Stepping back to move forward

I am not the only person who has noticed the shortcomings of LeBron James when the spotlight gets intense. I was fortunate that my time in Chicago coincided with MJ's golden finish after his basketball "sabbatical". I even got to watch him play at the United Center (January 26th, 1997, against the Miami Heat). The Bulls won by 22 points, and went on to win an unparalleled 72 games (out of 82) in the regular season.

For the rest of his career LeBron will be compared to the man I firmly believe is the greatest sportsman in the clutch I have ever seen. Unless LeBron discovers some inner toughness he will lose out on the GOAT stakes.

If LeBron is the reading type, I'd ask him to read this tribute that describes Jordan's last run for the Bulls. Taking command of the tight moments is what defines a leader. Until he does that, Lebron will just be another talented fellow who faded away from the basket during crunch-time.

By the way, late in his career, Jordan taught himself to fadeaway from the basket, too. Except he did it as a scoring option that was virtually unstoppable. Watch and learn, LeBron.

Yesterday, once more

A few months back I realized that very few sporting events held my fancy any longer. Since then I have stopped watching TV just for the sake of watching it. To me, whether I watch TV or not has become a litmus test for sporting events. If I care enough about a sporting event I shall turn it on. If I don't then I don't care.

Simple. Right?

The X man

Many people scoff at me for my rooting interest in the Los Angeles Lakers. They beieve this has to do with Kobe Bryant. While I like watching him play, the real reason I root for them is the man behind the team - the coach Phil Jackson. I spent many years in Chicago overlapping with his championship-winning years, including the seminal 72-10 campaign of 1998 and have been rooting for him since then.


Yesterday, he won his 10th NBA championship as a coach (in just 18 years of coaching in the league), the most all-time. To me, the more staggering numbers are this:

• He has won more than 70% of the games he has coached (and he has coached almost 1800 games)
• His teams have never had a losing record in any season.
• In a best-of-7 playoff series, his teams have won the first game on 50 different occasions. His teams have then gone on to win all 50 of them.

Jack McCallum of SI.com compares Jackson with Red Auerbach, the Boston Celtics head coach who also won 9 NBA championships. Jack notes that while they may appear to be vastly different personalities on the surface, if you dig a little deeper, their basic natures are quite similar.

It would've been fun to watch Auerbach and Jackson coach against each other, the former fussing and fuming and pacing the sideline, the latter sitting there with that Zen-like calm, calling his timeouts according to some inner clock, running the game with a seeming caprice that actually comes from a fundamental plan. There would inevitably come a time when they would torch each other in public, Auerbach with a straight-to-the-point rant, Jackson with a witty, circuitous insult. But winners almost always respect other winners, and, my best guess is, if they were pressed to tell the truth, here's what each would say about the other: He's a great coach.

Prior to winning the 10th championship, Eric Neel of ESPN.com also did a piece on the man with some background from his early years.

On the money

The glory boys are the ones that steal the headlines, while the grunt work is done by the drones. Most people aim to be the scene-stealers, but end up being dissatisfied drones. Very few people are able to accept their deficiencies (and strengths) and settle on simply being the drone.

It is these people that deserve most of the applause. In the NBA these days, content to fly under the radar, is one such player - Shane Battier. I followed his career when he was at Duke University but then lost track of him (and the NBA) because I just followed the headlines from time to time and he wasn't one of the featured players.

But Shane has not been totally forgotten, least of all by discerning fans of the NBA, such as DSC/BD. Recently, DSC/BD directed my attention towards Michael Lewis of The New York Times, who wrote a fantastic piece on Battier. Read it in its entirety and you will also appreciate all the hard work that Battier has put in. This man knows how to play the game. Oddly, I hope he continues to not get the share of the spotlight that he deserves. Read the article and you will understand why.

Battier’s game is a weird combination of obvious weaknesses and nearly invisible strengths. When he is on the court, his teammates get better, often a lot better, and his opponents get worse — often a lot worse. He may not grab huge numbers of rebounds, but he has an uncanny ability to improve his teammates’ rebounding. He doesn’t shoot much, but when he does, he takes only the most efficient shots. He also has a knack for getting the ball to teammates who are in a position to do the same, and he commits few turnovers. On defense, although he routinely guards the N.B.A.’s most prolific scorers, he significantly reduces their shooting percentages.

The Sports Guy remembers

Bill Simmons, of ESPN.com, wrote a loving obituary-type article when Red Auerbach passed away recently. I had heard of Red but did not know much about him, except for some of the major details of his accomplishments as an NBA coach and General Manager of the Boston Celtics.

As BD will no doubt attest, Simmons writes so well that you feel you know almost as much about Red as you would by reading a complete biography of his.