The Lakers Season: Out of Their Misery

First, allow me to congratulate for doing something that most of the American viewing public never thought they were going to do, making the playoffs. Even more impressive, they weren’t the 8^th seed. But the Spurs-- yes the Spurs-- who are almost as old or decrepit as a spur swept them, destroyed them, ran them out of any and all building they entered. The casual fan may ask how this could possibly happen. Well, casual fan, if you’re dying to know, there are about 8 people in the world who can help you; The NBA “Analyst” on the ESPN family of networks are going to chop, slice, grate and generally

parse the Lakers season in to delightfully bite-sized morsels of highlight film and heaping entrées lowlight film.

The good people at ESPN do love the Lakers. Ever since moving to LA the late night Sports Center almost always have some sort of conversation about the Lakers and their struggles, or their attempts to turn their season around, and all the injuries.

It’s impossible to say that the Lakers season wasn’t beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men (LA media and Lakers players themselves) but it’s hard to not point the blame all over the place. That’s the hard thing about trying to sum up the Lakers season. This is where ESPN will come in, they will continue to show the Lakers and try to melt down their miscues, the teams injuries and how they’d be champs if they didn’t get hurt. It will go on and on.

Without the Lakers as a central focus of the ESPN NBA coverage what could possibly fill the void? Continual coverage of the Heat and their inability to lose based solely on the fact that LeBron James still draws breath seems to be the most logical choice. 

I sincerely hope that the Lakers continue to struggle. It’s not some Schadenfreude; it comes more out of an interest in how ESPN covers sports. As a young man I never really thought about what the acronym ESPN stood for; now that I know that it is Entertainment and Sports Programming Network it really is clear, the sports comes second, not just in name. ESPN only cares about a small batch of storylines and drama and doesn’t actually focus on the sports and the teams that are continuing to play. Heaven forbid they showed highlights of the Golden State Warriors who actually have played well start to finish and actually have lasted in the playoffs longer than the Lakers but it’s highly likely that the Lakers will get more analysis and more notice than the Warriors.

Despite all the expectations for the Lakers after signing Dwight Howard and Steve Nash the Lakers couldn’t turn that hype into actual results. Finishing the season over 500 is something that is close to measurable results but everyone seemed to have booked the story solid before anyone even stepped on the court. It was supposed to be Heat vs. Lakers final but the good people at ESPN build that house of cards, not its their responsibility to explain why their neat little world didn’t come to fruition. 

The “JK LAWLZ” Defense

So I really love Twitter. Twitter is a place where jokes and good times can come to the forefront and where topical humor lives and breathes. Generally speaking, it’s been my understanding, though I haven’t been in many boardrooms at 23-years-of-age, that topical humor shouldn’t be in the boardroom. Ed Rush is learning that first hand. Ed Rush, the PAC-12 Director of Officials, has squarely put his foot into the mouths of the PAC-12 as a conference and they should put a foot to his backside.

If you haven’t been watching ESPN today let me fill you in. Sean Miller is the head coach of the

University of Arizona Men’s Basketball team, and a good coach to boot. He was charged a technical foul during Arizona’s game against UCLA in the PAC-12 Tournament semi-final, which Arizona lost 66-64. Earlier this week, CBS broke the story that an PAC-12 official said that Ed Rush, the Director of Officials for the conference offered, “$5,000 or a trip to Cancun,” to either eject or charge a Technical Foul to Miller. Ed Rush apparently offered this twice, before two separate Arizona games. Today, Conference Commissioner Larry Scott had this to say about the incident, “Based on the review, we have concluded that while Rush made inappropriate comments that he now regrets during internal meetings that referenced rewards, he made the comments in jest and the officials in the room realized they were not serious offers.” That’s great; that’s also the worst response to a scandal the PAC-12 has ever released, but that’s great.

Having watched the video of Coach Miller’s reaction to the wrong double-dribble call it seems absurd to call a technical at all. Miller is an emotive guy, he yells and waves his arms, like almost every coach but he didn’t react like Steve Lavin or Tom Crean would. If they got hit with that same technical foul I bet those two coaches would be rolling around on the floor as if they were possessed by some demon. Keep in mind that this play was also the first time that Sean Miller had received a technical foul all season and he took it on the chin, a very confused chin.

