When I was a 3rd grader, my teacher at Grant Elementary School in San Francisco, Mrs. Rosen, lined all of her students at the chalk board (yes, real black chalk boards) and had us do addition and subtraction problems that she called out to us in her gruff voice to write on the board. She would time us, then walk down the line observing our figures. If a student got a problem wrong, she'd take her hand, gently place it on the back of his or her head and slam said tiny head hard into the chalkboard. Ouch! That's me, yelling as I inevitably did my sums wrong. From those days on, I have never been good at math or any subject related to mathematics.
Which leads me to the subject of analytics in basketball. It's math. Okay, so it's statistics. That's just math in disguise. I've done some research, and I guess I get it. Useful, but only in the right hands. By that I mean in the hands of people who have the sport in their blood and can "see" "feel" a player's skill and enthusiasm for the game. If it were up to me, evaluating a player, I would only take into account how that player performs in the fourth quarter of tight games, in playoff/championship games (high school, college, or pro). I've seen too many players in the NBA who play well in the first three quarters and disappear in the crucial fourth.
And, I would definitely pay as much attention to my instincts as to the analytics. For example, I don't need stats to tell me that Carmelo Anthony, no matter what he does, will never be a winner. And I don't need stats to know young Kawhi Leanard of the Spurs, not nearly as gifted as Carmelo, will always be a winner.
The ETC
Stick Aldon Smith in jail for a year, so he can sober up and meditate on how close he is to losing his chance to live the decent life of an athlete. It's high time high schools, colleges and the pros start practicing Tough Love.
While the NBA playoffs are exciting, let's not forget there's a good chance the State of California might soon have a Triple Crown winner, in California Chrome.
Here's a little poem about horses: A traditional Navajo song.
My horse has a hoof like a striped agate
His fetlock is like a fine eagle plume.
His legs are like quick lightning
My horse has a tail like a trailing black cloud.
The Holy Wind moves through his hair
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Thursday, May 15, 2014
Steve Kerr
Congratulations to the Warriors for selecting a smart basketball mind to replace Mark Jackson, who I never thought possessed a particularly smart basketball mind, not dumb by any means, but nothing that had me standing up on the edge of my seat like the cartoon movie critic, clapping and cheering.
Jackson did a good job for the Warriors, but good is not excellent. As a retired English teacher, I'd give Jackson a solid B. However, what the Warriors need is a coach who will earn an A. Kerr might be that guy.
I only hope that Coach Kerr understands the significance of Coach Phil Jackson's choice of assistant coaches when Phil started his first season with the Chicago Bulls by wisely selecting Tex Winters and Johnny Bach, two of the brightest basketball coaches in the business with tons of roundball experience.
I've already used this excerpt from a longer poem by Edward Hirsch, but I'll use it again, since it is profound and is at the heart of good coaching.
". . . a constellation of players
Shinning under his favorite word,
Execution . . . "
Jackson did a good job for the Warriors, but good is not excellent. As a retired English teacher, I'd give Jackson a solid B. However, what the Warriors need is a coach who will earn an A. Kerr might be that guy.
I only hope that Coach Kerr understands the significance of Coach Phil Jackson's choice of assistant coaches when Phil started his first season with the Chicago Bulls by wisely selecting Tex Winters and Johnny Bach, two of the brightest basketball coaches in the business with tons of roundball experience.
I've already used this excerpt from a longer poem by Edward Hirsch, but I'll use it again, since it is profound and is at the heart of good coaching.
". . . a constellation of players
Shinning under his favorite word,
Execution . . . "
Monday, May 5, 2014
Mark Jackson.
