After starting out with such promise , JJ Redick has become the latest sports talking head to lend his voice to the chorus of cacophony that revels showing complete impertinence for previous eras of NBA basketball.
Nearly a year ago Redick;s opening salvo of the greats and eras of yesteryear , when he took a shot at Celtics legend and Hall of Fame player Bob Cousy, saying he could not dribble with his left hand and that he (Cousy) ” was being guarded by plumbers and firefighters.”
Cousy, 93, responded saying this:
“People with less talent will always try to make a name for themselves by criticizing other people and hopefully getting some attention and perhaps increasing their credibility,” Cousy said.
“So when you respond to something like this, you play into their hands. I won’t do that, but I will defend the firemen and the plumbers that he referenced. And I’ll just give you a few of the names of these firemen that I played with and against during those years. How about Bill Russell, the aforementioned, not too bad a player. Wilt Chamberlain, remember that guy? He wasn’t bad. I guess he must have fought fires as well. But in any event, Wilt Chamberlain.”
Redick’s latest foray into the land of vapid takes centered on Larry Bird, who the player-turned-“analyst”, said was not one of the great three-point shooters of all-time
Former longtime Laker and integral piece to the “Showtime” Lakers Michael Cooper rightfully took exception to Redick’s remarks.
“J.J. Redick, who’s a journeyman, played for six different teams, all his accolades came in college,” Cooper said, as transcribed by NESN’s Lauren Willand. “He played 15 years in the NBA, was being shifted around from team to team because all he could do was shoot, and he wasn’t that great of a shooter. He was a poor man’s Danny Ainge.”
“J.J. Redick needs to be quiet, and stop trying to compare,” Cooper added..
Cooper also clarified his stance on Bird saying this:
Larry Bird was one of the greatest three-point shooters that ever played the game. F*** percentages, it ain’t about that. It’s about hitting big shots, things that [Redick] couldn’t do as a player without getting a pick set for him.
“People compare each generation. And I appreciate and love basketball,” Cooper continued. “I enjoy each decade. I have so much respect going all the way back to the ’60s and watching Bob Cousy.”
The same Bob Cousy, who according to Redick, was checked by “plumbers and firemen.”
Coop continued about Bird having this to say:
“You know what? I hate Larry Bird,” he admitted, “but I respect the hell out of that man because I went against him in all those championships and during the year, all we did [with] the Lakers was all about the Boston Celtics.”
Cooper was not done filleting Redick, offering up this final thoughts on the former Duke star and NBA veteran.
“That guy has no clue of how basketball was played in the ’80s,” he said. “I guarantee you this, J.J. Redick, if you had played in the ’80s — this is Michael Cooper talking — I’d have locked your a** up. You wouldn’t have gotten a shot off, you would’ve gotten nothing off. You would’ve spent more time on the bench than on the floor when I was on the floor. You couldn’t have played when I was on the court.”
Cooper was right in taking Redick to task. Basketball is the only sport where its media, and its fanbase, revel in and actively seek to tear down previous eras merely to prop up the current crop of players. More players from that era and competent people in the media, who have not been compromised, to rebuff these noxious school of thought, for it is not only deleterious to the past , but also to the present and to the future of the game of basketball.
