Every morning, we compile the links of the day and dump them here… highlighting the big story line. Because there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a good morning dump.
“Teams are trying to really slow me down and put different guys on me and keep me seeing two guys at once when I come off pick and rolls,” he said. “So I’m just trying to give them something different each and every time down, and my teammates are doing a hell of a job of separating, getting in my vision, and I’m just trying to make plays to get them going.”
With less than a minute left in the Celtics’ game against the Bucks on Thursday, with Boston clinging to a 4-point lead, Jae Crowder got into Thomas’s vision. He was alone in the right corner, and Thomas remembered that as he carved through the lane. Then, somehow, he whipped a no-look, over-the-shoulder pass with his left hand across the court to Crowder, whose 3-pointer all but sealed the Celtics’ 112-107 win.
Afterward, everyone was gushing about that pass. They called it unbelievable and great and a heck of a pass. Thomas was more modest.
“I’m glad [Crowder] stayed in that corner and made me look good,” he said.
Note to Adam Himmelsbach: Isaiah is a lefty.
Other than that, wow. That’s probably one of the reasons we’re all basketball fans. Because crazy stuff like that happens in basketball. Isaiah is developing into this player that bends the game. He’s become so adept at pulling defenses out of their regular schemes that zany passes like this that shouldn’t work, suddenly start working.
Generally speaking, if you want to win a title, you need at least two players that can break defenses–players that can lure opponents off their assignments, distract them, get past them, or if you’re LeBron, run over them (and draw a foul). We used to think that Boston didn’t have any. I think they might already have one.
Page 2: Where Carmelo didn’t veto a trade
Carmelo Anthony denied that he blocked a potential blockbuster deal to the Boston Celtics last week, telling the Daily News that Knicks management never approached him about waiving his no-trade clause.
“No,” Anthony said late Wednesday in Indianapolis. “Heck no.”
A few years ago a friend of mine was working for a division of a large bank. That division was being closed but they hadn’t announced any layoffs yet. I asked her if she had heard anything about her job. This was her response:
“The only people talking are people who don’t know anything.”
Did Ainge call about Carmelo? Almost certainly. Did he call about Durant? Probably. Curry? Sure. Why not. This is a guy whose motto is ‘the best ability is availability.’ With that kind of attitude, Ainge is always going to ask. Absolutely no point in not asking whether players are available.
But at the same time, when you start getting these detailed pictures of front office maneuverings… That always rings a little hollow to me–like someone’s embroidering a dull story in order to make it more exciting.
I used to wonder why reporters kept printing info from sources that had given them bad info in the past. Then I realized that it wasn’t really bad info. Is it incorrect? Sure. Of course it is. Did it sell papers? Does it generate clicks. You bet. From that perspective it’s not bad at all.
Page 3: Where Danny Ainge has opinions on flopping
“Flopping has been going on forever and I think the best players do the best job of it,” said Ainge. “They draw attention to the contact. It’s not always inventing contact; it’s accentuating it and embellishing the contact to draw the officials’ attention. The bottom line is players are going to flop if they keep getting calls. If they don’t get calls, then they’ll stop flopping. The fact that officials fall for flopping and always do and always have, players are going to continue to try to get those calls.”
The problem, as Ainge observes, is that flopping works. If the NBA wanted flopping to end, they could end it just as easily as they could end “star treatment”–by making it a “point of emphasis” when evaluating officials. If officials’ game grades and playoff assignments required them to pay less attention to flopping and flailing, it would stop. So far, flopping is not a ‘point of emphasis’ with the NBA. I mean, has anybody even been fined for flopping yet? Remember when that was going to solve flopping?
Finally: Delonte West is not your punchline.
Lovely words from Jackie MacMullan on @AroundtheHorn just now. Delonte West is sick, not your punchline. Help him. pic.twitter.com/H6cvyu3D1f
— Megan Armstrong (@meganKarmstrong) February 25, 2016
“My whole life the court is the one place where people couldn’t laugh at my skin complexion, or the birthmark on my face or the red hair,” says West in a calm voice. “When I played basketball, because I worked so hard, it’s always been the one place where people couldn’t laugh at me.
“All of a sudden the laughter is now coming from the mainstream,” continues West. “Everywhere I look, the joke is on me.”
He offers an example: “My son is due in a week,” begins West, a long-time father figure and financial caregiver to a large swathe of his extended family. “Everybody I know wants me to name my son Delonte Jr. I’m not, though. In today’s world, my son doesn’t need to go to school and get laughed at because of things his father did.”
This is a deeply distressing situation. It also raises the question about what responsibility the NBA has for the mental health of its current and recently retired players. Did Delonte West have access to psychiatric help as a player? And more importantly, was it made clear that any effort to receive mental-health assistance would not reflect negatively on his opportunities in the league?
About one in forty Americans has bipolar disorder. You probably don’t just know of someone with that disorder, you know someone with that disorder (in fairness, D-West has said since that he believes he was misdiagnosed–he’s also apparently having a very difficult time leading a stable life, so…).
Stigmatizing mental illness is nothing new. Not even in connection with Delonte West. NBA Hall-of-famer Peter Vecsey once made this observation: “consider the fact West has depression problems and suffers from mental illness. What prevents him from concealing weapons in his Cavaliers workout bag and sneaking them into the arena or practice complex, and, on a particularly moody blues day, blasting everybody in sight?”
The way society, as a whole, treats mental illness is, shall we say, problematic. The notion that it’s not a ‘real’ illness pervades nearly every form of discourse on the subject. Then there’s the breezy ignorance that Vecsey put on display above. And the ridicule.
The extent to which mental illness is stigmatized is more than apparent when you compare attitudes toward people with mental illnesses with the way this society views cancer. These days if you survive cancer, you can buy a t-shirt and people will forgive you for bragging about it–but if you figure out how to live with a mental illness, many of which are chronic, incurable, and can only be managed symptomatically, well… Hey, nobody said life’s fair, right?
And then, as you will see in the Nation article above, you’ve got people like Royce White who seem to think that the proper view of mental illness is to refuse to acknowledge any limitations–or to demand accommodation for those limitations.
White makes some pertinent points about the NBA’s lack of attention to the mental health of players that are subjected to incredible stress. But at the same time, if he is serious about getting respect for mental illness as a disease, he needs to stop insisting that he can play professional basketball–if he has enough accommodations and support. Heck, I could play professional basketball with sufficient accommodations and support. If he had muscular dystrophy, he couldn’t play in the NBA. If he had cerebral palsy, he couldn’t play in the NBA. There are medical conditions that rule out a career in the NBA, and maybe–just maybe–Royce White’s condition puts a career in the NBA out of reach.
And I’m well qualified to speak about the limitations that mental illness can impose. I’ve been diagnosed with dysthymia/PDD for almost sixteen years now.
There. Now that’s out of the way, the rest of the links:
MassLive: Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder close out Boston Celtics’ 112-107 victory against Milwaukee Bucks | Phoenix Suns GM regrets trading Isaiah Thomas to the Boston Celtics | Joe Johnson would fit what Boston Celtics want in last roster spot, but could be looking elsewhere
CSNNE: Thomas’ no-look pass has Celtics buzzing after win | Stars, studs and duds: ‘The Amir we need’ | ’86 Celtics to present-day NBAers: There’s no comparison | Stars, studs and duds: ‘The Amir we need’
Boston.com: What happened to the Celtics’ lockdown defense? | These Celtics will work for your love
Boston Herald: Thomas, Crowder lift Celtics
NESN: Brad Stevens’ Trust In Jae Crowder Pays Off In Celtics’ Strong Finish
