Love & Understanding

Change is a part of all our lives, and it's progress becomes more profound the older we get. We can rarely shake the sense of time marching on, but sports provides us with a sense of continuity. When we return to the neighbourhoods of our youth, the differences often are more marked than the similarities; the store where our best friend's home used to be...the park we played baseball in is now a row of townhouses. But when we watch sports we seem to sidestep the inexorable tide of change and become part of a continuum, as there are chapters which progress, but there is always a sense of overlap. In basketball there has been the era of Bird and Magic...but the Nasty Boys were part of that time, and so was Michael...who was still playing when Shaq did his thing...and Shaq played against Yao, and so on. Change seems more fluid, less concrete in the arenas of our teams than in the places we have lived, as each day seems to end with another dawn rather than a night. But ever so often, for the fans of particular teams, there are or seem to be moments which mark our progress as our father charted our growth on the kitchen doorframe, and I feel part of one such moment right now. Rudy Tomjanovich is leaving...Larry Brown might be coming. The times, as Dylan said, they are a changin in Houston basketball.

In the flickering twilight of Rudy T's career as a Houston Rockets' coach it had become cliche to refer to his shortcomings as a coach, and after the sun set on that particular chapter it became fashionable to cite his personal character and the debt this franchise owes to him as a person, but I have been thinking of other aspects; Why, exactly, did he fail, and does that say anything about our current players as well as about the man himself. What, in the end, marks this sense of change?

On the other hand I have, as most anyone who has popped in here in the last 48 hours will know, been giving a lot of thought to the possibility of Larry Brown as our coach, and the comparison between the two bounced around in my head for a while before it hit me: They represent entirely different qualities as coaches in terms of style, philosophy, etc., but the most stark contrast is in what they most represent as coaches, and inspire and demand in the players they coach.

Nothing Rudy brought to the game compared with his absolute love for it...and that permeated all aspects of the organization; he loved the players, loved to coach, loved Houston, loved the organization. It sounds corny, but the man was about love, and nothing more so than his love for the game of basketball. He took over a team with questions about desire, and inspired them to dig deep, rally around each other, and play with a passion for the game and a love of each other. Think about the players who he brought in and flourished; Mario Ellie, perhaps the quintessential Rudy Rocket played with an undisguised abandon...Sam Cassell was never the wisest player on the court, but his absolute love to play was apparent at all times. Hakeem...yeah, Hakeem. We forget the questions which whirled around Hakeem's head at the time Rudy took over; his contractual conflicts with management, the supposed 'fake' injury, and his seeming leveling off in terms of improvement were all not so subtle digs at the man's desire...which seems silly now, knowing how things unfolded, and the complete commitment Hakeem showed on the court seem strange to us now, but before Rudy they were there.

Now consider the players with whom he had conflict; Horry, a smart basketball player who, shall we say, paces himself, and rarely gives the impression of a player loving every minute of it. Pippen, another thinking man's player who doesn't exude a passion for the game, rather an understanding of it, and an ability to translate that understanding into accomplishment.

Finally, think of the players Rudy developed; Steve....Cuttino...etc., and the players he didn't really develop...Eddie in particular. What seperates them? Steve and Cat, for all their shortcomings never leave you questioning their love of the game...Eddie does. On the other hand Steve and Cat do leave you wondering about their understanding of the game. Rudy appealed to the emotional aspect of basketball...the commitment, the desire, the effort. He didn't really bring a profound understanding of basketball, but an unquenchable love, and it was reflected in his players. Is it any wonder that the organ he credits in his most famous moment is the heart?

It worked for Rudy when he dealt with players who already had the understanding of the game; veterans who didn't need to be taught so much as inspired. When he was given young guys to both teach and inspire...when he had to appeal to the mind as well as the heart, he usually came up 1 for 2. And that is a triffle sad...in a better world Rudy's faith in his players and love of the game would be rewarded in kind, and he would inspire players who knew what to do with that emotional force. In the end, his players loved him and wanted to play for him, they just didn't really understand how, and Rudy wasn't the man to show them the way. His systems were simple, and his demands few; love the game, and play hard. He showed and inspired amazing loyalty, but perhaps less respect than love. His best teams were designed around a simple basketball concept and a dynamic player who professed the simplicity of the game every time he talked about it...And it worked. But it doesn't anymore.

