A New Blog: True Hoop

This is what I've been doing lately. It's an effort to combine my day job (basketball journalism), with my new passion (blogging). It went live yesterday, and we'll see how it goes.

Unlike thebigball, this one's all about basketball. If that interests you, please come by for a visit.

As Empires Fall

The Lakers' dynasty is gone, and the wagon has been hitched to a bitter Kobe Bryant who does not appear to have what it takes to carry a winner on his own nor co-exist with another star.

It can't be good times in the Lakers' front office, and the New York Post's Peter Vecsey has a rather delicious look behind the scenes. The story is that team owner Jerry Buss (who is widely and famously reported to adore late night partying with people the age of his children, but that's not important right now) has let his son Jim call a lot of the shots lately. If this is all true--and I have no reason to believe it is or isn't--it sounds like all hell is breaking loose in a way that could keep Phil Jackson from returning to the team. Here's what Vecsey has to say about it:

Last season, I'm told Jim Buss traveled on the team charter for almost every away game. Lamar Odom supposedly was a constant companion. Jackson isn't about to allow that to happen again. Professional party animals, no matter how well connected to the boss, are utterly unwanted.

Jackson's problem with Kupchak evidently can be traced to last season when Phil went off on a tirade about Kobe being uncoachable. Mitch promptly advised Dr. Buss. Jackson, the same guy who wrote a book about private conversations with players and management, felt Kupchak should've kept his tirade "entre nous."

While Phil has forgiven Mitch, says my source, "he now wants there to be a clear line of authority that won't allow a repeat of this type of episode."

More important, I suspect, Jackson wants Jim Buss to be held accountable for his "suggestions" (firing Phil, hiring Tomjanovich and trading Shaq) and put himself on the plank as the decision maker his father has permitted him to be.

This whole thing must be super-annoying for Jim's sister Jeanie. She's Phil Jackson's girlfriend, and perhaps the Lakers' team executive whose power has perhaps been most usurped by Jim's ascension. I have no idea who leaked this story to Peter Vecsey, but if you put a gun to my head and told me to find out, I'd get my hands on her phone records and start looking for calls to the Vecsey's house.

Doug Collins is a Great Broadcaster

I remember during the 2001 NBA Finals, the Pacers seemed to be missing everything, and the Lakers seemed to be making everything, and NBC trained their cameras on the shooters' hands at the moment of release. In a special little segment Collins narrated, we saw Kobe Bryant's hands releasing a shot with rock-solid, steady, perfect form on one side of the screen. On the other side, in stark contrast, we saw Reggie Miller's hands fluttering all over like a butterfly.

At that point Kobe was making shots like crazy, and Reggie was missing like crazy. Harly anyone really knew why. Then we all saw that, and it was clear to us all. I can hardly ever remember gaining that kind of insight from television. He does that kind of stuff fairly often. So you have to give Doug Collins credit as a TV commentator. Everyone wants him, and rightly so.

Reportedly, however, there are still some people who are interested in hiring him to coach again in the NBA. ('Wolves owner) Glen Taylor, if it is true that you are among them, I beg you not to offer Collins anything without first reading Michael Leahy's book about the Washington Wizards under Collins.

It's a dogged bit of reporting. It makes it dreadfully clear that as a tactician Collins can sometimes dazzle. But as a leader of men, he is a relentless weenie.

The Ruination of Mitch Albom's Name Continues

Things aren't getting any better for disgraced Detroit Free Press columnist, and best-selling author Mitch Albom, who was recently caught in a whopper of a white lie.

The author of the feel-good Tuesdays with Morrie has made his name synonymous with misleading journalism. The current Sports Illustrated has a column by Bill Scheft (subscribers only) that begins:

"More bad news for Mitch Albom. Turns out he may have seen Morrie on a Thursday."

I promise you, he is hating this.

By the way, a funny little side story about that. I have wondered at times what his editors were thinking, signing off on an article about something that hadn't happened yet. Yet I passed up a golden opportunity to ask them that directly the other night.

I was in the media room at a Sixers-Pistons playoff game, where several dozen reporters were working away on their laptops.

Often in these workrooms, news organizations pay for phone lines to be installed so the newsroom can reach reporters to get the latest. One such phone, very near where I was standing, kept ringing and ringing, rather annoyingly for the many people who were trying to get work done in the vicinity. These temporary lines don't have voicemail, so it can ring all night. It seemed the editor at the other end wanted it to.

