THE EGOS SHOW UP FOR NBA SEASON, BUT LISTEN TO JOKIC: LET’S WIN AGAIN
Lillard anoints Giannis as the league’s best player, while the Celtics mob Holiday and Harden blows off the 76ers, but biggest of all, the Nuggets already are talking about a second straight title
This was the day when Jrue Holiday showed up before his boss, when Jimmy Butler appeared with “emo” hair and piercings, when Kevin Durant led a 20-player crusade to the Paris Olympics, when James Harden might vanish forever, when Steph Curry didn’t understand why Chris Paul was wearing a Warriors jersey in a State Farm ad, and when LeBron James said his son is fine after cardiac arrest while anointing Anthony Davis as leader of the Lakers.
Yet, in the plain scope of today’s watch-my-ass NBA, the league’s optimum face always will have the most money. Here in 2023, he wouldn’t be anyone who has played the last 20 seasons. The figure would be Michael Jordan, whose sneaker machinery and majority-stake sale of the Charlotte Hornets just placed him where LeBron and Curry always have dreamed. Though he retired from basketball after the millennium and earned $93.9 million in that period, Jordan isn’t loaded because of his playing days. It’s what he did later in life, expanding his Air Jordan empire into his 60s, then selling his small-market team for $3 billion. That makes him the first athlete to reach the Forbes roll call of America’s 400 wealthiest people.
The man popularized his sport. Then he ravaged it.
And you still don’t think he’s the Greatest Ever?
In that vein, a cavalcade of egomaniacs returned for the 2023-24 season, trying to make a case to win it all — LeBron is 39 in December — when reality again has Nikola Jokic positioned to shut them down. “I just think we can do it again,” said Jamal Murray, knowing what comes from Denver won’t be half as newsworthy as Boston, Milwaukee, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Miami and Golden State. That was the beauty of watching the Nuggets win, ignoring the surrounding bluster and watching true basketball.
Here we go again. The drama starts in the Eastern Conference, where Damian Lillard’s trade to the Bucks has Giannis Antetokounmpo speaking of a dynasty, declaring, “Money is not important, but a lot of f---ing money is important. So I'm going to sign it next year. I want to be a Milwaukee Buck for the rest of my career, as long as we are winning. It's as simple as that.” Wisely, Lillard described his new teammate as “the best player in the league.” Keep saying it.
“I know the player he is, I know the player I am,” Lillard said. “I know how to make my presence known. Being myself doesn’t always mean I gotta be out front or everything’s gotta be about me.”
With the deal, the Celtics took brisk advantage and boldly acquired the star relinquished for Lillard. They acquired Holiday from Portland and made their team less boisterous and more functional. Can they chill in major moments? Will Holiday be enough with supermaxer Jaylen Brown and a bigger supermaxer in Jayson Tatum? The president of basketball operations, Brad Stevens, wants to win now.
“There's a list of guys in the league that you always think you've never had a real chance to get that you think are perfect fits. And Jrue is one of those guys,” said Stevens, who arrived to work at 9 a.m. and realized Holiday beat him there. “You got to pay a good price for things, right? That's the way it goes. We're trying to win a championship. This speaks to our ownership's willingness to spend regardless and our eagerness to be the best possible team we can be.”
There is no orbit that matches Lillard’s shooting authority and championship worship with Giannis’ magnificence. The Celtics will have to deal with that duo, among the best ever created, and that’s why Butler showed up at media day as an isolated star betrayed by the Miami Heat. When Lillard was shipped last week, Butler asked the league to conduct an investigation. When Holiday was shipped to the other contender, he lost it, showing up in a trench coat and black boots and wearing piercings on his nose, lip and eyebrow. He claims to be thinking about another title, as usual, but he’s the only one.
“Don’t make me break character. I’m emo — leave me alone,” Butler said. “This is my emotional state. I’m one with my emotions. So, this is what you get. It’s a new year. It’s a new season. We came up short. I didn’t do my job. We didn’t do our job as a whole last season. But it’s a new season and I’m excited for it. We’ll see y’all in the Finals in June. This is our year. This is the one. And this one’s gonna feel real good.”
