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Dwight Howard, Carmelo Anthony, and 2008 "Redeem Team" Headline Nine Member 2025 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Class

The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2025 includes nine inductees (eight individuals plus one team), with six inductees having NBA ties: Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, Danny Crawford, Mickey Arison, the 2008 Team USA squad (the "Redeem Team" that beat Spain in the Olympic gold medal game), and Billy Donovan (an NBA head coach for 10 seasons who is being inducted based on his accomplishments as a college coach, capped off by leading Florida to NCAA titles in 2006 and 2007). The other three inductees are women's players Sue Bird, Sylvia Fowles, and Maya Moore.

Howard may be one of the most underrated players of the past 25 years; it is baffling that he was not included on the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team. Howard earned five straight All-NBA First Team selections (2008-2012), won five rebounding titles (2008-10, 2012-13), and captured three Defensive Player of the Year awards (2009-11). The only centers with more than five All-NBA First Team selections are Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (10), Shaquille O'Neal (eight), Wilt Chamberlain (seven), Hakeem Olajuwon (six), and George Mikan (six). The only players with more rebounding titles than Howard are Wilt Chamberlain (11), Dennis Rodman (seven), and Moses Malone (six). Only Dikembe Mutombo, Ben Wallace, and Rudy Gobert won more Defensive Player of the Year awards (four each) than Howard. Howard made the All-NBA Team for eight straight seasons and then he averaged at least 13.5 ppg and at least 10.5 rpg in each of the next four seasons after that run. As a 34 year old reserve, he averaged 7.5 ppg and 7.3 rpg while anchoring the paint for the 2020 L.A. Lakers as they won the "bubble title."

Howard said that when he was 10 he told his father that he would be the number one pick in the NBA Draft, and his father "believed in me as much as I did, but you wanted me to commit to it. I wrote down my goals and I placed them above my bed, along with my cross. And you helped me work to achieve those goals, day after day. Look how life works. Pops, Mom, your son is in the Hall of Fame." Howard thanked Robert Parish, one of his four Hall of Fame presenters. Parish was his grandmother's favorite player, and Howard recalled that during his rookie season Parish helped him and was "one of my biggest inspirations."  

Next, Howard recognized several Hall of Famers who inspired him but were not able to attend the ceremony. Bill Russell, who passed away in 2022, wrote the book Russell Rules, which Howard said "allowed me to understand the game at a whole different level. That book taught me about leadership and the importance of staying committed to my goals." Howard noted that Dikembe Mutombo, who passed away in 2024, "motivated me to challenge and battle for every shot." Howard praised Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as "My GOAT," and described him as the only player in NBA history who had "two Hall of Fame careers"--first as Lew Alcindor, and then as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Howard said that Dennis Rodman is one of his favorite players and "the greatest rebounder ever." 

Howard then turned his attention to his other three Hall of Fame presenters, thanking Dominique Wilkins "for inspiring me," and describing Patrick Ewing as not only a coach but also a mentor. Shaquille O'Neal and Howard have engaged in some verbal sparring over the years, and Howard described those disputes as "sibling rivalries." Howard said that he and O'Neal are now "brothers in this fraternity of basketball."

Howard said that The Little Engine That Could "was my favorite book and my greatest inspiration. Like that little engine that could, I used to repeat to myself 'I think I can.' Eventually, it became, 'I know I can.'"

Howard and then-Orlando Coach Stan Van Gundy did not always see eye to eye when they worked together, but Howard stated that he would not have become a Hall of Famer without Van Gundy pushing him: "There is no Dwight Howard without Stan Van Gundy. You taught me what it means to stay ready."

After acknowledging his teammates from the 2008 Olympics and the 2020 Lakers, and his wife and children, Howard concluded, "You only die once but you live every day." 

Mickey Arison, inducted as a Contributor, bought controlling interest in the Miami Heat in 1995, and under his leadership the team became one of the NBA's model franchises with three NBA titles (2006, 2012, 2013) and seven Eastern Conference titles (2006, 2011-14, 2020, 2023). One of Arison's key moves was hiring Pat Riley to run the basketball operations (Riley also coached the 2006 championship team). Arison's presenters were Pat Riley, Dwyane Wade, and Alonzo Mourning. Arison called Hall of Fame selection "the highest honor" in the sport, but noted that it was not an honor that he had ever sought. He said that during the time that he has owned the Heat, his plan has been simple: "Do right by south Florida, and build a winner."

The best NBA referees do their jobs without calling attention to themselves. For 32 years, Danny Crawford was at the pinnacle of NBA officiating. He was selected to work in the NBA Finals--the top honor for an NBA official--in each of his final 23 seasons, and in 30 seasons overall. Some referees are hot-tempered in general, and other referees seem to hold grudges against certain teams or players, but when Crawford officiated a game you had confidence that he would keep matters under control without becoming the center of attention and without letting any personal feelings get in the way of objective officiating. 

Crawford delivered a brief, prerecorded speech. He called induction "an incredible honor," and he thanked David Stern and Adam Silver for their leadership of the NBA and for providing him the opportunity to be an NBA referee. He gave a special thank you to "fellow Hall of Famer Darell Garretson, who taught me how to referee at the highest level." Crawford appeared on stage, presented by Isiah Thomas and Tim Hardaway.

It is easy to forget how far USA Basketball had fallen after the Dream Team's triumphant 1992 romp to Olympic gold in Barcelona. Team USA finished sixth in the 2002 FIBA World Championship, an embarrassing performance by the country where basketball was invented. Team USA struggled to get a bronze medal in the 2004 Olympics. Team USA's bronze medal performance in the 2006 FIBA World Championship meant that Team USA had to earn qualification into the 2008 Olympics. In The Real Story Behind Team USA's Losses in Previous FIBA Events, I explained that Team USA needed to improve defensively and to create better team chemistry. The addition of Kobe Bryant and Jason Kidd to the roster in 2007 solved both problems, and Team USA dominated the 2007 FIBA Americas Cup--Team USA's first gold medal in any FIBA event since 2003--before Team USA won Olympic gold in 2008. The 2008 gold medal-winning squad is known as "The Redeem Team," and is the 14th team to be inducted in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Both Dwight Howard and Carmelo Anthony played for that team.

Jerry Colangelo, the USA Basketball managing director who assembled the "Redeem Team," called that time the highlight of his basketball career. Colangelo recalled that he had just two conditions when David Stern asked him to run USA Basketball: he requested total control of the selection of coaches/players, and an unlimited budget. Colangelo said that Stern did not like the idea of an unlimited budget, but Stern went along with it after Colangelo vowed that he would raise any needed funds by finding sponsors. Colangelo also provided a great tribute to George Raveling, who recently passed away. Colangelo said that Raveling always wanted to be called "coach," that he spoke with Raveling multiple times per week, and that Raveling was a mentor to many people in the basketball world.

LeBron James said that Kobe Bryant was the 2008 team's "missing link that we needed in order to regain the dominance with Team USA" because Bryant "brought a sense of seriousness to the team. He made us lock in. We knew, once he joined, that he was going to be committed, we couldn't be doing nothing half-assed. Kobe wasn't going for that, so it made myself, CP, Dwade, Melo, we locked in even more because we wanted to show him that we could get to that level as well." James' statement is a tacit--or not even that tacit--admission that prior to Bryant joining Team USA the squad was not fully locked in and committed to doing what needed to be done to win at the highest level. Remember that at that time, Dwayne Wade was the only player from that younger generation who had won an NBA title (Bryant already had won three). Bryant's pivotal role on the "Redeem Team" should never be minimized or forgotten. 

Team captain Jason Kidd, who spoke with characteristic modesty about his role, provided essential leadership and mentoring not just for young point guards Chris Paul and Deron Williams but for the entire squad.

Coach Mike Krzyzewski called winning the 2008 Olympics "the best moment of my coaching career."

The next inductee, Billy Donovan, is perhaps best known to younger fans as an NBA head coach but he was honored primarily for his outstanding 21 year college coaching career during which his teams made 14 NCAA Tournament appearances and four Final Fours while claiming back to back NCAA titles (2006-07). He is one of only four men to win an NCAA title as a coach and appear in the Final Four as a player. Donovan was presented by Rick Pitino and Maurice Cheeks. Donovan said, "Faith and belief have been incredibly powerful in my life, and it's not been the faith and belief in myself but it's been the faith and belief that others have had in me when there was really no sign or evidence to have faith." Donovan credited Pitino's "belief, faith and confidence in me" for helping him become the player and coach that he became. He said that he and Cheeks have worked together for nine years and that Cheeks' knowledge as an NBA All-Star, NBA champion, and Hall of Fame player have been invaluable. Donovan spoke of his steep learning curve as a young NBA coach fresh from the college ranks, and mentioned how much Cheeks helped ease that transition.

A lot has been said and written about Carmelo Anthony, and this is not the time or place to revisit all of that. He has vocal detractors and ardent supporters. I don't believe in false praise, nor do I believe in unfair criticism. Anthony has accomplished more than most people who ever play basketball. As a freshman, he led Syracuse to an NCAA title; as a professional, he established himself as a lethal one on one scorer. Ultimately, basketball is a team sport, and individual greatness in a team sport is defined by elevating your team to championship contention: he did that in college, but he did not do that in the NBA. Anthony never played in the NBA Finals and he reached the Conference Finals just once in his 19 season NBA career while posting a 3-13 career playoff series record; any player who wins an NBA title posts more playoff series victories in one year (four) than Anthony had in nearly two decades. Read that sentence again, and consider that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander won more playoff series in 2025 than Carmelo Anthony won in 19 NBA seasons!

