Today I was, as I am sometimes prone to do, listening to The Ringer’s NBA Show podcast with Chris Vernon. Vernon had Tim Bontemps (FANTASTIC name, right?) on the show. Bontemps is a national NBA writer for the Washington Post.

The two of them were discussing who would be the frontrunners for the MVP voting this season. It’s conceivable, they agreed, that James Harden, Russell Westbrook, and Kevin Durant could be the top-three players in voting. In case you forgot, those three guys played on the same team. Oklahoma City had ALL THREE OF THEM, along with Serge Ibaka, and couldn’t hold anything together.

The Thunder did go to the finals — in 2012. They lost to the Miami Heat and LeBron’s superteam four games to one.

The splitting of the drafted super-team (OKC), I have come to realize, started with their loss to the manufactured super-team (Miami).

If you were a 23 year-old Kevin Durant, how would you have felt? He put up a 28/8/3.5 stat line that season, only to be throttled in the finals by peak LeBron.

What if you were Westbrook. He averaged 23/5/6, and yet the Heat found a way to keep him out of rhythm and dictate the way he played just enough in the finals to disrupt the flow Scott Brooks’ team had managed to build.

How about James Harden? He was a 22 year-old BENCH player on this OKC team and would probably be the frontrunner so far this season for MVP. Harden averaged 17 points off the bench that season.

All three of them saw what happens when you choose your own superteam. All three of them knew they’d never be out of each others’ shadows in OKC. The Thunder tried to get ahead of the curve, trading Harden and paying Ibaka. Kevin Durant got hurt. Instead of growing into a great second-banana, Russell Westbrook decided he was going to be the prima ballerina, and the rest is history. At least until this season.

Sometimes radio or TV people play this game: “If you could build your team to win now with a player or three players or five players, who would they be?”

If you asked an NBA fan right now, LeBron would be there, probably along with the three former Thunder teammates (aged 28, 28, and 27 now) and maybe Steph Curry. KD and LeBron could play the four and the five. Don’t get too caught up in that part.

Russell Westbrook is flat-out putting on a show this season. By Erik Drost from United States (Russell Westbrook) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

But what if they had kept everything together? Would we be delighting in all that is Russell mania this season? Would Harden ever been able to run point forward like he is in Mike D’Antoni’s offense? Would there be a superteam like the Warriors to hate?

We wouldn’t have any of the fun that comes with the split-up Thunder WITHOUT LeBron, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh both crushing Oklahoma City’s soul and showing the youngsters in 2012 that super-teams work.

The last thought I’ll leave with is this: If you look at all the decisions Harden, Westbrook, and Durant (and Oklahoma City’s management) made since those 2012 finals through the lens of that loss, you start to see motivations for guys that are just under the surface at all times.

It was there when Durant signed his Golden State contract — you never know when you’ll get another chance at the finals, especially when you’re not always healthy. He just about guaranteed himself that with his decision.

It’s there every time James Harden has some crazy 45 point triple double. Like a middle child he’ll always be looking for attention and always have something to prove until the day he retires. He wants to show everyone that HE was the unicorn of the group.

In Westbrook, it’s more outwardly apparent. Everything that has happened over the past four years bubbles to the surface on the floor for the UCLA kid. Remember when Westbrook had to play behind Jordan Farmar in college? Remember when he had to defer to Durant all game and then to Harden in crunch time? Remember when Durant was out, and Russell thought he earned the right to be the top dog?

And remember when the Heat trashed their whole world?

Look a little deeper. Have a little context. This NBA season becomes even more fun and interesting than you thought. Maybe a re-watching of the 2012 NBA Finals is in order. I’ll buy the pizza and pops.

Just when you think you’ve seen it all in sports, something happens that just makes you say “Wow”.  Things happen that basically render you speechless. For me injuries in sports are what I hate most. I despise them. I know that you can’t avoid them and they are a part of the game but it takes away from the games and leaves me angry.

Last season we saw many star NBA players go down due to injuries including Kobe Bryant, Russell Westbrook and Derrick Rose. While Kobe has yet to come back, Westbrook and Rose have returned to the court both trying to show they are back. Unfortunately the basketball gods had two different plans for the pair of Midwestern point guards.

