Category: Opinion

The WNBA’s feckless condemnation of fan hate is too late for a participation trophy

The WNBA does not get a trophy for doing the bare minimum.

The WNBA took more than four months to stand in solidarity with its players over repeated harassment, but it finally issued a statement Wednesday denouncing bigoted and threatening comments. It was the bare minimum and long overdue.

As much as the 2024 season should have been solely about basketball, it wasn’t. More fans meant more eyes, and with more eyes, the ugliest parts of humanity — racism, sexism, homophobia and learned ignorance — were amplified at the league’s front door. While the WNBA seemingly handled its previous fan growth spurts well, the intensified harassment of players highlighted a lacking support system that took nearly a whole season to receive performative duct tape.

For months, the league publicly sat on its hands while players endured abuse from fans, including death threats (Warning: NSFW language) and being followed to homes and hotels. The online conversations and in-person confrontations were so glaring, so unhinged that WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert was asked to explicitly address them in an interview with CNBC. Engelbert fumbled the opportunity and later apologized once it became clear her words didn’t meet the moment. However, a new statement from the league Wednesday, in light of more fan abuse, reflects how loudly the WNBA is failing its players.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DAXSA5fRNCf/?igsh=eHhzOGpxcXo5dnRt

Here’s what the WNBA shared:

“The WNBA is a competitive league with some of the most elite athletes in the world. While we welcome a growing fan base, the WNBA will not tolerate racist, derogatory or threatening comments made about players, teams and anyone affiliated with the league. League security is actively monitoring threat-related activity and will work directly with teams and arenas to take the appropriate measures, to include involving law enforcement, as necessary.”

Why did it take more than four months for the league to put out the bare minimum to denounce what has so clearly impacted its athletes like Angel Reese, Breanna Stewart and Alyssa Thomas throughout the season? Why did nothing happen until after one of the league’s other stars, Caitlin Clark, was met with in-person fan harassment during her first playoff series?

I don’t have the answers to those questions; Engelbert and WNBA leadership would have to explain the exact reasoning. But releasing the statement now reeks of cowardice and is almost entirely unserious, especially when players have been speaking out on it.

A professional league with a decades-long reputation as a socially aware entity cannot be this delayed and outwardly obtuse. Beyond the jerseys are people who deserve better from the folks they have entrusted to support them at their jobs.

When we start normalizing vitriol as everyday discourse, the bar for morality and humanity is in the basement. Anyone can tell you not to feed into the “trolls” and the “bots.” However, simply “ignoring them” is a privilege many athletes don’t have.

In some ways, the sports world has become desensitized to hate hurled at athletes, and if that doesn’t change and boundaries aren’t established, the consequences are potentially dangerous.

The WNBA doesn’t suddenly get credit because it decided to have a spine and speak out in defense of its players. There is no participation trophy for showing common decency; it’s the expectation. Ultimately, this rests at Engelbert’s feet, and if she and the league’s leadership won’t do what’s right, the safety and well-being of players across the league could be at risk.

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The Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese rhetoric is getting handled way too timidly by the WNBA

The WNBA is seemingly only worried about its pockets, not the humanity of its players.

WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert had a chance to do something that should have been done a long time ago — condemn the people who have used Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese‘s names to further their own agendas. Instead, she sidestepped the opportunity to use her platform, opting for the dollars instead.

Since the 2023 National Championship and into their rookie WNBA seasons, Clark and Reese have been at the center of some of the wildest vitriol women’s sports have seen in recent years. Their stardom has galvanized an extremist movement of  “fans” whose only goal is to find the opportunities — the cracks — in the foundation of women’s basketball and fill them with racial, sexist and bigoted sludge.

The narratives driven by “supporters” (and perpetuated by media personalities like Charles Barkley) have grown so loud and dangerous that Clark and Reese were forced to respond and reveal unhinged behavior like death threats and stalking. But the league has been publicly silent about what’s happening. Recently, Engelbert gave a corporate, safe non-answer when allowed to denounce the rhetoric and refocus the conversation on basketball. Here’s what she told CNBC:

“Well, one thing that’s great about the league right now, we do sit at this intersection of culture and sports and fashion and music — like the WNBA players are kind of looked at now as cultural icons. And when you have that, you have a lot of attention on you. There’s no more apathy. Everybody cares.”

