Random Rumblings: April 20th

RIP Pearl

We randomly rumble on a sad day as we found out this morning that Dwayne "Pearl" Washington has passed away at the age of 52. The Syracuse basketball legend might be the most important player in program history. It's either him or Carmelo Anthony. That's it. That's the list.

In the early 80's as The Big East began, Pearl was one of the stars. The league's success can be directly tied to TV (and ESPN specifically) and that success can be drawn back to the star players. The bigger than life coaches, such as Jim Boeheim, John Thompson and Rollie Massimino all had major roles, but they had to have players to make the product worth watching.

Washington was not only an outstanding player, but he was a showman. He played with uncommon flair. I was watching "With A Kiss" yesterday, the documentary on CBS analyst Bill Raftery, who coached in the early 80's in the Big East at Seton Hall. Jim Boeheim was featured in talking about the Big East, and he told a story about a trip to the west coast. He landed at LAX and was waiting at baggage claim when someone shouted at him "Hey! You're Pearl's coach!" This was in the early 1980's in Los Angeles about a player in The Big East! That was the power of Pearl. He was the first recruit in Boeheim's best stretch of coaching success until the last six years.

There was no better guy and there’s nobody who has meant more to our basketball program than Dwayne Washington.#CuseFamily

— Jim Boeheim (@therealboeheim) April 20, 2016

I can't sum it up better than Boeheim. RIP Pearl, a true legend.

Will you shut up about RGIII? No.

The relationship between Robert Griffin III and Redskins fans is endlessly interesting to me. To start to understand the dynamic, you have to understand that there are numerous segments of the Redskins fanbase. There is a segment that is actually more RGIII fans than they are fans of the team. There's another group that despises Griffin. There's another group that just wishes anything about Griffin would go away. There's another group that's more rational and doesn't really care about Griffin, but understands why he's a story. Note: that is the rational group. It is likely larger than you think, but silent so we don't hear from them very often.

Smh, why are we talking about a Browns QB in DC ? I am missing something here. https://t.co/FgXXvvcAqq

— Ricky Jean Francois (@Freakyjean99) April 19, 2016

To Ricky, the rest of the fanbase and anyone else interested in the story, I'd like to explain media to you as succinctly as I can. First, our job isn't to help the team. It's STUNNING to me how many players and fans think that's our job. "Why aren't you more supportive?" Because that's not my job? I'm not paid (when I'm being paid...#HireMe) to bash the team either. I'm paid to say what I see and talk about what's interesting, without taking into consideration how it may effect the team. It's simply not a concern.

Secondly, just like whatever you do for a living, we are trying to make money. We make money by talking about the things that are interesting to you so that you'll listen. For a website like CSN, an article about Griffin's first mini-camp for the Browns will do well. You can call it "click-bait" but it's also good business, and it's really not that cheap. There is genuine interest in Griffin in DC because he's one of the most significant athletes to come through this market in 25 years. He's gone, but that doesn't mean the interest is. That's okay! In fact, it's completely normal.

Right now in Chicago, there's still an immense amount of talk about Tom Thibodeau. The former Bulls coach has been gone for a year. Where he goes next is one of the biggest topics on talk radio. The feud between him and the team was the number one underlying story of the Bulls' season. There's still an obsession with Phil Jackson in LA. There's still an obsession with Jeff Van Gundy in New York. LeBron is a topic of conversation in Miami constantly, although, much like Griffin, he's a topic of conversation everywhere.

The most interesting thing about Griffin and the DC market is how unique the DC market thinks it is. I've always laughed at this notion that the Redskins are a bigger mess than say the Jets or the Raiders, or that Griffin is getting some special treatment unseen before in the history of earth.

The point is these things happen. A star player, especially one with the star power of Griffin, leaves and people talk about him because he mattered to them significantly. I understand why some fans want to move on. I understand why players really want to move on. However it's the media's job to serve the largest portion of their audience, which does have some interest in that player. If you're not in that group, don't click! That's all. That's how you send your message. When the clicks/listens/views stop rolling in, we'll stop producing the content. Just don't click. Or change the channel. Whining about it actually makes it worse because you keep the name in the news. It proves that there is interest.

In our business the opposite of hate is not love and the opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of both is apathy. Voice your concerns accordingly.

