, just being appreciated. That’s all you want as a person, when you have a relationship with somebody, you want to feel appreciated. And I do feel appreciated and that’s what drives me to just keep giving everything that I’ve got out there on the basketball court.” – Allen Iverson, post-game on Dec. 07, 2009.

I love this. This is why it’s so great he’s back home in Philly, the city that embraced him from the start and the city that is more than willing to give him a second chance. Last night, he played more minutes than he thought he would and he tried his best to contribute despite being more than a practice or two away from game shape. Say what you want about Iverson’s partying or his ego, but know that he gives everything he has in his heart when he’s on the court. Especially for those adoring Philly fans.

I am positively smitten with this year’s rookie class and Brandon Jennings has quickly become one of my favourite players in the league, but this J.A. Adande piece really bothered me. I’m definitely an Adande fan, but no argument could convince me that an Iverson retirement in November 2009 is “the natural order of things”. Iverson at 34 is not the same player as Iverson at 26, fine. But I still want to see him play against Jennings at 20. If he gets crossed over, that’s alright with me. I don’t expect him to dominate like he used to, but I want to see him battle against the likes of CP3, Deron, Rondo, Rose, Westbrook, Flynn, Lawson, and Wall. When David Aldridge asked him post-game about his eventual retirement, Iverson said, “maybe my fans will miss me, but the league won’t miss me.” And he’s right – the league’s future is in great hands. If the Sixers had never called, they’d still play the games and I’d still be watching. But goddamn, his fans would miss him. Brandon is fantastic, and I think he shares many of the qualities that made a generation fall in love with AI, but NO ONE can replace Allen for me and my generation.

At some point, Allen Iverson is going to walk away from this game for good and, a few years later, he’ll be inducted into the Hall of Fame as a Philadelphia 76er. When this happens, I’ll miss the hell out of him. I’ll reminisce about when he got drafted, when he crossed over MJ, when he climbed Marcus Camby’s back, when he battled Vince in the playoffs, when he stepped over Tyronn Lue, when he joined forces with Melo, when he cut his hair at All-Star Weekend, and, yes, when he came back home and kissed the floor. The great thing is that writing about this stuff doesn’t make me sad anymore because I know it’s not over yet. I can even look forward to seeing Iverson play in person in early 2010. Sometimes, things work out. Thank you, Sixers.

I tried this weekly recap thing last week, using Twitter as a guide. This week, I’m at it again. Same idea, but I’m going to use video as a guide. These clips are mostly from a few fantastic YouTube uploaders, but there are a couple of NBA.com videos in here too. This won’t be quite as good as actually watching the games as they happen, but it should at least give you an idea of what you’re missing.

Monday, Nov. 16

Stephen Jackson finally got his wish on Monday morning, as he was traded to the Bobcats for Raja Bell and Vladimir Radmanovic. Mere hours after the swap was completed, he made his debut in Orlando. I only saw the first few minutes of the game, but it was enough to decide that the Bobcats are no longer my least-favourite team to watch. Captain Jack ends up being on the receiving end of a Vince dagger, though. Magic win 97-91.

This was a crazy shot, but somehow you could feel it coming. As soon as I saw Fernandez was the inbounder, I told my buddy Cory that he would end up getting the ball back. As soon as the shot went up, we both yelled that it was going in. It did, but then Portland was unable to stop Joe Johnson in overtime. Hawks win 99-95.

Again, this was predictable, even though it shouldn’t have been with the degree of difficulty. We were rooting pretty hard for Milwaukee at Casa Herbert; trust that there was a healthy level of fear as soon as Dirkus Circus (hat tip to J.E. Skeets for that one) received the ball. Luc Richard Mbah A Moute is one of the very best defenders in the world and he did all he could do, but Dirk just knocked down the shot to give his team the win. Mbah A Moute, on the deciding play where Nowitzki brought his overtime point total to 7 (hat tip to Scott Carefoot for this one): “(Dirk’s) a good player. I probably should’ve tried harder to deny him the ball, but they just throw it up and he’s 7-foot.” I can’t imagine how frustrating that must have been for him – I was heartbroken and the Bucks aren’t even technically my favourite team. Dirk simply makes unguardable shots.

