Sunday night, the Los Angeles Lakers dropped game two in Boston by six points. The Lakers now head back home without stealing a game at TD Banknorth Garden. If they lose tonight on their home floor, the series will essentially be over. So what do the Lakers need to do to in order to change the outcome of the game? Fixing the free throw disparity, getting Lamar Odom involved in the offense and changing the role of Vladimar Radmanovic should be the focus of the Lakers and their coaching staff.
The difference in free throw attempts between the teams in the first two games was staggering. After game two, all the Lakers - from the coaching staff to the players - complained about the officiating. In a few isolated incidents, the Lakers had something to gripe about. However, the real difference was the aggressiveness between the teams on the offensive end. The Celtics were forcing the action, while the Lakers offense was simply stagnant.
Game 1 FT
Lakers 21-28, 75%
Celtics 28-35, 80%
Game 2 FT
Lakers 10-10, 100%
Celtics 27-38, 71%
Total FT
Lakers 31-38, 81.6%
Celtics 55-73, 75.3%
To me, the problem starts with Kobe Bryant. In the first two games combined, Bryant shot 13 of 13 from the free throw line. In comparison, Bryant attempted nine free throws a game during the regular season and 9.3 free throws per game so far in the playoffs.
A share of the praise needs to go to Paul Pierce, Ray Allen and James Posey for their outstanding defense in Boston on Bryant. The other share should go to Celtics coaches Doc Rivers and Tom Thibodeau for stressing to the team the importance of crowding Bryant and then coming with an extra defender as he readies to square-up and shoot.
If the Lakers are going to comeback in this series, Kobe Bryant needs to become more aggressive, draw contact and get to the free throw line at a greater rate. Settling for fifteen to eighteen foot jump shots will not help to get the Celtics into the bonus and the Lakers onto the free throw line.
Lamar Odom has really flourished as the third scoring option since the trade for Pau Gasol. Odom is a versatile, left handed scorer who is a tough matchup for the opposition. The only true matchup for the Celtics on Odom is Kevin Garnett. However, Garnett is busy defending Gasol. Therefore, Odom should be free to dominate his matchup. Unfortunately, Odom has had minimal impact in the series thus far.
Game 1:
FGM 6
FTA 11
Reb 6
Assists 1
Plus/Minus -8
Points 14
Game 2:
FGM 5
FTA 11
Reb 8
Assists 2
Plus/Minus -13
Points 10
Odom’s strength is his ability to put pressure on the opposing defense and get the big men in foul trouble. Instead, he has mainly settled for mid-range jump shots in the two games against the Celtics. When Odom has gotten into the paint so far in the series, he has botched layups and even missed a dunk in the third quarter of game two.
When defended by anyone besides Kevin Garnett, Odom needs to be put in a position where he can face-up at the high post and drive the ball to the basket. Odom is also effective in this spot when he forces the opposition to double-team or help on him, then passes out on the perimeter to one of the many effective shooters on the Lakers.
Lastly, by my estimation, the Lakers need to change their defensive matchups. Pierce has been the motor behind the Celtics offense in the first two games of the series. He has been defended mainly by Vladimir Radmanovic, who struggles mightily to keep Pierce in front of him. I would move Bryant over to defend Pierce and limit Radmanovic’s minutes altogether. From the start of the game, Radmanovic should be assigned to shadowing Ray Allen. In other situations where Radmanovic is in the game, he should be defending Kevin Garnett, who has spent most of the series shooting jump shots from around the key. Sasha Vujicic should receive more playing time and be assigned the task of chasing Allen around the perimeter. Although Radmanovic has produced from the perimeter on the offensive end, the Lakers can afford to play him less.
If the Lakers plan to turn around this series, they need to reverse the free throw disparity, get Lamar Odom more involved on offense and change their defensive assignments around in order to slow down the Celtics offense. If the Lakers fail to make these key adjustments during the day layoff, then I expect this series to be over by the end of the weekend.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Tim Duncan Leads the Spurs Past the Hornets
A grueling seven game series between the New Orleans Hornets and the San Antonio Spurs wrapped up last Monday evening with a Spurs 91-82 win on the Hornets home floor. To me, the deciding factor of each game came down to how well the Hornets controlled ten time NBA All-Star, Tim Duncan.
Right from the start of game one, it was obvious that Hornets coach Byron Scott decided they were going to force the Spurs peripheral players to beat them. Every time Duncan caught the ball in the low post, he saw two Hornets defenders in his face. The Hornets wanted the Spurs to rely on Tony Parker's penetration into the paint and Manu Ginobili’s ability to knock down stand-still jumpers, rather than Duncan hitting turnaround jumpers. Not allowing the Spurs to get into any type of offensive flow was the goal. With some of the other Spurs players, such as Bruce Bowen, Michael Finley and Brent Barry, now past their prime, the Hornets wanted to force these guys to have to make shots for them to win.
In the three Spurs losses, they were really dominated by the Hornets in the paint. Duncan’s impact in the game was limited and the Hornets were able to come away with a victory.
Game # 1
Rebound Differential -8
Paint Points Differential -11
Duncan's Points 5
Game # 2
Rebound Differential -1
Paint Points Differential +15
Duncan's Points 18
Game # 5
Rebound Differential -9
Paint Points Differential -4
Duncan's Points 10
In the four San Antonio wins, Tim Duncan and the Spurs were able to really control the painted area. In the Spurs four wins, they held the Hornets to an average of 15.8 free throw attempts, compared to an average of 24 free throw attempts in games the Hornets won.
Game # 3
Rebound Differential +2
Paint Points Differential +16
Duncan's Points 16
Game # 4
Rebound Differential +9
Paint Points Differential +7
Duncan's Points 2
Game # 6
Rebound Differential +5
Paint Points Differential +2
Duncan's Points 20
Game # 7
Rebound Differential +9
Paint Points Differential -16
Duncan's Points 16
With Duncan double-teamed every time he touched the ball in the low post, the ability of the Spurs perimeter shooting became the true test in this series. He was forced to quickly pass out of the post and then his teammates would swing the ball to an open shooter on the perimeter. Therefore, the shooting ability of the Spurs from the perimeter became the key.