In Revising the NBA's 50 Greatest Players List, Part VI, I summarized Carmelo Anthony's place in pro basketball history: "Even in his prime he was not a great all-around player. He was a championship player in college who regressed in terms of having a championship mentality in the NBA, which is unusual. Most NCAA champions who have the necessary physical talent to excel in the NBA--which Anthony obviously does--hone the championship habits that they formed in college, but Anthony did not. He was never the best player at his position, he played for talented teams that did not seriously contend for the championship, and he resisted when his coaches tried to guide him toward having more of an impact on winning." Therefore, I do not rank Anthony among pro basketball's 75 greatest players--even though he was selected to the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team in 2021--but it is clear that he deserved first ballot Hall of Fame selection, particularly because the Hall of Fame recognizes accomplishments at all levels of the game. Anthony's Hall of Fame resume includes his college championship, prolific NBA scoring, and extensive FIBA experience. 

Anthony was presented by Dwyane Wade and Allen Iverson. Anthony gave a very powerful speech, describing poetically how he overcame the doubters and deprivations of his youth by staying focused on his vision of what he could become. He declared, "Tonight I don't just step into the Hall of Fame. I carry with me the echoes of every voice that ever told me I couldn't. I walk with the shadows of every alley, every cracked court, every empty plate. I stand for the dreamless, the doubted, the dismissed, for every soul still trapped in the places I broke free from, from Red Hook to Myrtle Avenue." He said that his father "left this world too soon but you never left me." Anthony added, "Your name is my name. Your spirit walks with me in every step I take." He praised his sister Michelle for being his protector and for believing in him "when I didn't even know how to believe in myself." He thanked his mother for teaching him, "Love is action. Sacrifice is quiet. Faith is louder than fear," and he told her, "You are my hero."

He concluded with a message to his children:

Your father isn't perfect, but he is proof--proof that struggle doesn't mean surrender. Proof that the road can be rough and still lead to glory. And so again I say to every child listening, they will tell you to be realistic. I say be relentless. They will say you are dreaming too big. I say dream louder. They will try to label you, box you in, count you out, but remember statistics don't measure heart. They don't account for fight. They don't see the storm that built you. You were made for more. You are more than possible. You are inevitable. 

Selected Articles About Basketball Hall of Fame Induction Ceremonies:

Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Inducts 13 Member 2024 Class, Including Vince Carter and Jerry West (Class of 2024) 

Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame's 2023 Class Includes Dirk Nowitzki, Dwyane Wade, and Gregg Popovich (Class of 2023)

Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame's 2022 Class Includes NBA Players Lou Hudson, Tim Hardaway, and Manu Ginobili (Class of 2022)  

The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Welcomes 15 New Members and Honors Bill Russell a Second Time (Class of 2021)

Kobe Bryant Headlines the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony (Class of 2020) 

The Basketball Hall of Fame Welcomes A Diverse Class of 12 Inductees (Class of 2019)

Thoughts and Observations About the 2018 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Enshrinement Ceremony (Class of 2018)

Reflections on the 2017 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Enshrinement Ceremony 

Reflections on the Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2016 

Bobby "Slick" Leonard Remembers the ABA During his Basketball Hall of Fame Speech (Class of 2014)

The Basketball Hall of Fame Belatedly Welcomes Roger Brown (Class of 2013)

Reflections on the 2012 Basketball Hall of Fame Class 

The A-Train Makes an Overdue Arrival at the Basketball Hall of Fame  (Class of 2011)

Dreams and Memories--Some Personal Reflections on the 2006 Basketball Hall of Fame Enshrinement Ceremony (Class of 2006)

Labels: 2008 Team USA, Basketball Hall of Fame, Billy Donovan, Carmelo Anthony, Danny Crawford, Dwight Howard, Jason Kidd, Jerry Colangelo, Kobe Bryant, Mickey Arison

posted by David Friedman @ 5:21 AM

5 comments

Krause, McGinnis, McGrady Among the 11 Newest Basketball Hall of Fame Members

The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame announced that it will welcome 11 new members this fall: Zack Clayton, Nikos Galis, Robert Hughes, Mannie Jackson, Tom Jernstedt, Jerry Krause, Rebecca Lobo, George McGinnis, Tracy McGrady, Muffet McGraw and Bill Self. If several of those names are not familiar to you as an NBA fan, keep in mind that this is the Basketball Hall of Fame, not the NBA Hall of Fame (there is no such entity), and the Basketball Hall of Fame honors players, coaches, executives and contributors from around the world/all levels of the game.

This article will focus on the three new Hall of Famers who are most closely associated with pro basketball: Krause, McGinnis and McGrady.

Nearly four years ago, I asserted that Tracy McGrady is Clearly a Hall of Famer and shortly after that I followed up with another article making the Hall of Fame case for McGrady. The Hall of Fame voters agreed with me, selecting McGrady in his first year of eligibility. McGrady, who jumped straight to the NBA from high school, had a 15 year NBA career and he led the NBA in scoring twice (2003, 2004) in the middle of a seven year run during which he averaged at least 24.4 ppg each season while earning seven consecutive All-Star selections. During that period he played in at least 71 games five times but in the five seasons after that he played in just 66, 35, 30, 72 and 52 games (out of 66 in the lockout shortened 2011-12 campaign). By the age of 31 he was no longer a regular starter and by the age of 33 he had retired due to injuries.

During McGrady's brief, absolute peak, it was reasonable to compare him to Kobe Bryant and not be absolutely certain who was the better player--but, while Bryant was blessed with good health and thus able to sustain All-NBA First Team level dominance for an extended period, McGrady had a short run as an elite player and a slightly longer period (but not nearly as long a period as Bryant did) as one of the league's 10 best players. Some would argue that this is not enough to merit Hall of Fame induction but I perceive at least three categories of Hall of Fame players: Pantheon, Top 50, other great players. McGrady is not a Pantheon level player and at best he would be a fringe Top 50 player if objective voting were done today but McGrady is solidly in the top 75 or 80 players of all-time. There are not any particular statistical plateaus for pro basketball players that point to automatic Hall of Fame selection, nor should there be some arbitrary limit on how many players can be selected.

In contrast to McGrady's first ballot selection, Krause and McGinnis waited a long time to be selected. Jerry Colangelo, the Chairman of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, promised that under his watch the Hall of Fame will recognize individuals who have "slipped through the cracks" and that has been the case: he spearheaded the creation of a special ABA Committee that finally inducted ABA all-time greats Artis Gilmore, Mel Daniels, Roger Brown and Bobby "Slick" Leonard and Louie Dampier. That committee has been disbanded but its spirit remains, as indicated by the 2015 induction of Spencer Haywood and the 2016 induction of Zelmo Beaty.

McGinnis' career and prime were both shorter than McGrady's but McGinnis was the only Hall of Fame eligible NBA or ABA regular season MVP who had not been inducted. McGinnis shared 1975 ABA regular season MVP honors with Julius Erving, who two seasons later joined forces with McGinnis to lead the Philadelphia 76ers to the NBA Finals. McGinnis played a key role for two Indiana ABA championship teams (1972, 1973), winning the ABA Playoff MVP in 1973. During the 1975 ABA playoffs, McGinnis averaged 32.3 ppg, 15.9 rpg and 8.2 apg while leading the Pacers to the Finals (their third Finals trip in McGinnis' four years with the franchise). McGinnis remains one of just four players who averaged 30 ppg, 7 rpg and 7 apg for an entire playoff season; pro basketball fans are on a first name basis with the other players: Oscar (who did it twice), Michael, LeBron (who has done it twice). Interestingly, all of those players won at least one championship but none of them won a title during his 30-7-7 postseason run.

McGinnis made the All-Star team six times--three in the ABA, three in the NBA--and at his peak he was as good as any player in either league. The one blemish on his resume is that he relied too much on his natural talent, so when his physical skills began to erode he did not adjust his game; he did not make the All-Star team after the age of 28 and by age 32 he was out of the league. Nevertheless, a player who is a key contributor for two championship teams (and two other Finalists) while winning a regular season MVP, a playoff MVP and a scoring title deserves Hall of Fame induction--not to mention the fact that he was also a dominant, record setting collegiate player.

It is always poignant and bittersweet when someone whose Hall of Fame induction was long overdue is not honored until after he passes away, a fate that also befell the aforementioned Roger Brown and Zelmo Beaty. Jerry Krause built six Chicago Bulls championship teams in the 1990s, so it is odd that he was not inducted in the Hall of Fame years ago; instead, he received the honor less than two weeks after passing away at the age of 77. I was as baffled and upset as anyone by Krause's haste and glee to break up the Bulls so that he could try to build another championship team from scratch but Krause deserves a lot of credit for hiring Phil Jackson as coach and for acquiring key players Scottie Pippen, Horace Grant, B.J. Armstrong, Bill Cartwright, Toni Kukoc, Ron Harper and Dennis Rodman. An NBA executive's job is to win games and championships; by that standard, Krause is one of the most accomplished executives in pro basketball history.

