This blog is in no way a criticism of Keith Smart's coaching job this season. I thought he did well under adverse conditions (one of them being the worst first round draft choices in the history of the world and the underworld since Chris Cohan bought the Warriors). What's that old saying about you can't make a horse race outta horse manure? Smart may indeed become a good coach in the NBA. And I hope he gets his chance.
That said, I humbly point out that there is a great coach available, no OJT required. That coach is Rick Adelman, late of the Houston Rockets - the lateness due to Rocket management brain damage, or that illness owners of teams often succumb to called "lackachampionship."
Indeed Adelman has not won an NBA Championship, but does that mean he is not a great coach? Not by my standards. To my way of thinking a great coach produces consistently competitive playoff teams. The key word being consistent. As for a Championship, Adelman and his worthy Sacramento Kings should be wearing the rings gifted to the Los Angeles Lakers in 2002 by some of the most shameful and disgraceful refereeing in league history.
Adelman's only lackluster years were the two as the coach of the Warriors, but with every other NBA team he has coached, his teams have been successful. Adelman teams play hard on both ends of the court. He is intelligent and creative, and most importantly he is respected by the vast majority of the players he has coached.
Signing Rick Adelman unfortunately means not renewing Keith Smart's contract, which is a shame. Smart deserves a chance to prove himself. But how the heck can the Warriors pass up an opportunity to sign Rick Adelman?
Perhaps the Rockets should hire Smart. And if Irony rules the universe, which I'm convinced it does, Smart will go on to win an NBA championship in Houston.
And what will Rick do as the Warriors' coach? What he has always done, produce tough-minded, competitive NBA playoff teams, ones that the Bay Area fans can be proud of and deserve. Will he produce a championship team? We'll never know unless the Warriors hire him.
Michael Harper was my son's poetry professor at Brown University. I've read and enjoyed many of his great poems, but none were about sports until I found this one. Harper weighs about 300 pounds, so I can't see him shooting jumpers.
Makin' Jump Shots by Michael Harper
He waltzes into the lane
"cross the free-throw line,
fakes a drive, pivots,
floats from the asphalt turf
in an arc of black light,
and sinks two into the chains.
One on one he fakes
down the main, passes
into the free lane
and hits the chains.
A sniff in the fallen air -
he stuffs it through the chains
riding high:
"traveling" someone calls -
and he laughs, stepping
to a silent beat, gliding
as he sinks two into the chains.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Sporting Green Saturday April 16, 2011
From page 1: NHL finally on the first page of the Sporting Green. Lots of folks excited. Pas moi. I have never been able to see the damnable puck. (Is it possible that if I were a Canadian, I'd have better eyesight?) I think I have the puck in my sights, then, voila, it's gone and players are crashing into each other on the boards. Where the hell is the puck? I think I see something round, black,and shiny in the middle of all the skates. But I lose my concentration because two skaters are beating the stuffings out of each other and, unlike the NFL intellectuals, these damn fools have taken off their helmets. There's bound to be blood. I guess fights are one of the reasons some people enjoy watching Canada's national sport, eh? I'd settle for just being able to see the puck enter the net.
Also from page 1: According to Rusty Simmons, Keith Smart didn't get a vote of confidence from the new owners of the Warriors or from Larry Riley, who didn't get much of a vote of confidence from the owners either when they hired his replacement, assistant GM, Bob Meyers, who claims the Warriors are a "volcano ready to erupt." Wow! It's Krakatoa arena not Oracle. Before there is any eruption, the Warriors must find a tough minded five who is able to make opponents think twice about driving into the paint; make sure Monta and Curry understand how to play defense; find a third guard for the rotation who is a lock-down defender; find a point forward who can create off the bounce, (or hope Darell Wright can learn over summer); develop a defensive philosophy, (one that includes a fourth quarter strategy); clean all the dead wood from the bench and start all over again acquiring bench strength (what the heck is Radmanovich and Bell good for? Radmonovich couldn't guard my old grandmother.) I like Jeremy Lim, (as a fourth guard) but can he shoot at all? Beidrens should be ashamed of himself. If the Warriors stay status quo or even close to status quo, the only eruption will be of the hips. Sorry, that was a little crude.
