Kleeman's Last Word

End of NBA season notes

BENNET DESERVES AN OSCAR FOR HIS TREMENDOUS ACT

Oklahomans have earned the right to an NBA franchise. Both Oklahoma City and Tulsa have proven they are ready to host professional squads.
Oklahoma City has earned the NBA but not the Seattle Supersonics. That the NBA Board of Governors would vote 28-2 to let majority owner Clay Bennett move a 41-year-old team from its home sickens me. What disgusting horse shit this is.

Thank you Mark Cuban and Paul Allen for voting against the relocation. The Sonics move is all but certain. A mess of city lawsuits is the only barricade preventing Bennett from hauling the team and 41 years of history to the Sooner State. History is not for sale.

I remember as a kid watching the Houston Rockets play late games at Key Arena. Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp led the Sonics in their "glory days." It seems wrong that a history like that can be uprooted so easily.

Many people seem to think the NBA has ruined itself with over-expansion. I disagree. If Oklahoma can support an NBA franchise, and I am confident it can, why not create team number 31?

Attendance in Memphis and Charlotte has lagged and at times been embarrassing, but the teams have sucked, too. I am not certain the Bobcats and Grizzlies will survive much longer in their respective markets. A semi-winning franchise in Oklahoma would draw greater fan support.

A team in Oklahoma has Utah Jazz potential--as in toughest, loudest home court in the league. I will not litter this post with details from other news articles about the disastrous showdown between Bennett's ownership group, the league's office, city lawmakers and the team's fervent fans.

I will say this: move a team to OKC next year. Fine. Great. Just don't move the Sonics.

CARLESIMO DESERVES TWO MORE YEARS
A cadre of anonymous sources are speculating Sonics Head Coach P.J. Carlesimo's job may be in jeopardy. I trust former Spurs assistant general manager Sam Presti to use the intelligence that made him a San Antonio favorite and the pick for the Sonic's top job.

Seattle's best player was a 19-year-old rookie with ONE year of college experience. A disjointed squad of rookies, yougens and low impact veterans joined Kevin Durant in amassing one of the worst season's in franchise history. The team was awful, the defense stunk and the toughness was not there.
What did you people expect? Did you expect Durant to be a great defender and leader his first year in the league?

No coach, not even Phil Jackson or Gregg Popovich, could have done a better job with this team. All the great and tough coaching in the world cannot save a crappy team from performing as such.

Carlesimo was the Spurs' top assistant, earning the players' respect and admiration. There is a reason Presti offered him a second chance, and for that, he should allow him two more years to develop this green, infant squad of players.

NBA owners must stop the idiot practice of speed scapegoating. Any time a team manages a horrible record, some one has to take the fall. Why? A quick firing will not fix what ails the Sonics. Presti had to know when he drafted Durant that this team had ZERO chance of making the playoffs. The Seattle fans deserve better than to be tricked into thinking one player, new coach or manager will turn this squad into a championship contender.

Consider this my vouch for Carlesimo to keep his job.

NBA MUST TACKLE TANKING
NBA Commissioner David Stern will not admit that teams do it. He will only say that he hopes it does not happen. Hope alone will not stop the abominable practice of tanking-losing on purpose or shutting down key players to secure a better draft position.
The league must crack down on teams who do this. It should also reward the Sacramento Kings and Portland Trail Blazers of the league, the squads that commit to winning after their playoff hopes are dashed.

The Miami Heat should not allow Dwyane Wade and Shawn Marion to undergo season-ending surgeries even when the team has lost 15 consecutive contests. Fans pay a lot to see NBA games and deserve better than intentional or inevitable losing.

The lottery system should reward lottery balls to teams that compete and play their superstars (if healthy) in the regular season's final weeks. The Kings pit-bulled the defending champion Spurs into a dog fight Monday with its three best players-Kevin Martin, Ron Artest and Brad Miller-watching in street clothes. The lottery-bound Kings dropped a 101-98 decision to a team that needed the game to keep a fight for first round home court advantage alive.

Kudos to Reggie Theus and co. for giving the fans something to cheer about. I do not condemn perennial winner Pat Riley for skipping Heat games to scout college and high school games. The man who hates losing knew his team had lost its season long ago. However, Heat fans deserve better than watching a D-League comedy of errors play hard and the regular starters sit on the sidelines. Kasib Powell and the other development league players played their asses off but it did not shake that disturbing feeling that this Heat franchise tanked intentionally.

What about pride? What about wanting to win at all costs, despite no post season?

Stop the tanking madness, Mr. Stern, and the league will be better off for it.

GREAT SEASON ENDS
This may have been the greatest, most compelling regular season in league history. The Western Conference playoff race was the wildest I've seen in any sport-pro or college level. The Leastern Conference's bottom teams pulled off some late-season upsets and did enough for me not to call it that any longer, though the West is still superior by a mile.

And now, here come the playoffs. Woohoo!

posted by Robert Kleeman @ 12:54 PM