TOUGHNESS

Jay Bilas of ESPN wrote a good piece on ‘Toughness’ during this past basketball season.  I thought it was a great read.  All the elements he covered should be practiced at the high school level and built upon through college.   Matter of fact, hopefully all coaches at all levels saw this wonderful piece and printed it out.  (I had my players read it aloud as a group).  This afternoon I was reading and doing some research for my writing project and came across some ‘tough guys’ who used to play the game.  I also had the opportunity to meet up with a former basketball player from New York City who played his high school basketball at Boys High back in the 1960’s.  He later went on to play for Michigan State.

We both reminisced about the former players he played against and guys he liked.

Guys like Lonnie Shelton, Scott Skiles, Maurice Lucas, Buck Williams, Nate Thurmond.  I miss those types.  I’m not sure we have them anymore.  The game has become a lot more finesse.

I once heard Charles Barkley and Chris Weber discussing the Detroit Pistons on TNT this past season and Weber said, ‘The Pistons take on the personality of Joe Dumars”.  Barkley countered, “No they don’t, Dumars played hard.”

How many guys actually play hard today and really care about the team concept?  As coaches we have to pound the ‘sharing the ball‘ mentality into our players just like Red Holzman talked about 24-7 with his New York Knicks championship teams.

How many guys defend and get out on the break like Bobby Jones?   How many guys move without the ball like John Havlicek?  Hondo once said he never gets tired in the game.

How many guys hit the glass like Kurt Rambis and Marc Iavaroni?  How many guards play lock-down defense like the late Dennis Johnson?

Gus Johnson and Dave DeBusschere battling all night.  Wes Unseld in the post at 6′7″ battling against Willis Reed.  Moses Malone rebounding like a monster, fighting for position with the opposing center.  How about Paul Silas, Elvin Hayes, Clifford Ray and even Dennis Rodman?

I miss guys like Bill Bradley, Rick Barry, Rudy Tomjanovich, Billy Cunningham, Maurice Cheeks and Jerry Lucas.

Today’s young players need to make sure they possess the work ethic that made all the above mentioned players great competitors.

-Coach Finamore

Hoops135@hotmail.com

PLAY THE RIGHT WAY!

A GOOD GUY

How often can you actually call an athlete a good person?

That’s what I always try and figure out after I work someone out or if I meet someone.  I always try and notice if they are a good person or not.  It doesn’t take much to realize if someone has a warm personality.

Over the years I also love to read about basketball players who are good people on and off the court.

David Friedman at 20 Second Timeout has a couple of stories about one of the most exciting players to ever step on the floor but most importantly, Julius Erving was a very nice person off the floor.

As a youngster growing up in New York City, I recall waiting for the Philadelphia 76ers to come out of Madison Square Garden after defeating the New York Knicks on a cold, snowy January night. There must’ve been about six or seven of us. We were hanging out just to try and catch a glimpse of Erving, Moses and Mo Cheeks.

About an hour after the game, when everyone was long gone, we were able to see them all, even Billy Cunningham, the head coach. We even caught a glimpse of assistant coach Chuck Daily. He was looking dapper as an assistant!

Erving spent the most time with us – he asked us how we were doing, where we played and where we were from. All this while signing autographs (he was kind enough to take his leather gloves off).

They don’t make them like Doctor J anymore.