JazzTank: Breaking The Fan Code of Ethics and Other Reflections

Evan Hall —  December 20, 2012 — 16 Comments

Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

On Tuesday night, in part because we were hungry and in part because muted televisions relieve us of the experience of listening to Matt Harpring’s color commentary, Jackson and I went to JCW’s, a Provo burger joint, to watch the Jazz-Nets game. While I will spare those of you who did not watch the game my rendering of its minutiae, I will say that the game was in Brooklyn, and the Jazz won. Yes, it was a road game, and yes, the Jazz won. We were shocked, as I’m sure you were, and frankly, as I’m sure you were not, we were a little disappointed. This is my turmoil.

Though as a fan, I typically spend most of my mental capital on considering my team and its place in the figurative world of basketball, I’ve recently encountered a new internal conflict that occupies at least as much if not more of my mental space reserved for sports. I find myself thinking more about how I am a fan of the Jazz than I do about how the Jazz are as a basketball team. This is not to say that I don’t also think about the Jazz as a basketball team–I only turn inward as a response to the confusion I find on the actual basketball court–but to say that for much of my experience as a fan of the Jazz (and more recently, as someone who writes about them), the Jazz as a real entity are the end of my thought train, rather than a launchpad into new depths of philosophical introspection, which is what they have become.

This is because it’s always the wins that leave me the most emotionally conflicted. Obviously, this doesn’t make any sense, because any consideration of sports fandom begins and ends with one quintessential law of response: wins make you happy and losses make you sad, or angry, or bitter, or withdrawn or any amalgamation of negative feelings. Not for me, not now. Now, wins leave me in a swirling mixture of bewilderment, self-loathing, and disappointment. Now might be the time where I should say something about the innate pessimism of human nature as an explanation for my atypical fan-behavior, but I think that’s too meta even for me. So my simpler explanation is that the losses vindicate me–after all, my frustration with the current Jazz is that I genuinely believe I know which factors on the court cause the losing, and that a failure by the team to rectify those factors will inevitably cause me emotional distress off the court. On the other hand, wins contradict my worldview, because as much as I know the reasons for the Jazz’s losing, when the Jazz win, it’s rarely because I see a correction of that which causes the losses. This makes me uncomfortable. So in other words, I feel that my perspective on the Jazz is justified when the Jazz lose, because they lose for all the reasons I thought they would, and I feel emotionally conflicted when they win, because they win for reasons I can’t quite understand, but that have very little logical connection with the reasons that they lose. That’s my simpler explanation, and simpler though it is, it disingenuously ignores the real explanation, which is that in a way, I kind of want the Jazz to lose.

Without going into the details about the ways I express myself when watching games–which I’m sure would make all of you hate me even more than you do after reading the preceding paragraph, and which would distract from the ideas I’m trying to explore–I will say that I do, occasionally, find myself hoping the Jazz will lose. This, of course, violates the Code of Ethics of Fandom, which I metaphorically signed the moment I told someone I rooted for the Jazz. By rooting against my own team, my very sports morality is called into question, and if in the moment you read that I wanted the Jazz to lose, you felt some sort of ethical revulsion toward me and my hedonistic sports ideologies, you are entirely justified. I deserve whatever righteous indignation you now harbor against me, and if that indignation takes the form of a few vociferously worded hate-comments at the end of this article, I can’t say that I blame you. But this does raise some more interesting questions.

After the Memphis loss–which, terrible though it was, was not quite as terrible as the fact that it brought me, a lifelong Jazz fan, some degree of happiness–Diana Allen and Andy Larsen had a thought-provoking exchange on Twitter, the gist of which was this: if your being a fan in a particular way makes me feel bad, don’t you have some interpersonal obligation to consider that fact before reacting to a win or a loss or a trade, especially in a public forum like Twitter, or a fansite, or the comment section of a blog post? This is an interesting debate and while I have an opinion on it, what actually impacted me was not the debate itself, but the conclusion it forced me to draw about fandom. There are some rules, and there is a prescribed behavior for fans, and though it is relative, debatable, and messy, it does exist, on some level, for every fan. But there’s something else: not only do fans function on an understanding of a governing Fan Code of Ethics, and not only does the understanding of that code differ for every fan, but we seem to accept that though sports are themselves manufactured by our perceptions of them and though sports are only artificially attached to the reality of our lives, our obedience to that Fan Code of Ethics does say something real about our moral character. This is why fans on Twitter feel obligated to point out the faulty responses of other fans. This is why my boss at Salt City published a well-written, persuasive piece on booing. And this is why I feel guilty for rooting against the Jazz.

