Phsicality

During a recent interview on TV, Cavs' Coach Tyronn Lue must have used the word physicality at least twenty times. He was no doubt very impressed and happy with his team's "Physicality" in game 4 of the NBA Championship series in the Q.

As an old English teacher, I rushed immediately to my Merrian Webster Dictionary and looked up the word: PHYSICALITY. I was skeptical that it was a word in the English language. My dictionary proved me wrong. Physicality is indeed a word, and it dates back to the 16th century.

However, it seems to me that the Golden State Warriors, as they head into Game 5 of the series, should take into account the full meaning of the word according to Merrian Webster:

PHYSICALITY:  predominance of the physical at the expense of the mental, spiritual, and social.

If  the Cavs continue to play within the scope of the definition that Coach Lue is so proud of, it is something the Golden State Warriors could take advantage of. No doubt, our Dubs need to be more physical in tonight's game. They can not allow the Cavs to attack first, and if the Cavs do, they must attack back instantly and with the same intensity.

That said and all things physical being even, the outcome of the game will be due to which team plays smarter. MENTAL TOUGHNESS will win this game, not PHYSICALITY

I am confident that the Warriors understand this.

How about some LOVE for Bob Myers, the very astute GM of the Golden State Warriors. Lot's of kudos heading the players' way,  Steve Kerr and the coaching staffs' way, and in the direction of Jerry West and Ownership, but not enough in the direction of Bob Myers. He seems to be a pretty low key kind of guy who abjures the spotlight. I don't read the Chronicle every day, so I may be wrong about this. There may be tons of stories praising him. Whatever the case may be, I want to make sure my Blog pays him the praise he deserves in putting together this fabulous basketball team. Go Bob, more power to you and for years to come. And, lets hope Draymond remembers what you said to him when you two were sitting together last season watching Game 5 on TV, Draymond having been suspended from the game for swatting the King in his Jewels:. "Let's not let this happen next year." Wonderfully understated.

Spain's Rafael Nadal wins his 10th championship at Roland Garros.The King of Clay deserves a tennis poem:

The Tennis Player   by Ronen Sigan

On a lucky day I found a genie in a bottle.
Out he came thankful and free granting me three wishes.
My first wish is to have a decent backhand - 
that is really all I need.
Too many times I missed such easy shots. 
It's about time I got a backhand.
The genie was stunned - what about fame,
fortune and the pleasure of the flesh?
I am a tennis player and this is my first wish.
My second wish is to have a killer server.
layer will fear it as it flies and swerves.
A killer serve it is! The genie sighed
An let me guess your third wish 
is the strongest forehand in the world.
Far from it, give a decent backhand 
and a killer serve to my opponents.
For what is a game without a challenge. 




                                                

Counter-Punching, a Bad Idea

My wife and I were attending my grand daughter's high school graduation, so we did not witness first hand the ass kicking the Cavaliers gave the Warriors last night at the Q, an arena next to the flame throwing Cayahoga River - Flow on big river. An arena named for Quicken Loans, which will be the first mortgage company associated with the mortgage and banking scandal of 2019. (Remember, you heard it from me first.)

My wife and I were delighted we didn't watch that game on live TV. Later, Melanie and I watched it on tape. Here was my first thought half way through the first quarter.  I've said it one, and I'll say it again: "He who gets the first punch in, gets the first punch in." The Cavs punched first, and kept punching (metaphor for setting the alpha-dog-tone of the game). The Warriors needed to punch back immediately and didn't. The refs didn't help. They allowed the Cavs to be the aggressors, perhaps not intentionally. However, it has always been this way in the NBA as far back as when I played that referees become more and more inclined to see the second foul than the first. To punish the counter-puncher and not the aggressor. It has always been very  difficult to counter-punch in the NBA. Historically, any chance a team has to change tempo significantly comes at the start of the third quarter. That did not happen last night. So, the series goes back to Oracle on Monday night. It is what it is.

Steve Kerr is correct to say that his team is not worried about history, but they damn well better be worried about who gets the first punch in in game five.

That's all I have to say about the upcoming game five. Except this: Recently, archaeologists in Mexico found an Aztec ball court, ancestor of the game of basketball, (the stone hoop was mounted on the wall perpendicular to the playing surface.) Nearby the court, they also found the sculls of the players on the losing team that had been sacrificed to the Gods. During game five, I will be paying attention to the shape of the Cavs' heads and wondering. Just wondering.

