tlongII
10-26-2009, 11:54 PM
http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/2009/10/brandon_roy_the_portland_trail.html
http://media.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/photo/brandon-roy-102609jpg-59997b693f5d7823.jpg
Brandon Roy had been the team leader for sometime, but he stunned his Blazers teammates — and coach Nate McMillan — when he interrupted his coach during a preseason practice to lay into the team.
It was just like any other practice earlier this month when Trail Blazers coach Nate McMillan whistled for his team to gather at midcourt, signaling the end of practice.
Quickly, though, the coaching staff and players discovered this would be no ordinary practice.
As McMillan started to address the team, he was interrupted. Not more than four words had come out of the coach's mouth when team star Brandon Roy cut him off, his voice sharp, his mood irritated.
Roy began a rant to his teammates about their poor attitudes and lackadaisical effort during the practice. He had been stewing throughout the two-hour workout, which came after a day off and after a thorough drubbing in Los Angeles to the Clippers. As the team went through the practice, Roy said he heard grumbling.
"Why are we going so hard?" one player complained.
"Aren't we done yet?" another huffed.
Roy remembers asking assistant coach Kaleb Canales "This is October, why is everyone in a rush to get out of here?"
Soon, Roy made up his mind. He would not tolerate this again. Not on this team. Not on his team.
So when McMillan started his post-practice address to the team with "That was a pretty good practice ... ," Roy snapped.
Stunned, McMillan said he dropped his head, looked at the floor, and listened.
"That was not a championship practice!" Roy remembers telling the team. "We can't sit here and say we want to win a championship and practice, you know, pretty good. We have to practice at a higher level. We can't keep making excuses!"
As he stared at the floor, McMillan had to compose himself. Inside, he was swelling with pride. The best player on the team was holding his teammates accountable. McMillan had long worried that his frequent barking and biting at his team would eventually be tuned out. He needed another voice. He needed someone else to see his vision of work ethic, and act on it.
Roy not only delivered, he drove it home with a sledge hammer.
"Brandon has never done that before," Greg Oden said. "It was out of nowhere. We were all having a tough practice and it wasn't up to his standards. For him to do that, it was big. It was him stepping up as a leader on this team. I mean, if Brandon says something, it goes. It has to. It's his team. We are all following him."
What particularly irked Roy was a widespread, and constant, complaining about the holding, pushing and bumping going on during practice. Players cried about fouls. Some mumbled, accusing others of "cheating".
As he continued his discourse, Roy set the record straight with his teammates. You don't like to be held, pushed or bumped? Deal with it.
"When I heard that stuff in the practice, the first thing I thought about was Houston grabbing the heck out of us in that (playoff) series," Roy said. "So I said, 'Everything you guys are complaining about right now, that's what happened to us in the playoffs last year.' I don't know if we forgot over the summer, but the playoffs was HARD. And now we are in practice and complaining about the same thing? Calling foul? Saying they are cheating? Don't act like it's not going to happen when the games start."
Juwan Howard, who is entering his 16th NBA season, was moved. He said he left practice and thought about Roy's speech on the way home. Then he said he found himself thinking about it again when he went to bed.
"So naturally, I woke up the next morning thinking about it," Howard said. "I went to practice early that day, and he was one of the first people I saw. So I told him, 'That was a great thing you did. You showed leadership, but more importantly, you set a tone for how we will now practice.' And I will tell you, that's how we can become a championship caliber team – by practicing and putting in the hard work, and when your best player is setting the example, it makes a big impact."
In the evolution of these Blazers, it was a big moment.
Roy had always been a leader on the Blazers, but this was different.
In his rookie season, he established himself as a team-first player when he stood up to Zach Randolph at halftime of a game against the Lakers in Los Angeles.
The next season, Roy established himself as a leader by example, assuming the responsibility of taking — and making — the last shot on several occasions. He made the All-Star team, and in the process shouldered the majority of the team's public relations and marketing requests.
