khandor’s sports blog

Exhibit A

Blame Stern if push comes to shove in NBA talks

All hell’s going to break loose on Manhattan’s East Side Tuesday, and David Stern has been asking for this agent uprising from the beginning of these labor talks. He’s been asking for the fight of his life, and maybe, the implosion of his sport when this should be a golden time. So, stop the preening, stop the end-zone dance and make those rich guys start to stare at their shoes again. For once, be the commissioner of the NBA, not just the owners. Enough’s enough, bully.

Exhibit B

Owners get what they want, will now wait for the players to crumble

… we’re once again going to call on David Stern to act as commissioner of the National Basketball Association, and not his owners’ lead legal counsel. This is for the good of the game, and the myriad economic ripples that surround it in every NBA city and even the homes featuring men and women whose livelihoods are tangentially reliant on NBA games to put food on the table. We’re yelling at Stern for doing his job.

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Wow.

Q1. When solid writers like Adrian Wojnarowski and Kelly Dwyer both swing and miss, placing blame for the current NBA lockout on the League Commissioner, David Stern, what hope is there really for the average fan to understand the major problems properly?

A1. Not much, when you get down to the bottom line.

The simple and unfortunate facts of the matter in this case are:

1. David Stern WORKS for the NBA owners.

2. David Stern does NOT work for the NBA Players Association.

3. David Stern does NOT work “for the good of the [NBA] game.”

4. Billy Hunter WORKS for the NBA Players Association.

5. Billy Hunter does NOT work “for the good of the NBA game.”

6. Adrian Wojnarowski WORKS for Yahoo! Sports.

7. Adrian Wojnarowski does NOT work “for the good of the NBA game.”

8. Kelly Dwyer WORKS for Yahoo! Sports.

9. Kelly Dwyer does NOT work “for the good of the NBA game.”

10. Those with “vested interests” on either side of an acrimonious labour discussion rarely, if ever, have an unbiased perspective on what would actually constitute a “fair deal” from the perspective of both sides, i.e. A) Management, and B) Labour.

As it has been said in this space on previous occasions …

It is most interesting to see just how easy it is for the words and/or actions of some to be misinterpreted by others who work everyday in the on-line basketball community.

To wit:

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Exhibit A

Carl Landry has forgotten that someone named ‘LaMarcus Aldridge’ actually exists

What’s strange is that Landry, in a recent interview with SLAM’s Chris Haynes, doesn’t appear to have any knowledge of something called a “LaMarcus Aldridge.”

Here’s some evidence:

“I think I can fit in with Portland, “Landry told SLAMonline. “They’re in need of a big post presence down low. I’m not taking anything away from (Greg) Oden and (Marcus) Camby. I just know what I can provide. The Blazers are a good team and I know I can help.”

He’s not wrong. He could help. Landry could help just about any team in a pinch with his touch in the paint. The issue here is the presence of LMA, who came through with an All-Star season last year (even if he didn’t make the team), finishing with averages of nearly 22 points and nine rebounds on the league’s slowest-paced team (slowed pace limits your chances to pile up big stats). Aldridge is only 25, and while he isn’t a low-post demon, he is an obvious starting power forward lock that shouldn’t be dismissed.

Much less forgotten. By someone who has had to guard him dozens of times in his NBA career.

Carl?

“I really like Portland,” said Landry. “I’m good friends with Greg Oden, and Wes Matthews is from Wisconsin like me. There are a lot of ties there and I have no doubt that I would blend in fine.”

Again, he’s not wrong. It’s A-OK to really like Portland, especially if you ride a bike and want to know where your dinner was raised. And Landry would blend in fine, as he would with most teams, as a top-notch sixth man, ready to drop 12 points in a second quarter.

But unless SLAM left some musings about Aldridge out, this seems like a curious oversight. And with the lockout leaving most of us filled with alternating bouts of ennui and anger, could this be the NBA’s newest passive/aggressive feud? Because, with nothing else going on, we’re ready for it.

LMA? Your turn.

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It’s your turn, LMA?

Hmmm …

KD … Evidence?

Really?

This is what you meant to say, in this instance?

