duncan228
09-05-2009, 12:09 AM
Things I love about the NBA (http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/9998912/Things-I-love-about-the-NBA)
by Charley Rosen
A few years back, the NBA's publicity machine came up with a delightful and totally appropriate promotional hook: "I love this game."
All I can say is "amen."
Here, then, are a dozen things that I cherish most in the wonderful world of the NBA.
* Overtime in playoff games because the deeper into the postseason, the better. Of course, the best possible scenario would be OT in the seventh game of the NBA Finals. This has only happened twice — in 1962, when the Celtics beat the Lakers in a single OT period, and back in 1957, when Boston initiated its dynasty with a triple-OT victory over St. Louis in what was easily the best game ever played in the history of the league. It was a game that, in fact, ushered in the modern era.
* Certain particularly enthralling mano-a-mano matchups. Like Shaq versus Dwight Howard. LeBron versus Kobe. James Posey versus any of the league's high-powered wing scorers. Or, for sheer ferocity, any combination of Raja Bell, Andres Nocioni, Matt Harpring and Ron Artest engaged in one-on-one battles.
* The coordinated choreography of team defense as played by both San Antonio and Boston.
* Indescribable individual moves to the hoop in hostile traffic by the likes of Kobe, D-Wade, LeBron, or whomever. These examples of spontaneous brilliance make me fully appreciate the new technology that makes immediate, instant replays available at home with a mere touch of a button.
* Players who are fouled extra hard — and even bloodied — then, without complaining, simply pick themselves up off the floor and sink both free throws. Indeed, these guys are much tougher than the guys who knocked them down to begin with.
* Clutch plays after timeouts that work. These demonstrate both superior scouting and superior coaching on the one hand and inferior scouting and coaching on the other. In defense of the failed defensive strategies, though, often times players zig when they're instructed to zag. But plays like this also prove that most games are won or lost in practice sessions, which is why players who are lazy and/or inattentive during practice are detrimental to their team's fortunes no matter what astronomical numbers they may register when the lights are switched on for real.
* Solid timber-shivering, shoelace-untying, dental-fillings loosening screens. In other words, one example of the critical execution of fundamentals that never shows up in a box score and is rarely appreciated by civilians but necessary for any championship-level offense.
* Along the same lines, I absolutely adore the extra pass that enables a subsequent assist-pass. Plays like these reveal everything that's righteous about the game.
* Tim Duncan's taking a pay cut a few years ago, thereby enabling the Spurs to enhance their championship hopes by signing whichever free agents they had in their sights without surpassing their mandated salary cap. This was the exact opposite of the mindset of most superstars and superstar wannabes. Sacrificing an extra million (or two or three) for the ultimate good of the team is a concept foreign to virtually all of Duncan's peers. And by this decision alone, Duncan proved that he's a winner.
* The chaos in Golden State's organization, all of it traced to the mind games that Nellie plays with everybody, which in turn are motivated by Nellie's insatiable lust for power. And if the coach is manipulative and self-aggrandizing, how can — and why should — his players make the necessary on-court sacrifices required of winning teams?
* Watching guys like Shane Battier play without the ball.
* I also love the mere idea of a reunion of Larry Brown and Allen Iverson in Charlotte. I can already imagine the tenor of the comments both of them will make. AI has learned valuable lessons since he played under Brown in Philly and is now ready to practice hard and do whatever his coach asks him to do. It's time to move on. If you don't love the prospect of Iverson-Brown redux, then you'll hate it.
*********************
Things I hate about the NBA (http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/10001344/Things-I-hate-about-the-NBA)
by Charley Rosen
Mystics of almost every persuasion believe that love and hate are two wings of the same bird. And since all of us who worship at the shrine of Sports America know that the bird is the word, here are those aspects of the NBA that I sincerely hate.
* How many times a game does this happen? A player dribbles to the rim and clearly gets clobbered in the act of shooting an otherwise easy layup — but the nearest referee sucks on his whistle, waiting to see if the shot is made or missed. If the former, no foul call is forthcoming. If the latter, then the call is made. This kind of stuff infuriated me when I was coaching, whether the conditional call would be good or bad for the good guys. After all, a foul is a foul is ...
* Floppers. Here's my non-floppers proposal: If all three refs agree that an egregious flop did indeed occur, then the flopper should be charged with a personal as well as a technical foul.
* No matter what kind of offensive move a player makes in the low post — duck-under, reverse-pivot, step-through, seal-and-spin, or what have you — Not-So-Marvelous Marv Albert always calls it a "drop step." Will somebody please educate this guy?
* Guys who thump their hearts, beat their chests, or are guilty of any other variety of look-at-me antics after performing even the most commonplace dunk shot. If touchdown-makers in football are penalized for excessive celebrations, then their dunkster counterparts should be T-ed up for excessive displays of egotism.
