Edwards and Towns Outduel Doncic and Irving as Timberwolves Avoid Being Swept
I enjoy analyzing complex basketball strategies, but--as Charles Barkley succinctly put it during TNT's Western Conference Finals game four telecast--sometimes basketball is a simple sport: if your team's stars outplay the other team's stars then your team has a great chance to win. That simple story explained what happened in the Minnesota Timberwolves' 105-100 win versus the Dallas Mavericks: Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns outplayed Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving. Edwards scored a game-high 29 points on 11-25 field goal shooting, and he led the Timberwolves in both rebounds (10) and assists (nine). Towns scored a series-high 25 points on 9-13 field goal shooting, including 4-5 from three point range. Towns was far from perfect--he fouled out in just 30 minutes of playing time as he still has not cured his habit of committing stupid fouls, and he grabbed just five rebounds--but the good outweighed the bad: he shot efficiently from the field, he attacked the paint more often than he had in recent games, he was both more accurate and more judicious on this three point attempts, and he posted his highest scoring total in his last nine playoff games. Mike Conley was steady as always (14 points on 5-9 field goal shooting along with seven assists and no turnovers in 34 minutes), and Rudy Gobert scored 13 points while tying Edwards for team-high honors with 10 rebounds.
Doncic posted his league-leading sixth triple double in the 2024 playoffs (28 points, game-high 15 rebounds, game-high 10 assists), but he shot just 7-21 from the field, had a game-worst -13 plus/minus number, and shot 1-5 from the field in the fourth quarter with the outcome up for grabs. Irving scored 16 points on 6-18 field goal shooting while dishing for four assists but amassing a team-high four turnovers. Dallas keenly felt the absence of Dereck Lively II, an active and energetic center who suffered a neck injury in game three of this series. Minnesota outrebounded Dallas 40-38 and outscored Dallas in the paint 46-36.
Facing not just elimination but the humiliation of being swept, Minnesota stormed out to a 24-12 first quarter lead, but Dallas trimmed that margin to 27-20 by the end of the first quarter and then went ahead by three points in the second quarter before settling for a 49-49 halftime tie.
Minnesota won the third quarter 29-24 as Towns scored 10 points on 4-4 field goal shooting after scoring just five first half points. Minnesota enjoyed a fourth quarter lead in each of the first three games of this series only to fall apart down the stretch, but in this game Towns (10 points), Gobert (eight points), and Edwards (six points) dominated the final stanza. Dallas countered with balanced but inefficient fourth quarter scoring, matching Minnesota with 27 points but shooting just .435 from the field while Minnesota shot .526 from the field.
Game five will be very interesting, because the Timberwolves will show if they are satisfied just to avoid being swept, or if they are excited about the opportunity to win at home and put the pressure on the Mavericks to win game six in Dallas to avoid game seven in Minnesota. The Timberwolves are bigger and deeper than the Mavericks, but that did not matter in the first three games because of how much Doncic and Irving outplayed Edwards and Towns. The Timberwolves are capable of replicating in game five at home the effort level and efficiency that they displayed in game four on the road.
What struck me most about this game, though, is the pregame commentary about Kyrie Irving. Many media members are pushing the Kyrie Irving redemption narrative, but Barkley is one of the few media members who has the courage to speak the truth about Irving. Barkley declared that many of Irving's problems were "self inflicted," noting specifically, "You can't say antisemitic stuff." Barkley concluded that Irving deserved both the criticism he received and the suspension handed down by the Brooklyn Nets in 2022 in response to Irving's unrepentant antisemitism. It is very disappointing that Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal, and Kenny Smith--who rightly do not hesitate to speak out about a host of social issues--remained silent about Irving's antisemitism, particularly at a time when both antisemitic vitriol and antisemitic violence are at unprecedented levels. In their initial response to Irving's unrepentant antisemitism, Johnson and the TNT studio crew did better, with the exception of Smith, who has consistently been off target about this issue.
Some points that I made in my November 4, 2022 article about Irving being suspended are worth repeating and emphasizing:
I know better than to try to persuade people who are willfully blind to the truth, but when thinking about who has power, what are the limits of free speech, and what is the nature of objective historical truth, it is interesting to keep in mind a few facts that I have mentioned in my previous articles about Irving:
1) Irving has more social media followers than the Jewish population of the world. Irving has over 20 million followers, while there are fewer than 15 million Jews in a world that has a population of nearly 8 billion people. When Irving boasts that he has an "army" supporting him, that is not an exaggeration. He is far from powerless both in terms of his personal, generational wealth, and in terms of the influence that he wields. If each of his followers spreads his messages to just five more people, Irving potentially reaches 100 million people every time he makes a social media post.
The Jewish people are so powerful that less than 80 years ago a third of their population was massacred in Europe while the Jewish people were unable to get immigration quotas lifted in any major Western country, including America.
