King James in the Garden?

How LeBron is giving New York fans hope for 2010.

By Glenn Minnis | TheRoot.com

LeBron James' basked in the fulfillment of spirited Broadway reviews this week, enlivened by the notion he has more than mastered the artful craft of showmanship.

For if ever a star has left his audience wanting more, the 23-year-old Cleveland Cavaliers star forward fits the marquee. More in the way of planned engagements, encore performances, and, yes, his self-defining monologue.

“You have to do what's best for you,” James repeatedly answered to the seemingly never-ending probe of what he plans to do once he becomes a free-agent at the end of the 2010 season, and New York Knicks' megabucks owner James Dolan will undoubtedly instantly move to make good on his stated intention of transforming The Garden into his permanent homestead.

“When I decide to make the decision, it’s going to basically put me in a position where I feel like I can win multiple championships,” James added. “And this is the best team we’ve had since I have been here. July 1, 2010 is probably going to be one of the biggest days in NBA history.”

Plot be known, LeBron James fully realizes be it Cleveland, New York or any other landscape he deems desirable that distinction is largely rooted in the reality the game itself will always run through his hands. Everything the Knicks have done over their last whirlwind seven days--- jettisoning away leading scorers and top-feed earners Jamal Crawford and Zach Randolph to create more salary cap space--- was done with that game plan in mind.

On Tuesday night, a packed house of nearly 20,000 turned out at The Garden to bare witness to the eminence of the NBA's latest version of royalty. And King James, artful ruler that is, was sure not to disappoint. As much as his teammates routinely are, the Knicks were simply reduced to his supporting cast, mere props in his masterful 26 points, four rebounds and two assists ensemble.

But beyond the obvious just what did it all mean? What might it have served as a preamble to? The non-stop chants of “LeBron, LeBron” that cascaded up and down Broadway Ave. were as rhapsodic as the thunderous applause reserved for his feats themselves. But might they have also set a tone?

"It's humbling to know that you have fans not only in Cleveland but in a big city that is a basketball mecca,” said James in the wake of the Central-Division leading Cavs 119-101 victory. "Every time I come here it's a warm feeling because you know the history, to know the fans like and respect the way I play basketball. It's two-years away and who knows. If you want to sleep until 2010 and don't wake up... go ahead.”

Just as the Knicks had learned, on this night no one was about to box LeBron James into a corner. But then the wondrous look in his eyes seemed to imitate there was no need to.

Boston's Big 3 Keep Eyes on Prize

 By Glenn Minnis

Great deeds are usually wrought at equal risk. And so marked the union of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, a trio of almost surefire Hall of Famers who came to their modern day reckoning at a time which signaled a crossroads for each of them.

“When we first got together, there was no one conversation, no one meeting or even one gesture that instantly bonded us,” recalls Allen. “We all understood we'd have to make sacrifices. I just remember when we got on the floor together things just seemed to flow. I think we all recognized and respected the great deal of individual achievements we'd been able to attain, but now we needed to know if we could establish our legacy together as champions. That vibe and connection came almost naturally.”

And so too has the history it's resulted in. Celts Nation raised it's NBA-leading 17th banner toward the heavens just eight months ago and the quest for added glory has hardly ended there. This season, Boston set sail on a record-setting pace of 27-2, a run that easily had them on course of eclipsing the League's almost mythical 70-win plateau.

“You don't think or talk about stuff like that,” insists Pierce. “To do so is to lose focus of the commitment to where we're ultimately striving to be ... and that's in the winner's circle again come next June.”

In Garnett's mind, the magic of repeat glory lies in the deed of respecting the journey that bore the euphoria. “Ray, Paul, myself and most all these other guys won our first title together last year by not taking off a single play or overlooking even one opponent,” he said. “We'll need that and more to even get back to that stage this year.

“The sacrifice has to be as real now as is was when it was all new to us,” he adds. “That's something we've talked about and are all clearly as committed to as we've ever been.” It explains why we're able to play good, honest, hard nose basketball most every night.”

