The Great Hall of Yao

Yao Ming retired last week.  The asteroid hit and the extinctions continue.  The old dinosaurs keep falling like Pteranodons this locked-out NBA offseason- first Shaquille O'Neal, now Yao- as the great beasts of the low-post exit the game with fewer replacements than ever before.  Yao decided to call it quits after numerous leg injuries forced him to miss significant portions of too many seasons.

Too many seasons.  Yao only played in eight NBA seasons since being drafted number one overall by the Houston Rockets in 2002 amidst hype that he'd offer Shaq a resistant and worthy foe.  Eight injury-plagued seasons isn't a lot of time to make a Tyrannosaurus-sized footprint in basketball's biggest league.  Were those eight years, combined with everything else Yao has accomplished in his basketball life, enough to get Yao into the Basketball Hall of Fame?    

Yao Ming's 7'6 frame was an imposing sight in the paint.

The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, though inadequate, serves as a basketball fan's resource for information about the sport's history and important figures (I'm not talking about the Miami Heat cheerleaders, though one could argue their figures are indeed an integral part of NBA.com's traffic).  It isn't really about who the best players were in terms of statistics or talent- part of the reason why it's inadequate- as much as it's about your impact on the sport's history.  If somebody thinks about an era of basketball, will they think of you?  Did you do something to promote the sport?

Yao, though an accomplished Olympian individually, lacks medals.  He was not an NBA MVP and only had modest team success in the NBA.  These, along with the missed games, are legitimate black marks.

However, his impact on the connection between Asian basketball and the NBA shrouds the basketball universe of the 21st century.  Kobe Bryant has been huge in Asia for years, and obviously the total globalization of the NBA has made many other NBA stars accessible and recognizable in Asia and other places around the world.

But who else could get a broken down Tracy McGrady all-star votes and appearances he had no business getting?

In all seriousness, you can't think of NBA globalization without Yao Ming.  You can't think of the NBA reaching Asia without Yao Ming.  Yao made Yi Yianlian relevant for a game (their first NBA meeting was watched by over 100 million people).  That's impact.  When Dirk Nowitzki led his team to a title in 2011, it symbolized how far the NBA has reached.  This is the era of basketball globalization, and Yao has been a central figure in it.

Yao has five All-NBA teams to his credit.  He was a 19/9/2 center for his career and held his own against latter-prime Shaq and prime Dwight Howard, the dominant centers he played against.  Yao offered us a rare glimpse into the past when classic back-to-the-basket centers roamed the NBA.  He never got into trouble and always represented the game well.  Even Michael Jordan followed his lead: before His Airness bought Charlotte, Yao bought his former team from China, the Shanghai Sharks, back in 2009.

Like the asteroid that presumably wiped out the dinosaurs, Yao Ming landed in 2002 and made a global impact.  A request to the Hall:  Remember this Rocket.           

Reaction to the Iman Shumpert Selection

The New York Knicks selected Iman Shumpert out of Georgia Tech with the 17th pick of the NBA draft last month, a decision that has gotten mixed reviews.  I feel I can pretty much project this guy as Michael Jordan II and not get proven wrong seeing as how the NBA is never going to play another game again, but doomsday lockout scenarios are far too depressing to talk about on a holiday weekend.

Apparently, Shumpert is a ridiculous athlete, a top-of-the-list run/jump draftee with length.  Any and every team can use a player like that.  If a long perimeter athlete develops enough brains to play smart team ball, he can usually find a way to be a championship role player.  He can also be one of the many talented flameouts who have graced the modern era of the NBA.

Iman Shumpert with David Stern on draft night.

Shumpert is going to be a lead guard in the NBA, not a pure point.  He wasn't a pure point in college, and because of his size and the fact that it's difficult to transition into an NBA point guard once you're in the NBA, I think he'll be a wing with handles that can play point occasionally.  With his athletic tools, he should be a solid defender, especially in terms of closing out on three-point shooters, something the Knicks could greatly use right now.

The Knicks need size and a young pure point guard who can grow with Amar'e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony.  Chauncey Billups is one of the best point guards of his generation, but he is declining.  I feel like the Knicks are either extremely confident they can lure Chris Paul or Deron Williams to N.Y., or they think Toney Douglas brings what they need already.

