20 Second Timeout

Reflections on Bill Walton's Legacy

The global basketball community is mourning the passing of Bill Walton, who died this morning at the age of 71 after a long battle with cancer. Despite being plagued by injuries, Walton is one of the most accomplished and decorated players in basketball history. He led UCLA to undefeated national championship seasons in 1972 and 1973 before losing to David Thompson's North Carolina State squad in the 1974 national semifinals. Walton was honored as the Naismith College Player of the Year in all three of his varsity seasons (1972-74), and he was the Most Outstanding Player in the NCAA Tournament in 1973 and 1974. In UCLA's 87-66 championship game win versus Memphis State in 1973, Walton scored 44 points on 21-22 field goal shooting while also grabbing a game-high 13 rebounds. That is perhaps the greatest single game performance in college basketball history, and Walton is on the short list of the greatest college basketball players ever, along with Bill Russell and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (known as Lew Alcindor during his college career). Walton admired UCLA Coach John Wooden, and often quoted Wooden's sayings, such as "Failing to prepare is preparing to fail" (which originated with Ben Franklin), and "Never mistake activity with achievement."

Walton played just 468 regular season games during an NBA career spanning 1975-88, but he earned the 1977 NBA Finals MVP, the 1978 regular season MVP, and the 1986 Sixth Man Award. Walton's 1977 Portland Trail Blazers are the youngest championship team in NBA history, and the Trail Blazers started 50-10 the next season before Walton suffered a serious foot injury; with a healthy Walton, that squad could have been contending for NBA titles into the 1980s. After retiring as a player in 1988, Walton had a long career as a basketball commentator on TV, overcoming a stuttering problem to become an Emmy Award winner and one of the sport's most beloved characters.

Walton always focused on team success more than individual honors, so the twin highlights of his NBA career were the championships he won in 1977 as a dominant player and in 1986 as a sixth man for a powerful Boston team featuring fellow Hall of Famers Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, and Dennis Johnson. In between those two peaks, Walton spent nearly a decade in basketball wilderness but he refused to give up his belief that he could reach the mountaintop again.

Portland trailed Julius Erving's Philadelphia 76ers 2-0 in the 1977 NBA Finals before reeling off four straight wins. In the decisive sixth game, Walton and Erving had a showdown for the ages: Erving poured in 40 points on 17-29 field goal shooting while dishing for eight assists and grabbing six rebounds, but Walton led the Trail Blazers to a 109-107 win with 20 points, 23 rebounds, seven assists, and eight blocked shots. Walton averaged 18.5 ppg, 19.0 rpg, 5.2 apg, and 3.7 bpg during the 1977 NBA Finals. 

Walton and Erving are both members of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 1993. They participated in a memorable Legends Roundtable with Bill Russell and Bob Lanier in 2011. I met all four of those legends, and I interviewed Erving and Lanier. Russell is the greatest winner in North American team sports history, while Erving, Lanier, and Walton were at the height of their powers when I first learned to love basketball as a child. It is sobering that Erving is the only one of those four who is still living. 

Erving posted a heartfelt tribute to his friend and on-court rival:

After the 1977 championship season, Walton played in just two more playoff games with Portland before leaving the team acrimoniously in 1979 as a result of how the franchise handled his injuries. David Halberstam memorably told the story of Portland's championship season and the sad aftermath in his classic book The Breaks of the Game. 

Walton averaged 11.9 ppg and 9.0 rpg in part-time duty with the Clippers from 1979-85, first in his hometown San Diego, and then in Los Angeles after the team moved. Walton enjoyed the healthiest season of his career in 1985-86 as the first player off of the bench for one of the greatest NBA teams ever, the 67-15 Boston Celtics that cruised to the championship with a 15-3 playoff run. He averaged 7.6 ppg, 6.8 rpg, and 1.3 bpg while shooting .562 from the field in 80 games. That was Walton's last hurrah, as injuries limited him to 10 regular season games in 1986-87, and spot duty in 12 playoff games as the Celtics lost to the L.A. Lakers in the 1987 NBA Finals. Walton missed the entire 1987-88 season due to injuries before officially announcing his retirement. 

Walton was an elite rebounder, passer, and defensive player. He was an efficient scorer who had a .521 career field goal percentage. Walton was selected to both the NBA's 50 Greatest Players List and the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team.

As tributes pour in for Walton from teammates, opponents, and fans, it is evident that he will be remembered not only for his basketball greatness, but for the impact he had on the many lives that he touched.

Labels: Bill Russell, Bill Walton, Boston Celtics, Dennis Johnson, John Wooden, Julius Erving, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kevin McHale, Larry Bird, Portland Trail Blazers, Robert Parish, UCLA

posted by David Friedman @ 11:50 PM

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Nikola Jokic Becomes 10th Member of Pro Basketball's Three MVP Club

Nikola Jokic earned his third regular season MVP in the past four seasons, becoming just the 10th member of pro basketball's Three MVP Club, and the first new member of that exclusive group since LeBron James joined in 2012. Bill Russell was the first pro basketball player who won at least three regular season MVP awards, and he was then followed by Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Julius Erving, Moses Malone, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, and LeBron James. Jokic and Malone are the only members of that group who are not in my pro basketball Pantheon. Jokic's career began after I made my selections, while Malone did not miss the cut by much.

This season, Jokic ranked in the top 10 in scoring (10th), rebounding (fourth), and assists (third), and he is the second player in pro basketball history to accumulate at least 2000 points, at least 900 rebounds, and at least 700 assists in the same season, matching a feat first accomplished by Oscar Robertson in 1961-62. 

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Jalen Brunson rounded out the top five in this season's MVP balloting. They each had MVP-caliber seasons, but no one filled up a boxscore quite like Jokic did, and no one was as essential to his team's success. Jokic is not a defensive stopper, but he uses his size and strength to good effect to clog up the paint, and his defensive rebounding helps the Denver Nuggets to finish off defensive possessions by gaining control of the ball. The Nuggets ranked fourth in defensive field goal percentage and sixth in points allowed, and that would not be possible if the player who leads the team in minutes played were a defensive liability. 

My consistent position about MVP voting has been that the award should go to the league's best all-around player unless there is a dominant big man like Shaquille O'Neal who impacts the game more than any other player. Jokic is a hybrid who fits into both categories: he is the sport's best all-around player but he is also physically dominant in the paint as a scorer and rebounder. 

Jokic is just 29 years old and he has played at least 72 games in eight of his nine NBA seasons, so he is young enough and durable enough to play at an MVP level for at least another five or six years. It would not be surprising if he joins pro basketball's Four MVP Club, which has just six members: 

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: 6 (1971-72, 1974, 1976-77, 1980)
Bill Russell: 5 (1958, 1961-63, 1965)
Michael Jordan: 5 (1988, 1991-92, 1996, 1998)
Wilt Chamberlain: 4 (1960, 1966-68)
Julius Erving: 4 (1974-76 [ABA], 1981)
LeBron James: 4 (2009-10, 2012-13)

If Joel Embiid continues to be an injury-prone player who cannot lead his team past the second round of the playoffs then history will not look kindly on Embiid's 2023 regular season MVP award that cost Jokic the chance to become the first pro basketball player to win four straight regular season MVPs. Jokic has posted a 9-4 career playoff series record while leading the Nuggets to the 2023 championship, and even if the Minnesota Timberwolves knock out the Nuggets in this year's playoffs that will not invalidate Jokic's prior accomplishments and honors.

Labels: Bill Russell, Denver Nuggets, Julius Erving, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Larry Bird, LeBron James, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Moses Malone, Nikola Jokic, Wilt Chamberlain

posted by David Friedman @ 1:29 AM

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Roland Lazenby Details Magic Johnson's Triumphs and Tribulations

Magic Johnson starred at Michigan State, leading the Spartans to the 1979 NCAA title in a famous showdown with Larry Bird's Indiana State Seminoles. Johnson then won five NBA titles (1980, 1982, 1985, 1987-88) with the L.A. Lakers while earning three regular season MVPs (1987, 1989-90) and three NBA Finals MVPs (1980, 1982, 1987). Johnson broke Oscar Robertson's NBA record for career regular season assists, and Johnson currently ranks seventh on the all-time regular season assists list in addition to holding the record for career playoff assists. Johnson led the NBA in regular season assists four times (1983-84, 1986-87) while also leading the league in steals twice (1981-82) and free throw percentage once (1989).

Johnson suddenly retired from the NBA in November 1991 after being diagnosed as HIV positive, but Commissioner David Stern permitted Johnson to play in the 1992 NBA All-Star Game, and Johnson won the 1992 All-Star Game MVP. Johnson coached the Lakers for the final 16 games of the 1994 season, but did not return to the bench after the Lakers went 5-11 with him at the helm. Johnson came back to the NBA as a player for 32 regular season games and four playoff games in 1996 before retiring for the final time. Johnson's lucrative endorsements and savvy business deals enabled him to amass a net worth of more than $1 billion.

Roland Lazenby's Magic: The Life of Earvin "Magic" Johnson (Celadon Books, 813 pages, $40.00) provides a detailed, engaging account of Johnson's ascension from high school phenomenon to NCAA champion to all-time NBA great. Lazenby has written biographies of several all-time great basketball players, including Jerry West, Michael Jordan, and Kobe Bryant. Lazenby's Magic Johnson biography is divided into three parts: Part I is titled "Lansing," Part II is titled "Hollywood," and Part III is titled "Across The Great Divide." 

Lansing

Part I is the longest section of the book (338 pages), and some reviewers have criticized Lazenby for focusing so much attention not only on Johnson's early days but also on Johnson's family history dating back to the 1800s. Lazenby has stated that his intention was to not just tell the story of Johnson's basketball life but to place Johnson's entire life in the larger context of American history. Lazenby may not have written the book that some other people think that he should have written, but it is only fair to evaluate Lazenby's book based on what he wrote and what he tried to accomplish--not on what other people think that he should have written or tried to accomplish. 

