Basketball recently lost one of its pioneers. While that term is thrown around whenever a player from the black and white era passes away, the true understanding of what it means to be a pioneer is lost. In my view a pioneer is someone who is a visionary who transforms and then defines how things are done moving forward, creating an enduring standard. My dad, Dolph Schayes was such a person. As a player in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s my
Please, people, don’t panic! The strategy of fouling bad foul shooters, incessantly creating a parade to the free throw line, will die a quiet death. I’m not talking about a team that is behind by 6 with a minute to go trying to get the ball back. I’m talking about the “Hack-a-Shaq” – or Dwight, or DeAndre – strategy of putting a 40 percent shooter on the line 40 times a game. Yes, it is bad television. It kills the flow of
We’ve all heard the stories about athletes, including basketball players, going broke despite making millions — or tens of millions — of dollars. From Scottie Pippen to Allen Iverson to Antoine Walker, the ledger of those who have squandered their fortunes is a long one. How does this happen? Why? As I told Noah Coslov of CineSport in this video interview: “The biggest thing is not really understanding how current lifestyle will impact their future lifestyle.” I have written a book on this very
There has been enough debate on the MVP award, including three columns on this site — all in favor of James Harden. Which, of course, means he will finish second. Or maybe not. I do know this: It is going to be interesting to see exactly how close the vote is from a historical perspective. And speaking of history, I have a little (OK, a lot) of my own in the NBA. So today, I’m going to share a few personal stories and
Like most fans, I found this season’s Final Four to be really good. I guess college basketball isn’t being ruined by “one-and-done” after all. While we saw a one-and-done factory (Duke) win it all, we also had a sighting of a dodo bird. That creature thought to be extinct, known as a senior star. Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan prides himself on building from within and having well-coached teams. He develops players and teams over time by having rosters dominated by kids from
In his most recent column, Danny Schayes noted how the Utah Jazz were doing a pretty nice job of playing spoilers, beating a bunch of the top playoff contending teams. Lots of crazy outcomes can happen in the late days of a season, and Schayes recounted a pair of instances when his team was out of the playoff picture but came up with victories that were not only unlikely, but uncommon for the circumstances that surrounded them. Here is a link
The season is winding down. The excitement of the race for the final spots and playoff positioning is starting to get real, for a majority of teams, that is. But what about those who are out of it with more than a dozen games still to go. Do you mail it in? Play for draft position? While no player wants to be in that position, there can still be plenty of motivation of things to play for. After all, only the GMs care about draft
Now that the NBA Players union has rejected the league’s “smoothing” proposal to gradually increase the salary cap, we are going to see extraordinary financial changes over the next several years. When the NBA’s new television money kicks in for the 2016-17 season, the salary cap — currently at $64 million — will jump to an estimated $90 million. That means a player like Kevin Durant, who will be eligible for a starting salary worth slightly less than 35 percent of