Here's the thing. We should appreciate just how hysterical a proud professional athlete was made by what was, historically speaking, an unprecedentedly devastating defeat. We're talking about a guy that overcame spending the vast majority of life to date in Cameroon only to eventually come stateside and develop into premier prospect before having to overcome what quickly started to seem like a career-threatening inability to stay healthy enough to scratch even the surface of his sky-high potential. In theory, if there were an NBA player that reserved the right to have himself a judgement-free ugly cry after potentially coming within a quarter-inch of his first Conference Finals' appearance then it's one who has already fought a treacherous uphill battle to get where he currently is in his promising career.
Unfortunately, the player in question is one who has long forfeited the right to play the innocent victim of juvenile jokes in making a bi-weekly habit of unconditionally trolling every opponent he's ever gone up against. We're talking about Joel Embiid here. Much like your hilarious Uncle wanting nothing more than for his funeral to be turned into a light-hearted roast of reverence, the perpetually petty Sixers' big man would have wanted the tearful loss of his playoff life to be used as comic relief following the most dramatic of postseason deaths. If not then he'd be a hypocrite, as had that ball bounced 6 tenths of an inch one way as opposed to a half dozen the other he'd be the first one pointing and laughing at Kawhi Leonard's slightly constipated expression in preparation for overtime. Respecting how much that game meant to Joel Embiid and making fun of him for being one pint of ice cream away from looking like the stereotypical dumpee in a sitcom are not mutually exclusive. In fact, the latter might as well be seen as a tribute to his generally jovial and persistently childish demeanor as someone whose as much a class clown as he is a dominant force on the basketball court. When it comes to getting these jokes off, dude is more efficient and creative than Nikola Jokic when dishing it, so I'm absolutely certain he can take it after leaving more salt water in his wake than a speed boat.
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For what it's worth, while "great" might be overstating it, I did think Torrey Craig's man-to-man defense of a red-hot off-the-dribble shooter was pretty good. Especially considering that the latter had to stop on a dime in a way that could make two nickels of change in order to create just enough space for a step-back, fadeaway jumper that still kept a series-deciding game within one possession. What that opinion is worth, of course, is absolutely nothing, as CJ McCollum's public refusal to allow any sort of praise to be offered to an opponent tells you everything you need to know about the mindset of the delightfully bitter backcourt that he's a pissed off part of...
In theory, great defense played on a made shot would imply even better offense being played by the person who was absolute nails in hitting it under pressure, but that postgame jab wasn't about CJ McCollum making sure he was recognized amongst the NBA's elite scorers. That postgame jab was about chase-down blocking any attempt made at praising the team whose destruction he almost singlehandedly orchestrated down the stretch...
That postgame jab was about interrupting the recognition of an effort that pales in comparison to those that have gotten Lehigh University's first NBA draft pick to the peak of his professional career...
I'm not sure calling it an "inferiority complex" would be anywhere near as accurate calling it a nobody-is-superior complex, but what's actually important is that the attitude that caused CJ McCollum to demand the ball in putting the Nuggets in their rearview is eerily similar to the one that had Dame Lillard initiating an emasculation of Russell Westbrook in waving goodbye to the Thunder. That chip on the shoulder of the Trailblazers' backcourt is one seasoned with unsparing spite, and it's one of the few intangibles that could help satiate basketball fans' craving for a competitive Western Conference Finals by mitigating the intimidation factor of the Splash Brothers. Whether KD is available or not, Portland will need the playmaking and shot-making of both Dame Lillard and CJ McCollum to match their eternal stance that they are at least on equal footing with everyone that lines up across from them if they hope to pull the upset. However, if there's one thing they have proven they don't lack it's the internal and external sources of motivation to do so...
Iconic. Just, iconic. Not just because the argument can be made that the first ever Game 7 buzzer-beater was the most emotionally impactful shot in NBA history, as evidenced by the fact that it coaxed a resounding reaction out of most aesthetically apathetic athlete in all of sports...
Not just because it became more and more of a cinematic experience as each breathtaking bounce of the ball added dramatic effect to a singular moment that was made into its own scene, much like the end of every sports movie ever put to big screen...
