Kyrie Irving's Reported Imminent Return Raises Questions
It has been widely reported that Kyrie Irving will be permitted to return to action for the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday, when the Nets face the Memphis Grizzlies. If that is true, the NBA's indefinite suspension of Irving for promoting a film that is filled with antisemitic lies will have lasted eight games, during which the Nets went 5-3 after starting the season with a 2-6 record (the Nets also replaced Coach Steve Nash with Jacque Vaughn prior to the last game Irving played before his suspension began).
I typically refrain from commenting on "news" that has been reported but not yet happened, but I am making an exception in this instance because the following commentary is relevant regardless of whether or not Irving's suspension is lifted on Sunday.
LeBron James and Jaylen Brown have both publicly spoken out against the nature and duration of Kyrie Irving's suspension. Brown is one of the NBA Players Association's Vice Presidents (as is Irving). It is not surprising that Brown is concerned about Irving's suspension; I doubt that Irving is the only NBA player who holds reprehensible views--it would be surprising if Stephen Jackson is the only current or former NBA player who supports notorious antisemite Louis Farrakhan--and there must be some concern among the players that if their "thought bubbles" become spoken words then they could be suspended like Irving (or, for lesser players, simply disappear from the league, a la Meyers Leonard, who has yet to play in the NBA after being suspended by the league for one week for publicly uttering an antisemitic slur).
James has no official position in the NBA Players Association, but he is the self-appointed voice of the players in terms of (selectively) speaking out on various issues; James said a lot about Robert Sarver, but said very little about the NBA's commercial relationships with China's repressive dictatorship. James' uninformed, hypocritical takes on various issues have been publicly called out by, among others, Enes Kanter Freedom.
There are many reporters whose careers have been made in no small part by following James around from Cleveland to Miami to Cleveland to L.A. while extolling his greatness in exchange for being granted a limited degree of insider access. It would be great if just one of those reporters asked James the following question:
"You have been critical of Kyrie Irving's suspension. If an NBA player used his social media platform to promote a film that declares that the trans-Atlantic slave trade never happened, that Black people are responsible for the suffering of white people, and that many prominent Black people worship Satan, what would you suggest the appropriate suspension or disciplinary action would be?"
That would also be a great question to ask each member of the NBAPA's Executive Committee:
President C.J. McCollum
First Vice President Andre Iguodala
Secretary/Treasurer Harrison Barnes
Vice President Bismack Biyombo
Vice President Malcolm Brogdon
Vice President Jaylen Brown
Vice President Kyrie Irving
Vice President Garrett Temple
Vice President Grant Williams
It would also be interesting to hear from each team's player representative. NBA players have insisted that they should have a public voice about social issues, and that they should never be told to just "shut up and dribble." Having a public voice about social issues is not a part-time job; anyone who is asking to be granted such a platform and the privilege of receiving widespread dissemination of his views has a responsibility to then speak out about any social issue relevant to the NBA--and it is difficult to imagine a more relevant social issue to the NBA than a player (let alone an NBAPA Vice President) not only supporting hate speech on social media but then doubling down on that support until after the NBA suspended him.
Irving did not issue a clear, unequivocal public statement that he rejects antisemitism until earlier today, on the eve of the presumptive termination of his suspension: "I really want to focus on the hurt that I caused or the impact that I
made within the Jewish community. Putting some type of threat, or
assumed threat, on the Jewish community. I just want to apologize deeply for all my actions
throughout the time that it's been since the post was first put up. I've
had a lot of time to think. But my focus, initially, if I could do it
over, would be to heal and repair a lot of my close relationships with
my Jewish relatives, brothers and sisters." In that interview with Ian Begley, Irving also declared that he is "not antisemitic." It is significant that Irving has yet to unequivocally repudiate the fundamental (and false) premise of the antisemitic film that he promoted: that Black people are the true Jews, and that the people who call themselves Jews today have stolen that identity from the original, true Black Jews. It is disappointing, but not surprising, that Irving has failed to disassociate himself from the notion that Jews are not authentically Jewish.
It remains to be seen if Irving truly understands the power that he wields as a famous athlete who has over 20 million social media followers, and it remains to be seen if he will be more responsible with his words and deeds in the future. It also remains to be seen how the NBA and the NBA's players react if a person associated with the league uses social media to promote hatred of an ethnic group other than the Jewish people.
Labels: antisemitism, Jaylen Brown, Kyrie Irving, LeBron James
posted by David Friedman @ 7:03 PM
The Forgotten History of the "Foul Game" Between the Virginia Squires and Denver Rockets
Julius Erving was arguably at the peak of his athletic powers during his two seasons as a Virginia Squire. From 1971-73, Erving scored at least 40 points in a game 20 times (including two playoff games), highlighted by an ABA single game playoff record 53 points as a rookie in 1972 (tying the mark set by Roger Brown), and a 58 point outburst in 1973 against the New York Nets, who he would later lead to two ABA titles in three seasons. Erving shot 18-31 from the field and 22-22 from the free throw line in his 58 point game while also grabbing 15 rebounds and dishing for six assists.
