20 Second Timeout

Gilbert Arenas Sought Charley Rosen's Advice--but Did not Follow It

2009-11-20T16:01:00.005-05:00

Charley Rosen recently wrote an interesting account of how Gilbert Arenas responded to some of Rosen's critiques of Arenas' game:

A couple of years back, one of the Wizards public relations staff called in response to my pointing out that Gilbert Arenas tended to turn his head on defense and was burned by two or three backdoor plays every game. Arenas wanted to know, the PR guy said, what he could do to prevent this, and what other pieces of his game I thought could be improved.

Although this was the provenance of his coaches, the PR guy diligently took notes as I discussed how to avoid being back-doored. Actually, it's just by adhering to a fundamental defensive principle--open up until you can see both the ball and your man. If the specific angles prohibit this, then watch the ball while keeping some physical connection--a hand on the nearest hip will do--with your man.

Anything else?

I talked about Arenas' shot selection, and his frequent domination of the ball.

Anything else?

Yes. I wasn't particularly fond of the way Arenas spun the basketball prior to releasing his free throws. Remembering how Arenas had botched a pair of last-second free throws that cost the Wiz a playoff game against the Cavs back in 2006, the PR person was eager to relay my advice to Arenas.

The problem with spinning the ball the way Arenas does is that he doesn't end up with the same grip as he prepares to shoot. Sometimes his fingers are aligned with the seams and sometimes not. And shooting free throws is all about duplicating the same pre-shot posture and preparation, the same grip, the same rhythm, and the same stroke on every shot. Even the slightest variation requires a slight adjustment that destroys the groove the shooter seeks to maintain.

As good a natural shooter as he is, Arenas should also be at least five percentage points higher than his lifetime free-throw accuracy of 80.9 percent--77.3 percent in the playoffs. Paying more attention to being consistent rather than flashy was the answer.

OK! Arenas would be thrilled to hear all of this. Thanks.

Glad to be of help.

The next time the Wizards played, I zeroed in on Arenas' defense.

Nope, he still lost visual and physical contact with his man in order to follow the bouncing ball.

Nope, he still massaged the ball too much and took bad shots.

Ah, but on his first trip to the stripe, he avoided circling the ball around his waist and made sure that his hands were in optimum position on the ball before releasing his shot--which hit the rim softly, made two complete circles, and then dropped off.

On his second free throw, Arenas was back to his great-circle routine. The shot was good.

The experiment was over forever.

So far this season, he's shooting 72.9 percent from the stripe.

The Sporting News--and others--declared that Arenas' healthy return would transform the Washington Wizards into serious Eastern Conference contenders; I predicted that the Wizards would merely go back to being what they have always been when Arenas was healthy: a lower level playoff team. So far, the Wizards have not even met my expectations, compiling a 3-7 record that places them six games behind the Southeast Division-leading Atlanta Hawks in the Southeast Division and just a half game ahead of the cellar dwelling Charlotte Bobcats (who have performed worse than I expected and have already significantly changed their roster by acquiring the volatile Stephen Jackson). There is apparently a mainstream media rule against criticizing the popular Arenas, so his defenders are quick to assert that Arenas is not really himself yet and that he has not fully recovered from the knee injuries/surgeries that cost him the better part of the past two seasons. I agree that the "eyeball test" shows that Arenas does not have quite the same explosiveness that he did a couple years ago--but the numbers show that he is essentially the same player that he has always been. Here are his averages this season after 10 games, with his career averages listed in parentheses:

36.8 mpg (37.3), 22.9 ppg (22.8), 7.6 FGM/g (7.3), 19.3 FGA/g (17.2), .394 FG% (.426), 2.1 3FGM/g (2.1), 5.3 3FGA/g (5.8), .396 3FG% (.359), 5.6 FTM/g (6.0), 7.6 FTA/g (7.4), .737 FT% (.807), 3.8 rpg (4.2), 6.5 apg (5.5 apg), 1.2 spg (1.7), 4.2 TO/g (3.3).

The main difference in Arenas' game so far is that his reaction to his lower field goal percentage is to jack up a couple more shots per game. He has always been an erratic, inefficient player; that has not changed and it is not likely to change. Arenas is not entirely to blame for Washington's disappointing start; the Wizards missed the contributions of Antawn Jamison, who just scored 31 points in his season debut--a victory over Cleveland--after sitting out the first nine games because of a shoulder injury. Assuming that Jamison stays healthy, the Wizards will likely rally to finish above .500, some fools will say that Arenas deserves All-NBA (or even MVP) consideration and then the Wizards will get blasted in the first round and we will not have to hear about them until next fall.

Champions Club: Pro Basketball's Dynasties by the Numbers

2009-11-17T01:58:00.002-05:00

This article was originally published in the May 2003 issue of Basketball Digest.

Last year, five-time NBA champion Magic Johnson and two-time NBA champion Kenny Smith needled fellow TNT basketball analyst Charles Barkley by transforming the network's studio into a faux "champions club" that only admits people who have won championship rings. Of course, this meant that Sir Charles, Lord of the Ringless, could not come in, while such notables as Fennis Dembo and Jack Haley were members with privileges.

However, there is another "Champions Club" that is so exclusive that even Magic Johnson and Kenny Smith would not find their names on the VIP list. This club consists of teams that have won at least three straight titles: George Mikan's Lakers, Bill Russell's Celtics, Michael Jordan's Bulls and Shaquille O'Neal's Lakers.

Mikan, the Minneapolis Lakers' 6-10, 245 pound Hall of Fame center, was voted the greatest player of the first half of the twentieth century. He led the Lakers to five championships in a six-year period, including the NBA's first "three-peat" from 1951-52--1953-54. While Mikan was the dominant force on those teams, he also had some outstanding teammates--forwards Jim Pollard and Vern Mikkelson and guard Slater Martin are also in the Hall of Fame, as is Coach John Kundla. Another Hall of Famer, Clyde Lovellette, was a rookie contributor for the 1953-54 titlists and eventually succeeded Mikan as the team's center.

The Lakers' status as the NBA's first dominant team is unquestioned. If Mikan had not suffered a hairline ankle fracture before the 1950-51 playoffs the Lakers would likely have won six straight championships. How they would have fared against the great teams of subsequent decades is much more difficult to assess; they literally played under a different set of rules. Before the 1951-52 season the NBA widened the lane from six feet to 12 feet to counteract Mikan's dominance. This change cost Mikan the scoring title (his average dropped from 28.4 ppg to 23.8 ppg) but it did not stop the Lakers as a team. They adjusted by improving their outside shooting and also by flashing cutters through the wide-open lane. In 1964-65 the NBA widened the lane again, this time to 16 feet (its current size) in response to the amazing scoring prowess of Wilt Chamberlain.

Before the 1954-55 season the NBA made its most dramatic rules change, the introduction of the 24-second shot clock. This eliminated stalling and made it tougher for the Lakers to simply wear down teams in the half-court. Mikan retired before that season and his unsuccessful comeback in 1955-56 (10.5 ppg in 37 games) suggests that he struggled once the league sped up the game. The Lakers adapted admirably to the initial widening of the lane, but the temptation is to take one look at the old black and white films and dismiss the notion that Mikan's teams could compete with the modern NBA champions. That may be a hasty judgment. While the Lakers did not display many flashy moves and preferred a half-court style to take advantage of Mikan in the post, the team possessed plenty of athleticism. "All of us could dunk except Slater Martin," noted Mikkelson. "But we weren't allowed to much, because Kundla wouldn't let us. It was frowned on as hotdogging."

Mikan's "three-peat" Lakers posted worse winning percentages in both the regular season and Finals than the other teams that won at least three consecutive championships. Pro-rated to an 82 game season, their .644 winning percentage equals about 53 wins per year, while the other dynasties won at a .736 clip or better (equivalent to more than 60 wins in an 82 game season). This does not prove who would win a hypothetical head-to-head match-up, but it suggests that the Lakers did not dominate their era as convincingly as the other dynasties did. Some of this may be explained away by the inherent competitiveness of the league, which had not been diluted by expansion and had less than a third as many franchises as today's NBA. On the other hand, the 1950s NBA did not draw upon the deep worldwide talent pool that feeds the modern NBA.

The NBA did not have to wait long after Mikan's retirement for the next dynasty to emerge. The Boston Celtics were a solid playoff team during most of the 1950s but they instantly became a powerhouse in 1956-57 with the arrival of Bill Russell, a 6-10, 220 pound rebounding and shot-blocking wunderkind. Russell provided strength in the paint and accelerated the Celtics' already potent fast-break offense; now the forwards could leak out early, confident that Russell would deny the opponent's forays into the paint, corral the rebound and fire the outlet pass to Hall of Fame point guard Bob Cousy.

Like Mikan, Russell was blessed to have a Hall of Fame Coach in Red Auerbach and several Hall of Fame teammates: Cousy, his backcourt mate Bill Sharman, 1957 Rookie of the Year Tom Heinsohn (Russell played only 48 games, joining the team after the 1956 Olympics) and pioneering sixth man Frank Ramsey. This group won Boston's first NBA title in 1957. Boston's chances for a repeat performance took a major hit when Russell suffered an ankle injury in the 1958 Finals. With Russell hobbled, Bob Pettit scored 50 points in game six as the St. Louis Hawks took the championship. "You can always look for excuses. We just got beat," declared Auerbach.

In any case, the Celtics proceeded to win the next eight championships. Along the way more Hall of Famers joined the squad, including Sam Jones, K.C. Jones and John Havlicek--but Russell was the one constant throughout the unparalleled string of titles. It took one of the greatest teams in NBA history--the 1966-67 Philadelphia 76ers led by Chamberlain--to snap the streak and the Celtics recovered from that setback to win the next two championships before Russell retired.

Russell's Celtics do not hold records for point differential or winning percentage. They were pushed to the seventh game of the NBA Finals three times during their "eight-peat" and also survived several seventh game showdowns in the Eastern Division Finals. The Celtics' dominance is defined by their relentless, single-minded accumulation of championship hardware. Bill Russell has a championship ring for each finger, plus a ring to spare--what more needs to be said?

After Russell left the scene the NBA did not have a repeat champion for almost 20 years. It seemed that free agency and the addition of more rounds to the playoffs made back-to-back titlists an outdated concept. Then, L.A. Lakers' Coach Pat Riley guaranteed a repeat during the Lakers' 1987 championship celebration and the team made good on his promise, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar playfully stuffing a towel in Riley's mouth before he could predict a third straight triumph. In fact, the Lakers came close to the "three-peat," going 11-0 in the 1989 playoffs before being swept in the Finals by Isiah Thomas' Detroit Pistons. The Pistons repeated in 1990 but their "three-peat" dreams were derailed by Jordan's Bulls.

The 1991-1993 Bulls became the first NBA team to win three straight titles since Russell's Celtics. The Houston Rockets claimed back-to-back championships during Jordan's foray into minor-league baseball and then the Bulls accomplished a second "three-peat" in 1996-1998 after Jordan returned to hoops. The two Chicago "three-peats" shared three constants--Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Coach Phil Jackson--but are distinct in many ways.

The first team was young and frisky, athletically trapping all over the court and showcasing Jordan and Pippen at their high-flying best. Pippen ran the offense as a "point-forward," while nominal point guards John Paxson and B.J. Armstrong provided long-range marksmanship. Power forward Horace Grant was athletic enough to trap guards in the backcourt and recover to pick up his man in the frontcourt.

The second team replaced power forward Horace Grant with rebounding savant Dennis Rodman. Sixth man Toni Kukoc provided scoring punch, while Ron Harper added size in the backcourt. Jordan and Pippen were not quite as athletic and the team frequently won as much on savvy and will as anything else.

When Jerry Krause broke up the Chicago Bulls to begin what columnist Jay Mariotti derisively calls the "Organizations Win Championships Tour," Jordan, Pippen and Jackson went their separate ways. Jackson took a one-season sabbatical before resurfacing in Los Angeles. Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant have chafed at times when Jackson upbraids them, but there is no arguing with the results: three titles in three years.

Numerologists may find some significance in the fact that each of Jackson's "three-peat" units posted 45-13 records in the playoffs. Basketball historians single out a different number: 15-1, the Lakers' record setting playoff won-loss record in the 2001 title run. There is a perception that the Lakers coast during the regular season and "turn it on" in the playoffs, but the Lakers' .736 regular season winning percentage matches Russell's Celtics and is just slightly worse than the 1991-93 Bulls.

This year the Lakers have fought an uphill battle just to earn a playoff berth, but that is primarily because of O'Neal's health, not coasting. Despite their ups and downs, they are the proverbial team that no one wants to face in the postseason. If the Lakers find the wherewithal to sustain one more title run, they will become the only team other than Russell's Celtics to win at least four consecutive NBA championships and Jackson will claim his tenth title as a coach, breaking his tie with Auerbach. Add that to Jackson's ring as a player on the 1973 Knicks and he would join Russell in the ultimate "Champions Club": no admittance without 11 rings.

Champions Club

Years	Team	Reg. Season	Playoffs	NBA Finals

1952-54	Min. Lakers	134-74/.644	27-11/.711	12-7/.632
1959-66	Bos. Celtics	461-165/.736	67-33/.670	32-14/.696
1991-93	Chi. Bulls	185-61/.752	45-13/.776	12-5/.706
1996-98	Chi. Bulls	203-43/.825	45-13/.776	12-6/.667
2000-02	L.A. Lakers	181-65/.736	45-13/.776	12-3/.800

Improving Cavs Defeat Eastern Conference Champion Magic

2009-11-12T18:24:00.000-05:00

Cleveland fans have a tendency to act like the sky is falling. The sky may actually be falling on the hapless Browns, but it is way too early for anyone to express serious concerns about a Cavaliers team that upgraded their roster after winning a league-best 66 games last season. The Cavs' Wednesday night victory in Orlando against the reigning Eastern Conference Champions provided a glimpse of just how potent the Cavs can be offensively and defensively.

In my newest CavsNews article, I analyze what we have seen so far from the Cavs in the first 10% (or so) of the 2009-10 season:

Cavs Defeat Eastern Conference Champion Magic

Vincent Mallozzi's "Doc": The Ultimate Hack Job

2009-11-11T23:21:00.006-05:00

Vincent Mallozzi's "Doc: The Rise and Rise of Julius Erving" is a quintessential hack job; it is so poorly put together that it redefines the term "hack job" and from now on "Mallozzi" should be considered a synonym for "hack job." Mallozzi's book is touted as "The first complete biography of one of the greatest and most popular basketball players of all time" but the truth is that "Doc" is largely comprised of poorly thrown together quotes and stories from other people's work. Mallozzi contributed very little original content.

It should be illegal to write a biography of Erving without citing/mentioning/praising Marty Bell's classic The Legend of Dr. J: The Story of Julius Erving. Bell's book is vastly superior to Mallozzi's--and Bell's book includes Bell's first hand accounts and Bell's research as opposed to simply retelling other people's stories without proper attribution. Not only does Mallozzi act as if Bell's book does not exist, Mallozzi borrowed/stole heavily from Bell in terms of style and content, particularly when describing Erving's streetball exploits: the first chapter of Bell's book is titled "Me and Julius Down by the Schoolyard," while chapter four of Mallozzi's book is titled "Julius and Dave Down by the Schoolyard." The "Dave" in question is Dave Brownbill, a player who Bell interviewed regarding Erving's early days; Mallozzi simply ripped off Bell's research without any acknowledgment.

As I noted in the comments section of my Del Harris interview, Mallozzi's account of Julius Erving's brief 1972 preseason stint with the Atlanta Hawks consisted mainly of quotes from my exclusive one on one interview with Erving. Mallozzi stated that the quotes came from Basketball Digest but he did not mention my name at all; I suppose that is just as well, because on one of the rare occasions that Mallozzi actually gave credit to the real writers/researchers who produced the majority of the material in his book, Mallozzi repeatedly misspelled Sports Illustrated's Peter Carry as "Peter Garry."

Mallozzi clearly stole his description of Erving's exploits in the 1974 ABA playoffs from my article about Erving's teammate Mike Gale; Mallozzi used a Gale quote from my article without any attribution at all, a standard Mallozzi tactic in this book: Mallozzi is trying to convince the uninformed reader that he did a lot of original research and interviewing when all he actually did is cut and paste quotes/anecdotes from various sources. The ironic thing about this is that Mallozzi is a sloppy plagiarist: In the aforementioned Gale article, I wrote, "Gale averaged 8.3 ppg during the playoffs, ranked third on the team in assists (4.1 apg) and played strong defense" but in the book Mallozzi prefaced my words with the incorrect statement, "In the first championship series," which produces a sentence that is not only redundant--by referring first to the ABA Finals and then to the playoffs as a whole--but also inaccurate, because the numbers that I cited were Gale's playoff numbers, not his Finals numbers (Gale averaged 5 ppg and 4.4 apg in the 1974 ABA Finals).

Mallozzi followed in the footsteps of fellow amateur hour journalist Ming Wong by incorrectly asserting that Julius Erving's famous dunk over Michael Cooper took place in the 1983 NBA Finals; as I explained in April, that dunk happened in a January 5, 1983 regular season game (click on the preceding link to see a highlight of the dunk; that post also contains a link to a brief Sports Illustrated recap of the game than mentions Erving's "majestic dunk over Cooper"). Wong contented himself with a faulty headline over a photo spread in Hoop, but Mallozzi rambled on extensively, providing an entirely fictitious account about how Erving's dunk over Cooper was a key play in game four of the Sixers' sweep of the Lakers. Erving did in fact have a dunk late in that game, but that dunk was a two-handed, solo jaunt to the hoop after stealing the ball from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, not a "rock the cradle" special over Cooper (note that Erving dunked over Cooper in the Spectrum while wearing his white home uniform but that Erving wore his red road uniform when he stole the ball from Abdul-Jabbar and dunked in the Forum in game four of the Finals). It is disappointing, frustrating and infuriating that many people will "learn" NBA history from hacks like Mallozzi and Wong instead of from someone who actually takes the time to get the facts straight.

You can watch Erving's game four dunk at the 5:16 mark of this video:

If you saw the Table of Contents for Mallozzi's book online and decided to buy it to read the chapters about Cory Erving and Samantha Stevenson then you surely were disappointed to find out that Mallozzi's coverage of Cory Erving's death consisted mainly of a lengthy quotation from Julius Erving's appearance on Larry King Live! I wonder if Mallozzi received permission to make such an extensive quotation from the show's transcript or if he is guilty of copyright infringement. Mallozzi added absolutely no new information. Similarly, Mallozzi's account of Julius Erving's affair with Stevenson simply includes information from articles that any Erving fan has already read. Mallozzi actually filled some space by providing a verbatim account of his brief telephone conversation with Stevenson requesting that she do an interview with him. Stevenson declined even though Mallozzi whined that he is a real journalist just like she is--insert your own punchline here--and that to properly do a book about Julius Erving he needed to speak with her. I wonder if Stevenson gave permission for the contents of this phone call to be published; I would guess not since she made it clear that she did not want to be interviewed by Mallozzi.

I am surprised and disappointed that first class journalist Dave Anderson lent his name to Mallozzi's book by writing the foreword; this is surely the low water mark in Anderson's distinguished career.

Julius Erving did not participate in the production of Mallozzi's book and it appears that the only time that Mallozzi interviewed Erving at all was in 1999, a conversation that did not produce any substantive insights. At the end of the book, Mallozzi gushed that he is a big Erving fan and that he hoped that Erving will enjoy reading the book as much as Mallozzi enjoyed writing it. I doubt that Erving will waste his time reading a book that simply rehashes old articles about him and I don't see why anyone would waste money to buy this book.

Pro Basketball's Almost Scoring Champions

2009-11-10T01:54:00.001-05:00

A slightly different version of this article was originally published in the January 2003 issue of Basketball Digest under the title "These Seconds Aren't Leftovers."

Karl Malone is to scoring titles what the Buffalo Bills are to Super Bowl victories. In fact, Malone has done the Bills one better. While Jim Kelly's squad lost four times in the NFL's showcase game, Malone has finished second in the NBA scoring race a record five times, trailing Michael Jordan each year.

Malone also holds the mark for most consecutive years as the runner-up (four, 1988-89--1991-92). His other turn as the bridesmaid came in 1996-97. He came closest to winning in 1991-92, losing by 2.1 ppg (28.0 ppg to Jordan's 30.1 ppg). His other losing margins range from 2.2 ppg to 3.4 ppg.

Shaquille O'Neal has lost three of the four closest scoring races since 1969-70, when the NBA began crowning scoring champions based on ppg average instead of total points. Of course, he does have two scoring titles (1994-95 and 1999-00) as consolation. He is also not above using at least one of the near-misses as a motivational tool; Shaq is still peeved about the 1993-94 scoring title, when the L.A. Clippers "held" David Robinson to 71 points in the last game of the season and the Admiral claimed his only scoring championship by .442 ppg. In 1997-98 O'Neal lost to Michael Jordan by an even smaller margin--.427 ppg--but Jordan did not perform any last day heroics to win that title. O'Neal finished second to Allen Iverson by .444 ppg in 1998-99 and 4.2 ppg in 2001-02.