How incredulous is it that several other observers – btw, who are not paid a full-time salary by Yahoo! to cover the goings-on in the NBA on a regular basis – in the comments section actually have the ability [insight?] to see CLEARLY what Carl Landry is actually talking about … i.e. the possibility of Landry joining the Trail Blazers, either:

#1. As a back-up PF, in arrears of current starter LaMarcus Aldridge/PF [i.e. with a combination of: A) Marcus Camby and Greg Oden patrolling the C position, plus B) Nicolas Batum and Gerald Wallace at the SF position]; or

#2. As a Starting PF, beside current starter LaMarcus Aldridge/C [i.e. with Camby at the back-up PF spot, Oden as the back-up C, plus Batum and Wallace at the SF position];

when the League’s free agency signing period occurs next …

and, seemingly, Kelly Dwyer does not?

Sometimes it is vitally important that certain people in this world just give their own head a darn good shake … perhaps, to dislodge the cobwebs.

This is one of THOSE times for the usually terrific editor of Ball Don’t Lie.

It may be YOUR turn, Mr. Dwyer … and, the person owed an abject apology is none other than Mr. Carl Landry, who happens to be a prototypical role player for a high-end team in the NBA.

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PS. If the Blazers organization is in fact smart enough to execute this specific signing, whenever the lockout happens to end, then, Portland would create one of the deepest and most talented rosters in the entire league:

STARTERS
PG – Raymond Felton
OG – Wes Matthews
SF – Nicolas Batum
PF – Carl Landry
C – LaMarcus Aldridge

KEY SUBS
PG – Patrick Mills [or Armon Johnson, Elliot Williams, and Nolan Smith]
OG – Brandon Roy
SF – Gerald Wallace
PF – Marcus Camby
C – Greg Oden

RESERVES/EXTRAS/OUTS
PG – Noland Smith [i.e. Selection No. 21, 2011 NBA Draft]
PG – Armon Johnson [i.e. Selection No. 34, 2010 NBA Draft]
PG/OG – Elliot Williams [i.e. Selection No. 22, 2010 NBA Draft]]
OG – John Diebler [i.e. Selection No. 51, 2011 NBA Draft]
F – Luke Babbitt [i.e. Selection No. 16, 2010 NBA Draft]
F – Tanguy Ngombo [i.e. Selection No. 57, 2011 NBA Draft]
C – Earl Barron

At different times stories in the world of sports seem to take on a life of their own … without actually having much [any?] basis in fact [truth?].

Please witness:

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Exhibit A

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is still angry at Michael Olowokandi

For Kareem, it was a frustrating few years. Though Olowokandi was probably overrated at the time of his top selection — he was a project, no doubt, but also 23 when he finished his senior season at Pacific — he did boast significant gifts that could have made him an All-Star at some point. But despite his age (for comparison’s sake, Andrew Bynum(notes), the more malleable Kareem student, is about to enter his seventh NBA season, and he’s 23 as well), he was far from a willing pupil.

Abdul-Jabbar mentioned as much in a column he penned for ESPN.com today:

I have seen this process firsthand. When I coached for the Clippers, I had to deal with Michael Olowokandi, a player who perfectly fit the description “talented but uncoachable.” At practice, I would attempt to point out Mr. Olowokandi’s faults to him, ones he constantly repeated and resulted in lost possessions for the team or personal fouls that sent him to the bench. His reaction to my attempts to correct his bad habits was to take my input as a personal insult and embarrassment. He told me point-blank that he would not be criticized in front of the team. He stuck to his word and, as a result, had very few successful moments on the court playing the way he wanted to play. He took his place on the list of athletically gifted washouts who have been in and out of the league in the past 10 years.

which is an article that was written today, by Kelly Dwyer, in a US national/international on-line publication.

This is not the crux of Kareem’s column, but an aside in a well-reasoned piece that, as I did this morning, points to the fact that the NBA’s owners have to decide how they’re going to settle their revenue sharing issues in-house before they can demand massive “piece-of-the-pie” cutbacks for the players who have earned those record revenues and inspired those increased ratings.

Abdul-Jabbar, though, is still smarting. He’s long been known as someone who can keep a grudge with the best of them, and in ‘Kandi (pictured above with former Clippers coach Chris Ford) not only did Kareem see a project with potential that he could claim his own, but also a possible entryway into the world of NBA head coaching. To be charged with, almost singularly, changing the fortunes of one player and then watching as that player continually tunes you out? I’d be ticked, too.