* Injuries to any athletes are distressful, but none so much as Yao Ming's latest leg woes. Because last summer's Olympics were held in Beijing, Yao wasn't granted sufficient time to heal the leg injury he'd suffered while playing with the Houston Rockets. Indeed, it was clear that Yao was limping during the opening ceremonies. So Yao was forced to undergo complicated post-Olympic surgery in an attempt to salvage his career. In other words, the basketball future of a humble, personable and talented 29-year-old was seriously jeopardized for purely political reasons. Even if Yao returns to NBA action, chances are his game will be drastically diminished. That stinks!
* Referees who overreact when big players and little players collide. Of course, the little guys will get the worst of the contact, usually getting bounced to the floorboards. It's only natural. Try running full speed into a brick wall and see what happens. But too many refs automatically toot the bigger player for a flagrant foul. In the vast majority of cases, this is blatantly unfair. How just would it be if quick players were penalized for driving past slow players?
* An overreliance on statistics by players, agents, the media and even many prominent NBA decision-makers. In so doing, these guys are focusing on the sizzle and not on the steak. And this is one major reason why the off-the-ball heart-of-the-game has been so devalued and why NBA action has been so dumbed down in recent years.
* Players (and their agents) who have an inflated opinion of their own worth like Stephon Marbury, David Lee and Nate Robinson. But most sadly, Hamed Haddadi, who identifies himself as "a star." It's guys like these who want more playing time, more shots, more commercial endorsements and better contracts — all of which are admirable goals but not at the expense of rational thinking.
* The NBA All-Star Game is akin to a baseball game in which there are only two outfielders, three infielders and both sides have batting practice pitchers on the mound. It's supposed to be fun to witness razzle-dazzle passes, dunk after dunk and acrobatic shots — all of them artificial and meaningless. Fans only interested in watching hooptime spectacles are advised to visit any number of playgrounds all over the country. In the word of sports, authentic competition is fun, reality is fun, grace under pressure is fun. Call me a fuddy-duddy, but I'd rather spend my precious time eyeballing a regular-season game between the T-Wolves and Kings.
* Last but certainly not least, I dislike fans who blindly worship certain teams and players to the point where even the mildest (and constructive) criticism of their favorites provoke them into vehement furies of hatred that should be reserved for serial killers. You know who you are. Hey, lighten up y'all, and pay more attention to living your own lives.
by Charley Rosen
A few years back, the NBA's publicity machine came up with a delightful and totally appropriate promotional hook: "I love this game."
All I can say is "amen."
Here, then, are a dozen things that I cherish most in the wonderful world of the NBA.
* Overtime in playoff games because the deeper into the postseason, the better. Of course, the best possible scenario would be OT in the seventh game of the NBA Finals. This has only happened twice — in 1962, when the Celtics beat the Lakers in a single OT period, and back in 1957, when Boston initiated its dynasty with a triple-OT victory over St. Louis in what was easily the best game ever played in the history of the league. It was a game that, in fact, ushered in the modern era.
* Certain particularly enthralling mano-a-mano matchups. Like Shaq versus Dwight Howard. LeBron versus Kobe. James Posey versus any of the league's high-powered wing scorers. Or, for sheer ferocity, any combination of Raja Bell, Andres Nocioni, Matt Harpring and Ron Artest engaged in one-on-one battles.
* The coordinated choreography of team defense as played by both San Antonio and Boston.
* Indescribable individual moves to the hoop in hostile traffic by the likes of Kobe, D-Wade, LeBron, or whomever. These examples of spontaneous brilliance make me fully appreciate the new technology that makes immediate, instant replays available at home with a mere touch of a button.
* Players who are fouled extra hard — and even bloodied — then, without complaining, simply pick themselves up off the floor and sink both free throws. Indeed, these guys are much tougher than the guys who knocked them down to begin with.
* Clutch plays after timeouts that work. These demonstrate both superior scouting and superior coaching on the one hand and inferior scouting and coaching on the other. In defense of the failed defensive strategies, though, often times players zig when they're instructed to zag. But plays like this also prove that most games are won or lost in practice sessions, which is why players who are lazy and/or inattentive during practice are detrimental to their team's fortunes no matter what astronomical numbers they may register when the lights are switched on for real.
* Solid timber-shivering, shoelace-untying, dental-fillings loosening screens. In other words, one example of the critical execution of fundamentals that never shows up in a box score and is rarely appreciated by civilians but necessary for any championship-level offense.
* Along the same lines, I absolutely adore the extra pass that enables a subsequent assist-pass. Plays like these reveal everything that's righteous about the game.
