ESPN's Clown Show NBA Coverage, Featuring Stephen A. Smith and Kendrick Perkins Being Wrong About Almost Everything
The NBA Finals were a treat, culminating in a performance for the ages by Giannis Antetokounmpo. However, ESPN's NBA Finals coverage was often nothing more than a clown show, from the Rachel Nichols/Maria Taylor controversy to the futile and failed attempts of Stephen A. Smith and Kendrick Perkins to utter a remotely intelligent sentence.
Smith's loud and tired act has gone on for too long, and his shortcomings have been well documented here and elsewhere. It is sad that ESPN has sunk to branding a specific edition of SportsCenter with Smith's name, but this is not surprising, as I explained several years ago: "ESPN either hires people who are buffoons and instructs them to act like
buffoons or ESPN hires people who used to be real journalists and pays
them a lot of money to act like buffoons." Smith leads the pack in the first category.
Perkins is a former player who should know something about the NBA, and once in a while he makes sense, but he understands that he is being paid to provide headline-grabbing hot takes, not to provide intelligent analysis. Jalen Rose did a great job of listing just a few of Perkins' hot takes gone wrong about the Milwaukee Bucks and the 2021 NBA Finals:
Young folks like this that have been doing this job, like five years, they get one or two things right, they get one or two catchphrases, then they come over here with their Dr. Seuss lines wearing their 80s pastor suits and think all of their takes are going to be hot. So let me tell you a couple of things that I heard Perk say about this series. Didn't he just slander Coach Bud the entire year about not making adjustments? Hey Perk, the number one adjustment this year was giving the ball to Middleton the last couple of minutes of a game. Jrue Holiday isn't the best two way player in the NBA. Last night you saw the best two way player in the NBA. That's actually Giannis Antetokounmpo. And Khris Middleton is not Batman. That happens to be The Greek Freak. And don't try to flip it and say now he's Superman. You can just say that take was off. By the way, what happened to your guy Deandre Ayton? Is he still David Robinson? I didn't see him. Are the Suns still a dynasty? I don't see that with a 36 year old point guard. So again, it's great to come over here and talk really loud and have all of the catchphrases, but you were so very dead wrong about the Bucks as a guy who said that Giannis should leave Milwaukee. You said Giannis should leave Milwaukee. He stayed and he delivered.
Perkins was indeed "very dead wrong," and his attempt to respond to Rose was pathetic, focusing on Rose's hair line; Rose's joke about "Dr. Seuss lines" was funny, and he followed it with basketball analysis, but Perkins' jokes fell flat and were not followed by any basketball analysis. Rose may be the only ESPN commentator who directly calls out fellow ESPN commentators. As Kwame Brown recently noted, Rose deserves credit for attempting to set Stephen A. Smith straight years ago about using the words "bust" and "scrub" to refer to any NBA player. Rose has sometimes provided mixed or muddled messaging on racial issues but his basketball analysis is generally on point.
In addition to the foolish commentary that has become as much an ESPN trademark as anything else, the network also foisted on the public a soap opera pitting Rachel Nichols versus Maria Taylor. In my recap of game four of the 2021 NBA Finals I briefly addressed the Nichols/Taylor controversy:
Can anyone honestly say that either Nichols or Taylor consistently add
something meaningful and profound to the telecasts? In 20 years, NBA
fans and historians will still be talking about Antetokounmpo,
Middleton, Booker, and Paul, but it is doubtful that many people will
remember or care who served as the pregame and halftime host for
ESPN/ABC's Finals coverage. It is worth noting that Taylor, ESPN/ABC's
newly anointed NBA Finals studio host,
was the only one out of 100 media award voters who did not select
Anthony Davis for the All-NBA Team after the 2019-20 season (Davis made
the First Team after receiving 79 First Team votes and 20 Second Team
votes). Taylor's excuse for leaving one of the NBA's top five players
completely off of her ballot for the NBA's top 15 players is that she
forgot about him. Anyone can make a mistake, and one hesitates to make
extreme and/or absolute statements, but it must be asked: How can a
media member who "forgets" about one of the league's elite players be
elevated to a job that makes her the face of ESPN/ABC's pre-game and
halftime NBA Finals coverage?
