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Friday, March 29, 2024

Bridges: NBA gets crazier by the day

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I’ve never been one to argue that the generational gap between this old curmudgeon and many of the younger athletes in the National Basketball Association is anything but legitimate and, without question, perplexing.

I’ve been fortunate enough to see many great players perform at the highest level, so when someone talks about just who are the all-time greats of the game, I generally can hold my own in terms of the overall debate that ensues.

That being said, I’m also someone who can spot an NBA fraud when I see one, which brings us to both Kyrie Irving and Russell Westbrook, who at one point in their careers were nothing short of sensational.
Irving was one of the better ball handlers of the modern era and could put up 30 points on you in a heartbeat.

His run with Cleveland in the 2016 NBA Finals was beyond epic, and there is no doubt the Cavaliers could not have come back from a 3-1 deficit against Golden State without him, even with LeBron James and Kevin Love running the floor as well.

But that’s ancient history for a guy who spit in the face of medical science and then missed a number of games during the pandemic, which he claimed was not that big of a deal. He forfeited a ton of money but still took a handsome sum home for the games he did play, but hey, unless you’re the owner of the Brooklyn Nets, what’s tens of millions of dollars among friends, in addition to another failed playoff opportunity?

That brings us to Russell Westbrook, who was once a triple-double machine in his days with the Oklahoma City Thunder. He too has hit the wall, and while everything in Los Angeles wasn’t his fault, much of it was, and that subsequently changed the fabric of the Lakers’ roster in what will probably be the last year in Los Angeles for LeBron and maybe Anthony Davis too.

Both Irving and Westbrook recently exercised player options for the upcoming season that combined exceed $77 million, and while that alone places their respective agents in rarified air, it also shows how ridiculous and selfish these two individuals have become as they enter the twilight of their once storied careers, currently disguised as the splendid players they once were before they lost their desire to play hard every time they walk on the court.

Today’s NBA game is one of finesse as opposed to the physical brand of hoops it once was, and that suits the style of underachievers such as Irving and Westbrook well.

They’ll continue to tarnish the image of the very league that has paid them fortunes, but they aren’t the only ones who have taken the easy road.

They are, however, prime examples of what is so acutely wrong about the NBA today, and while they were both afterthoughts in terms of playoff participation, ABC Sports couldn’t resist the temptation of discussing the future of these misguided players in its recent coverage of the NBA Finals.

However, the network didn’t bother to discuss with its viewers what many people already know about the mercurial duo. It’s over for both of these coach killers, and while both the Lakers and the Nets have tried repeatedly to trade both of them, they’re obviously stuck with their antics for one more season.

One could argue these two head cases earned these player options earlier in their respective careers and it’s simply time to pay them, but the general managers who tendered these insane contracts are the real failures of today’s game, and the NBA can do nothing about the incompetency in which they’ve conducted their business, but the fans have other options.

Refusing to buy tickets and turning the channel on your television are really good solutions in terms of rejecting a clearly inferior product, but the NBA money train will keep rolling and making its stops. That’s the sad reality of the situation, and while they won’t miss a disgruntled passenger like myself, the real question is how much longer will the fans who buy the overpriced jerseys and shoes their heroes wear continue to ride along?

Danny Bridges, who won’t say I told you so about Irving and Westbrook two years ago, can be reached at 317-370-8447 or at bridgeshd@aol.com.

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