Warriors versus Utah Jazz Playoff Series

I played with Derek Fisher for three years while playing for the Lakers and he is one of the most professional people I have ever met in any field.  When I got to the Lakers Derek was going through a very serious foot injury and was on the injured list for some time.  One time while he was injured we as a team were playing terribly.  Before one of the games, Derek gave an impassioned speech while in street clothes and really tried to encourage the guys to take up their level of play a notch.  Everyone in the locker room from Shaq to Kobe to Slava Medvedenko was all ears.  Afterwards, Phil Jackson referred back to Derek as the emotional leader of our group. 

Derek was always working on his jump shot.  There were so many days when Derek would be there early at the gym with his brother feeding him passes and giving him feedback on fine-tuning aspects of his jumper. 

Later that same season in the playoffs Derek had a monster game against the San Antonio Spurs and hit something like seven or eight three pointers in a blowout win for us.  A few days later when we were watching the game film in our "warrior room," Phil Jackson commented on how Derek had played so very well, and yet Derek did not get involved in any kind of self-promotion, or on-court antics that are so popular in the game today.  Phil Jackson rarely was impressed with individual accomplishments, but he was keenly appreciative not only for how well Derek played, but how Derek Fisher carried himself while playing so well.

The Warriors vs. Jazz series is a great one.   I was so happy for how well Derek played tonight for his team.  I actually want the Warriors to win because I grew up about 30 minutes from Oakland and I know the Warriors team pretty well.  Don Nelson was the coach of the warriors when I was in high school and I even worked at the "Don Nelson Basketball camp."  But above all, I'm just so happy that Derek Fisher's daughter is doing well after her surgery.  I hope that Dee Brown's injury is okay and I hope that he's able to make a full recovery.  Detroit is my favorite to win the title. 

Trenton Hassell told me that if he was an NBA General Manager he would rather have the 2nd pick in this year’s NBA draft instead of the first pick.  When I asked him why, he said, “Because you can’t go wrong with the 2nd pick….I’d hate to be the GM that had to choose between Greg Oden and Kevin Durant.”  

When NBA teams are getting ready to make a draft selection, nothing is left to chance.  Teams will fly groups of players in to work them out and match them up against each other to see who is toughest and who competes hardest.  A lot of teams administer the same written, multiple-choice psychological survey.  I must have seen the same survey four times from four different teams.  One team (Chicago Bulls) actually brought in a psychologist to administer a whole set of unique tests.  One of the sit down interviews in Chicago may have been a type of IQ test.  I’m still not sure.  

They test your strength in the weight room, your body fat, watch how you interact with the equipment manager and trainers, and seem analyze everything you do and say.  Then, a lot of teams will have you sit down with the General Manager for an interview.  I still remember my interview for the LA Lakers.  “Do you drink?”  They asked. “No,” I said.  “That’s the first time in years we’ve interviewed two players in a row who both don’t drink,” they replied.   The player before me was a UCLA player who has ended up having a very nice professional basketball career.  

Mitch Kupchak (Current LA Lakers GM) asked me an interesting question during the interview process.  “Who is the best [current] college player you have played against?”  I knew right away.  “Jaron Rush,” I said.  I still think he was the best I played against in college.  I ended up playing with his brother Kareem Rush for the Lakers for a year.

Mitch probably got some good information from all the people he interviewed.  What better way to try to assess the draft class and future drafts than asking the people who have grown up playing against each other in high school, AAU, pickup games and college games.  

Over the course of years, I’ve probably spoken to well over 10 different NBA general managers.  I asked one with a pretty nice draft history “How do you know who to draft each year?”   His exact words to me were: “It’s a crapshoot.”  

Then it clicked.  There are just too many unknown variables that are impossible for GM’s to predict.  If every GM was perfect, then there’s no way that Kevin Garnett and Kobe would have been selected as low as they were in the draft.  There would never be any draft “busts.”

But someone has to make the decision and that’s why the GM’s go to great lengths to get as much information as possible.  When Brevin Knight was a senior at Stanford, the rumor circulation around campus was that there was a private investigator going around campus asking questions to verify Brevin’s very high personal character.  We were told that for the top 10 projected picks, private investigators came around asking questions.   

When they make a great pick, they are hailed as “great talent evaluators.”  When they mess up with a pick they are labeled by the media as “out of touch” or “can’t see the obvious.”  To the GM who ends up with the 1st pick in this years NBA draft I say “good luck.”  

UCLA made a great decision when the hired Ben Howland to become the new coach of the UCLA Bruins.  As a "Pac-10" guy I watch UCLA very closely as well as the rest of the Conference and in two years Howland has been in the NCAA Finals and in the semi-finals.  As one who played on a Final Four team myself at STanford, I can attest that it is not easy to advance in the NCAA tournament.  To get the the Final Four two years in a row is incredible.  But the thing that impresses me most about Howland is his graciousness in defeat.  I just finished watching the interview with him and all I can say is that Ben Howland is a complete class act.  He was the same way last year also.  He complimented Florida and gave them all of the credit even though inside we all know he was really hurting.

