There are several unwritten rules around the NBA, and chief among them is a gentleman’s agreement not to show up your opponents after you’ve already sealed a victory. But in the heat of the moment, players sometimes fail to abide by these best practices that were put in place long ago to help maintain a certain level of decorum and civility.
And they almost always come with immediate repercussions, e.g. a hard foul on the offending player, profanity-laced tirades and admonishments, or verbal and physical tough-guy posturing.
The Raptors-Hawks game on Friday night treated us to one such scenario after O.G. Anunoby came up with a steal in the waning moments with Toronto up by double digits and, instead of simply dribbling out the clock, put a punctuation mark on the win with a one-handed jam.
Naturally, Mike Budenholzer didn’t appreciate it and apparently had some words for the Raptors rookie after the buzzer, which led Dwane Casey to hurl a string of expletives at the Hawks coach.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=12&v=s8IHs9WD-G0
Casey later explained what set him off. Via Doug Smith of the Toronto Star:
“I’m a coach’s coach. I love coaches, but one thing I don’t want you to do is say something to my players,” Casey said. “I don’t know what was said exactly, but he was upset because the kid stole the ball and went for a layup.
“I understand the situation. We weren’t trying to run the score up. They were trying to score and we were trying to play defence. His instincts stole the ball. There was no intent.”
Anunoby deserves more than a little leeway here. He’s a rookie, and all the excitement can sometimes get the better of young players. He was simply doing his job by playing hard until the final buzzer. Plus, it’s a very Coach K thing to do to condescendingly lecture opposing players on their behavior, which is a tactic that doesn’t sit well with just about anyone.
However, Casey is being a little self-righteous here. When Lance Stephenson did something similar against the Raptors last season, Casey didn’t hesitate to call it a “bush league” play. In any case, it appears he and Budenzholer may already be mending fences.
Bud says he has exchanged text messages with Dwane Casey today after last night’s incident.
— Chris Vivlamore (@CVivlamoreAJC) December 30, 2017
The NBA is a brotherhood, after all, and beefs between opposing coaching staffs never tend to have much of a shelf-life anyway.
