Blips and Clips: This Week in the NBA

The NBA Playoffs have been unusually hectic this year, not only cluttered with a litany of compelling on-court subplots, but significant re-tooling after a season in which only one coach was fired, and the ever-lingering Donald Sterling Saga.

I've avoided discussing Sterling for the most part - in this blog, across social media, and in person - because I'm against propagating the issue. This was hardly a revelation for anyone who's followed the NBA closely, and if anything was overdue in being dealt with. The man is senile, bigoted, and carries a prolonged history of racism; not only are his sad perspective and ideas unworthy of the attention they've garnered, but are callous distractions as "his" team fights for their Playoff lives.

The sad reality is that Sterling may continue to loom over the franchise, intent on challenging his forced sale of the team. While he's highly unlikely to win, the litigation could take far longer than the NBA would like to rid themselves of someone whose parasitic mentality has festered for years.

Every minute spent discussing Sterling is something that could, and should, be focused on what's going on with his team, and the rest of the Playoff survivors. So while The Donald digs himself deeper, let's not give him an audience.

Sunken Opportunity 
Speaking of the Clippers, their nebulous meltdown last night - after an incredible comeback in Game 4 - adds yet another layer to one onion of a season for this team. Needless to say a couple of pretty questionable calls went against them, but L.A. shot themselves in the foot repeatedly down the stretch, making it hard to lean on the officials.

The poor reffing comes as an unfortunate non-surprise, in a postseason where an abnormally high number of weird whistles and rampant reviews are hampering the NBA's entertainment value pretty noticeably. There have been blown calls benefiting teams both ways throughout every series; officiating, basketball in particular, is far from a perfect science. The Clippers' referee variance, while guilty of very, very, very bad timing, also directly resulted from their own mistakes.

Deliver Us From Otis
Mistakes are something Joe Dumars made plenty of in Detroit's front office, and just as he'd worn out his welcome, the Pistons may be opening their door to another notorious party-crasher.

Stan Van Gundy has been hired to run the show for the Bad Boys (as in 'their team is really bad'), named both Head Coach and President. They could've done far worse; SVG had a productive run with Orlando, before Dwight Howard's awkward coup d'etat cost both him and GM Otis Smith their jobs. What should terrify Pistons fans is that Van Gundy's considering handing Smith the keys to their team; great news for upcoming Free Agents seeking a bloated contract, or the fans of any team the Pistons might trade with down the road.

Why Stan would trust this guy again, after he butchered several moves and allowed the Howard fiasco to escalate to the point where it consumed the Magic for well over a year and got them both fired, is beyond me.

Everybody Loves Steve
While the Pistons tagged a reputable bench boss to turn their team around, he was more or less a second-tier hire right now. The coach-to-be with by far the hottest current stock is, for some reason, Steve Kerr; being fought over by several teams. Personally, I don't really get it.

I understand fully that Kerr's a knowledgeable, connected, experienced and respected figure in NBA circles, but I'm not sold that these qualities make him a good coaching candidate, or at least one every team with a vacancy should be clamoring to hire.



Kerr is an experienced player, and five-time champion, but was never more than an eighth-man shooting-specialist, and not really known as a leader. His time in Phoenix as GM was uninspiring; three years of mostly-backwards movement that saw him bow out before an inevitable rebuild. His analysis on TNT is usually strong, but his neglect of the 2014 awards ballot (including LeBron for DPOY and Tim Hardaway Jr for ROY) makes you wonder just how much basketball he watched this year.

The teams tug-of-warring for his services are both high-profile voids. The Knicks are looking to rebound from a disastrously stressful season, under the Zen Master's calm aura, while the Warriors need to rectify a controversial axing that most of their players were openly against. In both cases, there will be heavy expectations, perhaps too much for the shoulders of someone with no coaching experience. But hey, who needs a strong coach when your owner's James Dolan?

Everybody Hates Roy (and Russell) 
The narratives of two NBA stars continue to swing wildly, taking those of their teams with them as the internet's fickle masses chime in. Russell Westbrook and Roy Hibbert have been the targets for plenty of social media vitriol over the past few weeks; the former for his ostensible neglect of Kevin Durant, the latter for simply playing like garbage far too often.

