boutons
12-25-2004, 10:44 AM
NBA's Christmas With the Cranks
By Michael Wilbon
Saturday, December 25, 2004; Page D01
Sports leagues and their television partners will take big ratings wherever and whenever they can find them. But it's not exactly in the Christmas spirit that the NBA presents Pistons vs. Pacers and Heat vs. Lakers today. It sure isn't the promise of joy and brotherhood that'll bring people to the tube, not when the first game forces a thorough revisiting of a night infamous for thuggery and lawlessness, and the second reminds us how ego and petulance destroyed the best team the sport had to offer.
One of the ornaments on the NBA's tree ought to be a tiny pair of brass knuckles.
Larry Brown, the Indiana coach
!!! :)) (with his facts so solid, you have to respect his opinions!!)
... and one of the game's true caretakers, has been so depressed over the events of Nov. 19 -- The Malice in The Palace -- that he thought about not coaching anymore. His young son, a ballboy the night of the mayhem, has not wanted to attend a game since. In a conversation this week Brown said he was embarrassed for the league that the first meeting of these teams since the brawl would be nationally televised on Christmas Day. There are those who know Brown well who wouldn't be surprised if the episode doesn't drain him to the point that he doesn't finish this season on the bench.
And while the Shaq vs. Kobe feud doesn't have the physical component, the ill will runs much deeper; remember, the Pacers were fighting Pistons fans, not the Pistons.
Kobe and Shaq will arrive at Staples Center -- "I built that house," Shaq said recently -- at very different junctures. Shaq couldn't script a better return to Los Angeles. His new team, Miami, has won 10 straight. His new running partner, Dwyane Wade, is lighting up the league. Miami is the best team in the Eastern Conference. Kobe's Lakers are in seventh place in the Western Conference and, from all indications, will struggle to make the playoffs. If this were a holiday movie, Shaq would be cast in something of a Santa Claus role and Kobe, despite his recent attempts at public relations rehabilitation, is still something akin to The Grinch. They are opponents, if not enemies, instead of teammates because Kobe wanted it that way.
Jackson has maintained that all along, as has Shaq. And Jackson, in an interview with the New York Times published yesterday, said of Kobe breaking up the team, "Definitely. He could have saved the whole thing. Even if it wasn't defined or declared, it is what he decided. He wants an opportunity to do, or to be, the system. He wants to make the plays and control the action and have the responsibility."
There's no arguing with Jackson, even though Kobe maintains he had nothing to do with the coach's departure and Shaq being traded. Let there be no doubt Kobe is Yoko Ono in the breakup of the Lakers. But that's not all he wrought. During the push for the playoffs the Lakers now don't have the option of turning to Karl Malone because Kobe accused him of going beyond the bounds of innocent flirting in a recent conversation with Kobe's wife. Malone says that's completely insane, as do most people who know Malone. But Kobe says there's no way his wife misunderstood or took things out of context and Malone, his best friend on the team last season, isn't going to get the benefit of the doubt on this issue. It's so tawdry, the whole thing is better suited for an episode of "Desperate Housewives" than a Christmas Day basketball game.
Having said that, people are going to be sorely disappointed if they are tuning in to see a confrontation in either of these games. Nothing is going to happen in Indianapolis. The Pistons and Pacers could play today without any security in the arena whatsoever. Ben Wallace might not commit a single foul. It'll likely be a game played utterly without emotion or passion.
And while Shaq and Kobe won't meet under the mistletoe, my bet is that one will help the other off the floor during the course of the game.
Kobe said in an interview last week he plans to apologize to Shaq for telling Colorado police, while being questioned about his sexual assault charge, that Shaq paid women to keep quiet about such offenses.
Whether Kobe has the stomach to really apologize privately and whether Shaq will do anything more than listen is anybody's guess. But Shaq has every right to be unforgiving about Bryant's comments to police, which he says are a lie.
Still, it's not in Shaq's nature to take a chunk out of anybody, even Kobe. He wasn't raised that way. His parents wouldn't stand for it then or now. Shaq's only really been enraged once in his NBA career, when he took a swing a few years ago at Brad Miller. Then with the Bulls and now with Sacramento, Miller is so annoying he could elicit a retaliatory swing from Gandhi.
Okay, we're all tuning in hoping to see that one special moment when Bryant flies through the lane looking to throw it down and Shaq is standing there ready to guard the basket. That's what we all want, right? That's the payoff moment, and the only way the hype over this confrontation could be justified. And strangely, almost everybody outside of Los Angeles, even in Kobe's home town of Philly, will be rooting for Goliath. How often does that happen, that Goliath becomes more likable than David? But if Shaq does swat Kobe to the floor, the bet here is he'll pick him up and dust him off, reminding him with a bit of compassion that it was dumb to send The Big Man packing. That might be as close as we'll get to good cheer in the NBA on Christmas Day.
