Sports (2)

My father is from Bangor, Maine.  His obituary in the Bangor paper said he was the best Jewish basketball player to come out of the state of Maine.  He was forty when I was born, so his athletic prime was mostly over by the time I stated to show an interest in sports.  He did teach me the game of basketball.  He taught me that I always had to focus on fundamentals, and that I had to practice them over and over.  We watched games together and he would always point out what was going on.  I learned enough from him to coach basketball.

As I indicated in an earlier blog,  I played high school basketball.  That was the highest I got.  I played in men's leagues, but they don't count.  I did not try out for basketball at Rutgers.  Again, I played in the band.  I would like to play in leagues now for old people (over 70), but after a hip replacement, my doctor said basketball was the worst thing I could do, so I stopped.  I miss it.

As a teacher and as a coach, I always wondered if I had to approach both teaching and coaching from the same perspective.  Coaches will always claim that they are teachers, scholars of the game who know how to prepare athletes for ultimate performance.  I agree.  To be a good basketball player, it takes more than just athletic prowess.  The most successful basketball players are the ones who combine their world class athletic abilities with the knowledge and understanding of the game.  From that perspective, the coach must teach them those aspects of the game.

I still don't think that a coach on a basketball court has the same attitude and demeanor as a teacher in the classroom.  Here are some of the differences.  A coach must meld five into one.  To truly function as a winning team, each player must know and trust what his teammates are doing.  Each player has to sacrifice for the good of the team.  Everyone's success is measured by the success of the team.  Certain players will certainly stand out.  That is just the nature of sport.  But with their own success, the team must also benefit from it as well.

The opposite is taking place in the classroom.  At least, in the classes that I taught.  I can understand how in authoritarian regimes, only the one end, the one goal, the unification of everyone, is promoted.  In a classroom, multiple points of view are examined.  Each student is to look at an issue, analyze it, and then accept it or reject it based on their understanding and perspective.  They are not a class that needs to be molded into a certain image.  Each one, in their unique way, must see enough to make an educated choice.  To me, that NBA could not draft a player until his class graduated college, regardless of whether the player attended college or not.  

The courts ultimately saw the inequity in this, since it prevented the acquisition of employment, and allowed anyone to be drafted into the NBA.  For those who do not know Philadelphia basketball, there are the 76ers, previously the Warriors, and the college Big-5, Villanova, Penn, Temple, St. Josephs, and LaSalle.  In the 1960's, there was an agreement among the Big-5 to play each other twice a year at the Palestra, Penn's home gymnasium.  The Palestra, like Franklin Field, are outstanding venues.  My greatest memory is from 1968 to 1971.  Howard Porter played for Villanova, Kenney Durrett for LaSalle.  Watching those two play each other twice a year for three years was so much fun.  The Big-5 was televised those years, so I saw them play on many occasions, but when they played each other was something special.

It is different now.  Between freshman going into the NBA draft and the transfers, each year there is a new group of players.  The coaches usually stay, but that is not enough for me.  It is hard to be a fan of a team that you do not know the players for very long.  As a result of the movement of players, I don't think there is any teaching going on.  And so these college players, who before learned for three years under outstanding coaches, come into the pros with little knowledge of the game.   They are incredible athletes.  There is no doubt about that.  And so the game has come down to the prowess of one player against another.  Occasionally it is a two man game with give and goes, and pick and roll, fundamental moves that many players today don't have.  I just do not enjoy watching basketball as much as I used to.

Maybe it is a good thing.  Less time in front of a screen has to be good.