Thrown Under the Bus

     It was painful watching the Los Angeles Lakers give away game four in Utah last night, but worse was listening to Phil Jackson throw Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, Derek Fisher, and Sasha Vujacic under the bus after the loss. How dare the head coach play Monday-Morning-Quarterback moments after a loss that he steered.  Those aforementioned players didn't tell Kobe Bryant to play through the pain he was in.  Nor did they decide whether he should stay in the game.  They weren't responsible for not calling timeouts when the offense wasn't executing. They were not responsible for Kobe jacking up three pointers, penetrating without passing, and last but not least, guarding his man and theirs.  It was Phil Jackson's job to make all those decisions and to a lesser extent Kobe Bryant.

     I have felt for quite some time that Kobe is arguably the smartest player in the game, along with the most talented, but his common sense, his memory of last night's fourth quarter, and the trust he has spoken of all season of his teammates went out the door when the overtime began. Why, when Fisher had drained three long range three pointers, would you stop passing to him?  Why would you stop tossing the ball into Gasol, who had a phenomenal game?  Why would you not set up Odom, who was virtually unstoppable all night? Courage? Bullshit! Willis Reed and his broken leg was a different era and a much different circumstance.  This was game four in Utah in the second round.  The goal is to play two more rounds.  The Lakers had a chance to come home up three games to one and Jackson sat frozen as his Golden Child Bryant let what was so hard fought slip away.

    Why after all season did Jackson suddenly blame the other players on the floor with Kobe, when that is exactly how they have played all year long?  Why say "the other players abandoned Kobe," and "they gave the ball to him too early?" You can't have it both ways Phil.  You don't get to decide after the fact that the team wasn't playing the way you wanted them to.  Call a timeout for Chrissakes. Pull Kobe aside and tell him to continue to draw the double team like he has all series and then kick the ball to one of your hot, and not hurting, teammates. Draw a play up for Sasha, who was hitting all his shots in the first half, and watch him drain it. Come on, is it just me, or don't you find it offensive when Mr. Nine Championships finds fault with the four players who did exactly what they have done in game after game, and lay all the blame on them? I do.  Not once did Phil say he and the staff screwed up. Blame Tex Winter, but don't blame the four for doing what has worked in the past. Be a man and a real coach and take some responsibility for what happened in that game.  

     How exactly are those players, particularly the ones that have not been in a pressure situation like this before, expected to respond after comments like Jackson gave to the media?  We have heard for weeks that the team is young, inexperienced, etc. Is this how you build confidence?  Is this constructive coaching? In my book it is chicken shit. Phil is a blamer.  He is a guy that takes sides. Read his book that trashed Kobe after his first stint with the Lakers and you'll get my point.  Phil should have made better decisions; a timeout, a short rest for Kobe, a brief chat with Fisher instructing him to bring the ball up, etc. He took the coward's way out, and in doing so, has left his team wondering how they are really supposed to play. Worst of all, he demeaned them at a time when they need to be confident and focused on the task at hand, which is beating the Utah Jazz, not worried about getting run over by the bus driven by Coach Jackson.

Mark Cuban: Mr. I Want It Now

A little over a week ago the Dallas Mavericks fired head coach Avery Johnson.  Someone had to take the fall for another quick exit in the playoffs.  Who else could you possibly blame?  How about Mark Cuban? He was the one that passed on resigning Steve Nash, who went to the Phoenix Suns where he went on to win two consecutive MVP awards and is arguably the best pure point guard in the NBA.  By the way, he makes about 8 million dollars less than Jason Kidd. 

     A few years ago Cuban made the right decision by allowing Avery Johnson to turn his Mavericks into a more intelligent team than predecessor Don Nelson, at the end of the 2003-04 season, when Nelson stepped down.  Nelson had the number one offensive team in the NBA and the second worst defensive club. Under Johnson, the Mavericks finished the 2003-04 season as the 14th best defensive team and after his first full season at the helm they were seventh. The following two seasons their defensive finished fourth and sixth respectively. He also managed to put Dallas in the top three in point differential his second and third seasons.  They dipped this last season to tenth, while still finishing sixth in the league in points given up.  What does all this mean?  Johnson turned a high octane, shoot as soon as you get the ball bunch, into a real basketball team.  One that competes with everyone in the league, a team that went to the finals, something Dallas had not done, and worst of all, turned the expectations up.  

     The early playoff exits were in many ways failures because Coach Johnson had raised expectations for the franchise.  One can only imagine what his teams would have looked like with Steve Nash at the helm or an inside post presence that Erik Dampier could never provide. But personnel decisions were not his, they were his boss's, Mr. Cuban.

     Mark Cuban by anyone's standards is a major success at everything he does.  He worked menial jobs before becoming a millionaire at 32 and after he sold his first successful business, Microsolutions, to CompuServe, he then co-founded Broadcast.com and parlayed the sale of that company to Yahoo, which in turn made him a billionaire by the age of 40.  When he decided to jump into the entertainment business, he didn't just dabble.  In less than seven years he has amassed over 35 producing credits, among them the Oscar award winning film 'Good Night and Good Luck" and he has crafted relationships with some of the biggest names in Hollywood.  He lives most men's dreams. But there is one thing his money and drive can't buy, and that is an NBA championship. Sports is about chemistry and the way that comes about is through meticulous and very time consuming work.  Scouting, preparing, practicing, and committing to one goal.  Josh Howard recently spurned Avery Johnson's demand that no player party during the playoffs. Howard took his disdain for Johnson's rule to new heights by handing out invitations to his birthday party in the locker room. Where was the commitment to one goal in Howard's mind? The Mavericks currently have a third of their roster with a minimum of eleven years on the hardwood and only four players with less than five years experience, most of whom play very little.  They are in aging team that just brought in Kidd, one of the oldest point guards in the league, gave away Devon Harris, one of the youngest, and a handful of draft picks. What good will college scouting do this franchise when you don't have any picks?

     My guess is Mark Cuban will scour the free agent market and throw as much money as he can at anyone he thinks will make them better.  He probably could care less about the luxury tax, but tossing money around isn't going to make his team gel.  He also lacks any real trade bait, unless he is willing to unload Josh Howard. The best thing for this franchise is for Cuban to stay away from personnel decisions and let them play basketball. That also includes letting the coach do his job.  He was heard by many in the Mavericks offices excoriating Avery Johnson after a loss to the Lakers in March.  If the temps heard the second guessing, you can bet that the players heard it too, and it probably played a hand in how the team performed down the stretch and in the playoffs for Coach Johnson.  Luckily, Cuban hired Rick Carlisle, a wonderful coach.  But there is no way he can do or will do a better job with the same roster as Avery Johnson. Not that we will get to see the same roster, because the impatient Cuban wants his championship and if you look closely at the man's life, there is very little he hasn't been able to get his hands on in a short amount of time. Perhaps as Mr. Cuban turns 50 this summer, he will reflect on how difficult it is to own a franchise with so much expectation and so little to show for it. If he does, he might come to the same conclusion as I have; hire the right people, show faith in them, have a lot of patience, and stay in your courtside seat where the best fan is seen and not heard.