There are some strange things happening in the world of pro basketball about now. And the strangest one involves Mark Cuban – - but that should not be all that surprising. Recall that Mark Cuban is of the philosophy that all publicity is good for the league and pro basketball; that’s what he said about the publicity surrounding the Kobe Bryant rape trial. You sort of need that as a backdrop to the current surrealism.
Cuban is suing Don Nelson as coach of the Warriors claiming he should not be allowed to coach in the NBA and that Nelson used “confidential” information about the Mavericks in order to get the Warriors to beat the Mavs in the playoffs this year. All of this seems to emanate from a suit brought by Nelson regarding non-payments to him by Cuban after Nelson stepped aside as coach of the Mavs. An arbitrator will hear all of this and rule sometime soon – presumably. In the meantime, Cuban is once again a laughingstock but surely, he doesn’t mind that because any publicity is good publicity.
I didn’t watch every minute of every Mavs/Warriors game – mostly because I was out of the country for much of the series. What I did see was that the Warriors employed a less than unique strategy there; they ganged up on Dirk Novitsky and dared the rest of the Mavs to make enough shots to beat them. That strategy has been employed by many teams against many opponents in the past; to say that Nelson had “inside info” that Novitsky is the Mavs’ premier player and he’s the guy to shut down if you want to employ that strategy would be the same as saying that Napoleon knew Moscow was the capital of Russia and figured that he needed to capture that city if he wanted to conquer the country. It’s not rocket science, folks. But is there a factual basis to Cuban’s claim that Nelson – as the former coach of the Mavs – knew firsthand that Dirk Novitsky is the best player on the team? That goes without saying…
If Cuban prevails here, imagine the effect on baseball teams trading catchers. Those guys know how their old team would try to pitch to all the batters on their new team – - but the now traded catchers won’t be allowed to share that “inside info” lest some lawsuit be filed against them. Donald Trump once said something to the effect that becoming a billionaire couldn’t be all that difficult because Mark Cuban did it. I think Trump is a blowhard of immense proportion, but I’m beginning to think he’s onto something here.
NBA players – and athletes in other major sports to be sure – ought to keep an eye peeled on the outcome of a jury trial in DC against Allen Iverson and his bodyguards. According to the suit, two of the bodyguards beat up a couple of guys pretty badly because they would not vacate some VIP seats in a nightclub in the DC area to let Iverson sit there. The plaintiffs seek $20M in compensation. I know nothing at all of the facts of the case other than what has been in the papers. But if Iverson loses here and has to pay even a third of what the plaintiffs have asked for, that should be a chilling lesson for big time athletes who travel with big entourages and bodyguards. Iverson is sued on the basis that people in his employ did this damage in his name and without proper supervision on his part. If that becomes precedent, big time pro athletes had better start paying very close attention to what goes on around them.
PJ Carlissimo is back in the NBA as a head coach. He’ll try to turn around the fortunes of the Seattle Supersonics – who just may become the Oklahoma City Supersonics sometime in the next couple of seasons. Carlissimo did well in Portland in a previous stint as a head coach before becoming famous as Latrell Spreewell’s “chokee” at Golden State. Speaking of Spreewell, I wonder if he’d consider going back to play for the Sonics now at the veteran minimum salary – - even though it would not be nearly enough to feed his family. Wouldn’t that be an entertainment spectacular for those good folks on Puget Sound? And could Spreewell and Carlissimo co-exist for as long as the franchise looks to be staying on the shores of Puget Sound?
And LA Laker fans can now give a huge sigh of relief because Luke Walton has agreed to a $30M contract with the Lakers over the next six seasons. Think about this; if Luke Walton is worth $30M guaranteed, what would his father – uninjured and in his prime – be worth in today’s market? Even Mark Cuban might gag on writing a check for that amount of money…
When the NBA was going through one of its periods of labor unrest and strikes/lockouts were threatened, Larry Johnson – then of the Knicks – said that he felt as if he were a rebellious slave. He was making somewhere near $10M a season at the time and it was free agency that allowed him to make that kind of money in the city of his choosing so his reference to slavery was “thin” at best. Well, Gary Sheffield has taken up that same line of thinking today. In his recent autobiography – written with David Ritz so I’m not sure how that differs from your run-of-the-mill biography – Sheffield says:
“When a black man, no matter how great his talent, is put on the block and sold to the highest bidder, he can’t help but feel the historical echoes.”
Excuse me, but in the real world of sports in 2007, it is the black man of great talent who puts himself on the market and then chooses which of the offers from various bidders he will accept. If it happens to be the highest bidder – often the case – it is of that talented black man’s choosing. That is a far, far cry from the situation that Dred Scott found himself in. And if those differences aren’t blatantly obvious, then it probably isn’t worth trying to explain them…
The “E” in ESPN stands for “Entertainment”; the “S” in ESPN stands for “Sports”. On July 4, ESPN gave us the privilege of watching the Hot Dog Eating Championship. On July 7, ESPN will give us the privilege of watching the Rock Scissors Paper Championship.
Memo to ESPN Honchos: Would these two “events” fall under the category of “E” or “S”? Just asking…
Finally, here’s a comment from Scott Ostler in the San Francisco Chronicle:
“You’re John Daly and sometimes your head is so hazy you’re not sure whether your wife suddenly developed a terrible slice or you’re working on an unplayable lie.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports…