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've debated my columns with miffed players lots of times, and argued about my differences of opinion with management frequently, but this week was the first time in eight seasons of writing columns about the Trail Blazers that I was formally called into the coach's office.
Something's been bothering Nate McMillan.
On Wednesday, the Blazers coach finished practice and fielded questions, mostly about Brandon Roy's "I want the ball more," announcement. I asked him about injuries to his post players, and McMillan answered. But long after that, as the practice facility cleared out, McMillan saw me leaving and asked, "Could I get a minute with you?"
Understand. McMillan is the quintessential professional. A poised leader who wouldn't let his opponents ever see a hint of weakness. So what happened next ends up equal parts surprise and delight.
He confessed that he's been thinking a lot about the column I wrote after the conclusion of last season's Game 6 playoff loss to Phoenix that ended the Blazers season.
In particular, this paragraph: "McMillan has to be better in the playoffs. He did a wonderful job managing the Blazers during the regular season, developing the young players, and blending chemistry. But he was woefully outcoached by Alvin Gentry, and Gentry entered Game 6 with a 9-8 career record as a coach in the playoffs."
McMillan wanted to know where I thought he got outcoached. And it's a fair question. Every journalist who writes critically of subjects, even in sport, understands that part of the responsibility you carry in holding others accountable is that you must be accountable yourself. That means walking back in after you've been critical and making yourself available to talk about it with the subject.
At a prior stop, while covering the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders, I worked with a columnist who refused to go to the locker room after games. He claimed that he didn't want to get "too close" to the players because his job was to be critical of them, and so he just blasted away from the safety of the press box.
I will never forget an angry 49ers quarterback Jeff Garcia tugging on my sleeve after the columnist had blasted the quarterback as fragile and injury prone. Garcia scanned the media working the locker room after a game, and said: "Which one is he?" He had never met the columnist.
I thought about this as McMillan confronted me, and took the time to try and understand where I was coming from when I wrote the column. I also realized that the Blazers coach has done some deep thinking this offseason, and was bothered by the assertion that he was outcoached.
I told McMillan that I was impressed how he used Andre Miller to exploit the Suns in Game 1. And gave Gentry considerable credit for his decision in Game 2 to put Grant Hill on Miller. The trouble I had, mostly, with McMillan in the season-ending series is that he failed to counter-adjust.
He had Nicolas Batum on the much shorter Steve Nash, but the Blazers didn't commit to using Batum to post up Nash. McMillan said, "I thought about doing that during the game, but we hadn't done that all season." And he's right. But it was the only real mismatch short-handed Portland had, and the Blazers didn't attempt to exploit it.
Phoenix smothered Lamarcus Aldridge, and locked up Miller with Hill. Game over. Granted, the Blazers were injury plagued, including being without a healthy Roy. So Gentry had it easier. Still, I felt he had the better series.
More than 5 months later, McMillan wanted to know why.
Pride is what's buried much deeper in all of this. Because I spent about 10 minutes in McMillan's office, some of it with him at the grease board diagramming plays and with me jotting down notes. And by the end of our discussion, what I realized more than anything is that McMillan badly wants to win, and understand himself, and get better.
You have to love that.
The guy who spent his summer alongside Mike Krzyzewski, coaching the world championship team from the United States, has very likely spent a good portion of that time thinking about what he'd have done better in the series against Phoenix.
I'm delighted by this thought.
Too often we find people in sports who are happy to do their best in the moment, then cash the check and move on. And McMillan isn't one of those guys.
I've covered Bob Knight at Indiana as a beat reporter, and Jerry Tarkanian at Fresno State, and Gene Keady at Purdue. I talked basketball at length on a few occasions with the late Pete Newell. Knight once had reporters covering him at Indiana stand in the interview room, clear space, and walk through a basketball play so they could feel what he was trying to teach.
Similarly, that session with McMillan on Wednesday was gold -- him diagramming the Suns-Blazers series while muttering, "(Steve) Nash is so (bleeping) smart."
Nash is smart. When the Blazers tried to screen Hill and created a Nash-Miller matchup, Nash didn't switch like the Blazers expected. He just double-teamed Miller.
I suspect McMillan has thought enough about this to make a different move this season. Maybe even in the season opener.
The larger point: McMillan cares what you think. He cares when he makes mistakes. He wants badly to be better. And at a time with so many questions swirling around the team, I realize the Blazers are in good hands.