After about ten rings I toyed with the idea of picking it up. Before I did, I glanced over to see whose phone it was. The neat little laser-printed placard taped to that part of the folding table read: "Mitch Albom, Detroit Free Press. "

It stopped ringing before I could answer with a peppy "America's most creative sports reporter speaking, how can I help you?"

The Flip Side

As Eric Marentette notes in his Blazers blog, there are lots of indications in today's papers that the Blazers may be moving in on Coach Flip Saunders.

Meanwhile in Minnesota, Timberwolves' owner Glen Taylor has been going to some trouble to explain why exactly Saunders isn't the coach there any more (as explained by Brian Hamilton of the St. Paul Pioneer Press):

"Flip was probably a person that got along with his players pretty well - he certainly wasn't real tough," Wolves owner Glen Taylor said last week, referring to ex-coach Flip Saunders. "But probably if we can find someone who handles it a little bit more like McHale handled it - that in practice probably is a little more direct and to the point and calls people out - that would probably be ideal for us.

"I don't mean a real strong disciplinarian, because I think that's too much of a switch. But probably somebody that at least in practices . . . can make sure we make some of the needed changes we make on this team. We're saying we need some changes, so I think we've got to have somebody strong enough that can do that now."

You can read the whole article here (free registration required).

Tough or not, I'm in favor of the hire, because to me competence is paramount. A personal style that meshes with a team's perceived needs is less important. By my estimation, Saunders is demonstrably more competent than all of the other candidates whose names we have heard tossed around (save Phil Jackson, who the Blazers probably don't have a real shot at anway).

Skipping College: Darius Miles and Sebastian Telfair

Two Portland Blazers are discussed in this recently updated report about basketball players who skip college. College hoops expert Van Coleman has some interesting thoughts about Blazers' rookie Sebastian Telfair:

"It was a surprise to all of us: Not that he got drafted, but that he went as high as he did," Coleman says. "He went ahead of a bunch of players that had a bigger initial return."

And:

"He will be a guy who runs the show -- he's closer to [Tony] Parker than he is to Marbury."

Huffington Post

There's sort of a snooty new celebrity-laden blog over at www.huffingtonpost.com and I can't find too much to fall in love with over there. (For one thing, I have never been a Harry Shearer fan. I always feel like he could use an aggressive editor.)

It has only been up a few days. I'm sure there will eventually be plenty of good stuff there. But in the meantime, my favorite thing is from someone I'd never heard of, former SNL writer Adam McKay. Way back during the Dean campaign, I was advocating that democrats should sponsor Nascar racecars. McKay reports on the same idea:

These are working class people, most of whom have relatives in the military. If anyone on the planet should care about the DNC it's these people who are being ripped off on their taxes, poisoned by reduced EPA standards, deprived of good public education, and sent to fight wars based on lies. Why not just put an ad on a car and take the huge boos it would garner in the gut. Like a real political party.

The NBA Draft is Next Month

And I know there's a lot of playoff basketball between now and then, but it's never too soon to start worrying about how my beloved Blazers might be able to nab a top-flight shooting guard.

Most people think the best one out there, in the long run, is high-schooler Gerald Green who made a name for himself by winning a dunk contest on national TV. But now we're just starting to learn a new name, one that hasn't come up much in the press at all: Tiras Wade.

According to Jonathan Givony at DraftCity.com--an eager beaver who is clearly doing his best to come up with complete draft news, despite being something of an outsider in an insider's game--this kid is for real:

His jump shot is a thing of beauty, he catches the ball, elevates and releases all in one fluid motion, in a machine like way that comes off his hands exactly the same every single time. His shooting is without a doubt one of his biggest strengths, and he has the size and skill to get it off almost whenever he pleases.

Inside the arc is where Wade really surprised me. While his perimeter game is all about finesse, once he steps inside the arc he is all about power and tenacity, taking the ball to the hoop and finishing strong with the type of nastiness that is extremely impressive to watch in person.

You can read Givony's full review of Wade's workout here.

Bad Time to be a Sonics Fan

This has been a very exciting season for the Seattle Sonics. Frankly, they were supposed to suck, but somehow emerged as one of the league's best teams.

Now they drew an unlucky second-round foe: the mighty San Antonio Spurs.

But those Seattle faithful, including my friend Ben, they are believers.

