And I Haven't Got Time For The Knicks

First, I must make note of an omission. Here at RetiredLawyerSportsOp, we take feedback seriously. And I received some sharp words after last week’s blog. 

A very loyal reader reacted to my oversight regarding the Kansas-North Carolina NCAA National Championship game. When Carolina jumped to that enormous first half lead, this reader confidently texted me that he felt Kansas would make a serious run in the second half, and that the game was far from over.

Well, that reader was correct. The Jayhawks dominated the Tar Heels in a record-setting comeback for a title game. It was the frenetic play and shot-making of Bill Self’s team which made UNC wilt as the game progressed (as opposed to what happened to KU in 3 OT in 1957 when Carolina took down Wilt Chamberlain and his Kansas teammates in the only other NCAA final between the two schools). 

With Passover upon us, I may have to have another slice of Horowitz & Margareten matzoh on the reader’s behalf. Along with some gefilte fish and horseradish. It is the only way I can think of atoning for that oversight. 

The NBA has begun its post-season. The play-in tournament has started. The Nets did not overwhelm the Cavaliers to secure the second spot in the East and a meeting with the Boston Celtics in the first round. Minnesota came from behind a couple of times to overtake the Clippers to send them into the playoffs for a series with the tough Memphis Grizzlies and Ja Morant. 

Fear not for Cleveland and Los Angeles. Even with losing, they have a second chance for redemption and to secure the eighth seeds in their selective conferences with home games on Friday versus Atlanta and New Orleans. Neither game is a given as the Hawks have Trey Young, the mercurial guard and leader of the Atlanta offense, and resurgent New Orleans has C.J. Mc Collum, who is playing like the All-Star he was with Portland. 

The winner of Atlanta-Cleveland draws Miami. The survivor of the New Orleans-Clippers match gets Phoenix, the team which had the most wins this season. 

With that, the real playoffs begin on Saturday. Steph Curry practiced with his Warriors teammates for the first time on Wednesday as he recovers from a foot injury. Denver will be in the Chase Center to face him, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green in a 3/6 series. The other Western Conference series not mentioned is the 4/5 match up between Dallas and Utah. That is now a toss up because Mavs’ star Luka Doncic suffered a calf strain in the regular season finale, and his availability is questionable. 

Over in the East, no one is recalling that the Milwaukee Bucks won the title last year and are a serious contender to repeat. Giannis and crew play a weak Chicago team which they should easily dispatch. Philadelphia, led by scoring champ Joel Embiid and James Harden, who endears himself to nobody but himself, draw the gritty and formidable Toronto Raptors, a team capable of defeating the Sixers. 

Do I see a Nets run deep into the playoffs? Not really. Even a depleted Boston team can bounce Kevin Durant and Kyrie Driving out of the playoffs that quickly. Getting beyond that series will mean Miami, Milwaukee and the survivor of the Philly-Raptors series. 

Phoenix is the team to beat. Everyone else in the West is just not as good as the Suns. Maybe Memphis. And the Warriors cannot really provide enough firepower to overtake either of those two teams. 

Meanwhile, the Lakers made Frank Vogel a scapegoat for their woes. The Lakers suffered from injuries to key players Lebron James and Anthony Davis. Russell Westbrook was an abysmal failure in LA, and he clashed repeatedly with Vogel, who is a very fine coach and should find employment in the NBA rather than later. 

The Lakers are an aged team with James, who is not going lead any team to a championship anymore despite his almost winning the scoring crown this season, nor with Davis, who finds injuries like tornadoes sense churches and mobile homes. 

So I looked up the Lakers head man, Rob Pelinka, the architect of this implosion. And I found out some interesting tidbits about him. 

Pelinka was a 6’6” high school star in the Chicago area who did not attract much attention even with his teams winning state titles. Only when he ran a streak of 40+ free throws in a high-end tournament to garner the M.V.P. award did he begin to get recruited heavily by schools. 

Pelinka was recruited by the University of Michigan, where he played as a reserve and some times starter. He is the only person in school history to have been a member of there NCAA Final Four teams—one championship team and two runners-up, which were the Fab Five teams. 

No slouch academically, Pelinka was the 1993 NCAA Walter Byers Scholar Athlete of the Year. He parlayed his intelligence into graduating from the UM Ross School of Business Administration and cum laude from the prestigious UM Law School. 

Rather than settle into private practice, Pelinka became a sports agent, representing a number of high profile clients, most notably, Kobe Bryant, Andre Iguodala and James Harden. He was the godfather to Gianna Bryant. 

Controversy dogged Pelinka in his representation of clients. No matter how good he was at doing his job, there was something hard and harsh about him.

Pelinka becoming the head honcho in a dysfunctional Lakers front office was a choice outside of the box, despite having married a Jewish pediatrician trained at UCLA Medical School, which tied him to the Los Angeles community.  While Pelinka was super smart and  had plenty of experience in playing the game at the collegiate level, representing many NBA players, it didn’t mean that he was suited to be the lead man at the storied Lakers franchise. 

It was Pelinka who thought that bringing in Westbrook would lead to another championship. Rebuilding this team will be challenging—even if James and Davis are healthy next season, since the trade for Davis gave the team no chance to rebuild through the draft. 

I find it almost comical that the list of possible head coaches for this storied franchise includes the best in the NBA—Nick Nurse in Toronto, Doc Rivers, presently in Philadelphia, and Juwan Howard, the Head Coach and teammate of Pelinka at his alma mater, Michigan. Why, outside of money and maybe a lucky but highly unlikely turnaround would get a name coach to work miracles at the Crypto.com Arena—I still cringe at that name and what it represents—is beyond me. That would be an awfully myopic view of the world, fueled by a rather large ego. Which, there are plenty of them in the NBA—including in the Lakers hierarchy. 

No matter what coach is brought in—Phil Jackson couldn’t right this ship, nor Red Auerbach if he was alive. Not Monty Williams, the two-time NBA Coach of the Year in Phoenix. Or F&M grad Chris Finch, who rose from the ranks of obscure NBA assistant coaches to lead the Timberwolves to the playoffs, for the first time since 2018, and where the team hasn’t won a series since 2004. 

Was Pelinka a wise choice to lead the Lakers? We’ll find out soon enough with his selection of the next head coach. And how he does in free agency as he strives to rebuild a moribund team only two years removed from its championship run inside of the COVID Disney World bubble. 

Such is the state of the NBA as their tournament commences. And I haven’t got time for the Knicks’ sorry state of affairs.