Tuesday, Nov. 17

Heh, the announcer says it’s the second game in a row Melo has made a shot like this. I think he practices these ones. I used to.

I’ve seen LeBron get chasedown blocks so many times. It still gets me out of my seat, screaming. I can’t imagine this ever changing.

Unfortunately, this is a metaphor for Anthony Randolph’s season thus far. Here, LeBron James is playing the part of Don Nelson.

I was going to say that LeBron is now playing the part of the Charlotte Bobcats here, but that doesn’t work. I don’t know if Vlad Rad is happy to be in Golden State, but if you think about it he and the Warriors are a perfect match. He is essentially the opposite of Anthony Randolph. AR brings energy, athleticism, defense, and gets most of his points on the inside. Radmanovic isn’t athletic or defensively skilled, but he can stand at the 3-point line and hit open shots. Nellie will love him.

I love Kobe’s post game. There is nothing I’m happier about this year in the NBA, besides Brandon Jennings. Kelly Dwyer says it perfectly here (and at 14:55 here, heh). My take: it might have been a long time coming, but it’s here and we should appreciate it. Going down in the post is great for us because we get to see his great footwork that other 2-guards simply can’t stop, plus it’s great for his team because it attracts attention and opens up the whole floor. Perhaps he should have done this sooner, but you have to absolutely love that the man is still adding to and refining his game in the summertime, post-30. This is part of why former haters are changing their tune: even if you don’t want to hang out with Kob’, but you have no choice but to respect his work ethic and love for the game. None.

Had to show another video of Kobe in the post. Thing of beauty. Is there any other SG who would have done that? Serious question, this. If there is someone, let me know.

I will admit it. I was kind of falling asleep as this happened. My eyes weren’t completely open, but then I heard the announcers screaming. Caught the replay – my jaw dropped and I immediately thought “MJ!” The next day, I saw this post.

Kobe woke me up, then I saw this. Man. I love blocked dunks. This is easily one of my very favourite plays of the season – two of the best highlight guys in the league colliding. It was going to be a YouTube hit one way or another, but Maxiell got the best of Brown this time.

Kobe’s getting into that zone where his numbers are so ridiculous that you can’t even properly comprehend them. He’s scored 40 points 100 times? Alright, then. I just can’t believe it has been 14 seasons already. I remember him, a skinny teenager, shaking David Stern’s hand whilst wearing a Charlotte Hornets hat. I remember him scoring 31 points in the Rookie Challenge, trying to dominate the game. I remember him being interviewed on Inside Stuff with fellow rookies Derek Fisher and Travis Knight. Now, he’s the Lakers’ 2nd-leading scorer ever? Only behind Jerry West? Really? Okay. When this kind of thing happens, I realize that I’m going to be telling my kids one day “I got to see Kobe Bryant live”. Living legend, this guy, and he’s still one of the game’s very best. We have been lucky to see his development. Also, um, that was a pretty nice shot.

Wednesday, Nov. 18

Rajon Rondo is nice, but that’s not why I’m showing you this. Watch it again, and look at who the Warriors have on the court. Anthony Randolph at the 5, Corey Maggette at the 4, Anthony Morrow at the 3, Monta Ellis at the 1, and… Raja Bell at the 2? When he was traded to the disaster factory that is the Warriors organization, it was reported that he would go ahead with the wrist surgery he delayed in Charlotte. After all, he needed the surgery and he wasn’t part of Golden State’s long-term plans. But the Warriors only had seven healthy bodies this night and Bell decided to take one for the “team”. Instead of sitting on the bench like everyone expected him to, he decided to give it a go against the very physical Boston Celtics. Let it be known that the only guy playing his proper position really had no reason to chase Ray Allen and Paul Pierce around, as he had a torn ligament in his wrist and was leaving the team to have surgery the very next day. It would be easy to forget a 109-95 Boston victory in November, but I always want to remember that Raja played this past Wednesday. Hence, this paragraph and the picture at the beginning of this article. “Respect” isn’t a strong enough word here.

