Suddenly disappeared! ESPN said on the 12th that NBA officials have launched an investigation into Nets guard Carey Owen attending a family birthday party to determine whether he violated the league’s epidemic prevention regulations.
On the same day, the Nets defeated the Nuggets 122:116 at home, and Owen has missed four consecutive games of the team, and may miss the next few games because he is under investigation. The reason why he didn’t play is a mysterious “personal reason”, which is reported to be related to social events.
Owen’s last game was on the 5th of this month. He played for 30 minutes in the Nets’ home victory over the Jazz, with great power – scoring a high 29 points in the game.
Since then, Owen has completely disappeared from the court, and for a whole week now, he has never come forward to give any explanation.
On the 7th, before the Nets’ home game against the 76ers, coach Nash said that Owen was absent for personal reasons, but he did not know the specific information, and sent a text message to Owen to inquire and did not receive a reply.
The Nets flew to Memphis that night to prepare for the next day’s back-to-back against the Grizzlies.
Owen did not go with the team. Owen’s “mysterious disappearance” incident gradually fermented, becoming the biggest farce of the season so far.
According to the Associated Press, Owen’s so-called “personal reason” is that he is deeply dissatisfied with the recent Capitol riots in the United States and the fact that white police shot black people without being prosecuted.
He is in a bad mood and does not want to play games.
But video viral on the Internet shows that Owen appeared at his sister Ash’s birthday party, dancing with a smile on his face, and did not practice social distancing or wear masks.
Half an hour before the Nets’ home game against the Nuggets on the 12th, Owen was also found to attend an online meeting under the alias “Kay Owen” to participate in a social event launched by a Manhattan prosecutor candidate.
As a result, the Nets were put at the forefront of public opinion and in an awkward situation. In recent days, the Nets coach and players have been repeatedly asked about the latest situation of Owen, and the team avoids the importance less. It is unclear.
Nash said it was inconvenient to disclose the communication between the team and Owen, but he believed that Owen would definitely return to the team next. His teammate Durant said he did not want to discuss the topic of Owen, but only supported him 100% and “prayed” for him.
Nets general manager Sean Marks issued a statement saying the team would cooperate with the league’s investigation of Owen’s party, but it was not clear about the latter’s specific return date and that “when he is ready, he will have a chance to explain”.
Boycott the rematch and want to establish a “player league”
“How much patience does Cai Chongxin, the owner of the team, have to be with Owen?” According to the Associated Press, the recent contact between the Nets management and Owen has only been kept “minimal”, and the team is very dissatisfied with the latter’s style. This is mainly because Owen has caused trouble in the past two seasons since he joined the team, which has annoyed the team.
Last June, Owen, the vice chairman of the Players’ Union, organized an online meeting with only players, called for a boycott of the NBA’s rematch in Orlando, and also called for “self-establishing” and allowing players to form their own leagues. In the end, most of the players voted for the official rematch plan, while Owen did not follow the Nets to participate in the game.
Since the beginning of the new season, Owen has been causing trouble again: after the training camp began, he refused to accept the interview, and as a result, he and the Nets were fined $25,000 respectively for violations.
Owen did not accept it, but responded that the media was a insignificant “pawn” and did not deserve his attention. As a result, one stone stirred up a thousand waves, and Owen became the “public enemy of the media”.
In the summer of 2017, a month after the finals, Owen “forced” the Cavaliers to trade him because he did not want to continue playing with superstar LeBron James and wanted to be the boss of other teams. After being traded to the Celtics, Owen took the initiative to apologize to James, regretting that he was young and ignorant before. After leaving, he knew how great the latter was as the leader of the team.
LeBron happily forgave him. But last October, when James led the Lakers to the finals, Owen publicly expressed his satisfaction with the current situation (for the Nets). For the first time in his career, Durant’s teammates who “I believe I can shoot goals at a critical moment” were generally regarded as a ruthless mockery of former teammate James. James later admitted that Owen said that he was “somewhat hurt”.
Owen also had jaw-dropping remarks. On the All-Star Weekend in 2017, Owen, a famous American university at Duke University, said in an interview: “The earth is actually flat, and the so-called ‘Earth is round’ is just not overthrown.” This anti-intellectual statement attracted a crusade from the American scientific and educational communities.
Single-handedly challenged Kobe Bryant and gave up the game for his death.
Although Owen’s return date is not yet determined, coach Nash is not worried that he will not be in good shape after his return. “He will not lose his rhythm because he doesn’t play during this period.” Although Owen is in constant off-court trouble, he still performs well on the court. In the seven games so far, he averaged 33 minutes per game and averaged 27.1 points, 5.3 rebounds and 6.1 assists per game.
Owen gave up the game last time because he was in a bad mood, or because Kobe died last January. Owen, who had already come to the stadium to warm up at that time, was heartbroken to hear the bad news and soon left the stadium to give up the game. Owen regarded Kobe as his greatest idol since he was a child, deeply inspired by his spirit, and loved to imitate Kobe’s movements.
After entering the NBA, he also volunteered to invite Kobe to fight alone. As the top NBA player in 2011, Owen is also regarded as Kobe’s successor to Kobe’s “Black Mamba Spirit”. Kobe thought that Owen’s playing style was the most similar to himself – singles ability, killer temperament and strong winning or losing heart.
In the 2016 Finals, Owen and James led the Cavaliers to complete the super turnover in a 1-3 deficit. In the seventh game, Owen hit 3 points in the last 53 seconds to lock in the victory, which is a classic and helps the Cavaliers end the 52-year championship drought.
Up to now in his career, Owen has been selected to the All-Star six times and the best lineup twice. He is one of the top point guards in active service and has good passing and controlling shooting ability.
However, in terms of the ability to lead the team, “thorhead” Owen is considered perverse and immature, and difficult to be the leader of the team. After coming to the Celtics from the Cavaliers, he only led the latter to the Eastern Conference semi-finals in 2019.
During this period, he was exposed many times that his personality was isolated and unsociable, and his relationship with the coach and teammates was not good, which made the team headache. He played only 20 regular season games in the Nets last season due to injury.
After the start of the new season, the Nets, which are considered to be the favorites to win the championship, won 6 and lost 6 games, and now only ranks seventh in the Eastern Conference.
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