Randoms: The Battered Bastards of Basketball

The Battered Bastards of Baseball recounts the tale of the the Portland Mavericks, an independent Single-A baseball team from the 70s. The Mavericks were owned by Bing Russell, who played a deputy on Bonanza and died 100-plus times in TV and movie westerns. Bing was also the father of Kurt Russell, who also played on the team with a ragtag cast of misfits who’d been passed over by Major League Baseball.

In the Northwest League, a collection of minor league teams from multiple farm team levels, the Mavericks thrived because they were filled with guys who just wanted to play and who wanted to win. Other teams were simply a development pipeline for the major league clubs, who seemed to be governed by rooms full of stodgy old men ruminating in cigarette smoke and hubris.

I’ve been trying to put my finger on what’s been bugging me so much about the NBA lately, and the movie resonated because of it. The Mavericks focused on playing it for its own sake, and embracing their players and their fans – warts and all – not as a means to a supposedly higher end, but for three things that seem to be in serious decline in the NBA’s new gilded age: love, fun, and competition.

The NBA suffers from the same problem the Maverick’s opponents did, and from the same problem so much of our society does: “I Gotta Get Mine” Syndrome. So many league, team, and player behaviors revolve around not what is going on in front of them in the moment, but what can be leveraged in pursuit of far off goals like building “buzz,” protecting “assets,” “getting the bag,” or even “getting the next bag.” Its prevalence has taken a lion’s share of fun out of the Association’s regular season, decimated USA basketball, and made free agency and the NBA soap opera an even bigger story than the NBA Finals.

Fun and love of the actual games themselves have taken a back seat to NBA futures. Those ephemeral futures seem to inhabit an unhealthy portion of mental real estate for folks who obsess over things like where stars will contrive to sign in the next free agency, sacrificing enjoyable basketball for lineups designed to tank for draft picks, or watching teams pass on solid vets for a low upside youngsters to “develop” (in the name of tanking).

The obsessions with these futures have even crept into the normally grounded Cleveland fanbase who almost never hold unrealistic expectations. (I kid). The amount of people proclaiming Darius Garland the day one starter for the Cavs is really comical. The dude has literally played in one five-on-five practice, and hasn’t been completely healthy since last fall. I’ve not been shy about my skepticism of Garland, but what irks me, isn’t the optimism over Garland so much as the desire to parrot the rumored opinion of Cavs management that Collin Sexton ultimately should be coming off the bench and Garland should be the starting point guard.

This ignores the near miraculous turnaround Sexton had last year, and the unbelievable work ethic he’s shown so far in a Cavs uni. The dude looks like he’s added 7-8 pounds of muscle in the offseason, and significantly improved the consistency, range, and form of his three point throw stroke in all the practice videos. I’m probably tilting at windmills here, but Iet’s focus on what Sexton’s actually done before we anoint Garland the future.

Deep, deep perimeter drill action Collin Sexton. #Cavs pic.twitter.com/EAKQhRkuGB

— Spencer Davies (@SpinDavies) October 5, 2019

In that light, it will be good to see the Cavs actually play an opponent, in a rare preseason game, Monday, before the Wine and Gold scrimmage on Tuesday. Cleveland will take on  Argentina’s San Lorenzo de Almagro, after six idle months of speculation. My fear though is that everyone is underestimating how bad this team will be, and that it was designed to be bad through malevolence or incompetence. Things like playing one of the losingest players in NBA history,  Jordan Clarkson, at the three as the “Wolf“, moving Larry Nance away from center, where he was an occasional monster last season, and the rumored SexLand back-court are just… moves designed to stink for future of potential draft picks instead of enjoying the now. Hopefully there will be at least some fun in the flawed basketball.

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Speaking of flawed basketball, the latest Kevin Love trade rumor? Contract year Jalen Brown.

What I hope this season is NOT about, is a never ending analysis of Kevin Love’s trade value. One of the worst developments in the “woke fan era” of the NBA is that everyone is an amateur GM (Including a lot of the actual GMs). Every moment seems to be in service of a future moment, instead of the now. Can’t we just enjoy watching Kevin Love play basketball instead of having every game and every week be a referendum on what “assets” he could return? I know. I’m guilty of this with every player who’s ever been on the Cavs, but I’m trying to change. Watching a real game tomorrow will be a step towards nitpicking real issues instead of imagined ones.

I’ve been practicing a little bit of mindfulness of late, and one of the paradoxes is that it can be hard to think about the future and be in the moment. I like this quote as a good analysis of what is wrong with thinking of NBA players as commodities to be leveraged towards future winning outcomes.

We are allowed to have fantasies – they feel nice sometimes – but we shouldn’t live there. When fantasies turn into mindlessness, we get stuck in that far off land and we feel sad that it’s not our reality. Mindfulness, on the other hand, keeps us present and accepting of all that we have and all that we are. We can be mindful of our present moment while planning for our future. That’s different from daydreaming about fantasy lands. Mindfulness has intention, acceptance, and appreciation of the only place we can really live- the present.

I’m as wary as anyone of getting psychological advice from random internet searches, but “mindlessness” is an excellent way of describing what has taken over a lot of NBA media – traditional and social. You may now go back to trading Kevin Love for Justice Winslow on the trade machine.