Not just because both the immediate and long-term future of two franchises may have quite literally been hanging in the balance as a cutthroat competitor was brought to a squat by the significance of the situation and a soul-crushing beat was readying itself to drop. Not just because it may have pulled at the heart wires of the soulless shooter turned self-aware robot in a way that might convince him to call another country home past this summer. Not just because it may have served as the last straw to an immutable malcontent that couldn't have been too happy to look like one of the few players on a young team with tons of potential that was willing to go down swinging. Not just because it looked like as though an attempted goal-tend by a LeBron-sized ghost of postseasons' past was exorcised as the Raptors and a fanbase that's underrated in their enthusiasm finally experienced the melodramatic thrill of victory after being made the poster children for the anticlimactic agony of defeat...
Not just because it may have already aged poorly a process that's supposed to still be maturing after being damn near a decade in the making. Not just because it punctuated a 40+ point performance for a superstar that made unforgettable a game that was otherwise anything but from an offensive standpoint. Kawhi Leonard's game winner was iconic for all those reasons and, depending on how both this impending offseason and many seasons to come play out, potentially even more. The play, in and of itself, will go down as one of the memorable moments in the history of a league that's stopped no shortage of hearts throughout the years, but the unknown amount of miles on the wings of its butterfly effect make that timely shot far bigger than just four lucky (or unlucky, I suppose) bounces of a basketball.
Fortunately, it wasn't a lack of offensive efficiency that haunted a Houston team whose last golden opportunity to hit the gimpy Goliath that is Golden State with a knockout punch was missed, 27x over, during the type of shooting slump that would make a mathematician spike his calculator...
Unfortunately, that's about the only excuse available for someone who has otherwise run out of them after annually picking the worst possible time to play passively in the playoffs. It's honestly as if James Harden is the NBA's ultimate masochist, because there's nothing else that can explain the criticism he actively invites on himself by exclusively being entirely inactive in legacy-defining moments. The most shamelessly ball-dominant scorer in NBA history has never met a shot he didn't want to take...unless that shot could help repair his postseason reputation. I know that Chris Paul legitimately would have been more helpful last night had he been seated courtside in street clothes with an untimely hamstring injury. I also know that the fate of this season was never designed to be put in his hands. I know that James Harden was making "the right plays" in facilitating to other teammates that put up more than enough points to win after Kevin Durant exited a pivotal Game 5 when its outcome was very much up for grabs. I also know I have spent all season being defiantly scolded into believing that the Rockets play what many basketball purists consider to be "the wrong way" because it gives them the best chance to win. If that last part has been at all true any one of the thousands of times I have heard it then, when they needed a crucial victory the most, all the Rockets' best bullets were left in the chamber by a superstar whose itchy trigger finger only manages to be stilled by something as simple as a double-team in situations that are of triple the importance. I'd imagine you'd be hard pressed to find another 8 and half minute stretch over the course of their entire careers during which Draymond Green outshot James Harden, so don't tell me the guy that was still being overly aggressive when he was half-blinded by bloodshot eyes earlier in the series didn't let the pressure cook his competitiveness. It's too annual an occorrence for it to be a coincidence. Regardless of whether or not this particular one cost his team the game as much as their inability to get a stop (or grab a rebound the rare time they did), it's without fail that James Harden has one entirely inexplicable bout of offensive apathy in the most highly critical of moment per postseason. This one came when a hobbled KD had the Golden State Warriors there for the taking, and the MVP candidate whose primary value is in scoring the basketball was far too glad to give it up in suspiciously veering from a highly successful system of taking otherwise ill-advised shots. Situational circumstances certainly play a part, but this Rockets' team has either lived or died by 'The Beard' all season, so for him to be not much more than a casual observer as said season got put on life support is absolutely inexcusable, albeit all too predictable.
Less than a week ago. Somehow, someway, that obnoxiously cocky quote made its rounds less than a week ago, so don't you dare let anybody tell you there is a limit to the speed with which life can accelerate at you...
To be fair, I get it. Shooting slumps happen. Typically not to such a historically half-blind extent for an unbelievably talented player that can absolutely embarrass almost anyone off the dribble and has unprecedented touch around the rim, but - as is the fickle nature of the sport - shooting slumps do happen. Unfortunately, I'm just of the belief that when they happen to a "basketball genius" they'd be more intellectually equipped to find other ways to positively impact the game other than just...shooting...more?
