Bryant Posts Second Consecutive 40 Point, 10 Assist Stat Line
Just in case anyone thought that it was a fluke when
Kobe Bryant posted a 40 point, 10 assist stat line, on Friday night Bryant accomplished the feat for the second consecutive game; his L.A. Lakers needed every one of his 41 points and 12 assists to sneak by the Toronto Raptors 118-116 in overtime. Bryant is the first Laker since Jerry West in 1970 to have back to back 40 point, 10 assist games. Larry Bird is still the oldest player (35) to have a 40 point, 10 assist game but Bryant is now the oldest player (34) to do it twice. Since the 1985-86 season, Allen Iverson has the most 40 point, 10 assist games (12), followed by LeBron James (eight), Michael Jordan (seven), Larry Bird (six), Kobe Bryant (five), Dwyane Wade (five) and Michael Adams (five).
Bryant is having an MVP-caliber season but Kobe Bryant is to the NBA regular season MVP award what
Mario Andretti was to the Indy 500; Andretti could have and should have won several Indy 500s but he only won the 1969 edition--and he accomplished that in his backup car, while he later failed to win the 1987 Indy 500 after dominating the track for the entire month during qualifying and lapping the entire field on race day before an inexpensive part broke with just 20 laps to go. Similarly, Bryant was the best all-around player in the NBA for the better part of the first decade of this century but he won just one MVP award in what was probably the third or fourth best season of his career (2007-08).
If Bryant continues to play at this incredible level, if Dwight Howard controls the paint defensively, if Steve Nash continues to hit the open shots he is getting as a result of Bryant drawing double teams and if the Lakers' role players collectively make any kind of solid contribution (even if this comes from different players on different nights) then the Lakers could be the rare "team nobody wants to face in the playoffs" that actually lives up to that designation. If Pau Gasol returns to health in time to participate in the postseason and if he reverses the way that his game has declined for the past several years then the Lakers could be very dangerous.
Right now, though, the reality is that the Lakers have had an injury ravaged, chemistry deficient season and they are fighting tooth and nail just to qualify for the playoffs.
LeBron James' individual numbers are off the charts and his defending champion Miami Heat are currently riding a 17 game winning streak; he deserves to win the MVP (and he should have won the 2011 MVP as well). James grabbed the best all-around player title from Bryant
during the 2008-09 season and has held it ever since; Bryant is not likely to retake that crown unless James gets hurt but it will be interesting to see how productive James is in six years when he is 34. Bryant's superior conditioning and his ability to adjust his game have enabled him to remain dominant even as his athletic ability and stamina have waned.
Labels: Jerry West, Kobe Bryant, L.A. Lakers, Larry Bird, LeBron James
posted by David Friedman @ 6:33 AM
Bryant Posts Rare Stat Line in Big Comeback Win
Kobe Bryant scored 42 points on 14-21 field goal shooting, passed for a game-high 12 assists and grabbed seven rebounds as the L.A. Lakers overcame a 25 point deficit to beat the New Orleans Hornets 108-102 on Wednesday night. Bryant scored 25 points in the second half, including 13 during the Lakers' 20-0 run in the game's final 6:22. The last 34 year old player who amassed a stat line of 42-12-7 is Larry Bird, who had 49 points, 12 assists and 14 rebounds on March 15, 1992 as his Boston Celtics defeated the Portland Trail Blazers 152-148 in double overtime. Bird shot 19-35 from the field.
There have only been eight 42-12-7 performances since 1985-86; the most recent player to achieve this feat was LeBron James (43 points, 15 assists, 13 rebounds on February 18, 2010 in Cleveland's 118-116 loss to Denver). Bird is the only player who had two 42-12-7 games in that time span, while LeBron James and Michael Jordan are the only two players whose teams lost despite their 42-12-7 stat lines. Michael Adams and Kenny Anderson are the two outliers on this list; the other players (Bird, Bryant, James, Jordan and Tracy McGrady) are all perennial All-Stars.
Bryant has scored 40 or more points in 118 regular season games, third on the all-time list behind Wilt Chamberlain (271) and Michael Jordan (173). The Lakers are 79-39 in those games, a .669 winning percentage that is equivalent to a 55-27 record in an 82 game season; someone should point this stat out to
Mike Wilbon and Jon Barry.