Now I’m not rooting against my favorite professional sports team just because I’m a sadist, or just because I was searching for a sensationalist angle on the Jazz to break through my writer’s block. I’m rooting against them because, I genuinely believe that losing now is in the team’s best interests. My reasons for this are complicated and any explanation of them would likely turn out long-winded, but basically it boils down to draft picks, young player development, and a necessary reconsideration of the team’s identity from the front office. My reasons for rooting against my favorite team, however, are far less important to this discussion than that I’m doing it at all. After all, I was as appalled as anyone at Golden State’s seemingly shameless indulgence in tanking last season, and I’m just as appalled that it seems to be working out for them this season. They violated my Sports Code of Ethics, and now I expect some sort of retribution. It’s not coming, just like the karmic retribution someone might wish for my anti-Jazz-fandom is also not coming, but it does force me to address the hypocrisy of my own position. Here’s how I do that:

At some point, every fan of a small-market NBA team has to come to terms with the rules of the NBA game: players only come to a team through drafts, trades, and free agency. Salt Lake City will never be a hot destination for free agents and you can only trade for good players if you have good players (I am choosing to ignore, for the sake of my argument, that there are enough incompetent executives with NBA teams that sometimes, you can trade for good players even if all you have to give in return is bad players), which means, new talent can only come through drafts. Drafts are a crap shoot, so in order to be successful in them, small-market teams need to acquire tons of draft picks. Then they need to develop these drafted players, hope for more than a few lucky breaks in roster chemistry, player health, and league competition, and maybe, have a chance at winning a title. That’s the reality. Harsh as that reality is, and it is mercilessly harsh, that’s the situation for small-market NBA teams. Consequently, as a fan, I have a choice: either I forsake my hopes in the extremely slim possibility of my team winning a championship and I focus on enjoying the playoff chase with whatever good players my team might have and then maybe see a few playoff wins, or I say screw it, all I want is a championship, and I end up cheering for my team to trade away or refuse to re-sign its quality veteran players and draft and develop its young players. I believe that unless the Jazz miss the playoffs, the front office will re-sign the team’s veterans and the Jazz will miss out on another draft pick, and unless the front office lets those veterans go and/or gets that draft pick, this team will continue to labor in first-round playoff hell. That’s what I believe, and the beauty of the Fan Code of Ethics is that regardless of the accuracy of my perspective, it says a lot more about me than it does about the Jazz.

In Utah Jazz
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Lindsanity – Utah Jazz Twitter Power Rankings v 3.0

Jeff Lind —  December 13, 2012 — Leave a comment

What a great week to be a Jazz fan! In the last addition of Lindsanity, the Jazz were an even 10-10, but since then they’ve ripped off three more strong wins and are currently sitting at 6th in the west with a 13-10 record. Anytime the Jazz beat the Lakers and Spurs in one week, you know the world may truly end, but if it does Jazz nation will go out with a smile on our collective face.

Anyway, Without further ado, here are this week’s Jazz Twitter Power Rankings:

10: @davidjsmith1232 - Sometimes the national media writes ridiculous articles that seem to imply that small market teams are always ready to toss chemistry aside, and bend over backward to accommodate crummy trades from league heavyweights. Well, we’ve been going to this high school for seven and a half years. We’re no dummies.

9: @shedeletes – It was a late game for local fans, but for those of us living in more easternly time zones, it was really late. Today we all pay the price (I feel like I’ve been walking around in a fog of giddy Mo Williams hallucinations). Glad I take a bus to work, and don’t have to operate heavy machinery. #wortheverysecond

8: @Lockedonsports - I asked this question (via twitter) last night: “If you were gonna buy one Jazz jersey today… Which player would you get?” I got a lot of responses (most of them were terrible… I’m looking at you, @itschappy), but the one I liked the most was from @jazzhype. Why? because it was for DeMarre Carroll… who is a total boss. Preach Locke!

7: @_alexisholt - Being a dedicated Jazz fan is a unique familial experience, so when you labor nearly 5 hours to add a member to our Isle of Misfit Toys, you get a place on the Power Rankings! Congratulations to Alexis and the newest member of our Jazz-clan, Felix. Have I mentioned that it’s a great week to be a Jazz fan?

6: @5kl - There was a minute there where I thought a shotclock operator was going to get choked out. It was a surly crowd in ESA last night, and people looked ready to grab their pitchforks. Luckily, Kris has a solution to the clock guy’s problem:

5: @CowhideGlobe - Losing to the Spurs isn’t a foreign concept to the Jazz, but why does it always seem to come at the hands of one red hot Spur?

4: @shandonfan - Seriously, shandonfan… seriously.

3: @DJJazzyJody - My favorite non-game storyline this week was the one where Jody outed a John Stockton Twitter fake because of his hollow non-Stockton-like swagger. Not on our watch, @johnstocktonpg. Not on John Stockton day (12/12/12)!!!! The world’s a safer place today than it was yesterday.

