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Good article... he should have also added where Portland GM's philosophy comes from more emphatically and that the Spurs have been feeding the whole leave with FO personnel the last 7 years...
Welcome to the era of chemacterility
By Bill Simmons
Page 2 January 2, 2008
This article is taken from the Jan. 14. issue of ESPN The Magazine.
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2...2&sportCat=nba
Remember right after "Moneyball" was published, when baseball execs began to embrace the logic of, "Hey, if we put together a lineup of high-OBP hitters, we might score more runs," and everyone else was like, "Wait, that's obvious -- why didn't they always do this?"
I don't want to jinx it, but we may have reached a similar tipping point in the NBA. If you're a hoops fan, you should be delighted. If you're Spurs coach Gregg Popovich or GM R.C. Buford, you should be miserable. If you're Ricky Davis' agent, you should resign before he becomes a free agent this summer. If you're a sarcastic sportswriter who loves making fun of bad GMs, you should be in mourning. (Note: I'm writing this column dressed all in black.) And if you're a Knicks or a Heat fan, throw down two shots and hit yourself in the head before reading on.
Here's the new mantra for savvy NBA teams: "Chemacterility." Why haven't you heard the term before? Because I just made it up. But it's an amalgam of three concepts that have formed the foundation of the Duncan Era in San Antonio: chemistry, character and (cap) flexibility. As soon as Duncan arrived, in 1997, Popovich and Buford began to avoid bad guys and bad contracts, preferring role players, quality guys and short-term deals. They're so fanatic about chemistry that when Luis Scola jumped to the NBA this summer, they traded his rights, partly because they weren't sure he could adjust from being a star in Spain to being a supporting player here. They didn't even want to take the chance he'd screw them up!
Even though the Spurs have won four les with Duncan, for whatever reason, every other GM except Detroit's Joe Dumars has continually refused to emulate them. But that changed this summer. Sure, Danny Ainge revamped the Celtics by acquiring Ray Allen and KG, but the rest of his game plan has been equally important to the team's early success, and it hasn't received nearly enough fanfare. He filled a depleted roster with unselfish, high-character guys like Eddie House, James Posey and Scot Pollard and refused to pursue any moody vets. Thanks but no thanks, GP and Troy Hudson!
Much has been made of Boston's team slogan -- "Ubuntu," an African word meaning unity -- but you need to attend a Celtics game to understand why they're on pace for 139 wins this season. In the layup lines, everyone is high-fiving and joshing. Before the opening tip, Posey greets each starter with a prolonged man-hug and inspirational words. The nightly sequence might hark back uncomfortably to Rocky and Apollo's beach snuggle, but it works. During games, bench players stand and cheer as if they're being coached by Mark Madsen. In garbage time, the starters root just as passionately for the scrubs.
These guys eat dinner, hang out, work out and play video games together. They don't care about stats, acclaim, shots or minutes. It's a team in every sense. Even better, Boston's future is protected for years to come: Allen's contract expires in 2010, Pierce's in 2011, KG's in 2012. The Celtics are good, and they will continue to be good. What more can you ask for? When you can mix talent with chemacterility, you have something substantial.
Now, if you're a Blazers fan, you're thinking, Wait, that sounds familiar! After enduring the debilitating Jail Blazers Era, the locals despised the team so much that Portland's suits targeted chemistry guys out of self-preservation. Quite simply, Blazers fans needed to like the team again or the franchise was going to be run out of town. When the Blazers spent a 2005 lottery pick on Martell Webster, then-GM John Nash defended the reach pick by telling ESPN, "We think we took an outstanding young man. He's a terrific character, somebody that the community of Portland can be proud of." Was he drafting a councilman or a shooting guard?
That mind-set led Portland to Jarrett Jack, Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge. It also convinced them to give away Zach Randolph for Steve Francis and Channing Frye, then to buy out Francis, the world-class sulker, for $30 million, nipping any chance he'd contaminate the kids. Maybe those last two moves seem like an over- reaction -- you don't just give away 20/10 guys, right? -- but their devotion to cleaning house was admirable, and smart. (Note: Sure, Darius Miles still lurks. But when he's done rehabbing his knee, he'll surely be looking at a Francis-like buyout. Well, unless they can trade him or frame him for something. After that win streak in December, it's clear that keeping Miles makes as much sense for the Blazers as replacing Zac Efron with Pacman Jones for High School Musical 3 would for Disney.)
