WORLD BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP Battier goes where others fear to tread Rockets forward does dirty deeds that make scoring stars of teammates By FRAN BLINEBURY Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle SAITAMA, JAPAN - Shane Battier took three shots against Germany, missed them all and finished with one point. He was splendid. That is, if you knew where to look. In Dirk Nowitzki's face and in his shadow and practically in his uniform on every dogged step all over the court. Battier was an old-fashioned throwback working inside the modern technological wonder that is the Super Arena. He ended the night with just four rebounds. Yet how many other times was he in there fighting under the glass, not coming down with the ball, but tapping it outside to a teammate? When he isn't making the pass to Carmelo Anthony or LeBron James or Dwyane Wade that leads to a basket for the star-studded Team USA, Battier is making the pass that leads to the pass. You don't look for Battier in the box score. You find him down on the floor, diving after loose balls. Or in an opponent's head. The 'annoy' factor Which is precisely why the Rockets traded the rights to 19-year-old Rudy Gay for Battier on draft night in June. "I think when I'm playing against a lot of guys in the NBA, I can be annoying," he said with a smile. "Because I make those plays and it's like, 'Gosh, this Battier guy's diving for loose balls. Who does he think he is?' I hope they appreciate that on this team." The 6-8 forward is the player every player and every coach appreciates. Because he doesn't have to be told to do the dirty stuff, he just rolls up his sleeves. He doesn't have to be convinced that it's the little things that matter because he's had a basketball lifetime of living the proof. From his early days on a court through four years under Mike Krzyzewski at Duke, Battier has always had mentors and coaches who stressed higher understanding of the game over highlights on TV. Even when he was leading Coach K's Blue Devils to a pair of Final Fours, winning the NCAA title in 2001 and being named the national player of the year, you noticed Battier more for the details. "I've always had great coaches who've taught me the game," he said. "In particular, my high school coach told me that you can play a long time and you can feed your family pretty well by doing those sort of things. It's just the way I was taught the game, the way I think about the game." How do those attributes blossom during the formative years on the playgrounds? Battier shrugs and laughs. "You know what? Growing up in Birmingham, Mich., an affluent suburb of Detroit, I never played in the playgrounds," he said. "I don't know about all that. I never did it. I was always working my game by myself or with a team or in a nice gym. "But I look at my dad. He runs a trucking company that hauls steel for the auto industry, and he got up every day for the last 30 years and went to work in a job that's not the most glamorous. But he always did it in a workmanlike fashion. I've taken a lot from him. It doesn't have to be glamorous. But it has to be efficient and it has to be every single day. That's sort of the persona that I try to take on as a professional myself." In a SportsCenter world of look-at-me preening, Battier is the anomaly. "I think so, a little bit," he said. "There are not many basketball clinics that are teaching you to dive for a loose ball. Not many basketball clinics that you go to and hear coaches talking about making the extra pass or how to rotate on defense and take a charge." But he isn't setting himself up as someone who is unique. Just someone who likes, as he says, getting up off the floor at the end of a game and counting the floor burns on his elbows and knees. The good ones do more "I think the guys who appreciate those parts of the game and do it are the guys who watch, observe the game and are just able to react," Battier said. "It's not just me. The good players all do this. I don't know why I get singled out for doing it. A lot of great players do it. Michael Jordan, the greatest player of all time, he did those things. He understood the game. Most people remember him for his 50-point games and his dunks and all that. "But the really good players in this league get it and they make those other plays. Those are the plays that are the difference between winning and losing. The key steal or getting a hand up in a guy's face on a jump shot or making the extra pass. "If you make enough of those small plays and they add up into big plays." On a USA Basketball all-star team that has enough shooters and scorers and stars, Battier is a soldier. It's the role he played for the first five years of his NBA career in Memphis. Perhaps too well. "I have very mixed emotions about the trade," he said. "I was in Memphis for five years and these days in professional sports, that's an eternity and I've developed some great relationships in Memphis. I had my place in the community and we had great friends and I had my favorite restaurants, and any time you move — I'm a person that likes stability, it's shocking at first. "But on the other side of the coin, I'm really excited to go to a new place. I think being in Memphis for five years, I did get comfortable with who I was as a player. I didn't grow as much the last couple of years." He'll leave the galaxy of Team USA stars in a few days and join the Rockets in a few weeks. "My entire basketball career, people have focused on what I can't do more than what I can do," he said. "So a part of me likes to play that part up. It's not about what I can do. It's about what we can do. Maybe that's just my way or making it about the team. "I know that I've had success. I know that I'm a good basketball player. I'm not doubting myself as a player. But this team doesn't need me to go out and extol when I need to do. Neither do the Rockets. I just need to do what I do." For Shane Battier, that's whatever it takes. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/4156204.html
This is what I like to hear. Battier having a researgence gives me chills! Wouldn't it be awsome if he got Most Improved this season!?!
that would be awesome. however, i don't think there is that much room to improve on our team. i doubt anyone scores above 14ppg with 111 playing together. if he could get 14 and 7 with a 1.5 blocks and steals. that would be great.
