Today, Allon Sinai of the The Jerusalem Post, wrote an article entitled "Coach David Blatt revels in Russia's EuroBasket triumph". The article profiles Blatt and discusses his aspirations to one day coach in the NBA.
Just 24 hours after guiding Russia to the European Championship title David Blatt was already preparing for his next challenge. The 48-year-old Israeli coach arrived in Turkey on Monday to join up with Efes Pilsen which he will guide in the Euroleague this season.
On Sunday night Blatt became the first Israeli coach to win the EuroBasket tournament after Russia defeated Spain 60-59. The victory over the host and world champion completed a remarkable two weeks for the Russian team, which won its first Euro title since the break-up of the USSR despite its underdog status.
"This was a victory of David over Goliath. We faced the beast and knocked him down and won," a joyous Blatt said. "It's an historic event. I'm proud to be the person in charge of this historic journey.
"Our plan was to stay in the game and make them feel the heat, the pressure of 15,000 fans, and to see how they play. Fortunately, we did that and we won."
Blatt's game plan worked to perfection on Sunday, with nationalized guard J.R. Holden scoring the winning basket for the Russians with 2.1 seconds remaining in the final.
"This is an ultimate moment in the history of the Russian nation. It's the first championship of the new Russia. I feel very lucky to be part of history both in Russia and FIBA Europe basketball," Blatt added.
Spain was a massive favorite ahead of the game, with Russia surprising everyone by simply reaching the title game.
"Russia's win surprised me in the same way it surprised everybody else," Israel coach Tzvika Sherf told The Jerusalem Post on Monday. "David played a major role in his team's win. He made the most of the abilities of his NBA players and combined them outstandingly with Holden and the skills and European experience of the players from the top Russian sides.
"David succeeded in making Andrei Kirilenko the star of the side and at the same time also got the Utah forward to contribute to team play. David ran his team fantastically and prepared the side for every game as only he knows."
Russia finished eighth in the European Championships in 2005, meaning Blatt had to rebuild the team and take it through qualification when he was appointed to the job last summer. According to Blatt. the turning point came after the team lost its second qualifier to Belgium last September.
"After that loss I walked inside the locker room and went crazy, threw things around and told the players that now I understand why everybody, including myself, thought that Russia is a loser team," he said. "After that game, a lot of people back home said, this is the same old thing. They were saying Russia is just losers, but since that game everything has changed."
Blatt, who was born and raised in the US, moved to Israel in the early 80s after playing for the American basketball team in the 1981 Maccabiah. The former guard, who played collegiate basketball at Princeton University under coach Pete Carril, began his coaching career at Hapoel Galil Elyon in 1993.
Six years later he was appointed as Pini Gershon's assistant at Maccabi Tel Aviv, remaining with the club until 2004. Blatt was named head coach for the 2001/02 season after Gershon announced his retirement. He was, however, demoted to the assistant's position two years later after Gershon came out of retirement and the two guided Maccabi to the Euroleague title at the end of the season.
Blatt left for Russian club Dynamo St. Petersburg in 2004 and led the team to the FIBA EuroCup. He then moved to Italian giant Benetton Treviso, winning an Italian championship and cup in his two seasons at the club.
Blatt could have well been guiding the Israel national team at the EuroBasket tournament this month had local bureaucracy been slightly more flexible. He was named as the national team coach in 2004, but despite coaching in Israel for over a decade he was later told he would not be able to guide the blue-and-white as he had no Israeli coaching certificate. Blatt quickly lost patience with the ensuing wrangle and decided to resign before ever even coaching the team.
Blatt is being tipped by many to make the rare leap from European to NBA coaching. The coach has never hidden his desire to guide a team in the best league in the world and after Sunday's triumph is surely a step closer to fulfilling his dream.
"If a European coach will reach the NBA in the coming years it will be David," Sherf said. "David is very similar to Phoenix Suns coach Mike D'Antoni. They're both Americans who coached successfully in Europe for several seasons. David has the vision, ability and contacts to get to the NBA."
"The NBA dream is closer then ever, but it won't happen this season because I have a contract with Pilsen," Blatt told Army Radio on Monday. "I will only leave for the NBA if I receive a challenging and financially satisfactory offer."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1189411423388&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Also see:
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/olybb/columns/story?columnist=sheridan_chris&page=EuroSemifinals
Showing posts with label Mike D'Antoni. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mike D'Antoni. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
From PR to GM: Wizards' Sheppard likely to be running a team soon
Today I have posted an article that was written by SI.com writer Ian Thomsen on March 29, 2007.