Fact is, just about the nicest thing you could say about Kyrie Irving following a series during which it appeared blood stopped flowing to his brain is that he looked to be about as much of a basketball idiot as he did to be a basketball savant. For him to be an actual basketball genius, that four game stretch of unabashed futility would have to be uncharacteristic in a way that could only be matched by a valedictorian forgetting how to read while taking the SAT's. As far as in-game intelligence is concerned, what we witnessed was legitimately the basketball equivalent of "the Earth is flat". Like, Kyrie Irving might as well have dressed up as Uncle Drew and hoped for people to blindly give an elder undeserved credit for wiseness, because literally the only reason to believe he was brilliant in comparison to every else on the court was the shameless level of pompousness in his proclamation. He might be athletically astute relative to some unqualified analysts, myself included, but stupid is as stupid does and doing the same thing over...and over...and over again only to expect a different result is the definition of insanity. The truth of the matter is that Kyrie Irving isn't even the smartest player on the team he mentally abandoned. If you put Al Horford's basketball mind in his body then he'd at least be in position to luck into a defensive stop every once in a while...
If you put Al Horford's basketball mind in his body then a rough night (...or four) from the field would just be a good excuse to exponentially up his assist average. There is absolutely nothing that Kyrie Irving is physically incapable of doing on a basketball court, so if it wasn't a mental inability to adapt then what exactly was it that had his impact senselessly fading away like his body on every routine jump shot? The only answer I can conjure up to that question is a lack of effort, leadership, and interest from a star player who punctuated a season of perpetual pissyness with a shockingly stubborn week long soiling of himself. "Who cares?" is a great question. In my opinion, "an actual genius when it comes to this game" just might have cared about being made to look so goddamn dumb while playing it for a week straight, but I'm just a stupid sports' fan so what the hell do I know? The Raptors Have Reportedly Done Enough to Keep Kawhi Leonard, Which Feels About 40% Accurate5/8/2019
“I do think they’ve made pretty good progress with him from the sense I have. They put themselves in it. And when Kawhi showed up there, I’m not sure he imagined any future in Toronto. I do think it’s a serious consideration now…. “I think the Kawhi thing is getting really interesting there. For them to just get through this series and get to a Conference Final, every day is the case you’re making. And, oh by the way, ‘we can pay you more than anybody else. If you want to be in L.A. and you want to live there in the offseason, there’s only so many days you really have to be in Toronto in the snow. You can get out of here. You’re on the road half the time. The rest of the year, you can get out of here and go in L.A. and be in California.’ “But Toronto is selling winning on him.” - Adrian Wojnarowski ------- As I'm not interested in the Raptors going extinct from the perennial playoff picture, I don't really have any reason to root for Kawhi Leonard to depart Toronto as soon as their incredibly important postseason comes to a conclusion. However, seeing as the fate of said incredibly important postseason was weighted so heavily on his shoulders less than a week ago that some assumed his programming capable of non-verbal communication, I just wonder if the best case to stay isn't being made by him and him alone. Especially since I don't know how you could possibly measure "progress" on the type of eternally enduring poker face that would make the Terminator show his tell. The Raptors aren't exactly lacking in depth or talent, but you could have easily fooled me into thinking they were when long-time mental midget Kyle Lowry tried the most circumstantially stupid move in NBA history in closing Game 2 or when the rest of the roster left Kawhi Leonard to put on an inevitably unsuccessful one-man show in Game 3. Of course, things have since changed with the Sixers getting dunked all over like the sickly bunch of underachievers they are, so it makes perfect sense that the odds of a player staying with the organization for which he is currently blossoming into a whole nother level of superstardom have reportedly followed suit. Still, to be quite clear, the most impactful thing the Raptors have done for Kawhi Leonard is trade for him, with giving him the ball...repeatedly...and with full autonomy coming in as a close second. Those aren't exactly moves that other teams with similarly striking supporting casts, most notably one that just so happens to call Los Angeles home, would be hesitant to make after witnessing this type of dead-eyed domination...
The truth is, I'd rather attempt to read the entire Bible in braille than try to read the mind of man and machine's first lovechild, but I'd imagine that it's still pretty far from made up. That said, if the Raptors' main selling point is what, at the very least, looks to be an inevitable Eastern Conference Finals appearance, then they'll basically be doing the equivalent of inviting their friend out to a club they can't even get remotely close to without him using his name at the door. Winning definitely cures all, but - in that analogy - this 2.0 version of Kawhi Leonard that we're seeing is the prescribing doctor whose practice can quite easily withstand relocation to almost any city of his choosing.
