Congratulations to the Golden State Dubs for setting the record coming out of the blocks at Sixteen zip. Why not keep it going for a while? I watched the game on TV, marveling, not so much at Steph Curry, although he deserves marveling, but at the seamlessness of the entire team. Whoever is on the court, starters or non-starters, they all play with the same tempo and with the same selfless interaction. The players move, the ball moves. There's no face up, slow down, bog down, boring offense. I'm not a great fan of the word flow, as it relates to writing, but it is the perfect way to describe Warrior offense. As a river flows to the ocean so too do the Warriors flow toward an NBA championship.
Quickly, about Steph Curry. This morning I read an article comparing Steph to a ballet dancer. Goggle The Artistry of Steph Curry, nytimes.com. Best article about Steph's game I've ever read, which will be no doubt the quintessential description of him - ever. Step Curry as Rudolf Nureyev or vice versa. I went on line immediately and watched Nureyev and Margot Fonteyn dancing Romeo and Juliet. The article about Steph had it right. Steph supports basketball as a male dancer supports his female dancer, although I'm sure female dancers would not appreciate being compared to a ball.
Thinking about the gracefulness of basketball, I was reminded that Jamaal Wilkes of the last Warrior Championship team in 1975 was approached by Michael Smuin, then the director of the San Francisco Ballet to audition. That was the brainchild of Bill King, the iconic Warrior broadcaster, who was a close friend of Smuin and a fan of ballet. (That Christmas Bill was the narrator of Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf.) Wilkes was called Silk for his fluid motion on the court. Forty years later, the same silky gracefulness can be ascribed to Steph Curry.
On to etc: Today's Sacramento B sports page lamented the King's lack of defense. George Karl is a proponent of the running game. With Rajon Rondo leading the way, I think the Kings are getting with that tempo. But their defense as the article points out, is sorely lacking. I don't think there is anything wrong with a run and gun offense, but without a lock down defense, it's a loser. There was no better opportunistic team than the great Boston Celtic teams that won countless NBA championships under Red Auerbach. Red's philosophy was simple. If you (player/s) got down court and had a clear shot within 6 seconds, take it, but if you had the freedom to shot quickly, you had the obligation to play tough defense on the other end. The speed game only works if the team playing it understands and executes tough defense.
Here's one of my poems about basketball, written in the ancient Chinese form called Chueh-Chu.
First Lesson
The shot begins in your feet
Traveling up through legs and chest
Feel it moving through arm to fingertip
Like blood from your heart to your head.
