August is NBA’s silly season
We’d like to thank the Oakland A’s for saving the month of August. There’s nothing fake, awkward or deceiving about their performance, which is more than one can say about the NFL — staging exhibition games that injure players for no good reason and should be completely wiped off the schedule — or the NBA, now in its Silly Season.
With all of the major transactions completed and training camp a bit down the road, the NBA exists in a climate of boredom, rich in ridiculous comments. Portland’s CJ McCollum has taken the lead,
criticizing Kevin Durant and DeMarcus Cousins for joining the Warriors’ powerhouse.
“Disgusting,” is how McCollum described the Warriors on Chinese television. “Most guys have too much pride, want to really win on their own or in their certain organizations and aren’t going to just jump the bandwagon.”
Really? Let’s see how McCollum feels after three more title-free years in Portland. That would give him eight seasons in the league, nearly as long as it took for Durant to make a completely understandable move. Durant may be obsessive with his social-media behavior, but to question him as a man is to dial a very wrong number. Meanwhile, Cousins hasn’t sniffed a playoff game in his NBA career, pockmarked by an eternity of misery in Sacramento, but he doesn’t deserve to get a little taste?
McCollum should study up on his history, and the fact that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar orchestrated a trade to the Lakers (from Milwaukee, in 1975), to better his career and lifestyle; McCollum should feel fortunate if he has even a
shred of Abdul-Jabbar’s integrity. Wilt Chamberlain forced the Philadelphia 76ers to trade him to the Lakers and create the league’s first “super
team,” with Jerry West and Elgin Baylor, and although that didn’t quite work out — Baylor retired with knee problems early in the 1971-72 season — West and Chamberlain brought home the Lakers’ long-awaited title.
Move now to the L.A. Clippers, who fired television broadcaster Bruce Bowen — reportedly over his critical comments about Kawhi
Leonard. Bowen, a teammate of Leonard’s in San Antonio, openly questioned Leonard’s loyalty to the organization and suggested he was getting bad advice from his “group.”
Bowen’s opinions didn’t seem so far-fetched, but the Clippers feel they’re in line to sign Leonard on the free-agent market next summer, so it’s full-on paranoia time. Same old Clippers, bumbling and stumbling at every turn. (And if Leonard chooses the Clippers over the Lakers because he doesn’t want to be overshadowed by LeBron James, he’s out of his mind). Finally, there was Isaiah
Thomas, who published a video in which he obscenely trashes the city of Cleveland and muses, “I can see why LeBron left — again.” Of course, Thomas backtracked on everything, but sorry — too late. He meant what he said, and as James builds a charter school for at-risk kids in his native Akron, Ohio, with plans to move back to Ohio at career’s end, Thomas looks quite the lesser man.
Call it right
According to the rulebook, the definition of a “high strike” is a midpoint between the batter’s shoulders and the top of the uniform pants. Translation: the lettering across his chest. That familiar call, “Strike three, right at the letters” is mostly a myth these days. Umpires consistently remove that weapon from a pitcher’s arsenal. It’s true that strict adherence would create more strikeouts — an alarming trend that worsens each year — but it would also cut down on the launch-angle craze and get more hitters focused on fundamental hitting, not trying to launch every damn pitch into the galaxy. The really good hitters crush the high strike, but for those interested only in a pronounced uppercut, it’s almost impossible to drive. Somebody straighten out the umps on this one — and fix those little strike-zone boxes digitally imposed on the screen. Too often, the top of that strike-zone box is right around the hitter’s belt . ... Interesting to note, with Houston in town to face the A’s: The Astros had J.D. Martinez in their 2014 spring training camp. He hadn’t shown much in the major leagues, but he arrived with a new swing he’d developed during winter league in Venezuela. The Astros didn’t buy it — Martinez claims they were too obsessed with past analytics — and released him outright. Got nothing in return. Now, with the Red Sox, he’s an MVP candidate and the most feared opposite-field power hitter since Mike Piazza
. ... Heroic manager of the week: Arizona’s Torey Lovullo, who let Clay Buchholz finish a no-walk, five-hit masterpiece against San Diego on Thursday night. Imagine that: Somebody cleared 100 pitches (Buchholz threw 112) and the manager decided he’d just go ahead and watch the game.
When baseball was played properly: Game 7 of the 1960 World Series was one of the wildest in history. The Pirates outslugged the Yankees 10-9, winning it on Bill Mazeroski ’s epic home run in the bottom of the ninth. There were 24 hits in the game and only five walks, because hitters were predominantly aggressive in those days and went after the first good pitch they saw. Strikeouts registered: none. And the time of game, interrupted for some 10 minutes after Yankees shortstop Tony
Kubek took a bad hop in the throat: 2:36 . ... Would love to hear more managers come out in favor of exuberance and celebrations, as the Phillies
Gabe Kapler did with si.com. “I like emotion in baseball,” he said. “I like players celebrating, I like high fives, I like bat flips. I don’t believe in everybody has to be the same. I loved Matt Williams’ style. When he used to hit a home run and put his head down and run around the bases, I thought, ‘that’s really cool,’ but I would not like to have everybody be like Matt Williams.” ... Postscript: When the mood struck Williams in exhibition settings during his days with the Giants, he’d stuff a pillow underneath his jersey, imitate Babe Ruth’s home run swing and run around the bases in an animated fashion recalling ancient black-and-white footage. One of the funniest things I ever saw.