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What can we learn from Ibaka-James feud? Sammy Sosa was no fool
Published: 6/19/2012 3:46 PM
Last Modified: 6/19/2012 4:08 PM

Serge Ibaka allegedly speaks five languages, at least one of which I can’t spell or pronounce.

He’s not stupid.

“Stupid” was the word LeBron James used after a reporter relayed to him that his defensive prowess had been called into question by Ibaka.

James has since clarified that he wasn’t calling Ibaka stupid. He was calling this process stupid: Media person hears something that sounds like bulletin board material. Media person takes that quote and repeats it to the “target” to see if that person wants to have any kind of reaction. And, even if that person says “I don’t want to dignify that with a response,” you’ve still got a story.

Is the he-said, she-said media tactic stupid? Not if you want to get your story read. And the Ibaka-James mini-drama (already in the process of being defused) has been a big talking point in public opinion forums.

But let’s get back to the s-word.

Ibaka isn’t stupid. However, if his quotes weren't radically taken out of context, then what he said was certainly foolish because it falls under the category of tugging on the MVP’s cape.

Sticks and stones? Wait and see when Game Four arrives.

If Ibaka’s words in a perhaps-still-unfamiliar language come back to haunt him and the Thunder, then I won’t blame Sammy Sosa for pretending in front of congress to be Chico Escuela, who, by the way, has a Facebook page.

The next time Ibaka is asked a potentially hazardous question about an opponent, perhaps he should provide the following response: "Basketball has been very, very good to me."


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Tulsa World sports writer Jimmie Tramel is a former class president at Locust Grove High School. He graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern State University with a journalism degree and, while attending college, was sports editor of the Pryor Daily Times. He joined the Tulsa World on Oct. 17, 1989, the same day an earthquake struck the World Series. He is the OSU basketball beat writer and a columnist and feature writer during football season. In 2007, he wrote a book about Oklahoma State football with former Cowboy coach Pat Jones.

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