The ultimate final day scoring race shootout occurred on April 9, 1978. David Thompson fired first, posting an astounding 73 points (tied for third highest scoring game ever and the best non-Wilt Chamberlain total) as his Denver Nuggets lost 139-137 to the Detroit Pistons in an afternoon game. Thompson scored a record 32 points in the first quarter and had 53 by halftime. Overall, he scorched the nets with 28-38 field goal shooting and sank 17 of his 20 free throws in 43 minutes. George Gervin's Spurs played the New Orleans Jazz at the Superdome that night and after Thompson's pyrotechnics the Iceman needed 59 points to win the scoring title. Gervin promptly broke Thompson's brand new record by scoring 33 points in the second quarter en route to matching his 53 first half points. Gervin only played 33 minutes in the entire game as the Jazz routed the Spurs 153-132, but he finished with 63 points, edging Thompson by .06 ppg in the closest scoring duel ever. Gervin hit 23 of 49 shots and he also made 17 of 20 free throws. Gervin won three more scoring titles, while Thompson's best finish after that season was fifth in 1980-81.

Rick Barry is the only player to win scoring championships in the NCAA, NBA and ABA and he and Billy Knight are the only players to finish second in scoring in both the ABA and the NBA. Barry won the NBA scoring crown in 1966-67 as a San Francisco Warrior, sat out his option year so that he could jump to the ABA and then won that league's scoring title in 1968-69 while playing for the Oakland Oaks. He followed that with three straight runners-up finishes in the ABA (1969-70--1971-72). After jumping back to the NBA's Golden State Warriors, Barry finished second to Bob McAdoo of the Buffalo Braves in the 1974-75 scoring race. In 1970-71 Barry, then playing for the New York Nets, lost out to the Kentucky Colonels' Dan Issel by .49 ppg, the tightest ABA scoring race ever and the fifth closest in pro basketball history. Barry’s other losing margins ranged from 2.3 ppg to 3.9 ppg.

Billy Knight of the Indiana Pacers lost the final ABA scoring race (1975-76) by 1.2 ppg to Julius Erving of the New York Nets, who averaged 29.3 ppg to capture his third scoring title. After the 1976-77 NBA-ABA merger Knight again finished second in scoring, this time trailing Pete Maravich of the New Orleans Jazz (31.1 ppg) by 4.5 ppg. Another notable ABA runner-up is George McGinnis, who finished second to Erving in 1972-73 and 1973-74 before winning his only scoring title the next season. McGinnis joined the Philadelphia 76ers in 1975-76 and, although he shared the scoring load with current Wizards head coach Doug Collins (20.8 ppg) and current ESPN NBA analyst Fred "Mad Dog" Carter (18.9 ppg), his 23.0 ppg ranked sixth in the NBA.

During its nine year run (1967-68--1975-76) the ABA always ranked its scoring leaders based on ppg average. However, from 1947-48 until 1968-69 the NBA determined its scoring champion based on total points scored. During that time seven scoring races were decided by less than 150 points. The closest of these saw Max Zaslofsky of the Chicago Stags edge Joe Fulks of the Philadelphia Warriors by 58 points in 1947-48. Technically, this actually occurred in the Basketball Association of America, one of the two forerunners of the NBA, but NBA records consider the final three BAA seasons (1946-47--1948-49) to be the NBA's first three years. The 1947-48 season lasted 48 games, so Zaslofsky's winning margin is equivalent to a little more than 1 ppg.

Paul Arizin of the Warriors won the next closest race of the "total points" era, beating Bob Pettit of the St. Louis Hawks by 62 points in 1956-57. The season had been lengthened to 72 games by this time, so Arizin actually won by less than 1 ppg. Interestingly, in the previous two years Arizin lost the third and fourth closest scoring battles of this period. In 1955-56 Pettit beat him by 108 points and in 1954-55 Arizin's teammate Neil Johnston won by 119 points, claiming the last of his three consecutive scoring titles. Both of those margins are roughly equal to 1.5 ppg. In 1952-53, Johnston claimed his first scoring championship by 122 points over George Mikan of the Minneapolis Lakers, who won three scoring titles in addition to leading the Lakers to five league championships.

The other two scoring races decided by less than 150 points were Mikan over Fulks by 138 points in 1948-49 and the Detroit Pistons' Dave Bing besting Elgin Baylor of the Los Angeles Lakers by 142 points in 1967-68. That was Baylor's third runner-up finish, the most in the "total points" era. Seven players managed two second-place finishes during this period (Fulks, Alex Groza of the Indianapolis Olympians, Mikan, Arizin, Jack Twyman of the Cincinnati Royals, Oscar Robertson of the Royals and Jerry West of the Lakers).

While the NBA's early years featured several close races for the scoring championship, the emergence of Wilt Chamberlain left everyone else vying for second place until he voluntarily reduced his scoring. Chamberlain captured the scoring title in each of his first seven years (1959-60--1965-66), usually by a substantial amount. In 1961-62 he won the most lopsided scoring race ever, totaling a record 4029 points (50.4 ppg) to beat rookie Walt Bellamy of the Chicago Packers (now the Washington Wizards) by a "mere" 1534 points. This differential is more than twice the size of Jordan's largest victory margin (8.1 ppg in 1986-87).

In the nine ABA and 33 NBA seasons in which scoring leaders have been ranked by ppg average there have been only seven scoring races decided by less than 1 ppg. Five of these have already been mentioned. The other two are Dominique Wilkins of the Atlanta Hawks over Alex English of the Nuggets by .53 ppg in 1985-86 (the year that Jordan was sidelined for 64 games by a broken foot), and Gervin over the San Diego Clippers' World B. Free by .79 ppg in 1978-79.

Only six players in pro basketball history have finished second in scoring at least three times. They are Karl Malone (5), Rick Barry (4), Shaquille O'Neal (4), Elgin Baylor (3), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (3) and Dominique Wilkins (3). World B. Free (2), Moses Malone (2) and Hakeem Olajuwon (2) round out the list of players with multiple second-place finishes, bringing the NBA/ABA total to 18. Nine of the 18 captured at least one scoring title (Barry, O’Neal, Jabbar, Wilkins, Fulks, Mikan, Arizin, West and McGinnis); Karl Malone, Baylor, Groza, Twyman, Robertson, Knight, Free, Moses Malone and Olajuwon failed to do so.

An old cliché states that close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. For the NBA scoring championship, close can also depend on how you count. Jerry West won his only scoring title in 1969-70, averaging 31.2 ppg in the first season that the NBA awarded the crown to the player with the best average, not the most points. That year he beat out Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (then known as Lew Alcindor), who outscored West 2361-2309, but played in eight more games for an average of 28.8 ppg. Jabbar was not pleased to be the first player in league history to score the most points and not win the scoring title. However, he avenged this "slight" by scoring the most points and having the highest ppg average in each of the next two seasons.

Pro Basketball's Almost Scoring Champions

Most NBA/ABA 2nd Place Finishes

Player	Total

Karl Malone	5
Rick Barry	4
Shaquille O'Neal	4
Elgin Baylor	3
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	3
Dominique Wilkins	3

Closest NBA Races, 1947-1969

Player/Season	Margin	Winner/Total Points

Joe Fulks/1948	-58	Max Zaslofsky/1007
Bob Pettit/1957	-62	Paul Arizin/1817
Paul Arizin/1956	-108	Bob Pettit/1849
Paul Arizin/1955	-119	Neil Johnston/1631
George Mikan/1953	-122	Neil Johnston/1564
Joe Fulks/1949	-138	George Mikan/1698
Elgin Baylor/1968	-142	Dave Bing/2142

Closest PPG Races--ABA, 1968-1976; NBA, 1970-2002

Player/Season	Margin	Winner/PPG

David Thompson/1978	.06 PPG	George Gervin/27.21
S. O'Neal/1998	.427 PPG	Michael Jordan/28.74
S. O'Neal/1994	.442 PPG	David Robinson/29.79
S. O'Neal/1999	.444 PPG	Allen Iverson/26.75
Rick Barry/1971 ABA	.49 PPG	Dan Issel/29.88
Alex English/1986	.53 PPG	Dominique Wilkins/30.33
World B. Free/1979	.79 PPG	George Gervin/29.56

Ronny Turiaf Interview

2009-11-03T19:47:00.001-05:00

I recently wrote about my frustrating experience with an Unfinished Ronny Turiaf Interview. I am happy to report that in response to that post Danika Berry informed me that Roxanne Romero no longer is Turiaf's representative, that Turiaf was not aware of the questions that I submitted, that he never turns down an interview request and that he is happy to answer my questions. I would like to thank Ronny Turiaf and Danika Berry for making this interview possible.

Here are the questions that I originally sent to Turiaf (in italics), followed by his answers as emailed to me by Danika Berry:

1. Your comeback from open heart surgery to not only be fully healthy but also to be a productive NBA player has inspired many people. Describe what you are trying to accomplish with your Ronny Turiaf Heart to Heart Foundation.

a. What I’d like to accomplish is simple: create awareness of heart health. I had no idea that my heart was not healthy. I had no clue. And it is really a stroke of luck, being in the right place at the right time, that we discovered through an echocardiogram that I had an enlarged aortic root—a life threatening disease. I was on top of the world, when I signed with the Lakers; physically I couldn’t have been better. I had absolutely no worries as I went from one medical exam to another. How many people, kids, do you think are in that position right now, but do not have access to the medical interventions of detection? This important exam changed my life. So what I’d like to accomplish with this partnership between the ASE Foundation and the Heart 2 Heart Foundation, is to educate the health industry and the general public on the your heart. Early detection is the key.

2. You started 21 games for the Lakers team that advanced to the Finals in 2008 and then you signed with Golden State for the 2009 season. When the Lakers won the 2009 championship you must have felt a combination of happiness for your ex-teammates but also perhaps some jealousy--or at least wistfulness--that you could have been a part of that. Describe how you felt about the Lakers winning the title.

a. It’s hard to describe the bond, respect and love I have for that Lakers team. It’s like when your brother does something really great. You were there, you saw the hard work, sacrifice, and dedication—How can you be jealous? —You love him, and you are proud and happy for him. Don’t get me wrong, I would have loved to have been there, but there is a reason for everything. And what I received as a result of playing for the Lakers organization and with those guys—I give them nothing but the props they deserve. And don’t worry, I definitely see rings in my future (big smile).

3. Team captains generally are full-time starters who play heavy minutes but Don Nelson selected you as a Golden State captain even though you do not rank on the top five on the Warriors in minutes played, which indicates that both Nelson and your teammates highly respect you. How did your experiences as a Laker and as a member of the French National Team prepare you for your leadership role with Golden State?

a. I definitely appreciate that Coach sees some type of leadership in me and I feel proud and honored about being chosen to be one of the captains. My father always says, “Leaders aren’t born, they are made--Life’s trials and triumphs, your past and your present rolled into one is what make you special and gifted—and with that comes responsibility. ” WE work hard on the French National team. We’re these young guys who all grew up together and worked hard. We keep giving them hell every year, and we are determined to win, and if we don’t-- it was just great fun to be there—giving all you got. What people talk about is my enthusiasm. I am grateful for the incredible opportunities I have had so far. Basketball--I love the life I have been given (again). And what has prepared me for my leadership role is never forgetting that this is a privilege, an opportunity that comes to but a few. Man, don’t take a second of it for granted and share—make the journey better for some one else along the way. Love what you do, do it to the best of your ability, and things always work out.

4. You ranked fourth in the NBA in blocks per game and third in total blocked shots in 2009. The Warriors are not known as a defensive-minded team but you clearly place an emphasis on that aspect of the game. How is the mindset of a championship team like the Lakers different from the mindset of a younger team like the Warriors that is just fighting to get into the playoffs, particularly in terms of the less glamorous aspects of the game like defense, rebounding, setting screens, etc.?

a. The only difference is in the discipline or the patience necessary to get there. Every game counts: every block, every rebound--every night. Gotta keep your eyes on the prize, baby—every game, every day. And the Lakers have had practice at this mentality. Hey, we are the “warriors,” so we can do it, and we will. Youth, discipline, and focus—we’ve got it all.

5. What are some of the similarities and differences between Phil Jackson and Don Nelson as coaches?

a. Both coaches want the “W.” While one may be holistic, and another is player-by-player, moment-by-moment; both coaches want the win, and give you every opportunity to do what you do best.

6. Kobe Bryant inspires a lot of strong responses from the media and fans. You were his teammate for the first three seasons of your NBA career. Describe Kobe’s leadership style as you experienced it as a young player.

a. He’s just an inspiration to be around –on and off the court. His leadership style is one of modeling—no one works harder. No one practices harder. All you have to do is watch him, and do what he does to prepare and maintain his game—I couldn’t help but get better as I matured as a player around him—who couldn’t?

7. Some members of the media claim that Kobe has changed or evolved but would it be more accurate to say that in the past couple years he simply has been surrounded by better talent and that the newer players respond more positively to how Kobe interacts with them?

a. We’re all changing, man. Life is never just one thing or another. It’s normally a combination of many things—and it’s all good.

8. Everyone likes to compare Kobe and LeBron. You have played with and against Kobe and played against LeBron; as someone who has actually been on the court with both players, how would you compare them in terms of their skill sets and the ways that they impact the game offensively and defensively?

a. You can’t compare the two players. Kobe is simply the best player on the planet! LeBron is trying to get there with his body, his game, his style and his arsenal—and he will. But Kobe will still have been there first. Both LeBron and Kobe as players and you all in the media comparing the two--make the game of basketball the greatest game there is.

Rising to the Occasion: Pro Basketball's Greatest Playoff Scorers

2009-11-03T00:46:00.006-05:00

This article was originally published in the May 2002 issue of Basketball Digest. Readers who are interested in this subject should also check out my December 5, 2006 NBCSports.com article titled Stepping Up in the Playoffs.

Evaluating individual playoff scoring statistics differs from comparing individual regular season scoring statistics. The regular season is the same length for all players, so comparisons of two players' scoring averages over five, seven and ten year periods (a subject that I examined in a January 2002 Basketball Digest article) reflect their production over a similar and significant amount of games. In a given season a player may participate in up to 20 playoff games; this means that comparing five playoff seasons of two players could mean looking at one player's production over 80-100 games versus another player's in only a handful of games.

Comparisons of a player's career playoff scoring average to his career regular season scoring average do not take into account which stage of his career a player participates in the bulk of his playoff games (see below for why Wilt Chamberlain and Oscar Robertson are perfect illustrations of this). A more precise method is to see how many seasons a player's playoff scoring average surpasses his regular season scoring average, while also considering the player's per minute point production (since most stars play more minutes in the postseason) and how well he maintains his shooting percentage in the postseason.

Entering the 2001-2002 season, Michael Jordan's 33.4 ppg career playoff scoring average ranked first in pro basketball history, nearly two ppg better than his 31.5 ppg regular season scoring average (also first in pro basketball history). His playoff scoring average exceeded his regular season scoring average 11 times in 13 seasons (including his 18 game regular season in 1985-86 and his 17 game comeback season in 1994-95). The only two seasons that Jordan did not achieve this distinction were 1986-87 (career high 37.1 ppg in the regular season, 35.7 ppg in the playoffs) and the Chicago Bulls' first championship season in 1990-91 (31.5 ppg versus 31.1 ppg).

His 38.4 points per 48 minutes in the postseason almost matches his amazing 39.2 points per 48 minutes in the regular season. Like most players, Jordan's field goal percentage declines in the playoffs but his 50.5% regular season percentage and 48.7% playoff percentage are both excellent, particularly for a guard. Jordan's 5987 postseason points easily rank first in pro basketball history and he won a record six NBA Finals MVPs.

Jerry West is the only player other than Jordan to rank in the top six in career playoff points (4457, fourth all-time) and scoring average (29.1, third all-time). His playoff scoring average is 2.1 ppg better than his regular season scoring average and his 33.8 points per 48 minutes in the playoffs slightly exceeds his 33.1 points per 48 minutes in the regular season. West's playoff scoring topped his regular season scoring nine times. He had one season in which his regular season scoring average was higher and one season in which his averages were equal. West also missed one playoff season due to injury and had two other postseasons in which he played a total of 15 minutes due to injuries.

West holds the single-series scoring average record (46.3 ppg in 1965 versus the Baltimore Bullets). He scored 40-plus points in all six games of that series, also a record. He averaged at least 30.8 ppg in the playoffs each year from 1964 until 1970 (except for 1967, when he played only one minute in one game). West won the first NBA Finals MVP in 1969 and is still the only player from the losing team to capture that honor. He shot 47.4% from the field in the regular season and 46.9% in the playoffs, exceptional accuracy for the player deservedly known as "Mr. Clutch."

Allen Iverson owns the second highest career playoff scoring average (30.3 ppg). He averages 4.1 ppg more in the playoffs than in the regular season. Iverson logs heavy minutes in the regular season (40.6 minutes per game) and almost goes the distance in the postseason (45.5 minutes per game), which is truly remarkable for a player who is listed (generously) at 6-0, 165 pounds.

Iverson scores slightly more points per minute in the postseason (32.0) than in the regular season (30.9). His playoff scoring has exceeded his regular season scoring two of the three seasons that he has participated in the playoffs (the Sixers did not qualify for the playoffs in his first two seasons). The only knock against Iverson is his shooting percentage, 42.6% in the regular season and 39.2% in the playoffs.

Reggie Miller does not score as much as any of the other players under consideration here, but he scores 4.0 ppg more in the postseason than the regular season and also averages 2.3 more points per 48 minutes in the playoffs. Miller shoots 47.6% from the field in the regular season and 45.6% in the playoffs; these numbers are comparable to West's and are good for a guard, especially considering the large number of three pointers that he makes. His legacy is not told in championships won or records set, but an extraordinary amount of clutch shots taken (and made) in the heat of playoff battle.

Rick Barry, the only player to win scoring titles in the NCAA, NBA and ABA, averaged 24.8 ppg in his NBA/ABA regular season career and increased that to 27.3 ppg (fifth all-time) in the playoffs. Interestingly, his playoff scoring average was higher than his regular season scoring average only four times in ten seasons (in three other seasons Barry's teams did not qualify for the playoffs).

Barry almost single-handedly carried the Golden State Warriors to the 1975 NBA Championship, winning Finals MVP honors. He also averaged 40.8 ppg in a losing cause for the Warriors in the 1967 NBA Finals versus the 76ers and won a scoring title for the 1969 ABA Champion Oakland Oaks, although he did play in the playoffs that year due to injury.

Karl Malone ranks fifth in playoff points (4341) and seventh in playoff ppg (26.6). He scores slightly more in the playoffs than the regular season (25.9 ppg). He has scored more points in the playoffs than the regular season 10 times in 16 seasons. However, Malone's field goal percentage declines dramatically in the playoffs--from 52.4% in his regular season career to 46.6%. He has made as many as 50% of his field goals in only four playoff campaigns, while shooting below 45% five times. Several years ago Bill Walton criticized Malone for settling for too many perimeter shots against the Bulls in the Finals and Malone’s low shooting percentages provide evidence of this.

It may surprise some people that Wilt Chamberlain and Oscar Robertson averaged 7.6 ppg and 3.5 ppg less respectively in the postseason than in the regular season. Chamberlain averaged a record 50.4 ppg in the 1961-62 regular season, so his 35.0 ppg in that year's playoffs represents a decline, even though there are only a few players in basketball history who have ever averaged that much in a playoff season. Also, while Chamberlain played 14 NBA seasons, exactly half of his playoff games came in his five years with the Lakers, when he concentrated more exclusively on rebounding, passing and defense. Chamberlain averaged 29.3 ppg in his first 80 playoff games (29.4 points per 48 minutes) and 15.8 ppg (16.2 points per 48 minutes) as a Laker (note that he played almost 48 minutes per game his entire career!) He won the 1972 Finals MVP despite playing with a cast on one hand.

Similarly, Robertson averaged 29.7 ppg in his first 39 playoff games with the Cincinnati Royals (30.4 points per 48 minutes). He played the last four years of his career with the Milwaukee Bucks, averaging 16.0 ppg in 47 playoff games (19.5 points per 48 minutes) and winning his only championship in 1971. Both Chamberlain and Robertson showed the ability to produce high scoring totals early in their careers and adjust their games later in their careers to make significant contributions on championship teams.

Bernard King's teams did not qualify for the playoffs in 10 of his seasons--but in his six playoff appearances King posted some awesome numbers. In the 1984 playoffs King averaged 34.8 ppg, including 42.6 ppg versus the Detroit Pistons, the second best series average ever at the time. He scored 40-plus points in the last four games of the five game series (a streak equaled later by Jordan and second only to West's 1965 exploits). King blew out his knee the next spring but still won the 1985 scoring title.

He missed one complete season and most of a second rehabilitating but persevered to become the first player with a reconstructed ACL to appear in an All-Star Game. That may not seem like a big deal in 2002 but at that time such injuries were always career altering and frequently career ending.

King missed the entire 1991-92 season due to another knee injury but returned for his swan song in 1992-93 with the Nets. He averaged 2.7 ppg in three playoff games that year. Why is that significant? It lowered his career playoff scoring average from 27.2 ppg, which would currently rank sixth all-time, to 24.5 ppg, which is not in the top ten.

Chamberlain, Robertson and King are excellent examples to remember the next time someone takes one or two isolated statistics and attempts to use them to define a player's entire career. The true story is often only revealed in the context of all of the numbers.

A Closer Look at Pro Basketball's Greatest Playoff Scorers

Player	Playoff Pts.	Rank	Play. PPG	Rank	Reg. PPG	Diff.