The article can be found by going to: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/ian_thomsen/03/29/future.gms/index.html
"From PR to GM: Wizards' Sheppard likely to be running a team soon"
Thursday March 29, 2007 7:18PM
In the next year or two Tommy Sheppard will become a role model for all of the college graduates who want to make a career in pro sports but don't know how. A dozen years ago Sheppard was a young nobody with a twanging New Mexico accent who had just been hired as a media relations director by the Denver Nuggets. During his first week he told himself he was going to become a general manager in the NBA.
Now serving as assistant to Wizards president Ernie Grunfeld, Sheppard, 38, is one of the top candidates to fulfill his goal. It will be no surprise if he is running a team by next season.
Sheppard's playing career went no further than as a point guard -- "and not a good one'' -- for St. Pius X High School in Albuquerque. He was a backup free safety at New Mexico State, where he graduated in 1991 and went to work in sports media relations at his alma mater and later at UNLV. Bernie Bickerstaff, who was running the Nuggets, hired Sheppard in 1994 to run their media relations department.
How has a non-player climbed so high in 13 years? The answer is that Sheppard was far more than a press officer in Denver. He was also in charge of player relations, which is a humble title for someone who spent a decade preventing executives, coaches and players from killing one another. It's hard to say that anyone is the best at anything in a business as competitive as the NBA, but trust me on this: No one in the league is more intuitive, understanding or generous than Sheppard.
I am convinced that Kiki Vandeweghe would have kept his job with the Nuggets had he promoted Sheppard to a basketball operations position in 2003-04. It is no coincidence that the relationship between Vandeweghe and owner Stan Kroenke crumbled over the next three years, because Sheppard -- like Jimmy Stewart in It's A Wonderful Life -- wasn't there to fix it, to help each side see things from the other's point of view. After Vandeweghe's departure last summer, league insiders say the Nuggets tried to bring Sheppard back in a quasi-GM role. But instead he signed a three-year extension with Washington as its VP of basketball administration.
"He had a PR background, but he's a good people person and this is a people business,'' says Grunfeld, explaining why he hired Sheppard to work in basketball operations in 2003-04. "He was around the game a long time, he knew lot of people in the game. And he has a good eye, a good feel for the game.''
Grunfeld's "go-to guys,'' as he calls them, are Sheppard and VP of player personnel Milt Newton, who was interviewed to be the Cleveland GM two years ago when the Cavaliers were planning to hire Larry Brown as team president. While Newton's specialty is scouting -- he's a former CBA player who starred for Brown's 1988 NCAA champion at Kansas -- Sheppard hasn't stopped working to develop an eye for talent.
"I'd ask guys like Bernie, 'What are you looking for? What's important? What does this player do well?''' says Sheppard. "And the old scouts, guys like Dick McGuire, Al Menendez, you go to a game and sidle up to them and ask questions.''
How did Sheppard convince himself to pursue a dream that most people would have dismissed as impossible?
"I haven't done the counting lately, but at one time I remember there were 14 GMs who didn't play in the league,'' says Sheppard. "There is no set road that says if you did this, it enables you to work in the NBA. There's more than one way in this business to succeed. The exciting part is there are so many different ways to put things together and be successful. I believe in my heart that this is a people business, and every single player has a story, everybody has something tangible they can offer to help an organization get better.''
Grunfeld is one of the league's most respected basketball executives with a diverse winning record at New York, Milwaukee and now Washington. As a nine-year NBA player he has a rich basketball background, but he has established a model that could also work for Sheppard when he becomes a GM: Grunfeld hires people he trusts, and trusts the people he hires. He filters their evaluations of player talent, and when he decides whom to choose in the draft, free agency or trades, much of his decision is based on chemistry and how a new player will fit with the others on the roster. Those kinds of relationships are Sheppard's specialty.
Jerry Krause -- a non-player -- will go down as one of the winningest GMs in the history of the league with six championship rings in Chicago. Will Sheppard learn to judge pure basketball talent as well as Krause? That remains to be seen. But he will never be the antagonist that Krause was.
Stand in the hallway of any NBA arena with Sheppard for 10 minutes and he will appear to know half of the people who walk by, whether they are famous coaches and players or anonymous equipment managers and video coordinators.
"We were outside the locker rooms the other day and Sam Dalembert [the Haitian 76ers center] walked out and of course he knew Tommy,'' says Wizards P.R. director Zack Bolno. "Eric Hernandez, our Internet guy, said we could walk into the White House and Tommy Sheppard would know everybody's name from the Secret Service.''
