Friday, May 29th, 2020

MJ as owner/GM — The All-New York team — 2009 WCF

May 29, 2020

Friday, May 29th, 2020

A segment of today's newsletter was requested by a reader. Do you have a particular subject you would like us to cover?

  The Opening Tip

  • How is it possible that MJ the player was so great, and MJ the owner/GM is so bad?

  • A radical idea has been presented by an NBA Redditor.

  • The All-New York team 

  • Kobe vs. Melo 2009 was a great series

1. The Lead: Michael Jordan is the poster boy for the great player-bad general manager paradox    

As a player, Michael Jordan had too many memorable moments to count.As an owner/executive for the Wizards and then the Bobnets/Horcats, his most memorable moment came when LeBron stared him down mid-dunk in a punchless 2014 series between Miami and Charlotte.Why has he been so bad at his second job?A few ideas/trends among other great players turned front office failures:

  • The lack of perspective: How can a legend who never had to worry about playing time critically evaluate the seventh and eighth players on a team?

  • The sense of detachment: MJ had full control on the court. Watching his teams struggle must have come with a feeling of helplessness, which most certainly contributed to his Wizards return. 

  • The overconfidence: Unrelenting confidence works great when you’re down one in Game 6 of the 1998 Finals with 30 seconds left. Not so much when you’ve convinced yourself Frank Kaminsky is a future star. (More on that in a little.)

  • Bad luck: In 2012, the Bobcats finished second in the lottery, and picked Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. New Orleans won, and picked Anthony Davis.

A quick catchup: MJ’s return to the NBA came first as part owner and head of basketball operations for the Wizards, in January of 2000. He served in that role, and had final say on roster decisions, until announcing his return to the team in September, 2001.As a player, it isn’t clear how much power he held over Washington’s team-building decisions, but it was enough to sway the front office into trading Rip Hamilton to the Pistons in 2002 for Jerry Stackhouse, igniting another run of glory for his ex-rivals in Detroit.From a recent Slate piece:

“Another piece of evidence that cuts against Jordan’s mythmaking: At the end of his first season, the Wizards traded promising young shooting guard Richard “Rip” Hamilton because Jordan and head coach Doug Collins doubted his toughness and sturdiness.”

MJ finally retired for good in April, 2003 and was dismissed of his previously-held GM title in May of that year. He laid low until 2006, when he bought into the Bobcats as a part-owner, also assuming the role of Managing Member of Basketball Operations, a convoluted job he’s held in some capacity since.In his time running two NBA teams, he's drafted Kwame Brown, Adam Morrison, Noah Vonleh and Cody Zeller all in the top-10, and has given fat contracts to flameouts Tyrus Thomas and Lance Stephenson. (The Bobcats have also had only three winning seasons and no playoff series wins since he took over.)None of those compare, however, to what he did on draft night, 2015, when Jordan turned down an intense haul of draft picks in favor of drafting Frank Kaminsky with the ninth pick:From ESPN:

“The Celtics made a strong final push to multiple teams in spots 4-9 on draft day. It culminated with an all-in effort in attempt to get Charlotte to deliver the No. 9 pick with Boston lusting for Duke forward Justise Winslow (the same player it coveted while trying to shuffle higher).According to sources, the Celtics' final offer to the Hornets was a package featuring as many as six draft picks, including four potential first-round selections (a combination of picks from this draft and in the future). But the Hornets could not be swayed and turned down multiple offers to select Wisconsin center Frank Kaminsky.”

 2. The Grip Asks: Is this Reddit user onto something? 

A few days ago, this year-old Reddit post resurfaced.It asked, simply, and ingeniously: 

“Serious question: why can’t 4 Warriors starters lock arms and form a ring around Steph Curry, so he can take open shots?”

Holy …More from the post: “Picture this: the warriors go out and get 4 incredibly strong bodies with really long arms. For the entire game, on the offensive end, those 4 guys lock arms together and form a circle around Steph Curry so that none of the opponents can get to him.”In 2018-19, the Warriors took 89.8 shots per game. (Let’s round that to 90.)So, if the Warriors employed this strategy for an entire game, and Curry shot 90 3s in a game at a 40 percent rate, and no one else shot it once, he would score (and the Warriors would have) 108 points:

  • 36 x 3 = 108 points

That year, the league average was 111.1 points per game. Curry, by himself, with four large, long-armed men diligently huddled around him in finger-linked solidarity, could single-handedly carry a slightly below league average offense.What do we do with this info? Not sure.