Michael Jordan	5987	1	33.4	1	31.5	1.9
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	5762	2	24.3	NR	24.6	-.3
Julius Erving	4580	3	24.2	NR	24.2	0
Jerry West	4457	4	29.1	3	27.0	2.1
Karl Malone	4341	5	26.6	7	25.9	0.7
Larry Bird	3897	6	23.8	NR	24.3	-.5
Elgin Baylor	3623	10	27.0	6	27.4	-.4
Shaquille O'Neal	2956	NR	28.2	4	27.7	.5
Rick Barry	2870	NR	27.3	5	24.8	2.5
Allen Iverson	1213	NR	30.3	2	26.2	4.1

Selected Others

Wilt Chamberlain	3607	NR	22.5	NR	30.1	-7.6
Reggie Miller	2445	NR	23.5	NR	19.5	4.0
Oscar Robertson	1910	NR	22.2	NR	25.7	-3.5
Bernard King	687	NR	24.5	NR	22.5	2.0

Player	Pl.> Reg.	Pl. P/48	Reg. P/48	Pl. FG%	Reg. FG%

Michael Jordan	11	38.4	39.2	48.7	50.5
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	12	31.2	32.1	53.3	55.9
Julius Erving	7	29.9	31.9	49.6	50.6
Jerry West	9	33.8	33.1	46.9	47.4
Karl Malone	10	30.9	33.3	46.6	52.4
Larry Bird	4	27.2	30.4	47.2	49.6
Elgin Baylor	6	31.6	32.8	43.9	43.1
Shaquille O'Neal	5	33.7	35.0	56.6	57.7
Rick Barry	4	33.9	31.8	44.4	45.7
Allen Iverson	2	32.0	30.9	39.2	42.6

Selected Others

Wilt Chamberlain	0	22.9	31.5	52.2	54.0
Reggie Miller	8	29.0	26.7	45.6	47.6
Oscar Robertson	4	25.0	29.2	46.0	48.5
Bernard King	4	35.3	32.1	55.9	51.8

Notes:

Statistics do not include 2001-02 season.

Players listed in order of career playoff points.

The first 10 players rank in the top ten in career playoff points
and/or career playoff ppg.

Statistics for Erving and Barry include ABA seasons.

"Diff." refers to the differential between playoff ppg and regular
season ppg.

"Pl.>Reg." indicates how many seasons a player's playoff ppg
exceeded his regular season ppg.

"P/48" refers to points per 48 minutes.

The Unfinished Ronny Turiaf Interview

2009-11-02T00:15:00.002-05:00

I have been fortunate enough to conduct my two dream basketball interviews--Julius Erving will always be my favorite all-time player and after Erving retired Scottie Pippen was my favorite player as a teenager/young adult (and Pippen remains my second favorite all-time player). I enjoy speaking with players and coaches directly and learning about the game from their perspectives without the filtering provided by the bias/ignorance of some of the people who frequently conduct such interviews.

Although I am quite familiar with Ronny Turiaf's inspiring comeback from a serious heart condition and I respect the way that he has made himself into an excellent role player, I have never interviewed him and, truth be told, interviewing him was not on my "to do list"--but when his publicist Roxanne Romero contacted me this summer and said that she could set up an interview with Turiaf, I told her to go ahead and do it. Then she replied that since Turiaf was out of the country at the time it would work out better if I simply emailed my questions to her and then she would pass them along to Turiaf. Here are the questions that I sent:

1) Your comeback from open heart surgery to not only be fully healthy but also to be a productive NBA player has inspired many people. Describe what you are trying to accomplish with your Ronny Turiaf Heart to Heart Foundation.

2) You started 21 games for the Lakers team that advanced to the Finals in 2008 and then you signed with Golden State for the 2009 season. When the Lakers won the 2009 championship you must have felt a combination of happiness for your ex-teammates but also perhaps some jealousy--or at least wistfulness--that you could have been a part of that. Describe how you felt about the Lakers winning the title.

3) Team captains generally are full-time starters who play heavy minutes but Don Nelson selected you as a Golden State captain even though you do not rank on the top five on the Warriors in minutes played, which indicates that both Nelson and your teammates highly respect you. How did your experiences as a Laker and as a member of the French National Team prepare you for your leadership role with Golden State ?

4) You ranked fourth in the NBA in blocks per game and third in total blocked shots in 2009. The Warriors are not known as a defensive-minded team but you clearly place an emphasis on that aspect of the game. How is the mindset of a championship team like the Lakers different from the mindset of a younger team like the Warriors that is just fighting to get into the playoffs, particularly in terms of the less glamorous aspects of the game like defense, rebounding, setting screens, etc.?

5) What are some of the similarities and differences between Phil Jackson and Don Nelson as coaches?

6) Kobe Bryant inspires a lot of strong responses from the media and fans. You were his teammate for the first three seasons of your NBA career. Describe Kobe 's leadership style as you experienced it as a young player.

7) Some members of the media claim that Kobe has changed or evolved but would it be more accurate to say that in the past couple years he simply has been surrounded by better talent and that the newer players respond more positively to how Kobe interacts with them?

8) Everyone likes to compare Kobe and LeBron. You have played with and against Kobe and played against LeBron; as someone who has actually been on the court with both players, how would you compare them in terms of their skill sets and the ways that they impact the game offensively and defensively?

Nearly a month passed without a reply from Romero or Turiaf, so I sent an email to Romero to find out what was taking so long. She said that Turiaf's schedule had been "insane" and that he would not be able to answer until mid-September (two months after Romero initially contacted me). September passed and I did not hear from Romero or Turiaf, so I emailed Romero again. This time she said that Turiaf had not done a single interview since she had first reached out to me and that he likely would not respond to my questions.

The whole situation is both amusing--conjuring up images of an overbooked Turiaf fighting off media hordes who are ignoring Kobe Bryant and LeBron James in order to besiege him with questions--and pathetic. Is Ronny Turiaf really so busy that he cannot answer a few questions? If so, why is his representative soliciting interviews on his behalf? Does Turiaf understand that when he hires people who are incompetent and/or inconsiderate ultimately this reflects badly on him?

Why bother to even make a post about this? Simple--I no longer have any patience to deal with people who are too ignorant and/or too inconsiderate to do their jobs properly; on several occasions I have tried to work with and/or help such people only to receive unprofessional--and sometimes even vicious--responses. Perhaps such people mistake kindness for weakness but I'm not having any more of such nonsense. I am not seeking out such people or looking for trouble but if they waste my time then I certainly will let the whole world know how they conduct their business, so that intelligent, professional people know who to avoid.

Newsflash: Paul Pierce is Better Than Lamar Odom

2009-11-01T23:40:00.003-05:00

Hoop Magazine editor Ming Wong reliably produces a subpar product, so it is not surprising that the newest issue includes an article comparing Paul Pierce and Lamar Odom. Never mind that they play different positions or that they have vastly different roles on their respective teams. Pierce is a future Hall of Famer who won the 2008 Finals MVP, has earned four All-NBA selections, made the All-Star team seven times, received MVP votes in five different seasons, ranked in the top ten in scoring five times and ranked in the top ten in steals four times (Pierce has also ranked in the top ten in free throws made seven times, leading the league in that category in 2002-03); Odom is a role player who has never received a single MVP vote, nor has he made the All-NBA or All-Star teams even once and he has ranked in the top ten in a major statistical category (scoring, rebounding, assists, steals, blocked shots, field goal percentage, three point field goal percentage, free throw percentage) just once (his 10.6 rpg ranked seventh in the NBA in 2007-08).

Odom is a solid player but it makes no sense on any level to compare him to Pierce--yet Hoop's goofy article rambled for two pages before concluding that Pierce only narrowly comes out ahead!

USA TODAY Gives Proper Recognition to the ABA

2009-10-29T18:25:00.005-04:00

I have argued for many years that ABA Numbers Should Also Count, so I am very pleased that USA TODAY's October 27 "Snapshots" graphic included ABA statistics; the chart listed the players who scored the most points in their first six seasons:

1) Wilt Chamberlain (1960-65) 18,837 points (40.6 ppg)
2) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1970-75) 14,211 points (30.4 ppg)
3) Michael Jordan (1985-90) 14,016 points (32.8 ppg)
4) Oscar Robertson (1961-66) 13,998 points (30.4 ppg)
5) Julius Erving (1972-77) 13,432 points (27.5 ppg)
6) LeBron James (2004-09) 12,993 points (27.5 ppg)

Sadly, if the NBA compiled such a list Erving would not be included because he played his first five seasons in the ABA and the NBA does not "officially" recognize ABA statistics. It took the NBA three years to look past the bitterness of the NBA-ABA rivalry and begin using the three point shot (which was used in the old ABL prior to the ABA popularizing it during its nine season run, 1968-76). The NBA finally added the Slam Dunk Contest--created by the ABA for its 1976 All-Star festivities--to All-Star Weekend in 1984. It is more than past time for the NBA to bury any lingering resentment about the ABA, include ABA statistics in the "official" NBA records and take an active role to pressure the Hall of Fame to induct neglected ABA standouts like Artis Gilmore, Mel Daniels, Roger Brown and Slick Leonard.

As for the list itself, a few things stand out:

1) Wilt Chamberlain lapped the field. "Stat gurus" and/or biased fans can try to find excuses to "normalize" or diminish Chamberlain's accomplishments but he set records that will never be broken or even seriously threatened. Can you imagine how much hype a player would receive today if he averaged 40 ppg for a season, let alone for the first six seasons of his career?

2) As I indicated in The Greatest Scoring Machines in Pro Basketball History, it can be misleading to compare scorers based purely on career ppg average, particularly if one of the players is active and the other player is retired. No one has come close to matching the scoring prowess that Chamberlain displayed during the first half of his career (40.6 ppg in his first six years as shown above--and 39.6 ppg in his first seven seasons as he won seven straight scoring titles, a record later matched by Jordan, who came out of retirement to notch three more scoring titles to set the record for most overall scoring titles). Despite Chamberlain's dominance, both Abdul-Jabbar and Jordan "broke" Chamberlain's career ppg record once they met the minimum qualifying standard of 10,000 points scored or 400 games played. Chamberlain finished with a 30.1 ppg average, spending the second half of his career focusing on rebounding, defense and passing--but neither Abdul-Jabbar nor Jordan came close to matching Chamberlain's early production, so calling them the career scoring average leaders after their first few seasons ignores the fact that Chamberlain was a much more dominant scorer during his first few seasons. Chamberlain eventually "passed" Abdul-Jabbar on the career scoring average list after Abdul-Jabbar's productivity declined, while after Jordan finished his second comeback he only led Chamberlain by .05 ppg.

3) James and Robertson are both renowned as great passers--all six players on the above list are excellent passers--but they both are also exceptional scorers. As I noted after Cleveland's 2009 playoff run, "LeBron James’ floor game is admirable and his ability and willingness to pass the ball are rightly held in high regard but he has already established himself in the record book as a tremendous scorer."

Defensive-Minded Celtics Spoil Cavaliers' Home Opener

2009-10-28T10:28:00.003-04:00

The Boston Celtics held the Cleveland Cavaliers to 29-70 field goal shooting (.414), overcame an early 14 point deficit to build a 15 point second half lead and then staved off a late Cleveland rally to topple the Cavaliers 95-89 in the season opener for both teams. Kevin Garnett scored 13 points and had 10 rebounds in his first game since March 25, while new Celtics Rasheed Wallace (12 points, 3-6 three point field goal shooting) and Marquis Daniels (seven points, game-high +11 plus/minus rating) helped the Celtics to enjoy a 26-10 advantage in bench points, but the big star for Boston on this night was Paul Pierce, who led the way with 23 points and a game-high 11 rebounds. Pierce scored 10 fourth quarter points, including six points in the final 1:03. LeBron James had a typically explosive game--38 points, eight assists, four rebounds, four blocked shots, two steals--but he was about the only bright spot for the Cavs; Shaquille O'Neal had six points (3-3 field goal shooting) and four rebounds in the first 7:20 of the first quarter but managed just four points and six rebounds in 21:28 the rest of the way, including 0 points on 0-2 field goal shooting in the fourth quarter. Mo Williams scored 12 points on 3-8 field goal shooting and had a game-worst -10 plus/minus rating. Anthony Parker was Cleveland's only other double figure scorer (10 points) but he shot just 3-9 from the field and had a costly turnover late in the game when James passed to him for what should have been a wide open corner jumper. Zydrunas Ilgauskas (six points, five rebounds in 24:39) struggled to find his way in his new role off of the bench as O'Neal's backup.

Cleveland lost only two home games last season en route to posting a league-best 66-16 overall record. The home team had won the previous 16 encounters in this series and after the first quarter it looked like that trend would continue. The Cavaliers raced to a 21-7 lead as O'Neal looked mobile and sharp while James scored from inside and outside in addition to racking up three blocked shots, including a sensational left handed rejection of a Rajon Rondo fast break dunk attempt at the 3:12 mark. The Celtics began to chip away as both teams put their reserves into the game and by the end of the quarter Boston trimmed Cleveland's advantage to 28-21. Ray Allen scored 11 of his 16 points in the second quarter, often abusing the smaller Daniel Gibson in the post; the Cavs sorely missed the presence of Delonte West, last season's starting shooting guard who also sometimes anchored the reserve unit during key stretches of games. During the 2009 playoffs, West led the Cavaliers with 41.3 mpg, ranked second on the team with 19 steals and tied for second with 58 assists. Although he warmed up on the court prior to the game, West was placed on the inactive list and it is not clear when he will return to active duty as he battles against bipolar disorder. Boston Coach Doc Rivers coached West in Boston for three seasons and when Rivers was asked about West's situation Rivers said that he is praying for West to completely recover and he added that his philosophy is "Don't give up on anybody who's breathing."

Prior to the game, Cleveland Coach Mike Brown expressed concern about his team's transition defense and weak side defense and he reiterated those themes after the game, while also acknowledging that Boston played very well: "You have to give Boston a lot of credit. They did a heck of a job in the first half of withstanding the punch that we threw. They bounced back the right way. They are a very good strong side defensive team. For a stretch in the first half, we didn't get the ball across the floor. We kept the ball on one side of the floor and took a lot of jump shots. That hurt us. On the defensive end of the floor we had a lot of uncontested shots. One of our staples on the defensive end is to contest and there was a stretch in the first half when we didn't contest shots, especially transition three pointers...On average last year we had a little over 13 uncontested shots per game but we had nine uncontested shots just in the first half of tonight's game."

Brown blamed himself for a substitution pattern that led to the Cavaliers being "a little disjointed," which is an excellent description of his team's performance after the first few minutes; Brown is still trying to figure out which player combinations will be most effective, a process that has been hindered not only by West's situation but also because Brown is integrating newcomers O'Neal, Parker and Jamario Moon into the mix. Brown paired O'Neal and Ilgauskas together for a little more than six minutes in the fourth quarter; Boston led 80-71 at the 9:20 mark and 85-79 with 3:15 remaining when Anderson Varejao replaced Ilgauskas. In response to a question after the game, Brown said that the Twin Towers look was something that he had planned to do in advance but that he had not expected to stick with it for quite that long. I followed up by asking, "You said that you were looking for something specific when you played Shaq and Z together. What exactly were you looking for and did you see what you wanted to see?" Brown responded, "I just wanted to see if those guys could play together and how they would look playing together. I thought that they did a nice job when they were on the floor together."

In this game, we saw a microcosm of the best of the Cavs and the worst of the Cavs: at their best, the Cavs are a very good defensive team that can attack offensively in a variety of ways, from O'Neal in the post to James virtually anywhere, with spot up shooters and slashers available as pressure releases if opposing teams trap O'Neal and/or James--but at their worst, the Cavs have some defensive weaknesses that can be exploited (they are slow in transition and in defending the screen/roll, problems that stem in part from having two elder statesmen seven footers in O'Neal and Ilgauskas) and when they are pressured or have certain lineup combinations in the game they have a tendency to break down offensively and either go one on one or else settle for long jumpers. The talent and potential of this team are quite evident, so the Cavs should show steady improvement during the season--but, assuming that the team stays reasonably healthy, the obvious X factor is West's status. Parker is a good offseason acquisition and Moon figures to have more impact during the rest of the season than he did in this game (two points in 13:41) but neither of those players can fully replace West's contributions or replicate his familiarity with Brown's system.

As for the Celtics, don't forget that they opened their 2009 title defense with a 27-2 record before injuries--particularly to defensive linchpin Garnett--scuttled their season. Even without Garnett they still pushed eventual Eastern Conference Champion Orlando to seven games in the Eastern Conference semifinals. The Celtics will miss Glen Davis, who recently broke his thumb in an altercation with a former college teammate, but Wallace should be more than able to pick up the slack, while Daniels will provide valuable bench production at point guard, shooting guard and small forward. When they are fully healthy the Celtics are a suffocating defensive team. Center Kendrick Perkins is a powerful force in the paint, Garnett wreaks havoc all over the court, point guard Rajon Rondo (eight points, 10 assists, six rebounds versus Cleveland) is quick and plays bigger than his size and future Hall of Famers Paul Pierce and Ray Allen have accepted the challenge defensively ever since Garnett joined the team in 2007.

*****************************
Notes From Courtside:

In 2008-09, LeBron James won his first regular season MVP partially because he improved several of his skill set weaknesses: he reversed a three year decline in his three point shooting percentage and fell just short of setting a career-high in that category (.344, just .007 worse than his 2004-05 percentage), he shot a career-high .780 from the free throw line, he earned his first selection to the All-Defensive First Team and he finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting. Great NBA players are known for their relentless pursuit of perfection; they never rest on their laurels--that is why Kobe Bryant spent part of his summer learning low post moves from Hakeem Olajuwon. During his pregame standup, I asked James, "Last year you improved your free throw shooting and your defense. What is one area you are looking to improve or focus on this season?" James replied, "I don't know. I just try to improve every part of my game every year. I did a lot of shooting this summer, from everywhere on the court but mostly from boxes and elbows, so hopefully I can open my offensive game a little bit more. Defensively, I am going to have the same intensity as I had last year. I will be the same leader that I have been the last few years--that won't change." Later in his pregame standup, James reiterated his goal to shoot at least .800 from the free throw line, a standard that Assistant Coach Chris Jent mentioned to me in May 2008.

Before James did his pregame standup, I saw part of his shooting workout with Jent (you can find my account of James' pregame shooting routine from last season's home opener here). James shot from various areas of the court until he made five shots (not in a row). I don't know how long he had been practicing before I arrived but here are his shooting percentages for the part of the workout that I saw (in the order that James shot from the various areas):

5-5 free throws
5-8 one dribble pullup jumpers from the left baseline just inside the three point line
5-6 left wing three pointers (catch and shoot)
5-10 one dribble pullup jumpers from the top of the key area (beyond the top of the key but inside the three point line)
5-10 one dribble pullup jumpers from the right wing just inside the three point line
5-10 one dribble pullup jumpers from the right baseline just inside the three point line
5-7 free throws

James' form on his free throws and jump shots has improved significantly since he entered the league: his release is smoother and more consistent and he no longer fades away or drifts to the side on his jumpers as much as he used to do. When James gets in a good rhythm he looks like a great pure shooter but he does not sustain that rhythm the way that guys like Reggie Miller, Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash do during warmup situations; James will swish three shots in a row beautifully and then clank one off of the rim discordantly or even hit the side of the backboard. His shot is a work in progress but the significant thing is that he is working on it and he did demonstrate improvement last season.

***

Mike Brown has the best winning percentage (.643) of any coach in the 39 year history of the Cavaliers franchise. He is also the third winningest coach among the nine NBA coaches who have been with their current team for at least the past four years, trailing only Gregg Popovich (.675) and Phil Jackson (.672) and ranking ahead of such notables as Jerry Sloan and Doc Rivers. Brown went 188-112 (.627) in his first 300 games as Cleveland's coach, the fifth best winning percentage among active coaches in their first 300 games, trailing only Phil Jackson, Rick Adelman, Stan Van Gundy and Rick Carlisle.

***

Prior to the game, I spoke with Cavaliers Assistant Coach Hank Egan. Much was said and written before, during and after last year's Eastern Conference Finals regarding how Cleveland matched up with Orlando, so I asked Coach Egan to explain the thought process behind some of Cleveland's strategic moves during that series:

Friedman: "Sometimes when a team has a really great defensive player--like Kobe Bryant has been for years and like LeBron James turned into last year--the philosophy is to put him on the other team's best player and shut him down, while other times the philosophy is to put him on a weaker player and use him as a roamer. How come in the Orlando series instead of putting James on (Rashard) Lewis or (Hedo) Turkoglu you put him on (Rafer) Alston? Explain, from a coaching perspective, where that idea came from."

Egan: "There are a lot of reasons for it. One of the reasons was we put him on Alston so he could roam a little bit, so that gave us some opportunities there; also, we didn't feel that would get us in a lot of foul trouble to begin with because they would not post up Alston or put him in any situations like that. Then, late in the game, we started picking out (certain matchups) and putting James on different people, which is what we did a lot during the year: keep him out of foul trouble early in the game and then in the second part of the game in crunch time we find the key guy and we would put him on the key guy."

Friedman: "A lot of the media coverage of the series focused on the idea that Orlando enjoyed favorable mismatches or favorable matchups versus Cleveland sizewise, so a lot of people wondered why James did not start out on Lewis or Turkoglu, because he would not be at a size disadvantage. What is your perspective on that as a coach?"