I see in the sports news that the Warrior players support Mark Jackson as rumors have been floating around that his job is on the line. Warrior administration should take these player endorsements seriously, but not too seriously. From what I've seen of the Warriors the last three seasons, I have no problem believing that Jackson is a good coach. Note, that I did not say a great coach. No doubt good coaches can become great coaches. Sometimes it takes a while to figure things out. In Mark Jackson, one needs reminding, while he is clearly on the hot seat, that he had no experience coaching on any level before he was hired to perform on the highest level, a mere three years ago and may require some more time before reaching his coaching potential. There have been a lot of coaches that started without any prior coaching experience: Lenny Wilkens, for example, had to suffer losing in Portland before he won a championship in Seattle. It took Jerry Sloan a long time to turn out a winning team. Larry Brown's early teams, the Carolina Cougars and Denver Nuggets (ABA/NBA) played well (like the Warriors) but never won.
So, what is it about Jackson's coaching that troubles me? First: Inconsistent defense and what seems to me a lack of a solid defensive strategy. Jackson came in preaching D. He needs to walk his talk. It's not that the Warriors don't play D, it's that they don't play D consistently. The team's emphasis, as in the past under Don Nelson, remains on the offense, not to the same silly degree as under Nelson, thank god, but still wearisomely there as the Warrior's approach to the game, i.e: let's get up and down the court and out score our opponents. Second: Turnovers. This speaks for itself, a team can't turn the ball over as much as the Warriors do, and expect to win big. Okay, with as much offense as the Warriors have, there's a good chance they'll via for a playoff spot every year. But can they make it to the Western Division Finals? To the NBA Finals. Win the NBA title.
If a team doesn't value the ball and does not play smart aggressive defense, it can only succeed to a modest level, never to greatness.
Klay Thompson recently said, "I love playing for coach. He makes it so fun to go to work everyday. . ." I wonder if any of the San Antonio Spurs have fun at practices? I wonder if the Celtic practices under Doc Rivers were fun. Could Pat Riley's players (Miami and LA Lakers) say they had fun at practices? I'm thinking of all the great coaches: Doctor Jack Ramsey, Phil Jackson, Red Aurebach, Bill Sharman, Alex Hannum. Having played for Sharman and Hannum, I can assure you that practices were not fun, instructive and exhausting, yes, but almost never FUN.
What is the one persistent thread that all great coaches possess? They set the bar high and hold their players accountable for mistakes.
Could it be that to reach the next level and head for greatness, the Warrior players need to have less Fun?
It's not surprising to me that in teaching, on any level, from elementary through college, when students are asked to name their favorite teachers, the easiest teachers, the "fun" teachers were never the ones selected. The teachers they remember as the best were always the ones who demanded the most, teachers they respected, but did not necessarily like.
This blog may sound like a criticism of Coach Mark Jackson. It's not, not entirely. Under his leadership, the Warriors are far more competitive than they have been in recent years. That is to Jackson's credit. But the bar must be higher. Both he and his players have to jump higher to hurdle that bar, and that will take hard, tireless, work, not fun.
Who needs fun in the NBA anyway? I'll take a championship over fun any day.
Let's hear it for J.B. Holmes, having recovered from brain surgery and numerous physical injuries, he won the Wells Fargo Championship. Great shot of his wife planting a $1,242,000 kiss on her husband in this morning's sports page.
Also a nice article about Gregg Popovich teaching WNBA All-Star Becky Hammon about coaching. Are we talking a female NBA coach in the future?
A poem about golf by me from my latest book of Poetry: Sweat: New and Collected Poems About Sports
Confession
To George and Gary,my teammates and golfers
and all other friends that I've bad-mouthed
for playing a sport I ridiculed, I apologize.
I'm older now. I have learned to appreciate
a sport played in silence, where the slightest
sound from the gallery is frowned upon, where,
if it were possible, birds would be forbidden
to sing while a player is teeing off or measuring
a putt. Gentlemen, I'm no longer enamored
of crowd noises, the bellowing of athletes
drawing attention to themselves, the circus
acts at half-time, rockets firing into the sky
at football games, of loud music, loud fans
rising around and around the stadium
like giant second hands. I yearn for the peace
of grassy dog-legs right or left, the silent
sandtraps, wind whispering through the trees.
