Thoughts and Observations About the 2018 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Enshrinement Ceremony
In my article Maurice Cheeks, Charlie Scott and Rod Thorn Are Among the Basketball Hall of Fame's Newest Members, I focused on three of the 13 members of the Basketball Hall of Fame's 2018 class. Last night, those men and their classmates were officially enshrined.
Grant Hill was enshrined first. He and 2018 Hall of Fame classmate Jason Kidd will forever be linked not only as co-Rookies of the Year in 1995 but also as unselfish, all-around players who focused first and foremost on team success. Hill alluded to his tendency to be verbose and joked that his wife had urged him to remember the "Five Bs: Be brief, brother, be brief." Turning serious, Hill said that he "fell in love with the game of basketball" by watching Patrick Ewing dominate in both college and the NBA. Hill called Ewing his "basketball hero." Ewing and Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski were Hill's two presenters. Hill thanked Coach Krzyzewski for providing the "blueprint" for success. Next, Hill mentioned Isiah Thomas. Hill seemed uncertain whether or not Thomas was in attendance (perhaps that is why he did not choose Thomas as a presenter as well) but as soon as Hill realized that Thomas was in the building he called him up to the stage and embraced Thomas, who he called a "hero, a friend and an advocate for me." Hill thanked Alonzo Mourning for providing the inspiration for how to come back from health problems/injuries. Hill became emotional when he thanked his parents for how they raised him and when he acknowledged his two daughters and his wife. Hill asked his wife if his speech had been short enough and he promised that the other enshrinees' speeches would be shorter.
Rod Thorn spoke next. He was presented by Jerry West. Thorn thanked the Hall of Fame and Jerry Colangelo in particular. Thorn singled out three Hall of Famers who had a special impact on him: Bob ("Slick") Leonard, Richie Guerin and Lenny Wilkens.
Younger fans may not remember or know that Thorn was a collegiate star at West Virginia who was selected by the Baltimore Bullets with the second overall pick in the 1963 NBA Draft. Thorn played eight seasons in the NBA before becoming a coach, general manager and league executive. After injuries forced him to retire from playing, Thorn considered going to law school before Kevin Loughery offered him a job as an assistant coach with the New York Nets in the ABA. Thorn recalled, "I knew in my heart I wasn't ready to let the game go."
Thorn said that since his career started as a player he wanted to mention three players "who all had a profound impact on my life": Julius Erving, Michael Jordan and Jason Kidd. Thorn said of Erving, "In 1974, my first season with the Nets, we won the league championship, sparked by the incomparable Julius Erving, who led the team in nearly every statistical category. Night after night, he would perform such incredible athletic feats that would have Kevin and I looking at each other and exclaiming, 'I cannot believe he just did that.' As great as Doc was as a player, he was equally good as a teammate. Thank you Doc for proving that superheroes can be humans, too."
These comments reinforce what Thorn told me over a decade ago about Erving: "I think that he was the best teammate of all the players I've been
involved with in 40-plus years of NBA basketball. He was our leading
scorer, our leading rebounder, our leading shot blocker, our leading
assist guy--you name it, he led our team in it, plus he was the leader of
our team. He guarded the best forward every night, whether it was a
small forward or a big forward. He took most of the big shots. Not only
was he a great player, but more importantly he was a great teammate. He had great lateral quickness and he was a tremendous jumper. He was a
tough guy--that is one thing that is not talked about that much when you
talk about Julius, because of his great athleticism, but he was a tough
guy. I mean he would physically get after guys and play hard. He took a
challenge. He played 43-44 minutes a game for us and guarded the best
guy on the other team every night and was our leading scorer, so the
energy that he expended during a game was much more than the average
player did. It was just phenomenal what he did."
As the Chicago Bulls' general manager, Thorn drafted Michael Jordan.
Thorn joked that without Jordan he would not have a Wikipedia page and
he would not have people sending him items to autograph asking for his
signature and "by the way" asking for Jordan's signature as well.
Thorn
won the 2002 NBA Executive of the Year Award after acquiring Kidd and
building the Nets into a championship contender. Thorn recalled that when he rejoined the Nets, "The team had challenges defending, rebounding and passing, which as you know are the ingredients of a 26 win season." After trading for Kidd, Thorn's Nets won 52 games, one of the best one season turnarounds in league history.