Egan: "It's not necessarily the matchup one on one because we were going to have to double team Dwight Howard, so we were going to be in (defensive) rotations anyway. So LeBron would be in rotation and that would give us an opportunity to use him to double team the post or else to rotate to shooters on the perimeter."

Friedman: "So you felt like the angles that James would be coming from (when he was assigned to guard Alston) would--"

Egan: "Not necessarily the angle, but he (James) would be in a position on the postup (of Howard)--the way that they used Alston--to maybe help more from that spot than he would be from one of the other guys. It's hard to leave Turkoglu, it's hard to leave the premier shooters."

Friedman: "Was there any thought, with the frontcourt depth that you had last season, of maybe taking some more fouls on Howard? Is that something you look back on and wonder if you should have done differently, maybe take a chance on his free throw percentage versus the three point shooting percentage of some of their other players?"

Egan: "Yeah, we talked about that. Taking fouls is really not in a person's character. It's really hard (because players want to play defense and not just bail out/give up on the play). But he hit his free throws against us (Howard shot .701 from the free throw line versus Cleveland in the 2009 Eastern Conference Finals, compared to .636 overall in the playoffs and .594 in the regular season)."

Friedman: "It seemed like there were a couple plays when Howard caught the ball down low versus Varejao and Varejao didn't foul him and he dunked even though it seemed like the coaching staff was giving the (forearms crossed) signal to foul. Were there some particular individual situations--not to just single out Varejao--in which the coaching staff was giving the signal to foul but the foul did not get taken for whatever reason?"

Egan: "I'm sure that there were. I don't remember that specific one involving Varejao--"

Friedman: "That happened in the overtime of game four."

Egan: "I can't remember that one but there were situations in which we wanted to foul and didn't get it."

Friedman: "With the personnel changes that you have made and assuming that Delonte will be able to play during the playoffs--and hopefully sooner--do you think that if you faced a similar situation again that you would match up differently and maybe not have LeBron be a roamer?"

Egan: "If we had had bigger people to rotate (last year versus Orlando)--we had a very small lineup with Mo, at times, Gib(son), Delonte on the perimeter because Wally (Szczerbiak) was not up to full speed and Sasha (Pavlovic) wasn't playing well so we were rotating with very small players and I don't think we were affecting the three point shooters. The biggest change we feel about the ballclub now is we have AP (Anthony Parker), we've got Jamario Moon, those kind of guys rotating to the shooters so it is going to be a little different now. We hope that will make a big difference."

Artis Gilmore: Still Waiting for Hall of Fame Call

2009-10-27T00:02:00.000-04:00

This article was originally published on July 5, 2005 at HoopsHype.com.

Here is a question that is guaranteed to stump your friends: Who is the NCAA Division I career leader in rebounds per game average? After they round up the usual suspects--Wilt, Russell, Kareem--you can provide a hint: this player's college career ended after Kareem's did. When they give up after you tell them that the answer is not Walton or Shaq, be prepared for some surprised looks when you say, "Artis Gilmore, 22.7 rpg."

Gilmore led unheralded Jacksonville to the 1970 NCAA Championship game against perennial powerhouse UCLA. Coached by the legendary John Wooden, the Bruins had already won three straight titles en route to a record seven consecutive championships. Gilmore had 19 points and 16 rebounds as Jacksonville gave the Bruins their toughest battle yet in a title game before succumbing 80-69. He was a Consensus All-America 1st Team selection in 1971, but Jacksonville lost a first round NCAA Tournament game to Western Kentucky on a last second shot. Gilmore led Jacksonville to a 48-6 record during those two seasons, averaging 24.3 ppg to go along with his record rebounding average.

He had an immediate impact upon joining the ABA's Kentucky Colonels for the 1971-72 season, winning Rookie of the Year and MVP honors after ranking tenth in scoring (23.8 ppg) and leading the league with 17.8 rpg, .598 field goal shooting, 3666 minutes played (43.6 mpg) and an ABA record 422 blocked shots (5.0 bpg). Kentucky improved from 44-40 in 1970-71 to a league record 68-16. Gilmore posted virtually identical numbers in the postseason, but a hot-shooting Rick Barry led the New York Nets to a 4-2 upset victory over the Colonels.

In 1972-73 the Colonels went 56-28 and advanced to the ABA Finals, where they lost in seven games to their arch rivals, the Indiana Pacers--Gilmore averaged 22.1 ppg, 17.3 rpg, 5.3 apg and 4.0 bpg for the series. During the regular season, Gilmore again led the ABA in rebounding (17.6 rpg), field goal percentage (.559) and blocks (3.1 bpg) and ranked second in minutes played (3502) and tenth in scoring (20.8 ppg).

Darnell Hillman, a great shot blocker who played forward and center for the Pacers, will never forget his encounters with Gilmore. "If I wanted to be anyone other than Darnell I wanted to be Artis' size and still have my jumping ability. Every time I walked out on the floor with him, I always challenged him as best I could--6-9 versus 7-2. Artis would block my dunk shots all the time and that was the key that really turned me on to go back after him and block his dunks. So that was a rivalry right there between Artis and I." Hillman learned the value of preparation and anticipation by playing against Gilmore and practicing against Indiana teammate Mel Daniels, a two-time ABA MVP. "I gave away a lot of pounds and inches, so I had to be very clever. That came from playing against Mel in practice.When Artis decided to throw it down, he was going to throw it down and I had to be there to catch it before he really got a full head of steam going to throw it down."

Daniels, the director of player personnel for the Pacers since 1996, offers this scouting report of Gilmore: "He was very efficient, a very good offensive basketball player, could defend, could block shots, run very well, and score on the block. If you look at some of the guys who are in the Hall of Fame, he should definitely be in the Hall of Fame. The guy has proven himself in both leagues."

Kentucky went 53-31 in 1973-74, sweeping Larry Brown's Carolina Cougars in the first round of the playoffs before being swept by Julius Erving's Nets in the second round. Gilmore led the ABA in rebounding (18.3 rpg), ranked first in minutes (3502) and second in blocked shots (3.4 bpg).

The Colonels hired Hubie Brown as head coach before the 1974-75 season. Gilmore echoes what teammate Joe Hamilton told this writer at the ABA Reunion: Brown's encyclopedic basketball knowledge and meticulous game planning are the hoops equivalent to the football wizardry of New England Patriots' coach Bill Belichick. Gilmore says of Brown, "He was a very detail-oriented coach and as a result when we competed against teams he had statistics and reports about some of the things that were successful against those particular teams. In a sense, he was ahead of his time by having such detailed scouting reports." That may not seem like a big deal now, but only a few years earlier Bill Fitch and the Cleveland Cavaliers made expansion draft selections on the basis of statistics found on basketball cards.

In 1974-75, Gilmore ranked first in minutes (3493), second in rebounding (16.2 rpg), second in field goal percentage (.580), second in blocks (3.1 bpg) and sixth in scoring (23.6 ppg). The Colonels finished with a 58-26 record, including a 22-3 mark in the last 25 games. Kentucky stormed to the title with a 12-3 postseason run. Gilmore ranked first in playoff rebounding (17.6 rpg) and was among the postseason leaders in scoring, field goal percentage and blocked shots. He averaged 25 ppg, 21 rpg and 1.2 bpg in the 4-1 win over Indiana in the ABA Finals. In a game three victory he rang up 41 points and 28 rebounds and in the game five series clincher he had 28 points and 31 rebounds.

Kentucky's success on the court did not lead to financial stability for the franchise, so owner John Y. Brown sold star forward Dan Issel to the Baltimore Claws for $500,000. The Claws franchise was in much worse shape financially than Kentucky and could not pay the $500,000, so the deal was reworked with the Denver Nuggets paying the $500,000 for Issel and compensating Baltimore by shipping them Dave Robisch.

Losing Issel was a big blow to the Colonels, who fell to 46-38 in 1975-76. They beat Indiana in a first round mini-series and pushed the 60-24 Nuggets to seven games in the next round. Gilmore had his best professional scoring average (24.6 ppg, fourth in the league) and ranked first in rebounding (15.5 rpg), second in field goal percentage (.552), second in minutes (3286) and third in blocks (2.4 bpg).

The NBA agreed to merge with four of the remaining ABA teams after the 1975-76 season. The owners of the Spirits of St. Louis and Kentucky Colonels received financial settlements in lieu of joining the combined league. A dispersal draft was held to allocate the ABA players whose teams folded and Gilmore was selected first overall by the Chicago Bulls.

The Bulls started 3-14 in the 1976-77 season, but closed on a 20-4 run to qualify for the playoffs with a 44-38 record. Chicago lost 2-1 to Bill Walton and the Portland Trail Blazers, who went on to win the championship. Gilmore ranked fourth in rebounding (13.0 rpg) and blocked shots (2.5 bpg) and tenth in field goal percentage (.522).

During Gilmore's Chicago years he perennially ranked among the league leaders in rebounding, blocked shots and field goal percentage and finished as high as ninth in scoring (23.7 ppg in 1978-79), but the Bulls never surrounded Gilmore with enough talent to be a contender. Before the 1982-83 season, the Bulls traded Gilmore to the San Antonio Spurs, one of the four ABA teams that joined the NBA during the merger. Now the Spurs had a formidable inside-outside duo with Gilmore and All-NBA guard George Gervin. The Spurs won a then franchise-record 53 games and made it to the Western Conference Finals, losing to the defending champion Lakers 4-2. Gilmore led the league in field goal percentage (.626) while ranking fourth in rebounding (12.0 rpg) and fifth in blocks (2.3 bpg).

Injuries to Gilmore and point guard Johnny Moore sent the Spurs plummeting to 37-45 in 1983-84. Even in a down year, Gilmore still led the NBA in field goal percentage (.631) and ranked fifth in blocks (2.1 bpg). He averaged enough rebounds to rank in the top ten, but did not play in enough games or have enough total rebounds to qualify.

Gilmore ranked in the top ten in field goal percentage (.623; second), blocks (2.1; seventh) and rebounds (10.4 rpg; tenth) in 1984-85, but the Spurs were knocked off in the first round of the playoffs.

Age began to take a toll in 1985-86 and for the first time in 15 professional seasons Gilmore failed to average at least 10 rpg. He still managed to rank second in field goal percentage (.618). Gilmore also ranked second in field goal percentage in 1986-87 (.597) as a 37-year-old player in his second to last season.

Hall of Famer Rick Barry faced Gilmore in the ABA and the NBA and had this to say about the big man: "Artis Gilmore was incredibly agile and was just an amazing shot blocker. In fact, I've had him on my radio show a couple times, and I think that he stopped blocking some of the shots because they were calling goaltending on him. I don't think that anybody had ever seen anything like that and they figured that he had to be goaltending, that you can't possibly block somebody's jump shot."

Although Gilmore is listed in Alex Sachare's 1997 book The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame's 100 Greatest Basketball Players of All-Time, he has not advanced beyond the finalist stage in the induction process (most of the other 99 players profiled in the book who have been retired long enough to be eligible for induction are members of the Hall of Fame).

When Gilmore finally assumes his rightful place in the Hall of Fame, he will need quite a plaque to detail his accomplishments. Put "Artis Gilmore: Tough, Durable and Consistent" in bold letters at the top and follow it with these achievements:

- NCAA rebounding champion in 1970 and 1971

- All-time NCAA Division I career rebounding average leader (22.7 rpg)

- One of five NCAA Division I players with career averages of 20+ ppg and 20+ rpg

- 1972 ABA MVP and Rookie of the Year

- ABA regular season single game record 40 rebounds versus New York, 2/3/74

- Four-time ABA rebounding champion (1972-74, 76)

- Two-time ABA field goal percentage champion (1972-73)

- Two-time ABA shot blocking champion (1972-73)

- 1974 ABA All-Star Game MVP

- 1975 ABA Playoff MVP

- Five-time All-ABA 1st Team selection (1972-76)

- Four-time ABA All-Defensive Team selection (1973-76)

- Appeared in 670 consecutive ABA/NBA games

- 11 All-Star selections in 17 ABA/NBA seasons

- Ranked in the top ten in rebounding in 12 of 17 ABA/NBA seasons

- Ranked in the top ten in blocked shots in 13 of 17 ABA/NBA seasons

- Ranked in the top ten in field goal percentage in 15 of 17 ABA/NBA seasons

- Four-time NBA field goal percentage champion (1981-84)

- One of seven unanimous selections to the 1997 ABA All-Time Team

- Ranks first in career ABA/NBA regular season field goal percentage (.582); also holds the NBA (.599) and ABA (.558) career records

- Ranks third in career ABA/NBA regular season blocked shots (3178)

- Ranks fifth in career ABA/NBA regular season rebounds (16,330)

- Ranks 18th in career ABA/NBA regular season points (24,941)

Jeff Van Gundy Speaks the Truth About Allen Iverson

2009-10-24T01:17:00.004-04:00

About a minute and a half after the Detroit Pistons acquired Allen Iverson from the Denver Nuggets in exchange for Chauncey Billups and Antonio McDyess (the Pistons later re-signed McDyess after the Nuggets released him), Dave Berri--of Wages of Wins/True Hoop fame--blamed every ill in the Detroit metro area on Iverson. When I posted some comments on Berri's site pointing out that it was not fair or logical to hold Iverson entirely responsible for the Pistons' record considering that the Pistons were without McDyess' services for a month, that they had a new coach and that they foolishly decided to bench either Iverson or Richard Hamilton so that Rodney Stuckey could start, Berri's dittohead idiot followers came out of the woodwork anonymously spewing nonsense (Berri generally lets his drones do his dirty work as opposed to directly responding--unless the various creatively named commenters on his site are in fact him in "disguise").

During Denver's 119-105 win over the L.A. Lakers on Friday night, ESPN analyst Jeff Van Gundy spoke the truth about the Iverson situation in Detroit--and his words should sound very familiar to anyone who followed my analysis of the situation: "This is not to defend Iverson for some of the things--practicing and all that, whatever--but I think in the last year he has been the biggest scapegoat for the Detroit Pistons' shortcomings last year. That team just ran out of steam...Last year, the Detroit situation with him (Iverson) was mishandled. You don't bring in a guy like that and then tell either Richard Hamilton or Allen Iverson they're coming off the bench. You start Iverson, you start Hamilton, you bring Stuckey off the bench--or you just buy Iverson out when you make the trade. But to ask either one of those guys to come of the bench, to me, doesn't make any sense." In other words, a veteran NBA coach who is considered one of the sport's top TV analysts agrees 100% with what I have been saying for months about Iverson and Detroit.

Magic-Isiah Feud is Just Sad

2009-10-23T22:52:00.001-04:00

It is indisputable that Magic Johnson and Isiah Thomas--two of the NBA's 50 Greatest Players--used to be as close as brothers; it is also indisputable that their relationship has suffered a rift that is likely irreparable. Determining who is to blame for causing that rift has suddenly become a very public controversy and the sad reality is that we will likely never know the full truth.

When Thomas and his childhood friend Mark Aguirre were young NBA players they spent a lot of time with Johnson and frequently went to the NBA Finals when Johnson's L.A. Lakers battled Bird's Boston Celtics; Thomas and Aguirre wanted to see up close exactly what the Finals were all about and they learned their lessons well, eventually leading the Detroit Pistons to NBA championships in 1989 and 1990, beating both the Celtics and the Lakers during that first championship run. I have always respected the studious--and relentless--approach that Thomas took when guiding the Pistons from being a laughingstock to a contender to a repeat champion during one of the NBA's most competitive eras, a period when he and the Pistons had to fight for supremacy not only against Bird's Celtics and Johnson's Lakers but Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls, Clyde Drexler's Portland Trail Blazers and several other deep, strong teams.

In Jackie MacMullan's new book When the Game Was Ours, a biography of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson written with the cooperation of both subjects, Johnson asserts that Thomas spread rumors that Johnson is gay and/or bisexual after Johnson retired from the NBA in 1991 due to his HIV positive status. Johnson also declares that Thomas alienated most of the players in the NBA and that no one on the 1992 Dream Team wanted Thomas to be a member of that squad.

Thomas feels completely blindsided by Johnson's comments and, in an interview with Sports Illustrated's Ian Thomsen, vehemently denies Johnson's accusations, adding, "I'm really hurt, and I really feel taken advantage of for all these years. I'm totally blindsided by this. Every time that I've seen Magic, he has been friendly with me. Whenever he came to a Knick game, he was standing in the tunnel (to the locker room) with me. He and (Knicks assistant coach) Herb (Williams) and I, we would go out to dinner in New York. I didn't know he felt this way."

MacMullan is a solid reporter and I believe that she accurately quoted Johnson--but the key source for the allegation that Thomas questioned Johnson's sexuality is not Johnson but rather Lon Rosen, Johnson's longtime agent, who claims that Thomas asked Rosen if Johnson is gay. Rosen says that after he denied that Johnson is gay Thomas replied, "I don't know what he's doing when he's out there in L.A." Thomas told Thomsen that the alleged conversation with Rosen never took place. When Tony Kornheiser and Mike Wilbon recently interviewed MacMullan on ESPN's "Pardon the Interruption," MacMullan said that Rosen has no reason or motive to lie and that she has "two or three" anonymous sources who also say that Thomas questioned Johnson's sexuality and/or spread rumors about Johnson in that regard. Interestingly, Bird--who faced Thomas in several contentious playoff series and who fired Thomas as Pacers' coach in 2003--apparently did not say anything negative about Thomas to MacMullan.

ESPN's on air coverage of this situation has clearly been slanted in Johnson's favor--which is understandable (though hardly excusable) considering that MacMullan is a member of the ESPN family; during Friday afternoon's SportsCenter, ESPN quoted Johnson's accusations against Thomas at length while giving short shrift to Thomas' refutations, so you really must read Thomsen's article to get the complete picture. Oddly, both ESPN and Thomsen erroneously said that MacMullan's book will be published on November 4 when in fact the book has already been in stores since at least mid-October (I saw copies of the book in the Highland Park, Illinois Borders on October 12).

Most people understand from personal experience that in "he said, he said" situations there usually is some truth--and some falsehood (or at least distorted memories)--in what both sides say. Of course, some times one side is simply lying while the other side is telling the complete truth. In this particular case, only Johnson, Rosen and Thomas know the truth but I am disappointed with MacMullan's comments to Kornheiser and Wilbon. Contrary to what she said, Rosen certainly has discernible motives/reasons to lie:

1) Rosen would certainly want to keep his story in line with whatever Johnson says or else Rosen could lose a valuable client.

2) Many agents did not like some of the actions that Thomas took when Thomas was the President of the NBA Players Association.

I am not accusing Rosen of lying--but I also do not see any reason to say that he should be considered more credible than Thomas. Think about it this way--if your best friend announced that he is HIV positive and that he contracted the virus via heterosexual sex would your first move be to ask your friend's agent/lawyer if your friend is gay? Wouldn't you feel like you know your friend better than his agent/lawyer does?

With all due respect to MacMullan, I am not impressed by her "anonymous sources," who could very well be people who have axes to grind against Thomas. I have long respected Al Neuharth's refusal to use anonymous sources when he ran USA TODAY; Neuharth explained, "There's not a place for anonymous sources. I think there are a few major historical developments that happened in journalism--the Pentagon Papers, maybe Watergate--where anonymous sources had a more positive influence than a negative impact. But on balance, the negative impact is so great that we can't overcome the lack of trust until or unless we ban them."

Although it is impossible to prove whether Thomas or Rosen is telling the truth, it is worth noting that the timeline of events does not support Johnson's claim that Thomas' comments led to Johnson not supporting Thomas' inclusion on the Dream Team; the Dream Team roster was announced on September 21, 1991, six weeks before Johnson made his announcement about being HIV positive (and thus long before the Thomas-Rosen conversation supposedly happened).

It also must be said that when the Dream Team roster was chosen four players should have been absolute, mortal locks: Johnson (winner of five championships), Bird (winner of three championships), Thomas (winner of two championships) and Michael Jordan (who at that time had just won the first of his six NBA titles). You could argue about the merits of various other players but those four guys simply had to be on the team--but Thomas was left off. Whatever the real reasons are for that decision, it was a disgrace to deny Thomas an honor that he had earned by literally leaving his blood, sweat and tears on the court, particularly since he had previously missed an opportunity to play in the Olympics due to the 1980 U.S. boycott of the Moscow Games.

We may never know the truth about Johnson's accusations and Thomas' refutations but Thomas should have been on the Dream Team--and no one who played a role in keeping Thomas off of that roster should be proud of that dubious achievement.

Kobe Bryant Learns Low Post Moves From Hakeem Olajuwon

2009-10-20T19:44:00.003-04:00

Kobe Bryant has won four NBA championships, an Olympic Gold Medal, a Finals MVP, a regular season MVP and two scoring titles while earning seven All-NBA First Team selections (11 All-NBA selections overall) and seven All-Defensive First Team selections (nine All-Defensive Team selections overall)--but he is still extremely focused on honing his skills or, as Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young would say, "perfecting his craft."

This summer, Bryant sought out Hakeem Olajuwon for a tutorial about low post moves:

2009-10 Western Conference Preview

2009-10-16T03:59:00.003-04:00

Last year, I correctly picked seven of the eight Western Conference playoff teams. I matched that mark in 2007-08 and went 6/8 in both 2006-07 and 2005-06, putting my four year percentage at .813 (26/32).

Yesterday I posted my Eastern Conference Preview; this preview has the same format, with the following eight teams ranked based on their likelihood of making it to the Finals and not necessarily in the order that the teams will be seeded during the playoffs (which is affected by which teams win division championships).

