WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
If you think the Deshaun Watson verdict is bad, consider this
Aug 1, 2022, 4:36 pm
Deshaun Watson will be suspended for six games. Composite image by Brandon Strange.
Bench - Watson best case
Now that former federal judge Sue L. Robinson has handed down her long-awaited verdict - Deshaun Watson will be suspended for the first six games of the upcoming NFL season but will not be fined - the question facing Watson, the NFL and 24 women who filed lawsuits alleging sexual misconduct or sexual assault by Watson is ... where do we go from here?
The NFL has three days to accept Robinson's decision or push for a longer suspension and possible fine. The National Football League Players Association announced earlier that it would accept Robinson's decision whichever way it went and challenged the league to do the same, which it didn't. The league had long let it be known, or leaked, that it was hoping for Watson to be suspended indefinitely with an opportunity to apply for re-admission in one year. If the league appeals Robinson's ruling the ultimate decision will lie with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell or someone he designates to re-try the Watson case while acting as judge and jury.
If Goodell decides to let Judge Robinson's decision stand, Watson will be allowed to continue practicing with the Cleveland Browns and play in pre-season games. However, once the regular season starts, he will be prohibited from practicing with the team for three weeks, half of his suspension. He can start practicing in Week 4 in preparation for starting at quarterback for the Browns seventh game. While he will not be paid during his suspension, the ruling does not otherwise affect his fully guaranteed 5-year contract worth $230 million. The Browns, who expected Watson to be suspended without pay for some of this season, structured Watson's contract so he is paid only $1 million this year and $46 million each of the next four years.
I'm guessing that Goodell will not challenge Judge Robinson's decision. While Goodell is protective of The Shield's image, he also wants this whole Watson mess to go away. The quickest way for that to happen is to hold the league's nose, let Watson serve his suspension and get back on the field. It is in the NFL's interest to have one of its brightest young stars playing, not sitting. Goodell also must know that many will question the NFL's judgment for suspending Atlanta Falcons receiver Calvin Ridley for a full season without pay for placing legal bets on football games during a period when he was away from the team addressing mental health issues, while allowing Watson to escape relatively scot-free.
While the NFL strictly forbids players from betting on games, most fans probably have put a few bucks on a sporting event. Most fans however can't relate to hiring "at least" 66 masseuses, according to the New York Times, with 24 filing lawsuits alleging sexual misbehavior.
Watson has settled out of court with 23 of the 24 masseuses who have sued him. The Houston Texans reached a settlement with 30 different women involved in the Watson case. Robinson, in explaining her decision to suspend Watson for six games, said his pattern of behavior with the masseuses was "egregious" but "non-violent." Let's see what psychologists and women's support groups think about that.
The Browns, who many believe did little, if any, investigation into Watson's situation before trading for Watson, now have a public relations headache. While fans will cheer Watson at home games, they're already greeting Watson warmly at practice sessions, the Browns quarterback can expect to be jeered at road games. Steelers fans are sharpening their vocal cords for Jan. 8 when the Browns visit Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh.
It will be interesting how Houston fans react when the Browns visit the Texans on Dec. 4. Before charges of sexual misconduct were filed in March of last year, Watson perhaps was Houston's most beloved athlete. Although the Texans did not play Watson in any games last year, he received his full salary.
Watson insists he did nothing wrong during the dozens of massage sessions he solicited. In fact, his camp reportedly believes that Robinson's six-game suspension was too severe. Because there was no proof of misconduct, Watson supporters think any punishment was undeserved.
By saying he has no regrets or apology for his behavior, and allowing his camp to complain about the suspension, Watson runs the risk of playing the victim in the whole sordid affair. Not a good look for him, the Browns, the Texans or the league.
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They’ll be watching in Canada, not just because of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, though the NBA’s scoring champion and MVP favorite who plays for Oklahoma City surely helps lure in fans who are north of the border.