 3. The All-New York native team  

Manhattan high schooler Lew Alcindor

New York City and basketball go together like pandemics and $1,200 checks. It is the unquestioned mecca -- especially for point guards. Let’s sift through the archives to compile the best Gotham natives at every position, with honorable mentions as a bonus. Next week we’ll do Chicago.

Three quick rules: 

  1. The player must be from NYC. 

  2. The player must have played at least one year at an NYC high school. (That eliminates people like NYC-born Carmelo Anthony and Michael Jordan.) 

  3. The team is based on NBA accomplishments. Sorry, God Shammgod. 

  1. Point guard

  • Tiny Archibald (the Bronx, DeWitt Clinton High): Hall of Famer; six-time All-Star; one-time champ; only player to lead NBA in assists and points in the same season. 

Honorable mention: Bob Cousy (Queens); Kemba Walker (the Bronx); Dick McGuire (the Bronx); Stephon Marbury (Brooklyn); Rod Strickland (the Bronx; made it onto a Wu Tang song); Mark Jackson (Brooklyn); Kenny Smith (Queens); Lenny Wilkins (Brooklyn); Kenny Anderson (Queens). 

  2. Shooting guard

  • Chris Mullin (Brooklyn, Xaverian High): Hall of Famer; Dream Teamer; five-time All-Star. 

Honorable mention: Vinnie Johnson (Brooklyn); Mario Elie (Manhattan); Ricky Sobers (the Bronx). 

  3. Small forward

  • Bernard King (Brooklyn, Fort Hamilton High): Hall of Famer; four-time All-Star; one-time scoring champ; played for Nets and Knicks. 

Honorable mention: Tom Sanders (Manhattan); Billy Cunningham (Brooklyn); Metta World Peace (Queens); Jamal Mashburn (the Bronx). 

  4. Power forward

  • Connie Hawkins (Brooklyn, Boys High): Hall of Famer; five-time All-Star; one ABA title; ABA MVP. 

Honorable mention: Dolph Schayes (Manhattan); Lamar Odom (Queens). 

  5. Center

  • Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Manhattan, Power Memorial Academy): Hall of Famer; 19-time All-Star; six-time MVP; six-time champ. 

Honorable mention: Joakim Noah (Manhattan).Questions? Comments? Disparaging remarks? Think we’re impossibly stupid? Wanna buy our newsletter? Email us.

4. 05/29/09: Kobe and crew knock off Carmelo’s best team 

On this day 11 years ago, the Lakers beat the Nuggets in Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals, 119-92, to clinch the series and knock out the best team Carmelo Anthony ever played for.The series’ scores:

  • Game 1: 105-103, Lakers

  • Game 2: 106-103, Nuggets

  • Game 3: 103-97, Lakers

  • Game 4: 120-101, Nuggets

  • Game 5: 103-94, Lakers

  • Game 6: 119-92, Lakers

Carmelo’s WCF stats: 27.5/4.8/3.7, along with a series-long, high-level one-on-one matchup between him and Kobe.That was the year that Allen Iverson was traded for Chauncey Billups a few games in. With finally a real point guard to play with, Carmelo turned into less of a ball hog and more of a team player.The Nuggets won 54 games and beat the Hornets and Mavericks in five games before falling two wins short of the Finals.Finally in a good position, Carmelo turned into a player who drove winning. Then came the Knicks.

5.  Quick Hits 

  • Another very uncomfortable video of Kawhi laughing has resurfaced.

  • We should acknowledge that LeBrondunked from the free throw line in an NBA game.

  • Do you want to watch a minute of Larry Bird passing?

  • In one of the best cross-sports beefs we’ve ever seen, Damian Lillard spent last night destroying Dan Orlovsky (the backup QB who ran out of the back of the end zone) on Twitter. 

  • More beautiful work from Reddit:The 2016 Mavs had three point guards who were born on June 26, 1984.

6.  Off the Press  

  • When will the NBA return? Latest updates and big questions [ESPN]

  • The potentially exciting future of sports on TV [The Ringer]

  • Jan Volk used to be Red Auerbach’s right-hand man. Now, he’s got a new passion: sports photography. [The Boston Globe]