1) L.A. Lakers: Reasons for hope: LeBron James had the most productive regular season of any NBA player in 2009 and deservedly won the MVP but during the playoffs Kobe Bryant demonstrated that he still has the most complete skill set of any player in the league. Bryant's ability to consistently make the midrange jump shot not only opens up driving lanes for him but affects the way opposing teams defend his teammates, enabling the other Lakers to feast on wide open looks because Bryant simply must be trapped in any screen/roll situation (teams can sag off of James because he is not as deadly or consistent from midrange as Bryant is, even though James laudably has improved his three point and free throw percentages). Bryant's attention to detail at both ends of the court--showcased brilliantly in Spike Lee's Kobe: Doin' Work--sets a wonderful example for his teammates; Bryant's work ethic profoundly influenced his Lakers' teammates, mirroring the impact that Bryant had on his Team USA teammates: look at how many of those guys played the best defense of their careers during the Olympics and then carried over that kind of effort to the 2008-09 regular season--Bryant set the tone from the start for Team USA by approaching the coaching staff and asking who they wanted him to "take out" (i.e., smother defensively).

It is fascinating to take a close look at how the perceptions of Bryant's supporting cast have evolved in the wake of the Lakers' 2008 Finals appearance and the 2009 Championship. Pau Gasol made one All-Star appearance in his first six and a half NBA seasons before teaming up with Bryant early in 2008--but since joining forces with Bryant and making the shift from being the offensive focal point to the second option Gasol's field goal percentage has soared from the low .500s to the high .500s, he made the All-NBA Third Team in 2009 and he has even convinced some deluded souls that he is the best/most valuable player on the Lakers. Gasol is a tremendously skilled big man--and I think that he should have made the All-NBA Second Team last season--but it is foolish to suggest that Gasol is better than Bryant. Gasol is perfectly suited--skill-set wise and psychologically--to be the Lakers' second option; Bryant accepts the double-teams, the physical play and the burden of being the focal point of the opposing defense, while Gasol gets to play one on one (or sometimes one on none when he works the screen/roll with Bryant and Bryant gets trapped) and utilize his finely honed skills without having to carry the brunt of the load. The Memphis Grizzlies understood that they would never win a title with Gasol as their best player and that is why they hit the "reboot" button; whether their "reboot" will be successful is an entirely different issue but the point is that Gasol is in a perfect situation in L.A. as the second option behind Bryant.

Gasol's arrival bumped Lamar Odom from second option to third option and that is the ideal role for Odom; Odom's versatility is widely praised but his two most valuable skills for the Lakers are his rebounding and his ability to be a weakside pressure release when Bryant and Gasol run the screen/roll: if Bryant gets trapped and a rotating defender stops Gasol then Odom is available either as a backside cutter or at the free throw line, where he can shoot, drive or swing the ball to a wide open three point shooter. Odom is not as skilled or consistent as Gasol, so Odom is ill suited to be the second option--and anyone who thinks that Odom is the Lakers' best player and/or is well suited to be the first option is delusional.

In contrast to Gasol and Odom, Trevor Ariza's head got a bit swollen by the Lakers' success and the career journeyman convinced himself that he is a star in the making. Ariza proved to be a nice role player for the Lakers in 2009 but the Lakers pulled off a steal by in effect swapping him for former All-Star/Defensive Player of the Year Ron Artest. Playing in Houston this year without Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady, Ariza will rediscover how difficult it is for a journeyman to score in the NBA without playing alongside someone who draws double teams. Artest was reasonably well behaved last year; his worst offense--no pun intended--was probably his dreadful shot selection, but Bryant and Coach Phil Jackson should be able to positively influence Artest in that regard.

Jackson is a master psychologist who knows exactly which buttons to push (and which buttons not to push). Some fools questioned why Jackson remained so loyal to starting point guard Derek Fisher, but Jackson's faith was rewarded when Fisher came up huge during key moments of the NBA Finals.

Reasons to mope: The Lakers do not have much to mope about--particularly if they stay healthy--but it should be emphasized that they are not as deep as some people think. The Lakers regular starting five is talented--though not more so than Boston's Hall of Fame-stacked crew or San Antonio's trio of All-Star regulars (Manu Ginobili may not start but he is certainly part of their crunchtime lineup)--but Andrew Bynum is injury prone and inconsistent and Derek Fisher is slowing down. Also, the Lakers' bench--specifically Jordan Farmar, Sasha Vujacic and Luke Walton--did not perform well last year; in the playoffs, Jackson often had to go with a six man rotation with Bynum starting but only playing nominal minutes before Odom took his place (Bynum averaged 17.4 mpg in the playoffs and no Laker reserve other than Odom averaged more than 16 mpg during the postseason). If Bynum suffers his annual injury and Gasol or Odom tweak an ankle the World Champions will all of a sudden be giving heavy minutes to D.J. Mbenga or Josh Powell.

Bottom line: The Lakers upgraded their roster by swapping Ariza for Artest, they have the confidence that comes from winning a title and Bryant will make sure that they maintain their hunger. The Lakers are well positioned to win the 2010 championship but they will face a strong challenge from the San Antonio Spurs (if the Spurs stay healthy) and if the Lakers get past the Spurs the Eastern Conference champion will also give them quite a battle.

2) San Antonio Spurs: Reasons for hope: The Spurs significantly upgraded their talent level, adding swingman Richard Jefferson and reliable power forward-center Antonio McDyess to a roster that includes All-Star caliber players Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. The Spurs do not have a player who is as good as Bryant but their starting five--or, finishing five to be precise, since Ginobili often comes off of the bench--has no weak links and is at least as talented as the Lakers' best quintet.

Reasons to mope: Tim Duncan is not quite as dominant as he was a few years ago. Coach Gregg Popovich increasingly seems to be pacing Duncan during the regular season in order to keep Duncan as fresh as possible for the playoffs. Ginobili is very injury prone and the Spurs have no one who can replace his energy level/versatility when he is out of the lineup.

Bottom line: If the Spurs stay healthy they can pose quite a threat to the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals.

3) Dallas Mavericks: Reasons for hope: As I mentioned in my Dallas preview for Lindy's Pro Basketball, "The high scoring trio that led the Mavericks to the 2006 NBA Finals--Dirk Nowitzki, Josh Howard and Jason Terry--is supplemented by future Hall of Fame point guard Jason Kidd and four-time All-Star Shawn Marion." The Mavericks have the talent and depth to be a championship caliber team.

Reasons to mope: Other than Howard, all of the key players mentioned above are on the wrong side of 30.

Bottom line: A healthy Dallas team is capable of winning 50-plus games and even putting a scare into the Lakers or Spurs--but it may be asking too much for a team so heavily skewed toward the over 30 demographic to survive unscathed from the attrition of an 82 game season.

4) Portland Trail Blazers: Reasons for hope: Brandon Roy is a versatile performer who looks like he will be a perennial All-Star; I like his skill set, his demeanor and his work ethic. LaMarcus Aldridge and Greg Oden anchor a solid frontcourt. Newly acquired Andre Miller is an underrated veteran point guard.

Reasons to mope: Other than Miller the Blazers' key players are young and do not have much postseason experience.

Bottom line: Portland is talented enough to win 50-plus games and pose a challenge to an elite team in a playoff series but the Blazers will not likely beat the Lakers, Spurs or Mavs if those teams are at full strength come playoff time.

5) Utah Jazz: Reasons for hope: When healthy the Jazz can put four All-Stars on the court: Deron Williams, Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur and Andrei Kirilenko. That nucleus led the Jazz to the Western Conference Finals in 2007.

Reasons to mope: Injuries to several of their best players put the Jazz off key last season and those players must stay healthy for the Jazz to once again be an elite team. Despite the Jazz' talent and experience they are a poor road team.

Bottom line: The Jazz seemed to be a team on the rise in 2007 but after a second round exit in 2008 and a first round exit in 2009 it is possible that this group of players has already reached their collective peak.

6) Denver Nuggets: Reasons for hope: The Nuggets have made the playoffs for six straight years and last season they took advantage of the injury travails suffered by the Spurs, Jazz, Hornets and Mavericks to finish second in the West in the regular season before advancing to the Western Conference Finals. Energetic reserve Chris Andersen ranked second in the NBA in blocked shots (2.5 bpg) and helped the Nuggets to become a much stingier defensive team. Chauncey Billups averaged nearly nine fewer ppg than his predecessor Allen Iverson did in 2007-08 when the Nuggets won 50 games but Billups received a lot of credit for helping the Nuggets to become a more mature and more disciplined squad. Carmelo Anthony is a smooth, potent scorer and last season he proved that when he wants to he can play solid defense--but he has yet to commit to doing so on a night in, night out basis.

Reasons to mope: In the couple seasons prior to his Denver homecoming, Billups looked like he was aging, losing a step and somewhat injury prone (particularly down the stretch after enduring the long regular season grind). Did the now 33 year old guard revitalize his career in 2009 or merely enjoy a last hurrah? The track record for 6-3 guards in his age bracket is not great and he is under contract for the next two seasons, with the Nuggets holding an option for the 2012 season. If Billups starts to decline then the Nuggets will be shelling out a lot of money in 2010 and 2011 without getting much in return. Also, it remains to be seen if Andersen can sustain his 2009 level of play. Dahntay Jones, who signed with the Pacers in the offseason, did not put up gaudy numbers but the Nuggets will miss his defense, particularly on the nights when J.R. Smith shoots 3-20 from the field and decides not to guard anybody.

Bottom line: Allen Iverson is not a popular player in some circles, so last season provided a great opportunity for a lot of people to blame Iverson for Detroit's demise while also heaping praise on Billups for "changing the culture" in Denver. Billups played well for Denver but the reality is that the Nuggets only won four more games in 2009 than they did in 2008 and their rise in the Western Conference standings had at least as much to do with the injury misfortunes suffered by their rivals as anything else. It is doubtful that the perfect storm of internal and external factors that carried the Nuggets to the Western Conference Finals in 2008 will happen again in 2009, so the Nuggets will not likely match their 2008 win total and thus slip back toward the bottom half of the playoff pool.

7) New Orleans Hornets: Reasons for hope: Chris Paul and David West provide a great one-two punch. Emeka Okafor, acquired in exchange for Tyson Chandler, is a solid double-double performer who provides more offensive punch than Chandler did.

Reasons to mope: The Hornets do not seem to have a clear plan. First they tried to trade Chandler during last season because they did not want to pay him big money, then they had to bring him back when he failed a physical and finally they dealt him for Okafor, a player who has an even bigger contract than Chandler does.

Bottom line: The Hornets do not have enough talent to keep up with the elite teams.

8) Phoenix Suns: Reasons for hope: The Suns have a talented nucleus built around veterans Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire, Jason Richardson, Leandro Barbosa and Grant Hill, plus they have added some young players who they expect will benefit from mentoring by the team's veteran quintet.

Reasons to mope: As I explained in March, "three things have been consistently true of all of the various iterations of this team:

* The Suns have a lot of individual talent.

* The Suns have never been committed to playing good defense on a consistent basis.

* As a group, the Suns have not demonstrated mental toughness."

Bottom line: After the short-lived Terry Porter coaching experiment, the Suns have forever abandoned the idea of playing solid defense and will simply play a run and gun style featuring Nash at the controls, Stoudemire finishing in the paint and Richardson, Hill and Barbosa filling the wings. That approach will be good enough to produce 45-50 wins and a first round exit.

Daryl Morey has done a good job of using "advanced basketball statistics" to help make the Houston Rockets a better team but with no Yao Ming, Tracy McGrady and Ron Artest it will be tough for the Rockets to win 40 games in the highly competitive West.

Since making the playoffs in 2006 after going 47-35, the L.A. Clippers have posted 40, 23 and 19 wins. Notice a trend? The addition of number one overall pick Blake Griffin will be enough to halt that slide but not nearly enough to lift the Clippers into playoff contention.

The Golden State Warriors are a team in turmoil, thanks in no small part to "Captain Jack" (Stephen Jackson). Why has the media spent the past couple years glorifying Jackson and ridiculing Terrell Owens? Owens is a Hall of Fame caliber player who has never been involved in legal trouble, while Jackson is a selfish hothead who is constantly getting in trouble on and off the court. Jackson wants out of Golden State and the Warriors should do everything they can to grant his wish. The Warriors will continue to play a fast paced style and it will be fun to watch rookie Stephen Curry play alongside Anthony Randolph, Corey Maggette and Monta Ellis but no defense plus no rebounding equals no playoff berth.

The Oklahoma City Thunder are assembling a solid young nucleus but they will take their lumps for at least one more year before threatening to claim a playoff spot. It is nice that most commentators have belatedly acknowledged that Kevin Durant belongs at small forward, not shooting guard; of course, I figured that out before Durant played his first regular season game and I provided in depth coverage of just how happy Durant was to return to his natural position after the Thunder fired Coach P.J. Carlesimo.

The Minnesota Timberwolves have done a lot of roster shuffling. Al Jefferson is an All-Star caliber player when healthy and Kevin Love showed some promise but this team does not have enough talent or cohesiveness to make the playoffs.

It is not clear exactly what Memphis' plan is. If the Grizzlies are trying to develop their young players then why did they bring in Allen Iverson? I am not sure and in any case it is more interesting to talk about Iverson's claim that the Detroit Pistons lied to him last season. It may not be popular to agree with Iverson but I think that he has a point, even if he expressed it poorly and probably should not have said anything publicly. When Joe Dumars acquired Iverson Dumars said that the Pistons had become "a little bit predictable" with Chauncey Billups and that Iverson is an "impact player" who provides the Pistons "a different way to attack teams." I expected--and I am sure that Iverson expected--that Iverson would be a focal point for the Pistons offensively, that the ball would be in his hands and he would have the opportunity to attack off of the dribble and either score or else dish the ball to open teammates. Remember that in 2007-08 with the Nuggets Iverson played all 82 games, led the league in mpg (41.8) for the third straight year (and sixth time in seven seasons), ranked third in scoring (26.4 ppg) and finished ninth in assists (7.1 apg). In just his fifth game with Detroit, Iverson produced 25 points on 7-12 field goal shooting and worked the screen/roll to perfection with Rasheed Wallace as the Pistons beat the eventual champion Lakers 106-95 in L.A. I still cannot figure out why Dumars and the Pistons are so enamored with Rodney Stuckey that they felt that they had to put either Iverson or Richard Hamilton on the bench so that Stuckey would be installed as a starter. Stuckey is clearly not better than Iverson or Hamilton, nor are either Iverson or Hamilton used to coming off of the bench so how can such moves possibly be justified if winning is the primary goal? Iverson thought that the Pistons were bringing him in to do what he did against the Lakers, not to come off of the bench behind an unproven player who I think that Dumars and others have vastly overrated. Iverson is hobbled by a hamstring problem right now and such troubles are often the beginning of the end for small guards, so we may never see the real Iverson again but Iverson has every reason to resent how he was treated in Detroit; Dumars essentially rented Iverson to create salary cap room but told Iverson and the public that the Pistons were still trying to be competitive.

The only time that the Sacramento Kings will attract any attention this year is when some "stat guru" writes an article declaring that Kevin Martin is as good as Kobe Bryant but that NBA GMs, coaches, players, media and fans are too stupid/biased to realize this self-evident "truth"--but I will grit my teeth and not respond and the Kings will fade back into obscurity.

2009-10 Eastern Conference Preview

2009-10-15T06:00:00.004-04:00

Last year, I correctly picked six of the eight Eastern Conference playoff teams. In 2007-08 I went 5/8 in the East, in 2006-07 I went 7/8 and in 2005-06 I went 6/8, which adds up to 24/32 (75%) overall for the four years that I have posted Eastern Conference previews online.

Barring injuries to key players, the Eastern Conference shapes up to be a three horse race in 2009-10, with 2007 NBA Finalist Cleveland, 2008 NBA Champion Boston and 2009 NBA Finalist Orlando leading the pack. There is a lot of buzz in some quarters about Washington but I do not believe the hype.

Listed below are the eight teams that I expect to qualify for the Eastern Conference playoffs; as usual, I have ranked the teams based on the likelihood that they will make it to the NBA Finals (as opposed to how they will be seeded in the playoffs, which is affected by which teams win division titles).

1) Cleveland Cavaliers: Reasons for hope: The Cavaliers posted the best regular season record in the NBA in 2009 and followed up that effort by making a series of personnel moves which essentially resulted in them swapping Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic for Shaquille O'Neal, Anthony Parker and Jamario Moon; the Cavaliers also acquired Leon Powe, who is trying to recover from a serious knee injury but may be available in time for the 2010 playoffs.

The Cavaliers have built their success in recent years on three pillars: defense, rebounding and the brilliance of LeBron James, the 2009 regular season MVP. There are no signs of cracks in any of those pillars. A fourth pillar for the Cavaliers is depth; last year, each of the 10 Cavaliers who averaged at least 16.0 mpg during the regular season had been starters at some point during their NBA careers--and the Cavaliers will be even deeper this season with the aforementioned additions.

It may prove difficult for the Cavaliers to match their 2009 win total (66)--few teams win that many games in back to back seasons, for a variety of reasons--but if they stay healthy they will have a great opportunity to win a championship.

Reasons to mope: Mo Williams made the All-Star team but he disappeared during the playoffs, particularly in the Eastern Conference Finals; no matter how well he plays during the regular season there will be pressure on him to perform at a high level during the 2010 postseason. Delonte West is the most versatile player on the roster other than James but his struggles with mental illness/legal issues could affect his performance or even his availability.

After being a starter for virtually his entire career, two-time All-Star center Zydrunas Ilgauskas will have to adjust to coming off of the bench in a reduced role. New starting center Shaquille O'Neal must stay healthy, he must fully commit to Cleveland's defensive schemes and he must accept a secondary or even tertiary role offensively. O'Neal has a long history of feuding with coaches and star teammates if things start to go south, so if the Cavaliers experience any turbulence it will be very interesting to observe his interactions with James and with Coach Mike Brown.

Bottom line: The Cavaliers will win at least 60 games and should be considered the top contender to capture the Eastern Conference title.

2) Boston Celtics: Reasons for hope: Kevin Garnett is back in the fold and the Celtics improved their frontcourt depth by acquiring Rasheed Wallace and Shelden Williams. Before injuries derailed their title hopes, the Celtics started out 27-2 in 2008-09. Point guard Rajon Rondo has improved during each of his first three seasons, while future Hall of Famers Paul Pierce and Ray Allen are healthy enough and productive enough to continue to play at an All-Star level.

Reasons to mope: Garnett's injury turned out to be more serious than the Celtics initially thought (or, at least more serious than they indicated publicly). Although he has been given a clean bill of health the 14 year veteran must prove that he is still durable enough to withstand the grind of an 82 game season. Wallace has the talent to be an impact player but his health and skills seem to have eroded recently.

Bottom line: It is easy to forget just how well the Celtics were playing in the first third of the 2009 season; they certainly looked poised to repeat as champions. Then the L.A. Lakers rolled into Boston and handed the Celtics just their third loss of the season; that setback seemed to put the Celtics into a brief funk but then they righted themselves and authored a 12 game winning streak before Garnett got hurt. If the Celtics are healthy and motivated they have to be considered serious title contenders.

3) Orlando Magic: Reasons for hope: Dwight Howard has established himself as the best center in the NBA and will likely be a top MVP candidate for years to come. Injured All-Star Jameer Nelson should be back at full strength. Two-time All-Star Rashard Lewis stretches the court with his long range bombing. Versatile forward Hedo Turkoglu has been replaced by eight-time All-Star Vince Carter. Carter has been a media whipping boy for years but it is difficult to take seriously the proposition ventured in some quarters that Turkoglu is a better player and/or bigger matchup problem for opposing teams than Carter. Nelson will take over the ballhandling duties that Turkoglu inherited when Nelson got hurt and Carter is able to attack defenses in multiple ways: he certainly can do some of the drive and kick moves that Turkoglu did, he is just as good a three point shooter and--contrary to his "soft" reputation--he has averaged nearly twice as many free throw attempts per game (6.0) during his career as Turkoglu (3.1). Yes, Turkoglu is three to four inches taller but Carter is simply a better all-around player; Carter has averaged at least 20.6 ppg for the past 10 seasons, while Turkoglu has never once averaged 20 ppg in a season--and Carter also boasts better career averages in rebounds, assists, steals and field goal percentage.

The Magic also acquired Brandon Bass and Matt Barnes.

Reasons to mope: The only real reason to mope is the Cavaliers and Celtics made more significant upgrades than the Magic did; Cleveland added an All-Star center who is a future Hall of Famer and also acquired a pair of talented swingmen, while the Celtics regained the services of a future Hall of Famer and added a four-time All-Star who has championship experience.

Bottom line: Essentially, the Magic added two All-Stars--a healthy Nelson plus the newly acquired Carter--to a roster that made it to the NBA Finals; the Magic only lost Courtney Lee and Turkoglu, a player who has never made the All-Star team and who likely peaked in 2008 (his 2009 stats were down across the board). The Magic are better on paper than they were last year--but right now they look like the third best team in the East behind the reloaded Cavaliers and the healthy/reloaded Celtics.

4) Atlanta Hawks: Reasons for hope: The Hawks have been trending upward for several seasons, improving their win totals from 13 in 2005 to 26, 30, 37 and 47 in the next four years. Prior to last season I wondered if they would be satisfied with their 2008 playoff appearance and perhaps slide back into mediocrity but they refuted such concerns with a strong regular season and their first playoff series win since 1999. In the offseason they added explosive scorer Jamal Crawford and did not suffer any serious roster losses.