It is interesting to learn about Johnson's family history, and it is also interesting to consider the different ways that family history can be interpreted and understood. Some of Johnson's ancestors were slaves, so should we focus on the persecution they suffered, or should we focus on how in America it is possible for a descendant of slaves to become a world-famous sports legend who earned generational wealth? Acknowledging the opportunities that America provides does not in any way diminish the horrors of slavery and racism. Reading about Johnson's family history reminds us that America is a flawed country with a troubling past but also a great country that, in the immortal words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is striving to live up to its great, foundational principles: "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'"

Labels: Bill Russell, Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls, Julius Erving, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, L.A. Lakers, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Philadelphia 76ers, Wilt Chamberlain

posted by David Friedman @ 10:53 PM

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Erving-Bird Photo from 2024 All-Star Weekend Sparks Memories of a Great Rivalry

For those of us who grew up watching the NBA in the 1980s, this picture of Erving standing next to Larry Bird sparks memories of that decade's first great rivalry: Erving's Philadelphia 76ers and Bird's Boston Celtics faced each other six times in each regular season from 1980-87 and they also squared off four times in the Eastern Conference Finals. The final head to head tally was 2-2 in playoff series, 12-12 in playoff games, and 23-21 in Bird's favor in regular season games (their teams split the four games during that era when Bird and/or Erving did not play). Keep in mind that Bird did not face Magic Johnson in a playoff series until the 1984 NBA Finals--by which time Bird had already played Erving in the Eastern Conference Finals three times (1980-82)--and that Bird and Johnson only played each other twice each regular season.

My favorite Erving-Bird photo depicts Erving skying over Bird in game seven of the 1982 Eastern Conference Finals. The 76ers won 120-106 as Erving finished with 29 points, five assists, four rebounds, three blocked shots and three steals, shooting 10-21 from the field and 9-9 from the free throw line. Erving's teammate Andrew Toney led all scorers with 34 points on 14-23 field goal shooting, while Robert Parish topped the Celtics with 23 points and 14 rebounds but shot just 8-21 from the field; Bird had 20 points, 11 rebounds, nine assists, two blocked shots and two steals but he shot just 7-18 from the field and 6-8 from the free throw line.

In a 1983 "Sports Champions" video, Erving provided a voiceover narration of him driving against Bird that captures the essence of their rivalry while poetically describing the beauty of competition:

When I get the ball in my hands and when you turn and you face him, when you take the initiative to aggressively face him, then he has to react. He may not react physically but his heart jumps if you turn and you really look at him like you mean business. His heart might even stop for a second, especially if you are good. This is when you start playing the game as you were when you were a kid, because this is when you are playing basketball and you are not working. To me this has always been a beautiful experience because I can look in a guy's eye and I can also tell if he means business and I can also feel whether my heart stops or stands still or not. If I'm looking at him and he's looking at me and we have got the same thing in mind--playing basketball and playing it the way that nobody else in the world plays it--then I think we create something beautiful.

There is something very special not only about the incomparable way that Erving played basketball but also about the way that he feels about the game. Erving and Bird brought the best out of each other, and that is the essence of competition at the highest level.

Labels: Boston Celtics, Julius Erving, Larry Bird, Philadelphia 76ers

posted by David Friedman @ 3:31 PM

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The 2024 NBA Legends Brunch Honors Tamika Catchings, Jalen Rose, Reggie Miller, and Larry Bird While Also Featuring ABA Panel Discussion

The NBA Legends Brunch is the highlight of NBA All-Star Weekend. I covered this event six times as a credentialed journalist (2005-10), and I watch it every year on TV when I am not able to attend. TNT's Ernie Johnson is a wonderful host/master of ceremonies, and you can tell that he genuinely enjoys his role.

Retired NBA player Harvey Catchings presented the Pioneer Award to his daughter, Tamika Catchings, who starred for the WNBA's Indiana Fever. Harvey recalled that Tamika had an insatiable love for basketball right from the start; when the whole family went to the gym together, Tamika did not want to leave, imploring her father, "Daddy, can we play one more game?" Harvey said that he never let Tamika win, because he knew that the world can be harsh and that she faced challenges because of her hearing issue and her speech impediment. He told her that she has to set the standard for herself, and that if she does that then she can become one of the greatest basketball players ever. 

After receiving the award from her father, Tamika began her speech by remembering when her father first brought her to the NBA Legends Brunch and she wondered why she had to sit next to old people, but she grew to understand that this was a blessing. She said that she could have never imagined standing on the NBA Legends Brunch stage as a Legend, let alone as the Pioneer Award winner. Tamika modeled her game after players that her father played with or against--including Julius Erving, Larry Bird, and Bob Lanier--but her favorite player of all-time (other than her father, she hastened to note!) is Alonzo Mourning. Her father told her that to be a great player you have to be great at more than one thing, and Tamika felt that Mourning's game embodied that.

Labels: ABA, Artis Gilmore, Bob Costas, Darnell Hillman, Indiana Pacers, Jalen Rose, Julius Erving, Larry Bird, Reggie Miller, Spencer Haywood, Tamika Catchings

posted by David Friedman @ 11:07 AM

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Definining Athleticism, and Correlating Athleticism With Basketball Greatness

In 2007, I wrote Is Steve Nash the Best Athlete in the NBA?, an article that was not just about Nash specifically but rather an examination of how athleticism is thought about and discussed:

Athleticism is often defined very narrowly. In the context of basketball, athleticism is usually understood to refer primarily to explosiveness laterally (quickness) and vertically (jumping ability); in football, athleticism usually is defined by one's performance in the 40 yard dash and in the bench press. However, this kind of thinking leads to a lot of stereotyping and superficial analysis, usually along racial lines--i.e., Larry Bird being praised for his cerebral skills while Michael Jordan is commended for his athletic ability. The reality is that Bird was a phenomenal athlete, possessing superb hand-eye coordination, quickness for a step (a concept that will be explained below) and better jumping ability than most people seem to think; compare his blocked shot totals to those of legendary leaper Dominique Wilkins (Bird has the edge, with 755 blocks in 897 games compared to Wilkins' 642 blocks in 1074 games)--and while Bird did not have the broad jumping ability of a Julius Erving, he was more than capable of playing above the rim to get rebounds and even throw down some dunks (albeit ones that fans would term "generic"), particularly early in his career.

Nikola Jokic's emergence as not only a two-time regular season MVP but also an NBA champion and NBA Finals MVP provides a great opportunity to further explore athleticism in general, and basketball athleticism in particular. In the popular imagination, it seems that basketball athleticism is defined very narrowly, as noted above. The ability to broad jump--in other words, the ability to take off from one spot, soar through the air, and then dunk the basketball before returning to the ground--attracts a lot of attention and praise, and when a basketball player is described as "athletic," that is shorthand for "He can jump high above the rim" or "He can take off from the foul line and dunk." Most NBA players can execute a generic one handed dunk, so even though dunking may be considered an "athletic" move for a non-NBA player it is not a sign of elite NBA level athleticism--but flying through the air and dunking, particularly if the dunk is accomplished over a defender, is considered to be a sign of elite NBA level athleticism. To some degree, straight-line speed--particularly when dribbling a basketball--is also considered to be a sign of elite NBA level athleticism; a player may be described as "the fastest player in the league from baseline to baseline," and this is meant to indicate that said player has elite NBA level athleticism.

Such narrow definitions and descriptions of athleticism not only fail to capture the full breadth of what athleticism is, but they also fail to correlate athleticism with basketball greatness. Jumping high above the rim, broad jumping or sprinting very fast from baseline to baseline do not have much correlation with basketball greatness unless the player who has such abilities can apply them effectively on offense or defense. 

Broad jumping ability is most useful in creating high percentage scoring opportunities, but it is important that the ability is deployed with an understanding of time/score/game situation. Julius Erving, Michael Jordan, and Kobe Bryant are three players who not only had tremendous broad jumping ability but they each also had a great understanding of basketball fundamentals; for example, Erving's greatness is not defined by his mid-air feats, but by his ability to combine his physical skills with his broad understanding of the game--including knowing when to dunk, and when to execute a different shot or play. Similarly, Jordan and Bryant both knew how to use broad jumping ability in concert with basketball fundamentals to create high percentage scoring opportunities.

Athleticism should be defined in a broader way than just jumping high and running fast. Court vision, strength, hand-eye coordination, mental toughness, agility, and quickness are valuable athletic abilities.

Court vision refers not only to the ability to see what is happening on the court right now, but also to visualize what could or will happen depending on the movements of the other nine players. It has been said that Larry Brown could see where all of the other players were on the court at the same time, and that as a coach he would stop practice if a player were the slightest bit out of position. Brown was a three-time ABA All-Star guard who led the league in assists in each of the ABA's first three seasons before becoming the only coach to lead a team to an NCAA title (Kansas, 1988) and an NBA title (Detroit, 2004). 

Boston Coach Bill Fitch called Larry Bird "Kodak" because it seemed like Bird could take a picture of the court with his mind and know where every player was. Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson, and LeBron James are three other all-time greats blessed with elite court vision. Jokic is similar to Bird, Robertson, Johnson, and James because he can see plays before they develop; such players can make a pass that creates an opening, as opposed to merely passing to a player who is already wide open.

Strength is an important athletic ability, but not in terms of specific movements such as the bench press or the squat; strength is important in basketball only to the extent that a player can leverage it to gain an advantage, such as better rebounding position or better post position (both offensively and defensively). Moses Malone was a master of the subtle (and not so subtle) application of strength to improve his positioning in the paint to grab rebounds and convert high percentage shots. Players like Malone and Jokic prove that it is not necessary to fly above the crowd to have an athletic advantage over the competition; strength, when properly utilized, is very difficult to counter.

Hand-eye coordination is an underrated athletic ability that enables a player to handle the ball with dexterity even against pressure defense, and to use the dribble or the pass as appropriate to gain an advantage for his team. Dribbling in one place to show off just wastes precious time on the shot clock without gaining an advantage; much of the ball handling that generates praise and social media views is worse than useless in terms of winning basketball. A player's overall body movements may seem awkward, but if that player has finely tuned hand-eye coordination then he can control the ball in a way that defeats even high level defense. When Jokic advances the ball up the court after snaring a defensive rebound, his body movements may not match traditional expectations for grace and athleticism, but his superior hand-eye coordination enables him to control the ball and to make plays for himself and his teammates.

Mental toughness, which could be specifically defined as the ability to keep going when lesser athletes would give up, is another underrated athletic skill. There is research supporting the notion that there is a specific brain region linked to hand-eye coordination, and that there is a signaling molecule (interleukin-6) that generates a feeling of tiredness (in short, it is not our bodies that become tired, but rather our brains signal us to feel tired, or to not feel tired). ESPN's Jeff Van Gundy mentioned that Jokic's improved physical conditioning enables Jokic to log heavy minutes without a drop in efficiency/productivity; I agree with that, but would add that Jokic also appears to possess a lot of mental toughness that enables him to persevere through various challenges (foul trouble, the minor injuries that all players face but that affect some players more than others, etc.).