So, what is it about Jackson's coaching that troubles me? First: Inconsistent defense and what seems to me a lack of a solid defensive strategy. Jackson came in preaching D. He needs to walk his talk. It's not that the Warriors don't play D, it's that they don't play D consistently. The team's emphasis, as in the past under Don Nelson, remains on the offense, not to the same silly degree as under Nelson, thank god, but still wearisomely there as the Warrior's approach to the game, i.e: let's get up and down the court and out score our opponents. Second: Turnovers. This speaks for itself, a team can't turn the ball over as much as the Warriors do, and expect to win big. Okay, with as much offense as the Warriors have, there's a good chance they'll via for a playoff spot every year. But can they make it to the Western Division Finals? To the NBA Finals. Win the NBA title.
If a team doesn't value the ball and does not play smart aggressive defense, it can only succeed to a modest level, never to greatness.
Klay Thompson recently said, "I love playing for coach. He makes it so fun to go to work everyday. . ." I wonder if any of the San Antonio Spurs have fun at practices? I wonder if the Celtic practices under Doc Rivers were fun. Could Pat Riley's players (Miami and LA Lakers) say they had fun at practices? I'm thinking of all the great coaches: Doctor Jack Ramsey, Phil Jackson, Red Aurebach, Bill Sharman, Alex Hannum. Having played for Sharman and Hannum, I can assure you that practices were not fun, instructive and exhausting, yes, but almost never FUN.
What is the one persistent thread that all great coaches possess? They set the bar high and hold their players accountable for mistakes.
Could it be that to reach the next level and head for greatness, the Warrior players need to have less Fun?
It's not surprising to me that in teaching, on any level, from elementary through college, when students are asked to name their favorite teachers, the easiest teachers, the "fun" teachers were never the ones selected. The teachers they remember as the best were always the ones who demanded the most, teachers they respected, but did not necessarily like.
This blog may sound like a criticism of Coach Mark Jackson. It's not, not entirely. Under his leadership, the Warriors are far more competitive than they have been in recent years. That is to Jackson's credit. But the bar must be higher. Both he and his players have to jump higher to hurdle that bar, and that will take hard, tireless, work, not fun.
Who needs fun in the NBA anyway? I'll take a championship over fun any day.
Let's hear it for J.B. Holmes, having recovered from brain surgery and numerous physical injuries, he won the Wells Fargo Championship. Great shot of his wife planting a $1,242,000 kiss on her husband in this morning's sports page.
Also a nice article about Gregg Popovich teaching WNBA All-Star Becky Hammon about coaching. Are we talking a female NBA coach in the future?
A poem about golf by me from my latest book of Poetry: Sweat: New and Collected Poems About Sports
Confession
To George and Gary,my teammates and golfers
and all other friends that I've bad-mouthed
for playing a sport I ridiculed, I apologize.
I'm older now. I have learned to appreciate
a sport played in silence, where the slightest
sound from the gallery is frowned upon, where,
if it were possible, birds would be forbidden
to sing while a player is teeing off or measuring
a putt. Gentlemen, I'm no longer enamored
of crowd noises, the bellowing of athletes
drawing attention to themselves, the circus
acts at half-time, rockets firing into the sky
at football games, of loud music, loud fans
rising around and around the stadium
like giant second hands. I yearn for the peace
of grassy dog-legs right or left, the silent
sandtraps, wind whispering through the trees.
Monday, April 28, 2014
Why Are We So Astonished?
Donald Sterling has been an out-of- the- closet Racist all his life, so why didn't the NBA do something about him long ago? Could it possibly be that Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, Coach Doc Rivers and other African Americans employed by Stirling never heard even the slightest rumors about their boss? Didn't Elgin Baylor warn the general public and the NBA about Sterling's "Plantation Mentality" years ago? And, what in God's name, was the Southern California Chapter of the NAACP thinking that it was going to honor Sterling with a Life Time Achievement Award? Is this the same Sterling who wouldn't allow people of color to rent his apartments?