2) No one has challenged Irving's free speech right to post whatever he wants to post. The First Amendment protects against government restriction of a citizen's free speech rights--but just like Irving has a right to say what he wants to say, other people have a right to respond to him, to question him, and to decide to not employ him or do business with him.
3) I have seen some people assert that the film that Irving promoted speaks the truth, and I have seen other people say some version of "everyone has a right to speak his truth."
Regarding the first sentiment, the movie that Irving promoted asserts that the Holocaust never happened, that Jews controlled the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and that Jews worship Satan. Those statements are all demonstrably false. This would be equivalent to a white supremacist stating that slavery never happened, that Black people are responsible for harming white people on a massive scale, and that Black people worship Satan. If you support Irving's promotion of antisemitic falsehoods, then you have no standing to challenge white supremacists who state that they are not attacking Black people but rather defending white people, and you definitely need to stop talking about so-called "micro-aggressions." To be clear, I find both white supremacy and Holocaust denial to be offensive; I condemn both. I just don't want to hear about "micro-aggressions" from people who endorse "macro-aggressions" that contradict historical truth and contribute to a climate in which antisemitic violence is soaring to unprecedented levels.
Regarding the second sentiment, this notion that there is not an objective truth but that each person has his or her own "truth" is precisely what George Orwell warned about in his classic dystopian novel 1984. If words lose their objective meaning and if history can be whatever each person believes it to be then we have no shared past and no shared future because there are no longer standards for what is right, what is wrong, what is true, and what is false. There are far too many people in our society who would love to take our educational system in that direction. The Soviet Union tried it, China is doing it now, Cuba is doing it now, and we have seen--without fail--that every nation that goes down this path ends up persecuting its own people and terrorizing its neighbors.
To anyone who suggests that the above commentary does not belong in a game recap, my response is that Irving's on court revival and his off court issues are two separate matters, but too many people are acting as if Irving's willingness to be a better teammate has some connection with the abhorrent views that he promoted and refused to disavow--and as long as that confusion is being propagated and as long as even otherwise standup people like Ernie Johnson are silent I will speak loudly to confront the confusion and the silence.
It is demonstrably true that Irving had a negative impact on team chemistry with multiple teams prior to being acquired by Dallas last season. He has not been in Dallas very long, but up to this point it appears like he has become a better teammate and--for the first time in his career--is demonstrating leadership qualities. Good for him as a basketball player--but what Irving says, does, and stands for away from the basketball court is far more important, and I will conclude by repeating the key point that I made two years ago when Irving promoted antisemitic tropes, and that I repeated in this article, because the truth about this simply cannot be stated too many times:
If you support Irving's promotion of antisemitic falsehoods, then you have no standing to challenge white supremacists who state that they are not attacking Black people but rather defending white people, and you definitely need to stop talking about so-called "micro-aggressions."
During yesterday's pregame show, Kenny Smith made the bizarre statement that he urged Stephen A. Smith to stop criticizing Irving because they are all from the same neighborhood. Would Smith apply that same reasoning to preclude white people from criticizing racists who come from their neighborhoods? The normalization of antisemitism is frightening, and portends doom for our society, because any society that targets the weakest groups has lost its moral bearings.
Labels: Anthony Edwards, Charles Barkley, Dallas Mavericks, Ernie Johnson, Karl-Anthony Towns, Kenny Smith, Luka Doncic, Minnesota Timberwolves, Rudy Gobert, Shaquille O'Neal
posted by David Friedman @ 12:40 PM
10 Comments:
Actually - Kyrie Irving playing good basketball in 2024 means everything he said/did in the past was correct. He deserves an apology! \sarcasm\
It's unfortunate that the behavior you highlighted has been completely swept under the rug (even more so during a time where his comments should be as relevant as ever). There's this emerging narrative that somehow his career has been disrespected, which is ridiculous. Everyone is aware that he's an extremely talented player, but this is probably his first impressive playoff showing since the 2016 Finals. There has been no flakier, more problematic individual in the NBA over the last decade.
I hope the Wolves can shock the world and come back on them, but at the very least I'd like to think Boston is going to get the job done.
Joel:
No serious basketball commentator has ever disrespected Irving's basketball skills. If anything, I would argue that he receives even more praise than he deserves, but there is no doubt that he is a great player who already proved even before this season that he can be a very effective second option on a championship team.
The depth of Irving's ignorance about matters outside of basketball is stunning and has not been discussed nearly enough. He and his supporters present him as some kind of Duke-educated intellectual, but whenever he opens his mouth about subjects outside of basketball he betrays his ignorance. For example, this season he wore a kaffiyeh to official NBA press conferences. Regardless of what that Muslim garb may have represented before, what it indisputably represents now is terrorism against Israel specifically and the Jewish people in general.
Has Irving looked at a map of North Africa? Does he know who colonized that area, killing, driving out, and enslaving the Black Africans who lived there? Hint--it was not white people, and it sure was not Jewish people.
