ESPN Praises Kyrie Irving While Ignoring Julius Erving and Rick Barry
The Brooklyn Nets defeated the New York Knicks 122-115 to improve to 3-6 since Kevin Durant suffered a knee injury that is expected to keep him out of the lineup for at least another week or two. One might think that a 3-6 record is nothing to write home about, but ESPN's postgame show--featuring "Screamin' A" Smith--portrayed a win against the mediocre Knicks as proof that Kyrie Irving is a superstar who can singlehandedly carry a team. Superstars are not defined by one game. The reality is that every time Irving has been the number one option for an extended period his team has not accomplished anything noteworthy. Irving was a great second option behind LeBron James for the 2016 NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers, but there is a big difference between being the second option versus carrying all of the responsibility of being the first option (there have been some great teams that truly had a 1A and 1B, but that was not the case with James and Irving).
The 2022-23 Brooklyn Nets are a contender with Durant leading the way, and they are a Draft Lottery team with Durant out of the lineup. That is not an opinion; that is a fact based on the team's record in both circumstances not just this season but throughout the time that Durant and Irving have been with the Nets.
While hyping up Irving, ESPN ran a graphic that incorrectly gave Irving credit for holding the Nets' franchise record for most consecutive 30 point games. ESPN, other media outlets, and the NBA pretend that the ABA did not exist and that the four NBA teams with ABA roots were founded in 1976--but pretending something is true does not make it true. The Nets were founded in 1967-68 as an ABA team known as the New Jersey Americans. Many of the franchise's records--including the single game scoring record--are held by Julius Erving, who packed a lot into his three years with the team: three regular season MVPs (one shared with future Philadelphia 76ers teammate George McGinnis), two championships, two Playoff MVPs, and two scoring titles. Yet, the NBA and its media partners ignore ABA history and statistics, pretending that the Nets franchise--and the Nuggets, Pacers, and Spurs franchises--debuted in the 1976-77 season.
As a Net, Erving scored at least 30 points in six straight games (November 24-December 1, 1973), a feat that Irving has yet to surpass. Neither player holds this particular franchise record, though. Rick Barry, in the second of his two seasons with the Nets (1971-72), scored at least 30 points in seven straight games (February 3-February 18, 1972).
Labels: Brooklyn Nets, Julius Erving, Kyrie Irving, New York Nets, Rick Barry
posted by David Friedman @ 10:49 PM
10 Comments:
Forgive me, David, this is completely off topic but I just need to vent. What was with LeBron’s temper tantrum at the end of regulation against the Celtics on Saturday? When you watch tapes of the greats from years’ past, do you find anyone reacting in a comparable way?
TR:
The referee blew an obvious foul call that should have resulted in LeBron taking two free throws with a chance to win the game in regulation. The referee subsequently admitted that he blew the call. That being said, ideally LeBron would have gathered himself and prepared his team to win the game in overtime.
There have been several great players (and coaches) who complained very demonstrably after bad calls (or calls that they thought were bad) throughout their careers. In the NFL, I recall Bill Cowher grabbing a photograph of a prior play and stuffing that photo in the pocket of the referee. In MLB, Billy Martin, Earl Weaver, and many other managers had infamous confrontations with umpires. In the NBA, Red Auerbach was notorious for ref-baiting, and he also engaged in confrontations with members of the opposing team, including one famous confrontation when he punched Ben Kerner, the owner of the St. Louis Hawks.
Among current NBA players, Chris Paul constantly whines and complains, as does James Harden. Draymond Green is an incessant whiner/complainer.
Historically, Rick Barry had a reputation for whining and complaining. Tim Duncan was a highly respected player who did not say much on the court, but he did complain a lot about foul calls.
So, I think that LeBron could have behaved better, but I've seen and read about worse--and, in his defense, he was 100% right, which is more than can be said a large percentage of the time about many of the most frequent complainers.
Thank you, David, for the thoughtful reply!