Tonight we play against the Miami Heat once again here at home.  They key to beating Miami is trying to find a way to slow down Shaq.  I use the term "slow down" because there's no way to stop Shaq from having an impact on the game.  He is too talented of a player.  Tonight you can expect us to double Shaq a lot with our smaller guards to make him throw it out and put someone else in a Miami uniform in a position to try to beat us. 

Our last two games have left us with a bitter taste in our mouth.  From blowing a huge lead against Seattle to losing in Utah, we really felt like we were in both of those games.  We should have won against Seattle, and we had a real shot at spoiling Jerry Sloan's 65th birthday when we played Utah a few nights ago. 

If the MVP ballotiing were today and if I had a vote, I would have to go with Dirk Nowitzki.  He's just done so much this season and the Dallas Mavericks are the best team in the NBA.  Although you have to give Kobe and Steve a look too.  To me, no one else in the league has been as outstanding as those two.  If you had to look at an impact player though, Chris Webber has been maybe the biggest difference maker in the league when he signed with the Pistons a few months ago.  Chris Webber is one of the most skilled passers to ever put on a uniform in this league.  When you play against him, he's like Garnett.  He boxes you out with his hands.  Both those guys have the strength to hold people off with one hand and then be there for the rebounds. 

Two of my friends said they got their picture taken with Jack Nicholson last night at the Lakers vs. Timberwolves game.  Jack Nicholson is a regular at the Lakers home games and he travels on the road a lot to watch his team (The Lakers, of course) play.  But my other friend said that he was a "Nicholson Impersonator" and that it really wasn't him.  Well, I wrote about all of this in yesterday's blog right here on MarkMadsen.com/blog.   Then tonight I go to my email inbox and my webmaster has forwarded me an email.  Here is what the email said:

 

Mark,

'Jack' was at the game last night.  I know because that was me.  In fact, since Jack shaved his head, I look more like Jack than Jack. 

I am a Nicholson impersonator and will be attending the International Celebrity Impersonator Convention the end of May in Vegas. 

It was a lot of fun last night being Jack but it hurt me to clap for the Lakers.  Because of my role as the Lakers number one fan I needed to fulfill the role.  You guys did an incredible job though.  Congratulations.

Best Wishes

John

Now before all of you tell me that I'm dumb to believe a random email into my inbox here are the facts:

1) The email was sent from a verified email address of a major fortune 500 company:  (i.e.  johnsmith@target.com--of course it was not Target though) as opposed to an "anonymous email" like @yahoo.com or @hotmail.com.

2) John's email included a link to his bio which is publicly accessible on his company's website.  (i.e.  www.target.com/johnsmithbio/ )

3) John is a major executive at his fortune 500 company.

4) His photo showed up on the Fortune 500 company website and here it is.  You tell me....does John have a chance at the Vegas convention?  I think he's the favorite!

John, I would love to accept your invitation to go to lunch sometime.  Maybe I will bring someone from the organization andwe can have some fun with this in the media guide.  I hope that you have a great day and I hope that you guys continue to keep the capital markets going strong!  (I guess we all should have known something was up when our Jack Nicholson impersonator was sitting about 15 rows up.....the Real Jack is always courtside....even on the road games).

Mark Blount has been having a monster season for us and tonight he did it again.  There are very few seven footers play in this league who can MAKE three consecutive three pointers in the last two minutes of regulation....how many seven footers even want to take three pointers in the clutch?  Not many.   Mark Blount did that tonight in our game against the Lakers and he basically saved our hide by getting us to the first overtime and eventually the second.

Before the game tonight against the Lakers, I caught up with one of my favorite all-time teammates: Brian Shaw.  Brian is an assistant coach now with the Lakers and is on his way to a very successful post basketball career.  When we both played for the Lakers, Brian was the one guy on the team who could pick up his cellphone and call every single teammate at any time. From Shaq, to Kobe to Slava Medvedenko, to Horry to Rick Fox.  Forget about his basketball I.Q. for a moment (which is off the charts).  His ability to communicate with today's athlete is a rare gift and something that would serve him well as a GM or as a head coach in this league.

Yeas ago, Brian Shaw played with Kobe Bryant's dad professionally in Italy (I think the name of the team was Kinder Bologna).  Brian told me once that he remembered playing HORSE with a young Kobe Bryant in Italy and being impressed with his skills.  After a few years in Italy Brian Shaw came back to the NBA and played alongside Shaq in Orlando during the heyday of Orlando Magic basketball.  Finally, he was reunited in LA with Shaq and the next generation of the Bryant basketball legacy--Kobe--from 2000 until 2003.

Needless to say Brian Shaw was that veteran type of player that Shaq would listen to, he had a great relationship with Kobe, and then he could go to Phil with suggestions.  One time Brian thought we were practicing too much during training camp and breaking the collective bargaining agreement rules.  He brought it up in a team meeting and Phil Jackson just smiled and laughed and said, "Brian you should really go to law school when you are done playing in the NBA."   Given that Shaw played for Phil Jackson and now is an assistant with Phil shows the respect that Phil has for him.  There are a lot of teams in this league that would benefit from the skill set that Shaw brings to the table.

