Mayor Tom Leppert is scheduled to present Mavericks guard Jason Terry with an award and a proclamation today at the West Dallas Community Church. The ceremony is part of Building Leaders for Tomorrow, a week-long program aimed at teenagers.
Terry will be honored for his efforts to provide inner city youth with opportunities to further their education beyond high school.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Mavericks' Terry Honored With Award
Rusell Talks The Legacy, LeBron And -- Of Course -- The C's (Part III)
The Lakers must not have known what to make of it. With Russell on the bench, Chamberlain was left with no one to guard. Sam Jones made the game-winning shot, and Russell eventually won his 11th championship.
"That was one of my major achievements as a coach,'' he says. "What I learned from playing for Red was: Almost everything that could happen, he anticipated, and he had a decision for it. With the guys we had, we didn't have to put in a [last-second] play.
"But I felt it was my duty to my team to try to anticipate contingencies. When I see a guy with a board and he's going like this'' -- and here Russell emulates a coach drawing wildly on a greaseboard during a timeout at the end of a tight game -- "they're screwed.''
More laughter.
"When you do that, everybody's guessing," he says. "The key to making good plays work is the timing. Is this guy going to do this or that? If you have it pre-planned, you have a much better chance at success.''
Russell acknowledges that his education was different from today's players. "My junior year [at the University of San Francisco] we had one of the best years in basketball: We were 28-1, we won the Final Four, as they call it now, and I was outstanding player of the Final Four,'' he says. "I averaged 20 points and 20 rebounds a game for the whole year. They didn't count blocked shots; they never counted blocked shots till four or five years after I retired.
"But I would confidently say that I blocked in college at least 15 shots a game. I had advantages because most of the players had never seen it. I had never seen a shot blocked when I was learning to play basketball. I didn't even know what it was. And my first day of [high school] practice in junior varsity, my coach, who did not like basketball but was a great man, brought the rule book to practice. Our very first practice there was no running, no jumping, no shooting. Just we're going to learn the rules.''
Russell, who as a 22-year-old would be ranked the No. 7 high jumper in the world, learned from the rule book that he was entitled to swat at his opponents' shots before the ball reached its apex.
"So when I get to college, our first game was against California-Berkeley, and the center was preseason All-America,'' Russell says. "And I blocked the first six shots he took. Timeout, of course. They went into the huddle and said, 'What are we going to do, what is this?' We get into our huddle and my coach says to me, 'You can't play defense like that.' That's the honest-to-God truth what he said. I said, 'What do you mean?' He said, 'That's not the way to play defense. A good defensive player never leaves his feet.'
"And he says, 'What I want you to do is I want you to half-man him and deny him the ball.' So I try that, and his point guard takes two dribbles to his right and drops a bounce pass, the guy catches and turns, I'm on his back out of the defense, and so he shoots three layups in a row. I said, 'This don't make sense. I do it this way and I stop him. I do it that way and he goes in for layups? And this is how he wants me to play?'
"So we fought for the next three years. Because to me it was dumbing me down. So what I do the next three years is to play it enough to just keep him from kicking me off the team, and still playing the way I thought I should play. So I had to play it with a disguise so it looked like I was playing the way he wanted me to play.''
Russell learned to steer his man into positions where he could block the shot or intercept the pass. He spent a lot of time conniving and inventing ways to play the game, but when he retired in 1969, that was it.
"I've never played a game since then,'' he says.
Has he missed playing?
"No.''
How can he do something so well for so long and then not miss it?
"Let me put it this way: What kind of high school career did you have? Did you have fun?''
Yes.
"Do you want to go back?''
No.
His ensuing laughter is what I will remember most from my afternoon with Bill Russell.
"I played enough games,'' he says. "I played the correct number of games, not one too many, not one too few. And what I call my final victory was I decided when I leave.''
More information on Russell's fantasy camp can be found at www.friendsofbillrussell.com.
source : sportsillustrated.cnn.com
Rusell Talks The Legacy, LeBron And -- Of Course -- The C's (Part II)
He laughs his famous laugh, and for those few moments his hotel room rattles like an echo chamber. Russell lives full time in Seattle, but he has returned to Boston for this weekend in June to receive an honorary degree from Harvard.