Larry Brown also loves the game...but not so much as he understands it. Few in history have figured out how basketball works to the degree that Larry Brown has. Rudy demanded that his players love the game...Brown demands that they understand it. Yes he wants players to love the game, what coach doesn't?...but if Brwon had to choose between a player who loves to play and a player who understands how to play, there is a great probability that he would choose the latter. Think about the players he has broguht in over time...Derrick Coleman, just about as smart of a basketball player as you will ever find, and equally as historic an example of taking the game for granted has had a rennaissance under Brown. And he isn't the first...The players who Brown has developed over the years, Eric Snow, Aaron McKee, Danny Manning, and Reggie Miller all were notable for their intelligent play, their understanding of the game.

And the ultimate competitor, Allen Iverson, has been among the greatest sources of Brown's frustration...not because he didn't love the game, few love to play more than the Answer, but because he often couldn't seem to play it smart; bad shots, missed practices, off balance passes, and missed defensive assignments drove Brown to apoplexy. But Iverson also got smarter under Brown's tutelage, something most observers felt was an impossibility.

So, if we hire Larry Brown, it will be to go from the heart to the head, and that is both good and bad. I respect the hell out of Larry Brown, but he will probably never tug at my heartstrings the way Rudy has...Yes Rudy understood the game more than you or I or 99% of the population, but compared to his peers he was hardly a savant. He was something more akin to a preacher compared with Brown's professor, and it will be interesting and sad to mark the change. Larry Brown's team will almost assuredly play smarter...there will be more accountability, and there will probably be more development of the younger players than Rudy would ever have brought us...but there will never be the kind of passion that there was back in the days of Hakeem and Ellie and Cassell and Larry Smith. Clutch City was built on that passion,and it is giving way to a different time.

I will derive much more intellectual satisfaction from watching Larry Brown devise a system and make adjustments than I did from watching Rudy's teams, because the results will be more tangible. Brown has never really garnered the kind of devotion and love from his players that Rudy has...but has earned more respect. Players loved Rudy, but often didn't learn much from him. Players often don't even like Brown, but no one questions his grasp of the game.

We will see a different kind of basketball next year, especially if Larry Brown comes to town, but we should mark the passing of one era even as we embrace the coming of another. I am pretty sure that we will not have to witness the kind of disorganized, frustratingly unwise style of play from now on...but I am almost as sure that we will never again see a coach for whom players desperately want to do their best, even if they don't know how, to the degree we saw with Rudy. Love and understanding; two sides to the game, and we are in the midst of a change that stills the usually ceaseless flow of one day to the next. I feel older today.

 

You know what...and I say this knowing it will diminish my career opportunities with the Chronicle ( ), but I don't really spend much longer on these than it takes to type the words out...Granted that in itself might be a lot, heh, but it sort of feels like opening a tap and letting it flow out, and then turning the tap off. It is not, I am sorry to say, but it might reassure you, the result of as much thought as people seem to think. The thought that does go into it might be in more of an abstract sense, as I'm walking to work, etc.

Yes, I do work...but my professional work is often in the same veign; more about what comes naturally than diligence...I am not the most organized of academics, for example.

Codell...love the sig.

 

Good Lord, if we hire Troy barros as coach, and get rid of moochie, I'll view that as progress.

Thanks for the kind words.

 

I'm at University, teaching and hoping to get tenure. I am not, contrary to Manny's sideswipe, anything like a hippie. At least not on the outside...

 

Lol! Best line about my post length I ever saw, though, was Kam...It went something like " That was one seriously long post. I read a total of none fo it."

As hurt as I was that he didn't read it, I laughed at the phrasing, and still think it was really funny.

This one was good, though.

 

Awww, SJC, and here I thought you ranked with johnheath among my biggest supporters.