In the four games where the Spurs shot below 43% from the field, they went 1-3. Shooting above 43% meant the Spurs went undefeated. From the three point line, a similar trend occurred. In the four games the Spurs shot below 40% from the three point line, they went 1-3.
However, when the Spurs perimeter shooting was effective, the Hornets’ strategy was unsuccessful.
Game # 1
Spurs Lose, 82-101
SA FG%: 40.8%
SA 3PT%: 38.7%
Game #2
Spurs Lose, 84-102
SA FG%: 42.5%
SA 3PT%: 29.6%
Game #3
Spurs Win, 110-99
SA FG%: 48.2%
SA 3PT%: 44.0%
Game #4
Spurs Win, 100-80
SA FG%: 51.3%
SA 3PT%: 30.8%
Game #5
Spurs Lose, 79-101
SA FG%: 37.7%
SA 3PT%: 39.1%
Game #6
Spurs Win, 99-80
SA FG%: 49.4%
SA 3PT%: 52.4%
Game #7
Spurs Win, 91-82
SA FG%: 39.5%
SA 3PT%: 42.9%
Spurs coach, Gregg Popovich, was effective in moving Duncan around and using him in different ways after the first two games - both Hornets wins. Placing Duncan at the free throw line, rather than in the low post, gave the Spurs a different look. Using Duncan in handoff-and-roll situations with Tony Parker also worked well for the Spurs.
For the Hornets, they had a terrific season, but in the end, they were beaten by the more talented, deeper team. The Hornets strategy was to dare the other Spurs outside of Duncan to beat them and four times they did just that.
Right from the start of game one, it was obvious that Hornets coach Byron Scott decided they were going to force the Spurs peripheral players to beat them. Every time Duncan caught the ball in the low post, he saw two Hornets defenders in his face. The Hornets wanted the Spurs to rely on Tony Parker's penetration into the paint and Manu Ginobili’s ability to knock down stand-still jumpers, rather than Duncan hitting turnaround jumpers. Not allowing the Spurs to get into any type of offensive flow was the goal. With some of the other Spurs players, such as Bruce Bowen, Michael Finley and Brent Barry, now past their prime, the Hornets wanted to force these guys to have to make shots for them to win.
In the three Spurs losses, they were really dominated by the Hornets in the paint. Duncan’s impact in the game was limited and the Hornets were able to come away with a victory.
Game # 1
Rebound Differential -8
Paint Points Differential -11
Duncan's Points 5
Game # 2
Rebound Differential -1
Paint Points Differential +15
Duncan's Points 18
Game # 5
Rebound Differential -9
Paint Points Differential -4
Duncan's Points 10
In the four San Antonio wins, Tim Duncan and the Spurs were able to really control the painted area. In the Spurs four wins, they held the Hornets to an average of 15.8 free throw attempts, compared to an average of 24 free throw attempts in games the Hornets won.
Game # 3
Rebound Differential +2
Paint Points Differential +16
Duncan's Points 16
Game # 4
Rebound Differential +9
Paint Points Differential +7
Duncan's Points 2
Game # 6
Rebound Differential +5
Paint Points Differential +2
Duncan's Points 20
Game # 7
Rebound Differential +9
Paint Points Differential -16
Duncan's Points 16
With Duncan double-teamed every time he touched the ball in the low post, the ability of the Spurs perimeter shooting became the true test in this series. He was forced to quickly pass out of the post and then his teammates would swing the ball to an open shooter on the perimeter. Therefore, the shooting ability of the Spurs from the perimeter became the key.
In the four games where the Spurs shot below 43% from the field, they went 1-3. Shooting above 43% meant the Spurs went undefeated. From the three point line, a similar trend occurred. In the four games the Spurs shot below 40% from the three point line, they went 1-3.
However, when the Spurs perimeter shooting was effective, the Hornets’ strategy was unsuccessful.
Game # 1
Spurs Lose, 82-101
SA FG%: 40.8%
SA 3PT%: 38.7%
Game #2
Spurs Lose, 84-102
SA FG%: 42.5%
SA 3PT%: 29.6%
Game #3
Spurs Win, 110-99
SA FG%: 48.2%
SA 3PT%: 44.0%
Game #4
Spurs Win, 100-80
SA FG%: 51.3%
SA 3PT%: 30.8%
Game #5
Spurs Lose, 79-101
SA FG%: 37.7%
SA 3PT%: 39.1%
Game #6
Spurs Win, 99-80
SA FG%: 49.4%
SA 3PT%: 52.4%
Game #7
Spurs Win, 91-82
SA FG%: 39.5%
SA 3PT%: 42.9%
Spurs coach, Gregg Popovich, was effective in moving Duncan around and using him in different ways after the first two games - both Hornets wins. Placing Duncan at the free throw line, rather than in the low post, gave the Spurs a different look. Using Duncan in handoff-and-roll situations with Tony Parker also worked well for the Spurs.
For the Hornets, they had a terrific season, but in the end, they were beaten by the more talented, deeper team. The Hornets strategy was to dare the other Spurs outside of Duncan to beat them and four times they did just that.
Who Deserves NBA MVP?
Since the 1955-56 season, the NBA has given out the Maurice Podoloff Trophy to the league’s Most Valuable Player. This year’s voting for the award will certainly be one of the closest ever. With LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul and Kevin Garnett all considered for the award, the voters will have to consider what their criteria are and who is most deserving.
For me, the NBA MVP this season is Chris Paul of the New Orleans Hornets. Paul joined the record books among the leagues greatest little guys. In the NBA’s history, only six times has someone played in at least 75 games, scored 20 points per game, handed out 10 assists per game, and had two steals per game.
Player
Team
Season
Games
PPG
APG
SPG
Chris Paul
NO
2007-08
80
21.1
11.6
2.7
Tim Hardaway
GS
1991-92
81
23.4
10.0
2.0
Kevin Johnson
Pho
1990-91
77
22.2
10.1
2.1
Isiah Thomas
Det
1985-86
77
20.9
10.8
2.2
Isiah Thomas
Det
1984-85
81
21.2
13.9
2.3
Isiah Thomas
Det
1983-84
82
21.3
11.1
2.5
Beyond just having a great offensive statistical season, Paul was the leader of this Hornets squad, who improved their record from 39-43 in 2006-07 to 56-26 this season. New Orleans had the second best record in the Western Conference, competing in the Southwest Division, which also featured three other 50 plus win teams - San Antonio, Houston and Dallas. Only the Lakers in the West and the Pistons and Celtics in the East won more games this season than New Orleans.
