Is Kelly Olynyk a dirty player? That debate has been raging all week since Kelly Oubre speared him in Game 3 of Wizards vs. Celtics. After the incident, for which Oubre was suspended, the Wizards claimed Olynyk’s persistent dirty play provoked Oubre. Olynyk critics have cited the Canadian’s past violations of the fair play code, specifically the time he literally yanked Kevin Love’s arm out of its socket. Truly, this topic is all that has ever united the people of Cleveland and the people of D.C.
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So is Kelly Olynyk dirty? I reject the premise.
Dirty play isn’t binary. It is a spectrum. There is not a threshold of dirty play that when crossed by a player triggers the title of “Dirty Player.” It is as with all things we judge: there are less dirty players and more dirty players.
Dirty or not dirty?
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Is Kelly Olynyk a dirty player? Here’s what others think:
KEVIN LOVE (in 2015): “I have no doubt in my mind that he [injured my shoulder] on purpose.”
DRAYMOND GREEN: ”He’s dirty. Dirty player. I don’t respect guys like that.”
ISAIAH THOMAS: “I don’t know how [Draymond] can call anybody dirty. ... It’s a joke that he said that.”
KELLY OLYNYK: “That’s ridiculous. I know what I am, what I do and what I stand for. My teammates know, and that’s all that matters.”
Where does Olynyk fit on that scale?
It’d be difficult to call him a completely unsullied player given the vociferousness with which players call him dirty. It’d be difficult to call him clean after the Love incident. But he’s also never been suspended for kicking opponents in the groin. He’s never knocked someone out on the court with an elbow. He’s not Draymond Green or Karl Malone.
On the Dirty Spectrum, Olynyk is likely somewhere to the right of average: he’s not extremely dirty, but he’s not clean. He’s moderately dirty.
This is entirely subjective — a point we’ll get to momentarily — and reasonable people can disagree. Just as people argue with a straight face that Green truly can’t control the fact that he kicks whenever he rebounds, shoots, thinks, smiles, or hiccups, people can argue that Olynyk is simply an uncoordinated goof. Kevin Love, Kelly Oubre and most observers who don’t bleed green would disagree.
About the subjectivity of dirty play: of course it’s subjective! Turner’s oft-hilarious graphics team put up a chart during playoff coverage this week comparing Green’s disciplinary sanctions to those of Olynyk.
The technical fouls figure in this graphic is completely meaningless: you don’t get techs for “dirty” play. You get them for excessive complaining to the officials, for extracurricular jawing or pushing, for taunting. As such, ejections — which can happen for those reasons — are irrelevant for a judgment of dirtiness as well.
Flagrant fouls are a better gauge, but remain imperfect because they are so rare. Consider that Olynyk didn’t receive a flagrant foul for the Love incident, but was suspended a game by the league, which tends to review moments that receive fan or media scrutiny.
Consider also that not all flagrants are considered equal. Green earned a flagrant for body slamming Michael Beasley in the closing moment of an irrelevant game last spring. That flagrant had no lasting impact on Beasley or the Rockets: he wasn’t injured, Houston had no shot against Golden State either way. The only long-term impact it had is by racking up disciplinary points on Green’s ledger, which resulted in the infamous suspension for Game 5 of the NBA Finals, which may have flipped the championship.
Olynyk received no flagrant in 2015, but by ending Kevin Love’s season, he may have flipped the championship. (I’m skeptical Cleveland had a shot once Kyrie Irving went down, but the Cavaliers were really competitive in the Finals. You never know.)
Ranking players on the Dirty Spectrum by flagrant fouls is impossible.
That’s because most players never pick up a flagrant foul. Those who do pick up very few.
The concept of counting flagrants de-emphasizes implicit dirtiness, which is more pervasive and perhaps more dangerous than Green-style theatrical combat. Consider John Stockton and Karl Malone, who were straight-up nasty to opponents with elbows, knees, trips, excessively hard screens, and every other trick in the book. They didn’t draw many (if any) flagrants. But they exuded dirtiness.
Chris Paul is dirty. Ask Julius Hodge. Draymond Green is dirty. Ask literally anyone. Marcus Smart is dirty. Few players get opponents as mad as Smart does. Each of those three guys had two flagrant fouls this year. Richard Jefferson — Richard Jefferson — had three. Richard Jefferson is not considered dirty in any sense of the word.
Kent Bazemore and Isaiah Thomas, the two most smiley players in the NBA, each had two flagrants, the same as CP3, Green and Smart. Blake Griffin, who is mocked by a subset of knuckleheads as being “soft,” had two flagrants. Patrick Beverley, perhaps the nastiest wing defender in the league, had none.
This is a subjective matter. We rely on the words of players, we rely on tape, and we rely on our own instincts. We may never know objective truth on whether Kelly Olynyk is “dirty,” but we can build some sort of consensus on the matter.
The consensus seems to be that Olynyk is no Draymond, but he’s kind of dirty. That seems like a fair verdict.
