President of NBA Coaches Association rips ESPN over LaVar Ball
Let’s start with this: Rick Carlisle is one of the more intelligent, well-thought of coaches in all of sports.
And, as the president of the NBA Coaches Association, he’s trying to do right by his constituents.
So it’s no surprise the Dallas Mavericks head coach was upset by the comments LaVar Ball made over the weekend that were critical of Lakers’ coach Luke Walton.
But Carlisle seems more upset at ESPN for reporting the comments in the first place.
Ball said in an exclusive interview Saturday with ESPN that Walton had lost the locker room, and Lakers players had quit on their coach.
“You can see they’re not playing for Luke no more,” LaVar Ball told ESPN’s Jeff Goodman. “Luke doesn’t have control of the team no more. They don’t want to play for him.”
Prior to the Mavs’ game Sunday night against New York, Carlisle stood up for Walton while blasting ESPN for its judgment in publishing the piece.
“As president of the coaches association, I view the recent ESPN article as a disgrace, quite honestly,” Carlisle said. “Luke Walton is a terrific, young coach who is bringing along a young team, and it’s a difficult task. If you don’t believe it, just ask me. We’re going through that now and went through that last year.
“ESPN is an NBA partner, and they’ve been a great one. Part of that partnership … the coaches do a lot of things to help them with access, interviews, and all those kinds of things. In exchange for that, they should back up the coaches. Printing an article where the father of an NBA player has an opinion that is printed as anything like legitimate erodes trust. It erodes the trust we’ve built with ESPN, and our coaches are upset.”
It’s true that ESPN and the NBA are partners, and yes, that involves things like “special” access and things of that nature. But those are things ESPN or any network would ask for and should receive when it decides to spend $1.4 billion per year to cover the league’s games.
But ESPN is also a news operation, and while it’s a valid argument as to whether anything the father — or wife or mother — of an NBA player says is actually news, ESPN knows there’s an audience that wants to hear or read whatever Ball has to say about anything.
Now while Carlisle’s comments about ESPN may be nothing more than a well-intentioned defense of Walton that exceeded reasonable expectations, this next piece of news borders on the absurd: A tweet Sunday from basketball writer Sam Amico suggests NBA coaches are now flat out considering censorship when it comes to those who chose to interview Ball.
Several NBA coaches plan to ask media relations staffs to revoke credentials of basketball writers who interview LaVar Ball, league sources tell AmicoHoops. Ball was critical of Lakers coach Luke Walton in comments made to ESPN.
— Sam Amico (@AmicoHoops) January 8, 2018
With Carlisle serving as head of the NBA Coaches Association, it’s worth speculating if this ridiculous idea was hatched by Carlisle in response to the ESPN piece.
Ultimately, Lakers team president Magic Johnson and general manager Rob Pelinka — not Ball — are the ones who decide whether Walton is doing a good job as the team’s coach. According to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne, Ball’s comments are a non-issue.
Luke Walton's job status is "not even a conversation" according to a Lakers source. https://t.co/7UoivlCUtH
— Ramona Shelburne (@ramonashelburne) January 7, 2018
Carlisle said ESPN needs to do a better job of deciding whose opinion is worthy of publicizing.
“I’m saying that they (ESPN) should look at their sources and do a better job of determining whether they have any merit or any validity, or are they just blowhard loudmouths?” he said. “That’s what I’m saying. You got that?”
Based on Shelburne’s reporting, it sounds like the team has already decided.
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