He might reach the conference semifinals, regardless of coach Erik Spoelstra’s brilliance, which is more than Harden will do. He continues to blow off the 76ers, demanding a trade to a Clippers team that doesn’t want him. It’s possible Harden, who has referred to basketball president Daryl Morey as a “liar,” is overlooking his lost skills and might never play again. “I want to address James Harden,” Morey said before he was asked. “He's not here today. He continues to seek a trade, and we're working with his representation to resolve that in the best way for the 76ers and, hopefully, all parties.” Meanwhile, the Sixers continue to waste the career of Joel Embiid, who might be next to demand a deal if Harden fades.
Out West, the Nuggets must deal with the league’s bizarre plan to let Ja Morant — isn’t he suspended for 25 games? — practice with the Memphis Grizzlies and travel on the road. If you leave Morant home, maybe he’s waving another handgun in a car. If you let him travel, might he do the same at a nightclub? Commissioner Adam Silver continues catering to a superstar instead of protecting his league from gun violence. He’s looked silly twice. What happens if there’s a third time?
“I think it's great for Ja, and I think it's great for the group that he can be with us day-to-day," Grizzlies general manager Zach Kleiman said. “The NBA basically has said that as long as Ja continues to stay on track, he's going to be clear to participate in all private team activities, so practices, shootarounds, traveling with the team. He's not going to be with us, obviously, for preseason games and the first 25, but we'll see him out there and we can't wait to have him back Game 26.”
Isn’t Game 26 just in time for Christmas? At least Silver didn’t schedule the Grizzlies that day, for the real Scrooge to appear. “He's been putting in great work and I think taking a lot of steps in the right direction and a healthy positive direction," Kleiman said. “I would just leave it at that.”
On a happier note, James said his son will play for USC after his July incident. Nothing the old man ever does means more than Bronny’s first season, even if the Lakers rally around a piecemeal group depending on Davis more than ever. “Bronny is doing extremely well,” LeBron said. “He has begun his rehab process to get back on the floor this season with his teammates at USC. The successful surgery that he had ... he's on the up and up. It's definitely a whirlwind and a lot of emotions for our family this summer, but the best thing we have is each other.”
As underdogs to the Nuggets, Suns and Warriors, the Lakers won’t be winning a championship. You’d have to live in Los Angeles to know the marketing campaign of Austin Reaves, who signed a $53 million deal that might be a bargain. These aren’t the Showtime Lakers, mind you, but the pressure will be on a team such as Phoenix. How will a maniacal owner such as Mat Ishbia handle scoring 120 points and giving up 125? For now, Durant was among many superstars — LeBron, Curry, Devin Booker among them — who want to be in Paris. Also claiming an interest were Clippers stars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. The problem? Leonard already is fighting a new NBA policy banning players from overdosing on load management. He hasn’t played in more than 60 games in seven years and is coming off yet another injury, a meniscus tear in his right knee last April.
If Leonard wants to sit, he’ll sit. “No league policy is helping me to play more games,” he said. “I'm not a guy that's sitting down because I'm doing load management — well, when I was with the Raptors, it was different; like, I was coming (off) an injury. And you have to know the details from the doctor. But if the league is seeing or trying to mock what I did with the Raptors, they should stop because I was injured during that whole year. But other than that, if I'm able to play, I'll play basketball. I work out every day in the summertime to play the game. So, no league policy is helping me to play more games.”
Yet he wants to play in the Olympics.
Finally, there’s the matter of whether Paul can handle coming off the bench, a possibility. The Warriors haven’t liked him through time. Here he is, trying to win his first title after 19 years. “It's a transition with anything,” Paul said. “You know, just even media day when you're saying, ‘Dub Nation’ here and there, that's been a sound I didn't like to hear for the past, I don't know how many years.”
But the biggest sound Monday was left for last. “Go get the opportunity to win another one,” Jokic said. “Like Jamal said, like why not win again?”
That’s the way Jordan used to talk. We believed him. I believe in Jokic, too, which allows the NBA to remain a better place.
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Jay Mariotti, called “without question the most impacting Chicago sportswriter of the past quarter-century,’’ writes general sports columns for Substack while appearing on some of the 1,678,498 podcasts and shows in production today. He is an accomplished columnist, TV panelist and talk/podcast host. Living in Los Angeles, he gravitated by osmosis to film projects.