Labels: ABA, Basketball Hall of Fame, George McGinnis, Jerry Colangelo, Jerry Krause, Tracy McGrady

posted by David Friedman @ 9:24 PM

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Terri-Bull: Premature Breakup of the Jordan-Pippen Bulls Demonstrated Why Tanking Does Not Work

When the Philadelphia 76ers hired Jerry Colangelo to fix the mess that Sam Hinkie created, I remembered that Colangelo was aghast and astonished by how Jerry Krause broke up the Chicago Bulls in 1998. Krause ran off Phil Jackson, Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen after the Bulls had just won three straight NBA titles from 1996-98. In November 2004 Colangelo was the chairman and CEO of the Phoenix Suns, who went into Chicago and drilled Krause's hapless Bulls 94-74. Colangelo said, "The concept of taking your championship run and then going all the way back and starting over again? There's no guarantees. You gotta be lucky. You can't afford any mistakes, bad drafts. Your picks don't turn out to be big time-players? You've got a problem. So, in my opinion, you stay as competitive as possible for as long as possible. If you back up the truck, you never know. Look, in my almost four decades in sport, I never had the pleasure of having that (Jordan-style) dynasty. Knowing me as I do? I couldn't break it up."

Becoming really bad in order to become really good is not just counterintuitive; it does not work. Colangelo is right: in any endeavor, "you stay as competitive as possible for as long as possible." Krause's demolition of the Bulls' dynasty is a cautionary tale that should be taught in business schools and should be mandatory homework for anyone who becomes a sports executive.

It is easy to refute the revisionist history--propagated by none other than Krause and Bulls' owner Jerry Reinsdorf--that Krause had to do something because Jackson, Jordan and Pippen did not intend to stay around. In a July 24, 1998 Chicago Sun-Times article by Jim O'Donnell titled "Phil's agent has fill of Reinsdorf tactics," Phil Jackson's agent Todd Musburger reminded the world who broke up the Bulls and how he did it:

"Phil's not coming back. That has long been clearly understood. It's been understood since last July, when Jerry Krause told Phil, 'You can go 82-and-bleeping-0 and you're not coming back. This is it for you and the Chicago Bulls."

Think about that. I have heard of an owner or a GM threatening to fire a coach if he does not win a certain number of games but who tells a coach that he will be fired even if the coach wins every game? Krause was so eager to prove that he was the brains behind the Bulls' championships that he ripped apart a dynasty in order to build a championship team from scratch in his own image--and the aftermath of that foolish decision was so disastrous that it lent a lot of credence to the speculation that instead of being a brilliant talent evaluator he was a solid GM who lucked into having Michael Jordan and then put some good pieces around Jordan.

What prompted Musburger to speak out to O'Donnell on that particular day? During the Bulls' televised press conference announcing the hiring of Tim Floyd as director of basketball operations, Reinsdorf said that the path was still open for Jackson to return as coach and that Floyd would only be the coach if Jackson decided not to return. In other words, one year after telling Jackson he was fired no matter how well the team did in the next season, Reinsdorf and Krause tried to act like the hatchet job never happened.

Musburger declared, "That's why what I heard on the TV Thursday from Reinsdorf was incredible. And what really made my blood boil was that, if nothing else, Phil left in dignity. After all he went through in his final 12 months around that team, all he did was win one last championship, and then fulfilling the expressly stated wishes of Jerry Krause and Jerry Reinsdorf, he left. No final cheap shots, no besmirching of any reputations, nothing. Simple, quiet dignity. And now they were going to dredge his good name back up to rewrite history once again and drag him through this."

Musburger called it "obscene" that Reinsorf hijacked a day that should have belonged to Floyd and concluded, "I guess as the work day ended, the thing I was most happy about is that the more dimensional members of the media no longer need a road map when it comes to any of the convoluted paths chairman Reinsdorf and his associates may lead them down. The chairman's ways and means are too well-known by now. But why he couldn't allow Tim Floyd to have his moment without having once again flail at Phil's wonderful legacy with the Bulls remains beyond my comprehension. Thursday simply should have belonged to Tim Floyd."

In his July 24, 1998 Chicago Tribune column titled "Jackson should've called their bluff," Bernie Lincicome wrote that the press conference announcing Floyd's hiring "is so hollow it echoes." Lincicome urged Jackson, "Hey, Phil, you should have called their bluff. Asked for $12 million and demanded they exile Tim Floyd to the Corn Palace in Mitchell, S.D. for the duration. I have a map. And a floor plan."

Lincicome continued, "Is this any way to kill a dynasty? There never is a good way, but I'll take the end of the Celtics over this. Larry Bird lying on the floor in a back plaster. Kevin McHale hobbling on one foot. Robert Parish rooted like a lamp post. How is this ending? With lies and dares, and, to use Reinsdorf's own words, 'fairy tales.'"

At the press conference, Reinsdorf said that Floyd was "Director of basketball operations, with duties normally handled by a head coach."

Lincicome scoffed, "When is a coach not a coach? When he is aside. But just for the sake of context, let's grant that it was all true. Floyd would give up a perfectly fine job where he was wanted and respected in order to schlep around as Krause's fanny pack for as long as Jackson and Jordan and the rest wanted to shun him? Would you even want a man like this coaching your team?"

Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Bill Lyon put it simply in a January 21, 1999 piece titled "Gored to Death: Arrogant acts have gutted the Bulls' dynasty": 

Only scant months ago, there was raging debate about how the Bulls measured up to the Boston Celtics of Bill Russell, to the 76ers of Wilt Chamberlain, to the Celtics of Larry Bird, to the Los Angeles Lakers of Magic Johnson. The skeleton that's left may end up being measured against the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers, the patron saint of losers, authors of a 9-73 record...

So what, by their hubris, Reinsdorf and Krause have done is deny the rest of us the final act of the dynasty, one farewell championship for Jordan, or one incredibly emotional quest for it.

They have interfered with the natural order of things. To feed their own egos, they have purposefully committed needless folly.

They have killed a dynasty.

If there is justice, the Bulls will be bad for a very long time.

Justice arrived swiftly in Chicago. Floyd went 49-190 in four years as the Bulls' coach. Reinsdorf and Krause replaced arguably the best coach in pro basketball history--a coach who won six titles in Chicago and went on to win five more titles in L.A. with the Lakers--with arguably the worst coach in pro basketball history. Bulls' power forward Charles Oakley summed it up succinctly near the end of Floyd's reign of error (and was fined $50,000 by the team for his candor): "They had a dynasty, now they have a coffee shop." Without Jackson, Jordan, Pippen, Dennis Rodman and most of the rest of the core members of the Bulls' second three-peat squads, the Bulls promptly posted the worst five-year record of any non-expansion team in NBA history (96-282, a winning percentage of .254). The Bulls missed the playoffs for six straight years, did not win a playoff series until 2007 (four years after Krause retired as the Bulls' GM) and have made it to exactly one Eastern Conference Finals (2011) since Krause dismantled the roster.
 
It is foolish to break up a championship team in order to build from the ground up or turn a mediocre team into a cellar dweller in order to use draft picks to become a contender. After the Dallas Mavericks won the 2011 championship, owner Mark Cuban elected to not keep key rotation players Tyson Chandler and J.J. Barea; the Mavericks have not won a playoff series since 2011. Instead of continuing to add pieces around Dirk Nowitzki, Cuban wasted the final years of Nowitzki's career. This is not Hinkie-style tanking (though Cuban has said that he believe the strategy is sound--which is an absurd belief), but it is breaking up a championship team without giving that team a realistic chance to defend its crown.

When you are blessed enough to have a championship-caliber team, you should do everything possible to augment the roster and keep the championship window open as long as possible. Two organizations are widely referred to as "model franchises" in the NBA and NFL respectively: the San Antonio Spurs and the New England Patriots. Since 1999, the San Antonio Spurs have won five championships and have never missed the playoffs. Since the New England Patriots hired Bill Belichick in 2000, the Patriots have won the Super Bowl four times and have only missed the playoffs three times (once with an 11-5 record, once with a 9-7 record and once with a 5-11 record in Belichick's first year on the job). Those teams have never tanked and have never prematurely dismantled a championship caliber roster; at times, those teams have phased out individual players who were past their primes but those teams always replaced those players in order to remain at an elite level. Those teams effectively used their draft picks even though their success relegated them to making their selections near the end of each round of the draft; instead of tanking to get higher draft picks, these teams did the necessary scouting/player evaluation to find good players. Also, free agents want to sign with the Spurs and Patriots because they know that those franchises have a winning culture. No talented free agent was ever going to sign with someone like Jerry Krause after he broke up the Bulls or with Sam Hinkie after he plunged the 76ers into the tank.

Rest assured that if Colangelo has anything to say about it the 76ers' tanking days are over (they will still lose for a while until Colangelo brings some real players into the fold but Colangelo will actually be looking for real NBA players, not rejects from the Washington Generals)--and that if Colangelo builds the 76ers up to contender status he will not break apart the team in order to stockpile draft picks.

Labels: Jerry Colangelo, Jerry Krause, Michael Jordan, Phil Jackson, Philadelphia 76ers, Sam Hinkie, San Antonio Spurs, Scottie Pippen, Tim Floyd

posted by David Friedman @ 3:59 PM

1 comments

The 76ers Are the Waterloo for "Stat Gurus"

Tanking is wrong for many reasons--it violates the spirit of true competition, it rips off the fans, it destroys that franchise's opportunity to build a winning culture--but the most basic reason is the proven fact that it does not work. Sam Hinkie was an executive with the Houston Rockets for eight years. The Rockets won one playoff series during that time. Based on that remarkably unremarkable record, the Philadelphia 76ers hired Hinkie in 2013 to run their basketball operations. Hinkie took over a team that went 34-48 in 2012-13. Since that time, the 76ers went 19-63, 18-64 and 1-21 while Hinkie's supporters implored everyone to "trust the process." Hinkie is a "stat guru" whose "process" is tanking and he has dropped the 76ers so far into the tank it will be years before they see daylight again. During Hinkie's reign of error the 76ers have been widely recognized as one of the most analytically minded franchises in sports, so it is not an exaggeration to say that Hinkie's failure is a Waterloo moment for "stat gurus"--at least the self-promoting "stat gurus" who have been saying for years that if they only got the chance to run an NBA franchise they could do so much better than the people who have actually devoted their lives to playing, scouting and coaching.

