PHILADELPHIA — If someone would have told Tiago Splitter back in 2014 that in 12 years, he would no longer be competing against LeBron James, he would be coaching against him, his reply would have been a simple one.
“That you’re crazy,” he said with a laugh of that possibility.
But there Splitter in Monday’s 126-107 loss to Philadelphia, no longer battling James in two NBA Finals as a member of the Spurs, but trying to game plan against him as the coach of the Bulls and James now in Year 24 of his NBA career, playing in the City of Brotherly Love.
“I think I know that guy from somewhere,” Splitter said of James. “No, I’m a big fan. LeBron is unbelievable. Of course, I faced him in two Finals but he’s unbelievable to see him playing and competing at this level. You know we’re the same age and just looking at him and what he’s doing is unbelievable.”
Quite the night for Splitter in Philadelphia, as he was trying to figure out how his players could slow down an aging legend in James – who finished with 15 points, nine assists and seven rebounds – while continuing to try and raise a potential superstar of his own in rookie Caleb Wilson.
The James piece of it proved to be much easier, especially since the future Hall of Famer is now more of a chessmaster, using his IQ to manipulate the court. His days of being explosive offensive weapon have simmered at age 41.
Wilson? He’s just getting started on his NBA journey, and as this week has shown, it’s not exactly a quiet arrival for the 20-year-old. He made that very clear in Boston when he was discussing the team’s lethargic play in the loss and said, “I’m 20 and I’ve never been a loser in my whole life so I’m going to try my best to make sure that doesn’t happen, and I’m not ever going to accept being a loser. This is my job to be a leader on this team and it’s all going to start with me, I know that.
“It’s partially my fault that we started off the way we did, whether I’m the youngest on the team or not. I take ownership for that and it won’t happen again.”
He doubled down on that a day later, telling reporters, “Nothing that I do, I feel like, is typical.”
It’s not, and for good reason as he led the team yet again with 24 points. In most locker rooms the veteran players would put talk like that down, keeping the rookie in a rookie place.
Why it works for Wilson and the Bulls (1-6), however, is because it’s a younger team, it’s a new regime, and more importantly, his teammates know it comes from a place of being genuine rather than filled with bravado.
That’s why Splitter isn’t concerned about having to navigate comments from his rookie.
“I don’t see it that way, by any means,” Splitter said when asked if it could be misconstrued as Wilson trying to take over. “I just think he’s a kid that has a lot of expectations that he’s put on himself and he wants to be a great player. He wants everyone around him to be great as well, but I don’t think there’s anything bad with that.”
And while it’s not the way Splitter would have spoken as a rookie, his circumstances were much different.
“I like guys to be humble and know where they are, but of course he’s a guy that is genuine and will speak what he is feeling,” Splitter said. “You just got to be careful.
“It’s almost impossible to have everybody on the same timeline with the rules that the NBA has now, so you’re always going to have young guys, vet guys, you’re always going to have different timelines. There’s no issue there.”