Nichols is not bad at what she does, and she is better than Taylor, but both of them are quite replaceable. For those who are unaware of the basic facts of the controversy, a private phone conversation that Nichols had with one of LeBron James' advisors was recorded--unbeknownst to Nichols, which is illegal in Florida (where Nichols was staying at the time she participated in the phone call)--and then excerpts of that recording were intentionally leaked by at least one ESPN staffer who did not approve of what Nichols said. Nichols asserted that it is written into her contract that she will be the pregame and halftime host for the NBA Finals, and she declared that if ESPN wants to prove its wokeness by expanding Taylor's role then it should find a way to do so without violating that contractual obligation. Nichols praised Taylor's work and at no time asserted that Taylor is not qualified to be the pregame and halftime host; Nichols just claimed that ESPN has no contractual right to give those assignments to Taylor.
I have not read Nichols' contract, but assuming that she knows what is in her contract and that she stated those terms accurately, she has every legal right to feel wronged if her employer essentially demotes her without cause and in violation of a signed agreement. Nichols also has every right to feel violated that her private phone call was recorded without her knowledge and then broadcast to the public without her consent. All of that being said, there is not a little irony that Nichols is facing the cancel culture after she has been so outspoken and politically slanted during many of her basketball broadcasts. Self-proclaimed "progressives" now portray Nichols as a hypocrite, as someone who claims to be down with the cause but is really more focused on herself. Nichols opened herself up to such criticism by portraying herself in a certain fashion and then daring to utter private remarks that do not live up to others' expectations of her. It is never pretty when self-proclaimed "progressives" turn on their own, as we have seen throughout history (perhaps most notably in the Soviet Union, where a person could be a hero one day and literally cut out of state-controlled newspaper headlines the next day).
The problem--which neither Nichols nor Taylor nor most people who have commented about this acknowledge--is that once you accept the view that hiring practices should be based on any form of proportional representation as opposed to solely based on qualifications then you are going to open the door to resentment, to assumptions that certain people are not qualified for the positions they have, and to a host of other problems. ESPN spends more time and energy trying to act "woke" than it does trying to fill positions based on merit, and that is a bigger issue than Nichols' privately expressed resentment of ESPN's assignment shuffling.
Taylor took great offense to what Nichols said, and Taylor subsequently refused to appear on camera with Nichols. Nichols, who is often outspoken about being woke and certainly does not need a weather report to understand which way the wind is blowing, offered a public apology to Taylor that Taylor neither acknowledged nor accepted. Taylor probably correctly assumed that the apology was not sincere, because if Nichols were given truth serum she would most likely not think it necessary to apologize for privately griping that her employer is violating her contract. We are just watching an elaborate song and dance: Nichols' apology was a necessary damage control move, and Taylor's non-acceptance of the apology was an expected response from someone who feels entitled to be aggrieved despite being elevated to a position contractually promised to another person who has more seniority and experience on the NBA beat.
ESPN removed Nichols from its Finals coverage for a day or two, and then figured out how to ease her back in without having her ever appear on the same show as Taylor. Even though Taylor won the battle to be the pregame and halftime host, it was obvious that this would be her last assignment with ESPN. After the NBA Finals ended, ESPN and Taylor announced that they have mutually agreed to part ways. Taylor will no doubt grab adoring headlines--and huge dollars--regardless of where she goes next.
No one would dream of putting together an NBA team based on some kind of proportional ethnic representation of the U.S. or world population, and it does not make any sense to put together any organization with such proportional ethnic representation as the goal. I don't care if the pregame/halftime host is White, Black, Asian, male, female, heterosexual, homosexual, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or belongs to any other racial group, gender, sexual orientation, and/or religion. All I care about is that the pregame/halftime host understands NBA basketball, and can be a "traffic cop" for the other participants in the broadcast. Bob Costas and Ernie Johnson are the gold standard for the past 30 years, if not all-time. We all know that Nichols and Taylor are nowhere near that level, and it is a reasonable assumption that ESPN bypassed more qualified candidates to put first Nichols and then Taylor in the role--and even if Nichols and Taylor are the best that ESPN has, the focus on "representation" will always leave lingering doubts about how they achieved prominence.
When the focus shifts from creating equal opportunities to creating equal outcomes, we all lose.
I cannot wait until the current NBA media contracts expire, and I hope that TNT will cover the NBA Finals under the next deal.
Just to put a bow on all of this, it should be mentioned that some ESPN basketball commentators/analysts are first rate, including Jeff Van Gundy, Mark Jackson, Tim Legler, and Jalen Rose. Hubie Brown's role has been reduced, but in his prime he was the absolute best, and he is still top notch even now. That is not an exhaustive list of qualified ESPN broadcasters, but the problem is that the unqualified ones are often provided the most attention, air time, and compensation.
