20 Second Timeout is the place to find the best analysis and commentary about the NBA.
Saturday, March 07, 2026
Russell Westbrook Exposes the Low Barriers to Entry for Media Members
If you believe the headlines--and I would caution against believing any headline from any source--Russell Westbrook "goes off," "blasts" the media in an "agitated" way, makes "fiery" comments, and "fires back" at media members. After Westbrook's Sacramento Kings lost 133-123 to the New Orleans Pelicans on Thursday night, Westbrook spoke to the assembled media for a little more than six minutes. You can judge for yourself the tone and tenor of Westbrook's comments by watching this video (and if the video does not play on your device or if the video is subsequently taken down, you can find another
link to the video without much difficulty):
Note that Westbrook did not raise his voice, did not use profanity, and did not personally insult anyone. He asserted that media members who cover the Kings make unfounded statements about him, his teammates, and his team without proper "context," and he challenged specific media members to repeat those unfounded statements to his face. One of the media members singled out by Westbrook is Matt George, who does a Kings podcast. George declined to address Westbrook's concerns at the press conference, and then after the press conference he did a podcast about the situation followed by making the rounds at various media outlets to defend himself and repeat his hope that Westbrook is not on the team next season. There are many words to describe a man who declines to address another man face to face only to speak about him behind his back, but I'll stick with a family-friendly word: coward.
It is not Westbrook's fault that the Kings are having a horrible season. He is playing hard, and he is playing well. The Kings have been a dysfunctional organization for quite some time.
Mike Brown won the Coach of the Year award in 2023, and then the Kings fired him in 2024 to
hire Doug Christie, who had no prior head coaching experience at any
level and who is coaching the Kings about as well as one would expect
from someone who has no prior head coaching experience.
Westbrook is an all-time great being covered by hacks who accuse him of padding his stats by "stealing" rebounds, a false notion that is unsupported by the numbers. Justin Termine admits that he is "an entertainer, not a journalist,"
and after listening to him I agree that he is not a journalist but I question how entertaining he is. Termine recently asserted that
Westbrook has spent his career accumulating individual statistics that
do not correlate with team success. Termine calls himself a basketball
historian, but he apparently does not realize how rare it is for a team to reach the Western Conference Finals four times,
as the Oklahoma City Thunder did (2011, 2012, 2014, 2016) with Kevin
Durant and Westbrook leading the way. Westbrook was an All-NBA Team
member in three of those four seasons, and would have made it in all
four had he not been limited to 46 games in the 2014 season (he averaged
26.7 ppg, 8.1 apg, and 7.3 rpg during that playoff run to reaffirm his
All-NBA status).
A major cause of the low quality of media coverage is the low barrier to entry for the profession, a topic that I have mentioned before but is worth discussing in greater depth. I speak from personal experience because I spent seven years as a credentialed reporter in NBA media rooms, so I
saw firsthand how news is gathered, how narratives are manufactured, and
how often incompetent media members ask ridiculous questions. Before I became a credentialed reporter, I devoted myself to learning the NBA game, learning pro basketball history, and honing my writing skills, but I found out--to my horror--that obtaining credentials and getting writing assignments has much less to do with what you know than who you know. This is in marked contrasted to other professions and endeavors. For example, in the 1990s, I was an ACE-certified personal trainer, in 1995 I earned the U.S. Chess Federation's Expert title, and in 2016 I became an actively licensed attorney.
To become a certified personal trainer, you must pass a certification exam.
To become a chess Expert (top 3% of all chess players in the United States), it is necessary to earn 2000 rating points in officially sanctioned tournaments.
To become an actively licensed attorney, you must score high enough on the LSAT to be admitted to law school, you must graduate law school, and you must pass the bar exam. To maintain actively licensed status, you must earn continuing education credits.
You cannot become a certified personal trainer, a chess Expert, or an
attorney based on your connections; to achieve each of those status
levels, you must meet objective standards.
In contrast, anyone who knows the right person can show up at a sports event as a credentialed reporter. There is no education requirement and no competency requirement. Reread those two sentences, and then you will understand why the quality of media coverage is generally low--and I am not just speaking about NBA media coverage: the Wall Street Journal's chess coverage is embarrassingly bad, the general coverage of the World Chess Championship is pathetic, and political coverage is riddled with agenda-driven bias and misinformation.
The media members who hate Westbrook and slander Westbrook do so not only because they are incompetent but because they are outraged that he is not afraid to expose them as unqualified hacks. Westbrook is not feuding with Hubie Brown or Tim Legler or Doris Burke or any competent NBA commentator; he is feuding with people who are unqualified to do their jobs. There is a major
difference between objectively being one of the greatest basketball
players of all-time versus having a media platform because you know a
guy who knows a guy; deep down, these media members know their real
value and their real level, and they resent being reminded of those
truths.
Russell Westbrook is a real man who works hard every day without making excuses. He is loyal to his team and to his teammates, even when that loyalty is not returned. He is not afraid to call out anyone's nonsense. There is a cliche suggesting that one should never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel (or, in today's parlance, have unlimited access to multimedia platforms)--but Westbrook does not think about his protecting his image or trying to be popular: he protects his teammates, and he challenges media members who ask dumb questions and who make unfounded assertions.
Westbrook deserves better media coverage than he receives--and, as the listening and viewing public, we deserve better media coverage than the slop that is provided to us.
Doug Moe: ABA Champion, Three-Time ABA All-Star, and Successful NBA Coach
Doug Moe, who won an ABA championship and earned three ABA All-Star selections before becoming a successful NBA coach, passed away today at the age of 87. Born and raised in Brooklyn, Moe rose to prominence as a two-time All-America selection at the University of North Carolina, where he formed an enduring friendship with his teammate Larry Brown, who became a three-time ABA All-Star before having a Hall of Fame coaching career. Moe's college career ended after he received $75 to fly to a meeting with point shavers, even though he did not participate in the point shaving scheme.
Moe played basketball in the Italian League before joining Brown with the New Orleans Buccaneers in the ABA's first season, 1967-68. Moe led the Buccaneers in scoring (24.2 ppg, second in the league) and Brown led the league in assists (6.5 apg) as both players made the All-Star team. The Buccaneers finished first in the Western Division with a 48-30 record and they advanced to the ABA Finals, where they lost in seven games to the Pittsburgh Pipers, who were led by the incomparable Connie Hawkins. Moe finished second to Hawkins in the regular season MVP voting.
In the summer of 1968, the Buccaneers traded Brown and Moe to the Oakland Oaks for Ronald Franz, Steve Jones, and Barry Leibowitz. Moe ranked third on the Oaks in scoring (19.0 ppg) during the regular season, trailing league scoring champion Rick Barry (who averaged 34.0 ppg but only played in 35 games) and Warren Jabali (21.5 ppg). Brown led the league in assists again (7.1 apg), and Barry, Moe, and Brown all made the All-Star team while Jabali won the Rookie of the Year award. Jabali won the Playoff MVP as the Oaks routed the Indiana Pacers 4-1 in the ABA Finals. Moe ranked third on the team in playoff scoring (19.8 ppg).
After the 1969 season, the Oaks sent Moe to the Carolina Cougars as part of a three team trade. Moe averaged 17.3 ppg for the 42-42 Cougars, earning his third straight All-Star selection. Prior to the 1970-71 season, the Cougars shipped Moe to the Washington Capitols for Gary Bradds and Ira Harge. This reunited Moe with Brown. The Capitols moved to Virginia and became the Squires. Moe's 32 year old knees were wearing down by this point, but he still averaged 13.0 ppg in 78 games as the Squires went 55-29 to finish first in the Eastern Division before bowing 4-2 to the Kentucky Colonels in the Eastern Division Finals.
Brown and Moe both retired after the 1971-72 season. Brown became Carolina's head coach, and he hired Moe to be his assistant coach. Moe served under Brown for two years in Carolina, and then Moe served under Brown for two years in Denver before being hired to be San Antonio's coach after the 1976 ABA-NBA merger. Moe led the Spurs to Central Division titles in 1978 and 1979. The Spurs lost 4-3 to the Washington Bullets in the 1979 Eastern Conference Finals. The Spurs fired Moe after starting 33-33 in the 1979-80 season.