Paul also made those around him better. David West achieved career highs in points per game (20.6) and rebounds per game (8.9). Tyson Chandler reached a career high in points, averaging 11.8 per game. Peja Stojakovic shot a career best from behind the three point line (44.1%).
Paul didn’t just excel on the offensive side of the floor. He led the NBA in steals per game (2.7) and finished third in defensive rebounds per game amongst point guards (3.2). Upon trading point guard Bobby Jackson to the Houston Rockets on February 21, the Hornets played the rest of the season with no backup point guard to Paul. Playing with merely average defensive players in Morris Peterson and Stojakovic, Paul was forced to generally defend the other team’s best guard every night.
As a point guard, Paul also did an outstanding job taking care of the ball. Paul finished third in the league in assists to turnover ratio (4.60) and sixth in steals per turnover (1.08). Directing the Hornets offense, the team finished ninth in the NBA in fast break points with 13.6 per game and eighth in field goal attempts with 82.9 per game.
With a roster of players limited to scoring from the perimeter (Morris Peterson, Peja Stojakovic, Jannero Pargo) or from inside the paint (Tyson Chandler, Bonzi Wells, David West, Hilton Armstrong), Paul was really the only true playmaker on the squad.
Some telling statistics of Paul’s dominance and where he ranked within the NBA:
Category
Amount
NBA Rank
Double-Doubles
56
2
FTM/Game for Point Guards
4.2
2
Points+Assists+Rebounds/Game
36.6
3
3P% for Point Guards
36.9
13
Bottom line: Chris Paul really did it all this season. He excelled on the offensive side - scoring in all different ways, handling the ball and creating shots for his teammates. On defense, he created fast break opportunities and extra possessions by forcing steals. His team exceeded all expectations from the media and won seventeen more games than last season. Paul made his teammates better – evidenced by several of them having career years. The Hornets won the second most games in the Western Conference, and their point guard, Chris Paul, is the main reason for the teams’ success.
For me, the NBA MVP this season is Chris Paul of the New Orleans Hornets. Paul joined the record books among the leagues greatest little guys. In the NBA’s history, only six times has someone played in at least 75 games, scored 20 points per game, handed out 10 assists per game, and had two steals per game.
Player
Team
Season
Games
PPG
APG
SPG
Chris Paul
NO
2007-08
80
21.1
11.6
2.7
Tim Hardaway
GS
1991-92
81
23.4
10.0
2.0
Kevin Johnson
Pho
1990-91
77
22.2
10.1
2.1
Isiah Thomas
Det
1985-86
77
20.9
10.8
2.2
Isiah Thomas
Det
1984-85
81
21.2
13.9
2.3
Isiah Thomas
Det
1983-84
82
21.3
11.1
2.5
Beyond just having a great offensive statistical season, Paul was the leader of this Hornets squad, who improved their record from 39-43 in 2006-07 to 56-26 this season. New Orleans had the second best record in the Western Conference, competing in the Southwest Division, which also featured three other 50 plus win teams - San Antonio, Houston and Dallas. Only the Lakers in the West and the Pistons and Celtics in the East won more games this season than New Orleans.
Paul also made those around him better. David West achieved career highs in points per game (20.6) and rebounds per game (8.9). Tyson Chandler reached a career high in points, averaging 11.8 per game. Peja Stojakovic shot a career best from behind the three point line (44.1%).
Paul didn’t just excel on the offensive side of the floor. He led the NBA in steals per game (2.7) and finished third in defensive rebounds per game amongst point guards (3.2). Upon trading point guard Bobby Jackson to the Houston Rockets on February 21, the Hornets played the rest of the season with no backup point guard to Paul. Playing with merely average defensive players in Morris Peterson and Stojakovic, Paul was forced to generally defend the other team’s best guard every night.
As a point guard, Paul also did an outstanding job taking care of the ball. Paul finished third in the league in assists to turnover ratio (4.60) and sixth in steals per turnover (1.08). Directing the Hornets offense, the team finished ninth in the NBA in fast break points with 13.6 per game and eighth in field goal attempts with 82.9 per game.
With a roster of players limited to scoring from the perimeter (Morris Peterson, Peja Stojakovic, Jannero Pargo) or from inside the paint (Tyson Chandler, Bonzi Wells, David West, Hilton Armstrong), Paul was really the only true playmaker on the squad.
Some telling statistics of Paul’s dominance and where he ranked within the NBA:
Category
Amount
NBA Rank
Double-Doubles
56
2
FTM/Game for Point Guards
4.2
2
Points+Assists+Rebounds/Game
36.6
3
3P% for Point Guards
36.9
13
Bottom line: Chris Paul really did it all this season. He excelled on the offensive side - scoring in all different ways, handling the ball and creating shots for his teammates. On defense, he created fast break opportunities and extra possessions by forcing steals. His team exceeded all expectations from the media and won seventeen more games than last season. Paul made his teammates better – evidenced by several of them having career years. The Hornets won the second most games in the Western Conference, and their point guard, Chris Paul, is the main reason for the teams’ success.
Thibodeau Top Candidate
With the New York Knicks, Chicago Bulls, Milwaukee Bucks and potentially others all looking for new head coaches this summer, Boston Celtics associate head coach, Tom Thibodeau should be at the top of teams’ lists.
Last summer, Thibodeau signed a one year agreement with the Celtics to work with Doc Rivers and his staff. As he finishes his eighteenth season in the NBA, Thibodeau has been a staple of success on NBA benches. This season with the Celtics will be the eleventh time he coaches in the postseason. Unlike his 1998-99 NBA Finals appearance with the Knicks, this time, Thibodeau hopes his Celtics squad ends the season as champions.
As you can see by the numbers, Thibodeau is seen around the league as a defensive mastermind, whose teams regularly finish in the top of the NBA in defensive field goal percentage and opponent’s points per game.
