Looking over notes of the past week I see a flood of coaching news. Keeping up with who is coming and going is the work of organized or paid – or just a cataloguing blogger. Right alongside draft combines, coaching changes, and more Donald Sterling, is the penultimate series’ of the year: the Conference Finals where get the top-two seeds from each conference and four of the top-five records in the league (sorry, Clippers). With this rising tide of league wide activity threatening to roll over our collective comprehension, let’s get on with it:
- Speaking of hired coaches, the Detroit Pistons have officially stepped away from the Dumars era and have a new Godfather of Basketball Operations. Yes, Stan Van Gundy, of Van Gundy fame, will be taking over as president of basketball operations and head coach of this flailing, yet talented franchise. Most noteworthy for this writer were Van Gundy’s comments on Brandon Jennings:
The questions are his decision-making ability — not so much that he’s a high-turnover guy, but it’s his shooting percentage you get concerned about. One of the things I like to do with guys in terms of shooting percentage is ask them why. Why 37 percent? I want to hear the answer on that. But I know he’s a very, very talented guy.
I’m sure the conversation will go great with a lot honeymoon-ish nodding and agreeing and same paging, but let’s see if SVG’s got the magic touch or if Jennings reverts to his sub-38% shooting ways.
Detroit’s Godfather of Basketball Operations, aka Stan Van Gundy, brother of Jeff
- Probably the most interesting thing I read last week was this thoroughly researched and referenced Deadspin piece written by Dave McKenna on the overall griminess of Sacramento Kings savior/“Little Barack”/current Sterling crusader/Sacramento Mayor, Kevin Johnson. I consider myself up-to-date (as much I’m dependent on mainstream and independent media to help me stay that way) when it comes to the comings and goings of the NBA’s on and off court smarm, but the scope and depth of this piece took me by surprise in the sense that it was so deep, but had received so little play over the years. The story as laid out on Deadspin reveals Johnson, or KJ as we’ve been lulled into calling him over the years in a sense of false familiarity, to be an ambitious, corner-cutting, entitled “hands on” man in the most inappropriate and sexual ways. At the center of numerous allegations of inappropriate sexual conduct involving minors and misuse of government funds is the allegation that in 1995, a 29-year-old Johnson had a sexual relationship with a 16-year-old girl. A Phoenix New Times piece published in May of 1997 lays out the disturbing case in great detail and is worth reading to gain a fuller picture of Johnson and the earliest documented allegations against him. That similar allegations popped up again in 2008 at the St. HOPE Academy which were serious enough that two staffers left the academy is even further worrisome. If the NBA is willing to exile an owner for racist comments caught on tape, what of a former player and well-connected league partner who has been repeatedly accused of improper sexual conduct and where evidence exists of a grossly inappropriate conversation with a minor? Since Johnson has no official standing with the league of which I’m aware, it seems the league would be wise, from a financial, moral and brand-based consideration, to distance its relationship from this Johnson.
Detectives of SVU after reading Dave McKenna’s Deadspin piece
- The Milwaukee Bucks were sold by long-time Senator Herb Kohl last week to a pair wealthy New York-based investors named Marc Lasry and Wesley Edens for $550-million. Worth noting that Forbes’ latest valuation of the team is dead last in the NBA at $405-million While the Bucks are as due for change as any team in the league, the new owners are only part of the story here. Both Kohl and Lasry/Edens have committed $100-million towards a new arena in Milwaukee. Additionally, there’s a buyback provision in the sale where the “league will buy back the team for $575-million if construction of a new arena is not underway by 2017.” The clock is ticking and it will be interesting to see how and where financing for a new arena (beyond the $200-million committed by Kohl and Lasry/Edens) comes from. Taxpayers again? Also, this seems like a win-win for the league. Either someone figures out the arena situation in Milwaukee or the league gets the team at which time it’s wholly conceivable that the market rate for the Bucks will exceed the $575-million they’d spend buying it back.
- While we’re talking about team structures, the D-League continues to evolve. If you land on the D-League site, you’re quickly told that “149 current NBA players have D-League Experience.” (For those not doing the math, that’s 33% of the league.) As the D continues to develop, that number will grow. Most recently though, we’ve seen three new NBA-D-League affiliations: the Iowa Energy are now aligned with the Memphis Grizzlies, the Erie BayHawks with Orlando, and the Bakersfield Jam with the Suns. When I wrote the following piece in January, there were 17 D-League franchises and 14 of those teams had a one-to-one relationship with NBA franchises. Just four months later and there are 18 D-League teams with 16 one-to-one relationships. Growth is happening and the league is rightfully touting it. With Adam Silver continuing to use the bully pulpit to increase the age limit of NBA players, the need to have a Development system to catch kids like Glen Rice Jr and PJ Hairston should only increase. And of course, the prospect of a full-fledged minor league system is a hope which I can cling to … for some odd reason.