Labels: ESPN, Giannis Antetokounmpo, hot takes gone wrong, Jalen Rose, Kendrick Perkins, Khris Middleton, Maria Taylor, Milwaukee Bucks, NBA, Rachel Nichols, Stephen A. Smith
posted by David Friedman @ 2:31 AM
Antekounmpo Dominates as Bucks Capture Their First NBA Title Since 1971
Giannis Antetokounmpo refused to let his Milwaukee Bucks lose, imposing his skill and will at both ends of the court en route to scoring a game-high 50 points, grabbing a game-high 14 rebounds, and blocking a game-high five shots as the Bucks defeated the Phoenix Suns 105-98 to capture the franchise's second NBA championship. Antetokounmpo shot 16-25 from the field and 17-19 from the free throw line in one of the most complete and dominant Finals performances ever. Antetokounmpo is just the seventh player to score at least 50 points in an NBA Finals game, joining Elgin Baylor (61), Rick Barry (55), Michael Jordan (55), Jerry West (53), LeBron James (51), and Bob Pettit (50). Anteokoumpo tied Pettit for the most points scored in a Finals-clinching victory, and he became just the sixth player to have at least three 40 point games in one NBA Finals. Antetokounmpo is the first player to have at least 50 points, at least 10 rebounds, and at least five blocked shots in a playoff game since the NBA made the blocked shot an official statistic in 1973-74
Antetokounmpo was an easy choice for Finals MVP, joining Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon on the short list of players who have won a regular season MVP, a Finals MVP and a Defensive Player of the Year award (the Finals MVP was first awarded in 1969, and the Defensive Player of the Year award was first bestowed in 1983). There was some foolish talk before this game about whether Antetokounmpo or Khris Middleton should receive the Finals MVP if the Bucks clinched the title in game six--but anyone who watches basketball with understanding realized, even before Antetokounmpo's historic game six performance, that Antetokounmpo is by far the best player on either team. Middleton is an outstanding--and often underrated--player, but he does not have the same impact in any area of the game that Antetokounmpo does. Antetokounmpo averaged 35.2 ppg, 13.2 rpg, and 5.0 apg in the Finals while shooting .618 from the field, the first player in Finals history to post all of those numbers in the same series. His 35.2 ppg is the third highest scoring average posted by a player in his NBA Finals debut; Rick Barry and Allen Iverson scored more in their Finals' debuts, but both played for the losing team.
Middleton capped off a nice series with a solid performance, posting 17 points, five rebounds, and five assists while shooting 6-13 from the field. Jrue Holiday again struggled with his shot (4-19 field goal shooting), but he played great defense and he finished with 12 points, a game-high 11 assists, and nine rebounds (more than anyone except for Antetokounmpo and Phoenix forward Jae Crowder, who had 13). Bobby Portis came up big with 16 points on 6-10 field goal shooting in 23 minutes off of the bench.
Chris Paul led the Suns with 26 points on 11-19 field goal shooting and he tied Devin Booker for team-high honors with five assists. Booker scored 19 points but shot just 8-22 from the field. Crowder scored 15 points on 4-11 field goal shooting, while Deandre Ayton had just 12 points on 4-12 field goal shooting, plus six rebounds. A major key for the Bucks was to limit Ayton's effectiveness in the paint without having to tilt their defense in a way that opened up opportunities for Booker and Paul. Ayton posted field goal percentages of .796, .610, and .693 in the first three rounds of the playoffs, but the Bucks held him to .531--a very good number, but obviously a big decline from the three series that the Suns won.
The Bucks built a 13 point first quarter lead, but the Suns came all the way back to go ahead by seven in the second quarter. The Suns led 47-42 at halftime, and it may have seemed like the game and the series were up for grabs--but the reality is that Antetokounmpo was poised to take over, and do whatever was necessary for the Bucks to prevail. He has had well-documented struggles at the free throw line, but that did not deter him from relentlessly attacking the hoop and drawing fouls. This is very valuable even when he misses his free throws, because the fouls put the opposing team in foul trouble and put the Bucks in the bonus, which creates free throw opportunities for their players who are good free throw shooters. In game six, though, Antetokounmpo shot 17-19 from the free throw line. Inconsistent or poor free throw shooters often claim to "make them when they count," but in this game Antekounmpo really did that.
