Grind City Media’s Lang Whitaker and Kelcey Wright Johnson weigh in on the most pertinent news from around the NBA. What’s lit? What’s lame? Find out each week right here.
From: Lang Whitaker
Sent: Tuesday, August 4, 2020 at 12:04 PM
To: Kelcey Wright Johnson
Subject: IMHO
Kelcey:
So we are one week into the seeding schedule down in Orlando, and I think there’s one thing everyone can agree upon: It’s so great to have the NBA back. Like, it’s amazing! I love this game, and while the viewing experience is a bit different from the bubble, we’ve still some incredibly compelling basketball.
It all makes me think of what an NBA exec once told me, that the NBA itself is essentially an event company, and when it comes to putting on big events (All-Star, the Finals, etc.), nobody does it better. We’re seeing that right now down in Orlando.
One thing people haven’t agreed on, is who should be the Coach of the Year. The coach’s association just released their vote, which split it down the middle between Milwaukee’s Mike Budenholzer and Oklahoma City’s Billy Donovan, with Toronto’s Nick Nurse apparently coming up one vote short of making it a three-way tie. I appreciate what Donovan and Nurse have done, but I think my vote would have gone to Coach Bud, who had the Bucks on pace to finish with a historic record.
Which way would your vote have gone?
From: Kelcey Wright Johnson
Sent: Wednesday, August 5, 2020 at 9:17 AM
To: Lang Whitaker
Subject: Re: IMHO
What’s going on, Lang?
I can’t remember another time a coach has earned the honors two years in a row—good for him. Obviously well-deserved when you look at Milwaukee’s record this season sitting comfortably at the top of the east. The team has a 114-35 record over the last two seasons, so it’s clear he’s doing something right.
As for the Thunder? I don’t think anyone expected them to do as well as they have this season. They start Luguentz Dort, who went undrafted this season and has just worked his butt off to make the roster—but if I would have told you that he would be a starter for the sixth seeded OKC Thunder this season, you would have laughed at me.
All that to say, I like the co-awarded coaches this season. They both make sense to me.
My vote would most likely have gone to Coach Bud as well, but I do see the argument for Nick Nurse too. I know Twitter isn’t the best place to go for sound advice or reasoning, but I was reading a lot of people saying, How can the defending championship coach deserve coach of the year? But do people forget that Kawhi left and the Raptors are still good? After losing arguably one of the top three two-way players in the league, Coach Nurse was able to have a successful season in Toronto, as they currently sit in the second seed in the east (albeit five games behind the Bucks—go Bud!).
I’m looking forward to the official NBA Awards being announced, but before they are I think we should create some of our own awards. Since we’ve seen so much of the players over the past month in the bubble, can you fill in the blanks with your votes for these awards:
- Funniest Player
- Best Dressed
- Best Fisherman
- Best Quarantine Hair
- Person to Truly Enjoy Being in Disneyland
Can’t wait to see your awards!
From: Lang Whitaker
Sent: Wednesday, August 5, 2020 at 10:14 AM
To: Kelcey Wright Johnson
Subject: Re: IMHO
The other argument I’d make for Nick Nurse is that this is his first NBA head coaching gig, and he’s only in year two! I know this is Donovan’s first job as well, but he’s been around for a while now. Nurse got into the main seat and won an NBA title off rip, then lost his NBA Finals MVP, and has kept the thing rocking right along. Pretty amazing.
And now to the Kelcey Awards! Or whatever you want to call these awards you’ve cooked up. Here are my votes…
- Funniest Player: This is subjective, clearly. I find Steven Adams hilarious, but he’s got a dry sense of humor that perhaps not everyone appreciates. And then there’s people like Joel Embiid, who seems funny, probably, until he’s on your team.
- Best Dressed: Here is where my age shows, Kelcey. Because I see guys walking in for these games wearing shorts and a matching shirt and I think, huh. I’m not naming names, but I’ve seen a few fits from the bubble that I just didn’t understand. And I know, I know—I write for GQ, I should understand this stuff better. But I’m just a simple man who appreciates the basics. As Jay-Z once said, “I’m thirty-plus, give me a fresh pair of jeans and a button-up.” So I’ll abstain from voting in this category.
- Best Fisherman: We saw our guy Jonas reeling in fish like he was at the Flemmish Cap last week. Since then we’ve seen other turn up at the pond, and with not much else to do, apparently fishing has become a popular bubble past time. I don’t know who is the best, but I’m going to cast my vote with Paul George, if only to recognize his lifelong dedication to fishing.
