Did you hear? Did you hear?
Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy called Dwyane Wade a "cheater"!
Well, not exactly. At all. But somehow what Dunleavy said about Wade to someone a thousand miles away traveled through cyberspace and wound up on Sun-Sentinel baskethack Ira Winderman's keyboard as "cheater," with the quote marks and all.
It says it all in the headline over Winderman's story, which is now prominently (and irresponsibly) displayed on the newspaper's website: "Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy implies Dwyane Wade is a cheater."
When I saw that I was like, "Oh no he dih-ent," and was ready to break bad all over Dunleavy. But then I read the story.
Implies, eh? Sure about that Winderbust? Here's what Dunleavy said about Wade and his penchant to carry the ball: "His ability to carry the ball right now, he's getting away with that. He [carries] left to right, right to left, but he just does it fast so nobody sees it, I guess."
Then the coach compared Wade to one of the world's greats, Bernard King, who was known to have held onto a basketball a time or two while he was making his classic moves.
But let's get this clear, Windermass. Dunleavy isn't saying Wade is cheating. He's saying officials aren't calling his carries. Too different things entirely. You aren't cheating when you aren't hiding anything or, in fact, when the whole world, including the officials and a DVR-armed television populace, are watching every move you make. It's a subjective, abstract call.
As Spoelstra said, Dunleavy can have his opinion. I don't agree with him and I think it's real ticky-tack nonsense, but it's no big deal. He's trying to get a competitive edge on the best player in the league. People used to say that Jordan walked more than was called. And he probably did. Does that make him a cheater? Hell no. It means he was good enough to get away with it.
If anybody's cheating here, it's Winderbag himself. Well, he's misrepresenting the truth to get a sensational headline that made me click onto his story, which is a kind of cheating. Cheated me out of my time anyway. And I'm calling the foul on this one.
