Brett Brown: ” Kemba Walker is Unique”

Last night we saw one breathtaking game in Charlotte. The Hornets and the 76ers provided one hell of a show for all the spectators, and amazed the whole league. The event at Spectrum Center had it all, ups, downs, lead changes, overtimes, heroes, excitement. In the end, the guests won with Jimmy Butler hitting a three-pointer with 0.3 seconds to go, for the final result, 122-119.

Even though Charlotte lost the game, everybody is talking about Kemba Walker, whose performance once again confirmed that he is one of the best point guards in the league. Former Connecticut dropped 60 points, on one of the better defenses in the league.

“He is just hard to guard and he is really unique.” said Sixers coach Brett Brown.

The 57-year old admitted that his team didn’t have a solution for Kemba and that he and his assistants tried everything to stop him, but simply all their plans failed.

“We tried double-teaming him; we tried hard-hedging him,” and continued “The reality of it is, is that you have Joel (Embiid) and Jimmy in that situation a lot and he is doing that against two all-league defensive players.”

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And really if you take a closer look and think about it, playing against these two is one of the toughest tasks you can have in your career. But for Walker, this doesn’t apply. He scored 60 points, with a fantastic field goal percentage, 21 of 34. That is 61.8% percent. To make it even better, he was flawless from the free-throw line with 12 of 12. Additionally, 7 rebounds and 4 assists were added to his record in this match.

Despite all of this, the 9th pick in the 2011 draft wasn’t happy at all.

“I’m just mad that we lost. I’m a competitor. It would have been even better with a win.”

Walker did have his chance to seal the fate of the guests, but the referees spoiled it. With some 20 seconds to go, they didn’t call for an obvious foul on the Hornets point guard, who was blocked by Jimmy Butler. Eventually, the 76ers forward shot a game-winning three after that, ruining Kemba’s perfect game.

“P***ed,” Walker said after the match. “We scored 120, we deserved to win. I’m p***ed.”

This wasn’t the first time for the officials to show their lack of respect towards one of the best players in the last couple of seasons. Analysts and the fans both agreed on that in a survey made some two years ago. But to make it even worse, they made one other mistake, which might decide the result. Five minutes into the last quarter, Butler fouled Kemba while shooting a three-pointer. Instead of getting three free-throws, the referees awarded only two. Despite an obvious proof which came in the form of a replay, showing that Walker’s both legs were not touching the arc, nothing changed. The guys with whistles didn’t want to check the monitor.

In a close game like this one, where every point matters, this is something which needs to be mentioned and pointed to. Simply, these kind of mistakes are unacceptable, especially nowadays when modern technologies allow us to eliminate them.

As for Kemba, he holds league’s season-high in scoring. He surpassed Klay Thompson’s 52 points and joined the exclusive club of players who scored 60+ points, becoming the 27th member.

His performances this season are on the MVP level. 28.7 points per game, 6.1 assists and 4.1 rebounds, with 45.8% from the field. If numbers aren’t enough for the officials to acknowledge him as one of the best in the league, maybe they need to hear Brett Brown’s words.