It would be easy to promote his career at the expense of modern NBA players, to point out their deficiencies in order to emphasis his fundamental strengths. But Russell doesn't go there. On the contrary, he is protective of those who are trying to emulate him despite the pressures.
"I talk to all the rookies during their orientation week,'' he says. "I say to them, 'You're the caretakers.' It's up to the players to conduct themselves in a way that there'll always be an NBA. It's like if you watch TV and these talking heads are telling you what LeBron James should be doing. Well, they don't know what he should be doing. Like this year, I was personally offended when he went down the middle and passed the ball off, which was the exact thing he should have done.''
Russell was referring to Game 1 of last season's Eastern Conference finals when James passed up what would have been a contested shot near the basket in order to feed Donyell Marshall for a potential go-ahead three-pointer from the corner with 5.9 seconds left. Marshall missed, the Cavaliers lost to the Pistons 79-76 and James was second-guessed for not taking it all the way to the rim.
"Here's a guy who shoots that shot,'' Russell says of Marshall, a proven three-point shooter. "That's not just a uniform over there that I pass the ball to. And now all you're doing is presenting an opportunity for him to do well in what he does best. To criticize him for that, who gives a [bleep] what you think?
"Michael, I remember, he passed off to [Steve] Kerr [for a game-winning shot in the NBA Finals]. You have to know your team and who can do what. If you know there's not a good chance of this guy making it, then you go do it. But over the years you've got to know your team and which guys can perform under pressure.''
Russell tells a story from his final year as player/coach of the Celtics in 1968-69. He says he took the stats home at the end of the regular season and realized that his team had lost 17 games by three points or fewer, resulting in their No. 4 conference seed going into the playoffs.
"I go to practice the next day,'' Russell recalls, "and I say, 'Listen, guys, I think it's because we've never had a last-second-shot play. Red [Auerbach] never put one in. We've never had one. So I want you to go back to your college days, or even in high school, I don't care. Did any of your coaches ever have a play for a last-second shot?' So three guys came up with plays. And I decided to use the one from Ohio State from [Larry] Siegfried and Havlicek. So we worked the next four hours running that play. And the first time we ran it, it took 27 seconds. When we left the gym, we could run it in seven seconds.
In Game 4 of the NBA Finals against the favored Lakers, who led 2-1, the Celtics were trailing by a point when they intercepted an inbounds pass. "We call timeout, seven seconds left,'' Russell says. "So now we know the play. This is the shooting order: Sam, I think Havlicek, Siegfried, Bailey [Howell] and [Don] Nelson. I took myself out because it's going to be a 15-foot shot, and I shouldn't be out there looking for a 15-foot shot.''
continued at Part III......
source : sportsillustrated.cnn.com
Rusell Talks The Legacy, LeBron And -- Of Course -- The C's (Part I)
BOSTON -- His golf cap does not quite hide his full head of hair, the typical paunch is absent from his flat belly, and a worn championship ring weighs down each hand as 73-year-old Bill Russell devours the plate of steak and scrambled eggs from the edge of the coffee table between his perched knees. He laughs as always with the decibelic force of a ghost brought back to life.
He still is who he was. He was the best and he always will be just that, no more or no less.
He realizes that people don't know what to make of him anymore.
"It's like Wilt's 50 points a game,'' Russell says of his friend Chamberlain's unimaginable 50.4 scoring average over 80 games in 1961-62. "My eight [NBA championships] in a row -- or 11 [in 13 seasons overall] -- is so far removed for most people, it's like it never happened. I get the feeling that people think that these guys from Mars came down, won eight NBA championships and went back.'' His amused smile makes clear that he isn't taking it personally.
They put on a night to honor Russell's career a few years ago in the big downtown Boston arena that has replaced the old Garden. Wilt was there, not long before his death, as was commissioner David Stern. Michael Jordan sent a video in which he tried to joke that it was harder for him to win his six championships against the 26 more teams of his era than it had been for Russell, who was competing against 13 teams when he retired in 1969. Stern, to his credit, argued the other side: When it was his turn to speak, he pointed out that Russell's achievements were more striking because the NBA's talent was far more concentrated in the 1960s -- an admission that expansion has diluted the league.
