Welcome to a special all-pain edition of NBA five things. It wasn’t really planned to shape up as a themed column, but sometimes we can only respond to what we’re seeing, even if it’s not pleasant. You would think that the injuries would have tapered off after last week’s litany of key players facing extended absences but, then again, you would also have probably guessed that there was no way that the Chicago Bulls could have an even more depressing week than the previous one. This season has been full of surprises, albeit sometimes of the unwanted variety.
James Harden hits LeBron in the, well, you know ...
The Houston Rockets defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday in one of the most narrative-stuffed games of the season. The lowlight of this particular match-up was one of the more viscerally painful sights in sports: a below-the-belt hit. In this case, it was Houston’s James Harden kicking Cleveland’s LeBron James right in what the censors of 1970s rock’n’roll radio would euphemistically call “the fun”.
One would think that a team would quietly take the win after their headline player kicked the biggest star in US sports in the testicles. But no. The Rockets went on social media to call Harden “the new King” because they have apparently fully embraced the heel role among the Western Conference contenders.
Long live the new King. Highlights, photos, recap & reactions from today's big OT win on http://t.co/VBY18eSOmU. pic.twitter.com/91utdhnqTx
— Houston Rockets (@HoustonRockets) March 2, 2015
There was a reckoning to come. On Monday, Harden was handed a one-game suspension when the groin-kicking was upgraded to a “flagrant two” foul. He served the suspension, the first game Harden missed all season, in Tuesday night’s loss to the Atlanta Hawks, when Atlanta became the first team to clinch a play-off spot.
If the kick had been labeled as a flagrant two at the time, it would have led to Harden’s ejection, and likely we would not be talking about Houston having a 105-103 win in overtime. But his flat-out stupid action didn’t end up being the narrative of Sunday’s game because that narrative didn’t give any opportunity for people to hold James up to the Most Ridiculously High Standards In Sports History.
No. Instead, the main storyline became James missing his final two free throws of the game. If James had made both, he would have given the Cavs the lead. If he had made one, he would have tied it up. Instead, James clanged both, Harden got the ball and was fouled in the final seconds of overtime, made one of two free throws, and the Rockets hung on for a statement win.
It was a doubt a rough moment for James, one emblematic of a game where he went 3-for-11 from the charity stripe. Still, the reaction was over the top, as it usually is. The common media response that LeBron once again choked, one of those huge turning points that occur in a game taking place on the first day of March. Presumably, by contrast, Michael Jordan never would have missed a single free throw, would have won every fan in the building ice cream with the last make, and then somehow won another NBA championship six weeks before the playoffs began.
It’s OK, LeBron moved on. On Tuesday, while Harden was on the bench watching his team blow a lead to the Hawks without him, James was the one bringing the pain. He scored 27 points to eclipse Ray Allen on the NBA’s all-time scoring list in a 110-79 blowout victory over the Boston Celtics.
Chicago Bulls keep taking hits
Maybe we shouldn’t talk about Michael Jordan if Bulls fans are reading. When things look their bleakest, remembering the best of times can only add to the pain.
If Bulls fans thought that the hurting couldn’t get worse after learning that they were losing Derrick Rose, yet again, imagine what was going through their minds when they saw Jimmy Butler go down with an elbow injury during Sunday’s loss to the Clippers. It’s been such a cavalcade of horrors this past week that it’s almost an afterthought to mention that Taj Gibson also suffered an ankle injury.
Although losing Rose maybe hurt more emotionally because of what he means to the team, it’s losing Butler, who will miss three to six weeks with a sprained ligament his elbow, that will affect the Bulls the most. He’s been Chicago’s most important player this season. Butler’s not just the favorite to win Most Improved Player but he’s even been a dark horse MVP candidate.
The silver lining here is that even if Butler’s gone the maximum six weeks, that takes Chicago to the end of the regular season. The fourth-year swingman should be fine for the postseason when they could even, as the best-case scenario suggests, have Rose back. Where will they be in the playoff mix after limping in without Butler, Rose and Gibson though? Even if all three are back, how healthy will they be? These silver linings look gray from this perspective.
While we’re mostly discussing the pain suffered by players, we must also acknowledge the reality that sports includes a risk that fans themselves will suffer from genuine emotional pain from time to time. One would think Chicago sports fans would need no further reminders of this, but the basketball gods apparently thought otherwise.
Westbrook gets dented
It looked worse than it was for the Oklahoma City Thunder, a two-man team already dealing without Kevin Durant. Yes, it turned out Russell Westbrook would have to miss time with a facial fracture suffered after an accidental collision with teammate Anthony Roberson, but it might not be enough to slow down their quest to make the play-offs.
“Fracture” doesn’t quite do the injury justice. As ESPN Radio’s Mike & Mike quipped, basically, Westbrook suffered from a “dented face.” It certainly looked sickening upon first view.
Westbrook should be back on the court shortly, perhaps as early as Wednesday, although he may have to wear one of those protective masks which tend to look rather badass but are probably thoroughly uncomfortable to wear. One expects that Westbrook will find a way to revolutionize the whole protective mask thing.
(Personal suggestion: The superhero angle has been done. Why not take a trip into “adult themes” and do an Eyes Wide Shut homage?)
