Did you miss the week’s biggest news (besides the Atlanta Hawks’ Game 1 win over Milwaukee and the Game 2…never mind)?
It was this:
“Nowhere else in America can businesses get away with agreeing not to pay their workers a fair market rate on the theory that their product is defined by not paying their workers a fair market rate it is not evident why college sports should be any different. The NCAA is not above the law.”___U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
SCOTUS is done with the NCAA cartel. Not only did the justices vote 9-0 that the NCAA cannot limit the educational compensation it gives college athletes, such as free computers and tutoring galore, but remarks like that from Coach Kavanaugh about the whole college sports enterprise are unprecedented from the high court.
And there was this:
What’s next is a lawsuit that goes to the Supreme Court where athletes argue about non-educational compensation. This lawsuit will declare that athletes can make money however they choose while in college. They can set up a table in the middle of the RV parking lot on Friday night before the game and sell autographs for $25.
Pay for play. It’s coming. The athletes will win. Holy Smokes.
The NCAA has used “this is amateur sports” as an argument to keep its holy anti-trust exemption. The argument doesn’t hold up any longer because the caretakers of college sports—the TV moguls, the athletic directors, the coaches, the university presidents, the athletic department senior execs—have all enriched themselves beyond the pale.
They are about to enrich themselves even more by expanding the College Football Playoff to 12 teams and making some of these students play a grueling sport further into the second semester, which is nuts.
I am still flabbergasted that the U.S. Supreme Court made a decision that improved worker’s rights. Just flabbergasted.
Now About The Hawks…
Trae Young was up against the Milwaukee Centimanes. You know, those mythical creatures. The Hundred-Handed Ones.
The Bucks did one thing so much better in Game 2 than in Game 1. They got their arms up. They made Young look through a forest, or play basketball in a well. Young, the 6-foot-1 1/2 inch Atlanta guard had a lot of arms in his face Friday night and committed nine turnovers in just 28 minutes.
The Bucks jumped him, stayed back, blitzed. The Milwaukee defense changed up and offered different looks so Young couldn’t, how you say, sit on the fastball.
That was my big takeaway in Milwaukee’s 125-91 win, which evened the series.
The turnovers fueled the fastbreak and the Bucks made Young look like a lackadaisical second-year pro again beating him to the other end.
Not to lay too much at the feet of Young, but he is the engine here. Barbs and Bouquets, Buddy.
Here is something else. The Bucks didn’t need a whiteboard to craft a strategy to deal with Trae Young.
They just needed a picture of Young with toes on the foul line, unflinching, stripping the nets with free shots. Layups.
In the first 13 games of the playoffs, Young made 103 of 118 free throws, or 87 percent. He made 10 of 12 foul shots in the Game 1 win over Milwaukee in the Eastern Conference finals. Free throws are really free points for this guy.
Look at it like this. You know those floaters and short jumpers he cashes for 2? Young had made 42 percent in the playoffs. He made 32 percent of his playoff 3s going into Game 2 on Friday night.
His offensive efficiency is helped Sooooo much with free throws.
The strategy was DO NOT FOUL HIM. Young had only three free throw attempts in Game 2. Three.
Settling the Luka vs. Trae Debate
I found a story about the Hawks selecting Jon Koncak with the fifth overall pick in the 1985 NBA draft. Hall of Famer Karl Malone was selected 13th in that draft.
“Twelve teams passed on Karl Malone!” Koncak told The New Yorker magazine. “It’s tough to make the right choices.”
Koncak, of course, never panned out as a star in the NBA. He was the wrong choice. Jon Contract played 10 seasons and averaged 4.5 points per game.
There is still a debate going on right now whether the Hawks made the right choice in the 2018 draft by taking Young, instead of Luka Doncic.
Still…even after the show Young has put on in these playoffs…there is debate.
The argument is that the Hawks have put better players around Young than what the Mavericks put around Doncic, so Young looks better right now.
The debate is not going to be settled by Young or Doncic. It’s going to be settled by Cam Reddish. Remember, the Hawks took Doncic third overall in the draft and then traded Doncic to Dallas for the Mavericks’ 2018 first-round pick (5th), which was Young, and a lottery protected pick in 2019, which was Reddish.
Reddish is a quality defender, but his offense has not arrived. He’s shooting less 38 percent from 2 and 30 percent from 3 in his short career. He’s a guard. Reddish has to shoot. If he does find some form, and blossoms, the Hawks win the deal.
Over and over, General Manager Travis Schlenk has said the Hawks were going to take Doncic with the third pick in 2018. The only way to part with Doncic was two lottery picks.
“I’ve always taken the strategy with the draft, to use a baseball strategy: the more swings you get, the more chances you have to get a hit,” Schlenk told ESPN. “To be able to take one lottery pick and essentially turn it into two, that made sense to us.”
So, yes, the jury is still out.
More Young…I was one of the people who didn’t think Young played like an All-Star the first half of the season.
He is certainly playing like it now destroying the supposed three best defensive squads in the NBA East: New York, Philly, and the Bucks.
So I’m wondering. Has somebody reserved a Olympics spot for Trae Young? If James Harden’s hamstring continues to be an issue, Team USA is going to need a floor leader.
One more thing…
Atlanta fans keep wondering what this team would be like with De’Andre Hunter, the 6-foot-8 wing, who is out with an injury.
Phoenix fans were wondering the same thing about missing Chris Paul, a Hall of Fame guard, for the first two games of the West finals with the LA Clippers.
The Suns won two games without Paul. He returned for Game 3…and Phoenix lost.
Basketball is funny that way.