Al Bianchi was Erving's first pro coach, and Bianchi told me how much the young Erving impressed him: "One of the great things about Julius is that even though he came in as
a young man he was very, very mature. He knew the ways of the game and
from the first day the players accepted him. It was like he had been
there for five years. He just had that kind of personality. They
respected--they could see that this guy was on a different level and
also he was one of them. He had that maturity."
In 1972-73, Erving averaged a career-high 31.9 ppg while winning the first of his three scoring titles. Led by Erving, the Squires averaged 114.1 ppg, ranking fourth among the 10 ABA teams while also surpassing the top scoring team in the NBA that season (Houston, 112.8 ppg).
On October 26, 1972, the Squires routed the Denver Rockets, 155-111. At the instruction of Denver coach Alex Hannum, the Rockets spent the final 17 minutes of the game committing fouls on almost every play. After the game, Hannum said, "I wanted to see what would happen if we
played extreme pressure defense like some other clubs in the league.
There's been a trend on the part of some teams to play an aggressive
defense, pressing almost every time down the floor. I told our players
to foul every time they were going to give up a layup, but I didn't want
intentional fouls."
Erving scored a game-high 22 points to pace eight Virginia players who
reached double figures in scoring. Erving also had 11 rebounds, eight
assists, and three steals in just 33 minutes; as both the fouling rate and the Squires'
lead increased, Bianchi removed Erving from the game.
Hannum added that he did this "experiment" to highlight a "bad trend": Teams "establish their aggressiveness early. They put their hands on you, then they push and pretty soon they are knocking you down. Time and time again that's the team that gets ahead. The trend is toward a pressing, slashing type of game, and I think that's bad."
Hannum explained, "I wanted to see how far you could go without hurting your team's chances. I do not plan to use these tactics again." Denver committed 56 fouls, shattering the ABA record of 46. Seven Rockets fouled out, surpassing the previous ABA record by two. The Rockets only dressed 10 players for the game, so after the sixth player fouled out the Rockets only had four eligible players, and by the end of the game they were down to three eligible players. Referees Joe Gushue and Jess Kersey determined that the Rockets could keep disqualified players Ralph Simpson and Dave Bustion on the court but that if either of those players committed a foul then a technical foul would be assessed against the Rockets; the Rockets finished the game with two team technical fouls, but I have not been able to confirm when those technical fouls were called.
Earlier in the game, Gushue told ABA Press Relations Director Mike Recht that he planned to file a report with the league regarding Hannum's fouling tactics.
The Squires set an ABA record with 92 free throw attempts, and the teams combined to set an ABA record with 86 fouls, surpassing the previous record of 81. The Squires tied an ABA record with 53 fourth quarter points--and they only made four field goals during the final stanza!
If those incredible numbers are unfamiliar to you, the reason is simple: officially, those numbers do not exist!
Less than two weeks after the so-called "foul game," ABA Commissioner Robert Carlson announced, "After a hearing, I have imposed an appropriate sanction upon Hannum and directed that the game be forfeited by Denver to Virginia and all other statistics with respect to that game expunged from the record book."
Among other things, that ruling meant that Erving lost 22 points from his season and career scoring totals. That might not have seemed significant early in the second season of Erving's 16 year pro career, but he later became just the third player to score more than 30,000 career points. If those 22 points had not been wiped out, Erving would have finished his career with 30,048 points instead of 30,026 points--and Erving would have finished the 1972-73 season with 2290 points, exactly matching his rookie total (but in fewer games). In his third season, Erving scored 2299 points. He was a remarkably consistent player, averaging at least 20 ppg in each of his first 14 seasons.
Not counting the forfeit win, the Squires went 4-3 versus the Rockets during the 1972-73 season, including 4-2 when Erving played. Erving averaged 31.7 ppg in those six games, including a pair of 38 point performances.
The "foul game" is just a footnote to Hannum's great coaching career. He led the St. Louis Hawks to the 1958 NBA title and then he guided the
Philadelphia 76ers to the 1967 NBA title. Those are the only two teams
to win a playoff series against Bill Russell's Boston Celtics during
Russell's 13 season career! Hannum's 76ers were the first NBA team to
win at least 65 regular season games, finishing with a 68-13 record.
Hannum then coached the Oakland Oaks to the 1969 ABA title, becoming the
first coach to win both an NBA championship and an ABA championship.
Larry Brown is the only other coach to accomplish that feat--and Brown was the starting point guard for the Oaks' championship team, earning the second of three straight ABA All-Star selections while winning the second of his three straight assist titles. The Oaks
later became the Virginia Squires.
Labels: ABA, Al Bianchi, Alex Hannum, Denver Rockets, Julius Erving, Virginia Squires
posted by David Friedman @ 11:07 PM