Talk about bizzare. This man has been a public bigot all his life and only now are we coming to grips with him.
Our country, in so many ways a great country, is still a long way away from racial equality. It has been a state by state slog. We tell yourselves the coasts do better about race, then a guy like Sterling raises his slimy head. How many Sterlings are there left in the United States? Way more than we'd like to think, I'm afraid.
When will racial prejudice end? I don't know, but I'm sure that at least the next three generations, starting with Sterling's generation, people in their 80's and 70's and the two following generations (my wife's and the baby boomers) must die off before the X generation has a chance to make the world color blind.
We human beings will be color blind to race only when we look at each other's skin color the way portrait painters do. They pay more attention to undertones, chroma, high lights and shadows than the skin's primary color, which is obvious. And all color is beautiful.
Adam Silver's tenure as commissioner of the NBA will be decided by how quickly and how forcefully he acts in resolving the Donald Sterling fiasco. If he prevaricates even slightly, he might as well resign.
So, as this grotesque Sterling story swirls around us, here is a poem I wrote for one of the great African American players of all time, Hall of Fame center, Hakeem Olajuwon of the Houston Rockets.
Hakeem Olajuwon
Aka, Hakeem the Dream
In Africa each morning practice starts
with warm-ups. The youngest on the team,
perhaps sixteen, always the first waiting for me,
sits in the thin shade below the backboard,
reading the latest article about Hakeem.
We stretch ham-strings, then slow jog
around the court. He keeps pace, all the while
talking about The Dream. "Dis doc," he says, *Listen up
"With The Dream we would defeat Senegal
and be champions of West Africa.
Que pensez vous, entraineur? What do I think? *What do you think coach?
I can't think about anything other than the red
and smoky sun rising over the opposite basket,
the heat already sweating my shirt, and how
the rains suddenly begin half way through practice.
I shag his jump shots, the ones he swears
are like Hakeem's. He says he too will attend
The University of Houston, later play in the NBA.
"Vous m'assistez?" But his shots are ugly, too flat; *"Will you help/assist me?
they lack the back-spin, the softness of the Dream's.
I nod my head, whatever I can do - my best shot.
I am in the country of Burkina Fasso.
Its name means Land of Up-Right People.
Talk about bizzare. This man has been a public bigot all his life and only now are we coming to grips with him.
Our country, in so many ways a great country, is still a long way away from racial equality. It has been a state by state slog. We tell yourselves the coasts do better about race, then a guy like Sterling raises his slimy head. How many Sterlings are there left in the United States? Way more than we'd like to think, I'm afraid.
When will racial prejudice end? I don't know, but I'm sure that at least the next three generations, starting with Sterling's generation, people in their 80's and 70's and the two following generations (my wife's and the baby boomers) must die off before the X generation has a chance to make the world color blind.
We human beings will be color blind to race only when we look at each other's skin color the way portrait painters do. They pay more attention to undertones, chroma, high lights and shadows than the skin's primary color, which is obvious. And all color is beautiful.
Adam Silver's tenure as commissioner of the NBA will be decided by how quickly and how forcefully he acts in resolving the Donald Sterling fiasco. If he prevaricates even slightly, he might as well resign.
So, as this grotesque Sterling story swirls around us, here is a poem I wrote for one of the great African American players of all time, Hall of Fame center, Hakeem Olajuwon of the Houston Rockets.
Hakeem Olajuwon
Aka, Hakeem the Dream
In Africa each morning practice starts
with warm-ups. The youngest on the team,
perhaps sixteen, always the first waiting for me,
sits in the thin shade below the backboard,
reading the latest article about Hakeem.
We stretch ham-strings, then slow jog
around the court. He keeps pace, all the while
talking about The Dream. "Dis doc," he says, *Listen up
"With The Dream we would defeat Senegal
and be champions of West Africa.
Que pensez vous, entraineur? What do I think? *What do you think coach?