Maurice Cheeks followed Thorn. In the video tribute before Cheeks spoke, Erving said, "He had a very, very high basketball IQ. He was a champion, he was an All-Star and I loved playing with him." Erving and Billy Cunningham presented Cheeks. Cheeks is known as a quiet man of few words but he gave the most emotionally gripping speech of the evening. He opened by saying, "This is amazing and Grant, you're right, this will be short." Cheeks credited his experiences growing up on the South Side of Chicago for teaching him to look out for others as others had looked out for him. He said, "My life has been a string of small moments that led to amazing experiences." Cheeks mentioned his high school teammate William Dise, who was a highly recruited player who signed with West Texas State on condition that the school also sign Cheeks, a skinny and lightly recruited prospect. Cheeks said that his career would have gone much differently if not for Dise.
Cheeks thanked Coach Cunningham and said that he was the kind of coach that you never wanted to let down. Cheeks praised Erving for teaching him how to be a pro and Cheeks also thanked his veteran teammates Andrew Toney, Moses Malone, Bobby Jones, Caldwell Jones, and Henry Bibby. Cheeks said, "Over the years I have had many reasons to thank the Lord and two of them are my beautiful kids...I'm proud to be your dad and I love you both." Cheeks thanked his three brothers, one of whom was murdered in 1991. Cheeks started to get emotional at that point and mentioned that Charles Barkley told him not to cry but Cheeks broke down when he talked about "my very first coach, Mama Cheeks" and all that she did for him and their family--including calling out Maurice's name and his brothers' names so that they would come inside when it got dark. Mama Cheeks attended the ceremony and she looked very proud. As Cheeks wept, Erving walked over, gently grabbed his shoulders and said softly, "Come on Mo, you can do it," lending a helping hand much like Cheeks had lent a helping hand to National Anthem singer Natalie Gilbert years ago. I felt as a kid that the 76ers were a special team with special people and moments like this just confirm that. I am so blessed to have watched that team and then to have had the opportunity to interview Erving, Cunningham, Jones and Pat Williams. Cheeks concluded by thanking the Hall of Fame for "thinking enough of my contributions to the sport to select me for such an honor. I cannot think of a better way to celebrate my 40 years in the NBA and my 62nd birthday (on Saturday). Thank you and God bless."
Later in the program, Charlie Scott was presented by Jerry Colangelo, Dave Cowens, Julius Erving, Spencer Haywood and Roy Williams. During the video tribute to Scott, Erving noted, "He broke the color barrier very much like Jackie Robinson did (in baseball), except it was getting a basketball scholarship to the University of North Carolina and integrating the school. Charlie Scott was a monster on the basketball court. He could score inside, he could score outside."
Scott began by explaining how he selected his presenters. He said that they were each friends of his for over 40 years. Scott joked that his wife said if they have known him for 40 years and still speak to him then they all deserve to be on the stage with him. "This is an honor that I always dreamed of but could never imagine happening," Scott declared. He called Dean Smith "My mentor and the person who I admire the most in my life." Scott thanked his North Carolina teammates, including Larry Miller, for standing beside him during the sometimes difficult racial integration process. He individually thanked each of his presenters. Regarding Erving and Cowens, the never hesitant to shoot Scott quipped that he helped each of them become great rebounders.
Scott concluded by thanking his wife and children. He said that he once asked a friend to describe him honestly, good and bad. Scott asked his family to raise their hands if they disagreed with this characterization: "People sometimes might take your aloofness as arrogance. You can become very demanding in getting your way. You don't know when to let things go. You never give compliments. You think you're always right....The shocker was his next sentence: Let me tell you about your bad points!" Scott paused after each point and noted that no one in his family raised their hands. He laughed and said, "This was the individual you had to deal with. Your unconditional love and understanding have been my North Star."
In 2015, I wondered if Julius Erving had been a Hall of Fame presenter more than anyone else. At that time, Erving had been selected as a presenter nine times. Now, including last night, he has been a presenter 14 times (9/11/21 note: I just added Alex English to this list after confirming that Erving was English's presenter):
1995: Presented Cheryl Miller
1996: None
1997: Alex English
1998-2000: None
2001: Presented Moses Malone
2002-2003: None
2004: Presented Clyde Drexler
2005: None
2006: Presented Dominique Wilkins
2007-2010: None
2011: Presented Artis Gilmore
2012: Presented Katrina McClain, Ralph Sampson and the All-American Red Heads
2013-2014: None
2015: Presented John Calipari
2016: Presented Allen Iverson and Shaquille O'Neal
2017: None
2018: Presented Maurice Cheeks and Charlie Scott
That list of names spans multiple generations and includes teammates, opponents and players who grew up idolizing Erving. What a tribute to Erving's deep and continuing impact on the sport!
