Paul Silas, who spent 16 years in the NBA as an undersized, no-nonsense power forward, reflected recently on the state of the league and some teams’ penchant to complain about the harsh treatment referees seem to allow. “You know what NBA stood for when I played?,” said Silas, most recently head coach of the Charlotte Bobcats. “No Babies Allowed. There wasn’t any whining in those days. ”
Of course, at this time of year, whining is lifted to an art form. While no one is suggesting the game should return to the old days of bench-clearing brawls, career-threatening haymakers or Jeff Van Gundy clutching Alonzo Mourning’s leg, we have already seen enough postseason complaints to make one stop and ask, “Wait, didn’t Phil Jackson retire?”
Denver Nuggets coach George Karl complained about Los Angeles Lakers center Andrew Bynum not being whistled for defensive three seconds. Atlanta Hawks center Ivan Johnson called the Boston Celtics’ Kevin Garnett “dirty.” And that fits what we’ve heard for much of the year, when star players like the Chicago Bulls’ Derrick Rose, the L.A. Clippers’ Blake Griffin and the Orlando Magic’s Dwight Howard complained about the hard contact referees were allowing. Of Karl’s complaints, Lakers coach Mike Brown said, “Coach Karl is just doing his job,” indicating that playoff whining—the goal being to alert referees to your cause—is an accepted practice among coaches.
In no city, though, do playoff complaints raise a bigger red flag than in Dallas, where for many years the team toiled under the stigma of softness, especially under offensive-minded coach Don Nelson, in the days when the Mavs had no center (or, worse, Erick Dampier). Last season, it looked like the Mavs had shed that label, showing an impressive fortitude in powering through the Western Conference, then toppling the favored Miami Heat in the Finals by winning the last three games of the series after falling behind, 2-1. But in the offseason, they lost three of the guys most responsible for upping their toughness quotient—guard DeShawn Stevenson, assistant coach Dwane Casey and, especially, center Tyson Chandler.
And so the words of coach Rick Carlisle in the wake of Dallas’ Game 2 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder have to be taken with some concern. Carlisle was not absolving his team—he made clear that, in two tight losses to the Thunder, his guys “did not make enough plays”—but he also said, “I love hard-played, clean, competitive playoff series, and you throw the ball up and may the best team win. But the dirty bull---‘s gotta stop. We don’t want anybody getting hurt out there either way.”
That seems a bit excessive. Both games in the Mavs-Thunder series have been close, and certainly tension has built, Dallas star Dirk Nowitzki has been roughed up, and he has taken particular exception the physicality of Thunder center and strongman Kendrick Perkins. The two scuffled early in Game 2 when Perkins shoved Nowitzki in the back. Both were given technical fouls. But the Perkins shove followed Nowitzki being knocked in the face by Serge Ibaka and then giving Ibaka a push in the back as the two ran up court
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