Pete Newell interview

His opinion on today's NBA, Yao was mentioned.

Past talks future: An interview with Pete Newell Sr.
By CHRISTINA TELLER
SENTINEL STAFF WRITER

The coach paces the court, setting up a new drill, showing the boys where to stand. The high school basketball players listen and abide by his directions, waiting to see what comes next.

He could talk about his accomplishments as a coach, the NIT championship he won at the University of San Francisco (1949), the NCAA championship at Cal (1959), or the U.S. Olympic gold (1960), but right now Pete Newell Sr., 88, is focused on the basics.

The fundamentals of basketball are what he lives for. At his annual Big Men¡¯s and Tall Women¡¯s camps, the latter of which was held last week in Monterey, any dunking skills are checked at the door. Instead, things like footwork, bounce passes and back-door cuts are taught, explained and corrected in an effort to resurrect what used to be the staples of the game.

A photographer circles the court, snapping away as Newell, who now resides near San Diego, leads the Santa Cruz High players through three-on-three drills. The pictures will provide the Hall of Fame coach with illustrations for a book he hopes to write on offensive strategy. But while the kids give the coach their time, what¡¯s more important is what the coach can give to them.

With experience in numerous facets of the game, including serving as general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers and a consultant with the Golden State Warriors, Newell gives his time to the game that has given him so much.

He is the antithesis of modern basketball. Like his son, Santa Cruz boys basketball coach Pete Newell Jr., he talks softly, slowly and carefully, taking time to make sure he is understood. He offers examples and thorough explanations for every point he touches upon. In a time when basketball seems to be more about money and street cred and less about the orange ball meeting the hardwood, Newell takes time to talk about what the game used to be and where it¡¯s heading.

Santa Cruz Sentinel: It seems like NBA players are always in the news, and not usually for something good. Are the players getting into more trouble these days, or is it a product of more intense media coverage?

Pete Newell: People probably are not doing anything today that they weren¡¯t doing 25 years ago, but with more television and media attention. ... There¡¯s more of a negativity in the media I think today than there used to be, especially in television.

SCS: Do you think the way the media covers sports has changed the game?

PN: Coaching is much more difficult today. They make a lot more money today, but they have a lot more problems. The media attention puts them more in a glass house.

SCS: Players are making a lot more money professionally, and that seems to be what¡¯s most important to a lot of them. How is that aspect different from when you were coaching?

PN: When I was coaching at Cal, I don¡¯t think I had a player that was thinking about the NBA. They were getting their degree and going on. Basketball was a great release for them, and they were more academic ¡ª qualifying for medical school or law school and those kinds of things. It¡¯s different today. You get a star player, and you¡¯re lucky to have them for one year. And there are so many outside influences that we never had to worry about.

SCS: What do you think about the whole LeBron James craze and the fact that he has a $90 million shoe contract with Nike?

PN: It¡¯s kind of hard to imagine a young man like that making all this money, and he hasn¡¯t done anything yet. He¡¯s been playing with high school kids and hasn¡¯t been playing with hardened professionals.

SCS: Have you seen him play?

PN: Just on TV. I¡¯m not influenced by the dunk because you¡¯ve seen one, you¡¯ve seen them all. (laughs) He¡¯s got all the dunks, but that doesn¡¯t make a guy a basketball player. The kid does have talent, there¡¯s no doubt about that.

SCS: What is he up against in his first NBA season?

PN: He¡¯s going to run into a physical challenge that is as big or maybe bigger physically and certainly more experienced. It¡¯s a question of how he can handle that. He has to be able to handle cheap shots. They¡¯re going to test him to see how tough he is. They¡¯re going to do defensively all the tricks they have ¡ª pulling your shirt and things like that. He¡¯s going to have to cope with them if he¡¯s going to be the star.

SCS: In the this year¡¯s draft, more foreign players were taken than ever before. Do you see the trend continuing?

PN: I do. I think American basketball as far as teaching is concerned has gone backward ¡ª the individual skills and taking time to teach players more about the game. Coaches, they don¡¯t have the time at the high school level. Pete (Newell Jr., coach of the Santa Cruz High boys basketball team) had practice last year at 5:30 p.m., and that¡¯s better than some coaches who have it at 7 p.m. or 6 in the morning. The coaches want to teach, and they don¡¯t have time because they only have an hour and 20 minutes.

SCS: Does that help explain what happened to team USA when it finished sixth at the last year¡¯s World Games?

PN: We were really kind of unmatched at Indianapolis in the World Games when we got beat by all those teams. The American writers used our lack of basic fundamental skills as one of the reasons, and we looked so bad compared to (the foreign teams) because they seemed to be so well taught fundamentally. And it was true. We had some of our best NBA players, so you can¡¯t say that we didn¡¯t have a team. It¡¯s something that we¡¯re going to have to address ourselves because there are going to be more well-taught and fundamentally sound foreign players coming into basketball than we¡¯re producing. We aren¡¯t producing any centers.

SCS: Is that because of the motion offense?

PN: Everyone has their own idea. Part of it is that the motion and flex offenses don¡¯t use the center. They have a whole different spacing and the spacing is such that you create the shot from away from the basket. I¡¯ll teach nine moves to drive to the basket, nine different foot skills. None of those are used in the motion and flex. None of them. It¡¯s the same with passes ¡ª the bounce pass, drop pass, cross-court pass, baseball pass, and the chest pass. They¡¯ll use the chest pass but there¡¯s no cross-court, no back door. All the things that were the basic elements of the game are not that important now. Somehow, we have to break it down at the lower level and try to re-sell the coaches on teaching it.

SCS: How early should that start?

PN: At the high school level. Take the summer leagues. They play two, three games a day, and all they do is compound their mistakes. There¡¯s no teaching, they¡¯re just playing. And while we¡¯re doing that, (in other countries) they¡¯re putting them into schools. You saw the big Chinese center (Yao Ming), the remarkable footwork he has. Someone taught him so well because he shot with his left hand and right hand and he had great balance for a big man. He came through a system of teaching of the basics.

SCS: Is Shaq the last true center?

PN: Shaq is the only true center in the NBA. If he just stays healthy, he¡¯s one of the greatest centers. Offensively, his game is so much better than a lot of people give him credit for. In five games, he¡¯ll show you eight different moves.

SCS: Do you think the Lakers¡¯ four egos ¡ª Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O¡¯Neal, Karl Malone and Gary Payton ¡ª are going to be able to successfully co-exist?

PN: I think that if Payton can take the role like Magic did, making these other three guys better, being able to get the ball into Shaq, being able to play the two-man game like (John) Stockton did with Karl. ...

Malone brings to the Lakers something that they lack ¡ª the ability to hit an open shot 18 feet out. He can give them an inside presence which they don¡¯t have.

I think they¡¯ll have bench strengths. I¡¯m a big (Luke) Walton fan. I think he¡¯s kind of an old-time player. He does a lot of things, he understands the game and he makes other players better. I think he¡¯s going to be perfect for this whole situation. He¡¯s the kind of a guy that makes the engine go. He oils lot of different parts.

If Payton can see the big picture, which I¡¯m not sure he can, and doesn¡¯t try to become the fourth scorer, and if Kobe ever gets out of this ¡ª he looks like he¡¯s in a jam, doesn¡¯t he? ¡ª I think they¡¯re going to be real hard to beat for a lot of reasons.

Contact Christina Teller at cteller@santa-cruz.com.