How did nobody see the Hawks coming?
I’m not saying anybody should have expected them to have already surpassed last season’s win total, or have the best record in the NBA, or go undefeated in January, or any of the other feats they’ve managed, but still, they’ve been a perennial playoff team, Mike Budenholzer earned raves last season, and Al Horford missed most of last season.
Looking back, it seems almost bizarre that nobody looked at them as even being in the Raptors/Wizards group of trendy picks behind the presumptive favorites, Cleveland and Chicago.
But then you remember what people were talking about last summer when they talked about the Hawks: comments from the owner and GM (in separate incidents) that were, at best, racially insensitive.
That’s the subject of this column from the AP’s Paul Newberry:
Even one of his harshest critics, who led the protests against Ferry after the general manager’s racially charged comments about Luol Deng, gives credit where credit is due.
“Clearly, Danny Ferry is largely responsible for putting together the winning team that we are enjoying here in the Atlanta community,” the Rev. Markel Hutchins told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Friday.
That said, there is essentially zero chance of Ferry returning to the team he created.
Not this season.
Not ever.
“I certainly hope that Danny Ferry gets a job as a general manager somewhere else,” Hutchins said. “He has expressed what I believe is sincere repentance off the court. Nobody should be condemned forever. He deserves restoration. But,” he quickly added, “that should not happen with the Atlanta Hawks.”
Ferry went on indefinite leave in September, just a few days after the scandal broke, and has been in limbo ever since. He’s apologized through public statements, met with civil rights leaders in private, and paid a huge price for repeating bigoted comments about Deng that someone else wrote in a scouting report.
Now, nearly five months removed from the initial furor, Ferry has clearly suffered enough for his sin.
“I would welcome him with open arms,” said Hawks forward DeMarre Carroll, one of many players Ferry brought to Atlanta. “I don’t feel he’s a racist. I think he genuinely learned from his mistakes.”
It’s an uncomfortable subject, to be sure, but the can of worms is still sitting there, and sooner or later, somebody’s got to open it. It’s got to be good for the Hawks that they’ve managed to keep a potential distraction out of the public eye, though.
Here’s the rest of the latest news from around the NBA:
JOSH SMITH RETURNS TO DETROIT
Before the bit I’m about to excerpt, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports describes the scene when Smith found out he was being waived. It’s obviously something no player wants to go through, but it’s turned out to be one of those win-win-win moves: the Pistons are better without Smith, Smith is better without the Pistons, and the Rockets are better for having Smith.
Smith returns to play the Pistons in Auburn Hills tonight, and he’s playing his best basketball in years. The Rockets haven’t imploded with Smith. They’ve thrived with him. The idea of a contract extension this summer appeals to him, because the roster is talented and deep, his role’s increasingly defined and most of all: “I’m comfortable here,” Smith told Yahoo Sports.
They’ve accepted everything about Josh Smith, and that means everything to him. He’s been a rim protector and a rebounder, a defender and driver. Give us your three-pointers, the Rockets told him. He’s making them, too. Now, everything’s quieter. The Rockets, and the winning, give him a platform for people to talk about everything he does so well, not his flaws.
People came for Smith in ways that confounded him, the ferocity and vitriol for so-called crimes on basketball that felt like the force of something else, something worse. “You know, I’m not a guy walking around with DUIs on my record, or bar fights,” Smith told Yahoo Sports. “I think they expect that out of me. I mean, I understand criticism comes with this, but … I feel sometimes like I did something harmful to somebody’s kid.
“I have thick skin. But when analysts talk, including NBA analysts who played the game, they act like they didn’t have any flaws in their game. They played perfect, and no one criticized their game.”
KEVIN LOVE ALSO RETURNED TONIGHT
The former Wolves forward was roundly booed, but Jesus Gomez of SB Nation explained why he probably shouldn’t have been:
Love will probably be booed because he didn’t leave on great terms but there’s a case to be made that he shouldn’t be. He obviously wasn’t solely responsible for the years of bad basketball in Minnesota, and while he didn’t handle his exit from the franchise well, he did produce a great return. Andrew Wiggins looks like a potential star and thanks to Love’s departure. Thanks to some bad injury luck this season, Timberwolves could also have the first pick in the upcoming draft.
“Part of our organization, when we made that trade with Love, it was Wiggins,” Flip Saunders told Britt Robson of the MinnPost in an interview recently. “This might sound stupid, based on our record, but someone asked me, ‘Are you closer to a championship today than you were a year ago?’ and I said ‘Yeah.’ Because there was no way – there was not as much upside with the team last year.”
While thinking about championships is beyond premature in Minnesota, that’s undeniably true. The core the Timberwolves had in place simply wasn’t good enough.w
It’s even possible to say that Love got the raw end of the deal. Love forced his way to Cleveland only to see the scrutiny increase significantly, with everyone focusing on his flaws. That would have been a worthy trade-off for a championship but the Cavaliers might not be ready for that yet despite a recent surge. Love went from making the All-Star game as a starter last season to not making it at all this year. His reputation has taken a huge hit. The boos won’t be anything compared to the amount of vitriol casual fans are directing at him.
DEMARCUS COUSINS HAS NEVER BEEN ARRESTED
That really shouldn’t be news, but here’s why it is.
Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee:
There is no such thing as a throwaway post on social media.
Just ask Clay Travis, who tweeted this about Kings center DeMarcus Cousins on Jan. 30, 2010, when Cousins was a freshman at Kentucky:
“There is a 100% chance that Demarcus Cousins is arrested for something in the next five years. 100%. Write it in stone.”
Friday was the five-year mark of that post, and Cousins was sent a screenshot of Travis’ post.
Cousins, who has not been arrested, posted on his Instagram and Twitter accounts “Today’s the day!! Let’s all show him some love!! @ClayTravisBGID” with a picture of the prediction he’d be arrested
That turned Travis, now a blogger for Fox Sports, into a trending topic across the country.
“I take a lot of things personally, especially something like that,” Cousins said. “I hate when guys judge someone from his job and you try to make that his personality as a person. I think that’s completely unfair.”
Travis took the post in stride, even pledging to donate $5,000 to the charity of Cousins’ choice.
Ferry should just return to officially being the GM of the Hawks yesterday. No one will notice, except maybe a few PC Police, but the public like myself with call them out for what they really are: Reverse McCarthyism at its worse. Had he made a similar remark (in private) about a Europe player, no one would have cared. The private remark wasn’t even about Race, but an ethnic stereotype that has some truth as its basis. Good friend from before Duke days, Billy King, immediately said that “Danny is the furthest thing from a Racist”, but the sports media wouldn’t cover that remark.
Ferry didn’t do anything wrong. Nothing. It was a private meeting that he was reading from his scouting report, likely written by someone (originally from the Bulls organization (according to Chris Sheridan) who knew Deng well). The truth is that Ferry was being stabbed in the back, by one of the minority owners, who had an agenda to get rid of Ferry as well as the majority owner. Once again that isn’t the story that the Media wants to tell. The whole country just lived through months of lies and “Race Baiting” being told through the Media, at Ferguson and then NY Mayor de Blasio.
Enough is enough. Its time to take a stand for what is right, and not be cowards, afraid of the PC Police. Unfortunately, because its Atlanta and the NBA involved, it looks like the PC police will win again, and the Media will be on their side.