Mayer: Game of basketball has its problems

By Bill Mayer     Mar 13, 2005

“Clang!”

That’s the title of a recent New York Times Magazine article by Michael Sokolove who notes that “pro basketball doesn’t have a drug problem or a thug problem. … It has a basketball problem.”

We see constant trickle-downs to the colleges and that, too, is sickening.

Adds Sokolove: “Unbelievable as it may seem, you can make millions in today’s NBA without having even one semireliable way to put the ball in the basket — no jump shot, no hook shot, no little 12-foot bank shot. … The concept of being part of a team is one that seems to elude a great many NBA players. Prodigies as kids, they see themselves as virtuosos, leading men with ‘supporting casts’ rather than players with teammates.”

Purists decry that the area between dunking range and the three-point line now is, for some teams in college, too, a virtual dead zone. Does that ring any bells about a majority of the Kansas losses this year?

If KU’s paint crew hasn’t converted virtual chippies (which it muffs far too often), out goes the ball to the perimeter where the Jayhawks die on cold nights. Where are the in-betweeners where Aaron Miles, J.R. Giddens, Keith Langford and Michael Lee should be cleaning up, but seldom do?

Another ailment for pro ball is the sluggishness and low-scoring despite a 24-second clock as opposed to the college 35.

“It’s an incongruity,” said Rod Thorn, president of the New Jersey Nets. “We have better athletes than ever but they play at a slower pace. The reason is that they’re not so sound fundamentally, so coaches feel that the faster they play, the more mistakes they’ll make.”

Has that become an Achilles’ heel of the 2005 Kansas team? Have the hesitant Jayhawks become so distrustful of their mid-range game that they are hypnotized about either pushing the ball to Wayne Simien and his paint buddies or pitching it out to guys who can be terribly erratic at hitting treys? Sometimes their frigidity is fatal.

Look how the U.S. Olympic team got carved up by international teams that could pass the ball, shoot from all ranges and work far, far better as cohesive units. Head coach Larry Brown led Detroit to the title last season by making the Pistons “do the little things” and “play the game the right way.” He couldn’t get the spoiled brats he inherited for the Olympics to do that; the foreigners took them to the woodshed.

Drop down beyond college ball to the high school level. Like money-conscious collegians, a lot of preps see those television highlight films that glorify the dunks and treys and figure getting good in those more specialized fields is the way to make it — with big shoe contracts and other perks.

There have been youngsters like LeBron James and Kevin Garnett who’ve jumped from high school to the pros. So the dunk-and-trey route is the one to take in preparation, right? Why bother with drives, give-and-gos, pick-and-rolls, pitchoffs and midrange plops? Dinosaur dung!

To me the most beautiful play in basketball is the layup or short poke made possible by a surgical pass, back door, front door, you name it. But too few kids learn such things anymore. Bricklaying fiddlers are wrecking our chances to enjoy concert violinists.

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Pity Bill Self. The KU basketball coach takes one step forward to provide warm and positive outreach, then The Suits in and around Allen Fieldhouse stumble two steps backward. Could be the new order’s East Coast-oriented mentality built around a commute-work-commute-and-stay-at-home lifestyle is the big barrier. No need to mingle and understand the peasants. Seems somewhere along the line they’d pick up on the need to be more sensitive, inclusive and appreciative of countless loyalists who brought KU to the picnic where the newbies now luxuriate with lush salaries.

Back to Self. The day he was announced as the new coach, he was filing out, shaking hands and making everyone feel good. Around the corner came Bob and Eleanor Nelson, Nelly hobbled by a stroke he had in 1998. Bob gave Bill a welcoming smile and started with, “You probably don’t remember me from your Larry Brown days, but …”

“Sure I do, Nelly,” responded Self with that incomparable grin. And he stopped to talk to The Old Jayhawk, now 83 with nearly 65 years of deep Jayhawk loyalty and support. Self has continued to be considerate.

Nelly and Eleanor recently bought season tickets for Nelly’s 63rd season and they’ve given to the Williams Fund for eons. Hell, if you know anything about KU sports, you recognize how much The Old Jayhawk has contributed, always following the teams on the road when possible, ever-supportive. Dave Robisch recognized Nelly when Dave’s jersey went up onto the wall recently. Bob ain’t rich in money but he’s been an immeasurable treasure of support. Got this gut-wrenching note Wednesday from Eleanor:

“The Old Jayhawk got his final divorce papers from the KU athletic department. I call them that because they informed us he would not be receiving any ticket to NCAA sites KU might be sent to. I think the athletics department has a marriage now that is based on money and not love. I just hope this marriage will last as long as the marriage between KU and its loyal fans has up to now. … So now none of that matters anymore. The divorce is final and I guess we will have to live with it. … I live with the man and know he bleeds Crimson and Blue and always will even though the university has forgotten all that he did over the years.”

One friend of the Nelsons says the note “brought tears to my eyes” and recalled all the things Nelly has done for KU in just the 25 years she and her family have lived here. “I remember when Larry Brown always wanted Bob there to shake his hand when they came into the AFH chute,” she wrote. Then from praise of Bob to this chilling windup: “I know money talks, but it’s been shoutin’ at KU lately!”

You got that right, sister!

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