tlongII
01-09-2012, 10:19 AM
http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/oregonian/john_canzano/index.ssf/2012/01/canzano_tired_welcome_to_the_r.html
The Trail Blazers were so flat and in such a haze in the first quarter on Sunday night against the Cleveland Cavaliers that I figured it might be worth sending Leah Mocsy down from her seat in Section 305 to set the team straight.
I know. I know, the Blazers are fatigued. Their legs are tired. Their bones are weary. They're playing a brutal schedule. Well, cry Mocsy a river, fellas, because she's up six times a night with 4-month-old Vivian, who won't yet sleep straight through, and also, she has a 6-year-old son, Owen.
"Tired?" she said on Sunday. "What's that?"
Portland played a lively second half and beat Cleveland 98-78 on Sunday. Mocsy took the 4-month-old to her first Blazers game, where the mom watched a sluggish, tired start, and mostly shrugged.
Hey, anything to get out of the house, right? Except on Sunday the entire house came with Mocsy to the Rose Garden. Owen was here, too. And Vivian was strapped to her mother's chest in a harness as mom bounced along the 300-level while the Blazers stumbled around the court missing seven consecutive first-quarter shots, and looking like they needed a nap.
"What do these guys do that's so hard," said Mocsy, "they play basketball?"
Eek.
Her words, not mine. But yeah, since the mom asked, which is more strenuous? Parenting or playing? Working a regular job or playing? Think on that while the Blazers play five games in the next seven nights. Also, while Vivian keeps her mom up all night.
Today, the Blazers will take a "maintenance day," which guard Jamal Crawford said ends up being a massage, and cold whirlpool baths, and treatment for sore muscles. You know, basically: rest. And right about now, I'm wondering how rapidly Mocsy and other hard-working regular people would skip through a field of broken glass to get a maintenance day.
Portland rallied admirably in the final three quarters and posted a 20-point victory. They came to life. They ran Cleveland out of the building. Portland is a wonderful 6-2. Then, after the game, the Cavaliers joined the Blazers and the chorus of every other NBA team in talking about how physically and mentally tired they are.
I'm tired of hearing about it. And I'll bet you are, too.
The Blazers play back-to-back games on Tuesday (Clippers) and Wednesday (Magic) before going on the road for back-to-back games at San Antonio and Houston on Friday and Saturday. The following Monday they're at New Orleans, and if you pulled out a pocket schedule to tell any of the players what comes after that they'd probably leg sweep you for bringing it up.
I tried to explain to a few of the Blazers after the game that regular folks are going to have a difficult time swallowing the "I'm tired" routine night after night. Might be worth a league-wide moratorium on the fatigue talk.
Welcome to the real world, Mr. NBA players.
Welcome to a world where tired people drag themselves through a work day, knowing that if they don't produce they don't get paid. Up with the kids in the morning, off to school, then work, then back to the children at night and, maybe, at the end of the day, if they're fortunate, a few minutes watching their favorite NBA basketball team look flat and complain about being tired.
See how that plays?
I know some NBA players who grew up in blue-collar households, and so I'm thinking they couldn't have possibly forgot how tired some of their parents were simply from living. In fact, you could have walked around the Rose Garden in the first half, closed your eyes, thrown a wadded-up roster and hit someone who had to be at work in the wee hours of the morning but was here to catch a Blazers game before the grind of a 40-50-hour work week.
What fans saw was two teams that trotted around and combined to shoot 4 for 23 from behind the three-point arc in the first half. Yes, I know. Tired legs.
Portland will play a franchise-record 18 games in the month of January. This month will define the first half of the season, and potentially, position the team for a playoff run or not.
There can be no in between. And it's clear that the team that bests adapts to this frantic schedule is going to have a huge advantage over the teams that are slow to adapt. Credit to the Blazers for not allowing fatigue to be an excuse for failure, and for having only two subpar efforts in eight games. Also, to coach Nate McMillan for apparently trying to manage this.
McMillan said he saw a team "in a daze" out there, just like the rest of us.
Weird, too, because McMillan had his team run through their normal "walk" through. He wanted to get their blood flowing. But apparently, they also needed the pre-game warmup and a first quarter. This all ends up a fascinating study on fatigue and motivation given how electric the Blazers looked against the Lakers last week.
Now, to be fair, some of the Blazers not only play basketball, but just like Mocsy, also have young children. In fact, LaMarcus Aldridge brought his 18-month-old son, LaMarcus Jr., into the locker room after the game. The kid is cute, and he sat in a chair in front of dad's locker while dad held one hand on the kid and pulled on his own socks and got dressed to go home.
Aldridge has two kids -- 18 months and 2 years old. Also, he plays power forward, which is the equivalent of holding a jackhammer for two hours. Also, he played a game-high 35 minutes and had 28 points on Sunday, then "Mr. Mom" was handed the 18-month-old to watch as he dressed.
Basically, Aldridge is the world's foremost expert on fatigue.
Aldridge laughed when I asked him about parenting fatigue vs. playing fatigue. He pointed at his son and said of those sleepless nights as a parent, "That type of fatigue you just want to go to sleep and get some rest. This kind of fatigue, you're awake, you want your body to go, and your body just won't go."
I told him about Mocsy, with Vivian strapped to her chest, walking the 300 level while he ran up and down the court on Sunday with his teammates, trying to find the energy to play well.
Aldridge smiled, and nodded. He remembers those sleepless nights and bouncing babies. He also remembers taking that first shot against Phoenix on Friday and realizing, in horror, he just didn't have anything left and his whole work day was still in front of him.