Labels: Kobe Bryant, L.A. Lakers, Larry Bird, LeBron James
posted by David Friedman @ 6:21 AM
The Power of Negative Thinking: Bob Knight Explains His Coaching Philosophy
Hall of Fame basketball coach Bob Knight has been called many names but "Pollyanna" is not one of them. Knight's new book
The Power of Negative Thinking (co-written with Bob Hammel) takes a contrarian view of Norman Vincent Peale's
The Power of Positive Thinking. Knight explains that there is "a large helping of my version of humor in the title chosen for this book" and adds, "I am
not arguing for being a strict negativist, for walking around with a sour look, for always seeing the dark side, always expecting failure. That's not my intent at all. Quite the opposite."
Knight's thesis is that instead of blindly believing/hoping that an endeavor is going to be successful, "being alert to the possible negatives in any situation is the best way to bring about positive results." Knight believes "Planning beats repairing" because "There are so many unintended consequences in any important action that we need to at least consider, like the best chess player, how our next move could produce an unexpected chain reaction down the line."
Knight observes, "
most basketball games are
not won, they are
lost," so therefore Knight constantly reminded his players, "Victory favors the team making the fewest mistakes." Considering his confrontational reputation, it is not surprising that Knight also put a twist on a famous advertising slogan when he declared to his teams, "This ain't Burger King. We'll do it
my way."
"Negative thinking" in Knight's parlance is analogous to what the great chess player/theoretician/writer Aron Nimzovich called "prophylaxis," which in chess means overprotecting a strategically important square, thus ensuring the overall safety of the position and also providing for smooth, harmonious deployment of one's forces. Knight cites many examples from military history and he is particularly fond of the philosophies of Sun Tzu, who believed that a wise general patiently waits until he can fight a battle on his terms on the terrain of his choosing and in a manner that favors the strengths of his forces while maximizing the deficiencies of the opposing forces. Along those lines, Knight advises, "Insecurity can have intangible benefits. Being able to self-analyze and be self-critical is very important...Realizing your shortcomings takes an awareness." A general, a coach or a business executive must figure out not only the reasons that he could be successful in the next battle, game or deal but also the reasons that the next endeavor could fail. Knight suggests, "Always worry. If you can't think of a thing to be worried about, worry about being overconfident."
Hall of Fame coach
Pete Newell told Knight that coaches who rely on simplicity and execution have more long term success than coaches who rely on surprises and changes. Think of Vince Lombardi's Green Bay Packers running their famous sweep to perfection and Red Auerbach's Boston Celtics that reportedly only had seven plays (although each play had multiple options); dynasties are not built on trickery and gimmicks but rather on a solid foundation of fundamentals executed precisely. During Knight's coaching career, his winning formula relied on drilling his players to make as few mistakes as possible, to play tough defense without fouling and to patiently pass the ball until a player had an open shot that he could make at least half of the time. Another factor that Knight considers to be critically important is to make more free throws than the opposing team attempts; he describes "the hidden values of drawing fouls": free throws not only add to your scoring total but foul trouble restricts the minutes of opposing players.
Knight decries drinking to excess, smoking and gambling; one of his treasured possessions is a scrapbook given to him by the widow of Hall of Fame coach Joe Lapchick: the scrapbook contains newspaper clippings detailing the fallout from the gambling scandals that almost destroyed college basketball in the 1950s. Lapchick showed those articles to his players to warn them about how a bad decision could ruin their lives.
Lapchick's mild-mannered demeanor is completely different from Knight's but
Gus Alfieri, author of Lapchick: The Life of a Legendary Player and Coach in the Glory Days of Basketball, told me that Knight "was a very strong disciple of Lapchick, probably the biggest name person who
Lapchick mentored; Lou Carnesecca also benefited, but Knight more so. When I interviewed Knight, he made a statement that I put in the book: 'You could put all the technical basketball that Joe Lapchick knew on the back of a postcard but it would take encyclopedias to contain all the knowledge that he had of basketball.' Lapchick was an intuitive type of coach who could feel what was going on. Knight told me that Coach Lapchick taught him a rule that he still uses to this day. The rule, kind of simplified, was this: if a player does anything to embarrass the school, the team or me, he has to answer to
me…He didn't make specific rules and neither does Bobby Knight to this day. He claims that he got that from Lapchick."
Knight alludes to this way of thinking in his book, stating that even though he had a reputation as a dictatorial personality he actually tried to have as few rules as possible and he would let his players decide many things by a vote; one time he allowed the team to skip practice entirely because the players were very fatigued from a tough win--but Knight admits that he always selected the team captains and the team MVPs because he felt that those choices would have a direct impact on current and future success. While it may be true that Knight followed Lapchick's example to not have rules about frivolous, unimportant things, the "Burger King" quote probably provides a more accurate depiction of day to day life in Knight's program than the story about his players voting not to have a practice, which must have been the exception rather than the norm.