From page 9:What a hoot. Kobe's Lakers and GLAAD - Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation -announced a partnership. Was that partnership in the works before Kobe opened his insensitive mouth? This is called after the fact epiphany. Reminds me of the Nixon bunch going to jail and discovering religion.
More from page 9: Can't wait for the Denver Nuggets, Oklahoma Thunder game tonight. Nothing against Carmelo, but isn't it wonderful to see the Nuggets prove you can be competitive without a "go-to-guy." Besides, Carmelo couldn't guard my old grandmother either. Perhaps the "they don't guard anyone" Knicks should trade for the Warrior's Vladimir, the defensive specialist. (Oops, waited too long to post this. Can't wait for tonight's second game.)
I attended the last game of the Warriors' season against the Portland Blazers and watched a good three point shooting contests, better than the one at the All-Star game, at least. Not much in the way of basketball. Whoever hired the band that plays at the Warrior games, should be forced to sit next to the sax player for the rest of his or her life; no ear plugs allowed.
This hockey poem is too long to type out in it's entirety. The last section, entitled, The Goalie, is the best in my opinion.
The Hockey Poem by Robert Bly
4 The Goalie
And this man with his peaked mask, with slits, how fantastic he is, like a white insect, who has given up on evolution in his life his family hopes to evolve after death, in the grave. He is ominous a a Dark Ages knight...the Black Prince. His enemies defeated him in the day, but every one of them died in their beds that night...At his father's funeral, he carried his own head under his arm.
He is the old woman in the shoe, whose house is never clean, no matter what she does. Perhaps this goalie is not a man at all, but a woman, all women; in her cage everything disappears in the end; we all long for it. All these movements on the ice will end, the advertisements come down, the stadium wall bared... This goalie with his mask is a woman weeping over the children of men, that are cut down like grass, gulls that stand with cold feet on the ice...And at the end, she is still waiting, brushing away the leaves, waiting for the new children developed by speed, by war....
Also from page 1: According to Rusty Simmons, Keith Smart didn't get a vote of confidence from the new owners of the Warriors or from Larry Riley, who didn't get much of a vote of confidence from the owners either when they hired his replacement, assistant GM, Bob Meyers, who claims the Warriors are a "volcano ready to erupt." Wow! It's Krakatoa arena not Oracle. Before there is any eruption, the Warriors must find a tough minded five who is able to make opponents think twice about driving into the paint; make sure Monta and Curry understand how to play defense; find a third guard for the rotation who is a lock-down defender; find a point forward who can create off the bounce, (or hope Darell Wright can learn over summer); develop a defensive philosophy, (one that includes a fourth quarter strategy); clean all the dead wood from the bench and start all over again acquiring bench strength (what the heck is Radmanovich and Bell good for? Radmonovich couldn't guard my old grandmother.) I like Jeremy Lim, (as a fourth guard) but can he shoot at all? Beidrens should be ashamed of himself. If the Warriors stay status quo or even close to status quo, the only eruption will be of the hips. Sorry, that was a little crude.
From page 9:What a hoot. Kobe's Lakers and GLAAD - Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation -announced a partnership. Was that partnership in the works before Kobe opened his insensitive mouth? This is called after the fact epiphany. Reminds me of the Nixon bunch going to jail and discovering religion.
More from page 9: Can't wait for the Denver Nuggets, Oklahoma Thunder game tonight. Nothing against Carmelo, but isn't it wonderful to see the Nuggets prove you can be competitive without a "go-to-guy." Besides, Carmelo couldn't guard my old grandmother either. Perhaps the "they don't guard anyone" Knicks should trade for the Warrior's Vladimir, the defensive specialist. (Oops, waited too long to post this. Can't wait for tonight's second game.)
I attended the last game of the Warriors' season against the Portland Blazers and watched a good three point shooting contests, better than the one at the All-Star game, at least. Not much in the way of basketball. Whoever hired the band that plays at the Warrior games, should be forced to sit next to the sax player for the rest of his or her life; no ear plugs allowed.
This hockey poem is too long to type out in it's entirety. The last section, entitled, The Goalie, is the best in my opinion.
The Hockey Poem by Robert Bly
4 The Goalie
And this man with his peaked mask, with slits, how fantastic he is, like a white insect, who has given up on evolution in his life his family hopes to evolve after death, in the grave. He is ominous a a Dark Ages knight...the Black Prince. His enemies defeated him in the day, but every one of them died in their beds that night...At his father's funeral, he carried his own head under his arm.