- Best Quarantine Hair: This one’s easy: Me. That’s right, I’m voting for myself, since I haven’t had a haircut since all this quarantine stuff started. My hair is now a small feral animal, and taming it before leaving the house each morning requires a few hours of work and several products that contain substances that can only be bought in hardware stores. I plan to cut it all off, from my scalp and my face, at the end of the NBA 2K League season, whenever that is. (And if I have to nominate an NBA player, I’m going with James Harden, who’s hair is starting to match his beard.)
- Person to Truly Enjoy Being in Disneyland: Robin Lopez. No question.
And this wasn’t in your awards, but the player who has had the most big plays thus far in the bubble has probably been Carmelo Anthony, who went from being out of work to knocking down clutch shots for the Blazers. Dame Lillard says Melo’s a Hall of Famer, of course he can make big shots. My question to you is, do you think Melo ends up in the HOF?
From: Kelcey Wright Johnson
Sent: Wednesday, August 5, 2020 at 11:13 AM
To: Lang Whitaker
Subject: Re: IMHO
Lang!
I actually laughed out loud at your answers. Thanks for playing along.
The one that we can both easily agree on is the best quarantine hair, however you qualify “best.” But I do hope that you don’t cut it too soon, because I’m rooting for a long postseason from Grizz Gaming!
As for Melo—one million percent a Hall of Famer. I don’t even know why this is up for debate all over the Internet, other than the fact that people are obsessed with ring talk.
Because he has struggled to find his place in the right system for the last few years, people forget how incredible of a career he has had.
Let’s rewind before Skinny Melo and Hoodie Melo, and remember Braids Melo.
He is a 10x All-Star, he was the NBA Scoring Champion in 2012-13 and I think he’s slowly crawling up the list in All-Time NBA top scorers. He’s currently 17th on that list and just 32 points behind John Havlicek and 34 points behind Paul Pierce for the 15th spot. He’s got three Olympic gold medals (and he’s the only man to earn three golds in basketball), all while becoming the all-time leading scorer in USA Olympics history, an NCAA championship (along with his number being retired at Syracuse, and that’s just some of his accomplishments!
Man! He averaged 20+ points a game for 14 years! That’s Hall of Famer stuff.
I like what Dame said after the Houston game; “He’s a Hall of Famer. It’s more disappointing that people are surprised by it. We expect him to make those shots.”
Lang, you’ve been writing about the NBA for a long time and have seen all these different stages in Melo’s career. What’s your favorite Melo?
From: Lang Whitaker
Sent: Wednesday, August 5, 2020 at 6:11 PM
To: Kelcey Wright Johnson
Subject: Re: IMHO
This one’s easy for me. My favorite Melo is one most people probably haven’t seen: Breakfast Melo.
Let’s go back to the morning of June 26, 2003, the day of the NBA Draft, and to the Times Square Westin Hotel in New York City. Around 10:00 a.m., I showed up at the in-hotel restaurant (I believe it was a Don Shula’s Steakhouse) to have breakfast with Carmelo Anthony and his family.
I was an editor at SLAM Magazine at the time, and one of the things I was in charge of was the Rookie Diary in each issue, in which an NBA rookie would tell us about how his season was going. Melo’s agent had reached out and told me he was interested in being the rookie diary, and considering he was coming off a college championship and was a big name, we agreed immediately.
But first, someone thought it was a good idea for Melo and me to get to know each other. So, I had breakfast with Melo and his agent, and Melo’s family that there for the draft.
And Melo didn’t say a word. Like, nothing. He was kind and polite, but he had nothing to say. So he stared at his pancakes, and I talked to his agent. I suppose it could have been nerves—it was, after all, the morning of the biggest day of his life. It wasn’t a deal-breaker, but it showed me that it was going to take some work to get Melo to trust me.
He would get drafted by Denver, of course, and then he and I started talking every few weeks, so I could ghostwrite his diary. We got to know each other better and better, and even after the rookie year ended, we stayed in touch. I watched him grow from a shy kid into a father and a great man.
Today, Carmelo is one of the most outspoken athletes out there, particularly around issues of social justice. In a terrific case of things coming back around, Melo just guest-edited an entire issue of SLAM devoted to social justice.
I know people will judge him by the numbers and wins he’s racked up on the basketball court, but after seeing just how far Carmelo has come as a person, to me he’s already in the Hall of Fame.