That play, the dramatics that followed, and the postgame delusion regarding them might not have been what anyone would consider a compliment to the game basketball. However, as the summation of a series whose theme should be vocalized by 'Drowning Pool' with how many bodies have been loud and proud in letting themselves hit the floor, it's absolute perfection. I'm not one to diminish head injuries or the impact that causes them, so I won't say that Draymond Green laying on the court in obvious pain was the result of the type of acting that would get him killed off of the soap opera the NBA has modeled itself after during the pilot episode. I will, however, say that whatever pain he was feeling was ultimately caused by him stiffening his body and plummeting to the hardwood as if the player he was defending had shot him in the neck with a stun gun as opposed to lightly grazing his face on a fairly liberal follow through. Simply put, what we watched above may have been proof that Draymond Green has been fouled on a few James Harden 3-pointers, but it was definitely evidence that neither the Warriors nor Rockets are done embellishing contact to prove a point at the expense of their sport's integrity. Thankfully, our prayers were answered and there hasn't been as much bitching about officiating since Game 1, but the same can't be said of the flopping designed to get its attention. Of course, you need not look further than the person who drained a three over his presumably deceased body for a reminder that Draymond Green isn't the only guilty party. However, he who nearly clawed the eyeballs out of James Harden's face just happens to be the perfect example after appearing to suffer a brain aneurysm and still having the wherewithal to play through to the podium where he was all-too-quick to non-ironically tell the media "told you so". At least a highly anticipated series is now competitive, but its potential to truly be seen as great is being pissed away one entirely shameless spill at a time.
— OsamaBin Leaning (@JmakWilliams) May 7, 2019 Look, I'd imagine there's nothing in PJ Tucker's contract that demands he treat lower level employees like equals, just as I'd imagine there is nothing in an equipment manager's contract that guarantees him a baseline level of respect from the athletes whose lives he tasked with making easier. Therefore, I'm not going to overreact to the former showing the latter a level of appreciation fitting of a drunk college kid's bedroom floor without displaying so much of a hint of humor in doing so. The uncomfortability that might arise while trying to convenience those dealing with the frustrations of partaking in heated competition, especially when the stakes are at their highest, is an occupational hazard of serving as the NBA equivalent of the help, so there's no reason to make this a bigger deal than it is. What there is reason to do, however, is suggest that PJ Tucker is kind of a prick whose superiority complex might be highly disproportional to the power he has throughout the Houston Rockets' organization. That's not to discredit what he brings as a veteran, hard-nosed, three-and-D hustle player, which is quite a lot, but it is to say that he'd have to average about 35 more points per game to even come close to justifying his use of another human being as a hamper. It's a hell of a lot harder to work your way through the ranks to reach the pinnacle of professional athletics than it is to be a half-decent person, so there's really no excuse for PJ Tucker to not offer basic human decency towards a colleague. If not because it's simply the right thing to do as someone who is constantly being catered to while making millions upon millions of dollars to play a sport then because it would make me feel better about initially laughing at the clip of him throwing his rags on some poor bastard that has nowhere near as many riches. LBS- Anthony Morrow played with the Thunder for two and a half seasons between 2014-2017 and was there before and after Durant left. He talked with Sam Amico of AmicoHoops.net about the situation and said Westbrook was not the reason for Durant’s departure.
“It wasn’t as much to do with Russ as the media made it look like at all, I know that for a fact,” Morrow told Amico Hoops. “He wanted to build on his legacy, he wanted to win. He felt like we tried, 10 years, it ain’t work… I could tell you that that’s how he was thinking about that.” ----- First and foremost, I can't believe this is still being discussed. We're in the midst of the 2019 playoffs. There is more than enough topical...well...topics for a reputable basketball personality and a former NBA player to fill a full podcast without having to circle back to a feud that's been put though the news cycle so many goddamn times that the main point has been faded beyond recognition. That main point, for the record, isn't that Kevin Durant broke up with Russell Westbrook after eight years like his relationship with a high school sweetheart finally soured or some shit. After all, with his passive aggressive reaction to his teammate's aggressively passive departure, Russell Westbrook made it more about Russell Westbrook than KD ever did. That being said, you can't leave your running mate in the dust after damn near a decade together to join the championship team whose heels you just fell short in nipping at and not have him take it personally, especially when said running mate takes literally every perceived slight personally. I guess the question I'd ask in response to a subject that's been beaten to death 300x over is whether or not basic human nature is some media-spun narrative? Kevin Durant's decision to hook a quick left on the easy road without so much as putting on his blinker as a warning to the guy who was riding in the lane alongside him was bound to piss off said guy. That guy happened to be Russell Westbrook, who got slapped in the face by the implication/reality that he wasn't seen as a good enough architect to help build upon KD's legacy. So no, it wasn't as much about Russell Westbrook as everyone made it out to be, but it was pretty goddamn close.
