Oh, look, it’s another old, crotchety NBA Hall of Famer criticizing a current player for doing something impressive. In this case, that “something” is LeBron James dropping a career-high 61 points Monday night, which left Atlanta Hawks legend Dominique Wilkins wildly unimpressed. Wilkins took to Twitter (officially his first Twitter rant, we think) to argue that LeBron’s accomplishment is diminished by the defensive effort of his opponent, the Charlotte Bobcats — an argument holds an ounce of weight in one sense, considering the Bobcats have surrendered two 60-point performances this season.
However, these Bobcats aren’t your Father’s Bobcats. Yeah, it’s easy to pick on them for the failure that has been almost their entire existence, but they’re decidedly less terrible this season. They’re allowing 101.6 points per 100 possessions, good enough for Top 10 in the NBA, and are primed to actually make the playoffs (sure, in the Eastern Conference, but it’s far better than where they’ve been the last couple seasons). You’d think someone who works for a team in the same division (Wilkins is a color analyst for the Hawks) might know something about an opponent he sees on a regular basis — an opponent that is locked in a battle with the Hawks for the last two playoff slots in the East. Guess not.
In addition, Nique goes into the typical “I played against Bird, MJ, King, etc.” argument, as if that somehow means it was tougher to score 60 points three decades ago (only 21 players in NBA history have done it, and is more or less a list of NBA greats, rather than a matter of what era the feat was accomplished). Then, he delivers another cliche, claiming he could “drop 40 on that D”, which is what every old man says about these young whippersnappers and their no defense-playing asses.
Still, we’ll agree with Nique that Al Jefferson’s 38 and 19 performance was completely overshadowed. Unfortunately, that’s what happens when the best player in the world scores 61 the same night on the same floor. Sorry, Al!
[Twitter]