It may be easier to notice differences in jumping ability between various players than to notice differences in some of the other athletic abilities, but differences in hand-eye coordination and mental toughness may be more important than differences in jumping ability. As Charles Barkley has said, a deer can run and jump, but that does not mean that a deer can play basketball.

Quickness is not the same as sprinting speed. Quickness encompasses both mental quickness and physical quickness; it is a tremendous advantage to process events quickly mentally, and then be able to move quickly physically based on openings to pass, shoot, or drive that may only be available for a split second. A player who has a combination of elite court vision plus physical quickness can be very effective even if he does not jump particularly high or run particularly fast.

Agility is the ability to maintain body balance even in seemingly awkward or unfavorable situations. While jumping ability can be measured, agility is more difficult to quantify, and that is probably why an agile player like Jokic is sometimes described as awkward or unathletic; the way that Jokic moves does not fit the stereotype of what an athletic player looks like, but if you observe Jokic you will notice that he rarely falls down, he is rarely out of position, and he repeatedly makes passes and shots that an uninformed viewer may consider to be lucky. If some guy in the park makes one awkward shot every five games, then that is probably luck--but when Jokic makes such shots and passes on a regular basis, it is incorrect to dismiss such plays as luck or to suggest that he is not athletic.

Describing Jokic as unathletic is lazy and imprecise. Jokic has not demonstrated elite abilities in high jumping, broad jumping, or straight line speed, but he has demonstrated elite abilities in terms of court vision, strength, hand-eye coordination, mental toughness, agility, and quickness. I would argue that if one takes a comprehensive view of athleticism then Jokic is one of the best athletes in the NBA; players whose athleticism is limited to jumping high and running fast are not athletic enough overall to match up with Jokic, and that is one reason why Jokic has enjoyed so much recent success both individually and in terms of leading the Denver Nuggets to the franchise's first championship.

Labels: Julius Erving, Kobe Bryant, Larry Bird, LeBron James, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Moses Malone, Nikola Jokic, Oscar Robertson, Steve Nash

posted by David Friedman @ 11:32 AM

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Wayback Machine, Part XI: The 1985 Complete Handbook of Pro Basketball

The front cover photo of the 1985 Complete Handbook of Pro Basketball featured Larry Bird driving from the left wing against the L.A. Lakers. Bob McAdoo guarded Bird while Magic Johnson guarded Quinn Buckner at the top of the key. Kevin McHale cut to the hoop on the left baseline with his defender obscured from view. It looked as if the obscured defender (perhaps Michael Cooper) had been screened by McHale, and that McAdoo had switched from McHale to Bird. The back cover photo showed Bird battling Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for a rebound while Michael Cooper and a partially obscured Magic Johnson watched. Bird's Boston Celtics defeated Johnson's Lakers 4-3 in the 1984 NBA Finals.

The 1985 CHPB contained 335 pages, matching the previous edition. It included 23 team profiles, lists of the 1984 NBA statistical leaders, the complete 1984-85 schedule, a list of all 228 selections in the 1984 NBA Draft, and a "TV/Radio roundup." The 1985 CHPB had four feature stories: Dan Shaughnessy wrote "Bird & McHale: Pride and Power of the Celtics," Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Peter Knobler contributed "Giant Steps" (an excerpt from the forthcoming book of the same name), Joe Gergen described how "Bernard King Captures New York," and Fran Blinebury profiled the player now known as Hakeem Olajuwon in "Akeem Olajuwon: The 7-Foot Nigerian Who Jumped to the Pros." 

Fran Blinebury and Filip Bondy co-wrote the "Inside the NBA" article, predicting that the L.A. Lakers would defeat the Philadelphia 76ers in the NBA Finals. In the 1984-85 season, the Lakers posted the best record in the Western Conference (62-20) and breezed through the first three rounds of the playoffs with an 11-2 record before beating the Boston Celtics 4-1 in the NBA Finals. The Celtics had the best record in the league (63-19) and they stormed through the Eastern Conference playoffs with an 11-4 record, including a 4-1 victory over the 76ers in the Eastern Conference Finals as Julius Erving and Larry Bird faced each other in a playoff series for the fourth and final time. Erving's 76ers defeated Bird's Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals in 1980 and 1982, while Bird's Celtics triumphed in 1981 and 1985.

Here are some interesting notes, quotes and quips from the 1985 CHPB:

1) Shaughnessy asserted that Larry Bird and Kevin McHale are "the pride and power of the Boston Celtics." The omission of any mention of Robert Parish, the third member of Boston's Hall of Fame frontcourt trio, is more than a little odd. During the Celtics' 1983-84 championship season, Parish led the Celtics in regular season rebounding (10.7 rpg) while also ranking second in scoring (19.0 ppg) and blocked shots (1.5 bpg, a fraction behind McHale). Parish led the team with 79 starts, and he earned his fourth straight All-Star selection, a streak that he would extend to seven (he made the All-Star team nine times overall). During the playoffs, Bird was the clear number one scoring option (27.5 ppg, up from 24.2 ppg during the regular season), but Parish ranked third in scoring (14.9 ppg), second in rebounding (10.8 rpg), and first in blocked shots (1.8 bpg). In 1983-84, Parish consistently outperformed McHale in the regular season, the playoffs, and the NBA Finals.

In 1984, McHale made the All-Star team for the first time and he was the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year, but it could not plausibly be said that he was Boston's second best player: Bird was the clear number one, Parish was number two, and at that time it could still be argued whether McHale or Dennis Johnson was number three. 

This is not meant to take anything away from McHale; he eventually emerged as perhaps the best low post scorer in the league, the "man with 1000 moves" (as Dominique Wilkins memorably put it) whose footwork was admired and emulated--and he was also an elite defensive player who could guard small forwards, power forwards, and even centers, a versatile skill set that proved quite valuable for the Celtics, who generally hid Bird defensively on the opposing team's worst frontcourt scorer (for example, when the Celtics played the Atlanta Hawks, McHale checked small forward Dominique Wilkins while Bird was assigned Tree Rollins, a great shotblocker who was non-factor offensively).

The point is that Shaughnessy ignored and devalued Parish (whose name is just mentioned once, parenthetically, in Shaughnessy's article) while heaping praise on McHale. It is also strange that Shaughnessy mentioned that Bird and McHale are both white. How is that relevant to assessing the "pride and power of the Boston Celtics"? 

Reading that article reminded me of the extent to which many media members went out of their way to promote white players during that era. There is no question that Bird is a Pantheon level player, nor is there any question that McHale is worthy of being selected to the NBA's 50 Greatest Players List, but Shaughnessy's hagiography of young, first-time All-Star McHale combined with his complete disregard for Parish--already established as a perennial All-Star--leaves a very strange impression.

2) At a time when the 38 year old LeBron James is on the verge of breaking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's career regular season scoring record, it is interesting to hearken back to when Abdul-Jabbar was 37 and had just broken Wilt Chamberlain's career regular season scoring record. The introduction to the excerpt from Abdul-Jabbar's autobiography declared that the 1984-85 season "could be his last hurrah." That assessment turned out to be premature, as Abdul-Jabbar capped off that campaign by winning his fourth NBA title and his second NBA Finals MVP. In 1985-86, Abdul-Jabbar earned the last of his 10 All-NBA First Team selections, tying a record held by Bob Cousy, Bob Pettit, Elgin Baylor, and Jerry West (James holds the current record: 13).

Abdul-Jabbar felt that Chamberlain resented him when he was a young player and Chamberlain was one of the league's elder statesmen (though still an elite player). Abdul-Jabbar praised Chamberlain's strength, his tenacity as a rebounder, and his ability to be a prolific scorer, but he also compared Chamberlain unfavorably to Bill Russell in terms of understanding how to help his team win. 

Abdul-Jabbar called Oscar Robertson "the best all-around player in the history of basketball." Abdul-Jabbar marveled at how easy Robertson made the game look.

Abdul-Jabbar resented journeymen players--he mentioned Kent Benson and Dennis Awtrey by name--who hit him with cheap shots because they lacked the necessary talent to compete with him. After Benson hit Abdul-Jabbar with a punch to the midsection that knocked the wind out of him, Abdul-Jabbar decked Benson and suffered a broken hand. Abdul-Jabbar felt that the referees protected white players and did not apply the rules fairly to him, which made him believe that he had no choice but to take matters into his own hands.

Abdul-Jabbar reveled in reaching the top of his profession, but acknowledged that eventually his ability to perform at the highest level would wane even if his competitiveness never wavered. He was not sure what he would do after he retired from the NBA, but he mentioned possibly going to law school. He doubted that he could dominate another field the way that he had dominated basketball, but he was determined to try to be that dominant in another endeavor.

3) Joe Gergen described Bernard King's rise from schoolboy sensation in New York City to college star at the University of Tennessee to the toast of New York, carrying the Knicks to the seventh game of the 1984 Eastern Conference semifinals versus the eventual NBA champion Boston Celtics. King averaged 29.1 ppg on .545 field goal shooting in that series, including 43 points in a game four win and 46 points in a game six win. 

Gergen noted that prior to the 1984 playoffs, Knicks players had authored just three 40 point playoff performances: one by Cazzie Russell, one by Willis Reed, and one by Bernard King. Gergen left out Bob McAdoo's 41 point playoff game in 1978, but his point was well taken: prior to King, 40 point playoff performances were rare for the Knicks, one of the NBA's original teams dating back to 1946. In the 1984 playoffs, King scored 40 or more points in six of the Knicks' 12 games, spearheading a 3-2 victory over the Detroit Pistons before nearly toppling the Celtics. King shot .600 or better from the field in five of those six 40 point games, and a "mere" .514 in the other one. King led the NBA in playoff scoring (34.8 ppg) in 1984.

Red Holzman, the Hall of Famer who coached the Knicks' championship teams in 1970 and 1973, called King "the greatest scoring machine I've ever seen."

Reading the articles by Shaughnessy and Gergen, it is interesting to note that in 1983-84 media members selected Larry Bird for the first of his three straight official regular season MVP awards, but Bernard King finished first in the player balloting conducted by the Sporting News.

4) Hakeem Olajuwon entered the NBA in 1983 without the "H" in his first name, and without the polished offensive game that would propel him and the Houston Rockets to NBA titles in 1994 and 1995. Blinebury noted that Olajuwon's basketball journey started in Lagos, Nigeria in 1979 when the 16 year old Olajuwon had never played basketball and could not even dunk a basketball. Olajuwon was a soccer goalie until Richard Mills--an American who coached the Nigerian national basketball team--spotted Olajuwon on a soccer field and encouraged him to play basketball. The rest is history: Olajuwon played three seasons at the University of Houston (1982-84), increasing his scoring average from 8.3 ppg as a freshman to 16.8 ppg as a junior who earned First Team All-America honors while leading the Cougars to the NCAA Championship Game, where they fell short against Patrick Ewing's Georgetown Hoyas. Olajuwon got his revenge 10 years later, defeating Ewing's Knicks in the 1994 NBA Finals.