“It’s a little bid of that [Larry] Bird-Magic[Johnson] moment…we have that moment with these two. The one thing I know about sports, you need rivalry. That’s what makes people watch. They want to watch games of consequence between rivals. They don’t want everybody being nice to one another.” Social media is different today than it was in 1979 when it didn’t exist.”

“But…I always tell the players — I was told a long time ago if someone is typing something in and you wouldn’t ask their advice, ignore it. It’s a balance. But certainly, from a marketing dollars — corporate partners are stepping up to endorse these players more so than they were five years ago because they see the benefit of having women and diverse women representing their brand.”

The problem with that answer is that it ignores the elephant in the room.

It minimizes the ugly truth that a small but extremely loud and rapidly growing contingent of WNBA “fans” is dramatically shifting what the conversations should be about. Engelbert’s answer also comes off as dismissive of the gravity of what is being spewed directly to both players, in the names of Caitlin and Angel and other WNBA players.

Earlier this season, Aliyah Boston had to delete her social media because the things said to her were well past basketball. A man tracked down Chennedy Carter and the Chicago Sky to reportedly hurl racist and misogynist marks after a hip-check foul. And those are only two examples.

Dozens more instances involve players, which only worsens when social media is involved. The internet has become a cesspool for people to operate unchecked, all behind the mask of WNBA fandom and free speech. Finding the right words to say on such topics is never easy, and it often requires more profound thought before speaking. But how much longer is this supposed to go on? How bad does it have to get before the league says something?

The WNBA has always been a socially-conscious league focused on being aware of things larger than basketball. However, it cannot turn a blind eye now because its bank account says it’s not worth the fuss. Doing so is disingenuous to every player who has ever played in the league and any future athlete who will wear a WNBA jersey.

The plot has officially been lost when money trumps humanity, and the WNBA is dangerously close to completely fumbling Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese’s impact.

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Pull the plug before it’s too late

We cannot do a full season of this. We cannot do three weeks of this.

It’s time. Forget about the dead cap, forget about the assets that were given up to get quarterback Deshaun Watson. It’s time for the Cleveland Browns to pull the plug.

End the Watson experience now.

Yes, he’s expensive. Yes, the Browns will have to eat a ton of dead cap to make it happen. But the Browns have a ton of proven players on restructurable contracts to work around any of it.

The Browns and head coach Kevin Stefanski have proven they can work with backup quarterbacks like Joe Flacco, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, and even practice squad players like P.J. Walker. Turn the reigns over to Jameis Winston. You can win 10 games with Winston at the helm.

This is torture, torment. We cannot take 17 weeks of this. We might not be able to take three weeks of this.

No amount of money should prolong the inevitable. The Deshaun Watson of old is not coming back. Owner Jimmy Haslam has proven willing to pay bonuses upfront in restructures. The Browns have plenty of proven talent on a largely stacked roster. They can restructure or extend names like Myles Garrett, Denzel Ward, and David Njoku to create space.

Before it’s too late, pull the plug. Please.

Becky Hammon’s mishandling of the Dearica Hamby allegations might be the end of her time in Las Vegas

Becky Hammon should be ashamed.

This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.

Good morning, Winners! Welcome back to the Morning Win. Thanks so much for rocking with us today. We appreciate you. I hope you had a fantastic weekend.

Becky Hammon certainly didn’t. I’m not telling you that so you can feel sorry for her — she brought this on herself.

Let’s start with the news, though.

Hammon took a portion of her post-game press conference on Sunday to tell anyone who would listen that she did no harm to current Sparks All-Star Dearica Hamby when she was a member of the Aces.

Hamby filed a lawsuit last week against the Las Vegas Aces and the WNBA, alleging that because she was pregnant after signing her contract extension in 2022, she faced “repeated acts of intimidation, discrimination, and retaliation from the Aces” before the team shipped her to Los Angeles. The details are brutal. Hamby alleges that after Hammon and the Aces found out she was pregnant in July 2022, they reneged on certain agreements in the deal.

