November 9, 2016.
Heard today that there was a KKK rally in North Carolina celebrating the Trump win. My mind wandered to this place: Did Germans have any hint of what was happening when Hitler won election as Chancellor? If not, did they at least recognize what was occurring when they dissolved the government and made him the Fuhrer?
That is where my brain took me today.
Here I am, like the sheriff of a small town, aware that a big cattle baron and his rowdy outliers have invaded and are interested in doing whatever they want. They will make the town theirs because they believe they know the answers to all the questions. Doesn’t matter that a few Native Americans, Coloreds or Mexicans might be inconvenienced. Also doesn’t matter what the women in town think or any of the other folks that are not like them. Heck, they tamed this country, didn’t they? They will make it just like it used to be – before all these folks showed up.
Well, I will fight them when the time comes, and call them out when they are in my presence. That is all I can do, not because I choose to, but because I would have to choose not to. High Noon?
Don’t expect any backup, though, cause it rarely comes. Oh, once a couple of marines came to back me up, just for sport, when I challenged a gang of about 40. That was fun, and maybe why the marines joined in. Anybody else want to come out and play?
I grew up in Latrobe, PA. Since I am 63 years old, I met both Mr. Rogers and Arnie Palmer as a kid. Mr. Rogers was a dear friend of my mother, and they shared music together anytime they could. I think I was at Mr. Rogers’ Ordination Ceremony to become a Presbyterian Minister when I was 5. I was in the presence of Arnie many times, seeing him relaxed and goofing with his high school contemporaries as an adult, including physical give and take with my dad and my uncle, who were both bigger than him, and others. My sister was given a trophy by him three years in a row for winning junior golf events. My other sister was in a picture in Sports Illustrated, sitting on the back of his snowmobile. We all had signed pictures from Mr. Rogers with our names on them.
I did not know a single black person or a single Latino person in Latrobe. In fact, I never had a substantive discussion with a black or Latino person until I worked in a steel mill in Detroit. Roberto Clemente was a hero of mine growing up. When I heard his accented English on TV it was OK with me, since I had no reason to think otherwise. Some people made fun of his language, using phonetics in writing it out. Muhammad Ali, Bill Russell and Jim Brown were the three guys that were my reference point for being black, plus Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 68 Olympics. What a great set of people to provide a foundation for my understanding of people who were not in my world.
Latrobe was a “mill town”, a town that had a steel mill in town and related places like a foundry, a forge shop, tool machining shops, etc. There was a whistle that went off at 7:30, 3:30 and 11:30 everyday – shift change. It was a town in which honesty was practiced, as when a lie is told in a mill, people can get hurt badly, or die. As I have aged I have learned that not all towns/cities are honest. I have also learned that in sports, honesty usually surfaces, even though there have been some notable exceptions. Ali was honest. Can you imagine someone asking even the young Ali to throw a fight? Palmer was honest. Can you imagine him rolling a ball over when no one was looking? Clemente, Brown and Russell – same is true.
Why should anyone care about what I am writing here? Stay with me, please.
I live in Louisville, KY now. When Ali died I learned what an impact a great figure can have on people. I rode my bicycle to the Cemetery in which Ali was to be interred, only to find out the motorcade was about 2 hours behind schedule. What the heck, I had a bike, I was at the East end of Broadway and Ali’s childhood home was about 3 miles west of where I was and traffic on Broadway had already been blocked. I rode down Broadway, heading west on a mission to see the Great One’s last trip. Little did I know the beauty I would witness. About a mile in, I stopped near a McDonalds and ended up talking to a coat and tie wearing black man of near my age. Turns out he was a Vietnam Vet from Washington, DC. I asked him why he was here in Louisville and he told me that once he learned of Ali’s death it occurred to him that there was no place else he could be on that particular day. He told me those in his hotel all had car plates from other states. As we parted, he suggested I go by the two ladies from Baton Rouge and say hi to them. They were perplexed when I rode over and said hello, but then they smiled and we talked for a while.
At the Federal Courthouse I talked to some officers out front and found out I might be able to intercept the motorcade as it came off the freeway by cutting a little towards the river. I missed it, but I went by Central High School, the traditional black school in town and rode by the original Porter Funeral Home. The location was a physical reminder that the Porter Funeral Home from which the procession started that day, a little east and south of Louisville, would not have existed as a black owned business in Ali’s youth, as it was under other ownership and another name when I first came to Louisville in the early ‘80s. Without people like Ali, “blackness” would not be accepted as far and wide as it was now – in Louisville and elsewhere.
