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Summer Quandaries: Contagious Basketball
by bobheckler Sat Sep 20, 2014 10:40 am
http://celticsgreen.blogspot.com/2014/09/sq14-56-contagious-basketball.html
Basketball is a unique game in many respects. It is a team sport but you can practice many of the individual skills alone in a gym or just with a goal nailed to a tree or garage. Soccer, or football as it more accurately known in the rest of the world, has been likened to basketball--one using mainly the hands, the other the feet. Yet as much as ball control and shooting goals permit practicing alone, the intricate dance of ball and player movement are the essence of team. You can practice defense with one additional player but it omits a huge part of the critical meshing of assignments, help, and switching so critical to the whole court ballet. While many great players speak about the long hours alone in the gym, basketball is, at its heart, a game of interpersonal relationships, emotion, communication, and social interaction.
As an emotional team game and ongoing social experiment, there are many aspects that, for better or worse, are contagious. We’ve all seen numerous examples of one divisive player or relationship absolutely destroying the chemistry of a team; leaving instead a dysfunctional aggregation of individuals (usually anxious to flee the scene of the disaster). Seen how one unchecked shot-hogging player without a conscience can drive a wedge that transforms a TEAM into a collection of ME’s. How a contentious coach can set the tone for team full of angry back-biters, pulling in every direction but certainly not together. There are entirely too many examples of the contagion of bad habits, unhealthy interpersonal relationships, and divisive behaviors; but there are positive tales also.
We need go back into Celtics’ history only six years to revel in the pin-ball passing of the Championship team, their help defense on-a-string, and their shoulder-to-shoulder Ubuntu. In these Summer Quandaries we’ve encountered a number of positive contagion possibilities. Running, as a team’s mental attitude, can spread through a team like a fast-moving wild fire--only setting opponents ablaze rather than woodlands. The motion offense is another aspect that has immensely valuable potential as both a team unifier and a defense destroyer. Taking as much pride in an assist as a made field goal, a charge as a block, an outlet pass as a lay-up at the other end--these all epitomize team play over individual stat-hunting. A swarming, harassing defense; a sixth-man contribution (or several sixth men); and pride in a 24-second violation (surely the ultimate head-nod to team defense)--are all keynotes that draw a team together. And each of these plays are the type of development that makes teammates sit up and take notice; and once these enabling plays start to receive recognition, everybody seems to want to get in on the feel-good fest. Admittedly there is some kind of critical mass required for “everybody” trying to do it, but the truth is that with a young exuberant bunch, that type of rush to belong can flash into existence ignited by just the tiniest spark. And I don’t think the sparks are going to be either tiny or infrequent.
None of this is new. No fresh innovation or invention. These are just sound basketball tenants that have fallen out of favor as too difficult with the modern player, too hard to mold an entire team to employ, too rah-rah for today’s jaded athletes, or just out of vogue. Somehow I think this is exactly Brad Stevens 101, and that the team’s personnel has reached the tipping point where as a player, you can get with the program or get left behind and on the sideline (or at home). I must admit that as I have labored (even if a labor of love) on this series for the past two months, I keep reflecting back on the value of Keith Bogans--perhaps most important was not the trading chip Danny created from the Brooklyn heist, but rather the cultural statement that Bogans’ banishment underlined, then, and again, and again.
The New Big Three have faded (the parts first scattered and now just a year later, near retirement) and while the return to Championship contention still lies in the future, the Celtic-Way is already making a comeback. Perhaps those celebrators of Banner 18 can already sniff the aroma of improvement, albeit attitude more rapidly than record, but we truly old-timer’s relish the echoes of the teams that brought the first 17 to Boston and realize that a winning environment is much rarer and more difficult to achieve than a record climbing into the playoffs. If you are not excited for camp to start, you just aren’t paying attention (or perhaps too much attention to ESPN).
Only 8 more days until training camp.
bob
MY NOTE: Nothing new, no epiphany, no burning bush BUT...
I've mentally lumped Lee Lauderdale's writings this summer into 3 buckets: Good, Dull and Hallelujah Brother! He has written some very good stuff, stuff that is interesting and well backed up and yes, some of his interesting stuff I disagree with, but I enjoyed his topic and readily and willingly engaged it. There were others that were, to be honest and fair, real snoozers. Dull topics begetting dull columns. I have made a point of not making a big deal about those since I would hate to have to come up with "interesting" every day over two months of actual basketball news vacuum. For the most part, he has had some but not so many that I have stopped looking forward to reading and posting his columns every day. And then there have been the ones that make me think I'm hearing a bugle blow reveille at the track. Not raw meat stem winders, no "Morning in America" or "We have nothing to fear but fear itself" headline grabbers but columns that make my head start nodding emphatically. Columns that remind me why I'm a True Believer in the Celtics Way and convince me that Lee Lauderdale is "one of us". He "gets it". This column was like that for me. No news, no great insight, no revelations. Just an alarm bell that made this old work horse lift his head and whinny, anxious to be the first out the door to the fire.
Only 8 more days. 8. Thanks Lee.
bob
.
