Whenever there’s a dispute between management and workers in our devout capitalistic society, I tend to side with the laborers, whether it’s Starbucks vs. baristas, Amazon vs. drivers, hospitals vs. nurses or pro leagues vs. athletes.
Such calls are easy to make 99 percent of the time, and I lean toward the workforce in close cases. In the NBA, that means supporting the trend of player movement, a hot topic at the All-Star Game with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving as prime examples.
The Brooklyn Nets are a smoldering shell of the championship-contending unit we saw when the season began. In accommodating trade requests from Irving and Durant earlier this month, Brooklyn shocked the league and set off a fresh wave of complaints about power dynamics between players and teams. Durant, Irving, and James Harden — the Nets’ three recent All-Stars — all wanted out.
They’re all balling elsewhere as a result.
“I think that’s a bad thing,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said at his annual All-Star news conference. “I think it’s corrosive to the system. Certainly, fans don’t like it. Even lots of players don’t like it as well because, ultimately, they may be [signing with] a particular team under a belief that that player is still going to be there.”
Before we continue, let’s acknowledge that word usage is a huge part of the problem. The terms “trade request” and “trade demand” are not (necessarily) the same thing. But they’re often used interchangeably by fans and media, generating sympathy for owners.
If you ask to be shipped out, you can still play hard and conduct yourself as a professional. Your request doesn’t have to be followed by decreased productivity and increased negativity. And you don’t have to share your desire publicly; the team can (and will) leak that info if it’s beneficial.
Polite requests are perfectly fine and acceptable. Like the Bible says, sometimes you have not because you ask not.
Demands aren’t as nice. Rather, they’re nasty, confrontational ultimatums that suggest an “or else.” Maybe you become a cancer on the team and a no-show on the court; maybe you hold out or the team sends you home. Those time-honored strategies are the bare-knuckle tactics — slowdowns and strikes and lockouts — available in labor-management fights. Each side chooses its course of action and lives with the consequences.
That’s American business at its best and worst.
Last summer, Durant reportedly demanded that the Nets trade him or fire general manager Sean Marks and then-coach Steve Nash. But depending on the headline, Durant merely requested that owner Joe Tsai make a choice. Tsai supported Marks and Nash, and Durant rescinded whatever it was. Durant played at an MVP level until Irving’s request/demand was honored. Then Durant asked again to be traded and received his request.
Conversely, we know what time it is when players like Irving and Harden make trade “requests.” They might as well be demands because their rejection won’t be pretty. Harden essentially shut down on Houston and then Brooklyn to force his way out; Irving was expected to do likewise if the Nets didn’t send him to Dallas a few days before they sent Durant to Phoenix.
Unlike Silver, Durant thinks the player movement is a good thing.
“It’s bringing more eyes to the league, more people are more excited,” he said at the All-Star practice. “The tweets that I get — the news hits that we got from me being traded, Kyrie being traded — it just brings more attention to the league and that’s really what rakes the money in when you get more attention. So, I think it’s great for the league, to be honest.”
Irving is more concerned with individual players than the collective NBA.
“Why doesn’t anyone have the ability to ask for trades? That’s my question,” he said. “When did it become terrible to make great business decisions for yourself and your happiness and peace of mind? Not every employer you’re going to get along with, so if you have the chance to go somewhere else and you’re doing it legally, I don’t think there’s a problem with it.”
For the most part, he’s right.
A team can trade or cut players at any time, regardless of the players’ wishes and signed contracts. Fans understand the deal, realizing that their favorites can be dealt whenever the front office believes a move makes sense. We’re all accustomed to teams being in control, but some folks struggle with the concept of players enjoying a share.
Silver understands that a certain amount of movement is good and accepts the fact it’s not exclusively the teams’ call anymore. “You never want it to get to the point where a player’s literally demanding that he goes somewhere else,” he said, adding that the NBA hopes to “find the right balance.”
There’s rarely any balance between management and the workforce in American business.
Give it up for ballers if they’re able to create some.
For all we know, Eric Bieniemy could be the all-time sorriest hire as an NFL head coach.
If the Kansas City offensive coordinator ever got a chance, his tenure could stink worse than Nathaniel Hackett’s 4-11 with Denver or Kliff Kingsbury’s 28-37-1 with Arizona. He could do a lousier job than Adam Gase’s 9-23 with the New York Jets, or Joe Judge’s 10-23 with the New York Giants.
All of those coaches have been hired and fired since Bieniemy won his first Super Bowl as Kansas City’s offensive coordinator in 2019. He interviewed for several of those head coach jobs while waiting for his ring. Hell, he’s interviewed for 15 head coach jobs with 14 teams over the last four hiring cycles, but there he was Sunday, still in place winning another Super Bowl with the Chiefs.
Bieniemy absolutely might’ve been as terrible in Carolina if he’d beaten out Matt Rhule (fired at 11-27). But he also might’ve enjoyed success like Matt LaFleur (47-19 with Green Bay) or Zac Taylor (22-11 the last two seasons with Cincinnati). All secured their gigs since 2019; Bieniemy sipped champagne that season.
The NFL’s grip on America’s psyche leaves little room for competing interests. Football games routinely dominate TV ratings — 82 of the top 100 shows in 2022 — and the Super Bowl is tops each year. The league enjoys flexing its registered trademark: Companies can’t even use the term without paying up, which explains abundant commercials with references to “the Big Game.”
