Two days ago, I was eating quite a nice lasagne. I didn't make it myself, because I'm not smart nor talented enough, but I'd bought it, and it was going down rather well. It needed a dollop of Lea & Perrins sauce, maybe, and perhaps some bits of courgette (one of the most underrated vegetables of our time), yet all in all I was having an enjoyable experience, eating my Italian food and watching some British TV.
Then, something happened that has never happened before; Luol Deng appeared on my telly.
This might not seem like big news. Luol Deng is the best basketball player Britain has ever produced, so it shouldn't be a surprise that he appears on BBC News from time to time. But it was. And the reason it was a surprise is because it has never happened before.
Basketball in Britain is so fledgling that even the term 'fledgling' sells it short. The standard of the British Basketball League is so far below its European peers that almost any Division 1 NCAA player could get a starting spot there. Worse still, it damn nearly went bankrupt at the turn of the century, which isn't something top tier leagues should be doing. While the sport is played in many schools these days, it's not played in all of them; we didn't play it in mine, for example, and as a result I've never played a game of basketball. To say that basketball trails behind many other sports in this country is an understatement on a par with calling the Vietnam conflict 'feisty;' it just doesn't do it justice.
(The local council did eventually install a hoop in our village after much petitioning, but when I say they "installed a hoop," I really mean that they put a pole in a muddy field, nailed a hoop to the top, and didn't bother measuring its height off the ground or removing the big empty shed right next to it, meaning you could shoot from straight on only. Try as we might, shooting free throws with a muddy ball at a 13 foot rim, unable to take a dribble for fear of the spectacular carom that awaited or of running into a shed, was never all that much fun. I think I shot 6-145 lifetime. Bad times.)
Things are changing, though. Slowly but surely, we're starting to get there. The domestic league is still really awful, but Britain (and England in particular) are starting to place some good big men prospects abroad. Joel Freeland was a first round draft pick of the Blazers back in 2006, who is slowly making a name for himself in the powerhouse Spanish ACB. Another Blazers draft pick, Dante Cunningham, has also worked out for the British team, although he doesn't have the pre-requisite passport yet. Former Hornets forward Sean Banks is also eligible for a British passport, and supposedly in the process of getting one. And other British big man prospects that you may have heard of include Dan Clark (Estudiantes Madrid, ACB), Randall Hanke (Providence), Eric Boateng (Arizona State University) and Matthew Bryan-Amaning (University of Washington).
There's some established talent out there, too. Former NBA big man Robert Archibald is also playing in the ACB to a high level, even if he is Scottish. Warriors guard Kelenna Azubuike was born in London, making him ethically one of ours, even though his passport application was turned down. Former NBA draft pick Andy Betts - a man able to make the CV boosting claim that he was once traded for Peja Stojakovic - is still plying his trade in the Greek first division. Raptors forward Pops Mensah- Bonsu is a stalwart of the national team, and has finally found the NBA employment that he should have had for the last few years. Michael Olowokandi has a British passport (although we don't want him), as has Steve Nash (whom we sadly can't have). And the dangerously overpaid traitor Ben Gordon has a British passport, even if he's not done anything with it yet.
We've finally moved beyond John Amaechi.
Luol Deng is a big, big part of this. Singlehandedly, he makes the team unfathomably better. When Britain won the rights to host the 2012 Olympics, the British national team was so bad that we wouldn't even have been allowed to a team in our home games, because they would be too uncompetitive. European national teams are graded by Division, and only Division A teams are eligible for Olympic play; at the time, Britain was in Division B, alongside such illustrious competition as Luxembourg, Montenegro and Romania. Yeehaw. To qualify for Division A, Britain had to finish either 1st or 2nd in the 2007 Eurobasket Division B tournament, something that they've never done before.
However, led by Luol Deng, they did. Comfortably.
That wasn't enough, though. Now in Division A, Britain still had to come through their qualifying group to win a place at the 2009 Eurobasket Division A tournament, where they would compete alongside powerhouses such as Spain, Russia and Greece. Only by qualifying for Eurobasket would Britain be deemed good enough to field a team at their own Olympics. And qualifying would not be easy; they had to come through a group that also featured Israel, the Czech Republic and Bosnia.
However, led by Luol Deng, they did. Comfortably.
This story isn't a Hoosiers quality tale of adversity, or even Coach Carter quality, but it's still pretty good. Only two short years ago, Britain's basketball team ranked alongside Oman, Micronesia and the moons of Saturn as basketball powerhouses; now, they're going up against the world's best at the highest levels of international competition. That's why Luol Deng was being interviewed by BBC News; being by far the best player, and the reason for the dramatic turnaround, Deng is now a basketball icon in this country. No, correction; he's THE basketball icon in this country. And even in a sport that has roughly equal footing with lawn bowls and curling, that's no mean feat.