Hinkie is Ted Stepien with a spreadsheet. Stepien was not intentionally tanking but he did such a horrible job as the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the early 1980s that the NBA had to step in and save the franchise--which is pretty much what just happened in Philadelphia, as NBA Commissioner Adam Silver reportedly strongly suggested to the 76ers' owners that they bring in some outside help (which means, make sure that Hinkie never makes another personnel decision as long as he lives). Hinkie turned the 76ers into a laughingstock and the team is so terrible that other franchises had trouble selling tickets when Hinkie brought his version of the Washington Generals thinly disguised as a professional sports team into their towns. The 76ers have now hired Jerry Colangelo to clean up Hinkie's mess. As one writer quipped, Colangelo is going to talk a lot less about PER and a lot more about WINS. Colangelo has his work cut out for him but if anyone can turn the 76ers around he can, because he has enjoyed a tremendous career as a sports executive. Colangelo also should be commended for keeping his promise to correct some longstanding Basketball Hall of Fame injustices.

Hinkie's abject Philadelphia failure should also draw some attention to what is happening in Houston, where he served as Daryl Morey's protege. Morey's long tenure in Houston (Morey took over the basketball operations in May 2007) has produced nothing special; in Morey's first eight seasons, the Rockets missed the playoffs three times and won just three playoff series, with two of those victories coming last year. The Rockets are 10-12 this season and may not even make the playoffs just one year after their improbable (read "fluke") run to the Western Conference Finals--speaking of which, just how much does it mean to make the Conference Finals once? It may seem like that is getting really close to winning a title but it is actually only the halfway point, because it takes eight playoff wins to reach the Conference Finals and eight more playoff wins to claim the championship. Since Morey took over in Houston, 10 of the 15 Western Conference teams have reached the Conference Finals at least once (eight of the 15 Eastern Conference teams have reached the Conference Finals at least once during the same period).

Morey loudly claimed--and media outlets like ESPN and the New York Times loudly repeated his claims--that his use of so-called "advanced basketball statistics" created a clear advantage that would translate directly into wins. Or, to coin a phrase, "trust the process." Nearly a decade later, we have a large enough sample size of evidence to make a solid hypothesis: whatever "process" Morey and Hinkie are doing, it does not work, at least if you are trying to win a championship by doing it.

Statistics are a very important tool for executives, coaches, scouts, media member and fans. I have loved sports statistics since I was a kid and this website is chock full of statistics--but any piece of data is only as good as the person who is using it and the context in which that piece of data is applied. Of course the smartest front offices in the NBA are using the most advanced statistics possible--but they are not doing so to promote themselves as geniuses and they are not using numbers devoid of context.

The numbers tell Daryl Morey that James Harden is a "foundational player." Morey does not know or care that the eye test reveals that Harden does not give full effort on a consistent basis, he is an awful defender and he has no leadership skills. Harden has some All-Star level offensive skills but he relies way too much on begging for contact when he drives and on launching three pointers when he does not drive. Harden has little to no post up or midrange game. So, Harden can erupt for 35 or 40 points on any given night--but when his team really needs him in a big playoff game, he can also shoot 2-11 from the field with a playoff single-game record 13 turnovers.

It is no surprise that Harden's Rockets lost in the first round of the playoffs in each of his first two seasons with the team. It is somewhat unexpected that the Rockets made it to the Conference Finals last year but, as noted above, any executive who can keep his seat warm for nearly a decade will more than likely stumble into one Conference Finals appearance. Harden is not the right guy to be the best player on a legit contender. Three teams in each conference made the Conference Finals at least three times since 2007: Miami, Cleveland and Boston in the East and the L.A. Lakers, San Antonio and Oklahoma City in the West. We know that Harden would not have been close to being the best player on any of those teams, in no small part because he came off of the bench for Oklahoma City.

This season, we are seeing the real Harden and the real Rockets (which we also saw during his first two full seasons with the team). Harden is scoring a lot of points while not shooting well, his team is far from being a legit contender and his bad attitude played no small part in getting his coach fired. It should be clear to the rest of the world now what should have been clear all along: it would have been a travesty if James Harden won the MVP last year. Harden is Stephon Marbury with an overgrown beard, a coach killer who is more interested in his endorsements and the celebrity life than he is in being a great basketball player. Harden declares that he is better than Stephen Curry and LeBron James. What a joke. Curry actually works on his game and comes back each season with something new. James is a 6-8 beast with an all-around skill set who has led his teams to six Finals and two championships; yeah, there are some gaping holes in James' championship resume and it took him too long to even partially figure out the championship mentality that guys like Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant were born with but putting Harden in the same sentence with James is like comparing a Yugo to a Rolls-Royce.

What this all comes down to is character and character is always revealed eventually. Character means doing the right things the right way all of the time. Character means having the courage of your convictions (which is not at all the same thing as sticking with the same course as you plunge into an iceberg). Championships are not won by accident. If you have an overabundance of talent, you may achieve some success without character but that success will inevitably be transitory. Before Mike Tyson fought Evander Holyfield, Teddy Atlas--who trained the young Tyson--said that Tyson was scared of Holyfield, that Tyson lacked heart and that the moment things got tough he would commit a foul to get out of the fight because he did not want to be there and would not be able to accept losing like a real man. Atlas nailed it, because Atlas knew Tyson's character and Atlas was not fooled by the "baddest man on the planet" hyperbole surrounding Tyson.

You cannot win a championship if you have a loser's mentality. That is what Hinkie failed to understand when he sent the 76ers into the tank based on some numbers-based idea of accumulating top draft picks and that is what Morey failed to understand when he decided to make Harden the "foundation" in Houston. Harden's story is apparently appealing to a lot of media members and he fooled a lot of people into giving him recognition that he did not earn but none of that stuff matters when you have to get in between the lines in the playoffs and produce. The cliche is true: you win with character, not characters. I have spent my whole NBA writing career figuratively betting against characters like Stephon Marbury, Gilbert Arenas, Carmelo Anthony and James Harden even when those guys were at the height of their popularity and I will place that eye test evaluation against a spreadsheet any day of the week. 

Labels: Daryl Morey, Houston Rockets, James Harden, Jerry Colangelo, Mike Tyson, Philadelphia 76ers, Sam Hinkie

posted by David Friedman @ 9:33 PM

4 comments

Kobe Bryant, Carl Lewis, Jon Drummond and the Olympic Spirit

Kobe Bryant would like to play for Team USA in the 2016 Olympics. Based on Bryant's recent performance level and injury history, you may think that is selfish or just unrealistic; that will most likely be the mainstream media take on the matter. However, Kevin Ding--a rare NBA commentator who covers the sport insightfully and treats Bryant fairly--explains why Bryant deserves the opportunity to play for Team USA in 2016 and why USA Basketball Chairman Jerry Colangelo should honor Bryant's request:

Colangelo has already set the precedent that it's not necessarily about the best players: He promised Paul George a spot for 2016 already after George broke his leg in a U.S. uniform in 2014. He included a 35-year-old Jason Kidd on the 2008 U.S. team for his experience and past contributions.

Team USA is going to win gold in Rio with or without Bryant, with or without George, with or without even LeBron James. The team is absurdly stacked, which is why it becomes thorny to consider what great player would be left off the squad to accommodate Bryant...

But it's Colangelo's call whether to honor something greater here.

And there is indeed a greater good to be had.

Consider the Olympic creed:

The important thing in life is not the triumph, but the fight;
the essential thing is not to have won, but to have fought well.

No one has answered that call in his athletic career any better than Bryant. He has been triumphant at times, but his fight for personal excellence is what has truly won out.

His fight is why all these fans worldwide see him as their inspiration.

Bryant's proposed candidacy for Team USA's 2016 basketball team reminds me of the controversy surrounding Team USA's 4x100meter relay squad during the 1996 Olympics. Veteran Carl Lewis, participating in the Olympics for the last time, wanted to run anchor for Team USA in the 4x100 meter relay. Lewis previously anchored two Olympic gold-medal winning teams and five teams that set world records. Maybe he was over the hill by 1996 but--based on his past performance and the capabilities he still possessed at that moment--he had earned the right to compete. Prior to the 4x100 meter relay, Lewis won the gold medal in the long jump, his fourth straight Olympic gold in that event; no one else has ever defended an Olympic long jump title even once. He is only the third American to win the same Olympic event four times. Lewis could have capped off his Olympic career by pursuing a then-unprecedented 10th gold medal. Instead, the Team USA coaching staff went in a different direction and Lewis watched Team USA fail to capture gold for the first time ever in the 4x100 meter relay (not including the boycott year of 1980 and three times that Team USA was disqualified for improper baton passes).

