The New York Times - USA (2020-07-26)

THE NEW YORK TIMES SPORTSSUNDAY, JULY 26, 2020 0 N 29

Karim Benzema had to wait
his turn.
Early in June 2009, 55,000 fans
flocked to the Santiago Bernabeu
to see Kaká presented as a Real
Madrid player, the
dawn of what
Florentino Pérez,
the club’s presi-
dent, had promised
would be a second
Galactico era. Kaká
was a statement signing, and, by
some metrics, the most expen-
sive player in history.
It was a title he held for only a
few days. The next week, Cris-
tiano Ronaldo’s arrival drew
75,000 fans — more, perhaps —
to the Bernabeu. A catwalk had
been built on the field, flanked by
the club’s nine European Cups.
Every seat was filled hours be-
fore Ronaldo appeared, even in
the oven heat of Madrid in high
summer.
And then, on July 9, came
Benzema. He was a different
profile of signing. Benzema had
starred at Lyon, his boyhood
team, but he was both substan-
tially cheaper — $40 million or so
— and, at 21, significantly young-
er than Kaká and Ronaldo. They
came already branded as Galac-
ticos. Benzema would have to
earn the label.
He was given a presentation,
too — Pérez is not the sort of
man to deprive people of a
chance to thank him for his
largess — but, perhaps, by that
time, the novelty had worn off.
Real Madrid’s fans had turned
out for two world record sign-
ings, two established stars. A
prodigiously gifted 21-year-old
was not going to get them to
again traipse down the Paseo de
la Castellana. Benzema was
welcomed by just — “just” —
20,000 fans.
From that moment, that has
been Benzema’s lot: the least of
the Galacticos, overshadowed
first by Kaká and Ronaldo and
then, as Pérez collected yet more
trophy signings, by Gareth Bale
and James Rodriguez and, last
summer, Eden Hazard. In Benze-
ma’s 11 years in Madrid, there
has always been someone who
shone brighter.
And yet Benzema has out-
lasted them all. Kaká departed in
2013, after four years disrupted
by injury. Ronaldo fared consid-
erably better, leaving in 2018 as
the club’s career goals leader, the
talisman who spearheaded four
Champions League victories in
five years.
Bale and Rodriguez, of course,
are still there — though not,

perhaps, for much longer, certainly if Madrid’s coach, Zinedine Zidane, has his way. Hazard is, too, even as he has described his first season in Madrid as the worst of his career, so troubled has he been by injury. Benzema, though, endures, the “piece that makes it all work,” as he once described himself. It would be a disservice to Benzema’s teammates to depict Real Madrid’s triumph in La Liga — remarkably, only its second domestic championship since 2012 — as solely his work. This has, without question, been an ensemble success: Zidane has rotated his team constantly this season; he has deployed 37 different players, even Bale, when he has had absolutely no choice; 21 players have contributed goals. And Madrid’s strongest suit has, for once, not been its star- studded attack but its (perhaps slightly uncharacteristically) resolute defense. Zidane’s team has conceded only 25 goals this season, better than its famously miserly neighbor Atlético Madrid and a club record. It did not concede at all in its first five games back after the restart. Its championship has been built on the grit and grind of Thibaut Courtois, Sergio Ramos, Raphaël Varane and Casemiro, more than anything. But it also has been vindication for Benzema. He has carried the team’s attacking threat, running close to Lionel Messi in Spain’s scoring race. José Mour- inho, his former coach and the current Tottenham manager, once said that Benzema was not a “killer,” not enough of a ruth- less finisher to be ranked among the best in the world. He has demonstrated that cool head and that dead eye this year, and — as rather neatly encapsu- lated by his wonderful back- heeled assist for the crucial winning goal against Espanyol last month — lost none of his virtuosity. It is strange, though, that Benzema should have needed vindication. He has, after all, survived at Real Madrid — a club where patience is thin and churn is endemic — for more than a decade, longer than all those other stars. For much of that time, he put the needs of others above his own, willingly adapting his role so that the “rocket,” Bale, and the “finisher,” Ronaldo, could thrive in that fabled BBC attacking line. He has won three Spanish titles and four Champions Leagues. He is the fifth highest goal-scorer in Real Madrid’s history; given the names on the list, that is no mean feat. He has scored 248 goals in 512 games, a strike rate of a goal every other game, long regarded as the gold standard for a top-class forward.

