While football fans in western New York are questioning the NFL's overtime format, this citizen of Illinois is questioning the NBA's flagrant foul protocol.
To wit, when a bench-riding substitute needlessly and capriciously injures a starter critical to his team's success, a one-game suspension just doesn't cut it. Yeah, talking about Grayson Allen's petulant foul of Alex Caruso as the latter was about to dunk.
Allen's initial reaction seemed to be surprise and concern, as he paused and then leaned over as if to check on Caruso. Whatever that body language might have indicated, footage of Allen smirking as he left the court revealed another, very different truth.
Many people (especially athletes) mask public embarrassment with defiance, and Allen certainly adopted that posture.
As a marginal NBA talent, his is an existence fraught with insecurity. Already with his third team in four seasons, this late first-round pick came into the league under a cloud. And this high-profile foul isn't going to do him any favors.
Basketball is not hockey.
On the other hand, fresh-off missing a dozen games because of a foot sprain and a COVID infection, Caruso now heads back to the injured list for six to eight weeks as he rehabs a broken wrist—the direct result of Allen's thuggery.
This while Allen sits out but a single game. Hardly seems fair, does it?
As it happens, Lonzo Ball (the Bulls PG), is disabled for a similar length of time by a knee injury. Zach LaVine just returned from missing five games (and all but three and-a-half minutes of a sixth) to, yep—a knee injury.
Acting PF Javonte Green (who himself is subbing for injured PF Patrick Williams, out for the season after injuring his wrist in game number-five) finally returned to action after sitting out a dozen games with a groin strain.
So it is ironic, then, that after the oft-injured Bulls of the GarPax era (Otto Porter, Jr., Lauri Markkanen, Thaddeus Young, Wendell Carter, Jr. and Denzel Valentine), these Bulls—despite the heightened profile—find themselves battling the same demons.
Which in turn provokes memories of the failed promise of the Tom Thibodeau-era and of Derrick Rose, Luol Deng, Joakim Noah and Carlos Boozer, forever hamstrung by their star guard's knees.
Is there a goat in the Bulls past? A curse? Is this payback for the (largely) injury-free dynasty of the nineties? Is Grayson Allen both goat and curse, further derailing a team that had instantly coalesced into a high-flying contender?
Ball and Caruso are the engines that drive the Bulls resounding transition game, and their absence has been a wrench in the works. And on a roster without a lot of bigs, options are few.
Will Billy Donovan and staff concoct a workaround? Discover an adjustment that compensates for a missing backcourt? Or are the Bulls destined to struggle through what remains of January, the entirety of February and that portion of March for which Ball and Caruso are unavailable?
On the plus side, even if their absences extend for the maximum eight-weeks, both should have a dozen games with which to play themselves into shape and re-establish the groove that made the Bulls the NBA's lead story earlier this season.
On the negative side, a rookie (Ayo Dosunmu) and a third-year guy (Coby White) will have been playing starter minutes with very little precedent—or support. Will they have hit the proverbial wall by then, robbing the Bulls of valuable bench play?
As a (presumably) lower seed by that point, will the Bulls be able to recapture their early-season mojo? Will they be able to defeat higher-ranked teams without the benefit of home court advantage?
And finally, should Grayson Allen be suspended for as long as Alex Caruso is on the IR? I'm thinking 'yes'. Absolutely, positively yes. Like the Buffalo Bills fans who watched their team lose a game no one deserved to lose, there's an acute sense of betrayal.
Of life not being fair.
I'd like to believe this is its most-painful lesson. Alas, probably not.
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