The Bucks were up 58-55 after Antetokounmpo made a pair of free throws and then added a putback off of his own miss. At that point, he had shot 7-11 from the field since the start of the second quarter, while the rest of the Bucks shot 2-19 from the field during that span. The best player on a championship team has the obligation and responsibility to score prolifically, particularly in physical playoff games when points are hard to obtain. It is not enough to "make the right play" and pass to teammates who may not have the necessary skill or will to score in certain situations. Kobe Bryant won five championships because he understood and embraced this mentality from day one; LeBron James did not win his first title until he understood and embraced this mentality, after enduring Finals losses during which he was outplayed by smaller, less-skilled players such as Tony Parker and Jason Terry.
While his teammates struggled, Antetokounmpo scored 20 third quarter points on 6-11 field goal shooting, and the score was tied 77-77 heading into the fourth quarter. This was Antetokounmpo's second 20 point quarter in the 2021 NBA Finals after no player had even one such quarter since Michael Jordan did it in 1993. Antetokounmpo is the only player in the past 50 years to have two 20 point quarters in the same NBA Finals.
Antekounmpo added 13 fourth quarter points as the Bucks outscored the Suns 28-21 in the final stanza. Throughout the game it seemed like he was in multiple places at once, blocking shots, grabbing rebounds, and then attacking the hoop with force. By the end of the game, any Sun attempting a shot anywhere near Antetokounmpo was noticeably hesitant, if not blatantly intimidated; Ayton shied away from attempting a dunk and instead threw up a soft fadeaway when challenged by Antetokounmpo. Any time Antetokounmpo was switched onto Paul the matchup looked like the big brother not letting the little brother even get off a good shot. Size matters in the NBA, so even if Paul's skills were as good as Antetokounmpo's he still would not be nearly as good of a player as Antetokounmpo because Antetokounmpo is seven feet tall while Paul is barely six feet tall. This clinching game and this series provided a vivid demonstration of what I have been saying for years about players like Steve Nash and Chris Paul: they cannot possibly be as good or as dominant--particularly when it counts the most--as bigger players such as Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki, Kawhi Leonard, or Giannis Antetokounmpo.
If you still stubbornly doubt this despite the mountains of evidence regarding the importance of size, just go back and look at game six again. Watch Paul often struggle to even get a shot off over Antetokounmpo on offense, and then have no choice at the other end of the court but to foul Antetokounmpo to prevent him from dunking. Anyone who compares Paul to Isiah Thomas just needs to stop. Thomas was the best player on two championship teams, and Thomas had a winning aggregate record against Larry Bird's Celtics, Magic Johnson's Lakers, and Michael Jordan's Bulls. That was incredible at the time, and it looks even more incredible three decades later. Paul's playoff resume does not hold a candle to Thomas' playoff resume. Paul has made it to the Finals once in 16 seasons, and during this playoff run the Suns benefited from an injury to at least one All-NBA caliber player in each series victory. Listed above are some of the milestones Antetokounmpo reached during the Finals, but it should be noted that Paul reached a milestone, too: he is now the first player in NBA history whose teams have lost four series in which they enjoyed a 2-0 lead.
It has been fashionable for well over a decade to call Paul the best leader in the NBA. I am not trying to bash Paul--he is without question an outstanding player--but he is praised well beyond what the factual record supports. Since I started 20 Second Timeout in June 2005, the best leaders in the
NBA have been the players who have led their teams to multiple titles, including Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Tim Duncan, Kevin Durant, and Kawhi Leonard. Leadership means actually taking a group of people somewhere significant that they have not been to before. ABC's Jeff Van Gundy said something very interesting while Antetokounmpo took over game six, noting that Antetokounmpo's play is speaking so loudly that Antetokounmpo does not have to say a word. Leadership, as Van Gundy defined it, is not so much about what you say but rather about what you do. Antetokounmpo plays so hard and so unselfishly that he sets the standard and the tone for his team.
The only current star player who plays as hard as Antetokounmpo is Russell Westbrook--but the difference is that Antetokounmpo is seven feet tall, while Westbrook is 6-3. Antetokounmpo can reach a level that even Westbrook cannot quite reach.