Sneaky little guy. I like this guy. (I’m going to tone down my Jennings love for a bit. It’s not that I have nothing to say, it’s that I don’t have to draw attention to him these days.)

This was a GREAT basketball game. I missed it live because of Nuggets/Raptors, but got to it on the weekend. Can’t ignore two of my favourite teams going up against one another. So much ball movement, so much effort in this one. Not even sure if this was the best dunk of the night, but I can’t find Budinger’s slam on YouTube. Anyway, my guy Carl Landry had 27 points on 18 shots and added 9 rebounds. Steve Nash took a while to get going, scoring-wise, but finished with 12 points along with his 16 assists. Suns win 111-105, but the final score didn’t seem important.

This is a nice dunk, but I’m posting it here mainly so I can link to this picture of the reaction on the Raptors bench.

I can’t say enough about this clip, or how Dirk is playing right now. Dirk is having an MVP-level season, and I’ve watched this video 4 times now and still get goosebumps.

Left handed? Okay, LeBron. You win. I’m now convinced you will kill it in the dunk contest this year. Had my doubts, as I thought your HS contest stuff was a bit lacking in the creativity department, but I know you’ll get it right this time. With your hops, strength, and coordination, I’m expecting to see some stuff I’ve never seen before.

Insane. New rule: if your shot attempt is from beyond 70 feet, it counts even if it’s up to 1 second after the buzzer sounds. Anyone have a problem with this?

Legendary Clippers announcer Ralph Lawler and partner Mike Smith were suspended for one game for their comments about Hamed Haddadi, the league’s fist Iranian-born player. I wanted to reserve judgment till I saw/heard what actually happened. Now that I’ve watched this? Well, it was a blowout, and they had little to say. They were joking around, but were proven to be very ignorant. Not hateful, but ignorant. The 1-game suspension was about right, methinks.

Thursday, Nov. 19

Peja had 25 points and 13 rebounds, shooting 7-11 from downtown. In 2009. He got WAY too many wide open looks, but this is still impressive. I thought he was done after what we saw last year; if he keeps up anything close to this, I’ll be so happy being wrong. The Hornets, sans Chris Paul, beat the team with the West’s best record on national TV. And they followed it up with a win against the team with the East’s best record two nights later (before losing a heartbreaker to Miami on Sunday). Remember what I said about their rookies? Well, they’re playing now and they’re playing very, very well.

You hear what Doug Collins said there? We are “waiting to see what his effect will be on the team.” Well, we saw it. He makes the Lakers much, much better. And they were already a great team. With his high-post passing and everything else, plus Kobe taking it down to the block, you could make the argument that Tex’s triangle has NEVER been in better hands. After watching for five minutes, I completely forgot that this was Pau’s first game back. You couldn’t tell. The Lakers toyed with the Bulls all night and won easily. They’re still the favourites, people.

Friday, Nov. 20

So, this rookie has some hops, eh? Get on the bandwagon now, while there’s still some room. Not sold? He also did this.

A couple of things: this was a very weird game in the first half. There were numerous crazy plays, but this one stood out. As Julian Guy-McCarvill said, you normally know exactly what you’re going to get with Amir Johnson. No one knew we were going to get this, though.

Welcome back to Toronto, Pops. Wish I could have found video of the ovation he received when he entered his first home game of the season for the Raps. With Amir in the lineup, Mensah-Bonsu is only going to see limited minutes, but he’s the type of guy fans really love. Plays like this show you what he brings – energy, athleticism, and tenacity.

I see how it is, Joel. You show up to play Canada’s team and dunk all over one of their fan favourites. Some patriot you are. Hmph.