Shumpert is a solid pick overall.  He doesn't fill N.Y.'s most pressing needs, but he shores up some weaknesses the Knicks had and makes them more athletic.  The board at 17 was bare of any sure pick that could address the major team needs, and it would have been counterproductive to try to fit a square peg in a round hole just for the sake of showing the public that they understand what needs to be done.  It was a better decision to shore up a secondary weakness of wing depth and perimeter closeout ability.  And absolute best case scenario, he turns into an explosive peripheral scorer.   

Or maybe Michael Jordan...

The South Beach Case Study: Year One Complete

The first year of the South Beach Case Study concluded with a compelling NBA Finals that saw the Dallas Mavericks defeat the Miami Heat in six games.  Although Miami- specifically LeBron James- mightily disappointed in the Finals, don't be quick to call the experiment a failure.   

1. This team was designed by Pat Riley, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, James, and according to the media, Satan himself, to be a contender for many years.  The case study is in its infancy. 
2. If James plays half as well in the Finals as he had all season, the first year of this experiment would have concluded with a championship.     

Calling the 2011 season a rough start to the experiment in terms of variables understates how flawed Miami's team was constructed around the Big Three.  Udonis Haslem and Mike Miller, the team's fourth and fifth best players, were injured throughout the year and missed the habit-forming process that is the NBA regular season.  The Three Kings were flanked by limited one-way players, rusting veterans, and zero-way piles of rust (I'm looking at you, Mike Bibby).  Yet, even with their heavy lifters needing time to gel and redundancy getting in the way of a good time, Miami won 58 games and vanquished every Eastern Conference foe in the playoffs.

From left:  Chris Bosh, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade. 

What have we learned?  I'll posit questions from the beginning of the year and briefly give conclusions.

Can two ball-dominant slashers, James and Wade, work together?  Yes, but not perfectly.  An inside/outside combination always works better because it's more balanced.  James and Wade tweaked their off-ball games this year to feature more cutting, spot-up shooting and reading of offensive rebounding lanes.  However, old habits crept through at times, displaying themselves in the form of the two augmenting the playbook to feature "isolation and hold the ball for 18 seconds before acting" sets.  Not very effective basketball.

 Will the egos of the three amigos collide or will they remember the sacrifices they promised to make in order to play with each other?  To put it simply, they remembered.  James and Wade appeared to share the ball in crunch time, too.   

What about substitution patterns and minutes distributions? Will their careers be extended because they don't have to lift their teams alone anymore?  Well, they carried a heavy burden this year.  Spoelstra couldn't afford to really rest his prime players, and without a true post defender, the three stars expended a lot of energy making the defense elite (fifth in defensive rating).  

What happens to a superstar's stats when he isn't playing in a single superstar-centric offense anymore?  The offensive stats went down a bit for Wade and James and a lot for Bosh.  This is related to the first question.  When the ball-handlers go to iso-ball, they waste the help they signed up to play with.

The team would be best served obtaining a point guard able and willing to take command of the offense from James and Wade.  If Miami runs some actual plays that turn James and Wade into finishers, Miami's offense could get to an all-time level.   

The SBCS gets the summer off.  Year two will begin...well, with the lockout looming, that's as unpredictable as South Beach itself.       

A Morphing Maverick?

Much has been made of Dirk Nowitzki's apparent transformation that led to his amazing play in leading the Dallas Mavericks to their first NBA championship.  He seemingly learned how to win this year, to harness his talents and become a clutch performer in the playoffs.  A vocal leader with a "take the game by the balls" approach had emerged from past individual failures more hardened than ever, and it all came together in 2011.  Championship.  This must have been the final evolutionary stage of the Morphing Maverick, the one who could finally lead his team to a title, correct?

 Maybe, maybe not.  

Image Via Wikipedia

 Long before Dirk Nowitzki won NBA Finals MVP and chugged some Ace of Spades, he was a lanky 7-footer from Germany with a too-quick first step for a 7-footer who was going to revolutionize what a 7-footer acted as on an NBA team.   