More crucially, Hamby also claims to have been bullied by Hammon.

Hamby detailed Hammon’s questions about her dedication to the team during her pregnancy. Hamby said Hammon told her that she “didn’t hold up her end of the bargain” by getting pregnant and that, by signing the extension, Hamby implicitly agreed not to.

It’s jaw-dropping stuff that, if true, would be more than reasonable enough to result in Hammon’s firing. But, according to Becky, none of this ever happened.

“Here’s some facts,” Hammon told reporters. “I’ve been in either the WNBA or the NBA for now 25 years. I’ve never had an HR complaint. Never, not once. I still didn’t, actually, because Dearica didn’t file any. She didn’t file with the players’ union, she didn’t file with the WNBA. Those are facts.”

You want to talk about facts? Let’s talk about facts.

Hammon claims the bullying “didn’t happen,” yet, somehow, after a months-long investigation spearheaded by the WNBA itself, the league found enough wrongdoing by Hammon to suspend her for two games last season. That’s a fact. Hammon can’t tell us that she didn’t do anything wrong here when we know that to be true.

It’s not unreasonable to believe that it’s true, either. The WNBA has been shaky in the past when handling player pregnancies. All we have to do is look back on how the Mercury treated Skylar Diggins-Smith during her pregnancy last season. It sounds pretty similar.

That might surprise you, but it shouldn’t. The WNBA might be a highly visible league, but we’re still dealing with simple workplace dynamics here.

On one end, you’ve got a coach in Hammon who makes $1 million per year and led her team to a championship (with Hamby included!) in her first season as a head coach. On the other, you’ve got a player who doesn’t even make a quarter of what her coach makes and wasn’t the best talent on the roster.

Given those facts — since, again, Becky says we’re talking about facts — whose side do you think the Aces chose? Whose side do you think the WNBA chose? It’s easy math.

You can’t help but feel like Hammon just put her foot in her mouth. What she’s telling saying is so easy to pick apart.

At best, what she’s doing here is downright irresponsible. There’s a reason folks don’t talk about pending litigation. What she says here will be used in court, and when the parties go into discovery, I’d bet this moment will somehow look worse than it does today. It might even lead to the end of her tenure in Vegas.

At worst, this is sinister and downright ghoulish. Hammon is gaslighting Dearica by telling her that what she had to endure was somehow “over the top care” from her former head coach.

And that, folks, is precisely what workplace bullying looks like. We’ll see how this plays out in court.

Bo Nix … Is that you?

Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

If you asked people who they thought was the best bet out there to win Offensive Rookie of the Year in the NFL this season, you’d probably hear a lot of Caleb Williams. Maybe Jayden Daniels or Drake Maye. Maybe even Rome Odunze or Marvin Harrison Jr.

You probably wouldn’t hear much about Bo Nix, but the guy has looked solid so far in a couple of preseason games for Sean Payton and the Broncos.

Prince Grimes says Nix is the hottest bet for OROY today. He makes some sense of it here:

“To start, the Denver Broncos rookie almost certainly locked up the team’s starting job with his preseason play, which already gives him an edge over at least two and maybe three of his classmates who won’t see the field. J.J. McCarthy was ruled out for the season after knee surgery. Michael Penix Jr. (+6600) is stuck behind Kirk Cousins for the foreseeable future. And Drake Maye (+3500) is backing up Jacoby Brissett for the time being.

That leaves Caleb Williams (+140) and Jayden Daniels (+500) as the most immediate competition at QB, and both have much shorter odds than Nix at +1200.”

This is impressive stuff from Bo Nix — especially considering how little time he’s had in Denver. That starting spot is up for grabs and he seems to want it.

Am I impressed because my expectations were at 0? Maybe. But who cares! I’m still impressed, nonetheless.

Do the Soto Shuffle

It’s hard not to get excited when you see Juan Soto come up to bat. Not only do you know there’s a solid chance you’re about to see something special, but you also know the Soto Shuffle is coming.

I get just as excited as these kids do every time I see it.