The Rockets paired Olajuwon with 1984 NBA Rookie of the Year Ralph Sampson to form a "Twin Towers" frontcourt that was expected to dominate the NBA for the next decade. Olajuwon and Sampson led the Rockets to the 1986 NBA Finals, losing to the Celtics in six games, but then injuries derailed Sampson's career. Olajuwon teamed with power forward Otis Thorpe and a great supporting cast (including Robert Horry, Kenny Smith, Sam Cassell, and Mario Elie) to lead Houston to the 1994 NBA championship, and then he led the Rockets to a second consecutive title after a midseason trade that shipped out Thorpe but reunited Olajuwon with college teammate Clyde Drexler.

5) Larry Bird's profile gushed: "MVP for season, MVP for playoffs, MVP for universe...His skills and sheer will lifted Celtics to title...Nothing he can't do...Incredible vision of the court...Killed the Lakers with his outside shot in Game 5 of finals, but relied on tireless work off the offensive boards during other games."

6) Danny Ainge's profile is less than complimentary: "Finally meeting lowered expectations...Have to wonder about scouts who once projected him as a top three pick...Was actually drafted 31st in 1981, because he was under contract to the Toronto Blue Jays...It appears he was as good an infielder as he is a guard--and he wasn't much of an infielder."

7) The Chicago Bulls' team profile praised incoming rookie Michael Jordan while also urging patience: "Now that they have the next Julius Erving in Michael Jordan, the Bulls need the next Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. This strikingly young and talented team can score from everywhere except the pivot--which will prove the Bulls' undoing again."

8) Here is Jordan's entire profile in his first CHPB appearance: "Odds-on favorite to be Rookie of the Year...Only sure thing among entire rookie crop...Can do it all, brilliantly and gracefully...A great shooter who hit 55.1 percent of his field goal attempts in senior year at North Carolina...With his quickness and instincts, he should have no problems swinging back and forth between guard and forward...Bulls will find spot for him in starting lineup...Born Feb. 17, 1963...Raised in Wilmington, N.C....Will hit the three-point shot." In hindsight, several things stand out:

1. The 1984 draft featured Olajuwon (first overall pick), Jordan (third overall pick), Charles Barkley (fifth overall pick), and John Stockton (16th overall pick), each of whom was later selected as one of the NBA's 50 Greatest Players, so it is interesting that at least one author considered only Jordan to be a "sure thing" prior to the 1984-85 season. In addition to those all-time greats, several players from the 1984 NBA Draft had long, excellent careers, including Sam Perkins, Alvin Robertson, Otis Thorpe, Kevin Willis, Michael Cage, and Jerome Kersey.

2. "Bulls will find spot for him in starting lineup" may be the biggest understatement of all-time!

3. Perhaps the optimism about Jordan's three point shooting stemmed from Jordan shooting .447 from three point range in his sophomore season when the ACC experimented with using the three point shot (the NCAA did not start using the three point shot nationwide until 1986-87). Of course, the ACC's three point shot was closer than the NBA's three point shot (17 feet 9 inches inches compared to 23 feet 9 inches), and the ACC defenders were not as good as NBA defenders. Jordan posted a career three point shooting percentage of .327 in the NBA.

9) Isiah Thomas may be one of the most underrated great players of all-time, but during his career he was appreciated: "None better, maybe ever...Point guard supreme...Played more than 3000 minutes (3007) for second straight year...Pistons looked to him in every clutch situation and he usually delivered."

10) Before Mike Dunleavy became a long-time NBA head coach who led the Lakers to the 1991 NBA Finals and who won the Coach of the Year award in 1999, he was a 6-3 sharpshooter who carved out a solid journeyman career while playing for two teams that reached the NBA Finals (1977 76ers, 1981 Rockets). His career seemed to be over by 1983, but the CHPB summarized his improbable 1983-84 season with Milwaukee: "What a year...An unwanted free agent in October...A Wall Street broker in January...A Milwaukee Buck in March...A starter by April...Had given up hope of resuming basketball career when he got call March 8...Don Nelson started him ahead of Paul Pressey because he was more dependable and offered the perimeter threat...Maybe the best three-point shooter in the league...Hit 19-of-45 bombs (42.2 percent) last season."

Dunleavy led the NBA in three point field goal percentage in 1982-83 (67-194, .345). In 1983-84, only six NBA players made at least 25 three point field goals, the minimum number required to qualify for the three point field goal percentage title. Darrell Griffith took top honors (91-252, .361), but if Dunleavy had canned just six more while maintaining his percentage he would have taken the crown. Dunleavy played 19 games in 1984-85, retired for three seasons, and then made cameo appearances in 1988-89 and 1989-90 before quitting for good. 

11) The 76ers' scouting report declared, "Barring last-minute trades or injuries, the 76ers bring the most potent team in the history of pro basketball into the 1984-85 season. There is nothing this team can't do with the ball and do better than any other contender. The Sixers can run and the addition of Barkley will greatly improve their attack in the halfcourt set."

While the 76ers looked potent on paper and ended up having a strong season (58-24 regular season record before losing 4-1 to Boston in the Eastern Conference Finals), it is difficult to understand how anyone could have considered this squad to potentially be the greatest offensive team ever. Charles Barkley was destined to become an all-time great, but in 1984-85 he was a raw and out of shape rookie who averaged 14.0 ppg. Julius Erving was a Pantheon level player who should be in the greatest player of all-time conversation but in 1984-85 he was a 35 year old who was still very good but no longer consistently great in an era when few players even played past the age of 33. That being said, in 1983-84 Erving ranked 12th in scoring (22.4 ppg), 10th in steals (1.8 spg), and eighth in blocked shots (1.8 bpg)--an impressive trifecta for any player, let alone a 34 year old veteran of 13 pro seasons.

Future Hall of Famer Bobby Jones was also past his prime at 33.

Perhaps Andrew Toney could have picked up some of that slack, but in the spring of 1985 he began suffering the foot injuries that ultimately ended what could have been a Hall of Fame career. Toney made the All-Star team in 1983 and 1984, but he played just 157 regular season games after the 1983-84 season.

The 76ers had some great moments during the 1984-85 season, but the combination of two stars aging, one star being hurt, and a future star being not quite ready for prime time left the 76ers short of being able to match the younger Celtics and Lakers.

12) Erving was an excellent passer, a facet of his game that is not mentioned often enough now but was acknowledged during his career: "In the forecourt, Erving remains an excellent playmaker. He averaged 4.0 assists per game last season and his intuitions are seldom wrong."

13) While the 76ers had a potent offense, their defense was often underrated. The CHPB profile noted that the 76ers led the NBA in blocked shots while ranking fifth in points allowed. Erving, termed a "tremendous" shot blocker, led the team with 1.8 bpg. How great was Erving as a shot blocker? LeBron James, often praised for his defense and his chase down blocks--something that Erving did more often than James--has never averaged more than 1.1 bpg during a season, which would be a career-low for Erving, who played until he was 37.

14) Erving's profile began with a question--"Can he do it one more time?"--and noted "Had another outstanding season, but didn't pick up his game in the playoffs...Nagging injuries may sap his resolve for second NBA ring...Still can soar when healthy, but is mortal when he is hurt or has played too many minutes." It is important to emphasize that during that era few players played past age 33 and no one--other than Abdul-Jabbar and Erving--was playing at an All-Star level past that age in the early to mid 1980s. Players who are accomplishing that now are the beneficiaries of improvements in medical technology and training techniques. 

15) The CHPB included Erving's ABA statistics and thus listed Erving with 26,120 career points (25.3 ppg average), 9477 rebounds, 4504 assists, a .509 career field goal percentage and a .776 career free throw percentage.

16) Here is Barkley's entire profile in his first CHPB appearance: "Rich get richer...Can shoot, rebound, and has great quickness for his size...'Boy Gorge' must keep weight down to reasonable level...Long NBA season has a way of doing that...Sixers hope he'll be the answer at power forward, despite fact he'll give up several inches to opponents...That was never a problem at Auburn, but it might be different in pros...Came out early after junior year...Didn't get big money because he was drafted by Sixers, who couldn't offer much because of salary-cap problems...Born Feb. 20, 1963...Grew up in Leeds, Ala."

17) Alex English thrived in the 1980s, and he would be even greater in today's game with the emphasis on freedom of movement. His profile summarized his scoring prowess: "Poetry in motion...It's a thing of beauty to watch him shoot his unorthodox jumper from the baseline...Hardly looks like he is breaking a sweat...Just seems to pop open at different spots on the floor...Makes his defender pay by scoring right in his face."

18) Johnny Bach was a hoops lifer who may be best known to most fans as an assistant coach for the Chicago Bulls' first three championship teams, but in 1983-84 he was the oldest rookie head coach in NBA history, guiding a patchwork Golden State team to a 37-45 record after the team went 30-52 the previous year. The Warriors were not a stable or well-run organization at that time--they missed the playoffs each year from 1978-86--so their lack of success was something beyond Bach's control to correct.

19) Here is Olajuwon's entire profile in his first CHPB appearance: "'Akeem the Dream'...Has been playing the game for only five years, but was the No. 1 overall pick in draft...Already being compared to Bill Russell as a defensive force...Runs the floor as well as anyone in the game today...Will team with Ralph Sampson...Born Jan. 23, 1963, in Lagos, Nigeria...An All-American as a junior, he went to the NCAA Final Four three times with University of Houston...Awesome shot-blocker and strong inside force...Averaged 16.9 ppg and 13.7 rpg, then decided to leave school early."

Olajuwon scored 620 points in 37 games (16.76 ppg) in his final college season, so he did not average 16.9 ppg but 16.8 ppg after rounding.

20) Abdul-Jabbar's profile declared: "The most potent offensive force in the game today, even at his age." In 1983-84, Abdul-Jabbar averaged 21.5 ppg while shooting .578 from the field. He was the leading scorer for the fourth highest scoring team in the league, a squad that had six double figure scorers plus two other players who each averaged at least 9 ppg. Had it been desirable or necessary, Abdul-Jabbar could have scored more, so even though he did not rank among the top 10 scorers that season it was not farfetched to term him "the most potent offensive force." 