2: @LostTacoVendor - Any normal week, the Vendor would have taken home #1 honors with this gem:

1: @Doug_Cartwright – …but this is no normal week. This is the week that the Jazz emerged as a serious threat to teams in the Western Conference, the week that the Jazz slayed some dragons, and the week where some dude (I assume Doug Cartwright) strings several words & names together into a sentence that may or may not actually mean something!

Follow JEFF on Twitter!

Dropped from the list: @AllThatAmar (3), @SaltCityHoops (4), @tribjazz (5), @UTESnJAZZ (7), @andyblarsen (8), @My_Lo (9), @monilogue (10)

Others receiving votes: @nickyjam21 155, @JazzHype 111, @jazzedUteman 26, @mharpring15 1

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Mo Williams knocks out the Spurs with a dagger 3

Spencer Hall —  December 13, 2012 — Leave a comment

San Antonio Spurs 96 Final
Recap | Box Score		 99 Utah Jazz
Paul Millsap, PF 36 MIN | 10-15 FG | 4-6 FT | 12 REB | 5 AST | 24 PTS | +11

A vintage Paul Millsap game. On the offensive side, his twisting, contorting layups, jumpers, and floaters answered every run the Spurs made. He also picked up the key rebound at the end of the game, leading to the final shot. Stay forever, Paul.

Al Jefferson, C 35 MIN | 10-18 FG | 1-1 FT | 4 REB | 4 AST | 21 PTS | -1

Jefferson had his hands full guarding Tim Duncan and when he gave up three quick baskets in the first quarter, it looked like it was going to be a long night. Credit to Al for making things difficult for Duncan for the rest of the game.
Mo Williams, PG 32 MIN | 3-9 FG | 1-2 FT | 3 REB | 4 AST | 8 PTS | +7

“No no no no no YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS”
Randy Foye, PG 32 MIN | 5-10 FG | 0-1 FT | 2 REB | 2 AST | 13 PTS | -1

In the moments when it seemed like the Spurs were going to run away with things in the first quarter, Foye’s threes kept the Jazz within distance.
Gordon Hayward, SG 29 MIN | 7-14 FG | 1-1 FT | 7 REB | 6 AST | 19 PTS | +13

Gordon stepped up in fourth quarter and hit two crucial threes (and 4-6 overall). He also had 5 rebounds in the fourth. It was fun to watch him battle with Manu Ginobili–the reason he chose to wear #20.

Five Things We Saw

  1. This is the kind of game the Spurs seem to ALWAYS win. No team is better in the fourth quarter on the road. After the game, Mo Williams commented on how proud he was that the Jazz didn’t panic every time the Spurs made a big play down the stretch. So many options for San Antonio–and the Jazz forced them to to take tough shots all quarter. Huge, huge win for the Jazz.
  2. “After draining the shot, Williams looked up to make sure there was no time left, then took off running toward the other end of the court only to be mobbed by teammates.

    “It was amazing,” said Millsap, who grabbed the key offensive rebound after Williams’ first miss. ‘It was a big win for us, a big win for our fans, a big win for our whole organization.’” [link]

  3. Chasedown Blocks™ by Gordon Hayward.
  4. The atmosphere and finish was very reminiscent of the famous Sundiata game, which also featured Mo Williams prominently (as a member of the Cavs). Both nationally-televised games against the top team in the league. Both games seemed to be out of hand late and the Jazz found a way to win. Both games featured unbelievable shots and pandemonium in the crowd. Too good.

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Una Charla Breve With Manu Ginobili

Spencer Hall —  December 12, 2012 — Leave a comment

Manu Ginobili at shootaround

In preparation for tonight’s Jazz-Spurs game on ESPN from the ESA, I went 5-on-5 with some fellow TrueHoop minds to give a subjective voice to Hollinger’s Playoff Odds. I also did a little give-and-go with Spurs TrueHoop gentleman Andrew McNeill.

It’s a late start for the national TV audience, so here’s a bit of an interview with Manu Ginobili at shootaround, featuring a question each from me and a RootSports producer:

—

RootSports: You met the Jazz four times in the Playoffs last year; how have the Jazz changed this year? Seems like they’ve added a lot of shooters.

Manu: Yeah, that was their biggest deficiency last year–they didn’t have anyone who could hit the big three. And now they added both Mo [Williams] and Randy Foye, that’re good shooters. So they did change. Always when you have good post players, you need three-point shooters–because otherwise everybody will just collapse in the paint and it makes everything hard for them. So now they added shooters–you know Mo had a terrific game against us. So they’ve become a little more solid overall.

SRH: Gordon Hayward wears #20 because he says he followed you growing up. What’s your assessment of his game?