Remember, I am riding on a bike, so there was lots of time to think. I followed my instinct and finally met up with the procession about a block after it passed Ali’s childhood home. I missed the landmark, which was OK with me, but I was in the neighborhood. Literally and emotionally I was in the neighborhood. Here it came. Children threw flowers, people cheered. I didn’t notice that they were a little perplexed when talking to me, but after it all passed and I prepared to ride away, I realized that I was the only white person in the neighborhood. I felt OK though, maybe because I used to play basketball in Detroit when I was the only white guy on the court and in the neighborhood (south side off Jefferson, Memorial Park in River Rouge was one of my favorite haunts).
I went back streets to intercept the procession 4 more times, even riding down Broadway about a half a mile ahead of the procession at one point. The cops and people were cool. No one had to be held back and people were allowed to run up and touch the car, run next to it, etc. No one misbehaved. Ali’s will was still prevalent. Will Smith and Mike Tyson leaned out windows and slapped hands with fans. We headed east and away they went into Cave Hill Cemetery. I have yet to visit the grave, but I will when the time is right.
Last week I happened upon the televised funeral celebration for Arnie held at the St. Vincent Basilica in Latrobe. Unlike Ali, who lived in Berrien Springs, MI in his later years, Arnie never could get clear of Latrobe. Everyone knew him there and accepted him as a normal guy. Ali was always different to the societal types in Louisville, and while they helped him start his climb up the ladder, they were also a reminder that he was not one of them. Arnie grew up on the outer edge of town, and Mr. Rogers’ family was the Patriarch family of the town. The library is the Rogers Library and the public pool is the Rogers McFeely pool.
Arnie was not part of the societal set when growing up. He lived on a nine hole course for which his dad was grounds keeper and pro! But, the fact that he was white, and Presbyterian, and involved with golf, brought him into contact with the societal crowd such that when he rose high his acceptance was total. Arnie made golf a game for the common man, breaking a barrier just as Ali did, but one that was not as obvious. In my youth, all most all golf was at country clubs, with dress codes, high membership cost and a sense of aloofness that was hard to deny. Now you can golf in a sleeveless shirt on a public course. Good or bad, it is changed.
Arnie, Mr. Rogers, Ali, Clemente, Brown and Russell were all honest. In sports, you cannot be one of the best unless you are honest, especially a team sport. Golf is a sport that has always relied upon self-enforcement of the rules, as a point of pride even among those who play. I was lucky to be greatly influenced by the example they set through their actions.
Here is why I wrote this (finally): Any one of those guys would not give Donald Trump the time of day after seeing the video depicting how he felt stardom gave him the right to do anything he wanted with women. I don’t care if Trump maintains it was just locker room talk. Arnie has straightened out bigger men than Trump for lesser breaches of etiquette and behavior, and even in a “locker room”, especially the Latrobe Country Club locker room, he would not have put up with Trump’s behavior or language. Can you imagine how Ali would address Trump? Clemente, I like to think, would have ignored the man once aware of his stances on various issues and especially with awareness of the locker room banter. Brown and Russell, well they are still here so let’s see. Any reasonably adjusted man should reject Trump’s presence. The vignette shows how low his character really is and in the end, as depicted by the good byes to Ali and Arnie, character, honesty and integrity outweigh fame and money. Character is what endeared Ali and Arnie to EVERYONE. Arnie probably never knew any black people well, but he would never slight one either. (He knew Trevino so I can’t make the same statement on the Latino front, and both of them would likely get a laugh out of that observation, which is why I articulated it.) What say you Mr. Trevino?
I realize this may be for naught, but I had to get it off my mind. Trump just has no character and no honesty or integrity in what he has espoused. The guys listed above taught me better and it is my hope that America can see the worth of doing better than what Trump espouses – on so many levels. If Trump had grown up in Latrobe, he was the kind of guy who would be ignored, reduced to hanging out on the fringe and looking for a ride home. Mr. Rogers would have had time for him, but I am pretty sure that even his patience would have worn thin.
Trump will get even uglier as the election gets close. He embraces ugly as he knows that it wears down those who don’t like to swim in that pool, just like filing bankruptcy wears down people who want to compete honestly. It is time for all people of character to turn their back to Trump and relegate him to the fringe at which he belongs.
