Seriously, do David Stern, Stu Jackson and the other NBA head honchos have nothing better to do? Are there not more pressing issues to concern themselves with than what a player has in his mouth while he is on the court? Apparently not, as the NBA handed down a ruling earlier this week, speaking directly with Caron Butler of the Dallas Mavericks, that players are not allowed to chew straws at anytime while on the hardwoods. It is, however, perfectly fine for Butler to continue his decade old habit of chewing on plastic straws while sitting on the bench.
NBA officials claim that straw chewing while running up and down the basketball court presents a potential safety hazard. in that respect, they're probably right, but as teammate Brendan Haywood explained, Butler has been gnawing on straws for years. "If he ain't choked by now, he ain't gonna choke, " Haywood quipped. Butler has been chewing on straws since 1998, when he switched from toothpicks. Now there's a real hazard to your health!
There are two things that baffle me when considering the NBA's recent ruling. First, why do grown men need to be told that having foreign objects in your mouth while running and jumping and banging into one another is a bad idea? Is it really necessary to legislate common sense? And secondly, Butler has been chomping on straws since before he entered the NBA. The NBA, as well as the general public, was made fully aware of his affinity for the flavor and feel of the plastic tubes back in 2007 when The Washington Post published a story which covered his obsession in explicit detail. So why pick now, three years later, to make an issue out of this? One simple reason: because now Butler wears the blue and white of the Dallas Mavericks.
There has been no love lost between NBA brass and Dallas Mavericks' owner Mark Cuban over the past ten years, to put it mildly. Cuban and Commissioner David Stern have butted heads on more than one occasion, leading many people (fans and media alike) to speculate that Stern holds a grudge of sorts against Cuban, and by association, the Dallas Mavericks. Conspiracy theorists have even gone so far as to say that the 2006 Finals were fixed, giving NBA darling and rising superstar Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat the championship that rightly belonged to Dallas, simply because Stern couldn't bear the thought of handing the trophy over to Mark Cuban. I don't know if NBA executives have a vendetta against Cuban and/or his Mavericks or not, but when silly situations such as this arise, one really starts to wonder.
Why just pick on Caron Butler? What about LeBron James' pregame ritual of placing powder on his hands and then blowing the excess skyward in front of the scorers' table? Isn't flying powder dust a safety hazard to the fans and the scorekeepers as well? The NBA powers that be would be better served to spend more time focusing on real issues (allegations of officials fixing games, the superstar system that exists within the league, etc) rather than making mountains out of molehills -- or in this case, plastic straws.
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have you ever considered doing color commentary on a much larger scale? The true Mavs fans would certaily enjoy your lively fascinating poing to view. Great job!
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