ploto
02-03-2008, 11:20 PM
Usually I would just post these in the Raptors thread, but I know there is some TJ interest around here.
With apologies for those stuck with cold weather, it was a pleasure to put on shorts and a t-shirt and walk to the American Airlines Arena Sunday morning to check in at the Toronto Raptors practice. A little warm weather can really lift one's spirits at this time of the year.
John Lucas who was working extensively with T.J. Ford was at Raptor practice Sunday and was quite vociferous in overseeing a three-way one on one game between T.J. Ford, Juan Dixon and Darrick Martin at the conclusion of practice. It was a simulated game as players received a pass from Lucas at the top of the key and had no more than two or three dribbles to get their shot off to try and score a bucket.
It was one on one with the rotation being play offence, play defence and then a rest. The "rest" wasn't very long as the game was very intense and extremely competitive. T.J. Ford looked good. He seemed to be in good basketball shape and there was no holding back. Lucas has proclaimed T.J. ready and now sees it as just a matter of practice and fine tuning before Ford returns to the line up.
When the one-on-one session ended, Lucas held court with Martin, assistant coach Mike Evans, Juan Dixon and a few other keen listeners. He joked with Martin about his salary and how what Martin was earning now as a veteran under the CBA's current structure with a "veteran's minimum salary based on years of service" was the amount he earned over the duration of his entire NBA contract. The conversation then turned to what Martin was going to do when he finished his career and Lucas was encouraging Martin to go into the coaching world. Lucas has known Martin for quite some time and it was interesting to see Martin, a true professional and sage veteran in his own right, attentively listening to Lucas. To be honest it is one of the reasons why I think "D-Mart" as his teammates refer to him will be a good coach. He seems willing to listen and appears to be an analytical type person.
Lucas will stay with the team in Miami as they will gather in the hotel to watch the football game this evening. It is still unclear whether he will remain with the team to attend practice on Monday. Lucas, the former NBA head coach, took the time to speak to Toronto media and reiterated much of what he said when I spoke with him last week when he was directing Ford's rehab in Houston. If you want to hear the interview with him you'll have to tune into the pregame show on the Fan 590 Monday night at 7:00 p.m.
It was interesting that Ford did say he considered retirement for a short time immediately after being taken from the floor on a stretcher in Atlanta. Lucas restated that he has told Ford that he has to be willing to start over should something happen again and when asked how many times he has started over in his life, Lucas replied, with a smile, "every day". Lucas had issues with substance abuse and is proud of the fact that he has maintained his sobriety for 22 years.
http://www2.sportsnet.ca/blogs/paul_jones/2008/02/03/jonesy_on_the_road_2/
The first day they were together, John Lucas looked at T.J. Ford and saw the boy he had known since he was 10 years old. Ford had been a rival of John's own son, John Lucas III, in Houston, and the two men were friends. And so John Lucas tried to get T.J. Ford to quit playing basketball.
"I said, 'Why don't you quit?' " Lucas said from Miami, where he watched the Raptors and Ford practise Sunday. "I said you've got money and your health, so why don't you quit?' And T.J. said, 'I don't want to quit.' And I said, 'OK. Let's get to work.'
"I needed to know how bad he wanted to play ... and I think after [seeing him in] practice [Sunday], he's closer [to a return] than he even thought he was."
Lucas, the former NBA player and coach, has worked with Ford in a Houston gym for the last three weeks after Ford's latest neck injury, suffered on Dec. 11 when his Toronto Raptors played the Atlanta Hawks. Ford stole the ball late, drove in against Hawks forward Al Horford and fooled the
6-foot-10, 245-pound rookie. Horford's huge hand hit Ford's forehead from behind, snapping his neck back.
Ford has a harrowing history of neck injuries. He was taken off on a spinal board. He thought his NBA career might be over.
It's not. And John Lucas is one reason why.
"The most important thing with him is he needs to be ready to start over, every time," says Lucas. "And he's willing to do that. The first thing was to teach him about falling. There isn't really a right way to fall, but I was showing him he could fall, and be OK."
And that is where they started. Ford's injury was just the latest for the 23-year-old point guard, who was born with spinal stenosis, a congenital narrowing of the spinal column that creates less room for error and more risk of injury. Ford was briefly paralyzed during a pickup game in college. He experienced temporary paralysis and missed a year and a half while with Milwaukee, after he collided with Mark Madsen and suffered a bruised spinal column in 2004. He suffered stingers in Game 5 of the 2006 playoffs and 11 games into this season against Dallas.
