I love covering the NBA. It’s amazing sometimes how one comment or one second-hand report bounces around in the echo chamber and suddenly becomes a big story.
Take, for instance, Rod Thorn’s comment that Richard Jefferson “didn’t seem very happy” when the news broke about the trade that would send him to the Bucks. Keep in mind that Thorn hadn’t actually spoke to Jefferson when he made that comment. He had only spoke to Jefferson’s agent and tried to call and text Jefferson himself.
Suddenly, there were reports everywhere that Jefferson was upset with being traded to Milwaukee. Some people even wondered if he’d try to force a trade elsewhere.
There’s that echo chamber that I was talking about.
A few days later, the Bucks introduce Jefferson. He admitted he was at first upset (like any player would be) at being rejected by the Nets, but that he was looking at the trade optimistically. Specifically, he said he was excited about playing alongside Michael Redd because he felt that he could focus more on his defense.
But NorthJersey.com is reporting that one of the reasons that the Nets had to trade Jefferson was because of his jealousy of Vince Carter.
Another reason, sources within the organization said, was that change was needed. They said Jefferson was jealous of Vince Carter and became so fixated on making the All-Star team that he focused more on the offensive end – he averaged a career-best 22.6 points last season – and didn’t rebound or defend as hard as he did earlier in his career.
These “sources” completely contradict what Jefferson said in his introduction in Milwaukee.
“I understand every good team I’ve ever been on, we’ve had good defense,” Jefferson said. “Because of my role expanding and the amount of scoring I’ve been asked to do (with the Nets), it has gone down.
“It kind of takes a little bit of hit to your ego, when people are talking like you’re not as good defensively, because that’s something I take pride in. That’s probably going to be my focus now with a guy like Michael Redd. I don’t think there’s as much need for me to score 25 points a night. ‘Hey, if you can go and stop their best player and give us 18, 19 or 20,’ that’s where I’d like to be.”
It sounds to me like New Jersey is trying to cover its proverbial ass. They know that the popular opinion is that the Bucks got a much better end of the deal talent-wise. They traded away a borderline All-Star player for a prospect (Yi Jianlian) and the salary cap flexibility necessary to make a run at LeBron James in the summer of 2010. It didn’t hurt that Jefferson and James play the same position, either.
So “sources within the organization” manufacture some kind of “jealousy” to justify trading away arguably the team’s best player.
I don’t buy it.