Year
Year Team Wins Losses FG% Rank PPG Rank
1992 San Antonio 49 33 4 9
1993 San Antonio 55 27 4 2
1994 Philadelphia 24 58 16 10
1995 Philadelphia 18 64 27 26
1996 New York 57 25 1 5
1997 New York 43 39 2 2
1998 New York 27 23 2 4
1999 New York 50 32 3 2
2000 New York 48 34 1 1
2001 New York 30 52 13 14
2002 New York 37 45 26 20
2003 Houston 45 37 2 5
2004 Houston 51 31 2 3
2005 Houston 34 48 2 4
2006 Houston 52 30 1 3
2007 Boston 66 16 1 2 2
Thibodeau stresses the importance of slowing opponents’ offensive transition and defending the post. This season, the Celtics led the league in defensive fast break points, allowing only 9.1 per game. Challenging opponents shots and team rebounding are other points that Thibodeau has been known to place great importance on. The Celtics finished second in the NBA this year in opponents rebounds, giving up 38.9 per game.
Player development is another area Thibodeau has received praise. During his career as an NBA assistant coach, Thibodeau has been credited with helping to incorporate Dennis Rodman into the Spurs team, being Jeff Van Gundy’s righthand man in New York and developing Yao Ming in Houston.
This season, he has received recognition for his work with rookie big man Glen Davis and second-year point guard Rajon Rondo. Davis and Rondo have been capable in pick-and-roll defense situations, as well as, their ability to limit their opponent’s offensive effectives. Because of this, both players are expected to play major roles in the Celtics championship run this season.
For teams looking for an accomplished coach to help improve team defense and skill development for their young players, Tom Thibodeau would be an excellent selection as a head coach. Rather than recycling a guys who have already had a chance in the league - such as Terry Porter, Scott Skiles, Rick Carlisle, or Larry Brown – Thibodeau is the one that should get the chance at the top jobs this summer.
Friday, July 18, 2008
port trade
http://hoopshype.com/salaries/new_jersey.htm
http://www.nba.com/blazers/roster/
Lafrentz-13 fa, Frye-3, Sergio Rodriguez-1 for either wing scorer or veteran pg
wing
VC, g wallace, stack, melo, marion, redd
pg
billups, hinrich, andre miller
http://www.nba.com/blazers/roster/
Lafrentz-13 fa, Frye-3, Sergio Rodriguez-1 for either wing scorer or veteran pg
wing
VC, g wallace, stack, melo, marion, redd
pg
billups, hinrich, andre miller
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
NBA Prospects Thoughts
Perennial All-Stars:
Derrick Rose
O.J. Mayo
Fringe All-Stars:
Michael Beasley
Starters on Champions:
Jerryd Bayless
Kevin Love
Danilo Gallinari
Anthony Randolph
Darrell Arthur
Brook Lopez
Brandon Rush
Mario Chalmers
Rotation Guys:
Russell Westbrook
Eric Gordon
Joe Alexander
Kosta Koufos
Donta Greene
Chris Douglas-Roberts
DJ White
Short Career:
Roy Hibbert
Robin Lopez
Marreese Speights
Joey Dorsey
JaVale McGee
Derrick Rose
O.J. Mayo
Fringe All-Stars:
Michael Beasley
Starters on Champions:
Jerryd Bayless
Kevin Love
Danilo Gallinari
Anthony Randolph
Darrell Arthur
Brook Lopez
Brandon Rush
Mario Chalmers
Rotation Guys:
Russell Westbrook
Eric Gordon
Joe Alexander
Kosta Koufos
Donta Greene
Chris Douglas-Roberts
DJ White
Short Career:
Roy Hibbert
Robin Lopez
Marreese Speights
Joey Dorsey
JaVale McGee
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
"Russian Revolution"
Posted: Tuesday April 22, 2008 8:21AM; Updated: Thursday April 24, 2008 5:26PM
Ian Thomsen
"Russian Revolution"
The home of Stalin, Putin and Langdon -- Langdon? -- is trying to embrace American-style (read: capitalist) basketball . . . with a little Elvis thrown in.
The world's most elegant cheerleaders take the court like a troupe of ballerinas, dressed simply in lilac tops and low-rise black pants for their role as arm candy to the star of this brief show. The iconic main attraction is decked out in the telltale white body suit and has the familiar upswept hair. During his brief time on earth, the original Elvis Presley typified the Western entertainment that was banned by the Soviet Union as "tumors on the social organism." But in this incarnation he is belting out bastardized Russian-and-English lyrics to the tune of Blue Suede Shoes as the twirling ladies encircle him. "Come on, SESS-ka!" sings Elvis, leaning into the crook of his glittering elbow.
SESS-ka refers to CSKA, or Central Sports Army Club, the home team for this February basketball game in Moscow. The celebrated organization dates to the Soviet days of Stalin and Khrushchev and Brezhnev, who ruled the army generals and also, by chain of command, the gold medalists competing for CSKA. The Red Army athletes were the most intimidating of competitors: fundamentally disciplined basketball stars, ice hockey players and figure skaters who tormented the U.S. in the Olympic Games every fourth winter and summer.
Then in 1989 the Berlin Wall fell, and soon the Soviet system collapsed. But the teams of CSKA Moscow have continued to thrive, though they bear little more than symbolic allegiance to the military. Instead, they answer to a former disc jockey.
It's true: CSKA is run by a deejay named Sergey Kushchenko, a genial, outgoing 46-year-old who was spinning LPs of the Beatles and bootlegging cassettes of the Rolling Stones even as Soviet coach Alexander Gomelsky and five CSKA players were leading the U.S.S.R. to an 82-76 win over the U.S. at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. That Sergey the deejay happened also to fall in love with basketball has resulted in his spectacularly unpredictable rise to president of CSKA. Sitting courtside in a dark suit and tie -- uncomfortable attire during his deejay days -- he watches the team that he has reinvented to become the best in the world outside the NBA.