And then last season, he morphed into a trusted leader, serving as the mediator between the players and McMillan, both of whom lauded his style and effectiveness in appeasing both sides.
But this, this speech in front of the team, was everything wrapped into one. He was forceful in showing his disappointment. Real in revealing his passion for the team to reach its potential. And he was pointed in delivering his message, a task that had always fallen on McMillan.
In one unexpected moment, Roy had become the complete leader.
"Personally, I was like, 'It's about time. About time,' " Martell Webster said. "He has addressed guys individually, but he has never addressed the team like that. Usually, coach would ask if anyone had anything to add and there would always be silence. So for him to do that ... like that? It was big."
Player and coach
Roy's evolution into the complete leader is in large part a byproduct of his relationship with McMillan.
They talk more than most players and coaches do, Roy oftentimes spending part of the team's flights sitting next to McMillan, and McMillan sometimes calling Roy at home when a thought pops into his head.
A comfort level has been established, where each can drop their machismo front and reveal insecurities. There have been times when Roy, fearful he had lost his scoring mojo, has gone to McMillan for help. And before his first child was born, Roy talked to McMillan about the uneasiness of starting a family.
"I've never been this close to a coach before. Ever," Roy said. "From the moment I came in, I felt it right away. I just felt like I could go to him and tell him anything, from Day One. I've never felt that comfortable with a coach, but at the same time, he allowed me to feel that way."
McMillan, meanwhile, has gone to Roy, wondering whether he had lost the team, and feeling like he was being tuned out. And constantly, McMillan is summoning Roy to his office in order to determine the pulse, or as McMillan calls it, "the temperature of the team".
"The best way I can put it is, Brandon gets it," McMillan said. "Both on and off the court, he gets it."
McMillan quickly discovered that Roy wasn't just an exceptional player. He also had an active mind, keenly perceptive, and astutely analytical. He thought very much like a coach.
Soon, their meetings became more like conversations. And then the conversations turned into lengthy dialogues and debates. The next thing both knew, they were co-piloting the team.
But it was a tricky spot for Roy. As his relationship with McMillan grew, he said he became leery of being viewed as "Coach's pet." To prevent that perception, he says he has been transparent.
"I try to be honest with both sides," Roy said. Late last season, he gained the players' trust with this role.
It was in March, and the team was beginning to fatigue. In the locker room, team bus or team plane, the common refrain began to be about McMillan, and how tough he was being on the team. He was practicing hard, coaching hard, and demanding perfection, but the player's bodies and minds were unable to keep pace with the man nicknamed "Sarge."
It reached the point where the team called a player's only meeting. By happenstance, McMillan called Roy into his office shortly after the team meeting.
"When I went to meet with him, it wasn't supposed to be about the team," Roy said. "But once we started talking he was like 'How are the guys? Where are they at mentally?"'
Roy gulped.
"It was like speak now or forever hold your peace," Roy said.
He told McMillan that the team had met, and that the consensus was they needed more rest. They needed less of his yelling. And they needed basketball to be fun again.
"It was one of the hardest things I had to tell him," Roy said. "I basically said 'Quit being so hard on guys."'
The next day, the team braced for another 90 minute sweat-fest. McMillan walked into the gym and said the team would go light – practice shooting, lift weights, then go home. And the next day, he said, nobody was to come in at all.
As the team left that day with an extra pep in it's step, knowing it essentially had two off days, McMillan pulled Roy aside. McMillan told Roy he understood where the players were coming from. But Roy needed to make sure the team understands where McMillan was coming from. The playoffs were approaching, and McMillan needed them to get tougher, play harder, dig deeper than they ever had before.
Roy called another team meeting. He told the players that McMillan would reward time off if they gave him their all during games. At the same time, Roy told his teammates he would start to hold players accountable.
The players responded, playing their best basketball of the season in the final month. McMillan responded as well, canceling morning shootarounds and lightening the practice loads.
