I'm never been a big fan of Frank Vogel as coach of the Lakers, even after he led to L.A. to the bubble championship. And I'm not actually questioning his qualifications as a coach as, to my remembrance, he did a damn good job with the Pacers. But when you're dealing with Lebron especially, you need someone who is forceful and respected enough to exert his will.
I realized this back when Tyronn Lue was coaching the Cavs. And this is especially true in the age of player empowerment, like I would venture to guess that there's very few coaches whom the likes of LBJ, AD, Melo and Westbrook would all like unanimously expect. So basically, what we're dealing with these days is an NBA where players do more or less what they want, and some coaches are akin to spectators, albeit with with the best seats in the house. Or at least that's the way it feels when you see dudes chucking up threes at will. Like it doesn't take a coach to tell a player to do a crossover dribble, step back and take a three. And even if they did, that's not even a viable strategy unless maybe you're coaching Steph.
Meanwhile, we have a team like the Lakers. They're the tallest team in the NBA as far as star players go. So why is it that they only shoot threes and do layups, like the rest of the smaller teams in the league? Why is it that a team with AD, Lebron and Dwight Howard (not to mention DeAndre Jordan) doesn't rely more heavily on posting up, as logic would dictate?
So today, out of nowhere, I came across an article via Yahoo whereas some dude is criticizing Russell Westrbook's fit on the Lakers. There's also another video of this nature that has been posted on YouTube via Skip and Shannon: Undisputed. Now I've played my fair share of basketball - on the street and school gym level. And I know that whenever there's a serious game, i.e. one where pride is on the line, by all means some player on the losing team is going to be held up as the scapegoat. But you would think that at a professional level, dudes would be a bit more intelligent about it. And it's bug because you'd never hear any of Westbrook's teammates criticize his play, only the armchair athletes.
And another funny thing is that there is a pretty-dope documentary that recently came out called Passion Play: Russell Westbrook. And one of the main subthemes of the video is how, despite being one of the greatest players of all-time, Russell has constantly dealt with negative, scapegoat-ish criticism. And it's happening again, right before our eyes. Indeed I was kinda doubtful after watching Passion Play but now also believe that certain entities in the media have it in for him. But I guess we all have to make a living. And some people get paid to dickride, whether positive or negative.
CONCLUSION
That type of prideful game I was talking about earlier, that's what the Lakers had a couple of nights ago against the Thunder. I don't want to give the ending away just in case you didn't see the highlights embedded above, as they're pretty dope. But all I will say is that it's pretty obvious that no actual strategy was involved on the part of the offense during the last play of the game. Or if a play was drawn up, then it's evident that it wasn't actually executed . And maybe at the end of the day, at least from an NBA Inception perspective, Frank Vogel himself is the scapegoat. Because if the players decide like 'fuck the coach', then they have to try to do a better job of strategizing themselves.
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