Whip Appeal

was this Duke alum ever considered a bust? if so, which year did it take them to figure that out? 

“Keep on whippin' on me
Work it on me
Whip all your sweet sad lovin' on me
Keep on whippin' on me
Work it on me
Whip all your sweet sad lovin' on me”
-Babyface, “Whip Appeal”

It’s amazing how much this song resonates with the on-going Dunleavy, as others call him dun-nuthin,’ debates that have heightened in recent weeks in correlation with the Warriors current draft status and draft history. Despite Dunleavy’s average offensive skills, lack of passion, desire, strength, etc., and absolutely non-existent defense, he still possesses an uncanny ‘whip appeal’ on the many Warrior fans. Fans, like us at the Golden State Warriors Blog—perhaps the best damn site about the Warriors on these damn internets—and those who’s unconditional love and loyalty for Dunleavy borders some sort of odd fetishism or fanaticism, have in the past, intensely, over argued Dunleavy’s worth. Considering how many times people have said so-and-so is the next Michael Jordan (John Lucas saying that Ricky Davis has Jordan tendencies…), it’s evident that comments that Dunleavy as the “next Larry Bird” is just wishful thinking (either that or the person(s) making those comment(s) are doing some hardcore rocks).

If someone thinks (or imagines) Dunleavy is solid player (or will be in years to come…), is it my place to condone such behavior? Hell no and Hell YES! Its not fair for me to judge one’s feelings, but I will call out someone’s false consciousness about Dunleavy’s supposed star qualities. I’m not going to go into more detail about what others have said, because that’s just redundant. Instead, I’m going to introduce some quotes from an ex-Warriors player, current Warriors Announcer, and probably the one who gets to bang all the Warriors cheerleaders, Mr. Jim Barnett. What I will do is introduce a few quotes from Jim Barnett concerning Mike Dunleavy’s play and about the skills of the man that Dunleavy replaced, Antawn Jamison. The point of point of comparison is not again to rehash the ‘who’s better’ discussion, but to show how everyone is willing to justify his ‘remarkable’ skills and his talent, regardless of how incredibly MUNDANE it may be. These quotes are purely from memory and are not embellished at all for humor or to prove my point. I will admit that these quotes are NOT verbatim, but about 90% to the originals.

Barnett on Jamison:
(Jamison takes 4 dribbles while driving right from the left wing to the key and then loses the ball)
“Jamison cannot take more than 3 dribbles. He only knows how to dribble right.”
(Jamison dribbles the ball between his legs a couple times, then gets picked attempting to drive on his third dribble)
“Jamison’s max is 3 dribbles, after that he will lose the ball. He needs to learn to minimize his weaknesses”

Okay, Barnett was on point with this commentary. Jamison’s handle was pretty poor; Barnett seemed to think this was the limit of his potential since he needs to minimize his game in order to maximize it. Barnett was always quick to comment that Jamison was bereft of basketball fundamentals. But lets take a look at a couple comments about Dunleavy…

These comments came during Dunleavy’s 2nd season and amidst fans and critics mid season grumblings about the “potential” curve already flattening out. Barnett seems to be fishing for any sort of complements to save Dunleavy’s reputation.

Barnett on Dunleavy:
“Dunleavy has great hands. If you look at great basketball players, they all have great hands.”

For a man at his position, who is expected to dribble, pass, shoot and score, I would hope that he would have these ‘skills’ otherwise he’s in the wrong sport (unless he’s Adonal Foyle). This next play comment is probably the best one I EVER heard about Dunleavy. Let me set up the play…

There was a loose ball and a Warrior made an outlet pass to Dunleavy. Richardson is running with him on the left wing and it’s clearly a breakaway layup. Dunleavy slows around the top of the key and passes to the sprinting Richardson about at the lower left block of the key. Dunleavy veers to the right, running right in front of an opponent-one that is jogging back to the baseline. Richardson does one of his patented tomahawk dunks, the home crowd erupts, and Barnett explodes with:

“Did you see that play by Dunleavy? That was such a smart play! Him cutting off (opposing player I forget the name of) prevents the defense from getting back and making a play on Richardson! Those are the things that you can’t teach a player, those are the intangibles that really show off Dunleavy’s IQ and what he brings to the game!”

Barnett continues, as the other team calls a time-out, basically repeating the same stuff as the show the play over and over again. Barnett basically crowns him the Albert Einstein of basketball for a “play” that has completely NO outcome on that particular play in the game. What should have been lauded was the defense that was able to knock the ball free and get the ball to Dunleavy in the first place.

We’re not here to say judge others who like Dunleavy or justify his role on the team. But we here at the Golden State Warriors Blog are critical of the random praise of Dunleavy that hardly speaks to all this talk about his supposed inherited basketball greatness. In these two cases, he is doing merely doing what is expected of him: catching balls and passing to the player in front of you on the break. Besides, what’s so great about what he did? Moving in front of a guy who can’t make a play on Richardson since the guy is about 25 feet behind him. Instead, what seems is that people, like Barnett, transform Dunleavy’s normality into fuckin’ David Copperfield.

I would agree with some fans who say “he is what he is” and to get over the high expectations because its evident over the past 3 years, he hasn’t been able to live up to them (despite the rumors that his dad pays off reporters to talk up his son or that their compliments are only out of loyalty to his dad). But it’s a little unreasonable to blow up his skills and to say he is just like those elite players in that he can play ‘4 positions’ when he, unlike elite players, can’t guard anything at any of those 4 positions.

So I have long since jumped off the Dunleavy buss and admitted to believing the hype machine that continues to follow him. But I hope this brief comparison of Barnett’s comments about Jamison and Dunleavy will show how Dun’nuthin’ ‘whip appeal’ has gotten even the best of us suckered.