It’s the non-calls that are the worst. Really. By any analysis, NBA officials are the worst of any major professional sport – so bad that even intelligent people can’t dismiss out of hand former official Tim Donaghy’s suggestions about rampant impropriety – and the most biased toward their star players.
It’s why the same players and teams are vying for titles over and over and over again. The NBA doesn’t like uncertainty. It likes stars. It likes competitive balance during the regular season because people keep forking over money. But in the playoffs? Keeping its stars in as long as possible is what matters.
So officials do what they can do. They are abettors. And I really don’t mind if they’re going to be pickier on players who are guarding the likes of LeBron James. I understand that. Shoot, you can even make the case that guys like James are just so good that they defy accepted means of defensive effort; that they need to be mugged to be stopped by lesser players. But what I can’t get are the non-calls away from the star player; Raptors head coach Dwane Casey is right: his team isn’t getting any of them.
So it was understandable that Twitter was, during Game 3, a bitch-fest of Raptors fans. I’m OK with that – and know what? I’m also OK with James trying to sell an elbow from his own teammate, as the result of a coming together of DeMarre Carroll and Tristan Thompson. Really.
I don’t know if it’s a North American thing or in this country a product of the exaggerated faux-macho qualities we ascribe to hockey players, but I think we need to embrace the art that is diving or flopping. Successful subterfuge is a wonderful thing; drawing penalties should be fair-game in any sport and is in fact a time-honoured skill, and if the officials are too out of position or out of shape or dim to figure that out, it’s on them – or, rather, the commissioner who allows it to happen. Blame the game, not the player.
NOT JOSHING
Sorry, I can’t get as worked up about Josh Donaldson’s ejection from Saturday’s game against the Minnesota Twins. I don’t see it as part of any conspiracy or one of these unfortunate #umpshow things that show up any time an umpire makes a call that goes against a particular team. Yes, it would have been better if home plate umpire Toby Basner’s wife hadn’t taken to Twitter to big up her hubby – she later deleted all her social media, but the guess here is ol’ Toby gets a call from the commissioner’s office, anyhow – but none of it would have happened had Donaldson not felt the need to tell one of the coaches on the worst team in baseball to ‘F— off.’
Now, as for Twins bench coach Joe Vavra? Who the hell does he think he is yelling at another team’s player to run out a ground ball? As Donaldson told our Arden Zwelling it is none of Vavra’s business whether Donaldson runs out the ball or not. In fact, most managers allow their everyday players to pull up every now and then on an obvious out – especially guys who play hard as a matter of routine. From what I saw of the Twins, Vavra has enough on his plate being Paul Molitor’s bench coach. If I was him I’d be worried about my job more than anybody else’s.
This is the second time in a week that somebody else’s coach or manager has taken a direct hand in something involving a Blue Jays player. One of the untold stories of last Sunday’s brawl was how Texas Rangers manager Jeff Banister got his hands on at least two Blue Jays players, which is simply not done. There wasn’t enough videotape evidence, but I’m told the commissioner’s office is aware of it. His bench coach, Steve Buechele, also appeared to want to get at somebody. During the playoffs last season, I suggested we embrace the fact that everybody hates the Blue Jays. Looks like it’s time to do it again … although it’s not going to matter if this team stays around fifth place for much longer.
QUIBBLES AND BITS
• The Detroit Free Press published a remarkable piece of journalism this weekend: a chilling, cautionary in-depth profile of former Detroit Lions quarterback Erik Kramer’s attempted suicide last summer based on days of interviews with Kramer, who was also with the CFL’s Calgary Stampeders from 1988-90. With our version of football kicking into gear, it’s a timely reminder of the damage that can be wrought by the game.
• The Boston Red Sox have homered in 22 consecutive games, a franchise record and just five games behind the major league record set by the 2002 Texas Rangers. If they keep it going, the Red Sox can break that record next weekend at Rogers Centre when they play the Blue Jays.
• Phil Kessel has gone from a place where nobody had his back – or, perhaps worse, wanted to have his back – to a place where he can do no wrong. I’d made peace with Kessel long before many others; I saw him as a shy guy guaranteed to be eaten up in Toronto; saw him along with Dion Phaneuf as evidence that, for a smart guy, The Pope of Hockey™ Brian Burke was shockingly tone-deaf to the Toronto market. Now, you ask a tongue-in-cheek question on Twitter about whether Kessel will be strong enough to lift the Conn Smythe Trophy – let alone the Stanley Cup – and Penguins fans get their back up. I mean, I know most American hockey fans are insular and wouldn’t get sarcasm if it whacked them over the head, but Penguins fans seem particularly so – which is why a guy who likely thinks nuance is a place in Wisconsin with good fishing is so at home. And know what? Good for him; I hope he wins it all.
THE END GAME
The only way I’ve ever been comfortable judging a manager is how he handles his bullpen and starting pitching, because all he can do is try to leverage the matchups and hope it works out. The hitters? There is no offensive coordinator in baseball; they do their thing, especially when they’re in their 30s with lengthy track records. It’s why I’ve been a fan of Blue Jays manager John Gibbons, who won the American League East last season with a rookie closer and Aaron Sanchez as a setup guy and without Marcus Stroman for much of the season; and it’s also why I believe Mark Shapiro, the president and chief executive officer of the Blue Jays, still sees Gibbons as part of the solution to what ails the Blue Jays. This bullpen – Drew Storen, Jesse Chavez and Gavin Floyd – is on him and general manager Ross Atkins more than Gibbons. Shapiro knows that.
The starters have been fine, too – and if Shapiro had even the slightest sense that Gibbons was losing the clubhouse, the way Jose Bautista took the lead in suggesting a re-jigged lineup going into the Twins series indicates a group of players wholly invested in themselves. It’s odd: of the current Blue Jays roster, two players – Bautista and Kevin Pillar – have sometimes seemed at odds with Gibbons. Pillar, of course, was banished to the minors after pitching a fit when he was pinch-hit for by Gibbons. Last season, he hit two home runs in a game against the Washington Nationals’ Max Scherzer that started an 11-game winning streak that, in Gibbons’ mind, saved his job. Now Bautista, whose run-ins with umpires was one of the first matters addressed by Gibbons when he returned to the Blue Jays, takes the lead.
Jeff Blair hosts The Jeff Blair Show from 9-11 a.m. ET and Baseball Central from 11 a.m.-Noon ET on Sportsnet 590/The Fan.