Reasons to mope: The Hawks ranked 12th in the NBA in scoring differential and 25th in the NBA in rebounding differential; that is not a recipe for an extended playoff run.

Bottom line: The Hawks are just not talented or focused enough to beat any of the top three teams in a seven games series if those teams are at or near full strength.

5) Miami Heat: Reasons for hope: A healthy, rejuvenated Dwyane Wade reestablished himself as an elite player in 2009. Michael Beasley and Mario Chalmers experienced growing pains but overall they both had solid rookie seasons. Daequan Cook won the Three Point Shooting Contest during All-Star Weekend and he shot 153-395 (.387) from long range during the regular season, spacing the court so that Wade can slash through opposing defenses. Eric Spoelstra led the Heat to a 28 win increase, the biggest in NBA history for a first year coach; a lot of that improvement had to do simply with Wade being healthy all season but that is still an impressive accomplishment for Spoelstra.

Reasons to mope: The teams ahead of Miami in the standings--and some of the teams behind them--upgraded their rosters while the Heat essentially stood pat, losing Jamario Moon but adding Quentin Richardson.

Bottom line: Wade is tremendous and the young guys figure to continue to improve but this team does not have enough talent to deal with the conference's elite squads.

6) Washington Wizards: Reasons for hope: Three-time All-Star Gilbert Arenas returns to action after missing most of the past two seasons due to knee injuries. Starting center Brendan Haywood has recovered from the wrist injury that caused him to miss 76 games last season. The Wizards believe that they increased their depth by acquiring Mike Miller, Randy Foye and Fabricio Oberto. Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison are each two-time All-Stars.

Reasons to mope: Arenas joined the Wizards in 2003-04. Since that time they have never won more than 45 games in a season and they have made it past the first round of the playoffs just once (2005). Even when Arenas was fully healthy a good case could be made that he was the most overrated All-Star in the NBA. I have repeatedly said that an Arenas-led team will not advance past the second round of the playoffs and I see no reason to modify that statement--assuming that Arenas will even remain healthy enough for an entire season to be considered Washington's best player.

Bottom line: In the four seasons prior to last year's 19-63 debacle, the Wizards won between 41 and 45 games. It is certainly reasonable to assume that if their key players stay healthy that they can return to that neighborhood--but the hype about the Wizards being a legitimate contender is absurd (the Sporting News placed the Wizards seventh in the NBA--and third in the East--in their "Preseason Power Poll"). Last year, the Wizards ranked 24th in rebounding differential and 29th in defensive field goal percentage; Arenas' return does not figure to boost Washington's performance in either area, though a healthy Haywood should help to improve those numbers to some degree. The Wizards do not rebound or defend nearly well enough to be considered an elite team. Arenas has pledged to cut down on his off the court activities and focus on basketball but it remains to be seen how thoroughly he will follow up on that commitment.

7) Toronto Raptors: Reasons for hope: Chris Bosh has made the All-Star team four years in a row and has emerged as one of the NBA's top power forwards. Newly acquired Hedo Turkoglu will add playmaking, three point shooting and someone the Raptors can go to for fourth quarter scoring if Bosh is double teamed. Jose Calderon is a very solid point guard. The Raptors have rebuilt their roster and look like a team that can be very productive offensively.

Reasons to mope: Like the Wizards, the Raptors do not rebound or defend very well; Bosh will have to hold down the fort in both departments and hope that he gets more help than he did last year.

Bottom line: The Bosh-Turkoglu-Calderon trio should be enough to lead this team to the playoffs, where they will be first round cannon fodder for one of the elite teams.

8) Charlotte Bobcats: Reasons for hope: Coach Larry Brown has a track record of turning losing teams around in a hurry (his failure in New York notwithstanding). The Bobcats have made incremental progress the past few years--climbing from 26 wins in 2006 to 33, 32 and 35 the next three years--and if Brown can squeeze just five or six more wins out of this roster the Bobcats can grab the final playoff spot.

Reasons to mope: The Bobcats did not do much to upgrade their roster in the offseason, acquiring Tyson Chandler but losing Emeka Okafor and Sean May.

Bottom line: The midseason acquisitions of Raja Bell and Boris Diaw provided a real boost--the Bobcats went 23-21 when both of those players were in the starting lineup. This year, the Bobcats will likely start Bell, Diaw, Tyson Chandler, Raymond Felton and Gerald Wallace; that lineup will not strike fear in the hearts of the Eastern elite but should be good enough--with Brown's excellent teaching/coaching--to provide the Bobcats with their first 40-plus win season.

The race for the eighth playoff spot figures to be as tightly contested as it was in 2009 and 2008. The Chicago Bulls had an exciting first round playoff series versus the injury-depleted Celtics but they lost streak shooter Ben Gordon while getting nothing in return. They are a poor rebounding team and a mediocre defensive team, so it is hard to picture them winning more than 40-42 games.

The Detroit Pistons added Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva but they lost Rasheed Wallace, Antonio McDyess and Allen Iverson; I understand that part of Joe Dumars' plan was to rebuild by letting Wallace, McDyess and Iverson go in order to create enough salary cap room to sign younger free agents but I don't think that you can build a championship team around Gordon and Villanueva, neither of whom has made the All-Star team. I have yet to figure out why Dumars is so enthralled with Rodney Stuckey that he traded Chauncey Billups and then cut loose Iverson just to hand Stuckey the starting job.

The Indiana Pacers have narrowly missed the playoffs the past few years and certainly could make a run for the eighth spot if everything breaks well for them.

The 76ers lost heady point guard Andre Miller for nothing, so it is difficult to picture them improving on last year's 41-41 record.

Last year, an illiterate Knicks fan went apoplectic when I correctly noted that--despite all of the positive media buzz about Mike D'Antoni--the Knicks had not in fact improved much overall and, in a disturbing omen, faded markedly down the stretch. The Knicks are horrible defensively and on the glass and they did nothing in the offseason to improve in either of those areas. It seems as if they have placed all of their eggs in the "LeBron James basket"; there are two problems with that approach:

(1) Just adding James to this roster would not be enough to make them championship contenders because the Knicks would still be below average defensively and on the glass.

(2) Even if James decides to leave Cleveland why on Earth would he want to go to a team that does not rebound or defend?

If there is one thing that James has learned during his time in Cleveland--and on Team USA--it is that rebounding and defense are vitally important ingredients in any championship equation. James fully understands that endorsement dollars will be available to him wherever he plays but that his ultimate legacy will be shaped by how many championships he wins. The Knicks will not make the playoffs this year and it will be interesting to see what their fans think of the wasted 2008 and 2009 seasons after James does not sign with New York in 2010.

The Milwaukee Bucks and New Jersey Nets simply do not have enough firepower to make the playoffs unless several of the teams in front of them are depleted by injuries.

Who's The Boss?

2009-10-13T03:31:00.001-04:00

A slightly different version of this article first appeared as a cover story in the 2006-07 edition of Lindy's Pro Basketball.

It's the question that basketball fans have debated for decades in bars and at office water coolers: If you could build a team around any one player in the NBA, who would you take? The answers have ranged from Mikan to Russell to Wilt to Oscar to Kareem to Dr. J to Bird to Magic to MJ. As Rick Pitino might say, those guys are not coming through the door today. So, who's the man now? Who's the boss?

First we have to set some ground rules. Can you be the boss without winning a championship? It is theoretically possible—many people considered Oscar Robertson to be the game's greatest all-around player years before he got his only ring when he was past his prime and paired with a young Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Still, there has never been someone who merited serious consideration as the league's best player who did not eventually win at least one ring, even if he got it near the end of his career; Charles Barkley and Karl Malone each won MVPs in the Michael Jordan era but that was more a matter of voters being tired of picking Jordan than a statement that the ring-less Barkley or Malone were better than His Airness.

Current players who have both the championship pedigree and the highly developed individual skills to merit mention as being the best player in the NBA include Dwyane Wade, Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan. LeBron James, Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash have not won any championships but also certainly must be included in the discussion.

The word that first comes to mind to describe Wade is "explosive." He explodes vertically for soaring dunks and horizontally with his array of crossover moves that leave defenders with broken ankles and dented egos. When his game is flowing he is too quick for big guards and too powerful for small guards. He finished sixth in the 2006 regular season MVP voting but surely moved to the top of a lot of people's lists after his tremendous run in the 2006 playoffs, culminating in one of the best Finals performances in league history. He averaged 34.7 ppg, 7.8 rpg, 3.8 apg and 2.7 spg in Miami's six game victory over Dallas and the way that he took command of the series has already been mentioned in the same breath as standout Finals efforts by MJ and Magic. That is pretty heady company for someone who is entering his fourth season in the league. Prior to 2006, one trump that Kobe Bryant had over Wade was playing a key role on three championship teams. Wade still trails Bryant in total titles but he has a Finals MVP, an honor that Bryant has yet to win. Veteran NBA assistant coach Tex Winter literally had a front row seat for Jordan and Bryant's Finals exploits, so he is uniquely qualified to place Wade's Finals MVP in historical context—and he was very impressed by what Wade did, so much so that he has been forced to reconsider his opinion that Bryant is the game's best player.

While Wade's game has literally grown by leaps and bounds, Kobe Bryant still remains in many ways the perfect basketball player, an amazing combination of size (6-6, 220), speed, jumping ability, competitiveness and extreme focus. He made numerous big plays during the Lakers' three championship seasons and his performance during the Lakers' rebuilding campaign in 2005-06 was truly epic. He averaged 35.4 ppg during the regular season, the best scoring average since Jordan's 37.1 ppg in 1986-87. He carried a team that most observers thought was bound for the Draft Lottery to the playoffs and to the brink of an upset over the Phoenix Suns. Bryant redefined "unguardable" on January 22 when he poured in 81 points versus the Toronto Raptors, the second best single game scoring mark in NBA history.

During the first round playoff series versus Phoenix, Bryant's scoring average went down to 27.9 ppg but he shot better from the field, grabbed more rebounds and passed for more assists than he did in the regular season. Bryant willingly shot the ball fewer times so that the Lakers could use Coach Phil Jackson's "Inside Man" strategy against the undersized Suns. This enabled the seventh seed Lakers to extend second seed Phoenix to seven games before being eliminated. Bryant still managed to hit the winning shot in game four and produced 50 points in an overtime loss in game six, when Bryant's scoring output kept the Lakers close enough that one defensive rebound at the end of regulation could have clinched a series win for L.A.

Despite playing shooting guard, Bryant led the Lakers in assists from 1999-2000 to 2002-03 and again in 2004-05. He was the primary playmaker on each of the Lakers' three championship teams when he played alongside Shaquille O'Neal. Bryant is also good at passing the ball out of double-teams—a pass that often leads to an assist for the recipient if he promptly reverses the ball to the open man on the weak side of the court.

Tim Duncan's game is about as exciting as watching a metronome—but there is no arguing with his resume, which includes three NBA titles, three Finals MVPs and two regular season MVPs. He annually ranks among the league leaders in scoring, rebounding and blocked shots. Duncan makes the game easier for his teammates in many ways: he gets them open shots by drawing double teams, he erases their defensive mistakes by blocking shots, his dominance on the boards allows them to get a head start on the fast break and his ability to draw fouls gets the Spurs into the bonus early, providing extra free throw attempts on what would otherwise be non-shooting fouls. Duncan has been durable for most of his career, although nagging injuries last season led to the worst scoring average (18.6 ppg) and field goal percentage (.484) of his nine year career. Classical basketball philosophy values a good big man over a good little man (little being a very subjective term regarding Bryant, James and Wade) but rules changes limiting defensive contact versus perimeter players have greatly increased the impact that slashing swingmen can have on a game. If you are looking for what Al McGuire used to call an "aircraft carrier," then Duncan is your guy in today's NBA.

While Wade, Bryant and Duncan already have championship resumes, LeBron James made his postseason debut in 2006. He made a big splash right from the start, putting up 32 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists while playing all 48 minutes in a 97-86 win over Washington. James is the second youngest player to have a postseason triple-double and just the third player to have one in his first playoff game. His fingerprints were all over Cleveland's six game series win over the Wizards—35.7 ppg, 7.5 rpg, 5.7 apg—and the Cavaliers' surprisingly competitive seven game series loss to defending Eastern Conference champion Detroit. James averaged 26.6 ppg, 8.6 rpg and 6.0 apg versus the Pistons and delivered the best quote of the playoffs when he said "They're not the big, bad wolf and we're not the three little pigs" to describe the Cavaliers' state of mind after taking a 3-2 series lead. He is significantly bigger than Bryant and Wade, so while those two are more accomplished at this point James has more "upside," as a scout might say. The phrase "one of a kind" is a cliché but how else would you describe someone who is nearly as big as Karl Malone but has the ball handling and passing skills of a guard? Just as striking as James' physical attributes are his poise, court vision and maturity.

Dirk Nowitzki seemed to be well on his way to making his case to be the game's best player when his Dallas Mavericks eliminated Duncan's Spurs in a seventh game in San Antonio, but his lackluster performance in the NBA Finals versus Wade's Heat ended that notion for now. There is no doubt that Nowitzki was not in peak form in the Finals but he did average 27.0 ppg, 11.7 rpg and 2.9 apg overall in the playoffs. While some described this as a breakout season for Nowitzki, he has averaged 25.7 ppg, 11.1 rpg and 2.4 apg during his playoff career, so it's not like this year was the first time that he excelled in the postseason. In 2002 he became the first player to have 30-plus points and 15-plus rebounds in four straight playoff games since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did it in 1977. Nowitzki had 30-plus points and 10-plus rebounds in two consecutive seventh games in 2003, something that only Hakeem Olajuwon, Kevin McHale, Larry Bird, Elvin Hayes, Wilt Chamberlain and Bob Pettit have accomplished in NBA history. Nowitzki can drain threes, run the floor and control the glass, a highly unusual combination of skills for a seven-footer.

Steve Nash has not won a championship and, at 6-3, 195, is not nearly as physically imposing as the previously mentioned players—but he won the regular season MVP in 2005 and 2006, joining Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan and Tim Duncan as the only players in NBA history to win the honor in consecutive years. Nash is a wondrous player who uses his tremendous ball handling skills and court vision to create scoring opportunities for his teammates. He is also an excellent shooter. While his impact at the offensive end of the court is unquestioned, Nash is a defensive liability. Also, although he does not miss a lot of games, Nash's durability—particularly after the grind of a long season—is suspect.

The bottom line is that you can't go wrong with any of these guys as "the boss" on your team. Wade is the popular choice at the moment because he has a new championship ring on one hand and the Finals MVP trophy in the other—but an excellent case can be made for Bryant, Duncan, James, Nowitzki or Nash. Duncan is probably the most underrated player in this group, due to the understated nature of both his game and his personality. Bryant's reputation has waxed and waned over the years, often for reasons that have nothing to do with basketball. The theory behind the International Race of Champions (IROC) is to take the best drivers from various series, put them in identically outfitted cars and see who wins. The NBA doesn't work that way, but because of his drive and willpower, I suspect that Kobe Bryant would emerge as "the boss" if he and the other contenders were placed in an IROC-style competition that provided each player with equally talented rosters.

Hoop Editor Ming Wong is in Midseason Form

2009-10-08T00:32:00.007-04:00

I recently went to a local bookstore and flipped through the new issue of Hoop Magazine; I am not foolish enough to buy such garbage but sometimes it is interesting to see what is being printed in the NBA's "official" publication. Instead of publishing an in-depth, insightful look at Clyde Drexler's career--a task likely beyond the capabilities of anyone on Hoop's staff--Hoop ran a tiny item ostensibly about Drexler's first NBA game. However, even though Hoop provided Drexler's stats from that game--and it would not surprise me a bit if Hoop got the numbers wrong--the quotes from Drexler had nothing to do with his first NBA game but rather simply addressed his general recollections about his rookie season with a Portland team that featured All-NBA Second Team shooting guard Jim Paxson, future All-Star small forward Calvin Natt and solid point guard Darnell Valentine. Drexler noted that even though he possessed the versatility to play any of those positions it was difficult for him to earn much playing time ahead of those veterans (Drexler averaged 17.2 mpg as a rookie in 1983-84, starting just three games). The funniest thing about the Hoop piece is that the writer not only repeatedly misspelled Darnell as "Darnelle" but also repeatedly referred to Hall of Fame Coach Jack Ramsay as "Ramsey." If the writer made these mistakes in his submitted copy, shame on him for being so sloppy--but, more to the point, shame on editor Ming Wong for not fixing this mess. Clearly, Wong--who is not above "borrowing" the work of others without proper attribution and who ran a story that incorrectly stated that Julius Erving's famous dunk over Michael Cooper took place in the 1983 NBA Finals--is in midseason form, which is sad news for anyone who loves basketball and is seeking out intelligent writing about the sport.

Hoop used to feature at least one or two full length, in depth articles per issue--for example, consider my 2005 piece about Walt Frazier. Now, though, the magazine largely consists of a series of brief puff pieces that lack any substance, depth or insight. The same thing has happened with the Sporting News: instead of producing fully developed articles, SN trots out a ton of "mini-articles," many of which consist of little more than a series of brief quotes from various "experts" (some of whom are "experts" only in the loosest sense of the term); the Yogi Berra interview in the current issue is interesting but such a full length piece is the exception rather than the rule now with SN. John Feinstein's back page column is usually good and occasionally excellent but Will Leitch's column is a waste of space/ink and the rest of the magazine often seems like the sports version of the Dick and Jane reader. I'm not sure if this trend means that editors/writers lack the attention span and/or talent to put together full length articles or if they simply assume that their readers are not interested in spending more than 30 seconds reading an article. Sports Illustrated may be the last remaining sports magazine that regularly publishes articles that resemble real journalism (ESPN the Magazine is a promotional tool for the self-proclaimed "Worldwide Leader" that occasionally--seemingly by accident/chance--publishes an in-depth, thought provoking article or column).

Interview With Sacramento Kings' Assistant Coach Pete Carril

2009-10-05T05:04:00.001-04:00

This interview was originally published in two parts at Suite101.com on April 6, 2005 and April 7, 2005.

Hall of Famer Pete Carril won 525 games and 13 Ivy League championships during his 30 year collegiate coaching career. His Princeton teams ranked first in the NCAA in scoring defense 14 times and in 1975 he led the Tigers to the NIT Championship, the only time that an Ivy League team has won that title. Carril joined the Sacramento Kings' coaching staff before the 1996-97 season. His book The Smart Take from the Strong bursts with pithy insights about basketball, coaching and leadership. Before the Kings blew out the Cleveland Cavaliers 128-109 on April 1, 2005, Coach Carril discussed the difference between coaching in college and in the pros and what the Kings need to do to advance in the NBA playoffs.

Friedman: "From a coaching perspective, what is the biggest difference between college basketball and professional basketball?"

Carril: "I'd say that I agree with the assessment that the NBA is a players' game--the players have more to say about what they are doing than the coach does, for the most part. There are a few exceptions to that--most of them are very successful coaches who have some sense of control about what goes on. Most of these guys (NBA players) are darn good players who think that they know exactly what is good for them."

Friedman: "When you say 'sense of control,' you mean control that is given to the coach by management, right? The players know that the coach is going to be there and that they have to listen to what he says."

Carril: "Right, right."

Friedman: "From your perspective as a coach, do you think that defense is emphasized more in college, more in the pros or about the same in each?"

Carril: "I think that it's the same. It varies with the coach, when he makes an assessment of his team. If he comes to the conclusion that he does not have the kind of players who are good shooters or good scorers, that in turn dictates how he's going to play on offense. At the same time, he might have some guys who don't defend very well--he works them and he works them and he works them and after four or five months they still don’t guard. Then he's got to tailor his defense to that. A lot depends on personnel--defensive stoppers, when you have them, you notice them, because when the other team comes into town, their high scorer hardly ever scores."

Friedman: "In your book (The Smart Take from the Strong) you made a similar point, saying that one of the most important things that a coach can do is identify what his players do well and what they don't do well and avoid putting a player in a situation in which he can’t succeed or is unlikely to succeed."

Carril: "Exactly. When I used to give clinics years ago, I used to say that--take the first three days of practice, especially if you don't know your players, and let them run up and down the court and play. You watch them play for three days without instruction and they will show you--by what they value, how they play, how fast they run, what they want to do--exactly what you have to teach them."

Friedman: "That's a good way to find out which players are leaders. If you're not directing things every step of the way then you can see which players will take control."

Carril: "Exactly right."

Friedman: "What one or two things are most important for the Sacramento Kings to do well to have success in the postseason?"

Carril: "We have to do two things. We are not a good defensive team--the stats show that. We are not very tall with our center, Brad Miller, hurt. We better shoot well and we better move the ball around to get good shots."

Friedman: "At this stage of the season, Sacramento's playoff positioning is not locked and you don't know for sure who you are going to play in the first round. So these games are important. On the other hand, when teams get in the playoffs they tend to shorten their rotations. How does a coaching staff balance the desire to set up the playoff rotation with the necessity of winning the remaining regular season games?"