"When I was a rookie," Russell says, "there were eight teams in the NBA, and 10 men to a squad. There were 80 jobs in professional basketball. My [third] year I had four guards, four forwards and two centers. All four of my guards are in the Hall of Fame now: K.C. [Jones], Sam [Jones], [Bill] Sharman and [Bob] Cousy. So when we went to the bench we didn't get hurt -- at all.''
Russell is hoping to create a similar environment with his first fantasy camp this fall. It will be held Oct. 17-20 at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas, and his camp "staff'' will include some of the greatest players of all time: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Charles Barkley, Clyde Drexler, Julius Erving, John Havlicek, Magic Johnson, Sam Jones, Ann Meyers Drysdale, Oscar Robertson and Jerry West. Adults can play in their company for four days at a price of $15,000, which is in the ballpark of what some NBA players were making in Russell's era.
"Basically it's a fantasy camp for me,'' Russell says. "I want to go to this fantasy camp and have all of these guys here.''
Why is it that the best performers in sports so often wind up becoming the best of friends?
"We have the same experiences with the same -- if you want to call them -- pressures,'' he says. "And most of that pressure is internal. You're going to go play, and you can't tell anybody else in the room about it, but you know if you're not going to play well, we're going to get our ass kicked.''
continued at part II......
source : sportsillustrated.cnn.com
Chicago Deng's Mission : Lead The Britain
BIRMINGHAM, England — British basketball — underfunded and unappreciated — has been crying out for a saviour.
Luol Deng could be it.
The 22-year-old native of Sudan moved to London as a child to escape the conflict in his homeland, and eventually worked his way up to the NBA, where he plays for the Chicago Bulls.
Now he's back in Britain and hoping to lead the national team to a berth in the 2012 London Olympics.
"Britain couldn't ask for a better ambassador, not only for all sports, but the country in general," Britain head coach Chris Finch said. "He's extremely professional and takes what he does seriously. Whether that's campaigning for humanitarian issues or playing for GB or being a better Chicago Bull."
The hard part is getting the kids in Britain to take an interest in basketball.
"It's not just going to happen overnight — it's going to take some time. The better we do the more attention the sport will get," Deng said Monday. "With 2012 and the GB team we have a chance. When kids see us play I think it will inspire then and motivate them to take the sport seriously."
The six-foot-nine forward is scheduled to make his competitive debut in Britain for the national team on Tuesday in Birmingham, with victory against Slovakia in the EuroBasket Division B qualifier crucial to playing in the 2012 Games.
If they get through the group and the playoffs, the team will move up to EuroBasket Division A — the final step en route to the Olympics.
click more for details
source : globesports.com
Sonics Durant, Collison Are Cut From U.S. Roster
LAS VEGAS — Sonics rookie forward Kevin Durant will have to wait to wear the red, white and blue in international play.Durant (Left Picture), 18, and Sonics teammate Nick Collison (Right Picture) were the two players cut Monday night as the United States got down to the 12-player limit for the FIBA Americas tournament, an Olympic-qualifying event that begins Wednesday.
The final roster needs to be submitted today, a day before the United States opens against Venezuela.
When Durant, a college standout at Texas, was added to the national-team roster in May, many assumed he was a pick for the future.
But he showed he was a legitimate candidate to make the team this year when he scored 22 points on 9-of-14 shooting in the July 22 intrasquad game to close minicamp.
"With Kevin, one year in college and 18 years old, and he's made giant progress and he's going to be one of the faces of the NBA and USA Basketball who will be considered next year because 10 months from now he's only going to get better," U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski said.
Krzyzewski, best known for coaching at Duke, also praised Collison.
Collison, 26, has played on eight USA Basketball teams, including one in the 2003 Olympic qualifier. He missed minicamp after getting married, but played well after joining the team for practices.
"Nick wasn't involved from the very beginning, so to be this close to making it after being here for about a week shows what a tremendous job he did," Krzyzewski said. "This was an extremely difficult decision because for both kids, you can make a case for either one."
