NBA Finals

Cultural reflections (6/13.07)

Last night’s 75-72 abomination in the third game of the NBA playoffs just narrowly missed breaking the all-time record for fewest total points in a final. You have to go back to 1955 and the days when Fort Wayne, Indiana was in the league to get a worse outcome and that was back in the days of set shots and supposedly far inferior athletes. What this current San Antonio Spurs/Cleveland Cavaliers mismatch is doing besides sending people racing away from their television sets is also spotlighting something that many people repeatedly miss when talking about and analyzing basketball at any and all levels. There is an enormous difference between being a great athlete and being a great basketball player. One doesn’t always equal the other, though when it does (people like Wilt Chamberlain, Michael Jordan, etc.) the results are phenomenal. But unfortunately so much of current pro basketball has become two-on-two isolation, walk the ball up the court and try to do a backdoor lob for a dunk. This in turn is pretty easy to defense, especially when you have a veteran, well-coached team that knows how to rotate people to open shooters quickly. San Antonio has simply decided to double, if necessary, triple-cover Lebron James and take their chances with everyone else. They also don’t fall off him the second he drives the lane the way the Pistons did. When James heads for the rim, people on both the weak and strong sides collapse, forcing him to either pass off or try to score over two or three people.

Sadly, there’s also been so much dubious rhetoric and coded discussion about basketball in general, and the NBA in particular, that now every statement made that’s remotely critical can be seized upon by either racists on one end or apologists on the other to cloud the issue. For instance any comment about athleticism is immediately deemed to be about black players, thus those who like to parrot stereotypes will hammer the tiresome line home all day long about the NBA only being about leaping and dunking. Anyone who’s ever seriously watched a host of people play from Bill Russell and Sam Jones to Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson, and on down the line knows there are tons of great African-American players who not only have mastered the physical side of basketball, but its mental one as well. Likewise, if you’ve spent any time at all watching European basketball, these guys don’t walk the ball up the floor. There’s plenty of fast-breaking, flashy passes and long-range shooting, because there’s not as much emphasis on strength and back-to-the-basket action. The Steve Nash’s of the world are really just playing the way NBA teams all used to play during the ‘60s and ‘70s. The old Boston Celtics, the first pro team by the way to start five black players, once averaged 120 points a game for an entire season. They ran, pressed, passed the ball all over the place, and never put on an exhibition remotely resembling the aberrations that are occurring now.

The point is that it is style, not race, that’s currently hurting pro basketball. While understanding that if the NBA were 75% white some of the criticism might be lessened, let’s consider the 90% plus white NHL, which is about to disappear off the pro sports map. There’s a league that has changed its rules, opened up its game, and is actually very entertaining, especially during the playoffs. Yet they just got the lowest ratings in NBC history for their climatic event, the Stanley Cup playoffs, a fact that also has something to do with markets and teams and all that stuff, but is still food for thought.

Instead of worrying about the length of player shorts and whether they’re wearing ties on the bench, David Stern ought to be hammering away at far more important issues germane to his league’s continued health. First, he should immediately call in the ownership groups at such inept franchises as New York, Atlanta, and Philadelphia and strongly urge them to improve the quality of drafting and scouting. Secondly, he should agitate for more coaches to embrace fast-break, attacking offense and pressing defense. Even if they don’t have the personnel to immediately change gears, at least they can start moving in that direction, because games where both teams haven’t passed the 50-point mark midway through the third quarter are immense turnoffs.

Finally, he should abandon the East/West nonsense and just make the playoffs a 1-16 proposition, doing everything possible to ensure the best match-ups across the board. When the first and second round games are markedly better than the finals, you have a major competitive problem. The first-round upset of Dallas did mess up the anticipated Dallas/Phoenix Western conference final, but there’s still no way a second-round series should be the glamour series. Setting aside the ridiculous application of an arcane rule that deep-sixed the Phoenix Suns, they shouldn’t have been playing San Antonio at that point anyhow.

I’m not even sure that I’ll be watching the fourth game Thursday night, or that I even care if Cleveland somehow extends the series. As someone who grew up watching the epic Russell/Chamberlain spectaculars, then was thrilled by the Bird/Magic/Jordan theatrics, that’s something that’s very difficult to say. But as great as LeBron James may become. looking at him dribbling the ball back and forth between his legs, one man on top of him and two others ready to converge in the lane if he moves an inch in any direction, doesn’t exactly thrill me.
Ron Wynn