Defense

Let's examine the concept of Defense as it applies to the three major American sports: Football, Baseball, and Basketball.

In Football, there are 11 men on the field whose only job is to play Defense. Their livelihood and reputations are built on how well they stop their opponents. Great defenders can make as much money as great offensive players. Ray Lewis comes to mind.

In Pro. Baseball, as innings are divided equally between at bats and in the field, players can not hide from defense.  Errors are clearly noticeable and recorded and vilified by management and media. Rarely do baseball players remain employed, no matter how great their offense, if they can't catch and field - in other words, play sound defense.

This is not the case in the NBA. It is easier to hide defensive inefficiencies in basketball. Often great offensive players are given a pass when it comes to defense. I'm talking about playing REAL, GRITTY DEFENSE, the kind that wins games. Unlike Football and Baseball, there is no SPOTLIGHT on the Defensive end of the court, which lasts rarely beyond 24 seconds anyway. Fans may chant Defense! Defense!, but their exhortations are often ignored by players unwilling or unable to play D. A player's defensive error is often overlooked 24 seconds later when he makes a basket. Carmelo Anthony and Dion Waiters (offensive minded players who could play D if they set their minds to it) come to mind.

That's not to say defense in the NBA is ignored. There have been players in the past who have gained a reputation as stoppers, Bruce Bowen, late of the San Antonio Spurs, for example. However, the NBA does not pay big bucks for a defender the way the 49ers do for Alden Smith, Greenbay for Clay Matthews or for Golden Glove baseball players like JJ Hardey of the Orioles and Brandon Phillips of the Reds.

Sadly, there is no hype when it comes to the All NBA Defensive Team. .All Star Games are designed to showcase the greatest offensive stars in the league.

This is a huge problem because, baring a lack of emphasis and incentive, players will be less likely to work on their defensive skills, and believe me, playing good D requires skills.

Even with incentives, Defense still requires players who are WILLING and EAGER to body-up, get down and dirty. And therein lies the rub. Aside from the athletic shot block and the occasional stolen ball, how often do you see NBA players getting excited about closing out, or making a strong switch, or harassing an opponent so he makes a mistake, or blocking a guy off the boards, or forcing a turnover? It doesn't happen. Have you ever seen a player in the NBA thumping his chest over a great defensive stop? However, pound a dunk or pop a three, and it's "look at me, look at me", beat the old chest time.

You don't have to be a genius to know who the teams are that DON'T play defense. They're the ones at the BOTTOM of their divisions, and there they deserve to stay.

Good "D"   by James Mckean
                       after Edward Hirsh

Their center blocks out and the ball
falls into his lap like the coach's book

says it will. Pivot, two-handed chest pass
to the out-let man, his flip

to a guard sprinting up the middle and the crowd
senses a break rolling at half court

and rises now for the finish, the jam
over a nondescript visitor

in knee wraps, invited to play in this gym
well lit on a Friday night in a state

that welcomes him and would send him packing
and bruised except he's hustled back

and turns in their key to wait - all taped fingers
and high tops - before the whole floor,

the forwards in their lanes pumping toward him
fast, two points on the stat sheets

written all over their faces, the guard dribbling
too high, head down as if he

needs a script, the guard who loves his right hand,
who pulls up late, who looks where he

passes, drunk on the home court's
din of expectation, everyone on their feet

for a goal good as given
over the nobody in his dull uniform

who stutter- rushes the guard left, left
hand up, right hand down,

and releases the moment the pass is flung in panic,
the forward rising toward the basket

empty-handed because good defense reads well,
lives in the passing lane and lifts

the ball from beneath. Now, the forward,
who can't come down fast enough,

and the guard, suddenly tired, find far
up the floor the score turned,

the time gone and the crowd at a loss, fumbling
to sit back down, to say anything

for what's been stolen.

Black Monday

Five NFL coaches fired, one, Rob Chudzinski, after only one year to prove himself. Hummmm, wonder how bad he could have been. As I don't consider myself knowledgeable enough about pro football, I can't say whether these firings were justified. Coaches in the pros and in the college pros take jobs knowing that they are in the hot seat from day one. The HOT SEAT has been constructed for them by impatient owners, and in the case of universities, impatient alums.

I wonder to what extent the players on teams have to do with a coach being fired? Let's look at an analogy and see if it fits. In the 25 years I was a high school teacher, I recognized that many students refused to learn, citing a teacher being too boring, too complicated, too demanding, too strict. But never once, in my experience did students look beyond these admittedly unappealing traits and ask if these same teachers knew their subject matter. It seemed to me it was always on the teachers to find a way to impart knowledge and never on the studentss to make the effort to absorb knowledge. Did the students REALLY try?

How many coaches know their stuff, but don't have players willing to put out the effort to understand what the coaches are asking of them? I'm guessing that of the five fired coaches all of them have good football minds and a couple of them have great football minds. Did the players REALLY try?

