If I was the emperor of the NBA, able to wave my imperial staff and change what ever I wished, here are some of the changes I would make:
1)Fans will no longer vote for All-Stars. It's an excuse for teams to stuff ballots. Yao Ming voted in
this year was ludicrous. Not sure about the coaches when they didn't vote Kevin Love in.
2) A summer school for referees will be created to teach them when to call a foul and when to simply leave
the contact a "No Call! There would be remedial classes focusing on the differences between
a flagrant foul and simple tough defensive attempts to stop an opponent. I just finished watching the
Clippers' Blake Griffin get a flagrant for a powerful effort to block Al Horford's equally power drive
to the basket.
3) No competitive basketball will be allowed during the off-season except during an Olympic Year.
Players need to rest muscles after a treacherously long season.
4) The court will be lengthened by two feet on each end and one foot on each side.
5) The 3 point line will be extended back one foot.
6) The European key configuration will be adopted.
7) There will be no expansion until teams begin to reach some kind of parity. If they can't, two teams will be
shut down and the best players allotted to the sub-500 teams in inverse order of their standings.
at the end of the last season.
8) All season tickets and regular tickets will be lowered to a reasonable rate. Players, management, and
owners will have to 'suck it up" and see their salaries and profits reduced. NBA fans finally deserve a
break.
9) Teams can not have more than three assistant coaches. How's that for cost-cutting? Those
empty seats behind the bench could be sold at a premium. Speaking of cost cutting, if I know
anything about bureaucracy, I'll bet management is top heavy with responsibility redundancy. Do you
really need that assistant to the assistant?
10) There will be two significant rule changes: 1 - A point system determining team standing will go into effect: During each game seven points will be awarded, three for winning the game and one point for each quarter in which a team outscores their opponent. Team standings will be determined by number of points rather than win/loss percentage. 2 - A player can't foul out of a game. After a player's 6th foul, the opposing team receives an automatic free-throw.
When I Got It Right by Carl Lindner
The ball would lift
light as a wish,
gliding like a blessing
over the rim, pure,
or kissing off glass
into the skirt of net.
Once in began
I couldn't miss.
Even in the falling dark,
the ball, before it left
my hand, was sure.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Effort and Toughness
Following the defeat of the Warriors by the New Orleans Hornets, Warriors coach, Keith Smart, was quoted as saying, "The NBA takes two things, effort and toughness. If you don't show any of that against the good teams, they're going to force their will [on you]."
Smart could just as well have been talking about any of the sub 500 teams in the NBA.
Effort and toughness - call it ET. Play around with these letters and you can create a number of different possibilities: The effort of toughness; the toughness of effort. Without toughness, effort breaks down eventually. Without effort, toughness devolves into a series of on-court muggings and endless trips to the foul line. Most teams put out some sort of effort. But only a few teams put out effort consistently. And only the elite teams put out ET consistently.
In my mind ET is required as much on offense as it is on defense. ET is required of coaches and coaching staff as much as it is of players - I mean all players from starters to every single sub. And not to belabor the point, for GM's as well as owners. For the purposes of this blog, however, let's consider it as it applies to defense only.
There are only two teams so far this season that are playing defense with ET consistently: The Boston Celtics and the San Antonio Spurs. They do it because their coaches demand it. They do it because their veteran players demand it. If a team's vet starters don't understand what it takes to play with ET, the team has a problem, and management better find some who do.
How do you recognize teams who play with ET?
It's not too darn hard. You know the old saying: If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, etc. The minute a team engages another team playing with ET, they know they're in for a physical struggle all night, not just for a quarter or even for three quarters.
I hear the word "swagger" used a lot these days by the pundits. Though I'm not crazy about the word, I'll settle for it to make a point. Swagger represents a condition of the mind, that will not allow an offensive player to get an advantage. A player who plays defense with ET plays with an offense-mind-set. Attack! Don't wait for the offensive player to dictate the play. Attack! It requires will-power and a stubborn desire to win.
Allow me to create a scenario that describes "swagger."
When I was growing up in San Francisco, there were times I found myself in some of the rougher neighborhoods of my city. I learned that when certain groups of guys were approaching me, I needed to make a decision. Did I cross to the other side of the street or did I keep walking?
In the day-to-day of life, discrection is (and was for me) always the better part of valor, but in the NBA, you can't cross the street. You MUST keep on walking. When a tough team approaches, you can't back off.
Not an easy thing to do.
I suspect most sub-500 teams when they see Garnett, Pierce, Perkins, Shaq, and Big Baby approaching, might find themselves mentally jaywalking across rush hour traffic to get out of their way. That goes for the Spurs as well. And the ref hasn't even thrown the ball up yet.