And for that, Bostonians and hoops purist everywhere can exhale. 
 

A Star is Born in Chi-Town 

 By Glenn Minnis

On home game nights, Derrick Rose clocks in for his first real job by wandering past a life-size statue of his boyhood idol and the best player to ever grace the hardwood. Indeed, the house that Michael Jordan built is now the very arena in which the 20-year-old hotshot rook now toils in hopes of leading his hometown team back to the land of respectability.

Still surprised just how efficiently the League's reigning top draft pick has come to master the art of handling pressure? “Pressure is something you want as a basketball player,” explains Rose. “To feel a bit of it is to know that your team needs you and you've become important enough to become dependent on.”

But for a whole city? An entire team and franchise? Not since the days of MJ have Chicago -area fans felt justification for the level of optimism now bred by the arrival of the homegrown phenom. And with him comes a pedigree that not since the days of Jordan has been apparent.

Between his four years at nearby Simeon High and single season at the University of Memphis, teams led by Rose finished a combined 158-14, a winning clip well over 90 percent. Conversely, over the last decade the Bulls have fielded just two teams to finish better than 500.

Sense the would-be correlation, or rather the lack of it? Recent times have not been kind to the fortunes of Chicago basketball. In Derrick Rose the franchise now has a proven winner. Might history, as in the days of you know who, soon again be in our midst?

 Sunset in Phoenix

By Glenn Minnis | TheRoot.com

His near double-double averages aside, the memories are essentially all Shaquille O'Neal has left to ponder these days. And, as might be expected, playing before his hometown fans and a national TV audience on All-Star Weekend for perhaps the final time over the life of a legendary sixteen-year NBA career has left the Big Aristotle in a reflective state of mind.

“I'm the Shogun of all centers,” said O'Neal. “I've done the most, any others, the things they've done I invented. When I leave, it'll be because my time is up, not because someone is outplaying me or has done more. The only one who has even done close is Mr. (Tim) Duncan."

Clearly for superstar athletes the strange phenomena of coming face-to-face with your own physical limits, and the end of a brilliant career, can make you boastful and sentimental all in the same breath the same time.

“I can honestly say that Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal were the best one-two punch ever created,” O'Neal now says of his union with the man he claimed three NBA titles alongside and bickered with incessantly. “There’s been a lot of great guard-guard duos like Scottie Pippen and Michael Jordan, but the greatest little man, big man, one-two punch was Kobe and Shaquille.”

And now, how full circle is it that they'll be reunited as teammates in the valley of the sun this weekend?

 "I always did love Kobe,” O'Neal told ESPN recently of his long-simmering feud with Bryant. “It was all marketing, baby. We helped you hype it up. I'm the smartest player in the world. I know what I'm doing, brother.”

And when it comes to mastering the game itself, who can argue with him? Even now, at 36-years-old and playing for his fourth team, O'Neal continues to reinvent himself. In earning his 15th All-Star appearance, O'Neal has registered 21 double-doubles this season by assuming a role with the Suns many had concluded he could no longer hold down.
“The key for me this season has been getting opportunities,” said Shaq. “I can remember a time when I averaged 20-25 shots a game, but when I got here I was in the single-digits. Now they're going through me a little bit more. I’ve always shot a high percentage, so if I continue to take those shots my numbers will always be up there.”
But that hasn't come without a degree of controversy. After averaging 58 wins a year over the last four seasons, Phoenix has digressed from being one of the League's most explosive teams to a squad that now routinely walks the ball up the floor and perilously stands on the fringes of the playoff chase.
Rumors now also abound that 26-year-old All-Star forward Amar'e Stoudemire may now be on the trading block and two-time MVP Steve Nash has gone on record in terming the season “the toughest” over the course of his twelve-year career. All the confusion has become grave enough to have some wondering if what's now good for Shaq may ultimately be bad for the team as a whole.
"You just gotta man up," said Shaq. “It doesn't matter what type of style we play on offense, that's not our problem. You have to want to play defense, whoever your man is you just gotta say, 'he's not getting off.' Doesn't matter if we run, or slow it down, you gotta f-----g stop somebody. Excuse time is over. Period.”