"I just felt all my energy was gone."
Right about now, all those who own a baby harness are probably nodding.
The Trail Blazers were so flat and in such a haze in the first quarter on Sunday night against the Cleveland Cavaliers that I figured it might be worth sending Leah Mocsy down from her seat in Section 305 to set the team straight.
I know. I know, the Blazers are fatigued. Their legs are tired. Their bones are weary. They're playing a brutal schedule. Well, cry Mocsy a river, fellas, because she's up six times a night with 4-month-old Vivian, who won't yet sleep straight through, and also, she has a 6-year-old son, Owen.
"Tired?" she said on Sunday. "What's that?"
Portland played a lively second half and beat Cleveland 98-78 on Sunday. Mocsy took the 4-month-old to her first Blazers game, where the mom watched a sluggish, tired start, and mostly shrugged.
Hey, anything to get out of the house, right? Except on Sunday the entire house came with Mocsy to the Rose Garden. Owen was here, too. And Vivian was strapped to her mother's chest in a harness as mom bounced along the 300-level while the Blazers stumbled around the court missing seven consecutive first-quarter shots, and looking like they needed a nap.
"What do these guys do that's so hard," said Mocsy, "they play basketball?"
Eek.
Her words, not mine. But yeah, since the mom asked, which is more strenuous? Parenting or playing? Working a regular job or playing? Think on that while the Blazers play five games in the next seven nights. Also, while Vivian keeps her mom up all night.
Today, the Blazers will take a "maintenance day," which guard Jamal Crawford said ends up being a massage, and cold whirlpool baths, and treatment for sore muscles. You know, basically: rest. And right about now, I'm wondering how rapidly Mocsy and other hard-working regular people would skip through a field of broken glass to get a maintenance day.
Portland rallied admirably in the final three quarters and posted a 20-point victory. They came to life. They ran Cleveland out of the building. Portland is a wonderful 6-2. Then, after the game, the Cavaliers joined the Blazers and the chorus of every other NBA team in talking about how physically and mentally tired they are.
I'm tired of hearing about it. And I'll bet you are, too.
The Blazers play back-to-back games on Tuesday (Clippers) and Wednesday (Magic) before going on the road for back-to-back games at San Antonio and Houston on Friday and Saturday. The following Monday they're at New Orleans, and if you pulled out a pocket schedule to tell any of the players what comes after that they'd probably leg sweep you for bringing it up.
I tried to explain to a few of the Blazers after the game that regular folks are going to have a difficult time swallowing the "I'm tired" routine night after night. Might be worth a league-wide moratorium on the fatigue talk.
Welcome to the real world, Mr. NBA players.
Welcome to a world where tired people drag themselves through a work day, knowing that if they don't produce they don't get paid. Up with the kids in the morning, off to school, then work, then back to the children at night and, maybe, at the end of the day, if they're fortunate, a few minutes watching their favorite NBA basketball team look flat and complain about being tired.
See how that plays?
I know some NBA players who grew up in blue-collar households, and so I'm thinking they couldn't have possibly forgot how tired some of their parents were simply from living. In fact, you could have walked around the Rose Garden in the first half, closed your eyes, thrown a wadded-up roster and hit someone who had to be at work in the wee hours of the morning but was here to catch a Blazers game before the grind of a 40-50-hour work week.
What fans saw was two teams that trotted around and combined to shoot 4 for 23 from behind the three-point arc in the first half. Yes, I know. Tired legs.
Portland will play a franchise-record 18 games in the month of January. This month will define the first half of the season, and potentially, position the team for a playoff run or not.
There can be no in between. And it's clear that the team that bests adapts to this frantic schedule is going to have a huge advantage over the teams that are slow to adapt. Credit to the Blazers for not allowing fatigue to be an excuse for failure, and for having only two subpar efforts in eight games. Also, to coach Nate McMillan for apparently trying to manage this.
McMillan said he saw a team "in a daze" out there, just like the rest of us.
Weird, too, because McMillan had his team run through their normal "walk" through. He wanted to get their blood flowing. But apparently, they also needed the pre-game warmup and a first quarter. This all ends up a fascinating study on fatigue and motivation given how electric the Blazers looked against the Lakers last week.
Now, to be fair, some of the Blazers not only play basketball, but just like Mocsy, also have young children. In fact, LaMarcus Aldridge brought his 18-month-old son, LaMarcus Jr., into the locker room after the game. The kid is cute, and he sat in a chair in front of dad's locker while dad held one hand on the kid and pulled on his own socks and got dressed to go home.
Aldridge has two kids -- 18 months and 2 years old. Also, he plays power forward, which is the equivalent of holding a jackhammer for two hours. Also, he played a game-high 35 minutes and had 28 points on Sunday, then "Mr. Mom" was handed the 18-month-old to watch as he dressed.
Basically, Aldridge is the world's foremost expert on fatigue.
Aldridge laughed when I asked him about parenting fatigue vs. playing fatigue. He pointed at his son and said of those sleepless nights as a parent, "That type of fatigue you just want to go to sleep and get some rest. This kind of fatigue, you're awake, you want your body to go, and your body just won't go."
I told him about Mocsy, with Vivian strapped to her chest, walking the 300 level while he ran up and down the court on Sunday with his teammates, trying to find the energy to play well.
Aldridge smiled, and nodded. He remembers those sleepless nights and bouncing babies. He also remembers taking that first shot against Phoenix on Friday and realizing, in horror, he just didn't have anything left and his whole work day was still in front of him.
"I just felt all my energy was gone."
Right about now, all those who own a baby harness are probably nodding.