The league’s stars come out complaining
We’re about to find out who is driving the bus in places like Chicago and Cleveland
There is no question the NBA is a player- and star-driven league and when the best lash out, people sit up and take notice.
This week provided a perfect example of some of the top players in the league firing off salvoes at teammates, coaches and management while trying to affect some kind of change.
The circumstances are a bit different — one team is very good, the other is very average — but stars went off about four weeks before the trade deadline with loud protestations about the their team’s fortunes. Players know how much weight their words carry and they know management listens, so it will be interesting to see what transpires with the rosters of the Chicago Bulls and Cleveland Cavaliers.
It is no secret that the Bulls are a mess. They blew a 10-point lead with two minutes to go and lost to Atlanta on Wednesday; Rajon Rondo has been effectively benched as they lurch from point guard to point guard; and now Dwyane Wade and Jimmy Butler are killing their teammates in a very public manner.
“I’m 35 years old, I have three championships,” Wade said after the loss to Atlanta.
“It shouldn’t hurt me more than it hurts these young guys. They have to want it. I can look at Jimmy and say Jimmy is doing his job. I think Jimmy can look at me and say Dwyane is doing his job. I don’t know if we can keep going down the line and be able to say that.” Butler was just as harsh: “I want to play with guys who care,” he said.
How the Bulls go about salvaging the season — they were 23-23 and barely in the playoff picture going into play Thursday night — will be determined in large part by the way management reacts to the blistering criticisms of the team’s top two players. Some of the anger was simple frustration but the words of stars carry a lot of weight. The Bulls have under-achieved after adding Wade and Rondo in the summer and have to be considered one of the conference’s big disappointments.
To add even more intrigue to the Chicago situation, Rondo lashed out at Wade and Butler on Thursday, questioning their motives for their post-game commens.
In a post on his Instagram account, Rondo said “my vets would never go to the media. They would come to the team.”
Meanwhile, the Cavaliers are going through a huge slump, losers of six of their last eight games, and it has LeBron James up in arms. Given his status in the league and with that franchise, James is impossible to ig- nore.
“We’re not better than last year from a personnel standpoint,” he said after a loss this week. “I just hope sthat we’re not satisfied as an organization.”
The Cavs have already made one substantial move in picking up Kyle Korver at little cost to augment their shooting but James’s cry for addi- tional help is sure to catch the attention of upper management.
General manager David Griffin fired back at James, suggesting it was “misguided” to think the organization was complacent but he is most likely trolling the league to at least look at a desperately needed backup point guard and some frontcourt help.