Reads of the Day:

ESPN's Ramona Shelburne with a masterclass on how to use access after she spent the day after retirement (and more) with Kobe Bryant: http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/page/undefeated-kobe160419/former-lakers-star-kobe-bryant-left-nba-just-getting-started

"An Unbelievable Story of Rape" will mess up your day, leave you feeling sick and is 100% worth your time. From ProPublica: https://www.propublica.org/article/false-rape-accusations-an-unbelievable-story

Syracuse coach Mike Hopkins tweets his tales about Pearl Washington: https://storify.com/CraigHoffman/mike-hopkins-on-pearl-washington

Random Rumblings: April 19th

After some travel time, I've returned to rumble randomly. The travel was to my alma mater, Syracuse University, for the chance to work with the next generation of media superstars. Joe Lee, GM of WAER, invited me to work with his sports talk department and it turned into an incredible 48 hours on the hill.

It's hard to accurately describe what the student media, both WAER and Z89, mean to and have meant to my career. The shortest version of an attempt is merely saying that I would've gotten nowhere without them. The reason those places are so special is because the alums are so generous in giving back. Not only have some of the best and brightest in our industry established and passed down a standard of excellence when they were students, but they've also made sure to continue to go back and ensure that standard is upheld.

The fact that Joe reached out and specifically targeted me to come back and work with his staff is an honor. I was more than happy to make the trip. What I found, not shockingly, is an incredibly talented and driven group that craved the feedback and want to get better and continue the tradition. There's a reason there are so many Syracuse alums in this industry and there's a reason we're obnoxious about where we went to school. It's worth being proud of and it was abundantly clear to me after last week that the next generation understands that and will continue to live up to the expectations of being "one of those Syracuse guys" (or gals!) in every corner of media.

Kobe

I left for Syracuse at 6 am on Thursday morning, making it an unwise decision to stay up and watch Kobe's final game Wednesday night. So I didn't. I watched the first six minutes, in which he didn't hit a shot, and went to bed knowing it was on DVR for me to consume later.

I woke up Thursday morning bleary eyed and looked at my phone AND KOBE DID WHAT?! No amount of coffee or IV dripped caffeine could've had me come to attention faster than seeing that Bryant scored 60 on his final night. I immediately went to the box score and saw he shot fifty times, but he still scored sixty points!!! However as I started to read some of the reaction from Twitter the night before, then listen as I hit the road, I understood that this wasn't some chuck-fest. This was an all-time moment.

I finally got to watch this morning and it was pure magic. Were there some bad shots? Sure. He shot fifty times. You think they were all awesome? However there were also glimpses of a Bryant we all, including Kobe himself, thought was long gone. Snakes to the rim, ending in crafty finishes accounted for a solid percentage of his points. The pull-up jumper that made him the NBA's best player for a solid stretch of the early 00's looked as sure as it ever had. I'd use another word, but magic is the proper description.

For a player whose reputation as a closer was typically overstated (his percentages in clutch situation were terrible), this close was literally perfect. While he often forced shots and missed, there was no denying that Bryant always wanted to take the final shot. He thought it was his duty, and he had no fear of failure. That's admirable for an athlete, even if at times he should've played the percentages better. Wednesday night wasn't a time to play the percentages. Wednesday night was time to put on a show. He did, in the most unimaginable way possible.

He's inarguably one of the best fifteen players ever. He's almost inarguably one of the best twelve. He's arguably one of the best ten. He's done things few others have done in the modern era and some (his 81 point game) that none have done. From a pure sporting context, it doesn't get much better than  his performance on Wednesday. Also, Mike Tirico said "fo shizzle" late in the game going to break as the telecast showed Snoop dancing which is as all-time of a moment as anything Kobe did.

However in an age where we know more about our athletes than ever before, I'd feel like a total hypocrite if I didn't at least mention that Bryant was charged with rape in 2004. It was largely not mentioned during the Kobe farewell tour until the final few days as I saw it appear a few times on social media. I was pretty young during the trial, so I went back and looked at some of the reporting from the time and it's certainly damning of Bryant. At absolute best, Bryant committed rape amidst confusion about consent. This is directly from Bryant's statement after the charges were dismissed:

"Although I truly believe this encounter between us was consensual, I recognize now that she did not and does not view this incident the same way I did. After months of reviewing discovery, listening to her attorney, and even her testimony in person, I now understand how she feels that she did not consent to this encounter."