Moe served as Donnie Walsh's assistant coach in Denver for the 1980-81 season, but then took the helm after the Nuggets started 11-20. They went 26-25 the rest of the way under Moe. Moe's Nuggets led the NBA in scoring for five straight seasons, and his
1981-82 squad still holds the NBA's single season scoring record (126.5 ppg). Moe led the Nuggets to a winning record in seven of his nine full seasons with the team, he guided them to the 1985 Western Conference Finals, and he earned NBA Coach of the Year honors in 1988 after leading the Nuggets to a 54-28 record, which at that time was the team's highest single season win total since joining the NBA. George Gervin won three of his four scoring titles while playing for Moe's Spurs, and Alex English won the 1983 scoring title while playing for Moe's Nuggets. Moe went 19-37 as Philadelphia's coach in the 1992-93 season before the team fired him. Moe rejoined the Nuggets as a coaching consultant in 2002, and he worked as an on the bench assistant coach for the Nuggets from 2005-08 under George Karl. After Moe passed away, Karl tweeted that Moe was his "big brother."
In 1997, Moe was one of 30 players selected to the ABA All-Time Team, and in 2018 he received the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement award, which has been presented annually since 2009 by the National Basketball Coaches Association (NBCA). Moe was always quick with a quip or a soundbite, and he called everyone--including himself--a "stiff." He was a bit of a showman on the sidelines, and his teams were high scoring and fun to watch, but they also won a lot of games: Moe ranks 26th in NBA history with 632 regular season coaching wins.
Anyone who was associated with the ABA in any capacity joined a fraternity that transcends anything else that the person did during his life, and that feeling was palpable when I covered the ABA Ol' School Reunion in Denver in 2005. The ABA not only had all-time great players who are household names--including Erving, Gervin, and Moses Malone--but it also had some great players whose names and accomplishments are not brought up as much as they should be. One such great player is James Silas. Moe shared with me his memories of coaching against prime James Silas and then coaching Silas after Silas injured his knee: "My recollections of when he was really great are from before he got
hurt, when he was playing against us. He was absolutely the best—the
ultimate guy at the end of the game. He was just terrific.
Unfortunately, he hurt his knee and was never quite the same—still a
great player, but there is no telling how great he would have been had
he not gotten hurt. People really didn't get to know the real Silas in
the NBA. That is a shame. He really was 'Captain Late' and he was the
best."
Doug Moe was one of the original ABA players, and he is eternally a part of that fraternity and that legacy.
NBA Wags a Stern Finger at Draymond Green for Confronting a Fan During a Game
The NBA has reportedly issued a "warning" to Draymond Green after Green went chest to chest with a courtside fan in New Orleans on Sunday as Green's Golden State Warriors defeated the New Orleans Pelicans, 124-106. The fan had been chanting "Angel Reese" at Green after Green missed several shots. Reese is a WNBA player who is notorious for seemingly padding her rebound totals by collecting her own missed shots. Green finished with eight points on 3-13 field goal shooting, 10 rebounds (including four offensive rebounds), six assists, and five turnovers; in the first quarter, Green scored 0 points on 0-7 field goal shooting, and he had four offensive rebounds (all of which were from his own missed layups or attempted tip in shots). The fan's chanting may have been annoying to Green, but it was not vulgar, and it pertained to the action on the court, as opposed to being a random or offensive insult. Fans have a right to cheer or boo, and to heckle as long as the heckling is not vulgar/offensive and not interfering with other fans being able to watch the game.
It is not clear what Green thought that he could accomplish by approaching the fan, who did not back away and did not seem intimidated by Green; it is also not clear what the NBA thinks that it can accomplish by issuing an unofficial warning to Green, who has a long history of violent misconduct despite being fined and suspended multiple times; if forcing Green to miss games and lose money did not straighten him out, a verbal warning is unlikely to have much impact.
Green specializes in attacking players who are (1) not standing up or are in an otherwise compromised position and (2) are either smaller than he is or are clearly not going to fight back. Green had a chance to confront Ron Artest/Metta World Peace several years ago and somehow managed to not attempt a chokehold, groin kick, or punch--because Green is a bully who knows better than to pick a fight with someone who is crazier or tougher than he is. There may not be that many players left in the NBA who are willing to fight at the cost of being fined/suspended, but Green knows very well who they are and he gives them a wide berth. However, people like Green who think that they know who to mess with only have to make one mistake to end up in a precarious situation in which either they get injured or they injure someone else--and Green is fortunate that the players he has struck, kicked, and choked did not end up with serious injuries. What if Poole had suffered brain damage or Gobert had suffered a broken neck? There are many people in prison because the people who they hit in the face or who they choked suffered serious or even fatal injuries.
Green is the poster child for athletes who are paid far more than they
could ever earn doing anything else, and who have developed a sense of
entitlement without a corresponding sense of responsibility regarding
their conduct. If Green did not have the NBA to protect him, there is a
strong possibility that he would be in jail--or dead--as a consequence
of his inability to control his anger. Sadly, neither of those
possibilities can be ruled out if he does not seek help. Gobert referred
to Green as a "clown" and I can understand why he feels that way, but
this is no laughing matter: Green needs help both to protect others and
to protect himself, because his behavior goes well beyond just being a
physical player. In the sense that Green is overrated, Gobert is
correct: without the injured Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson around to
carry the load, the Warriors went 15-50 in 2019-20 as Green averaged 8.0
ppg on .389 field goal shooting while looking very much like a role
player and very little like the Hall of Famer he is purported to be.
Green seems to get very angry when his limitations as a player are
pointed out, but that does not change the reality that he is a limited
player whose specific talents can be helpful for a team already stacked
with talent but don't make much impact on winning otherwise.
If the NBA keeps protecting Green from the natural consequences of his
actions, Green is going to eventually do something so egregious that the
NBA will no longer be able to protect him because the judicial system
will be compelled to intervene. Draymond Green is a 6-6, 230 walking
time bomb that is going to explode in the league's face if Commissioner
Silver does not take strong action--and if time bomb Green explodes, the
league is not going to be able to successfully argue in court that the
explosion was not foreseeable given Green's track record of violent
behavior.
Green has some basketball skills, but he is not as good as he thinks he is. Green should not be compared to Hall of Famers Dennis Rodman or Ben Wallace. Rodman won seven straight rebounding titles, and would have been a dominant rebounder regardless of who his teammates were. Wallace won two rebounding titles and one shot blocking title, and he ranked in the top 10 in the league in those categories seven times each overall. Neither Rodman nor Wallace could have been the best player on a championship team, but both were statistically dominant players. In contrast, Green has only led the NBA in a statistical category once (steals per game in 2016-17), he has never ranked in the top ten in rebounds per game or blocked shots per game, and he is heavily dependent on being surrounded by great players who do most of the work, as I noted last year when I assessed Green's legacy:
Green is going to ride his triple single career averages (8.7 ppg, 7.0
rpg, 5.6 apg) all the way to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of
Fame because he was lucky enough to play alongside Kevin Durant, Stephen
Curry, Klay Thompson, and Andre Iguodala. Is "lucky" a fair adjective?
What would Green's career have looked like without those guys? Glad you
asked: in the 2019-20 season, Iguodala and Durant were gone (Green
played a role in chasing Durant away, but that is another story),
Thompson missed the whole season due to injury, and Curry played in just
five games due to injury. Green showed the world who he really is as a
player, averaging 8.0 ppg on .389 field goal shooting along with 6.2 rpg
and 6.2 apg for a 15-50 team. So, yes, "lucky" seems about right.
Green will be 36 years old soon, and his pedestrian numbers so far this season (7.9 ppg on .391 field goal shooting, 5.8 rpg) indicate that his playing days will be over soon. Green's retirement will be a mixed blessing: the good news is that we will no longer have to watch him deliver cheap shots to opposing players and we will no longer have to listen to his self-serving excuses for his lack of emotional self-control; the bad news is that he likely will be paid millions of dollars per year to be a commentator for one of the NBA's media partners, turning that media partner's pregame show into a mess almost as unwatchable as any pregame show featuring "Screamin' A" Smith. Green is supposed to have a high basketball IQ, but that has not been evident thus far when he has been a TV commentator; to cite just one example, when he participated in TNT's coverage of the 2024 Western Conference Finals he was more interested in bashing Gobert than in providing intelligent analysis, as I pointed out in my game two recap:
An intelligent, unbiased commentator would talk about the final
possession of the game when Dallas gave up an open three pointer to Naz
Reid even though Reid was the hottest three point shooter in the game.