The U.S. players are Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Amare Stoudemire, Dwight Howard, Jason Kidd, Chauncey Billups, Michael Redd, Mike Miller, Tyson Chandler, Tayshaun Prince and Deron Williams. All are NBA veterans.
source : seattletimes.nwsource.com
Hayes Eyes Fresh Start With Pistons
AUBURN HILLS -- Jarvis Hayes, the newest Detroit Piston, has more in common with teammate Antonio McDyess than having worn the same jersey number (24).
The former Washington Wizard guard/forward, who will play primarily behind small forward Tayshaun Prince and occasionally spell Richard Hamilton at shooting guard, comes to Detroit looking to prove his worth after a series of injuries slowed his career. That's a similar scenario McDyess faced when he joined the Pistons in 2004.
"It's not an issue," said Hayes, who spoke with the media on Monday for the first time since he signed a one-year contract for $1.2 million with the Pistons last week. "It's in the past. I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason."
While Hayes spoke repeatedly about trying to help the Pistons win an NBA title, he also made it clear he has something to prove.
"I want to get my career back on track," Hayes said.
The No. 10 overall draft selection by the Wizards in 2003, Hayes' career got off to a promising start. He averaged 9.6 points per game as a rookie, and was named to the NBA's All-Rookie second team. However, a fractured right patella forced Hayes to miss the final 28 games of the 2004-2005 season. He re-aggravated the injury the following season, appearing in just 21 games before having season-ending surgery.
Despite appearing in a career-high 81 games last season, questions still linger about Hayes' health.
He hopes a season in Detroit, where recently several players have thrived after struggling elsewhere, will change that.
"That definitely was a selling factor for me," said Hayes, referring to the success some players have had getting their careers on track after joining the Pistons.
As far the No. 24 jersey number, the 26-year-old Hayes said it's not an issue.
"He (McDyess) can have it," said Hayes, who will wear No. 9 this season. "New place, new beginning, chance to start over."
source : mlive.com
Green And Durant Stick Together, Even In The Bright Lights Of Vegas
LAS VEGAS, Aug. 20 -- Kevin Durant's cellphone rang at a Team USA breakfast Monday and upon hearing the ring tone by rapper Kanye West, Jeff Green scrunched his face in disapproval.
"You got the wrong ring tone, Kevin," Green said, shaking his head. "Kanye says, 'Wait till I get my money, right.' You already got your money right."
Durant chuckled, scooped some more fruit onto his plate and sat down. "Yeah, that's Jeff," Durant later said with a laugh. "He's always got something to say about somebody. I can take it."
Green and Durant have known each other as acquaintances for the past three years, but in the past two months, they have spent nearly as much time together as apart. The Maryland natives became teammates June 28 when the Seattle SuperSonics selected Durant with the No. 2 pick in the NBA draft then made a trade with the Boston Celtics to acquire the former Georgetown star Green, the fifth pick.
Since then, they've played on the SuperSonics' summer league team and spent the past week participating in Team USA's preparations for the FIBA Americas Olympic Qualifying Tournament, which begins Wednesday at Thomas & Mack Center. The United States needs to finish first or second to qualify for Beijing.
Green and Durant are in Las Vegas for different reasons -- Green was invited as a member of a 10-man select team of young NBA players to scrimmage with members of the men's senior national team while Durant was on the bubble for the official 12-man roster before being cut with Nick Collison late Monday night -- but they have breakfast together each morning and have eaten dinner together a few times, since both players are too young to partake in all that Las Vegas has to offer.
click for more details
source : washingtonpost.com
Portland's McRoberts Prepares For NBA
CARMEL, Ind. -- Wearing a pair of aviator shades and a few days' growth of beard, Josh McRoberts blended into the crowd at Friday night's football game at Carmel High School. He prefers it that way.
At 20 years old and with his NBA rookie season about to begin, the former Carmel star's life hasn't changed much from his high school days.
He hasn't jumped into the lifestyle of a pro basketball player. He doesn't even have a car yet, although he bought a white BMW for his mother, Jennifer.
Early this week, McRoberts will be heading to Portland, Ore., to find a place to live and get ready for the NBA season. He also would like to get a place in Carmel and live there during the summer.