It takes two to have consent. The woman not believing she had consented constitutes rape, even if Bryant was under some other impression. Other accounts paint a much darker picture in which there's no confusion at all, and that there may have been other similar instances with other women that went unreported. We have a legal system that often fails victims of domestic and sexual violence. There are no winners in any of this. The charges against Bryant were dropped after his legal team engaged in horrifying victim blaming.

There's no good way to make all this into some grand conclusion. It feels like there's grey area here. Bryant rehabbed his image in part by doing an extremely high amount of charity work. He saw hundreds of Make-a-Wish kids, never denying one of their requests. His work with the homeless of LA is awe-inspiring. Does any of that make what he was alleged to do okay? Of course not. I don't know what the "right" response to all of this is. Watching his final game gave me great joy as a sports fan. Writing the last two paragraphs about a horrifying thing he is alleged to have done makes me feel really guilty about that joy. That's really all I've got.

Trade That Pick!

Making as hard of a left turn as we can, the Browns should trade the number two overall pick in the upcoming NFL draft and they shouldn't think twice about it. It's pretty clear the Rams are taking one of the top two quarterbacks in the draft, either Jared Goff or Carson Wentz at number one after trading with the Titans last week. That leaves any other team who wants one of those quarterbacks needing to trade with Cleveland to ensure they get their man.

The Browns don't need either if they're committed to Robert Griffin III at quarterback. Even if they're not, they should trade the pick anyway unless they believe one of them is truly special. The reality is the Browns stink. They're not winning this year with anyone they can possibly acquire at quarterback. They need a lot of players. The only way to get a lot of good players is to draft a lot of players. The way to draft a lot of players is to have a lot of picks, which you can acquire in a trade for the number two overall pick pretty easily.

NFL Draft picks, no matter where they are, are like lottery tickets. The higher the draft pick, the better chance that ticket is a winner, but the real goal is to get as many tickets as you can. If you go 50% on your picks, but only have six picks, you've only developed three players. If you have 12 picks? Now you've got six NFL caliber players and are making headway towards becoming good again.

Since multiple teams are likely to want in on whichever QB is left (multiple reports say it will be Wentz stating that the Rams like Goff), the Browns can probably get a great return for their pick. Making a deal is all about leverage. The Browns have it. They should use it, and then be patient as their stable of players develops and maybe, just maybe, they'll have a winner in Cleveland a few years down the road.

Reads of the day:

This Seth Wickersham piece for ESPN The Mag on Robert Nkemdiche is great. It shines a light on one of the draft's bigger question marks and how questionable the draft process is: http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/15159447/should-teams-worry-robert-nkemdic-nfl-future

NBA Player Wayne Ellington writes about his father's impact on his life and his cold-blooded murder for The Player's Tribune: http://www.theplayerstribune.com/wayne-ellington-nets-father/

If you want some great Kobe stories, Baxter Holmes has written some remarkable stuff for ESPN LA the past few weeks. This, on his shooting routine, is one of my favorites: http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/15179469/kobe-bryant-famous-pregame-shooting-routine

Evaluating Evaluation

It's draft season, both in the NBA and the NFL meaning evaluations of players are flying. Everyone, from general managers of the actual teams to amateur scouts on the internet are putting out their reports. Some of those amateur scouts will somehow have better results than those professionals whose very jobs it is to nail those evaluations.

How is that possible? I have no idea and that will become increasingly clear as you read the rest of this post. That is because evaluating talent is as much about who a person is as what they do on the field. Team personnel (and professional media evaluators like Mel Kiper and Todd McShay) get to talk to the draftees, their college coaches and the people around them. The amateurs on the internet? They might know a guy somewhere, but likely they're watching tape and drawing conclusions.

So how is it that the professionals can so wildly miss? Simple. It's hard to evaluate how a human being will grow from the time they are 21 or 22 (or in the NBA's case, 19) over the next ten years of their life, but knowing what to look for is half the battle.

The genesis of this post started a few weeks ago as I heard people talk about evaluating quarterbacks. Talk show hosts and the like love talking about measurables. Carson Wentz from North Dakota State has "prototypical size" and a cannon for an arm. Those are great, but when it comes to the quarterback position, the number one attribute is decision making.

I would rather have a quarterback with an average arm that is smart and decisive than one who has the physical tools and hope that the second guy can figure it out. Everything happens in the NFL at extraordinary speed. The margin for error is nearly non-existent. A quarterback must read coverage, determine where to throw the ball and deliver without hesitation. So long that he can do that, and has a baseline requisite arm to do so, he's going to succeed. The difference in arm strength between average and good isn't enough to make up for the difference in decision making between good and average.