There is a lot of depth to Ray Allen beyond his basketball accomplishments. When you read his words or listen to him speak you understand that he is a remarkable person, not just a great basketball player. Allen spoke repeatedly of the dedication, discipline, perfectionism and sacrifice that it takes to become a great individual player and to become a two-time NBA champion. Those words resonate and are true but what resonated the most is when he talked about his children. Allen was the only enshrinee who talked to/about each of his children specifically and described why each child is so special to him. Allen emphatically declared, "All of you kids are my greatest legacy. I learned in life that our kids pay attention to everything we do, everything we say and everything we don't say and everything we don't do. So I have to be an example to these young people at all times and we got to make sure that we are an example to the kids in our lives at all times, because we do set the tone and the example in all of our communities."
Allen also said, "I don't believe in talent. I'm here because I worked hard my whole life. Without that work, no one in this room would know who I am except my family. So to all the kids around the world watching, paying attention and aspiring to be like us or even on this stage, put the work in and watch the magical ride you go on."
Labels: Basketball Hall of Fame, Charlie Scott, Grant Hill, Isiah Thomas, Julius Erving, Maurice Cheeks, Mike Krzyzewski, Patrick Ewing, Ray Allen, Rod Thorn
posted by David Friedman @ 10:15 PM
Maurice Cheeks, Charlie Scott and Rod Thorn Are Among the Basketball Hall of Fame's Newest Members
In September, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame will welcome 13 new members: Ray Allen, Maurice Cheeks, Lefty Driesell, Grant Hill, Jason Kidd, Steve Nash, Dino Radja, Charlie Scott, Katie Smith, Tina Thompson, Rod Thorn, Ora Mae Washington and Rick Welts. Many media reports state that this class is "headlined" by Allen, Hill, Kidd and Nash--but this article will focus on Cheeks, Scott and Thorn, three individuals who have been eligible for induction for many years but have been overlooked by the Hall until now.
Maurice Cheeks was the starting point guard for the 1983 Philadelphia 76ers, who set a record by going 12-1 in the playoffs en route to sweeping the defending champion L.A. Lakers in the NBA Finals. Cheeks also started for the 1980 and 1982 Philadelphia teams that lost to the powerful Lakers in the NBA Finals. He made the All-Star team four times and earned five All-Defensive Team selections (including four First Team honors).
Cheeks never led the league in a statistical category but he was a consistently excellent performer who ranked first in career regular season steals and fifth in career regular season assists when he retired; he now ranks fifth and 13th respectively in those categories, ahead of many players who were inducted in the Hall of Fame before him. Cheeks posted an outstanding .523 career regular season field goal percentage, a testament not only to his shooting ability but also to his judicious shot selection. Cheeks understood when to shoot and when to deliver the ball to fellow Hall of Fame teammates such as Julius Erving, Moses Malone and Charles Barkley.
Cheeks had a Hall of Fame moment as a person during his tenure as Portland's head coach. Prior to a 2003 playoff game, 13 year old Natalie Gilbert froze as she was singing the National Anthem.
Cheeks walked over, put his arm around her and helped her finish singing. "It was like a guardian angel had come and put his arm around my
shoulder and helped me get through one of the most difficult experiences
I've ever had," said Gilbert.
Kidd, arguably the greatest point guard of his era, summed it perfectly upon learning that Cheeks will be joining him in the 2018 Hall of Fame class: "Mo Cheeks is who we all wanted to be."
Charlie Scott was the University of North Carolina's first black scholarship athlete. Scott made the All-America Team twice and he twice led the Tar Heels to the Final Four. He won Olympic gold with Team USA in 1968. Scott was drafted by the NBA's Boston Celtics but he signed with the ABA's Virginia Squires, winning the 1971 Rookie of the Year award after averaging 27.1 ppg. Scott also finished third in MVP balloting behind Hall of Famers Mel Daniels and Zelmo Beaty. The next season, rookie Julius Erving joined the Squires and Scott led the ABA in scoring (34.6 ppg) before leaving the Squires to jump to the NBA just before the playoffs. Scott joined the Phoenix Suns and the Suns sent Paul Silas to the Celtics as compensation since the Celtics owned Scott's NBA rights.