Benzema, in other words, should have had nothing to prove. And yet, it has always felt that, when it comes to discussion of who the world’s best No. 9 might be, there is always someone shining brighter than Ben- zema: Radamel Falcao or Zlatan Ibrahimovic or Robert Lewandowski or Kylian Mbappé. It is hard to understand why that is. Much of the criticism does not really add up. Benzema is marked down for not scoring enough — another of Mourinho’s withering assessments: “If you can’t go hunting with your dog, you go hunting with your cat” — and not marked up for the work he does elsewhere, creating space, knitting a team together. The new breed of No. 9 — led by Liverpool’s Roberto Firmino — are (rightly) praised for that element of their game, while escaping (correctly, in most cases) anything but light censure for a scoring return that pales in comparison. Benzema does both. Only in his case, that appears to be a bad thing. Perhaps the explanation is obvious: perhaps it is as simple as the fact that no forward has suffered quite as directly from the inflation in expectations that Messi and Ronaldo have wrought in soccer. Whatever Benzema did, Ronaldo, standing a few yards from him, would always do better; he could only, really, suffer in that context. Or it may run deeper: after all, not being Messi did not exactly harm David Villa or Neymar, for example. Benzema’s accused involvement in a blackmail plot, for which he may yet stand trial, might have stained his reputation. It led, certainly, to his ab- sence from France’s World Cup- winning team in 2018, a cam- paign that may have proved his apotheosis. Or is it that first impressions, in soccer, really count? And that Benzema has always been

cursed by the circumstances of his arrival in Madrid: the after- thought who became not a tran- scendent star but a stalwart. Benzema, whatever the reason, deserves more, simply for being the player who came as the least of the Galacticos, and ended as the last one standing.

There Is No Soccer, Apart From All This Soccer

The announcement from the august France Football magazine this week that it would, for the first time in 74 years, not award the Ballons d’Or this year was solemn, considered and just a little curious. The magazine decided, in short, that the lack of a level playing field because of the coronavirus pandemic, and the stop- pages it caused, would have in some way damaged the “irre- proachability” of the award, given each year to the man and woman judged to be the world’s best player. “We did not want to put an indelible asterisk on the prize list as ‘a trophy won in exceptional circumstances due to the health crisis of Covid-19,’ ” the magazine said. It is not a decision France Football would have made lightly: The issue containing an interview with the winners of the award is regularly its biggest- selling edition. The conclusion that the decision this year was influenced by the cancellation of France’s Ligue 1 — at a time when all of Europe’s other major leagues have continued — is easy to leap to, but is an unfair reflection on what is, without question, a publication worthy of respect. The explanation, though, does not really add up. Do the players who have been able to shine in even these most extreme circumstances not warrant recognition? Are the year’s best players not

the ones who have done the best in the context of that year, whatever it might be? Is erasing this year, acting as it has not hap- pened, disingenuous? Anyway, it leaves a gap in the market. Perhaps it’s time for The New York Times to host a flashy awards ceremony...

What to Watch

There was a point, a few weeks ago, when you wondered if events might conspire against the restarted Premier League. Liverpool had sealed the title. The four Champions League slots — even allowing for Man- chester City’s possible ban — seemed determined. Relegation, too, was a sure thing: Norwich, Bournemouth and Aston Villa could barely muster a point between them. It seemed inevitable, then, that the last couple of weeks of the season would become a box- ticking exercise, teams playing out games just to fulfill their contractual obligations. And then, well, things changed. As the Premier League reaches its conclusion on Sunday, there are four games that prom- ise high drama. At the top, Chelsea, Leicester City and Manchester United can all qualify for the Champions League, with Leicester (62 points) and Manchester United (63 points) facing one another, and Chelsea (63 points) at home to Europa League-chasing Wolves. And at the bottom: Watford has to hope it gets a better result at Arsenal than Aston Villa does at West Ham. A win in the latter match would, essentially, save Villa’s skin. But defeat could bring Bourne- mouth back into the equation, too, if Eddie Howe’s team can win at Everton. It is all exactly as a final day should be. Settle in, and steel your nerves.

Low-Key Galactico,

Last One Standing,

Deserves His Due

RORY

SMITH

ON SOCCER

Karim Benzema has never had top billing at Real Madrid. He joined in 2009 with Cristiano Ron- aldo and Kaká, and was later overshadowed by players like Gareth Bale and Eden Hazard.