Jon Drummond, one of the members of the 1996 Team USA 4x100 team, publicly declared that Lewis did not belong on the team because Lewis finished "butt-naked last" in the Olympic qualifying trials. Lewis had enough athletic ability left to win the gold medal in the long jump and he had previously anchored gold medal-winning relay teams but Drummond thought that he and Team USA's other young guns deserved their time to shine. Carl Lewis is a legend of the sport. Would you even know Drummond's name if I had not brought it up? Well, maybe you would, because he has been in the news recently: he is currently serving an eight year suspension from track and field for his role, as Tyson Gay's coach, in illegal use of performance-enhancing drugs. Drummond has been banned from the sport until December 2022. He was not caught using performance-enhancing drugs during his athletic career but, then again, neither were Lance Armstrong or Barry Bonds, two cheaters who often bragged about never failing a drug test.

Drummond was a loud-mouth nobody who played a role in keeping a legend off of Team USA's 1996 4x100 relay team and, quite possibly, cost Team USA a gold medal. After the race, Drummond admitted that he and his young teammates were "tight." Lewis would not have been tight.

It may be true that Team USA can win the 2016 Olympic gold medal in basketball with just about any conceivable roster of current NBA stars. However, if Bryant wants to play and is able to play then he deserves a spot on the team not only based on his legendary status but also because during the 2012 Olympic games Team USA needed Bryant's clutch production to survive the gold medal game versus Spain. If Bryant plays for Team USA in the 2016 Olympics he will not lead the team in minutes played or scoring or any other statistical category but he will set the right tone with his work ethic and focus--and he may very well make a key shot or key defensive play that is the difference between Olympic gold and the silver medal that Drummond got in 1996.

Labels: 2016 Team USA, Carl Lewis, Jerry Colangelo, Jon Drummond, Kevin Ding, Kobe Bryant

posted by David Friedman @ 2:51 PM

5 comments

Bobby "Slick" Leonard Remembers the ABA During his Basketball Hall of Fame Speech

On Friday night, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame enshrined Bobby "Slick" Leonard, who played on Indiana's 1953 NCAA championship team and enjoyed a seven year NBA career before coaching the ABA's Indiana Pacers to three league championships (1970, 1972-73). It is so wonderful to see Leonard finally, belatedly receive this long-overdue honor and it is great that he was able to share this moment with his beautiful family. I cannot offer enough praise for Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Chairman Jerry Colangelo, who played an integral role in forming the Hall of Fame's ABA Committee that inducted Artis Gilmore plus Leonard's Indiana Pacers' stars Mel Daniels and Roger Brown prior to selecting Leonard this year.

Leonard's Hall of Fame speech lasted nearly 27 minutes and touched upon his basketball career from his childhood days up to his still ongoing broadcasting career. He mentioned the four Hall of Fame players who he coached: Walt Bellamy, Gus Johnson, Roger Brown and Mel Daniels. The most meaningful segment for me is when he spoke, lovingly and with great passion, about the ABA. Here are some quotes from that portion of the speech:

"We had some great times in the ABA...They talk about the ABA like we were a minor league to the NBA. Well, I played in the NBA and that's not true. If you want to go back and look at the players we ended up with in the ABA before the merger, you're looking at Moses Malone, you're looking at the Iceman--George Gervin--you're looking at Dr. J--Julius Erving. I can go on, Dan Issel--by the time the merger came, and David (Stern) was there then, we had the players and they needed our players as bad as we needed them, 'cause we'd gone broke...I had a frontline with the Pacers--and I've seen them all, all the frontlines that have come down the pike in the last 60 years or so--with Mel Daniels in the middle, George McGinnis at one forward and Roger Brown at the other forward. Those guys could have competed against any frontline that I've seen. Those were great, fun days. I had that frontline and in the backcourt I had Freddie Lewis, Donnie Freeman, Billy Keller, Tommy Thacker. Backing up the guys up front I had Darnell Hillman and Bob Netolicky."

Labels: ABA, Bobby "Slick" Leonard, Gus Johnson, Indiana Pacers, Jerry Colangelo, Julius Erving, Mel Daniels, Roger Brown, Walt Bellamy

posted by David Friedman @ 2:02 AM

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"Undefeated" Shows that Roger Brown's Story is "A Celebration, not a Tragedy"

"People who go looking for the story, they'll find it, and it's a bold and brazen story. The ones who don't go looking, they might miss it--but that's their loss."--Julius Erving, speaking about Roger Brown

On Thursday night, The Neon in Dayton, Ohio held a special, one-time only screening of Ted Green's documentary "Undefeated: The Roger Brown Story." The goal of the event was not only to spread the word about Brown's life and career but also to raise enough money for Arlena Smith to attend Brown's Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame induction next month. Brown is one of the most underrated players in pro basketball history and Smith played an important role in Brown's life at a time when the rest of the basketball world abandoned him. The screening was a tremendous success, as the theater filled to capacity with patrons who immensely enjoyed the film.

I had the honor and privilege to meet Smith before the movie started and to sit next to her throughout the screening. She clasped my hand as she sat down and she held on to it throughout the movie. It was a very powerful experience to see Roger Brown's story being told in full color on the big screen. Smith is thrilled with Green's work: "It certainly was beautiful. The movie was excellent, well put together. Ted worked so hard. He made many trips to Dayton."

Brown came to the University of Dayton from New York City fresh off of a dominating high school championship game performance against Connie Hawkins, the top high school prospect in the country at the time. Brown had a tremendous season for the 1961 UD freshman team but he never played a game for the varsity; prior to the 1962 season, UD expelled Brown because of false and unproven allegations that Brown had a nefarious association with the notorious game fixer Jack Molinas. Underclassmen were not then permitted to jump to the NBA but even when Brown should have been eligible three years later no NBA team signed him; the league blackballed him, despite not having any evidence that Brown had done anything wrong. Brown later sued the NBA, received a settlement and cleared his name; before that happened, though, he was in basketball purgatory and that is when Azariah and Arlena Smith welcomed Brown into their Dayton home. Brown worked at a GM plant in Dayton and played AAU basketball for six years.

Smith is very sweet, kind-hearted and soft-spoken but when you are in her presence you can also sense her deep inner strength. She loves Roger Brown as if he were her own son. Azariah Smith, who passed away in 2011, served as an assistant coach under Jack Bowles for Brown's AAU team but after Bowles took ill and retired Smith became the head coach. There were standing room only crowds for Brown's AAU games in Dayton. Arlena Smith told me that when she and Azariah would arrive for a late game, some fans waiting outside grumbled, "How come they can get in?"--not realizing that he was the coach and she was his wife!

Brown's AAU team defeated top AAU squads such as the Phillips 66ers and the Akron Goodyear Wingfoots but when they were on the verge of winning the national AAU title--and thus potentially earning Brown the opportunity to try out for the U.S. Olympic team as one of the AAU candidates--Brown and his team were banned from the event. The powers that be had no intention of permitting Brown to join the Olympic team. Brown was devastated, not just for himself but also because his teammates were being unfairly punished as well.

Smith told me about that dark time. "One thing that is worth mentioning is how they treated him when he went to Oklahoma (in 1964) for the Olympics and how they shunned him. He called me from there and he was crying. I asked him what was the matter and he said, 'You don't know how badly they have hurt me.' I asked him what did he mean and did I need to fly out there but he said, 'No, Mama. I'm coming home now.' But he said, 'I feel so bad. I haven't done anything wrong.' That just ripped my heart out.'"

In 1967, the teams in the newly formed ABA were looking far and wide for any talented players who were not in the NBA (or who could be convinced to jump leagues). Oscar Robertson, who then played for the NBA's Cincinnati Royals and was familiar with Brown's skills, contacted the Indiana Pacers and recommended that they sign Brown. The rest is history: Brown helped the Pacers win three championships in a four season stretch (1970, 1972-73). Along the way, Brown set the ABA playoff single game scoring record (53 points) versus defensive ace Willie Wise in the 1970 ABA Finals and he outscored Rick Barry--one of the NBA's 50 Greatest Players--32-23 in the deciding game six of the 1972 ABA Finals.

The wrongful ban stole several of Brown's prime years and injuries cut his career short but he clearly accomplished enough to earn induction in the Basketball Hall of Fame, a sentiment expressed by many Hall of Famers over the years. Connie Hawkins, who was banned by the NBA at the same time as Brown and who played in the ABA until reaching a settlement agreement with the NBA, had a pro career that paralleled Brown's statistically--but the big difference is that Hawkins jumped from the ABA to the NBA for the 1969-70 season and thus spent most of his pro career in the more established league. For many years, Hall of Fame voters displayed a clear bias against players who spent all or most of their careers in the ABA; Hawkins was selected as a Hall of Famer in 1992 but Brown did not receive that honor until this year, 16 years after he died. Basketball Hall of Fame Chairman Jerry Colangelo deserves credit for following through on his pledge that under his watch the Hall of Fame will properly honor players who, in his words, had previously "slipped through the cracks." Under Colangelo's direction, the Hall of Fame formed an ABA committee and in the past three years that committee has selected Artis Gilmore, Mel Daniels and Roger Brown for induction.

After Brown retired from the Pacers, he worked with the sheriff's department in Indianapolis. One time, Smith visited him and he took her for a ride in a cruiser. She had to use the restroom, so he put on the siren and rushed her home. "When they hear the siren, all of them come," Smith told me. "When they got to the house, he explained, 'My mom had to go to the toilet, so I had to get her there.' It wasn't that bad but he wanted to help me and he was also doing something fun for me. I thought we were going to jail but it was great."

Brown covered all of the expenses for the first three years of the Youth Engaged for Success organization, a Dayton-based group offering support services for troubled children. Brown not only donated money but he also visited Dayton to speak with the children. Barbara Boatright, one of the group's co-founders, recalled Brown's message: "Your beginning doesn't have to be your end. No matter what you go through, it doesn't have to define the rest of your life."