We're not really going to do this, are we? I'm all for the preemptive manufacturing of storylines ahead of the time of year in which the NBA really proves its pageantry, with that being the offseason. That said, Kawhi Leonard giving us a laughable lack of verbal communication on which to judge his intent and mindset is not a rationalization for us to start judging his non-verbal communication. If he looks exasperated it's probably because he was physically exasperated, since the guy who will have been the target of every robot joke possible by the end of this sentence is more likely to be in need of an overnight re-charge than to be the type to wear hypothetical emotions on his sleeve. To be clear, I'm sure Kawhi Leonard was made frustrated by having to drag around the dead weight of a fellow All-Star whose most notable Game 3 contribution was tea-bagging Ben Simmons...
As someone who has never not thought he was more likely to head somewhere sunny in impending free agency, I hardly think the following stat is the type that's going to keep him in Toronto long-term...
However, I also hardly think his posture in a postgame press conference is proof of that, or really anything for that matter. Kawhi Leonard's body language doesn't speak volumes, because volumes of any kind, be they literal or figurative, are his sworn enemy. Hell, I'm half certain you'd faster find him speaking in tongues than in anything that could possibly be translated by the media. If I know Kawhi Leonard, which is perhaps the most ignorant start to a sentence in the history of typed word, then those slumped shoulders and unamused expression had more to do with being in front of a camera than being behind in a series. So, let's just fall back and see how the rest of a postseason that is far from over plays out, since trying to read Kawhi Leonard is a fool's errand the likes of trying to read a doctor's signature immediately after he/she gave you LASIK surgery. USAToday- Brooklyn Nets All-Star point guard D'Angelo Russell was cited at a New York airport Wednesday night for marijuana possession, a spokesperson for the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey told USA TODAY Sports.
Russell, who was flying from LaGuardia Airport to Louisville International Airport, was questioned by police after a routine search by TSA workers flagged what at first glance appeared to be a can of Arizona Iced Tea in a checked bag, a person with knowledge of the incident told USA TODAY Sports. Upon further inspection, the can had a hidden compartment where marijuana was discovered. Russell received a summons to appear in court for marijuana possession of less than 50 grams, according to the Port Authority spokesperson. The citation Russell received is a violation under New York law and is punishable by a fine of $100 or less. -------- Excuse me, what? Am I reading this right? TSA went through a checked back thoroughly enough to find a little greenery inconspicuously concealed in a fake Arizona Iced Tea can, presumably making a scene and causing a commotion that disrupted hundreds of others traveling, only to hand out a citation that maxes out at $100? I personally think he's played his way out of pesky pot citations, but I suppose the angle I should take is that weed is readily available everywhere, especially to connected professional athletes, so D'Angelo Russell is dumb for packing it while trying to travel out of a city in which it's still illegal. However, if the punishment for doing so is basically that of a parking ticket then I am not so sure he was all that dumb. Hell, considering his financial standing and the NBA's general willingness to join the proverbial smoke circle, who's to say the risk of getting caught wasn't worth the potential reward of conveniently having his recreational drugs delivered to him on a conveyor belt upon arrival. Honestly, the price D'Angelo Russell will reportedly end up paying is probably nothing more than equal to the wages attached to the man hours that were wasted going through all his crap. I guess my point is that the facade that people still give a shit about misdemeanor marijuana possession isn't even profitable anymore, so why in the hell is anyone - much less professionally detached TSA workers and airport cops - still trying to keep it up? I'm going to need to speak to their manager, and I say that being 89% sure that's he/she is, in some form or fashion, related to Roger Goodell.
I don't want to underestimate the impact that one of Draymond Green's eternally unpredictable limbs can have on the vision of an opponent that was unfortunate enough to have one of those massive mitts raked across BOTH eyeballs. Oddly enough, all you need is sub-average eyesight to see that James Harden was forced to finish the game with nothing more than sub-average eyesight...
That being said, we are talking about a guy that went on to score 29 points on 9-16 shooting in a road playoff game against the back-to-back defending champs, all of which came after being made to look blunted beyond belief. I don't mean to nitpick after a tough loss whose outcome could very well have been flipped had a superstar scorer been operating with 20/20 vision, but I'd imagine there's some legally blind people that would have 'Spalding' imprinted on their forehead if I passed them a basketball ball that might take umbrage with his claim that he could "barely see". I'd probably exaggerate an injury too if my chances of winning a championship had just been dramatically diminished due to no fault of my own, but James Harden legitimately looked like he was in the process of applying for a seeing-eye dog during his postgame press conference..