Two decades ago Soviet stars such as Arvydas Sabonis and Sarunas Marciulionis earned disposable income by selling athletic gear and black-market caviar out of their hotel rooms during international road trips. Now, the high-end clubs of the Russian Superleague have more money to spend than most of their European rivals. Russia's vast natural resources and the ambitions of president Vladimir Putin (who will move to the prime minister's office on May 7) have recast basketball as a metric of the nation's new identity -- even if that identity is often cast by foreigners. The coach of what is still commonly referred to as the Red Army team is Ettore Messina, an Italian. He yells at his three American players, two Greeks, a Slovenian, a Lithuanian, a Belgian, an Australian and a half-dozen Russians in English -- English! -- proof that the new Russia is competing for talent on a global scale.
Sergey the deejay is driving this revolutionary trend in Russian basketball. He is striving to create an open-market environment for the American-born sport within an old-world government of Russian secrecy (in which investigative journalists are routinely found murdered) and strong-arm politics (as manipulated by Putin, who prolonged his influence by handpicking his presidential successor in a March election that was free of viable opposition candidates). The NBA has recognized the ambitions of Kushchenko, and over the last three years he has patiently negotiated a unique relationship between his progressive club and the NBA. Commissioner David Stern usually prefers to marry himself to international federations or leagues, but so important is CSKA to all of basketball in Russia, and so visionary is Kushchenko, that in February the NBA was ready to sign a deal with CSKA that would open the Russian frontier to opportunities benefiting both sides.
On this afternoon the Superleague meeting between CSKA and visiting Khimki is tight into the fourth quarter as CSKA's cheerleaders return yet again to the court. Their elegance is part of Sergey the deejay's larger vision for basketball in the CSKA Universal Sports Hall, a steeply tiered arena of 5,500 seats built for the 1980 Moscow Olympics. As the young women sweep gracefully onto the floor, they are met by dozens of colored lights spinning and strobing from the ceiling, another of Kushchenko's innovations. "Like disco," he explains.
An and-one drive by the visitors cuts CSKA's lead to 65-64 with 25 seconds remaining. Trajan Langdon, the former All-America guard at Duke who is one of CSKA's go-to scorers, responds with a free throw. Another drive by Khimki fails and CSKA seizes a 68-64 victory, one of 23 it will earn (against just one loss) domestically this season to claim first place in the Superleague.
Basketball is important to Russia because, in the beginning, it was important to the U.S. The Soviets embraced basketball after World War II for no other reason than to try to prove they could beat the U.S. at its own game, to demonstrate that their collective approach could overcome superior talent. They started by dominating the sport in the old world, dividing the first six European Champions Cups among ASK Riga, the army team of Latvia (winner of the first three titles, all coached by the legendary Gomelsky); Dinamo Tbilisi, the police-sponsored team from the Soviet republic of Georgia; and, of course, CSKA Moscow.
Today there are at least 1,500 Americans playing basketball professionally around the world, but this trend began in Europe when they were imported like mercenaries to repel the Soviets. In 1962 Real Madrid became the first Western European club to break into the finals of the Champions Cup (known today as the Euroleague) after its Hall of Fame coach, Pedro Ferrà ndiz, had traveled to Philadelphia to recruit 6' 8" power forward Wayne Hightower, an African-American who had left Kansas a year before he was eligible for the NBA draft. Europe had never seen an athlete like Hightower, and though he would return home to spend 11 years in the NBA and ABA, his one season in Europe created demand for more Americans to stand up to the Soviets.
The U.S.S.R. ratcheted up the standards of international competition by turning games into metaphorical life-and-death struggles with the free world. The common denominator for many of the nation's significant basketball victories was Gomelsky, who began an 11-year term as CSKA's coach in 1969 and later served as the team's president while guiding the Soviet national team on and off over three decades. "He was a wily little guy, politically shrewd, considered one of the 100 most powerful men in Russia, disliked by many, connected with higher-ups in the Politburo," says Dan Peterson, the expatriate American who coached in Italy during the Gomelsky era. "A ruthless winner, a brilliant guy."
Gomelsky's most important -- and final -- triumph was the 82-76 semifinal win over coach John Thompson's collegians in the '88 Games, which prompted USA Basketball to assemble the original Dream Team four years later. That last Soviet team, like the U.S.S.R. itself, was on the verge of splintering amid ethnic quarrels and demands for freedom, but Gomelsky achieved temporary unification in his locker room, according to Peterson, by persuading Mikhail Gorbachev to allow the players to sign with clubs outside the country provided they won the gold medal.
After the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union, most of its famed basketball generation scattered throughout Europe and the NBA, for in the first tortured decade of independence there was little money for Russian hoops. The proud clubs of the former empire were unable to pay their bills -- CSKA included, though that did not stop the team from winning nine straight Superleague titles. Gomelsky's search for his eventual replacement as team president, someone capable of responding to the problems and opportunities of the new millennium, led him to the isolated Russian city of Perm, a former Soviet weapons-manufacturing base 800 miles east of Moscow that was closed to foreigners until 1989. Perm was home to a small start-up club known as Ural Great, which had dethroned CSKA to win the 2001 Russian championship and which was owned and operated by none other than Sergey Kushchenko. "I visited Perm in 2001," recalls Roy Kirkdorffer, an American financial adviser based in the south of France who represents European basketball players. "And I had breakfast with Gomelsky, who said of Kushchenko, 'He's our bright young hope.' "
Three things that illustrate the paradox of Russian basketball:
1. It is not run as a business. While the NBA exists to make money, there is no tradition for profitability throughout European basketball. The major clubs are funded by private financiers or parent sports clubs and exist simply to win games for their city, region and country -- red ink be damned.
2. Kushchenko wants to run it as a business. Kushchenko, who took over CSKA's basketball team in 2002, talks of creating a market for basketball, of eventually developing sources of revenue that will equal or exceed his club's budget of more than $40 million, which makes it among the richest in Europe. (The average NBA team's budget is more than $100 million.) Over the last three years he has made several trips to the U.S. with his CSKA employees, and together they have studied everything from the marketing to the merchandising to the administration of the NBA website in hopes of acquiring the perspectives of an organization that is built for profit. As foreign as this may be to his Russian colleagues, Kushchenko sees no other future for basketball in his country.