Here's a little quatrain about the great Laker's center, Kareem Abdul Jabbar.

Sky Hooks From the Stands    by Tom Meschery

Jabbar's arm high in the air
His hand cradling the ball
I'm waiting for it to fall
From the sky, holding my breath. 

2017 NBA Finals, On Your Mark, Get Set...

At 6 p.m. this evening at Oracle Arena in Oakland, California, a NBA referee will throw up the ball at center court to start this season's Finals. My wife, Melanie, her grandson and I will be there. There's going to be a photographer and a Sports Illustrated writer waiting for us. SI is doing a Where are They Now feature, and I'm part of the They. I mention this only because it dove-tails into the first part of this morning's blog: NBA Past.

At the beginning of three years of Cav vs Warriors finals, it's important to remind NBA fans that may not know (and some might very well not, considering they didn't exist during the years the Celts dominated the pro game) that basketball existed before Bird and Magic, MJ, and LeBron/Curry. There was the rivalry between Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain. Let it be said, and I'm saying it, that had the Chamberlain led Philadelphia Warriors been a Western Division team, it's highly likely that the NBA Championship would have turned into - like the upcoming Warriors/Cavs -  a three-years-in-a-row-series from '59/60 on between Boston and Philly. In my rookie year, 1961/62, I was on the Philadelphia Warriors' Eastern Division championship team back then, so long ago - before the motor car, before the wheel, before the duchess-faced dinosaur - that lost by one point to the Celts in the finals seconds of game seven, and I know for certain, had we been in the West that year, we'd have been in the finals, having dominated the Lakers - the West champs - all season long.

Not sure why I spent so much time writing this, except I sometimes feel the Russell/Chamberlain matchup has not been given enough historical love, which includes the entire era beginning with Bill Russell and ending with the first year of Kareem Abdul Jabbar. It saddens me that there is not a lot of film footage of our era, We were pretty damn good.

I am excited, looking forward to tonight's game. (Aren't the Dubs a pleasure to watch?) All the players on both sides are healthy and rested. It should be hugely interesting. Like chess or a 10 thousand-metre race, strategic and exhausting. With a little Tae Kwon Do thrown in the mix.

I still can't forget the seventh game of the finals last season when Kyrie took and made that fantastic three point clutch shot with Curry in his face to win for the Cavs. That shot at that moment, says a lot to me about this years series. The Warriors must limit Kyrie's game. For me, he is the KEY, not LeBron James, who will get his points, but will also dominate the ball to, in my humble opinion, the long term detriment of the Cavs. It would also be wise not to allow Kevin Love to get open threes as the Celtics did. I'm still having trouble getting over the Celt's wussy D.

In the end, as it always is, since the beginning of time and the NBA, let if be said, and never forget DEFENSE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS.

Here's a little Haiku about Draymond Green and LeBron "King" James.

.

E.E CUMMINGS PREDICTS THE OUTCOME     by Tom Meschery

warriors and cavs (both dray & king)

will battle each other in the spring

tweet their rumble and text their game

king goes down, while dray remains

 

Pickle Ball

The fastest growing sport in the United States, Pickle Ball, held its 1917 Open Championship in East Naples, Florida yesterday. Simone Jardin won mixed doubles with male partner, Oliver Strycker and pro doubles with female partner Corrine Sieberscher.

I watched the match on television, going back and forth between pro golf and PB. Got to say, Pickle Ball provided some spectacular fast moving minutes in comparison to golf, which moves, oh, soooo slowly..Luckily for golf, the cameras move swiftly between holes so you don't have to watch golfers walking the fairways; otherwise, the game would have little tv appeal.

Back to Pickle Ball: Simone Jardin and other Pickle Ball players can't make a living yet playing their sport, but their commitment, enthusiasm, and training is every bit as intense as our beloved Warrior players.

Here's a thought. Universities claim that the Big Bucks they receive support the school's minor sports. So let's get the major sport's athletes who're making obscene amounts of money to support the less well known but equally important pro sports in our country, like Pickle Ball or Curling for example. Kevin Durant could fund the Pickle Ball Championship, say, half a mill for the purse - a terrific tax write off..Who'd fund Curling? Handball is a terrific sport too, both the U.S. brand and the European form of the sport. LeBron has a few extra bucks, right?