21) Magic Johnson's profile noted his value while also mentioning his disappointing performance (by his high standards) in the 1984 NBA Finals: "Changed the entire concept of the point guard position and is unquestionably the finest passer in the game today...Unfortunately, he made several critical blunders against Boston in the finals that probably cost the Lakers their third NBA championship in five years...Had another fine regular season...Can beat you by passing (13.0 assists per game), scoring (17.6 ppg) or rebounding (7.3 rpg)."

Wayback Machine, Part I looked at the 1975 Complete Handbook of Pro Basketball

Wayback Machine, Part II looked at the 1976 Complete Handbook of Pro Basketball

Wayback Machine, Part III looked at the 1977 Complete Handbook of Pro Basketball

Wayback Machine, Part IV looked at the 1978 Complete Handbook of Pro Basketball

Wayback Machine, Part V looked at the 1979 Complete Handbook of Pro Basketball

Wayback Machine, Part VI looked at the 1980 Complete Handbook of Pro Basketball

Wayback Machine, Part VII looked at the 1981 Complete Handbook of Pro Basketball

Wayback Machine, Part VIII looked at the 1982 Complete Handbook of Pro Basketball
 
Wayback Machine, Part IX looked at the 1983 Complete Handbook of Pro Basketball

Wayback Machine, Part X looked at the 1984 Complete Handbook of Pro Basketball 

Labels: Complete Handbook of Pro Basketball, Julius Erving, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Zander Hollander

posted by David Friedman @ 10:28 PM

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Nikola Jokic Joins the Select Back to Back MVP Club

Nikola Jokic has won the 2022 NBA regular season MVP, joining the select group of pro basketball players who won at least two consecutive MVPs: Bill Russell (1961-63 NBA), Wilt Chamberlain (1966-68 NBA), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1971-72, 1976-77 NBA), Julius Erving (1974-76 ABA), Moses Malone (1982-83 NBA), Larry Bird (1984-86 NBA), Magic Johnson (1989-90 NBA), Michael Jordan (1991-92 NBA), Tim Duncan (2002-03 NBA), Steve Nash (2005-06 NBA), LeBron James (2009-10, 2012-13 NBA), Stephen Curry (2015-16 NBA), and Giannis Antetokounmpo (2019-20 NBA). Antetokounmpo finished third this year, while Joel Embiid was second.

Last month, I provided my take on the 2022 regular season MVP race:

Reigning regular season MVP Nikola Jokic also had a fantastic season (career-high 27.1 ppg, career-high 13.8 rpg, 7.9 apg, career-high .583 FG%), becoming the first player in NBA history to have at least 2000 points (2004), at least 1000 rebounds (1019), and at least 500 assists (584) in the same season (to be fair, Wilt Chamberlain missed out on this distinction by just eight points in 1968 and by 44 points in 1967, two seasons during which he had over 1900 rebounds). Jokic joined pro basketball's "Five-Tool Club," the elite group of players (Julius Erving, Dave Cowens, Scottie Pippen, Tracy McGrady, Kevin Garnett) who led their teams in scoring, rebounding, assists, steals, and blocked shots in the same season.

Joel Embiid, who openly campaigned for the MVP award throughout the season, won his first scoring title with a career-high 30.6 ppg while also grabbing 11.7 rpg and dishing for 4.2 apg. 

The historical standard is that an NBA MVP must play in at least 85% of the scheduled games, which adds up to at least 70 games in the traditional 82 game season. Bill Walton is the only regular season MVP in NBA history who played less than 85% of his team's games. In fact, 19 MVPs played all 82 games, 11 MVPs played in 81 games, and five MVPs played in 80 games (also, Karl Malone played 49 of 50 games in the lockout-shortened 1999 season). I miss the days before "load management"! If the 70 games played threshold still matters to the MVP voters, then Jokic (74 games played) prevails over Embiid--who played in a career-high 68 games--and Antetokounmpo, who played in 67 games.

Jokic averaged 35.7 ppg, 16.3 rpg, 7.4 apg, and 2.1 spg in his final seven games to help his Denver Nuggets secure a playoff berth despite being without the services of injured star point guard Jamal Murray, who missed the entire season due to an ACL tear. Playoff statistics are not considered regarding regular season MVP voting, but it is worth noting that Jokic led the league in playoff scoring in 2022 (31.0 ppg) while also averaging 13.2 rpg, 5.8 apg, 1.6 spg, and 1.0 bpg. He shot .575 from the field, and it was not his fault that his outmatched Nuggets lost 4-1 in the first round to the Golden State Warriors. Jokic's career playoff averages (26.4 ppg, 11.5 rpg, 6.4 apg, .519 FG%) confirm that his game does not fall apart in the postseason, which distinguishes him from some highly touted players.

Labels: Bill Russell, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Julius Erving, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Larry Bird, LeBron James, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Moses Malone, Nikola Jokic, Stephen Curry, Steve Nash, Tim Duncan, Wilt Chamberlain

posted by David Friedman @ 12:16 AM

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Robert Parish Declares that Larry Bird "Earned" What He Received From Julius Erving in the Infamous Bird-Erving Fight

The NBA's biggest rivalry in the early to mid 1980s was Julius Erving versus Larry Bird:

Erving's Philadelphia 76ers played Bird's Celtics six times in each regular season and faced off in four Eastern Conference Finals between 1980 and 1985. Erving and Bird frequently guarded each other, while Magic and Bird played different positions and only guarded each other on defensive switches.

The Erving-Bird rivalry captured the public's imagination. In 1983, Electronic Arts produced Julius Erving-Larry Bird One-on-One, the forerunner of NBA Live and all the other sports video games; it would have been unimaginable to choose any other matchup at that time. Erving and Bird actively participated in the creation of the game and as a result the final product incorporated real life aspects of each player’s style.

The two Hall of Fame superstars generally played cleanly against each other, but an infamous exception happened during a November 9, 1984 game. The soon to be 28 year old Bird--in the prime of his career and in the midst of the second of three straight MVP seasons--outscored the 34 year old Erving--in his 14th season, and less than three years away from retirement--42-6. When Erving ascended to the top of pro basketball in the early to mid 1970s, he never demeaned his opponents or showed them up in words or deeds, but during this early season encounter Bird reveled in his dominance over Erving, and--despite Bird's later denials--he engaged in trash talk that at least one of his Hall of Fame teammates found to be distasteful. 

In a recent "Icons Club" podcast, Jackie MacMullan interviewed Robert Parish, who described his recollections of what Bird said to Erving prior to the Bird-Erving fight: "Larry started saying he was done, he was washed up, that he was a better player, that there was only one man who can guard me and that was God. He laid it on real thick. I'm surprised that the Doctor restrained himself for as long as he had, because I knew I would have thrown a punch and he wasn't even directing it at me." Parish felt so strongly that Bird was out of line that Parish--a martial arts practitioner who did not shy away from on court confrontations--did not intervene on Bird's behalf during the fight: "Larry earned that ass-whupping, Jackie. He earned it from his words. He earned it, no question about, and that is one of the reasons why I did not do anything about it, even though Moses (Malone) was holding Larry back. Because some things, Jackie, you just do not say to another person, (even) in the heat of the moment, and I felt like Larry crossed the line. Being that Moses did not throw a punch, that is why I did not intervene."

Bird engaged in several physical altercations--on and off the court--during his NBA career, but Erving had never been in a fight during his pro basketball career prior to November 9, 1984, and he was never in a fight after the Bird fight.

Think about what that fight says about Bird, Erving, Parish, and the tremendous respect that even players from an archrival team felt for Erving. Erving's on court accomplishments, his off court accomplishments as an endorsement pioneer and successful businessman, and the level of respect that he earned are not now recognized to the extent that they should be. 

MacMullan described Erving as "a redoubtable mentor for a litany of players past and present." Bill Walton declared, "The way that you can tell that Dr. J is the single most beloved, respected, and admired player is that when we go to the Hall of Fame every year, Dr. J gets the most presentations--by far," something that I have previously discussed. 

MacMullan noted that there is no Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, or modern NBA without the foundation that Erving laid (though Erving, in his modest manner, would be quick to say that whatever he did was made possible because of the great players who came before him, including his all-time five of Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Bill Russell, and Jerry West, with Connie Hawkins as the sixth man). MacMullan said that multiple generations of NBA legends--from Magic Johnson to Charles Barkley to Jason Kidd to Shaquille O'Neal to Allen Iverson to Kobe Bryant to Dwyane Wade--received direct mentoring from Erving, while countless others were influenced, inspired, and motivated by Erving. 

When Erving is questioned about his all-time five, he states that the five players who inspired him as a youngster will always be his all-time five, regardless of the all-time fives selected by other people. The way that Erving feels about his heroes is the same way that I feel about him, and about his permanent place in pro basketball's Pantheon.

Labels: Boston Celtics, Jackie MacMullan, Julius Erving, Larry Bird, Philadelphia 76ers, Robert Parish

posted by David Friedman @ 11:14 PM

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NBA's 75th Anniversary Provides an Opportunity to Celebrate Generations of Greatness

As the NBA celebrates its 75th anniversary season, we have a great opportunity to recognize the accomplishments and contributions of players whose efforts are too often minimized, if not forgotten. The Associated Press has published All-Decade Teams for the 1950s (Paul Arizin, Bob Cousy, George Mikan, Bob Pettit, Dolph Schayes), the 1960s (Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Bill Russell, Jerry West), the 1970s (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Rick Barry, Walt Frazier, John Havlicek, Elvin Hayes), and the 1980s (Larry Bird, Julius Erving, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Moses Malone). The AP has published one All-Decade Team per month since the season began. It will be interesting to see the 1990s team, because Michael Jordan would appear to be a lock to be the first player to be honored in more than one decade.

All of the players listed above helped to build the NBA and lift basketball's prominence. I cringe whenever I read or hear anyone who attempts to diminish the contributions made by great players from previous eras.

The 1970s and 1980s teams are closest to my heart, because that is the era when I first started following basketball as a child. In 2016, I selected my All-Decade Teams for the 1970s and 1980s. Overall, the AP's selections for the first four full decades of NBA history are solid, but the main drawback is that the AP--like the NBA itself--relegates the ABA to George Orwell's "memory hole." The NFL acknowledges AFL history and statistics, because the leagues ultimately merged and thus share not only a common present/future but also a common history. Similarly, you cannot accurately tell the story of pro basketball from the late 1960s through the late 1970s without recognizing the ABA's impact. 