There is an inescapable irony surrounding Knight's career. He achieved great success both on the court and off the court while emphasizing the importance of discipline, which he defines as "recognizing what has to be done, doing it as well as you can do it, and doing it that way all the time"--yet Knight often displayed
horrific lack of personal discipline/self control in many infamous incidents; Indiana University fired Knight in 2000 after he repeatedly violated a code of conduct put in place to curb his verbal abusiveness and physical violence. Knight never directly addresses his temper in the book and his only reference to the end of his career at Indiana University is the suggestion that he should have left years earlier when it became apparent (in his opinion) that the school's administration no longer supported him. Knight would never accept that kind of lack of personal accountability from one of his players on the court, in the classroom or anywhere else, so even though Knight is indisputably a great coaching strategist and even though his book contains much wisdom it is undeniably hypocritical for Knight to ask other people to be disciplined, to think negatively (in terms of assessing the possible consequences of a course of action) and to uphold a high moral standard.
There is certainly a place in sports, business and life in general for the specific kind of "negative thinking" that Knight recommends; it makes sense to assess what could go wrong and then try to prevent those scenarios from happening but I wonder if a philosophy based on "negative thinking" can be presented in a positive manner or if "negative thinking" is instead more useful as one particular technique that is incorporated within a larger, more holistic philosophy. Nimzovich's prophylaxis is a very important chess technique but it is just one aspect of chess mastery; after a chess player properly deploys his forces and limits his opponent's options he still must come up with a winning plan.
In
Stillpower: Your Inner Source of Excellence in Sports, Garret Kramer contends that the best approach to life is based on Stillpower, which he defines as "The clarity of mind to live with freedom and ease; the inner source of excellence; the opposite of willpower." He further explains the difference between Stillpower and willpower:
Forcing effort, judging behavior, or trying to mold players potentially thwarts creativity and, ultimately,
stifles free will. What all children (and adults, too) are looking for is an unbounded environment where they are permitted to follow their
passions, express themselves fully, and compete in the absence of the fear of failure.
Kramer believes that coaching should be rooted in love:
"love for your players, the game or life itself." Knight would undoubtedly consider that to be a "Pollyanna" approach that is doomed to failure but I think that one can have a Stillpower mindset in terms of being a calm person with a positive outlook and yet still engage in prophylactic (or "negative") thinking regarding specific life and/or game strategies. In other words, I think that Knight did not have to throw chairs, physically assault people and act abusively in order to prepare his players to minimize their mistakes and maximize their strengths; those worthy ends do not justify all of Knight's means.
In
The Power of Positive Coaching, David Bornstein defines the cornerstone principles of the
Positive Coaching Alliance (PCA) as developed by PCA founder Jim Thompson, a teacher who once directed the Public Management Program at Stanford Business School: "He came up with the 'ELM Tree of Mastery' to help coaches remember that
the feedback that most helps young athletes develop their potential is
not praise for good performance or criticism for bad performance. What
works best is helping children understand that they control three key variables: their level of Effort, whether they Learn from experiences,
and how they respond to Mistakes." Larry Brown, Phil Jackson and Dean Smith are three Hall of Fame coaches who are members of the PCA's National Advisory Board.
Knight's
The Power of Negative Thinking communicates a worthwhile message and the specific examples he cites--including several detailed anecdotes from his championship seasons--are very interesting and apropos but there are some striking similarities between Knight and
Bobby Fischer, the chess champion who often lashed out at those around him; Fischer did not reach the top because of those outbursts but rather in spite of them and he might have enjoyed even more success both personally and professionally if he had been less confrontational. Fischer perceived every legitimate critique of his conduct as a personal attack, much like Knight has defended his actions by citing his proven track record of success both on and off the court. It would be refreshing if Knight at some point develops the self-awareness to admit that he crossed the line on many occasions; Knight undoubtedly believes that everything he did was in service of a larger good but that still does not excuse his conduct and it is sad that someone who did so many things the right way is unable to acknowledge his own shortcomings. If Knight were capable of this kind of introspection then he would have finished his coaching career as an Indiana hero instead of being consigned to the relative wilderness of Texas Tech, much like Fischer ended up in the chess wilderness as opposed to enjoying a long reign as World Champion.
Labels: Bob Knight, Bobby Fischer, Garret Kramer, Gus Alfieri, Joe Lapchick, Pete Newell
posted by David Friedman @ 8:34 AM