Reid's shot barely missed, but just as it could be argued that Minnesota
should not have given up a three pointer to Doncic with a two point
lead it could also be argued that Dallas should not have given up an
open shot to Reid, one of the few Minnesota players who shot well in
this game.
Instead, Green focused his attention on Gobert,
sounding like a little kid on the playground teasing another kid as
opposed to sounding like an intelligent, unbiased commentator analyzing
what happened. It is valid to question why Minnesota left Gobert in the
game for the last defensive possession instead of going small, switching
everything, and forcing Dallas to shoot a two point shot--but it is
silly to act as if Gobert is personally responsible for Doncic hitting
the kind of shot that he has hit many times before against many other
players.
Gobert has one of the best plus/minus numbers overall
during the 2024 playoffs, and the Timberwolves have outscored the
Mavericks during his minutes this series while being outscored when
Gobert is out of the game. I would not be surprised if "Screamin' A" Smith
acted as if an entire 48 minute NBA game can be boiled down to one
shot, but intelligent commentators understand that the last play is not
necessarily what decided the outcome. Here, the Timberwolves enjoyed a
16 point third quarter lead before their offense fell apart; are we
supposed to pretend like all of those empty offensive possessions had
nothing to do with the final result?
Green is either
an idiot or a buffoon: he either does not know what he is talking about,
or he does not care how foolish he sounds. It is interesting that Kenny
Smith was the only person on the TNT set who was willing to even
tentatively challenge Green's nonsense both before and after the game.
Smith noted that the Timberwolves have outscored the Mavericks during
Gobert's minutes, and Smith emphasized that Doncic could have made that
last shot over anyone, not just Gobert. Charles Barkley and Shaquille
O'Neal did not contradict Green, but they correctly focused on Towns'
shortcomings and they made the valid point that if the Timberwolves are
going to play big then their big men must play with force in the paint.
The Timberwolves' problem is that they are not attacking the paint
offensively--and that problem must be fixed by Edwards and Towns. The
problem is not drop coverage or Rudy Gobert or any other nonsense spewed
by Green. If Green keeps lying about Gobert it would be great if
someone had the guts to tell the truth about Green, and his triple
single exploits on .389 field goal shooting for the 15-50 Warriors
during the 2019-20 season when Green did not have Kevin Durant, Stephen
Curry, Klay Thompson, or Andre Iguodala to do the heavy lifting. I'll
double down on what I said before: Green will be inducted in the
Basketball Hall of Fame primarily because he was lucky enough to play alongside those four players.
It
is also worth mentioning that Green went 0-3 versus Minnesota this
season, and 1-2 last season (Golden State beat Minnesota once in 2022-23
when Green did not play, an example of addition by subtraction). If
Green is so smart, maybe he should use that big brain to figure out how
to do better than 1-5 versus the player and team that he keeps mocking.
The NBA and TNT should have been embarrassed to put Green on the air in the first place after his numerous violent incidents,
and they should be even more embarrassed by how he is doing his
part-time job. When David Stern was the NBA's Commissioner, he took the
consistent position that it was important to promote the game and uplift
the players. How does it promote the game to uplift a violent and petty
person like Green to a position of prominence so that Green can mock
the league's Defensive Player of the Year? If Gobert is as bad as Green
suggests, then either the league is trash, or the media members who do
the voting are idiots; neither scenario is a good look for the league.
The NBA under Commissioner Adam Silver has coddled Green for too long, and no one should be surprised when Green does something so egregious that the NBA will not be able to protect Green from legal consequences. What if Green had hit the New Orleans fan like he hit Poole? Green would be in jail, and he, the Warriors, and the NBA would likely be facing a multi-million dollar lawsuit. It is easy to retort that Green did not hit the fan because Green knows what boundaries he cannot cross, but Green has crossed multiple boundaries already, so relying on him to exercise good judgment is quite a gamble, even for a league that does not mind being in bed with legalized gambling operations.
Chauncey Billups, Damon Jones, and Terry Rozier Arrested as Part of a Wide-Ranging, Two-Pronged Federal Illegal Gambling Investigation
Three people with NBA connections--Hall of Fame player/Portland coach Chauncey Billups, former player Damon Jones, and current player Terry Rozier--have been arrested by the FBI in connection with a widespread, years-long, two-pronged probe into illegal gambling that allegedly involved multiple Mafia families, including Bonanno, Gambino, Genovese, and Lucchese. The NBA placed Billups and Rozier on leave. Tiago Splitter will be Portland's coach until further notice. Billups, Jones, Rozier, and the other people who have been arrested and charged are innocent until proven guilty, but it is important to understand what is being alleged and the wider implications if the allegations are true.
The second prong of the allegations is that the Mafia paid Jones and Rozier to provide insider information for use on wagering. The second prong is connected with the Jontay Porter matter. The NBA banned Jontay Porter for life in 2024 after he pleaded guilty to prematurely leaving two NBA games so that "under" prop bets would win. Porter is the first NBA player banned for violating gambling rules since Jack Molinas, who the NBA banned for his role in the infamous point shaving scandal that almost destroyed college basketball. Molinas was selected to play in the 1954 NBA All-Star Game, but was replaced by Andy Phillip and Molinas never played again in the NBA.
...the advent of widespread, legalized betting on NBA games opens up the
potential for a large number of problems; as the ESPN writer noted,
citing some research done on this issue, the more money that is added to
this situation the greater the likelihood for wrongdoing and scandal.
Just look at the recent Anthony Davis melodrama; is he going to play, is
he not going to play, is he going to play hard, is the team going to
play him in the fourth quarter--there are numerous ways for one or more
unscrupulous parties to manipulate the point spreads for New Orleans'
Pelicans' games. Then you have the issue of rest (or "load management,"
the new catchphrase for sitting out otherwise healthy players), not to
mention the issue of tanking. What if someone is able to get the inside
scoop about which stars are going to rest for which games, or which
teams decided to tank 10 games before the general public could tell that
those teams are tanking? The NBA's recent embrace of widespread
legalized gambling is fraught with peril.
Gambling should be made difficult for
the average man. It should be something he budgets to do once or twice a
year. Vegas was best when it was hardest to reach.
You
see, it isn't the two or three percent, the house edge, that beats you.
Otherwise, people would only lose two or three percent, and so what?
It's the psychology. A guy goes to a casino. He wins $500, he's
ecstatic. He goes home, buys his wife a present, springs for a night
out. Fine. Now he goes back. This time he loses $500. O.K., altogether
he's even. But does he quit $500 down the way he did $500 up? No. He
takes another $500 out of the bank. And now he's pressing, so he blows
that and borrows $500. Now he's out $1,500, and this is a guy who only
makes 20 to 25 grand a year. He goes home, gets into his wife's checking
account.
This is what happens when gambling is too accessible.
Everybody gets hurt but the casino. The guy can't buy the new summer
suit or the new shoes for his wife. He lets the tune-up go. The stores
are hurt, the restaurant, the gas station. This is the kind of stuff
you'll start to see soon at Atlantic City.
And if they legalized
sports betting, the little guy would be just as dead. We'd find a way
to beat you. Right now, if we—me, anybody—tried to bet more than $50,000
on any game, we'd have a hard time. And when you only got $50 riding,
you can't pay enough to fix a game. Put a pencil to it. But with
legalized gambling, there'd be so much money bet you could get down a
million or more on one game. So now it's worth it to pay for a fix,
isn't it? And that's easy. You don't need the quarterback. Just gimme
the center. Gimme the referee. All I'd need is one offside at the right
time. You don't even need to get a guy to throw it for you. Suppose we
just pay a big star $50,000 to stay home with the flu? Nobody ever
thought of that before, did they?
I don't buy the argument that behavior and morality cannot be legislated and that people simply have to be responsible for their decisions; gambling has been proven to be addictive, so making an addictive activity easily accessible to the majority of the population will inevitably lead not only to scandals but also to a public health crisis, even if the ramifications of that public health crisis are not immediately apparent. A lot of people are losing a lot of money that they cannot afford to lose and that they would not be losing if gambling were not so widely accessible, and this is going to destroy families. Ultimately, we will all pay for this looming public health crisis, both financially and emotionally as the damage ripples throughout society.
