LeBron James Posts 500th Consecutive Double Figure Scoring Game
LeBron James scored a season-high 35 points on 13-20 field goal shooting in the Miami Heat's 104-95 win over the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday night. James has now scored at least 10 points in 500 consecutive regular season games, the sixth best such streak in NBA history--a feat exceeded only by Michael Jordan (866 games), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (787), Karl Malone (575), Moses Malone (526) and Abdul-Jabbar (508). The players ahead of James on that list are all elite scorers: Abdul-Jabbar is the all-time ABA/NBA career regular season scoring leader (38,387 points), Karl Malone ranks second (36,928 points), Jordan ranks third (32,292 points) and Moses Malone ranks seventh (29,580 points). James has scored in double figures in every game he played in seven of
his 10 full seasons; only Abdul-Jabbar (15 seasons), Jordan (12 seasons)
and Karl Malone/Kevin Garnett (nine seasons each) had more seasons in
which they scored in double figures in every single game that they
played.
It is often
asserted that James' greatest skill set strength is his passing ability but the reality is that--even though James is a great passer/playmaker--James is one of the most prolific scorers in pro basketball history. James asserts himself as a scorer early and often; during his 500 game streak he has scored at least 10 points in the first quarter 162 times and during his career he has authored nine 50 point games while failing to score at least 10 points just eight times. When James is at his best, he is neither waiting for his teammates to get going nor is he deferring to them for any significant portion of the game; he pours in points in the first quarter and continues doing so for the rest of the game.
Labels: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Moses Malone
posted by David Friedman @ 2:57 PM
Remembering Bill Sharman, Star Player and Coaching Innovator
Bill Sharman, who is
one of only three people elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach (the others are John Wooden and Lenny Wilkens), passed away on Friday October 25 at the age of 87. Sharman led the Washington Capitols in scoring (12.2 ppg) as a rookie in 1950-51 before spending the rest of his 11 season NBA playing career with the Boston Celtics. He annually ranked among the league's elite in a host of categories, including scoring (seven top 10 finishes), free throw percentage (10 top 10 finishes, with a record seven times as the league leader), field goal percentage (six top 10 finishes) and assists (three top 10 finishes). An eight-time All-Star, Sharman played a key role on four Boston championship teams (1957, 1959-61). He was selected to the NBA's Silver Anniversary Team (10 retired players honored in 1971) and the
in 1996 he was recognized as one of the NBA's 50 Greatest Players.
After retiring as an NBA player, Sharman became one of the sport's greatest coaches, starting out in 1961 as a player-coach with the L.A. Jets in the short-lived American Basketball League (ABL). The Jets went out of business in the middle of the season and Sharman ended his playing career, joining the ABL's Cleveland Pipers strictly as a coach. Sharman led the Pipers to the 1962 ABL title, much to the delight of an owner who would later become very used to capturing championships--George Steinbrenner. Sharman then coached for a couple seasons at Cal State L.A. before being hired as the coach of the NBA's San Francisco Warriors in 1967. During his two season stint in the Bay Area, Sharman developed a concept that is now ubiquitous in the league: the morning shootaround. In a 2004 ESPN.com article, Charley Rosen explained how Sharman refined this idea:
Sharman pinpoints the origin of the shootaround to the beginning of the
1955-56 NBA season. "I was always very nervous the day of a game," he
says. "I'd just walk around the house until it was time to go to the
arena. There was a high school gym in the neighborhood, so one morning
at about 10 o'clock, I decided to go over there just to dribble around
and take a few shots. That night, I felt much looser and quicker than I
normally did, and I had a much better shooting touch, too. So I went
back to the gym the next time we played. After a while, I developed a
routine for myself. I'd take the kinds of shots that I'd normally take
during a game, and I kept shooting until I made five in a row from each
spot. After a while, some of the other Celtics started coming to the gym
with me."
Sharman reports that during his first five seasons in the NBA, he was an
86 percent free-throw shooter. In the five seasons after instituting
his morning "shoot," his marksmanship increased to 92 percent.
After his playing days were history, Sharman became the coach of the Los
Angeles Jets in the American Basketball League and established the
shootaround as part of the club's game-day routine. "Everybody said I
was crazy," Sharman remembers. "They especially objected to having a
shootaround after playing the night before. They thought the players
would be too stiff and too tired and liable to hurt themselves. But what
actually happened was that the players were forced to get out of bed
and break a sweat, which avoided that logy feeling that they often
started a game with. They also developed the visual image and the
positive reinforcement of the ball going through the hoop."
In 1968, Sharman returned to L.A., this time as the coach of the L.A. Stars in the newly founded American Basketball Association (ABA). The Stars moved to Utah for the 1970-71 season and Sharman led the franchise to its first--and only--title.
Sharman jumped back to the NBA for the 1971-72 season, taking over a talent-rich L.A. Lakers team featuring arguably the greatest center, greatest forward and greatest guard in the sport's history (Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor and Jerry West respectively). Degenerating knees forced Baylor to retire after just nine games but the insertion of Jim McMillian into the starting lineup in Baylor's place proved to be the final piece to the championship puzzle: the Lakers roared to a 33 game winning streak--setting a record that still stands--en route to posting a 69-13 record that was not surpassed until the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls went 72-10 (the Bulls also went 69-13 in 1996-97). The Lakers romped through the playoffs, winning 12 of 15 games to
capture Chamberlain's second title and West's lone championship.
The 46 year old Sharman seemed to have a glorious coaching future in front of him but in fact his career on the bench was already almost over; he developed some problems with his vocal cords in 1972 and a series of treatments only provided temporary relief before his speaking voice was reduced to a high pitched squeak that made it impossible for him to shout instructions from the sidelines. Sharman retired as the Lakers' coach in 1976, moving into a front office position with the team. If Sharman had been able to stay on the bench then he may very well have been the coach of the Showtime Lakers in the 1980s instead of Pat Riley.
Great players sometimes struggle as coaches because it is difficult for them to relate to players who do not possess superior talent and relentless drive but Sharman excelled as a coaching communicator and innovator. West once said of Sharman, "There's a right coach for the right team and the right personnel. And Bill was certainly the right coach for us."
Perhaps Wooden put it best in his letter of recommendation to the Basketball Hall of Fame: "If Bill Sharman isn't in the Hall of Fame as a coach, no one should be."
Labels: ABA, Basketball Hall of Fame, Bill Sharman, Boston Celtics, L.A. Lakers, L.A. Stars, NBA
posted by David Friedman @ 11:29 AM