Black People: You have heard this story before, somewhere in your life or the tales that were told to you by your elders. Donald Trump wants to slide up next to you, put his arm around you and suggest that you might as well trust him because who else are you going to trust. To borrow from a book written by a person who was half Native American and half white (The Outlaw Josie Wales), he is pissing on your back and telling you it is raining.
His new PR guy (I am not sure of the title, but that is what he is) comes from the world of right wing media in which he makes a living promoting the racist positions taken by Trump in the past. AND, when this is all said and done, he will still be in that world and selling the story to all who will gobble it up. Like that certain talk show host who knows everything, they don’t need a big market share to make money. They need a bigger market share to get the Trump Card elected though, and that is why they are reaching out to you now.
All of this is just my opinion and observation gleaned from TV and the internet.
It is clear as can be, however, that the new PR guy need not believe any of the stuff that he promotes in order to make money, and that is the bottom line for everyone in the game. The PR guy puts it on the teleprompter and the Trump Card reads it.
True, money (and power) is also the bottom line for the Clintons, but they will at least be true to the person that brought them to the dance. Trump will go home with whomever has the sweetest ride at that moment. In fact, what Trump and his camp are now doing is suggesting that he could spend some time in the back seat of a couple of different cars and still go back into the dance, hoping that no one notices him jumping from car to car.
Just think about what his white buddies, who bought into his message of isolationism and hate, are thinking now. Do they realize he is pandering for votes, with the hope that when elected he will revert to the promises he implied to them? Do they not see that the time he spent in the back of their car is now in the past and he is looking for better way to end his night?
Please don’t let him in your car, as it will just be another case of The Man using words instead of actions.
If anyone out there knows an Edward L. Roseman, aka Ted Roseman, who grew up in NYC and/or New Jersey in the sixties/seventies, undergrade at Michigan and grad work at Rutgers, please send them here. Ted was a very good bridge player so he may still be in the “Masters Points” world of bridge.
Ted, it is your backgammon pal, the Haz.
Hunter spent most of his writing “career” high on something. Maybe he had to, maybe he choose to, or maybe he would say it choose him. Carlos learned, as he was on his second foray with the sorcerer in the Sonoran mountains, that his past experience with the hallucinogenics was merely to accelerate his appreciation of that portion of the brain that was exposed by the door that they opened, but it was incumbent upon him to find his way into that room without the assistance they provided. When you get to that stage, an entirely different paradigm(s) is continuously presenting itself. The number of possibilities in such regard is infinite, at least as far as this human can discern, since the reference points are always shifting.
They shift for any number of reasons. Some obvious ones are physical circumstances, proximity of danger, proximity of animals other than humans, proximity of humans (including a large scale as to the particularities of the humans in proximity), atmospheric considerations (temperature, humidity, precipitation, electric charge, etc.). Anyway, if you become “aware” of the part of your brain exposed by hallucinogenics, one of the first things you experience is a greater awareness of what is happening around you (in addition to what is happening within you).
In the old days, the days before paper, let’s say, any enhanced awareness was passed on only by personal involvement. In so doing, the one with the realization would learn, though failed attempts, that the capacity to grasp, much less employ, the understanding that had somehow been foisted upon him/her, that the ability to even grasp the divulgence was limited. The ability to apply It was even more limited. They also learned, sometimes to a fatal extent, that acceptance of the reality that they realized was not to be granted by the masses. They also realized that an influential manipulator of perception could make them the “bad” guy in a heartbeat. In fiction, which probably mirrored reality, but with less preciseness, records the isolation of the odd balls. The mystics, wizards, recluses, etc. were feared always, and only occasionally respected. They were never accepted within the larger group. They understood this, though, at some point. Maybe just as the fire was lit under their feet or they were cast into the pit.
Let’s look at today’s world. The ability to fool (confidently misdirect) the masses is increased because the communication is no longer face to face. The natural inclination to read a person’s body language, so as to discern the pretense, or the outright lie, is lost when the communication is on the internet (even if there is video. (For, a video can be staged in many number of ways in order to hide or promote a certain “truth”.) Here is the bottom line: if you get any of the foregoing, then you are an odd ball. If you are a good odd ball, you are destined to be banging your head against the wall. If you are a bad odd ball, the see the Charles Mason story. For an example of the confident “misdirector”, see Jim Jones.