Having read everything there is to read about this story, it’s insane to believe that the DIRECTOR OF OFFICIALS would make a joke about being biased towards a coach in that conference. Ed Rush, joking or not, told his officials to be biased against Coach Miller. It’s astounding to me that someone in a position of authority that Ed Rush is in would make a statement like that. His comments are especially out of line when you consider that Rush has been called a “great mentor” to young officials. He’s mentoring them to maintain a bias against coaches.

The insanity persists when you read Larry Scott’s comments and expect fans to believe that “JK LAWLZ” should have followed the statement. Larry Scott believes college sports fans should swallow down the excuse that it was simply a joke and that should suffice. Jokes or not, this is an absurdly inappropriate series of events for which Ed Rush should lose his job. Regardless of if it’s a joke or not,

Ed Rush is the guy that lets you ply your trade as a referee, if he says he wants Miller put in his place are you not going to be quick with the whistle? Yes, yes you are. I absolutely believe that a ref, regardless of if he was expecting 5 grand or a trip would want to be on the good side of his boss than not. The adage, “It’s better to be on the right-hand of the Devil than in his path” comes to mind in this situation. Ed Rush has been called a bully but you know… he was really showing his gleaming sense of humor during this situation.

I just heard Larry Scott on my favorite ESPN radio show SVP & Russillo say that Ed Rush will retain his job because he didn’t do anything unethical. I find it hard to believe that jokes about being biased in a job when your role is to supervise the unbiased arbiters of the rules is nothing short of unethical. If I were to joke about reporting more billable hours on a job or project would I keep my job? Nope. I’d be canned. It’s hard to imagine that joking about intentionally doing your job poorly is acceptable behavior anywhere, in any job, at any level.

I absolutely believe that Ed Rush has completely ruined the credibility of not just the Conference as a whole but most importantly, the referees he is still responsible for. From now on, as long as Ed Rush still is in his job, I will be leery of every last technical or ticky-tack foul a PAC-12 official is going to call in conference. Ed Rush’s personality and apparently his sense of humor have turned the PAC-12 officials into what seems to be his cadre of goons. I, as a fan of the game, will definitely have a lot of questions about every call that comes in the future.

The Night that Does Too Little

When I was a freshman at Elon University, a smaller school in North Carolina, homecoming was a bigger deal then it was at my graduation. The theme for homecoming that year was “Phoenix Pheasta” and it was wonderful with tacos galore, trivia night hosted by two white women with sombreros and ponchos, and of course a lip-synch where I lovingly dressed up as Enrique Iglesias, mole and all. But, like on most liberal arts campuses, there was a backlash to the perceived culturally insensitive activities

of that particular homecoming week. It took me to well into my senior to realize just how valid the dislike for the goings on was. I tend to believe that the world has become too politically correct and too touchy-feely but there is an event going on in the NBA that is deeply troubling to me: Noche Latina, the NBA’s version of Latino Heritage Night. It sounds like a great idea and I think that it’s the right thing since more and more Latinos are finding their way into the NBA but there is a problem with Noche Latina, it doesn’t do enough.

When looking at the line-up of games it makes perfect sense; the focus is on the teams in the southwest and Florida but is that the only place where Hispanic/Latino/a people live? Negative. It’s an over simplification of the concept of being Latino in America or a Hispanic American. And that’s rubbing me the wrong way because it appears that the NBA is taking a really simplified view of the demographics of this great land. Last week I sat in a Philadelphia courtroom and watched 94 immigrants get their citizenship to this country granted to them. I estimate about a quarter of them were Latino or from Central or South America but the 76ers aren’t getting the same treatment the Heat or the Thunder are getting.

My biggest problem with Noche Latino Night is simple; the concept of “honoring Latino heritage” in the NBA seems to be as simple as know a small group of Spanish words like: Noche, Latino/a, el/los and nueva (for Nuava York) and that’s it. If you’re going to rename the teams to honor Latino contributions to the sport of basketball is it too much to ask for Los Torros instead of Los Bull or El Fuego instead of El Heat? When looking at how the NBA is choosing to “honor” Latino heritage it seems to only come off as lip service. It seems to be saying; “We’ll honor you… but only by tacking on the word “the” in Spanish to our jerseys and tack about 20 bucks onto the sticker price for them…”

Is this another example of David Stern having a great idea but doing too little, entirely possible. But I think that the NBA would be best suited for reevaluating how far they’re willing to go to truly put forth an honor that isn’t just lip service but is a true and sensitive nod to the increased popularity and increased presence of Latino men and women in the stands and the men on the court.