khandor’s sports blog

What’s does it really take to win big, in the NBA?

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Reinsdorf: ‘It took Scottie to put us over the top’

For many Bulls fans, it’s impossible to think about Michael Jordan without also thinking of Scottie Pippen. Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf shares that sentiment and he takes the thought one step further.

“Six championships that wouldn’t have been won without Scottie,” Reinsdorf said when asked what comes to mind when he recalls Pippen’s career. “Michael couldn’t have done it by himself. The rest of the players and Michael would not have been enough. It took Scottie to put us over the top those six times.”

It’s often been said that Pippen never won a title without Jordan, but Jordan never won it all without Pippen, either. At the end of the day, the two players were the perfect complement to each other. That’s why when Pippen enters basketball’s Hall of Fame on Aug. 13, it’s only fitting that he’ll join Jordan among the game’s greats in Springfield, Mass. just one year after his enshrinement.

“A lot of people liked to talk about Scottie as being Batman’s Robin or the Lone Ranger’s Tonto,” said Reinsdorf during a recent interview at the Berto Center. “I never thought that was the case and I liked to think of them as 1 and 1A. They were very, very close.”

The paring of the duo which brought Chicago six world championships in eight years was born on June 22, 1987 in New York City, the night of the 1987 NBA Draft. The Bulls owed two first round selections, eighth and tenth overall.

Then General Manager Jerry Krause had set his sights on Pippen, who had not long before been an unknown prospect out of Central Arkansas, a NAIA school at the time. Given that the Bulls were one of the very few teams who had ventured down to Conaway, Ark. to watch Pippen play collegiately, Reinsdorf recalled being confident they would be able to get him with the eighth pick. But the rest of the basketball world was about to learn of Pippen’s talents and abilities.

“We were sure we were going to be able to get Scottie where we were in the draft,” said Reinsdorf. “Then Scottie went to the pre-draft camps, lit it up and got everybody’s attention. We went into panic mode because we realized he wouldn’t be there when we were going to draft. We somehow had to move up and we were able to pull it off. But it was touch and go for awhile.”

If the following reports are, in fact, to be believed …

Thomas’ Bulls time likely about finished

With Tyrus Thomas it’s personal now

what becomes readily apparent is that

the people charged with running things in Chicago - i.e. Jerry Reinsdorf, John Paxson and Gar Forman - have temporarily lost their mind, if they simply want to ”give away” a player like Tyrus Thomas [23 yrs of age; 4th NBA season], either, now [as the NBA's trade deadline approaches], or at the end of this season. 

When you look at the significant progress which a player like Josh Smith [24 yrs of age; 6th NBA season] has made this season, as a young, unbridled Power Forward, with the world of talent but, also, the need for increased personal discipline in his individual game … it’s extremely short-sighted of Chicago’s current management team to fail to realize exactly what they actually have on their hands in the form of:

* young Mr. Double T

working [and maturing] in conjunction with

* Joakim Noah/C [24 years of age]

* Luol Deng/SF [24 yrs of age]

* John Salmons/OG-SF [30 yrs of age]

* Taj Gibson/PF [24 years of age]

* James Johnson/SF-PF [22 yrs of age]

* Kirk Hinrich/OG-PG [29 years of age], and

* Derrick Rose/PG [21 yrs of age].

Trading a still-young player with Tyrus Thomas’ physical ability and specific skill-set [i.e. Rebounding, Defense, Shot-blocking and an Increasingly Developed Offensive Repertoire] is one thing …

as long as an organization gets back, in return, an equivalent package of assets, or more …

but, simply giving that player away … for nothing:

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Tyrus Thomas can be yours

I can’t think of a single player, with the possible exception of New York’s David Lee, that has been jerked around more than Thomas. And I can’t think of a single player, with no exception, that has acted like more of a prat than Tyrus. A nasty combination.

One doesn’t lead to the other, but it doesn’t help. Thomas was drafted as a project by the Bulls in 2006, but he was never treated like a project. Instead, he was treated like some four-year college starter that had been on CBS too many times to mention, and someone who was used to the grind. Thomas wasn’t used to the grind. He was a basketball scrub until his late teens. He only had one year of slapping the backboards at LSU. He was ready, but he wasn’t ready.

The Bulls not only acted as if he was ready, but he was also added to the Chicago roster at the start of Scott Skiles’ weird passive-aggressive phase. When Skiles - who often seems like a perfect mix of the best qualities of Larry Brown and Don Nelson - started utilizing the worst qualities of Larry Brown and Don Nelson. The strange rotations. The stubbornness. The attention to obsession, rather than detail.          

