Friday, December 9, 2011

CP3...No

On its face, I can see the logic behind the nixing of the trade that would have sent Chris Paul to the Lakers. Beneath the surface, however, nothing besides shadiness resides. Nixing this deal was a bad, bad thing. I’m having a hard time seeing how player-management relations don’t grow more contentious from this point forward. The canceling of the trade reeks of dishonesty, spite, and paternalism.

This is and was always going to be a nightmare scenario for the NBA. It all starts with George Shinn, who himself has been a nightmare for the league. Stern and the other owners should have forced Shinn to sell years ago. When he left Charlotte, the Hornets should have stayed behind. Bad decisions have a tendency to lead to more bad decisions. That’s a huge part of what got us to yesterday’s debacle.

Another huge, yet overlooked, factor is the CBA ratification. I’ve read a lot of stories about the canceled deal over the past 12 hours, but most failed to mention something that Sam Amick tweeted last night: “if Stern did this yesterday [December 7], deal would not have been ratified by players today [December 8].” That’s an excellent point. All parties involved were led to believe that any Chris Paul trade could be pursued per normal operation. Stern knew, however, that he wasn’t going to let that happen. He lied—as of now, it is unclear to me whether that lie was overt, implicit, or by omission—about Hornet GM Dell Demps’ authority to handle the franchise’s most significant roster move since the Alonzo Mourning trade.

The Hornets got fair value back for Paul. Some would argue that the Hornets got the better end of the trade. So what’s the objection? We have to go back to the reason we were told the lockout occurred. According to one of Adrian Wojnarowski’s sources, “In the end, David didn’t like that the players were dictating where they wanted to go, like Carmelo had, and he wasn’t going to let Chris Paul dictate where he wanted to go.” Dan Gilbert sent an email to Stern in which he wrote the following: “Over the next three seasons this deal would save the Lakers approximately $20 million in salaries and approximately $21 million in luxury taxes. That $21 million goes to non-taxpaying teams and to fund revenue sharing.” That’s right, he’s concerned about the money the trade will cost him in charity from the Lakers. How dare they try to be cap-conscience?

Let’s recap this. Stern didn’t like that Chris Paul, who is in the final year of his contract, is trying to play where he wants to play next year. Small market owners are upset because the Lakers were lowering their luxury tax burden. And Bryant Gumbel’s the bad guy?

Demps’ reported initial reaction was the same as mine would have been, but he was “persuaded” to stay on the job. But what is he supposed to do now? The current state is one of league-wide confusion. Can he make another trade for Chris Paul that will send him to a non-contender? Another trade will not supply the Hornets with the players Demps was able to acquire from Los Angeles and Houston. By no means was this an unfair trade. It was fair in terms of both talent and finances. This was about players doing what owners did not want them to do. It’s not complicated. It’s just the doing of what the O’Jays called Shiftless, Shady, Jealous Kind of People.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Rematch

1990. This season’s LSU and Alabama football teams remind me of that year. Twenty-one years ago, the Giants and 49ers were the NFL’s superpowers. Like the LSU and Alabama teams that will meet in the Superdome on January 9, the Giants and 49ers were defensive juggernauts. And like the Tigers and Crimson Tide, New York and San Francisco played a highly anticipated regular season game that many thought was a dud (in both cases, I found the games to be among the best regular season football games I’ve ever seen). Once the LSU-Alabama rematch became official, I started thinking about the 1990 Giants-49ers games. I can’t get them out of my head, so I figured I’d just go ahead and revisit.

By mid-October 1990 it was apparent that the Giants and 49ers were the class of the league. Both teams remained undefeated and football fans looked forward to November 25th, the Monday after Thanksgiving, and the prospect of a pair of 11-0 teams facing off against each other. The two teams had won 3 of the previous 4 Super Bowls—the 49ers were two-time defending champions looking to become the first team to win 3 consecutive Lombardi Trophies.

8 days before they played each other, both teams’ undefeated runs ended against division rivals. The 10-0 Giants were blown out in Philly (this was the game that featured Keith Byars’ block on Pepper Johnson, the greatest block in NFL history); the 49ers lost by double digits to the Rams in Candlestick (I’ve always found it interesting that through his first 2 seasons as head coach, George Seifert’s 49ers were 15-5 at home and 16-0 on the road). It’s easy to say that both teams were looking ahead, but that would be false. The Rams had been the 49ers’ opponent in the previous season’s NFC Championship Game and the Eagles had taken 4 of the previous 5 against New York. Those two rivalries have been vicious for over 50 years; the Giants and 49ers were just flat-out beaten.

Still, the anticipation for 10-1 Giants at 10-1 49ers was high. I was 13 back then and didn’t watch much Monday Night Football because I had a hard time staying up until 1:00 in the morning. I made sure I stayed up for this one, though. I knew it was going to be hard-hitting and low-scoring. Those defenses were the best and most consistent of my childhood—yes, even more so than Chicago’s—and neither team gave up a lot of points. Including the postseason, only twice that season had San Francisco allowed more than 21 points; the Giants only gave up that much once. I was looking forward to one of those games that my dad told me he remembered from his childhood. I hoped it would live up to the hype. Man, what a game. The 49ers won 7-3, and the game ended with the Giants failing to score a touchdown from a goal-to-go situation.