I also don't buy the argument that widespread legalized gambling makes gambling easier to monitor and regulate; in contrast, and as Snyder noted, widespread legalized gambling incentivizes cheating while also making cheating harder to detect. In addition to a public health crisis compounded by honest gamblers losing money because of point shaving and other shenanigans, we have already seen and heard about threats made against athletes by gamblers who lost money because of how well (or how poorly) athletes performed. Will it take someone injuring or killing an athlete over a wager for society to understand the dangers?
I am not suggesting that all wagering should be banned, but I think that wagering should be much more restricted than it is, and I think that sports leagues and their media partners should not be in the business of promoting wagering. Of course, the reforms that I am proposing are unlikely to happen because the leagues and their media partners are making a lot of money off of this misery and they will not voluntarily give up that money.
Oklahoma City Thunder Outlast Houston Rockets 125-124 in Opening Night Double Overtime Thriller
Hearing John Tesh's "Roundball Rock" as the NBA returned to NBC for the first time since 2002 brought back a flood of nostalgic memories, foremost among them the Chicago Bulls' twin three-peats (1991-93, 1996-98) culminating in the legendary "Last Dance" 1998 championship season. There has been a lot of hype about the revival of the NBA on NBC and, at least on Opening Night, the game lived up to the hype as the 2025 NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Houston Rockets 125-124 in a double overtime battle featuring plenty of drama and plot twists. If this was a Western Conference Finals preview--and it is way too soon to say that it was--then we are in for a treat next May.
Before the game began, the Thunder received their championship rings and
raised the first championship banner in Oklahoma City history. The
Thunder's rings feature a unique ring within a ring design; championship
rings have become so big and gaudy that they are not practical to wear,
but each of the Thunder's championship rings contain a smaller ring
inside that is personalized for each player and small enough to be worn
comfortably.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the reigning Finals MVP, regular season MVP, and scoring champion, overcame a slow start to lead the Thunder with 35 points while also grabbing five rebounds, and tying three teammates with a team-high five assists. Chet Holmgren added 28 points and seven rebounds. The
Thunder were without the services of 2025 All-NBA Third Team selection
Jaylen Williams, who is recovering from offseason surgery on his right
(shooting) wrist, but they received an unexpected boost off of the bench as Ajay Mitchell poured in 16 points in just 15 minutes. Cason Wallace contributed 14 points, seven rebounds, and five assists. Isaiah Hartenstein only scored six points, but he had a team-high nine rebounds and five assists. Fan favorite Lu Dort was the other Thunder player with five assists, and he played 45 minutes, second most for the Thunder behind Gilgeous-Alexander's 47.
Alperun Sengun scored a game-high 39 points, snared 11 rebounds, and dished for a game-high seven assists. He often overpowered Alex Caruso in the post, and Caruso--a key defensive player for the Thunder--finished with a game-worst -15 plus/minus number. Kevin Durant had 23 points and nine rebounds in his Houston debut, and he was booed lustily by an Oklahoma City crowd that has not forgiven him for fleeing a championship contending team to join the Golden State Warriors in 2016. Amen Thompson had 18 points, five assists, and four turnovers before leaving the game with a leg injury in the first overtime. He had a team-worst -11 plus/minus number as the starting point guard in place of the injured Fred VanVleet. Thompson is bigger, faster, and more athletic than VanVleet but also not as savvy in terms of running a team and controlling pace.
The Rockets trotted out the tallest starting lineup since the NBA first tracked
starting lineups in the 1970-71 season: Amen Thompson (6-7), Kevin
Durant (6-11), Jabari Smith, Jr. (6-11), Alperen Sengun (6-11), and
Steven Adams (6-11). Adams, a former Thunder player who the fans cheered when the
starting lineups were announced, had a game-high 13 rebounds as the
Rockets bludgeoned the Thunder 51-39 on the glass. The modern NBA is supposedly all about playing small, pace and space, and jacking up three pointers, but the Rockets nearly beat last year's champions with a big team despite shooting just 11-39 (.282) from three point range. Losing the turnover battle 21-11 nullified Houston's rebounding advantage, and if the Rockets can clean that up then their defense and rebounding will make them very difficult to beat and very uncomfortable to play against. The Thunder uncharacteristically had five turnovers in the first quarter after leading the league in fewest turnovers per game (11.7) and most turnovers forced per game (17.0) last season, but in the final 46 minutes the Thunder only had six turnovers.
In four full quarters and two overtimes, neither team outscored the other by more than four points in a quarter or an overtime. The Rockets enjoyed a 57-51 halftime lead, using a balanced attack featuring three double figure scorers. Gilgeous-Alexander had just five first half points on 2-5 field goal shooting. NBC's Jamal Crawford made an interesting point near the end of the first
half, stating that the Thunder are built for Gilgeous-Alexander to be
the leading scorer and look out of sorts when he is not. I have often
made a similar point about elite scorers in general, noting that they
have a responsibility to score a lot; their high volume shooting is not
selfish, but is necessary for their teams to be successful.
This is not fun for me. I don't like
being up here for the Hall of Fame because at that time your basketball
career is completely over. I was hoping this day would be 20 more years,
or actually go in when I'm dead and gone. Because now, all along...you
always [could] put shorts on and go out and play. Now, when you get into
the Hall of Fame, what else is there to do? This is kind of a love-hate
thing for me--great accomplishment, great respect that everybody's
paying, but for me, I always want to be able to have you thinking that I
can always go back and play the game of basketball, put my shorts on.
As long as you have that thought, you never know what can happen...Am I?
No. But I'd like for you to think that way. Hall of Fame, to me, is
like, 'OK, it's over and done with, it's pretty much done, you can't
ever put a uniform back on.' It's totally the end of your basketball
career. But it's a great accomplishment. I don't walk away from it. But I
never envisioned myself really wanting to be up here so quickly. I
wanted it to be when I'm 70 years old, 80 years old. I'm 45 and I still
think I can play. You guys don't know if I can or can't but at least
I've got you thinking that way.
Jordan told NBC's Mike Tirico that he agreed to be interviewed--NBC plans to show the interview in installments over the next several weeks in an obvious attempt to boost ratings--because he feels an obligation to give back to the game by providing his observations and wisdom about basketball and competition. Jordan made it very clear that he would much rather be playing than talking about playing, and he said that he misses the competition. More than 20 years after he retired, being a basketball player is still a core part of Jordan's identity. This should not surprise anyone who followed Jordan's career, or anyone who gets an adrenaline boost not just from competing but from winning; if you are that kind of person, it is difficult to find anything to replace that feeling. That is what is so fascinating about the direction that Kobe Bryant seemed to be taking as a retired player, because he appeared to find other ways to express himself beyond playing; it is a shame that Bryant's life (and the lives of all of the passengers in that doomed helicopter, including his daughter Gigi) was cut short before he could explore all of those other aspects of life.
Next week's installment of the Jordan interview will focus on his thoughts about load management and about why it was so important to him to play all 82 regular season games. I don't expect to be surprised by Jordan's thoughts on this topic, but I hope that after Jordan explains why playing every game is important that today's players take his approach to heart.
The Rockets built a 63-51 lead on Thompson's layup at the 10:13 mark of the third quarter, but by the end of that quarter the Thunder had trimmed the margin to four (79-75), setting up a competitive fourth quarter during which neither team led by more than six points. Durant split a pair of free throws with 9.5 seconds remaining in regulation to put the Rockets up 104-102, leaving the door open for the Thunder to tie or even win. Gilgeous-Alexander, the master of the midrange game that is despised by many "stat gurus" but essential for winning in the playoffs, drilled a pullup jumper to tie the score with 2.6 seconds left. The Rockets called timeout before inbounding the ball to Sengun, who missed a jumper as time expired.
The Thunder jumped out to a 110-104 lead in the first 1:24 of the first overtime, but the Rockets reeled them in and tied the score on Sengun's putback dunk with 8.8 seconds remaining. After Gilgeous-Alexander missed a jumper with 2.2 seconds left, Durant grabbed the rebound and clearly signaled for a timeout. The only problem was that Houston did not have any more timeouts. Had the officials recognized Durant's request with time left on the clock then the Rockets would have been assessed a technical foul and the Thunder would have had a chance to take the lead at the free throw line. However, time just ran out, after which Oklahoma City Thunder coach Mark Daigneault approached the officials and angrily asked why they did not call a technical foul. The NBC crew never got a definitive explanation regarding what happened; play by play announcer Mike Tirico merely noted that the officials had never acknowledged Durant's signal, without questioning how it is possible that an official standing right next to Durant could not have noticed Durant's signal (and, presumably, Durant also verbally requesting a timeout).
