The Only Thing That Can Hold Hassan Whiteside Back

Troubling Signs

When asked about the incident the next day at practice, Whiteside didn’t admit he should have controlled his temper. He didn’t apologize or express any sort of regret for his actions. Instead, he chose to take the “swag” route:

OK, so maybe he didn’t express any sort of remorse for clearly being an instigator by landing on Len twice, but at least he was willing to concede his roll in a bad situation involving a blatant tackle, right? Nope.

Jason Lieser of the Palm Beach Post also noted that it took Whiteside “all of 22 seconds” to start talking about his dunks on Len. If you’re starting to get a picture of a guy who thinks his s**t doesn’t stink, you’re not alone.

We all like our NBA stars to have a little confidence and yes, even cockiness about them, so don’t think I’m trying to spoil anyone’s fun. After all, Russell Westbrook is one of my personal favorites and we all know how much he likes to talk. Whiteside is entitled to a little celebration during his breakout season, especially since those two smash mouth dunks were impressive.

But we’re also talking about a player who has accomplished nothing in his NBA career so far. Before this season, he had played a grand total of 19 games with the Sacramento Kings dating back to the 2010-11 season when he first entered the league. He never played for the Memphis Grizzlies, he did the whole D-League and overseas thing and never could work his way into an NBA rotation.

That tussle with Len led to both players being ejected. One ejection is not enough grounds to say a player has attitude problems, but this issue goes deeper than one wrestling match. You want to know why you had never heard Hassan Whiteside’s name until this season?

Most likely, it was because of the same attitude problem that goes hand-in-hand with arrogance.

This isn’t an exaggeration. His comments may come off as tongue-in-cheek to his admirers, but to the rest of us who have been paying attention to his on-court disposition, they seem perfectly fitting for a player who is starting to come off as a little too proud.

Does that sound like the attitude of a heart-warming underdog story? Forget all the warm and fuzzy feelings, does that kind of brashness sound like the kind of hard worker that fans would feel comfortable with their favorite team giving a max contract to?

Whiteside’s potential is staggering, but don’t forget, at one point we were starting to wonder if a guy named Andrew Bynum had replaced Dwight Howard as the league’s best center. Whiteside’s nowhere near that point yet, and we all know how Bynum turned out.

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