Scott spent three seasons with the Suns before being traded to the Boston Celtics for Paul Westphal in 1975. Scott played a key role for Boston's 1976 NBA championship team. His Hall of Fame selection is well deserved based on his outstanding amateur career in college/the Olympics, plus his high performance level as a pro in the ABA and NBA.
Rod Thorn was selected to the Hall of Fame as a Contributor after a long and successful basketball career during which he filled many roles, including player, coach, executive and league administrator. Thorn was an All-America performer at West Virginia before being selected second overall by the Baltimore Bullets in the 1963 NBA draft. He had a solid NBA playing career before becoming an assistant coach on Kevin Loughery's staff with the ABA's New York Nets, who won the 1974 ABA title largely thanks to Erving's spectacular all-around play. Thorn later became the Chicago Bulls' General Manager. He drafted Michael Jordan in 1984. From 1986-2000, Thorn served as the NBA's Executive Vice President of Operations. Thorn rejoined the Nets in 2000 and was selected as the NBA's Executive of the Year in 2002 after building the team into a championship contender.
Labels: Basketball Hall of Fame, Charlie Scott, Dino Radja, Gran Hill, Jason Kidd, Katie Smith, Lefty Driesell, Maurice Cheeks, Ora Mae Washington, Ray Allen, Rick Welts, Rod Thorn, Steve Nash, Tina Thompson
posted by David Friedman @ 1:24 PM
Michael Jordan Always Attacked the Citadels
Michael Jordan's upcoming 50th birthday has inspired much commentary and reflection about his legacy and impact. While Jerry West transitioned from being
"Mr. Clutch" on the court to
being one of pro basketball's great executives, it does not seem likely that Jordan's career as an NBA owner/executive is going to add much to his legacy; now is as good a time as ever to place Jordan's career in proper context without resorting either to hagiography or to the kind of nitpicking critiques that are applied to most great players but have not often been leveled at Jordan since he led the Chicago Bulls to a second "three-peat."
Jordan entered the NBA in 1984 as a highly regarded performer--an NCAA and Olympic champion who had just been the consensus NCAA Player of the Year as a junior--but no one predicted or expected just how great he would be on the court, let alone the culture-shifting impact he would have off of the court as an iconic figure who transcended not just his sport but sport in general. Rod Thorn was an assistant coach for the New York Nets when Julius Erving dominated the ABA and Thorn drafted Michael Jordan third overall for the Bulls, so Thorn
has a unique perspective on Jordan's greatness and on Jordan's place in pro basketball history: "Up to this point, I think that the best all-around player has been Michael Jordan. When you compare Michael to Julius, Julius was a better rebounder. As defenders, both of them were top flight. Michael was a better shooter. Athletically, they were both in the top one percent. But I just think that because of everything that he did in the NBA and the way that his career went, I think that Jordan, to me, is the best player."
Kevin Loughery is the only person who served as both Erving's head coach (from 1973-76 in the ABA, when Erving won three regular season MVPs, two championships and two playoff MVPs) and Jordan's head coach (1984-85, when Jordan led the Bulls in scoring, rebounding and assists en route to winning the Rookie of the Year award). Here is Loughery's
take on Erving versus Jordan: "There are a lot of similarities between the Doctor and Michael. I think the ability to handle the ball probably puts Michael a tad ahead of the Doctor." Loughery offered this caveat: "In the last year of the ABA, Dr. J. probably played as good a season as anyone who ever played...The Doc put on some show every day." This is Loughery's final verdict: "As it turned out, Michael did become the greatest ever. But when you talk about greatness, it was pretty close between Doc and Michael. You can never leave out Bill Russell, either, because he won 11 championships with the Celtics."
