khandor’s sports blog

NBA Should Honour Its History and Learn From It

Until the N.B.A. has true revenue sharing, as do Major League Baseball and the N.F.L., competitive balance will be difficult (although not impossible) for the small-market teams to achieve. And the collective bargaining agreement is too convoluted with provisions counterproductive to the viability of the game. Until those issues are addressed, which they will not be for at least six years, teams will continue to spend too much money on both unproven players and proven mediocrities.

In an earlier era, the Lakers had Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor, but the title in successive years went to the Boston Celtics (in Bill Russell’s final season), the Knicks and the Milwaukee Bucks before the Lakers finally won.

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Whenever an authentic giant speaks, do yourself a favour and listen intently.

If you really do, then, it will make THE difference between future failures and successes.

Season’s Greetings.

It is always interesting when so-called stats gurus attempt to appraise the greatest basketball players of all-time.

It is also interesting to examine carefully which specific stats … thought by some to be objective [?] … are used to make this determination and which others … thought by some to be subjective [?] … are discarded.

To wit:

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Basketball on Paper WAR and the Best Peak Regular Season Players Since 1978

Comment 60

khandor Says:
August 9th, 2011 at 2:38 pm

Here’s a simple question for other basketball observers to answer.

For those who worship at the “alter of individual production stats”, when it comes to making an accurate assessment of which basketball players are, in fact, the best ones in the history of the game:

Was the version of Michael Jordan who played the game of basketball during the early part of his NBA career with the Bulls [i.e. between the ages of 21-26, prior to the first of Chicago's title-winning teams] a superior basketball player, in comparison with the version of Michael Jordan who played the game of basketball during the 2nd half of his NBA career [i.e. between the ages of 27-33, when the Bulls won 6 NBA Championships in a span of 8 seasons]?

If your answer is, “Yes,” then it says everything that needs to be said about your personal level of understanding regarding how “the game of basketball” is actually supposed to be played.

[Hint: i. The "Rules of Basketball" do not allow a game to begin without each team having 5 players, a designated coach, and there being a designated official[s]. ii. When a single player takes a ball and practices on his/her own, with or without a rim, or a court, or a coach, or an official, or an opponent team of players and coach, etc., this player is not actually “playing the game of basketball.” iii. There’s an old saying that goes like this: Many play with a basketball; but, relatively few become actual “basketball players.”]

Conversely, if your answer is, “No,” then it also says everything that needs to be said about your personal level of understanding regarding how “the game of basketball” is actually supposed to be played.

[Hint: i. According to the known "facts," the best basketball player in recorded history happens to be a certain former Boston Celtic after whom the NBA Finals' MVP Trophy has recently been named. ii. Btw, a "fact" is something which is actually indisputable, e.g. the sun rose in the sky today on the planet earth.]

Street fighter? LOL,

FYI …

re: Basketball on Paper WAR and the Best Peak Regular-Season Players Since 1978

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Comment #45
khandor Says:
August 1st, 2011 at 11:29 am

re: “Also the #1, #3, and #8 seasons are all from the ’80s. They belong to Jordan, but they took place in the ’80s.”

When MJ was at his most prolific level of statistical production, as an individual player, the teams he played on were incapable of winning the League Championship. Hmmm … However, as he then began to develop a more mature/sophisticated understanding of “How the game of basketball is actually supposed to be played, at its highest level of competition”, he produced individual stats which were less prolific AND the teams he played on were then able to capture multiple League Championships. Hmmm … Likewise, other all-time great players like Bill Russell, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird are only found further down the stat charts which purport to measure accurately the “individual ability” of an individual basketball player who, by definition, functions exclusively within a “team” environment comprised of 3 main phases [i.e. Offense, Defense and Rebounding]. Hmmm … It continually amazes that so many seemingly intelligent people spend copious amounts of time looking in the wrong direction when trying to identify correctly those who rightfully qualify as being amongst the legitimate group of GOATs. In no particular order … What determines an individual player’s ability to play the game properly are relatively innocuous things like Assists, Rebounds, Assists/Turnovers, Steals, Deflections/Tips, Blocked Shots, Successful Helps & Rotations, Penetrations [i.e. allowed & made], Appropriate Cuts & Floor Spacing, Screen & Pick execution [i.e. setting & evading], Conditioning, Energy [i.e. positive, neutral, or negative], Team Spirit, and Competitive Greatness … the group of which cannot yet be found in a single reliable metric, TTBOMK. Conversely, examining “Just how far above the production level of an ‘average’ player someone is,” would appear to be little more than a giant waste of resources … at least, when it comes to increasing the current level of understanding for what’s actually required to win the League Championship. In the end, isn’t THAT really what the game is all about?