The second overtime was as closely contested as the rest of the game, with neither team leading by more than three points. At the 1:15 mark, Durant drove to the hoop, drew Hartenstein's sixth foul, and hit a shot while he was falling down. Durant made the free throw to put Houston up, 122-120. Gilgeous-Alexander answered with a smooth stepback jumper, and then he split a pair of free throws after Houston turned over the ball. Durant missed a three pointer, but the Rockets retained possession and Durant passed to a cutting Sengun for a layup that put the Rockets up 124-123 with just 11 seconds remaining. Durant guarded Gilgeous-Alexander on the final possession, and played good defense before fouling him with just 2.3 seconds left. Gilgeous-Alexander hit both free throws to provide the final margin.
A Thunder win with Durant fouling out on the play that gave the Thunder the lead is undoubtedly a perfect ending for Oklahoma City fans. Both teams competed hard, and both teams made many nice plays at both ends of the court. My only quibble would be that 67 combined missed three pointers is not efficient basketball no matter what the "stat gurus" say, but teams regularly jacking up 30, 40, 50 or more three pointers appears to be a permanent feature of the sport now. We have all heard that "Three is more than two," but it is worth pointing out that "Two is more than zero," and that 67 possessions in this game ended with zero points on shots from 23 feet, nine inches and beyond. For the modern NBA, though, this was a very high level game, and it was enjoyable to watch.
Anyone who understands the NBA knows that it is foolish to read too much into one game, particularly the first game of a long regular season; after Kareem Abdul-Jabbar hit a game-winning skyhook in rookie Magic Johnson's first NBA game, Johnson celebrated and Abdul-Jabbar casually informed him that there were 81 more games to go (and Johnson told him that if he hits a shot like that 81 more times then he will celebrate 81 more times, but that is a different story). Nevertheless, even though it is way too soon to draw definitive conclusions, we can make a few observations about both teams. The Thunder were sluggish offensively at first, primarily due to Gilgeous-Alexander starting slowly and Williams not being in the lineup, but after they fell behind by double digits they woke up and found a way to win despite not playing their best and not having their second best player. After Williams returns, the Thunder will be much better at both ends of the court. The Rockets' size and physicality challenged the Thunder, and will challenge most teams in the league. Sengun looked as good as he has ever looked even though the Rockets lack a true point guard and are still figuring out how to fully integrate Durant into the offense (he had just nine points after halftime). It will be very interesting to assess both of these teams after a larger sample size of games.
Legalized Gambling Poses a Significant Threat to NBA Specifically and Sports in General
During a recent appearance on the "One Night With Steiny" podcast, Brooklyn Nets forward Michael Porter Jr. offered a candid assessment of the negative impact that legalized gambling has had on the NBA specifically and sports in general: "The enjoyment of the game isn't for the game anymore. It's so that people can make money. In reality, way more people are losing money than making money."
Porter Jr. mentioned a specific problematic scenario: "Think about it, if you could get all your homies rich by telling them,
'Yo, bet $10,000 on my under this one game. I'm going to act like I've
got an injury, and I'm going to sit out. I'm going to come out after three
minutes.' And they all get a little bag because you did
it one game. That is so not OK, but some people probably think like
that. They come from nothing, and all their homies have nothing." This scenario is not only plausible; it has already happened: Porter Jr.'s brother Jontay was banned for life from the NBA for
violating the league's gambling policies because he feigned an injury so that
his co-conspirators could win an "under" bet based on his statistics for
a specific game.
Porter Jr. suggested that sports betting should be restricted to in-person wagering in Las Vegas, and he concluded, "The whole sports gambling entity...it's bad and it's only going to get worse."
The issue it not merely that legalized sports betting opens up a Pandora's Box of cheating possibilities; the way that sports betting is being marketed is also problematic: the leagues, their betting provider partners, and the media outlets that cover sports are all relentlessly promoting not just sports betting but the riskiest, least favorable types of sports betting. It is challenging enough to correctly handicap the outcome of a game, but the prop bets and the parlay bets are structured in a way that favors the house significantly. Think about it this way: these betting providers did not become big, highly successful businesses by paying out a lot of winners on prop bets and parlay bets--and the reason for that is that the odds of the bettor winning such bets do not match up with the payouts provided, which means that in the long run even if a few bettors get lucky these bets are sucker bets that are lining the pockets of the betting providers.
It does not take a genius to figure out that widespread, legalized
sports betting will lead to a host of problems, including but not
limited to (1) an increase in the number of families ruined by
compulsive gamblers betting way beyond their means, (2) an increase in
the number of games that are fixed or that at least have some kind of
point shaving/stat shaving, (3) an increase in hostility directed by losing bettors toward athletes whose play caused the bettors to lose, and (4)
decreased confidence in the legitimacy of sports results because of the
assumption that players and/or officials either bet on the games or
were bought by people who bet on the games. You used to have to actively seek out opportunities to wager on sports; now, legalized sports betting is advertised and promoted throughout sports broadcasts, and is readily available on your mobile device.
For the above reasons and more, U.S. professional sports leagues consistently opposed the legalization
of sports betting, but the leagues changed their tune when they realized
how much money they could make by partnering with betting providers; the leagues went from actively lobbying against the legalization of sports betting to actively lobbying for sports betting to be legalized. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver went from opposing legalized sports betting to writing Op-Ed pieces supporting legalized sports betting--and he made that transformation not because he has the best interest of society or individual bettors on his mind but because he heard the cash register ringing.
In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court paved the way for widespread legalization of sports betting by ruling that the federal ban on sports betting was unconstitutional; therefore each state can determine whether to ban sports betting within that state. Sports betting is now legal in 38 states.
Gambling should be made difficult for
the average man. It should be something he budgets to do once or twice a
year. Vegas was best when it was hardest to reach.
You
see, it isn't the two or three percent, the house edge, that beats you.
Otherwise, people would only lose two or three percent, and so what?
It's the psychology. A guy goes to a casino. He wins $500, he's
ecstatic. He goes home, buys his wife a present, springs for a night
out. Fine. Now he goes back. This time he loses $500. O.K., altogether
he's even. But does he quit $500 down the way he did $500 up? No. He
takes another $500 out of the bank. And now he's pressing, so he blows
that and borrows $500. Now he's out $1,500, and this is a guy who only
makes 20 to 25 grand a year. He goes home, gets into his wife's checking
account.
This is what happens when gambling is too accessible.
Everybody gets hurt but the casino. The guy can't buy the new summer
suit or the new shoes for his wife. He lets the tune-up go. The stores
are hurt, the restaurant, the gas station. This is the kind of stuff
you'll start to see soon at Atlantic City.
And if they legalized
sports betting, the little guy would be just as dead. We'd find a way
to beat you. Right now, if we—me, anybody—tried to bet more than $50,000
on any game, we'd have a hard time. And when you only got $50 riding,
you can't pay enough to fix a game. Put a pencil to it. But with
legalized gambling, there'd be so much money bet you could get down a
million or more on one game. So now it's worth it to pay for a fix,
isn't it? And that's easy. You don't need the quarterback. Just gimme
the center. Gimme the referee. All I'd need is one offside at the right
time. You don't even need to get a guy to throw it for you. Suppose we
just pay a big star $50,000 to stay home with the flu? Nobody ever
thought of that before, did they?
The leagues and the betting providers would push back by arguing that they closely monitor suspicious wagering activity and that if sports betting were illegal it would still take place but it would be unregulated--and it is in their interest to push back, because they are making tons of money: they are the "casino" now and, as Snyder noted, "Everybody gets hurt but the casino."
It may sound like a great idea to legalize vices and then regulate/tax them. We are running a nearly nationwide experiment of this concept not only with sports betting but also with marijuana (which could be the topic of a separate article). The problem is that the damage caused by vices ripples out, and impacts innocent people who did not partake in the vice but are now suffering the consequences, ranging from games being rigged to being injured or killed by a marijuana-impaired driver. It is true that too much regulation or regulation that is too strict can backfire; we learned that with Prohibition. It is also true that too little regulation can lead to negative consequences for society as a whole.