He is the old woman in the shoe, whose house is never clean, no matter what she does. Perhaps this goalie is not a man at all, but a woman, all women; in her cage everything disappears in the end; we all long for it. All these movements on the ice will end, the advertisements come down, the stadium wall bared... This goalie with his mask is a woman weeping over the children of men, that are cut down like grass, gulls that stand with cold feet on the ice...And at the end, she is still waiting, brushing away the leaves, waiting for the new children developed by speed, by war....
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Test Scores and Coaching
Florida Governor, Rick Scott signed a teacher merit-pay bill that will "overhaul how teachers across the state will be evaluated and paid." The law creates an evaluation system that "relies heavily on student test score data to judge teacher quality." Teachers around the country gird your loins. Unless this educational trend can be stopped, it marks the end of creativity in the classroom and turns students over to the data minded wonks.
I can't begin to tell you how much data minded wonks upset me. What are they thinking, that classroom teachers can be evaluated like sports coaches? The test for coaches is simple. Succeed or get fired. In sports this is a reasonably accurate way of judging a coach's ability as long as the time frame the college or pro team allows the coach is reasonable and level playing fields exist.
These testers would argue that results of tests will allow teachers to remediate students who fail the tests. Nonsense. Most of the kids failing standardized tests are right-brained thinkers, and no matter what teachers do, remediation will not help these kids to pass these tests.
The object of education is to pass tests, right?
Wrong!
In the classroom, things are never so cut and dry as they are in coaching. A test score is not like a winning season, nor is it like a losing season. High test scores do not measure a student's knowledge, nor do low test scores demonstrate a student's lack of same. It simply measures a student's ability to take a test. It may or may not test how much knowledge the student possesses. It certainly does not test potential or creativity. Right brain functioning students historically do far worse on tests than left brain (logical) thinkers. Does that make them more worthy?
In sports, there is room for both kinds of thinkers, but never in the world of standardized tests, at least not the one's I've ever seen, and I taught in high school and college for twenty years after retiring from professional basketball. In the NBA there was room for players like Bill Bradley and Earl Monroe from my era and LeBron James and Tim Duncan in today's game - left brains and right brains helping their teams to excel.
If only government and leadership in education would come to realize the need to test both sides of the brain to measure knowledge, if only they would realize that both sides of the brain need to be represented in the classroom, if only they weren't such left brainers. Gad!
But they just don't get it. If the trend to standardized tests continues as the principal evaluation of students, it won't be long before they will soon wipe out diverse thinking in classrooms while the contents of standardized tests, developed by left brain bean-counters, will see to it that right brained thinkers will fail.
Read, future dropout rates skyrocketing.
If only the education wonks would take a lesson from sports coaches. In team sports, coaches have always known they can't succeed with only one type of player. In team sports, it's essential that there's a mix, not just of role players and starters, but of players who approach the game from different mind-sets.
And just so bean-counters don't think I'm picking on them, there is even room in coaching (and teaching) for the statistical wonks (I'm thinking of the GM of the Houston Rockets), just as there is a place (but not a significant place) for the educational test-only-been-counters in education.
Do you get the picture, you out there in the Department of Non-Education?
Governor Rick Scott will probably see much better test scores in the future. He will also lose a great number of creative students and teachers. And the consequent long-term brain-drain for Florida will be profound.
Watch out, America, the wonks are putting on a full court press.
When I was teaching, skateboarders, stoners and Goths were often emblematic of classroom failure. Most of them I knew were right-brain thinkers and did not function well in standard classrooms, nor did they do well on standardized tests. Here's a poem about skateboarding, one heck of a fun sport.
Skateboard by Thom Gunn
Tow Head on his skateboard
threads through a crowd
of feet and faces delayed
to a slow stupidity.
Darts, doubles, twists.
You notice how nimbly
the body itself has learned
to asses the relation between
the board, pedestrians,
and immediate sidewalk.
Emblem. Emblem of fashion.
Wearing dirty white
in dishevelment as delicate
as the falling draperies
on a dandyish
Renaissance saint.
Chain round his waist.
One hand gloved.
Hair dyed to show it is dyed,
pale flame spiking from fuel.