Still, despite that upbeat public attitude, Brown's family members believe that being expelled by UD and banned by the NBA permanently changed him. Roger Brown, Jr. said, "I don't want to use the word bitter--but, yeah, bitter. I always felt that he would watch the athletes of current times and wonder what could have been for him."

After watching the movie, I spoke with Bill Chmielewski, Brown's teammate on the University of Dayton's 1961 freshman team. The next season, Chmielewski led the UD varsity to the NIT Championship and he won the NIT MVP. In his interview during the movie, Chmielewski said that if Brown had been permitted to play for UD then the Flyers would have won multiple NCAA championships. I asked Chmielewski how he first met Brown and what made Brown so special as a player. He replied, "I met Roger at the All-America High School game in New Jersey (in 1960). When I came to look at the University of Dayton, he was here and we hit it off, talking back and forth. Our freshman team was superior. We went 36-4, beat all of the other freshman teams and went to the national AAU tournament. Roger was the type of ball player who made everybody else look good. If the game was close and it came down to crunch time, that was Roger's time. He was very unselfish, giving of himself, he gave the ball up all the time, but he was a money player: at the end of the ball game, give the ball to Rog."

Chmielewski was in New York visiting Fordham at the time that Brown and Hawkins had their now-legendary high school championship showdown. The Fordham coach took Chmielewski, then a high school star in Detroit, to that game. Chmielewski said, "It was amazing. I thought, 'There's nobody like that in Detroit!' Yeah, it was amazing. He was amazing. He had the moves of Jordan and he passed like Larry Bird. A little bit of Magic in there, too. A combination of all of them."

When looking at Brown's pro career, it is important to remember that he not only lost several prime years due to being blackballed by the NBA but also that those lost years took a toll on his game mentally and physically; by the time Brown started his ABA career he was still great but he was not quite the player he had been earlier in the 1960s. Chmielewski told me, "He was a better ball player (before entering the ABA). You have to remember that when he got the raw deal there at school, he had five or six years there where he did not have steady (pro level) coaching or practicing. So for him to come back on the scene and play for the Indiana Pacers the way that he did is absolutely amazing."

I met two other key figures from Brown's life. His second wife, Jeannie, took care of Brown when he became terminally ill. She told me that Mel Daniels and Reggie Miller will be Brown's Hall of Fame presenters. Before the movie began, Willis "Bing" Davis of the EbonNia Gallery spoke eloquently about Brown's affection for the Dayton community and how the community has reciprocated that affection. Brown and Davis were AAU teammates for six years. The wiry, 6-4 Davis is highly regarded as an artist but I never knew that he had been an AAU basketball player. He told me that he was the point guard on Brown's teams, so Davis had an up close view as Brown dominated the opposition.

Many thoughts and feelings raced through my head after watching the movie and talking with Arlena Smith, Bill Chmielewski, Bing Davis and Jeannie Brown. Sadness. Rage. Outrage. Disappointment. Frustration. Why do so many terrible, unjust things happen?

However, there is another side to Brown's story. Joy. Triumph. Vindication. Love. Love is a big part of this story--love between family members, love between teammates, love between Brown and his adopted Dayton family, the Smiths. The power of love resonates and reverberates throughout "Undefeated."

While it is easy to see that so much was senselessly lost, it must also be remembered that so much was relentlessly fought for and gained. I'll leave the last words to Mike Storen, who lifted Brown out of basketball purgatory by signing him as the first Indiana Pacer: "I would suggest that it's not a legacy of the tragedy of what happened to Roger Brown. What we have is a joy to share that in the final analysis Roger was able to demonstrate to the basketball world what a great player he was. That's a celebration, not a tragedy."

Labels: ABA, Arlena Smith, Artis Gilmore, Azariah Smith, Basketball Hall of Fame, Bill Chmielewski, Connie Hawkins, Jerry Colangelo, Julius Erving, Mel Daniels, Mike Storen, Roger Brown, Ted Green

posted by David Friedman @ 4:12 AM

1 comments

The Neon Presents Special Screening of "Undefeated: The Roger Brown Story" on Thursday August 15

On Thursday August 15 at 7:30 p.m., The Neon in Dayton, Ohio will hold a special, one-time only screening of "Undefeated: The Roger Brown Story." Brown enjoyed a spectacular career in the ABA--helping the Indiana Pacers win three championships and setting the ABA Finals single game scoring record (53 points)--but because the ABA did not receive much mainstream media coverage Brown did not get the credit he deserves. Roger Brown is one of the most underrated players in pro basketball history; this September he will finally, belatedly be inducted in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, 38 years after he retired and 16 years after he died of liver cancer.

Producer Ted Green will attend the screening, as will Arlena Smith. Smith and her husband Azariah (who passed away in 2011) provided a Dayton home for Brown in the 1960s when the University of Dayton and the NBA turned their backs on him; Brown was kicked out of school and banned by the NBA based on false allegations about his supposed connection with notorious gambler/game fixer Jack Molinas. Connie Hawkins was also unjustly banned by the NBA for the same reason. Hawkins and Brown both joined the ABA when it was formed in 1967 and they both later reached settlement agreements with the NBA, clearing their names.

Hawkins jumped from the ABA to the NBA in 1969 but Brown chose to remain in the league that had accepted him from the start. Brown's loyalty may have cost him with the Basketball Hall of Fame voters, who for years seemed to harbor a deep bias against players who spent all or most of their careers in the ABA. Hawkins' pro career mirrored Brown's in many ways, with the main difference being that Hawkins spent seven years in the NBA. Hawkins was inducted in the Hall of Fame in 1992--so the voters ignored him for a few years (he retired in 1976, one year after Brown) but not nearly as long as they ignored Brown.

When I interviewed Basketball Hall of Fame Chairman Jerry Colangelo in 2010, he vowed to make sure that the Hall of Fame honored deserving players who had previously "slipped through the cracks." Brown earned this honor and the focus should remain on him but Colangelo deserves a tip of the hat for following through on his promise. Jerry Colangelo is a man of his word; under his watch, the Hall of Fame has inducted neglected ABA players Roger Brown, Artis Gilmore and Mel Daniels.

Daniels wrote a heartfelt poetic tribute about his teammate Brown (a copy of the full text of the poem can be found at the end of this article). The purpose of the Thursday screening is not only to spread the word about Brown's great career but also to raise enough money to enable Smith and her great, great nephew to attend this year's Basketball Hall of Fame induction ceremony. Smith had faith in Brown and supported him when few other people did, so she deserves to experience his Hall of Fame induction in person.

Each ticket for "Undefeated: The Roger Brown Story" costs $10; tickets can be purchased at The Neon box office and at the EbonNia Gallery, 1135 West Dr. Martin Luther King Way, Dayton, Ohio, 45402. All proceeds from the screening will go to the Arlena Smith Hall of Fame fund. You can also contribute directly to the fund by writing a check to “The Arlena Smith Fund” and sending it to the EbonNia Gallery.

*****************************************************************************

Mel Daniels' Poem:

Rahjie
By Mel Daniels

There are names in basketball history that will endure the test of time
Which will be brought up in conversation as if they were quotes from some great line

Jordan, Magic, Russell, Bird, West, Chamberlain, Miller to name a few

And as the conversation continues and the crowd who’s listening gathers around
The name that has to be added to the list would have to be that of Roger Brown.

As gifted as the aforementioned athletes in every aspect of the game
But diminished by youthful unawareness his rightful place to his glory and his fame

What he couldn’t do on a basketball court hasn’t come to pass
With two bad knees and age running out, he was still head and shoulders above his class

Deceptive speed and quickness, great hands, and serious hops.
Great strength, silky smooth jumper from anywhere on the court and motor you couldn’t stop.

A fierce competitor at both ends of the floor,
The things he did to the opposition had the crowd screaming for more

So smooth was he in tight games

It came to be a lock, down by one or two

Slick would call timeout, at the right moment as the seconds ticked off the clock

The die has been set long ago and this was just another repeat
And as we’d listen for those famous words from Slick – “Rahjie, put him to sleep.”

Neto would enter the ball to Freddie as we all took our spots
Freddie would pass to Roger
While we all watched the hands on the clock

The crowd would stand in silence as to not disturb a thing
As Roger made the bed for his opponent
So he’d have a nightmarish dream

A soft smile, a serious look, a subtle move that the opponent would take
Would end the game quietly, as his opponent took the fake

Scoring with ease, and unfazed by what he had done
Walking off the floor, he'd wink his eye at us and say

Isn’t it wonderful, the game we just won!

Labels: ABA, Arlena Smith, Artis Gilmore, Azariah Smith, Basketball Hall of Fame, Connie Hawkins, Jerry Colangelo, Mel Daniels, Roger Brown, Ted Green

posted by David Friedman @ 4:09 PM

0 comments

Reflections on the 2012 Basketball Hall of Fame Class

If you believe the mainstream media hype, Reggie Miller "headlined" the 12 member 2012 Basketball Hall of Fame class. Miller had an outstanding 18 year NBA career, scoring 25,279 regular season points while hitting many celebrated clutch shots but he earned just five All-Star selections and three All-NBA Third Team honors; he was never the best player at his position--admittedly, that would have been hard to do while spending most of his career competing against Michael Jordan--but it could also be argued that he was never the second best shooting guard in the league. With all due respect to Miller--and I greatly respect not only his accomplishments but also his extraordinary work ethic, which I witnessed firsthand late in his career when he practiced on the court by himself long before game time--it is ludicrous for Mark Jackson to suggest that Miller is the fourth greatest shooting guard in NBA history behind Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade. Miller made the All-Star team for the first time in 1990, the season during which he averaged a career-high 24.6 ppg--and yet he was no better than the fourth best shooting guard in the league that season, never mind all-time: the 1990 All-NBA shooting guards were Michael Jordan, Clyde Drexler and Joe Dumars.