Hibbert's case looks like a pretty clear mental disconnect, although it's difficult to call anything "clear" when discussing the often-misunderstood and largely-unexplored realms of the human mind. His sudden revival showed that he isn't completely broken, and Frank Vogel the Pacers need him to channel that level more if they're going to live up to expectations. Even then, through Indiana's disconnected play, with Hibbert in flux, Paul George randomly disappearing, Lance Stephenson being totally erratic, Luis Scola's uselessness, and the team having no idea how to even begin trying to score most nights, his best might not even be enough.

Westbrook is also a puzzling conundrum, but for different reasons. He is who he is; a highly-manic player who spends every possession hungrily attacking. Aside from insane athleticism and great skill, his game thrives on his primal, reckless instinct to take the ball from the other team and put it in their basket. It's a big part of what makes him arguably a Top-5 NBA player; a good thing an overwhelming majority of the time. . But a direct by-product of this mindset are his occasional defensive gambles and offensive tunnel-vision, segregating one of the best scorers ever.

The question's been posed many times if the Thunder would be better suited trading Westbrook; a risky proposition, due to both his top-tier value, and Sam Presti's track record on major trades. Dealing such an elite player in his prime is a tough concept for OKC to wrap their heads around, but the team seems stubbornly unwilling to break the luxury tax threshold (ask this guy) or amnesty Kendrick Perkins, and forking over the Max to a player whose absence they weathered very well this year might not be optimal. Any trade would hinge on this season's title chase and whether the franchise's lofty character arc can be fulfilled, but it wouldn't be totally illogical if the Thunder fall short.

Westbrook's Westbrookness is a smaller problem than some critics make it out to be, and one that virtually any team in the NBA would happily live with. But for the Thunder - who ran their offense almost entirely through Kevin Durant and Reggie Jackson this year, scoring 106 ppg - you can't help but wonder if giving Durant more shots and bolstering other positions would be a bad idea.

Of course, Scott Brooks' either unwillingness or inability to run any kind of coherent offense with these two dynamic talents is perhaps the bigger issue for the Thunder; that they can still maybe win a title in spite of his coaching is a testament to just how good Westbrook and Durant really are.

Fun Police: The Refs and Knowing Your Role

There's a serious problem visibly eating away at the integrity of the NBA.

No, it's not PED abuse, nor is it fighting and injury scandal; the typical type of topics plaguing professional sports. Nor is it thuggery and violence, the kind of issues that cynics blindly point to as prevalent because their rare instances make headlines. And as ridiculous as it's becoming, it's not even the laziness/incompetence that's slowly corrupting the League's award process.

This one is right in front of our eyes: The refs are stealing the show. David Stern's let the Elephants out of the pen, and we're all suffering because of it.

They're blowing calls. They're making inconsistent rulings. They're wildly suppressing emotion with the ever-looming threat of the dreaded T-Bomb, and in the worst cases, taking the game out of the players' hands in the most crucial moments. It's over-zealous. It's obstructive. It's bullshit. It's been subtly happening for years, but this season, it's getting intolerably out of hand.

Things hit a boiling point last night when veteran official Dan Crawford felt the need to set an authoritative tone in the ECF with three early T's on the Celtics over a seven minute-span; all for seemingly innocent, natural reactions during the course of an intense Playoff game. On the next dead ball, an irately perplexed Doc Rivers -clearly trying to calm every searing nerve in his body - approached the official seeking reason, but fell on deaf ears and crossed arms as Crawford stood there without even acknowledging him. Go Home Team! Clearly Crawford needed to get over himself last night; remember that players are allowed to dislike a call and that his role is to maintain a balanced, impartial playing field. Instead he, and far too many other refs, have seemingly formed a reckless Gestapo of dubiousness.

The irrelevant question is whether this is a result of David Stern over or under-exerting his control over the refs. The obvious answer is that he needs to, for lack of a more eloquent delivery, tighten his shit up.

The NBA was very lucky to escape the Donaghy Saga with as little damage as they did, despite his repeated attempts to expose what he alleged was referee corruption on a much larger scale. The consequent efforts to ease the minds of pundits and conspiracy theorists, hell to assure all of us that the refs are on the up and up, has been sluggish to be generous. It's understandable that calls get fucked up, but not to such an extent, and not when the games matter most, and as such, the most eyes are on the NBA.