© 2004 The Washington Post Company
By Michael Wilbon
Saturday, December 25, 2004; Page D01
Sports leagues and their television partners will take big ratings wherever and whenever they can find them. But it's not exactly in the Christmas spirit that the NBA presents Pistons vs. Pacers and Heat vs. Lakers today. It sure isn't the promise of joy and brotherhood that'll bring people to the tube, not when the first game forces a thorough revisiting of a night infamous for thuggery and lawlessness, and the second reminds us how ego and petulance destroyed the best team the sport had to offer.
One of the ornaments on the NBA's tree ought to be a tiny pair of brass knuckles.
Larry Brown, the Indiana coach
!!! :)) (with his facts so solid, you have to respect his opinions!!)
... and one of the game's true caretakers, has been so depressed over the events of Nov. 19 -- The Malice in The Palace -- that he thought about not coaching anymore. His young son, a ballboy the night of the mayhem, has not wanted to attend a game since. In a conversation this week Brown said he was embarrassed for the league that the first meeting of these teams since the brawl would be nationally televised on Christmas Day. There are those who know Brown well who wouldn't be surprised if the episode doesn't drain him to the point that he doesn't finish this season on the bench.
And while the Shaq vs. Kobe feud doesn't have the physical component, the ill will runs much deeper; remember, the Pacers were fighting Pistons fans, not the Pistons.
Kobe and Shaq will arrive at Staples Center -- "I built that house," Shaq said recently -- at very different junctures. Shaq couldn't script a better return to Los Angeles. His new team, Miami, has won 10 straight. His new running partner, Dwyane Wade, is lighting up the league. Miami is the best team in the Eastern Conference. Kobe's Lakers are in seventh place in the Western Conference and, from all indications, will struggle to make the playoffs. If this were a holiday movie, Shaq would be cast in something of a Santa Claus role and Kobe, despite his recent attempts at public relations rehabilitation, is still something akin to The Grinch. They are opponents, if not enemies, instead of teammates because Kobe wanted it that way.
Jackson has maintained that all along, as has Shaq. And Jackson, in an interview with the New York Times published yesterday, said of Kobe breaking up the team, "Definitely. He could have saved the whole thing. Even if it wasn't defined or declared, it is what he decided. He wants an opportunity to do, or to be, the system. He wants to make the plays and control the action and have the responsibility."
There's no arguing with Jackson, even though Kobe maintains he had nothing to do with the coach's departure and Shaq being traded. Let there be no doubt Kobe is Yoko Ono in the breakup of the Lakers. But that's not all he wrought. During the push for the playoffs the Lakers now don't have the option of turning to Karl Malone because Kobe accused him of going beyond the bounds of innocent flirting in a recent conversation with Kobe's wife. Malone says that's completely insane, as do most people who know Malone. But Kobe says there's no way his wife misunderstood or took things out of context and Malone, his best friend on the team last season, isn't going to get the benefit of the doubt on this issue. It's so tawdry, the whole thing is better suited for an episode of "Desperate Housewives" than a Christmas Day basketball game.
Having said that, people are going to be sorely disappointed if they are tuning in to see a confrontation in either of these games. Nothing is going to happen in Indianapolis. The Pistons and Pacers could play today without any security in the arena whatsoever. Ben Wallace might not commit a single foul. It'll likely be a game played utterly without emotion or passion.
And while Shaq and Kobe won't meet under the mistletoe, my bet is that one will help the other off the floor during the course of the game.
Kobe said in an interview last week he plans to apologize to Shaq for telling Colorado police, while being questioned about his sexual assault charge, that Shaq paid women to keep quiet about such offenses.
Whether Kobe has the stomach to really apologize privately and whether Shaq will do anything more than listen is anybody's guess. But Shaq has every right to be unforgiving about Bryant's comments to police, which he says are a lie.
Still, it's not in Shaq's nature to take a chunk out of anybody, even Kobe. He wasn't raised that way. His parents wouldn't stand for it then or now. Shaq's only really been enraged once in his NBA career, when he took a swing a few years ago at Brad Miller. Then with the Bulls and now with Sacramento, Miller is so annoying he could elicit a retaliatory swing from Gandhi.
Okay, we're all tuning in hoping to see that one special moment when Bryant flies through the lane looking to throw it down and Shaq is standing there ready to guard the basket. That's what we all want, right? That's the payoff moment, and the only way the hype over this confrontation could be justified. And strangely, almost everybody outside of Los Angeles, even in Kobe's home town of Philly, will be rooting for Goliath. How often does that happen, that Goliath becomes more likable than David? But if Shaq does swat Kobe to the floor, the bet here is he'll pick him up and dust him off, reminding him with a bit of compassion that it was dumb to send The Big Man packing. That might be as close as we'll get to good cheer in the NBA on Christmas Day.
© 2004 The Washington Post Company