I'm so intrigued by the NBA's crackdown on whining (or, as the NBA says, "showing up the refs"). Here's the question:
Which players are most likely to get nicked by the new emphasis?
Basically, what I'm asking is this:
Who are the biggest whiners in the NBA? About calls against them when they play D? No-calls against them when they are on offense? Other generic griping?
As I wrote earlier, LeBron James became one of the worst offenders over the course of last season. It is the biggest crack in his otherwise spotless facade of skills, talent and marketability:
He's a first-team All-Star Bitcher. Griper. Crier. Whiner. Whatever you want to call it, he's it. Waaaa!
We're all witness, all right: Witness to LeBron's unsightly whining about calls. (Funny: I didn't see "The Griper" among his LeBron "personas.")
So: Who else is on notice? Which other players are most likely to be T'ed up as the NBA cracks down on bitching and moaning about calls?
-- D.S.
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37 comments:
I always thought Jordan was a bit of a whiner, but two current NBA'ers are definitely Kobe and Duncan.
I LOVE Duncan. Plays the game right, and is a solid guy. But there are at least 10 times a year where I'll be watching the Spurs and I see the "Tim Duncan Exclamation Face" and he holds the ball, then slaps it, and rolls it off his finger tips to the ref.
And Kobe takes at least 50 shots a game, so I'm not sure that counts, seeings as he probably does get hit somewhere along the line of shooting and driving all the time.
SHAQ-Daddy.....he will complain about anything and everything.
Duncan is the biggest whiner, and the thing that urks me the most about his whining is that 98% of the calls go his way! When he does actually get a foul called on him he whines about it.
I call it the Tim Duncan "Who, Me?" face. With his arms streched out to the side with palms up.
Can we extend this to the college ranks?
I think if Coach K got a "T" everytime he whined about a call, he would get thrown out of every game.
i have a feeling that stern will arrange personal meetings with all these guys rather than have the refs teach them a lesson in public. it's just bad for the league if someone points out that duncan and shaq are seriously flawed. with lebron, it could be made a part of his wonderous coming-of-age narrative. it only shows how perfect he will one day become.
plus the officials are soooo imperfect; the players barely trust them, so why wouldn't they trust their own instincts over "objective" opinion?
Antoine...you're on notice, you whiny little bitch.
Kobe isn't as much of a whiner as people think. He truly gets fouled nine times out of ten as he goes to the basket.
The best/most underrated whiner in the league is Sam Cassell. He constantly will shoot the ref a look after a foul call. Lucky for him, they are afraid to look at his face for fear of being turned into stone.
Oh Duncan is clearly the worst. The guy thinks he gets fouled every other play in the game and then acts like a "lil bitch"
I like the idea of forcing the players to deal with a little maturity.
But if you can't whine, will Stephen Jackson fire off a couple of shots instead?
Yikes!
I agree on the Duncan face.....it's kinda funny to see him show some emotion every once in a while.
But without the regular contact involved in basketball, we'd be stuck with glorified "team handball". (Remember that sport every four years when it's on at 11 am during the Olympics?)
Steve Francis.
Cuttino Mobley. (Is he still in the league?)
When they were in Houston, they would bark at the refs and slap their shooting elbows after every shot. After. Every. Shot.
duncan is among the worst, kobe is up there, as well. among rookies, adam morrison was a notorious whiner in college (not talking about his crying, talking about his griping to refs), so we'll see how the nba officials like that.
Antoine Walker is the Michael Jordan of whining. Duncan and Bron can only hope to reach his legendary ranks.
Dwayne Wade.
(If he EVER got called for charging or travelling.)
Duncan may be the King of whining but the European King of whining is easily Pau Gasol. I lived in Memphis for several years and went to most all of the Grizz games and Pau is notorious for this. It's why he gets labeled soft (even by the Memphis fans). Watching Pau vs. Duncan in the playoffs 2 years ago was like the ultimate showdown of whining (actually all the Spurs would be on my All-NBA Whine Team).
There's a question: who would be on everybody's ALL-NBA Whine Team??
Vince Carter is the biggest whiner, no question.
Isiah Thomas was an all-timer. Johnny Most used to love to diatribe about it! (okay, not the most impartial of observers....)
Tyson Chandler whined all the time in Chicago - he'd hack guys every time they have the ball in paint, then act so surprised whenever he got whistled.