I can't think about anything other than the red
and smoky sun rising over the opposite basket,
the heat already sweating my shirt, and how
the rains suddenly begin half way through practice.
I shag his jump shots, the ones he swears
are like Hakeem's. He says he too will attend
The University of Houston, later play in the NBA.
"Vous m'assistez?" But his shots are ugly, too flat; *"Will you help/assist me?
they lack the back-spin, the softness of the Dream's.
I nod my head, whatever I can do - my best shot.
I am in the country of Burkina Fasso.
Its name means Land of Up-Right People.
Monday, April 14, 2014
More knuckleheads and morons
Colin Kapernick and Quinten Patton, now Aldon Smith, not to mention the other NFL players vying for membership in the Knucklehead Club. Has any statistic minded person figured out the percentage of athletes in trouble in comparison to other professions, say dentists or plumbers? Well, you might argue (being a defender of athletes) that Athletes work under constant pressure and are strung tight. Humm? I wonder how many ballet dancers have been arrested for talking about having a bomb while in an airport. How about Air force pilots putting themselves in a room alone with a woman serving them drinks? Oops, I guess this has happened. It might be a tight race to see who has the most members in the Knucklehead Club, athletes or military personnel. All right, if not the military, how about teachers or computer engineers?
Let me suggest that Professional sports teams draw up a list of NO, NO's and deliver them to all the players at training camp. Memorization required. Examples:
YOU WILL NOT PLACE YOURSELF IN A COMPROMISING POSITION ALONE OR WITH OTHERS WITH A WOMAN OR WOMEN IN WHICH THERE IS ALCOHOL BEING SERVED OR DRUGS BEING USED OR ANY CLOTHES BEING DOFTED.
YOU WILL NOT CARRY A FIREARM IN YOUR VEHICLE. YOU WILL NEVER SHOOT A PISTOL UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES DURING A PARTY INTO THE AIR OR INTO A PERSON.
YOU WILL NEVER LEAVE THE SCENE OF AN ACCIDENT IN WHICH YOU WERE INVOLVED NO MATTER HOW DRUNK YOU WERE.
DO NOT TAKE MUSCLE ENHANCING DRUGS.
DON'T BULLY, OR WE'LL SEND YOU TO THE PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE. HOW ABOUT FIRE YOU?
DON'T SEND PHOTOGRAPHS OF YOURSELF NAKED TO ANYONE OVER THE INTERNET OR FACEBOOK OR WHATEVER.
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL YOU SAY THE WORD, "BOMB" IN AN AIRPORT, TRAIN OR BUS STATION.
EVERY MORNING, STAND IN FRONT OF THE MIRROR AND REPEAT, I'M NOT SPECIAL.
I can think of at least 50 more rules athletes could stand to take to heart. But, then, they might have to give up thinking they were special and thus not required to follow normal human behavior. Ooops, again. Has anyone seen Wolfman of Wall Street? Enough said about normal behavior. On the other hand, perhaps, greed is normal behavior. As for sex, the second theme of the movie, (There are no others.) I'll leave it up to you to decide if the sex your were watching on screen represented normalcy.
Perhaps there is no such thing as normal behavior?
How about classy behavior, then?
As an NBA rookie I was taught by word and by example by older teammates (Hall of Famer Paul Arizin comes to mind) that I should always "show class." Can't say I always succeeded, but I tried.
Being a snazzy dresser and driving extravagant cars does not mean you have class, which is what I think some of today's pros think. Although, I have to say D Wade puts on quite a show in the fashion department.
Returning to the title of my blog, let's talk about Morons. Who was the talking head on Fox News recently who objected to the movie Noah because it was not a documentary?
I love movies and taught film at Sierra College for years. Noah is the kind of movie that would turn me off movies forever. As soon as the Ex Angels Rock People came on the scene to protect Noah and help him build the Ark, I was ready to head for the exit. There was a Kings game on TV I could watch if I wanted to torture myself.