3. There is no compelling need to run it as a business. CSKA is funded by a billionaire oligarch, Mikhail Prokhorov, 42, who made his initial fortune in the 1980s by selling stone-washed jeans in the U.S.S.R. When the state-owned industries were privatized in the '90s by Boris Yeltsin, Prokhorov leveraged his chairmanship of a bank to acquire Norilsk Nickel, the world's leading producer of nickel and palladium. He has since relinquished his stake in Norilsk, though he retains control of sister company Polyus Gold, the largest gold producer in Russia.
Despite standing 6' 9" and having played basketball in grade school, Prokhorov has shown minimal interest in the team. It appears to Western observers that he is involved with CSKA because Putin has instructed billionaire oligarchs to invest heavily in basketball and other sports to raise Russia's profile around the world. As it is, Prokhorov, the 24th-richest person in the world according to Forbes (net worth: $19.5 billion), rarely attends hoops games, and he tends to be impressed neither by the spectacle nor by the American need to profit from the sport. During the NBA Europe Live exhibitions in Moscow in 2006, where the carnival of NBA sideshows was on display during timeouts, he turned to a few international guests and said, "This is all bulls---."
Prokhorov's passive interest has not prevented the team he bankrolls from becoming the most talented outside the NBA. CSKA has reached the Euroleague Final Four a record six consecutive times, and next week in Madrid the Russian power is favored to win the title for the second time in three seasons.
The leading scorer throughout the season (at just 13.4 points per game, befitting the club's balance) is 6' 11" center David Andersen, a 27-year-old Australian who plays on a Danish passport and is considering a move to the NBA next season. (The Atlanta Hawks drafted him in the second round in 2002.)
The point guard is a surprisingly talented player from Bucknell named J.R. Holden, 31. In his six years with CSKA he has become, according to coach Messina, the best point guard in Europe. The 6' 1" Holden's skills are so highly valued by the Russians that he was naturalized in 2003 -- despite not having met residency requirements -- so he could play for the national team. (A former national team general manager, Kushchenko helped persuade the government to grant Holden an exemption.) Last September, Holden hit a contested jump shot with 2.1 seconds left to give Russia a shocking 60-59 victory over Spain in the European championships, a victory that promised to maintain political interest and money in Russian basketball for years to come.
The CSKA roster is overloaded with renowned Europeans such as Theodoros Papaloukas, 30, recently named one of the 35 greatest players in the 50-year history of the Euroleague; his fellow Greek guard Nikos Zisis, 24; and Lithuanian forward Ramunas Siskauskas, 29, who chose to leave Euroleague champion Panathinaikos to move to Moscow this season. The 6' 8" forward Marcus Goree, who grew up playing with Denver Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin in Dallas, is a 30-year-old who, according to Messina, "could be the European Ben Wallace." Messina himself was named one of the top 10 coaches in Euroleague history, and he views his team leaders as Holden and Langdon, who last season was the only American to make first-team all-Euroleague.
The man who put CSKA together, the open and sincere Kushchenko, is in every way the opposite of the stern, cold authoritarian whom one would expect to be presiding over the Red Army club. It helps that he doesn't particularly need basketball. He and some friends from Perm also cashed in on the privatization boom of the 1990s, and their ownership of Kam Kabel -- a manufacturer of electronic cables with 5,000 employees -- has made a millionaire of him. Today he lives with his wife, Svetlana, and their three children in a gated community outside Moscow, in a modern, four-story house with heated floors, a skylit penthouse and fixtures designed by Italian architects.
In 2006 Kushchenko was rewarded with a promotion to the presidency of all of CSKA and its 41 sports, which is a far more political position than simply managing the daily affairs of the basketball club. At All-Star weekend in New Orleans, he was welcomed by the NBA to finalize their long-sought partnership. The agreement appeared to be in place: CSKA would put up close to $10 million to serve as host of NBA events in Moscow, including the charitable youth event Basketball Without Borders and preseason exhibitions involving NBA teams. NBA and CSKA officials would work side by side in Moscow, enabling the Americans to grow their league in Russia while providing CSKA with expertise in transforming basketball into a market-based business. CSKA games would be broadcast in the U.S. on NBA TV. Left unsaid was the eventual possibility that CSKA might become an NBA franchise during the league's planned expansion to Europe over the decades ahead.
The meetings in New Orleans were expected to be a formality -- sign the papers, shake hands, bring in Stern for group photographs -- but Kushchenko unexpectedly revealed that he was unable to agree to the terms. He also was unable to explain why. He grabbed the arm of NBA deputy commissioner Adam Silver and whispered, "Don't worry. We'll get that done."
The NBA isn't giving up on Kushchenko. "Russia remains an important market for the NBA," says Silver. "We are encouraged by the discussions we've had with Sergey and his colleagues. We remain hopeful that we're going to work out a long-term deal with him."
But something had changed, in spite of all of Kushchenko's successes in moving basketball forward in Russia. Was he unable to persuade the politicians to run the sport as a business? Were they, in spite of their reliance on foreign basketball talent, unwilling to form a partnership with the Americans? The story of Sergey the deejay, though it is not yet finished, is that Russia, for all of the promise of its new frontier, is still mired in its old ways.
Find this article at: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/ian_thomsen/04/22/russian.revolution0428
Ian Thomsen
"Russian Revolution"
The home of Stalin, Putin and Langdon -- Langdon? -- is trying to embrace American-style (read: capitalist) basketball . . . with a little Elvis thrown in.
The world's most elegant cheerleaders take the court like a troupe of ballerinas, dressed simply in lilac tops and low-rise black pants for their role as arm candy to the star of this brief show. The iconic main attraction is decked out in the telltale white body suit and has the familiar upswept hair. During his brief time on earth, the original Elvis Presley typified the Western entertainment that was banned by the Soviet Union as "tumors on the social organism." But in this incarnation he is belting out bastardized Russian-and-English lyrics to the tune of Blue Suede Shoes as the twirling ladies encircle him. "Come on, SESS-ka!" sings Elvis, leaning into the crook of his glittering elbow.
SESS-ka refers to CSKA, or Central Sports Army Club, the home team for this February basketball game in Moscow. The celebrated organization dates to the Soviet days of Stalin and Khrushchev and Brezhnev, who ruled the army generals and also, by chain of command, the gold medalists competing for CSKA. The Red Army athletes were the most intimidating of competitors: fundamentally disciplined basketball stars, ice hockey players and figure skaters who tormented the U.S. in the Olympic Games every fourth winter and summer.