While the decision making trait is unique to quarterbacks, there is another set of mental traits that is just as important as any other physical trait when evaluating talent. It's described perfectly by Redskins GM Scot McCloughan in a Q&A with Bleacher Report's Jason Cole.

You watch five or 10 plays, you can see the physical skills. You can see it pretty quick. If it’s a receiver running a route or a pass-rusher, you can see him drop his hips, that kind of stuff. That’s the easy part. The tough part is figuring out the person. Is he a competitor? What’s his toughness? What’s his mindset? I’ve been around long enough, which is great because I’ve made a lot of mistakes, and I’ve learned from them, but what makes a guy average to good, good to great and great to exceptional? That’s the hard part because the talent is there. Every year, you see guys come out, and they are physically gifted, bigger than life, whatever. But you also see guys who are in the sixth or seventh (round), or they are college free agents, and they play 10 years while the other guy plays two. It’s the "it" factor, and it’s hard to find. It’s really hard to find.

McCloughan's theory is true in other sports as well. Think of the great athletes and what you think of first with them. Whether is Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Tom Brady, Jerry Rice or any other number of legitimate all-time greats, the first thing you hear about is their work ethic. It's how Stephen Curry elevated himself to the top of the basketball world. He had a set of natural skills that he enhanced by an immense amount of work. He wanted to be great. He loves the game. He put in the work. He is great.

These characteristics can continue to play out into a players career in a negative way as well. While Curry and the others mentioned (and many more) continually improve as they go, other players can't seem to be bothered too.

Josh Gordon led the NFL in receiving in 2013. He's played in five games since. Gordon has been suspended multiple times for failed drug tests, and while reading Gordon's accounts of his downfall creates sympathy and empathy, it also makes you take a step back and go "hey guy...figure it out!" For someone that seems to so clearly understand the circumstances around his peril, he's awful at avoiding it.

That continues to this week's news when it was revealed Gordon is reportedly living with Johnny Manziel, a walking embodiment of a similar theory. (Update: the report, from ESPN, is false according to another report from Pro Football Talk, so credit to back in Gordon's corner if it is. He still did something to have his re-instatement denied. He can appeal August 1st.)

Manziel is a master (well, until this week) of saying the right thing while doing nothing of what he says. Both of them have an optics problem and neither seems particularly interested, based on their actions, of fixing them. I should be perfectly clear here that the Manziel optics problem doesn't include his domestic violence which is a real problem that, if it played out as reported based on his ex-girlfriend's accounts, should land him in jail, nevertheless out of football.

Evaluators need to be able to identify players, or more accurately people, like Gordon and Manziel so they know not to invest vast resources in acquiring them. They also need to know that if they do acquire them with low resources (whether that be a late round pick or a low dollar contract) that they will need to invest a high number of resources to help the player succeed. The results when this is done right can be magical.

Dez Bryant dropped in the draft because he was "high-risk" coming out of Oklahoma State. Bryant has succeeded because he loves football above all else (which is a credit to him and him alone) and because the Cowboys set up a support system to make sure that he had the highest chance possible to succeed as he adjusted to a new life.

Of course the difference between Bryant, Gordon and Manziel is that only one of them has football as their highest priority. In a profession with such a short career span that requires an inordinate amount of physical dedication, that's something an evaluator has to identify.

It's why Kristaps Porzingis will succeed in the NBA and countless other European players haven't. The busts fail for the same reason many American born players have. They just don't love the game. Often these are big men who play because they're big. They can succeed without immense work because their physical stature gives them such an inherent advantage at the lower levels. In order to succeed in the world's highest level professional league, even the most gifted physical players need to have a work ethic to maximize their talent.

Porzingis loves the game. He's had early success and I'll be shocked if he doesn't continue to improve. The same is true for Karl-Anthony Towns. Last year's #1 overall pick has been glued to Kevin Garnett, who is as much coach as he is player at this point, trying to learn what's made the 15-time All-Star successful.

So as you read the latest mock draft to see who your favorite team is going to take, make sure to read the whole scouting report. Don't just look at 40-times and verticals. Take a look at the personality section. Do they love the sport? Do they value being a good teammate? Will they be a positive influence on your team's culture?