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In general, Neil Paine does a terrific job running the Basketball-reference.com blog.

If you are a fan of what is good, and right, and just … in this crazy, mixed-up – and, most of all wonderful – world in which we all live … then, you should enjoy reading these next 2 stories:

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First, from Paul Flannery …

Bill Russell’s statue finds a home

On a blazing hot Monday morning, Mayor Tom Menino along with Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca announced the location of the statue in City Hall Plaza. It’s a splendid site based on its proximity to Faneuil Hall and the Freedom Trail, but the symbolism goes much deeper.

Some 35 years earlier — not far from where the mayor spoke — a young man bludgeoned a black lawyer named Theodore Landsmark with an American flag at the height of the busing crisis. The iconic image The Soiling of Old Glory snapped by Stanley J. Forman for the Herald-American stood for far too long as the enduring image of Boston racism and provincialism. After all these years, the harsh modernism of the Plaza is finally giving way to a long-overdue turning point in this city’s history.

Menino raised the possibility of turning the site into what he called a “Plaza of champions” in the future. Fittingly, he added, “We want to make sure Bill Russell is the lead champion.”

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and, second, from Jonathon Maus:

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Blazer legend rides the region

Bill Walton loves bikes. From his college days riding to class at UCLA to his daily ride through Northwest Portland to practice at the Rose Garden Memorial Coliseum, bicycling has always been a part of Walton’s life. So, when the nearly seven-foot tall, Hall of Fame basketball legend and member of the Portland Trail Blazers 1977 NBA Championship team visited Portland for a speaking gig earlier this month, he used the trip as a perfect excuse to put in some miles on the open road.

Two seemingly unrelated articles about how a good many NBA observers fail to “see” the game today, compared to previous generations:

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Article #1

Did they understand the hidden game of basketball better in the 1960s?

In the 1960s, Bill Russell of the Boston Celtics won multiple MVPs and was generally considered the game’s best player.  He had virtually no offensive game to speak of.  I sometimes contend that if Russell played today, with his awkward offensive skills, ESPN’s public opinion makers would persuade the public to believe Russell was an ordinary player of questionable value. My hunch is he would be viewed today in the same light the public views Tyson Chandler or Marcus Camby. 

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and,

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Article #2

LeBron James isn’t a hog; does that make hima a bad boss?

LeBron James should be careful not to listen to criticism from his inferiors, people who never played the game like him and don’t really understand how to win something. Young man, keep that mess out of your head. Everything you are doing and saying is right.

Sure, James could hunt for offense a lot more aggressively — if he wants to suck the life out of the Miami Heat. Maybe his critics would be happier if he went 3 for 30 and ruined the flow for Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. Since when does a refusal to overshoot when you aren’t knocking down shots qualify as poor leadership? And since when does a stat line of nine rebounds and seven assists qualify as a horribly passive performance? And since when is unselfishness a flaw?

I’ll tell you since when. Ever since the sublime talents of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant deceived star worshippers into thinking that NBA greatness is defined by lone wolfness. Ever since their stunning scorer’s mentalities seduced their admirers into forgetting that without Phil Jackson, and his relentless insistence on sharing the ball, neither won so much as one ring. Not one.

There is something off in the way James is being treated by his critics.

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which are, in fact, intrinsically related to one another.

Enjoy!

The view from this corner is that:

Cap is, once again, ‘nothing but wet’, when using his patented weaponry:

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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar questions Scottie Pippen’s argument that LeBron James ‘may be the greatest player to ever play’

How Soon They Forget: An Open Letter to Scottie Pippen

Dear Scottie,

I have nothing but respect for you my friend as an athlete and knowledgeable basketball mind. But you are way off in your assessment of who is the greatest player of all time and the greatest scorer of all time. Your comments are off because of your limited perspective. You obviously never saw Wilt Chamberlain play who undoubtedly was the greatest scorer this game has ever known. When did MJ ever average 50.4 points per game plus 25.7 rebounds? (Wilt in the 1962 season when blocked shot statistics were not kept). We will never accurately know how many shots Wilt blocked. Oh, by the way in 1967 and 68, Wilt was a league leader in assists. Did MJ ever score 100 points in a game? How many times did MJ score more than 60 points in a game? MJ led the league in scoring in consecutive seasons for 10 years but he did this in an NBA that eventually expanded into 30 teams vs. when Wilt played and there were only 8 teams.

Every team had the opportunity to amass a solid nucleus. Only the cream of the basketball world got to play then. So MJ has to be appraised in perspective. His incredible athletic ability, charisma and leadership on the court helped to make basketball popular around the world — no question about that. But in terms of greatness, MJ has to take a backseat to The Stilt.

