Danny Needs To Hire This Guy For Our Big Men

He looks like he knows something about post play in the NBA...



























This one would help Kelly a lot.






bob



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Hakeem, a graduate of the late Pete Newell's Big Man Camp.  From Wikipedia:

Considered "America's Basketball Guru", Newell conducted an annual training camp for centers and forwards known simply as "Big Man Camp", which has since been informally dubbed "Pete Newell's Big Man Camp". The camp originated when word spread that Newell was working with Kermit Washington. After Washington's game rapidly improved, more and more big men started to work with Newell, and he later opened the camp. The camp's impressive participants list features over 200 current and former NBA players.[7] Newell attracted this list of players due to his reputation of teaching footwork, being what one publication described as "The Footwork Master".[4] Former attendees include Shaquille O'Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon, Bill Walton, and many others.[7] The camp was almost seen as standard for players coming out of college into the NBA; according to ESPN's Ric Bucher, "[f]or the past 24 years, every big man of any significance has spent at least one summer week trying to get close enough to Pete."[3] From the time Newell opened the camp in 1976 until his death, he never accepted any money for his services, stating that "I owe it to the game. I can never repay what the game has given me."[8] The camp has taken place in Honolulu, Hawaii and most recently Las Vegas, Nevada.

In 2001 Newell opened his version of the Big Man Camp for women and dubbed it "Pete Newell's Tall Women's Basketball Camp" with the following simple sentence serving as a summary of its intentions: "The Pete Newell Tall Women's Basketball Camp goal is to continue to do what Pete Newell has done his whole life-to teach the fundamentals and footwork of the game of basketball to young players."

I take issue with the claim that Newell never accepted anything for teaching.  In David Halberstam's  "Breaks of the Game" Kermit Washington showed up at Newell's home with a huge color TV with a plaque on it that said, "To Coach Newell.  Thank you for making me a better basketball player."

Newell didn't want to accept it but did so because he thought that Kermit was the loneliest looking young man he had ever seen because at that time he was vilified and was serving a suspension for the punch that almost killed Rudy Tomjonovich.

Although I'd prefer Dave Cowens because I believe his energetic "basketball personality" is closer to that of today's Celtics, I'd be happy with Hakeem as a big man's coach.  Of course, a lot will depend on the experience of the intimidator Danny must get.

Sam

Kevin McHale knows something about footwork in the pivot. If he doesn't want to coach any more he can always open his own big man camp.

The Celtics had a pretty fair big man coach in Clifford Ray.  I don't know the specifics but I guess he left under a very dark cloud that had nothing to do with his ability to teach. I thought it was probably an advantage that Ray himself was a manufactured player for whom much of the game did not come naturally. I remember my brothers and I laughing at how clumsy he was when he was a rookie.

One big difference between today's NBA and the NBA when Pete Newell first began working with Kermit Washington is the widespread availability of individual teaching.

Kermit, on the verge of seeing his career going down the drain, approached Newell and practically begged to be taught.  Newell asked Kermit what was his goal and Kermit responded that he wanted to play like Paul Silas.

Newell liked that answer.

Seems amazing now that teams then simply didn't have the financial resources to provide individual instruction to even a player yearning for it.