I don’t feel like Moe “Moe Buckets” Harkless is getting enough criticism for what he did at the end of last season, an act that called into question the entire integrity of the NBA. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, thinking he punched a fan or something, let me clue you in: he purposely didn’t shoot a three in the last game of the season in order to secure a $500,000 bonus in his contract for shooting above 35 percent from deep on the season. He purposely played WORSE than he was capable of, in order to get PAID. He was INCENTIVIZED to SUCK.
Now that I think about it harder, I don’t even really blame him for it. Keep gettin’ dem checks or whatever. I’m misusing that phrase, and I don’t care. A lot of money was on the line, and he did what was right for himself to secure it. It’s more the NBA and its contract system that’s at fault here.
Moe Buckets wouldn’t have had to worry about that if he knew he was gonna can five triples on five attempts, like he did tonight. Would’ve been cool to see him score a few more points on the back of his three-point shooting, something more than 19, but I’m content with this. It’s not every day you get to see a barely-passable shooter get this hot.