Shocking when it happened. Thought this one was going into OT. How do you not box out Josh Smith on a play like this? Anyway, this seems an appropriate time to talk about how great Smith has been this year… You can start with Dave Berri’s statistical stuff if you want, or you can just listen to me. Josh Smith is a different player now. We’ve all seen flashes of this Josh Smith. In fact, two seasons ago, he looked like he was headed in this direction at a rapid pace. With the way he runs the floor; leaps for rebounds, alley-oops, and blocks; guards multiple positions; and scores easily on the inside, we always knew he had star potential. He just had to put it all together. Unfortunately, he regressed in 2008-2009. This year, though, he’s doing it right. Playing hard and smart at both ends of the floor, Smith has been by far the biggest reason for Atlanta’s 11-3 start. He’s ditched the 3-pointers and is occasionally even looking like a point-forward, with five 7+ assist games under his belt already. I can’t overstate how great this is to see, and that’s not because he’s been a beast for my fantasy team. Watching young players (he doesn’t turn 24 for another few weeks) develop, especially those who have been knocked for problems with focus/decision-making/maturity, is one of the most rewarding parts of following this game.

No need for analysis, here. What a play. I’m convinced he’s been watching Vince Carter highlights, even though Vince would have spun in the other direction.

Seeing Harden do this stuff doesn’t make sense to me yet. With his beard, his demeanor, and his sweet shot, he doesn’t seem like the guy who should be making highlight-reel plays. He’s the most sneaky-athletic player since Eric Gordon debuted last year. Haven’t watched enough Thunder so far this year, bad James.

Appreciate this man. He will be done in a couple of years and nobody talks about him anymore. He’s been on my fantasy team for years and his name sometimes comes up in trade conversations, but nobody wants to give up anyone decent for him. Fine with me; his assists, steals, rebounds, and threes can stay right where they are. I don’t know when J-Kidd stopped being cool, but it’s bullshit. He still does things like this, things that not even a handful of other NBA players do. Gotta love it.

That this was the best highlight I can find of Jason Thompson from the past week should tell you a couple of things: he’s not yet anywhere near to a household name and he doesn’t have a hell of a lot of flash in his game. You should start paying attention to him, though. The guy has really improved from last season, even relative to other 2nd year players. On this night against Dallas, he totalled 18 points (on 9-13 shooting), 8 rebounds, 1 steal, and 2 blocks in a 2-point loss. His defense is very good and he’s doing a much better job at drawing fouls. Good thing he has improved his free throw shooting to 80% from 69% last year. Late Saturday night, I heard extremely positive things bout him from two very different, but very trustworthy sources. Seems like he’s the real deal.

The in-game clips here are not actually from this week; they’re from an earlier matchup between Houston and Memphis. This video surfaced on Friday, though, and it’s great. I love how these Rockets seem to care more about the little things than every other team in the league. Even outlet passing. That is a skill. Just like post defense, showing on screens, recovering, closing out on shooters, boxing out, etc. Please don’t think Chuck Hayes’s worth to the Rockets is just having a good build and “effort”. He IS built perfectly to guard multiple positions, and he DOES exert a hell of a lot of focused energy out there, but he wouldn’t be so damn good if not for his brain. If he didn’t play smarter than everybody else, he wouldn’t be in the league. But right now he’s starting at the 5 for the Rockets, at 6’6. And he’s improved immeasurably on the offensive end. Smart guy.

Saturday, Nov. 21

Some would say this sums up the Knicks’ miserable season thus far. Can’t argue; it’s been a mess. My take, though: D’Antoni overreacts a bit here when he jumps on Nate. The shot was clearly after the buzzer sounded – there was only half a second on the clock when the ball was inbounded. Players do this type of thing all the time… except they usually wait a few seconds. Nate Robinson is just impatient, man… Right?

Welcome back, Devin! We’ve missed you. Your team has missed you more. It would have been great if your return had resulted in a win, but I’m sure you’ll get that monkey off your back soon. Oh what’s that, you’re going on a Western road trip now? Um, I gotta go. We’ll talk some other time? Say, two weeks from now? Cool.