I hate that he’s doing this for the Yankees these days, but this still gets me just as hype as ever.

Soto Shuffle, forever.

READ MORE: These little leaguers imitating the Soto Shuffle is everything

Quick hits: Your first fantasy football pick … It’ll be OK, Vikings fans … and more

— Here’s Charles Curtis with more on who you should use your first pick on in fantasy football this year.

— The Vikings will have a rough season, but Christian D’Andrea has more on why that’s OK.

— This technical on Caitlin Clark was so silly. Here’s Robert Zeglinski with more.

— Lamar Jackson is somehow a sleeper to win MVP again. Here’s Prince Grimes with more.

— Christie Sides and Noelle Quinn getting into it was not on my bingo card. Here’s Meg Hall with more.

— Tyreek Hill doesn’t really want to race Noah Lyles. Let’s be serious.

Thanks for reading, gang. Appreciate you. Let’s do this again tomorrow. Talk soon. Peace.

-Sykes ✌️

Tony Romo praising Tom Brady joining NFL announcing is like a dinosaur hyping up comets

Tony Romo doesn’t seem to realize he’s staring a comet right in the face.

I don’t know where Tony Romo got the idea that he’s this respected NFL announcing ambassador, but he needs to stop. Immediately. No one in their right mind is looking at CBS’s lead color commentator as this shining beacon of broadcasting light in 2024. These days, I’d venture to guess that very few view him as a leading example to follow.

In fact, from talking over Super Bowl-winning touchdowns to aimless live rambling that is often barely coherent, most pro football fans now probably (and rightfully) think the exact opposite of Romo in the booth.

Yet, here he is, opining about the legendary Tom Brady taking over as Fox’s top color analyst this fall. A morsel of self-awareness, please!

If you listen closely to the way Romo talks about Brady in a recent interview on CBS Mornings, you’d almost get the sense he doesn’t think the 7-time Super Bowl champion quarterback could supplant him as the most beloved modern NFL broadcaster.

It’s Romo’s not paying much of any attention to Brady’s debut and likely announcing ascendance.

More from CBS Mornings:

“We all know Tom [Brady] well,” Romo said. “You gotta remember, Jim’s [Nantz] done the most Tom Brady football of anyone (in broadcasting) — literally over 100 games. I think it’s great. I think it’s great for the industry that people want to go into this position and these roles. I think you find that the NFL has that grab. This [quarterbacks becoming announcers] was not always that, but Troy Aikman, I felt like really started this.

“Now, it’s part of possibly an arc in your career. But Tom’s gonna do great. He’s working as hard as anybody.”

I understand Romo is trying to be classy here. I know he’s making a point about quarterbacks becoming more comfortable talking to fans every Sunday. That is a welcome development! And I know this is him mostly being magnanimous toward a future “competitor” like Brady. The nature of NFL broadcasting on CBS (which focuses on AFC matchups) and Fox (which centers on NFC duels) doesn’t really make Brady a rival to Romo, even if their networks are fighting over the same afternoon time slots on Sundays. The generally equal conference split makes this more of an apples-and-oranges comparison than we’d like to admit.

At the same time, Romo does understand he’s lost his mantel as The Guy Who Correctly Predicts Plays Before They Happen, right? Surely, he knows that his work announcing games has become rote at best and grating at worst? Right?

Someone like Brady might not technically be a competitor, but that’s definitely not how NFL fans will view this dynamic in the long run. Everyone reading this is old enough to remember the direct Greg Olsen comparisons. It’ll be the same line of thinking for Brady.

If Brady’s awesome at the job for Fox — unfortunately, as much as it pains me to admit out loud in public, he probably will be — then he will be propped up by the football media landscape more than Romo ever was. It won’t be close. Because of Brady’s well-established, built-in playing resume, he can be so good at announcing that he might almost make the days of Romo offering insightful, worthwhile analysis seem like they never happened. And to be candid, that feels so long ago that I’m not sure it happened anymore myself.

