Don't cross David Stern
This story appears in the March 8 issue of ESPN The Magazine.
Since the trade deadline just passed, some of you are probably wondering why your team shipped a guy out of town. Money is one reason guys get traded. So is talent. But there's a quicker way to be kicked to the curb in the NBA: getting blackballed.
I see it a lot. Take T.J. Ford, for example. He might be on his way, through no fault of his own. The guy had a career year last year, yet he was on the bench for a month -- and he wasn't injured. Players have been buzzing about him lately, wondering why one of the best guys on the Pacers isn't playing much. It could be anything. I know of a situation in which a starter got benched because the owner's son is friends with the guy who replaced him.
Stuff like that happens all the time, and it's not always the coaches making the decision. Sometimes it comes from above. I'm pretty sure, for example, that Javaris Crittenton will be blackballed after his gun incident with Gilbert Arenas. Gilbert is a former All-Star with a big contract. He'll play again. But most players think Javaris is done, that GMs won't touch him. That's just wrong.
On the plane just the other day we were talking about how guys disappear: How Antoine Walker, Stephon Marbury, Bonzi Wells and Steve Francis were franchise players one day, out of the league the next. You never know where it comes from. It could be owners getting together to decide no one is going to offer a guy a contract (yes, it happens). Or it could come down from the commissioner. David Stern is not a man you want to cross.
Stern is not a man you want to cross.
The main thing that gets you blackballed in the NBA is being a bad influence on young players -- bad-mouthing the coach or refusing to listen to him, living the high life. If you're a veteran pulling young guys into that world, your days are numbered. GMs are wary of guys like that. They do all kinds of research before signing you, like talking to your high school coach and grade school teachers. The model organization is San Antonio. They hardly ever sign a guy who gets in trouble. And if they do, the guy shapes right up. If a GM thinks you're taking young guys out, getting them drunk and hooking them up with women, he'll drop you. And he'll tell other league GMs why.
Some guys who've been run out of the NBA, like Bonzi, are doing whatever they can for another shot. Bonzi is better than a lot of guys in the league but won't get a second chance because of his rep as a bad locker room guy. The NBA doesn't have a team like the Bengals that gives bad-rep guys another chance.
Sad thing is, you see some of these guys who are out of the league -- like Francis, Antoine or Steph -- and they still act as if they're stars. They're still like, "I'm the man. It's never gonna go away." They dress the same and spend money like they're still making it. I hear a lot of guys are working out in Chicago, waiting for the phone to ring. But the NBA doesn't really give you a second shot once you've been blackballed. Stern has the power to say a guy is not welcome anymore. You also have GMs with jobs on the line who don't want to take a risk. Look at what happened when Isiah Thomas signed bad locker room guys like Zach Randolph. The Knicks imploded, and Thomas got fired.
I think this Arenas incident scared a lot of players. But I'm not sure if it will change much. The phone number the NBA gives us to call if we're struggling with alcohol and other things isn't going to start ringing off the hook. Thing is, this wasn't the first time Gilbert messed up. The NBA told him to chill a couple years ago, but I don't think he took it seriously. Word around the league is that he's at home freaking out, calling the NBA every five minutes to fix things, afraid it all might disappear.
Funny enough, I haven't heard much about guys acting up this season. The Hawks used to be notorious for partying before they got Joe Johnson and got good. They had guys like Antoine, who would go out to clubs and go wild. It wasn't until they got rid of the bad influences that they started playing well. And you can usually tell who the bad influences are just by looking at how often a guy gets traded. If he's been moved five times, it probably doesn't have anything to do with creating cap room or getting good value. He's got an attitude problem, and his bosses sent him packin'.
Player X is an NBA star. This is his second column in a series of unfiltered looks into the lives of professional athletes.