JUAN MEDINA/REUTERS

Chief soccer correspondent Rory
Smith takes you from the biggest
matches to the smallest leagues,
covering the tactics, history and
personalities of the world’s most
popular sport. Sign up to receive
his newsletter at nytimes.com/
rory.

The W.N.B.A. season started
with 26 seconds of silence and an
empty court.
“We are dedicating this season
to Breonna Taylor,” said Layshia
Clarendon,
a New York
Liberty
guard and
member of the new W.N.B.A. So-
cial Justice Council, at the game’s
start. “We will be a voice for the
voiceless.”
The 2020 season, which is being
played in a 22-week “bubble” tour-
nament at IMG Academy in
Bradenton, Fla., is expected to be
charged with social justice initia-
tives alongside a full champi-
onship schedule. Symbols and lo-
gos declaring “Black Lives Mat-
ter” and “Say Her Name” were
prominent on the court, and play-
ers wore jerseys that bore the
name of Ms. Taylor, a 26-year-old
Black woman who was fatally shot
by three white police officers in
Louisville, Ky.
The opener — pitting young
guns against league veterans,
first-timers and comebacks —
ended with a 87-71 Seattle Storm
victory over the New York Lib-
erty.
The Seattle Storm brought back
Sue Bird, the all-time assist leader
of the league, and Breanna Stew-
art, the 2018 M.V.P., after both
were unable to play last season.
The team started with the same
lineup which garnered them the
2018 championship title.
Both players were comfortable
on the court: Bird with 11 points
and five assists; Stewart 18 points,
eight rebounds, two assists and a
personal-record four steals. The
team’s defensive strategy forced
the Liberty into 20 turnovers and
a 35 percent sink rate.
“I have no problem saying it,”
said Liberty Head Coach Walt
Hopkins said in a pregame Zoom
call with reporters, “they’re prob-
ably the favorite to win it this

year.” While the Storm sported a sea- soned lineup, the Liberty entered the arena with a new set of players, staff and strategy. Hopkins, a first-time head coach who previ- ously was an assistant coach for the Minnesota Lynx, has pushed for a faster pace and more 3-point attempts. Sabrina Ionescu, the No. 1 pick out of the 2020 draft from Oregon, played for nearly 34 minutes in her first league game. She made the first rebound of her career just a few minutes into the game and

closed her debut with 12 points, six rebounds and four assists. But the player, known for her triple- doubles, wasn’t able to sink any 3- pointers, and ended with four of 17 shots made on the floor. “I definitely think we did have some let downs,” she said in a postgame Zoom call. Ionescu is the only N.C.A.A. basketball player to record 2,000 points, 1,000 assists and 1,000 rebounds. “But we have to play in a few days and I have to learn from those mis- takes.” She’s one of seven rookies on the Liberty’s roster, which started down Asia Durr, who is battling the coronavirus, and rookie Megan Walker, who will join the team next Monday following quarantine protocols after testing positive for the coronavirus just

over two weeks ago. Jazmine Jones, another new face to the W.N.B.A., was also ab- sent after sustaining an ankle sprain in training this week. And the Liberty lost Kia Nurse, the Liberty’s second-leading scorer, with eight minutes left in the second quarter, to an apparent ankle sprain, although a final diagnosis has yet to be announced. The New York Liberty will face off next with the Dallas Wings on Wednesday; the Storm against the Minnesota Lynx on Tuesday. The games will continue to be marked by social justice initia- tives, and the league dedicates its 22-week season to Ms. Taylor. “We’re not just slapping her name on a shirt and saying, ‘Here we go,’ ” Clarendon said. “We’re being intentional about this and working with her mother.”

W.N.B.A. Spotlights Social Justice in Its Season Opener

By GILLIAN R. BRASSIL

STORM 87

LIBERTY 71

New York and Seattle stayed silent for 26 seconds before the game to honor Breonna Taylor.