"Down the stretch, he really loosened up," Roy said. "At practice, he would even get in there and play around with us."
The results were emphatic. The Blazers closed the season winning 11 of their final 12 games and secured two of McMillan's goals: a share of the Northwest Division title and homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
Roy was viewed as scoring a major victory for the players. And McMillan considered him the catalyst in his attaining the extra effort needed for the late-season push. Now, when Roy is summoned to the front of the plane, or called into McMillan's office, there are no worries on either side.
They know Roy will have the interests of not just McMillan, or the players, but that of the team.
"It's almost like I'm the elected official to talk to coach," Roy said. "The team is like, 'B knows what we want.' And when I come back, they are like, 'What did he say?' And I will tell them, 'Well, he is concerned about this, or that.' It's like both sides know it ... coach knows I'm gonna give it to them, and I think they know I'm gonna give it to him straight."
A game-changing second unit
Shortly after noon on Monday, after the team had finished its last practice of the preseason, Roy summoned another meeting for players only.
He had spent much of the preseason thinking about this team, particularly how successful it could become if the talented locker room bought into roles and kept the team in front of personal agendas. This concept would be especially important now that McMillan had revealed that Andre Miller, a proven and established starting point guard, and Joel Przybilla, last year's longtime starter, would be coming off the bench.
Roy said he wanted to impress upon the team — Miller, Przybilla and Rudy Fernandez in particular — that the Blazers' second team could become one of the best units in the NBA. They could forge their own identity, and led by the talented Miller, the dynamic Fernandez and the authoritative Przybilla, they could change games.
"Those guys are going to shape this team," Roy said.
His hope is that everyone embraces his words, takes them to heart and does what's best for the team. If someone doesn't, well, Roy will deal with that when it arises.
Either way, he knows his role as team leader — complete leader — was not finished with Monday's speech.
"My biggest stand as a leader hasn't come yet," Roy said. "It's going to come at some time this year. It's one of those things you can't predict when it's going to come. But I know it is out there."
http://media.oregonlive.com/behindblazersbeat/photo/brandon-roy-102609jpg-59997b693f5d7823.jpg
Brandon Roy had been the team leader for sometime, but he stunned his Blazers teammates — and coach Nate McMillan — when he interrupted his coach during a preseason practice to lay into the team.
It was just like any other practice earlier this month when Trail Blazers coach Nate McMillan whistled for his team to gather at midcourt, signaling the end of practice.
Quickly, though, the coaching staff and players discovered this would be no ordinary practice.
As McMillan started to address the team, he was interrupted. Not more than four words had come out of the coach's mouth when team star Brandon Roy cut him off, his voice sharp, his mood irritated.
Roy began a rant to his teammates about their poor attitudes and lackadaisical effort during the practice. He had been stewing throughout the two-hour workout, which came after a day off and after a thorough drubbing in Los Angeles to the Clippers. As the team went through the practice, Roy said he heard grumbling.
"Why are we going so hard?" one player complained.
"Aren't we done yet?" another huffed.
Roy remembers asking assistant coach Kaleb Canales "This is October, why is everyone in a rush to get out of here?"
Soon, Roy made up his mind. He would not tolerate this again. Not on this team. Not on his team.
So when McMillan started his post-practice address to the team with "That was a pretty good practice ... ," Roy snapped.
Stunned, McMillan said he dropped his head, looked at the floor, and listened.
"That was not a championship practice!" Roy remembers telling the team. "We can't sit here and say we want to win a championship and practice, you know, pretty good. We have to practice at a higher level. We can't keep making excuses!"
As he stared at the floor, McMillan had to compose himself. Inside, he was swelling with pride. The best player on the team was holding his teammates accountable. McMillan had long worried that his frequent barking and biting at his team would eventually be tuned out. He needed another voice. He needed someone else to see his vision of work ethic, and act on it.
Roy not only delivered, he drove it home with a sledge hammer.