NBA lifer Johnny Bach served as an assistant coach for the Chicago Bulls from 1986-94 and thus had a front row seat as Jordan evolved from a great individual talent into a great champion. Bach marveled about how the young Jordan would
"attack the citadels," Bach's colorful way of saying that Jordan fearlessly drove to the hoop and would not be deterred by bigger players who tried to block his shot and/or deliver hard fouls. Jordan's entire approach to the game involved attacking the citadels; he never backed down from any challenge, even in the last days of his career as a Wizard when he dragged one gimpy leg up and down the court, simultaneously defying the aging process, the younger players who dared to challenge him and the critics who carped that he had overstayed his welcome. One of the most indelible images of Jordan's career--an image that epitomizes who Jordan is at the core of his being--is of old Wizard Jordan chasing down the much younger Ron Mercer, pinning Mercer's shot to the backboard with two hands and then barking defiantly at Mercer; you can catch a glimpse of that play at the 4:10 mark of the "What is Love?" video in the first link after the end of this article. "Love is playing every game as if it's your last," Jordan declares in that video, and he lived up to that motto throughout his career; the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls are the most amazing and captivating team I have ever seen in any sport because--thanks to the leadership of Jordan,
Scottie Pippen and Coach Phil Jackson--they seemed to be trying to go 82-0 (the 16-0 New England Patriots displayed similar resolve in 2007 but, unlike the 1996 Bulls,
they failed to win the championship).
Jordan is unquestionably a member of pro basketball's Pantheon and many people reflexively call him the greatest player of all-time. When I wrote my Pantheon series I refused to single out one player from that group of 10 (Michael Jordan, Oscar Robertson, Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Earvin Johnson, Larry Bird, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Elgin Baylor, Jerry West and
Julius Erving, listed in the order that they finished in a 1999 AP vote for the best players of the 20th century) and I still believe that a case could be made for any of those players to be the greatest player of all-time, depending on the criteria used--a stronger case could be made for some of those players than for others but the point is that a case could be made for any of them. Since this article is about Jordan, I will explain how one could make the case for Jordan; there are statistical, technical, aesthetic and iconographic reasons to rank Jordan first.
Statistically, Jordan displayed dominance in a variety of ways; he won a record 10 scoring titles, capturing the crown in every full season of his career except for his rookie season and his two seasons as a Wizard. He shot .500 or better from the field in six of his 13 full seasons and he shot .482 or better in an additional four seasons--Jordan displayed a very rare combination of productivity and efficiency. Jordan's 30.1 ppg regular season scoring average ranks first all-time (just ahead of Wilt Chamberlain, who almost "passed" Jordan when Jordan played for the Wizards), his 33.5 ppg playoff scoring average is the best ever and his 33.6 ppg Finals scoring average trails only Rick Barry's 36.3 ppg scoring average (but Jordan went 6-0 in the Finals, while Barry went 1-1 and barely played enough games to qualify for all-time leadership). Jordan led the league in minutes played three times and he led the league in steals three times. He averaged 30.1 ppg, 6.2 rpg and 5.3 apg in the regular season, pushing those numbers to 33.4 ppg, 6.4 rpg and 5.7 apg in the playoffs. LeBron James has had
an amazing run of high scoring, high efficiency games recently but in the 1988-89 season Jordan
racked up 10 triple doubles in an 11 game stretch after Coach Doug Collins shifted Jordan to point guard; Jordan averaged 32.5 ppg (first in the league), 8.0 apg (eighth in the league) and 8.0 rpg that season. While Oscar Robertson is justly praised for putting together the only season-long triple double in pro basketball history (30.8 ppg, 11.4 apg and 12.5 rpg in 1963-64), Jordan's 1989 campaign is the only 32-8-8 season in pro basketball history.
Jordan's five regular season MVPs rank second (tied with Bill Russell) behind only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's six. His six Finals MVPs lap the field (Magic Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal and Tim Duncan rank second with three each, though Bill Russell would surely be on this list if the award had existed prior to 1969, Russell's final season). Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon are the only players to win the MVP and the Defensive Player of the Year in the same season; David Robinson won both awards but not in the same season (this is another category in which Russell's presence would have been felt, but the Defensive Player of the Year award did not exist until 1983). Jordan is tied with three other players (Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett and Gary Payton) for first all-time with nine All-Defensive First Team selections (this honor was created in 1969 and Russell earned a First Team nod in the final season of his career).
While Jordan's numbers are staggering and his resume bulges with awards, his attention to detail made him a nearly flawless player technically. Jordan was a well-coached player who relentlessly honed his craft; he had impeccable footwork at both ends of the court and his game was so fundamentally sound that he would have been an excellent player even if he had not possessed all of his athletic gifts--but his combination of elite athletic ability with sound fundamentals elevated him (literally and figuratively) above his peers.
Aesthetically, Jordan picked up the torch previously carried by elegant high flyers Elgin Baylor, Connie Hawkins and Julius Erving. The ability to soar through the air will always fascinate and captivate young and old people alike because most of the human race cannot defy gravity for even a fraction of a second. Jordan was not only tremendously effective but his style of play was exquisitely beautiful to watch.