TR:
You're welcome! I would add that I am not making a judgment on whether Rick Barry's complaints were justified, but just noting that he had a widespread reputation for complaining a lot. He is a perfectionist who I enjoyed interviewing, and I am sure that he would say that he complained a lot because the referees were often wrong about their calls!
A bad missed call against James, but I always say how many other bad calls throughout the game went against Boston(or against LAL)? It was weird watching him pout the way he did though.
Most superstars will complain a lot, almost none won't. James, Kobe, and Jordan were notorious complainers, regardless if justified or not. CP3 and Green are bad. Not that Harden doesn't sometimes, but he isn't bad. Interesting you single him out, and not even mention Westbrook, who you like to praise. Westbrook is routinely in the top 10 in the league in technical fouls, while Harden has never been. Westbrook has also led the league in technical fouls 2x.
Over the past 12 seasons here's what Westbrook, Paul, and Harden have averaged for technical fouls/season(Green is most assuredly #1 probably):
Westbrook: 14.8
Paul: 11.1
Harden: 5.3
Complaining doesn't necessarily correlate with the number of technical fouls you receive, but Harden isn't even in the conversation with the top complainers. Very few superstars will average less than 5 technical fouls/season.
Duncan and Draymond are the two that seem or seemed to most complain about fouls that are actually called, usually on them, while Lebron is part of the proud fraternity of stars who were actually fouled every single time they ever missed a shot, just ask them. In this proud inner circle he joins not just modern-day weasels Paul & Harden, but significantly more admirable great players of yesteryear such as Wilt, Barry, Jordan, Barkley, Shaq, Kobe, Iverson, and perhaps most of all Dwyane Wade, who may well have been Lebron's sensei in this all-too-aggravating campaign against referee inadequacy.
Kareem could be a whiner as well, particularly in his Lakers era. It's more often true of great offensive players than not, though the degree of it varies. More cynically, the sincerity of it may also vary. It is possible if not probable that players like James or Kobe or Wilt legitimately believe they are fouled every time they complain about it, whereas the Pauls and Hardens of the world are often willfully lying. A simple acid-test for sincerity might be looking at how flop-prone the player is. Kobe, Lebron, Jordan, and Shaq all whine(d) about calls plenty, but they rarely if ever flopped about trying to "game" the officials like certain other stars, both whiny (Harden, Paul, Miller) and otherwise (Stockton, Ginobili).
Anonymous:
I think that players should complain less than they do because (1) complaining does them no good and (2) complaining is not much fun to watch.
I agree that many superstars complain, but I am not sure if "most" do. Jordan and Kobe were selective complainers, and I think that when they complained they often had a point (I still would prefer to see less complaining).
I did not look at the list of technical foul leaders when I answered the original comment in this thread. There are many different reasons to get technical fouls. You may have noticed that LeBron did not receive a technical foul for the incident in question, even though he complained very demonstratively. I listed some (not all) of the players who I have observed (or know about through research) complain more often than LeBron does. Westbrook complains more than he should--but I feel that way about most players.
I disagree with your take about Harden. Regardless of how many technical fouls he accrues, he complains/whines about almost every call he gets (or does not get), and he compounds the problem (for his team) by not getting back on defense if he thinks he was fouled on offense (not that he is great at getting back on defense, but if he flops, flails, falls, and does not get a call he almost never gets back on defense).
Harden's flopping, flailing, and complaining trifecta is awful, and the recent decline in his productivity directly correlates with him not being rewarded as much for this (mis)behavior as he used to be.
Anonymous:
I agree that it is much worse to complain while being a serial flopper. You are correct that Harden and Paul are two players among a group of players who are constantly trying to fool the referees. Paul is actually often a dirty player as well, while Harden is always trying to get an unfair edge but I have not observed him to be dirty.
