NEWSLETTER #23 - 2005-06 NBA'S REVIVAL IS PURE MAGIC By Michael Wilbon Don't get me wrong, the NBA has had great teams since Michael Jordan retired from the Chicago Bulls after the 1997-98 season. The San Antonio Spurs teams, particularly the ones with Tim Duncan and David Robinson, could hold their own in any era. The Lakers of Phil Jackson, Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant were, at times, dominating and entertaining. And although great team play usually is enough to maximize interest in pro football and Major League Baseball, that simply isn't the case with professional basketball. The NBA has been, is now, and probably always will be a league driven by and dependent on its star power. It's been that way from Mikan and Cousy to Russell and Chamberlain to Oscar and West to Kareem and Julius to Bird and Magic to Sir Charles and M.J. to Shaq and Kobe. The greatest team in NBA history -- the 1992 Dream Team -- never even played a single league contest or a game of consequence on U.S. soil but was the most star-studded team ever put together anywhere. So there's a very easy answer to the questions of why these NBA playoffs have been so compelling, why TV ratings have been up and why there's a buzz about the NBA Finals in a way there hasn't been since Jordan's second retirement. After seven seasons of trying to convince fans that certain players were stars, the league has enjoyed a postseason where its most recognizable players led teams into the playoffs, then played the way stars historically have in the NBA. And that isn't lost on the biggest stars the game has ever produced."We were creating stars before," Magic Johnson said the other night, warming to the topic of why people are coming back to the NBA playoffs. "But now stars are playing like stars and that's why the ratings are up. Now, the barbershop is talking again. The streets are talking again. I was just working out this morning at the club and everybody was like, 'What time is the game tonight?' So it's back to where everybody wants to see the games again . and it doesn't matter who's playing because the games have been so good, because the stars have been great within the games. I haven't gotten this many calls since we were playing. Everybody wants to be at the games again. The NBA is back." Clearly, the NBA Finals will have plenty of star power when play begins tomorrow in Dallas. Miami has Shaq, Dwayne Wade and Pat Riley, perhaps not in that order. Miami, because Riley loves coaching stars even when they're older and reduced to reserve capacity, even has stars coming off the bench in Alonzo Mourning, Gary Payton and Antoine Walker. Dallas has one enormous star in Germany's 7-foot Dirk Nowitzki, which is critical because much of the NBA's big marketing push is overseas, and even the host nation of soccer's World Cup will still have to pay attention to the biggest basketball star Europe has ever produced. The number of German TV crews interviewing Nowitzki after games throughout the playoffs is evidence of the interest in him back home. FOR INFORMATION: CALL 513-745-3417 OR E-MAIL: [email protected] Xavier University - Men's Basketball - 3800 Victory Parkway - Cintas Center - Cincinnati, OH 45207 - (513) 745-3417 - (887) WE ARE XU NBA'S REVIVAL IS PURE MAGIC CONTINUED And it's much easier for new stars to emerge if they're playing with established stars. Boris Diaw, the versatile Frenchman who plays for the Suns, was a virtual unknown in March, but as Steve Nash's tag-team partner, Diaw's name almost is ready for the marquee. The same goes for the Mavericks' Josh Howard, playing alongside Nowitzki. Even earlier in the playoffs, Gilbert Arenas went from a known quantity in Washington to well known, period. LeBron James established himself in one series, the six-gamer against Washington, then started building his legend in seven games against the Pistons. It's not just a happenstance that great players out of nowhere had great performances in dramatic series. The NBA enabled the stars by opening up the game, by refusing to allow defense to dominate play, as coaches would have it. Enforcing new rules regarding hand checking and penalizing hard fouls allowed the games to flow the way they did in the 1980s when Bird and Magic played fabulously enough to take the NBA Finals off tape delay and into living rooms live. Stardom almost always is tied to offense. Bruce Bowen is great at what he does, which is defend, but he isn't a star and likely never will be. Chauncey Billups, the starting point guard on the defensive-oriented Detroit Pistons, understands that, even if it worked to his team's detriment. "Nobody wanted to see a defensive team in the Finals and winning," Billups said last week. "It's not as explosive. It's not as fun to watch. I don't like watching it either. But you look at us against San Antonio last year. Two really good defensive teams in the Finals played seven games and got the worst ratings in history almost. "But look at the first-round series this year. Lakers-Phoenix and Washington-Cleveland had ratings out of the roof."They're running up and down the floor, no defense being played, shooting and running and gunning. That's fun to watch. So they put in those rules to keep it from being 89-85." And as a result, this postseason has been filled with games where both teams score in the 100s, led by high- profile players who fans didn't turn off once Kobe Bryant was eliminated. That's an important component if you're the NBA commissioner or a network executive wondering whether this is a fluke or trending upward. "You know Wade and LeBron are going to be around" Magic said, "so you know it's going to be great. Phoenix is going to be good next year and you know Dallas is going to be good. That's a built-in rivalry. And you know San Antonio isn't going anywhere. So, that's really good for the game." In the 1980s, Magic continued, "people said it was us three [Bird, Magic, Jordan], but your teams were great, too. You could sell the Celtics and the Lakers [because] you had stars within those great organizations you could built around. You just tuned in because you knew it was going to be a great series. We're back to what we used to have instead of saying, 'Stay tuned for Allen Iverson versus . You couldn't sell the team. You were selling the guy, and that doesn't make it. Now, it's back to the team, and the guys are great within the teams. It's great and I love it." And if the NBA is lucky, it'll get one more round of stars playing big in great team performances, and a seven- year hangover finally will have ended. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/06/AR2006060601595_pf.html Xavier University - Men's Basketball - 3800 Victory Parkway - Cintas Center - Cincinnati, OH 45207 - (513) 745-3417 - (887) WE ARE XU 1-4 POST OPTION - AUSTRALIA 3 3 4 2 4 5 5 1 2 1 B A 1 hits 5 at the elbow. 5 looks at both 1 and 2. 3 goes backdoor. 2 comes off of a screen by 4 5 UP FOR DITO - AUSTRALIA 2 4 3 3 5 4 1 2 1 5 A B 1 hits 3 on the wing and then 3 swings the ball to 5. screens for 5. 4 rolls low. 1 pops to the left wing. 2 comes to elbow. 5 looks to 1 for the shot. MAN OFFENSE X CATCH - DRIVE - SHOOT DRILL This is a great drill we use with our guards. Not only does it allow for our guys to get a ton of shots up, it also emphasizes driving both left and right. A shot fake can also be added on the catch. 1. Coach passes. 2. Player catches, drives left with two dribbles and pulls up for a jump shot. (shot fake can be encouraged here) 3. Player takes one or two steps back and repeats the process. 4. After player takes the last shot at the opposite baseline, reverse coming back, driving driving right. COACH X SHOT Xavier University - Men's Basketball - 3800 Victory Parkway - Cintas Center - Cincinnati, OH 45207 - (513) 745-3417 - (887) WE ARE XU.