Many years back when I was coaching the Carolina Cougars in the ABA, my assistant came up to me one day and said, "Coach, I believe the player's ears are getting small." Players with small ears don't win games and coaches with players with small ears get fired. I quit after my first year because I was an insanely bad coach, but I also had players with ears the size of a breath mints.

Speaking of fired coaches, will somebody please tell me why George Carl and Lionel Hollins are not coaching in the NBA? I can think of at least five NBA teams that would have much better records if either of these two fine coaches were at the helm.

I suspect I'll get a number of comments reminding me of how important motivation is. Motivation, give me a break! Is it important for a coach and teacher to hype players and students? Of course, no doubt, but teaching and coaching are not dog and pony shows. I remember back to my years with the Warriors to my two coaches: Alex Hannum was charismatic and too demanding but knew his stuff; Bill Sharman was boring and too strict but knew his stuff. We played hard for both coaches.

Speaking of demanding, strict, often mean coaches, my Lowell High School basketball coach, Ben Neff gave his players hell. Those of us who could put up with his intensity learned to play the game. Ben wouldn't have lasted ten seconds in today's game, but boy, oh boy, did he know his stuff.

Here's a poem I wrote for him:

Ben Neff

Coach, I loved you. I owe my fundamentals 
to you. I do not hold it against you
that you called me a sonovabitch and
that you questioned what I was good for
and that your anger wound up as spit on my face.
Those of us who could withstand your anger
learned how to play the game of basketball
so well that we carried it with us into college
and me into the pros. But I remember a boy
trying out for the team you frightened badly
who ran and you chased him and he swung
up into the standard and sat like a bird
perched above the hoop crying while you
threw basketballs at him, one after the other,
and the rest of us, thinking it was funny,
fed you the balls, throwing nice crisp
two-handed chest passes just the way
you taught us, fingers straight, thumbs down.

Blake Griffin Whining

Griffin is calling what Andrew Bogut did to him during the last game "cowardly basketball." Strong words. Let's see. Here's what I saw. Griffin posted up, got the ball and started his patented backing in, knocking the defensive man back as far as possible in order to lower his shoulder, slam into the defender, make heavy contact, then use his incredible leaping ability to score over the defense. I've watched the Clippers a lot this year. Most players on other teams, finding themselves in this position backed down by Griffin in the paint, succumb easily to the high flying and powerful Clipper forward. Andrew Bogut, however, is not a backing down type of guy. He fought to keep his position. Is this cowardly? As for the tangle that followed the play, I saw Griffin initiate it by hooking Bogut around the waist. OK, so once the tussle started, Bogut grabbed Griffin's shirt. If' I'd been playing I would have grabbed his nose. Blake Griffin is no small man. He'd better prepare himself to be beaten on for the rest of his career. Anyone who plays the low post game has to accept physical punishment. You give (And Griffin gives a lot) so you better learn to take and stop crying about "cowardly" basketball. I've watched Andrew Bogut play ball for many years, and the big Aussie is hardly a coward. The fact is, I've never seen an Aussie basketball player who isn't as tough as nails. Stop whining, Griffin. Grit your teeth and man-up.

It's all about television, I know, but aren't these Bowl Games ridiculous? Teams that won only fifty  percent of their games are playing in Bowls. The Bowls have to be pretty enormous to hold all the food they represent: Beef O' Brady's, Pizza from Little Caesars, Buffalo Wild Wings, Chicken fil-A and a  bunch of Idaho potatoes, mashed I hope. Totally ridiculous.

Congratulations to Serena Williams and LeBron James for being selected AP male and female Athletes of the Year for 2013. Can you imagine if LeBron and Serena had married and had children, what perfect athletes they would have produced. Scary, scary.

So-called Major sports dominate our sports pages. But let's hear it for Shaun White, the Olympic medalist in snowboarding for being one of the great athletes of our time. Winter Olympics is coming up and I'm looking forward to seeing the Winter Games sports dominate the front page of our sport's section. No second page or third page coverage. Give our winter athletes the respect they deserve.

Here's an unconventional poem about skiing by Martin Steingesser. I like the way his words imitate the motion of skiing.

Shhussssss

             sssss! stop -steel
edge/to/ice/edge
                  d
                     o
                        w       up
                           n
                                        over
                                 the world
                    between outstretched arms

                              below
                       trees like dark fur
                  on a small 
                                bear

                          so
                    still
                           closely gray barkblur&sun
                                                            -lightflash-
                                                                              ing

                             the distance
still
                         and clear
             clear as a
                                  tink 
                                        of  ice
                             across the blue
                                     snow mountain
air
                

Defense

It's tempting to say that defense is simple. All you need to have is the courage and toughness to go after an opponent. Of course Courage and Toughness are essential traits a defender must possess, but defense is hardly a matter of JUST willingness.

