Sam Mitchell's pet phrase in situations like this is “Nunyo,” as in “None of your business.”
Did he play golf late Sunday afternoon the day before the Raptors lost their elimination game against the Orlando Magic?
“Nunyo.”
Did he make a late decision to change the Raptors travel plans to accommodate said golf game?
“Nunyo.”
Does he think it strange that in the past week two influential U.S.-based basketball writers have published unflattering and – in at least one case blatantly untrue – portraits of him and his coaching ability and his dedication to his craft or to his team?:
“This is BS,” Mitchell said yesterday morning as he was getting ready to head home to Atlanta for a few days off.
That's the short answer.
The longer version runs like a spring river flowing downhill, running over the banks, touching on Pat Riley, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Barak Obama, Martin Luther King jr. and even the late Charles Kuralt, the former CBS news reporter.
But the bottom line is the same: “This is BS”
His teams play hard, are well-prepared and don't quit, says Mitchell. And the rest is just talk. Cheap talk.
And, by the way, Raptors president Bryan Colangelo, the person who theoretically might be influenced or informed by the stories and their timing – what with the off-season coaching carousel already spinning madly – agrees with him.
He just says it a little differently.
“I met Sam [on Wednesday] and it was a normal, end of season meeting,” said Colangelo. “We discussed a lot of things; the season, the off-season; the state of the team; our relationship, everything. It was a good meeting and we both walked out of the room on the basis that he was coaching the team moving forward. I thought I put this to rest the other day, but let me say this: We have no intention of making a coaching change – period.
“It's not an issue. He has three years left on his deal and what happened in the playoffs does not affect his status here. We lost to a very good basketball team.”
For those who missed it, last Sunday New York Post columnist Peter Vecsey quoted unnamed sources in the Raptors dressing room saying that Mitchell was introducing a game plan for countering Los Angeles Lakers centre Andrew Bynum only to be told by Chris Bosh that Bynum was injured, and hadn't played for weeks.
How embarrassing, yet entirely fabricated, at least according to Vecsey, who recanted the entire thing on Tuesday – “I'll take the Rap for the Sam Slam” the headline read -- in one of the most thorough apologies you'll ever read outside of a court-ordered settlement.
On Wednesday Adrian Wojnarowski, the respected NBA columnist for Yahoo Sports delivered another shot across Mitchell's bow, referring to an “ever-deteriorating” relationship between Mitchell and Colangelo marked by “constant confrontations” over Mitchell's treatment of Andrea Bargnani.
As well, Wojnarowski wrote, Colangelo “flipped out” upon learning Mitchell went golfing Sunday afternoon.
Colangelo disagreed at the characterization.
“I'm not going to talk about something that happened [on Sunday], but did I flip out? No I did not flip out.”
And as for conflicts over Bargnani, Colangelo allowed that the lack of development by the 2006 No.1 pick was the source of considerable discussion over the course of the season, but not conflict.
“A lot of people like to say a lot of things, but it's not like people want to make it out to be, it's like were almost came to blows,” said Colangelo. “It's a bit much.”
Says Mitchell about Bargnani: “We'll have to take a bite out of that apple.”
And as for golf-gate?
We're going to go out on a limb here: There's a very real chance that Mitchell played golf on a sunny Sunday afternoon in Orlando, and there's distinct possibility that Darrick Martin was with him. And might Colangelo have been less than thrilled at the optics, if not the fact of said golf game? Again, just speculating, but yes.
