Some quotes about Indiana basketball

Larry Bird:

"There's a secret to playing basketball, but I ain't tellin' what it is."

Red Auerbach on Larry Bird:

"What I didn't know about was his self-motivation and his willingness to pay the price by working hard.  The more you paid him, the harder he worked.  He wanted to show he was worth it."

Hank Luisetti in 1955 on the "old-type defense":

Luisetti was talking about Bill Russell, K.C. Jones, and the Dandy Dons of USF, but his words echo down the years.

"Today the players just want to shoot.  They lack defense and team play, but USF is a notable exception.  Phil Woolpert obviously spends a lot of time on defense.  But name another team that has each man playing with left hand kept high and weaving to bother the offense.

"They remind me of the good old days when basketball was played tough.  And all of the old timers are coming out from under the rocks to see them.  They make you play an entirely different game from what you want to.   . . .  It's a throwback to the old-type defense, the kind where it was tough to get a shot away, let alone make one."

Thanks to Larry Bird, Red Auerbach and Hank Luisetti for pointing out the age-old, timeless formula for success in basketball, that is, hard work, defense, and team play.  

When Luisetti talks about each man playing with his left hand held high, the image that comes to mind is from the team practices in the movie Hoosiers.  Luisetti sums up the secret to basketball success as "defense and team play" and the fictional coach in Hoosiers, Norman Dale, while teaching defense, talks about five players functioning as a single unit.

That's the reason I don't agree with the "experts" who are selling the Celtics short this year.  Before his first game in Hoosiers, Coach Dale, before he steps into the arena, says to himself, "Welcome to Indiana basketball."    Is it too much to hope that this is what we're going to see this year in Boston?

A team doesn't need superstars to win.  There really is a way of playing summed up by the words, Indiana basketball.  It involves the same winning formula that Hank Luisetti talked about, the same thing that brought Coach Brad's college teams into the Final Four twice without star power.  

As quoted above, the greatest practitioner of Indiana basketball ever claimed that there's a secret to playing basketball.  Cagey as always, Larry Bird wasn't tellin' what it is, but after watching him in practice and in games, Red easily figured it out.  Hard work.  

My prediction for the upcoming Celtics season is that we're going to see a ton of hard work, defense, and team play.  Is the NBA ready?  I don't think so.  What Hank Luisetti said 60 years ago still holds true: "Today the players just want to shoot."

Welcome to Indiana basketball.