While he was clearly impaired, not having the athletic ability of Michael Jordan isn't the only thing that stopped Ray Charles from having a similarly successful career in sports. I guess what I'm saying is that battling through a sensitivity to light while on a stage as bright as that of an NBA arena is unbelievably impressive, but willing your team to within a few possessions of the Goliath that is the Golden State Warriors while the most necessary of your five senses is rapidly degenerating is impossible. Everyone already knows it's shitty that such an important game was affected by the poking of some of the most important eyes participating, but that postgame prognosis just seemed a wee bit excessive. Then again, what reaction from James Harden doesn't?
To be honest, I'm having a really tough time deciding whether I love or hate this news. On one hand, as someone who loves the 'Days of Our Lives'-type dramatics of the NBA, you'd think I would appreciate inserting an official whose presence might as well be a powder keg into a series that has already seen the referees raked over the coals by the Rockets. After all, if you also like that the league often operates as a soap opera then tonight's game is a must watch due solely to the amount of antagonistic personalities playing a part in it. On the other hand, as someone who realizes that this is probably the most entertaining basketball matchup this postseason possesses, I'm downright fearful of the volume being turned up on an amount of whining over whistles that would have the teacher of a cranky kindergarten class at her wit's end as is. Considering James Harden's flagrant flopping and CP3's motormouth, Scott Foster probably has just as much reason to hate them as they hate him. That said, if he inserts himself into tonight's contest in a way that at all increases the obnoxious officiating angle that's already reared its ugly head and began running amok then we're well on our way to a great series being ruined by factors outside of the actual sport presumably being played at its peak level. I genuinely believe that the postgame moaning and groaning was more intended at leveraging some more fortuitous calls in the very near future. However, if there's one person that can pour gasoline on what quickly became a flammable situation and add another spark to a heated rivalry then it's the head referee of a absolutely pivotal Game 2. So, here's to hoping Scott Foster either suppresses the urge to make tonight all about him...or at least puts forth a performance worthy of a reality TV show in causing the type of chaos that makes everyone forget their supposed to be watching the highest quality of competition between some of the world's most remarkable athletes.
Oddly enough, I think what certainly appeared to be an objectively idiotic move that was about as well-timed, situationally appropriate, and risk-adverse as any 10+ foot jump shot ever taken by Ben Simmons was also a good sign for the Toronto Raptors. Don't get me wrong, it was due in absolutely no part to the execution of the person who attempted to throw the game under the scrotum of a superior athletic specimen. However, when you consider that the Raptors still managed to get an open look regardless, they have to be feeling good about the boldness of their All Star PG during a time of year when it historically wanes. To be quite clear, I'm sure Toronto would much rather have the extremely confident Kyle Lowry who was aggressive in hitting back-to-back clutch 3's in the final minutes than the irrationally confident Kyle Lawry's who was more worried about getting spicy and leaving opponents salty when the outcome of a playoff game hung in the balance. However, even the 'And 1 Mixtape Tour' version is preferable to the dude who has multiple 0-fer offerings throughout his incredibly underwhelming postseason career. Of course, the fact that what somehow comes a close second to JR Smith passing up a lay-up to run out the clock on a tied Finals game as the most circumstantially stupid play in NBA history can be seen as a relative positive tells you pretty much everything you need to know Kyle Lowry's problematic playoff appearances. Still, it's much easier to knock a man down a peg than it is to build him all the way up, and the Raptors are far too familiar with falling short in failing to do the latter with Kyle Lowry when it matters most.