All I saw of the game was the first quarter but it was phenomenal for the Cavs (36-23). Philly’s D was not stifling, but what the Cavs did was encouraging regardless. It wasn’t just high screens and isolations for LeBron. There was a lot of ball/player movement with plays like these, and LeBron even had a nice post-up move. I want more of this, but it would seem it didn’t last. After the electric first quarter, the Cavs only scored 18, 21, and 22 points in the next three. If not for stepping up their D to hold Philly to just 10 points in the final period, this would have been a loss. I’m still kinda worried about the Cavs.

I’m showing you this dunk because it’s awesome, but J.R. Smith is not just a dunker. He has come a long way since the Hornets and Bulls gave up on him, but some of his “knucklehead” reputation (unfairly) remains. The “problem” (I wouldn’t really call it that): he can still be inconsistent from quarter to quarter and game to game. On this night, J.R. impressed with ludicrous long-range threes and very nice passes. We’ve seen this before – remember the surprising defense and passing he exhibited in last year’s playoffs? Smith has a complete game and the potential to look like an All-Star on any given night, but, fine, you can’t quite count on him to do it all the time. Holly Mackenzie says, “J.R. Smith WILL put the pieces together one day. Just on his own watch, not on ours.” I couldn’t agree more. And even though it might sometimes be sorta frustrating waiting for everything to click, we should remember that the man just turned 24. He came straight out of high school in 2004. You know who else did that? Josh Smith. It’s come together for him seemingly out of nowhere this year, so don’t be surprised if J.R. makes that leap soon. Stay patient.

Sunday, Nov. 22

Vince was determined to get to the basket early against Toronto. You just know he gets up for these games, where almost everyone in the building is booing him every time he touches the ball. On this play, he succeeded, but for most of the first half his aggressive drives to the basket didn’t end well. Unable to draw fouls or convert around the basket, the Raptors were lucky to not be punished more for being unable to stop Vince getting where he wanted to on the court. In the second half, though, he played more controlled basketball and shifted his game to the perimeter. In an amusing sequence at the end of the third quarter, he ran down the clock for 20 seconds while Toronto fans attempted to defy their lungs and boo for all of eternity. At the end of the shot-clock, he hit a very difficult baseline jumper over good defense. Silenced the place. Finishing with 24 points on 24 shots, he didn’t have an efficient night, but it was enough to beat the Raptors 104-96 despite Amir Johnson’s best effort (rebounding, defense, scoring around the basket, seeming to be all over the court at all times). I was at the game and feel confident saying Amir and J.J. Redick were the two most impactful guys this afternoon – Redick scored 19 points on just 10 field goal attempts and added 5 assists for Orlando. This is two consecutive meetings where he’s murdered the Raptors – you have to think they’ll limit his wide open looks next time out. If not, my brain might fall out of my head.

It has to be a bit worrying for Boston fans that it came to this against this year’s Knicks, but an ugly win is still a win. Paul Pierce dominated the overtime period, setting the stage for KG to step in and hit the open straightaway jumper to win the game despite his and Ray Allen’s poor overall shooting performances on the day. Also, it’s worth noting that Eddy Curry scored 6 points and grabbed 4 rebounds in 15 minutes. The big man has appeared in three games for the Knicks this season, already playing more minutes than he did all of last year. It looks like he’s lost about 70 pounds and I’m not even close to being used to seeing him out there yet. Really hoping the comeback works out, as he does have serious offensive skill and he has been through some legitimately terrible things since he was last in the Knicks’ rotation.

Update, Monday 11 AM: Speaking of Curry, this cheap shot on Rondo is sure to lose him some goodwill. This is a dangerous play that came in a thoughtless moment. I just became aware of it now and have watched the clip a few times, repeatedly getting squeamish right before seeing Eddy knock down the Celts’ point man. To his credit, the big man apologized for it afterward, saying “I felt like he was holding me, but I can’t let frustration get to me. It was [the] heat of the moment. I can’t let emotions get the best of me. It was just stupid.” Agreed, man.