Basketball is a unique game in many respects. It is a team sport but you can practice many of the individual skills alone in a gym or just with a goal nailed to a tree or garage. Soccer, or football as it more accurately known in the rest of the world, has been likened to basketball--one using mainly the hands, the other the feet. Yet as much as ball control and shooting goals permit practicing alone, the intricate dance of ball and player movement are the essence of team. You can practice defense with one additional player but it omits a huge part of the critical meshing of assignments, help, and switching so critical to the whole court ballet. While many great players speak about the long hours alone in the gym, basketball is, at its heart, a game of interpersonal relationships, emotion, communication, and social interaction.
As an emotional team game and ongoing social experiment, there are many aspects that, for better or worse, are contagious. We’ve all seen numerous examples of one divisive player or relationship absolutely destroying the chemistry of a team; leaving instead a dysfunctional aggregation of individuals (usually anxious to flee the scene of the disaster). Seen how one unchecked shot-hogging player without a conscience can drive a wedge that transforms a TEAM into a collection of ME’s. How a contentious coach can set the tone for team full of angry back-biters, pulling in every direction but certainly not together. There are entirely too many examples of the contagion of bad habits, unhealthy interpersonal relationships, and divisive behaviors; but there are positive tales also.
We need go back into Celtics’ history only six years to revel in the pin-ball passing of the Championship team, their help defense on-a-string, and their shoulder-to-shoulder Ubuntu. In these Summer Quandaries we’ve encountered a number of positive contagion possibilities. Running, as a team’s mental attitude, can spread through a team like a fast-moving wild fire--only setting opponents ablaze rather than woodlands. The motion offense is another aspect that has immensely valuable potential as both a team unifier and a defense destroyer. Taking as much pride in an assist as a made field goal, a charge as a block, an outlet pass as a lay-up at the other end--these all epitomize team play over individual stat-hunting. A swarming, harassing defense; a sixth-man contribution (or several sixth men); and pride in a 24-second violation (surely the ultimate head-nod to team defense)--are all keynotes that draw a team together. And each of these plays are the type of development that makes teammates sit up and take notice; and once these enabling plays start to receive recognition, everybody seems to want to get in on the feel-good fest. Admittedly there is some kind of critical mass required for “everybody” trying to do it, but the truth is that with a young exuberant bunch, that type of rush to belong can flash into existence ignited by just the tiniest spark. And I don’t think the sparks are going to be either tiny or infrequent.
None of this is new. No fresh innovation or invention. These are just sound basketball tenants that have fallen out of favor as too difficult with the modern player, too hard to mold an entire team to employ, too rah-rah for today’s jaded athletes, or just out of vogue. Somehow I think this is exactly Brad Stevens 101, and that the team’s personnel has reached the tipping point where as a player, you can get with the program or get left behind and on the sideline (or at home). I must admit that as I have labored (even if a labor of love) on this series for the past two months, I keep reflecting back on the value of Keith Bogans--perhaps most important was not the trading chip Danny created from the Brooklyn heist, but rather the cultural statement that Bogans’ banishment underlined, then, and again, and again.
The New Big Three have faded (the parts first scattered and now just a year later, near retirement) and while the return to Championship contention still lies in the future, the Celtic-Way is already making a comeback. Perhaps those celebrators of Banner 18 can already sniff the aroma of improvement, albeit attitude more rapidly than record, but we truly old-timer’s relish the echoes of the teams that brought the first 17 to Boston and realize that a winning environment is much rarer and more difficult to achieve than a record climbing into the playoffs. If you are not excited for camp to start, you just aren’t paying attention (or perhaps too much attention to ESPN).
Only 8 more days until training camp.
bob
MY NOTE: Nothing new, no epiphany, no burning bush BUT...
I've mentally lumped Lee Lauderdale's writings this summer into 3 buckets: Good, Dull and Hallelujah Brother! He has written some very good stuff, stuff that is interesting and well backed up and yes, some of his interesting stuff I disagree with, but I enjoyed his topic and readily and willingly engaged it. There were others that were, to be honest and fair, real snoozers. Dull topics begetting dull columns. I have made a point of not making a big deal about those since I would hate to have to come up with "interesting" every day over two months of actual basketball news vacuum. For the most part, he has had some but not so many that I have stopped looking forward to reading and posting his columns every day. And then there have been the ones that make me think I'm hearing a bugle blow reveille at the track. Not raw meat stem winders, no "Morning in America" or "We have nothing to fear but fear itself" headline grabbers but columns that make my head start nodding emphatically. Columns that remind me why I'm a True Believer in the Celtics Way and convince me that Lee Lauderdale is "one of us". He "gets it". This column was like that for me. No news, no great insight, no revelations. Just an alarm bell that made this old work horse lift his head and whinny, anxious to be the first out the door to the fire.
Only 8 more days. 8. Thanks Lee.
bob
.
bobheckler- Posts : 61239
Join date : 2009-10-28
Re: Summer Quandaries: Contagious Basketball
by k_j_88 Sat Sep 20, 2014 7:18 pm
I agree with his emphasis on the run game. This team has a wealth of guards and wings. It would be foolish not to take advantage of it.
You know what to do, Brad.
KJ
You know what to do, Brad.
KJ
k_j_88- Posts : 4747
Join date : 2013-01-06
Age : 35
Re: Summer Quandaries: Contagious Basketball
by Sam Sat Sep 20, 2014 11:08 pm
Nothing earthshaking here. But "contagion" is certainly an apt term for the shared actions, emotions and instincts that can characterize professional the interactive game of at its very best.
Sam
Sam
Sam- Admin
- Posts : 22663
Join date : 2009-10-10 -
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