Memories of MJ: HoopsHD interviews Frank Brickowski

Posted on May 31, 2020 by Jon Teitel

When the NCAA tourney got canceled in March we entered a whole new world, which included a sports void the likes of which we have never seen before. The fine folks at ESPN came to the rescue in mid-April with “The Last Dance”, a 10-part miniseries about the 1998 Chicago Bulls and their quest to win a 6th NBA title in an 8-year span before Coach Phil Jackson and most of his star players all went their separate ways. While it has been comforting to spend the past several Sunday nights with behind-the-scenes stories from Steve Kerr/Scottie Pippen/Dennis Rodman, the star of the show as always is Michael Jordan. Even though the documentary concluded on May 17th, HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel has dug through his archives and discovered oodles of unpublished interviews about Jordan’s career, from his early days as the leading scorer for team USA at the 1983 Pan Am Games to a 55-PT playoff performance during Chicago’s final title run in 1998. We continue our trip down memory lane by chatting with Frank Brickowski about playing for Bulls assistant Johnny Bach during college and facing the Bulls in the 1996 NBA Finals as a player with Seattle.  

Your 2 college coaches at Penn State (Johnny Bach, who won  3 rings with the Bulls from 1991-1993, and Dick Harter) were both known for their emphasis on defense: what made them such great coaches, and what is the key to being a great defensive team? Bach was old school and a brilliant strategist who had a great career in the NBA working with Phil Jackson. Harter was really aggressive and he slowed the ball down so that our opponents would have problems scoring.

What are your memories of the 1980 NIT (you had 16 PTS/17 REB in a 4-PT loss to Alabama)? We were nervous but had a great experience. I had a good game but we did not play well as a team.

You were a 79% FT shooter in college, but your FT% actually decreased during each of your 4 seasons (from 84% as a freshman to 77.8% as a senior): how did that happen, and why do you think it is so hard for most big men to make FTs? I have no idea why my percentage went down but it did not concern me because I still made most of them. Big men just do not practice FT shooting enough in today’s game: it is a lost art.

In the summer of 1981 you were drafted in the 3rd round by the Knicks but you went abroad for a few years to play in Italy/France/Israel: what did you learn from the experience, and how did pro ball overseas compare to the NBA? I learned that I loved traveling/learning about different cultures. My mom was born in France so I enjoyed it there a lot. The level of play does not compare to the NBA but it helped me get my feet wet. You have to produce or you will not have a job.

In 1984 you returned to the NBA with the Sonics: why did you decide to return, and why did you go to Seattle? The NBA is where I always wanted to be…and the Sonics were the 1st team to guarantee me money. Lenny Wilkens was a great coach.

As a member of the Spurs in 1990 you had a 3-PT OT loss to Portland in Game 7 of the Western Conference Semifinals after Terry Porter scored 36 PTS and stole an inbounds pass with 5 seconds left: how great was Porter in that game, and how devastating was that loss for your team? David Robinson was a rookie. Terry is a good friend of mine and was a great player. Rod Strickland made a good pass at the end of the game but Sean Elliot was a rookie and kind of froze. I think that Rod unfairly took a lot of blame for that. It hurts any time that you lose Game 7.

After making only 16 threes during your 1st 10 years in the NBA you made 32-79 from behind the arc (40.5%) during the 1995-96 season: how were you able to incorporate the 3-PT shot into your arsenal at age 36, and did you regret not doing so a decade earlier? I was not asked to shoot threes earlier in my career. It was more out of necessity late in my career and it helped open the floor for everyone else.

In the 1996 NBA Finals against Chicago you and Dennis Rodman (who grabbed an NBA Finals-record-tying 11 offensive REB in Game 2 and another 11 in Game 6) each picked up several technical/flagrant fouls for your physical play: what was it like to play against Rodman, and where does that 72-10 Bulls team rank among the best you have ever seen? Rodman was a brilliant rebounder but there was no “physical play”: he just flopped and the refs kept calling fouls! That Bulls team was 1 of the best ever but it is hard to compare them to the Lakers/Celtics teams of the past.

You averaged 10 PPG/4.7 RPG during your 12-year career, and your 51.9 FG% remains in the top-75 all-time: how satisfied are you with your career, and what is the secret to being a good shooter? I am thrilled with my career, and appreciate it the longer I am away from it. They key to shooting is just practicing and having a sound form. If you shoot day in and day out, it will give you a lot of confidence.

You currently work for the National Basketball Players Association: what do you do for them, and what do you hope to do in the future? I am the West Coast rep and I help out with education to save players from getting into real trouble. We see it making a difference so the future plan is just to keep supporting the players.