Alright, let’s talk about the last game of the week. Lakers vs. Thunder. I spoke earlier about how great the Lakers looked against the Bulls – this was the same. This group again looked like they didn’t belong in the same league as its opponent. The game was over after the first quarter, where Kobe Bryant put on a show that I can’t describe properly with words. I’m serious, I can’t describe it. I’m just going to show you the videos of what he did, in addition to the videos of Shannon Brown’s garbage time brilliance You will enjoy them, even if you’ve seen them twenty times already.

Joe Murphy/Getty Images

If you read my post yesterday, you can see that I’ve been spending a lot of time lately thinking about Allen Iverson. I’m quite obviously rooting for his career to continue and, eventually, end on a high note. But I see the writing on the wall for one of the worst retirements ever from a Hall Of Fame-caliber player. It’s become increasingly difficult to defend him, but I recently tried to do just that in a conversation with one of my Outside The NBA colleagues. I wasn’t planning to post this anywhere while we were having the debate, but I thought it was an interesting look at two different perspectives on the situation.

James Herbert: Iverson’s perspective

Two years ago, I am one of the best scorers in the league. Easily. My team wins 51 games. At the start of the next season, I’m traded to an organization that doesn’t have me in its future. They tell me they want me to be the same player I’ve always been; they tell me I will start. Then, I get jerked around in the lineup and the team fails to communicate with me because to them I’m just a contract at this point.

Then, mercifully, they just let me go and play out their miserable season. In the process, my value around the league plummets. Nobody seems to want me in the summer, and it’s one of the hardest periods of my life. Eventually I end up in Memphis, on a young team, where I believe I will get a chance to redeem myself and have some success when nobody’s expecting anything from us.

Then, I get hurt right as training camp begins and have to sit out while my teammates get used to each other. The season starts, and I am eased back into the rotation. The limited minutes are killing me, because I want to play and I know I’m better than the guy starting at point guard, and we’re LOSING GAMES. I want to help the team, but I’m being portrayed as a bad guy again and my coach won’t talk to me. Again. Mercifully, I’m let out of this one-year deal. Now, I’m just hoping for one final chance to show that I still have game.

Julian Guy-McCarvill: A hypothetical business scenario

You are transferred to another section of the company, and the guy who was transferred to your position has much more success in your position than you did. The part of the company you are transferred to fails disastrously, and you end up quitting your job after the quarterly report shows that you went from one of the most successful companies in your field to just another also-ran, and the company wanted to demote you. You end up getting employed by another company, and after missing the first few months on the job, are asked to take a lesser position. You go crazy, and quit. Word gets around, and you’re now unemployable because your act has gotten tired.

James: Rebuttal

But what if the part of company I was transferred to had an unqualified manager? No one in my department respected Mr. Curry’s authority. You can ask anyone who’s still working there (for Mr. Kuester) – the whole situation was a mess. Sure, I made some mistakes there, but the department was rife with dysfunction and doomed for failure. And this new company? You’re right. I quit. But I didn’t go crazy. If anyone was crazy, it was them for thinking they could just demote me like that. I’ve said throughout my career that I want to be a real decision-maker with any company that employs me. You want to make me a middle-manager, now? I don’t need this. I’ve made enough money. I want the chance to do something great, to prove that I can do the things I’ve done for other companies in the past. That wasn’t happening with Grizzcorp.

Julian – Rebuttal

If you want to go off into the sunset, that’s fine. Lots of businessmen have done that, especially after they’ve broken contracts or deals. If you break your word and go back on a deal in the business world, nobody will do business with you again. Also Mr. Iverson, you were part of the reason why Pistco failed.

