THUNDER WIN, HALIBURTON GOES 0 FOR 6 — AND THE NBA PLAYOFFS ARE TOO LONG
Has it occurred to Adam Silver that his postseason starts April 15 and lasts more than two months, which doesn’t excite the masses when Oklahoma City and Indiana tend to repeat earlier performances?
Consider it a supernatural phenomenon that the wheat, the cattle and the oil wells aren’t as big as Sam Presti, Jalen Williams and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Oklahoma City is within a cow burp of an NBA championship, having stolen the Thunder from Seattle, and no football glory will be as massive as a parade on lovely Main Street.
What, you were expecting Seventh Avenue or Causeway Street? The youngest Finals roster in 48 seasons should win a title for the 47th-biggest market, which might help Albuquerque and Grand Rapids feel better about days and nights. Williams replaced SGA as the planetary figure, scoring 40 points in a 120-109 victory in Game 5. How do they oust the Indiana Pacers and Tyrese Haliburton, who shot 0 for 6 in another horrendous show — meaning he creates chances and loses them, meaning he injures his leg and scores four points, meaning he rips the media and is ripped by the same media.
Same old stories, or so they say. “We won the game, so that was cool,” Williams said. “I won’t have much of a reaction until we handle business. Every time you play in the Finals, it’s the biggest game of your life. I’d be lying if I said I could have envisioned doing what I did tonight.”
What is the only thing longer in life than the NBA postseason? Ask Shaquille O’Neal, who will debate it and laugh uproariously with Charles Barkley. If the commissioner is wondering why America wasn’t watching the Finals on Monday night, he should stare at a playoff schedule that began April 15.
Today is June 17. If the series ends Thursday in Indianapolis, it means Adam Silver has robbed more than two months from an average male fan’s 75.8 years of existence, and the same amount from an average woman’s 81.1 years of existence. Would he like to compare his league to others? The NFL started Jan. 11 and ended with the Feb. 9 Super Bowl. Baseball started Oct. 1 and ended Oct. 30. College football began its playoff on Dec. 20 and declared a champion on Jan. 20. March Madness tipped off March 18 and awarded a trophy on April 7.
Why does Silver hog the calendar? Aren’t we tired of watching balls dribbled and players toppled when only one player, Gilgeous-Alexander, will be remembered as an all-timer? Haliburton enjoyed his final five seconds of eminence, four times, and continues to stumble otherwise. Sometimes, the basketball seems secondary to media profiles, the advertisements, the pre-game fashions. When Silver is deciphering why no more than 9.41 million viewers watched the first four games, maybe he should consider that his sport is about grace and not about social tomfoolery.
Hockey? Gary Bettman started April 19 and likely will finish tonight somewhere in Florida. Tennis lasts longer, but the four Grand Slams are spliced through time. Golf launched in April and bleeds into August, but again, majors are held once a month. The NBA’s lack of appeal broadens when a winner is declared too close to July 4. Silver had few issues when Stephen Curry and LeBron James were dominating the Finals. But SGA, stylish as he has been, doesn’t have the swagger of the greats. He holds his head in his hand and looks bored during press conferences. We miss the drama and theatrics of Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Curry, James, Jalen Brunson and Luka Doncic.
And Kevin Durant? A bigger topic than the Finals is where he ends up: with Pat Riley in Miami or the Rockets in Houston, though he’d rather be in San Antonio and will not go to Minnesota. The Desmond Bane trade, Memphis to Orlando, filtered through talk shows more than discussions about Haliburton’s erraticism. What will the Celtics do in deals? The Warriors? Will the Knicks find a coach in the G League?
Rick Carlisle was left to defend Haliburton, who has scored fewer than 10 points in three playoff games. “He’s not 100 percent, it’s pretty clear, but I don’t think he’s gonna miss the next game,” the Indiana coach said. “We were concerned at halftime, and he insisted on playing.” But he also defended league official Scott Foster, who is not as bad as critics say and not as good as his defenders say.
“I think it’s awful with some of the things I’ve seen about the officiating, with Scott Foster in particular,” the Indiana coach said. “I’ve known Scott Foster for 30 years — he’s a great official. He’s done a great job in these playoffs. We’ve had him a lot of times, and the ridiculous scrutiny that’s being thrown out there is terrible. It’s unfair and unjust.”
He took a deep path and defended Doris Burke, who is about to be downgraded to a second team by ABC and ESPN. Bristol will pour almost $29 billion into the NBA’s new TV package, which is worth $76 billion. Why are Burke and Richard Jefferson part of a broadcast team, with Hall of Famer Mike Breen, that suggests — please, no — that Stephen A. Smith and Kendrick Perkins might be next. “It was so sad to see these reports leaked really unnecessarily before such a celebrated event,” Carlisle said. “Doris is a great example of putting herself out there.”
If nothing else, should he lose with a team that doesn’t belong in the Finals, Carlisle has made a name for himself. He also has lobbied for food insecurity across Indiana. “Each year we’ve been able to help more people,” he said. “People in Indiana should never have to deal with food insecurity. There’s plenty of food in Indiana. The challenge is logistics. So, this charity helps with logistics.”
With applause for Carlisle, can you imagine Phil Jackson doing the same?
At one point, Silver corrected media who complained about a lack of Finals logos on hardwood. He said they were slippery for players and removed a decade ago. “I’m nostalgic, as well, for certain things,” he said. “And also, I think for a media-driven culture, whether it’s people watching live or seeing those images on social media, it’s nice when you’re looking back on highlights and they stand out because you see that trophy logo or some other indication that it’s a special event. So, we’ll look at it.”
Look at everything. First of all, reduce the time we’re exposed to his league. Players report in September. They start in October. They take plenty of time off until April. Then they prepare for a second season that lasts way too long, night after night.
“Forty games in 40 nights” is how the league showcased its earlier coverage. Too many games in 65 nights leads to exhaustion. Presti created a team that never pauses, with 68 wins in the regular season and No. 16 about to happen in the playoffs.
“A lot of room for growth,” Mark Daigneault said.
How? Why? The season is almost over, coach.
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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.