-- John Canzano
http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/or...2010/10/canzano_blazers_coach_nate_mcm_1.html
Something's been bothering Nate McMillan.
On Wednesday, the Blazers coach finished practice and fielded questions, mostly about Brandon Roy's "I want the ball more," announcement. I asked him about injuries to his post players, and McMillan answered. But long after that, as the practice facility cleared out, McMillan saw me leaving and asked, "Could I get a minute with you?"
Understand. McMillan is the quintessential professional. A poised leader who wouldn't let his opponents ever see a hint of weakness. So what happened next ends up equal parts surprise and delight.
He confessed that he's been thinking a lot about the column I wrote after the conclusion of last season's Game 6 playoff loss to Phoenix that ended the Blazers season.
In particular, this paragraph: "McMillan has to be better in the playoffs. He did a wonderful job managing the Blazers during the regular season, developing the young players, and blending chemistry. But he was woefully outcoached by Alvin Gentry, and Gentry entered Game 6 with a 9-8 career record as a coach in the playoffs."
McMillan wanted to know where I thought he got outcoached. And it's a fair question. Every journalist who writes critically of subjects, even in sport, understands that part of the responsibility you carry in holding others accountable is that you must be accountable yourself. That means walking back in after you've been critical and making yourself available to talk about it with the subject.
At a prior stop, while covering the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders, I worked with a columnist who refused to go to the locker room after games. He claimed that he didn't want to get "too close" to the players because his job was to be critical of them, and so he just blasted away from the safety of the press box.
I will never forget an angry 49ers quarterback Jeff Garcia tugging on my sleeve after the columnist had blasted the quarterback as fragile and injury prone. Garcia scanned the media working the locker room after a game, and said: "Which one is he?" He had never met the columnist.
I thought about this as McMillan confronted me, and took the time to try and understand where I was coming from when I wrote the column. I also realized that the Blazers coach has done some deep thinking this offseason, and was bothered by the assertion that he was outcoached.
I told McMillan that I was impressed how he used Andre Miller to exploit the Suns in Game 1. And gave Gentry considerable credit for his decision in Game 2 to put Grant Hill on Miller. The trouble I had, mostly, with McMillan in the season-ending series is that he failed to counter-adjust.
He had Nicolas Batum on the much shorter Steve Nash, but the Blazers didn't commit to using Batum to post up Nash. McMillan said, "I thought about doing that during the game, but we hadn't done that all season." And he's right. But it was the only real mismatch short-handed Portland had, and the Blazers didn't attempt to exploit it.
Phoenix smothered Lamarcus Aldridge, and locked up Miller with Hill. Game over. Granted, the Blazers were injury plagued, including being without a healthy Roy. So Gentry had it easier. Still, I felt he had the better series.
More than 5 months later, McMillan wanted to know why.
Pride is what's buried much deeper in all of this. Because I spent about 10 minutes in McMillan's office, some of it with him at the grease board diagramming plays and with me jotting down notes. And by the end of our discussion, what I realized more than anything is that McMillan badly wants to win, and understand himself, and get better.
You have to love that.
The guy who spent his summer alongside Mike Krzyzewski, coaching the world championship team from the United States, has very likely spent a good portion of that time thinking about what he'd have done better in the series against Phoenix.
I'm delighted by this thought.
Too often we find people in sports who are happy to do their best in the moment, then cash the check and move on. And McMillan isn't one of those guys.
I've covered Bob Knight at Indiana as a beat reporter, and Jerry Tarkanian at Fresno State, and Gene Keady at Purdue. I talked basketball at length on a few occasions with the late Pete Newell. Knight once had reporters covering him at Indiana stand in the interview room, clear space, and walk through a basketball play so they could feel what he was trying to teach.
Similarly, that session with McMillan on Wednesday was gold -- him diagramming the Suns-Blazers series while muttering, "(Steve) Nash is so (bleeping) smart."
Nash is smart. When the Blazers tried to screen Hill and created a Nash-Miller matchup, Nash didn't switch like the Blazers expected. He just double-teamed Miller.
I suspect McMillan has thought enough about this to make a different move this season. Maybe even in the season opener.
The larger point: McMillan cares what you think. He cares when he makes mistakes. He wants badly to be better. And at a time with so many questions swirling around the team, I realize the Blazers are in good hands.
-- John Canzano
http://www.oregonlive.com/sports/or...2010/10/canzano_blazers_coach_nate_mcm_1.html
