BLAZER PROPHET
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I had lunch today with a friend who is an ex NBA player, was an all-star twice, coached briefly in the NBA and played 9 seasons (he took 2 years off for the Vietnam war) and played on a gold medal Olympic team. Interesting guy. He agrees with me the 3 point shot has caused great damage to the NBA and skills of young players. A lot of fundamentals went away with the 3 point shot.
We also dislike the zone and the inside out game that the NBA plays today. It's boring and lacks free flowing movement that the game was supposed to be about. Take away the zone and 3 point shot and there would be more fast breaks and player/ball movement (of course, that's evident).
He tells me that the players have indeed tuned Nate out and while he has great respect for him, it's time to go. He has talked to Cho and some other people and tells me Cho was going to be a very good GM but got railroaded by 'other' management- which I took to mean Vulcan. Although he too questions some of the teams draft picks and other personnel decisions, he thinks the talent evaluators are very good and perhaps they didn't make the final decisions on player personnel. He also thinks that Allen has been a good owner and if Roy and Oden were healthy, we'd be a title contender right now. He greatly liked the way that team was set up. He also feels we have way too few talented players and need to increase that base before we can move forward.
One thing that did surprise me is how close NBA players and coaches are. He knows (knew) people from Rupp, Russell, Oscar, Reed to LaBron, Adleman (who he calls one of the best pure coaches he has ever seen), Phil Jackson, Oden, Shaq... it's like a giant fraternity.
I also had a chance to meet Larry Steele's son (one of them) and he was a terrific young man. I'm not surprised.
We also dislike the zone and the inside out game that the NBA plays today. It's boring and lacks free flowing movement that the game was supposed to be about. Take away the zone and 3 point shot and there would be more fast breaks and player/ball movement (of course, that's evident).
He tells me that the players have indeed tuned Nate out and while he has great respect for him, it's time to go. He has talked to Cho and some other people and tells me Cho was going to be a very good GM but got railroaded by 'other' management- which I took to mean Vulcan. Although he too questions some of the teams draft picks and other personnel decisions, he thinks the talent evaluators are very good and perhaps they didn't make the final decisions on player personnel. He also thinks that Allen has been a good owner and if Roy and Oden were healthy, we'd be a title contender right now. He greatly liked the way that team was set up. He also feels we have way too few talented players and need to increase that base before we can move forward.
One thing that did surprise me is how close NBA players and coaches are. He knows (knew) people from Rupp, Russell, Oscar, Reed to LaBron, Adleman (who he calls one of the best pure coaches he has ever seen), Phil Jackson, Oden, Shaq... it's like a giant fraternity.
I also had a chance to meet Larry Steele's son (one of them) and he was a terrific young man. I'm not surprised.