If you are a good odd ball, I suggest you lay low until the masses ask for your assistance. In the meantime, though, you can continue to grow in awareness and apply it on a one on one basis. Recognize, though, that you will get looks of confusion and non-acceptance except upon rare occasion. One cool awareness that has come to me, though, applies to ne’er do wells that you meet face to face. If you are honest in your expression of reality to them, which is likely contrary to the behavior that they would otherwise choose to exercise, it gets in their head and they don’t even know it such that you can change the path they are on. At least temporarily. This concept was conveyed in the first Star Wars picture show when Obi suggested that, “These are not the droids you are looking for.”
That is a case in which the mystical was articulated, and the masses could accept it because it was in fiction, but I have seen it work in real time. As one writer opined, if you have a true story, you probably have to tone it down in order for it to be accepted.
So that is it for now. Anyone out there?
Dr. J is the black Arnold Palmer. Wait, wait, let me explain.
Before Arnie, and TV for sure, the game of golf was for the really rich – for the most part. Arnie did not grow up poor, but he lived outside of town, on the 9 hole course for which his dad was both greenskeeper and “pro”. (Mr. Roger’s, yes that one, family was the patriarch family in the mill town of Latrobe. They lived in the big house on Weldon St., pretty much at the apex of the hill in town.) Arnie was just another kid, who was reportedly admonished by a teacher to concentrate more on school and less on golf or he would never amount to much. He loved the game though, and he was intuitive in his pursuit of it.
Before Dr. J, the game of basketball was played the “white” way, at least by those who were seen by the folks that only tuned in to the TV when the NBA finals came around. Look at the difference between style of play of, say, UNC in the 60s and the historical black colleges in the middle east of the country. The black game was different. There was no stalling and four corners in that league. The coaches, and the players, were having fun all the time, seeing who could out run the other. Dunking was routine and, perhaps, defense was secondary until the end of the game. It was considered street ball, not gym ball, and lacked the control that the coaches liked to exercise.
When the ABA came around, created by some adventurous folks, they chose to embrace a different game, they went a little more “black”, with a weird colored ball, a three point line (opening up the game), and some crazy hair and dunking. The coaches there “allowed” more creativity. Some players that were rejected by the NBA, for gambling or other reasons, were accepted. Soon TV showed the rest of the country, but the establishment, those who controlled the marketing money, and hence TV, shied away. It was beneath them to sanction that behavior. Just think what it would do to their country club white kids to see all the “rules” the parents liked, including as applied to the game of life as they liked to control it, were bent, or even broken. They couldn’t promote hoodlum behavior on TV or the advertisers would see a backlash. Or so they thought. Heck, the advertisers on TV for golf never had to consider that issue, as TV was as new as was Palmer. His swing was not pretty and could not be carried out by anyone who did not have the physical strength in his arms and shoulders that Arnie had. (Arnie played pick up softball, Frisbee football and chased a greased watermelon in the country club pool, all when he was at the height of his career – and none of the local thought anything of it.)
Back to Dr. J. He walked thru the door that Spencer Haywood opened – leaving college early. There was no “hardship rule” in the ABA. If you could play, then come on over. Spencer was, perhaps, the first to break a back board, led the US to the 68 Olympics, then left University of Detroit to turn pro. Not to the NBA, but to the arms open ABA. The first manchild. Dr. J left U Mass early and went to the ABA for the money, where he became the second coming of Connie Hawkins, a player who was banned by the NBA for gambling, brought a title to, of all places – Pittsburgh, and finally tasted the NBA with the Lakers, late, late in his career. Anyway, the Hawk did all that Dr. J did, before Dr. J, at least with the ball on offense, flying and floating through the air for amazing dunks. A one footed take off like Dr. J, not the two foot that many employed.
So, here is Dr. J, winning a title for the NY team in the NBA, then the merger came. That is a whole nother subject on a business level, so let’s leave that aside.
Dr. J did what he did for basketball when he came to the TV as part of the Sixers. He was a natural gentleman who knew how to behave in white society. He was a true bad ass on the court, and he had a glare when it was necessary, but he was the first black star that could be related to by white folks because of the way he carried himself. White folks were not afraid of him like they might be of even Bill Russell. (Russell had to be the man he was because of the time. Dr. J may have learned from Russell’s example given the U Mass proximity to Boston, a town in which Russell took a mental beating while standing tall. Side note: Russell, Jim Brown and Ali were the role models that gave me my impression of black people and I thank them for standing tall and straight in such regard.) Magic was the next guy, but Dr. J did for black people what Arnie did for working class people: got them accepted in a world controlled by advertising money. Then the dominoes started falling. I guess one could say that they both exhibited class on behalf of their class.