D Wade doesn't whine, he doesn't have to. He could punch you in the face and the foul would be called on you. "tweet...your face was in the way of D Wade's fist".
My Whine Team
G: Vince Carter
G: Tony Parker
F: Antoine Walker
F: LeBron James
C: Tim Duncan
i love my pistons, but aside from being "the best starting five in the nba" they would also be (if Ben didn't leave), the "best starting five of whiners" in the NBA. Rip Hamliton leads the way.
Rasheed Wallace has never committed a foul in his life - the refs have been wrong in every single case. At least that's the way he sees it.
I'm surprised it took until the scoop to bring up Rip. Man, he's a bitch.
The Pistons are pretty bad -- at least, Rip and Sheed. Let the Kobe-and-Duncan record play on, too.
But my Jazz had one of the starters of the All-Time All-Whining Team: Karl Malone. I love you, Karl, but I really wish you had just shut up and played.
My crusade here is still that making everyone stop whining at this point does nothing but make them accept shitty officiating. Make the officials call games CONSISTENTLY, and then nix the bitching.
Another thing is there are officials that go out of their way to bait players and coaches into complaining. These officials need to also be reprimanded.
It's a two-way street, and David Stern refuses to make the officials culpable for their poor performance. I can't even call them mistakes anymore, because some of them are so egregious.
The entire Pistons roster has never committed a foul (according to them). And I disagree with LeBron being a whiner. Compared to Wade, LeBron takes a much worse beating and gets a lot less calls.
I wonder how many Cavs games Shanoff actually watches, considering his dislike of the NBA? Maybe 2 or 3 a season (until the playoffs).
As much as everyone would like to complain about the officiating, until you officiate a basketball game, you never quite understand about how hard and quick it is. Try it out and then see how much you would like to complain about the calls.
I watched almost every Cavs game, and LeBron is SO MILD compared to so many others in the whining category. He may be #25 on the list.
Currently, it has to go to Rash-weed Wallace, but as far as Hall-of-Fame level of whiny-ness, John Starks of the Knicks. Talk about an all time piss and moaner, he always looked like he was on the verge of tears
Reggie Miller was a whining king, and he left that legacy with Jermaine O'Neal and Stephen Jackson.
freky j - I agree with you, you may have already seen this. I posted it in this morings AM Quickie comments:
Let me start off by saying that I have a strong dislike for all the whining that goes on in the NBA. Now, having said that, I don't believe that T-ing up players for whining will make the officiating better. Lets say an NBA player (doesn't matter who) coughs during a game. Since D Wade is in the gerneral vicinity a foul is called on the NBA player. The NBA player then says to the official "I only coughed" and he gets T-ed up. How is this fair? The point is that the calls are too inconsistant and this will be an issue until it doesn't matter what name is on the back of the jersey.
The fact is if some players get calls that others do not, it lends itself to be an opportunity to whine--but it's still fun to pick out the whinest players
Does this mean we don't get to see Tim Duncan have that same look on his face when a foul is called on him that 5 year-olds get when they think they're getting toys for Christmas and end up with socks.
brendan burke makes a good point. I've reffed high school games, and it's really hard even at that level. When the speed and physicality increases, that makes it even tougher.
But that doesn't excuse refs for giving star treatment. I hate how wild, out-of-control aggressive play is rewarded (see: D-Wade, last year's playoffs).
It's interesting to note that it's mostly star players (or guys who think they are star players) who are notorious whiners. It's because they've gotten used to the benefit of the doubt from refs.
Moderate the star treatment, players will get used to it, and whining will dissipate.
I can't believe nobody's mentioned Crymelo Anthony yet. Dude is a whiny bitch of the highest order.
Zach Randolph. He's cost the Blazers a lot on defense by not getting back after a bad call or no-call. Instead, he stands in the backcourt and argues or runs up slowly while arguing. It's embarrassing.
Jalen. Rose.
There is no doubt it's Cassell. He should be number one.
The state of the officiating in the NBA is at an all-time low for any major sport. The star treatement is ridiculous, travelling is hardly ever called on stars, and officials are becoming "characters" who have the egos to go with it. This will just assuage their overblown sense of self-worth by allowing them to T up people that do not agree with their totally incorrect calls. Fix the officiating first, then worry about the whining (which is a problem). I know it is hard to call a basketball game, but these guys are supposedly the best of the best, which I would vehemently disagree with.
Dirk Nowitzki is the biggest whiner. He whines if someone is whithin 5 feet of him on a shot.
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