So Ben got all excited to watch game on one Mother's Day. But somehow he mixed up the time and turned on the TV to learn that the game was already over. And game one of that series has to rank as one of the worst in Sonics history. Not only did the Sonics lose badly, but they also had their star, and another key player both sprain their ankles in the first half.

Hard to imagine how that could go worse, for Ben or the Supes.

The only thing left to hope for: some kind of seige mentality inspiring the team to great heights. It could happen.

Assessing Detroit-Indiana

Watching the Detroit-Indiana series, I'm noticing the following:

• Tayshaun Prince, who plays so very will for the slow-it-down Pistons, gets out on the break and finishes the alley-oop as well as anyone. He's fast and long and ready to throw it down. I promise you that he sometimes fantasizes about playing with Phoenix or Dallas or some other fast-breaking team that would let him score 25 a night.

• Fred Jones is on the list of players I'd like to have on my team. Those guys with long arms, quick legs, and and sharp minds are all winners (see the aforementioned Tayshaun Prince). There was a play in the third quarter just now when two players and the ball were all floating out of bounds together. Jones had the reach and the brain to snare the ball, chuck it off a Piston into the crowd. Pacer ball.

• Steve Kerr pointed out that earlier this season the Pistons won a game without scoring a basket in the entire fourth quarter. That's some sweet D.

• Seeing Dale Davis back in Pacer yellow, it's almost like the bad dream of Portland and Golden State never happened. I bet that throwback idea is selling at least 20o tickets a game to Pacer games. People love those lunch-pail guys.

• Jamaal Tinsley is a great example of a point I am always making: to get open, you don't need to be faster than the man guarding you. You just need to be able to get to a spot where he isn't. Speed helps, but being shifty is just as good.

• Tinsley didn't play high school basketball.

• Rasheed Wallace is an amazing player on an amazing player, but he has some flaws. One of them is little hands. Watch: the drops a lot of alley-oop passes, and loses a fair percentage of 50/50 balls because of it.

Don't Mess With TheBigBall

Since I started the blog, Microsoft and I have disagreed publicly exactly once.

Wisely, they have backed down.

The Legacy of Baby Boomers

On Sunday we went to see my father-in-law, Jeff Goodwin (shameless plug here for his photos one of which was recently featured by the Smithsonian magazine's website), deliver a talk at his church.

It's a Unitarian Universalist Church, and for those of you not familiar with UUism, this is not really a Christian Church. It is a very liberal religion that embraces a huge array of different thoughts. There are UU Christians, for instance, and UU Jews, UU Muslims, UU Buddhists, and plenty of UU agnostics and atheists. UUs are not bound by a creed (beliefs), but a covenant (action).

So, while there are certainly Republicans in every UU crowd, it's a pretty liberal bunch. Jeff was talking to people who owned Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, and Janis Joplin on vinyl.

So it was particularly bold of him to make the following remarks:

As I grew up in the 60’s and 70’s, we were so convinced we could bring universal love and justice to the world, that we forgot to build and protect the communities that support us through our lives.

For all of our love, volunteerism declined. For all of our love, church attendance declined. For all of our love, divorce rates soared. And isolationism and materialism grew in the vacuum we left behind.

My father’s generation knew the importance of community because without it they could not have survived the Depression.

I believe my children’s generation understands the importance of community for they have grown up in the detritus of divorced families and rootlessness that we, children of the Summer of Love, created for them.

No Way to Sell a Hotel

My Mom is organizing a conference, and recently traveled for a few days to check out some hotels where conference attendees will be staying. This is the e-mail I just got from her (it's all about the ending):

Last night I stayed at a hotel which turned out to be in the bad part of town. And, just to make me feel loved and wanted, they put me in the Presidential Suite. I am not sure which President they were thinking of, but I imagine it would have to be the president of some seedy car sales company. It was three rooms, two bathrooms and huge 'walk around the whole place' deck complete with three sets of tables and chairs and a ton of other chairs.

I had dinner sitting on my deck with a wonderful view of the mountains, right there across the freeway. Then I discovered that I was required to share the deck with the president of somewhere else staying in the other presidential suite. He was an absolute creep and I couldn't get into my room(s) fast enough and lock the doors.

Then I found that if I turned any lights out the clock turned off and the TV turned on. Also, strange things were happening vis a vis all the TVs in the other rooms. What to do? I certainly didn't want anyone to come to room to try to mend things at 9pm and I did have the much advertised Sweet Sleeper bed to look forward to.

