Two 76ers papas are not happy with the team’s rebuilding process
After a surprisingly successful road trip started off with a blistering 2-2 start, the Philadelphia 76ers fell back to earth over the weekend with a pair of losses to both Los Angeles teams.
[Follow Dunks Don’t Lie on Tumblr: The best slams from all of basketball]
During the last loss of the trip, to the Clipper version of the Los Angeles spectrum, the lowly Sixers were down 69-52 at the half.
It was during this time that Philly point man Kendall Marshall’s father Dennis, maybe, decided to call upon race as a factor for not only the one-sided nature of the team’s play, but his son’s benching.
Maybe. From Mark W. Sanchez the New York Post:
“How are you a ‘shooter’ and shooting 27% from three?” he wrote, as captured by a Reddit user. Marshall’s Twitter is private. “Can’t guard but play a lot. What do you think the reason is?”
He didn’t wait too long to unveil his reason.
“I always said there was racism in sports,” he tweeted. “White guys in basketball are getting every chance to succeed even when they aren’t doing s–t.”
Here’s a screenshot of his since-deleted tweets, again from the Post:
The “shooter” in question, likely, is Sixer guard Nik Stauskas. He is white, and this year he has stunk at shooting – the hybrid guard is at 30 percent from behind the arc and 35 percent overall.
Weirdly, Marshall’s son is the only player on the Philadelphia roster that even approaches 27 percent from three-point land, either looking up or down. He’s at 26 percent on the year, after missing four of five from deep against the Sixers. His father’s point was off even when looking at pre-game stats, as Stauskas’ 6-8 night from long range on Saturday (easily his best outing of the season) lifted his average up from 31 percent. Not 27 percent.
If that weren’t enough, Sixer rookie Jahlil Okafor’s father doesn’t appear to be much of a fan of The Process either. Via Rich Hofman at PhillyVoice.com:
First, the understandable bits.
Parents want to see their children play as much as possible. Especially, in Okafor’s case, in person. Jahlil worked only 17 minutes on Saturday, while Marshall (in just his ninth game back after returning from an ACL tear) saw the same 17 minutes in what turned out to be a 31-point loss.
Secondly? Dads need to cram it.
Brett Brown isn’t the reason the Sixers stink, he’s coached his tail off and is still determining what to do with a roster that, outside of Okafor, Nerlens Noel and possibly two others, is basically a D-League team. When you watch the 76ers, you wonder how this team got to 3-33 in the first place. The “3”-part, not the “33”-part.
He’s trying to extend the career of a young man in Okafor who is just a year and a half removed from high school and on the second night of a back to back and also on the last game of his first long cross-country road trip as a pro. Coach Brett Brown was absolutely doing the right thing in limiting Jahlil Okafor’s minutes in a game that the Sixers had no business competing in, much less winning.
Worse? Mr. Marshall.
Racism is prevalent in all aspects of our North American society and culture, including professional sports. Including, in a lot of ways, a pro basketball league that counts African-Americans as 75 percent of its players.
Sixers coach Brett Brown, even if Kendall Marshall was the guy hitting 6-8 from behind the line, was not showcasing a particular brand of sideline racism in playing Nik Stauskas (again, presuming this is whom Mr. Marshall was speaking of) over Kendall.
Both players have stunk this year. Stauskas is only on the team because general manager Sam Hinkie needed a warm body in return from getting a ridiculous amount of draft considerations from the Sacramento Kings in exchange for their right to chase down free agents that wanted nothing to do with them. He is a shooter, and little else, who does not make shots at this level. He most certainly is not this:
Marshall, meanwhile, was weirdly called out by Hinkie (not unkindly) as part of the reason why Philadelphia got off to that horrid 0-18 start. If Hinkie believed that a guy coming off of an ACL tear, one registering one of the worst turnover rates amongst active NBA guards (a rate that has somehow even increased this season), was going to help his squad stem the tide a bit, then he was at worst delusional, and at best transparently duplicitous with a recorder on the table.
Again, we’ve no idea if Mr. Marshall was directly referring to Nik Stauskas when he lobs charges of “racism” at the Sixers, but when one white guy subs in for Kendall Marshall … what is one left to think?
We think Kendall Marshall’s dad is a bit of a nutter. It’s completely understandable to be peeved, having watched your son work all the way back from an ACL tear to only play 17 minutes in a blowout. To lob charges of racism, even if only on a private Twitter account, is a bit much.
And it’s also a bit much for the kids, here. For Marshall and to a lesser extent Okafor, to have to deal with this while working on a team that has lost 33 of 36 games.
Speaking as one with two kids that play sports – c’mon, dads. Let’s get it together.
– – – – – – –
Kelly Dwyer is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @KDonhoops
