The news arrived at Gregg Popovich's
doorstep in the dead of another brutal South Texas summer. The San Antonio Spurs
had been bounced out of the first round of the playoffs by the Memphis
Grizzlies, Tony Parker had headed home to France to start his vacation, and
suddenly there was a report coming across the Atlantic that the Spurs' point
guard was proclaiming their dynasty days officially over. Tim Duncan and Manu
Ginobili were getting old, Parker said.
"We will always have a good team," the
French media reported Parker as saying, "but we can no longer say that we're
playing for a championship."
Naturally, this didn't play well at 21
Spurs Lane. "I thought the same thing Pop said," Ginobili recalled. " 'Shut up!'
"
Ginobili says this with a laugh. Parker
quickly denied the report, saying his true comments had been lost in
translation, and, besides, who cares now? All that matters is what Parker did
next: When the NBA lockout ended, he arrived more committed, more focused, more
driven, than ever.
Parker has carried the Spurs through this
magical season and he carried them again Tuesday night. His 34 points and eight
assists came amid a dazzling display of shot-making that staggered the Oklahoma
City Thunder and delivered the Spurs their 20th consecutive victory and a 2-0
lead in the Western Conference finals. For much of the 120-111 victory, he ran
the Spurs' offense to near-perfection as San Antonio carved up the Thunder with
quick, crisp passing.
"When you have Coach Pop screaming at you
every day," Parker said, "it will make you pass the ball."
Parker didn't arrive here overnight. He's
weathered Popovich's scolding for years and emerged stronger for it. The
tug-of-war between point guard and coach has played out over the seasons, and
the growing pains Parker and Popovich endured are not unlike those that now test
the Thunder's Russell Westbrook and Scott Brooks.
Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers
looked far from a championship contender in their Western Conference semifinal
series loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder this spring.
So, who do the Lakers need to get back on
top?
Here we examine three players who would
drastically improve the Lakers and help Kobe Bryant challenge for his sixth NBA
title.
Dwight Howard
LA should look to send center Andrew
Bynum to Orlando along with either a first-round draft pick or perhaps involve
Pau Gasol in a three-team trade that brings Superman to Hollywood. Bynum is two
years younger than Howard and doesn't have an ailing back, so he's the guy the
Magic would most likely want in return.
If the Lakers can pull off a Bynum-Howard
deal without having to part ways with one of their seven-footers, Gasol, then
they would easily be considered a threat to win it all in 2013.
Lamar Odom
Arguably the biggest difference for the
LA Lakers this past postseason was the void in the frontcourt left by Lamar
Odom, who was traded to the defending champion Dallas Mavericks after he had a
falling out with the front office following the lockout. The ill feelings came
after a botched trade involving Odom.
The Mavericks actually asked Odom to go
home late in the season before the playoffs began because he was so unhappy and
bad in Big D. Odom played in 50 games last season, averaging 6.6 points per game
and shooting a dismal 35 percent from the field.
Odom was a big-time sixth man for the
Lakers during their latest championship run and averaged a double-double in two
of his seven seasons in LA.
Randy Foye
LA Clippers point guard Randy Foye
wouldn't have to go far if he were to join the Lakers this offseason. The
sharpshooting Foye hit more than 38 percent of his shots from downtown last
season, and averaged 11 points in less than 26 minutes per game.
Foye isn't a phenomenal passer, but is a
definite shooting upgrade over Ramon Sessions, who has a $4.6 million player
option this summer. Considering that the basketball flows through Kobe Bryant on
most nights, LA might be better off acquiring shooters to surround the Black
Mamba.
In the field of human endeavor, perhaps
nothing unites us all more than simple incompetence. Haplessness. Borderline
failure. We all experience this, and for some it approaches a daily
condition.
These repeated brushes with our own
limitations teach us humility, resilience, and charity towards
others.
A rare group that is sometimes spared
this experience is the four hundred or so on-court employees of the National
Basketball Association. This elite group has been groomed for basketball stardom
for years, some as early as age eleven or twelve. Lured onto AAU squads, seduced
by top colleges, tested and selected by one of thirty teams—these lives have
often been centered entirely around this one activity, and it is an activity at
which they are better than virtually anyone else in the world.
The Bucks’ phenom Brandon Jennings, for
example, was the best player on the court in almost every single game he played
from age ten thru eighteen; then, after a strange, workmanlike year in Italy, he
entered the pros and was quickly one of the best rookies in the league, joining
this strange fraternity: The Men Who Have Never Tasted Incompetence. Setbacks,
sure; hard work, no doubt—the energy and dedication of these players is
exhausting to even contemplate. But few or none have ever had the delicious
experience of being bad at basketball.
But that is about to change. The rest of
us have sent an ambassador into the pros. A player who was picked last on the
playground courts. A player who, in his first high-school game, scored a basket
for the opposing team. A man who expected to graduate college with a degree in
Fine Arts. That man is Larry Sanders of the Milwaukee Bucks, the fifteenth pick
in this year’s pro draft and one of the most intriguing young talents in the
league.