Posted in Interviews | Tagged , | Comments Off on Memories of MJ: HoopsHD interviews Frank Brickowski

Memories of MJ: HoopsHD interviews Anthony Bonner

Posted on May 30, 2020 by Jon Teitel

When the NCAA tourney got canceled in March we entered a whole new world, which included a sports void the likes of which we have never seen before. The fine folks at ESPN came to the rescue in mid-April with “The Last Dance”, a 10-part miniseries about the 1998 Chicago Bulls and their quest to win a 6th NBA title in an 8-year span before Coach Phil Jackson and most of his star players all went their separate ways. While it has been comforting to spend the past several Sunday nights with behind-the-scenes stories from Steve Kerr/Scottie Pippen/Dennis Rodman, the star of the show as always is Michael Jordan. Even though the documentary concluded on May 17th, HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel has dug through his archives and discovered oodles of unpublished interviews about Jordan’s career, from his early days as the leading scorer for team USA at the 1983 Pan Am Games to a 55-PT playoff performance during Chicago’s final title run in 1998. We continue our trip down memory lane by chatting with Anthony Bonner about beating the Bulls in the 1994 Eastern Conference Semifinals after Jordan had retired and watching Reggie Miller put up a Jordan-esque performance for the Pacers in the 1995 Eastern Conference Semifinals.

(photo credit: ksdk.com)

In 1981 your older brother Irvin was shot/killed while home on leave from the Army: what impact did his death have on your life? I was in junior high school at the time and had been very active in football and the Boy Scouts but after his death I felt myself drifting toward people that I should not have been hanging out with.

In the 1989 NIT title game with St. Louis you had 11 PTS/11 REB in an 8-PT loss to St. John’s: how much of a home-court advantage did they have while playing at Madison Square Garden? I never really thought about it: they were just so much more physical than us as a Big East team with big guys like Jayson Williams. They were able to wear us down over the course of the game.

In March of 1990 you scored a school-record 45 PTS (including your team’s last 19 PTS in regulation) and had 20 REB in an OT win over Loyola Chicago: was it just 1 of those situations where every shot you put up seemed to go in because you were “in the zone”? It kind of felt like that. It went into OT and we ran a play over and over called the “Bonner series” where the offense had to go through me. Loyola was a good team but they could not stop me so I just kept shooting.

You finished that season by leading the nation with 13.8 RPG: what is your secret for being a great rebounder? It was my most valuable attribute and helped me get into college and stay there. I am an aggressive person by nature and was blessed to learn what it took to play hard. Little did I know that it would help me get into the NBA: the key is to have the individual hunger for the ball.

You made it back to the NIT title game in 1990 and had 19 PTS/11 REB in a 2-PT loss to Vanderbilt: what was the feeling like in your locker room after your final college game? It was very sad to end that 4-year period both academically and athletically. I had no idea if I would be drafted and we had lost a championship game AGAIN…so it was a long night for sure.

You remain the all-time leading scorer/rebounder in school history: did you realize at the time how prolific a player you were, and do you think that anyone will ever break your records? I was a rebounder so I had no intention of being the all-time leading scorer: it just kind of happened thanks to a coaching staff that helped me maximize my skills. I think that someone will eventually break my record: they are exposed to the sport year-round via AAU and are bigger/stronger/faster.

In the summer of 1990 you were drafted 23rd overall by Sacramento (6 spots ahead of Toni Kukoc): did you see that as a validation of your college career, or the realization of a lifelong dream of reaching the NBA, or other? I was really thankful to have an opportunity that I did not think was possible. I did not start playing basketball until high school, which is when I had a growth spurt. Nobody in my family had even gone to college so I had no sense of entitlement that I deserved to be a pro. I think God ordained it for my life.

Take me through the 1994 NBA playoffs as a player with the Knicks:
Kukoc made a 22-footer at the buzzer in a 2-PT win for the Bulls in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals: what did you think was going on after Scottie Pippen argued with Phil Jackson and was not on the court for the final play? I had no idea what was going on until after the game but I remember Pippen not being in the game at the end and Kukoc making the shot. It was not “bad blood” but rather “competitive blood”. Phil won 11 rings so he knew something that we did not!

Hubert Davis made 2 FTs with 2.1 seconds left in a 1-PT win in Game 5 after referee Hue Hollins called a foul on Pippen: did you think that it was the right call, and do you think that you would have lost the series if the call had gone the other way? Quite possibly…but I learned a long time ago that referees rarely change their calls. Pippen had to contest the shot because Davis was a great shooter. It was the right call so we have to live with it: they get it right more than 90% of the time.

In Game 4 of the Finals you beat Houston by 9 PTS, which was the night after the Rangers beat the Canucks in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals to end their 54-year championship drought: what was it like to be in the Big Apple the night before, and did the Rangers’ win have any impact on your own team? To be in NYC in the summer of 1994 was incredible! The Knicks had a drought of their own so it was a big deal everywhere in the city.  Those kinds of moments do not come along all the time and are magical when they do. The city was so deserving: there are no fans as passionate/loyal and they are truthful whether you are playing good/bad.

In Game 7 John Starks shot 2-18 from the field in a 6-PT loss to Houston: was it surreal to be playing for a championship just 2 days after the OJ Simpson car chase, and did your team just ran out of gas after playing in an NBA-record 25 playoff games? The OJ thing was not a factor to us: I understand that the TV station broke into the game so the fans might have been captivated by it but the 12 guys in our locker room had the goal of being the last team to leave the court in 1994. The 25 playoffs games were grueling but there was no team that was better prepared/coached to handle such a playoff run with guys like Pat Riley/Jeff Van Gundy. We just ran into a resilient opponent.