Derrick Rose will likely be out the rest of the NBA season. By Keith Allison from Owings Mills, USA (Derrick Rose) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Maybe that should be expected after missing a year of basketball. Rose tore his ACL back in the 2012 season forcing him to sit out the entire 2013 year thus prompting his highly anticipated return this season. We aren’t even a full month into the season and Rose has suffered another major injury. On Saturday night, Rose tore his meniscus in his right knee which will force him to have to sit out again for an extended period of time.

What a shame, what a terrible shame that this could happen again. As purely a fan, I am upset and I can’t even begin to imagine the frustration and anger both Rose and the rest of the Bulls organization must have with this situation. I don’t wish injury on any person but if an injury had to happen, why Rose? He worked so hard to return and was scrutinized for sitting out all of last season only to come back and have this happen? It amazes me that the basketball gods would let this happen and when I heard the news I was at a loss for words. As a Lakers fan, I can’t imagine what would happen if something like this happened to Kobe upon his return.

All I can say now is “Wow” and get better soon D Rose. The NBA isn’t the same without you.

For the San Antonio Spurs, none of this new. While the league  has celebrated the Lakers, Hollywood part deuce — the Clippers, the return of the Chowds — Boston Celtics and evil three (now two) in Miami, the poised veteran Spurs quietly go about their business, methodically behind the scenes. 

This time the one-two punch battled over their own careers, and for two hours dismissed the NHL draft, NFL draft, baseball highlights, Ozzie Guillen story, and many other news-worthy punch lines, in order that they might clear the air when it comes to their current bout over hashtags and tweets. This began during yesterday’s airing of First Take, when Rose reverted to calling the Bayless Water Pistol Pete instead of the Pistol Pete Bayless believed himself to be via twitter, stating:” Tall for age in 9th grade, chosen MVP of state-wide basketball camp over several future D1 players. Decided I was Maravich. Coach disagreed.”

Is it just me or are we all stuck in some derisive vacuum? Why are talking about Skip Bayless in high school? And why does Jalen Rose care?

Rose — pissy over a dispute on the NBA MVP race  — differs from Bayless’ beliefs on Russell Westbrook. And while Rose asserts Westbrook to be a favorable league MVP based upon ability to lead a team and take over a game, Bayless continued his dissent, calling the 21 year-old point guard assertive at the wrong times, a gunner and not a true believer in the greatness of Kevin Durant.

I’m still confused over how this became personal and how the argument devolved into some ego-driven juevo comparison on live television. Without question it argues against the authenticity of First Take and begs whether the show is just another script fueling the fire of a gossip-driven culture.

It seems, in some far fetched make believe world, Bayless’ tweet was in response to his argument with Rose. But why does Bayless think it’s necessary to prop up his defunct athletic career? In order that he might build a better repore with his colleagues, listeners, readers and critics? Does his tweet somehow include Bayless with the likes of NBA stars, as both a man who knows the game from the outside and from the inside? Is Bayless the Michael Jordan who never got his shot?

Likewise, how does playing the game make Jalen Rose more right than one who hasn’t? Should we assume Rose the superior of Red Aurbach? That, according to ESPN insider Andy Katz is absurd when examining and evaluating all the great minds who never played the game at a high level but currently teach it both at the collegiate and professional levels.

The circus malaise got all the more foul, when the more formidable and loud-mouthed, Stephen A. Smith, grovelled his own growls in an indistinguishable banter about his love of sports, his need to tell it like it is, his distaste for Kwame Brown, and the reasons why he alone could build trust with the formerly evasive, Allen Iverson. Smith’s displeasure with Rose rooted itself in insecure cries for professional attention, demanding Rose listen to his arguments as to why former players dream of being journalistic moguls like him.

And while Smith pearled his glories like a great philosopher, the middle man Jay Crawford sat steadfastly puzzled, perplexed and shamelessly amused. Crawford called himself “a fly on the wall listening to great sport knowledge,” using the barometer of his 12 – inch black backed lap top computer to announce their trending stats and the network’s desire to continue on with the battle between the two egos, in order to maximize viewer attention.

That, alone, tosses a greater curve ball in the mix, one I do not have the time for and would take two thousand pages to explain. Are we as fans, to blame for the current misery known as American Sports media? Our lust for entertainment, tweets, gossip and reality television pushing us to a point of intellectual irrelevance? One jackass listening to another jackass, and the other jackass just smiling?