Legalized sports betting is just one aspect of a larger societal shift; we are reshaping society to value instant gratification, instant wealth, and instant fame. This is not healthy or sustainable collectively or individually. It may be 15-20 years before the impact of widespread legalization of sports betting is fully evident and better understood, but Snyder's concerns were correct, have already been validated to some extent, and will be validated to a much greater extent in the future.
I have been a basketball fan as long as I can remember, and I imagine that I will always be a basketball fan, but the sense of entitlement worn like a proud badge by many modern pro basketball players is difficult to fathom or accept. There are many examples, but I will cite just three.
The first example is from a recent podcast during which DeMarcus Cousins reflected on his time as Nikola Jokic's teammate, and noted that Jokic indicated that he might retire early instead of signing a contract with a total value of $300 million. Cousins advised Jokic that retiring early would be crazy, and that even if Jokic did not want to play he should just sign the deal--for guaranteed money--and then "just get fat at worst." Cousins' mentality makes it clear (1) why he washed out of the NBA at just 32 years old, and (2) why it often seems like many players are more focused on making money than earning money: players likes Cousins think that they are entitled to be paid as opposed to thinking that they have a responsibility to earn the money that they are paid.
The second example is from the WNBA. At the 2025 WNBA All-Star Game, players wore t-shirts bearing the phrase, "Pay Us What You Owe Us." The NBA has a majority ownership interest in the WNBA and fully subsidizes the WNBA, which has lost money in every single year since it was founded 28 years ago. The WNBA's losses averaged around $10 million per year prior to 2023, but leapt to around $50 million in 2024. A quip making the rounds is that WNBA stands for Welfare National Basketball Association. Perhaps the WNBA's players should chip in to pay the league for the opportunity to be on TV and thus become well known enough to get endorsement deals, because without the WNBA most people would have no idea who many of these players are. Much like Cousins thinks that NBA players are entitled to be paid without making any effort to stay in shape, WNBA players think that they are entitled to huge paychecks even though the business that hired them is losing money.
The third example involves the NBA and the WNBA. After demanding to be paid money that they have not earned, the WNBA players laughed and giggled their way through an uncompetitive 2025 WNBA All-Star Game. In that regard, they are following the example of the NBA, a league whose All-Star Games have degenerated from must-see TV to unwatchable farces.
Perhaps there have always been athletes with an overgrown sense of entitlement, but the problem seems to be more widespread than before.
I'd say
I've had an effect in three main areas. First, I have taken a smaller
man's game, ball-handling, passing, and the like, and brought it to the
front court. Second, I've taken the big man's game, rebounding,
shot-blocking, and been able to execute that even though I'm only
six-foot-six. What I've tried to do is merge those two types of games,
which were considered to be separate—for instance, Bill Russell does the
rebounding, Cousy handles the ball—and combine them into the same
player. This has more or less changed the definition of what's called
the small forward position, and it creates a lot more flexibility for
the individual player, and, of course, creates a lot more opportunities
for the whole team. The third thing I've tried to do, and this is the
most important thing, is to make this kind of basketball a winning kind
of basketball, taking into account a degree of showmanship that gets
people excited. My overall goal is to give people the feeling they are
being entertained by an artist—and to win.
You know, the playground game … refined.
Note how much thought Erving put into how he played the game, and how much work he did to hone his craft. Note, also, that he considered it his responsibility to help his team win while entertaining the fans. Erving laid the groundwork for non-centers like Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and LeBron James to become MVPs and become leaders of championship teams, two roles that before Erving were predominantly filled by centers.
In Setting the Record Straight: Why the NBA Needs to Officially Adopt ABA Statistics, 76 Ark. L. Rev. (2024), attorney Roy E. Brownell II articulates detailed, powerful, and multi-pronged historical, logical, and moral arguments regarding why the NBA's record book should officially include ABA statistics. His 87 page article deserves to be read in full--and should be required reading for NBA Commissioner Adam Silver--but it is important to outline the framework of Brownell's arguments so that the general public understands why this is such an important issue. Perhaps a groundswell of public opinion favoring the inclusion of ABA statistics in the NBA's record book is what it will take to fix a wrong that has existed for nearly 50 years.
Brownell begins by noting that when other major sports leagues merged they also merged their statistics, citing the NFL-AFL merger in 1970 and the combination of the American League and National League into Major League Baseball in 1903. Thus, both history and logic support the notion that when leagues merge their statistics should be combined and granted equal status.
Brownell bases the moral case on three prongs:
1) Black players had a significant impact on the ABA, so erasing the ABA's statistics also erases the story of that impact.
2) In 2022, the NBA and National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) agreed to provide additional pension benefits to ABA players, in essence acknowledging the ABA's major league status.
3) The NBA makes money by selling products with ABA logos, thus benefiting from the league's rich historical legacy while simultaneously refusing to officially recognize the ABA's statistics.
Brownell demonstrates that the modern game of basketball is in many
ways built on the foundation laid by the ABA. Brownell provides a detailed discussion of the extent to which the
NBA profits from the ABA without officially recognizing the ABA's
statistics. Here, he summarizes the key points (footnotes omitted):
By
officially acknowledging the dissolved league's statistics, the NBA
would formally recognize that the ABA left a major impact on the
surviving league in numerous interrelated ways: (1) contributing to a
spike in interest in the NBA; (2) driving widespread acceptance of
dunking and individual play; (3) pushing the NBA to adopt the
three-point line; (4) moving the emphasis of the game from the post to
the wing; (5) influencing the location of NBA franchises; and (6)
providing new financial and marketing opportunities for the NBA.
Reflected former NBA great Walt Frazier, in today's game, "The whole NBA
is the ABA...[A]ll we got to do is color the ball red, white and blue."
George Karl, longtime NBA coach and veteran of both leagues, expressed
similar sentiments. "[T]he way the game is played today is very ABA-ish."
Brownell points out that the NBA and its teams have conducted marketing promotions when certain players have reached career milestones that include ABA statistics (including Dan Issel and Julius Erving joining the 20,000 point club), yet the NBA's official position is that those players did not achieve those career milestones. Brownell quotes Bill Livingston regarding the NBA's shameful hypocrisy:
My,
how sagging attendance can change management's viewpoint. In the past,
the 76ers, with all the haughty disdain of an old-line NBA team, treated
records set in the old American Basketball Association as something
darn near fraudulent. But the Sixers, trying to hype their gate by any
means possible, have started trumpeting a 20,000-point night for Julius
Erving...Only catch is, 11,662 of Dr. J's points came in the ABA. The
old-line clubs won't recognize [ABA records]...but, when a few bucks can
be made, it is apparently a different story.
The ABA originated the Slam Dunk Contest and the concept of All-Star Weekend (as opposed to just playing an All-Star Game without having other side events). The ABA helped popularize the three point shot, which the NBA began using in 1979 (three years after the ABA-NBA merger). The NBA has profited greatly from All-Star Weekend and the three point shot, so it is morally wrong to profit from the ABA's legacy while refusing to grant official status to ABA statistics. Unfortunately, the NBA has demonstrated that its top priority is increasing their profits, not doing what is right.
Brownell believes that his article provides the first long-form and in depth analysis of not just the specific issue of the NBA refusing to officially count ABA statistics but also of the broader issue of how to determine major league status across professional leagues. Brownell acknowledges the short form work of various authors (he cites my writing seven times).
It is inexcusable that the
NBA arrogantly refuses to officially recognize the ABA's statistics.
I hope that Adam Silver and the NBA's media partners read Brownell's article and immediately grant official recognition to the ABA's statistics.
The NBA Once Again Displays its Hyprocrisy by Embracing Kyrie Irving's Kaffiyeh While Rejecting a Fan's Jewish Pride Sign
During official NBA press conferences, unrepentant antisemite Kyrie Irving has proudly worn a kaffiyeh--Muslim garb that, regardless of what it originally represented, is now inextricably connected with terrorism against Israel specifically and the Jewish people in general--while making it clear that he supports Hamas against Israel, but the NBA remains silent; this is disappointing but not surprising, because the NBA--despite its social justice posturing and its virtue signaling--cares about profits more than it cares about anything else. As I noted in my previous article about Irving, it would be great if the NBA stepped up, spoke out, and educated not only Irving but his millions of fans and social media followers:
We, the undersigned group of attorneys from around the
world, publicly condemn and denounce the unspeakable acts of mass terror
perpetrated by Hamas, a recognized terrorist organization, against
civilians in Israel.