Last season, even with the Bucks on the verge of playoff elimination, I touted Antetokounmpo as "an MVP caliber player who could be the best player on a championship team" and I contrasted his skill set and mentality with James Harden's skill set and mentality. My long term predictions about players who can--or cannot--lead a team to a title are often correct (which is not to suggest that every prediction that I made was correct, but my skill set based player evaluations have aged well, and I have often contradicted the "experts"). After the Lakers got rid of Sha
quille O'Neal, I was right that even if O'Neal's Heat won that trade in the short term the Lakers would be the long term winners by building around Bryant, who I asserted only needed a competent big man to lead the Lakers back into championship contention--and that is exactly what happened after the Lakers acquired a one-time All-Star who was never considered an elite player, let alone a future Hall of Famer, until after he played alongside Bryant. I never ranked Gilbert Arenas, Carmelo Anthony, Steve Nash, Chris Paul, or James Harden as highly as many media members did/do, and those players were/are who I thought they were/are in terms of championship-level success. I tapped Russell Westbrook as a future MVP at a time when many "experts" doubted that he could even play point guard in the NBA. I continued to believe that Antetokounmpo was on a championship path while the "experts" bashed him and his coach.
There is so much emphasis on tanking, three point shooting, and building "super teams" that it is refreshing to see a championship won the old fashioned way. Antetokounmpo mentioned during the post-game press conference that he could have taken the easy route by joining a "super team" to win a title, but that he is "stubborn" and thus he stayed in Milwaukee. All championships matter, but there is a good subjective argument that this title means more than several of the titles that have been won recently by players who fled their original teams to join forces with other star players. The Bucks did not tank--Antetokoumpo is not even a Lottery pick--and Antetokounmpo remained loyal to the team that drafted him. The Bucks attack the paint on offense, and they often play a "drop" defense that protects the paint at the expense of giving up some open three pointers.
It looked like Stephen A. Smith was going to burst into tears when he described how badly he feels about Paul not winning a title. Disregarding Smith's obvious biases--no serious-minded person considers Smith to be an authentic, objective journalist anyway--the sentiment is misplaced. Paul is not some tragic figure who has been denied a title due to unfair forces or events beyond his control; he has hopped from team to team trying to latch on to a group that can carry him to a ring, and in a closely contested six game series versus Milwaukee he had multiple opportunities to take over and lead his team to a championship. He is just not good enough. Paul is not as good as Antetokounmpo--or Bryant or James or Duncan or Leonard or Durant or Nowitzki. That is the simple reason that Paul has not won a title.
Antetokounmpo and Milwaukee Coach Mike Budenholzer have been the targets of harsh criticism from uninformed commentators (including Smith, of course), but they are now champions (Budenholzer already was a champion as an assistant coach in San Antonio), and if the Bucks stay healthy and stay together they will have a good opportunity to win more titles.
Labels: Chris Paul, Deandre Ayton, Devin Booker, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jrue Holiday, Khris Middleton, Milwaukee Bucks, Phoenix Suns
posted by David Friedman @ 3:19 AM
Bucks Mount Big Comeback, Win Game Five in Phoenix
The Phoenix Suns looked unbeatable while building a 16 point lead in the first quarter of game five of the NBA Finals versus the Milwaukee Bucks, but the well-coached and highly focused Bucks kept their poise, outscored the Suns 43-24 in the second quarter, and achieved a 123-119 road victory to move within one win of capturing the 2021 NBA title. The game five winner of an NBA Finals series that is tied 2-2 wins the series 72% of the time, so even though I tend to avoid referring to "legacy games" it is possible that this was the most important game in the careers of several future Hall of Famers.
Giannis Antekounmpo scored a team-high 32 points while also grabbing a team-high nine rebounds, and dishing for six assists. He shot 14-23 from the field, the 13th straight playoff game in which he has shot at least .500 from the field. Antetokounmpo is the most dominant and efficient playoff scorer in the paint since prime Shaquille O'Neal, and he is demonstrating that paint scoring/paint dominance still matter--regardless of what the "stat gurus" might say. The Suns shot .552 from the field (including .684 from three point range) and .909 from the free throw line, but they could not maintain a double digit lead at home against a bigger and more physical team. Khris Middleton added 29 points, seven rebounds, and five assists while shooting 12-23 from the field. It could be argued that the star of the game was Jrue Holiday, who not only scored 27 points on 12-20 field goal shooting but he also passed for a game-high 13 assists to become just the sixth player in NBA Finals history to score at least 25 points while also assisting on at least 30 points. Holiday played outstanding defense, punctuated by a late steal from Devin Booker that sealed the victory.
