Not that I’m the kind of person who would do it, but I’d love to tell the Milwaukee Bucks, “I told you so.” I warned them about bringing in Anthony Mason. I said his selfish, bullying ways would change their entertaining style of play and divide the team.
I’d love to say, “I told you so,” but I’d also have to admit I still picked the Bucks to have the best record in the Eastern Conference.
And now they’ve missed the playoffs, perhaps the biggest collapse in NBA history coming a year after they were a game away from the Eastern Conference finals.
With the playoffs starting Saturday, the Nets are first and the Bucks are out. Anyone have that preseason prediction?
“I don’t think `shocked’ is the word for it,” coach George Karl said, sounding numb. “I don’t think we ever got into a good rhythm. Some of it is our fault, some is the chemistry fault, some is the injury fault, some is the Eastern Conference has made a big jump forward.” (Editorial comment: Huh?)
So what do the Bucks do now that they’ve clearly turned on their coach, finally growing weary of his incessant complaining and harassment? Last season it worked and Karl was labeled a coaching master. This season he’s a burnout case, his long talked about self-destructive tendencies getting the better of him.
Karl is a wonderfully engaging man, a hard-working, intelligent coach who seems to be swamped by a raging insecurity and a nagging fear of success. Every time he’s close to it, he seems to do everything possible to destroy the best chance for it, as he did with a terrific Seattle team. He’s the working definition of the tormented basketball genius.
And next season he’s starting a two-year contract extension that reportedly pays him a staggering $7 million per season.
Are his players, bugged and blasted all season, about to return with great enthusiasm? After that kind of season, who wants Tim Thomas, Sam Cassell or Glenn Robinson with their huge contracts? Do you dare trade Ray Allen? And what do you do with a 35-year-old Mason for three more seasons?
This is a time to feel sorry for an owner. Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.) owned a lot better than the players played or the coach coached. He gave Karl his contract extension and one to Cassell, who was moaning about being underpaid 24 hours after he signed it, and added Mason at Karl’s urging.
It’s a wonderful lesson for all sports teams, about the delicate nature of chemistry, about dealing with professional athletes, about tinkering with a good thing, about the ephemeral nature of success.
The Bucks, 52-30 and Central Division champions, were a glorious team to watch last season. They were a return to the 1960’s NBA, three big-time scorers taking the first shot available and winning with offense.
Karl drove them from a 3-9 start with unusually harsh criticism about defending and passing. It worked, and then he didn’t know how good he had it.
With Mason the Bucks became a grind-it-out team when they weren’t grinding their teeth over Mason’s constant criticism. At one point he urged Karl to bench one of the “jump shooters,” as he derisively called them. We always seek turning points in these things, and the Bucks’ came just before the All-Star break. After a loss to the 76ers, Karl said someone should be traded or he should be fired. The Bucks were 27-18 at the time, and the slide began.
Allen said his mother was calling, upset about Karl’s attacks on him and his teammates.
Not long afterward came publication of Karl’s comments about African-Americans such as Doc Rivers getting priority over his white assistant, Terry Stotts, for coaching jobs. That embarrassment had to hit a nerve with his mostly African-American stars.
And though he can be a charming rogue, few colleagues were shedding any tears for Karl, who before the Bucks’ stumble said of the then-stagnant Miami Heat: “Pat Riley, man, this is what I don’t want to happen to me. Losing that edge? I mean he doesn’t have a great team, but he doesn’t have a bad team. He has Eddie Jones and Alonzo Mourning and that’s not bad. You should be winning some games with that.”
The Bucks did have injuries after an almost injury-free 2000-01 season, but so did most of the other top teams in the East. Karl tried to back off after his pre-All-Star rant, but it was too late.
Milwaukee reporters have been writing that Kohl could sell the team, and one intriguing possibility is an ownership group led by Michael Jordan, who talked with Kohl before joining the Wizards. It would get Jordan as close to home and running a team as he’s about to be in the near future, and it seems questionable whether Jordan will play again.
Perhaps that’s just dreaming, but it should be permitted after a nightmare season. The playoffs will begin with all the expected storylines but one.