I went to school the next day looking forward to talking about how great the game was. When I got there, all I heard was how boring the game was. I was so disappointed. When I got home from school, I turned on WIP because I needed to hear somebody who had enjoyed the game. Howard Eskin came on the air and said the game proved to him that the Giants and 49ers were the two best teams in the NFL. Caller after caller told him he was an idiot. I turned off the radio.

That disappointment is similar to what I felt in the aftermath of the LSU-Alabama game in November. I thought the game was great, the best regular season college game I’d seen since the 7-3 Auburn-LSU game from 2006. People at work, on Twitter, and in the media expressed the opposite viewpoint. Even though I’m not a college football rematch fan, I started looking forward to the possibility of an LSU-Alabama national championship game.

Back in 1990, I started looking forward to a Giants-49ers rematch in the NFC Championship Game. I didn’t think anyone else in the NFC could beat either team in a playoff game. Then a crazy game occurred on a Saturday afternoon in Jersey. The Bills came in to play the Giants in a game so physical that both teams lost their starting quarterbacks. Buffalo lost Jim Kelly for the rest of the regular season; the Giants lost Phil Simms for the regular season and playoffs.

I didn’t think Jeff Hostetler would be good enough to get the job done, but he was. The Giants won the NFC East and Hostetler only had to throw 17 passes as his team destroyed the Bears in their first playoff game. The 49ers easily disposed of the Redskins in theirs. The rematch was set.

I went on the internet and looked up defensive statistics for the 1990 NFL season. I found that the Giants and 49ers ranked second and third, respectively, in yards allowed that year. They were also the two least scored upon defenses in the league. New York allowed 13.2 points a game while San Francisco gave up 14.9 (how perfect was it that their rematch ended in a 15-13 Giants victory?).

The NFC Championship Game. Man, that game was everything. And everybody. Madden and Summerall. Rice, Montana, and Craig. Parcells and Belichick. Millen, Haley, Turner, and Burt. LT, Pepper, and Reasons. Ronnie Lott versus Mark Bavaro. And Candlestick Park. The only thing missing was Brent Musberger’s patented “You are looking live…”

The winner would play the Bills (these are the first-time Super Bowl participant Bills, not the punch line Bills who played the Cowboys in later years), but nobody cared. It had been seven years since the AFC had won a Super Bowl and, though we didn’t know it at the time, it would be another seven years before that streak was broken. In the Parcells era, the Giants had never allowed more than 21 points in a playoff game. The 49ers had not allowed a touchdown in their previous 3 NFC Championship Game appearances. This game, Giants at 49ers, was going to be a war. It was the real Super Bowl. At least, that’s how I saw it.

Today, more than 20 years removed from the game, I believe it is the most physical, hard-hitting football game I’ve ever seen, more physical, even, than the Bucs-Rams championship game of January 2000 and the Steelers-Ravens championship game of January 2009. There was some vicious hitting going on out there. Both starting quarterbacks were knocked out the game. Hostetler managed to come back in. 23 months went by before Joe Montana played again.

The game also turned out to be the best football game I’ve ever seen. I can watch that game over and over and over again, and I have. I’ve seen it at least a dozen times, and I never get tired of it. The Giants and 49ers of 1990 were two aging teams making what both knew would be their respective cores’ last Super Bowl run. Rumor of Parcells’ (first) retirement were swirling. Bill Belichick was going to get a head coaching job. Lawrence Taylor was about to turn 32. In San Francisco, it was about to be Steve Young’s time. Ronnie Lott was leaving. Both teams were getting old, but they were still the best. And this game was the last time the old rivals were going to go at it. This was their Thrilla in Manilla. This was the Giants and 49ers’ fight for the championship of each other. They took the glory and splendor of the November game and created something so much grander, so much more intense. To those men, that game was everything. That game epitomizes football to me.

When I look at LSU and Alabama, I see the same thing. Take a look at the LSU schedule and the Alabama schedule for 2011. LSU only gave up 10 or more points six times this season, never more than 27. The Crimson Tide game up 10 points five times with a maximum of 21 points allowed. All told, LSU and Alabama have the two best defenses in the country. Alabama ranks first in the nation in each of the following: yards allowed per game, rushing yards allowed per game, passing yards allowed per game, and points allowed per game. LSU ranks second, third, eight, and second, respectively, in those same categories. Between the two defenses, they allow a combined 19.3 points per game. And both teams represent a conference that will win its 6th consecutive national championship. Yeah, I’m really looking forward to January 9th. I want to see these two teams play with more intensity than they did on November 5th. I want to see the Tigers and Tide bring each other to a higher level. I expect they will. Why shouldn’t I?

Maybe it’s just wishful thinking. Sometimes, though, wishes do come true.