The End Of An Error In Brooklyn …

Things were bordering on tranquil in and around the Barclay Center in Brooklyn last week.  The only drama involved who might win or lose the next game on the schedule for the Brooklyn Nets.  Then, late last week, Kyrie Irving reacted to that “drama-void” and created a bit – – with him as the centerpiece of course.  He demanded to be traded about a week before the trade deadline arrives in the NBA.  Stephen A. Smith reported that his sources told him that Irving would sit out the rest of this season if his demand was not met.

Irving’s trade demand was probably less than 10 minutes old when the first speculation of a Kyrie Irving/Russell Westbrook swap could happen.  It did not happen; and in my opinion, it was never going to happen for a simple reason.

• Both Irving and Westbrook are on expiring contracts.  Westbrook’s value today is enhanced by that status since it creates cap space for the team that has him on its roster at the end of the season.  However, the Nets already have that “value” in Irving whose contract also expires at the end of this season.  So, that swap – – which would work under the trading rules of the NBA – – provides the Nets with no significant asset that they do not already have.

Instead, the Nets shipped Irving off the Mavericks in return for

• Spencer Dinwiddie
• Dorian-Finney-Smith
• A basket of draft picks

In terms of on-court capability, the Nets did not get an equivalent level of talent.  However, what the Nets did get is Kyrie Irving’s presence in locker room other than theirs.  And that has its benefits all by itself.  And that is something that the Mavericks will need to adjust to for the rest of this season.

Looking back, when Irving and Kevin Durant decided to join forces on the Nets to create a championship contender, everyone focused on the on-court abilities of the two superstars and thought that indeed this could be a juggernaut.  Then, the Nets went out and added James Harden to the mix; and some reporters reached Level 5 on the Ecstasy Meter.  Well, that talent experiment folded like a card-table chair.  The troika of Durant, Harden and Irving is now:

• Kevin Durant, Ben Simmons and Spencer Dinwiddie.

That should be a cautionary tale for the Mavericks’ owner, Mark Cuban who will be expected to offer Irving a super-max contract at the end of the 2023 playoffs in order to retain Irving’s services – – those services and bushel basket full of other “off-court oddities” that seem to follow Kyrie Irving around just like the dust cloud used to follow Pigpen around in the Peanuts comic strip.  A former colleague with a PhD in Psychology once told me that the single best predictor of a person’s future behavior is that person’s past behavior. If my former colleague is correct in that assertion then Kyrie Irving is the poster child for the Latin phrase, caveat emptor.

In another bizarre basketball story albeit at a far lower level of the game, a 22-year old assistant coach for a high school girls’ JV team donned a jersey and went into the game and played against the team’s opponent.  This was not a scrimmage or a practice session; this was a scheduled game for the two teams.  Here is how this transpired:

• A 13-year old girl was going to miss this school game because she was out of town playing in a tournament for a club team that girl was part of.
• The assistant coach used the missing player’s uniform and played under the missing girl’s name in the scorebook.

The assistant who played in the game, the head coach of the JV team and another assistant have been fired.  If you are wondering why anyone would do such a thing and/or how they thought this would remain “clandestine”, please feel free to join me in such a wonderous state of mind.  Even more confounding is this:

• There is an obvious risk to one’s job and one’s reputation in doing something like this and getting caught.
• So, what is the benefit derived from playing a ringer in a girls’ high school basketball game that is commensurate with that risk?

Switching gears …  There are plenty of examples of silly attempts to alter the English language in order to make something more politically correct.  There is a new “movement” afoot that could reside in the Pantheon of Politically-correct Palaver.  USC and Cal State-Northridge have determined that the word “field” – – as in field study for educators or counselors – – is potentially racist since slaves toiled in the “fields”.  The new politically correct substitution for “field” is “practicum”.  These schools have already renamed entities in the school and now USC has an “Office of Practicum Education”.

• I cannot wait until someone suggests that the radio announcer for USC’s football team proclaim that “Wide receiver Joe Flabeetz is out there on the wide side of the practicum.
• Maybe someone will demand that reruns of The Flying Nun be edited to say that the star of the show was Sally Practicum.
• Somehow Practicum of Dreams does not evoke thoughts of an Iowa corn-practicum.

Sigh …

Finally, let me close today with this entry from The Official Dictionary of Sarcasm:

“Lettuce:  A tasteless plant one must include as the base portion of one’s salad bar visit, solely to maintain the illusion that one is eating healthily even though one’s plate will soon be piled high with the mayonnaise-laden macaroni and potato concoctions that got you to the salad bar in the first place.”

But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………