Well, this blog started years ago stating that it was weird thoughts, so what did you expect.
As with everything, I did not build a bridge over the creek, but I hopped from rock to rock without getting a soaker or hurting myself. Ha, ha, ha, – which now is merely LOL
If anyone gets this, let me know.
During a time out the cameras during the NBA Finals, first game, focused on Cleveland’s huddle. The Coach was reassuring, then told his time what needed to be done. However, he did not tell them, in any manner, HOW to do what he acknowledged as the need. Let’s hope that, perhaps, they had covered the how in practice such that the players already knew it, or were at least exposed to it. Here’s the thing, the body language and the performance after the time out showed that they did not understand the how.
Maybe you can’t teach the how. Yep, that is a weird thought for me, but as I age I have discerned that not everyone can learn the how. They can learn a specific how for a specific set of circumstance, but not the how that has to be the result of being in a circumstance that has not been “up on the board” before. (The classic, easy to follow example here is accounting. They teach how to put all the numbers in the right place in accounting class. However, they also realize that “new” situations will arise and they have generally acceptable procedures for addressing any out of the box situations. Those are called GAP in the parlance. But the accountants can apply those a bunch of different ways and that is when the variable comes into play.) Let’s stay with basketball because it is such a visible example of the process of which I speak.
There are certain fundamentals in basketball, and the teaching of those usually starts when the kid is less than ten years old. For instance, when shooting a right hand layup, you go off your left foot; on defense, set your feet such that the other player has a harder time going the direction of his “good” hand; don’t cock the ball back on one side of your body to prepare to pass, as that limits the directions that the ball can go when you pass. If a person has these fundamentals and many others, then the rest of the game is built on that foundation. If they don’t have the fundamentals, but merely great talent that can overwhelm the kids in their age group such that it appears they don’t need the fundamentals, then they built their house of basketball knowledge on the talent foundation and when they meet equal or close talent, opps.
I am going to make ONE example from the last game in the Finals.
Love’s concussion came from a lack of fundamentals in failing to locate the guy he should be blocking out. I was a skinny tall kid that played underneath. Blocking out fundamentals were taught to me early on and as soon as a shot went up I looked for the guy behind me upon whom I “put a body”. Watch the replay. Love saw the shot and never looked over his shoulder for a guy to block out. The guy was out on the wing – it was his guy in the defensive scheme – and Love just turned around, waiting for the rebound to come to him. Had he cut the path of the guy coming in, the guy would have run into his body. If he had backed up a step, and a step to his right, he would have taken the space the guy needed to make the leap that he eventually made, and which resulted in only his arm hitting Love’s head. No ref saw that “incidental” contact. Love could have made sure that any contact that allowed that guy to get to the ball would have been more than incidental. Did Love not learn this fundamental because the only fundamentals he picked up were for offense?
This would be a hard “how” to teach in a huddle, but it is emblematic of the deficiency that the Cavs have, and which the Thunder had, when the Warriors are playing their game. (The Warriors did not play their game for some of the series against the Thunder, perhaps they were looking ahead, or had started to take “it” for granted.) What is their game? What is their how?
They, as a team, get the spot that the other team needs, before the other team can get it – on defense. On offense, they are not married to a particular spot. They read the footwork of the other team to see what spot they give up, then they go to that spot. Is it amazing that they shoot so many shots real quick? Not just Curry and Thompson, but everyone. When you practice with those players, and if you are an intuitive learner, you can’t help but pick up on the technique. Perhaps it can’t be taught on a blackboard, but it can be conveyed by immersion. (If I was going to create a great basketball team I would try to get only intuitive learners, such that they could learn on their own. A sensor learner can only learn what they are taught. That is fine, if you want them to be chess pieces, but I believe, at the highest level, the game is too fast for the piece not to make his own choices.)