Although their initial rebuilding plan centered on creating cap space after 2009 and stockpiling enough assets to swing a KG-like deal, the Blazers sped things up this season by becoming the poster boys for chemacterility. They've also left the average NBA fan perplexed. After all, Boston's resurgence makes sense because they have three All-Stars; the Blazers have one emerging star (Roy) leading a mishmashed collection of youngsters and role players. They're a good raw team, but 13-in-a-row good? Without Oden? After they thumped a more talented Raptors team on Dec. 19, Jason Kapono told reporters, "Their chemistry is so good right now, and that's so hard to deal with."
Have you ever heard anyone blame the other team's chemistry for a loss? Me neither. Clearly the Blazers have stumbled onto something. On the flip side, look at the ongoing catastrophe in Miami. Poor D-Wade looks like Will Smith trying to carry I, Robot: His supporting cast stinks, and the script sucks. Who'd blame him if he were thinking about his next movie? Shaq's monster contract killed their cap through 2010, which would be fine if he hadn't developed rigor mortis over the summer. Even worse, Posey was allowed to leave, and the team violated chemacterility Rules 1 through 23 by trading for Davis and Mark Blount. That made about as much sense as holding practice next to a leaking nuclear reactor.
(Last note, I promise: Yes, I know, Miami looks like San Antonio South compared with the damage Isiah Thomas has inflicted on the Knicks. As a belated holiday gift to New Yorkers, I'll skip the gory details. Just know that Isiah is to chemacterility what the Saw series is to wholesome family comedy.)
Regardless, Popovich and the Blazers' Kevin Pritchard have to be cringing. Their secret is out: Talent and chemistry go hand in hand. Will we ever see a team willingly trade for Davis or Blount again or sign a knucklehead like Randolph to an $86 million extension? Sure. There will always be desperate GMs. But I expect more teams to copy the Celtics and Blazers with shrewder signings, more short-term deals and a higher premium on character.
So welcome to the era of chemacterility. Who knows? Brian Scalabrine's five-year, $15 million deal might seem reasonable someday. (I lied: Okay, that's a stretch.)
Bill Simmons is a columnist for Page 2 and ESPN The Magazine. His book "Now I Can Die In Peace" is available in paperback.
Good article... he should have also added where Portland GM's philosophy comes from more emphatically and that the Spurs have been feeding the whole leave with FO personnel the last 7 years...
Is it just me, or is the non-Bill Simmons national media paying surprisingly little attention to the Celtics, given that they are a major-market team on pace to go 73-9, with a record-shattering +13 point differential?
I'd always wondered how much differently the Spurs would be regarded if the name on the jersey said "CELTICS" rather than "SPURS." Well, now there is a team-oriented defensive leviathan in Boston built around three stars and a bunch of role players, who all eschew drama in favor of winning, and they're not getting that much attention either. The top five stories in the NBA this year have been:
1) Kobe drama in LA!
2) The Bulls suck! Will they trade for Kobe?
3) The Knicks suck! Will Isiah be disemboweled by an angry mob?
4) Look how pretty the Suns still are!
5) The Heat suck!
I must say I'm surprised. I thought the prevailing dynamic was that major-market teams were held in higher regard. But the Celtics are disproving this.
The underlying point is, if all NBA teams follow the Spurs model and build 30 team-oriented, drama-free fundamentally-sound organizations that exemplify everything sports should be about, would that kill the NBA?
he lost me at Posey = high character guy....
@
other than that, GREAT articlehigh-character guys like...Scot Pollard
I think the Spurs not bringing in Scola had more to do with $$$ than with chemistry.
It's interesting how an article about the Spurs ends up being a marathon Celtics fellatio fest. Oh wait, it's Simmons...
Spurs win because of defense, which the NBA will never encourage. Yea and also good guys and good contracts.
Since when have Ray Allen and Paul Pierce become high character guys? Even KG has had some pretty unflattering moments on the court.