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The known facts about this matter would actually be the following:

1. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wrote a column which was published today on ESPN.com.

2. In part of this column, Kareem mentions that:

i. He spent time trying to coach Michael Olowokandi, when the latter played for the LA Clippers;

ii. In his opinion, Olowokandi was not responsive to the type of coaching that Kareem was able to provide.

iii. The type of coaching which he provided included making criticisms of Olowokandi’s play in a public way at Clippers’ practices [i.e. in front of other Clippers' players].

iv. In his opinion, Olowokandi continued to make the same mistakes repeatedly, at least, in part, because Michael was someone who did not wish to make changes in his own play based upon this type of coaching … unlike Andrew Bynum, who has also worked with Abdul-Jabbar in the past.

v. As a result of Olowokandi’s poor attitude/approach to learning, in this specific type of setting, he should rightfully be placed in the category of  the “athletically gifted washouts” who have been in and out of the league over the last 10 years.

3. Kelly Dwyer wrote a column today which was published by Yahoo! Sports.

4. In part of this column, Kelly mentions that:

i. In his opinion, Kareem is still “smarting”, concerning his work with Olowokandi.

ii. In his opinion, Kareem “… has long been known as someone who can keep a grudge with the best of them.”

iii. In his opinion, Kareem ” … [saw Olowokandi] as a project with potential that he could claim his own, but also a possible entryway into the world of NBA head coaching.”

iv. In his opinion, it must have been difficult for Kareem ” … To be charged with, almost singularly, changing the fortunes of one player and then watching as that player continually tunes you out?”

v. If he had been in Kareem’s shoes, working with Olowokandi, as a coach with the LA Clippers, then, he “… would be ticked, too”.

5. In his column today for ESPN.com, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar actually makes no mention, whatsoever, of being “angry”, “mad”, or ticked” with Michael Olowokandi; or, with being “smarting” in any way based on his past work with the ‘Kandi Man’.

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In the opinion of yours truly …

It is now Kelly Dwyer who owes Kareem Abdul-Jabbar a sincere apology, as far as this matter is concerned.

Related: Seems as though Kurt Helin [Pro Basketball Talk] now owes Kareem Abdul-Jabbar an apology, as well, for misrepresenting what ‘The Big Fella’ actually had to say about ‘The Kandi Man’ in today’s article for ESPN.com.

Here is what the head coach for the Orlando Magic had to say concerning the ability of Scottie Pippen, as a “non-superstar” player in the NBA:

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Stan Van Gundy: Was Scottie Pippen really a superstar?

Then he went to Michael Jordan’s dynastic Bulls and their six championships. Van Gundy speculated that perhaps Jordan was the only superstar on that team.

“I have always wondered, as good as Scottie Pippen was, would he have been considered a star if he hadn’t played with Jordan and had to carry a team on his own,” Van Gundy explained. “We’ll never know, but my point is that sometimes we make the determination after the fact. In other words, after Chicago won championships, we branded Pippen a star.”

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Here is what Yahoo! Sports’ lead “NBA fan-blogger” – and terrific basketball writer – had to say concerning the accuracy of Stan Van Gundy’s assessment of Scottie Pippen’s actual basketball ability:

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Stan Van Gundy talks about Scottie Pippen, gets it all wrong

Stan Van Gundy, in a less annoying way than his brother usually does, often comes through with statements for effect. Not things he really believes in, but something stated to help shift the narrative, usually to help his (read: his team’s) own cause. This allows for people like us to take the piss out of him, but he doesn’t usually care. Just as long as his team gets the calls, the next time around. Or just as long as his boy Dwight makes the cover of something.

But this? For anyone, this is a ridiculous statement. For someone with Stan Van Gundy’s basketball smarts? This is a betrayal of the depth of hoop knowledge that we’ve long admired and often talked up. I’m sure, if pressed, Van Gundy doesn’t feel this way; but I’m too tired to try to understand his motivation here. I don’t get his angle. I don’t care. This was a dumb thing to say, Stan Van Gundy.

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Hmmm …

Did SVG say that Scottie Pippen was a less-than stellar NBA player?

Did SVG say that Scottie Pippen belongs somewhere other than being on the NBA’s list of 50 Greatest Players Of All-time?