In terms of winning, Michael excelled as both an emotional and scoring leader but Bill Russell’s Celtics won eight consecutive NBA Championships. Bill’s rebounding average per game is over 22.5 lifetime, MJs best rebounding years was eight per game (1989). But we will never know exactly how many shots Bill Russell blocked because again, they never kept that statistic while he played. However, if you ask anybody that played against Russell, they will just roll their eyes and say he blocked all the shots he wanted to block in the crucial moments of a game.

Bill played on a total of 11 championship teams and as you very well know, Scottie, the ring is the thing, and everything else is just statistics. So I would advise you to do a little homework before crowning Michael or LeBron with the title of best ever. As dominant as he is, LeBron has yet to win a championship. I must say that it looks like Miami has finally put the team together that will change that circumstance. Its my hope that today’s players get a better perspective on exactly what has been done in this league in the days of yore.

Affectionately,
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar,
NBA’s All-Time Leading Scorer

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while KD is the member of the on-line hoops community who, unfortunately, comes across …

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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s nasty open letter to Scottie Pippen

Stats that, 21 years later, Kareem can’t get enough of. Stats that, even with Jordan flashing six rings to Wilt’s two, are enough in Kareem’s eyes to hold Wilt in higher regard over MJ.

Stats that, as we’ve known for years, can’t really be trusted.

Because not only were Chamberlain and Russell playing a different game back then, acting as modern era athletes (hell, both Wilt and Russell to a lesser extent would be modern-era dominant all-world athletes even today) in an ancient game, but they were playing a different game amongst a different game.

There were often 30 or 40 more possessions per game back then, as shots caromed off the rim (on average) 60 percent of the time, and teams endlessly raced up and down the court as a result. It was a cherry-picking time for stats even amongst the guys who didn’t have Wilt and Russell’s athletic gifts, modern timing, and smarts. But for those two? With that package? It’s you against a 5-year-old on a Nerf hoop, and you’re allowed to shoot from wherever you want.

But that’s not really the point here, is it? Kareem, obviously, is arguing on his own behalf. A classic passive/aggressive move that sees him arguing with a stats-based stance for players who scored less, rebounded less, and blocked fewer shots than Kareem.

And of course Abdul-Jabbar isn’t going to point out the difference in competition and pace in his argument, or point out how the game grew significantly in the 1970s. It’s the reason he averaged nearly 10 points per game fewer in his athletic prime in the late 1970s (before Magic Johnson came by, mind you, to take a bunch of shots) then he did at the young age of 24 while in Milwaukee. He knows, and it’s slipping away. He’s probably been doing nothing but watching cable TV and listening to talk radio over the last week, he’s not even being mentioned amongst the top-five players in NBA history on some occasions, and it’s clearly set him off. So much so that he’s embraced the “legacy” (his word) of a former unfriendly combatant in Chamberlain.

It’s all a sad show.

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as the “embittered” lost soul, holding a child’s balloon which has just been popped.

Those who seek to de-construct the game of basketball to its strict basis in ’numeric values’ are failing to enhance a proper understanding of the game.

Playing the game of basketball at the highest level is most defintely a form of collective art …

which needs to be appreciated as such in order to decipher its authentic majesty.

For the benefit of those who questioned the leadership ability of Chris Bosh when he was a member of the Raptors, and those who fail to recognize the centrifugal role he plays for this year’s version of the ”Super Friends”:

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Chris Bosh’s play speaks volumes

Chris Bosh’s words two weeks ago created a stir, to be sure. That’s what happens when your star power forward questions how he is being used on offense.

But it has been Bosh’s actions, not his words, that have spoken volumes since.

Bosh has elevated his play by diversifying his offensive approach, rebounding more and shooting at a clip nearly five points above his season average. It’s no coincidence that the Heat has won five of the six games in that stretch, by an average margin of 19 points.

“He took a lot of the responsibility on his shoulders, and not many players are willing to do that,’’ coach Erik Spoelstra said.

Two weeks ago, Bosh stepped to the podium after a seven-point, four-rebound effort in a loss against Portland, the Heat’s fifth consecutive defeat, and told reporters, among other things, “I have to get it where I’m effective. I have to get it where big guys get it. I’m effective down in the low-post area.’’

Since those comments, the only strategic difference, Bosh said, is that he’s “rolling to the basket’’ more on pick-and-rolls. “Coach came in with the idea. He said, ‘Start … to roll to the basket, we’re effective when you do it.’ I want to make sure I finish when I get those pocket passes. I’m just attacking with a different mind-frame.’’

Said Spoelstra: “We’re not posting him up more. We’re not running more plays at him. He’s always been a focal part of our offense. He’s had a lot more aggressive mentality. He’s been more vocal than ever in expressing his leadership.’’

