JASON WHITLOCK'S FLAWED THINKING WHEN IT COMES TO NBA PLAYERS

Jason Whitlock is a talent, but his thinking on issues is sometimes flawed and intellectually lazy. Whitlock's "NBA Players Are Wrecking Their League" article best illustrates his flawed thinking. Bill Simmons wrote a contrasting two-part article: Part 1: "Grading Carmelo and Other NBA Trades" and Part 2 - "Celtics Will Miss Kendrick Perkins" about the recent transactions/trades in the NBA. Simmons directly challenged Whitlock's point of view, without mentioning his name:

"EVERYONE WHO CLAIMS THE NBA IS BEING RUINED BECAUSE SUPERSTARS WANT TO CONTROL WHERE THEY PLAY: D-minus

What a lazy argument. Over the past six decades, the following players pushed their way from a worse situation to a (seemingly) better one either by trade or free agency: Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Shaquille O'Neal, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Moses Malone, Rick Barry, Charles Barkley, Scottie Pippen, Bill Walton, Kevin Garnett, Allen Iverson, Gary Payton, Ray Allen, Jason Kidd, Clyde Drexler ... should I keep going? Now this "phenomenon" is endangering the game???

As Kenny Smith said last night, "If [a small-market team] builds the right pieces around the right guy, he will stay." Period. Duncan stayed in San Antonio because it built the right team around him. Stockton and Malone stayed in Utah because they had each other. Durant will stay in Oklahoma City because of Westbrook and everyone else. LeBron left Cleveland mainly because it made bad trades and signed the wrong guys. And Utah never would have thought it might lose Deron Williams if it hadn't screwed up the roster around him. Besides, why is it such a bad thing to have six or seven loaded teams and six or seven terrible ones? Oh crap, I hate seeing the Finals with all these elite players! Give me a break."

I will be posting the tweets that I sent after I read Whitlock's piece and before reading Simmons.
Bill Simmons is also a talented writer. His two-part series is brilliant journalism. I've critiqued Simmons before, and recently kidded that I couldn't believe that my twitter following is less than .001% of his. Just to let the twitter public know that I wasn't envious, I quoted the great Terry McMillan: "Discounting someone else's brilliance doesn't make yours shine brighter."

"NBA Players Are Wrecking Their League"  @WhitlockJason Stay Tune for my reply. Overreaction & no sense of history. So much BS in @WhitlockJason article.Overreaction & flawed thinking Sophomoric view - Whitlock has a "plantation mentality" towards players!

I need a national platform if @WhitlockJason can pass this BS off as critical thinking. I'm going to break down @WhitlockJason's flawed thinking paragraph by paragraph {saw no need to do this after reading Simmons. Why recreate the wheel. You can also call me intellectually lazy on this one. LOL!} Will probably get to it over the weekend. Some points I may agree with, most I won't. The overall tenor of @WhitlockJason's post is condescending, anti-American  and borderline racist. You can do better Jason!

@CoachFinamore “As a player, you have to do what’s best for you,” That's nothing new. Teams do what is best for them. Think you're reading too much into Wade's comments. Doesn't mean you do what is best for you when you're a part of the team. Team sports are about sacrifice. It does mean you do what is best for you when you're talking about contract & free agent situations. There is a right way to do it. Life is a two way street and remember this is coming from someone who was on the management side for 11 years. This is nothing new.

Let's talk the past.Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabaar, Earl Monroe, Rick Barry, Julius Erving, Shaquille O'Neal, Charles Barkley forced moves. I can go on and on. Players taking control of their destiny is nothing new. Life is a two way street. Teams know and understand this. Utah Jazz in particular knows this. They've always been cognizant of the fact that Utah is not a desired destination. I submit that the Jazz franchise is not ruined. They got significant compensation for Williams, now it's up to them to turn it into value. Denver has hope for the future. Cleveland was decimated by LeBron's decision, but it just shows you how it WAS in LBJ's interest to leave Cleveland. Their management didn't get it done during his regime. Hold them culpable, not LBJ for realizing that there was a better place for him. I said this when he made decision. The Lakers were playing with a loaded gun and LBJ was playing Russian Roulette. Have we forgotten the pleas Kobe made to Laker management to get their act together or he would exercise his right to leave. This is nothing new. This isn't the 60's. Whitlock should be educating his readers during Black History Month how black players paved the way for the modern day players to have this freedom of movement. Curt Flood and Spencer Haywood are two he can highlight @WhitlockJason's plantation mentality disgusts me. Now you know why I was blocked by him.

@michaeltillery read some of my real time posts & tweeted some posts on Jason Whitlock that were on "The Starting Five." Take time to digest them:

Is There Hope For Jason Whitlock's Writing? by @michaeltillery  Will be reading. There's always hope. Keep hope alive!

Another @michaeltillery post I'll be reading: "Marcellus Wiley’s Response To Jason Whitlock’s Black KKK Piece:" Communicated with Marcellus via twitter after reading his response to Jason Whitlock's comments on Sean Taylor's death and told him that his comments were thoughtful and on point. Started following Marcellus at @marcelluswiley and sent him a message suggesting that he read @WhitlockJason's latest BS "NBA Players Are Wrecking Their League."

Received this message from Marcellus - Thanks Much! I Will!

Got to love twitter!