What happened last night manages to delve even deeper: Referees holding such an Orwellian grip on a game's course compromises a large part of basketball's appeal. It's an emotional game: not only does it nearly-perfectly combine strength and agility in a momentous, swing-heavy competition, but players are much more personable; exposed fully without pads, helmets and visors. The NBA delivering its best product depends on these players being fully invested in the contest; not perpetually concerned about lingering whistles.

It's time to let the players play. Hopefully whoever manages the @NBA Twitter account caught wind of all the hysteria last night. And hopefully that person isn't a total pushover. Because the League can only suffer if nothing's done.

Fight For Your Right! Sacramento and the US Get Theirs

What a glorious Monday!

I say that somewhat facetiously because a) it's Monday, b) it's really shitty outside, and c) I just had a week in Vegas get thwarted (the post from the Bellagio sports book would've been something else...). But last night marked the culmination of the most epic wild goose chase of all time; the US finally tracked down Osama Bin Laden, and gave him what was hopefully the slowest death possible. Any day marking the end of the most heinous terrorist alive is one worth celebrating, and although this completes the prime objective of the vague and much-sidetracked "War on Terror", it hardly eliminates the threat that looms worldwide. We can only pray that the images of 9/11 remain horrifying memories that are never re-lived, and that those who have to live in constant fear of violence can be liberated by this endeavor.

On a much smaller scale, but still importantly, today also marks a massive victory for small-market NBA teams, as the Maloof brothers have agreed to keep the Kings in Sacramento for at least the next year while All-Star turned Mayor Kevin Johnson tries to cobble together the cash to keep the team around. The Maloofs say they were swayed by fan support and enthusiasm from several local wallets, but the Commish could have also -to a certain degree- finally put his foot down against owners being idiots with their money and shipping a franchise to the most attractive market to stop the bleeding, leaving a city of pissed-off fans and making everybody look bad. In either case, what was once the Association's most rabid fanbase can attempt to hold onto their only major sports team (hell, even their WNBA team folded) and find a new arena.

Aside from being a nice moral plus to a league that's never long on good PR, the non-move sets a valid precedent for owners, fans and local authorities. Hats off to KJ and his band of local businessmen. It's the closest save in recent memory, and proof that the right combination of enthusiasm and money can save a team from stupidity and greed. Well, unless this happens.

Back on the court, the 2nd Round got underway yesterday, with the Heat and Grizzlies pulling out impressive wins, with slight assists from some bad officiating and worse crunch-time decision making from Russell Westbrook;

Becoming the first 8-seed to first strike blood in Round 2 solidified Memphis as a threat. They frustrated the Thunder on D, moved the ball extremely well, and got a truly scary performance from their post duo. I immediately regret saying what I did about this series being a walk, but I also seriously doubt OKC will play worse than they did in Game 1 for the rest of this series. Westbrook was simply atrocious down the stretch, turning the ball over whenever he wasn't forcing bad shots and freezing out KD, who you know, only went on a personal 14-4 run to win their last game. No biggie.

Boston looked gassed against a Heat team that came out with too much intensity, and too much Dwyane Wade. A lot was made of Wade's regular-season struggles against the Celts (and his consequent 3-hour pregame shootaround), but he completely torched them yesterday, and harassed Ray Allen on every cut. The Celtics' D keyed in on him too much, leaving James Jones open for the easiest 25 points of his life. The story of this game was of course Pierce's questionable ejection, which punctuated a scrappy game and set the tone for serious rivalry. Furthermore, it highlights a league-wide crackdown on players' emotions that's, honestly, pretty f***ing stupid. Stupid, not only because of situations like this where a team's go-to scorer sat out the final minutes of a playoff game on a bad call, but because NBA basketball, especially in the playoffs, is an emotional contest that thrives off of players being 100% invested in the game. Putting the players on such a short leash, under constant scrutiny for getting into it with each other, can't be a healthy trend for a league facing a lockout.

But all complaints aside, today's about something bigger than basketball. Justice and a purpose were served in high order when Bin Laden took the Big L. Hopefully it's not the last step towards eradicating the type of hatred that continues to breed conflict.