Anyway, that is the “how” that the coach did not convey to his team, and may never be able to. You must, as a team, dictate the space that you will not allow them to have. Not on a chalk board, but with your footwork on the court. Cleveland’s offense is nice when they dictate the space, as they did much of the Eastern conference, but if you take their space, they are not completely lost, but they do hesitate. When they hesitate they show the ball in an unprotected way. Have you ever seen as many balls hit out of the hands as with Cleveland in these games? It particularly shows up with LeBron. He is used to dictating the space he will get and when Iguodala takes his intended space, his whole rhythm is off, resulting in bad handling near the basket. Truly, he cannot exercise his power when his feet are off and his foot work has never been a true fundamental for him. Last night (game 2) there was a clear play that showed this: Thompson, on defense, beats LeBron to an early needed space, no worries, LeBron powers around him and goes over him, but Bogot, in the classic team defense mode, sees the last step LeBron must take and times his jump to easily block the shot. That is what I am talking about. Team space taking.
Dictating foot space is the key to TEAM defense and that is why the Warriors make this look easy. They probably take it for granted, but when you are the “little” guy growing up, or when your dad played the game at a high level, you learn footwork as a child and it comes to you naturally. I figure that Izzo taught this principle to Green through repetition. I know that the block out that Love did not do is something that Green would never be caught in, cause Izzo focuses on that such that his players do it without thinking of it – sort of intuitively!
The ability to make a natural decision, as opposed to a forced decision is not well understood. It may be because only a small percentage of humanity can make a decision naturally. Sure, lots of effort is spent teaching people how to make decisions. Perhaps a best example would be at West Point or other military schools. Officers are exposed to the preferred methodology for making decisions, taking into account a lot of factors, nee metrics, in the process. However, it appears from my perspective that people who have to learn to make decisions revert to relying upon metrics to support the decisions they render, and end up looking for metrics to support the decision instead of making decision based upon metrics that appear readily. Sometimes, they delay the decision until a metric shows up, but the passage of time has greatly influenced the metric upon which reliance is based such that a more timely decision would have been different, but the metric that otherwise to influence the decision would not have occurred at all. In the end, though, it looks like there is support for the decision that was “made”.
This all takes us to basketball. More than any other major sport, basketball is dependent upon repeated decisions of each of the players on the court. They are each charged with assimiulating the data that is presenting to them, and which data is being presented alternatively by all of the other players on the court. Everything changes as each millisecond goes by such that the reliance upon metrics is an illusion as the metrics are BRAND NEW in each instance, except until a player delays long enough that a recognized metric presents itself. However, that wait, the failure to decide, actually forces a metric and misses the opportunity for an original decision. Learning how to make the original decision, in reliance upon a players personal book of knowledge, is dependent upon that players ability to assimulate past give and takes in a manor to avoid the gap in the process. However, as mentioned above, it is only a small percentage of the population that leans in the direction of self trust enough to make the decsions as they are presented, not waiting for the verifying metric to appear. Sure, maybe the percentage in the NBA is higher or the players would not get there in the first place, but that supposition is not necessarily true. They could be talented enough that they could be protected by the other players, knowingly or without thought, from the making of decisions. It is possible, and highly likely, that coaches would shelter certain players from the decision making process, advising them “exactly” what to do and hoping that circumstances fall out as anticipated. Of course, there are glaring examples of a player making a decision that is hard to comprehend, and that circumstance is brought on by the nature of the game – constantly changing.
Some players have an easier time making decisions because they can dictate the circumstances that require the decision in the first place. LeBron is one of those to the extent that he gets one on one and he has the ball in his hands. That decision making is easy for him. However, when he is not one on one,or when he is on defense, the ability to dictate is minimalized and he is left to making decisions with many more variables. This raises two issues. One, is he a natural decision maker or is he one who has learned how to make decisions by being taught about the process by someone else. If he is intuitive in decision making, then he will always be advancing his book of knowledge as he plays. If he is a learner, then he only advances his book based upon being taught, again and again, based upon review of what has taken place. This last process can work, but it is slower and more time consuming, and less effective than the intuitive methodology. Only the intuitive learner can expand the book beyond what is commonly known by others. (See, Magic Johnson for the best example.) Two, is really buried in one, but it is how fast can he expand his knowledge book and do those around him learn to trust his expansion such that their decision making effort approximate his, as adjusted. This all reflects, ultimately upon the level of trust that goes back and forth during the game, and between games.
