Mornin Mates...
Today's Topic = Showtime Basketball
There's a great series, in my estimation, on HBO right now, titled "Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty," that outlines how the Lakers became a dominant NBA franchise back in the 80s by chronicling the lives, both on and off the court, of the players, ownership and coaches, that made it happen...
It stems from the book by Jeff Pearlman titled "Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley and the LA Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s"...
Showtime related to both the way the Lakers rose to dominance using an uptempo offense run by very gifted guards like Magic Johnson and Norm Nixon and the sexy, very exotic atmosphere created in the Forum by owner Jerry Buss, who was hell bent on making the Lakers into an NBA championship team and franchise...
Under his vision for the Lakers, the Forum became a Hugh Heffner like playboy, celebrity playground on steroids, for the adult fans in attendance, and the Lakers ran an offense like what Tark was doing at UNLV that was premised on a smothering defense that led to transitional uptempo offensive basketball...
Tark was not Buss's first coach, after Jerry West resigned from the position, although Buss had talked Tark into coaching the Lakers, until one of Tark's closest friends, who was the go between Buss and Tark on the Lakers coaching deal, was found dead, shot in the head, execution style, stuffed in the trunk of his car, that was parked in North Hollywood, that caused Tark to hightail it back to Las Vegas...
It appeared that the mob had sent a strong signal to Tark that he belonged in Las Vegas, coaching college basketball, and not in LA coaching the Lakers...
As an aside, that case has never been solved...
With Tark back in Las Vegas, Buss had to find another coach and he ended up hiring Jack McKinney, who was an assistant for the Portland Trailblazers, who West had recommended in his now capacity as the Lakers GM...
The relevance for our Sun Devil basketball team under Bobby Hurley is that McKinney employed a guard-centered and directed "street ball" type basketball that was predicated on an uptempo, creative, spontaneous run offense directed by Magic Johnson and Norm Nixon...
The Lakers were to pressure opponents, at all times, on defense, to create turnovers, and run a motion offense, where shots were taken not as part of a pre-programmed, methodical script but, rather, by the instinctive abilities of its players to get open and take shots quickly...
Initially, this was very hard for the Lakers to adapt to, who thought of McKinney's basketball philosophy as "playground" in nature but, after some compromise, they got used to it, and excelled at it, and it became known as "showtime" type basketball, that led to the Lakers winning many successive NBA titles and becoming a dynasty...
After watching the series, which is still running weekly on HBO, it made me re-evaluate our BB program under Bobby and, perhaps, acknowledge that his style of basketball isn't just built on a whimsy, as there seems to be much more to it than that...
He may actually know what he is doing out there...
It's doubtful that he will ever have the talent that Tark had at UNLV or that the Lakers had in the 80s, but as long as he wins more than he loses, in a highly entertaining and fun manner, then that will keep the fans coming to our BB arena and, maybe, make us a cool team to follow, both in the PAC and around the country...
We already have the "curtain of distraction" and, with enough "street ball" basketball success, the sky may be the only limit to what Bobby can accomplish at ASU...
What do you all think..??
G'day Mates and Go Devils!!!
Today's Topic = Showtime Basketball
There's a great series, in my estimation, on HBO right now, titled "Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty," that outlines how the Lakers became a dominant NBA franchise back in the 80s by chronicling the lives, both on and off the court, of the players, ownership and coaches, that made it happen...
It stems from the book by Jeff Pearlman titled "Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley and the LA Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s"...
Showtime related to both the way the Lakers rose to dominance using an uptempo offense run by very gifted guards like Magic Johnson and Norm Nixon and the sexy, very exotic atmosphere created in the Forum by owner Jerry Buss, who was hell bent on making the Lakers into an NBA championship team and franchise...
Under his vision for the Lakers, the Forum became a Hugh Heffner like playboy, celebrity playground on steroids, for the adult fans in attendance, and the Lakers ran an offense like what Tark was doing at UNLV that was premised on a smothering defense that led to transitional uptempo offensive basketball...
Tark was not Buss's first coach, after Jerry West resigned from the position, although Buss had talked Tark into coaching the Lakers, until one of Tark's closest friends, who was the go between Buss and Tark on the Lakers coaching deal, was found dead, shot in the head, execution style, stuffed in the trunk of his car, that was parked in North Hollywood, that caused Tark to hightail it back to Las Vegas...
It appeared that the mob had sent a strong signal to Tark that he belonged in Las Vegas, coaching college basketball, and not in LA coaching the Lakers...
As an aside, that case has never been solved...
With Tark back in Las Vegas, Buss had to find another coach and he ended up hiring Jack McKinney, who was an assistant for the Portland Trailblazers, who West had recommended in his now capacity as the Lakers GM...
The relevance for our Sun Devil basketball team under Bobby Hurley is that McKinney employed a guard-centered and directed "street ball" type basketball that was predicated on an uptempo, creative, spontaneous run offense directed by Magic Johnson and Norm Nixon...
The Lakers were to pressure opponents, at all times, on defense, to create turnovers, and run a motion offense, where shots were taken not as part of a pre-programmed, methodical script but, rather, by the instinctive abilities of its players to get open and take shots quickly...
Initially, this was very hard for the Lakers to adapt to, who thought of McKinney's basketball philosophy as "playground" in nature but, after some compromise, they got used to it, and excelled at it, and it became known as "showtime" type basketball, that led to the Lakers winning many successive NBA titles and becoming a dynasty...
After watching the series, which is still running weekly on HBO, it made me re-evaluate our BB program under Bobby and, perhaps, acknowledge that his style of basketball isn't just built on a whimsy, as there seems to be much more to it than that...
He may actually know what he is doing out there...
It's doubtful that he will ever have the talent that Tark had at UNLV or that the Lakers had in the 80s, but as long as he wins more than he loses, in a highly entertaining and fun manner, then that will keep the fans coming to our BB arena and, maybe, make us a cool team to follow, both in the PAC and around the country...
We already have the "curtain of distraction" and, with enough "street ball" basketball success, the sky may be the only limit to what Bobby can accomplish at ASU...
What do you all think..??
G'day Mates and Go Devils!!!