Manu: I didn’t know that; that makes me feel good. He’s a very good, active, athletic wing player. He, of course, has a knack for scoring and getting things done both offensively and defensively. I don’t know what he’s shooting this year–we haven’t talked about it–but last year he didn’t make a lot of shots from deep–and for every slasher, that’s huge. Because when they start to more respect your shot, you have more room to use your explosiveness and to get to the rim. I’m talking about last year, not this year. That’s what he needs to improve. But yeah, he’s very active, gets his hands on a lot of balls, he’s very athletic. He’s a good player–and he’s going to get even better as he matures and gets used to the league.

SRH: How is it to see [Knicks rookie and fellow Argentine Pablo] Prigioni in the league after all these years?

Manu: Amazing. I’m very happy for him and I think it’s very fair–after the terrific career he had in Europe for so many years, being one of the best for seven seasons consecutively. So it’s a great recognition for him–and I really wanted to him to try it, at least. We know it’s not going to be a seven-year career–he’s 35. But, I think every player should at least taste the NBA and compare himself with the best players in the world. I’m very glad for him.

—

Al Jefferson - Journalist

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Retro Jazz: Karl Malone SportsCentury

Spencer Hall —  December 11, 2012 — Leave a comment

From 2005, here’s the ESPN SportsCentury episode featuring Karl Malone. You can read the accompanying story here.

It’s been nearly a decade since Karl Malone last played for the Jazz, amazingly. This clip looks back on his career shortly after his retirement following the 2003-04 season with the Lakers that I try to forget ever happened. As much as I don’t like the Lakers, I hated to see him get hurt in December of that season and never fully recover—even though he still basically carried that dysfunctional team until he finally couldn’t play in Game 5 of the Finals against the eventual-champion Pistons.

Re-watching this clip, I couldn’t help but feel lucky that I got the chance to follow Malone’s entire career. He gave Jazz fans more than our fair share of amazing moments and never took a game off. It’s absolutely amazing that he only missed 10 games in 18 years with the Jazz. Enjoy the clip and relive a remarkable career and life of a complicated man.

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Jazz 20-Game Pythagorean Update

Spencer Hall —  December 10, 2012 — 2 Comments

pythagorean-jazz

by Geoff Beckstrom, special to Salt City Hoops

After 22 games and essentially one-fourth of the way through the schedule, let’s take a look at total win projections—first from a pure numbers standpoint and then from a softer analytical approach:

At 10-10, before the nice wins against the Raptors and Lakers, the Jazz’ win percentage was .500, which projects to a final record of 41-41. However, we all know the Jazz have had a road-heavy schedule so far—with a road/home split of 12/8. The Jazz were 3-9 on the road and 7-1 at home. We can project a final win total from this by projecting final road and home records based on current winning percentage, which predicts final records of 10-31 Road and 36-5 Home, for a final record of 46-36.

Next we can use the Pythagorean Expectation to take point differential and project a final win percentage. After 22 games, the Jazz average 101.3 pts per game and give up 99.3 pts per game. Here’s the formula:

Pythagorean projection

Plugging in those numbers gives a .569 win percentage or a predicted record at 22 games of 12.5-9.5 and over 82 games of 46.6-35.4.

So the pure numbers give us an expected win range of 41-46.

Now for the more soft approach. Here’s a complete Google Doc spreadsheet for those interested.

Looking back at the first 20 games, there is a mixture of positive and negative news, as one would expect with a 10-10 record. It is hard to point to a really good win for the Jazz. Every quality team the Jazz beat comes with a bit of an asterisk. Dallas and Denver were both playing on the end of a back-to-back travelling into SLC. Even with fun wins over the Lakers, the Jazz still have 12 wins over mostly lottery-bound teams.

On the flip side, the Jazz do not have a single quality win on the road and a couple of really bad road losses in New Orleans and Sacramento—and have been blown out in Oklahoma City, Denver and San Antonio. Finally, this team has a number of near misses in Philadelphia, Boston, Memphis, and of course the game Bavetta gift-wrapped for the Clippers.

The key that I mentioned at the beginning of the year is to get to Game 39 as close to .500 as possible—having played 9 more road games than home games. A 20-19 record at that point would be a +10 Road Win to Home Loss differential, on pace for a 50-win season.

The problem is that the next 19 games will be more difficult than the first 20, including losable home games vs.:

  • San Antonio
  • Memphis
  • Clippers
  • Dallas

Also looming is a very tough road schedule including the upcoming East swing in Brooklyn, Indiana, Miami and Orlando over 6 days leading into Christmas. You could see this team at a 16-23 record and yet still be on pace for 40-44 wins and in contention for one of the final playoff seeds.