Two Head on Skateboard
perfecting himself:
emblem extraordinary
of the ordinary.
In the sexless face
eyes innocent of feeling
therefore suggest the spirit.
I can't begin to tell you how much data minded wonks upset me. What are they thinking, that classroom teachers can be evaluated like sports coaches? The test for coaches is simple. Succeed or get fired. In sports this is a reasonably accurate way of judging a coach's ability as long as the time frame the college or pro team allows the coach is reasonable and level playing fields exist.
These testers would argue that results of tests will allow teachers to remediate students who fail the tests. Nonsense. Most of the kids failing standardized tests are right-brained thinkers, and no matter what teachers do, remediation will not help these kids to pass these tests.
The object of education is to pass tests, right?
Wrong!
In the classroom, things are never so cut and dry as they are in coaching. A test score is not like a winning season, nor is it like a losing season. High test scores do not measure a student's knowledge, nor do low test scores demonstrate a student's lack of same. It simply measures a student's ability to take a test. It may or may not test how much knowledge the student possesses. It certainly does not test potential or creativity. Right brain functioning students historically do far worse on tests than left brain (logical) thinkers. Does that make them more worthy?
In sports, there is room for both kinds of thinkers, but never in the world of standardized tests, at least not the one's I've ever seen, and I taught in high school and college for twenty years after retiring from professional basketball. In the NBA there was room for players like Bill Bradley and Earl Monroe from my era and LeBron James and Tim Duncan in today's game - left brains and right brains helping their teams to excel.
If only government and leadership in education would come to realize the need to test both sides of the brain to measure knowledge, if only they would realize that both sides of the brain need to be represented in the classroom, if only they weren't such left brainers. Gad!
But they just don't get it. If the trend to standardized tests continues as the principal evaluation of students, it won't be long before they will soon wipe out diverse thinking in classrooms while the contents of standardized tests, developed by left brain bean-counters, will see to it that right brained thinkers will fail.
Read, future dropout rates skyrocketing.
If only the education wonks would take a lesson from sports coaches. In team sports, coaches have always known they can't succeed with only one type of player. In team sports, it's essential that there's a mix, not just of role players and starters, but of players who approach the game from different mind-sets.
And just so bean-counters don't think I'm picking on them, there is even room in coaching (and teaching) for the statistical wonks (I'm thinking of the GM of the Houston Rockets), just as there is a place (but not a significant place) for the educational test-only-been-counters in education.
Do you get the picture, you out there in the Department of Non-Education?
Governor Rick Scott will probably see much better test scores in the future. He will also lose a great number of creative students and teachers. And the consequent long-term brain-drain for Florida will be profound.
Watch out, America, the wonks are putting on a full court press.
When I was teaching, skateboarders, stoners and Goths were often emblematic of classroom failure. Most of them I knew were right-brain thinkers and did not function well in standard classrooms, nor did they do well on standardized tests. Here's a poem about skateboarding, one heck of a fun sport.
Skateboard by Thom Gunn
Tow Head on his skateboard
threads through a crowd
of feet and faces delayed
to a slow stupidity.
Darts, doubles, twists.
You notice how nimbly
the body itself has learned
to asses the relation between
the board, pedestrians,
and immediate sidewalk.
Emblem. Emblem of fashion.
Wearing dirty white
in dishevelment as delicate
as the falling draperies
on a dandyish
Renaissance saint.
Chain round his waist.
One hand gloved.
Hair dyed to show it is dyed,
pale flame spiking from fuel.
Two Head on Skateboard
perfecting himself:
emblem extraordinary
of the ordinary.
In the sexless face
eyes innocent of feeling
therefore suggest the spirit.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
A Few Random Thoughts on Recent Sports News
Jared Sullinger of Ohio State Buckeyes scored 18 pts in a blowout of George Mason (98-66) and informed (read taunted) a George Mason player, "It's over." Attention NBA general managers! Do not draft this guy! On the other hand, if Sullinger had had the ball in his hands with his team down by one with 5 seconds to go, and said the same thing, "It's over" then scored, I'd say draft him first round pronto. Only Sullinger didn't. He chose to be a bully.
Kendrick Perkins is young or foolish or both to call Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant soft. It doesn't matter what you think, young fellow, you never give your opponent an added incentive to KYA.