If you want to put on your amateur scouting hat, don't just watch a highlight tape. Watch how hard they play. Read and watch interviews with the player to see what kind of answers they give. What's their attention to detail?

If scouting was solely about finding the best physical specimens, it'd be pretty easy. Everyone would have the same lists. However sports are played by human beings which means there are human dynamics at play and the ability to find and project talent is an extremely valuable talent in its own right.

Inevitably, someone will cost themselves their job (and the jobs of those below them) because of ego. General manager X will think he's the one who's got it all figured out. He's the one who can take the physically gifted kid and mold all that "talent" into a great player. What the great talent evaluators have figured out is that "talent" is overrated. They want the guys who can think the game so effortlessly that they don't have to think at all, maximizing the physical ability they have leading to success.

As a fan, just hope that person isn't running your team. If they are, don't worry though. They won't be for long.

Random Rumblings: April 11th

A wild weekend in sports catapults us into a surely historic week. Kobe Bryant retires after his final game Wednesday night. At the same time, the Warriors will shoot for their 73rd win, which would break the single-season record. The NBA playoff seedings will also be set, and we're getting ever closer to the NFL draft. However before all that, we look back at a heck of a sports weekend.

History (Good)

The Warriors have reached the thought unreachable star of 72 wins, tying the '95-'96 Bulls' record for most in an NBA season. Those Bulls also entered their 81st game with 71 wins, but they lost. The Warriors became the first team to win in San Antonio all season.

The game was rather remarkable considering the Warriors were on the second night of a back-to-back. Golden State beat Memphis in Memphis on Saturday night in game that went down to the final buzzer. The Dubs, including Stephen Curry, haven't had their shooting rhythm as of late. Their numbers are still good overall during the past few weeks, thanks to a few outbursts including a 136 point effort in Portland, but watching them hasn't quite been the same.

That continued in the first half in San Antonio as they scored a season low 35 points. In the second half, it all came back. Curry went bananas in the 3rd quarter, scored 37 points on the night and their chances at sitting alone in history are alive. The reason they were able to overcome the atrocious first half of offense? They were tied at the half, holding the Spurs to the same output. 

As you could imagine with a team that is assured one of the two best regular seasons ever, they're far from a one-trick pony. They're 5th in defensive rating after finishing first a year ago. Draymond Green might win defensive player of the year (it'll be him or Kawhi Leonard). The Warriors sport two of the league's ten best defensive lineups that have played over 100 minutes together (based on defensive rating) and neither of those are its "death lineup" of Green, Curry, Harrison Barnes, Andre Iguodala and Klay Thompson which is the league's best lineup in terms of net rating. 

(Fun aside: the Warriors have the league's best three lineups (min. 100 minutes played together) in net rating and two more in the top 20.)

The natural discussion as we wait for the playoffs isn't to appreciate what Golden State is doing, but to compare it to what the Bulls did. Who would win a hypothetical seven game series? Who knows. It's impossible to know, which makes for a fun discussion. There were different rules and the two teams play very different styles. I would tend to lean towards Golden State because of their propensity to hit threes, but the Bulls were absolutely loaded and had that MJ fella, so I certainly wouldn't have the confidence to bet on it.

In terms of the accomplishment though, I think it's fair to point out that Golden State has done this in one of the golden eras of NBA basketball. The league is so deep right now with star players and great teams. The Spurs are having an all-time season that is being completely overshadowed by the Warriors. The Thunder are likely going to have two players who deservingly finish top 5 in MVP voting. The Eastern Conference is finally back too, as the 8-seed there will finish with a better record than the 8-seed in the West for the first time since 1999. 

I'm not old enough to intelligently remember the league in '95-'96 so I'm not going to put what the Bulls did into similar context. It wouldn't be fair. Just know what the Warriors have done is extraordinary.

History (Bad)

Jordan Spieth did not have a Warriors-like weekend. The 22 year old had a complete and utter meltdown at the 12th hole in The Masters final round, and it cost him his second straight green jacket. 

It was such an odd outcome because the 30-minute, one-hole blunder so overwhelmingly decided the outcome of a four day event. Even if Spieth bogeys the hole instead of quadruple bogeying, he's in a playoff (if the rest of the tournament plays out the same). The seven he threw up on number twelve literally decided the tournament. 

It is likely why Spieth was so distraught afterwards. It's not just the great shots that make professional golfers great, it's the ability to do damage control. Hit a bad shot? Save it with the next one. Spieth followed a bad shot with a worse one and then did it again. He actually did some damage control by getting up-and-down out of the bunker to net the quad, or it could've been even worse.

