With the NBA draft coming up this week, I felt like I had the right springboard to going more in-depth about something I talked about with my friend Max about ten days ago. I think it was right after the Lakers took game 4 – with JJ Redick getting significant playing time for Orlando – that we discussed this question: If the Lakers win the title (which obviously they ultimately did), would you rather be JJ Redick or Adam Morrison?
Of course, Redick and Morrison came out of college the same year; both were the marquee names from their respective highly acclaimed programs; both were literally the great white hopes of opposite coasts of pale-skinned March Madness geeks; and both were reserves on opposite sides of the timeline during this past season’s NBA Finals.
But stylistically, they were very different. Redick was a Dukie, the alpha dog on a team that challenged for the NCAA title season after season; Morrison was from perennial dark horse Gonzaga, who I feel like I’ve heard some analyst choose to win the title every year only to see them get bounced in the sweet 16 or sooner. Redick was almost entirely a catch-and-shoot 3-point specialist; Morrison was a more versatile scorer who could play in the post, create his own shot, and provide some rebounding. Redick was the clean-cut love child of Wally Szczerbiack and Jamie Kennedy; Morrison looked like a roadie for Alice In Chains (incidentally, he also singlehandedly motivated me to remember the term “dirt rocker” a few seconds ago.)
On draft night 2006, Redick – who, if I remember correctly, was projected to slip out of the lottery and possibly even into the second round – was picked eleventh by Orlando; but thanks to Michael Jordan’s ability to swing and miss as horribly in personnel decisions as in minor league baseball, Morrison was snatched out of the green room at #3 by the Bobcats. He went on to start 23 games in the 06-07 season; Redick didn’t start a game until this past year, after Jameer Nelson went down with a torn labrum.
However, Morrison didn’t play a game in 2007-8, and when he returned in 2008-9, his games played, games started, minutes played, scoring / rebounding / assist average…everything dropped dramatically (and to be honest, it was pretty awful to begin with). On the other side, Redick – while certainly not a star or even a major factor – seems to have at least managed to figure out what he can do to make himself a viable NBA reserve. His numbers are all distorted this year b/c of the injuries to his teammates that forced SVG into playing him much more significant minutes than he would’ve otherwise. But nevertheless, it seems at this stage like he’s going to have a career…whereas unless something flips drastically, Morrison could very well be out of the league in another two to three seasons.
The major split between the two in the Finals this year was obvious: Redick logged enough minutes and made enough plays throughout the post-season to be considered a contributor on an Eastern Conference championship team that ultimately got pummeled in the title match. Morrison got shipped to the Lakers mid-season in the Vlad Radmanovic salary dump, played in literally 8 more games for the Lakers than I did, and spent the entire postseason demonstrating that he needs to own more / better suits…but came out of the whole experience wearing a championship ring.
If you look at it under that microscope, I feel like the choice goes a long way towards defining your attitude about a lot of things. Personally, I would much rather be an actual contributor to a very good team that ultimately lost than a guy who rode the pine to a title in street clothes. I would rather be a part of a fight that ultimately didn’t go my way than coast to a victory in which I had no role, where no one could blame me for anything that went wrong along the way, but everyone would know that I did nothing to help either. It’s the same reason I disliked Karl Malone for ditching Utah, where he had played his entire career and gotten to the cusp of the championship but never farther, and joining up with the Lakers in 2003-4*. Granted, he was still doing a hell of a lot more than Adam Morrison, but the circumstances are similar: he wanted to win so badly that he didn’t care if the victory was ultimately fairly hollow.
(*Note: I am leaving Gary Payton out of this because his stellar broadcasting work on NBA TV has vindicated him from any and all past faults. I can’t possibly put into words what an experience it is to watch GP and C-Webb together with Ahmad Rashad in the studio…it’s nearly a religious experience, if your religion is awkward comedy. Trust me on this.)
I don’t have any special affection for Redick, but I can appreciate the fact that he has realized that he will not be the player he was in college and has gone back and figured out what he needs to do in order to be considered enough of an asset to stay in the NBA. Every time I see Morrison, I just feel like he looks defeated – as if he knows that his destiny is in some Euro league where his disgusting woolly-bear-like moustache can be allowed to flourish in peace among a bunch of swarthy Mediterranean or Balkan teammates. I believe that even though he is likely going to be a complete bust, he still has enough pride and competitive nature in him that his primary emotion when he sees that championship ring will be regret. And I believe that the same would be true if Malone had won that title with the Lakers.
So why the hell have I gone through all this analysis of two players who seem to have nothing at all to do with Cleveland sports or any other relevant topics in the NBA right now? Obviously, the draft thing is a pretty fragile link for me to be bringing it up. The reality is that it’s because of something a co-worker and friend of my dad’s said when my dad told him we had started this blog about Cleveland sports. He wrote (re: Mike and me):
Now tell me why these displaced Buckeyes still care about Cleveland sports? They are thousands of miles away, in a city that just won its 15th NBA Championship. That’s at least 5 more championships than all of the Cleveland sports teams have won put together. They need to “Moveon”, oops that name’s taken. They should be out celebrating with those LA women. There is no hope for us, but they can save themselves.
So in a lot of ways this column is my answer. It’s the same reason why I would rather be JJ Redick than Adam Morrison. I believe whole-heartedly that Cleveland will win a championship sooner rather than later. And regardless of where I am when it happens, it will mean so much more because I’ve stuck around to take all the kicks in the nuts that have accumulated along the way…and I can only imagine how my dad will feel, considering that he’s lived through and paid attention to so much more of it than I have. Like Redick, I’ll have had to take some major blows to my ego. I’ll have to lose big, meaningful games and big, meaningful series. But I’ll know I was there, doing what I could do to contribute. I will not be like the thousands and possibly millions of people in LA who became huge, die-hard Laker fans 30 days ago or less, especially when the vast majority of them are from somewhere else with a lowly, middle-of-the-road, decent, or even very good basketball team they should be cheering for instead. I will not have ridden the pine to the championship in street clothes, even though it would be so much easier in every way. That’s just not the type of dude I am. (Incidentally, I also believe that every one of these types of Laker “fans” that I just referenced – both male and female – should be forced to walk around for the rest of their lives with a grisly Adam Morrison moustache. It would be the sports equivalent of the Scarlet Letter.)
So if you’re from Cleveland, and you’re reading this blog, and you’re watching the Indians go down in flames before the All-Star break once again, and you’re bracing yourself for the ManKok Dynasty in Berea, and you’re worrying that the Cavs aren’t going to make the right moves in the offseason to compel Bron to sign a new contract, and you’re thinking about turning off the TV or flipping past the sports section, of just quitting it all to cut off the heartache of losing, or you live somewhere else and you’re thinking about switching your allegiance to another team…ask yourself: do you really want that Adam Morrison ‘stache?
-T
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