Criticism of unfair Scottie Barnes rookie of the year desire

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Some fans weren’t too happy that Toronto Raptors rookie Scottie Barnes said he wanted to win Rookie of the Year. They felt it showed a level of selfishness, which couldn’t be further from the truth. Listen to the “Raptors Over Everything” podcast.

Video transcript

AMIT MANN: And I think…

JOSH LEWENBERG: People were so excited about his comments the other day about rookie of the year. Have you seen that too?

AMIT MANN: I didn’t, no.

JOSH LEWENBERG: I have a lot of…

AMIT MANN: I haven’t seen it.

JOSH LEWENBERG: I got a lot of feedback – so he was asked if Rookie of the Year was important to him or not. And he was honest. Like, he said– well, first of all, he didn’t like to just talk about it uninvited. He was asked about Rookie of the Year and if it’s important to him.

So he said, yeah, that’s important to me. Like, it’s a goal I’ve had since I got drafted, and it could be important in establishing my legacy early in my career. And that’s something that everyone should be aiming for, or something… I’m paraphrasing, of course.

AMIT MANN: Of course.

JOSH LEWENBERG: But… and I don’t know. I just saw so many backlash to this on Twitter from people who dispute this…

AMIT MANN: Why?

JOSH LEWENBERG: — like, oh, well — people wanted the cliché of, like, oh, not important to me. All that matters to me is winning. Well, first of all, it’s not mutually exclusive. You may want to earn Rookie of the Year while prioritizing winning. In fact, the two genres go hand in hand. But also, are we really going to kill these athletes for the clichés? And then the second they step out of the cliche, you’re like, well, where’s the cliche?

AMIT MANN: Exactly. It is also the spirit of competition.

JOSH LEWENBERG: I like that, so…

AMIT MANN: Yes, exactly.

JOSH LEWENBERG: That’s why I say…

AMIT MANN: It’s a competitive spirit, though.

JOSH LEWENBERG: — I don’t know if he’s going to get Rookie of the Year, but if he’s the best screener in the class, then at least that’s something. Give him a trophy.

The story continues

AMIT MANN: Yeah, I guess so. I think ESPN got it wrong with that one. He is much more than that. Obviously, they’re a great rookie class, one of the best I think we’ll remember.

JOSH LEWENBERG: Really good.

AMIT MANN: Yeah, but I think, I mean, Evan Mobley looks like he’s going to have that locked away. But a credit to Evan Mobley. And that’s how good we look. We see players who are going to be the future of the NBA in some capacity between Cade and him and Evan and, you know, Josh Giddey. Players like that, we will talk about them for 10 years, 10, 15 years. That’s how good they are.

I think you want a player to be competitive, right? And that’s a testament to Scottie’s competitiveness. He wants to be Rookie of the Year. He is part of the rookie class. This is only given to one player in the class. And so you want him to want that price. And if we’re gonna kill him for wanting to be rookie of the year, then let’s kill ourselves [? Fred ?] for saying he wanted to be an All-Star? Because it’s another… it’s another individual reward.

And they are also somehow exclusive with each other. You win games, you could be an All-Star. You win games, you could be the rookie of the year. It’s a bit like that.

JOSH LEWENBERG: Fred was the first guy that came to mind first when I saw that comment but then also when I saw the reaction because I think with Fred , maybe earlier in his career, it caught people off guard. Now people are used to him saying things like that. But I mean, obviously as a member of the media, I love it because I don’t want the cliché, I want the honest answer. And Fred is the king, the king.

So – and I also think, like – I think it’s a great system and a great situation for Barnes for a lot of reasons. But one of those things – and clearly he’s paying attention, and clearly he’s fitting in really well.

It’s like Nick Nurse when he was on the… it was JJ Redick’s podcast, right? When he was talking about his coaching philosophy, he said, for example, that our goal is to achieve individual player success, accolades, whatever — the big contract, the big award, whatever money they can get, because it means we’re doing our development work. But it also means that — like, those things don’t happen — contracts don’t happen and rewards don’t happen unless we win.

So, like, he understands. And I have no problem with that. I was shocked that people did. Shocked. But it’s Twitter. So what do you want?

AMIT MANN: I know.

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