Romo talking about how Brady working for Fox is excellent for the broadcast industry is him missing the mark on his own place in football. For cinephiles, it’s like Blockbuster praising Netflix for how it will revolutionize the DVD market. For you work-from-home 9-5ers, it’s like Skype giving Zoom some public shine for jumping into the video call space. For you history buffs out there,  it’s like Napoleon Bonaparte telling British naval commander Horatio Nelson, “good job” for hamstringing his navy.

You get the idea.

Kudos to Romo for giving Brady some advice and helping him ease into a new, demanding job. I’m certain not many other people would’ve been nearly as kind in his position, and that’s the point.

Should the Lakers consider Moses Brown for a roster spot?

Could the Lakers have part of their solution to their center problems on their summer league roster?

The Los Angeles Lakers’ summer league stint is now complete, and while they got off to a poor start, they finished by winning three games in a row. Along the way, a few of their bigger names started to prove they have real potential.

Bronny James, the son of LeBron James, shot badly in his first four games. But he went 10-of-21 from the field and 3-of-8 from 3-point range in his last two games to go along with the excellent defense he has shown at times. Dalton Knecht, the No. 17 pick in last month’s draft, has some dry spells, but he displayed the ability to consistently hit from the perimeter, both off the dribble and in catch-and-shoot situations.

But another bright spot that some fans may have overlooked is Moses Brown. The 7-foot-2, 260-pound center who played one season of college basketball at the University of California, Los Angeles was recently added by L.A. to its summer league roster, and he has looked impressive at times.

While not a real scoring threat, Brown gives 100% while boxing out for rebounds, and he does a good job of throwing his weight around while boxing out. He has also occasionally blocked shots, and his ability to snatch offensive rebounds and establish deep post-up position has also allowed him to get some easy baskets.

Brown has the last five seasons in the NBA and the G League after going undrafted in 2019. While he has rarely gotten more than spot duty, he’s just 24 years of age, so perhaps he still has some potential as a backup center.

A backup center who defends, rebounds and throws his weight around is one of the Lakers’ biggest weaknesses right now. Perhaps Brown isn’t the complete answer to that deficiency, but perhaps he could help in that regard for about 10-15 minutes a game.

The Lakers seem to be prioritizing player development as an organization right now. Brown has some work to do in terms of positional defense, but if he has the work ethic, desire and will to improve, they could possibly help him improve as a player.

It seems they have been wanting to get younger over the last couple of players. Why not invite Brown to training camp and see if he has what it takes to help plug their hole at the center spot?

Should Anthony Davis start over Joel Embiid for Team USA?

Perhaps it is time for Team USA to move Lakers superstar big man Anthony Davis into its starting five.

Team USA basketball seems sufficiently stocked to make a run at an Olympic gold medal this summer after it failed to even win a bronze medal in last summer’s FIBA World Cup. It didn’t exactly have its best roster last summer, but now, it has a star-studded one that some feel rivals the 2008 “Redeem Team” or even the 1992 Dream Team.

LeBron James and Anthony Davis are two big reasons the United States should have a great chance at bringing home the gold just weeks from now. The Los Angeles Lakers superstar duo has looked excellent in two exhibition games so far, and the squad as a whole seems to be inching toward being ready for real competition.

In Monday’s win over Australia, Davis had 17 points, 14 rebounds and two blocked shots, leading Team USA in all three categories. He looked a lot like the Davis that has often been dominant for the Lakers, especially this past season when he put together arguably the best season of his life.

As of now, Davis is coming off the bench for head coach Steve Kerr. Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers is the team’s starter at the 5, but his numbers — 10 points and five rebounds — paled in comparison to Davis’ production.

There is a feeling among fans that Davis should be starting instead of Embiid. There is an argument to be made against making that move, as Davis is 31 years of age and is starting to pile up the mileage. In past years, he has been notoriously injury-prone.

But Embiid is barely younger (he’s 30 years of age) and has a history of knee problems. Perhaps he’s the one who needs to exercise load management more than Davis does.

If Davis does get the starting job once Team USA begins official Olympic competition on July 28, it could perhaps help him get into fantastic shape for the upcoming NBA season. That could perhaps lead to him having another amazing season for a Lakers team that is looking for some way to return to championship contention.