While it’s not cool to imagine that any other team is hoping for injuries to be more serious than they end up being, one almost feels bad for the New Orleans Pelicans. When they saw the injury they had to have been secretly hoping that the Thunder would end up playing a few week’s worth of games without Durant and Westbrook. It’s not the nicest of wishes, but considering that New Orleans is just a game behind Oklahoma City for that eighth and final spot in the standings, one can’t blame them.
Larry Sanders shouldn’t have to be the ‘public face’ for anything
The pain professional athletes suffer from isn’t always physical. Although that isn’t as immediately obvious to fans, there are many players who suffer the far less understood pain involved with mental health issues.
Last week it was announced that center Larry Sanders had finalized a buyout with the Milwaukee Bucks that would essentially put his NBA career on hold while he would pursue treatment for anxiety and depression. By agreeing to the buyout, Sanders has left around half of the $33m he had remaining on his contract on the table, and it’s uncertain whether he will ever receive any further basketball-related income.
In an exclusive interview with the Players Tribune, Sanders said that at one point during his absence from the NBA, while insiders were speculating on a possible lack of desire to play basketball, he was actually being hospitalized. He also admitted that during the occasions where he was suspended by the league for testing positive for marijuana he was using the substance to self-medicate.
Following this announcement, ESPN published Kevin Arnovitz’s The Battle within Larry Sanders, an in-depth article on the process that brought Sanders to this point exposed how some around the league treated the player’s off-the-court issues. This insightful story begins with a NBA executive who admits “we don’t do a very good job with mental health” and includes an anecdote towards the end that does little to dispute this:
Sources who have been active in arranging care for Sanders worry that the financial security that comes with the buyout of his contract with Milwaukee for “about 40¢ on the dollar” presents a real risk that he won’t seek the treatment he, by his own admission, desperately needs and will fall into a routine of bad habits. One of these sources agrees with the characterization that surfaced in December reports that Sanders no longer wanted to play basketball.
“This is an important issue, but Larry is not the person to be the public face of it,” the source said. “He says all the right things, now he has no credibility. You have to ask, ‘Does he sincerely want treatment, or just to be left to do whatever he wants?’”
In this anecdote, we immediately see an example of the type of stigma that a well-known – and yes, up to this point well-compensated – athlete faces when they are dealing with mental illness. Did this source ever consider that Sanders himself might not even know what he genuinely wants?
The article mentions that at one point the player apparently abandoned an agreed-upon treatment before its end date. While it’s certainly clear why this turn of events would be worrisome, it’s disappointing to hear this source spin someone’s difficulty in maintaining treatment as a “credibility issue” rather than someone dealing with the shifts in mood that come with suffering from serious disorders like anxiety and depression.
This quote also calls into question any impulses we may have to approach Sanders, or any individual, as “the public face” of mental illness even when they express the desire to become such a figure. Arnovitz’s piece includes the line: “Sanders said his goal was to start a meaningful conversation about the burdens faced by those who suffer from mental health issues and to dispel popular perception.” Maybe this source was expressing his skepticism about Sanders’ ability to do so.
It strikes me, however, that Sanders has already accomplished these goals just in how he has handled this announcement over the last few weeks. The man has publicly admitted that the main reason he can’t play is that he’s battling mental health issues, something that has clearly exposed him to plenty of highly personal criticism. This announcement alone, no matter how Sanders’s personal recovery ends up shaping out, has been a significant moment in the battle against the ongoing stigmatization of mental illness, especially in his own particular professional sphere.
How is this not already more than enough? How? Should we instead hold Sanders, an individual already fighting a difficult personal battle, to the standards of some imagined idealized Poster Boy who satisfies our desire for the feel-good narrative of an Athlete Who Successfully Fought Mental Illness The Right Way? Whose interests would this serve?
Sanders doesn’t need to be a role model by doing anything other than getting better, by whatever means necessary, and discovering something close to peace. Our only hope should be that he succeeds.
Other painful things we’ve learned
• The Miami Heat’s Goran Dragic also absorbed some pain when he faced his old teammates in the Phoenix Suns.
• Painful news for Brian Shaw as the Denver Nuggets fired their head coach yesterday. That came shortly after the Nuggets ended a huddle with a “1, 2, 3… Six weeks!” chant. Once your team is literally counting down to the end of the season, I think upper management can safely assume that you’ve lost them.
• The Golden State Warriors overcame a 26-point deficit to win on Sunday, something you would think would be painful for fans of the opposing team, but most Boston Celtics fans probably would rather miss out on that eighth seed in the playoffs for a shot at a high lottery pick.
• Sometimes there’s a period of a few days where the entirety of the sports journalism world comes to the same conclusion all at once. Last week that came at the expense of Randy Wittman and his Washington Wizards. As we’ve examined today, there’s all different brands of pain. Watching one’s team, once considered a possible NBA Finals contender, lose to the Philadelphia 76ers has to be considered one of the more the unique and unexpected varieties.
• Wow. This really has been a completely depressing exercise. I think we all need to end this on a positive note, so let’s watch something uplifting after all of this pain and suffering. Here’s Kevin Garnett’s introduction and his rapturously received return to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Warning: since this ended with Minnesota beating Washington, Wizards fans might want to avoid this one as well. Perhaps check out Prince’s high school basketball photo instead?
