To say my schedule is crazy would be an understatement. Between coaching at St. Benedicts in Newark, to training kids of all ages from all over, to squeezing in a normal job, my free time is limited. So I carved out some time the other night in order to watch something that I been waiting for since last July, when “The Decision” was announced.

That’s right, it was the Heat vs the Cavs, LeBron’s homecoming (or as certain signs in the stands said, “LeQuitter”, “LeBum”, “Lyin King”). I was so interested to so how the fans treated him after he publicly told them that they weren’t good enough for him. Clearly, it wasn’t going to be good.

However, that’s not what intruiged me the most. What I was most curious about was how is former teammates would treat him. Remember now, this is a guy who didn’t let anyone know of his decision until he announced it to the world. All of his former teammates found out at the exact moment that you and I did. Ouch. Talk about disrespect. So how would they react? To me, that was the question of the night.

To put it plainly, they folded like a summer beach chair. It’s one thing to lose by 30+ points, it happens. But, to let Lebron score 38 points through THREE QUARTERS is quite another. Except that’s not the worst part. It was pretty much the easiest 38 points you could score. He got no resistance. No bumping, no pushing, no knocking down. Nothing but a clear path to the basket, as if bowing to the “King”. Even that’s not the worst. The worst is the fact that he went over to the Cavs bench during the game to chat up his former guys (a pure act of insecurity to me, but trust me, that’s an entirely different topic), and even though they were getting thoroughly embarrassed on national televsion, not only did a few of them talk back, but they shared some giggles!!!!! Really???? (By the way, give the coaching staff credit for telling LeBron to “be quiet” in no uncertain terms).

It got me thinking, what’s happened? What’s happened to hard basketball? What’s happened to rivalries (go ahead, name one)? What’s happened to the days where teams just hated each other, and it brought out the best in them. I’ll tell you what’s happened…

It’s called rule changes and social networking.

You heard me right.

Let’s start with the latter. The biggest problem today is that everybody seems to be best buds. Not exactly rivalry material. Social networking has changed the American landscape, often for the better. But in this case, I say it’s for the worse. It seems at times that some of these players are more concerned about where  they’re going to dinner after the game, or which club to meet at, as opposed to beating someone down on the court. Everyone is on twitter today. Look, it’s a great marketing tool for business, but think about this. Is Kobe on twitter? How about Kevin Garnett? The answer is no. And they are two of the fiercest competitors the NBA has EVER seen. Go ahead, take a look at the video above. This is in the NBA Finals as McHale just destroys Rambis. There was such bad blod between the Celtics and Lakers in the 80’s. Just as there was the Bulls and Pistons. For crying out loud, they had the “jordan Rules” and the number one rule was anytime MJ got into the lane, knock him on his backside! That was the 1st rule!!!! Or how about the Knicks/Bulls or the Knicks/Heat. There’s so many teams of yesterday that couldn’t stand each other because they wanted to win and the other team was in the way. Period. And guess what, there are more memorable games that came out of just those rivalries than anything recently. The only teams that you could even argue today that have a good rivalry is the Lakers and Celtics. Not shocking that they are both veteran teams that are highly competitve. Oh, and they’re not friends.

How about rule changes. As mentioned in a previous post, back about 8 years ago, the NBA changed some of the rules to make the game a bit less physical. Not a bad thing considering scoring was way down. However, it’s been taken to the extreme lately. What used to be a hard foul will now get you ejected. What used to get you ejected will now get you suspended and fined. Heck, the new rule now is that you can’t even raised your arms in disbelief or look at the ref wrong without getting a technical foul. They have taken the emotion out of the game. How do they expect players not to react. It’s stupid.
Take last year in the Celtics Magic playoff series. Kendrick Perkins of the Celtics had too many technicals (too many means automatic suspension, not a good thing in the playoffs). So each game, even into the Finals, he had to curtail his emotions in order to now be kicked out of the current game and the next. I understand that you can’t have guys going crazy, but they have made it extreme. It’s a shame.

I wasn’t stunned that Lebron was playing well. I wasn’t stunned that he had the arrogance to run by the Cavs bench after a few made buckets and rub it right in their faces. What I was surpised by was that none of his former teammates said, after already being down by 40, screw it, I’ve had enough of this crap, and knocked him right on his ass. Yeah, he’s a large, powerful man. But have some pride, knock him to the ground, pretend like you care.

So Brian, you’re saying that I can’t have any friends on the court? No, I’m saying that once you’re on the court, anyone that is your “friend” is now your enemy. They are trying to take what you have. Don’t let them. Be friends off the court, that’s great. But between those lines, compete. There is nothing like competition. There’s nothing greater than fierce competition that brings the best out of you.
I was talking to my buddy Mike the other day and he said “Even if you are playing against your best friend in practice, you should want to crush him.”

Magic and Isaiah were great friends back in the day. But once they got on the court in those 1980’s finals, Magic took out his best friend and threw him to the floor. Would that ever happen today? Doesn’t seem like it with most guys.

Bring back the nastiness, bring back the rivaliries, bring back the fun, bring back this….

bt