Le Basketbawl

Once again the time has come for another installment of  “New York Vinnie’s tips for how to get along better in the World!” Your Old Pal New York Vinnie from time to time shares life lessons with you so hopefully you can avoid some of the Crappola that I did growing up. Most of the time it just comes down to not having enough Frickin Common Sense! If people just thought things through we would not have even half of the world’s problems that we have today!

This time around the lesson is on “Protocol” something that the younger New York Vinnie had all sorts of problems with. Believe it or not at one time New York Vinnie was not the nice guy that he is today. When I was younger I thought I had all the answers and was smarter than anyone. The problem was the people who I was working for at the time did not exactly see things the same way. So in the end New York Vinnie would find himself unemployed and out on the street.

Finally about 20 years ago New York Vinnie saw the light! I realized that the only Frickin way to change the system was to become part of the system. And the only way you can do that is by paying your Frickin dues and keeping your Frickin mouth shut. Eventually if you work hard enough you get promoted and when you get high enough on the ladder Then you can call the Frickin shots!

Protocol is a huge part of playing professional sports you have to follow the lines of command or you will end up nailed to the Frickin bench! In most cases it does not matter how talented you are if you can’t follow the rules. There is only one boss on the field or the hardwood that is the coach or the manager of the team. Problems arise when a player thinks that they are smarter than the coach and they can call their own shots. A player quickly develops a reputation as a malcontent or a bad guy and it can easily derail your career.

Most times when there is a matter of Protocol it is with a young player first coming into the NBA. In many cases the athlete has been allowed to bend or break the rules their whole lives because of their talent. Then all of a sudden they are in the Pros with players just as talented as he is and sometimes even more talented. Many times they start butting heads with their coach not realizing they will always lose. The ones who become successful in the Pros quickly look to conform. The others soon find themselves classified as former NBA players.

There are some instances however when a player comes into the NBA as a nice young man and then as their career progresses they turn sour. There are a million different reasons why this occurs but the result is always the same. The athlete goes from being known as a solid citizen model player into a head case. Controversy becomes a constant in the clubhouse which will ultimately tear apart a team. And may times the player will find themselves on a new team where circumstances can be worse than the one he just left.

Los Angeles Clippers point guard Baron Davis could be the poster boy for the player that New York Vinnie just described. The Baron at the start of his career had an idyllic situation with his first NBA head coach when he broke into the NBA with the Hornets in Paul Silas. Silas was a former star in the NBA with the Boston Celtics in the seventies. He is a big authoritative man and Davis and Silas formed an extremely tight bond. Neither Silas or Davis ever ran out of praises for the other one. Well that was then and this is now.

Last summer Davis became a Free Agent after opting out of his contract with the Golden State Warriors. Davis wanted out of Golden State due to a personality clash with Warriors head coach Don Nelson. Nelson is one of those coaches that players either idolize or despise there is no middle of the road. Davis unfortunately for Golden State fans fell into the latter group he was not a fan of Nelson and wanted out. 

New York Vinnie believes that when Davis signed his contract with his new club he was blinded by the dollar signs. Because if he was not he would have realized that the new coach he would be playing for was far more volatile than Nellie. Baron would soon be under the reigns of the most overrated coach in the NBA Mike Dunleavy.

New York Vinnie remembers when Dunleavy was a player in the NBA and one thing you could never fault him on was his effort on the floor. He was not blessed with a whole bunch of athletic ability but the guy would bust his hump when ever he was on the floor. He was a fiery combative competitive player who if he was on your team you loved and admired. If he was not on your team though you truly wanted to sissy-slap the Pud! Dunleavy retired from playing many years ago but his personality is just the same as a coach.

Needless to say The Baron and his coach were soon butting heads and the situation especially on a pathetic team like the Clippers soon turned ugly. And to make things worse Davis was out of action most of the season due to injury. The Baron said that last season was like “a bad dream” for himself and the entire franchise.

Friday the veteran sat down with the “Los Angeles Daily News” and told the paper he thinks things will be much smoother between he and his coach in the upcoming season. According to The Baron the two have spent this off-season spending some quality time together. He said “We watched a lot of tape. You know, just kind of getting in his brain. Things that he went through as a player, players that he played with. Just getting a better construction of who he is. I don’t think that we gave ourselves an opportunity last year to really know each other. We were trying to make it up on the fly, which is tough. Neither one of us really got to know each other. But I think all that is behind us now. And it feels good. It feels good.”

If Davis is sincere and not just spouting Crappola then it sounds like he gets it. If he truly means what he says he is growing up and realizing the only way he and the team will have any success will be if he and Dunleavy are simpatico. If these two are at each other’s throats again this year it will be a very long season for the other team from Los Angeles.  But if they can see eye to eye that will be a start for the Clippers to begin to turn things around as a team.