Play Nicely NBA

First of all, let me say that I understand that the NBA has built its image on flash, bangs, noise and anything else that draws attraction. The shoes and clothes are bright, the dunks are spectacular and the music is loud. Read Bill Simmons’ latest article in ESPN about entertaining his 2 ½-year-old daughter at Cavaliers-Clippers game and you’ll know what I’m talking about. The NBA also plays to hip-hop crowd which is great because basketball is largely a street ball game and the two fit perfect together. The rhythm of the music and the rhythm of the game were born to be together.
But with all this, I know that no one really cares about the NBA in the fall. We just got done celebrating the World Series and we’re completely engrossed in both college and professional football and rightly we should be. We shouldn’t care about an 82-game regular season (which I absolutely despise) in November. This time of year is for football and baseball. We should care about the NBA during playoff time (which I absolutely love) in April and May. Like players on a team, each sport should know their role and when they should be get people to be talking.
Now with all that said with much respect and sensitivity; what in the world is going on with the NBA? I mean really, why are their people acting like Bill Simmons’ daughter during the second half of the Cavailier-Clippers game? Why are they acting like the 2 ½-year-old screaming and kicking seats?
There are people like Kobe Bryant who spend the whole off season, preseason and the first few weeks of the regular season constantly talking with the media demanding trade requests one day and then backing out of those comments the next day. He should either want to be a Los Angeles Laker or he shouldn’t want to be. And if he can’t decide then maybe he should quit playing basketball because it’s not that hard to sit down one day with yourself and decide that “Hey, I want to make a commitment to my teammates to play the best I can so we can be the best team we can be.” But instead Bryant keeps flip-flopping like your favorite politician and drawing all sorts of unwanted attention when the attention in preseason should be on preparing for the regular season. The entire circus had its effect on the Lakers shaky start to the season and this isn’t me talking. Every analyst in television and newspaper said that Bryant’s antics caused his team to be unprepared for the season and their lack of physical conditioning was evident. I don’t know Kobe Bryant personally, he might be a really great guy that always gets portrayed in the wrong light but the actions that are portrayed feature a man that doesn’t seem like a very good teammate. He chased off Shaq when they had a chance to win even more champions earlier in the decade and now he treats his current teammates like junior high kids. Michael Jordan probably had some problems too but give me the loyalty of “His Airness” any day over this guy from L.A.
And since were not biased here at “The Grandeur” we giving you some East Coast craziness to match your West Coast drama. In New York there is Isiah Thomas who in the past year has ordered players to commit harsh fouls, publicly insulted officials and has made alleged sexist and racist remarks; that’s pretty good work for anyone. He also managed to assemble one of the most expensive, and worst, teams in the NBA. Apparently when you’re busy causing trouble you really can’t focus on putting together a quality basketball team. Then there is the “best” player on Thomas’ team, Stephon Marbury who just lately bailed on his team after learning he would not be in the starting lineup. Word on the street is that Marbury and Thomas came to blows at 35,000 feet and Marbury was going to blackmail Thomas about his past actions. Sexist and racist comments anyone? Now judging from history, this is probably not the most positive player-coach relationship. Actually, it’s the kind of player-coach relationship that would cause a team to be really bad. Oh, that’s right, the Knicks are really bad.
Kind of like the Miami Heat who despite having worlds of talent can’t seem to get along these days. The kind of petty actions that causes a team with Pat Riley as the coach and Dwayne Wade, Shaquille O’Neal, Alonzo Mourning and Jason Williams as the players to be 3-10 and in last place in a division with the Hawks and Bobcats.
Meanwhile, there is this team down in San Antonio called the Spurs who have managed to win four champions in the past nine years and will probably rack up a few more before this generation of players move on. Good teammates like Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobli and Coach Greg Popavich, they all get along. It’s absolutely amazing how far being good teammates, not causing a bunch of drama and playing unselfishly will take you when it comes to being a quality basketball team. We all see it and yet some guys just wanting to keep misbehaving. It’s not that hard, so please NBA, play nicely.