James – Conclusion

Yeah, I’m going to give myself the last word here. This is me, not me speaking for Iverson. There’s a reason I’ve been trying to communicate Iverson’s perspective, though – that’s what I keep coming back to, when I think about all of this. There aren’t enough people looking at this from his perspective. I get the feeling that Allen wouldn’t even dream of having this argument verbally. He loves basketball, not words. He wants to let his game do the talking. That’s all I want for the man, and that’s why I’m some combination of sad and pissed-off that this Knicks thing isn’t happening. It’s looking more and more like, to use Julian’s analogy, nobody wants to do business with AI anymore. It’s a shame because, even though it looks risky, I think he’s still capable of performing in a way that will benefit an NBA franchise, and, of course, please his fans. Like me, selfish me.

Joe Murphy/Getty Images

Apologies if this is a bit jumbled – I’m not going to pretend I have all the answers (no pun intended, seriously) here. This is me trying to make sense of where Allen Iverson’s career is right now. It’s a bit difficult, as I’ve been watching the guy since I was 10. His draft class is a special one to me – I’m a part of the generation that grew up while these guys were maturing as professionals. For most of my life as a basketball fan, Iverson was a lock to be an All-Star and he was respected as one of the best players in the game. He was polarizing at first, as the old guard wasn’t fond of, um, I don’t know what exactly. The crossovers, the tattoos, the shot attempts? All I know is that my dad didn’t like him. But after a few years, things changed. He won the MVP, he led his team to the finals, and people like my dad changed their minds. My theory: when you watched the man play at his peak, it was downright impossible to hate him. To see a guy that small take that many hits, play through that many injuries, hit that many big shots… You had no choice but to love his game.

Now, though, things have changed. Drastically. One of my heroes growing up is now being called an “insufferable twit” by one of my heroes today. I’m reading well-written articles from immensely-respected reporters where Allen comes off like a self-important jerk, unwilling to accept that he’s not in his prime anymore and completely unaware of the perception he has around the league. This hurts. I’m not in denial here; I can’t say that Iverson has impressed me with his behaviour since he was traded to Detroit. I watched him play the worst basketball of his career last season, hoisting low-percentage jumpers and failing to stay in front of people on D. I didn’t really expect this Memphis thing to work out and, with everything I’ve read, I can’t say it’s surprising that contenders are scared of taking him on.

Still, I don’t think he’s done. And I think some of our memories are way, way too short. Quick question: What was your reaction to the AI/Billups trade? Was it the same as your reaction to Pau going to LA for Kwame Brown? I doubt it – some people bashed Dumars for the swap, but it wasn’t the same. It turned out to be a salary dump, yes, but Iverson at the time was no Kwame. The previous season, he had made the All-Star team for the 9th straight season, averaging 26.4 points and 7.2 assists per game (I know they were the fastest team in the league; it’s still impressive) on a team that won 51 games in the regular season. Chauncey was still a better defender, but he had, for a few consecutive seasons as a Piston, turned in playoff performances that were inferior to his regular season play. My take, then: the Pistons were starting over (sort of), so they may as well take a chance with a future HoFer for one year and see what happens. AI was a questionable fit, but still a fantastic player, and with him they’d have a guy to create shots easily at the end of games. It made some sense. This was just a year ago.

The way AI is seen now, he’s apparently worse than a limited role player like Kwame. People I respect are saying that he’s not even worth the veteran’s minimum and that team executives are laughing when his name is brought up. I’m hearing that he’ll be a distraction, make his team worse at both ends of the floor, and stunt the development of younger players. Full disclosure: this upsets me and I want to defend him. But, honestly, after the last 12 months, I don’t have a lot of ammunition. In Detroit, he complained about playing time, couldn’t fit into their offense, hurt them on defense, and ended up banished from the team. In Memphis, when he was eased back into the lineup after missing all of the pre-season, he complained again. This started after his very first game. There might be more to his departure from the Grizz than we know, as both he and the organization have made reference to “personal issues” that he had to attend to, but we do know that he made his last appearance as a Grizzly during the first week of November. Not good, any way you spin it.