"Brandon has never done that before," Greg Oden said. "It was out of nowhere. We were all having a tough practice and it wasn't up to his standards. For him to do that, it was big. It was him stepping up as a leader on this team. I mean, if Brandon says something, it goes. It has to. It's his team. We are all following him."
What particularly irked Roy was a widespread, and constant, complaining about the holding, pushing and bumping going on during practice. Players cried about fouls. Some mumbled, accusing others of "cheating".
As he continued his discourse, Roy set the record straight with his teammates. You don't like to be held, pushed or bumped? Deal with it.
"When I heard that stuff in the practice, the first thing I thought about was Houston grabbing the heck out of us in that (playoff) series," Roy said. "So I said, 'Everything you guys are complaining about right now, that's what happened to us in the playoffs last year.' I don't know if we forgot over the summer, but the playoffs was HARD. And now we are in practice and complaining about the same thing? Calling foul? Saying they are cheating? Don't act like it's not going to happen when the games start."
Juwan Howard, who is entering his 16th NBA season, was moved. He said he left practice and thought about Roy's speech on the way home. Then he said he found himself thinking about it again when he went to bed.
"So naturally, I woke up the next morning thinking about it," Howard said. "I went to practice early that day, and he was one of the first people I saw. So I told him, 'That was a great thing you did. You showed leadership, but more importantly, you set a tone for how we will now practice.' And I will tell you, that's how we can become a championship caliber team – by practicing and putting in the hard work, and when your best player is setting the example, it makes a big impact."
In the evolution of these Blazers, it was a big moment.
Roy had always been a leader on the Blazers, but this was different.
In his rookie season, he established himself as a team-first player when he stood up to Zach Randolph at halftime of a game against the Lakers in Los Angeles.
The next season, Roy established himself as a leader by example, assuming the responsibility of taking — and making — the last shot on several occasions. He made the All-Star team, and in the process shouldered the majority of the team's public relations and marketing requests.
And then last season, he morphed into a trusted leader, serving as the mediator between the players and McMillan, both of whom lauded his style and effectiveness in appeasing both sides.
But this, this speech in front of the team, was everything wrapped into one. He was forceful in showing his disappointment. Real in revealing his passion for the team to reach its potential. And he was pointed in delivering his message, a task that had always fallen on McMillan.
In one unexpected moment, Roy had become the complete leader.
"Personally, I was like, 'It's about time. About time,' " Martell Webster said. "He has addressed guys individually, but he has never addressed the team like that. Usually, coach would ask if anyone had anything to add and there would always be silence. So for him to do that ... like that? It was big."
Player and coach
Roy's evolution into the complete leader is in large part a byproduct of his relationship with McMillan.
They talk more than most players and coaches do, Roy oftentimes spending part of the team's flights sitting next to McMillan, and McMillan sometimes calling Roy at home when a thought pops into his head.
A comfort level has been established, where each can drop their machismo front and reveal insecurities. There have been times when Roy, fearful he had lost his scoring mojo, has gone to McMillan for help. And before his first child was born, Roy talked to McMillan about the uneasiness of starting a family.
"I've never been this close to a coach before. Ever," Roy said. "From the moment I came in, I felt it right away. I just felt like I could go to him and tell him anything, from Day One. I've never felt that comfortable with a coach, but at the same time, he allowed me to feel that way."
McMillan, meanwhile, has gone to Roy, wondering whether he had lost the team, and feeling like he was being tuned out. And constantly, McMillan is summoning Roy to his office in order to determine the pulse, or as McMillan calls it, "the temperature of the team".
"The best way I can put it is, Brandon gets it," McMillan said. "Both on and off the court, he gets it."
McMillan quickly discovered that Roy wasn't just an exceptional player. He also had an active mind, keenly perceptive, and astutely analytical. He thought very much like a coach.
Soon, their meetings became more like conversations. And then the conversations turned into lengthy dialogues and debates. The next thing both knew, they were co-piloting the team.