What I don't get is the narrative today that "how Spieth responds will define his career." Well no kidding. If he stinks for the rest of his life, that's gonna define his career. If he bounces back, people will marvel at his ability to put failure behind him. That's all great, but let's not pretend like this hasn't happened before.

Rory McIlroy had the 54 hole lead at Augusta in 2014 before shooting a final round 80 and losing the tournament. He came back and blasted the field at the US Open to win the very next major. Jack Nicklaus's record 18 majors are made even more remarkable by the fact that he finished second 19 times. You don't think there were a few close calls and heart-breakers in there? 

Spieth will be fine. He's 22. He's already won multiple majors. His game is perfect for Augusta and he'll be the favorite there next year so long that he's healthy. He'll probably win there again. Yesterday's performance will hurt and it'll probably hurt forever. No matter how many he wins, he'll know it always should've been one more, but that doesn't mean he'll crumble into a heap of emotion and forget how to play golf.

Credit also to Danny Willett, who still had to go out and win it. He made sure to make it difficult for Spieth to catch him down the stretch and, in the end, did enough to win comfortably. That capped off a pretty amazing week for him that started with the birth of his first child. The picture of the baby in the green jacket is going to be pretty epic. Also, his brother is pretty great.

No More Bowling

The NCAA announced a three year freeze on adding new bowl games Monday morning, which was surely met with applause around the country. Three losing teams played in post-season games last year, which is a bit ridiculous considering they are supposed to be a reward for a stellar season.

Largely I'm in favor of having a large number of bowl games because they do mean a lot to the players and they really aren't hurting anyone. I didn't feel that way before going to the 2009 New Orleans Bowl and seeing MTSU win it. For a small school, it was a big deal. The players had a solid season, took advantage of the opportunity and walked away with memories they'll never forget.

That's always stuck with me, but there is a limit considering it's supposed to be a reward and the NCAA is long past that limit. We don't need to go back to an era where only the best of the best get to play in the post-season, but there's certainly a happy medium before you get to losing teams participating. It's probably farther back down the path than we've traveled, but at least for the next three years we won't be traveling any further.

Read(s) of the day:

I'm going to start adding some of the enjoyable things I've read to the ends of these random rumblings columns. I read a lot of stuff. Some of it is really good. So why not share:

• ESPN's Ramona Shelburne on the literal, physical pain Steve Kerr has endured this season as his team marches towards history.
• NJ.com's Steve Politi on the one house still standing in Augusta National's neighborhood, and the people who live there.
• The MMQB's Emily Kaplan on Jon Gruden's QB Camp, which starts this week on ESPN

What is success? (NBA edition)

I saw a tweet this week that spawned a thought. The thought is more a philosophical question that can be applied to literally any situation in life, but we'll mostly stick to sports. What is success?

The tweet came from a Mavericks fan to my former colleague Chuck Cooperstein, the Mavs play by play man. The pessimistic fan asked "what's the point of making the playoff? They're going to lose in the first round."

Allow me to answer: you make the playoffs. 

On the surface, this seems like quite the logical thing than anybody with even a minute understanding of sports should be able to figure out, but defining success in sports is far from simple. For some teams success means winning a lot. For some teams it's winning some. For some teams it's not winning at all. It's complicated. It's nuanced. And at this time of the year, it's particularly in focus for the NBA.

For the Mavericks, making the playoffs is a remarkable success. Dallas thought they had made a key addition in DeAndre Jordan last summer before the Clippers center changed his mind and decided to return to Los Angeles. That left the Mavericks with newly signed Wes Matthews coming off an achilles injury, Chandler Parsons coming off knee surgery and Dirk Nowitzki somehow still being a very good player despite being 482 years old in NBA years. Instead of being a legitimate threat to get to the 2nd round of the playoffs, the Mavs were stuck being good enough to have no shot at keeping their draft pick, which had to fall in the top 7 to not be sent to Boston to complete the Rajon Rondo trade.

Since being bad didn't have any benefit, why not see how good you can be? Despite battling injuries all year, they made the playoffs again. That should be celebrated. That's an accomplishment. That's success.

For the Warriors, making the playoffs is nothing special. Their goals are different. They're only goal is a championship. That was until they got off to the best start in NBA history and all of a sudden, the record for most wins in regular season history was on the table.