Anybody interested in some wonderful poetry about sports, I suggest an out of print book, but still available: Sprints and Distances compiled by Lillian Morrison from Thoma Y. Crowell Co. NYC.

From Sprints and Distances, a poem about Squash. I think Shaq could fund Squash.

Civilities                by Thomas Whitebread

   The delicate corner shot,
Slicing the strings precise across the ball
at the right time, so that it lightly hits
         On one side wall,
    Kisses the front, then falls
Quick-dying down, most irretrievable,

    Is difficult to do
Unless a calm, an inner certainty
Comes to you softly in the midst of war,
         Setting you free
   From the slam-bang desire
To smash it hard no matter where. To be

   So deftly sure, so wise,
Wins points in squash. In another, harder game,
Word-play, a similar civility
     May equally tame
   Peaceless desires, and make
Your opponent yours by a nicety of name. 

Red is Turning Over in his Grave

If Red Auerbach had witnessed the defensive performance of the Boston Celtic vs the Cleveland Cavs, he would have choked on his cigar and died a horrid second death. In all my years in the NBA and post NBA watching as a fan, I've never seen a more pathetic performance on DEFENSE. Every single Celtic player and coach should be ashamed of himself. The Cavs attacked on D, which is the only way to play D, and the Celts did not attack back. Thus the horrible lopsided results. As far as I could tell, there was no defensive strategy, except cowardice. If Coach Stevens is the wunderkind he's supposed to be, he better start doing some wunderkinding pronto. (Love it when I have an opportunity to do some mixed metaphoring.)

I've been out of the game for a long time, but how about this for a strategy, Coach Stevens: why not force the Cavs always to their baseline and collapse the weakside? I couldn't believe how many times the Cavs drove the middle of the paint undefended. Forcing to the baseline against guys like LeBron and Kyrie makes sense to me. Trap from the weakside, and make them throw the pass from a tight angle. The danger, of course, is that the weakside misses the rotation and one of two things happen: The dribbler shuffles a pass to the 5, (in the Cavs' case, Tristan Thompson for a dunk, or the opposite corner is free for a three.) That said, if the rotation is sound, this should not happen and the pass has to go over or through the paint to the top, not easy to do.

Note: I'm willing to move to Boston for the right price as a consultant to the Celtics on defense. Well, maybe not at my age. I'd probably suffer a heart attack and die in Boston. I'd prefer to die as the great Peruvean Poet Cesar Vallejo did, on the streets of Paris.

The Golden State Warriors will not allow the Cavs to beat them up on defense, that I can assure all fans of our Dubs. This will be a amazing series, as both teams are healthy and playing at the top of their game. It will be professional basketball at its best and most intense. I suggest for the Dubs something called Intense Physical Peace.  It translates like this: Players must be at the height of their physical intensity while maintaining inward peace.

Lastly, doesn't it seem to all that this is a series we're going to see for a number of years into the future, similar to the old Celtic vs Lakers series?

I missed the first two series of the conference finals being on vacation with my wife in Greece. We were traveling with a group of artists, sketching and water coloring. My wife's the  artist. I was along for the ride but managed to write a number of pretty good poems. One does have a little to do with basketball, so I'll end my blog with it.

DRAWING IS A MOTOR SKILL   By Tom Meschery

Drawing requires a degree
of coordination and practice
like a sport. Like basketball
you add to get my attention,
knowing I played in the NBA.

But I'm thinking of the mist
covering the shore of the island
Gael drew in the morning
from the patio of our hotel
on the island of Folegandros.
And of Stephan Curry's shot
that arcs through the air
and plummets into the hoop
with such accuracy. I could
practice a thousand years
and never equal his talent.
Nor could I paint Gael's mist.

I have no doubt, practicing
your art makes you better,
remembering those early years
of brushstroke after brushstroke
learning to shoot a basketball
until the painting of myself emerged
fully formed out of the mist.
As for coordination, today, my hand,
holding the brush wobbles above
the turquoise banister.
My muscles lack the memory
trained for sports and not for art.