PHELAN M. EBENHACK/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Tom Thibodeau, a defensive- minded coach who most recently led the Minnesota Timberwolves, is nearing an agreement to take the reins of the Knicks, a source with knowledge of the negotia- tions said on Saturday. Thibodeau, who had been an assistant coach for the Knicks from 1996 to 2003, will become the team’s eighth coach since 2012. The story was first reported by ESPN. Thibodeau, 62, had been considered a front-runner for the job since the spring, especially once William Wesley, more commonly known around the N.B.A. as World Wide Wes, was added to the Knicks front office. Thibodeau was once Wesley’s client at the sports and entertainment giant Creative Artists Agency, and Leon Rose, the Knicks president, was also an agent at C.A.A., where he worked alongside Thibodeau. Thibodeau, a New Britain, Conn., native, has cultivated a reputation for having a single- minded obsession for basketball in his decades-long coaching career. His first coaching job was as an assistant at his alma mater, Sa- lem State College in Salem, Mass. In the N.B.A., he was a highly regarded assistant from 1989 to 2010, best known for being the ar- chitect of the staunch Boston Celt- ics defense that led the team to a championship in 2008. In 2010, Thibodeau became head coach of the Chicago Bulls and was an immediate success. He would become the fastest ever head coach to accumulate 100 reg- ular season victories. In his first year with the Bulls, the team won 62 games and went to the Eastern Conference Finals. It would be his high-water mark as a coach. The Bulls would not get out of the second round again for the rest of Thibodeau’s Bulls tenure,

which lasted four more years. He was fired in 2015, after developing a reputation for clashing with players and the front office, as well as for overworking star players. In 2016, Thibodeau was hired as coach and president of basketball operations for the Minnesota Timberwolves. But on those three seasons, the Timberwolves were largely unsuccessful, making the playoffs once and losing the first round. The tenure was most de- fined by Jimmy Butler’s public trade demand that spilled into a dramatic practice. Thibodeau was abruptly fired midseason last year. Thibodeau went 255-139 with the Bulls and 97-107 with the Tim- berwolves. But even with recent missteps, Thibodeau will bring decades worth of experience to a young roster in flux, as Rose attempts to rebuild the franchise’s credibility for star free-agent recruits. And very few available coaches are as aware of the fanbase’s craving for success: Thibodeau was a coach for the Knicks in the late 1990s, the last time the team was considered a powerhouse.

Thibodeau Said to Be Close

To Deal to Coach the Knicks

By SOPAN DEB

Tom Thibodeau was a Knicks assistant from 1996 to 2003.

STACY BENGS/ASSOCIATED PRESS

A player says, ‘We are

dedicating this season

to Breonna Taylor.’

Jamal Adams was traded by the Jets to Seattle on Saturday, resolv- ing the situation of a gifted safety whose relationship with the franchise quickly deteriorated because of a contract dispute. The Jets sent a 2022 fourth- round draft pick along with Ad- ams to the Seahawks for a 2021 first-rounder, a 2022 first-rounder, a 2021 third-rounder and safety Bradley McDougald. The deal is pending physicals. “While we had maintained our interest in Jamal Adams having a long and successful career with the Jets, we know it’s important to be prepared and willing to adjust to new offers and circumstances,” General Manager Joe Douglas said in a statement. “As I have always said, my job is to listen to calls, and this offer was one we could not ignore.” The deal ended a contentious several months for Adams and the Jets. Early in the week, Adams, who was selected for the last two Pro Bowls and made the All-Pro squad last year, criticized owner- ship and then took shots at Coach Adam Gase and Douglas in an interview with The Daily News. “To NY & especially the Jets fans, I love you & will always love you.” Adams wrote in a Twitter post. He followed that with a mes- sage to the Seahawks and their fans in a Twitter post that included a graphic of the safety in his new team’s uniform. “You have a man on a mission,” he wrote. The 24-year-old Adams, a former Louisiana State star, was drafted sixth over all by the Jets in

He quickly established him-
self as a fan favorite and one of the
best players at his position,
But Adams’s relationship with
the franchise began to take a turn
in October. The safety was an-
gered when Douglas fielded
phone calls from teams inquiring
about Adams’s availability at the
trade deadline. Douglas made it
clear the cost for Adams would be
exorbitant, a sign the Jets had no
interest in dealing him. But Ad-
ams thought the team should not
have even fielded offers. He went
a week without speaking to Doug-
las or Gase before smoothing
things after talking with the
team’s chief executive, Christo-
pher Johnson.
Adams was seeking an exten-
sion from the Jets, who did not
budge; they had control over his
contract through 2021 and could
have also potentially placed the
franchise tag on him in 2022. Ad-
ams then made it clear he wanted
out.
McDougald, 29, started 30 regu-
lar-season games played the past
two seasons, and had at least 70
tackles in each of his three sea-
sons with the Seahawks. He also
had five interceptions over the
past two seasons.

Adams Sent

To Seahawks,

Completing

A Jets Split

By The Associated Press

The New York Times - USA (2020-07-26)

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