We stand for the rule of law. We are shocked and horrified by the
ghastly barbarism carried out against innocent civilians. We are angered
by the cowardly crimes against humanity committed and the massive scale
on which they were perpetrated.
We stand for moral consistency. We are profoundly disturbed by the
litany of free people throughout the world who are indifferent, or even
hostile, when confronted with Jewish suffering.
We stand against injustice. We therefore affirm that Israel has the
undeniable right and obligation to pursue justice against those who harm
it and murder its citizens, and to defend itself against further
aggression.
We stand for peace. We affirm the right of all people – Jews and
non-Jews – to live in peace and security, and we wholeheartedly reject
the moral equivalence of bloodthirsty terrorists and Israel’s imperative
to defend its population.
Finally, we affirm the promise made by our forebears — that never
again will Jews sit by while other Jews are slaughtered en masse.
We call on our colleagues in the legal profession and elsewhere to
stand with us and denounce terrorism against Israel and Jews throughout
the world.
The NBA has tremendous power and
influence. It would be wonderful if the league issued a similar
statement signed by Commissioner Adam Silver, every team owner, every
coach, and every player.
When Kyrie Irving's Dallas Mavericks came to Salt Lake City on Monday
to face the Utah Jazz, Rabbi Avremi Zippel knew he had to be there.
Zippel, his brother Chaim, their father Benny and their friend Moshe
Nigri--all of whom attended Monday night’s basketball matchup--are US
Chabad rabbis who work at the Hasidic movement's Utah outpost in Salt
Lake City. Avremi is a huge Jazz fan, and he wanted to send a message to
Irving, the NBA star who was suspended in November 2022 after he
promoted an antisemitic documentary that denied the Holocaust and
initially refused to apologize. He later apologized following an
eight-game suspension.
The episode still stung Zippel, so the quartet of rabbis secured
courtside seats and held up identical signs reading, "I'm a Jew and I'm
proud," with a Star of David replacing the "o" in "proud."
"Some of the things that Kyrie said about the Jewish community and
about Holocaust denial were vile and disgusting," Zippel told The Salt
Lake Tribune. He did not respond to Jewish Telegraphic Agency requests
for comment on Wednesday.
An arena guard snapped the rabbis' picture and Jazz owner Ryan Smith
greeted them. At first, Zippel said, the signs did not appear to upset
anyone--including Irving, who complimented the message and showed the
rabbis his Star of David tattoo.
"He comes by, he looks at the sign, and he says, 'Nice. I’m a Jew,
too,' Zippel told the Tribune, adding that Irving's response bothered
him. Irving--who isn't Jewish but has said he has Jewish relatives--may have been echoing the Black Hebrew Israelite claim that
African-Americans are the true Jews. But Zippel said he wished Irving a
happy new year and moved on.
But moments later, according to Zippel, Irving's tone changed: As the
Dallas guard dribbled the ball up the court, he yelled to the rabbis, "Don't gotta bring something like that to the game."
During the next timeout, a security guard approached Zippel's
group and checked their tickets. Then another guard told them to put the
signs down, according to Zippel's account. At halftime, a Jazz staffer
told them that Irving had complained to security.
Irving subsequently denied asking for the Jewish pride sign to be put down, but the statement issued by the Jazz to clarify what happened contradicts Irving's denial by noting that the request to put the sign down came from a player (presumably Irving): "During an out-of-bounds play in the first quarter of yesterday's Jazz
game against the Dallas Mavericks, there was a group sitting courtside
whose signs sparked an interaction with a player that created a
distraction and interfered with play of (the) game. As the next step in
standard security protocol, the fans were asked to take down their
signs."
The NBA's message is clear: Jews expressing Jewish pride is an unacceptable distraction at an NBA game. It will be interesting to see if Black pride, gay pride, or any other kind of pride is similarly considered to be distracting.
Here is what Rabbi Zippel posted on X regarding this incident:
Last night, I attended the Jazz/Mavericks game. I brought with me a sign (12 x 18 inches to be exact) that read "I'm a Jew and I'm proud."
In the middle of the first quarter, after abruptly coming over to check our tickets, we were informed that we could not hold up our signs during the game.
The rationale given was that fans can not hold any signage while courtside.
A number of Jazz employees corroborated that
--they knew of no such policy
--the request to take them down was made after Kyrie Irving saw the signs, verbally commented on them to us, and complained to Dallas security.
That Kyrie Irving is a coward with the spine of a goldfish is not news to me.
That the Mavericks organization covers for him is, sadly, not news to me.
I'm a lifelong Jazz fan and don't intend to change any of that anytime soon.
I've lived through some years when the basketball the Jazz played on the court was kinda embarrassing.
And yet.
Last time, for the first time in my life, I was really disappointed in the Utah Jazz.
TNT's excellent "Inside the NBA" program often weighs in on social justice issues, and they devoted one segment to Irving's antisemitism in November 2022, but otherwise they have ignored the topic; even more significantly, I am not aware of the program making a single statement either supporting Israel after October 7 or condemning Hamas for the October 7 attacks and the ongoing hostage crisis. Their silence is complicity with evil and it is extremely disappointing, though not surprising.
Irving has a right to believe that the Earth is flat (and I doubt that
he could even find Gaza on an unlabeled map of the world) and he has a
right to his political beliefs--but the NBA also has a right to decide
who to employ. Fans, media members, and the general public have a
right to let Irving know just how ignorant, hateful, hurtful, and
harmful his beliefs are.
Silence is complicity, and if we have learned
anything about atrocities from the Holocaust to 10/7/23 it is that
silence leads to violence. I will never be silent, and I encourage
others to speak out. The NBA may never take a stand on any issue based purely on moral grounds, but if enough people can convince the NBA that antisemitism is against the league's commercial interests then perhaps the NBA will take appropriate action.
Irving acts like he is a brave person who speaks the truth, but he is
a coward who spouts ignorance and then pretends that linking to an
antisemitic film on his social media platform to spread that film's hate
to his millions of followers could not possibly have any negative, real
life consequences. "Did I harm anybody?" Irving asked Friedell at
Saturday's press conference. Yes, in a country where antisemitic attacks
are increasing to unprecedented levels, encouraging your millions of
followers to watch a film that denies that the Holocaust happened and
accuses Jews of worshiping Satan is harmful. Irving has deleted the
offensive social media post, but he has not admitted that the film he
promoted is full of hate-filled lies. Essentially, he gave the film free
publicity to millions of his followers, and after he did that it is not
nearly enough to just delete the social media post without any comment.
It is irresponsible to incite hatred to millions of people and then
just try to pretend that nothing happened.
If you don't understand
the problem here, then just imagine that your least favorite politician
posted something on social media that is offensive to you or to your
ethnic group. Would you be satisfied if that person just took the post
down with no comment, or would you think that he is obligated to
repudiate the statement? Maybe if you think about it in those terms then
you will understand why what Irving did is wrong, hurtful, and
potentially putting a vulnerable minority group at risk.
As
long as Irving keeps putting the ball in the hoop, though, he is immune
from discipline, unless a whole lot more than seven people show up in
NBA arenas wearing "Fight Antisemitism" T-shirts; that would get the
NBA's attention, because the NBA cares more about profits than anything
else. Wearing a "Fight Antisemitism" T-shirt at this time in this
country is a lot braver than anything Irving has ever done.
It is naive at best to assert that when Irving wears a kaffiyeh at a press conference after Hamas' October 7 terrorist attack against Israel he is just expressing solidarity with Palestinian Arabs or support of peaceful coexistence; whatever the kaffiyeh may have meant in previous eras, in this era there is no question that it is associated with terrorism against Israel specifically and the Jewish people in general.
We, the undersigned group of attorneys from around the
world, publicly condemn and denounce the unspeakable acts of mass terror
perpetrated by Hamas, a recognized terrorist organization, against
civilians in Israel.
We stand for the rule of law. We are shocked and horrified by the
ghastly barbarism carried out against innocent civilians. We are angered
by the cowardly crimes against humanity committed and the massive scale
on which they were perpetrated.
We stand for moral consistency. We are profoundly disturbed by the
litany of free people throughout the world who are indifferent, or even
hostile, when confronted with Jewish suffering.
We stand against injustice. We therefore affirm that Israel has the
undeniable right and obligation to pursue justice against those who harm
it and murder its citizens, and to defend itself against further
aggression.