The point is not to bash Miller--placing his accomplishments in proper context should not be considered "bashing" anyway and, as I said, he had a wonderful career--but rather to bash the media for focusing so much attention on Miller that other players who are at least as deserving of praise just get shoved aside. Miller deserves credit for mentioning Mel Daniels, who he called his "uncle," but this cannot and must not just be acceptance speech lip service; Miller's platform as a recently retired player who is now a TNT broadcaster gives him tremendous influence and he should use that influence to remind viewers about the great players who built this game.

Mel Daniels won two ABA regular season MVPs, made the All-Star team seven times during his eight ABA seasons, led the Indiana Pacers to three ABA titles and is one of the greatest rebounders in professional basketball history: his 14.9 regular season rpg average ranks sixth all-time, while his 1608 playoff rebounds rank 14th on the all-time list and when he retired he trailed only Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor in that department. Daniels may be a forgotten player to younger fans but those fans need to learn the history of the game--and LeBron James set a great example by attending the Hall of Fame ceremony, which reminds me of how Isiah Thomas and Mark Aguirre used to attend the NBA Finals in person as young pros before they eventually won two championships together: it is vitally important to respect the past, respect the game and learn from one's great predecessors. I hope that James was at the ceremony not just as part of Phil Knight's Nike contingent but also to learn firsthand from the legends of the game.

Jim Bukata's 1973 book One on One--which may be even more forgotten than Daniels' career--contains some interesting quotes and insights. Daniels' Indiana Coach Bobby "Slick" Leonard said, "I've been around professional basketball as a player and coach for more than 20 years. Mel ranks among the top 10 centers I've seen. That includes Chamberlain and Russell and Mikan, all the great ones. Mel's the best defensive rebounder in the game today." Daniels' rebounding prowess was a key factor for those Indiana championship teams and Bukata noted that Daniels grabbed more rebounds in his first five professional seasons than anyone other than Chamberlain, Russell, Jerry Lucas and Walt Bellamy. Babe McCarthy, then the Coach of the Dallas Chaparrals, said, "Nobody pushes Daniels around. As far as I'm concerned, he is the second-best center in either league--behind Jabbar."

It is a travesty that Daniels had to wait almost 30 years to be inducted in the Basketball Hall of Fame and it is very sad that some health problems prevented Daniels from attending the ceremony, limiting him to a brief video acceptance speech of less than four minutes:

Mel Daniels' Hall of Fame Speech

It is not surprising that he spent a good portion of the speech urging the Hall of Fame to recognize other worthy ABA players. Daniels is not a braggart or a self-promoter and during the times I was fortunate enough to speak with him I found him to be a no-nonsense straight talker. Jerry Colangelo deserves a lot of credit for forming the ABA Committee that selected Daniels and that honored Artis Gilmore last year.

Another player who had to wait far too long to be inducted is Chet Walker, who probably made some powerful enemies when he became a member of the "NBA 14," the group of players whose lawsuits paved the way for the free agency system that has made LeBron James and so many other current players fabulously wealthy. Walker is a successful businessman who earned an Emmy for co-producing a TV movie about Isiah Thomas' mother; Walker does not need and probably does not want charity from anyone but wouldn't it be great if James and other NBA players who have earned well in excess of $100 million each set up a fund to help out retired NBA players who have fallen on hard times? Do today's NBA stars even know anything about Bill Tosheff and the "Pre-1965ers"? Sadly, that is not the kind of story that will ever gain much traction with the so-called Worldwide Leader in Sports or--for that matter--even with the NBA's official publicity organs/media outlets.

Walker chose Isiah Thomas, Earl Monroe, Billy Cunningham and Adrian Dantley to be his presenters; Walker shares Chicago ties with Thomas, he played against Monroe, he played with and against Cunningham and he lauded Dantley for copying his moves. Walker spoke frankly and seemingly extemporaneously about his fight for free agency rights and the greatness of his 1967 Philadelphia championship team, a squad that he said has been ignored by so-called experts:

Chet Walker's Hall of Fame Speech

Julius Erving served as a 2012 presenter three times--for Ralph Sampson, Katrina McClain and the All-American Red Heads--which may be a record for one ceremony and adds to his previous total of five times as a Basketball Hall of Fame presenter. Casual fans may not fully understand just how much Erving is respected and idolized by other greats of the game but the number of times he has been selected as a presenter and the diversity of the Hall of Famers that he has presented (ranging from teammates to opponents to players who grew up watching him to great female players) demonstrates just how highly he is regarded.

Labels: Basketball Hall of Fame, Chet Walker, Jerry Colangelo, Julius Erving, Mel Daniels, Reggie Miller

posted by David Friedman @ 6:53 AM

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Basketball Hall of Fame Welcomes 10 New Members, Including Karl Malone, Scottie Pippen and Two U.S. Olympic Teams

The 2010 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame class includes Jerry Buss, Cynthia Cooper, Bob Hurley, Sr., Karl Malone, Scottie Pippen, the 1960 USA Men's Olympic team, the 1992 USA Basketball "Dream Team" plus three players who are being honored posthumously: Dennis Johnson, Gus Johnson and international star Maciel "Ubiratan" Pereira. This is the largest Basketball Hall of Fame class since 1961--the third year of the institution's existence--when there were 17 honorees (16 individuals plus one team, the Buffalo Germans). The size of this year's Hall of Fame class reaffirms what Basketball Hall of Fame Chairman Jerry Colangelo said at the Hall of Fame press conference during the 2010 NBA All-Star Weekend: contrary to popular belief, there is "no limit to the number of people who can be inducted" in a given year. Colangelo also pledged that under his watch the Hall of Fame will take steps to make sure that worthy candidates who have "slipped through the cracks" over the years will now receive the recognition that they deserve--and in that regard it is great that Dennis Johnson and Gus Johnson are members of this year's class; two years ago I chronicled Dennis Johnson's great career and four years ago I wrote about Gus Johnson's legendary battles with Hall of Famer Dave DeBusschere. Gus Johnson also played a small yet vital role for the Indiana Pacers in their great rivalry with the Kentucky Colonels. The Hall of Fame is enriched by the addition of both of these fine players but it is sad that neither one lived long enough to enjoy this great honor.

All of this year's Hall of Famers are worthy--though I must confess that I did not know much about Pereira prior to when he became a Hall of Fame Finalist--so I do not want to take any shine away from any of them but it is disappointing that Triangle Offense guru Tex Winter did not receive the nod and it is an outrage that Artis Gilmore was not even a Finalist this year; Gilmore is, without question, the greatest eligible player who has not been inducted in the Hall of Fame.

Some people think that the Hall of Fame is too political and restrictive, while others believe that it has lowered its standards and become too watered down; the reality is that basketball has been played for more than 100 years and the Hall of Fame has inducted a total of 303 coaches, players, referees, contributors and teams (including this year's 10 honorees). Considering the literally millions of people who have been involved with basketball at some level worldwide, it is a very special honor to be one of just 303 Hall of Fame members; I disagree with the idea that only the 10 or 15 greatest players should be inducted--how could such a determination even be made and does anyone seriously support kicking out older honorees in favor of newer ones? A writer actually did once suggest that the Baseball Hall of Fame should be limited to just 25 players and that no one should be added without removing someone; perhaps there is some limited appeal to restricting Hall of Fame membership to "elite" candidates but I think that the idea of inducting someone into the Hall of Fame and then later kicking him out is just asinine. Hopefully, the overdue inductions of Dennis Johnson and Gus Johnson are a sign that Colangelo will succeed in taking some of the politics and pettiness out of the voting so that in the next few years Gilmore, Roger Brown and other unsung ABA heroes like Mel Daniels will finally be welcomed with open arms by the Hall of Fame.

Scottie Pippen Completes Journey from Hamburg, Arkansas to Springfield, Massachusetts

Even though Scottie Pippen has been recognized as one of the NBA's 50 Greatest Players and is now a first ballot Hall of Famer I still think that he is underrated; fans--and even some media members--sometimes incorrectly assert that Pippen merely "rode Michael Jordan's coattails" but anyone who understands basketball realizes how idiotic that sentiment is. The vast majority of championship teams had at least two Hall of Fame players leading the charge (two notable exceptions are the Julius Erving-led New York Nets and the Rick Barry-led Golden State Warriors). Jordan won exactly one playoff game--not one playoff series, one playoff game--in his first three NBA seasons; the rise of the Chicago Bulls coincided exactly with Scottie Pippen's arrival and Pippen's quick emergence as a multi-dimensional player; the addition of other good players to the Chicago mix also helped but it is no coincidence that the three common denominators for the six Chicago championship teams were Jordan, Pippen and Coach Phil Jackson: the rebounding, spot shooting and other roles could be capably filled by various players but the two great players and one great coach were indispensable.