On the other hand, imagine one of the weaker teams in the NBA approaching you down that metaphorical street (Read basketball court). Ask yourself if there is someone leading the group that makes you nervous? Ask yourself, how many guys on the team have the swagger? Which of the players on any of those weaker NBA teams is going to grab you by the shirt and shake you silly for getting in the way? Ask yourself if the players are going to draw the defensive line in the sand and dare the opposing offense to cross it?
As long as they can't or won't, they'll never win big. Never! You're right, Coach Smart, ET is where it's at in the NBA. It always has been.
I couldn't find a poem about playing D. I guess I'll try writing one myself. In the meantime I offer a piece of prose from John Edgar Wideman's wonderful memoir Hooproots about Ed Fleming, a player from Wideman's Pittsburgh neighborhood who played in the NBA.
"Fleming was six-foot-three forward, an inside player his entire college and professional career. The sort of smart banger, hustler, who contests every free ball. Persistent, fearless, he picks up the loose change most players treat as below their notice, chump change floating around at unspectacular moments in a game. He earns small victories in pitched skirmishes peripheral to the main action, battles unrecorded on stat sheets or in scorebooks, relentless because he understands that the little stuff accumulates and determines who wins or loses close games, who winds up winning championships."
Smart could just as well have been talking about any of the sub 500 teams in the NBA.
Effort and toughness - call it ET. Play around with these letters and you can create a number of different possibilities: The effort of toughness; the toughness of effort. Without toughness, effort breaks down eventually. Without effort, toughness devolves into a series of on-court muggings and endless trips to the foul line. Most teams put out some sort of effort. But only a few teams put out effort consistently. And only the elite teams put out ET consistently.
In my mind ET is required as much on offense as it is on defense. ET is required of coaches and coaching staff as much as it is of players - I mean all players from starters to every single sub. And not to belabor the point, for GM's as well as owners. For the purposes of this blog, however, let's consider it as it applies to defense only.
There are only two teams so far this season that are playing defense with ET consistently: The Boston Celtics and the San Antonio Spurs. They do it because their coaches demand it. They do it because their veteran players demand it. If a team's vet starters don't understand what it takes to play with ET, the team has a problem, and management better find some who do.
How do you recognize teams who play with ET?
It's not too darn hard. You know the old saying: If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, etc. The minute a team engages another team playing with ET, they know they're in for a physical struggle all night, not just for a quarter or even for three quarters.
I hear the word "swagger" used a lot these days by the pundits. Though I'm not crazy about the word, I'll settle for it to make a point. Swagger represents a condition of the mind, that will not allow an offensive player to get an advantage. A player who plays defense with ET plays with an offense-mind-set. Attack! Don't wait for the offensive player to dictate the play. Attack! It requires will-power and a stubborn desire to win.
Allow me to create a scenario that describes "swagger."
When I was growing up in San Francisco, there were times I found myself in some of the rougher neighborhoods of my city. I learned that when certain groups of guys were approaching me, I needed to make a decision. Did I cross to the other side of the street or did I keep walking?
In the day-to-day of life, discrection is (and was for me) always the better part of valor, but in the NBA, you can't cross the street. You MUST keep on walking. When a tough team approaches, you can't back off.
Not an easy thing to do.
I suspect most sub-500 teams when they see Garnett, Pierce, Perkins, Shaq, and Big Baby approaching, might find themselves mentally jaywalking across rush hour traffic to get out of their way. That goes for the Spurs as well. And the ref hasn't even thrown the ball up yet.
On the other hand, imagine one of the weaker teams in the NBA approaching you down that metaphorical street (Read basketball court). Ask yourself if there is someone leading the group that makes you nervous? Ask yourself, how many guys on the team have the swagger? Which of the players on any of those weaker NBA teams is going to grab you by the shirt and shake you silly for getting in the way? Ask yourself if the players are going to draw the defensive line in the sand and dare the opposing offense to cross it?
As long as they can't or won't, they'll never win big. Never! You're right, Coach Smart, ET is where it's at in the NBA. It always has been.
I couldn't find a poem about playing D. I guess I'll try writing one myself. In the meantime I offer a piece of prose from John Edgar Wideman's wonderful memoir Hooproots about Ed Fleming, a player from Wideman's Pittsburgh neighborhood who played in the NBA.
"Fleming was six-foot-three forward, an inside player his entire college and professional career. The sort of smart banger, hustler, who contests every free ball. Persistent, fearless, he picks up the loose change most players treat as below their notice, chump change floating around at unspectacular moments in a game. He earns small victories in pitched skirmishes peripheral to the main action, battles unrecorded on stat sheets or in scorebooks, relentless because he understands that the little stuff accumulates and determines who wins or loses close games, who winds up winning championships."
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