A deal involving Russell Westbrook and Kendrick Perkins for Rondo and Jeff Green was ultimately declined by OKC’s front office.

Though Westbrook is a young point guard with tremendous upside, his erratic shot selection in last year’s playoffs proved his unwillingness to play in Scott Brook’s system.

While he huffed and puffed on the sidelines, further icing out teammates, team chemistry was shot. The result was a five-game ousting in the Western Conference Finals.

Not only does his personality clash with franchise face and superstar Kevin Durant, but Westbrook’s disregard for professionalism at league negotiations was paralyzing. His red sweatshirt attire was a childish miscalculation that ultimately defined the direction the young star is choosing to take.

Call it an act of youth or a competitor’s fire, I’ll call it a bad case of the me-first-gimme-gimmes and something that ultimately will result in the disbanding of a young core in OKC.

This was a prime opportunity for Thunder management to land a 25-year-old champion point guard with a pedigree for greatness. Rondo’s league-leading 11.2 assists and 2.3 steals per game were a perfect fit in Brook’s defensive-minded system.

The move would maximize team chemistry by adding a real point guard. It allows Durant to be the tell-all go-to guy late in games and balances the floor with a fluid mix of personalities.

Re-inserting Jeff Green counters loss in offensive production without Westbrook, while further balancing the team with an unselfish approach on offense.

This misstep will be a point of memory in the coming years. If Westbrook cannot correct his indifference with team play, Thunder management will look back on this trade and lament.

As for Rondo, his luck of the Irish is officially dead.

Everyone is at fault and fans are punished.

Read the newspapers, online articles, and blog posts and you’ll find differing opinions — nothing really unexpected. Players are glad to be back. Here is what has to happen between now and December 9th blah blah blah.

And then something caught my eye.

In the LA Times, with a story about the NBA, there is a picture of NBA Players Association President Derek Fisher in a press conference. Look at it. Take it in for a minute.

As always, Fisher exudes classiness. In his conservative suit and tie, it is clear that Fisher knows something about impressions, business, and dealing with people in business.

Flanking Fisher in the picture are former all-stars Chauncy Billups and Russell Westbrook. A veteran and an “up and comer.” Two players who are, by now, used to being in the spotlight. Two guys who went to (for at least a few years) very respectable institutions of higher learning – the University of Colorado and UCLA.

And the both of them are in red hoodies.

No Regard for Human Life also posted some pictures and noted the hoodies.

I guess the negotiations are over. And as long as they aren’t on their way to a game, the NBA players can wear whatever they want. But after a long “negotiation” during which the players had to make a lot of concessions, dudes front and center at a press conference in sweats and hoodies makes a pretty clear statement.

The job of an NBA player is to play basketball, but isn’t it about projecting an image too? Don’t they get paid because fans get excited and watch the game. Isn’t that why David Stern implemented a dress code for players?

Maybe Westbrook and Billups were taking a shot at Stern. Many of the players there were well dressed.

Maybe they just didn’t have any of their nice clothes to wear. Whatever the reason, they should have been more buttoned up. After all the talk about how everything is about business, wearing sweats and hoodies sends the completely wrong message.

It is evidence that clearly the NBA still has a long, long way to go.

Addition note: Luke Johnson *********

As it is true that the red hoodies worn by Chauncey Billups and Russell Westbrook at an important NBA meeting is a sign of blatant disrespect from casually disparate professionals, we must understand an even larger more pertinent fact regarding today’s audacious athletes.

In the above article by my friend Owen Main at fansmanship.com, the writer unknowingly anointed the issue when he poignantly postured, “dudes front and center at a press conference in sweats and hoodies makes a pretty clear statement,” and then later, “after all the talk about how everything is about business, wearing sweats and hoodies sends the completely wrong message.”

And thought it does send a message of immaturity, both from an up and coming inconsiderate and a fox-eyed champion, it also sends a much needed image front and center for a society that glorifies this type of me-first, give-it-to-me, athletic celebrity.

For a moment it seemed the league could re-route itself after a lockout in 1999. The lockout eliminated many of its fringe fans who historically college lovers, found enough at times in the pro game to watch it also. Yet after the lockout and the wavering beef of Shawn Kemp’s belly, the NBA fell from grace; from 1 to 3 in the power rankings of the big three: NFL, MLB & NBA.

