Don’t mistake large bodies for adult emotions. The gazillionaire man-children in the NBA might look like adults (some, like LeBron since he was 15), but that doesn’t mean they are grown ups. Quite the opposite.
Now, one might think a devastating 0-5 start to the 22-23 NBA season would offer a lesson in humility. Moreover, starting 0-5 after ending last season with an ugly 33-49 record would seem to indicate more of the same.
Nope, not these gutsy Lakers. They did what every NBA team in regular-season history has done and won a basketball game – by defeating an equally bad Denver Nuggets team, by the way – and took to the locker room as if the NBA Finals had just been clinched in a Herculean Game 7 effort. Water coolers were flying, music was pumping, ballers be jumping. Just watch:
The Lakers win the Finals! pic.twitter.com/KAOg0VxEbS
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) October 31, 2022
Seriously, if you did a side by side of some championship celebration, would you notice a difference? This is just embarrassing for these guys. We’ve come a long ways from Detroit Lions running back legend Barry Sanders suggesting you act like you’ve been there before.
To cap it off, head coach Darvin Ham followed up the victory and celebration with an emotional press conference about perennial headcase Russell Westbrook finally getting some love from L.A.’s fans and showing up for his team. As if we couldn’t infantilize and coddle these mega-rich babies more, here’s another supposed grown up on the verge of crying as he discusses what Russ’s success means to him, the team, the fans, and probably Russ’s massive ego.
Did they return from war? Did they save their kids from a burning house? Nope, they just dribbled between the legs and made some buckets.
An emotional Darvin Ham talks about Russell Westbrook after the Lakers' first win of the season pic.twitter.com/9eE3puL8vk
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) October 31, 2022
That’s just pathetic. However, some people went a step further and interpreted Coach Ham’s weepy monologue as a quiet dig. I don’t quite see it that way, but over at The Daily Caller that’s exactly how it was seen:
Usually when coaches get this kind of emotional in a press conference, it comes after a championship win — Los Angeles Lakers head coach Darvin Ham did this after getting his first win of the season. And the fact that it was centered around Westbrook … Is Ham unintentionally and subliminally admitting that Westbrook is trash? Because you could easily take it that way. It’s just sad.
The Daily Caller also noted that, despite the embarrassing celebration by the organization, the Lakers still have a long ways to go. In other words, don’t get your hopes up yet, LeBron and company:
The Los Angeles Lakers are nearly dead last in every major offensive category, and overall when it comes to team scoring, they rank 28th in a 30-team league, only averaging 105.3 points-per-game, according to ESPN. They’re solid on the defensive side of the ball, granted, but on the offensive side, “LeBron and those boys” (in the words of Stephen A. Smith) are absolute garbage.
On top of that, the play of Russell Westbrook is atrocious. Yeah, LeBron is doing his thing as expected, as well as Anthony Davis, but Russell Westbrook … It’s just bad.
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