We stand for peace. We affirm the right of all people – Jews and
non-Jews – to live in peace and security, and we wholeheartedly reject
the moral equivalence of bloodthirsty terrorists and Israel’s imperative
to defend its population.
Finally, we affirm the promise made by our forebears — that never
again will Jews sit by while other Jews are slaughtered en masse.
We call on our colleagues in the legal profession and elsewhere to
stand with us and denounce terrorism against Israel and Jews throughout
the world.
The NBA has tremendous power and influence. It would be wonderful if the league issued a similar statement signed by Commissioner Adam Silver, every team owner, every coach, and every player.
It is true that Von Nieda had another job besides playing pro basketball: he served in the 17th Airborne Division and participated in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II.
Von Nieda made the National Basketball League's All-League Second Team in 1949 after ranking ninth in the league in scoring with 641 points (leaders were determined by total points at that time, and point totals were lower in the pre-shot clock era). He also ranked eighth in scoring as a rookie in the 1947-48 season. The NBL merged with the Basketball Association of America (BAA) to form the NBA prior to the 1949-50 season, and Von Nieda played for the Tri-Cities Blackhawks and the Baltimore Bullets in the 1949-50 NBA season.
Von Nieda was known as "Whitey" because of his long, flowing locks of blond hair. After his NBA career, he played four seasons for the Lancaster Red Roses in the Eastern Basketball League before making a cameo one game appearance during the 1977-78 season when he was 55 years old. He played in Penn State alumni basketball games until he was in his mid-60s, and he posted a 27-18 record in three seasons as Elizabethtown College's basketball coach.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver suspended Memphis Grizzlies All-Star Ja Morant 25 games without pay for "conduct detrimental to the league." The NBA issued an official statement about why Commissioner Silver suspended Morant; here is the pertinent portion of that official statement:
Morant posed with a firearm in a car during a live-streamed video on
May 13, less than two months after he was suspended eight games without
pay for the live streaming of a video on March 4 in which he displayed a
firearm while in an intoxicated state at a Denver area nightclub.
The league office found that, on May 13, Morant intentionally and
prominently displayed a gun while in a car with several other
individuals as they were leaving a social gathering in Memphis. Morant
wielded the firearm while knowing that he was being recorded and that
the recording was being live streamed on Instagram Live, despite having
made commitments to the NBA and public statements that he would not
repeat the conduct for which he was previously disciplined.
Regardless of whether or not Morant's conduct broke any laws, it is incorrect to suggest that Morant's Constitutional or legal rights are violated by this suspension. Morant's suspension is not a Second Amendment issue because the NBA is not challenging Morant's right to legally own a firearm; the NBA, like most corporate organizations, has its own internal rules and codes of conduct, and it has the legal right to enforce those rules and codes. The NBA has every right to make it clear to Morant that he must choose between two paths: he can be a highly paid NBA superstar who abides by the NBA's employment rules and guidelines, or he can be a guy who rides around in a car wielding a handgun in live social media videos.
Far from punishing Morant, Commissioner Silver is providing Morant a path away from oblivion: if Morant proceeds down his current path, he will be out of the league and he will have thrown away hundreds of millions of dollars--but Morant now has an opportunity to seek counseling, make smarter and more mature decisions, and return to a path filled with riches, praise, and likely basketball immortality.
Morant's suspension is far from the longest or most severe suspension in NBA history. Not including several players who received lifetime bans after repeatedly violating the league's anti-drug policies, here is a list of just a few of the players who have received longer suspensions from the NBA:
1) O.J. Mayo was suspended 164 games (two full seasons) in 2016 for violating the league's performance enhancing drug protocol.
2) Ron Artest was suspended 86 games in 2004 for his role in the infamous "Malice at the Palace."
3) Latrell Sprewell was suspended 68 games in 1997 for choking his then-coach, P.J. Carlesimo.
5) Stephen Jackson was suspended 30 games in 2004 for his role in the "Malice at the Palace."
The Arenas/Crittenton incident is perhaps most relevant to Morant's situation. By age 30, Gilbert Arenas--a three-time All-Star and three-time member of the All-NBA Team--was playing for the Shanghai Sharks. Arenas, who never seemed to understand the gravity of what he did, should consider himself lucky to be alive; he thought everything was a joke, but Crittenton was recently released from prison after serving 10 years for homicide, so if Arenas had pushed his luck a little further with Crittenton then Arenas may no longer be with us to offer weird NBA takes on his podcast.
Hopefully, Morant will use his time off without pay to change his thought process and improve his behavior. It would be a shame if he threw away his promising career the same way that Arenas squandered his talent, and it would be a tragedy if Morant ended up like Crittenton.
NBA coaches Steve Kerr and Gregg Popovich have been silent about Morant's public embrace of gun culture, and Morant's alleged involvement in multiple incidents during which he engaged in violence or threatened to engage in violence. I mention Kerr and Popovich by name because both men have not hesitated to loudly and repeatedly state their opinions about national gun laws and about politicians who they accuse of not taking gun violence seriously enough. Do Kerr and Popovich approve of Morant's conduct? Do they think that the suspension is long enough, too long, or not long enough? Once you open your mouth and assert that you have an opinion worth hearing on national policy issues, you accept the responsibility of speaking out about those issues moving forward. I am not naive enough to think that Kerr and Popovich will say anything about Morant other than "This is a league issue and I trust Adam Silver" or "I will not comment about discipline involving a player from another team," but those are cowardly responses. If you feel strongly about gun violence, gun laws, and the behavior of certain citizens, then let us know how you feel when a member of your corporate organization steps out of line.
One would think that anyone who protests about systemic racism and lack
of economic opportunities for various ethnic groups would be at the
forefront of encouraging Morant to not squander the chance to obtain
generational wealth that could be used not only to benefit himself and
his family but also underserved communities, many of which are filled
with young people who idolize Morant. In that regard, the critical response of the NBA Players Association to the 25 game suspension is as unsurprising as it is disappointing. The NBA Players Association presents itself as an organization that promotes social justice, but in fact it is an organization that primarily conducts public relations campaigns on behalf of players while remaining silent, at best, when players conduct themselves inappropriately; we saw this when Kyrie Irving exposed himself as an unrepentant antisemite.
Like the Commissioner, several coaches, and other members of the NBA community (including media members who work for companies with huge NBA contracts), the Players Association (and individual players) often makes statements about social justice and public safety. Does Morant's behavior fulfill their expectations? If a fan showed up at an NBA game or event behaving around NBA players as Morant behaved in public, would the Players Association defend the fan's Second Amendment rights and emphasize that the fan did nothing illegal? Or would the Players Association demand that the league and the police protect the players? Again, once you open your mouth about public policy issues, you accept the responsibility of speaking out about those issues moving forward.
It could be argued that the NBAPA is a union whose main task is to
support its members no matter what, but if the NBAPA does not have a
higher calling then it should be honest about that instead of purporting
to be an organization filled with social justice warriors: an
organization that is silent about antisemitism and complicit with
Morant's reckless behavior is hardly an organization that is taking the
lead to improve society.
One last point to consider is that some people suggest that Morant is being led astray by his friends and associates--but the reality is that Morant has been front and center leading the way in each incident involving him, so at some point we have to consider the possibility that Morant is the one leading the way as opposed to someone who is being led astray. Regardless of whether Morant is the leader or the follower, this may be his last chance to correct his course; hopefully, Morant will follow the path away from oblivion that Commissioner Silver has provided.
"A work of art contains its verification in itself: artificial, strained concepts do not withstand the test of being turned into images; they fall to pieces, turn out to be sickly and pale, convince no one. Works which draw on truth and present it to us in live and concentrated form grip us, compellingly involve us, and no one ever, not even ages hence, will come forth to refute them."--Alexander Solzhenitsyn (Nobel Lecture)
"The most 'popular,' the most 'successful' writers among us (for a brief period, at least) are, 99 times out of a hundred, persons of mere effrontery--in a word, busy-bodies, toadies, quacks."--Edgar Allan Poe
"In chess what counts is what you know, not whom you know. It's the way life is supposed to be, democratic and just."--Grandmaster Larry Evans
"It's not nuclear physics. You always remember that. But if you write about sports long enough, you're constantly coming back to the point that something buoys people; something makes you feel better for having been there. Something of value is at work there...Something is hallowed here. I think that something is excellence."--Tom Callahan