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Rim called..said it’s hurting 😰😰😰@Kevinporterjr pic.twitter.com/Igo3hakPUw

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) October 5, 2019

Who’s shaping up to be our favorite battered bastard from this current squad? We’ll always have Delly, but I fear with the rumors of Brandon Knight’s newfound health and three point shot, he won’t get much playing time, especially with the glut of guards and the team’s focus on youth. Who could we see a lot of? Kevin Porter Junior has been opening some eyes in practice, according to Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor. I don’t know about you, but the tats and the game remind me a bit of young, southpaw J.R. Smith. Swish wasn’t nearly that ripped when he came into the Association, though. Hopefully, KPJ can add a little bit of a Maverick streak to the Cavs.

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William Hill Becomes Fourth Authorised Sports Betting Operator of the NBA and Expands US Presence #Gambling #GamblingCompany #BritishBookmaker #BritishGamblingFirm #SportsBetting #SportsBettingOperator #SportsBettingUS #NBA #WilliamHill #US https://t.co/WYW3g7hYhz

— Casino Guardian (@CasinoGuardian) October 3, 2019

As we tread down the path of terrible ideas, the NBA at large has a bunch of them. Take first, tge full embrace of gambling by the NBA. The poker world has recently been rocked by a pervasive yet stupidly simple cheating scandal allegedly perpetrated by Mike Postle on Stones Live. The Ringer’s Kevin Hill has a good breakdown of why this scandal has captured the imagination of so many.

The Ultimate Bet scandal was a corrupt company ripping off its customers in the most egregious way possible. It was disgusting, but it was also very much in keeping with what was going on in the U.S. at the time, when banks were being exposed for selling worthless mortgages and lying about their risk, bringing capitalism nearly to its knees. In that context the Ultimate Bet scam may have even seemed quaint. Mike Postle, by contrast, is but one man, and he tried to outsmart the public.

If Mike Postle was brazen enough to cheat at poker in front of the entire world, and have scores of nerds pour over hand histories to detect the obvious mathematical impossibilities of his victories, there will certainly be refs, players, and trainers who will shave points, give gamblers injury info, and manipulate over/unders for the world to see. The amount of money involved now that the league embraces legalized gambling is going to be too lucrative not to. In a league where teams actively field and play terrible teams and make coaching moves designed to lose, it seems natural. In light of this, only a real sucker would bet on NBA games.

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The final terrible idea idea comes from Daryl Morey whose tweet Friday night reading, “Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong,” was shortly thereafter disavowed by Rockets owner (or are we calling them governors now?) Tillman Fertidda. It was immediately rebuked by several mainland China businesses who work with the Rockets, and have since suspended deals with Houston. This includes the Chinese Basketball Association who had a streaming deal with the Rockets, (China’s second most popular team), via Tencent Holdings “the NBA digital rights holder in China,” as well as “sportswear brand Li-Ning and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (SPDB).” For more details, check out this summation of the now  international incident by the Ringer’s John Gonzalez.

Morey wasn’t “wrong” per se. But former CtB editor Collin McGowan said it best (linked instead of imbedded for language).

There aren’t many crimes in America more severe than Making Cops Upset, but Supremely F***ing Up The Money is one. Morey might be living in a Venezuelan embassy a month from now.

As I noted early. One of the four pillars of the NBA is “getting the bag,” and screwing that one up is a near unforgivable sin. Ultimately though, the NBA, the U.S., and the world are going to have to make a choice: live in a world where one innocuous comment can tick off an authoritarian economic juggernaut populated by over a billion zealots, or live without a Chinese market. And make no mistake, anyone who is against freedom in Hong Kong is on the wrong side of democracy.

Hong Kong’s Chief Executive, Carrie Lam, recently declared it’s first decree by “Emergency Regulations Ordinance,” banning the use of masks by protesters, which caused, you guessed it, more protesters. The Guardian noted the “slippery slope,” that emergency fiat laws can bring.

The regulations empower the government to impose a series of draconian measures, including censorship, control and suppression of publications and other means of communications, arrest, detention and deportation as well as the freezing of assets, the authorisation of the entry and search of premises, and the taking of possession or control of any property.

For more coverage regarding Hong Kong, follow the Guardian, the Hong Kong Free Press, and the South China Morning Post. Regardless, the NBA is in a quagmire right now, and I fully expect Tillman Fertitta to push Daryl Morey out of the door of his private jet, kiss China’s derriere, and make up. That’s what hedge fund managers and financiers do.

As of 8:30 Sunday night, it appears that Morey has emerged from re-education in room 101 and recanted his thought crimes.

https://twitter.com/dmorey/status/1181000809363857409?s=19

The NBA then talked out of both sides of its mouth in its own response.

https://twitter.com/yiqinfu/status/1181024883272114180?s=19

For more on the emerging Chinese threat to democracy around the world, the Matt Stoller blog and Twitter feed is a must follow.

The Chinese Communist Party is openly punishing wealthy and powerful Americans for speaking in favor of democracy. Is anyone confused about the aims of the CCP at this point? Does anything think they are just aiming to censor domestically? https://t.co/ywOjEvMn5S

— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) October 7, 2019

Some day soon, the NBA, which likes to play lip service to being a league centered around social justice (while being fueled by shoe companies that run on exploitative overseas labor), is going to have to make a choice about whether to stand for something easy or something hard. Don’t be surprised to see which one they pick. If they make the right choice, this battered bastard of basketball will still be here to cheer them on. If not, we’ll all have some soul searching to do.

Imagine if Morey had tweeted about the Chinese concentration camps.

Or the ones in Texas. https://t.co/5ZJsignRMS

— Michael A. Young (@RealMYoung23) October 6, 2019