I thought it was a put-down on Live at the Masters following Bubba Watson's win that the course suited him because he's a lefty, naming other lefties that have won The Masters, the implication being that the course favors lefties, the further implication being that Bubba is not as good on other courses.
Here is a poem I wrote about golf from my new collection of poems - Sweat: New and Selected Poems About Sports.
Why I Never Played Golf
I didn't trust myself. Imagine
losing a match by one stroke
on the eighteenth green, his putt
longer than mine. He sinks it
for a birdie, and I sink mine
for a par, and I have my putter
in my hand and a bad temper,
and he is smiling at me.
You understand, smiling.
Let me suggest that Professional sports teams draw up a list of NO, NO's and deliver them to all the players at training camp. Memorization required. Examples:
YOU WILL NOT PLACE YOURSELF IN A COMPROMISING POSITION ALONE OR WITH OTHERS WITH A WOMAN OR WOMEN IN WHICH THERE IS ALCOHOL BEING SERVED OR DRUGS BEING USED OR ANY CLOTHES BEING DOFTED.
YOU WILL NOT CARRY A FIREARM IN YOUR VEHICLE. YOU WILL NEVER SHOOT A PISTOL UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES DURING A PARTY INTO THE AIR OR INTO A PERSON.
YOU WILL NEVER LEAVE THE SCENE OF AN ACCIDENT IN WHICH YOU WERE INVOLVED NO MATTER HOW DRUNK YOU WERE.
DO NOT TAKE MUSCLE ENHANCING DRUGS.
DON'T BULLY, OR WE'LL SEND YOU TO THE PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE. HOW ABOUT FIRE YOU?
DON'T SEND PHOTOGRAPHS OF YOURSELF NAKED TO ANYONE OVER THE INTERNET OR FACEBOOK OR WHATEVER.
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WILL YOU SAY THE WORD, "BOMB" IN AN AIRPORT, TRAIN OR BUS STATION.
EVERY MORNING, STAND IN FRONT OF THE MIRROR AND REPEAT, I'M NOT SPECIAL.
I can think of at least 50 more rules athletes could stand to take to heart. But, then, they might have to give up thinking they were special and thus not required to follow normal human behavior. Ooops, again. Has anyone seen Wolfman of Wall Street? Enough said about normal behavior. On the other hand, perhaps, greed is normal behavior. As for sex, the second theme of the movie, (There are no others.) I'll leave it up to you to decide if the sex your were watching on screen represented normalcy.
Perhaps there is no such thing as normal behavior?
How about classy behavior, then?
As an NBA rookie I was taught by word and by example by older teammates (Hall of Famer Paul Arizin comes to mind) that I should always "show class." Can't say I always succeeded, but I tried.
Being a snazzy dresser and driving extravagant cars does not mean you have class, which is what I think some of today's pros think. Although, I have to say D Wade puts on quite a show in the fashion department.
Returning to the title of my blog, let's talk about Morons. Who was the talking head on Fox News recently who objected to the movie Noah because it was not a documentary?
I love movies and taught film at Sierra College for years. Noah is the kind of movie that would turn me off movies forever. As soon as the Ex Angels Rock People came on the scene to protect Noah and help him build the Ark, I was ready to head for the exit. There was a Kings game on TV I could watch if I wanted to torture myself.
I thought it was a put-down on Live at the Masters following Bubba Watson's win that the course suited him because he's a lefty, naming other lefties that have won The Masters, the implication being that the course favors lefties, the further implication being that Bubba is not as good on other courses.
Here is a poem I wrote about golf from my new collection of poems - Sweat: New and Selected Poems About Sports.
Why I Never Played Golf
I didn't trust myself. Imagine
losing a match by one stroke
on the eighteenth green, his putt
longer than mine. He sinks it
for a birdie, and I sink mine
for a par, and I have my putter
in my hand and a bad temper,
and he is smiling at me.
You understand, smiling.
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