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The more Miami actually uses Chris Bosh properly … i.e. as an under-sized Center, in the mold of men like Bill Russell, Willis Reed, Dave Cowens, Bob McAdoo, Alvan Adams and Jack Sikma … the better their team will play coming down-the-stretch this season, and in subsequent campaigns.

PS. If Miami can ever get 100% healthy this season and implement a rotation that looks like this:

STARTERS
PG, Mario Chalmers
OG, Dwyane Wade
SF, Lebron James
PF, Udonis Haslem
C, Chris Bosh
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KEY SUBS
PG, Mike Bibby
OG, James Jones
SF, Mike Miller
PF, Joel Anthony
C, Zydrunas Ilgauskas
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RESERVES
OG-PG, Eddie House
PF-C, Juwon Howard [or Erick Dampier] 

the Heat will be an extremely difficult “out” in the playoffs, and just might be the “wagering favourite” to win it all.

From the words of Kobe Bean Bryant, at a point of maturation in his early 30′s:

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Kobe still tough, with assists from the greats

Ask him what he embraces in his early 30s that he never understood in his 20s, and there’s no hesitation: It’s what everyone insisted he had been a failure with, a perception that he has transformed with two post-Shaquille O’Neal championships.

“How to truly make players better, what that really means,” he said. “It’s not just passing to your guys and getting them shots. It’s not getting this or that many players into double figures. That’s bull[expletive]. That’s not how you win championships. You’ve got to change the culture of your team – that’s how you truly make guys better. In a way, you have to help them to get the same DNA that you have, the same focus you have, maybe even close to the same drive. That’s how you make guys better.

“I’ve never understood this stuff, where a star player sits out and a team goes into the tank. Well, they need him because he makes them better. Well, if he’s making them better, they should be able to survive without him. That’s how you lead your guys. You’ve got to be able to make guys suffice on their own, without you. If you’re there all the time and they take you away, they shouldn’t need a respirator.

“Once I understood all that, I looked at things completely different. I took my hands off. I didn’t try to control them. I let them make decisions, make their own [expletive]-ups and I was there to try and help them through it.”

As much as anyone, Russell led Bryant to those epiphanies.

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come the THE most important words you will read today.

Enjoy! 

In the past, this corner has been heavily criticized by some rabid Raptors fans for directing what’s been perceived to be mis-guided criticism towards Andrea Bargnani, as Toronto’s Starting Center.

However, the simple fact is that …

As far back as the 2006-2007 season, when the Raptors finished in 1st place in the Atlantic Division for the only time in their 15 year history, yours truly was one of the first only-? voices in the on-line hoops community who openly expressed dismay that the Raptors’ basketball brain-trust had seen fit to place their faith in the future development of this type of player, as a foundation-piece to what the franchise was seemingly attempting to build long term in Toronto.

Well, it’s now more than four [4] full years later, and …

it is very interesting, indeed, to see who exactly has been proven right – at least, up to this point – and who has been proven wrong.

On July 26, 2010 this is what was written in this corner about the future ranking of Andrea Bargnani, as a Starting Center during the 2010-2011 season:

For those expecting Bargnani to be improved next season

“Next Season” is now in full swing and this is the professional assessment of yours truly regarding Mr. Bargnani’s relative value today:

The assortment of problems which the Raptors have experienced during the last 4+ seasons have not originated with: 

i. The departure of Chris Bosh;

ii. The relatively poor [i.e. non "franchise player" type ] play of Chris Bosh.

iii. The inconsistent performance of Jose Calderon;

iv. The poor performances of Hedo Turkoglu, Jermaine O’Neal, and/or TJ Ford; 

v. The average-to-poor work of Jay Triano and/or Sam Mitchell;

but, rather:

I. The average-to-poor work of Bryan Colangelo, as the Raptors’ President/GM, who has failed to acquire the right series of players to be able to make it work, in a big way, in Toronto; 

and,

II. The poor performance, overall, of Andrea Bargnani, as their Starting Center and the No. 1 Selection from the 2006 NBA Draft.

As The Great Bill Russell first showed, more than 50 years ago … and other outstanding practicioners - e.g. Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Willis Reed, Dave Cowens, Wes Unseld, Tim Duncan, Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O’Neal and David Robinson – have since re-asserted … the most important functions of a dominant world-class Center are, in fact, providing:

#1. First-rate Team Defense [in transition and the half-court];

#2. First-rate Rebounding;

#3. First-rate Team Offense;

and,

#4. First-rate Leadership Skills;

not gaudy points per game scoring totals derived in large part from the playing of inefficient Individual Offense.

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PS. Until Bryan Colangelo actually understands this fundamental aspect of the game, the teams which he constructs will not become a legitimate contender to win a NBA championship.