Summary
Latest video breakdown, The Greatness of Scottie Pippen, is here.
Latest podcast, an interview with sports writer and basketball historian David Friedman is here.
A write-up of how Kelly Olynyk plays his role.
The Greatness of Scottie Pippen
My latest deep dive breakdown, titled The Greatness of Scottie Pippen.
In the 1993-94 season, without Michael Jordan, Pippen was the engine of both the Bulls’ offense and defense.
In this video I look at four plays from Game 5 of the 1994 Bulls/Knicks Eastern Conference Semi-Finals.
And, a mini-dive into one of the worst foul calls in NBA history…
Interview with David Friedman: Great Sports Writing is Great Writing
Latest podcast is an interview with sports writer and basketball griot David Friedman is here.
We go deep on best basketball books, sports writers, Scottie Pippen, and how to understand the game.
David mentions ten outstanding sports writers who focused, more or less, on basketball. They are:
David Halberstam
Ralph Wiley
Sam Smith
Charley Rosen
Roland Lazenby
Kevin Ding
Marty Bell
Dick DeVenzio
Tom Callahan
Pete Axthelm
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You can get the Benbo podcast in all your preferred formats, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify, by pasting this link, which is the Benbo podcast RSS feed, into your podcast provider of choice.
For example, in Apple all you need to do is:
Open the Podcasts app.
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The Ballad of Kelly Olynyk
“No man is an island, apart from the main. So do not send to ask for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee…” - John Donne
Really? This shit again?
Shhh, I’m doing something here…
Pop quiz, who was the Heat’s first draft pick, way back in 1988?
Glen Rice?
Good guess but no, he was drafted the following year, after a stellar NCAA run where his Michigan team won the championship.
Any other guesses?
Don’t know?
That’s okay. Few do…
It was Rony Seikaly, a statuesque Lebanese center from Syracuse who had a nice ten-year NBA career, averaging 15 and 10.
But it’s the Heat’s second-round pick that year, their first second-round pick ever, that I want to discuss for a minute (I promise, we’ll get to Kelly Olynyk, and this year’s Heat team, in a minute).
Their second-round pick was a power forward out of Eastern Michigan named Grant Long.
Long played fifteen years in the league, averaging 10/6/2 with outstanding hustle play and defense.
Think a poor man’s Horace Grant or, for those too young to remember the Bulls of the 1990’s, a poor man’s Draymond Green.
Every time I type Draymond Green (which is not often) I think of Dave Chappelle.
Anyway, Long had a good career and was, what’s the right word… serviceable, I guess.
More than serviceable, actually.
I mean he started almost every game of the first eight years of his career. His best year he averaged 15/8/3 with outstanding positional defense (see what I mean about the Draymond comp)…
There was an article about Long by Dave Barry, a columnist for the Miami Herald.
Thanks to the wonders of Google and the internet it took me about 15 seconds to track it down. Here’s the money graf:
One day Long and I were standing on the floor of the Miami Arena, talking. I was bouncing a basketball, and suddenly Long flicked his hand out, stole the ball, and started dribbling it. I tried to steal it back. I tried hard to steal it back, for about 30 seconds, and I never once touched it, despite the fact that Long, nearly a foot taller than I, was bouncing it to the height of my chest, and was making no effort to back away from me, or use his body as a shield. The problem was that I was operating in Normal Person Time, which is slow motion for an NBA player. Long would be bouncing the ball so that it passed a foot from my hand, and I'd make my craftiest, slickest, lightning- quickest move for it, and Long -- looking at me, not the ball -- would casually alter the dribble, flick the ball through his legs, pick it up on the other side, leaving me lunging at air, time and again. But in the NBA, this is a guy whose ball-handling skills are considered to be zero. This is a guy who, if everything went according to the Heat game plan, would not dribble the ball once.
Read that last sentence again: This is a guy who, if everything went according to the Heat game plan, would not dribble the ball once.
And yet, trying as hard as he could, this man, who had played high school basketball, literally could not take the ball from Long as he bounced it chest high.
My point is this; Grant Long, a forgotten power forward from the early 90’s, is better at dribbling a basketball than you or I are at… anything. And, in a perfect world, Long would never dribble the basketball in an NBA game.
Which brings me to Kelly Olynyk…
Olynyk is the modern Grant Long. Starting power forward for the Miami Heat. Scrappy hustle player who, in a perfect world, never does anything on the basketball court that would show up in the All-Star Skills Challenge.
Yet if you or I tried to steal a basketball from Olynyk while he stood there dribbling the ball chest high, not moving or turning his body, he would make us all look foolish.
Do you want to guess how many people have played in the NBA?
A touch more than four thousand.
Over seventy-five years.
A few more than fifty new players a year, out of the millions worldwide who are eligible.
That’s how good the NBA is, and that’s how good NBA players are.
So… back to Olynyk.
Jimmy and Bam are the All-Stars, in theory if not reality. Herro is the shiny new toy. Nunn is the out-of-nowhere firecracker. And if Duncan Robinson isn’t the most lethal shooter in the NBA he’s in the Top Three (and the other two share the same last name, Curry.)
As I discussed in these two videos, Robinson may not be a superstar, but you damn sure have to guard him like one.
Olynyk… well he’s just there, isn’t he?
But his being there is important.
I regularly discuss what I call “the game behind the game.” The things that happen on the court that most folks don’t see, or understand, but that contribute greatly to winning.
Over his career Olynyk has averaged 10/5/2 (told you he was similar to Long).
Those are mediocre numbers, at best.
But it’s how he gets those numbers that matter.
Olynyk makes, for lack of a better word, the right cut at the right time, the right pass at the right time, the right shot at the right time.
He’s good enough as a three point shooter (37% career) that you have to step out. Which opens up the floor for Butler or Nunn or Herro.
He sets picks, swings the ball, and dives on the loose floor. None of those things show up in the box score but they matter to the only stat that counts, wins.
Look at this section from my video breakdown, where Olynyk sets back-to-back picks for Robinson. As we say in coaching, the defense can’t guard the same thing twice. Olynyk does this without hesitation, helping the Heat offense run smoothly.
And it likely goes completely unnoticed.
So, the next time Robinson hits a 35-footer or Jimmy takes the bump on the way to the basket and makes the And-1, or Herro crosses someone over and lobs it to Bam for the dunk, appreciate the glue guy, the unsung hero, the guy who helps make all of this happen.
Appreciate Kelly Olynyk.
Because no man is an island, apart from the main. Olynyk plays his part of the main to perfection.
And when the buzzer sounds, and the Heat have won another game, do not send someone to ask for whom the buzzer tolls… It tolls for thee.
Have a great day out there in the sim…
Benbo
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