Carril: "I don't really think that it is particularly hard. First of all, in our case, our head coach is concerned--and I am concerned, too--whether we will even make the playoffs. We have a four game lead in the loss column over Minnesota, and they're playing hot. They're playing real well. We've got some tough games, one with Minnesota, two with Phoenix and one with Seattle. We have five away games and we need to win five of our next nine games to hold our position. It looks like Houston is going to take the fifth spot away from us. That doesn't bother me too much, but going down to seventh or eighth, I don't know that that is good--playing San Antonio or Phoenix (in the first round of the playoffs)."

In The Smart Take from the Strong, Carril writes, "There is a difference between teaching and coaching. When you are instructing your team about the actual game, you are teaching them, transmitting knowledge and information to them. There are guys who don't teach their players anything or much of anything, but who go around and recruit the best players and they win--they're coaches but not teachers." One of the most important--and neglected--skills that players should be taught is the dribble.

Friedman: "You mentioned in your book The Smart Take from the Strong that it is a crime for any coach, particularly at the younger levels, if he doesn’t make sure that his players know how to dribble--that this is such an important skill."

Carril: "I think that what has happened is that about 25 years ago they went into this passing game offense in which dribbling is discouraged. Maybe it was because guys were dribbling too much."

Friedman: "I was going to ask you about that."

Carril: "They might have been dribbling too much. All of a sudden, guys start passing the ball, pass and cut, don't dribble the ball. The coach is screaming from the bench, 'Don't dribble the ball' and all that kind of stuff. Now if you find a '3' man (small forward) who can dribble the ball, it's rare. I mean, if you play LeBron James at the '3,' he’s going to kill everybody. He kills everybody at '1' or '2.' At '3' it's even easier. A guy like Tayshaun Prince, because he can dribble the ball--if you're looking for an outlet (pass), there he is. He can dribble the ball up the court and make the play in a 3-on-2 or 2-on-1 (fast break). It is a valuable asset (because) if you have three guys who can dribble the ball on your team then you are not going to get pressed."

Friedman: "Sure. You mentioned something that I want to follow-up, in terms of over-dribbling. There are certain point guards in the league--not to mention any names--who dribble too much and it seems like this gets the other players on their teams out of rhythm because they never know when they are going to get the ball."

Carril: "Oh yeah. That's right."

Friedman: "Correct me if I'm wrong, but what you're suggesting is that all basketball players should have the capability to dribble, but part of that capability is knowing how and when to use it."

Carril: "That's definitely true. When you show a guy a dribble move and you show him all of the techniques that are involved in this dribble move--let’s say the reverse pivot dribble, which used to be called the 'Pearl move' after Earl Monroe--after you're done and he gets that down pat, you're next job is just as important: where do you use it and when."

Friedman: "I did an article about Roger Brown, who played in the ABA, and he was known for his great first step, which was described to me by George Gervin and others. Gervin told me that what was great about Roger Brown's first step was that he was not using a lot of dribbles. He would extend his jab step past the defender's hip and then he would go. Does that fit in with what you are talking about in terms of knowing how to use the dribble?"

Carril: "Right--or even knowing whether you can drive or not. You can work with some guys for weeks at a time to get beyond the guy who is defending them and they can't do it. We have a couple guys we are working with on that and we say, 'Gosh, can't you get around this guy?' But they can't. I remember that from my high school days, when I was a high school coach. We worked like a son-of-a-gun to get this guy to drive beyond his man and he couldn't do it, even after a year or two.”

Friedman: "Is that just lack of speed or a lack of proper technique?"

Carril: "It's hard. It's hard. When you're teaching basketball it is like teaching algebra. Why do some of your kids get 90s and some get 60s or 50s? Why is it that you have a guy who is getting 60,65, you bring him in after school and you work with him and you give him the test--and he gets 65? The guy who gets 90, you never see him, you give him the test and he gets 90."

Friedman: "Why is that? Is it just talent? You can't get around talent at some point."

Carril: "That's right."

Interview With Dallas Mavericks' Assistant Coach Del Harris

2009-09-26T01:45:00.000-04:00

This interview was originally published at Suite101.com on April 11, 2005.

Del Harris, the NBA Coach of the Year in 1994-95, won 556 games in 14 seasons as an NBA head coach. He guided the Houston Rockets to the NBA Finals in 1981, his second season as an NBA head coach. Harris later led the Milwaukee Bucks to the playoffs for four straight seasons (1988-1991) even though the Bucks were decimated by injuries during that time. Harris worked as a consultant for the Sacramento Kings before becoming head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers in 1994-95. He is the second Los Angeles Lakers' coach (Pat Riley was the first) to win 50 games in three consecutive seasons, including a 61-21 mark in 1997-98, his last full season with the team.

Friedman: "What approach do you take as a coaching staff heading into the postseason?"

Harris: "It's preparation for the opponent, to be ready on both ends of the court--to have studied them well enough that you know what they do best so that you can try to restrict the few things that they really excel at and then identifying the areas where you think that you can capitalize against their defense. It's really all about preparation when it comes to a seven game series, so it's different than the regular season. In regular season play you are more focused on trying to develop a system of play--a style of play on both ends of the court that players can feel comfortable with night in and night out. You don't want to get so specific on Friday that you play that game one way and then specific again on Saturday to play a different way. But in the playoffs you use that base that you formed to adjust from, so that you have a core of stuff that you really can do well--your style, your system--but then you develop the ability to keep true to that, yet to adjust here and there from it to suit the particular opponent that you will face in the playoff series."

Friedman: "Is that a process that you can start now? You don't know exactly which team you will be playing, but you can narrow it down to two or three by looking at the standings. Do you start the process now of looking at DVD and focusing on particular teams or is the focus now still on that general process of winning regular season games?"

Harris: "Our seeding won't change but we don't know who we're going to play (because other teams could move up or down). It could be any one of literally four teams. Because of the change (Avery Johnson taking over as head coach for Don Nelson), we're still trying to cement in our adjusted style. We're playing a little bit differently than we did prior to Avery taking over. We have not had two of our most important ingredients--our starting center, Erick Dampier, and our leading sixth man, Jerry Stackhouse--for over a month. Each of them is playing right now on about a 15 minute string, but we hope that sometime next week we can get them back in (for their regular minutes). Our final ten games will be used to really cement in our style. We won't worry about who we play until right at the end. We're probably not going to play (the first playoff game) until Sunday (April 24) and we'll find out who we play on Wednesday (April 20), so that gives us enough time to make those adjustments because we already know that whoever we play, we have a pretty good idea of their game because we have played them four times already. But this is a critical time for us and we have to make valuable use of the games and practices to integrate our new players into the adjusted style that we have."

Friedman: "Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki were such an incredible tandem when they played together. What do you think the reason is that now that they are on different teams they are both having career seasons?"

Harris: "In Steve's case he has a better group of players to fit his style, to run with him. We didn't have the same kind of athletes to run with him that Phoenix has. When you look at Stoudemire, Marion, Richardson, Johnson, this is like going to a race track. We had different kinds of players--we had very good players or we wouldn't have been winning 50-60 games during the years that he was here--but we didn't play that way and this (running style) really fits his game best. As for why Dirk is having a better season, in the past it was mainly Steve and Dirk working off each other and Finley fitting in there. We didn't have the overall team balance, so opponents could pretty well zero in on those three guys. Particularly if two of them were involved in a play action, they could load the defense in that direction. This year Mark Cuban and Donnie Nelson were able to bring nine new players into our mix and what we now have is a team that is so much more balanced that if you load up on Dirk we've got four or five other guys who can get 20 or 30 points on you. We didn't have that before."

Friedman: "The other teams can't just assume that Nowitzki is going to get the ball in the same areas all the time and run the same pick and roll. They can't focus in on stopping one or two key plays, so that enables him to have greater individual success."

Harris: "Also, he has elevated his game on both ends of the court. He has really developed his inside game, his post game is better. He is no longer hesitant to drive the ball. He can take the ball to the basket as well as anybody. By the time the season is over he will have shot about 300 more free throws this year than he did last year. His whole style of play is so much more aggressive. Last year he depended on Steve for a lot of pick and rolls. This year he doesn't get his points off of pick and roll that much. He gets them through various play actions, posting and driving the ball. While it doesn't show up statistically, he has also elevated his defensive game to the point that he is probably our second best defensive player behind Josh Howard. The league has been slow to catch on to that, but if they observe, if they really watch, you see a very, very well rounded player in Dirk Nowitzki this year."

Friedman: "Where specifically is his improvement on defense?"

Harris: "All around--his steals, his blocked shots, his footwork one-on-one against the ball, his help side defense attacking penetrations, his pick and roll defense. There is not an area that he has not improved."

Friedman: "You mentioned that Nowitzki's free throw attempts are way up. Do you think that the rules change or the interpretation change (limiting defensive contact against perimeter players) has helped him? Obviously, he has to take advantage of it, he has to drive to benefit from it, but when he drives do you think that the way things are called differently now helps him and some other players who drive to the basket?"

Harris: "It hasn't helped Dirk as much as it helps the guards. The guards are the ones who benefit more because those calls are generally made way out in front, guard to guard. When you are down below the foul line they just seem to let you bump and grind. The fouls he gets are not those fouls (hand checking fouls on the outside). The fouls he gets are when he attacks the basket and they put him into the stands--but he just keeps coming back."

Young at Heart: Pro Basketball’s All-Time Ageless Wonders

2009-09-18T00:27:00.016-04:00

A slightly different* version of this article was originally published in the November 2002 issue of Basketball Digest.

In Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones laments, "It's not the years, it’s the mileage." For most pro basketball players it is a combination of both: years banging in the paint and miles sprinting up and down the court. Eventually, the body breaks down, skills erode and the next stop is the golf course or the broadcast booth.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, 46 year old Nat Hickey of the 1947-48 Providence Steamrollers is the oldest player in NBA history. He only appeared in one game that season; the Official NBA Encyclopedia credits Hickey with two free throws made, while the 2002 Sporting News NBA Guide indicates that Hickey did not score any points.

Nine other NBA players have participated in at least one game after turning 40. Only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Robert Parish and John Stockton--who joined the club last season--played significant, effective minutes. In fact, while it is becoming increasingly common for players to extend their careers into their late 30s, few of them have maintained a high level of play past the age of 35.

The unquestioned king of the 35 and over club is Abdul-Jabbar; he posted Hall of Fame caliber career numbers just in his final eight seasons. During that time he played an important role on four Lakers' championship teams, was an All-Star each year, earned four All-NBA First or Second Team selections, made the All-Defensive Second Team once and won one Finals MVP. He ranked among the league's scoring, field goal percentage and shot blocking leaders in several of those seasons.

One could argue that his last two All-Star selections were more of a career achievement award than anything else (he averaged only 14.6 ppg and 10.1 ppg at the ages of 41 and 42 respectively). On the other hand, comparing Abdul-Jabbar's last eight seasons to the careers of some Hall of Famers, it could easily be said that he earned such dispensation. His eight All-Star appearances would tie him on the all-time list with luminaries such as Alex English and Bob Lanier, while the four All-NBA selections are more than Dave Cowens, Bob McAdoo or Wes Unseld earned during their distinguished careers. Abdul-Jabbar's 12,117 points (19.4 ppg) in his final eight seasons would rank just behind Willis Reed on the career regular season scoring list.

During his first comeback Michael Jordan had the most decorated season of any 35 year old in pro basketball history. He won the 1997-98 regular season, All-Star and Finals MVPs (only Willis Reed in 1969-70 and Shaquille O'Neal in 1999-2000 have matched this achievement). Jordan also won the scoring title and made the All-NBA First Team and All-Defensive First Team. Jordan capped off 1997-98 by hitting the game winning shot in the Finals and (seemingly) riding off into the sunset.

Of course, last year Jordan made his second comeback. He made the All-Star team and became the oldest player to score at least 50 points in a regular season game (51 points in a 107-90 win versus the Hornets on December 29, 2001). Before being hobbled by knee injuries he, Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady were the only players in the NBA averaging 25-plus points, 5-plus rebounds and 5-plus assists per game. By the All-Star break Jordan had almost single-handedly propelled the previously woeful Washington Wizards (19-63 in 2000-2001) into the chase for home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

Unfortunately, Jordan only scored 12.4 ppg after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery on February 27, finishing the season with averages of 22.9 ppg, 5.7 rpg and 5.2 apg. The Wizards were 30-30 when Jordan played (including several losses in which he was severely hampered by his bad knee) and 7-15 without him. Jordan's injuries kept him out of MVP and All-NBA contention and enabled Abdul-Jabbar to retain the unofficial title of best 39 year old basketball player. In 1985-86 Abdul-Jabbar ranked tenth in scoring (23.4 ppg, with a high game of 46), seventh in field goal percentage (.564) and displayed remarkable durability by averaging 33.3 minutes per game in 79 games. He earned All-NBA First Team honors and in the postseason he increased his scoring to 25.9 ppg while shooting a stellar .557 from the field.

In the lockout-shortened 1999 season Karl Malone joined Jordan as the only 35-plus year old regular season MVP. He also made the All-NBA First Team and All-Defensive First Team. Malone was selected to the All-NBA Second Team the following season and the All-NBA Third Team in 2000-01. Malone earned All-Star selections in each of those seasons except 1999, when no All-Star Game was held; he was also chosen for the 2002 game, but did not play. He will turn 40 a few months before the start of the 2003-2004 season and seems intent on playing long enough to break Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's regular season career scoring record.

Although Wilt Chamberlain voluntarily reduced his scoring during his last several seasons he remained a dominant defender and rebounder until the end of his career. He won the Finals MVP as a 35 year old for the 69-13 L.A. Lakers in 1971-72. He also made the All-NBA Second Team. Chamberlain won the rebounding and field goal percentage crowns in 1971-72 and 1972-73; he was selected for the All-Defensive First Team and the All-Star team in both of those seasons.

Player-coach Bill Russell led the Boston Celtics to their eleventh championship in thirteen seasons in 1968-69. Chamberlain's longtime rival finished third in the league in rebounds (1484; 19.3 rpg) and made the All-Defensive First Team.

Jerry West became the first 35 year old guard to perform at a superstar level, making the All-NBA First Team, All-Defensive First Team and the All-Star team in 1972-73. He averaged 22.8 ppg and 8.8 apg but was not listed among league leaders because he played in only 69 games (at that time players had to appear in at least 70 games to be ranked among the statistical leaders). West made the All-Star team again in 1973-74 but only participated in 31 regular season games due to injuries.

Ironman John Havlicek, who retired as the all-time leader in games played (1270), did not slow down much when he passed his 35th birthday. He made the All-NBA Second Team and All-Defensive First Team in 1974-75 and 1975-76. He also was selected to four All-Star teams at 35-plus years of age, tied for second all-time with Karl Malone. He was an important contributor to the Celtics' 1975-76 championship team.

John Stockton made the All-NBA Third Team and All-Defensive First Team as a 35 year old in 1996-97. He added another All-NBA Third Team selection in 1999 and made the All-Star Team in 1996-97 and 1999-00. Although Stockton at 35 was not as productive as West at the same age, he has managed to stay healthy and continue to play at a high level for several more seasons than West did.

Stockton celebrated his 40th birthday during the 2001-02 season, although one would never know it by looking at his statistics: 13.4 ppg, 8.2 apg (fifth in the league), 1.85 spg (tied for 10th in the league) and .517 shooting from the field (fifth in the league) in 31.3 mpg. He played in all 82 games for the 15th time. Only Abdul-Jabbar has posted better numbers at 40 (17.5 ppg, 6.7 rpg, .564 field goal percentage in 1986-87); Robert Parish is the next closest, with 11.7 ppg, 7.3 rpg and a .491 field goal percentage in 1993-94.

Dennis Rodman was a key contributor during the Chicago Bulls' second three-peat, winning three straight rebounding titles (1996-98) and making the All-Defensive First Team in 1995-96. His flamboyance likely cost him selections to All-Star and All-NBA teams .

Robert Parish played until he was 43 and holds the records for most seasons (21) and most games played (1611). He made the All-NBA Third Team as a 35 year old in 1988-89 and was an All-Star the next two seasons. Parish averaged less than 5 ppg in each of his last three seasons.

Several other players who enjoyed productive seasons after the age of 35 were not selected for the postseason All-NBA or All-Defensive Teams:

***Alex English made the All-Star team in 1988-89 and finished sixth in scoring (26.5 ppg), including a 51 point outburst; at 35 he was the oldest to score 50-plus points in a game until Jordan topped him last season.

***Julius Erving made three All-Star teams past the age of 35, trailing only Abdul-Jabbar, Malone and Havlicek. In 1984-85 the 35 year old Erving averaged 20.0 ppg and became the oldest 100/100 Club player (135 steals, 109 blocked shots). Two years later Erving averaged 16.8 ppg and blocked 94 shots in only 60 games.

***Lenny Wilkens posted excellent numbers as a 35 year old All-Star in 1972-73 (20.5 ppg, 8.4 apg and 4.6 rpg). He averaged 16.4 ppg, 7.1 apg and 3.7 rpg the next season before his numbers dropped dramatically in his final year.

***Moses Malone played until he was 40, although he did not log significant minutes his last three seasons. He averaged 18.9 ppg and 10.0 rpg as a 35 year old in 1989-90, leading the league in offensive rebounds (364).

***Artis Gilmore averaged 19.1 ppg and 10.4 rpg as a 35 year old in 1984-85. He didn't make the All-Star team that year, but he did make the cut in 1985-86 despite a decline in production (16.7 ppg, 8.5 rpg).

* You may wonder why some of the 20 Second Timeout versions of my Basketball Digest articles are "slightly different" from the versions that were originally published in Basketball Digest. In the writing business it is commonplace for editors to revise submitted copy due to space considerations, grammar and/or factual inaccuracies but I have always prided myself on submitting perfect copy--a final draft that precisely fits word count specifications and does not contain any errors; my consistent ability to do this is why the vast majority of my articles have been published with few or no changes. However, for some strange reason, Basketball Digest editor Brett Ballantini occasionally made odd changes to my submitted copy; for instance, he edited the above article by adding a sentence that contained an inaccurate statistic about John Stockton. At first, Ballantini made such "improvements" without consulting me and I would not know about the alterations until I received a copy of the magazine; I was less than thrilled to see my perfect copy marred by someone else's sloppiness, particularly since most readers simply assume that any mistakes in an article are the fault of the writer.

Eventually, Ballantini figured out that it would be better to either leave my submitted copy alone or to at least run proposed changes by me first. Naturally, I see no reason to include Ballantini's "improvements" in the versions of these articles that I am posting here.

******

I submitted the following chart along with this article but Basketball Digest did not publish it. In this chart--and in most of my Basketball Digest articles and charts that I have posted at 20 Second Timeout--I have chosen not to update the statistics because I think that leaving the articles/charts intact provides a "time capsule" feel; after all, articles in Sports Illustrated's "Vault" are presented as they were originally written, so it seems natural to take the same approach for the articles that I am placing in my "Vault" (the righthand sidebar of 20 Second Timeout's main page).

Pro Basketball's Ageless Wonders

Player	Years	Accomplishments

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	82-89	Finals MVP 85; All-NBA 1st Team 84 & 86; All-NBA 2nd Team 83& 85;
		All-Def. 2nd Team 84; All-Star
		82-89

Michael Jordan	98; 02	MVP/Finals MVP/All-Star MVP 98; scoring champion 98; All-NBA
		1st Team 98; All-Def. 1st
		Team 98; All-Star 98 & 02; oldest to score 50+ points in a game 02


Karl Malone	99-02	MVP 99; All-NBA 1st Team 99; All-NBA 2nd Team 00; All-NBA 3rd Team
		01; All-Def. 1st Team 99;
		All-Star 00-02

Wilt Chamberlain	72-73	Finals MVP 72; rebounding champion 72-73; field goal percentage
		champion 72-73; All-NBA 2nd Team 72;
		All-Def. 1st Team 72-73; All-Star 72-73

Bill Russell	69	Won championship as player-coach;
		All-Def. 1st Team; third in rebounds (1484; 19.3 rpg)


Jerry West	73-74	All-NBA 1st Team 73; All-Def. 1st Team 73; All-Star 73-74


John Havlicek	75-78	All-NBA 2nd Team 75-76; All-Def. 1st Team 75-76; All-Star 75-78


John Stockton	97-02	All-NBA 3rd Team 97 & 99; All-Def. 2nd Team 97; All-Star 97 & 00


Dennis Rodman	96-00	Rebounding champion 96-98; All-Def. 1st Team 96

Robert Parish	89-97	All-NBA 3rd Team 89; All-Star 90-91

Alex English	89-91	All-Star 89; sixth in scoring (26.5 ppg) 89; 51 point game 89


Julius Erving	85-87	All-Star 85-87; 20.0 ppg, 135 steals, 109 blocks 85 (oldest 100/100 player)

Note: The "Seasons" column refers to seasons in which the player was at least 35 years old by the end of the season, while the "Accomplishments" column lists the player's main achievements during those seasons (the seasons are abbreviated to two digit numbers for space/format considerations).

Pro Basketball's 1000 Rebound Club: The Meek Need Not Apply for Membership

2009-09-14T01:44:00.002-04:00

This article was originally published in the February 2004 issue of Basketball Digest.

Pro basketball's 1000 rebound club is the hard hat-wearing, lunch pail-carrying counterpart to the 2000 point club. Points can be scored from inside the paint, outside the arc and one at a time from the free throw line but in most cases there is only one way to get rebounds: venture into the lane, dodge the elbows of the giants and show total disregard for the bumps, bruises and loosened teeth that are sure to follow.