Winning the gold won’t be easy for the United States, and it isn’t exactly a given it will emerge victorious in Paris. Perhaps that is the biggest reason Davis should be moved into the starting lineup, as the rest of the world has definitely caught up to Team USA.

Why Arlington Heights might be the best choice for new Bears stadium

The Bears are looking for a solution to their stadium crisis. Here’s why Arlington Heights might be the best option.

The search for a site for a new Chicago Bears stadium continues, and it sounds like Arlington Heights is back to be being a possibility.

This is a discourse that has been going on for a long time. Are the Bears going to stay in Chicago to play on the lakefront just south of Soldier Field or are they going to head east to the suburbs?

The best option for the Bears is to move to Arlington Heights with a brand-new stadium. If they do that, the overall fan experience would be much better and the business opportunity will be incredible.

Both a lakefront and suburban stadium would allow the Bears to host other huge events — including Final Fours, concerts and even a Super Bowl, which would be quite profitable.

While Arlington Heights is an hour outside of Chicago, a suburban stadium site would provide a more fan-friendly experience than downtown on the lakefront, where recent stadium renderings failed to account for parking. Not to mention, the downtown traffic makes the game-day experience inconvenient on most occasions.

Moving to Arlington Heights could cure these problems if the Bears do it the right way. It seems as if president/CEO Kevin Warren is the kind of guy to do it the right way if he’s going to pursue it, but it remains to be seen if that’s the case. With a nice stadium and good vibes, the Bears may even start playing some good football to go with it.

NBC will use A.I. Al Michaels for Olympic recaps and the video example is, as he said, ‘frightening’

Al Michaels is still alive! What is NBC doing?

Have you ever wondered what the “Miracle on Ice” would’ve felt like with the cheap, wooden imitation of a legendary broadcaster? What if a soulless automaton had been on the call for Malcolm Butler’s stunning goal-line interception in Super Bowl 49?

No? Really? Clearly, you don’t want to embrace the glorious future.

Well, too bad because NBC is bringing light, depressing dystopia to your sports anyway!

In next month’s Summer Olympics, the colorful peacock network plans to have Al Michaels recap each day’s most important events. Oh, I’m sorry. That’s misleading. It won’t be the Al Michaels we all know and love from decades of calling some of the most famous moments in sports history. It’ll be an A.I. version of him trained to his voice to make it sound like one of the most iconic American broadcasters ever is blasting right into your living room or headphones.

The preview of Fake Al Michaels — who, mind you, is still very much alive at age 79 and could’ve easily done these personalized recaps himself — is as saddening as it sounds:

Personally, I love having a de facto sports Siri that sounds like it was prerecorded without any emotion or authenticity. Again, I remind you all that we live in the future.

You just can’t put a lid on human beings’ ambition!

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Michaels revealed that he gave NBC his blessing to use his voice in these A.I. Olympics recaps. While his concerns were alleviated, he still didn’t sound too enthused — and understandably so.

More from Vanity Fair:

Michaels was “very skeptical” of the proposal—until he heard the A.I. for himself. “Frankly, it was astonishing. It was amazing,” he told me in a phone interview last weekend. “And it was a little bit frightening.” Michaels was left in awe of the nuance—the way it captured his intonations and verbal subtleties. “It was not only close, it was almost 2 percent off perfect,” he said. “I’m thinking, Whoa.”

I understand Michaels’ fears. Any time a broadcast company decides to use a voice you might find in a video game like Madden, it can make a person’s stomach queasy.

Still, that’s not the main takeaway I have from this whole fiasco.

It’s dispiriting that NBC is content to imitate one of the biggest sports voices it has ever had, especially since he is still alive and kicking. Michaels does a pro football game every week on a streaming service during the NFL season. He couldn’t have come back to NBC to record a few lines for a worldwide sports event? I find that hard to believe.

It’s troublesome that these kinds of decisions might soon define our sports-watching and sports-consuming future, which is only a microcosm of a greater collective. When the human element is even excised from the broadcast booth — the one place where a fan should always reasonably expect dependability and energy — then nothing is off limits.

