Does Ricky Really Care?
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
At Target Center, on March 13, with the clock running down in the first half, Ricky Davis of the Minnesota Timberwolves, acting in frustration after mishandling the ball against the Indiana Pacers, ripped off his headband and sent it flying across the court. The headband landed in the lap of a flabbergasted female fan sitting in the first row. Davis was charged with a technical foul, and the ensuing free throw conversion by Mike Dunleavy gave the Pacers a 42-33 lead.
Timberwolves coach Randy Wittman reacted to Davis’s juvenile behavior by limiting Ricky’s playing time in the second half to less than six minutes of action. In the critical fourth quarter, Davis was inserted for only 14 seconds of game action. He finished with 3 points, scoring on only one of 11 field goal attempts.
Coincidentally, the Timberwolves emerged from a 56-42 deficit in the third quarter and went on to defeat Indiana, 86-81, sharing the ball unselfishly on offense and using a potent zone defense with a lineup that consisted of Kevin Garnett, Craig Smith, Marko Jaric, Randy Foye, and Rashad McCants. Wittman saw to it that Davis was anchored to the bench.
Of course, this is the same Ricky Davis that, on March 16, 2003, while a member of the Cleveland Cavaliers, tossed the ball off the backboard of the wrong basket in an attempt to get his first career triple-double. DeShawn Stevenson of the opposing Utah Jazz reacted by shoving Davis to the floor, and Ricky went on to being the poster child for selfish players in the NBA.
After early unspectacular stints with Charlotte and Miami, Davis landed in Cleveland and quickly drew the attention of Kevin McHale, Minnesota’s vice president of basketball operations and recent Forbes Magazine honoree for shrewd sports management style. McHale offered Davis a six-year, $34-million deal in August of 2002, only to see the Cavaliers match it.
Undaunted, McHale fulfilled his obsession when he gave up Wally Szczerbiak and others to pry Davis away from the Boston Celtics, where Ricky had landed after Cleveland dumped him.
While in Boston, Davis told Shira Springer of the Boston Globe that he wasn’t upset that others there were not his biggest fans. “Michael Jordan wasn’t nice to his teammates. Shaq isn’t nice to his teammates. Kobe isn’t nice to his teammates.” Springer concluded that “all that apparently holds Davis back is his difficulty playing within a team structure.”
Years ago, former Purdue University great Joe Barry Carroll, after years of lackluster NBA play, earned the nickname “Joe Barely Cares.” After witnessing Davis’ recent play with the Wolves, one is tempted to mutter, “Ricky barely cares.” Coach Wittman apparently may be starting to recognize this, and with the Indiana game on the line, chose to relegate the huffy Davis to the bench. The lineup that won the game for Minnesota was hardly the tallest Wittman could muster (even with the 6-foot-10 Garnett, who has a tendency to “play small”), yet it was effective enough to rally to send the Pacers to their 10th straight defeat, a streak that started with a loss at Toronto on February 23.
Garnett led the Timberwolves with 30 points, followed by Foye with 16, McCants with 12, Jaric with 11, and Smith with 8. The Pacers were paced by former Iowa State star Jamaal Tinsley with 37 points.
It remains to be seen how frequently Wittman will use the Garnett-Foye-McCants-Jaric-Smith lineup in his quest for the eighth and last playoff spot in the NBA west. Right now, using any lineup that includes Ricky Davis appears to be unwise.