There is a lot of talk from Sacramento Kings coaches and players about how badly they play defense. You won't get an argument from me. Defensively, they suck royally - individually and as a team. However, the Kings are not the only team in the NBA this season that is playing atrocious defense. Brooklyn, Milwaukee, Utah, the Knicks, New Orleans, Denver, Minnesota, are all AWFUL.

I want to make a few observations about defense, that by no means provides all of the things a player needs to be aware of to play good D, but I believe are the principal keys to becoming a strong defender.

Primarily, the burden of how good a defensive team is falls on the INDIVIDUAL There are many professional basketball players who don't know how to play defense. Either they were never taught or they refused to learn. (Shame on any high school or college coach who uses only zone defenses and does not teach man to man D. You know who you are.)

There is one overriding principal for playing strong INDIVIDUAL defense. Just as players must ATTACK on OFFENSE, players must ATTACK on Defense. They must do their best to unnerve the opponent they are guarding. That means a defensive player must get in his opponent's face, belly up, refuse him the opportunity to go where he wants to go or to have a good view of the passing lanes.

If your opponent picks up his dribble, as a good defender you must swarm him. Make him make a difficult pass. If your opponent is cutting, make the cut hurt. If he is running off a screen, force him back the way he came. In all circumstances, BE PHYSICAL!

A defensive player one pass  away from the ball must crowd his opponent so the ball handler can't make the easy pass. All players must know where the ball and their man is at all times and be ready to HELP. All players must stay alert to the skip pass and be ready to CLOSE OUT fast and hard. In today's NBA, this is essential. In today's NBA, it is also essential that players learn how to defend against the pick and roll.

MESCHERY'S PRINCIPALS
     #1 All good jump shooters must be fouled hard on the first shot they attempt.
     #2 No player should make an easy layup. Contest everything in the paint.
     #3 Playing defense hurts. Suck it up and live with it.
     #4 When you fight over a screen, be sure the screener feels the effect of your effort. He'll not be
          so eager to set the next screen.
     #5 NEVER give up on a defensive assignment.
     #6 Take every defensive assignment personally.

The following is one of my favorite poems about sports and life by David Allen Evans

Bus Depot' Reunion

Just over the edge 
of my Life a young sailor
bounds from a Greyhound's 
hiss into his mother's hug,
steps back, trades hands 
with his father, then turns
to an old, hunched man
maybe his grandfather -

no hand, no word goes out,
they regard each other,

waiting for something, and
now their hands cup,

they begin to crouch
and spar, the old man

coming on like a pro,
snuffling, weaving,

circling, flicks
out a hook like a lizards's tongue,

the boy ducking, countering,
moving with his moves,

biffing at the bobbing
yellow grin, the clever

head, never landing a real
punch, never taking one

until suddenly, exactly
together they quit,

throw an arm around each other
and walk away laughing. 

Monday December 9, 2013

This is an important date because what I witnessed last night, I have not witnessed in the five years I have lived in Sacramento. Last night I saw the Sacramento Kings of the NBA play basketball like it's supposed to be played. That is: players passing to each other, setting screens, making the extra pass, rebounding, defending vigorously, talking to each other on D,  relying on their offensive sets to produce open shots, and playing with enthusiasm. The result was a resounding, effective win over the Dallas Mavericks, a team that has been playing surprisingly well this early in the NBA season, and certainly no push-over.

The Kings' new owner, Vivek Ranafdive and his partners, promised the the River City a good product and it looks as if they are keeping their word. While the reborn Kings were thumping the Mavs, the three new players that were acquired the previous day from the Toronto Raptors watched their new team. They couldn't have been anything but impressed. One of those players, Rudy Gay (who Memphis stupidly traded away last year to the Raptors) should turn out to be the small forward the Kings have been desperately seeking lo these many years. Gay has the ability to create on his own, a Go-To Guy as the clock ticks down to the last seconds. How the other two players, Quincy Acy and Aaron Gray will fit in is anybody's guess. Big kuddos have to go out to GM Pete D'Alessandro who orchestrated the trade.

I was also relieved that the Kings have finally had the good sense to see what point guard rookie and second round draft choice, Ray McCullam can do. His minutes against the Mavs was too brief to tell, but I predict that one of these days, sooner rather than later, he will be the Kings true Point Guard. No disrespect to the Pizza Guy Isaiah Thomas, who will always be an asset as the sixth man, a scorer and a disruptor, and deservedly a fan favorite.

The following poem should remind us all of our childhood days.

Playing the Game by Barbara Goldowsky

You stick out your fist: stone
breaks my two fingers playing scissors.

You offer your hand, open.
I shred the palm: it's paper.
I am still scissors.

Have you no heart? you ask.
But I am stone.

Your hand is still paper,
you wrap me up:
closer than blades,
harder than hearts.