The first 20 games have been well-described by many as average—and even to a certain degree boring. Games 21 and 22 featured a team we hadn’t really seen this year, an exciting display of sharing the ball on the way to blowing out an inferior team at home and putting the foot to the throat on a struggling Laker team on the road in LA. Unless that team is here to stay, there are plenty of reasons to expect somewhere between 41 and 45 victories and a 7th or 8th seed in the playoffs. As a fan, I hope we’re seeing the team make the jump to a higher (and more entertaining) level of play and a realistic shot at a push towards 50 wins.

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The Early-Season Excellence of Randy Foye

Spencer Hall —  December 9, 2012 — Leave a comment

Randy Foye

by Sam Strong, special to Salt City Hoops

Don’t look now, but the Jazz are on a two-game winning streak after throttling the Raptors at Energy Solutions Arena on Friday, 131-99.

While the Jazz continue to hover around .500 – currently the sixth-best record in the Western Conference – the front office’s offseason moves are hard to ignore. An NBA scout said earlier this season that Utah made “the two best moves that nobody heard about” by stealing Mo Williams and Randy Foye away from the Clippers.

As a guy who watches more Clipper games than Jazz games, I’ve long been a fan of Foye’s. He’s the ultimate team guy who’s willing to step in and drain his silky 3-point shot whenever it’s needed. But in Los Angeles, that’s all he was, a role player.

As I watched the Clippers destroy the Mavericks from the nosebleeds at Staples Center on Wednesday, I saw a team that no longer needed Foye. With Jamal Crawford leading Lob City in scoring and Chauncey Billups coming back to an already crowded backcourt, Foye was the most expendable player.

At ESA just 48 hours later, I saw a team that depended on Foye, who finished with 13 points on Friday.

“This is a better place for me,” Foye said. “Last year, I was just a guy there. Mo and I used to share minutes there but here, I’m valuable. I helped the Clippers make history last year. I can’t say anything negative about them because they helped me get to where I am now.”

Coach Ty Corbin has started Foye in Utah’s last 11 games, a stretch that has seen the Jazz go 7-4. Foye says he doesn’t care whether he starts, adding that he’s “team-first with everything.”

Corbin had to agree.

“He’ll do whatever you need him to if it means getting a win,” he said. “He’s a great team guy in the locker room. Guys enjoy being around him. He’s a good person and he’s easy to be around because he loved to compete and he’s about the team, not the individual.”

Foye is averaging his highest point total (11.4) since his time in Minnesota (2008-2009). Not coincidentally, the Jazz are shooting their best percentage from beyond the arc (36.4) since 2009-2010, when some guy named Korver stole the hearts of every female Jazz fan in Salt Lake City. With Foye, the Jazz jumped from the league’s 27th best 3-point shooting team to the No. 9.

“He brings consistency,” former and current teammate Mo Williams said. “He’s just a solid basketball player, someone that every team needs.”

By no means is Foye an all star and he’s the first to admit he has his fair share of off nights – like Wednesday’s narrow win over Orlando when Foye was just 1-for-6 from 3-point range. But let’s not forget that his lone make on the night gave they Jazz a lead they would never relinquish.

Foye will also have nights like he did a week ago when he scored 20 points and handed out six assists in a loss to the Rockets. And who could forget when he hit three 3-pointers in less than two minutes on his way to scoring 17 points in a win over the Lakers earlier this season.

If you’ve followed the jazz for the past decade, you know about the two-guard paradox. Wing players are always complaining about minutes (paging Mr. Bell and Mr. Miles) but fans chirp back that they haven’t had a reliable shooting guard since Jeff Hornacek.

You won’t find Foye’s number hanging in the rafters anytime soon. He’s a short-term fix for now, but Jazz management might want to think about extending his contract, a one-year deal worth $2.5 million. He has added that long-range dimension that the Jazz have lacked in recent years by spreading the floor and not allowing opposing defenses to pack it in on the big men.

Typical of Foye, he’s not complacent.

“I can continue to grow,” he said. “I’m never satisfied until the last buzzer of the last game of the year.”

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Lindsanity – Utah Jazz Twitter Power Rankings v 2.0

Jeff Lind —  December 7, 2012 — Leave a comment

What a week! Since the last Lindsanity post, our (then) 9-7 Utah Jazz have dropped three of four (one being a brutal one point loss at the hands of the Clippers), and are now dead even in the W/L at 10-10. Hopefully this week’s awesome group of tweets will improve morale and give the team some additional luck going into a tough slate of games. And here they are: This week’s top 10 tweets from Jazz Nation.

10: @monilogue – From one of my favorite Jazz bloggers and fans, Moni knows the order of operations when it comes to Jazz fandom: 1) Jazz 2) Jerry Sloan 3) buttering me up (somehow my brother ended up sitting next to Jerry Sloan at the Jazz/Clips game… with no good stories to show for it).