What a great article!! That's what the Rockets need more of; role players that always show up on the court and sometimes in the stats.
Battier is a nice guy and a good player. He is also good under the microphone. However he is a certified choker. He disappears in big games. His true tests will come when he is relied upon to make outside shots as Yao and Tmac get double/triple teamed. He will be good when there is no pressure (regular season games with not much at stake). But when the stakes are high, based on his history so far, he is going to choke at those moments.
Has Fran met a player yet at this tournament that he doesn't completely love? Is he wasted off his ass on Sake and spanking it to Japanese pr0n the whole time? Cuase for the last 2 weeks he's been writing prozac laced columns about anything and everything he bumps into.
Win or lose, it's fun to root for a team with players like Shane Battier, Bobby Sura, Yao Ming, etc. ... and if we do taste success, it's that much sweeter I don't know if I'd love those championship days to this day (to the degree I do) if the players were clowns ... the fact that it was Elie, Horry, Hakeem, Clyde, .... I think that really made it stand out I for one am glad we are adding a Spanoulis instead of a Mike James, and of course Rudy Gay could be a superstar, but I like the Battier addition .... let's hope we can perfect a style of play like Phoenix has done and really excel this year
who said it didn't? I'm just saying, we've been sold this was the solution for the team, it wasn't. actually I think the biggest advantage the usa has lost is the lack of big post players. santiago from puerto rico gave the usa fits, the us has no one to match up.
His history so far? Would you like to elaborate? Give me some examples. They better be prime examples because history is a big word. BTW, did you forget he played for Duke and has won a National Title? If playing for your college team in your senior year and winning a Title, when the only thing missing from your college resume is a Title, isn't succumbing pressure, then I don't know what pressure is. Yeah it's college, but hey, it's part of his HISTORY too.
Examples? Sure I can. Vlarelio has already mentioned the 0-16 playoffs performance in Wins column. Besides that obvious lack of *intagibles*, here are his other stats. Career Playoffs GP 396 12 GS 279 8 MPG 32.3 26.4 FG% .454 .439 3FG% .381 .286 FT% .744 .471 OFF 1.8 1.9 DEF 3.0 3.3 RPG 4.8 5.2 APG 1.7 .8 SPG 1.28 .50 BPG 1.00 .58 TO 1.12 1.33 PF 2.60 3.90 PPG 10.5 6.0 There is a drop in every single category during playoffs except rebounding (a0.4 rpg increase). What worries me most is his drastic dip in 3FG% under pressure. The supposedly intangibles he brings are also chopped by more than half in big games. FT% going south from near 75% to 47%?!?! Can you say choking? As I said, based on his history so far, I wouldnt be too comfortable with him catching the ball from Yao or Tmac in a big game.
Yes..hes a good team player...but we dont need another role player..we need a 3rd scoring option..if not we are going to be near the bottom in offense again this coming year..Hopefully the new additions of Vspan/Snyder will complement battier and whomever
Come playoff time, Battier was heavily guarded. That can and will not happen on the Rockets. Battier is going to absolutely anihilate teams this upcoming seasons with his intangibles plus deadly 3pt shooting. His defense will mean that on any given night a swingman will have to be guarded by either T-Mac, Battier or Head. Meaning, we can guard the best swingmen of all shapes and sizes. When it comes time to play Dallas in the playoffs, we will eat them alive because Dirk will be harrassed by Battier, Bowen and T-Mac. On the other side of the ball, no one can stop Yao or T-Mac, while Alston will not turn the ball over, and Battier will provide the consistent shooting that we need. I'm positive that we can beat the Mavs in a series. I'm positive we'll be at least a top 5 seed. I'm positive that our system is the most succesful in the playoffs. All I am worried about is facing the Spurs IN the playoffs. That's it. Otherwise, I can already see us taking out Denver in the first round, then Phoenix in the second. After that, we hope that Dallas takes care of San Antonio.
Uh...no he wasn't. Pau Gasol was double and triple teamed the entire series and while Mike Miller was missing every shot, Shane Battier would not even take open shots.
So that they could drop his 10ppg to 6ppg?? That does not make any sense. As already mentioned, Battier was usually left open but he treated the ball like a hot potato. When Pau was double and triple teamed, Battier did not particularly help out by making open shots.