A Tennessee lawmaker has proposed legislation that would create a holiday each Monday after the Super Bowl, an acknowledgement that the economy already suffers from a hangover. Cincinnati Public Schools canceled classes last year ahead of the Bengals’ loss; Philadelphia-area districts instituted a preemptive two-hour delay this year.
Kansas City’s 38-35 victory might prompt Eagles fans to take the entire day.
I suspect many feel sick over the loss, particularly the late penalty that set up the Chiefs’ winning score with eight seconds left. We’ve definitely seen players get away with far worse than James Bradberry’s hindrance of JuJu Smith-Schuster, though the Philly defender admitted his guilt: “It was holding,” Bradberry told reporters afterward. “I tugged his jersey. I was hoping they would let it slide.”
The call left a bad taste in many viewers’ mouths after a thrilling and riveting contest, but Philly coach Nick Sirianni didn’t use it as an excuse. “I know it always appear to be that it’s one call that makes that game. That’s not what it is,” he said. Quarterback Jalen Hurts was of the same mind. “I don’t think this game is defined by one play, one play throughout the game or one call, whatever it was,” Hurts said.
Instead, the game was defined by heroic performances from the history-making Black quarterbacks, Patrick Mahomes, who now has two Super Bowl MVPs to accompany his two regular-season MVPs, and Hurts, who had a compelling case for Super Bowl MVP even in defeat.
Good times for sure. Unless we’re talking about enemies of Black history.
Those whitewashers in Florida and elsewhere seek to eliminate — or severely diminish — the story of Black people, places and events. They don’t want any teaching or learning about our long “dark” past, which is merely replete with direct and indirect connections to everyone’s right now.
If we dare mention that, say, Mahomes and Hurts are the first Black quarterbacks to meet in a Super Bowl, the reddest-hot haters accuse us of spreading “critical race theory.” They misappropriate MLK and deny they ever see color, blaming everything on “baiters” who point out racial disparities … like the fact that one of 57 Super Bowls will feature two Black starting QBs.
Ranking players is a fun and infuriating aspect of sports, a combative and ultimately pointless exercise that generates endless media content for fan consumption. It’s effortless, too: Just consider everyone who ever played — competing in different eras, under different rules, conditions, and norms — and devise your list of all-time greats in numerical order.
The debate inevitably expands as generations pass, with younger athletes entering the discussion and supplanting their elders. But lines of demarcation are blurry and arguments ensue as the newcomers climb up. At what point exactly does this active player eclipse that long-retired player? And how long until players not yet conceived are vying to be No. 1?
Subjectivity is baked into such rankings, as inseparable as eggs in a cake. Each judge’s list is influenced by their personal tastes and preferences, including players’ style and backstory. Maybe you place short underdogs and overachievers above tall favorites who make the game look easy.
But there’s no disputing a statistical list, no room for emotions or inclinations to cloud the process.
And after Tuesday game between the Los Angeles Lakers and Oklahoma City Thunder, LeBron Raymone James is the only correct answer regarding the NBA’s all-time leading scorer. End of discussion.
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith said NBA star Kyrie Irving’s trade request was “idiotic.” Barstool Sports’ Dave Portnoy went further, tweeting that “you can make a legit argument Kyrie is the worst pro athlete who ever lived and top 100 worst human.”
Portnoy’s comment represents the virulent strain of hate among some media members and doesn’t merit a response. Smith’s comment was overly harsh and overly simplistic. But it was closer to my initial reaction Friday when Irving requested a trade after four controversy-filled seasons with the Brooklyn Nets.
I thought the smarter move for Irving was simple: 1) Continue to ball out like he’s done since returning from suspension for promoting antisemitic material on social media. 2) Keep his head down and prove he can avoid being a distraction. 3) Become a free agent this summer after showing would-be suitors he can play without drama.
That strategy would’ve made a lot of sense for his image and for his teammates, especially superstar Kevin Durant, who’s still battling to make something of their renowned merger. The Nets have vaulted into contention since Jacque Vaughn replaced Steve Nash and were on a tear until Durant hurt his knee last month.
Irving is clearly among the NBA’s best players, voted an All-Star Game starter this season while averaging 27.1 points, 5.3 assists and 5.1 rebounds. Playing at that level has never been an issue; his availability due to personal or physical reasons have been the problem.
But criticism of the trade request (reportedly granted Sunday) lacked mention of significant contractual implications, factors that I didn’t compute. Once you expand the equation beyond the Nets’ best interests and include Irving’s financial interests, his decision makes perfect business sense.
The longer you live, the more you understand the mindset of preceding generations, the old-timers who complain that young’uns nowadays lack proper knowledge and respect for the past.
Kids laugh and sneer at grainy highlights from the 1950s, unconvinced that a Hall of Famer such as George Mikan could really play. But like their nut-hugging short-shorts, Mikan and his peers emblemize a period that’s incompatible with modern basketball.
The LeBron Age is in its latter stages and we’re a generation removed from the Jordanic Era. The current obsession with three-point baskets ties directly to Stephen Curry, hoops’ greatest descendant from a lineage of deadeye shooters. Virtually everyone now wants to pull up behind the arc, including 7-foot-4 Victor Wembanyama. Widely projected to be the consensus top draft pick and next great player, Wembanyama continues the evolution of fluid big men who can shoot from deep.
That’s not Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, though he has held the NBA scoring record for 38 years. Anyone who watched him knows why: He was unstoppable.
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