A few long rebounds fly out to the guards, but no one ever got 1000 rebounds by waiting outside the paint for such fortuitous bounces. In fact, no guard has ever grabbed 1000 rebounds in a season; Oscar Robertson, a point guard in a forward's body, came closest with 985 when he averaged a triple double for the 1961-62 season (30.8 ppg, 12.5 rpg, 11.4 apg).

Dolph Schayes of the Syracuse Nationals founded the 1000 rebound club in 1950-51 with 1080 boards (16.4 rpg), a very impressive total considering the shorter schedule and slow pace of that era. This is confirmed by the wide margin between Schayes and the second ranked rebounder in 1950-51, George Mikan of the Minneapolis Lakers, who had 958 rebounds. No one grabbed 1000 boards in 1951-52.

Mikan became the first two-time member of the club with back to back 1000-plus rebound seasons in 1952-53 and 1953-54, while Harry Gallatin of the New York Knicks set a league record for single season rebounds with 1098 in 1953-54, his lone 1000-plus rebound campaign.

The introduction of the 24-second shot clock in 1954-55 sped up the NBA game, increasing scoring totals and rebounding opportunities. In 1955-56 Maurice Stokes of the Rochester Royals became the first rookie member of the 1000 rebound club. He snared 1000-plus rebounds in each of his first three seasons before a serious brain injury ended his NBA career.

The rivalry between Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russell took the 1000 rebound club--and the sport of basketball itself--to a whole new level. Chamberlain dominates the 1000 rebound club honor roll. He had the most 1000-plus rebound seasons (13), the top seven best single-season rebound totals and by far the best rebounding season by a rookie. In his 14 season career Chamberlain only missed qualifying for the 1000 rebound club once, when a devastating knee injury limited him to 12 games in 1969-70; he came back to average 22.2 rpg in that year's playoffs (his gritty return to action has been obscured by Willis Reed's heroics in game seven of that season's NBA Finals). Chamberlain's 11 rebounding titles are an all-time record.

Chamberlain's best rebounding seasons are listed in the accompanying chart, but his greatness is perhaps most clearly illustrated by looking at his worst complete regular season in historical context: in 1970-71, Chamberlain "slumped" to 1493 rebounds (18.2 rpg, first in the league); only Russell, Bob Pettit, Walt Bellamy, Jerry Lucas, Spencer Haywood, Artis Gilmore and Dennis Rodman have had better single season numbers than that. In fact, remove Chamberlain's other seasons from consideration and his worst season would rank among the 20 best ever!

Russell tallied 12 1000-plus rebound seasons, missing only in his rookie year, when he collared 943 rebounds in 48 games (he started the season late after leading the U.S. to the gold medal in the 1956 Olympic Games). His worst full season figure was 1451 (18.6 rpg) in 1967-68. He won four rebounding titles, two of which came before Chamberlain entered the league. During most of the years that their careers overlapped Chamberlain finished first in rebounding and Russell placed second. Chamberlain and Russell rank first and second in career rebounds (23,924 and 21,620 respectively) and career rpg (22.9 and 22.5 respectively) and lead everyone else in pro basketball history by a wide margin in both categories.

Third place on the career rpg list belongs to Pettit (16.2). He is tied for third all-time with nine 1000 rebound club seasons but he only captured one rebounding title, in large part because he spent most of his career competing against Chamberlain and Russell.

Two other players also posted nine 1000 rebound club seasons. Bellamy made a big splash in his rookie year with 2495 points (31.6 ppg) and 1500 rebounds (19.0 rpg) for the 1961-62 Chicago Packers (the franchise currently known as the Washington Wizards). Both of those totals rank third for rookies in pro basketball history, trailing only Chamberlain's 1959-60 heroics (2707 points/1941 rebounds) and 20-year old (!) Spencer Haywood's prodigious efforts in 1969-70 for the Denver Rockets in the ABA (2519 points/1637 rebounds).

Elvin Hayes is the third player who accumulated nine 1000 rebound club seasons. He finished fourth in the NBA in 1968-69 with 1406 rebounds as a San Diego Rockets rookie, the sixth best first year rebounding performance ever. That same year Baltimore Bullets rookie Wes Unseld ranked second with 1491 rebounds and won not only Rookie of the Year but also MVP.

They later became teammates and in 1977-78 Unseld and Hayes led the Bullets to the NBA championship, with Unseld claiming Finals MVP honors. Hayes averaged 21.0 ppg and 12.5 rpg for his career and his 16,279 rebounds rank sixth in pro basketball history.

Although Chamberlain, Bellamy, Unseld, Hayes and Haywood posted their great rookie seasons within a decade of each other, the 1000 rebound club is not frequently joined by rookies--14 NBA and nine ABA first year pros have made the cut, which works out to roughly one rookie for every three years of those leagues' combined existence. Since the 1976-77 NBA/ABA merger the only 1000 rebound club rookies are Buck Williams of the New Jersey Nets in 1981-82 and Shaquille O'Neal of the Orlando Magic in 1992-93.

Julius Erving's superb 1971-72 rookie season (2290 points/1319 rebounds) ranks eighth on both the all-time rookie scoring and rebounding lists; he joined Chamberlain, Haywood, Bellamy and Hayes as the only players to rank among the top ten all-time rookies in both categories. Erving retired as the third leading scorer in pro basketball history (he currently ranks fifth), but his presence on the rebounding list may surprise some fans. Erving's 1971-72 rookie campaign is his only 1000 rebound club season, but his total that year was not a fluke. He entered the ABA known more as a rebounder than as a scorer; the young Erving was like a Dennis Rodman without tattoos--undersized for an inside player (both are generally listed at about 6-7, 210) but able to compensate for this with quickness, tenacity and jumping ability.

Erving is one of only five players to average 20 ppg and 20 rpg in a Division I college career (Russell, Paul Silas, Artis Gilmore and Kermit Washington are the others). In the 1972 playoffs he increased his average to an ABA best 20.4 rpg, second in pro basketball that year to Wilt Chamberlain's 21.0 rpg for the NBA champion Lakers. Erving ranked in the top ten in rebounding in each of his five ABA seasons, averaging 12.1 rpg.

There is a temptation to deride Haywood and Erving's rookie numbers as inflated, particularly since neither player surpassed his ABA rebounding numbers during his NBA career. However, Bellamy, who played his entire Hall of Fame career in the NBA, also never equaled his spectacular rookie scoring and rebounding accomplishments. Rebounding is generally the province of the young and many of the great rebounders posted their best rebounding season within their first five campaigns: Chamberlain's came in year two, Moses Malone's in year five, Jerry Lucas' in year three, Shaquille O'Neal's in his rookie season. Russell is a bit of an exception, although his year nine career best rpg average was only marginally better than his year four rpg.

As a Sixer Erving split the rebounding chores at various times with George McGinnis, Caldwell Jones, Moses Malone and Charles Barkley, each of whom tallied 1000 rebound seasons during their careers. As a 33 year old small forward Erving was the second leading rebounder (behind Malone) on the 1982-83 76ers championship team that is still widely considered one of the greatest squads ever.

Rodman possessed none of Erving's flair as a scorer, but he sustained a high level of rebounding prowess throughout his career. He won seven rebounding titles, second only to Chamberlain, but injuries and suspensions limited Rodman to five 1000-plus rebound seasons. Rodman's 1530 rebounds in 1991-92 were the most since Gilmore totaled 1538 in 1973-74 for the ABA Kentucky Colonels and the best NBA total since Chamberlain's 1572 in 1971-72.

The 1000 rebound club reached an NBA single season high in 1970-71 and 1971-72 with 13 members in each of those campaigns (the ABA's single season record was 11 members in 1969-70). In recent years the pace of the NBA game has decreased so much that even though field goal percentages have also been slipping there are still fewer rebounds available. In 1995-96 the San Antonio Spurs' David Robinson was the only 1000 rebound club member and the 1996-97 season marked the first time since 1951-52 that not even one pro basketball player got 1000 rebounds.

In 2002-03 three players made the cut: Detroit's Ben Wallace (1126), Minnesota's Kevin Garnett (1102) and San Antonio's Tim Duncan (1043). Active players with multiple 1000-plus rebound seasons include Dikembe Mutombo (4), Ben Wallace (3), Shaquille O'Neal (3) and Duncan (2). While the records of sports immortals such as Babe Ruth and Jim Brown eventually fell, Chamberlain's rebounding standards appear to be out of reach--literally and figuratively--of today's superstars.

Note: the following lists accompanied the original article and thus were compiled prior to the completion of the 2003-04 NBA season.

Most 1000 Rebound Seasons

Player	Seasons

Wilt Chamberlain	13
Bill Russell	12
Bob Pettit	9
Walt Bellamy	9
Elvin Hayes	9
Jerry Lucas	8
Nate Thurmond	8
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	8
Artis Gilmore*	8
Wes Unseld	8
Moses Malone**	8

*--5 ABA/3 NBA
**--1 ABA/7 NBA

Most Single Season Rookie Rebounds

Player	Rebounds	Season

Wilt Chamberlain	1941	1959-60
Spencer Haywood^	1637	1969-70
Walt Bellamy	1500	1961-62
Wes Unseld	1491	1968-69
Artis Gilmore^	1491	1971-72
Elvin Hayes	1406	1968-69
Jerry Lucas	1375	1963-64
Julius Erving^	1319	1971-72
Dave Cowens	1216	1970-71
Mel Daniels^	1213	1967-68
Moses Malone^	1209	1974-75
Marvin Barnes^	1202	1974-75

^--ABA

Most Single Season Rebounds

Player	Rebounds	Season

Wilt Chamberlain	2149	1960-61
Wilt Chamberlain	2052	1961-62
Wilt Chamberlain	1957	1966-67
Wilt Chamberlain	1952	1967-68
Wilt Chamberlain	1946	1962-63
Wilt Chamberlain	1943	1965-66
Wilt Chamberlain	1941	1959-60
Bill Russell	1930	1963-64
Bill Russell	1878	1964-65
Bill Russell	1868	1960-61
Bill Russell	1843	1962-63

The Enigmatic Antoine Walker

2009-09-07T01:34:00.001-04:00

This article was originally published in two parts at Suite101.com on August 4, 2005 and August 5, 2005.

"Antoine Walker is the most polarizing player in Celtics' history." Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan, who has covered the Boston Celtics since 1969, said this to me before game six of the Indiana-Boston series. That game and that playoff series are an excellent microcosm of the "good, the bad and the ugly" concerning the three-time All-Star forward. First, the "good": Walker had 24 points, 11 rebounds, three steals and made several key plays down the stretch as Boston won game six on the road in overtime 92-89, staving off elimination. Boston would not have won without his performance, particularly in light of the ejection of the Celtics' other star, Paul Pierce, near the end of regulation. Walker scored five of Boston's eight points in the extra session.

The "bad": With a chance to take a 3-2 series lead, Boston lost 90-85 at home. Walker scored only 10 points while shooting 5-13 from the field and not attempting a free throw.

The "ugly": Walker bumped an official at the end of a blowout loss in game three and was suspended for game four.

The end result of this wacky series: Inexplicably, Boston followed up the dramatic road win in game six with a lackluster game seven performance at home, losing 97-70. Walker (20 points, 5 rebounds) and Pierce (19 points, 7 rebounds) were the only Celtics who showed any semblance of life.

Walker averaged 16.7 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 2.3 apg, 1.0 bpg and 3.0 tpg in the series. Jermaine O'Neal, Indiana's power forward (it should be noted that Walker and O'Neal were frequently not matched up with each other), averaged 15.7 ppg, 7.7 rpg, 3.0 apg, 2.43 bpg and 3.0 tpg. He shot .353 from the field, while Walker shot .413, including 7-19 (.368) on three pointers (O'Neal shot 0-3 on three pointers). O'Neal is an MVP candidate when he is healthy, but he was limited by injury during the series although, to his credit, he never used that as an excuse. O'Neal had a big edge in blocked shots, while Walker scored a little more and shot somewhat more accurately. Without Walker the Celtics would have lost game six, but they won game four when he was suspended. Neither played a decisive role in the final game; Indiana's Stephen Jackson (24 points, 5-6 on three pointers) starred in game seven.

Some will look at the numbers and the back story and say that Walker helped carry Boston farther than the Celtics would otherwise have gone, a very reasonable proposition considering that the team was 27-28 before Walker arrived and went 18-9 after acquiring Walker. Others will say that Walker is inconsistent, shot a poor percentage (ignoring the fact that O'Neal shot even worse) and because of an immature act was not even on the court for a hugely important game that could have seen Indiana take a 3-1 lead in the series. It seems that it is never simple to define Walker's impact; check out this discussion at the APBR Metrics website.

Sticking with the theme of the "good, the bad and the ugly," let's take a closer look at Walker's game. Again, we'll start with the "good." Hall of Famer Tommy Heinsohn won eight championships as a Celtics player, coached Boston to titles in 1974 and 1976 and currently is a color commentator on Celtics broadcasts. Here is what he says about Walker: "Antoine Walker is a very gifted player. He is a very knowledgeable, intelligent player. He has great passing skills and he also has the ability to score from various places on the floor. The first year that he played with the Celtics he showed that he was a terrific inside player and a terrific offensive rebounder. He was among the league leaders in offensive rebounds in his rookie season. Since then, what happened is when the coaching staff changed they relied on his passing skills and made him the guy who initiated the offense, so he played most of the game outside of the foul line. So that element--the rebounding element of his game--really just showed up on the defensive boards. Now what they are asking him to do since he came back is to play more like he played in his first year--to get on the offensive boards and to not shoot threes--or only shoot them when the clock is winding down--and to become a passer out of double teams in the post instead of initiating the offense and getting the ball to Pierce; other people can do that. That's the contribution that he has made and he is adept at adjusting to what they want."

After Walker's great game six performance, Boston Coach Doc Rivers made this assessment: "He's got a quirky game. He makes threes and misses layups and then he makes layups and misses threes. He just plays. He had his head down in the second quarter (after missing several shots) and I told him, 'Toine, the odds are on your side. Just keep playing.' He's playing his heart out, (whether) things are going well for him or they're not going well for him…More importantly, Toine helped us on the defensive end. When they went small he guarded O'Neal down the stretch and hung with him. He lasted a good eight, nine minutes with five fouls. I'm really happy with him. I'm really happy that he made a big shot for us. That was really nice to see.”

Celtics General Manger Danny Ainge has a unique perspective on Antoine Walker since Ainge traded him away, traded to get him back and now has traded him to Miami. Before game six of the Indiana-Boston series, Ainge explained why he brought Walker to Boston for the stretch run: "He gives us a swagger. Antoine's a tough, competitive kid. He gets timely baskets. Again, I think that in the last game he scored our only baskets in the last few minutes of the game. He has some intangibles--toughness, experience. I think that he brings confidence with him to the other players on the team. I think that those are the greatest qualities that he has been able to bring to us, which are very important."

In addition to the traits listed above, Walker is durable. He has played 3000-plus minutes in five of his nine seasons, leading the league in that category once, and he just missed the 3000 mark in two other seasons. He has never missed more than eight games in a season.

After describing the "good" Antoine Walker I hear some grumbling in the background, so let's proceed with no delay to the "bad": Walker has never shot better than .430 from the field for a season and is a career .657 free throw shooter. He accumulates a lot of turnovers and led the league in that category once. He is not athletic, which places him at a disadvantage in certain matchups. In the lively discussion about Walker at the APBR Metrics website, some observers contended that because of Walker's field goal percentage and turnover rate he is a very inefficient player--one person went so far as to suggest that Walker is "one of the worst starting power forwards in the league and has been for quite some time."

As for the "ugly," Walker's aforementioned suspension in the middle of a closely contested playoff series was a huge lapse in judgment (amazingly, later in the series his All-Star running mate Paul Pierce exercised equally bad judgment, the only difference being that he did not make contact with an official). When I spoke with Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan, he noted that Walker has a unique playing style that not everyone likes, particularly when Walker went through a period when he was launching three pointers from all angles, leading the NBA in three pointers made and three pointers attempted in 2001. Walker was heavily criticized for this even though he was doing exactly what the coaching staff asked of him (Rick Pitino and Jim O'Brien have always been big believers in shooting a lot of three pointers). Whether or not this is good basketball strategy is a subject for another day, but it led to one of my favorite NBA quotes. Walker grew tired of being constantly questioned about his three point shooting, so one day when a reporter asked him why he shot so many threes, he replied, "Because there aren't any fours." Ryan also pointed out that Walker's mannerisms--the dancing and gyrations after big plays--irritated older fans, although Ryan acknowledged that Walker really toned this down during his second run in Boston.

The bottom line is if you go to a Boston sports bar and praise Walker half of the crowd will offer to buy you a drink and the other half will want to pour a drink over your head. Walker's critics could fairly ask why Ainge traded Walker to Miami if Walker is a good, productive player; of course, it could just as easily be asked why Pat Riley made such big roster changes and obtained Walker as opposed to keeping together a team that almost made it to the NBA Finals. Ainge provided a glimpse into his thought process when I asked him before game six why he brought Walker back. He replied simply, "Antoine’s a good player. He's a good player for the right price." Clearly, from Ainge's perspective the "price" of keeping Walker for 2005-06 was higher than the value that could be obtained in trading him.

As for Riley, once you commit to spending $100 million over five years on Shaquille O'Neal, money is no longer an object. The goal is to win now and win at all costs. When Riley coached the Lakers they acquired Bob McAdoo, a former MVP whose reputation had been damaged as he was shipped from team to team in the late 1970s; McAdoo, who ironically is now an assistant coach with the Heat, provided an indispensable spark off of the bench and Riley and Magic Johnson have both said that the Lakers would not have won the 1982 and 1985 titles without him. Walker is nowhere near the caliber of player that Hall of Famer McAdoo was, but all that matters to Riley is if Walker can accept a non-starring role like McAdoo did and help the Heat win a championship.

9/7/09 Epilogue: In the 2006 playoffs, Walker ranked second on the Heat in assists (2.4 apg) and third in scoring (13.3 ppg) as Miami captured the NBA title. Although he shot just .403 from the field and .574 from the free throw line during that postseason, Walker started all 23 playoff games and ranked second on the team in mpg (37.5), so Hall of Fame Coach Pat Riley clearly saw something positive in Walker's game despite the harsh criticisms that "stat gurus" voiced about Walker.

Lindy's Pro Basketball 2009-10 Examines Shaq-LeBron Duo, Nash's Legacy, Tex Winter's Influence on Phil Jackson

2009-09-03T03:58:00.006-04:00

I wrote three team previews for Lindy's Pro Basketball 2009-10: Cleveland Cavaliers (second year in a row), Phoenix Suns (third year in a row) and Dallas Mavericks (first time). The Cavs signed Leon Powe after the article submission deadline, so I did not write the parenthetical comments about Powe in the Cleveland preview and I disagree with the suggestion that the Cavs will play him at all at small forward; assuming that he recovers from knee surgery in time to play during the regular season--the Cavs really brought him in to hopefully provide frontcourt depth for the playoffs--Powe will get minutes at power forward and center.

Each team preview is accompanied by a sidebar story. My Cavs sidebar is about Shaquille O'Neal, who captured four championships and three Finals MVPs from 2000-06 but has only won one playoff game since that time. The Cavs hope that the LeBron James-Shaquille O'Neal duo will prove to be a championship combination; while that is certainly a very realistic possibility, there are valid reasons to be concerned about O'Neal's age/health and his ability/willingness to be effective defensively--particularly in screen/roll situations. Also, it should not be forgotten or diminished that O'Neal has, to varying degrees, feuded with All-Star perimeter teammates Penny Hardaway, Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade; in addition, O'Neal has even clashed with both Hall of Fame coaches who guided him to championships, Phil Jackson and Pat Riley. In other words, if the Cavs go through a rough patch it will be very interesting to observe the O'Neal-LeBron James-Coach Mike Brown dynamic. That said, the Cavs acquired O'Neal by giving up Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic, two players who did not figure to have important roles on the team this season, so it is completely understandable why Danny Ferry made the trade--but just because it is understandable and logical does not mean that it will work out to the tune of a championship, though the Cavaliers clearly are one of the five teams with realistic 2010 title aspirations; the Lakers, Magic, Celtics and Spurs (not necessarily in that order) round out that elite quintet.

The Dallas sidebar explains that, contrary to popular belief, Shawn Marion was an All-Star before Steve Nash arrived in Phoenix and Marion's much discussed statistical decline actually began when he was still playing with Nash. The Phoenix sidebar compares Nash's numbers with those posted by some All-Star point guards from previous eras and suggests that people who look back on this era will be mystified that Nash won as many MVPs as Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal combined.

Lindy's editor Roland Lazenby authored an excellent feature story about how Tex Winter helped mold Phil Jackson into a 10-time championship coach. Lazenby explains that in the 1980s Chicago Bulls' General Manager Jerry Krause hired Winter to be the "coach's coach" for Jackson when Winter and Jackson worked as assistant coaches under Stan Albeck and then Doug Collins; years earlier, Krause had boldly told Winter that he would become an NBA general manager and that he would hire Winter and Krause proved to be true to his word. According to Lazenby, neither Albeck nor Collins fully embraced the idea of having Winter on the coaching staff and Krause eventually replaced Collins with Jackson, who always valued Winter's counsel. Winter told Lazenby that Jackson seemed to have a photographic recall for every game that he ever played in, coached or scouted and that Jackson had a great eye for detail: "Phil remembers just about everything about every game," Winter marveled.