* Tim Duncan's taking a pay cut a few years ago, thereby enabling the Spurs to enhance their championship hopes by signing whichever free agents they had in their sights without surpassing their mandated salary cap. This was the exact opposite of the mindset of most superstars and superstar wannabes. Sacrificing an extra million (or two or three) for the ultimate good of the team is a concept foreign to virtually all of Duncan's peers. And by this decision alone, Duncan proved that he's a winner.
* The chaos in Golden State's organization, all of it traced to the mind games that Nellie plays with everybody, which in turn are motivated by Nellie's insatiable lust for power. And if the coach is manipulative and self-aggrandizing, how can — and why should — his players make the necessary on-court sacrifices required of winning teams?
* Watching guys like Shane Battier play without the ball.
* I also love the mere idea of a reunion of Larry Brown and Allen Iverson in Charlotte. I can already imagine the tenor of the comments both of them will make. AI has learned valuable lessons since he played under Brown in Philly and is now ready to practice hard and do whatever his coach asks him to do. It's time to move on. If you don't love the prospect of Iverson-Brown redux, then you'll hate it.
*********************
Things I hate about the NBA (http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/10001344/Things-I-hate-about-the-NBA)
by Charley Rosen
Mystics of almost every persuasion believe that love and hate are two wings of the same bird. And since all of us who worship at the shrine of Sports America know that the bird is the word, here are those aspects of the NBA that I sincerely hate.
* How many times a game does this happen? A player dribbles to the rim and clearly gets clobbered in the act of shooting an otherwise easy layup — but the nearest referee sucks on his whistle, waiting to see if the shot is made or missed. If the former, no foul call is forthcoming. If the latter, then the call is made. This kind of stuff infuriated me when I was coaching, whether the conditional call would be good or bad for the good guys. After all, a foul is a foul is ...
* Floppers. Here's my non-floppers proposal: If all three refs agree that an egregious flop did indeed occur, then the flopper should be charged with a personal as well as a technical foul.
* No matter what kind of offensive move a player makes in the low post — duck-under, reverse-pivot, step-through, seal-and-spin, or what have you — Not-So-Marvelous Marv Albert always calls it a "drop step." Will somebody please educate this guy?
* Guys who thump their hearts, beat their chests, or are guilty of any other variety of look-at-me antics after performing even the most commonplace dunk shot. If touchdown-makers in football are penalized for excessive celebrations, then their dunkster counterparts should be T-ed up for excessive displays of egotism.
* Injuries to any athletes are distressful, but none so much as Yao Ming's latest leg woes. Because last summer's Olympics were held in Beijing, Yao wasn't granted sufficient time to heal the leg injury he'd suffered while playing with the Houston Rockets. Indeed, it was clear that Yao was limping during the opening ceremonies. So Yao was forced to undergo complicated post-Olympic surgery in an attempt to salvage his career. In other words, the basketball future of a humble, personable and talented 29-year-old was seriously jeopardized for purely political reasons. Even if Yao returns to NBA action, chances are his game will be drastically diminished. That stinks!
* Referees who overreact when big players and little players collide. Of course, the little guys will get the worst of the contact, usually getting bounced to the floorboards. It's only natural. Try running full speed into a brick wall and see what happens. But too many refs automatically toot the bigger player for a flagrant foul. In the vast majority of cases, this is blatantly unfair. How just would it be if quick players were penalized for driving past slow players?
* An overreliance on statistics by players, agents, the media and even many prominent NBA decision-makers. In so doing, these guys are focusing on the sizzle and not on the steak. And this is one major reason why the off-the-ball heart-of-the-game has been so devalued and why NBA action has been so dumbed down in recent years.
* Players (and their agents) who have an inflated opinion of their own worth like Stephon Marbury, David Lee and Nate Robinson. But most sadly, Hamed Haddadi, who identifies himself as "a star." It's guys like these who want more playing time, more shots, more commercial endorsements and better contracts — all of which are admirable goals but not at the expense of rational thinking.
* The NBA All-Star Game is akin to a baseball game in which there are only two outfielders, three infielders and both sides have batting practice pitchers on the mound. It's supposed to be fun to witness razzle-dazzle passes, dunk after dunk and acrobatic shots — all of them artificial and meaningless. Fans only interested in watching hooptime spectacles are advised to visit any number of playgrounds all over the country. In the word of sports, authentic competition is fun, reality is fun, grace under pressure is fun. Call me a fuddy-duddy, but I'd rather spend my precious time eyeballing a regular-season game between the T-Wolves and Kings.
* Last but certainly not least, I dislike fans who blindly worship certain teams and players to the point where even the mildest (and constructive) criticism of their favorites provoke them into vehement furies of hatred that should be reserved for serial killers. You know who you are. Hey, lighten up y'all, and pay more attention to living your own lives.