The two best pro basketball players in the 1970s were Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Julius Erving. In the 1970s, Abdul-Jabbar won five regular season MVPs, one Finals MVP, one championship, and two scoring titles, while Erving won three regular season MVPs, two Finals MVPs, two championships, and three scoring titles. In Erving's first NBA season after playing the first five seasons of his career in the ABA, he won the All-Star Game MVP, led the Philadelphia 76ers to the best record in the Eastern Conference, and averaged 30.3 ppg in the NBA Finals as the 76ers fell in six games to a dominant Portland team that started the next season with a 50-10 record before Bill Walton suffered a season-ending (and career-altering) injury. Erving was selected to the All-NBA Second Team in 1977, and he made the All-NBA First Team in 1978, in addition to the honors mentioned above. 

You cannot tell the history of pro basketball in the 1970s without discussing Julius Erving's impact, and there is no doubt that he belongs on the All-Decade Team for the 1970s.

At least the AP included Erving on the 1980s team. Erving won the 1981 regular season MVP and played a major role for Philadelphia's 1983 championship team, but revisionist history pretends that only Bird and Magic mattered during that decade. Erving's 76ers beat Bird's Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals in 1980 and 1982, and they beat Magic's Lakers in the 1983 NBA Finals. Erving was a perennial MVP candidate until he was 35 years old, by which time the decade was half over. 

That 1980s team would match up well with any of the other All-Decade Teams. Bird, Erving, Magic, and Jordan are each members of my pro basketball Pantheon, and Malone did not miss the cut by much; the only AP All-Decade team with five Pantheon members is the 1960s. 

The interesting thing is that even though the 1980s was a talent-rich decade four of the five selections are easy. The only question about the 1980s team was whether to take Malone or Abdul-Jabbar at center. Malone dominated Abdul-Jabbar in the 1983 Finals, and Malone won two regular season MVPs in the 1980s compared to Abdul-Jabbar's one, but Abdul-Jabbar won five championships in the 1980s, picking up a Finals MVP in 1985 at the age of 38. Abdul-Jabbar earned more All-NBA First Team selections (four) in the 1980s than any center even though he was well into his 30s when the decade began. I picked Abdul-Jabbar for my All-1980s Team, but I don't have a big problem with the AP choosing Malone. At his best, Malone could match up with any center in pro basketball history; he missed the cut for my Pantheon not based on peak value, but rather based on Chamberlain, Russell, Abdul-Jabbar, and Shaquille O'Neal sustaining an elite level for a longer period of time.

The AP has also published a host of interesting articles pertaining to the NBA's 75th anniversary. In Dr. J says players from many eras built league, Erving guest-authored a piece discussing the contributions that many players made to elevate the NBA to its current status. Erving mentioned the pivotal role that the Salvation Army played in his development not just as a basketball player but as a person: "Being a Salvation Army kid, that was always in my mind. It helped make me who I am. That's where I played basketball. That's where I learned to travel and be a good representative of the entity that I'm traveling with. And so, we'd get in the station wagon and we'd go all over Long Island, we'd go to New Jersey, we went to Pennsylvania. And to be on the traveling team, that was very important. When you went, you had to behave and you had to represent your family and you had to represent the Corps, and you had to represent where you were from. And so that helped you in terms of communicating with people and trusting people."

Those of us who have followed Erving's life and career know that he has always given credit to the Salvation Army. Erving has never been someone to shout about how great he is; he has always preferred to give praise to others, and to uplift as many people as he can. When Erving was inducted in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, he requested that a Salvation Army flag be draped behind him on the Hall of Fame stage, and his request was granted. 

When I was a kid, I was always excited to see Erving on a magazine cover or featured in a newspaper article, so it was wonderful to go to the AP's NBA 75th Anniversary site and see not only Erving featured on the 1980s team but also given a byline to discuss the NBA's evolution.

Labels: Julius Erving, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Moses Malone

posted by David Friedman @ 2:39 AM

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K.C. Jones: Consummate Champion

Players and teams talk so much about the thrill of winning just one championship that it is worth remembering and emphasizing that K.C. Jones, who passed away earlier today at the age of 88, won two NCAA titles, an Olympic gold medal, and eight NBA titles as a player before winning two NBA titles as an assistant coach (1972 Lakers, 1981 Celtics) and two more NBA titles as a head coach. Only two players have won more NBA titles than Jones: his Boston teammates Bill Russell (11) and Sam Jones (10).

K.C. Jones may be the most underrated head coach in NBA history. He not only coached the best Boston Celtics teams of the 1980s--one of which, the 1986 Celtics, will forever be on the short list of greatest single season teams ever--but his regular season winning percentage of .674 ranks sixth in NBA history (minimum of 200 regular season games coached), trailing only Steve Kerr, Phil Jackson, Billy Cunningham, Larry Bird, and Gregg Popovich (Jones is only .001 percentage points behind Popovich, so Jones may move past Popovich on that list this season unless the San Antonio Spurs perform much better than expected). Jones' playoff winning percentage of .587 ranks 13th in NBA history (minimum of 60 playoff games coached). Jones is one of eight coaches who have won two NBA titles; only six coaches have won more than two NBA titles (Phil Jackson, Red Auerbach, John Kundla, Pat Riley, Gregg Popovich, and Steve Kerr).

As a player, Jones was not a great shooter but he was cerebral, tough, and athletic. Jones was drafted by the NFL's L.A. Rams, and he might have made the final cut had he not injured his knee; despite only spending a brief time with the Rams, Jones is credited with being the first defensive back to utilize "bump and run" coverage technique.

Jones' partnership with Russell dates back to their days at the University of San Francisco, where they captured NCAA titles in 1955 and 1956 while putting together a 55 game winning streak. Russell was such a dominant defender that he would tell Jones to run to a particular spot so that Russell could block a shot directly to Jones to start the fast break! The combination of elite athletic ability and supreme basketball IQ/mental toughness is impossible to beat. It is not an accident that Russell and Jones won at every level (college, Olympics, NBA), and anyone who assumes that they would not be very successful as players in this era fails to understand the essence of championship competition. 

Jones' NBA statistics are not eye-popping, but he ranked third in the league in assists for three straight seasons (1964-66), each time trailing only Oscar Robertson and Guy Rodgers. The Celtics won the championship during each of those seasons, and it speaks volumes that Jones was not only a stout defensive player for those squads but that he was also the team's quarterback after Bob Cousy retired.

Jones' Boston teammate Tommy Heinsohn passed away a few weeks ago. I interviewed Heinsohn on June 10, 2004. A few days later, I interviewed K.C. Jones. At the time, I was working on an article about their Boston teammate Sam Jones (the article appeared in the December 2004 issue of Basketball Digest), but our wide ranging conversation covered not only Sam Jones but also Bill Russell, Larry Bird, Bill Fitch, Phil Jackson, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and more. 

My K.C. Jones interview has never been published in full anywhere, though some quotes and insights from that interview have appeared in various articles that I wrote. Here, in tribute to Jones, is that June 20, 2004 interview:

Friedman: "The idea for this article came out of an interview that I did with Slick Leonard, the Pacers’ broadcaster. He mentioned that he felt that Sam Jones is the most underrated guard in the history of the NBA. From your perspective as a teammate of Sam's, what made him a special, unique player?"

Jones: "What made him unique? That's kind of hard to explain. He had such supreme confidence in his shot. One example that I recall is when he went for a nine foot jumper and Wilt came over to block it and while Sam was in the air he said, 'You can't get this one baby' and it went off the backboard and in."

Friedman: "Was that the game that Wilt went after Sam? I read about a game in which Sam so infuriated Wilt—telling him that he couldn't block his shot—that Wilt went after him."

Jones: "I'm not sure if it was that game. I don't think that Wilt would go after somebody for trash talking. I think that something physical happened and Wilt went over to shake Sam's hand to say, 'Let's put it behind us' and Sam thought that he was coming after him so he picked up a stool from behind the basket."

Friedman: "Oh, so it was kind of a misunderstanding."

Jones: "Yeah."

Friedman: "I noticed in researching this article that Sam Jones averaged 27 points per game in game seven situations and that the Celtics were 9-0 in those games. Obviously, that was above his regular season scoring average. What enabled him to be so successful in clutch situations?"

Jones: "He very seldom went to the basket for the layup. He would drive and then pull up for the jumper. We did all kinds of things to get him open or to get Havlicek open. That's the way we played. That's similar to what Detroit is trying to do now, work for your teammate. Sam could go one-on-one. He had a stutter step that would kind of halt your defense and then all of a sudden he just glides by you. He did that to me in a scrimmage and it just totally blew my mind that he was so smooth with that. He was driving on the right side from around the top of the key extended. It looked like he was going to pull up. He just hesitated, I stopped and then he just went by me. In our offense we always tried to get him open for shots. When Russell would get the ball for his play he could just take the ball and shoot it because it was the '6' play but he would not shoot the ball unless Sam and Havlicek were not open. That's the way we played. So we liked to get out shooters open because that's the high percentage play."

Friedman: "Would that be a play where Russell would be getting the ball on the block looking for cutters and Sam would cut off of him?"

Jones: "He'd mainly look for our shooters. He wouldn't look for me or Satch (Tom Sanders), even if I was open. One time he got an offensive rebound and I was five feet away from him saying, 'Bill, Bill, Bill' and he looked me in the eye, reached around and threw the ball in the corner to Sam, which I thought was the right play. Some other player in my position would have been (ticked) off and then you have a problem but that's not the way we did it."

Friedman: "Right, because your role was not as a shooter on the team."

Jones: "Yeah, but other teams have guys who are not shooters but if they are not passed the ball they are ready to fight. My point is, I considered that the best play because we want the ball in the hands of the guy with the highest shooting percentage."

Friedman: "You mentioned guarding Sam in a scrimmage. Did you usually guard him or were you usually on the same team with you playing point and him playing shooting guard?"

Jones: "I didn't usually guard him. I don't know what happened in that practice, but that was the first time I guarded him, I believe. I guarded Bill Sharman most times in practice. I either guarded Sharman or Bob Cousy."

Friedman: "You mentioned the Detroit Pistons. For my readers who did not have a chance to see Sam play, what current or recent guard would you say is most similar to him either in shooting ability or performance in the clutch?"

Jones: "I guess Jerry West would be one. Maybe Hamilton. He would be another."

Friedman: "Hamilton from Detroit?"

Jones: "Yeah."

Friedman: "That's interesting. Tommy Heinsohn also mentioned him. Heinsohn mentioned Hamilton because he has a variety of shots—the long distance game, the mid-range game and the driving game. So you would see a similarity from that standpoint?"

