Did Daryl Morey hint Thunder pad Russell Westbrook’s rebounding stats?
Did Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey have Russell Westbrook in mind when he made a Twitter comment about rebounds?
On Wednesday, prominent basketball blog Nylon Calculus released its annual Anti-Awards and one of the promiment features was “The Matt Bullard Award,” which “recognizes” rebounding futility among big men.
2016-17 NBA Anti-Awards, recognizing the most discouraging statistical achievements of the year (by @HickoryHigh) https://t.co/spMV51VmYn pic.twitter.com/no95h5H6JO
— The Nylon Calculus (@NylonCalculus) April 19, 2017
Morey caught wind of the award and tweeted at its namesake, Bullard, himself a former Rocket as well as their current color commentator. Morey said that it wasn’t Bullard’s fault that longtime frontcourt partner Hakeem Olajuwon would always dominate the glass.
@bull50 not your fault that @DR34M was getting all the boards https://t.co/37MSy6oPkk
— Daryl Morey (@dmorey) April 19, 2017
Bullard replied back with an anecdote about the gameplan whenever he played alongside the 12-time All-Star Olajuwon.
Dream made it crystal clear that I should get out of the way and let him get all the rebounds. And that's exactly what I did! #thanksdream https://t.co/27LcWI8MeA
— Matt Bullard (@bull50) April 19, 2017
At that point, Morey hit us with this cryptic response:
@bull50 sounds like some other superstars…
— Daryl Morey (@dmorey) April 19, 2017
Is that a thinly-veiled dig at Westbrook, whose historic triple-double exploits this season led some to complain that the Thunder bigs helped him inflate his numbers by constantly conceding rebounds to him? Given the way that Morey has shaded Westbrook’s MVP candidacy on multiple occasions these last few months, the answer could be yes.