And then, Horford. Which meant going back to Lucas, who had worked with Ford after the Madsen incident.
Lucas has one of the more unusual résumés in sports. He was an all-American in basketball and tennis at Maryland, and the No. 1 overall pick by the Houston Rockets in 1976. He was also troubled. As he puts it now, "All the NBA drug programs are because of me."
His alcohol and cocaine problems sent him bouncing through eight teams in 14 seasons, including three tours with Houston. As he once put it, "Athletes have to get the biggest house, get the biggest car. They have to love their girlfriends more. This is a crazy statement, but when I was an addict, I didn't want to be an average drug addict. I wanted to be the very best drug addict and alcoholic I could be."
Lucas has been clean and sober for 23 years now, and he helped write both the NBA's drug regulations and their aftercare programs. His post-playing career has included coaching gigs in San Antonio (where he led David Robinson and the Spurs to 61- and 55-win seasons), Philadelphia (where he had the post-Charles Barkley 76ers for two miserable years) and Cleveland (where he was fired midway through the 17-win season that netted the Cavaliers LeBron James).
Now 54, he counsels recovering addicts and trains players at the John Lucas Basketball Resource Centre in Houston. And that is where Ford went, because Lucas was a man he could trust.
"With an injury like that, you have to go back to where you're comfortable. You have to go home," Lucas said. "I don't have an agenda. I'm not employed by the Raptors. My only allegiance was to T.J."
They worked six days a week, with two two-hour sessions a day, and an extra two-hour session on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. There was court work, weight-room work and about 60 physical rehab appointments. Lucas counselled Ford on religious daily maintenance of his body - not just to strengthen Ford's body to attempt to minimize the effects of another injury, but because after an injury, Ford has to stay so still that his muscle tone and mass diminish surprisingly fast.
And because of their bond, Lucas had no trouble telling Ford that he had to change his game - to "really improve his shooting and his skills that will take him into his 30s" and allow him to minimize the dangers of contact.
But Lucas is, above all, a realist.
"He is who he is," Lucas said simply. "I told him that. 'You can't change who you are.'"
What Lucas could show Ford is that you can control what you can control. You can, at least partly, define yourself.
"I told him, 'I'm a recovering alcoholic, and I've been sober for 23 years. But I start over every day. I put a lot of days together. You can, too.' "
http://www.nationalpost.com/sports/story.html?id=283797
With apologies for those stuck with cold weather, it was a pleasure to put on shorts and a t-shirt and walk to the American Airlines Arena Sunday morning to check in at the Toronto Raptors practice. A little warm weather can really lift one's spirits at this time of the year.
John Lucas who was working extensively with T.J. Ford was at Raptor practice Sunday and was quite vociferous in overseeing a three-way one on one game between T.J. Ford, Juan Dixon and Darrick Martin at the conclusion of practice. It was a simulated game as players received a pass from Lucas at the top of the key and had no more than two or three dribbles to get their shot off to try and score a bucket.
It was one on one with the rotation being play offence, play defence and then a rest. The "rest" wasn't very long as the game was very intense and extremely competitive. T.J. Ford looked good. He seemed to be in good basketball shape and there was no holding back. Lucas has proclaimed T.J. ready and now sees it as just a matter of practice and fine tuning before Ford returns to the line up.
When the one-on-one session ended, Lucas held court with Martin, assistant coach Mike Evans, Juan Dixon and a few other keen listeners. He joked with Martin about his salary and how what Martin was earning now as a veteran under the CBA's current structure with a "veteran's minimum salary based on years of service" was the amount he earned over the duration of his entire NBA contract. The conversation then turned to what Martin was going to do when he finished his career and Lucas was encouraging Martin to go into the coaching world. Lucas has known Martin for quite some time and it was interesting to see Martin, a true professional and sage veteran in his own right, attentively listening to Lucas. To be honest it is one of the reasons why I think "D-Mart" as his teammates refer to him will be a good coach. He seems willing to listen and appears to be an analytical type person.
Lucas will stay with the team in Miami as they will gather in the hotel to watch the football game this evening. It is still unclear whether he will remain with the team to attend practice on Monday. Lucas, the former NBA head coach, took the time to speak to Toronto media and reiterated much of what he said when I spoke with him last week when he was directing Ford's rehab in Houston. If you want to hear the interview with him you'll have to tune into the pregame show on the Fan 590 Monday night at 7:00 p.m.
