Discord inNBA rearsuglyhead forall to witness
By Christopher Dempsey, The Denver Post
These are testy times in the NBA. The gloves are coming off. Octagons are rising out of ash. Coaches are jousting with coaches on staff, players are verbally squaring off with coaches, players are increasingly more irritated with other players.
And though it has a suck-you-in reality showquality to it, it’s just not a good look for the league.
First-year Brooklyn Nets coach Jason Kidd’s differences with assistant Lawrence Frank led to a very public demotion of the man they once begged to join the staff. Minnesota’s Kevin Love took his teammates to task through the media for not joining a huddle and then one of the offenders, J.J. Barea, shot back wishes of things being aired behind closed doors.
Swaggy P, a.k.a. Los Angeles Lakers guardNick Young, was miffed his teammates didn’t spring to his defense during a recent scrap inwhich he threwa punch— leading to a suspension. Then there is the ongoing J.R. Smith vs. MikeWoodson saga in NewYork, the feuding player and coachwho cannot seem to get on the same page. That led to the threat of a trade, which led to Smith jabbing back through reporters, “If I can’t help the team, (there’s) no point in me being here.” And so on.
And, yes, even theNuggets, who are nowemploying a famous quote by formerNewYork Yankees manager Casey Stengel: “The secret of managing is to keep the guyswho hate you away from the guyswho are undecided.”
TheNuggets have kept disgruntled guard AndreMiller away from the team after he dressed down first-year coach Brian Shaw during a game at the Pepsi Center threeweeks ago. Millerwas upset about his playing time, or lack of it. TheNuggets are nowpaying him to stay away from the team.
Irritation around the league seems at an all-time high, but problem solving and sacrifice are running a tad bit low. LeBron James could teach a course on reconciliation: The MiamiHeat starwent after teammate Mario Chalmers in a huddle during a game this season, but a cooler King James prevailed. He apologized on the bench minutes later for his near in-your-face outburst.
Sure, some of this can be viewed as nothing outside the norm, but there is no denying the increasing public nature of these incidents. A proliferation of media exasperates many of these situations, but it doesn’t take more bloggers or tweeters to notice something going down right on the court in front of them.
More and more, coaches are put in public positions to have to keep their heads while players in this players’ league grow bolder and bolder in taking on authority while the cameras are rolling.
The best teams in the NBA aren’t just finding ways to keep the peace, they’re keeping their dirty laundry in-house, they’re keeping the lines of communication constantly open and they have players who don’t pout and shout at the first sign that their playing time is cut.
Problems arise in all organizations. The best franchises address the problem swiftly and thoroughly so that all parties can move forward with confidence that— even if they didn’t necessarily like the outcome— the issue was fairly addressed.
And yet, before issues arise it might be wise for the hotheads and potential hotheads to enact this famous quote:
“Can’t we all just get along?”