Did SVG say that Scottie Pippen was NOT, in fact, one of the best defensive players in the history of the NBA?

No, he did not … according to what this pair of eyes can see.

However …

Did SVG say that Scottie Pippen may not actually belong on the list of the NBA’s authentic “superstar” players?

Does SVG believe that Michael Jordan belongs on the list of the NBA’s authentic “superstar” players?

Yes, he does … according to what this same pair of eyes can see.

If SVG had been asked which players he believes warrant inclusion on the list of the NBA’s authentic “superstars”, he may well have identified an ultra exclusive group of men like:

Bill Russell
Michael Jordan
Wilt Chamberlain
Magic Johnson
Larry Bird
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Oscar Robertson
George Mikan
Tim Duncan
Kobe Bryant
Shaquille O’Neal
Hakeem Olajuwon
Julius Erving

Although there have been a number of fantastic players in the grand history of the NBA, could it possibly the case that Stan Van Gundy may not consider the majority of them to be properly qualified to fit into the exclusive category of an authentic “superstar”?

Pippen sits out final 1.8 secs

Kudos to Stan Van Gundy for his mostly accurate assessment of Scottie Pippen’s ability, as an elite level player.

… perhaps you might not be qualified to run a blog that purports to analyze How the NBA game works, from time to time. 

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Mark Jackson is a walking, talking promise that he can’t keep

Jackson, who forged a 17-year NBA career out of smarts, guile and a deft touch with his hands, has infuriated NBA fans by the thousands with his insufferable work on ESPN and ABC broadcasts over the last few years. It would have been millions, but those people just don’t tune in anymore.

Jackson’s a big reason why. He consistently ruins the tone of the game by choosing to pass on analyzing the contest in front of him in favor of going over insipid, barroom or sports talk radio-level conversations. Rankings and unwritten rules and posturing and all that. Just fine, when you have three hours to kill in an afternoon’s radio gig, but not cool when the Mavs and Heat are locked into yet another one-possession game.

He was given the ABC job after a short, and admittedly not bad, stint as New Jersey Nets analyst; so this means he had way more experience before his terrible time with Disney than he’ll have as an NBA coach before taking on what is a huge (no, I won’t put it in bold letters) task in turning these Warriors into playoff contenders. Golden State has talent, but it has a system to develop to make up for the myriad holes in the team’s rotation, and overall complexion. This is a team full of endearing goofballs that could be putty in the right man’s hands, and I will not end this paragraph with a “hand down, man down” reference BECAUSE THAT PHRASE MAKES NO SENSE.

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For the benefit of those good folks who may not know already what, ”Hand down, man down,” actually means, from a coach and player perspective …

If both of your hands are DOWN at your sides during your defensive close-out against a perimeter shooter … in contrast to, at least, one of them being raised above shoulder-height … then, in effect:

- Your team is actually playing 1 man DOWN - i.e. in a temporary 4 vs 5 situation – since you are not properly positioned to effectively “contest” an open shot … which is what the NBA game is predicated upon creating for highly skilled jump-shooters. In this specific situation, it becomes increasingly likely that jump-shooter is about to take and make an ”uncontested” jump-shot.

- You, personally – i.e. as a man – are more likely to be sitting DOWN on your team’s bench, in the next few minutes, since your coach is likely to be subbing you out of the game for failing to close-out properly and allowing your assigned check to take and make an “uncontested” jump-shot.

In real-life NBA games, whichever team allows its opponent to shoot more “uncontested” shots is, in fact, more likely to lose. 

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PS. Whether Mark Jackson will succeed or fail to lead the Warriors to the playoffs next season is anybody’s guess, at this point, but … as a 17-year veteran of the NBA, who finished his career as the No. 3-ranked assist leader, overall … it’s a pretty good bet that he has forgotten more about How the NBA game actually works than the vast majority of glorified “fan-bloggers” have had the opportunity to learn in their life-time.

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.

Yours truly has a considerable amount of R.E.S.P.E.C.T. for a talented “writer”, like Kelly Dwyer, who happens to use the wacky world of the NBA as on outlet for his artistic skill-set.