Sanders was born and raised on the
Atlantic coast of Florida. For most of his childhood, he had little interest in
basketball.
“I wasn’t good. I was just tall,” Sanders
said in a past interview. “I was usually that guy who, when I played pickup
basketball, I’d get picked first and then I’d never get picked again. That was
me. Guys were like, "We’re not picking him again."
Nevertheless, Coach Kareem Rodriguez of
Port St. Lucie High School saw something in Sanders, and invited him to come to
tryouts his sophomore year. “Girls’ volleyball had the gym, so we went to the
court outside,” says Rodriguez. “From the first time I saw him play, I knew he
was special.” Nevertheless, the rules of organized basketball were still
unfamiliar. In Sanders’ first official game, he wasn’t aware of the halftime
side-change and sunk his now-legendary layup for the opposition. Rodriguez had
his work cut out for him: “If I had a dollar for every three-second call he got,
I could have retired,” he says now.
But Sanders was ready to learn. “The
beauty of him being so raw was that he didn’t have any bad habits.” says
Rodriguez. “He was a blank slate.” Sanders steadily improved, and in his junior
year he caught the eye of coaches at Virginia Commonwealth University. By the
end of his senior year he was named first-team all-state, averaging 19 points
and 13 rebounds a game. Now 6’11”, he had drawn attention from many larger
programs—but VCU had already won his commitment.
At VCU, he teamed with point guard Eric
Maynor (now of the Oklahoma City Thunder) to dominate the Colonial Athletic
Association, winning the regular-season championships in both of their years
together. “He learned faster than anybody I’ve ever seen,” says Shaka Smart,
coach of the VCU Rams. Sanders was named to the CAA all-defensive team his
freshman year, and then Defensive Player of the year the following year. He
claimed the award again his junior year, while also leading the team in scoring
and rebounds, and decided to declare for the 2010 draft.
Sanders was selected by the Milwaukee
Bucks with the 15th pick. Already impressing the Bucks with his otherworldly
wingspan and speed, onlookers are expecting great things from Sanders. “It’s
still just the tip of the iceberg,” says Smart. “He’s very savvy, emotionally
ready, and mentally ready.” Sanders will pair with Andrew Bogut in an impressive
frontcourt, hopefully soon relegating Drew Gooden to the ducktail dustbin of
history. His athleticism should allow him to blend nicely with the
already-scrappy Milwaukee squad: “Brandon Jennings will be able to create a lot
of opportunities, the way Eric Maynor did at VCU,” says Smart.
For many rookies, entrance to the pros
can be a shock. For many, it’s their first time not being the best player on
their team. For some, it’s even a taste of being (relatively) not very good at
basketball. Many of these young players are never able to make the
adjustment—never able to reshape their game, find their roles, persevere and
fight through failure. For Sanders, it’s simply a return to a familiar
challenge. “Having not always been the best, it keeps him humble,” says
Rodriguez. “He stays hungry.” Not content to rely on his physical gifts, he’s
been developing low-post moves and adding a reliable jumper out to fifteen
feet.
“The thing I learned about basketball is
it doesn’t lie to you,” said Sanders in an interview this summer. “When you put
in the work, the repetition, and you work harder, you’re going to get better.”
For Larry Sanders, the work has just begun.
Sixers legend Allen Iverson left
Philadelphia under not-so-great circumstances twice — first, when he was traded
to the Denver Nuggets in December 2006, and then again in 2010 after a short,
controversy-filled return to the franchise. Despite those exits, Iverson is
still much-loved in Philly. He led the franchise emotionally and on the court
for more than a decade, and his toughness (mixed with a lot of frustration,
naturally) helped the city identify with him. Simply put, he's the most
important Philadelphia athlete of the past 25 years, no matter how often Eagles
fans still complain about former quarterback Donovan McNabb.
On Wednesday night, the currently
unemployed Iverson returned to the Wells Fargo Center to present the game ball
before tip-off of the Sixers' Game 6 win against the Boston Celtics. His initial
appearance was brief: He walked out in head-to-toe Sixers apparel (including a
jersey with the No. 23 of Louis Williams, the most Iversonian member of the
team), presented the ball, shook some hands, gave some hugs, and left the court
to watch the game. Through it all, the home crowd gave him a huge
ovation.
It's very easy to view this turn of
events as sad for Iverson, particularly if you believe the overblown and
reductive reports that he's broke. Yet, from another perspective, Iverson's
situation is just another event in the life of someone who never went quietly
and stayed himself even when standards deemed him reckless and immodest. For
years, AI thrived on tenacity and perseverance on the court, playing through
injury even when medical logic suggested he was falling apart. As a cultural
figure, he embraced street style and became the poster boy for all moralists'
claims that the NBA was a league of thugs. At all times, he's done what he wants
to do with little care for what the general population thought of
him.