When he first reached All-Star status, he was a power forward with elite 3-point shooting who could create a look over any defender- and I must say, a dream to play with in NBA Live 2004.  However, he was stuck on poorly constructed teams that focused too much on offense and too little on defense.  (Seriously, they stacked Antoine Walker and Antawn Jamison around their jump-shooting superstar big man in the frontcourt!)

That all changed when Steve Nash left, Avery Johnson brought defense and Dirk started concentrating his game inside the arc.  Suddenly, the Mavericks were legitimate contenders, able to play multiple styles and win traditional playoff games by valuing every possession.  Yet, playoff failure repeated in 2006 and 2007.  Dallas didn't have a secondary scorer to help Nowitzki  against Miami, and their defense had no answer for Dwyane Wade while inexplicably triple-teaming a Shaquille O'Neal who hadn't yet proved he could dismantle their interior defense.  Against Golden State, Nowitzki's former coach Don Nelson sent so many defenders to fluster him that it looked like he was being defended by- warning, spoiler alert!- the Super 8 monster.  Nowitzki the 7-footer hadn't yet learned how to take advantage of his height when defended by small forwards in the midpost, Dirk V.2007's fatal flaw.  

What is the point of being that tall- of having that immense advantage- when it can be used against you?

However, Dirk did work, and since then, that defensive blueprint hasn't phased him one bit come playoff time.  A swarming defense became a failing strategy against Nowitzki.  He torched New Orleans for 26.8 ppg on almost 59 percent true shooting in 2008.  He averaged 4 assists and 2 turnover per game.  He added 12 rebounds per contest.

In 2009 against the Spurs and the Nuggets, he dropped 26.8 ppg on 63.5 percent true shooting.  In 2010, he put up 26.7 ppg on over 64 percent true shooting against the Spurs.  This past year, he averaged 27.7 ppg on 60.9 percent true shooting, with lesser rebounding and passing numbers than in past playoff years.

Where exactly did he improve this year?  Well, he marginally improved his sense of timing and court awareness (though he never lacked in court awareness anyway).  Other than that, he's the same player he's been for the past four years: a championship-caliber offensive Constant.   

Dirk Nowitzki, like most great players, morphed into a champion long before he won a championship.      

A Goodbye to Shaq

I'm gifting Shaquille O'Neal a post-NBA career that could keep him afloat financially for life.

A customizable mini-hoop, built to be dragged down without suffering permanent damage.  It includes a tennis ball so you can shoot free throws like Diesel- be Shaq in your own home.

Because that's what NBA basketball was for O'Neal- it was playing on a mini-hoop.  Superman wasn't actually out of this world, but merely outside the dimensions of a basketball court;  94 feet by 50 feet, 10 feet from floor to rim, and 16 feet in the painted area needed porn star-style augmentation to make Shaq look normal.  Or maybe they could have used Shaq's DNA to create giant clones of players, a la the storyline of Jurassic Park.  Or hell, just create a T-Rex and see if he could defend O'Neal.  (I heard Mark Cuban was funding his own T-Rex recreation scheme that was as hush-hush as Area 51, but stopped it after David Stern legalized the zone defense.)

So long, Shaq. 

He was and will forever be my favorite player.  I can shoot a jumper like Kobe Bryant or master a post move like Tim Duncan, but I can never be too big for a basketball court unless it's a mini-court.  That's what drew me to O'Neal as a kid, and not much has changed since.  A skyscraper or a large, beautiful scene in nature are things I could never accurately be like.  Shaq's only human, but he's halfway to that level at least.

The best Shaq performance I ever witnessed was during the last two games of the 2002 Western Conference Finals.  Dealing with numerous little injuries and his team down 3-2 to Sacramento, Shaq delivered menacing dunks, an alpha attitude and- yeah, check this out- excellent free throw shooting.  He told the team to give it to him and let him set the tone for game six, and he did just that.  Overall, he averaged 38 points, 15 rebounds and 3 blocks per game while hitting 75 percent of his free throws in the two victories.    

That takes brains and heart.  It's what another out-of-normal NBA court-dimensions star, LeBron James, needs to come up with in the 2011 NBA Finals if he wants his name up there with Shaq's on all-time lists.

Brains and heart.  If you've got enough of them, perhaps you don't need a mini-hoop to play basketball like Shaquille O'Neal.