North Station Sports

This ties in nicely with my recent post regarding D’Antoni’s punishing Nate Robinson for getting too friendly with Dwight Howard before the Knicks and Magic met in roundball pitched battle for the coach’s liking. In a statement that lends credibility to critics who find today’s post-Palace-melee NBA to be too a) stingily officiated and b) amiable, Kevin McHale had the following to say about LeBron James’ recent dance moves exhibited during a rout of the Bulls in The Seattle Times:

“If a guy was doing the Riverdance like that, coach would come over and say, ‘Who’s got the fewest amount of fouls of my big fellas?’ ” said ex-Celtic and TNT analyst Kevin McHale. “If you raised your hand, he would say, ‘We will let him drive and then we will throw him on the ground.’

“When he is laying there we would say, ‘Do you feel like dancing now?’

“And that pretty much solved the dancing problem.”

Doesn’t that just set your heart aflutter? Now, I’m no proponent of violence in the NBA, but it’s pretty clear that in the wake of the Pacers/Pistons brawl, the league’s reaction to any bad-blood displayed by opponents during a game is over the top. There’s a fine line between preventing ugly incidents and stifling the competitive intensity of world-class athletes. It’s tough to watch officials overcompensate when games start to get chippy – all the rhythm, flow and urgency that we hope to see in the best NBA games falls by the wayside. Bill Simmons correctly pointed out that last year’s game 7 between the Bulls and Celtics, what should have been the culmination of a tremendous series, was hijacked by foul-happy refs anxious to keep tempers in check:

We shouldn’t have a league in which every game is officiated differently. Game 2 of the Bulls-Celtics series was beautiful to watch: 118-115, 146 2-pointers, 36 3s, 39 fouls, 54 free throws. The chippiness increased through the next four games, culminating in skittish officials ruining Game 7 because they were so desperate to manage it: 109-99, 114 2-pointers, 41 3s, 52 fouls, 75 free throws. Guess which game they’ll show on ESPN Classic 20 years from now.

I don’t fault David Stern for wanting to avoid repeating past mistakes, but I think he’s so determined to keep his beloved league looking squeaky clean (the Donaghy scandal notwithstanding) that he has failed to realized just what a bizarre confluence of strong personalities, flaring tempers, poor decision-making and sheer bad luck went into what happened that night. Some terrible things can’t be avoided, and we’re seeing the negative effect that proactive attempts at prevention can have in today’s NBA.

Our beloved Kevin McHale sums it up nicely: his Celtics (and one can assume, the Showtime Lakers or Bad Boy Pistons can be used interchangeably here) wouldn’t have stood for the kind of crap LeBron pulled, but they also wouldn’t have to. The capacity of players to police their own behavior was much greater then, and there was much less affection between players on competing teams than we see today.

One need only compare the stories of MJ’s cold-blooded treatment of Drexler, still-reeling from his evisceration at Jordan’s hands in the ‘92 Finals during their time as teammates on the Dream Team that summer with the touchy-feely sentiments tossed around regarding the LeBron-Wade-Bosh triumvirate during last year’s Olympics to see just how far we’ve come.

It’s refreshing to reflect on days when the NBA seemed to smolder with the fire of gamesmanship, to ooze with competitiveness, and while it’s easy to romanticize the past, it’s clear in this case that something has been lost in the years from then until now.

Just ask Kevin McHale.