Booker scored a game-high 40 points on 17-33 field goal shooting. He is the first player in NBA Finals history to score 40 points in consecutive games but lose both games. He posted a team-best +12 plus/minus number while Chris Paul--who media members anointed the best player on the team and a candidate for regular season MVP honors--had a -6 plus/minus number. Supposedly Paul is leading the Suns, but what is actually happening is Booker is the team's best player and he needs more help from Paul, who finished with 21 points on 9-15 field goal shooting plus 11 assists. Paul's individual numbers were not bad, but he was no better than the fifth best player on the court in arguably the most important game of his career. Deandre Ayton contributed 20 points on 7-12 field goal shooting plus a game-high 10 rebounds.
The Suns made 11 straight field goals in the first quarter, tying the longest such streak in an NBA Finals game in the past 20 years. The Bucks were not impressed or rattled, and they turned a 37-21 first quarter deficit into a 64-61 halftime lead. The Bucks' 43 second quarter points is tied for the second most points in a quarter of an NBA Finals game in the past 35 years. The Bucks attack the paint on offense and focus on defending the paint on defense. They also utilize the midrange game to good effect, as both Middleton and Holiday are lethal in that area of the court. "Stat gurus" may disagree with the Bucks' approach, but there is no denying that what the Bucks are doing is working.
The Bucks led 117-107 after Middleton completed a three point play with 3:25 remaining in the fourth quarter, but the Suns answered with a 12-3 run to pull within 120-119 with 57 seconds left in the game. With the game and likely the series up for grabs, Holiday made the play of the game by not only stripping Booker,
but then running point on the fast break and throwing a lob pass to
Giannis Antetokounmpo that resulted in a dunk plus a Chris Paul foul. Antetokounmpo missed the free throw but he tipped the offensive rebound to Middleton, who split a pair of free throws to push Milwaukee's lead to 123-119.
Much is made of Antetokounmpo's poor free throw shooting, but his Bucks just won a very important road playoff game despite his 4-11 free throw shooting. Bill Russell led the Boston Celtics to 11 titles despite being an awful free throw shooter, Wilt Chamberlain was the best player on two of the most dominant single season championship teams ever despite his bad free throw shooting, and Shaquille O'Neal dominated the early 2000s with four championships in seven seasons despite his well-documented free throw shooting issues. It is obviously preferable that a player shoot at least .700 from the free throw line, but the notion that bad free throw shooting by a dominant player can cost his team a championship seems a bit far-fetched. The most important thing to note down the stretch in game five is not how many free throws Antetokounmpo missed but rather (1) the impact that he had on both ends of the court and (2) his eagerness to attack the hoop even though he knew that he would be fouled hard and forced to make free throws. Antetokounmpo is not going to win a free throw shooting contest versus Paul or James Harden or other players who are adored by "stat gurus," but anyone who understands basketball would choose Antetokounmpo over Paul or Harden overall as well as down the stretch of a key NBA Finals game. Harden and Paul together in Houston were not able to win an NBA title, Harden has also now failed to win a title alongside Kevin Durant on two different teams, and Paul has hopped from team to team chasing a championship that Antetokounmpo seems likely to win without jumping around the league to team up with other stars.
It is amazing that even after such a devastating home loss there is still talk about what a great leader Chris Paul is, based on cliches that he uttered during the post-game press conference. You know who has been the best leader in this series by far? Giannis Antetokounmpo. He came back from what looked like a season-ending knee injury to establish himself as clearly the best player in this series through five games, and he has led his team to three straight victories, including a pivotal game five road win. That is leadership--actually accomplishing something, as opposed to talking about accomplishing something.
Media members keep alluding to some mysterious Chris Paul injury, much like excuses are often made for LeBron James' many playoff failure (to James' credit, he--unlike Paul--has led his teams to four NBA titles)--but it is unlikely that Paul is dealing with an injury as severe as Antetokounmpo's knee injury. Antetokounmpo's injury has become a non-story now because (1) he does not talk about it or allude to it and (2) he has been the dominant player in the series. If Paul is truly injured, that is nothing new--a major reason that he has never won an NBA title is that he wears down and/or gets injured if his teams advance past the first round.
Phoenix could come back to win this series, so it is at least one game too soon to make broad, definitive conclusions, but it seems fair to say--barring an unlikely turn of events--what we have seen thus far in this series demonstrates that (1) Devin Booker, not Chris Paul, is clearly Phoenix' best player, (2) Paul may not be good enough to be the second best player on a championship team, and (3) two-time regular season MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo may actually be underrated as a player and as a leader.
Labels: Chris Paul, Deandre Ayton, Devin Booker, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jrue Holiday, Khris Middleton, Milwaukee Bucks, Phoenix Suns
posted by David Friedman @ 2:42 AM