Where the problem arises, however, is when certain writers, stats gurus and other observers attempt to provide their “analysis” of how a specific basketball team actually functions, as a collective unit, in a positive, neutral, or negative way … and, unfortunately, completely miss the proverbial boat.

To wit:

Fact 1

This is what Brandon Jennings was quoted as saying, about the state of the Bucks franchise, last Friday:

BUCKS BEAT: Many officials concerned about their status

“Some guys have the mind-set of winning on the team and some guys just don’t. We traded a lot of pieces I feel like we should have kept, but that’s part of the business and you’ve got to roll with it.’‘

Fact 2

This is part of what Kelly Dwyer wrote in his article about Brandon Jennings & Co.:

Brandon Jennings is not happy with his new teammates

“Yeah, man. You can’t mess with success. There was a reason they feared the deer, and the reason was … Luke Ridnour?

Because last year’s roster and rotation is really only missing Ridnour, and 15-minutes-per-game big man Kurt Thomas.”

Fact 3

This is what Milwaukee’s line-up looked like last year:

i. In the immediate aftermath of the ‘trade deadline’, when

they beat the Miami Heat;

ii. At the end of the regular season schedule last year, when they beat the Boston Celtics, on the final day of the season;

iii. When they were eliminated from the Eastern Conference

Playoffs, in Game 7 of the 1st Round, by the Atlanta Hawks.

Fact 4

Milwaukee’s roster last season, after the trade deadline, included the following players:

Brandon Jennings, John Salmons, Carlos Delfino, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute, Andrew Bogut, Ersan Ilyasova, Luke Ridnour, Royal Ivey, Charlie Bell, Jerry Stackhouse, Darnell Jackson, Francisco Elson, Kurt Thomas, Dan Gadzuric and Primoz Brezec 

each of whom was instrumental to the Bucks’ success at one point or another. 

Fact 5

This is what the Bucks’ line-up looked like last night, when they lost at Orlando [72-78] … which means that a current list of the additions and subtractions from their roster last season actually looks like this:

ADDITIONS
1 Earl Boykins [best described as a veteran scorer]
2 Corey Maggette [best described as a veteran scorer]
3 Drew Gooden
4 Keyon Dooling
5 Larry Sanders
6 Chris Douglas-Roberts
7 Michael Redd

[plus, Jon Brockman who was out of the line-up yesterday]

SUBTRACTIONS

1 Luke Ridnour [best described as a non selfish veteran]
2 Charlie Bell [best described as a non selfish veteran]
3 Dan Gadzuric [best described as a non selfish veteran]
4 Francisco Elso [best described a non selfish veteran]
5 Royal Ivey [best described as a non selfish youngster]
6 Darnell Jackson [best described as a non selfish youngster]
7 Primoz Brezec
8 Jerry Stackhouse

If you consider the respective skill-sets and other important personal attributes of the players who the Bucks have added to this year’s team … based on MORE THAN just their individual “production numbers” … compared to the COHESIVE collection of players they had last year … especially, amongst their set of Reserves [i.e. players No. 9-15] … it should be relatively easy to see the CORRECTNESS of what Brandon Jennings was talking about, when he was quoted on the current situation in Milwaukee.

From a ‘basketball analysis’ perspective …

It is a basic – but crucial – error in basketball judgment to think that the contributions of the non-rotational players on a given roster are NOT absolutely fundamental to the success or failure of a team in the NBA.

While some have every right to quibble with the plethora of ‘pseudo basketball analysts’ that litter the on-line hoops community today … there is one voice that repeatedly resonates – loudly, clearly and with force – from amongst this otherwise non-descript group, as a proficient “writer” who just happens to use as his most frequent subject the wonderful wacky world of the NBA.

Kelly Dwyer is his name.

Dennis Rodman is his topic, today.

Do yourself a favour, on a slow and sunny Saturday afternoon, in early spring …

Detroit thanks Dennis Rodman; Dennis Rodman has Detroit to thank

As it was 25 years ago, when the Detroit Pistons drafted him out of a small college in Oklahoma, Dennis Rodman didn’t come to Detroit this week as much of a basketball player.

Detroit couldn’t help it. They’d seen from afar the tattooed-Rodman, the guy with the crazy hair and outlandish (for the 1990s, at least) style who courted Madonna and posed nude on the cover of his bestselling books as he played for the Spurs and Bulls. But Detroit never knew that guy. No, they knew the shy and sensitive Rodman that sheepishly made his way onto the Pistons roster as a 25-year old rookie in 1986.

and, read it all.

