Oscar Robertson, firmly in the crusty 'old school' camp writes:
Oscar Robertson: Putting the 'I' in the Lakers:
Kobe Bryant is great. But true stars make those around them better.
All the attention given to Kobe's feat exemplifies the focus of the N.B.A. today — from the news media, the fans and the players — on individual statistics instead of team success. And there are so many more stats than ever before. Not just scoring, but turnovers-to-assists ratio. Steals and blocked shots. Most technical fouls. And the most important statistic of all: who sells the most jerseys.As far as I'm concerned, the only stat that counts is the win column. To be on top in that category, you have to play team basketball. You can't have just one or two players taking all the shots. When you get into the playoffs, you're going to need everyone to score.
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I have to laugh when I read that the defenses are so much tougher today, with so many different sets, including the zone, and that's why scoring is down again, and that's why Kobe's achievement is even greater than Wilt's. Scoring is down because most offenses today make it easy on the defense. There's very little ball movement, or moving without the ball. The mid-range game has all but disappeared. It's either force the ball inside and see what happens, or kick it back out for a three-pointer.
My philosophy was always to make the weakest link stronger, and create scoring opportunities for everyone. When you're asking guys to battle for rebounds and play tough defense, you have to involve them in the offense as well.
This philosophy worked in Milwaukee with a speedy forward named Greg Smith, who learned that I would find him if he got out in front on the fast break. It worked in Cincinnati with our center, Wayne Embry, whose limited game under the basket put him at a serious disadvantage against players like Bill Russell and Wilt. But once Wayne saw that he'd be open for mid-range jumpers when I drove to the hoop, he worked hard to develop an outside shot and considerably increased his scoring average. It's important to build each player's confidence, and it's also how you build a team as the season progresses, so everyone is ready at playoff time.
So here's what today's game looks like: The ball goes inbounds, whoever gets it tries to make something happen on his own, and everybody else stands and watches. More often than not, the player with the ball looks for the three-point shot. And nobody guards him! Why wouldn't you try to stop someone from scoring three points? Even if it's a low-percentage shot, make it an even lower-percentage shot. Or is that too much like work?
I know, you've heard a lot of this from us old-school players. And you'll continue to hear it. I, for one, care too much about the game to settle for the highlight reel that N.B.A. basketball has become today. I believe Kobe does as well.
Bill Rhoden, on the other hand, thinks that the modern era players have mad freaky skillz that old timers wish they could have emulated.
...Critics used that performance as Exhibit A for how the National Basketball Association's young players were responsible for the fall of Western basketball civilization, and why the world's other basketball players had caught up with players from the United States. Targeting the N.B.A.'s young players has become a pastime for old-school basketball coaches and part of a cottage industry for former players.Yesterday, Del Harris, coach of the second-year team, said that any coach was required to do more teaching and explaining “because the league is younger now and hasn't been coached as much.”
As recently as Wednesday, Larry Brown, the Knicks' coach, lamented: “Now all you hear about our league is individual players. It's almost become an individual sport.”
Let's give this a rest; I've heard enough. In fact, effective immediately, Commissioner David Stern should put a moratorium on youth bashing. The game has never been more popular, never more global, and it's largely because of the young blood.
What do I think? These two positions are not mutually exclusive. Personally, I prefer watching team ball versus the stand-around model, but with skilled players, guys who can make jump shots, handle the ball in traffic, yadda yadda.
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Even Lowe, who won a national title in 1983 as a college player at North Carolina State before enjoying a solid professional career and becoming an N.B.A. head coach, conceded that some of the old school has to lighten up. “I think we have to make adjustments and say, 'Hey, we want them to express themselves, this is who they are,' ” he said. “They're freer athletes than we were. We were more structured; today's players are so talented, they can do so much they're comfortable with, coming down the court going between their legs four or five times. You might find 15, 20 guys in the league that do that. Back when I played, guys just didn't do that. It just wasn't the way you played.”Lowe and Elvin Hayes, the N.B.A. legend and an assistant coach for the rookie team, spent most of the shoot around watching the players.
“We look at some of these kids and E's saying, 'Man, I didn't know that kid could do that.' These guys can do some things guys my size back then, we couldn't do.”
Kobe Bryant didn't completely agree with the argument that older players were too hard on younger players. “I'm a bit of a throwback,” Bryant said yesterday. “When you talk about the old-school guys, they were all gym rats and they all stressed the fundamentals of the game. I'm a bit of a throwback in that regard. I've learned so much from them, it's tough for me to say they need to adjust to or adapt to. Everything I know has been passed down from Oscar Robinson to Michael Jordan to Jerry West and those guys.”
That's precisely why this generation of young players is outstanding: They have learned the lessons of yesteryear. This talent wasn't created in a vacuum.
Kevin Garnett entered the N.B.A. when he was a teenager. For all of his accomplishments, Garnett is cited as the source of the league's supposedly youth-based problems. The N.B.A. may have problems, but the infusion of young players isn't one of them. Garnett is actually a study of how an injection of youth saved a league's life. Players like him gave the N.B.A. verve and edge when it was becoming tame and stagnant.
“We've all been young before,” Garnett said yesterday. “Some of the old-school teaching, some of the egos of the old school, got hit by this new-school confidence. The issues became ram on ram: old school that doesn't want to give up, new school comes in respecting it, but having a little swagger in their step. Sometimes what makes you who you are is a little swagger.”
Sidney Lowe watched his team for about 10 more minutes, joked around with a few of them, then ended practice by reminding players to have fun, but to remember the game's integrity.
“It's an evolution,” Lowe said. “I don't know if you can ever come up with a conclusion, or one way that's going to work, because the generation is going to change.”
Must coaches still teach? Absolutely. Do players have to be guided? Of course. Modern-day coaches have more to work with than ever before.
“I can only speak for myself, and I know I play the right way,” said LeBron James, the top example of the skills the new breed of N.B.A. players bring to the floor.
“I know I watch Dwyane Wade, I watch Carmelo Anthony, I watch Chris Bosh, I watch all these young guys, we play the game the right way,” James said. “I don't get caught up in that. You know me, I go out and play basketball, play the right way, and that's all it is.”
This generation of players has watched, mimicked, duplicated and perfected. The real challenge is for so-called old-school coaches to loosen their grip and expand their minds.