9: @My_Lo - It was easy to pile on the refs after the Clippers loss, but blaming a giant blown lead on officiating is a bad look, and Mychal (who’s never scared of dishing out unpopular opinions) spat truth here.

8: @andyblarsen – SAYING THAT… Chauncey-freaking-flopping-Billups. Preach Andy:

7: @UTESnJAZZ – First timer to the list, Chris says it like it was/is… because SRSLY Bavetta: Chris, Howard Eisley, and I still haven’t forgiven you.

6: @5kl – Has anyone figured out the method to Corbin’s rotational madness? I haven’t, and with a Favors injury and back spasms on the Al front, I don’t know if we will any time soon.

5: @tribjazz - Most of the tweets on this list only made me laugh as a defense mechanism against all the Bavetta/Billups pain, but this gem had me cleaning soda off my screen after I read it, which is what vaulted Mr. Oram to the 5th spot as a first week entrant.

4: @SaltCityHoops (7) - Like I said last week, it’s all about the subtleties with SaltCityHoops. He knows the idiosyncracies of the Utah Jazz fanbase & organization, and keeps an eye out for interesting microcosms of our unique culture. You say it best when you say nothing at all, Spencer. #FisherLiedGirls

3: @AllThatAmar (5) – Witnessing a player go from a scorching FG% of .727 to a horrific .147 within a week can drive a man to drink.

2: @LostTacoVendor (4) – Because I’m still not over it, and I don’t think anyone could have put it into better words.

1: @DJJazzyJody (2) – And speaking of tweets regarding flops, taking over the top spot this week is Jody, who depresses me to no end with this:

 

FOLLOW JEFF ON TWITTER!

 

Dropped from the list: @CowhideGlobe (1), @Neildos (3), @JazzmanJoey (6), @lockedonsports (8), @Enes_Kanter (9), @clintonite33 (10)

Others receiving votes: @CowhideGlobe 109, @davidjsmith1232 89, @JazzHoops 32, @mharpring15 1

 

 

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If you can coach, you can coach: Natalie Nakase and Earl Watson

Spencer Hall —  December 3, 2012 — Leave a comment

Natalie Nakase

Natalie Nakase is an assistant film coordinator for the Los Angeles Clippers and former head coach of the Saitama Broncos, a men’s professional basketball team in Japan. You’d be forgiven for thinking that her résumé sounds a little backwards chronologically. The film coordinator intern isn’t usually a former professional head coach. But Nakase is a firm believer in putting in the work and paying her dues. She might be at the bottom of the org chart now, but she has her sights set on coaching in the NBA and was recently profiled in a great ESPN Outside The Lines piece by Kate Fagan and Shelley Smith.

Read that entire story, if you haven’t already, and then come back and join us.

As mentioned in the OTL story, Nakase is a close friend of Jazz point guard Earl Watson from their UCLA days. The two remain close and both share a similar mental approach to the game and to life. A conversation with either will often include references to books like Outliers, The Power of Now, and The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success.

Her other primary NBA mentor is former Knicks, Pacers, Spurs, and Sonics coach Bob Hill, who took Nakase under his wing as the coach of the Tokyo Apache:

Hill’s mentorship continued after Nakase moved on to Saitama, with the two talking regularly. When Nakase returned to Los Angeles this past spring, she knew what she wanted to do next, and Hill encouraged her. If you want the NBA, he told her, don’t take your eyes off that goal. Never turn down an invitation to step foot inside an NBA facility.

Connections matter in the NBA, just like they do anywhere else. And with his lengthy résumé, 64-year-old Hill is just one degree removed from every decision-maker in the league. A quick phone call or email from Hill on Nakase’s behalf can go a long way toward making people pay attention. Just having him in her corner gives her huge confidence.

“He’s the reason I’m chasing this dream,” Nakase says of Hill. “I was so fascinated by his experiences. With him, basketball was 24/7, and I wanted to be a part of that. He opened my eyes to what basketball can be.”

The main hurdle for Nakase on her way to a spot on an NBA bench is simply the fact that it hasn’t happened before:

The NBA possesses more of a herdlike mentality than it cares to admit. Just look at the analytics revolution that is sweeping the league. A few teams — the Boston Celtics, Dallas Mavericks and Oklahoma City Thunder — had success making decisions based on new statistical formulas, and the rest are now scurrying to catch up, hiring their own numbers guys. Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey says all NBA teams want to be ahead of the curve, but few can afford the risk. “It’s always easier when you have one example to point to, so when you take that idea to your owner, you can say, ‘See, it worked here.’ Nobody wants to be the first.”