But it was a tricky spot for Roy. As his relationship with McMillan grew, he said he became leery of being viewed as "Coach's pet." To prevent that perception, he says he has been transparent.
"I try to be honest with both sides," Roy said. Late last season, he gained the players' trust with this role.
It was in March, and the team was beginning to fatigue. In the locker room, team bus or team plane, the common refrain began to be about McMillan, and how tough he was being on the team. He was practicing hard, coaching hard, and demanding perfection, but the player's bodies and minds were unable to keep pace with the man nicknamed "Sarge."
It reached the point where the team called a player's only meeting. By happenstance, McMillan called Roy into his office shortly after the team meeting.
"When I went to meet with him, it wasn't supposed to be about the team," Roy said. "But once we started talking he was like 'How are the guys? Where are they at mentally?"'
Roy gulped.
"It was like speak now or forever hold your peace," Roy said.
He told McMillan that the team had met, and that the consensus was they needed more rest. They needed less of his yelling. And they needed basketball to be fun again.
"It was one of the hardest things I had to tell him," Roy said. "I basically said 'Quit being so hard on guys."'
The next day, the team braced for another 90 minute sweat-fest. McMillan walked into the gym and said the team would go light – practice shooting, lift weights, then go home. And the next day, he said, nobody was to come in at all.
As the team left that day with an extra pep in it's step, knowing it essentially had two off days, McMillan pulled Roy aside. McMillan told Roy he understood where the players were coming from. But Roy needed to make sure the team understands where McMillan was coming from. The playoffs were approaching, and McMillan needed them to get tougher, play harder, dig deeper than they ever had before.
Roy called another team meeting. He told the players that McMillan would reward time off if they gave him their all during games. At the same time, Roy told his teammates he would start to hold players accountable.
The players responded, playing their best basketball of the season in the final month. McMillan responded as well, canceling morning shootarounds and lightening the practice loads.
"Down the stretch, he really loosened up," Roy said. "At practice, he would even get in there and play around with us."
The results were emphatic. The Blazers closed the season winning 11 of their final 12 games and secured two of McMillan's goals: a share of the Northwest Division title and homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
Roy was viewed as scoring a major victory for the players. And McMillan considered him the catalyst in his attaining the extra effort needed for the late-season push. Now, when Roy is summoned to the front of the plane, or called into McMillan's office, there are no worries on either side.
They know Roy will have the interests of not just McMillan, or the players, but that of the team.
"It's almost like I'm the elected official to talk to coach," Roy said. "The team is like, 'B knows what we want.' And when I come back, they are like, 'What did he say?' And I will tell them, 'Well, he is concerned about this, or that.' It's like both sides know it ... coach knows I'm gonna give it to them, and I think they know I'm gonna give it to him straight."
A game-changing second unit
Shortly after noon on Monday, after the team had finished its last practice of the preseason, Roy summoned another meeting for players only.
He had spent much of the preseason thinking about this team, particularly how successful it could become if the talented locker room bought into roles and kept the team in front of personal agendas. This concept would be especially important now that McMillan had revealed that Andre Miller, a proven and established starting point guard, and Joel Przybilla, last year's longtime starter, would be coming off the bench.
Roy said he wanted to impress upon the team — Miller, Przybilla and Rudy Fernandez in particular — that the Blazers' second team could become one of the best units in the NBA. They could forge their own identity, and led by the talented Miller, the dynamic Fernandez and the authoritative Przybilla, they could change games.
"Those guys are going to shape this team," Roy said.
His hope is that everyone embraces his words, takes them to heart and does what's best for the team. If someone doesn't, well, Roy will deal with that when it arises.
Either way, he knows his role as team leader — complete leader — was not finished with Monday's speech.
"My biggest stand as a leader hasn't come yet," Roy said. "It's going to come at some time this year. It's one of those things you can't predict when it's going to come. But I know it is out there."