I'm loving the NCAA, although my second round picks were mostly loosers. And I hate the new Round of Four, but will suffer it if the NCAA can guarantee me at least one VCU out of the eight team bracket every year.
Can Jimeer Fredette play in the NBA? I didn't think so until I saw him perform at the Big Dance. He's no speedster, but he's tricky and has a great first step, and he can shoot the three from the four point line. Come to think of it, how's that for a new idea: a four and five point line. Talk about excitement.
Warriors, listen up, I've said it before, I'm saying it again, hire Bill Walton to coach Andres Biedrens over the off-season. If the Latvian has any pride at all he'll learn from a man like Walton and wind up better than any big man pick coming out of college this season.
I love the NCAA commercial informing viewers that NCAA athletes as a group have a higher academic performance than the rest of the student body. Could they say that if they compared only the football, basketball, and baseball teams to the rest of the student body? Not a chance.
I don't understand why college's so-called minor sports don't receive more sporting news coverage. Has any sportswriter checked out the tremendous performances of some of our university tennis, golf, soccer, swimming teams? Once a week, at least, the front page of every sporting section should be devoted to these student athletes. Front Page, Front, as in First Page. Not one mention of the pros or college semi-pros until the third page. Serves them right.
I watched Don Nelson on TV last night. I expected a little more hardball, but that's OK. Nelson has had a terrific career as a coach. His wins speak volumes about his ability. The one thing I couldn't understand was the part when he said his job with the Warriors was over when Biedrens rejected Nelson's suggestion to shoot free throws underhand. You got to be kidding, right? Nelson said he had Barry lined up to come in to teach Biedrens the technique. Sounds pretty logical to me. So, why over? Does Biedrens have that much power? Is so, he ought be able to grab a few more rebounds. Would something like this have happened with Phil Jackson or Greg Popovich? Or when Nelson was with Milwaukee. Weak owner is as bad as a weak player. Sports is the only place where the "Trickle Down Theory" of economics is valid.
Here's a poem for cross-country runners who get no ink.
Run Before Dawn by William Stafford
Most mornings I get away, slip out
the door before light, set forth on the dim gray
road, letting my feet find a cadence
that softly carries me on. Nobody
is up-all alone my journey begins.
Some days it's escape: the city is burning
behind me, cars have stalled in their tracks,
and everybody is fleeing like me but some other direction.
My stride is for life, a far place.
Other days it is hunting: maybe some game will cross
my path and my stride will follow for hours, matching
all turns. My breathing has caught the right beat
for endurance; familiar trance like scenes glide by.
And sometimes it's a dream of motion, streetlights coming near,
passing shadows that lean before me, lengthened
then fading, and a sound from a tree: a soul, or an owl.
These journeys are quiet. They mark my days with adventure
too precious for anyone else to share, little gems
of darkness, the world going by, and my breath, and the road.
Kendrick Perkins is young or foolish or both to call Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant soft. It doesn't matter what you think, young fellow, you never give your opponent an added incentive to KYA.
I'm loving the NCAA, although my second round picks were mostly loosers. And I hate the new Round of Four, but will suffer it if the NCAA can guarantee me at least one VCU out of the eight team bracket every year.
Can Jimeer Fredette play in the NBA? I didn't think so until I saw him perform at the Big Dance. He's no speedster, but he's tricky and has a great first step, and he can shoot the three from the four point line. Come to think of it, how's that for a new idea: a four and five point line. Talk about excitement.
Warriors, listen up, I've said it before, I'm saying it again, hire Bill Walton to coach Andres Biedrens over the off-season. If the Latvian has any pride at all he'll learn from a man like Walton and wind up better than any big man pick coming out of college this season.
I love the NCAA commercial informing viewers that NCAA athletes as a group have a higher academic performance than the rest of the student body. Could they say that if they compared only the football, basketball, and baseball teams to the rest of the student body? Not a chance.
I don't understand why college's so-called minor sports don't receive more sporting news coverage. Has any sportswriter checked out the tremendous performances of some of our university tennis, golf, soccer, swimming teams? Once a week, at least, the front page of every sporting section should be devoted to these student athletes. Front Page, Front, as in First Page. Not one mention of the pros or college semi-pros until the third page. Serves them right.