This mentality is one reason women aren’t being hired as NBA coaches — because no team has done it yet. The league loves to recycle, with teams routinely installing coaches and general managers who’ve been hired and fired multiple times. But, as Morey puts it, “I find it hard to believe that all of the best and smartest thinkers in basketball just happen to share the same chromosome.”

I asked Earl for his response to the feature on Natalie and her path to coaching in the NBA:

Earl Watson: I think it’s disappointing to even talk about gender. I think it’s just stupid. If you have the skills, you have the skills. It’s very ignorant to even bring up her gender. It’s amazing what she does. She’s dedicated to what she does. It’s not a fad and it’s not a trend for her; she’s been focused on trying to achieve her goals since I met her when she was 17 or 18 years old at UCLA. So it’s not like she’s trendy or all of a sudden trying to create a movement–she’s been about it. She gets a lot of criticism–even from her own gender–for not wanting to coach women, so I guess it’s like reverse stereotypes. So her goal is to continue to push forward, to get better, to grow–and she’s good at what she does. She’s good.

She’ll continue to work hard. The league is evolving so quickly–beyond borders, beyond color, beyond gender now. But it’s going to happen soon and she doesn’t want it any other way–she wants to work for it.

Like any coach, you have to have success. Like any coach you have to put in the work, pay your dues, you have to learn the game, be a student of the game. More than anything, you have to be addicted. Addictions are good if they’re positive. For Natalie, basketball is her addiction. She’s growing. She’s a student of the game. She puts in the work. She can go out there and show you the drill. There are a lot of male coaches who can’t show you the drill. So it’s amazing how she brings a lot to the table–a lot more than what people see because she’s a female.

SRH: I think there’s a perception sometimes that they players aren’t open–that there’s a jock culture. My perception is that the players in this league don’t get as much credit as they deserve for being open-minded and accepting of different kinds of people. Where do you think the league stands?

EW: I think those are very old views. I think a lot of times we get so… put in a box as people; we observe and we view and we analyze, whatever, the situation is in life, and we go off what we heard or what we grew up watching. Life is constantly evolving. Evolution is constant. If you want a players attention? You have to really know the game. You have to really be a student of the game and really understand what you’re talking about–and communicate. Communication is key in anything you do–especially in this league. If you communicate and you teach things the right way, players immediately respect you. If you don’t know what you’re talking about? Players can sniff it out immediately.

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Not mentioned in the OTL story is the success of Nancy Lieberman. One of the greatest players of all time, Lieberman recently coached the Texas Legends, the D-League team for the Dallas Mavericks. As a side note, Lieberman was a good friend of Frank Layden and once played for the Jazz on a summer league team. In an interview in 2011 for Yago Colas’ spectacular Cultures of Basketball class at the University of Michigan, I asked Lieberman to reflect on her experience coaching men:

Spencer Ryan Hall: I like the way you’ve responded to the questions about coaching in the D-League, saying that men are used to having women in their lives and it’s nothing new for a young man to receive advice from a woman.

Nancy Lieberman: Exactly. It’s no different than being the youngest coach in the NBA, for example. Coach Spoelstra with the Heat is up against some of the same challenges. The bottom line is whether you can do your job. It’s the same thing.

Imagine someone starting a new job or getting a new boss and saying ‘I can’t work for a women, she’s too emotional.’ Or ‘I can’t work for an African-American.’ It sounds ridiculous because it is. People have to be judged on whether they can do the job or not, and I’m glad we live in a world where people have opportunities to chase their dreams.

I’ve actually played in the minor leagues, I’ve coached and played in the WNBA, I’ve been a commentator with ESPN. I actually know a lot about the things these guys are going through.

If I were to give up on my dreams simply because people said I couldn’t do something, I would have quit a long time ago. We have a rule on the team that says “No excuses, no explanations, no deflections.” And that goes for me, too. I can’t make excuses for myself or ask for special treatment because I’m a woman. I have to get the job done.

While receiving an award from Niagara University recently, Lieberman noted that most of her biggest advocates have always been men:

“Every important job I’ve had in my life I’ve been championed by men,” Lieberman said. “I get grilled by people asking me, ‘Who did what to you? When you played how did they treat you in the locker room? They had to do something mean to you.’ … The men were so supportive of me ecause I was so supportive of them. There’s this trust and now I’m trying to bring that to women.

“My generation, the pie was so small that Cheryl Miller, Ann Meyers, myself all had such a big piece of the pie that there was a lot of envy or as I call it haterade,” Lieberman said. “Now there’s so much. We think we’ve come a long way. And we have. But we’re still in the baby stage.”

Here’s hoping we see Nakase on the sidelines sometime soon.