So, now that he's officially retired, we can officially complete the 'Paul Pierce Emasculation Tour' by giving all his airtime to Dwyane Wade, right? Don't get me wrong, there's a time and a place for Boston-driven bullshit. I just think that time is late at night and that place is some Northeast regional affiliate that people primarily watch to bolster their bias ahead of big games. As much as I loved 'The Truth' throughout the entirety of his career, he's made a habit out of bending it in basically becoming living proof that not every former athlete is cut out to be a objective analyst. That has never been made more clear than it was in this particularly bad attempt at trying to inform a viewing audience. The winningest team in the league, led by the presumed MVP, whose range of talents are assumed to not be of this planet, is doomed after one single playoff loss to a team whose kryptonite has been their own consistency. You honestly couldn't take in a worse prognostication if you sniffed it straight from the ass Skip Bayless talks out of. Of course, the Bucks have more causes for concern now than they did 24 hours ago, as the Celtics looked to be firing on all cylinders offensively and Al Horford did a great job on Giannis defensively. However, if the question is "where do they go from here?" then I'd imagine the answer is back to their locker room to ready themselves for a long series of adjustments after an uncharacteristically piss-poor shooting performance. I don't even feel comfortable calling Paul Pierce a prisoner of the moment. Saying "styles make fights" as if styles can't be changed and fights don't last more than a round is so abjectly moronic that it better purely be a product of favoritism towards the franchise for which his number hangs in the rafters. If not, then it's a product of a clear and present stupidity towards the entirety of sports that can't be solely blamed on the circumstances of which he was asked to analyze.
Even if you tend to think that the final non-call was the right one, which I do, it would require seeing yesterday's game through lenses so royal blue they'd make Elton John blush to fail to see that the Warriors were the obvious beneficiaries of bad officiating. I don't even think that's an opinion as much as it is a fact...
That being said, if you're anything like me, it's also impossible to come away from that game feeling at all bad for the player who went on to shamelessly plead for fairness in officiating after spending an entire MVP-worthy season making things entirely unfair on those officiating him...
Call it paying a postseason physicality tax after having his net-worth inflated by the relief he was granted at the charity stripe all regular season. Call it an untimely regression to the mean. Call it whatever the hell you want, but James Harden's gift (and it is absolutely a skill, albeit an obnoxious one) in creating otherwise unnecessary contact is a curse in that there is reason to doubt literally every reaction he has on the court. In the same vein of "the boy who cried wolf", the engine to the Rockets' offense is very much the beard who cried foul, and placing your fate in historically inconsistent hands by design is not a strategy that's liable to succeed when it matters most. Simply put, it's of James Harden's doing, and his doing alone, that the refs, whose job is hard enough as is, are basically flipping a coin in trying to decide if he was truly fouled or if he shamelessly flopped. It sucks that coin kept coming up heads in biting Houston in the tail yesterday, but it was really only a matter of (playoff) time before those questionable calls became a hell of a lot harder to come by. As he referenced, Kawhi Leonard's postseason-altering injury a few seasons ago is evidence of the importance of giving a shooter space to land, but what he failed to address is one particular shooter's need of an entire runway to land as he often has the intent to do so on his back. That intent was pretty clear to me as one of the most unstoppable scorers in league history appeared more worried about kicking his way to the free throw line than actually making a game-tying shot with mere seconds left...
Now, I could very well be seeing that wrong, but the point is that James Harden has actively and voluntarily made it so that, even in dissecting the replay in high-definition and slow-motion, it's still pretty damn difficult to tell what's right (i.e. fair). At the risk of giving too much of a pass to full-time officials that undeniably had an off afternoon, it's absolutely irrational to expect them to do so with any consistency in real time. I'm as tired of the Warriors as anyone else, and as such I'm made about 100x more exhausted by Draymond Green's mouth. Unfortunately, what came out of it this time around was dead-on-balls-accurate. Ain't nobody trying to hear James Harden whine for whistles, and for good goddamn reason.
Look, you'd have to be as situationally blind as San Antonio was in watching their season get salted away like a deer in headlights not to see that the beginning of the end to a robotically productive era was already in the rearview. The lack of familiar faces and a humbling win total served as evidence that the Spurs of an unprecedentedly successful yesteryear were no more. That said, whether it be taken a two-seed to seven games, or benefitting from an off-brand Tony Parker-like performance from some dude who might as well have been nameless prior (Derrick White), there was still some crumbs of their holistically systematic history. Now, however, I think it's time to sweep up those crumbs and except that the party is all but over. Never mind them being unable to hear Gregg Popovich screaming desperately from the sidelines. The Spurs we knew and begrudgingly grew to love as the NBA transitioned into a period of shameless flirtation and "superteams" became all the rage wouldn't even need him to open his mouth to know to foul there. It's something that would have been engrained into their instincts since early October. Hell, Manu Ginobili could have been at the goddamn grocery store for all I know and I'd be half surprised if he didn't grab the guy next to him in the produce aisle out of some telepathic need to do the right thing at the right time. I get not making out the raspy voice of a 70-year-old, but how they were deaf to Tim Duncan's internal screams is beyond me. I was hesitant to say so before, out of an unhealthy respect for Coach Pop that was probably more of an irrational fear that he might find out and somehow shoot an unamused stare right though my decidedly less successful soul, but now it's impossible to ignore. Not just a mere mental mistake, but the most unforgivable of mere mental mistakes in the most pressurized of moments. Considering how well-coached his teams have been for decades on end, Gregg Popovich being helpless to the type of completely unconscionable circumstantial stupidity that has other NBA coaches waking up in a cold sweat is like watching Drago taste his own blood. Forget their actual ability to play basketball for the second, because it's the Spurs' damn near manufactured mentality and mindset that now appears mortal, which means we're likely far closer to the end of the end than anyone wants to admit.