Jordan's appeal goes beyond the statistics, the technical mastery of the sport's fundamentals and the aesthetics; all of those elements synergistically combined with the explosion of cable/satellite TV and other media coverage to transform Jordan from a great player into an icon who transcended sport. Jordan left pro basketball for nearly two years to play minor league baseball and he then returned to the NBA to reassert nearly the same level of individual dominance and an even greater level of team dominance (capped off by that unprecedented 72-10 regular season in 1995-96). His teams went six for six in the NBA Finals and he won the Finals MVP each time; other players won more titles and/or made more Finals appearances but Jordan is the one great player who seemingly has a "perfect" Finals resume in terms of won/loss record combined with individual dominance. Those accomplishments created a mystique around Jordan, an iconography that will be difficult for any player to match; no matter how many championships Kobe Bryant or LeBron James win, both players will always have multiple Finals losses on their resumes. Aesthetic and iconographic reasons carry the least weight objectively but they are embedded very deeply in the hearts of most fans (and many commentators as well)--and if you consider cultural impact beyond the world of sports to be part of the equation defining athletic greatness then only a few names can be mentioned alongside Jordan: Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Muhammad Ali.
It must be stressed again that, depending on what criteria are used and how those criteria are weighted, good cases could also be made for each of the other Pantheon members to be lauded as the greatest basketball player of all-time--but the case for Jordan is compelling and for the foreseeable future he will be on the short list of players who must be mentioned in any such discussion.
Further Reading:
What is Love? The Greatest NBA Commercial of All-Time
Michael Jordan Views Hall of Fame Induction as Sign of Mortality
Michael Jordan: Feels Like Another OneLabels: Bill Russell, Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, Johnny Bach, Julius Erving, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kevin Loughery, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Oscar Robertson, Pantheon series, Rod Thorn, Wilt Chamberlain
posted by David Friedman @ 2:39 AM
Kevin Loughery Talks About Coaching Dr. J
I wish Steve Smith a speedy recovery from his stomach flu but the good news about Smith's illness is that it led to Kevin Loughery being a guest studio analyst on NBA TV on Saturday night. Loughery, a 15.3 ppg career scorer who twice averaged more than 20 ppg during his 11 season NBA career, coached the New York Nets to two championships (1974, 1976) in the ABA. Of course, the star player for the Nets was the incomparable Julius "Dr. J" Erving, whose all-around game blossomed most fully during the three years that he played for Loughery, who had only recently retired from his playing career at that time.
It was interesting to hear Loughery's takes on current players--he says that Kobe Bryant is the best all-around player in the game but that Dwyane Wade deserves the MVP so far this year based on how he has carried the Miami Heat--but the whole time that he was on the air I eagerly waited for him to reminisce about coaching Erving. Finally, NBA TV went into the archives to show some vintage Dr. J footage as Loughery described Erving's greatness:
That man was the best. He was the easiest superstar you could possibly coach. He had more talent at that stage--we asked him to do everything. I really believe--and I've told this to Doc--that the NBA never saw the real Dr. J. I really believe that. In the ABA he did things that were incredible. We asked him to do everything. We won the (1976) championship playing against Denver when they had Bobby Jones, an All-League defensive player. He had the best playoff series in a championship series that I've ever seen one individual have. Beyond that, so easy to coach, total gentleman, great guy. He's the best. He treated everybody the way that a player should treat everybody--his teammates, the media, the other players, the fans. He's the best superstar to be around that I've ever been around.Rod Thorn, the team President of the New Jersey Nets, was an assistant coach for Loughery with the New York Nets and when I
spoke with him he said very similar things about Erving: "He was the best teammate of all the players I’ve been involved with in 40-plus years of NBA basketball. He was our leading scorer, our leading rebounder, our leading shot blocker, our leading assist guy -- you name it, he led our team in it, plus he was the leader of our team. He guarded the best forward every night, whether it was a small forward or a big forward. He took most of the big shots. Not only was he a great player, but more importantly he was a great teammate."