Jones: "Oh, yeah. More times than not when Hamilton is driving he pulls up for the jumper. If he has the defense beaten he goes straight to the basket. More times than not he's running without the ball and he spends a lot of energy running around to get open and then he has to go to the other end and play aggressive defense. That man is in awesome shape. What's like Sam is that he moves without the ball and when he gets the ball he's going right up for the shot."

Friedman: "What's interesting is that when I brought that comparison up to Bob Cousy, who I later interviewed, he didn't like that particular comparison because he didn't think that there was anyone in the modern game who could really be compared with Sam. It's interesting to me to talk to his teammates and hear their different perspectives. You are the second one who brought up Rip Hamilton, which is interesting to me."

Jones: "What did Cousy say as far as comparisons go?"

Friedman: "Well, he was looking strictly on the basis of skill level and when I brought up that Tom Heinsohn had mentioned Rip Hamilton, Cousy replied that, for one thing, he didn't see Hamilton as a Hall of Famer and to him that was disrespectful of Sam Jones' talent. He felt that Rip Hamilton has not proven that he is a Hall of Famer. I made the point that what Heinsohn had said to me was not that Hamilton is as good as Sam Jones, but that their styles are similar in terms of having a variety of shots. There are very few modern guards who really have a complete game in terms of being able to shoot from deep, from mid-range and being able to drive. Most guards today only have one of the three."

Jones: "Yes."

Friedman: "So there is a comparison there from the standpoint of style. No one is saying that Rip Hamilton is an all-time great—"

Jones: "It's a little early for that."

Friedman: "Right, of course."

Jones: "He's only been in the league a few years."

Friedman: "Right, he's only been around for a few years and this is his first championship."

Jones: "Yeah. You take Kobe, you take Hamilton, you take Sam, you take Jerry West—in crunch time you are looking for these people, you want these people to have the ball."

Friedman: "So from the standpoint of producing in the clutch you would put Kobe in there as well because he hits last second shots. He and Sam had different playing styles, but they both produced in the clutch."

Jones: "The style is different, but what I'm saying is that in crunch time you want the ball to go to your best shooters. That's what I'm saying. I'm not talking about style—whether they use a spin move or all that—I'm saying in crunch time the ball goes to your best shooters. They approach it in different ways."

Friedman: "Sure. Another thing I want to ask you about—and I know that a similar question was once asked of Bill Russell about a hypothetical matchup with Kareem and his response was, 'Young man, you have the question backwards'—I'm interested from your perspective how you would picture a matchup of Sam Jones in his prime playing against Kobe or McGrady, what would that matchup be like, what strengths would Sam Jones use to counteract Kobe or McGrady, who are both a little taller than Sam?"

Jones: "Kobe would have a very difficult time staying with Sam defensively."

Friedman: "From a speed standpoint?"

Jones: "Yes, from speed or quickness, whatever you want to call it. Could Kobe stay with Hamilton? I don't think so. Kobe couldn't stay with Sam and maybe Sam couldn't stay with Kobe. Thinking in terms of guarding each other, I don't see it in that mode. There are changes and moves that can be made; they can guard other people so that they don't wear themselves out and wear their minds out guarding the best player on the other team."

Friedman: "So if they played against each other it would be a real shootout because they both would be scoring a lot."

Jones: "Well, yeah. They are masters of the offensive end, they don't master the defensive end. So you have to be someone who is defensive oriented to guard the Kobes and the Same Jones and the Hamiltons. That's what happened in Chicago when Drexler from Portland was guarding Jordan (in the 1992 Finals). I thought that was not a good move, putting Drexler on Jordan."

Friedman: "You're wearing out your best player."

Jones: "Yes, plus you experience a defeatist attitude, a sense of fear, guarding Jordan. Why would I put one of my best shooters out there to guard Jordan? It doesn’t make any sense to me."

Friedman: "So from your standpoint, if Sam Jones was playing at the same time as Kobe they might not even be guarding each other. You might cross-match or do something so that they wouldn't be facing each other."

Jones: "I think that would be the best move. If you saw Drexler in the game, it just took his mind away."

Friedman: "You're talking about the game in the Finals when Jordan hit all those three pointers."

Jones: "Yeah, whichever game that was. I know that Drexler is an offensive player and great at being an offensive player. How many great shooters do you see who are great on the defensive end?"

Friedman: "Very few."

Jones: "Very few."

Friedman: "Actually, Jordan would probably be one of the exceptions since he was Defensive Player of the Year in addition to winning all of the scoring titles. But your point is well taken. If you have a minute, I'd like to switch gears. I'd be interested to ask you some questions specifically about your career for use in a future article. I see some parallels between your coaching career and Phil Jackson's coaching career in terms of reluctance in some quarters to give you credit for your teams' success. With Phil Jackson, he has won nine championships but people say, 'He always had the best player. He had Jordan or he had Shaq' and I think that kind of echoes from your career in Boston when you won championships but people said that you had a Hall of Fame frontline. Do you see a parallel in that sense?"

Jones: "There was a great coach before I got to the Celtics, Bill Fitch. He was a great coach. He did a super job of winning the championship in 1981. I had the same players and went to the Finals four times in five years and won two championships."

Friedman: "Right. That’s a very similar run to what Jackson just had with the Lakers, winning three titles in five years."

Jones: "What you mentioned was that because I had these high profile players, that's how I was able to have a championship team and go to the Finals that often. That's what you're saying, right?"

Friedman: "I'm not saying that. I'm saying that's a criticism that others have said. I don't think that it is valid. I think that it is a challenge—and I wanted you to speak about this—when you have that many talented players to get them to accept roles and to understand what has to be done to win."

Jones: "I was speaking to the criticism. Of course, I'm not an entertainer, which all coaches should be, because the media lives off of that. I was just the opposite. I guess you are saying that (people say) that Jackson was a quiet guy sitting on the sidelines and only reason he won was because he had Jordan and Pippen. That really doesn’t make a lot of sense to me."

Friedman: "I agree."

Jones: "Here's what you've got. In college, the best coaches are the ones who do the best scouting. They come up with the Okafors and the Bill Russells and the Kareems. Without these great players, these great individuals, how are you going to get there? Shaq and Kobe, they won for three years. Then Jackson is criticized for having Jordan and Pippen. I don't understand that."

Friedman: "I don't understand it either. I think that it is a great challenge. The team that you had in Boston, which had Bird, McHale and Parish—any one of those guys could demand 25 shots a game. You were able to get them to work together to understand how to share the ball and—"

Jones: "It's the same thing with Bill Fitch. He had the same players and he did a great job with them to win a championship. But there wasn't any question that he had Larry Bird and Kevin McHale and Danny Ainge. He is not mentioned in the same way as Jackson and I am."

Friedman: "When you first took over in Boston what was the biggest challenge that you faced?"

Jones: "The biggest obstacle is always the communication factor. If you don't have good communication between you and your top players, then you are really alone. What Jackson did in Chicago was he had Jordan and Pippen as his protectors. Jerry Sloan did that in Chicago and he also did it with Malone and Stockton in Utah. I'm sure Jackson did that with Shaq."

Friedman: "So the key thing is to first make sure that the big star buys into your program and accepts what you are doing and then everyone else falls into line?"

Jones: "Those players have to be included. Your top two players, like Russell and Cousy. It's even better if you have three players. Your major guys are the ones who have to be included in your strategy planning. They have thoughts. Red Auerbach did that with Cousy and Russell. If you don't do that there is a fence there. You are alone. A wall is up."

Friedman: "You mentioned something about demeanor, that you were not a media darling or doing things that the media would pick up on and that is similar to Phil Jackson, because sometimes people will criticize him by saying, 'Look what is going on on the court and he is sitting there looking at his fingernails.' When you were on the sidelines you were not very demonstrative. Your teams were very effective. People would turn that into a criticism. I think that that is another way that you were similar to Phil Jackson. You had a very calm demeanor on the courtside, you weren’t running around or getting technicals."

Jones: "That's the entertainment factor. John Wooden seldom got off the bench, but that's what the media looks for and some coaches have a way of giving them what they want. Rick Pitino is great on the sidelines with the press and his demeanor on the court. That's awesome stuff. You have others who do the same thing and that's their coaching style."

Friedman: "From your standpoint, coaching—"

Jones: "Larry Brown in Detroit, what does he do?"

Friedman: "To me, he is a little bit of a mixture. A lot of times he is getting up and getting excited but sometimes—I think that he is a hybrid. I think he is in the middle. He is not as demonstrative as some, but he is not always just sitting there quietly—"

Jones: "Not in the playoffs (laughs). Maybe in the regular season. In the regular season there is a tomorrow."

Friedman: "Right. Your coaching philosophy, as I understand it, is your coaching was done in practice. You prepared the team for what they had to do and you didn't need to do a lot of histrionics on the sidelines—"

Jones: "It wasn't me to be that demonstrative and it's not Jackson to do that. Brown, same thing there. Then you have others—Bill Fitch was great, he was up on the sidelines. He could have been a comedian on the stage because he was great with the media and he was a super bright person."

Friedman: "One other thing that I wanted to ask you about is something that I recall and then I see it all the time on ESPN Classic. I noticed something about where Larry Bird would receive the ball. Usually when you have a great player who is predominantly right handed, when they catch the ball on the block—whether is it Shaq or Hakeem or Duncan—you can go down the line—they usually like that left block. What I noticed a lot of times—"

Jones: "The left block facing the basket?"

Friedman: "Right. Exactly. The left block facing the basket. If you picture Hakeem posting up or Shaq, they usually run to that left block. That seems to be where the great players who are right handed tend to go."

Jones: "Except for Kareem."

Friedman: "Right."

Jones: "Kareem liked the right block."

Friedman: "Yeah. But I noticed with Larry Bird a lot of times when he ran that exchange with Parish or if he was posting up and Ainge or Dennis Johnson were feeding him, a lot of times Bird would go to the right block or even the right side midway between the foul line and the block. I wondered if there was a particular reason why he received the ball there. I don't remember a lot of great players who were right handed getting the ball there. I've always been curious about that."

Jones: "Well, hey, that’s something new to me. I never thought about that. Of course, guys have special places they like to be. Right handed guys like to be on the right block, is that what you’re saying?"

Friedman: "Well, my observation—maybe I’m wrong and you can correct me. It seems to me that right hand dominant players tend to go to the left block—I'm thinking of Shaq, Tim Duncan, Hakeem Olajuwon. I know that you mentioned Kareem. I think that he would go to either block."

Jones: "Yeah."

