Pssst...Scott C. I’ll let you in on 2 little secrets about the Warriors:
1) they play, when locked in, the best defense in the league and have for years. Might have a little something to do with all the missed shots by Houston
2) while they led the league in 3 point %, the Warriors were 17th in attempts, whereas they led the league in both mid-range makes and attempts. The reason the Warriors are such good at shooting is they take the best available shot.
Like I said, don’t tell anybody
1
Warriors missed out by not believing in TMC and building a supporting case. Two years was too short!
I can't believe the NYT is paying this guy to travel around the country like this. Actually we're the ones paying for his travel. Either send a basketball reporter to the games, or outsource the job to Reuters or ESPN.
But sending him to watch games with high school coaches in Alaska? Please . . .
The Bill Walton/Jack Ramsey Portland Trailblazers of the late '70s were the real trailblazers of motion-pass-screen-backcut ball.
But the whole concept was built around a big man with magnificent passing skills and instinct, and when Walton went down, it was all over. They did, however, win an NBA championship in '77 and ran up a marvelous record in '78 until Walton's latest injury near the end of the regular season brought their run to an end. (Walton had only one more fully healthy season in the NBA, Boston's NBA champ season of 1985-86, where he played as Sixth Man.)
Run TMC was an outrageously fun but mediocre period in NBA lore. I'm no Warriors fan. But even prior to the current spate of Billionaire Bay Bandwagoners, that fan base was loud and passionate. Maybe even more than they are now. They loved them some hoops. And with a lot of awful seasons, they still rejoiced in this fun squad. NBA is entertainment, after all.
2
These guys were AWFUL on defense. Awful. SO what exactly are we celebrating here. The fact that they played one dimensional b-ball, didn’t play defense, didn’t make the playoffs? Or that the reporter - Gee whiz - got to sit near them.
3
Nice article. Just a comment on playing up-tempo. Mullin was anything but a fast player, but even slow guys like him get their shots when the overall motion is constant. Never give a defense the opportunity to set the tone or pace.
And nice to see Timmy, Mitch & Chris back in town. The W's didn't do right by Chris when they fired him in 2009. On the other hand, the franchise did need to burn down the whole barn. The recent record speaks for itself.
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The man at the root of all of this is Don Nelson. Nellie created the modern game we see today.
11
The best was when they played Run TMC, Sarunas Marciulionis and Manute Bol—average height 6’7, just like the Hamptons Five!
3
On first 'pass,' it seemed impossible that, with Manute among them, this '5' averaged only 6'7" -- but, since Manute was just one of five ... and I can handle plain arithmetic ....
P.S. Half of one generation before Chris Mullin, I grew up playing in the same Brooklyn gyms and CYO leagues as Chris Mullin ... but I was never taller than 5'10" (and I never had a tenth of his skills!).