Most of all, watching companies like NBC willingly hop into bed with these sorts of services without even a second thought is infuriating. And it doesn’t matter why they have decided to do so, either. Be it to cut costs or to invest in a hollow foundation devoid of any real exciting spark, it all comes from the same place of desperation and motivation. It’s all borne of the same brand of business cowardice to “get ahead or get left behind” without ever thinking about potential long-term consequences.

Having A.I. Al Michaels recap the Olympics is a sign of overzealousness, of NBC trying to jump onto a fad no one on the outside looking in wants a part of. I sure hope this doesn’t balloon into something much more expansive down the line. Otherwise, I’ll likely soon be inclined to agree with Michaels’ initial thoughts about his fear.

Do you believe in miracles? Well, this wouldn’t qualify.

Lakers trading for Trae Young would be Russell Westbrook part two

If the Lakers traded for Hawks star Trae Young, it would likely be a repeat of the disaster that was Russell Westbrook’s tenure with them.

Draft day 2024 in the NBA, or at least the first day of the draft, is finally here, and it could be a pivotal day for the Los Angeles Lakers. They will be able to offer up to three first-round draft picks in a potential trade in order to try to land a star or borderline star player.

Several possible targets have been mentioned, and one of the biggest names mentioned has been Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks. He has made the All-Star team three times in his six seasons and has career averages of 25.5 points and 9.5 assists a game.

That would make it seem on the surface that Young, who is only 25 years of age, would be an ideal third star to place alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis. Those numbers would make it seem like he could also take Los Angeles into the post-James era and ensure a smoother transition toward whatever would come next.

But a slightly closer look tells a different story.

Yes, Young is a legitimate scoring threat who drops dimes as regularly as a leaking Coinstar machine. Yes, he’s a pretty good 3-point shooter, at least for stretches. But overall, he shoots a low percentage from the field, has questionable shot selection, is a questionable decision-maker, turns the ball over a lot and is viewed as a defensive liability.

Sound familiar?

In 2021, the Lakers failed to defend their NBA championship and lost in the first round of the playoffs. Thus, they looked to reload in a big way. They had interest in veteran playmaking wing DeMar DeRozan and sharpshooter Buddy Hield, but they swung a trade for Russell Westbrook instead.

For whatever reason, Westbrook failed to fit in. He had some good moments, but his shot selection and decision-making drew the ire of Lakers fans, as did his defensive deficiencies and poor outside shooting. He also couldn’t find a way to be productive without the basketball.

He quickly became a scapegoat for all that went wrong for the Lakers during the 2021-22 season. Some of it was hyperbolic, but everyone quickly realized that trading for him was a big mistake.

Even worse, the Lakers gave up a lot in that trade to get Westbrook — they jettisoned guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and forward Kyle Kuzma, two key contributors on their 2020 title-winning team. They also parted ways with forward Montrezl Harrell, the 2019-20 Sixth Man of the Year, as well as guard Isaiah Jackson, whom they took with the No. 22 pick in the 2021 draft.

Many have felt that in doing so, L.A. essentially dismantled a championship team and wasted perfectly good assets. The entire city seemed to rejoice when Westbrook, an L.A.-area native, was finally dealt last February for D’Angelo Russell, Jarred Vanderbilt and Malik Beasley. After that deal, the team instantly went from mediocrity to a Western Conference finals appearance.

Young will make $43 million next season (Westbrook made $44.2 million during the 2021-22 campaign), so acquiring him would be extremely expensive for the Purple and Gold, just as acquiring Westbrook was. The team would have to give up multiple good and useful players, as well as plenty of draft capital, and perhaps they would end up giving up more than they did to get Westbrook in 2021.

It would take them all that to get a player who has shot just 43.6% from the field and averaged 4.2 turnovers a game for his career. Oh, and the Hawks’ defensive rating was 3.8 points better without Young than it was with him this season.

If the Lakers end up trading for Young, it would likely torpedo whatever may be remaining of the James era in L.A. It would also handicap their efforts to rebuild and retool once he leaves.

Memo to the Lakers: Don’t do it. Please, just don’t do it.