He has served as a U.S. Olympic Committee press attaché at the last three Summer Olympics and other events, providing him with an enormous breadth of helpful friendships. He is also well-connected in Europe, where he helped Sarunas Marciulionis form the Northern European Basketball League.
Those who have worked with Sheppard will vouch for his unusual abilities to work with people, to bring out the best in colleagues and resolve problems. Those skills should in turn help him judge the qualities that can serve his team on the court.
"He has a passion and work ethic,'' says Suns coach Mike D'Antoni, who worked with Sheppard while coaching the Nuggets during the 1999 lockout season. "Tommy does things that go beyond the normal stuff, and though he was in media relations he had a big hand -- and knew what was going on -- in the administrative and GM side of things.''
What of the natural criticism that he will lack the expertise to judge basketball talent?
"They always say that if you didn't play. They say how are you going to be able to do it?'' says D'Antoni. "But they can say the same thing about people who did play. There is no science to it. It's all about being around it and doing your homework. A lot of it has to do with surrounding yourself with good people who know how to scout it and work it and have a vision of how to put it together. What you see in successful people is that they come from way, way different backgrounds.''
How many NBA teams turn out to be less than the sum of their parts? They have a lot of talent but don't work well together. When Sheppard is running his own team, he will help fix those problems. He won't eradicate them -- no one can -- but he will help his team reach its potential. If he fulfills his talent for working with people, then everything else -- the acquisition of talent, as well as the relations between front office, coaches and players -- will work more efficiently.
The article can be found by going to: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/writers/ian_thomsen/03/29/future.gms/index.html
"From PR to GM: Wizards' Sheppard likely to be running a team soon"
Thursday March 29, 2007 7:18PM
In the next year or two Tommy Sheppard will become a role model for all of the college graduates who want to make a career in pro sports but don't know how. A dozen years ago Sheppard was a young nobody with a twanging New Mexico accent who had just been hired as a media relations director by the Denver Nuggets. During his first week he told himself he was going to become a general manager in the NBA.
Now serving as assistant to Wizards president Ernie Grunfeld, Sheppard, 38, is one of the top candidates to fulfill his goal. It will be no surprise if he is running a team by next season.
Sheppard's playing career went no further than as a point guard -- "and not a good one'' -- for St. Pius X High School in Albuquerque. He was a backup free safety at New Mexico State, where he graduated in 1991 and went to work in sports media relations at his alma mater and later at UNLV. Bernie Bickerstaff, who was running the Nuggets, hired Sheppard in 1994 to run their media relations department.
How has a non-player climbed so high in 13 years? The answer is that Sheppard was far more than a press officer in Denver. He was also in charge of player relations, which is a humble title for someone who spent a decade preventing executives, coaches and players from killing one another. It's hard to say that anyone is the best at anything in a business as competitive as the NBA, but trust me on this: No one in the league is more intuitive, understanding or generous than Sheppard.
I am convinced that Kiki Vandeweghe would have kept his job with the Nuggets had he promoted Sheppard to a basketball operations position in 2003-04. It is no coincidence that the relationship between Vandeweghe and owner Stan Kroenke crumbled over the next three years, because Sheppard -- like Jimmy Stewart in It's A Wonderful Life -- wasn't there to fix it, to help each side see things from the other's point of view. After Vandeweghe's departure last summer, league insiders say the Nuggets tried to bring Sheppard back in a quasi-GM role. But instead he signed a three-year extension with Washington as its VP of basketball administration.
"He had a PR background, but he's a good people person and this is a people business,'' says Grunfeld, explaining why he hired Sheppard to work in basketball operations in 2003-04. "He was around the game a long time, he knew lot of people in the game. And he has a good eye, a good feel for the game.''
Grunfeld's "go-to guys,'' as he calls them, are Sheppard and VP of player personnel Milt Newton, who was interviewed to be the Cleveland GM two years ago when the Cavaliers were planning to hire Larry Brown as team president. While Newton's specialty is scouting -- he's a former CBA player who starred for Brown's 1988 NCAA champion at Kansas -- Sheppard hasn't stopped working to develop an eye for talent.
"I'd ask guys like Bernie, 'What are you looking for? What's important? What does this player do well?''' says Sheppard. "And the old scouts, guys like Dick McGuire, Al Menendez, you go to a game and sidle up to them and ask questions.''