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A former walk-on reflects on the passing of Rick Majerus

Spencer Hall —  December 3, 2012 — Leave a comment

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AP Photo/Jack Dempsey

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by Tim Cannon, special to Salt City Hoops

The life lessons I remember the most from Coach Majerus were the ones he had the most difficulty following. During my one year as a walk-on in his program (1994-1995), I remember him having us sit in the first row of the Huntsman Center stands after one practice and talking to us about the importance of living a balanced life. That day, he told us not to drink soda (which from that day on I have barely touched), to eat healthy, and to find interests outside of basketball. The summer prior to that season, he had been an assistant coach for Dream Team II at the World Championships, and frequently rendered his opinion on the members of that team. He had a deep admiration for Joe Dumars, and spoke about him as a model for our lives on many occasions. Joe Dumars was a healthy eater, engaged in hobbies off of the basketball court (like tennis). It struck me at the time, that he was probably trying to motivate himself as much as us. After all, he struggled with weight, lived in a hotel, ate out every meal, and was consumed with basketball.

The narrative of his life, as far as public perception goes, seems to go like this: In the 90′s he was a lovable wizard of coaching, who charmed the media, routinely coached untalented players to Sweet 16s and beyond, and had a big heart. A decade later, more attention was given to the cantankerous and sometimes abusive coach who dropped scholarships of low performing players and tormented ones who did not live to their potential (the Lance Allred autobiography). My year with him left me the impression that all of the above were true except one (which I will get to later), but that he was a generous soul that left a positive mark on most people’s lives that crossed paths with his.

He recognized long before I did that I was not a very good player. He called me “Jersey” because I am from New Jersey, and rarely talked to me directly. When he needed me in a drill, he would yell to assistant coach Donny Daniels, “Donny, get me Jersey”…even if I was standing next to him. The handful of times I had private conversations with him away from the practice court, he always showed a keen interest in my well-being and my academic pursuits. He always remembered that I hoped to be a physician some day. I had seen all of his quips and jokes during interviews when I was high school and was surprised by how rarely he joked around the players. If I hadn’t been aware of his media persona, I would never have thought of him as remotely humorous (at least, not purposefully).

He had a great eye for talent (and unfortunately, lack of talent). I remember overhearing him tell assistant coaches how anxious he was for Andre Miller to become eligable, because he felt he was going to be a star. I had played pickup games with Andre throughout the preseason and was unimpressed. I really did not believe he was as good as Terry Preston, the starting point guard at the time. Of course, Andre Miller is now very wealthy and I was very wrong. When Garner Meads was a McDonald’s All-American finishing his senior season, my friend Tyler was sitting next to Rick Majerus on a plane. He told my friend that Garner Meads “is not a special player.” Once again, he proved prophetic.

He may have sold the story to the media, as most coaches do, that his teams were not that talented. I think that this is the biggest misperception of his coaching career. The 1997-1998 Utes were sold to the viewers of the NCAA tournament as a band of overachieving slow players that played basketball the right way. From my point of view, the Utes had a more talented roster than the Kentucky Wildcats (who they lost to in the NCAA finals). Four players on that team played in the NBA (Miller, Michael Doleac, Hanno Mottola, and Britton Johnson). Coach Majerus was an underrated recruiter. He was a great coach, but I certainly felt his coaching style had some flaws. The most serious being his micromanaging of offensive basketball. He would spend hours on seemingly insignificant details about attacking the zone, that would make his guards think so hard that they were rendered incapable of any instinctful basketball play (I watched the 2008 game where his Saint Louis team scored only 20 points). But when he had players that did not get bogged down in his details (like Miller), his teams could produce basketball in a way that was absolutely breathtaking. I will never forget watching them take apart Arizona to go to the final four in 1998. The cuts, the screens, the passing was as aesthetically pleasing as any basketball I have seen since. Of course, he was a great defensive coach as well.

He was a yeller, there was no doubt about it. Sometimes, he would get himself so worked up in practice, that he completely would get carried away in a non-sensical rant. The rants were full of obscenities and often quite funny (not purposefully). I tried to write some of these down but I don’t know where I put them. Keith Van Horn was the most common target that year. For me to assert that I know to what degree these were psychologically damaging, would not be fair, since he never really yelled at me (or any of the other walk-ons). Keith seemed to take it well. There are so many advantages to being a star Division 1 athlete that being berated during basketball practices does not seem to be one of the world’s great injustices.

He was a generous donor to causes such as the Huntsman Cancer Institute (which strikes a cord with me, now that I am an oncologist). He seemed incredibly loyal and generous to the players that stuck it out for four years, and was very invested in their success. He was a basketball genius, and a large figure in the college basketball world. He will be missed.

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Dr. Tim Cannon played one year for Coach Rick Majerus at Utah during the heyday of the program and later for BYU.

Be sure to also read this (Gene Wojciechowski/ESPN), this (ESPN story roundup), this (Boston Globe), and this (Brad Rock).

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