- The Draft Lottery is hours away which means fates hang on weighted chances, supposedly determining futures from something as silly as a bouncing ball. Remember earlier this year when this class of pro declarations was supposed to be franchise shaping? In Mark Heisler’s latest for Forbes, we’re told that’s no longer the case, first by Jerry West: “Everyone is talking about a great draft class this year. I think it’s just the opposite. I think it’s a poor one, myself.” Then by Danny Ainge, “It’s not even close to one of the best draft classes in the last 10 years.” Heisler also makes the case that by skipping the annual pre-draft combine in Chicago, players, via the power of their all-knowing, all-manipulating agents, are changing the power of the draft. By not participating, a player with an injury like Joel Embiid can pick and choose which teams he works out for and with whom he shares his medical records. This is his right, but if the Bucks win the top spot and Embiid doesn’t share his medical records, does Milwaukee really want to roll the dice with a guy they haven’t worked out or checked out? Of course, this wouldn’t set any precedent as Steve Francis and Kobe Bryant (among others and in other sports) have manufactured their ways to preferable climes, but for a process that’s supposed to help the have nots become haves, it becomes an exercise in market inequality.
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Dancing With Noah 
Like most people mindlessly regurgitating the Kevin Johnson stories on the Internet, you are both ignorant and clueless in your analysis. First, if you found some old stories that have been around for years to be “interesting,” then I have to ask where you’ve been all this time. The story about K.J.’s relationship with a minor first surfaced in 1997; it made major newspapers such as “USA Today,” which is where I read about it back then. Where were you, in your parents’ crib? The “Arizona Republic” mentioned the incident in 2000, when the Suns called Kevin Johnson out of retirement. And I read the “Phoenix New Times” story, which is what McKenna used as his source (McKenna did not conduct any independent research whatsoever) on-line in 2004. Again, where were you?
Moreover, these allegations already resurfaced when K.J. first ran for mayor of Sacramento in 2008, and he overcame them then. Again, where were you? So you think that the NBA should distance itself from a highly credible and effective public official with a long association with the league based on unfounded allegations from nearly two decades ago? The police looked into the allegations back then and declined to press charges. What are you missing, dude? Not only was Kevin Johnson not found guilty of any misconduct, but the police declined to press charges. There was no evidence of sexual misconduct whatsoever by him, and while he may have become too close to someone who was too young, her claims were contradictory (which you’ll see if you actually read the “Phoenix New Times” piece) and probably resulted from K.J. distancing herself from her and she feeling jilted as a consequence.
For the NBA to distance itself from Kevin Johnson based on unfounded allegations that never resulted in police charges, based on one flawed story that people periodically dredge up for no good reason, just proves that you are a naive drama queen prone to sensationalism and innuendo. The grimy one is you, and trust me, the NBA is not going to take advice from an exploitative, ignorant blogger such as yourself. Drop your self-righteousness and get over yourself; you’re not important.
Like most people mindlessly regurgitating the Kevin Johnson stories on the Internet, you are both ignorant and clueless in your analysis. First, if you found some old stories that have been around for years to be “interesting,” then I have to ask where you’ve been all this time. The story about K.J.’s relationship with a minor first surfaced in 1997; it made major newspapers such as “USA Today,” which is where I read about it back then. Where were you, in your parents’ crib? The “Arizona Republic” mentioned the incident in 2000, when the Suns called Kevin Johnson out of retirement. And I read the “Phoenix New Times” story, which is what McKenna used as his source (McKenna did not conduct any independent research whatsoever) on-line in 2004. Again, where were you?
Moreover, these allegations already resurfaced when K.J. first ran for mayor of Sacramento in 2008, and he overcame them then. Again, where were you? So you think that the NBA should distance itself from a highly credible and effective public official, who has a long association with the league, based on unfounded allegations from nearly two decades ago? The police looked into the allegations back then and declined to press charges. What are you missing, dude? Not only was Kevin Johnson not found guilty of any misconduct, but the police declined to press charges. There was no evidence of sexual misconduct whatsoever by him, and while he may have become too close to someone who was too young, her claims were contradictory (which you’ll see if you actually read the “Phoenix New Times” piece) and probably resulted from K.J. distancing himself from her and she feeling jilted as a consequence.
For the NBA to distance itself from Kevin Johnson based on unfounded allegations that never resulted in police charges, and due to one flawed story that people periodically dredge up for no good reason, just proves that you are a naive drama queen prone to sensationalism and innuendo. The grimy one is you, and trust me, the NBA is not going to take advice from an exploitative, ignorant blogger such as yourself. Drop your self-righteousness and get over yourself; you’re not important.