In the wake of Cleveland’s playoff near-miss, it was fascinating to watch the differing autopsies provided by ESPN’s Greg Anthony and Stephen A. Smith. Incredibly, Anthony said that Dan Gilbert’s biggest mistake wasn’t the firing of coach Paul Silas, but that the Cavs’ owner “allowed second-guessing to come into play” and that the team choked.
Smith, however, pointed squarely to Gilbert undermining Silas (ordering substitutions, placing “spies” around the team, etc.). “You can’t have that kind of behavior going on with ownernship. Dan Gilbert did a lot of things wrong here, but the bottom line is, he had the wrong vision, the wrong concept, and he’s going to have to justify that the entire off-season.”
Anthony, visibly uncomfortable just inches to Smith’s left, came back with a comment about the difference between running a professional business and a pro sports franchise “was something that has to be learned here.”
No mention, of course, from anyone on the panel that Greg has allegedly been advising Gilbert for several weeks and might be a candidate for the Cleveland G.M. job.
For all the talk of the Cavs going down the toilet during the stretch run, not nearly enough praise can be lavished upon Jason Kidd, Vince Carer, Lawrence Frank, Rod Thorn and…..(I’m having a hard time writing this) Bruce Ratner. The Nets’ dramatic turnaround came after ownership had seemingly pulled the plug on the season before it began ; to have advanced into the playoffs without the benefit of Richard Jefferson, yet with Carter (above) playing the best basketball of his career the last few weeks, is pretty remarkable. Writes the Newark Star-Ledger’s Dave D’Alessandro,
In the 82nd game of an extraordinary season, Vince Carter endured 44 minutes of Achilles’ tendon pain and four months of doubt, and if his detractors were paying attention, they no longer can dismiss the Nets as just another eighth seed.
As a Nets fan going back to the gory days of Chris Morris and Dwayne Schintzius’ Florida Lobster Hairdo, I’ve been conflicted about this Nets team all season. I HATE the Ratner — and I hate the fact that the organization is slowly stripping “New Jersey” from the team — i.e. they’re introduced as “your ’04-05 (awkward beat) NETS!” — as they prepare to strip the team from New Jersey. I did my best to stop caring about them when it seemed inevitable that they’d be blowing off my home state for Brooklyn (something that I think would be much less so if/when Democrats win the NYC Mayoral and NY gubernatorial elections in ’06, replacing two of Ratner’s longtime homeboys in Mike Bloomberg and Giorgios Patakimos; and never mind that I did it myself). They made it easy, too: I was at the season’s first game, when the starting backcourt was Ron Mercer and Jacque Vaughn and the prospects looked good that Mark Mulder would out-win the Nets by a good margin.
But then they did make some good moves, and even spent a little (of Ratner’s) dough. Even though I’m pretty ambivalent about Vince — it seems pretty clear that he was taking it easy for the last two seasons up in Toronto, which is kind of a temperamental red flag — I’ve enjoyed watching this team as much or more than either of those that made the Finals. They’re really fun again, if still missing Kenyon Martin’s amazing aggression. Between a (legitimately?) gimpy Shaq and the fact that no 8 seed I can think of has come into the playoffs behind a bigger head of steam, I think the Nets have a decent look at an upset over Miami in round one. And I think they’ll be better next year, if they add an athletic 4 in the draft (Hakim Warrick? It’s probably too much to hope for Sean May) and if Nenad Krstic spends the summer hitting the weights. And if Jason Kidd doesn’t spend the summer hitting anyone.
I read on that Pat O’Brien In Rehab Blog that Sean May is better than Night Court.
unrelated note : they really figured out what to do with Kenyon Martin in Denver after George Karl took over. I was wrong about that team, too.
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