Success is a moving target, in life and in sports. When someone reaches a goal, they set a new one. When circumstances change, goals change. Rarely do plans actually work out exactly as someone lays them out. For the Warriors, the goal didn't change. They just added a new one.

The NBA's regular season is long. It starts in October and ends in April. Sometime in November or December, everyone realized the Warriors had a chance at 73 regular season wins because they hadn't lost yet and the wins were starting to stack up. At that point their season became a really long family vacation. You can't wait to leave, but by the end, even if you know you'll look back fondly, it's just time to go home.

That's where the Warriors are now. They're clearly exhausted, scraping together wins against teams they literally beat by 50 earlier in the season. They've also lost twice at home, something they didn't do all year until last weekend. The goal of championship is still at the top of their list, but along the way they'd love to get to 73. They've got two more wins to go. If they don't get it, it's nearly impossible to say that the regular season hasn't been successful. They've already assured themselves one of the two winningest regular seasons in the history of the sport. Of course that's successful, even if they don't reach their goal of breaking the record.

For the Warriors, success depends on their first goal. They must win another championship. Falling short of that is a failure by anyone's standard based on what Golden State has accomplished and what they're capable of. The funny thing about success being a moving target, is it often moves back to where it started. While the focus is on the regular season record, the determination of success hasn't moved one bit for Steph Curry and co.

That concept of moving goals and moving success brings us to the other end of the NBA spectrum: the 76ers. Sam Hinkie resigned from his front office position this week as Philadelphia continued to bring in other people around him. Hinkie wrote in his resignation letter that the changing dynamic didn't leave him in a position that he felt he could make the best decisions for the team.

Hinkie's plan to rebuild the 76ers was much maligned, but it was also misunderstood. The biggest misunderstanding was his definition of success.

Winning in the NBA actually isn't that hard. Winning championships is nearly impossible. The margin between a good team like the Mavericks and a championship team like the Warriors is massive. Hinkie wanted to build a championship team.

In order to do that, he gutted the roster and maximized his means of acquiring a star player (which you need at least one of, if not two to win a title) via the draft. In the meantime, he didn't care about how his team did. He knew he needed that player.

Upon his resignation (which wasn't forced by ownership directly, although the moves they made around him were the reasons he resigned), many analysts brought up teams like Orlando and Denver to say "you don't have to be so extreme to rebuild" as the Sixers have been the last three years.

Orlando and Denver have acquired some nice pieces. None of those pieces are the championship piece that Hinkie wanted. Sure, they've got better rosters and if they can either pick a winner later in the draft, get lucky and win the lottery or acquire a superstar player via trade or free agency, the superior roster helps them be in a position to win faster. With Orlando, this is even feasible as they've been a free agent destination in the past. With Denver? They better hope for the luck option.

Meanwhile the Sixers have the highest odds ever at the number one pick and might wind up with two picks in the top 5 this season. Every plan involving a lottery and talent evaluation also involves substantial luck. Why not give yourself the maximum chances to get lucky?

That's not to say Hinkie was perfect and didn't make some mistakes. He could've potentially had better players already with better scouting. He underestimated the human side of player development in having no veteran presence in his locker room. However his long-term plan often came under attack for the wrong reasons.

People failed to understand his definition of success. He didn't want to his team to be good. He wanted them to be great. He knew that would take time. He ran out of time.

Success is a funny thing. It can be defined by a person for themselves. It can be defined by others. It can be defined by precedent and history. It can be defined by smashing precedent and making history. It can be clearly defined. It can be misunderstood. All of those things are no more easily found than in pro sports at a season's end.

4/7 Hoffman Podcast: Sam Hinkie resigns (with Jeff Platt)

My former co-host and fellow NBA junkie Jeff Platt joins me to talk about Sam Hinkie's surprise resignation in Philadelphia. We also discuss the team Jeff currently covers, the Spurs, and their pursuit of perfection and home and ultimate mission of beating the Warriors.



For reference, Sam Hinkie's letter can be read here. His podcast with Zach Lowe is here. Lowe also did a podcast with Sixers coach Brett Brown recently that is very good. That can be found here.

Random Rumblings: April 6th

After yesterday's blurb on the national title game, the blog of varied topics returns today. It includes a note on the historic Warriors run, something I forgot to mention about that title game and we start with a trial that captured America all over again.