How did Sheppard convince himself to pursue a dream that most people would have dismissed as impossible?
"I haven't done the counting lately, but at one time I remember there were 14 GMs who didn't play in the league,'' says Sheppard. "There is no set road that says if you did this, it enables you to work in the NBA. There's more than one way in this business to succeed. The exciting part is there are so many different ways to put things together and be successful. I believe in my heart that this is a people business, and every single player has a story, everybody has something tangible they can offer to help an organization get better.''
Grunfeld is one of the league's most respected basketball executives with a diverse winning record at New York, Milwaukee and now Washington. As a nine-year NBA player he has a rich basketball background, but he has established a model that could also work for Sheppard when he becomes a GM: Grunfeld hires people he trusts, and trusts the people he hires. He filters their evaluations of player talent, and when he decides whom to choose in the draft, free agency or trades, much of his decision is based on chemistry and how a new player will fit with the others on the roster. Those kinds of relationships are Sheppard's specialty.
Jerry Krause -- a non-player -- will go down as one of the winningest GMs in the history of the league with six championship rings in Chicago. Will Sheppard learn to judge pure basketball talent as well as Krause? That remains to be seen. But he will never be the antagonist that Krause was.
Stand in the hallway of any NBA arena with Sheppard for 10 minutes and he will appear to know half of the people who walk by, whether they are famous coaches and players or anonymous equipment managers and video coordinators.
"We were outside the locker rooms the other day and Sam Dalembert [the Haitian 76ers center] walked out and of course he knew Tommy,'' says Wizards P.R. director Zack Bolno. "Eric Hernandez, our Internet guy, said we could walk into the White House and Tommy Sheppard would know everybody's name from the Secret Service.''
He has served as a U.S. Olympic Committee press attaché at the last three Summer Olympics and other events, providing him with an enormous breadth of helpful friendships. He is also well-connected in Europe, where he helped Sarunas Marciulionis form the Northern European Basketball League.
Those who have worked with Sheppard will vouch for his unusual abilities to work with people, to bring out the best in colleagues and resolve problems. Those skills should in turn help him judge the qualities that can serve his team on the court.
"He has a passion and work ethic,'' says Suns coach Mike D'Antoni, who worked with Sheppard while coaching the Nuggets during the 1999 lockout season. "Tommy does things that go beyond the normal stuff, and though he was in media relations he had a big hand -- and knew what was going on -- in the administrative and GM side of things.''
What of the natural criticism that he will lack the expertise to judge basketball talent?
"They always say that if you didn't play. They say how are you going to be able to do it?'' says D'Antoni. "But they can say the same thing about people who did play. There is no science to it. It's all about being around it and doing your homework. A lot of it has to do with surrounding yourself with good people who know how to scout it and work it and have a vision of how to put it together. What you see in successful people is that they come from way, way different backgrounds.''
How many NBA teams turn out to be less than the sum of their parts? They have a lot of talent but don't work well together. When Sheppard is running his own team, he will help fix those problems. He won't eradicate them -- no one can -- but he will help his team reach its potential. If he fulfills his talent for working with people, then everything else -- the acquisition of talent, as well as the relations between front office, coaches and players -- will work more efficiently.
Friday, July 6, 2007
Grant Hill Joins the Phoenix Suns
Yesterday, Grant Hill's agent, Lon Babby, announced he is leaving the Orlando Magic after several injury-plagued seasons to join the Phoenix Suns. Babby said Hill agreed to a two-year deal worth about $1.8 million for the first year, with a second-year player option for about $2 million.
This move was setup by a series of moves that Suns general manager, Steve Kerr, made. The Suns shipped small forward James Jones to the Trail Blazers as part of the deal in which Portland bought the 24th pick from Phoenix for $3 million Thursday. Jones has one guaranteed year left on a contract that pays him $2.9 million and a player option of $3.15 million for the 2008-09 season.
The Trail Blazers had a $3,000,000 trade exception that they moved to Phoenix in this trade. Therefore, the Suns saved just over $6,000,000 in salary owed to Jones over the next two yaears, plus the $3,000,000 in the exception. In the end, moving Jones to the Blazers became more than a $9,000,000 benefit for the Phoenix Suns.
Plus, with the Suns over the threshold, that $3 million would have been subject to the NBA’s dollar-for-dollar luxury tax penalty. By clearing some cap space there, the Suns created a spot for Hill to join the team.
