June Roundup
Hear it here!
It may be summertime, but the two major winter sports, NHL and NBA just completed their playoff seasons in the past week or so.
The two champions come from Ft.Lauderdale and Oklahoma City.
That makes sense. Don’t you think of those cities when you think of the hotbed towns of hockey and pro basketball?
Not really. But there you have it.
The Florida Panthers won the Stanley Cup for the second straight season, beating the Edmonton Oilers both times. The Panthers were wonderful to watch. They played textbook defense, had a sensational goaltender in Sergei Bobrovsky, and were known for their toughness. Critics called them ‘dirtbags’, and maybe that’s a compliment.
But it’s also a cheap shot when you think of it. They were an aggressive, hard checking team that didn’t meet a penalty they didn’t like. They were the best at killing off the million times they were short-handed. This team wasn’t about finesse. It was about hustle and giving no quarter. They were great to watch. Congrats to the Panthers.
Hats off to NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder. They won the title in a seven game Final over the Indiana Pacers, who were more than valiant in defeat.
The Thunder were the best during the regular season and when the dust cleared at the end of the playoffs. They, like their NHL counterparts, the Panthers, were not about fancy, flashy basketball. They were about a pressing, often suffocating defense that helped them to 68 victories in the regular year, and the first championship for the franchise. The Thunder are possibly developing into a dynasty of some kind considering the fact they are the youngest team to win the crown in four decades and have a treasure trove of draft picks over the next several years. Their General Manager, Sam Presti, who made his mark back when he was the Assistant GM for the San Antonio Spurs, has built a remarkable roster. It was Presti who once insisted the Spurs draft point guard Tony Parker, from France. The Spurs were known for selecting foreign prospects in the draft, and they became a dynasty in their own right. All sparked by the great Tim Duncan, and Manu Ginobili, from the U.S. Virgin Islands and Argentina respectively. So, it’s hats off to the OKC Thunder.
The runner up Pacers battled to the finish, living on their trademark of coming from behind to win games that looked out of reach. They never gave up and they even led the deciding game by one point at halftime before running out of gas. Their chances were reduced to slim and none when their superstar Tyrese Haliburton suffered a torn Achilles in the first half. It was the second Achilles injury suffered by an NBA super player in the playoffs. The Celtics’ Jayson Tatum had the same gruesome injury in the second round against the Knicks.
This is serious stuff. Achilles injuries can take a year or more to heal, which could be a factor for the Pacers and Celtics next season.
I’m asked what is the most significant factor in making a professional sports franchise successful? The answer is always the same. It’s the front office. And I mean it’s from the owner on down. Those teams with owners who are either impatient, think running a sports entity is exactly like running their own businesses, and ignorant of knowing how to hire the right people are doomed to failure. They also interfere with the people they hire, and wonder why they don’t win.
The New York Knicks of the NBA are Exhibit A.
Let me preface what I’m about to say by believing that outsiders can never really know what goes on in the inner sanctum of an organization. There are issues inside that people don’t know about and unless you are there every day, if you’re looking from afar you simply can’t know.
However, there are some franchises who have had a long history of bad decisions resulting in years of futility, that it’s more of a case of what you see is what it is.
The Knicks fall into that category.
This year, they had a rare, successful campaign.
Tom Thibodeau in his fifth year as a winning head coach with New York, took the Knicks to their first Eastern Conference Finals in 25 years including a victory over the defending champion Boston Celtics in six games in the Semi-Finals.
True the Celtics lost their star Jayson Tatum which hurt, but the Knicks took a 2-0 lead in the series on the road, in Boston, with Tatum on the court.
Following a loss to the Pacers in the Conference Finals, Thibodeau was fired.
The veteran head coach had a tendency to play his starters longer than other teams, and not rely on his bench as much. But whatever Thibodeau did worked, and the team developed into a threat.
The team’s management stated it wanted to find a head coach who would take them over the hump and win a title. We’ve heard this tune before.
Interestingly, the Knicks have come up empty so far in their search for Thibodeau’s successor.
Some teams have blocked them from taking one of their own. There also have been instances where potential candidates were not interested in coming to New York.
For a franchise that has seemed to think it was smarter than anyone, and have fallen short in many instances, the Knicks might regret a changing of the coaching guard that had them make significant strides.
Thus could be one of the cases where the front office finds out that instead of advancing, they fall back, and ultimately regret they let go of a guy who brought them beyond where they’d been.
Somehow, you can always recognize the better owners in all sports. They seem to hire the right guy as General Manager, stick with him even in an occasional down year, let the GM pick the coach which is how it should be done, and basically get out of the way.
A perfect example is in Philadelphia, where Eagles owner Jeff Lurie chose Howie Roseman as his GM.
Roseman has done a terrific job, and the Eagles have flourished. Lurie lets his General Manager do his job. And the GM lets head coach Nick Sirianni do his. They may not repeat as Super Bowl champs, but Roseman won’t be fired if they don’t.
As anyone who has read these columns know I like and respect the Pittsburgh Steelers organization starting with the president Art Rooney II. They have hired very few head coaches and General Managers in the past 60 years and have had their ups and downs, heavily on the ups.
I’ve disagreed with their decision to hand the quarterback reins to 41-year old Aaron Rodgers.
I fervently believe there is no upside to that move.
Now we’ll see whether the Steelers know what they’re doing looking ahead.
What’s with Rory McIlroy? I thought finally winning the Masters would set him free and unleash the Irish golfer to continue that Augusta success and shed those obstacles that prevented him from capturing further championships in the majors. He looked like he reverted in the U.S. Open and even had a confrontation with the media who have been enormous supporters. He told them that they were the problem.
McIlroy is a complicated figure, who always seems to engage in a public tug-of-war with his personal life.
The Open next month in his native Ireland will speak volumes.
Every time I see a visual of Caitlin Clark she is being knocked to the floor.
Someone is making severe contact and she goes sprawling.
Caitlin Clark is the reason there is increased interest in the WNBA.
She has put the league and women’s basketball on the map.
Caitlin Clark is a phenomenon.
It looks to me that there is a semblance of jealousy, or envy, or resentment that Clark is a symbol of something more than merely the latest talented player to compete in the women’s league.
It’s not helping anyone.