The Donaghy Chronicles: Episode 283

Long after David Stern and any optimistic basketball fan would've hoped he'd have faded from our collective consciences, Tim Donaghy still lingers as a threat to the integrity of the NBA. Apparently he's got a book now, which names names and points fingers, painting a detailed picture of corrupt officiating rooted in gambling and personal prejudice. Along with the book's release came the requisite media tour, and in a recent interview with ESPN's Mark Schwarz, Donaghy sheds more light on the alleged crookedness than we ever saw during his investigation and trial: (the following are direct quotes from the former ref)

When asked which of the major pro sports is most easily manipulated by referees:
"I don't think there's any doubt that it's basketball...because of the subjectivity of the calls and the ability given to the top referees...and the fact is that they're not held accountable for the calls on the court."

Okay, this much we know. The NBA's senior refs have been accused of favored officiating by conspiracy (conSpuracy?) theorists for years. Donaghy's absolutely right that the refs aren't held accountable; the officiating in varies too wildly in this league and only in overt, game-deciding measures will the front office ever come out and say the refs fucked something up. This results in unpredictable play and the "subjectivity" Donaghy speaks of; it's not fair to players or fans (I won't even start on the gamblers) that the Sternbot's cronies leave so much autonomy to the crews that work each game.

When asked how often games' outcomes are being affected by officiating:
"...On a nightly basis the games were changed" "Most of it was subtle, but there were situations where...those subtle changes evolved into something very drastic."

How drastic? Well we already know TD bet on games that he officiated, making many thousands of dollars (and countless sums for his mob affiliates) by fudging questionable calls and technical fouls that influenced the spread of close games. But, like an ...It Was Written track, it gets deeper...

"For example (in 2007)...Allen Iverson threatened one of our top referees...the group of officials was upset that he was only fined and not suspended...we came to the conclusion that we were gonna do a little justice of our own and strictly enforce certain rules against him." "He (the NBA-appointed crew supervisor) came in at halftime and he was laughing and stated that he felt Iverson was getting the message...It was done often..and that's what allowed me to make winning picks in a lot of these games."

This is where things get a little more concerning. That the refs occasionally showed bias against a superstar with a high-profile attitude problem is obvious...But if it's happening to other players and often enough for Donaghy and who knows who else to be betting heavily on its outcome? Let's hear him out:

(on Rasheed Wallace) "Nobody liked him...it was just a situation where at times we would joke around and see who would be able to do it first" ('it' meaning hit Sheed with a tech. Kinda makes this seem a little more legit). There were others too; Donaghy names Ron Artest and Chauncey Billups (?!) as other prominent targets of referee discrimination, but alludes to the practice as being all too common: "...It all depends on the referee and the situation and the previous games".

This is where alarms really start to go off; when a former inside man, who despite his past indiscretions seems very sincere in his stance, alleges that personal vendettas are regularly influencing officiating. This goes beyond the scope of the lone-acting rogue Donaghy was cast as several years ago when news of this scandal first surfaced. The League's top brass wasted little time with an 'investigation' that threw TD on the grenade to shelter the rest of its officials. Their strategy was understandable; any other approach would even further embellish an already delicate situation and forever taint the league's credibility. With steroids plaguing baseball and football, fighting raising red flags in hockey, the NBA could dodge a critical blow by downplaying this issue.

What Stern & Co. didn't do was effectively regulate this trend and impose impartiality on its refs. A year later, the League was forced to suspend one of its top officials for maliciously targeting the game's most mild-mannered star. Two years later, wild officiating plagued the opening rounds of the playoffs, resulting in a rash of suspensions for players who couldn't have known what to expect. That this is still being allowed to happen is pretty fucking sloppy.

When asked to respond to David Stern's statement that he acted alone in corrupt officiating: "...He needs to take his head out of the sand". He stops short of directly implicating other refs in gambling, but his new book 'Personal Foul' makes allegations against some of the NBA's most prominent officials, substantiating the fears many fans have had for years. The League's referees have gotten far too comfortable; it's offensive to think that their personal motives, whether financial or vengeful, are taking the game out of the players' hands.

It's remained to be seen how the League reacts to this latest chapter in their ongoing saga with Mr. Donaghy. They've done a relatively poor job of regulating consistency in officiating, particularly in the postseason, and need to create a more objective culture. Donaghy may or may not have been the only one lining his pockets on fixed calls, but if there's any truth to his story, crookedness well beyond his reach might be fucking up the NBA. The Commish has been very good at steering clear of disaster over his 25-year term; if any of this bullshit is still festering in the League's bowels, he'd best do like Donaghy and make "subtle changes" before it "evolves into something very drastic".