In the summer of 1974, President Nixon resigned in disgrace as President of the United States; on the same day, Gerald Ford took the oath of office and became President. Immediately after his swearing in, he gave a short speech to the American people which contained this memorable line:
“My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.”
That was my reaction yesterday when I read that the Brooklyn Nets and Kevin Durant have resolved whatever differences they may have had and have decided to “move forward” together for the upcoming NBA season. The Nets’ management team has seemingly finessed bad news associated with all three of its star players:
- Ben Simmons is reportedly working on his basketball game in this offseason. There has never been any question as to his defensive skills or his passing ability, but his offensive game has been pretty much limited to driving and dunking. He has not played professional basketball for more than a year after sitting out a season citing mental health issues and a back problem.
- Kyrie Irving threatened not to exercise his 1-year player-option to stay with the Nets and earn $37M for next year. He threatened to become a free agent and to sign on with the Lakers for $6M next year under a provision of the CBA called a “mid-level exemption”. To the surprise of exactly no one, when the deadline for that option came, Irving signed on with the Nets. They say that money talks; well in that situation, the difference of $31M for next year spoke loudly and clearly.
- Kevin Durant issued a trade demand and when that did not materialize, he got a meeting with Nets’ owner Joe Tsai and said he would stay if Tsai fired both head coach, Steve Nash, and GM, Sean Marks. Tsai told Durant in ever so diplomatic terms that he would make decisions in the best interests of the Nets. Translation: I own the team; you’re under contract; please go pound sand.
But all that is in the past. The management team for the Nets remains in place and the three best players have now – seemingly – committed to “moving forward” in total harmony seeking an NBA championship in the next year. Can this moment of serenity maintain itself for the next 10 months when a new NBA champion is identified? I hope so and that sentiment has nothing to do with any sort of fandom for the Brooklyn Nets.
I want this to hold together for a much more personal reason:
- I have heard and read more than enough narcissistic nonsense from all three of those goombahs to last a lifetime. If this holds together for 10 months, there will be a respite from any more of that crapola.
- Come next summer, this situation will return to focus because Kyrie Irving’s option year contract will be up, and he will be a free agent portending drama and nonsense. So, if I can get a 10-month respite from such hogwash I will count it as a blessing from above.
Moving on – – but staying with the NBA – – the league released its schedule for the upcoming season. In so doing, the NBA positioned itself first and foremost among US sports leagues in terms of virtue-signaling by announcing that it had purposely scheduled no games at all on November 8th 2022 because that is Election Day for the mid-term elections. The NBA does not want to put its fans in the situation where they have to decide to vote or to pay attention to an NBA regular season game. Here is part of the statement from the league:
“The scheduling decision came out of the NBA family’s focus on promoting nonpartisan civic engagement and encouraging fans to make a plan to vote during midterm elections.”
Until the moment this scheduling quirk was announced, I had no idea that the NBA had someone in a position called “executive director for the NBA’s social justice coalition”. I do now only because that person also chimed in about this scheduling decision:
“It’s unusual. We don’t usually change the schedule for an external event but voting and Election Day are obviously unique and incredibly important to our democracy.”
This is so transparently bullsh*t that I am proud to note that every NBA exec who participated in the schedule announcement did so without breaking down and giggling. Let me count the ways:
- MLB and the NFL need not worry about interfering with any fan’s “plans to vote” because MLB is in its offseason and the NFL never plays on Tuesday nights – – yet. So, in terms of uniqueness…
- Voting takes place during the daytime hours; NBA games take place in the evening/nighttime hours. If fans would be tempted to favor an NBA game over voting, the temporal differences between the two events should resolve that problem.
- Regarding the “uniqueness” of Election Day, I would suggest that Christmas Day is similarly “unique”, and that the NBA goes out of its way to schedule as many as five “quality games” for that day without any fear that they might interfere with any other activities associated with that day.
Here is the question that should have been posed to Adam Silver as the Election Day “blackout” was announced:
“Commissioner Silver, you have been with the NBA for 30 years now and the NBA has played on Election Days in the past. Has that scheduling regimen ever caused you to miss a voting obligation because you had to be at an NBA game or in some venue watching an NBA game on TV?”
- Memo to NBA Execs: Your fakeness is showing…
Obviously, no one asked that question because it would have been a downer on the virtuosity that was washing over everyone in the room.
Finally, let me close with the suggestion that the NBA’s scheduling quirk is properly labeled this way:
Sanctimonious (adj): Making a show of being morally superior to other people.
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………
I prefer goombahs over santimonious.
TenaciousP:
Unfortunately, today you get a dose of both…