I watched Don Nelson on TV last night. I expected a little more hardball, but that's OK. Nelson has had a terrific career as a coach. His wins speak volumes about his ability. The one thing I couldn't understand was the part when he said his job with the Warriors was over when Biedrens rejected Nelson's suggestion to shoot free throws underhand. You got to be kidding, right? Nelson said he had Barry lined up to come in to teach Biedrens the technique. Sounds pretty logical to me. So, why over? Does Biedrens have that much power? Is so, he ought be able to grab a few more rebounds. Would something like this have happened with Phil Jackson or Greg Popovich? Or when Nelson was with Milwaukee. Weak owner is as bad as a weak player. Sports is the only place where the "Trickle Down Theory" of economics is valid.
Here's a poem for cross-country runners who get no ink.
Run Before Dawn by William Stafford
Most mornings I get away, slip out
the door before light, set forth on the dim gray
road, letting my feet find a cadence
that softly carries me on. Nobody
is up-all alone my journey begins.
Some days it's escape: the city is burning
behind me, cars have stalled in their tracks,
and everybody is fleeing like me but some other direction.
My stride is for life, a far place.
Other days it is hunting: maybe some game will cross
my path and my stride will follow for hours, matching
all turns. My breathing has caught the right beat
for endurance; familiar trance like scenes glide by.
And sometimes it's a dream of motion, streetlights coming near,
passing shadows that lean before me, lengthened
then fading, and a sound from a tree: a soul, or an owl.
These journeys are quiet. They mark my days with adventure
too precious for anyone else to share, little gems
of darkness, the world going by, and my breath, and the road.
Friday, March 11, 2011
What About Biedrins? A Crucial Question for the Warriors
At the beginning of this NBA season I wrote an enthusiastic blog about the Golden State Warriors. At that time, in the wake of Don Nelson's departure, I figured my old team had a chance of making the playoffs. That notion was based on three factors and one condition. The factors were the number of weak teams in the league this season, coupled with improved coaching and the addition of two strong players, David Lee and Darrell Wright.
The condition was that Andris Biedrins would have a reasonably strong season. (I suspect Coach Smart was counting on Biedrin's improvement as well.) I didn't think my expectations for Biedrins were too irrational. Eight points per game, ten bpg, and a few rejections would have satisfied me. At first I was heartened by his play. But as the season progressed, Biedren's game devolved, for no reason I could discern. Some suggested Biedrin's ineffectiveness was psychological - the loss of confidence theory, ie: blame it on Don Nelson,which sounded more like Blame It on the Bossa Nova than reality to me.
If it's not psychological, and not the Bossa Nova, what is it? Here's the thinking of an old power-forward who spent most of his career grabbing rebounds and playing in the paint. First: Biedrins mistakenly relies on his height to rebound. Second: Biedrin's footwork is atrocious; he is almost always flat footed. Third: he doesn't position himself strongly in the paint. Fourth: he misjudges the trajectory of the rebound. (Ball bounces off the rim to the right, Biedrins is on the left; ball bounces to the left, Biedrins is standing on the right.) Finally, Biedrins does not follow the Bill Russell rule: Always assume that every shot is going to be a miss? Recently I heard Kevin Love talk about rebounding citing the Russell rule, and we know what that young man has accomplished on the boards.
What frustrates me, and I assume others, is that Biedrins (remember he's only 22 years old.) definitely has some talent, which leads me to believe (God, I can't believe I'm saying it.) I don't think the Warriors should give up on him, not yet, not without spending a full summer with him (Not in Latvia) working on rebounding. AND, that work MUST be conducted by a coach who knows about rebounding, not theoretically, but from experience, an ex-power forward/center, a Maurice Lucas (rest his soul) type, someone with the strength of personality to motivate and inspire Biedrins to reach his potential. I don't know if Bill Walton would be available, but he comes to mind as someone who could do the job.
If you, dear reader, think this is nuts, considering Biedrin's abysmal performance this season, consider this: There are no centers in this year's draft and no team is stupid enough to give up any of their true power players - perhaps for Ellis or Curry, but where would that leave the Warriors?
The gamble is whether Biedrins can turn his game around. But if he can, and it is a big IF, I grant you, the Warriors can go into the draft looking for a lock-down defender at the guard position and a true point forward. We have enough spot-up shooters. We need a creative three who can score off the bounce.