The People vs OJ Simpson

The series finale of The People vs OJ Simpson last night on FX wrapped up a brilliant series that deserves the critical acclaim it's getting. The 1995 trial of OJ Simpson captivated America, right down to me as a kindergartener. While most of my classmates didn't care, I distinctly remember watching the verdict in my classroom along with one of my teachers. At the time, I obviously had no clue what I was watching. A five year old can't process the crime or the context, but I remember watching and knowing it was a big deal.

Twenty-one years later, I understand as much as one can not having consciously lived through it. The show did a remarkable job retelling an incredibly complex story that took 16 months in a ten episode mini-series. What I enjoyed about the show is how it wasn't trying to tell the story of the murders, but instead how the jury arrived at the verdict and how that journey impacted in incredibly high number of people.

I had no idea what the prosecutors went through. I didn't know nearly as much about Johnny Cochran's background and mission. I certainly didn't know about the insane twists and turns Judge Ito and the jury went through during the case. It was a learning experience as much as a show for entertainment, which I consider a massive positive considering the subject matter. Two people died. That can't be forgotten or taken for granted.

After every episode, I read fact-checking articles and I was astonished to see how accurate the show was. From the sexual tension between Marcia Clark and Chris Darden to various bombs dropped in the court room, the series did a rather remarkable job of capturing the circus that the trial was at the very least in spirit, if not directly accurately.

There was really only one moment where a stray from reality bothered me and that was the glove scene. It's the most pivotal moment of the trial and the show presents Darden's request of Simpson to try on the gloves as a rogue move that shocks his boss and colleague in Clark. That's not how it happened, so I'm not sure why the writers of the show chose that moment for perhaps their furthest stretch from the truth.

All in all, the show was fantastic. It was captivating, and many who were there for the trial were stunned at how it took them back, which is perhaps the greatest compliment the show could receive. I don't want to say I enjoyed it, again because of the subject matter, but it became much watch and I'm certainly glad I learned about one of the more captivating events of the last 30 years of American history.

One More Wildcat Thing

I wrote yesterday on Monday's national championship game, and soon after hitting publish realized I had forgotten one thing I wanted to mention: Villanova's discipline in that game was as easily identifiable as I've ever seen in a basketball game.

Controlling pace is talked about a lot in basketball, especially when one team has a very distinct preference. Villanova did a masterful job of slowing the game down, not so much because they like to play that way, but because they know North Carolina doesn't.

I've never seen a team so deliberately slow the pace while still playing with urgency. Even when teams slow down, they'll still run to try and steal a basket on a live ball turnover (steal, block, etc.) or a long rebound. Villanova didn't. They walked the ball up the court every single time, but they didn't then stand there and waste clock like so many teams in college basketball do. They walked up, ran a set and got good shots. It was a way to keep the pace down, but the pressure on North Carolina. It worked to the tune of 77 points on 57% shooting. This wasn't Wisconsin playing a garbage game in the forties. This was an offensive display of master discipline and execution. Credit to the Villanova coaches for the plan and the players for executing it to perfection.

For The Record

I've admired how the Golden State Warriors have conducted themselves this season. They're not afraid to talk about pursuing the '96 Bulls record of 72 wins. After last night's loss to Minnesota, they now need to win their final four games to break that record. Surely some will say "if they'd quit talking about it and just focus on the task, maybe they wouldn't lose games at home to lottery teams," but I'm not sure how they're supposed to avoid it.

The media wouldn't be doing their job if they didn't ask about the record. It's an amazing achievement that teams don't often have a chance of touching. Refusing to answer questions about it would just stack pressure internally. Instead, the Warriors have spoken openly about wanting to break it and why wouldn't they? "We want to win a lot!" Oh the horror!

The tricky thing with a record like this and the season they've had is that it's been a question for most of the season. As we near the end of the season and the reality of achieving the feat, the fatigue has to be real. The constant scrutiny has to wear down on them, as is the reality of having played 78 NBA games where teams are gunning to be one of the few losses in the Warriors' history books.

Even though the Warriors haven't played their best ball over the last few weeks, they're still winning at a remarkable rate and still are the team to beat, despite San Antonio's nearly equally remarkable season. If anything, doubts of their demise might serve as a boost of motivation and reinvigorate them for the playoffs.

The Warriors can still win the final four games and get the record. Whether they do or not, this is still unquestionably one of the best regular seasons by a team in NBA history, and if they win a title they'll be on any short list for best team ever.