The shape of the kaffiyeh is a visual representation of the now familiar chant "From the River to the Sea," which is a call for genocide against Jews and the replacement of Israel with an Arab/Islamic terror state whose borders would extend from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
That is what Irving supports, based on the antisemitic film he promoted, the various comments that he has made, and the garb that he proudly wears.
Forget for a moment the genocide of millions of Jews that Irving is supporting, and try to figure out how what he is advocating would in any way help the underprivileged Black people and Native Americans who he solemnly claims to be trying to uplift. If Hamas repeats October 7, 2023 "again and again and again"--as Hamas has vowed to do--will that create jobs for Black people? Will that improve the lives of Black people?
What Irving supports is not only vile, it is foolish. Irving is pledging allegiance to the very people who killed, dispersed, and enslaved the Black Africans whose heritage and history he claims to represent. If he came to NBA press conferences wearing KKK robes he would not be any more foolish than he is now.
Arab/Islamic dictators and terrorist leaders must laugh hysterically every time someone like Irving or Farrakhan spews antisemitic conspiracies.
It would be bad enough if Irving were just someone's delusional uncle spewing wild ideas at the family cookout, because that is how bigotry is spread from generation to generation--but Irving is a person with generational wealth and tens of millions of social media followers who worship him not just as a talented basketball player but as someone who (according to them) fearlessly tells the truth.
Irving proudly revels in his ignorance. I can't picture him ever changing--but Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, and Shaquille O'Neal missed a major opportunity to use their voices and their platforms to counteract Irving's hate-filled ignorance.
David,
I should make clear that I 100% stand with Israel/the Jewish community, as I think most people with common sense do. Admittedly, I don't follow world events that closely, but your writings on the conflict have been very helpful towards my understanding of the situation.
With regards to Kyrie specifically, I can say that I dislike his YouTube free thinker/conspiracy theorist persona. There is an incredible amount of narcissism behind it. Certain individuals distance themselves from common sense because it revolts them that the "sheep" practice it.
Unfortunately, a lot of people fall victim to the cult-of-personality trap. A lot of people fall victim to low media literacy. A lot of people lack general critical thinking skills - even top chess players! (look at all the baseless cheating claims).
I agree that it is disappointing to see TNT miss that chance, even after Barkley brought it up. I hope more people in the national media address it in the coming weeks, but I'm pretty skeptical.
Joel:
You nailed it: Irving displays a lot of arrogance and narcissism, acting as if he knows more than most people when in fact he is demonstrably uninformed about many of the non-basketball topics that he speaks about--and before anyone even tries to assert this, I am most assuredly not saying "shut up and dribble" or anything of that sort; I am saying, "Educate yourself before you speak to a large audience, particularly when speaking about important issues."
This is part of the problem when society worships athletes, celebrities, musicians. Appreciate them for their craft but outside of that, their opinions on other topics must be disregarded. Watching Kyrie play is awesome, but off the court, anything these guys say must be ignored.
JT:
Athletes, celebrities, and musicians have a right to speak, but they have a heightened responsibility to become well-informed before they speak.
They do not. All the responsibility is on the part of the consumer, to watch what they listen to. The main problem is the fact that so many are listening to what athletes say on other topics in the first place.
JT:
Anyone who has a large platform and the ability to reach/influence many people also has a heightened responsibility to become well-informed before speaking, particularly on issues that can have life or death consequences. Irving promoted a film that tells lies about Jews and thus incites violence against Jews at a time when antisemitic vitriol and antisemitic violence are surging. What he did is very irresponsible, and the NBA did not rise to the moment in reaction to what he did.
The responsibility is again, on the part of the consumer for verifying, and questioning, the information they take in. In the great age of "misinformation", this should be standard, and we all have a choice. Absolving people of their choice and responsibility in what they consume is part of the reason why society is where it is. Re, the film, he was suspended for that, for awhile by the nets. Were you looking for a harsher punishment? Regardless, that's not the point of what I'm saying. The point is, society in general needs to stop lionizing these people's opinions. They are not very smart or informed, as a whole.
JT:
I am not "absolving" anyone of the responsibility to be informed, nor am I denying the responsibility of the consumer--and of all people--to properly vet information, but that does not relieve a public figure like Irving of his responsibility to be informed about what he shares with his millions of followers. The two concepts are not mutually exclusive: the consumer has a responsibility, and the public figure has a responsibility.
Regarding discipline, yes I think that the NBA should have sent a stronger message to Irving not just about the film but also about the political statements that he is making with his wardrobe choices. Just imagine a player showing up at an official NBA press conference wearing a KKK hood. Do you believe that would be considered freedom of expression, and that no media member would have any questions or comments? Irving is wearing symbols advocating the destruction of Israel, and the harming of the Jewish people.
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