What a weekend it was — buzzer beaters from Paul Pierce and LeBron James, a foulfest in the Rockets-Clippers yawnfest, not a peep out of future ESPN castoff Bill Simmons … but a mouthful from LeBron James, who threw David Blatt under the bus again. And rightfully so.
I’ve known Blatt longer than any U.S.-based journalist covering basketball, and this site has reported on his successes overseas more than any other American basketball Web site. When he won the Euroleague Final Four a year ago with Maccabi Tel Aviv, our Eurohoops expert, A.J. Mitnick, wrote an open letter to Phil Jackson imploring the New York Knicks to hire him, since his track record speaks for itself.
I was in Madrid in 2007 when Blatt coached Russia to a gold medal game victory over the home team, Spain, in the finals of Eurobasket. I had dinner with him in Shanghai in 2008 on the way to the Beijing Olympics. I was in Istanbul in 2010 when Blatt made the mistake of telling U.S. reporters that the Soviet Union had rightfully won the 1972 Olympic gold medal game at the Munich Olympics — a comment that will never be forgotten by the likes of Doug Collins and Mike Bantom, whose silver medals are still sitting unclaimed in a vault in Switzerland and will remain there in perpetuity.
That episode in Turkey taught me one thing about Blatt. He is a contrarian, and he likes being a contrarian — like a lot of American ex-pats. He thinks out of the box, which sometimes is his greatest strength and sometimes is his greatest weakness. He thinks he is the smartest guy in the room every time he is in a room, and sometimes he overthinks things and makes mistakes.
Sunday was one such instance.
Blatt should be thanking his lucky stars that the referees did not see him signaling for a timeout when the Cavs had none remaining in the final seconds of Sunday’s thriller against the Bulls. Had that timeout been called, the Bulls would have shot a technical free throw that could have given them a one-point lead and received possession.
And then, after the officials went to the replay monitor to reset the clock from 0.8 seconds to 1.5 seconds, Blatt had the opportunity to draw up a final inbounds play. He told LeBron James to inbound the ball, and James quickly showed him who is the real boss in Cleveland. And that is why Matthew Dellevadova was the player who got the assist on James’ game-winning basket at the buzzer.
“He’s catching heat because he’s coaching me, that’s all that is,” James said Monday.
Kudos to James for talking some sense into his coach … but why was James so quick to let everyone know that he had overruled Blatt?
The best explanation I can offer is that James does not appear to fully respect his rookie coach, who was hired late last spring before LeBron made Decision II and decided to return to his roots in Northeast Ohio. Would he have told the whole world if he had overruled Erik Spoelstra when he played for the Miami Heat? Don’t think so.
Some things are better left unspoken, but James wasted no time letting everyone know in the postgame press conference that Blatt had tried to make him the inbounder.
Do I have a problem with this?
Actually, no. I don’t.
I am all about transparency and integrity, and when Blatt does something stupid like he did Sunday, it is beneficial to everyone to know the full, true story. So a note of thanks to LeBron for throwing Blatt under the bus. It was deserved.
“No different than a great quarterback calling an audible,” James said.
Next, let’s turn to the Hack-a-DJ travesty that unfolded in Los Angeles and made Teletubbies a more watchable alternative, even without hallucinogens. The Hack-a-Strategy is totally out of control and is sapping what little flow that already existed from the game of basketball. If this was happening on David Stern’s watch, you can bet your bottom dollar he’d be advocating for a change to the rules, and advocating both strongly and publicly. Adam Silver is mum on the subject, and when we eventually hear from him, he will give utter some version of his favorite line — “We are studying this very closely” — without taking a strong position one way or another.
Sooner or later, the NBA will change the rule to get rid of the intentional foul rule as it is currently worded.
What is happening in this postseason is making a travesty out of the game, and this cannot go on. I predict they’ll change the rule this summer.
In the meantime, let’s all take a moment to reflect on who told the truth this weekend, consequences be damned. It was the 30-year-old from Akron, who not only is the best player in the game, but also is the most honest man in the league.
More on these issues in this interview with Noah Coslov of Cinesport:
Chris Sheridan is publisher and editor-in-chief of SheridanHoops.com. Follow him on Twitter.
How about Dwight and DJ just make thier free throws?
Re: Hack-a-DJ; well, it did happen on Stern’s watch with Hack-a-Shaq, right? And Stern did nothing. I vaguely recall him mentioning the competition committee and no resolution. I love the NBA playoffs and have caught almost all the games, but I switched off the tv right before halftime of the Clips-Rockets. I would love to know the viewership changes during the course of the game – do you have those #’s? I can’t believe a private phone call from Silver to the Rockets owner – “knock it off (or I’ll remember)” – wouldn’t do the trick. And finally, is McHale toast as coach?
I don’t disagree with the opinions. Totally agree. However, I do disagree with the amateurish self-serving cheapshot fired at Vecsey more than three years after the fact. Everybody knows that Vecsey still carries his grudges like a sportswriting Michael Jordan, but I think the pro basketball world has now been enlightened as to who else involved in past journalism disputes still has a major bug up his ass.
I guess Vecsey isn’t the only guy (see: Hall of Fame speech) who can’t resist the temptation to whip out the Agent Orange flamethrower at the wrong time and in the wrong place.
I wonder if LeBron would have taken credit for overruling Blatt if he had missed the shot…?