The National Basketball Association had seven games on tap yesterday, but the battle between the Hawks and the Suns proved most interesting for a variety of reasons. Forget that they sported win-loss slates that had them scraping the bottom of the barrel, or that lottery considerations gave them ample reason to lose. Given the way they competed from opening tip to final buzzer, victory was on their minds. Even the most jaded observers would have had trouble describing their effort as wanting; a maximum of seven points separated them at any one time, and the winning trey, off a well-set screen with just over seven ticks left in the match, represented the 24th lead change.
Indeed, the Hawks and Suns showed their best, and were their performances judged in a vacuum, pundits wouldn’t have concluded that they were in the middle of a long, trying season. A fortunate confluence of events? Perhaps. They were evenly matched, fresh off a day’s rest, and just a couple of weeks removed from Commissioner Adam Silver’s sharp rebuke of Mavericks owner Mark Cuban’s extolment of the virtues of tanking. In any case, fans were treated to a humdinger whose outcome was not decided until the last second.
To be sure, nothing can replace pride as the sport’s biggest motivator. At the executive level, franchises no doubt assess options for the long term; if they don’t have the personnel to crowd the top of standings, they are better served to avoid mediocrity and instead aim for a quick reboot via the upcoming draft. But because they are barred, ideally and realistically, from conveying these sentiments to players, the latter will just keep doing what they do: play to the extent of their abilities and move to upend the opposition.
There are other ways, of course. The Hawks, for instance, gave Kent Bazemore the day off for the second time in three weeks. And, if nothing else, the DNP-Rest designations underscore the importance of owners resisting the temptation of making coaches heads of operations as well. Had Mike Budenholzer still been both, he would have compromised either of his positions heading into the set-to. All of which means one thing: rarely will deliberate deviousness be seen on the court. There are other ways, and, outside of the type of conceit Cuban displayed, there’s little Silver can do about them.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994. He is the Senior Vice-President and General Manager of Basic Energy Corp.
