Points in the Paint

» June 11, 2009 8:15 PM | By Brandon Hoffman

Alonzo Mourning made waves today when he was quoted as saying that Phil Jackson “doesn’t have to do anything but call time outs” because Kobe Bryant is L.A.’s “facilitator.” Mark Madsen — who played for Jackson for three years with the Lakers — and aspires to be an NBA coach one day, begs to differ.

Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times: “It’s an unusual selection, truly, but Coach Phil Jackson has settled on a theme to hammer home the importance of winning the Lakers’ 15th NBA championship. Jackson is interspersing clips of ‘Hellboy 2’ into video sessions, his message something along the lines of the Lakers reclaiming what is rightfully theirs after losing in the Finals last season to Boston.”

Kevin McHale on his first NBA physical, via Sports Radio Interviews: “We get to practice, I run in, the physical literally took like 30 seconds. The practice had started, the doctor literally said, ‘How do you feel?’ I said, ‘Good.’ He basically said, ‘Turn your head and cough’ and I went out and practiced. And, that was my physical. It’s so different today – today, I tell you what, you look in every orifice the guy has, it’s ridiculous. My physical was honestly 15-20 seconds.”

Rick Bonnell of The Charlotte Observer: “To those who see the NBA as glorified street ball — all improvisation and chaos — consider this: Bobcats assistant coach Dave Hanners has a summer project, cataloguing every play the team ran last season. That resulted in a 420-page playbook for next season. Larry Brown is known for running a spectrum of plays with all sorts of variations. In reviewing the video from last season, Hanners found 80-plus ‘ATOs.’ That’s the abbreviation for ‘after timeouts,’ as in something Brown drew up in a huddle.”

Bill Ingram of HOOPSWORLD: “After the Chicago Bulls gave up on him Chandler made a name for himself in New Orleans, posting career-highs in points and rebounds in 2006-07 (9.5 and 12.4, respectively), and then averaging 11.8 points and 11.7 boards two seasons ago. He’s turned out to be the perfect front court running mate for Chris Paul. ‘I think their skills complement each other greatly,’ agrees Bower. ‘Chandler’s ability to run the floor catch the ball up in the air feeds Chris’ natural instinct to feed his big men. That’s a trait that Chris has had since college. He makes the game easy for front line players, getting the ball to them where they can just catch it and dunk or make a short shot. That’s a great trait for a guard to have and one that clearly impacts our team.’ Still, the Hornets traded Tyson Chandler to the Oklahoma City Thunder last season, a trade that was then rescinded because Chandler didn’t pass the Thunder’s physical. Bower didn’t rule out trading him this summer, but did say he believes the Hornets absolutely must have what Chandler brings to the table.”

John Hollinger ranks every NBA franchise. One through four are pretty self-explanatory. It gets a little dicey around the eleven mark.

Roland Lazenby talks with Lakers assistant coach Brian Shaw about Kobe Bryant’s minutes: “The coaching staff has been vigilant about the issue this season, Shaw said, but added that it’s difficult because of Bryant’s great competitive nature. In Game 3, Lakers coach Phil Jackson left Bryant on the bench for a stretch of the fourth quarter in hopes he could recuperate. ‘He always wants to stay in the game,’ Shaw said. ‘As a coach, you have to give him rests. You have to protect him from himself. There are times when he’s really pleading on the sideline, ‘Leave me in. Leave me in.’ We do that, but for the most part you have to fight that and give him rests.’ Managing Bryant’s minutes and trying to pace his tremendous competitiveness will be a key to the remainder of the championship series, which resumes Thursday night with Game 4 in Orlando.”

J.A. Adande penned a good piece on Kareem’s skyhook. Here’s a snippet: “Double-teaming him wasn’t an appealing option during his seasons with the Lakers, because he might have had three other All-Stars on the court with him at any given time. Among the options he had to pass to over the years were Magic Johnson, James Worthy, Norm Nixon and Jamaal Wilkes. ‘That kinda gave people the choice of ‘How do you wanna commit suicide?’‘ Abdul-Jabbar said. ‘You want me to get the shot off, or do you want one of those guys to?’ So that meant Abdul-Jabbar faced more single coverage than anyone of his skills had a right to see. And a single defender stood no chance of stopping him. ‘I don’t recall it ever being blocked by somebody who was guarding me,’ Abdul-Jabbar said. ‘Maybe a few people got to it, coming to help where I couldn’t see them, but if I knew where someone was, that person was not going to block that shot, because I always got my body in between them and the ball before I released the ball, and it’s impossible to get to it. Manute Bol was [five] inches taller than me and I shot a number of them on him and made them without him blocking it. Nobody really presented a challenge to me getting it off. Wilt [Chamberlain] was pretty good, too. Wilt tried to time it and he could really leap, but he just couldn’t get there in time.’”

Sponsors