You make a good point that the superstars who complain that they are being fouled (as opposed to complaining that they never committed a foul) may be more "sincere" than some of the other complainers. In the incident that inspired this comment thread, LeBron was in fact fouled, as the referee later admitted. Even though Jordan, Shaq, Kobe, and the others you mentioned shot a lot of free throws, they also absorbed a lot of illegal contact that was not called.
If a good portion of the time a player complains there is some merit, then I will cut him more slack than someone like Paul or Harden, both of whom are insufferable because of their antics.
Speaking of off topic subjects, isn't it amazing that the "best leader in basketball" is so often presiding over teams that have internal problems and chemistry issues? Paul has never won anything of consequence and his teams often have internal issues, but he is supposedly a great leader? Meanwhile, Kobe went 5-2 in the NBA Finals and other than Smush Parker it is difficult to find a teammate who speaks poorly of him (even before his tragic early death), but Kobe was supposedly not a great leader? I'll take the guy who wins and who pushes people to heights they never reached before or after over the guy who loses while presiding over chaos. It is similarly striking that Steve Nash's supposedly great leadership never produced results as a player or thus far during his coaching career.
I don't think leadership and titles won are a 1:1 metric because coaching, roster construction, luck, etc. all factor into the latter, but at the very least it seems clear that Paul is a poor leader who rapidly wears out his welcome with each new set of teammates and that many of his teammates perform better in his absence than his presence.
I would not put Nash in that category. His teams did well relative to their roster construction and coaching in my opinion, and many of his teammates played the best ball of their careers when they played with him. He was a poor defender and that is a fair criticism of him but surrounding him with other poor defenders and a defensively ambivalent coach was a decision far above his paygrade and not one that any amount of "leadership" would have been likely to overcome.
While I think it is fairly easy to evaluate bad leadership like Paul's or Harden's from our living rooms, I think good leadership is more difficult to rank from the cheap seats. In my estimation the only people who'd be qualified to say who is a better leader between Nash and Kobe, who both seem like good leaders from the outside, would be the handful of players who shared a locker room with either, or ideally with both. I don't think leadership and titles won are a 1:1 metric because coaching, roster construction, luck, etc. all factor into the latter, but at the very least it seems clear that Paul is a poor leader who rapidly wears out his welcome with each new set of teammates and that many of his teammates perform better in his absence than his presence.
I would not put Nash in that category. His teams did well relative to their roster construction and coaching in my opinion, and many of his teammates played the best ball of their careers when they played with him. He was a poor defender and that is a fair criticism of him but surrounding him with other poor defenders and a defensively ambivalent coach was a decision far above his paygrade and not one that any amount of "leadership" would have been likely to overcome.
While I think it is fairly easy to evaluate bad leadership like Paul's or Harden's from our living rooms, I think good leadership is more difficult to rank from the cheap seats. In my estimation the only people who'd be qualified to say who is a better leader between Nash and Kobe, who both seem like good leaders from the outside, would be the handful of players who shared a locker room with either, or ideally with both.
I think Nash's limitations as a coach were numerous and again I am not sure how much leadership matters if you do not know how to construct a defense or if one of your best players decides to go walkabout for the season to protest the vaccine.
Anonymous:
I never said that there is a direct one to one correlation between leadership and winning titles. My point is that the ultimate goal in basketball is team success, so a significant criterion for leadership is whether or not a player led his team to a championship--particularly if that player was blessed with a championship caliber roster. Kobe Bryant succeeded in that regard, while Steve Nash and Chris Paul failed, and that is why it sounds so odd when some people praise Nash and Paul not just as good leaders but as great leaders.
We agree that Nash displayed many limitations as a coach. My point here is that his fans have argued throughout his career that his great leadership makes up for various shortcomings and limitations, despite the fact that the evidence suggests otherwise.
I knew that the media's evaluation of basketball leadership had jumped the shark when ESPN's main basketball blogger posted an article suggesting that because Steve Nash supposedly high fives his teammates more frequently than other players he is a great leader. That would have been a great satire of how far journalism has descended, but the author was serious.
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