If you’re an authentic fan of “This Game”, there will be a smile on your face when you finish reading … and, all will seem good and right with the world, again, if only for a fleeting moment in time.

That’s what outstanding ‘artists’ do with their creative instinct.

Kudos galore to, both, The Worm and KD … for being the best at what they hapen to do, in this world, by a consistently wide margin.

Unlike those in the blogosphere who might see little value in the decision which was made this past weekend by the basketball brain-trust in New Jersey:

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An NBA and D-League first: Terrence Williams demoted as punishment

FanHouse’s Matt Moore knows his D-League inside and out, and he doesn’t appreciate the developmental organization being used so flippantly:

Williams is a problem child for Johnson. And maybe he’s completely justified in his approach to punish the youngster to get him in line. But using the D-League seems like a creative solution for them, when in reality, it’s a reckless maneuver that only hurts Williams, the Nets, the D-League, and the NBA. Use the D-League for what it was designed to do: develop players. Don’t use it as your own personal timeout corner. You’re only hurting yourself.

Moore is right. There’s nothing that the D-League can do to make a person like Williams more punctual. If the guy can’t be bothered to make the bus on time in the big leagues, what’s a trip to a developmental league going to do? And shouldn’t it be New Jersey’s job to try and instill a sense of professionalism into this, um, professional?

That said, I wonder if the D-League can’t help but do something for Williams as a player, if not a person. And, actually, wouldn’t a rebirth as a player help change Williams, the person?

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yours truly would suggest the exact opposite.

What Avery Johnson & Co. actually did, in this instance, is wholely justified and an appropriate course of action to take, given these specific circumstances … if you are operating a professional team sport franchise with a minor league affiliate that’s designed to create a “training environment” for those with legitimate aspirations to eventually “make it”, as an actual pro, in the best basketball league in the world.

- showing up for work on time
- being prepared to do your job properly
- adhering to the instructions of your immediate supervisor

These are simple attributes which can quite readily be re-inforced to a required degree of performance by, either, a short or a long stint with a major league team’s minor league affiliate … where there are no Five Star hotels, no First Class Travel Sections, and only sparsely attended regular season games.

Part of what is sorely lacking in the NBA today, in far too many different situations, is the high degree of personal discipline and integrity required to actually function as a Consumate Team Player, who is trying his very best to win the most number of games possible … and, thereby, gradually improve the performance of the team, overall, to the point of being able to compete for and win a League Championship … rather than merely being an isolated individualist who just happens to be an adjunct member of a “troup” that is trying to provide an innocuous form of “entertainment” to its paying customers. 

Kudos to the Nets for taking this approach to effectively address their problem, and for using the resources at their disposal to help a young person improve his degree of professionalism in a pro team sport environment. 

For the benefit of regular readers …

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These two separate video clips, courtesy of Kelly Dwyer’s BDL for today.

For KD, at least, they are not tied together in any way, shape or form.

This is not the case for yours truly, however.

One clip demonstrates clearly that anyone in this world who really, really, really wants to do so … more than anything else in life … can, in fact, turn themself into a gifted offensively-focused basketball player, on the back of hours upon hours of hard work and ceaseless dedication to developing the most overt skills associated with the individual aspects of the game, i.e. shooting, dribbling and passing.

The other clip, however, demonstrates something quite different … in both of its two parts.

i.e. In order to be considered an All-Time Great at any one thing in this world, it takes a good deal more than simple hard work and dedication to develop the complete package required to become a virtuoso performer, one who is talented and versatile enough to become outstandingly proficient in every different aspect of that single life-pursuit.

You can decide for yourself which type of “artistry” is the favourite of yours truly.

vs

Much R.E.S.P.E.C.T. to all of those who are able to make their personal dreams come true in this life, regardless into which specific category they might hapen to fit.

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PS. Btw … It’s been a good many years since these ears have been fortunate enough to hear the anti-melodious name of Grandmaster “Monk” raised adroitly within the context of Hoop. Kudos, galore, to KD for turning this delightful trick, on a beautiful friday afternoon in the fall!