It was fun to play against my former team and to beat them tonight.  I look back on the three years I played in L.A. under Phil Jackson and I have great memories.  In a lot of ways, Phil was the one who really helped me to gain confidence to be able to compete at this level.  Today, I saw in the media that Phil and Smush Parker were having some kind of public feud going on.  It happened a few times when Phil would go at it with Shaq and Kobe or someone else on the team while I was there--either right there in practice or through the newspapers.  The interesting thing is that once Phil got his point across to the player and the player responded, the relationship with that player would quietly simmer down and sometimes even seemed stronger in the days that followed.

I had a few friends at the game tonight.  Some of them thought they saw Jack Nicholson at the Target Center.  I guess my other buddy Enrique told them that they were mistaken and the man was really just impersonating Nicholson.  Can anyone out there confirm or refute this?  I guess that is just a random point of interest.

Well, I'm going to enjoy this victory tonight and the great performances of KG, Ricky Davis and Mark Blount especially.  We have the Lakers again in Los Angeles in a few weeks and I know they'll be trying to make a statement so we have to be ready. 

We are struggling right now plain and simple.  Our trainer Gregg Farnam had me stay at home so I was not at Boston for the game.  Gregg wanted me to get a lot of treatment for my injured ankle so that hopefully i can get back to playing this week.  I am actually dying to be ready for the Lakers game.  It's always great playing against Phil Jackson and Kobe.

I was lucky to have TV's in our training room and weight room, so while I was doing all of the rehab in the Target Center with our assistant trainer, I watched as much of the game as I could.  Troy Hudson, Garnett and Ricky Davis all hit huge three pointers for us.  But it was really Troy who gave us a huge spark.  Troy has always had big games against the Lakers, so I'm thinking he'll probably start again on Tuesday when L.A. comes to the Twin Cities. 

Having a sprained ankle is brutal.  You sit there and basically work out for hours each day doing ankle drills, stationary bike and the Eliptical Machine. Then you try to freeze your foot (not really, but it just feels like it) with ice for 20 minutes to get the swelling out.  I REALLy am hoping to be back soon.  Man, I neglected this blog for a little while because I was so busy with ankle stuff, but I'll be writing more stuff soon.

My old teammate Ervin Johnson used to say "365 days is too long not to laugh."  I know we're losing, but I'm going to try to use some humor in the locker room to get us more loose and back on track.  I'm going to share some stuff on this blog too that has happened in the locker room in the last few months that's pretty funny too.  Have a great Monday !!!

The purpose of this posting is to address a very talked about issue in the NBA as of today.  I read some comments online recently that got me fired up and I felt that I wanted to write about the John Amaechi Book that just came out.  I do not believe my blog is an appropriate forum for me to discuss my personal views on this issue in general and I have instructed my webmaster NOT to allow users’ comments either for or against the topic on this website.  The issue I will address is the prospect of having a teammate like Amaechi.

When I played for the Lakers, Phil Jackson would get the team together after Sunday games and lead us in “The Lord’s Prayer” as found in the New Testament.  During the prayer it was almost like a magnifying glass showed a huge range of differences in the room.  Some prayed with Phil while others stayed on the side in a moment of silence.  Others bowed their heads.  Still others watched the scene in silence.  Everyone probably did something slightly different but the prevailing feeling in the room was respect for each man’s own decision.  There was no ridicule, coercion or pressure from anyone in the room for or against any particular action.  When the prayer ended all of the differences faded away and we were back to one goal: winning.

I first met John Amaechi years ago when I was new with the Los Angeles Lakers.  The Lakers had just won the first championship and our power forward AC Green was off to the Miami Heat.  We needed a veteran power forward to start alongside of Shaq and to give Robert Horry some rest.

Our General Manager, Mitch Kupchak brought Amaechi to Los Angeles and made him a big offer. (Which Amaechi eventually turned down to return to the Orlando Magic).  I remember the day I met him.  I was in the weight room and Mitch called me outside to the court.  “Mark, meet John Amaechi.”  We shook hands and exchanged a few words and that was it.  Amaechi was 100% professional and 100% about basketball.  I think that’s why he had such a successful basketball career over 8 years.  His career was all about basketball and trying to help his team win games. 

I still remember Rick Fox’s words in a team meeting where he explained that for young players in the NBA there are “certain rites of passage that must be met.”  Clearly one of those is respect of the locker room.  I have come to believe that if you have at least one dominant basketball skill and you respect the sanctity of the locker room you will play a long time in the NBA. 

In a locker room there is only one goal and that is to win basketball games.  If anyone does anything against that goal such as dividing the group, trying to push a personal agenda, or trying to get personal accolades they are essentially cut off from the group and sooner or later management will literally cut them off.   

I don’t care if my teammate is green or purple.  I don’t care if he is from the U.S., overseas, or Mars.  If my teammate respects the space of every man in the locker room and keeps the locker room code, he will be welcomed by me.