ESPN Analysts Weigh In On The Thunder
ESPN’s lead broadcast team of Mike Breen, Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy held a conference call Tuesday afternoon about all things NBA. They’re perhaps the best crew in the business, so it was a highly entertaining and insightful session.
In Thursday’s paper, John Rohde will have a piece looking back on the ovation Thunder heads gave the team immediately after the Game 6 loss to the Lakers. Breen, Jackson and Van Gundy, who had the call for that game at the Ford Center, each remembered what that moment was like. Said Breen: “I’ve never seen anything like that. Because it happened right away. It’s like, the buzzer sounded. Game was over. Heartbreak. And within seconds, they’re on their feet.” Said Jackson: “It was as good a scene as I’ve seen in all my years of playing and covering the NBA.” You’ll want to be sure to check out the full story later tonight on NewsOK.com and in Thursday’s paper.
But the guys also talked about how the Thunder can and should play its way through heightened expectations this season, Kevin Durant’s growing status as a superstar and whether Durant will win the MVP. They also touched on league-wide hot-button issues like Miami’s new trio and whether ESPN has gone overboard in covering that story, as well as the new technical foul rules. It’s all really good stuff. Long, even with only the best snippets included. But worth your time.
Jackson on how the Thunder can and should handle heightened expectations:
I think the main thing is to understand from top to bottom in the organization that there’s a reason why you won so many games last year. And to follow that game plan and that strategy. They competed. They played through their star player. Everybody showed up. They covered each other even through the limitations. They were extremely small at times. But they outworked folks and they were well coached. You don’t want to fall in love with what you did last year. You want to build on it and come back better. They certainly got some pieces in the draft. And I think Russell Westbrook…is a top notch point guard and a guy that they certainly should look to do the same thing that they did with Kevin Durant, which is lock up for a lot of years to come.”
Van Gundy on how the Thunder can and should handle heightened expectations:
For me, it’s about maintaining who you are as a team. For a young team last year to get it like they did defensively, you just don’t usually see that. They got it defensively. Again, I go back to defense in this league is about coaching and your best players buying into that. And I think they had it covered from both ends. I think Scott Brooks is an outstanding teacher defensively. And Kevin Durant and the best players are buying into that idea that defense is an important and integral part in winning in the NBA. So as long as they stay healthy and humble and hungry, they have some things they need to do better but they certainly have enough talent to be a top four team in the Western Conference. And I really think Portland, Houston and Oklahoma City, it’ll really be interesting to see how these younger nucleuses develop.”
Technically Speaking
SAN ANTONIO — It took five preseason games, but the NBA’s newest no-nonsense rule finally landed on the Thunder’s stoop Monday night.
And it was the team’s best two players that were made examples of.
Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook were both hit with “respect for the game” technical fouls in the Thunder’s 111-102 win over San Antonio inside the AT&T Center. Both calls illustrated the growing frustration many players and even more observers are experiencing with the league’s decision to crackdown on whining.
What Westbrook did to deserve a “T” was so vague you needed to be a lip-reader to realize the offense. Durant, meanwhile, didn’t say anything. He simply swung his right arm in disbelief as he distanced himself from Manu Ginobili after the Spurs guard received an extremely generous continuation call.
“You want to try your best to make sure you’re playing right,” Westbrook said after the game. “You just get in the heat of the moment so you’ve got to pay attention to it.”
For as beneficial as the new rules are in cracking down on hot-head teams like Boston and Denver, it’s disciplined teams like the Thunder that figure to suffer.
Last season, the Thunder was whistled for just 13 technical fouls. Thirteen. Kobe Bryant, by comparison, racked up 14 with the Los Angeles Lakers last year. The Thunder’s current roster has been called for 62 technical fouls over their combined careers, a figure that is as high as it is only because newcomer Mo Peterson has been hit with 31 techs in his tenure. Westbrook, who had five techs last season, ranks a distant second on the Thunder with seven for his career. Nenad Krstic has totaled six — and he hasn’t gotten one since the 2006-07 season.
But under the NBA’s new rules, the Thunder might as well be one of the league’s hot-head teams.
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How The NBA Is Cracking Down
TULSA — The most eventful and enlightening sequence of the Thunder’s third exhibition game came in the waning seconds of its 20-point blowout loss at the hands of the Memphis Grizzlies on Tuesday night.
Acie Law became the poor guy who happened to supply it.
As Law drilled a deep 3-pointer, right in Jerome Dyson’s mug from the top of the key with 8.8 seconds left to play, the Grizzlies point guard bellowed, “And one” before backpedaling to the defensive end. Veteran referee Bill Kennedy promptly stopped play and slapped Law with a technical foul. Law, walking slowly toward his bench, looked to his coaching staff. He was dazed and confused.
The Grizzlies bench jumped up in protest, with nearly each player and coach pleading Kennedy for an explanation. The ref tried to silence the sideline noise with three simple words.
“Not this year,” Kennedy said as he gestured for Memphis’ bench to sit down.
Welcome to the 2010-11 NBA season.
It’s a year in which the league is putting the kibosh on whining. The league has instructed its referees to curb demonstrative behavior, and it has given officials the power to do so by approving expanded guidelines on technical fouls. No longer will players be allowed to make “overt” reactions to referees’ calls, even if the emotion is not directed at the officials.
But the league has informed players that certain “heat of the moment” reactions will be given a pass. Law viewed his reaction in that class.
“I made the shot and I was excited about it,” Law told The Oklahoman after the game. “And I said, ‘and one.’ But I wasn’t being, like, disrespectful. I mean, it’s 10 seconds left in the game and we’re up 30. Why would I be disrespectful?”
Memphis coach Lionel Hollins, with his players flanking him, remained on the court moments after the final buzzer looking for further explanation from Kennedy. But Hollins took the high road in his post-game interview.
“It was a respect-for-the-game technical,” Hollins said. “You can’t whine too much. There’s a whole list of things that are now going to be emphasized. I mean, the game is looking ugly when players are running after referees and crying at them and jumping up and spinning around in circles and just showing the refs up. I mean, it’s always been a part of our game of not allowing that, and they’re going back to emphasizing that. And I think it’s a good thing.”
Law thinks differently.
Grizzlies players on Tuesday morning sat through a league-mandated tutorial explaining the new rules. Without heat of the moment leeway, Law said, a referee’s judgment can slow, or worse, shape games.
“It’s going to be difficult,” said Law, who said he will appeal Tuesday’s technical. “That’s going to be tough. It’s an emotional game. Guys get emotional and they say things. And you can’t just (call technical fouls) for every little thing. It’s going to be interesting.”
The NBA also has doubled the fine amount for technicals called this season, meaning Law could be docked $2,000 if the call is upheld as opposed to what would have been a $1,000 penalty last season.
All for saying, ‘And one?’
“Whatever he said was the wrong thing,” Hollins said. “So next time, don’t say it.”
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