When I sent a friend a link last week to the official video in which Tommy Shepherd, the general manager of the Washington Wizards, talks about the trade in which the team transferred Roy Hachimura to the Lakers, it had less than 500 views.
Later, this video was already noticed in several places in Israel, including the "Sport News", which broadcast it.
But a few days have passed, and it seems to me that despite the coverage the matter received here, there were one or two matters that were missed, and that for NBA fans in Israel, it is worth emphasizing them.
So what did we have there?
Shepherd was asked about the trade, and in about 11 seconds and two and a half sentences he got to the point: Danny Avdia.
That's the time it took him to mention the Israeli player of his team - for the first time out of many, all in a three and a half minute interview.
This is unusual.
First of all, it's probably more times than ever that I've heard someone mention Danny's name, in such a short period of time, and all the time in such positive contexts.
And here lies the first thing between the lines of Shepherd.
"When we really looked at what we needed was to get Deni more responsibility, more opportunity to play."
- @WashWizards GM Tommy Sheppard on recent trade with Lakers.
pic.twitter.com/gbBDjPznJU
— NBC Sports Wizards (@NBCSWizards) January 25, 2023
We used to say this about Eli Gutman, that when he is interviewed by the media he doesn't talk to the journalist and he doesn't talk to the viewers.
He talks to his players - through the newspaper.
He says things, but the messages, those in the words themselves and those in the subtext, are aimed at the players.
And that's what Shepard did here - only his target audience was an audience of one man: Avdia.
And secondly, what's interesting here is that Shepard just wasn't ready to let go of the subject.
To say that the trade was made to make room for Abdia - and not for Corey Kispert, for example, or even for Johnny Davis, whom the team selected 10th in the last draft and to this day has played 50 minutes.
the whole season.
Even near the end of the interview, after a question about the injuries the team has experienced, Shepherd managed to talk about the defense, mention how good guard Delon Wright is, and then somehow go back to saying that "that's someone I'd like Avdia to learn from."
Watt.
A bit forced, isn't it?
But very very "Telling" in the sense of revealing to us what he is really trying to say.
Hachimura.
Made room for Danny, photo: GETTY
Shepard didn't take a real drug
One might think that it was just because Shepard was caught on a particularly relaxed day.
He demonstrated in this interview a rather rare honesty - even when he was asked about the player who came in exchange, Kendrick Nunn, Shepard was a bit blunt even when he said that "he is a good player but sometimes when you make a trade you just have to have players who match each other's salaries".
And what did he do immediately afterwards?
To say again "that in any case, the main goal was to give Danny more minutes".
But to dismiss it as Shepard taking some real drug would be a mistake.
As shown by the fact that in the interview he talked about Avdia getting less and less minutes recently, and that this was something they wanted to fix.
The truth is that this is not true at all - the amount of minutes Avdia gets is quite stable.
So what was it?
A clear message.
Unambiguous.
Not for a journalist.
Not to us.
to Danny
Because even if he continues to get more or less the same number of minutes, the most critical thing for Shepherd is what Avdia will do with them.
With 40 points, 29 rebounds, 7 assists and 6 steals, in 89 minutes in total - in the three games since Achimura was no longer available for the team, including 19 free throws that teach about aggressiveness - it is likely that Avdia got the message.
But if he continues to shoot such poor percentages from the field and from three, don't be surprised if at the end of the season he discovers the other hidden message in his boss' boss' words: this is the last chance they're giving him.
Avdia on the way to the basket.
Must take the opportunity, photo: AFP
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