We Talk'in About Practice!

Allen Iverson, probably a future Hall of Famer, may be best known for that famous sound byte in which he goes off about the suggestion that his lack of practice habits and overall discipline was having a bad effect on his team.

"Practice?! We talk'in 'bout practice man! Practice!"

Those words have been replayed over and over on sports radio programs across the nation. But alas, now that age and injuries have caused his career to nose dive, I have to wonder if he has any regrets. I wonder if he realizes that you can't cheat mother time.

And you can't cheat the game.

I wonder how much better A.I. could have been if he had a better attitude and work ethic. I wonder if he would have had a longer career. But instead, while only in his early 30's, his career has nose dived. Injuries and age are a big part of it. But professional athletes today are coming back from injuries like never before. Drew Brees has a Super Bowl ring and he wasn't supposed to be able to throw a 20 yard out ever again.

No, Iverson's attitude has always been a cancer. Recent teams he has left have all shown improvement once he was gone. The great Larry Brown was able to take a group of role players and make a championship run with A.I. in his prime. But even that magical season was marred by incidents with A.I.'s misbehavior.

Practice? Yes, Allen, we're talking about practice. And we're talking about lifting weights. We're talking about training rules and staying off the booze. You can't cheat the game Allen.

Good luck in your retirement.

Know Who You Are

There's an old saying in the coaching profession. It's something all coaches should remind themselves. And it's also something that coaches should tell their players when discussing their roles on the team. It goes something like this:

"Know who you are, and what your game is."

I don't have anyone to attribute that quote to. I've said it myself for years. If I had to guess, I'd say I heard it from Don Meyer at a coaches clinic at some point. But in any case, it's something we all need to know. Who are you as a coach? What kind of team do you have? What can you and your team do well? It all comes down to understanding your strengths and playing to them. And knowing your weaknesses and compensating for them. A coach makes this decision for his team and players have to understand their strengths as they play their role on the team.

At the professional level, GMs can shape a team the way they would like. They can build toward a strength. Or they can scrap things and try to go a different direction-- sometimes with disastrous results. Take for example, Steve Kerr of the Phoenix Suns. He inherited a Phoenix Suns team that had had a very successful run with Steve Nash leading a fun to watch, fast breaking team. They were tailor made for the break with Amar'e Stoudemire as the world's fastest post player and an array of long range shooters. Then Kerr decided that he would trade for an aging Shaquille O'Neal and tried to make the Suns a better defensive club with a good scorer in the low post. I won't bother to mention what I thought of Kerr's decision-making, but I'll only state that this weekend, the NBA playoffs will begin and the Suns will not be playing.

Kerr spoke optimistically this week in saying that "the transition is in progress". But the reality is that the Suns are an aging team. Stoudemire is their best young talent, but inexplicably he was the subject of trade rumors. And the reality is also that Kerr failed to realize Who the Suns Were and what made them great. Instead, he bought into the "defense wins championships" motto (no motto is true every time and in every situation) and prematurely closed the Suns' window of opportunity for winning a world championship.