Santoro: Caleb Martin’s playoff run could be Pack’s best ever

Sports Fodder:

Caleb Martin is the best thing to happen to the Nevada Wolf Pack this year. Martin is arguably the most interesting story in this year’s NBA playoffs, going from undrafted free agent and G-League player to the second-best player on the best team in the Eastern Conference. He scored 26 points and pulled down 10 rebounds in the Miami Heat’s 103-84 victory over the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Monday night. Martin is currently putting together the most prolific postseason in professional sports for a former Pack player since Colin Kaepernick quarterbacked the San Francisco 49ers to the Super Bowl in February 2013. Martin averaged 19.3 points and 6.4 rebounds against the Celtics, scoring 20-plus points in three games. He had 21 points and 15 rebounds in Game 6. His performance has given Nevada invaluable national exposure this past month, attention that will likely increase in the NBA Finals over the next two weeks. Martin is hoping to become the first ex-Pack player to win an NBA title since JaVale McGee won three. McGee, though, was a complementary player for two of his rings with the Golden State Warriors and didn’t even step on the court for his third ring with the Los Angeles Lakers. The Heat’s season, on the other hand, would be over right now if not for Martin.

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Martin is playing exactly the way he played for the Pack during the 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons, when he averaged 19.1 points and 5.3 rebounds. He was the Mountain West Player of the Year his first year at Nevada for coach Eric Musselman. Martin, though, might be even better now for the Heat than he was at Nevada because he is excelling at the most important time of year. Martin always seemed to try to do too much at Nevada in the postseason. In four Mountain West tournament games he averaged just 13 points and was 20-of-61 from the floor (33 percent) and 8-of-38 on threes (26 percent). In four NCAA Tournament games, he scored 68 points but shot just 23-of-68 (34 percent). In his final Pack game, he was 5-of-22 from the floor and 2-of-11 on threes in a stunning loss to Florida in the 2019 NCAA’s. “I feel like I am built for these types of moments,” Martin said Monday night. He is now.

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Martin has never lacked for athletic ability, confidence, intelligence and competitiveness on the floor. His jump shot was always a bit painful to watch at Nevada but even that seems to have been fine-tuned and made more efficient in the NBA. The Celtics rarely paid much attention to Martin on the floor and the former Pack star either simply hit open shots or sliced his way to the basket for big rebounds and buckets. Even Charles Barkley, as well as many media members, reported Monday night that Martin should have been named the Eastern Finals MVP. Let’s just say that Martin took full advantage of the attention the Celtics gave Jimmy Butler during the series. Butler averaged more points, had more rebounds, steals and assists and got to the free-throw line much more often than Martin in the seven-game series. But Martin was the perfect Robin to Butler’s Batman.

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Caleb and his twin brother Cody (of the Charlotte Hornets) blossomed at Nevada under Musselman. After two mediocre seasons at North Carolina State, the Martin twins transferred to Nevada, sat out a year (2016-17) and soaked in Musselman’s knowledge, intensity, competitiveness and confidence. The two years the twins spent on the court at Nevada will never be forgotten in Northern Nevada. The Martin-Musselman combination was the perfect blend of coach and players. Think Chris Ault and Kaepernick, the ultimate blend of talent, innovation, intensity, leadership and competitiveness. The Wolf Pack basketball team has not been the same since the Martin twins (and, of course, Musselman) left in the spring of 2019.

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The Oakland Athletics, 11-45 this season going into Tuesday’s game, just might be the worst team in baseball history since 1900. The 1916 Philadelphia A’ were just 36-117. A handful of teams early in the 20th century also won fewer than 40 games but that was with a 154-game schedule. The 1962 New York Mets were 40-120 and the 1965 Mets were 50-112. In recent years, the 2003 Detroit Tigers were 43-119, the 2018 Baltimore Orioles were 47-115 and the 2019 Tigers were 47-114. Can the A’s get to at least 50 victories and avoid being labeled the worst in history? Probably. That would require just 39 wins in their last 106 games. Dare to dream, A’s fans.

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The A’s built their 11-45 record the honest way, with a roster that should be in Double or Triple-A or out of baseball entirely. An 11-45 record doesn’t happen by accident or because of a few bad bounces or unfair calls by the umpires. You have to earn a .196 winning percentage in baseball. There is talent on the A’s roster, but that talent needs a few more years of seasoning and few more trips back to the minor leagues. But the A’s could not care less about winning this year. And they care even less about spending money. All this franchise cares about right now is finding a way to convince Nevada politicians and voters to help pay for a new $1.5 billion stadium in Las Vegas. That’s how you get an 11-45 record.

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The worst season in A’s history since the team moved to Oakland in 1968 was 1979. That team was 54-108 and drew just 306,763 fans all season but did have a lot of talent — players like Tony Armas, Mitchell Page, Dwayne Murphy, a rookie named Rickey Henderson, Steve McCatty, Rick Langford, Dave Revering, Jeff Newman, Mike Morgan, Matt Keough and Brian Kingman. A young outfielder named Glenn Burke, who played basketball for the Wolf Pack, was also on the roster. That 1979 team, for the most part with the addition of new manager Billy Martin, won 83 games the following year in 1980. So, yes, dare to dream, A’s fans. The only difference between now and four decades ago, other than there is no Rickey Henderson on the current roster, is that next year might be the franchise’s final year in Oakland before its move to Las Vegas.