AS MUCH as the Celtics’ new owners (and the city of Boston) are drooling to marquee Larry Bird, it’s not going to happen; GM Chris Wallace, personnel director Leo Papile and coach Jim O’Brien are safe to shadow ultimate success.
“He’s thoroughly committed to helping his group gain the expansion rights in Charlotte,” says a Larry Legend confidant.
In fact, Bird and his partners have contacted numerous current and former Celtic employees to gauge interest in them joining the new adventure at the appropriate time.
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OK, agreed, teamwork and basic basketball is a foreign concept. What I want to know is, when, if ever, will coaches (grade school, high school, AAU, college and NBA) accept their fair share of the liability for USA players being so unschooled rudimentally and regimentally?
Teaching pupils the ground rules and drilling them ’til they understand should be a large part of their job description, I suspect. Yet the blame for being fundamentally deficient is being placed exclusively on the players.
If I’m an NBA owner and my professional coaching staff is fielding an unprepared, disjointed and egocentric team, I’d be thinking seriously about importing Dirk Nowitzki’s or Pau Gasol’s tutor, or the shrewd minds behind Yugoslavia’s and Argentina’s accomplishments.
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On advice from Marcus Welby, er, Camby, Stephon Marbury decided against left ankle (again) surgery. Prior to losing to the Nets, it was bad news/good news for the Suns.
First the bad news; they were stuck in NYC traffic and didn’t get to the house Lou Lamoriello lathered until an hour before tip-off. Now the good news; at least Marbury wasn’t driving.
By the way, it’ll take more than a foot specialist to relieve the recurring pain Marbury has from bad career moves.
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Isiah Thomas practiced with the Pacers Friday for only the second or third time in two-plus years as head coach; demonstrating how to activate and continuously stimulate Indiana’s innovative offensive floor plan.
Players are required to run and run and run (or take a load off), even off opponent makes. The key is, no one position is responsible for initiating the attack; the point guard must give it up across halfcourt and cut through.
Jamal Tinsley and Erick Strickland, who flooded the floor with turnovers in a loss to the Hornets, got special instruction. “I left no doubt what I want,” Thomas underlined.
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The Shaq-less Lakers handled Jerry West’s Grizzlies rather handily Friday at Arkansas-Little Rock, Derek Fisher’s alma mater. Effective immediately, the league logo bears a striking resemblance to Mitch Kupchak. Forward observers spotted Shaq holding up a photo of Fisher as a child and mocking it. This just in: Shawn Kemp swears Fisher isn’t his kid.
Sources say Spurs coach Gregg Popovich recruited Tim Floyd as his top assistant before offering the job to P.J. Carlesimo. Initially Floyd accepted but changed his mind and moved his family back to Louisiana, where he was recently part of an invitation-only celestial coaching conference presided over by Larry Brown and John Calipari. Top topic of discussion: the dreaded zone. Naturally, the Wizards didn’t start seriously pursuing Charles Oakley until receiving three thumbs up from Tyrone Hill, Jeff McInnis and Floyd.
Now that Mike Bibby is out roughly eight weeks with a stress fracture (carrying Chris Webber proved to be too big a burden) the Kings will need more from Mateen Cleaves and Bobby Jackson (at $2.7 million, arguably the league’s most underpaid achiever). Not to fret, Cleaves’ rigorous off-season regimen had him waving twice as many towels.
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In case you haven’t done the math, the combined age of Chicago’s Twin Toddlers is less than Michael Jordan. Tyson Chandler’s goal is to be the game’s best power forward, or at least beat out Marcus Fizer at the four spot. Eddy Curry’s overall improvement is undeniable. By half past the third quarter in Boston’s win earlier this week, Celtic commentator Tommy Heinsohn already had concluded the baby Bull would be an all-star center within two or three years, lauding Curry’s fast feet and use of his bulky body
Wang ZhiZhi, booted off the Chinese national team, can return, I’m informed, if he confesses he was writing a screenplay in LA this summer.
Conspicuously in better condition than last season, Shawn Bradley brutalized the Nuggets for 19 rebounds and spiky-elbowed defense that leaves marks. While Denver may not qualify as a legit challenge, Bradley, though no Evan Eschmeyer or Calvin Booth, looks like he might prove helpful outside Don Nelson’s dog house.
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Whatever you do, don’t hit the mute button when Ray Allen and Glenn Robinson are within the vicinity of a sound system.
According to Allen, his former Bucks’ teammate is a ball-hog, practiced imperfectly and can’t take being called out. According to Robinson, Allen is satiny soft, a compulsive coward for talking behind his back and his shot selection sucks. “If this were street ball I’d slap him upside his head,” woofs Big Dog.
And these guys are pantomime artists compared to Milwaukee’s notorious motor mouths. We’re all breathlessly waiting for George Karl, Sam Cassell, Anthony Mason and Robinson’s former fiance to hyperventilate on the subject.
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The only way Latrell Sprewell could’ve disgraced himself any more in the water was to co-star with Madonna.