Respect. Whether it be due to a faulty piece of equipment or our own clumsiness, we've all been there. There's only one thing worse than struggling with something you know to be insanely simple, and that is having some hero appear out of nowhere to make you look stupid by doing it for you. For that reason, we could all learn a thing or two from Nikola Jokic, who was not about to stand idly by fumbling and bumbling with some crappy contraption in playing to a sadistically satisfied audience while waiting for a patronizingly helpful hand. Generally speaking, "fuck this shit" is right. Situationally speaking, "fuck this shit" is pretty tame considering the compounding of the frustrations he must have been feeling after collecting a record-breaking 43 points, 12 boards, and 9 dimes in a losing effort against the type of experienced organization you'd prefer not to face in a Game 7...
With the amount of heavy lifting he did in putting on a complete basketball clinic in the post during what ended up being an unfortunate elimination game, someone else can figure out the goddamn malicious mic stand...so long as they let him leave the room before they do so.
As someone who has resigned himself to Golden State's annoyingly predictable success, I refuse to truly let myself believe they can lose a seven game series until they actually do lose a seven game series. That said, if - and only if - I could be persuaded that they could come up short of a three-peat, it would be petty, little bullshit like this that would do a better job of convincing me than them losing back-to-back home playoff games for the first time since Kevin Durant slithered his way to Silicon Valley. There was once a time when it was more than fair to say Steve Kerr's job was an easy one, as there were literally nights when he felt comfortable enough to let his players coach because simply beating the crap out of teams wasn't taxing enough. That time is very much up, as he looks the part of a man who has been left exasperated by the egos he's been left to babysit all season. Between KD finding whiney new ways to passive aggressively stir up shit only to complain when it splashes back up in his face and Draymond being Draymond sans 50% of the skill that made Draymond's Draymondness even remotely tolerable, this team has not the collective attitude/mindset of an actual "team" at all. Since I'll never trust James Harden and the Rockets to do anything other than implode once the sky appears to be the limit, I still think the Warriors' talent has them in the driver's seat of the Western Conference. However, their Head Coach not even being able to call for a slight muffling of the music during a playoff series that is suddenly and shockingly competitive doesn't exactly speak to a quality command of the room. Steve Kerr's response to "who's in charge around here?" might as well have been to light a cigarette and rip it all the way to the filter, because you could legit feel the type of frustration that's caused many disgruntled employees before him to go sprinting to a smoke break. Normally I wouldn't overreact to that, but with on-court results not being what we're accustomed to either, I think it's safe to assume that they aren't on the same page of what's reading more and more like it could potentially be a rocky final chapter.
------- Can you believe this? The unmitigated gall you'd have to have. The outright disrespect you'd need to be comfortable showing. I swear, damn college kids these days just don't get it. An accomplished student-athlete in a big time Division 1 basketball program just bows out of a group project days before it is due... and one of his peers has the audacity to give him attitude? Huh, there goes his/her courtside seats! That'll be the last time he/she gives lip to a scholarship'd star player whose course schedule was merely a suggestion. Back in my day you treated it as a privilege to be in the presence of campus legends whose acceptance wasn't predicated on an agreement to play school. Now, however, NBA Draft hopefuls can't even graciously go out of their way in remembering to inconvenience themselves by reminding the little people of how much bigger they are without being fed a dose of crap about contributing to a class project? Sad times, indeed. Considering he was denied the congratulations he was quite obviously due, "lol, nah..." was well above the call of humility and courtesy for a 21 year old with NBA aspirations to fulfill. I know he dropped out because he's got shots to get up and shits not to give, but if the subject of that powerpoint was in understanding one's place in the social and educational hierarchy then I'd award him all the credits regardless. After all, Nick Ward clearly has nothing left to learn on the topic. |
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