It was interesting that Ford did say he considered retirement for a short time immediately after being taken from the floor on a stretcher in Atlanta. Lucas restated that he has told Ford that he has to be willing to start over should something happen again and when asked how many times he has started over in his life, Lucas replied, with a smile, "every day". Lucas had issues with substance abuse and is proud of the fact that he has maintained his sobriety for 22 years.
http://www2.sportsnet.ca/blogs/paul_jones/2008/02/03/jonesy_on_the_road_2/
The first day they were together, John Lucas looked at T.J. Ford and saw the boy he had known since he was 10 years old. Ford had been a rival of John's own son, John Lucas III, in Houston, and the two men were friends. And so John Lucas tried to get T.J. Ford to quit playing basketball.
"I said, 'Why don't you quit?' " Lucas said from Miami, where he watched the Raptors and Ford practise Sunday. "I said you've got money and your health, so why don't you quit?' And T.J. said, 'I don't want to quit.' And I said, 'OK. Let's get to work.'
"I needed to know how bad he wanted to play ... and I think after [seeing him in] practice [Sunday], he's closer [to a return] than he even thought he was."
Lucas, the former NBA player and coach, has worked with Ford in a Houston gym for the last three weeks after Ford's latest neck injury, suffered on Dec. 11 when his Toronto Raptors played the Atlanta Hawks. Ford stole the ball late, drove in against Hawks forward Al Horford and fooled the
6-foot-10, 245-pound rookie. Horford's huge hand hit Ford's forehead from behind, snapping his neck back.
Ford has a harrowing history of neck injuries. He was taken off on a spinal board. He thought his NBA career might be over.
It's not. And John Lucas is one reason why.
"The most important thing with him is he needs to be ready to start over, every time," says Lucas. "And he's willing to do that. The first thing was to teach him about falling. There isn't really a right way to fall, but I was showing him he could fall, and be OK."
And that is where they started. Ford's injury was just the latest for the 23-year-old point guard, who was born with spinal stenosis, a congenital narrowing of the spinal column that creates less room for error and more risk of injury. Ford was briefly paralyzed during a pickup game in college. He experienced temporary paralysis and missed a year and a half while with Milwaukee, after he collided with Mark Madsen and suffered a bruised spinal column in 2004. He suffered stingers in Game 5 of the 2006 playoffs and 11 games into this season against Dallas.
And then, Horford. Which meant going back to Lucas, who had worked with Ford after the Madsen incident.
Lucas has one of the more unusual résumés in sports. He was an all-American in basketball and tennis at Maryland, and the No. 1 overall pick by the Houston Rockets in 1976. He was also troubled. As he puts it now, "All the NBA drug programs are because of me."
His alcohol and cocaine problems sent him bouncing through eight teams in 14 seasons, including three tours with Houston. As he once put it, "Athletes have to get the biggest house, get the biggest car. They have to love their girlfriends more. This is a crazy statement, but when I was an addict, I didn't want to be an average drug addict. I wanted to be the very best drug addict and alcoholic I could be."
Lucas has been clean and sober for 23 years now, and he helped write both the NBA's drug regulations and their aftercare programs. His post-playing career has included coaching gigs in San Antonio (where he led David Robinson and the Spurs to 61- and 55-win seasons), Philadelphia (where he had the post-Charles Barkley 76ers for two miserable years) and Cleveland (where he was fired midway through the 17-win season that netted the Cavaliers LeBron James).
Now 54, he counsels recovering addicts and trains players at the John Lucas Basketball Resource Centre in Houston. And that is where Ford went, because Lucas was a man he could trust.
"With an injury like that, you have to go back to where you're comfortable. You have to go home," Lucas said. "I don't have an agenda. I'm not employed by the Raptors. My only allegiance was to T.J."
They worked six days a week, with two two-hour sessions a day, and an extra two-hour session on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. There was court work, weight-room work and about 60 physical rehab appointments. Lucas counselled Ford on religious daily maintenance of his body - not just to strengthen Ford's body to attempt to minimize the effects of another injury, but because after an injury, Ford has to stay so still that his muscle tone and mass diminish surprisingly fast.
And because of their bond, Lucas had no trouble telling Ford that he had to change his game - to "really improve his shooting and his skills that will take him into his 30s" and allow him to minimize the dangers of contact.
But Lucas is, above all, a realist.
"He is who he is," Lucas said simply. "I told him that. 'You can't change who you are.'"
What Lucas could show Ford is that you can control what you can control. You can, at least partly, define yourself.
"I told him, 'I'm a recovering alcoholic, and I've been sober for 23 years. But I start over every day. I put a lot of days together. You can, too.' "
http://www.nationalpost.com/sports/story.html?id=283797