The rookie-punching incident
Stupid article. You win in the NBA with talent. Always have, always will. The Spurs could have the best chemistry, character and cap flexibility in the world, but they aren't going to do in the playoffs without Tim Duncan. Same with Boston without KG. Obviously you need good and unselfish role players to compliment the talent, but when has that not been true?
i believe KG sucker punched Timmy on his first playoff series against the Wolves... i posted a video about this in an old thread...
The Spurs have not been the most talented team in the league in any of their championship runs.
I'm not sure that's what is being referred to.
KG was being schooled by a rookie in practice a few years back.
Everyone was doggin KG.
So KG went up and punched him right in the face, just cause some no-name rookie was out playing him.
The article is posted in the NBA chatroom somewhere. I'm sure someone has a link to it.
Anytime you have Tim Duncan, you are not lacking for talent. He's consistently been the best player in the league for almost a decade now. He's the #1 reason the Spurs win rings. The same way that Jordan was the #1 reason that the Bulls won.
Don't delude yourself. It's all about talent.
A fair amount of what makes Tim Duncan great is not sheer talent.
The Detroit Pistons won the 2004 NBA championship. Does anybody want to tell me about their overwhelming superstar talent?
I'm pretty sure the Spurs themselves would regard it as plainly obvious to the most casual observer that they are not the league's most talented team, and might mock anybody who suggested they were.
Frankly, I'm so perplexed that a Spurs fan would suggest that the Spurs' championships have come on account of their sheer physical talent, that I'm at a bit of a loss on how to respond. I took it as a given that we all understood how their selfless team play, commitment to defense, understanding of roles, and corporate knowledge allowed them to beat less disciplined and less experienced teams that had more sheer talent.
Furthermore, I'm at a loss to explain how somebody can take an explanation of the Spurs' philosophy and think it somehow is saying that Tim Duncan is not a legendary player. I'm at a loss how somebody can read the Simmons article, which clearly explains the tack Pop took after getting Tim Duncan, as saying that the Spurs' success somehow is not directly related to Duncan, as if they would have had the same success plugging Jerome James in there under Pop's system.
Last edited by Extra Stout; 01-02-2008 at 05:18 PM.
Paul Pierce ain't that bad...he didn't complain about being the only one who could do on his team, a la Kobe. And Ray...he did do a commercial for the WNBA.
Skill is also a "talent", and it could also be argued that mastery of ones craft is a type of talent. Sure TD may not be the most physically talented individual, but he is the most skillful in the post and has mastered his craft. The only Spurs championship team that doesn't overwhelm with talent was the 2003 team, but Timmy was just so dominant he made up for it. 99 they had DRob and TD averaging 20/10. 2005 and 2007 they had the big 3. There was a LOT of talent there!
You mean the same team that landed four players on the 2005 All-star team? They were clearly a bunch of no-talent scrubs.
I never said anything about "sheer physical talent". Clearly, you and I don't have the same definition of talent. If you're talking physical prowess, jumping ability, strength, speed, or whatever... then the Spurs are not the most "talented" team in the league. Shooting is a talent. Playing perimeter defense like Bruce Bowen does is a talent. Having testicles the size of truck tires like Manu Ginobili is a talent, I suppose. Check that. That one definitely falls under the au es of physical prowess, but I digress. The only Spur that you can argue is physically dominant is probably Parker with his speed.
That article wasn't about Duncan. Or the Spurs. That article was about Simmons fellating himself because the Celtics are suddenly good, and he attributes it to James Posey, Eddie House and Scott Pollard singing Kumbaya, and Danny Ainge's mastery of the salary cap despite them having the 5th highest payroll in the league. My point was that none of that crap matters unless you have talent like Garnett, Allen, and Pierce.
James Dolan should hire Bill as his GM and give him a show on MSG network. Seriously.
The result would be either hilarious epic failure (ie. a continuation of the current Knicks' situation) or a better team in 2-3 years. Sounds like a win-win to me.
i've read that somewhere before. that's plagarism!They're so fanatic about chemistry that when Luis Scola jumped to the NBA this summer, they traded his rights, partly because they weren't sure he could adjust from being a star in Spain to being a supporting player here. They didn't even want to take the chance he'd screw them up!
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