The Miami Heat strolled into Golden 1 Center and unsurprisingly handed the Sacramento Kings another loss. What was surprising was Doug "Sour Grapes" Christie taking cheap shots at the Greek Freak on the way out. Perhaps Christie should get his house in order before criticizing anyone else.
Before getting into this, I think it's important we establish who is involved in this situation. First is Giannis, a forward with the Heat currently averaging a double-double this season. He's an NBA Champion, a two-time league MVP, a 10-time All-Star, a nine-time All-NBA team member, and a DPOY.
Then we have Christie, arguably the worst coach in the NBA right now. A former player with the Kings, he was a nostalgia hire by Vivek Ranadive who has coached his team to a one and nine start this season. His most recent loss was to Antetokounmpo and the Heat in Sacramento.
Talkers talk while players play
Recently, Giannis' former head coach, Doc Rivers, made some ludicrous comments about Antetokounmpo, including shots at his intelligence. Coming from a coach like Rivers, his "hot takes" were laughable at best. His failures with the Bucks as head coach belong to him, not Giannis.
Honestly, the only thing that could make it worse would be someone like Christie chiming in, which he of course did. In his post-loss media time, Christie decided the smart thing to do would be take a cheap shot at one of the best players this league has ever produced.
"Giannis shooting a mid range contested shot, we’re living with that. Tonight, he knocked them down. I’ll watch him next game, he probably won’t."Doug Christie
This is a follow up on comments made by Rivers about Giannis' style of play, and the perceived flaws in it. Keep in mind that Rivers and Giannis won the NBA Cup together, so there was some success in that partnership. The real question is why Christie said anything, given the state of the Kings.
Christie needs to fix the Kings, not attack other teams and players
Sacramento is an absolute mess right now, due in no small part to the utter incompetence of Christie as head coach. At least Rivers was named Coach of the Year in 2000 and successfully rode Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, and Paul Pierce to a title in 2008. Christie will never accomplish any of that.
The Kings are ten games into this season, and have only managed to pick up one win. If they continue at that pace, they'll have eight wins by the end of the season. Taking shots at Antetokounmpo isn't going to fix any of that, particularly when the Greek Freak led the better team to victory.
All this does is make Christie look petty and small. If anyone still had respect for him as head coach of the Kings, that has to be done now. For Sacramento, the need to part ways with Christie has never been more clear. The longer he remains with this franchise, the less respect it will get by association.
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