It's the start of baseball season. I know that by how far back NBA news appeared in the Chronicle sporting green this morning. Here's a poem about baseball.
Pitching Coups by Ron Wellburn
The arc of the pitching arm
unwinds a circle of dreams
and corkscrews out behind a kick
to release a flying head,
in whose face coming towards
the men with bats
is a leer and a laugh.
The stitches of the sphere blur
into war paint and the heaad's
ecstatic yell echoes
throughout this canyon of battle.
It flies as straight as an arrow or
whirls like a tomahawk;
somethimes it just jumps off a ledge
the way lovers are said to do
in secret ravines all over the countryy.
It always comes ready to count coup
and tease and intimidate.
The pitching arm belongs to coyote
and so does the flying head.
The arm belongs to Chief Bender
from yesterday, then Allie Reynolds,
and the next time to Cal McLish,
and now to John Henry Johnson and
Fernando, the Valenzuela.
Pitchers all.
Coyotes too.
'Skins.
The condition was that Andris Biedrins would have a reasonably strong season. (I suspect Coach Smart was counting on Biedrin's improvement as well.) I didn't think my expectations for Biedrins were too irrational. Eight points per game, ten bpg, and a few rejections would have satisfied me. At first I was heartened by his play. But as the season progressed, Biedren's game devolved, for no reason I could discern. Some suggested Biedrin's ineffectiveness was psychological - the loss of confidence theory, ie: blame it on Don Nelson,which sounded more like Blame It on the Bossa Nova than reality to me.
If it's not psychological, and not the Bossa Nova, what is it? Here's the thinking of an old power-forward who spent most of his career grabbing rebounds and playing in the paint. First: Biedrins mistakenly relies on his height to rebound. Second: Biedrin's footwork is atrocious; he is almost always flat footed. Third: he doesn't position himself strongly in the paint. Fourth: he misjudges the trajectory of the rebound. (Ball bounces off the rim to the right, Biedrins is on the left; ball bounces to the left, Biedrins is standing on the right.) Finally, Biedrins does not follow the Bill Russell rule: Always assume that every shot is going to be a miss? Recently I heard Kevin Love talk about rebounding citing the Russell rule, and we know what that young man has accomplished on the boards.
What frustrates me, and I assume others, is that Biedrins (remember he's only 22 years old.) definitely has some talent, which leads me to believe (God, I can't believe I'm saying it.) I don't think the Warriors should give up on him, not yet, not without spending a full summer with him (Not in Latvia) working on rebounding. AND, that work MUST be conducted by a coach who knows about rebounding, not theoretically, but from experience, an ex-power forward/center, a Maurice Lucas (rest his soul) type, someone with the strength of personality to motivate and inspire Biedrins to reach his potential. I don't know if Bill Walton would be available, but he comes to mind as someone who could do the job.
If you, dear reader, think this is nuts, considering Biedrin's abysmal performance this season, consider this: There are no centers in this year's draft and no team is stupid enough to give up any of their true power players - perhaps for Ellis or Curry, but where would that leave the Warriors?
The gamble is whether Biedrins can turn his game around. But if he can, and it is a big IF, I grant you, the Warriors can go into the draft looking for a lock-down defender at the guard position and a true point forward. We have enough spot-up shooters. We need a creative three who can score off the bounce.
It's the start of baseball season. I know that by how far back NBA news appeared in the Chronicle sporting green this morning. Here's a poem about baseball.
Pitching Coups by Ron Wellburn
The arc of the pitching arm
unwinds a circle of dreams
and corkscrews out behind a kick
to release a flying head,
in whose face coming towards
the men with bats
is a leer and a laugh.
The stitches of the sphere blur
into war paint and the heaad's
ecstatic yell echoes
throughout this canyon of battle.
It flies as straight as an arrow or
whirls like a tomahawk;
somethimes it just jumps off a ledge
the way lovers are said to do
in secret ravines all over the countryy.
It always comes ready to count coup
and tease and intimidate.
The pitching arm belongs to coyote
and so does the flying head.
The arm belongs to Chief Bender
from yesterday, then Allie Reynolds,
and the next time to Cal McLish,
and now to John Henry Johnson and
Fernando, the Valenzuela.
Pitchers all.
Coyotes too.
'Skins.
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