Friedman: "I noticed a lot of times with Larry Bird—I remember watching it during the 1980s and then I see it again on ESPN Classic—a lot of times he was getting the ball on the right wing, midway between the foul line and the post. I didn't know if this was by design or if that was where he liked to get the ball or if it had anything to do with the spacing of the other players. I didn't know if there was a grand reason behind it or it just happened that way."

Jones: "Well I never saw a grand reason behind Larry doing that. Of course, shooters follow the ball, and if you are a Reggie Miller or a Larry Bird or whoever, it's wherever you get the ball and deal with it. But then there are plays that put you in position to do that. Then it's, 'What side do you want it on?' or 'What block do you want it on?' Then you know that’s the way it goes and that’s how it’s dealt with."

Friedman: "Oh, OK. It seemed like he would get the ball a lot of times in that area. I even noticed it when they replayed the old 1979 NCAA Championship against Magic Johnson. I didn't know if it was something that developed early in his career for some reason. I know that he was effective anywhere on the court, but I didn't know if there was a particular reason he liked that spot, kind of midway between the foul line and the post. If he had a smaller guy it seemed like he would back him in—"

Jones: "Yeah."

Friedman: "If he had a bigger guy he would drive. In the (1988 playoff) game against Dominique, it seemed like he was getting the ball a lot of times in that spot and then he would wheel around and drive into the lane, like in that fourth quarter when he had 20 points."

Jones: "Yeah. Of course, players have spots that they like or positions that they like to be in to make their favorite move down there. You’re saying left block and right block and some of them could do both, but I was never really that aware of that except coming off certain plays if he wanted to post up he would come to either block, the block that he liked best. More times than not, Larry was on the right side of the court as a forward. Kevin was always on the block—him or Robert."

Friedman: "Right. Bird would be kind of in a mid-post position, between the foul line and the block or even outside the three point line."

Jones: "Yeah, Larry would come from the right side or the left side or coming off a screen set by Robert or Kevin. A lot of times he was on the right post."

Friedman: "Yeah, that’s what I'm saying. I noticed that on tape. I found that interesting. I didn't know if there was a specific reason. I guess some of that just comes out of the flow of the game."

Jones: "Yeah. It comes out of the flow of the game. What about other players? Hamilton, he does that circle thing, he comes around to the right side a lot of times and all of a sudden he’s up in the air for the shot."

Friedman: "He's perpetual motion."

Jones: "Yeah, but all he is doing is trying to get open. It's like a 1-4 setup, two guys on the right block, one guy on the left block and the point guard's up top. Hamilton’s down under the basket trying to find which way he can go to get the defense knocked off. So he'll fake this way and go that way. Or fake this way and go the other way. He's coming around and that's how he gets open."

Friedman: "He kind of bounces around like a pinball. He reads, he goes by one of his big men and reads which way his defender is going and he pops out the other way."

Jones: "Yeah. He's doing a mile run to get open to get his shot on a court that is what, 50 by 90?"

Friedman: "Right. Exactly."

Jones: "But that's him. There are different ways of doing it. Oscar Robertson would dribble you this way or that way for 15 seconds, let you make a mistake with one of his subtle fakes and he's by you. Different strokes."

Friedman: "Oscar's philosophy, as I understand it, was always that he was never satisfied. If he had a 15 foot shot, he would try to back you in or fake so that he could get a 12 foot shot. If he had a 12 foot shot, he was always trying to get closer to the basket, and of course he had great size, so he was always trying to get the closer shot. He was never satisfied."

Jones: "Well, why not?" (laughs)

Friedman: "Sure, it makes sense. Well, the current players don't always necessarily think that way. If the shot is open then they think it is a good shot. They are not trying to get closer. It’s not the same type of approach. Of course, Oscar's approach makes sense."

Jones: "That's what you work for. If you can get it, you get it, but you have to work for it."

Friedman: "One more thing that I want to ask you—"

Jones: "There is one thing that I want to say. You were talking about that I had Larry Bird and Kevin McHale and all those people and that's how I was able to win. Then, I mentioned Bill Fitch. But I was not mentioning Bill Fitch in a negative way."

Friedman: "No, I understand."

Jones: "I was talking about the critics and what they were saying. If I had these people here and that is the reason that I got to the Finals and won championships—he was coaching the same guys."

Friedman: "No, I understand your point exactly."

Jones: "I wanted to be clear on that."

Friedman: "OK, no problem there. I understand what you are saying. Just to make it clear from my standpoint, I don't believe that that is a valid criticism. I am bringing up something that other people have said to get your reaction to it."

Jones: "That's what I was reacting to, not something that you said, but what you were asking."

Friedman: "When I thought about it and realized that I would have the opportunity to speak with you about Sam Jones, I was also thinking about a future article that I could write about you in a similar vein. The article that I am writing about Sam Jones is called 'Reconsidered,' when I look at somebody's career and take a different perspective—look at someone who has been underrated or neglected. I was thinking that in a future article I could do something very similar about your coaching career, because I see a lot of parallels between your coaching career and Phil Jackson's in terms of not receiving what I would consider to be adequate credit. Like you say, they don't look at Bill Fitch that way for whatever reason, but, sometimes, critics will say, well someone had the players—and someone else may have had the same players and they don’t make that criticism—it doesn't always seem fair."

Jones: "Look, that's being—what do you call it—not biased, but that's going straight at the coaches, K.C. or Jackson, because they had the talent. Those critics are saying that they really don't think much of these two coaches."

Friedman: "Right and some of it also gets back to what you were talking about in terms of how the coach may relate to the media or how the media perceives them."

Jones: "That's it right there. Bill Fitch had a great ability in controlling the media through his humor. He'd jump up every now and then and scream. They'd feel the spirit he put into it—a great communicator and that's what the media wants. That's what they accept. With a guy like me, they're not going to get much, because I'm the guy who sits quietly on the bench."

Friedman: "Right. In that sense also, although he hasn't won a championship as a coach, there is a little similarity between you and Maurice Cheeks from a demeanor standpoint. Maurice Cheeks is not real demonstrative, he is kind of quiet and that doesn't mean that the person is not coaching, that's just his personality—"

Jones: "If he had been in there and won a couple championships then he would have the same problem I have." (laughs)

Friedman: "Right. Exactly."

Jones: "And Dr. Jack Ramsay."

Friedman: "Right. One other thing that I want to ask you about is not the happiest memory from your coaching career, but I want to have your perspective on it. History is generally told from the standpoint of who won—also, in light of what happened this year in the Finals when we had an upset, of course. You coached the Washington Bullets in the Finals against Golden State (in 1975) and that was a team that was considered to be the favorite but you did not win. We always read the story from the perspective of what Rick Barry did or Golden State or whatever, but from your standpoint what do you feel like happened in that series? From your standpoint why did that series go the way it did?"

Jones: "Well, the scenario was that there was a circus that was going on during the Finals in San Francisco. So that changed the whole format from the usual 2-2-1-1-1. The change was we had the choice of playing game one in San Francisco and the next two in Washington or the other way around. I made the mistake of taking the first game at home and being on the road for the next two. You make a boo-boo like that, it makes it very difficult to win the championship as the favorite."

Friedman: "What you're saying is that when you lost the first game it put you behind the eight ball because you didn't have the home court advantage that you expected to have."

Jones: "Yeah, that was what the format was. By them winning the first game—and they won it narrowly, because we missed a layup that would've won the game—Golden State now felt confident as all get out, rather than being intimidated by the 2-2-1-1-1."

Friedman: "That's something that I know about because I've researched that series a little bit and read about what happened, but that's something that is not mentioned a lot when people talk about the upset or what Rick Barry did, but that was a big disadvantage—"

Jones: "What you're saying is that they just come out with their thoughts about how I did a terrible job because I was favored, but without mentioning how the series was set up. Nothing is mentioned about the circus, nothing is mentioned about the 1-2 format."

Friedman: "That also says something about where the NBA ranked in the sports universe or the entertainment universe at that time. I don't think that kind of scheduling could happen in today's NBA. I don't think that there could be some type of scheduling snafu where you end up playing 1-2—"

Jones: "Golden State, they had that schedule set (with the circus) because they felt that Golden State would not (still) be in the playoffs. So they used that playoff time to have the circus but all of a sudden Golden State beat Chicago and then it was like, 'Oh, (shoot).'"

Friedman: "Right, 'What are we going to do?'"

Jones: "'We have a circus here, da-da-da,' and the commissioner said, 'OK, 1-2.'"

Friedman: "But nowadays the NBA is such a huge business I don't think that anyone—even the Orlando Magic with the horrible record that they had last year—would have scheduled a circus to be in there during playoff time until they were mathematically eliminated. I don't think that anyone would say before the season starts, 'I don't think that we're going to be in the playoffs, let's have the circus here in May.' Well, I won't take up any more of your time. Thank you so much for your help with the Sam Jones article. As I mentioned, at some point I would like to do a 'K.C. Jones Reconsidered' dealing with your coaching career." 

A few minutes after the conclusion of the interview, K.C. Jones called back to state that he wanted it on the record that "Bill Fitch was a better coach than I was." K.C. Jones made it very clear that his comments about both of them having the same players but Fitch's coaching skills not being critiqued in the media the same way that his were did not mean that he did not respect Fitch as a coach. I reassured K.C. Jones that I understood what he had meant during the interview and that I have no intention of trying to create some type of rift with Coach Fitch. The operative comparison is between the laid back bench demeanors of both Jones and Jackson.

It speaks volumes about Jones' character (1) that he spent so much time doing an in depth interview with a writer who he did not know and who is not famous and (2) that he put so much thought into his answers, to the point of calling me back to clarify that he meant no disrespect to Coach Fitch. Longtime 20 Second Timeout readers know that Julius Erving is my favorite player of all-time. It goes without saying that I was not rooting for Jones' teams during the 1980s--but I hope that it is also evident how much I respect him, and how much research and preparation I did (for a basketball lifetime, not just for one interview) before I spoke with him. 

I am happy that I shared that time with K.C. Jones, and I hope that this interview helps basketball fans cultivate a greater appreciation for his accomplishments. I never wrote the "K.C. Jones Reconsidered" article, but in a sense that is what this article is. K.C. Jones deserves to be reconsidered, and to always be remembered as a championship player and a championship coach.

Labels: Bill Russell, Boston Celtics, Clyde Drexler, K.C. Jones, Kobe Bryant, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Phil Jackson, Richard Hamilton, Sam Jones, Slick Leonard, Tommy Heinsohn

posted by David Friedman @ 7:09 PM

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