Sometimes it feels like professional sports can turn each of us into our mothers on those days when they caught us playing with firecrackers, or riding our bikes too close to the railroad tracks, or sneaking a Miller High Life out of someone’s father’s garage refrigerator.
The explanation: “EVERYBODY DOES IT!”
The verdict: “Just because everyone does it doesn’t make it right.”
The Nets were caught Wednesday night. They were caught and called on the carpet for the fact they rested a gaggle of regulars against the Bucks at Barclays Center, then pulled Mikal Bridges, Cam Thomas and Royce O’Neale after a quarter. The JV actually played the Bucks even for a while before accepting the inevitable 144-122 bludgeoning.
Explained the Nets, in the voice of coach Jacque Vaughn, forced to take the hit for what was obviously an organizational decision: “I’ve got to think short term and long term and make executive decisions for the betterment of the group. It’s unfortunate tonight that they just got to the point where we’re putting them in harm’s way by putting them out there tonight.”
It was a D-minus moment from an A-plus person, but even as he said it two things were obvious: one, a decision like this isn’t left solely in the hands of the coach; two … well, everyone does it. It is a league-wide scourge, given a name — load management — that makes fans seethe every time they hear those four miserable syllables.
A third one should be even more obvious to the Nets and every other NBA team that practices this but, of course, is never even factored into the decision: it is a direct-hit spit in the eye of a team’s fans, especially when this is done at home. This was at home, at Barclays, in front of 18,199 customers in a building whose capacity is listed at 17,732.
Mike Gottschalk was there. He drove his wife and two of his kids the 80 or so miles from Newtown, Conn., to Brooklyn, waited as long as he could to buy tickets on StubHub and clicked in four $400 tickets around 6 o’clock.
Max Moed-Nelson was there, and he decided to take his father, Josh. Max is a huge Nets booster; his dad isn’t much of an NBA fan but he’s up from Florida and wanted to spend some time with his son watching what provides him so much happiness. His tickets cost $200 per. And Mitchell Cohen was there, visiting from Orlando, a 25-year Nets fan who drove in from Red Bank, N.J., so his 8-year-old daughter, Sofia, born a Magic fan, could see her old man’s team. The night set them back $300.
“This was just something we wanted to do together,” Max said, “and he got the tickets a few weeks ago.”
“I’ve never been to a pro basketball game,” Mike’s wife, Kiley, told him Wednesday, and that was all the prompting he needed to coax his 11-year-old son, Davis, and 9-year-old daughter, Sawyer.
“It’s Christmas week,” Mike said. “It sounded like fun to everybody.”
And here’s the thing: this is almost 2024, and this is the NBA: all of them bought tickets knowing the Nets were on the business end of a back-to-back. They knew some guys would sit. Some guys always seem to sit.
Mike: “I watched the game the night before in Detroit. I assumed a couple of guys would be sitting out.”
Mitchell: “I knew going in that [Nic] Claxton, Cam Johnson, and [Spencer] Dinwiddie weren’t playing. But I expected to see Bridges and Cam Thomas for more than 12 minutes.”
Still …
Even knowledgeable, sophisticated fans who have grown to accept this awful practice were asked to swallow an extra helping of mud when Bridges and Thomas were added to the pile — Bridges clearly against his will, and Thomas after also sitting out the fourth quarter the previous night in Detroit.
“Load management is one thing,” Max said. “But we were only four games in six nights and only one of those was a road game.”
That’s one of the extra kicks to the gizzard: the Nets have a four-game road trip coming up. If you’re going to sponsor a mass sit-in, it should be a matter of conscience for teams to keep those for road games only. Of course, this assumes franchises have consciences.
But even beyond that … it’s awful business. The Nets are going to need every win they can get — either to make the top six, or to qualify for the various stages of the play-in. The Bucks are a terrific team; they were also 6-6 on the road, were coming in off a loss, had been decamped in New York for six days. It was an exceedingly winnable game.
“The Nets can’t afford to take days off,” Mitchell said, “based on their place in the standings.”
They took this one off. They punted. Now, in fairness, most of the kids we’re talking about had a great time. Sofia Cohen had a blast, mostly because she was hanging out with her dad. The Gottschalk kids had a ball; Davis, who plays ball in Newtown, was mesmerized by Giannis Antetokounmpo, who was his usual brilliant self for Milwaukee (which fielded a whole team despite being in the middle of a stretch in which they play seven of eight on the road).
The Greek Freak had 32 points, 10 rebounds and eight assists, and just may have made a Bucks fan for life out of a kid from Southeast Connecticut. Well done, Brooklyn.
Mitchell Cohen is mad enough that while he’ll keep rooting for the Nets, he’ll skip the trip to Barclays from now on. Josh told Max he’s done with the NBA, but Max admits he’ll probably be back again. So will the Gottschalks. Probably.
The Nets? They’ll take their slings and arrows. All NBA teams do this, express regret, swear they care about their fans … and then perpetrate recidivism again a week or a month or four months later. If only the empty suits who make these decisions could change places with Mikal Bridges.
“Didn’t like the choice and whatever that was,” Bridges said. “But it’s whatever. Definitely was not a fan.”
Of course not. If he was one, there’s no telling how badly he’d be treated.
Credit: Source link
