NBA Open Thread

I wanted to talk about something other than the Nets tonight for our Tuesday NBA open thread, but then they went and fired Steve Nash.

What a mess.

I don’t really know why Nash got this job in the first place–he had zero coaching experience and really was just a white guy who worked hard as a player, which we all know turns on dumb racist billionaire sports owners. This is usually an NFL move more than an NBA move though. Nash seems like a good guy generally and I feel bad for him. I don’t really think he managed this team well–but who could have!

Let’s look at the cast of characters:

First, you have a mentally ill point guard whose illness make him petrified to shoot the ball. Amazingly, James Harden–who is insane in the other, not mentally ill way–is who they traded for Ben Simmons and Harden is the more stable, functional one!

Second, you have the enormous crybaby Kevin Durant who is never happy and constantly trying to find his way to a new place, which the Nets refused to accommodate in this offseason. Notably, Durant has only ever won when he hitched his wagon to an already dominant Golden State team. You know this bugs the hell out of him. He’s so addicted to his profile and reputation on social media, he’s probably going to read this post and whine about it publicly.

Third, you have Kyrie Irving, the lunatic anti-Semite anti-vaxxer who shows as much leadership as a rock, plays about that much defense too, and is so weird and offputting that he’s why Harden wanted out of there. Sure, he has the great ball skills, but those skills ain’t getting younger and he’s a bigger freak by the day with zero accountability at all.

Fourth, you have Joseph Tsai, the Nets owner for whom accountability in his players has never been something to concern yourself with. So no matter how crazy and terrible Kyrie gets, it’s always others who get blamed. Maybe he throws a few words at Irving but nothing ever really happens to him.

And now, not only do they fire Nash, but they are going to hire Ime Udoka, recently suspended by the Celtics for massive violation of the team’s professional conduct policy after having an affair with a woman on staff!!!! Now that’s going to lead to serious accountability and a whole new attitude from the team!!!

What’s next, do they go and sign the flasher Josh Primo?

But hey, at least there aren’t any Jews in Brooklyn, so what do the Nets have to lose by letting Kyrie run free?

I hate this Nets team. In fact, I hate all the teams of put together superstars who choose to play in one place. This is why I can’t hate Golden State–almost the entire team is guys they drafted. Even Andrew Wiggins had disappointed earlier in his career before Golden State got him. They did it the right way.

This might sound anti-player, but it’s not. It’s pro-fan. In the end, most basketball fans root for a team that is not in Los Angeles, New York, or Miami. As a Blazers fan, you know damn well you are never going to sign a major free agent since they aren’t going to live by choice in White Paradise, Oregon. I get that and that’s fine. You have to make your peace with the racism of your fan base and I’ve done that. But you want to at least have a chance if you develop your own players to a reasonable extent and compete if you can. Now, there are plenty of other reasons the Blazers haven’t been close to a title in three decades, but the point is the same for fans of Utah, Minnesota, Denver, Oklahoma City, etc. Small market teams in largely white markets are at a disadvantage here and it’s a bummer if you are a fan of these teams. This is why I am so happy for the Bucks. They represent what at least theoretically could happen, especially if your big star buys into the city, as Dame as for Portland.

At the same time though, I don’t really mind when a team develops a good player or two and then signs a top notch free agent. At least the core is something you put together. The Heat built around Dwayne Wade before signing LeBron and Bosh, for example. In the end, it was always Wade’s team. Same with the Lakers and Kobe when they signed Shaq. But teams like the current Nets and Lakers, where NONE of the major players are homegrown, well that definitely bugs me. That these teams are currently sucking and there is an unprecedented level of parity in the league right now (I feel there are 8-10 legit teams that could win and they are fairly random in terms of market and team structure and recent history) makes me very happy. It might be an anomaly that ends when three great players all get together and decide to sign with the Knicks or Bulls or Heat. But I’ll take the NBA as it now stands. Which means a shitty Nets team filled with freaks that can’t play together or play defense at all.

I was originally going to talk about how oddly good Utah has been, but that can wait til next week. Plus it’s only two weeks into the season so we’ll see how long that can last.