Here’s the thing about the last year of Iverson’s career, though: I have no idea what, if anything, we can learn from it. Yeah, he played poor D and took bad shots. But did you watch Rasheed Wallace last year? I’d argue he was a worse offender. That Pistons team was a mess, doomed from the start, AI or no AI. It was a group of hard-headed veterans with a rookie head coach that truly never stood a chance. It would, of course, have helped if Curry hadn’t repeatedly lied to both Iverson and Richard Hamilton about how they would be utilized. Look at Wallace this year – on a team that makes him play hard, one that preaches defense and has a defined leadership structure, he’s been pretty good. Still hoisting threes, mind you, but far from the lazy, no-defense Sheed we unfortunately had to watch last year. And if you’re saying, “that’s great, but AI isn’t going to the Celtics,” fine. If he ends up on the Knicks, it’s not at all the same as going to a team with KG, Pierce, and Ray Allen there to keep you in check. But the Knicks could provide him a chance to be himself. They can hand him the ball and let him create shots for himself and others, (hopefully) free from the locker-room turmoil of Detroit and the role confusion in Memphis. Take a look at Channing Frye, who has turned heads in Phoenix this year with his sudden jump from bench-warmer to quality starter. He’s a strange case – after a very promising rookie season with the Knicks, he fell off. With more minutes in his second year, he couldn’t sustain his production, and after that he was traded to Portland where he wallowed on the bench and didn’t produce much of anything. I heard reports that he was working hard on his three-point shot, but in games he couldn’t so much as hit the mid-range shots he was knocking down as a rook. This season, though, he’s found a situation that works. He’s been given minutes and the green light to shoot when he’s open. His confidence is higher than ever and GM Steve Kerr looks like a genius. Perhaps AI will find a similar situation, one that lets him use the skills that made him one of the most respected and feared players in the game. Perhaps that will be in New York. I hope it is.

The annoying thing about all this? I know there are plenty of people who are with me, long-time AI fans praying that he gets a chance to redeem himself and that he takes advantage of it… but there are also a ton of people who seem to be enjoying Iverson’s (possible) demise. It pisses me off when I see people laughing at his predicament and calling him “The Canswer”, like some still-not-over-it Vince Carter hater in Toronto. At least with Vince, there’s an obvious reason for the hatred. With AI, I’m left scratching my head as to what exactly he’s done to deserve such scorn. This is exactly how I felt when I was 10 and my dad called AI a loser. An example: I was watching the Raptors play the Nuggets a few days ago, and, after a beautiful display of ball movement on Denver’s part, colour commentator Jack Armstrong (one of my favourites) felt the need to say that this play would not have happened with Allen Iverson on the floor. Huh? How is this necessary, at all? Can’t we just appreciate a great play? This type of cheap shot drove me nuts when I heard (and saw) it last year, when the Iverson/Billups trade was still fresh. Now, right as the man is released from the Grizzlies? Harsh.

There has been a clear shift in the way Allen Iverson is perceived now, both in the media and inside of NBA organizations. I’m not arguing here that it’s entirely undeserved, just that it MIGHT be wrong. It seems as if some people have collectively decided that he’s done and he’s a bad guy, but I’m not sure that he’s changed much in the past couple of years. Even watching him on that dysfunctional Pistons team, I thought he was still much more than capable of being a useful NBA player. He was surely the quickest 33-year old I’d ever seen, hadn’t lost any of his ball-handling ability, and could get his shot off whenever he wanted to. There are legitimate questions about how to properly utilize him offensively and how to minimize his weaknesses defensively – the difference between me and his loud detractors is that I don’t think they’ve been conclusively answered yet. Worst-case scenario, we never see him play NBA ball again. Best-case, though – he’ll get a chance to become the first name on the scouting report again and he’ll remind everybody why people like me fell in love with his game over a decade ago. It’s all too easy to rip on AI right now now, but why not join me and hope for the best?