He will find a familiar face in Portland, No. 1 draft pick and Lawrence North graduate Greg Oden, with whom he played on the powerhouse Spiece Indy Heat summer team. McRoberts calls Oden one of his best friends, and the two will be part of a young team to be unveiled Oct. 10 for the Trail Blazers' first preseason game.
Arenas Play In Lute Olson All-Star Classic
The NBA All-Star who wears "0," because that's the playing time he was told to expect at Arizona, found himself challenged again Sunday.
But even when Gilbert Arenas poured in 20 second-half points, thanks to some halftime goading from Arizona assistant basketball coach Josh Pastner, it wasn't enough to steal the show away from the 1997 national champion Arizona basketball team.
The five 1997 players on hand — Miles Simon, Jason Terry, Bennett Davison, A.J. Bramlett and Gene Edgerson — combined for 90 points and 35 rebounds to lead their blue team to a 132-124 victory over Arenas and the white team in the Lute Olson All-Star Classic before 8,101 fans at McKale Center.
The blue team, which started the five 1997 players, had an early 15-8 lead thanks to two straight three-pointers from Simon and, except for a lull midway through the first half, led most of the way.
The fact that it has been nine years since the core of that title team played together, last appearing in the 1998 NCAA West Region final, hardly mattered.
click for more details
source : azstarnet.com
Schedule For Team U.S On TV
An update for those who asked about getting to see Team USA on TV when the FIBA Americas Tournament begins in Las Vegas on Wednesday. All of the U.S. games will be shown live, on ESPN2, ESPN Classic and Fox Sports Net. All of the U.S. games will be replayed on NBA TV, which will show 40 in all from the tournament.
The live first round schedule for Team USA:
• vs. Venezuela, Wednesday, 11 p.m Central, ESPN2.
• vs. Virgin Islands, Thursday, 9 p.m. Central, ESPN Classic.
• vs. Canada, Saturday, 9 p.m. Central, ESPN Classic.
• vs. Brazil, Sunday, August 26, 7 p.m. Central, ESPN2.
Rockets Hope To Re-Sign Mutombo
An off-season that's delivered an assortment of new names and faces to the Rockets roster could take another step toward bringing back an old one when general manager Daryl Morey meets with Dikembe Mutombo in Atlanta on Monday.
It's not likely that there will be final agreement on a deal for the upcoming season at the meeting, but Morey is feeling confident in taking the next step and that the 41-year-old veteran will be in the fold when training camp opens in October.
After expressing frustration in the immediate aftermath of the Rockets first-round playoff loss to Utah and saying he was leaning toward retirement, Mutombo is now committed to playing one more season. A brief flirtation with the Boston Celtics seems to have waned.
Morey says that if he can get Mutombo under contract, the Rockets will likely be done adding to their roster.
The team is still trying to trade John Lucas III and will trade away Bob Sura's contract or buy it out. The rest of the bodies — 17 others when you eventually add second-round pick Carl Landry — will likely be in training camp for new head coach Rick Adelman to check out before the paring process begins.
source : blogs.chron.com
U.S Team : Krzyzewski Is A Dream Team
(Andrew D. Bernstein / Getty Images)
August 19, 2007
LAS VEGAS -- No one can blame the Lakers' Kobe Bryant if he's having a serious case of "what could have been" playing for Team USA this summer.
From Jason Kidd (the point guard the Lakers did not trade for last season) to Michael Redd (the perimeter shooter the Lakers did not draft in 2000), Bryant has reminders everywhere.
But the biggest "what if" for Bryant is Team USA Coach Mike Krzyzewski, who flirted with the Lakers' coaching job before Rudy Tomjanovich was hired in 2004.
"I've been a big fan of his for a long time," Bryant said of Krzyzewski, who has averaged 26 wins a season in 27 years coaching at Duke and was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2001.
"I'm very excited about having the opportunity to play for him and to have a relationship with him. It's been everything that I thought it would be."
Only Krzyzewski, 60, knows how serious he was about making the jump to the Lakers but based on how he has been able to relate with the pro players on Team USA, the NBA would not be a problem.
With a roster that includes proven veterans such as Bryant, Kidd and Chauncey Billups along with young superstars such as LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire, Krzyzewski has been able to get his team to bond by treating everyone like family.
source : latimes.com
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