Then in 1989 the Berlin Wall fell, and soon the Soviet system collapsed. But the teams of CSKA Moscow have continued to thrive, though they bear little more than symbolic allegiance to the military. Instead, they answer to a former disc jockey.
It's true: CSKA is run by a deejay named Sergey Kushchenko, a genial, outgoing 46-year-old who was spinning LPs of the Beatles and bootlegging cassettes of the Rolling Stones even as Soviet coach Alexander Gomelsky and five CSKA players were leading the U.S.S.R. to an 82-76 win over the U.S. at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul. That Sergey the deejay happened also to fall in love with basketball has resulted in his spectacularly unpredictable rise to president of CSKA. Sitting courtside in a dark suit and tie -- uncomfortable attire during his deejay days -- he watches the team that he has reinvented to become the best in the world outside the NBA.
Two decades ago Soviet stars such as Arvydas Sabonis and Sarunas Marciulionis earned disposable income by selling athletic gear and black-market caviar out of their hotel rooms during international road trips. Now, the high-end clubs of the Russian Superleague have more money to spend than most of their European rivals. Russia's vast natural resources and the ambitions of president Vladimir Putin (who will move to the prime minister's office on May 7) have recast basketball as a metric of the nation's new identity -- even if that identity is often cast by foreigners. The coach of what is still commonly referred to as the Red Army team is Ettore Messina, an Italian. He yells at his three American players, two Greeks, a Slovenian, a Lithuanian, a Belgian, an Australian and a half-dozen Russians in English -- English! -- proof that the new Russia is competing for talent on a global scale.
Sergey the deejay is driving this revolutionary trend in Russian basketball. He is striving to create an open-market environment for the American-born sport within an old-world government of Russian secrecy (in which investigative journalists are routinely found murdered) and strong-arm politics (as manipulated by Putin, who prolonged his influence by handpicking his presidential successor in a March election that was free of viable opposition candidates). The NBA has recognized the ambitions of Kushchenko, and over the last three years he has patiently negotiated a unique relationship between his progressive club and the NBA. Commissioner David Stern usually prefers to marry himself to international federations or leagues, but so important is CSKA to all of basketball in Russia, and so visionary is Kushchenko, that in February the NBA was ready to sign a deal with CSKA that would open the Russian frontier to opportunities benefiting both sides.
On this afternoon the Superleague meeting between CSKA and visiting Khimki is tight into the fourth quarter as CSKA's cheerleaders return yet again to the court. Their elegance is part of Sergey the deejay's larger vision for basketball in the CSKA Universal Sports Hall, a steeply tiered arena of 5,500 seats built for the 1980 Moscow Olympics. As the young women sweep gracefully onto the floor, they are met by dozens of colored lights spinning and strobing from the ceiling, another of Kushchenko's innovations. "Like disco," he explains.
An and-one drive by the visitors cuts CSKA's lead to 65-64 with 25 seconds remaining. Trajan Langdon, the former All-America guard at Duke who is one of CSKA's go-to scorers, responds with a free throw. Another drive by Khimki fails and CSKA seizes a 68-64 victory, one of 23 it will earn (against just one loss) domestically this season to claim first place in the Superleague.
Basketball is important to Russia because, in the beginning, it was important to the U.S. The Soviets embraced basketball after World War II for no other reason than to try to prove they could beat the U.S. at its own game, to demonstrate that their collective approach could overcome superior talent. They started by dominating the sport in the old world, dividing the first six European Champions Cups among ASK Riga, the army team of Latvia (winner of the first three titles, all coached by the legendary Gomelsky); Dinamo Tbilisi, the police-sponsored team from the Soviet republic of Georgia; and, of course, CSKA Moscow.
Today there are at least 1,500 Americans playing basketball professionally around the world, but this trend began in Europe when they were imported like mercenaries to repel the Soviets. In 1962 Real Madrid became the first Western European club to break into the finals of the Champions Cup (known today as the Euroleague) after its Hall of Fame coach, Pedro Ferrà ndiz, had traveled to Philadelphia to recruit 6' 8" power forward Wayne Hightower, an African-American who had left Kansas a year before he was eligible for the NBA draft. Europe had never seen an athlete like Hightower, and though he would return home to spend 11 years in the NBA and ABA, his one season in Europe created demand for more Americans to stand up to the Soviets.
The U.S.S.R. ratcheted up the standards of international competition by turning games into metaphorical life-and-death struggles with the free world. The common denominator for many of the nation's significant basketball victories was Gomelsky, who began an 11-year term as CSKA's coach in 1969 and later served as the team's president while guiding the Soviet national team on and off over three decades. "He was a wily little guy, politically shrewd, considered one of the 100 most powerful men in Russia, disliked by many, connected with higher-ups in the Politburo," says Dan Peterson, the expatriate American who coached in Italy during the Gomelsky era. "A ruthless winner, a brilliant guy."
Gomelsky's most important -- and final -- triumph was the 82-76 semifinal win over coach John Thompson's collegians in the '88 Games, which prompted USA Basketball to assemble the original Dream Team four years later. That last Soviet team, like the U.S.S.R. itself, was on the verge of splintering amid ethnic quarrels and demands for freedom, but Gomelsky achieved temporary unification in his locker room, according to Peterson, by persuading Mikhail Gorbachev to allow the players to sign with clubs outside the country provided they won the gold medal.
After the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union, most of its famed basketball generation scattered throughout Europe and the NBA, for in the first tortured decade of independence there was little money for Russian hoops. The proud clubs of the former empire were unable to pay their bills -- CSKA included, though that did not stop the team from winning nine straight Superleague titles. Gomelsky's search for his eventual replacement as team president, someone capable of responding to the problems and opportunities of the new millennium, led him to the isolated Russian city of Perm, a former Soviet weapons-manufacturing base 800 miles east of Moscow that was closed to foreigners until 1989. Perm was home to a small start-up club known as Ural Great, which had dethroned CSKA to win the 2001 Russian championship and which was owned and operated by none other than Sergey Kushchenko. "I visited Perm in 2001," recalls Roy Kirkdorffer, an American financial adviser based in the south of France who represents European basketball players. "And I had breakfast with Gomelsky, who said of Kushchenko, 'He's our bright young hope.' "
Three things that illustrate the paradox of Russian basketball:
1. It is not run as a business. While the NBA exists to make money, there is no tradition for profitability throughout European basketball. The major clubs are funded by private financiers or parent sports clubs and exist simply to win games for their city, region and country -- red ink be damned.
