A SCOUT'S PERSPECTIVE - OBSERVATIONS & RUMINATIONS

Mike Krzyzewski and Pat Summitt were recently named Sports Illustrated Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year. In listening to the video that highlights the accomplishments of Coach K & Coach Summitt, I was struck by the comments that Krzyzewski made about Grant Hill and the comments that Jeff Capel made about Coach K and Hill. I first saw Grant Hill play in his freshman year at Duke. By the end of his senior year he had truly evolved as a player and leader. I'll be sharing two reports that I wrote on Grant Hill in his senior year of college. Beside focusing on Hill's game, I reference an interaction Hill had with Capel during a game Duke played vs. Michigan on 12/11/93: "Has evolved into a leader and takes this mantlepiece seriously. Capel over-penetrates as usual at the end of the half and Hill found him immediately, wrapped him in his arms and encouraged him. He supports his teammates & does not tear them down." In my report chronicling the game a...

Coach Steve Finamore sent me an article written by Harvey Araton on Earl Monroe, the greatest basketball player that my father, Clarence "Big House" Gaines ever coached. The article is entitled "The Parable of the Pearl" and it's a great read. The article is excerpted from Araton's book, "When The Garden was Eden," and focuses on a trade that rocked the basketball world on November 11, 1971. On that date, Earl Monroe was traded by the Baltimore Bullets to the New York Knicks. The central question that basketball fans and experts had on their minds after the trade was consummated was a simple one; could Walt Frazier and Earl Monroe coexist in the same backcourt? Araton's article addresses the question in the first paragraph: The trade was announced on November 11, stunning the basketball world. Imagine hearing in 1985 that Magic Johnson had been traded to the Celtics -- that's how unimaginable the dealing of Earl Monr...

Jason Whitlock is a talent, but his thinking on issues is sometimes flawed and intellectually lazy. Whitlock's "NBA Players Are Wrecking Their League" article best illustrates his flawed thinking. Bill Simmons wrote a contrasting two-part article:  Part 1: "Grading Carmelo and Other NBA Trades" and  Part 2 - "Celtics Will Miss Kendrick Perkins" about the recent transactions/trades in the NBA. Simmons directly challenged Whitlock's point of view, without mentioning his name: "EVERYONE WHO CLAIMS THE NBA IS BEING RUINED BECAUSE SUPERSTARS WANT TO CONTROL WHERE THEY PLAY: D-minus What a lazy argument. Over the past six decades, the following players pushed their way from a worse situation to a (seemingly) better one either by trade or free agency: Wilt Chamberlain, Oscar Robertson, Shaquille O'Neal, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Moses Malone, Rick Barry, Charles Barkley, Scottie Pippen, Bill Walton, Kevin Garnett, Allen Iverson, Gary Payt...