Poignant words from a man who's never been shy in voicing his relevancy to the game.
 “I think I'm an unusual type of player,” O'Neal has said of his style. “I have a lot of moves on each block, and I know how to position and contort myself. I don't shoot jump shots, don't shoot fadeaways."
Soon enough, however, after the championships and the place in the records book and the self-reinventions and the genius marketing, his career, too, will fade away. But we'll always have the memories. 

 

Tomlin Praises Dungy, Preps for Big Day

By: Glenn Minnis, BlackAmericaWeb.com

Legend has it that within hours of ascending to the heights of a post many would have once predicted he'd never reach, Mike Tomlin was pulled aside by his star player and bluntly informed of the widespread reservations his not-so-zealous new squad had over his somewhat revolutionary come-up.

No, life for Mike Tomlin ain't been no crystal stair. But Nietzsche assured us long ago that which doesn't kill you ultimately tends to make you stronger. And now emerges Tomlin, the 36-year-old Hampton, Va. native, mere months removed from all that aforementioned drama, standing at the threshold of where just one other black man has treaded before.

How aproppriate that that man - former Indianapolis Colts legendary shot-caller Tony Dungy - is the very one who's served as one of Tomlin's biggest mentors, schooling the second-year Pittsburgh Steelers coach on all the ends and outs of a profession that was clearly crafted without either of them in mind.

“I don't have enough time to talk about the impact that Coach Dungy has had in my professional life or my personal life," said Tomlin, "and I'm sure there's a bunch of people that feel the same way that I do.
I've been blessed to be around some great coaches, some people who took personal stake in my growth and development.”

But in being molded by Dungy and all the others, Tomlin ultimately grew to become his own man. Ben Roethlisberger may well control the pocket for the would-be six-time Super Bowl champs, but it's the fiery Tomlin who indomitably controls the cadence tone.

"He took control of this team from the first day," stresses veteran linebacker Larry Foote. "Trust me, he ruffled a lot of feathers, but we couldn't do nothing but respect it. He came in and said, 'My way or the highway' — and it's his way. He demanded respect, and he earned it. Everybody jumped on ship.”

And look where the Steelers now find themselves, entrenched as the prohibitive favorites in only their third Super Bowl appearance over nearly the last three decades. And it's just the way Tomlin, who for all his heightened emotion, somehow manages to stay even-keel, always envisioned it would be.

“I'm the type who never anticipates transition being easy,” Tomlin said in a recent Sports Illustrated article. “In fact, I anticipate it being miserable. But with that misery can come great gain if you embrace the change.”

Clearly, the Southern-reared Tomlin speaks from both knowledge and experience. He remembers how his initial interview with the Steelers was widely viewed as just a token gesture, one simply in keeping with the 2003 enacted Rooney Rule mandating that at least one minority candidate be seen for all new head coaching gigs. Then there's always the once tortured legacy of his prime-time mentor to reflect upon.

Despite earning the distinction of being the youngest NFL assistant coach in history at just 25 years old in 1981, Dungy was forced to toil in obscurity for 15 seasons before the Tampa Bay Buccaneers finally gave him his first head coaching stint. But the rest is now history, and now the confidant, yet deferential Tomlin seems poised to add a few more chapters to all the litany.

“It’s not my story,” insists Tomlin. “It is our story — the story of the 2008 Steelers.” But ask yourself who figures any more prominently than Tomlin in the team's latest rise? Whose hand is it that seems in every detail? Whose face now seems representative of its every mission? That would be Mike Tomlin.

I..... feel like it's a good thing that he's so young and that he's so close to our generation,” said star linebacker James Farrior. “He can relate a lot better than older coaches. I feel like he can talk to the players on the level that we're on. He's able to get his point across, and that's probably the main thing."

Adds cornerback Deshea Townsend: “He allows his players to play, but he does what it takes to get us ready. That’s all you can ask from a coach — to say one thing and mean what he says. He’s that type of coach.”