It could be argued that when Pippen was at his peak he was at least equal to Jordan in every major skill set area--defense, rebounding, passing, ballhandling--other than shooting. Jordan's special, unique gift was the ability to score against any defense in any kind of situation but a big part of Coach Jackson's brilliance is that he put Jordan in position to dominate games late by lessening the burden on Jordan early--and a major aspect of that process involved Pippen, who became the team's point forward, defensive stopper and second best rebounder. Pippen's ability to push the ball up the court enabled Jordan to sprint ahead of the action and get into prime scoring position because Jordan could be confident that Pippen would deliver the ball on time and on target.

Pippen also often played with four bench players as an anchor, enabling Jordan to rest and thus be fresh for the stretch run; the quintessential example of this is game six of the 1992 NBA Finals, when the Bulls seemed to be dead in the water (down 75-58 to Portland late in the third quarter) before Pippen and four reserves led a rally to put the Bulls right back in contention: a rested Jordan then reentered the fray and teamed with Pippen to finish the job and deliver the second of three consecutive NBA titles (Jordan finished that game with 33 points, four rebounds and four assists, while Pippen had 26 points, five rebounds and four assists).

Pippen is one of the greatest defensive players in pro basketball history, an eight-time member of the All-Defensive First Team who could check point guards, shooting guards, small forwards, power forwards and even some centers (Pippen would sometimes nominally guard a power forward or center while serving primarily as a roving help defender but in that role he still had to be able to box out his assigned man, who often was much taller and heavier). Pippen's defense against Magic Johnson in the 1991 NBA Finals played a major role in Chicago's first championship; later, Pippen completely disrupted Indiana's offense in the 1998 Eastern Conference Finals by harassing point guard Mark Jackson from baseline to baseline and during other playoff runs Pippen at times guarded players ranging in size and skill set from quick guards Mark Price and John Stockton to top flight scoring small forwards Mark Aguirre, Glen Rice and Dominique Wilkins. Pippen thrived as both a lock down one on one defender and as a help defender. Pippen, Magic Johnson and Jason Kidd are the only three players I have ever seen who could dominate a game without scoring a point or even taking a shot.

Although Pippen was not a pure shooter, he developed into a very capable scorer, averaging at least 20 ppg in four different regular seasons, topping the 19 ppg mark two other times and finishing his career with a 16.1 ppg average--a figure deflated by his final, injury-marred seasons. Pippen averaged at least 17.8 ppg every season from 1990-91 through 1997-98. Pippen is also one of the few players who increased his scoring during the playoffs; he averaged 17.5 ppg during his playoff career and he scored at least 16.8 ppg in each playoff season from 1989-90 through 1998-99, including six postseasons in which he averaged at least 19.2 ppg. Pippen had a knack for delivering clutch three point shots in the postseason: he hit key long range daggers late in playoff games versus the Cavs and Knicks early in his career, he still shares the NBA Finals single game record for most three pointers made (seven), he ranks fifth in NBA Finals history for three pointers made and he is fifth in NBA playoff history for three pointers made.

Pippen's accomplishments during Jordan's first retirement have never been fully recognized. Jordan did not announce his retirement until right before the 1993-94 season started, so the Bulls had no opportunity to even try to trade for or draft a top level shooting guard. Pete Myers, formerly a practice player for the team, became the starting shooting guard and yet Pippen led the Bulls to a 55-27 record, just two wins fewer than they had during their 1992-93 championship season. After Jordan's sudden departure, many people made two incorrect assumptions: they thought that Pippen would try to fill Jordan's shoes by averaging 30 ppg and that the Bulls would miss the playoffs. Pippen understood that he did not possess Jordan's shooting/scoring skills, so even with Jordan out of the mix Pippen only increased his shot attempts by 1.4 per game--but he used his playmaking, leadership and defensive skills to help his teammates at both ends of the court, enabling Horace Grant and B.J. Armstrong to earn their first (and only) All-Star selections. Pippen led the Bulls in scoring (22.0 ppg), assists (5.6 apg) and steals (2.9 spg) while ranking second in rebounds (8.7 rpg) and blocked shots (.8 bpg). He finished third in MVP voting and fourth in Defensive Player of the Year voting but I think that he deserved to win both honors; during that season, no one in the NBA displayed a more complete all-around game or was more disruptive as both a lock down defender and as a help defender than Pippen was. Pippen carried the Bulls from being an afterthought to being serious championship contenders and they may very well have won the title without Jordan if not for one of the worst calls by a referee in NBA playoff history, the infamous foul whistled by Hue Hollins against Pippen at the end of game five of the Eastern Conference semifinals; I generally do not focus on officiating when I write about the NBA but that call was so egregiously bad that Darell Garretson--who worked that game with Hollins and later became the league's officiating supervisor--publicly said that it was a "horrible" mistake by Hollins, a powerful statement considering that league employees rarely make public comments about such matters (Garretson defended Hollins right after the game but just a few months later he admitted that the call was wrong).

Even people who acknowledge just how well Pippen played in 1993-94 sometimes say that Pippen "failed" to match that performance the next season but this is not true; in 1994-95, Pippen led the Bulls in scoring (21.4 ppg), rebounding (8.1 rpg), assists (5.2 apg), steals (a league-high 2.9 spg) and blocked shots (1.1 bpg); the only other players to lead their teams in all five of those categories are Julius Erving (1976 Nets), Dave Cowens (1978 Celtics), Tracy McGrady (2003 Magic) and Kevin Garnett (2003 Timberwolves). Horace Grant's departure and injuries to several players (including Toni Kukoc and starting center Luc Longley) left the Bulls shorthanded but with Pippen leading the way the Bulls stayed competitive and late in the season once they got healthy they began to make a run, winning three games in a row, six of their previous seven and eight out of 10 prior to Jordan's celebrated return (a game that the Bulls lost in overtime as a rusty Jordan shot just 7-28 from the field while Pippen had a game-high 31 points on 11-20 shooting). Pippen finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting but slipped to seventh in MVP voting. The Bulls did not advance any further in the 1995 playoffs with Jordan but sans Grant than they did in the 1994 playoffs with Grant but without Jordan; it was clear that the Bulls needed to add a legit power forward to the roster, a void that they promptly filled by signing Dennis Rodman. The rest is history: Jordan and Pippen powered the Bulls to a record-setting 72-10 regular season record in 1995-96 and the first of three straight titles. That season, Pippen finished fifth in MVP voting while making both the All-NBA First Team and the All-Defensive First Team. He again placed second in Defensive Player of the Year voting.

During the 1998 NBA Finals, Pippen seemed to be on course to win his first ever Finals MVP before he ruptured two disks in his back. Although he played in game six of the NBA Finals despite excruciating pain, he needed offseason surgery to repair the damage. Pippen's career lasted for six more seasons but he left a lot of his explosiveness on the operating table and that is why it is so unfair for people to compare the Pippen of 1999-2004 to Jordan, the younger Pippen or any other superstar in his prime. A 33-38 year old Pippen with a surgically repaired back was no longer an MVP level player but he still was a deft playmaker, tenacious defender and valuable all-around contributor. Pippen helped to lead the 1999-2000 Portland Trailblazers to the brink of the Western Conference title before ultimately bowing to a Shaquille-O'Neal-Kobe Bryant Lakers team that was about to win the first of three straight championships. During Pippen's final seasons he was still a very good player but the true measure of his greatness is what he achieved during his prime years, including his MVP-caliber play during Jordan's first retirement.

I suspect that most casual fans do not realize that Pippen made a significant impact statistically in addition to his "intangible" contributions as a defender and ballhandler. Pippen has more regular season assists (6135) than any non-guard in pro basketball history and he ranks 26th on the overall list. Pippen ranks sixth all-time in regular season steals (2307). Pippen is one of just nine ABA/NBA players to post at least three seasons with 200 or more steals. Pippen, Julius Erving, Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon are the only players who ever had at least 200 steals and 100 blocked shots in the same season. Pippen ranks among the all-time ABA/NBA playoff leaders in steals (first), assists (fourth), scoring (13th) and rebounds (15th).

When I asked Magic Johnson--who surely would make any list of the 10 greatest basketball players ever--if Scottie Pippen is underrated, Johnson enthusiastically began to reply almost before I could even utter the question:

"Oh, of course, of course. Of course he's underrated. When you have a super, super, super star like Michael (Jordan) that overshadows you, you are going to be underrated." Then Johnson chuckled, looked right at me and concluded, "But us basketball players, we know how great Scottie Pippen was and how great he played every single night."

Pippen's life and career are truly remarkable; the youngest of 12 kids, he honed his ballhandling skills as a skinny high school point guard and he began his collegiate career as a walk on at Central Arkansas. A late growth spurt turned him into a 6-8 forward who possessed guard-like skills and his tireless work ethic enabled him to continue to fine tune his game until he became an all-time great.

I interviewed Pippen near the end of his career and this is what he told me when I asked him how he would like to be remembered:

A gym rat. A guy who worked very hard to make sure that his game was complete in every area and wanted to be looked at as one of the best players in the league. Even though I probably never was (the best player), because I played with a great player, but that was my approach to basketball as a whole, being a guy who came from a small college. I wanted to be the best player in the game. Even though I played with the best player in the game, it was always in my mind that if I did a little bit more, if I became a little bit more complete, people would look at me as one of the best players in the game and not just look at the fact that I did not have the offensive skills that Michael had.

Labels: 1960 U.S. Olympic Team, 1992 Dream Team, Bob Hurley Sr., Cynthia Cooper, Dennis Johnson, Gus Johnson, Jerry Buss, Jerry Colangelo, Karl Malone, Maciel Pereira, Scottie Pippen

posted by David Friedman @ 8:18 PM

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