Thomas played less than a year and a half under Skiles, but it may have well been two years. Because Skiles was replaced on an interim basis by Jim Boylan, a pointless move in retrospect, because Boylan was Skiles’ number two, and he promptly spent the entirety of his obviously-interim gig taking out Skiles’ indirect frustrations with certain players out on the kids who had wronged Boylan’s buddy the most.

So Thomas would leave the game, for long stretches, for no apparent reason. And, just as much, he would stay in the game for no apparent reason. Almost to a night, the good play would go unrewarded, and the bad play would go unacknowledged. How in the hell was this kid, this man, supposed to learn?

Left to his own devices, the project acted like - and I know you’re shocked - a project. Until it was/is time for Chicago to write off another cheapo lottery pick, and take in the savings.

It didn’t have to be like this. And, potential suitors? Thomas doesn’t have to be like this.

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Thomas big help in 109-101 Bulls’ victory

“He’s so athletic that he affects the game when he’s engaged,” John Salmons said. “He gets his hands on balls, rebounds, puts back shots. When he masters that, he really helps us.”

Salmons’ answer proved far more expansive than those from Thomas, who entered just 2:18 after tipoff and played the next 14:46. That’s close Thomas’ playing time from each of his last three games, which led to his frustration and blow-up.

Before the game, Thomas said he had “no regrets” about the incident and “there’s nothing to be frustrated about.” Afterward, he addressed his night, which included him grabbing three rebounds and playing six minutes before his first shot — a strong drive and score after passing up a jumper.

“I felt good,” he said. “I was just playing ball, trying to win, working for the team. I’m always ready to play. The more you’re out there, the more you can do.”

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makes absolutely no sense … except, perhaps, from a $$$ standpoint … if the ultimate goal there is actually trying to win the NBA Championship, again, in the not-too-distant future.

With their current cast of characters, it would be a mistake for the Bulls to think that what their team actually needs to do this summer is add 2 high-priced, free agent signees … when all Chicago really needs is:

1. To add THE right player, and

2. Give their existing collection of players a legitimate chance to grow and develop together, 

3. Under the direction of a truly Top Notch NBA coach.  

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Update:

Bulls not lacking for Thomas suitors [Feb 11 2010]

Winning is still the currency that drives Mavericks’ Cuban
Mavericks president Terdema Ussery flipped to his newspaper sports section last Tuesday and chuckled.

There in the cover photo was his boss, Mark Cuban, rejoicing after Jason Terry’s game-winning shot against Minnesota. Arms raised, jumping, screaming, the frozen moment is vintage Cuban – suspended in time, if not exactly midair.

“I told my wife, ‘That picture couldhave been taken 10 years ago,’ ” Ussery said. “No difference at all. There’s your owner, with his 6-inch vertical leap.”

Cuban’s youthful appearance, drive and exuberance have changed little since, at age 41, he signed a letter of intent to purchase the Mavericks on Jan. 3, 2000.

In reality, he is now 50, a married father of two girls, has an artificial left hip and according to Forbes, is at least $137 million lighter in the wallet where the Mavericks are concerned.

“I’m not going to comment on our P&L [profit and loss] specifics,” Cuban said. “But I have always said I’m in this to win, not make money.”

For most pro sports owners, such a bottom line would be cause for alarm. In Cuban’s case, the subject evokes a sweat-dripping shrug from atop the StairMaster outside the Mavericks’ locker room, where he churns before most home games.

Tonight, his Mavericks host San Antonio in Game 3 of a best-of-seven, first-round NBA playoff series that is tied, 1-1. For some teams, extended playoff runs make the difference between loss and profit, or between profit and prosperity.

Not so the Mavericks. Even though this is their ninth straight playoff appearance, Cuban recalls finishing in the black only twice during his tenure, although according to Forbes’ figures it happened only once.

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Until your favourite NBA team has an owner with a similar raison d’etre as Mark Cuban, and the other individuals whose team’s names are on this list, you can simply forget about ever winning the Larry O’Brien Trophy.

Leadership in a pro sports organization starts at the very top, with an unwavering Commitment to WINNING the League Championship, not to being in ‘the black’ each and every year.

[PS. Which teams in the NBA today do NOT have a sole owner who is in a similar well-healed state like Mark Cuban? or, Wyc Grousbeck? or, Dr. Jerry Buss? or, Peter Holt? or, Mickey Arison? or, Jerry Reinsdorf?, or Paul Allen? or, etc.]