Based upon the ending of the last two games in the Western Conference Finals, it seems as if GS players are more fluid in their collective decision making than was OKC. Perhaps OKC will improve on this based upon the opportunity to learn that was presented to them. Their book of knowledge should expand and Donovan may be able to help them see that – if he recognizes any of this himself. GS may well be better than most across the board in this regard. Remember, not to be discounted, Curry and Thompson each have a book of knowledge that includes a generation of learning by their dads that is at least partially passed along, both by DNA and by Role Modeling during their youth.
I will be watching this aspect, on both teams, as the Finals play out. Let’s see who intuitive trusts themselves, and conveys that trust to teammates such that the reciprocal trust kicks back, over and over between all members of the team. Shit, anyone else get any of this?
Let’s take a look at the childhood of players in the NBA to “get” the mindset at a really close game in the finals comes to fruition. LeBron was raised by a single mom in a small town in Ohio. He was always big and talented. As a black kid in his environment, though, I am pretty sure that he learned, from role models in the neighborhood, that he should not except himself too much. Keep your head down and lay low so as not to catch the attention of the police or others who enforced the rules of the game that was being played in that small town. That same atmosphere actually traces all the way back to slavery. Keep your head down even if you see a better way for things to unroll. You can share that at home, but not out in public. LeBron did not learn it was acceptable to assert himself until both Bosh and Wade were off in the Miami series against Indiana about 5 years ago. Until then, he would still revert to his childhood persona of being great, but not assertive. Sure, he is assertive over the top now, but how will that translate when all the pressure is on? Will he trust his teammates, all of them, and will they trust him and each other, even when mistakes start to occur, as they surely will. That is the key to success, continuing to trust even when things go bad.
Trust, by the way, is essential to winning a basketball game. Trust up and down the bench – players and coaches. The analogy of a wolf pack is appropriate. It takes all the wolves doing their part, at all times, to get the prey for the pack to share. Sometimes, the wolf that just occupies a remote space to keep the prey from heading in that direction is the key. Just like Rasheed Wallace would let the guy on the far wing that he was a half a step toward the spot that the player would need to get to if he beat his man out on the wing such that the player would take that move off his list of possibilities.
Trust on offense is easier than trust on defense, because there is a greater ability to dictate the moves when you are on offense. On defense, everyone must react to what the other team is doing such that the trust, right down to the core, has to be there such that you can rely on one of your other guys getting the weak side such that you can still leave that path as the only path you give up, since you can’t stop every path. Defense in the NBA is taking away the “want” moves by the offense and making them take only the last resort “need” moves, with the hope that your teammates will pick up that move and make the offense find another “need” move. Once the dominos start falling, the reactions happen fast and if one guy fails, there is a score. Now, with Golden State, they convert the need moves pretty well, so trust can be lost as an individual may not trust enough not to try and protect against the need move itself and thereby give up the want move, which should be the first priority. So if you get that, let’s move on.
Steph and Klay were raised in the game. Not just the game of basketball, but the game of success as played in the US. (Every nation has a different game of success, just ask the India Indians, the Saudis, the Brits, the Germans, etc.) S and K, as they will now be called, know the US game from watching their dads and other role models who got it. They are different from LeBron as a result. They trust themselves in that game, and in the game of basketball, and they can be trusted by others who are in the game. In Cleveland, we know that Smith now trusts who he is with, and it has been a journey for him to get there. He would run through a brick wall for LeBron. Would he, however, do that for Love (nice pun?)? Maybe he would do it for Liu more than he would for the previous coach, but LeBron is his key trust focus. I use him only because it is an easy example. I don’t know the end game, but we shall see if those on the Cleveland team can hold on to the trust they seem to have acquired this year. Under pressure is the true measurement.
In battle, it comes out, real battle, and soldiers who have fought side by side, and died side by side will confirm this, just like a wolf could if they had the where with all to even consider not trusting. In the pack, life is spent experiencing the trust as that is the game that nation practices, regardless of locale, and they kick out the lone wolf that will not trust.
Last thought, perhaps, Rodman could always be trusted on the team, but Rodman’s upbringing resulted in what is known as Attachment Disorder such that he could not trust anyone outside his team. His early trust had been betrayed too many time such that deep down inside he could not stand the pain of extending trust. The Pistons were his family, until he got divorced from his wife, then the Disorder was reinforced once again. I am not a psychologist, but I play one on the internet.