Of course, it's all going to come crashing down when Britain lose. As Doug has covered, Deng won't be playing for GB in the Eurobasket tournament due to his stress fracture, and that makes their chances about as realistic as trying to stop a train with a fishing rod. As a Bulls fan, that's good news, but as a British basketball fan, it's devastating.
However, that's when it hit me. After seeing Deng on the evening news, I was reminded of something; I am both of those. And that makes it very tough for me to be objective about Luol Deng.
So, screw it, I won't be.
The last two years of the Luol Deng experience have been awkward and painful. From being one of the best young forwards in the game, and erroneously considered to be unavailable in trades for Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant, Deng has become one of the worst contracts in the NBA. Even with the incentives in his contract considered to be "unlikely," Deng is owed $61,675,000 over the next five seasons, all of which is guaranteed. That's more than his peers like Danny Granger or Marvin Williams, and more even than notoriously bad contracts such as Kenyon Martin or Baron Davis. In fact, only nine basketball players in the world have more guaranteed future salary than Luol Deng; Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Emeka Okafor, Elton Brand, Andre Iguodala, Brandon Roy, Tim Duncan, Gilbert Arenas and Rashard Lewis.
And we're paying all that for a guy who just averaged 14/6 for half a season. Nice.
But let's not deal in the negatives. Not here. Not now. We've had months and months in which to do that. For a change, let's be positive. Let's remind of ourselves of the asset that this player can be, of what he can bring in to the team. Let's remind ourselves that it was only 2 short years ago that Luol Deng averaged 26 points per game in a first round sweep of the defending NBA champions, aged only 21.
That player was great. That player deserved plaudits. That player was an adept and versatile defensive player, a solid rebounder and an efficient scorer, a good all around talent, a fringe all-star, and one of the best young players in the NBA. Sure, that player disappeared in fourth quarters, couldn't post up without a five second violation being called, wouldn't draw a foul shot and didn't have three point range, but that player was still fine. This is the player we paid.
It's gone wrong since then, and you don't need me to tell you how. Deng's performance has dropped off the charts; not only has he not improved his weaknesses, but he's also lost his strengths. Between the ages of 21 and 23, he's gone only backwards, not forwards, which can never be considered a good thing. And he's also battled injuries in that time, from his back to his stress fracture that has taken many months to heal.
But it's still in there, somewhere. It can't NOT be in there somewhere. You don't lose the talent that he had. Not at age 23.
This isn't just a mid range jumpshooter than we're talking about here. Deng can play. We haven't paid $72 million for a glorified version of Eddie Robinson without the paisley. We may have paid a third option to be a second option, something which is harder to cope with considering the Bulls constant mismanagement of their salary cap, but that's OK; third options are, to a man, very fine players. (Except Al Thornton. He sucks.)
Things don't look good for him right now. His contract is so big that, when combined with his poor performance last year, it makes him pretty much untradeable, most certainly undesirable. Furthermore, in John Salmons and James Johnson, the Bulls have acquired in-house options at Deng's position that make him highly expendable, were a nice deal ever to avail itself. And after losing Ben Gordon and acquiring Salmons and Derrick Rose, Deng's offensive skillset isn't nearly of as snug of a fit as it was with the Hinrich/Gordon backcourt.
But if we want to, we can make all that secondary. We can instead welcome the return to full fitness of a one time near-all star, of a highly productive 23 year old forward, of adding a high quality player to an improved playoff team. We can view Deng's return not as burdensome, but as a much welcome infusion of quality to a mediocre team, and we can potentially look forward to a return to his best, back when he was a hotter commodity than cigarettes in Sing Sing. We can view it all like this, if we want to.
Failing that, the only way is up.
Awesome piece. I've been a huge Deng supporter all along, and took crap for it last year.
I think VDN was a big reason why his numbers were so bad last season. The guy should bounce back, if used properly.
There is no doubt that Deng's contract looks bad right now, but I feel it's too soon to join the ding dong Deng is dead set. There's a pretty high chance he'll be a productive player for years to come--maybe not as productive as the level of his contract, but useful and beneficial nevertheless.
...trying to stop a train with a fishing rod
I know, this article is about Luol. I too hope he bounces back.
But as for trying to stop a train with a fishing rod...that sounds like the Chicago Bulls trying to use VDN as a stop gap to finding an accomplished coach.
Vinnie has as much to prove this season as his young players.
Yes, but the real nagging question is whether he is really healthy. This seems to have been a nagging injury, slow recovery, no surgery, mumbling about improvement but there is that nagging feeling that five weeks into the season he will be out contemplating what course to take, how devastating it is...
Deng has proven to be fragile! Even if he gets healthly that doesn't mean that he will be productive again.
Gordon's ability to score took a lot of heat off his team mates. Now we will see if any of the Bulls can pick the scoring slack.
Counting on Deng is a mistake based on his injury history.
Signing Deng to the big contract is just another fopaw by Paxson.
Maybe Johnson and Salmon will make a big difference.