In
Part III of my Pantheon series I wrote about Erving's amazing performance in the 1976 ABA Finals when he averaged 37.7 ppg (including 45 points and the game winning shot on the road in game one), 14.2 rpg, 6.0 apg, 3.0 spg and 2.2 bpg, leading both teams in all of those categories. Bobby Jones, who later won an NBA championship as Erving's teammate on the 1983 76ers, said, "He destroys the adage that I’ve always been taught — that one man can’t do it alone." Erving's Finals domination was just an extension of what he did during the regular season, when he led the ABA in scoring, ranked fifth in rebounding, seventh in assists, third in steals and seventh in blocked shots.
Labels: Bobby Jones, Julius Erving, Kevin Loughery, NBA TV, New York Nets, Rod Thorn
posted by David Friedman @ 7:46 AM
Rod Thorn Offers his Take on Dr. J, Air Jordan, Kobe and LeBron
Rod Thorn averaged 10.8 ppg during eight NBA seasons before spending the past 35 years as a coach, team executive and league executive in the ABA and NBA. He was an assistant coach to Kevin Loughery in 1973-74 when Julius Erving led the New York Nets to the ABA title, drafted Michael Jordan when he was the Chicago Bulls General Manager and won the 2001-02 Executive of the Year Award after putting together a Nets team that would make consecutive appearances in the NBA Finals. Between his stint in Chicago and his return to the Nets, Thorn served for 14 years as the NBA's executive vice president of basketball operations. I recently interviewed Thorn and asked him what it was like to work with a young Julius Erving and how he would compare Erving to Jordan, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.Friedman: “What stands out most in your mind from your time coaching Julius Erving as an assistant coach with the New York Nets?”
Thorn: “I think that he was the best teammate of all the players I’ve been involved with in 40-plus years of NBA basketball. He was our leading scorer, our leading rebounder, our leading shot blocker, our leading assist guy—you name it, he led our team in it, plus he was the leader of our team. He guarded the best forward every night, whether it was a small forward or a big forward. He took most of the big shots. Not only was he a great player, but more importantly he was a great teammate.”
Friedman: “I want to follow up on two of the things that you mentioned. You talked about him guarding the top forward on the other team. I think that a lot of people don’t realize that. Elaborate a little bit on the subject of Julius as a defensive player. I think that is a really overlooked aspect of his game and his skill set.”
Thorn: “He had great lateral quickness and he was a tremendous jumper. He was a tough guy—that is one thing that is not talked about that much when you talk about Julius, because of his great athleticism, but he was a tough guy. I mean he would physically get after guys and play hard. He took a challenge. He played 43-44 minutes a game for us and guarded the best guy on the other team every night and was our leading scorer, so the energy that he expended during a game was much more than the average player did. It was just phenomenal what he did.”
Friedman: “You also talked about Julius being a great teammate. This is something that I talked about with Bobby Jones as well. A lot of the superstars and a lot of the top players can be very critical of their teammates or can be hard to deal with. Explain how Julius was different from other superstars in the way that he interacted with his teammates.”
Thorn: “Julius never criticized a teammate publicly. He might say something to them privately, but never publicly. He was always supportive. He tried to deflect some of the praise and attention that he got to other players because he was always alert to how other players felt. Guys lead in different ways. His way of doing it was to be the ultimate teammate: he supported you, if you were on his side he’d do anything for you and I think that’s part of his greatness.”
Friedman: “In your experience, isn’t it a little uncommon for the top player to lead in that way? His leadership style, for someone who was a champion and became one of the top ten players of all time, seems a little bit different.”
Thorn: “There are certain guys who were big time players or the best players on their team who were nice with their teammates and others weren’t. Others are more critical or more open. I think that it’s a difference in personalities more than anything. Julius was a very, very competitive person, but that didn’t carry over to teammates. Some guys, it carries over to everybody. They’re just such competitive guys that it carries over to everything. If you were a teammate, you’d much rather have it the way Julius did it.”
Friedman: “You had the unique opportunity to see Julius when he was young and in his prime and also to see Michael Jordan at that stage. Now we have Kobe Bryant and LeBron James in the NBA—that makes three generations of players that you’ve seen as an assistant coach or a general manager. How would you compare Julius to Michael and then to Kobe and LeBron? What are some of the similarities and differences that you see in their games?”
Thorn: “Up to this point, I think that the best all-around player has been Michael Jordan. When you compare Michael to Julius, Julius was a better rebounder. As defenders, both of them were top flight. Michael was a better shooter. Athletically, they were both in the top one percent. But I just think that because of everything that he did in the NBA and the way that his career went, I think that Jordan, to me, is the best player. There has never been a 21 year old player as good as LeBron James. He is the best ever. I mean, his all-around game, his great quickness, his explosiveness off of the dribble, his understanding of the game, his sight of the floor—there has never been a 21 year old like him. He has a chance to be one of the all-time great players before his career is finished.”