Let's compare the two players numbers from last season:
James Jones (Suns)
76 Games, 7 Started
18.1 MPG
.368 FG%
.378 3P%
2.3 RPG
0.6 APG
0.4 SPG
6.4 PPG
Grant Hill (Magic)
65 Games, 64 Started
30.9 MPG
.518 FG%
.167 3P%
3.6 RPG
2.1 APG
0.9 SPG
14.4 PPG
The two players' numbers are somewhat similar, with Hill playing more minutes per game and scoring more points per game than Jones. At the same time, Jones was on the second-best team in the league, and his minutes were limited with superior players in front of him in the rotation.
Now, lets compare the salaries of the two players:
James Jones
26 years old
2007/08: $2,904,000
2008/09: $3,156,000 (Player Option)
Grant Hill
34 years old
2007/08: $1,800,000
2008/09: $2,000,000 (Player Option)
On the surface, you can see that Hill's numbers were better than Jones' and he will be making less money over the next two seasons. Although Jones' best days maybe ahead of him, and Hill's are most likely behind him, this was a great move by the Suns. In their pursuit of a championship next year, Hill will be much more valuable than Jones would be. Jones fell out-of-favor with Suns head coach, Mike D'Antoni, only playing 171 minutes in eleven playoff games at the end of this season. Additionally, Hill will take over the role of the point man when Steve Nash is out of the game. In previous seasons, Boris Diaw played this spot for the Suns, but Hill should be more efficient.
The signing of Hill was a no-risk deal, which is structured well-enough that if his injury woes resurface, the franchise will not be handcuffed. Phoenix selected Wisconsin SF, Alando Tucker, at pick number 29, who will eventually replace Hill once he ends his career. Tucker is experienced enough that if these problems do come up with Hill, he will be able to step-in and make a difference with his tremendous athleticiscm and ability to play bigger than his height.
This move was setup by a series of moves that Suns general manager, Steve Kerr, made. The Suns shipped small forward James Jones to the Trail Blazers as part of the deal in which Portland bought the 24th pick from Phoenix for $3 million Thursday. Jones has one guaranteed year left on a contract that pays him $2.9 million and a player option of $3.15 million for the 2008-09 season.
The Trail Blazers had a $3,000,000 trade exception that they moved to Phoenix in this trade. Therefore, the Suns saved just over $6,000,000 in salary owed to Jones over the next two yaears, plus the $3,000,000 in the exception. In the end, moving Jones to the Blazers became more than a $9,000,000 benefit for the Phoenix Suns.
Plus, with the Suns over the threshold, that $3 million would have been subject to the NBA’s dollar-for-dollar luxury tax penalty. By clearing some cap space there, the Suns created a spot for Hill to join the team.
Let's compare the two players numbers from last season:
James Jones (Suns)
76 Games, 7 Started
18.1 MPG
.368 FG%
.378 3P%
2.3 RPG
0.6 APG
0.4 SPG
6.4 PPG
Grant Hill (Magic)
65 Games, 64 Started
30.9 MPG
.518 FG%
.167 3P%
3.6 RPG
2.1 APG
0.9 SPG
14.4 PPG
The two players' numbers are somewhat similar, with Hill playing more minutes per game and scoring more points per game than Jones. At the same time, Jones was on the second-best team in the league, and his minutes were limited with superior players in front of him in the rotation.
Now, lets compare the salaries of the two players:
James Jones
26 years old
2007/08: $2,904,000
2008/09: $3,156,000 (Player Option)
Grant Hill
34 years old
2007/08: $1,800,000
2008/09: $2,000,000 (Player Option)
On the surface, you can see that Hill's numbers were better than Jones' and he will be making less money over the next two seasons. Although Jones' best days maybe ahead of him, and Hill's are most likely behind him, this was a great move by the Suns. In their pursuit of a championship next year, Hill will be much more valuable than Jones would be. Jones fell out-of-favor with Suns head coach, Mike D'Antoni, only playing 171 minutes in eleven playoff games at the end of this season. Additionally, Hill will take over the role of the point man when Steve Nash is out of the game. In previous seasons, Boris Diaw played this spot for the Suns, but Hill should be more efficient.
The signing of Hill was a no-risk deal, which is structured well-enough that if his injury woes resurface, the franchise will not be handcuffed. Phoenix selected Wisconsin SF, Alando Tucker, at pick number 29, who will eventually replace Hill once he ends his career. Tucker is experienced enough that if these problems do come up with Hill, he will be able to step-in and make a difference with his tremendous athleticiscm and ability to play bigger than his height.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)