2. Kushchenko wants to run it as a business. Kushchenko, who took over CSKA's basketball team in 2002, talks of creating a market for basketball, of eventually developing sources of revenue that will equal or exceed his club's budget of more than $40 million, which makes it among the richest in Europe. (The average NBA team's budget is more than $100 million.) Over the last three years he has made several trips to the U.S. with his CSKA employees, and together they have studied everything from the marketing to the merchandising to the administration of the NBA website in hopes of acquiring the perspectives of an organization that is built for profit. As foreign as this may be to his Russian colleagues, Kushchenko sees no other future for basketball in his country.
3. There is no compelling need to run it as a business. CSKA is funded by a billionaire oligarch, Mikhail Prokhorov, 42, who made his initial fortune in the 1980s by selling stone-washed jeans in the U.S.S.R. When the state-owned industries were privatized in the '90s by Boris Yeltsin, Prokhorov leveraged his chairmanship of a bank to acquire Norilsk Nickel, the world's leading producer of nickel and palladium. He has since relinquished his stake in Norilsk, though he retains control of sister company Polyus Gold, the largest gold producer in Russia.
Despite standing 6' 9" and having played basketball in grade school, Prokhorov has shown minimal interest in the team. It appears to Western observers that he is involved with CSKA because Putin has instructed billionaire oligarchs to invest heavily in basketball and other sports to raise Russia's profile around the world. As it is, Prokhorov, the 24th-richest person in the world according to Forbes (net worth: $19.5 billion), rarely attends hoops games, and he tends to be impressed neither by the spectacle nor by the American need to profit from the sport. During the NBA Europe Live exhibitions in Moscow in 2006, where the carnival of NBA sideshows was on display during timeouts, he turned to a few international guests and said, "This is all bulls---."
Prokhorov's passive interest has not prevented the team he bankrolls from becoming the most talented outside the NBA. CSKA has reached the Euroleague Final Four a record six consecutive times, and next week in Madrid the Russian power is favored to win the title for the second time in three seasons.
The leading scorer throughout the season (at just 13.4 points per game, befitting the club's balance) is 6' 11" center David Andersen, a 27-year-old Australian who plays on a Danish passport and is considering a move to the NBA next season. (The Atlanta Hawks drafted him in the second round in 2002.)
The point guard is a surprisingly talented player from Bucknell named J.R. Holden, 31. In his six years with CSKA he has become, according to coach Messina, the best point guard in Europe. The 6' 1" Holden's skills are so highly valued by the Russians that he was naturalized in 2003 -- despite not having met residency requirements -- so he could play for the national team. (A former national team general manager, Kushchenko helped persuade the government to grant Holden an exemption.) Last September, Holden hit a contested jump shot with 2.1 seconds left to give Russia a shocking 60-59 victory over Spain in the European championships, a victory that promised to maintain political interest and money in Russian basketball for years to come.
The CSKA roster is overloaded with renowned Europeans such as Theodoros Papaloukas, 30, recently named one of the 35 greatest players in the 50-year history of the Euroleague; his fellow Greek guard Nikos Zisis, 24; and Lithuanian forward Ramunas Siskauskas, 29, who chose to leave Euroleague champion Panathinaikos to move to Moscow this season. The 6' 8" forward Marcus Goree, who grew up playing with Denver Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin in Dallas, is a 30-year-old who, according to Messina, "could be the European Ben Wallace." Messina himself was named one of the top 10 coaches in Euroleague history, and he views his team leaders as Holden and Langdon, who last season was the only American to make first-team all-Euroleague.
The man who put CSKA together, the open and sincere Kushchenko, is in every way the opposite of the stern, cold authoritarian whom one would expect to be presiding over the Red Army club. It helps that he doesn't particularly need basketball. He and some friends from Perm also cashed in on the privatization boom of the 1990s, and their ownership of Kam Kabel -- a manufacturer of electronic cables with 5,000 employees -- has made a millionaire of him. Today he lives with his wife, Svetlana, and their three children in a gated community outside Moscow, in a modern, four-story house with heated floors, a skylit penthouse and fixtures designed by Italian architects.
In 2006 Kushchenko was rewarded with a promotion to the presidency of all of CSKA and its 41 sports, which is a far more political position than simply managing the daily affairs of the basketball club. At All-Star weekend in New Orleans, he was welcomed by the NBA to finalize their long-sought partnership. The agreement appeared to be in place: CSKA would put up close to $10 million to serve as host of NBA events in Moscow, including the charitable youth event Basketball Without Borders and preseason exhibitions involving NBA teams. NBA and CSKA officials would work side by side in Moscow, enabling the Americans to grow their league in Russia while providing CSKA with expertise in transforming basketball into a market-based business. CSKA games would be broadcast in the U.S. on NBA TV. Left unsaid was the eventual possibility that CSKA might become an NBA franchise during the league's planned expansion to Europe over the decades ahead.
The meetings in New Orleans were expected to be a formality -- sign the papers, shake hands, bring in Stern for group photographs -- but Kushchenko unexpectedly revealed that he was unable to agree to the terms. He also was unable to explain why. He grabbed the arm of NBA deputy commissioner Adam Silver and whispered, "Don't worry. We'll get that done."
The NBA isn't giving up on Kushchenko. "Russia remains an important market for the NBA," says Silver. "We are encouraged by the discussions we've had with Sergey and his colleagues. We remain hopeful that we're going to work out a long-term deal with him."
But something had changed, in spite of all of Kushchenko's successes in moving basketball forward in Russia. Was he unable to persuade the politicians to run the sport as a business? Were they, in spite of their reliance on foreign basketball talent, unwilling to form a partnership with the Americans? The story of Sergey the deejay, though it is not yet finished, is that Russia, for all of the promise of its new frontier, is still mired in its old ways.
Find this article at: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/ian_thomsen/04/22/russian.revolution0428
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