They’ll be watching from Serbia and Greece, the homelands of Denver star Nikola Jokic and Milwaukee star Giannis Antetokounmpo. Alperen Sengun will have them watching Houston games in the middle of the night in Turkey, too. Slovenian fans will be watching Luka Doncic and the Lakers play their playoff opener at 2:30 a.m. Sunday, 5:30 p.m. Saturday in Los Angeles. Fans in Cameroon will be tuned in to see Pascal Siakam and the Indiana Pacers. Defending champion Boston features, among others, Kristaps Porzingis of Latvia and Al Horford of the Dominican Republic.
Once again, the NBA playoffs are setting up to be a showcase for international stars.
In a season where the five statistical champions were from five different countries, an NBA first — Gilgeous-Alexander is Canadian, rebounding champion Domantas Sabonis of Sacramento is from Lithuania, blocked shots champion Victor Wembanyama of San Antonio is from France, steals champion Dyson Daniels of Atlanta is from Australia, and assists champion Trae Young of the Hawks is from the U.S. — the postseason will have plenty of international feel as well. Gilgeous-Alexander is in, while Sabonis and Daniels (along with Young, obviously) could join him if their teams get through the play-in tournament.
“We have a tremendous number of international players in this league,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said earlier this season. “It’s roughly 30% of our players representing, at least on opening day, 43 different countries, so there’s much more of a global sense around our teams.”
By the end of the season, it wound up being 44 different countries — at least in terms of countries where players who scored in the NBA this season were born. For the first time in NBA history, players from one country other than the U.S. combined to score more than 15,000 points; Canadian players scored 15,588 this season, led by Gilgeous-Alexander, the first scoring champion from that country.
Gilgeous-Alexander is favored to be MVP this season. It'll be either him or Jokic, which means it'll be a seventh consecutive year with an international MVP for the NBA. Antetokounmpo won twice, then Jokic won three of the next four, with Cameroon-born Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers winning two seasons ago.
“Shai is in the category of you do not stop him,” Toronto coach Darko Rajakovic said after a game between the Raptors and Thunder this season.
In other words, he's like a lot of other international guys now. Nobody truly stops Jokic, Antetokounmpo and Doncic either.
And this season brought another international first: Doncic finished atop the NBA's most popular jersey list, meaning NBAStore.com sold more of his jerseys than they did anyone else's. Sure, that was bolstered by Doncic changing jerseys midseason when he was traded by Dallas to the Los Angeles Lakers, but it still is significant.
The Slovenian star is the first international player to finish atop the most popular jerseys list — and the first player other than Stephen Curry or LeBron James to hold that spot in more than a decade, since soon-to-be-enshrined Basketball Hall of Famer Carmelo Anthony did it when he was with New York in 2012-13.
“We’re so small, we have 2 million people. But really, our sport is amazing,” fellow Slovene Ajsa Sivka said when she was drafted by the WNBA's Chicago Sky on Monday night and asked about Doncic and other top Slovenian athletes. “No matter what sport, we have at least someone that’s great in it. I’m just really proud to be Slovenian.”
All this comes at a time where the NBA is more serious than perhaps ever before about growing its international footprint. Last month, FIBA — the sport's international governing body — and the NBA announced a plan to partner on a new European basketball league that has been taking shape for many years. The initial target calls for a 16-team league and it potentially could involve many of the biggest franchise names in Europe, such as Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City.
It was a season where four players topped 2,000 points in the NBA and three of them were international with Gilgeous-Alexander, Jokic and Antetokounmpo. Globally, time spent watching NBA League Pass was up 6% over last season. More people watched NBA games in France this season than ever before, even with Wembanyama missing the final two months. NBA-related social media views in Canada this season set records, and league metrics show more fans than ever were watching in the Asia-Pacific region — already a basketball hotbed — as well.
FIBA secretary general Andreas Zagklis said the numbers — which are clearly being fueled by the continued international growth — suggest the game is very strong right now.
“Looking around the world, and of course here in North America," Zagklis said, "the NBA is most popular and more commercially successful than ever.”