Though time has a way of healing past wounds, we’re entirely incorrect in thinking people ever really forget. The NBA has shown us nothing that would make us think things might be changing. And despite celebrating the league’s highest ratings for an NBA Finals series in the last ten years, once again things are decomposing with idiocy.

While an NFL athlete works under realistic conditional contracts, deals both lucrative and yet conditioned under performance expectations, the NBA athlete has reveled in the scott free nature of a contract conditioned around nothing.

Take a look at Warriors starting center Andris Beidrins. Since signing a 6-year $63-million dollar deal, the Latvian has periled in a quandary of make-shift injuries. His uninspired play has not only bankrupt a franchise in need of locking up other athletes, but questions the validity of the NBA system as a whole.

Since the deal Beidrins has played in just 46.0 games per season with numbers of 5.0 points and 7.4 rebounds.  Both numbers are his lowest since his rookie year. And while the Warriors continue to form a team around Stephan Curry and David Lee, they wade in deep water with the Western Conference’s version of Eddy Curry.

His unconditional contract is a burden on many fronts, most notably on his trade value. The Warriors must either match a portion of Biedrins contract in order to move him, or find a team willing to take a risk on him.

As implausible as option two is, the Warriors will be either stuck with him for another three-years, or as I said, paying a former employee a portion of his contract while he services elsewhere.

Yet, despite this, how can we morally fault the type of athletes we’ve created?

Today’s NBA athletes are celebrities because we said so. They are byproducts of million dollar PR agents, corporate greed and the lust for entertainment. Their gift to play a game has suspended into the stratosphere like gods, while other noble professions, most infamously teachers, lament in the cellar. While a fourth grade teacher collects his or her 42,000 dollars a year and fights yearly for their professional life, Kobe Bryant collects 6-times that during a 48-minute strap.

And though I understand a pro athlete can play an ominous role in our society as a figure head for cultural unification and national pride, I can’t help but question our societal values.

Without teachers we devolve into back country snake charmers believing in witchery. Without athletes we pay attention to world events more and read at a higher level.

Instead of a presidential address, music or a creatively sound book, we opt for momentary high flying enticement, something ultimately leaving us numb and disenfranchised from the world around us.

While World War 3 breaks lose, the Lakers lose.  An atom ball rips through our town while the Heat run off a red hot run. Our twitter accounts’ are hacked with identity thieves, but blowing up with Kevin Durant’s favorite Mexican restaurant. And while LeBron James just posed in GQ wearing a checkered long sleeve shirt, skinny jeans and a poet’s cap, the world says goodbye to literary legend, Hunter S. Thompson.

All in all it has been an average day: Kobe dropped 30 and the Knicks didn’t play any defense.

And while Americans go unemployed, our education system fails, the blue collar working class shrinks to an all-time low, corporate corruption arises and world famine steals the lives of children, most Americans are notably content with a sixty-six game NBA schedule starting on Christmas day.
We’re fawning over the wrong things. Our love of celebrity has taken us to the edge of stupidity and we’re cliff hanging, holding on, scratching just to remain intellectually relevant.

While China trumps us in every major educational category, outperforms us in productivity and continues to set the bar in the fields of medicine and technology, we’re doling out wads of money to greedy self-centered sets of hands.

The point then is this: the men wear red hoodies at a press conference because they’re allowed to wear red hoodies. It’s cool and they’re larger than life, and have been silver spoon fed this crap of praise since they stepped on the scene.

Until putting a ball in a hoop can save lives it is a meaningless game and the men and women who play it, like you and like me, are average citizens with an average calling.

Kim Kardashian: nothing more than an average rich girl currently ranks fourth above the likes of Barack Obama on the twitter account list with 11,591,704 fans.  She’s best known for making a fortune on a leaked sex tape starring her and Brandy’s brother Ray J. Besides that she’s dated Dolphins running back Reggie Bush and was married to starting Nets forward, Kris Humphries.

The girl’s fame is as fake as a tissue enhancement in a school girl’s bra. And yet she garners praise for no other reason other than she has a nice behind, a way of starring in “leaked” sex tapes, and most importantly, because of her relations with celebrity athletes.

Kardashian’s last tweet was as follows: “ooooh do I understand this urge! LOL RT @KhloeKardashian -The things that I wish I could tweet LOL.”

Huh? Can I get a copy of Rosetta Stone?