Kobe Bean Bryant is a shooting guard who
has played for the Los Angeles Lakers since 1996, a span in which the team has
won five NBA championships. Over the course of his career, Bryant has won two
NBA scoring titles and has been a first-team All-NBA selection eight times. He
is a 14-time All Star and four-time All-Star MVP. Although known for his
offensive ability, Kobe Bryant has also made a name for himself on the defensive
side of the ball, having been named to the NBA's All Defensive First Team eight
times. Kobe Bryant scored the second-most points in a game in NBA history when
he posted 81 points in a game during the '06-07 season.
Kobe first started learning basketball
from his father at the age of three. He idolized Magic Johnson growing up
because of Magic's ball handling skills for a bigger player, and claimed the Los
Angeles Lakers as his favorite team.
Joe Bryant was traded to the Houston
Rockets when Kobe was still very young, and after only one season in Houston,
the Bryant family packed up and moved to Italy so Joe could continue his
professional basketball career. Joe Bryant signed with a team in the town of
Rieti. The three Bryant children practiced Italian together after school, and
all became fairly fluent within the first year. To this day, Kobe Bryant still
speaks Italian.
Bryant will be 34 years old by the start
of next season, but his age and health should rank far down on the Lakers' list
of concerns. The Lakers' talented big men, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum,
frustrated the team with their inconsistency and occasional indifference during
the playoffs. No one will be surprised if the Lakers explore trade offers for
one – or even both – of them. Point guard could again become a position of need.
The Lakers also were limited by their slow adjustment to coach Mike
Brown.
And yet Bryant is willing to gamble
considerable stakes against any critic who suggests the Lakers' championship
window has closed.
"Put your house on it," Bryant said. "I
would put my house on it. They can put their house on it, but I don't think they
want to bet that because they're not stupid. They're foolish, but they are not
stupid."
The Lakers were eliminated by the Thunder
in five games. In two of the losses, the Lakers unraveled in the final minutes.
Their lopsided defeat in Game 5 again raised questions about the makeup of the
team. Bryant scored 42 points on Monday, but several of his teammates were far
less effective.
Gasol had 14 points and 16 rebounds, but
Bryant voiced his frustration with him throughout the game. Bynum had just 10
points and four rebounds in a foul-plagued performance. Point guard Ramon
Sessions missed five of his six shots and committed six turnovers. The Lakers'
bench was outscored 35-5.
"I'm not going to speak on the record
about it." Bryant said when asked about his teammates' play.
The Lakers trailed by six when Brown
elected to sit Bryant at the start of the fourth quarter. By the time Bryant
returned to the court less than two minutes later, the Lakers were down 14.
Bryant didn't complain publicly about Brown's decision to rest him.
"Obviously, I was in good rhythm," Bryant
said. "But that's what we do."
Bryant, Gasol and Bynum agree on at least
one thing: They think it's difficult to accurately judge the Lakers' season
after the departure of longtime coach Phil Jackson. With a shortened training
camp and a compressed 66-game schedule that afforded little practice time, the
players were forced to adjust to Brown and his system on the fly. Bryant said
Brown was still adding wrinkles to the Lakers' offense in the
playoffs.
“We were still changing what we were
executing, so that had a lot to do with it," Bryant said. "Normally, we know
exactly what we're going to do. I'm used to the triangle [offense] where we know
what we were going to do. This was something where we are still trying to guess
through it."
The Los Angeles Lakers trudged off the
Staples Center floor late Saturday, a single loss now separating them from
season's end, another fourth-quarter collapse once again causing their undoing.
They didn't show much poise in the locker room, either, with Kobe Bryant and
Andrew Bynum pointing blame at others for allowing the Oklahoma City Thunder to
steal their second victory in three games.
Bryant missed eight of his 10 shots in
the final quarter, but shrugged off his struggles by saying his teammates' lack
of aggressiveness "forced" him to take tough shots. He also left no question
which teammate deserved the most blame for the 103-100 loss in Game
4.
Bryant faulted Gasol for not playing
aggressive enough. It was also Gasol's turnover that led to Kevin Durant making
the winning 3-pointer with 13.7 seconds left.
"Pau's got to be more assertive," Bryant
said. "He's the guy they're leaving [open]. When he's catching the ball, he's
looking to pass. He's got to be aggressive. He's got to shoot the ball or drive
the ball to the basket. He will be next game."
Bryant has periodically targeted Gasol
with his public criticism, hoping to motivate him to lift his performance. But
with the Lakers now down 3-1 in the series and facing Game 5 on Monday in
Oklahoma City, Bryant's patience has been exhausted. Gasol's inconsistency has
been a problem for the Lakers throughout the season, and he never seemed to
recover after the team tried to trade him in December to the Houston Rockets in
a deal with the New Orleans Hornets for Chris Paul. NBA commissioner David Stern
blocked the trade, and Gasol has admitted his tenuous status with the franchise
has bothered him.
Gasol totaled just 10 points and five
rebounds in Game 4. Most recently, Bryant criticized both Gasol and Andrew Bynum
after a listless performance in a Game 6 loss to the Denver Nuggets in the first
round. Gasol responded with 23 points and 17 rebounds in the Lakers' clinching
Game 7 victory.