Friedman: “Do you think that he has a chance to be better than Jordan?”
Thorn: “It’s too early to say that, but I think that as far as all-around ability and athletic ability plus size—see, he has size that even Julius, Michael and Kobe don’t have. He’s a bigger guy. You’re talking about a 6-8, 250 pound guy.”
Friedman: “He’s almost as big as Karl Malone.”
Thorn: “He’s a huge guy. He’s gotten better and better. I think that he’s got a chance to be an all-time great. Whether he’ll be better than Jordan, I mean it’s way too early to say. Kobe is the closest thing to Michael as far as the way he plays: he’s got the fadeaway jumper like Michael, can get his shot off at any time, fearless, an incredible competitor like Michael. Kobe, it seems to me, is doing much better (now) with how he identifies with his teammates and how he involves his teammates. I would say that is one of the big differences between Kobe and Michael. From a leadership aspect, I think that Michael—up to this point--has been better. But Kobe, when you take the athletic package that he has plus the competitiveness—great, great player.”
Friedman: “What do you think would have happened, hypothetically, if the Julius Erving from 1975-76 and his Nets played against one of Michael Jordan’s championship teams? I know that they didn’t play the exact same position, but what do you think that matchup would have looked like? The NBA never really saw the ABA Dr. J, so ESPN and all of these entities never really broadcast the real Dr. J.”
Thorn: “If you look at that, I think that what would have happened is that we would not have had anybody (in the backcourt) who could guard Michael. We would have had to put Julius on Michael. They would have put Scottie Pippen on Doc, so I don’t think that they would have matched up on both ends of the floor. Doc would have gotten his points and Michael would have gotten his points. That Chicago team, when they had Cartwright, Grant, Scottie Pippen and Michael, that is one of the great teams ever. When the Nets were at our best (1973-74), we had Billy Paultz, Doc, Larry Kenon—who was a heck of an offensive player—John Williamson and Brian Taylor. We had a heck of a team, too. It would have been interesting. Our guys would have competed.”
Friedman: “If the merger had worked out differently and the Nets had entered the NBA intact, how do you think that the team would have done? Could that team have won the 1977 championship?”
Thorn: “I don’t know that we would have won the championship. I think that we would have been very competitive. We would have been a playoff team, as Denver and San Antonio were. As far as winning a championship, I don’t know. By that time we didn’t have Billy Paultz anymore. We didn’t have Larry Kenon anymore. So, we had a different team. I don’t know that we would have been a championship contender, but we would have been a good team.”
Friedman: “Talk about how Julius’ role changed when he went to the Philadelphia 76ers.”
Thorn: “Julius sacrificed a lot of his individual brilliance to be a good teammate. They had other really top flight players who demanded the ball. With us, he did everything—everything--on the court. With Philly, he was never in a position to do that. He was a great player, an all-time great player but he never was—if you ask him—he was never allowed to do some of the things in the NBA that he did with us.”
Friedman: “I don’t think that he cared about his stats—“
Thorn: “Not at all.”
Friedman: “—as much as a lot of other great players do. It seems to me that Jordan, even though he won championships, was a lot more concerned about averaging 30 ppg than Doc ever was. Would you agree with that?”
Thorn: “I think Jordan was just about winning the game and whatever he needed to do to win the game—and that’s what Doc was about, too. They are very similar in that way. If Michael felt that he had to score a certain amount to win, that’s what he did. That guy was unbelievable.”
Friedman: “Oh, of course. I’m not taking anything away from Jordan, but it seemed like winning scoring titles was important to him. I’m not saying that it was more important to him than winning games, but I think that it was important to him. With Doc, it seemed like it just kind of happened that he won scoring titles. When he was with the Sixers, he wasn’t even remotely trying to do that and I think that he still could have, certainly in his first five or six years in the NBA.”
Thorn: “Julius was league MVP (1981) and the MVP in the All-Star Game a couple times (1977, 1983), so he played great; he was just on a different kind of team and wasn’t asked to do as much.”
Labels: ABA, Julius Erving, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Rod Thorn
posted by David Friedman @ 4:56 AM