So I unplugged things that wanted to be on and fiddled around until about 10:30 and got things reasonably sane. And I did sleep well. I met with the group sales manager at 8am, had breakfast with her before touring the “facility.”

Honest to God, no kidding, there was a man fast asleep on the floor, whiskey bottle beside him, in one of their “top of the line” conference rooms.

The NBA Crystal Ball

About a month ago, I had seen enough to know who I thought was going to be in the NBA Finals: the San Antonio Spurs and the Miami Heat.

I have always thought San Antonio would dominate these playoffs in the west--everybody else has new people playing key roles. The only possible problems were the high scoring teams, Phoenix and Seattle. Teams with shooters can luck into victories by having their eager shooters suddenly get hot. (Ask Sacramento about Ray Allen, for instance.) That's the thing about gambling--sometimes you win.

The night this all occured to men, I had seen Miami tear apart the Suns. It was hard to picture them losing.

So I was ready to make predictions, which is something people love you to do when you're a sportswriter.

But a lot has happened since then. Tim Duncan's health matters more than anything else for San Antonio, and he freaked out his ankle in the closing weeks of the season. He either sat out or played poorly for several weeks, and really has only had one great game since the injury.

In Miami, Shaquille O'Neal has been playing at half-mast due to injury too.

And those factors caused me to start looking around a little. Who's ready to pounce if one of those teams falters?

The answer, my friends, is the defending champion Detroit Pistons.

The first part of their season was all messed up because of the big brawl with Indiana in November. The Pistons finally shook that off by winning the re-match against Indiana on Christmas Day. At that point, the Pistons were a middle-of-the-pack team.

Since Christmas they have won an incredible 72% of their games. Throw out the games Coach Larry Brown missed due to complications from hip surgery, and their record is well over 80% . They earned 11 straight wins to clinch their division. They even beat Miami, although Shaq was out with the afrementioned injury. It seems like they have turned it on.

Detroit has an incredibly perfect defensive front line of Tayshaun Prince (according to one sophisticated analysis, he's the eighth best player in the NBA, which is not bad for someone who was drafted 23rd overall in 2002 and has never even been a consideration for one of the league's 24 all-star slots), Rasheed Wallace, and the defensive player of the year Ben Wallace. That lets the guards get out and piss off other team's guards, which Miami doesn't like much. Here's what former NBA coach Don Casey has to say about that:

Detroit could really benefit from something I saw at the end of Game 2 in the New Jersey-Miami series. The Nets went to a zone press, a little two-two zone press, and it bothered Miami because they don’t have a pure penetrating, playmaking-type guard.

So Detroit is a player in this. And don't even get me started on Phoenix, who has to be considered the top threat to the Spurs.

My new prediction? A battle royale in the Eastern Conference Finals, with whoever wins between Miami and Detroit going on to beat San Antonio in the Finals.

Geek Dinner

Last night my friend Randy and I went to the geek dinner in Grand Central Station that was organized by Steven Rubel--the face of blogging for PR--and Microsoft's celebrity blogger Robert Scoble.

It also turned out to be mildly historic--the party doubled as the 50th birthday party for Dave Winer who has been credited with possibly the first blog and RSS feeds. At a party like this, that makes him sort of king geek. (He has a certain Jerry Garcia-esque jolliness to his presence that makes him a natural focal point to boot.)

It was my first geek event of any kind. And I'll say this for geeks--they're very nice!

There also just aren't all that many of them. The group of communications pioneers who are changing the world, threatening the networks, and revolutionizing communications all fit into the small Two Boots pizza joint tucked into the downstairs corner of Grand Central Station.

Plenty of people were taking photos and videotaping things. It was like being at a wedding with all the flashbulbs going off. One such fellow, Ramon Ray, interviewed lots of people about blogging, including me! There is about half an hour of video (I'm near the end) on his website.

Here's the hilarious part: on Ramon's website, there is a list of who's interviewed. Down at the end it goes like this:

Dave Winer, RSS Co-creator, www.reallysimplesynidcation.com
Steve Rubel, PR/Blog guru, www.MicroPersuasion.com
Henry Abbott, Sports Writer, www.thebigball.blogspot.com
Robert Scoble, Microsoft Devloper, http://scoble.weblogs.com/

One of these things is not like the other...