Only The Playoffs Can Rescue League From Its Players
Maybe it’s the basketball. Yep, that’s it, blame the ball. The round, leather Spalding was probably taken from the hide of a mad cow, and now it’s driving everyone nuts.
Can anyone come up with a better explanation for the last few months in the NBA?
Nick Van Exel was suspended for the Los Angeles Lakers’ final seven games and fined $25,000 Wednesday for throwing a referee onto the scorer’s table Tuesday in Denver. Not only did Van Exel pick the wrong person to attack, he chose the wrong ref. When you forearm the son of the league’s chief of officiating, you lose the benefit of the doubt.
This should count as a single, shocking instance of temporary insanity, except referee-bumping has been done before.
Is there anything left? Can anyone in the NBA find another obscure rule to violate or anthem to protest or head to butt? The traditionally slow dog days of the NBA schedule can count at least a dozen baffling acts, and what’s really weird is we can pin only one infraction on Dennis Rodman.
The full moon came into view about late February with J.R. Reid’s premeditated elbow-to-the-mouth bashing of A.C. Green. Because it was J.R. assaulting A.C., it was appropriately the initial episode of a very strange post-All-Star break.
Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf called the American flag a symbol of tyranny and refused to stand for, or during, the playing of the anthem. The NBA always wanted to project stories to transcend sports, but this was not what it had in mind. Rodman was on good behavior for most of the season, except everyone knew it wouldn’t last. At least the Chicago Bulls should be thankful that Rodman butted the ref before the playoffs.
With his team trying to capture one of the last few playoff spots in the West, Rod Strickland decided to bolt the Portland Trail Blazers. It was a clear indication that his feud with coach P.J. Carlesimo, on simmer since last season, had finally boiled over. Strickland’s pride apparently meant more than team goals and chemistry, and he decided to escape for a week.
He wasn’t the only player to take a spring break. Cedric Ceballos saw his reduced role and decreasing minutes as a good excuse to leave the Lakers. Showing that he was still a team player, Ceballos stayed true to the club’s nickname and spent four days on a boat in Lake Havasu, Nev., later claiming that he was dealing with “a family problem.”
Since Van Exel and Ceballos have adversely affected the Lakers, the person who is understandably annoyed these days is Magic Johnson. He didn’t expect the team he joined to have the same maturity level as the team he coached a few years back.
The Lakers will enter the playoffs as one of the deepest and most talented teams around, and yet they have the potential to self-destruct in the same way the Seattle SuperSonics did the last two years. There are hints of jealousy and dissension that even Johnson, the consummate winner and team player, can’t fix. Just when the Lakers should be blending together in preparation for a promising playoff run, they’re falling apart at the seams.
All you had to do was look at the weary expression and sense of resignation on Johnson’s face and hear his sarcastic laugh after Van Exel’s incident to understand his frustration.
“I’ve been through more in one year with this team than I have with my other 11 or 12 squads put together,” Johnson said with a sigh. “I’ve never been through stuff like this. What a season. In all my years of playing, I have never seen anything like this. Oh, man. Should have stayed retired, I guess.”
Johnson said he plans to play beyond this season, but he didn’t guarantee it would be for the Lakers.
But the Lakers aren’t the only team coping with a weird finish.
In Orlando, Brian Hill’s clout has come into serious question. Two weeks ago, Hill handed his clipboard and huddle over to the players so Anthony Bowie could draw up a play to clinch his controversial triple-double. Then the front office orders Hill to play Shaquille O’Neal Sunday after Hill insisted Shaq would sit if he wasn’t in uniform by tipoff.
In Toronto, Brendan Malone defied his boss, Isiah Thomas, and continued to give veterans minutes over rookies. The Knicks rebelled against Don Nelson, who was fired.
What the NBA needs is not another week of the season.
What it needs is for the playoffs to start. Immediately.
xxxx Van Exel: Ref should apologize Nick Van Exel apologized Thursday to Lakers players, fans, management and staff, his family, little kids who look up to him, the sneaker company whose shoes he endorses, even the media people who had to attend his news conference. “Who else can I apologize to?” he asked, grinning. How about Ron Garretson, the referee he bumped off his feet, resulting in $188,000 in lost pay and fines? “No,” Van Exel replied. “I would expect an apology from him also. If he apologizes to me, then I’ll apologize to him.” Van Exel even suggested he hadn’t hit him that hard and Garretson made it look worse than it was - “a Hollywood job.” - Los Angeles Times