Today, I give you a piece of NeighborDave. ND rarely gave out pieces as he was growing up, as each time he did, it seems like the piece was gone and there was nothing in return. Now, I have discovered that such is the equation of life, at least from my perspective. Giving out pieces happens. If you realize that the equation is not balanced, at least in an immediate sense, a whole new room is open to you.
Old people have more pieces to give away, and a bag of pieces that (apparently) move on with them when they die anyway.
My wife and I have custody of our grandson, curtesy of the court with jurisdiction over such matters, who has had the case in front of them for 7 of his 8 years. It has been tortuous as we learned by the experience of the court system and the variant ideas about how he should be raised. His parents were not entirely raised in the environment of which we were largely familiar, our daughter, his mom, having been adopted out of the foster care system. For those of you unfamiliar with that world, it is not what was shown on TV in the ‘60s, alluded to on radio in the ‘30s, or even depicted in many novels over the years. Well, the guy that wrote Oliver Twist and A Tale of Two Cities dipped into that world a bit, but at a different time such that those in America who have always been in the game played by the powers that be in America, will see the world as appearing 300 years ago, but not relevant to the moves they make in the game. (I could go on, but let’s divert back to the limited piece that triggered this. Dickens – it came to me.)
The Dad has never been exposed to the game as played by the powers that be in America. His family has not been part of the game for generations. If you have a reference of the middle ages, they were the people in the low town or outside the wall, for whom the rules had little application. They had never been empowered by the application of the rules, only hindered. For generations, the role models in that world learned that the rules could be brought down upon you at the apparent whim of those in charge. They did not see the big connection that the rules had to even their ability to make more decisions than those in their “place” had made centuries before, or in other locales. They saw that they were outside the rules and they played that game accordingly, to the point of excelling in that game, which was in conflict with the bigger game. However, it was not in direct conflict at each step, merely indirect conflict and if that distinction saved them from hard enforcement of the rules, then that was enough for their game, which brings us to the piece.
But first, an interruption.
Sunday morning and my grandson is up with me and the dogs. I asked him what he wants for breakfast, if he would like to go on a walk, or what he would like to do. He anticipates that perhaps we will all walk to the local Diner for breakfast once my wife gets up and ready, so we have a couple of hours to spend. He doesn’t want to eat, as that would conflict with the anticipated (pancakes and bacon for him). I see all this in his face and body. Then, not entirely out of the blue, he says “Let’s go to the park and play Frisbee.” I laugh aloud and we begin. Barefoot in the wet grass, with folks driving, running, walking and biking by. One thing he got a hint of today: a good catcher can make a bad throw not so bad. It is amazing the things that are to be learned for good Frisbee exchange. It is a dance of those with intuitive learning ability. You can only learn so much of Frisbee from being taught. Most of it has to be learned by the calculations that are made by the brain without the human himself getting in the way of the calculating process. So on to the Piece.
My grandson asks about the rating of every thing (not “everything”, since I want the thing to stand on its own, as a thing) that he is exposed to on TV as I switch through the channels and stop. As we discussed the matter I discovered the he had learned the “freedom” of asking me this question, with the understanding that he could get me to turn off objectionable stuff. If it was PG 13 it did not get to stay absence sufficient reasoning on my part – under cross examination by him. And, he is good at cross examination, having learned it from me by example.
Here’s the thing, during his third year of life, he spent some weekends at his grandmother’s house (on the other side, if you will and I do mean a different side in many respects). There, he was exposed to all the Freddie movies. Well, exposed is imprecise. He watched them all with his slightly older cousins, and probably grandma as well. (He got the compiled set, not boxed, but compiled bit by bit one at a time, for Christmas when he was 4.)
He learned from the films. They scarred and scared him, both. But in our different side of the world, he gets to be heard and protected from such vagaries. It is certainly to an extreme, but he is beginning to understand that in the old west, sometimes gunplay, straight up and by certain rules that seemed to be enforced on occasion, might be the only manner of stopping misbehavior that was even further outside the rules. One day, he may watch those films without being tortured as a result. It will be interesting to see how his leverage regarding the choice to watch or not watch, and the learning gleaned from the exercise thereof, will play out over time. He will learn one way or the other, that life is a series of decisions made – by somebody. He will also learn to value his ability to make decisions.
There is a piece, shared. It is not written out in detail like a text book, as ND does not have the patience for that. There is a story, like has always been, some of which, at variant points, will be confusing to the reader. Like wine, it may age on you.
NeighborDaveSays Blog 