Take me through the 1995 Eastern Conference Semifinals against Indiana:
Reggie Miller scored 8 points in 8.9 seconds to help the Pacers rally from a 6-PT deficit at the end of Game 1: where does that rank among the most clutch performances that you have ever seen? I would have to say it is #1 right now. I have seen Michael Jordan/Larry Bird do some amazing things but Reggie’s boldness/awareness to take the shots and know where he was standing on the court was phenomenal. I cannot even call it being in the zone: he had such disdain for the Knicks that it allowed him to go into a whole other stratosphere.

Patrick Ewing made the game-winning shot with 1.8 seconds left in Game 5 but missed a finger roll in the final seconds of a 2-PT loss at home in Game 7: what made Ewing such a great player, and did you think that his finger roll was going in? I thought that every shot he took was going in: he was a great teammate who led by example. It was his team/his city/his time: nobody deserved a title more than he did. It was a heartbreaker but I was thankful to play in an era of guys who were skilled/tough. Ewing was a true professional.

After retiring you became a religious speaker: how do you enjoy your work, and what do you hope to do in the future? I am actually a minister who tries to live what is in the Bible and then share that with people who need answers. I try to encourage young people to be the best that they can be and honor what God has given them. It is more important to attain your purpose than to attain stuff.

Posted in Interviews | Tagged , | Comments Off on Memories of MJ: HoopsHD interviews Anthony Bonner

Saving Sports: HoopsHD interviews NCAA COVID-19 Advisory Panelist Dr. William Schaffner

Posted on May 30, 2020 by Jon Teitel

Since the NCAA tourney was cancelled in March every college basketball fan is dying to know when we will next get to see our favorite teams/players back on the court. The bad news is that we still do not know for sure but the good news is that there are some very smart people who are working hard to give us some much-needed guidance. Last week the NCAA’s D-1 Council voted to lift a moratorium on athletic activities which will allow schools to host voluntary workouts/training sessions. Yesterday the NCAA released a plan for bringing student-athletes back to campus called “The Resocialization of Collegiate Sport: Action Plan Considerations”: www.ncaa.org/sport-science-institute/resocialization-collegiate-sport-action-plan-considerations. The document was developed with the help of the NCAA COVID-19 Advisory Panel, which is comprised of NCAA Chief Medical Officer Dr. Brian Hainline, 7 leading medical/public health/epidemiology experts, and 4 college athlete liaisons. Earlier today HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with 1 of those experts (Dr. William Schaffner, Professor of Preventive Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center) about his work on the panel and the challenges involved in getting college athletics back on track.

What do you do as Professor of Preventive Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center? I have a close relationship with the Tennessee Department of Health and the CDC and am very interested in vaccines and how they are applied to prevent disease.

In March the NCAA established a coronavirus advisory panel of leading medical experts and NCAA schools to guide its response to the outbreak of the pandemic: how did you get picked? I do not know: it is a labor of love and there is no compensation.

How do you balance the different factors of individual safety/public safety/college athletics/etc.? With difficulty. Intercollegiate athletics means that we must be attuned to what colleges are doing. It looks like the majority of schools will open this fall, which was not the case earlier this year. There are also intramural athletics so some of the same principles might apply to that. In team sports the athletes are not very different than members of a theater group or choral group where you have people acting or singing together. Basketball players work indoors so there are not any bright lines.  Some of the things we discuss might help particularly with residential colleges rather than community colleges.

How do considerations change as the rates of infection stabilize/decline/get reduced to near-zero after a vaccine is created? The principles remain the same but the implementation measures will change. From the time COVID was 1st discovered and we learned how it spreads the advice changes based on the knowledge we have. Laypeople would like an answer and something stable but as Ernest Hemingway said this is a “moveable feast”.

Does social distancing only apply to fans and athletes in non-contact sports as opposed to something like college basketball players who often spend 40 minutes/game within 6’ of their opponent? I am smiling because I was a track and field “athlete” who ran cross-country: I never had to worry about distancing because I was always far back of the lead group! We cannot anticipate being “safe”: we are trying to acknowledge that there is risk and then figure out how to reduce/mitigate/manage it going forward in the safest possible manner. If players wish to engage in a contact sport then they are willing to accept at least some risk, as do the coaches/trainers. The trick is to recognize that we live in a practical universe: it is not practical to give everyone a test every single day. You introduce factors such as self-screening, which offers a measure of security. You can take everyone’s temperature every day and ask questions of people you trust. You can spread people out 6’ apart during parts of practice, you can wear masks for some aspects of the activity, and do whatever you can to mitigate the risk. You can provide surveillance, have contingency plans, link closely to your student health service, do contact tracing, etc. We can recognize what the issues are but just going to college or staying at home means you are assuming some risk. We are all trying to move forward while recognizing there is a hazard. This was my week to go to the supermarket and I was gratified to see that almost everyone was wearing a mask appropriately. It was a very small survey of the pulse of Nashville but I saw that everyone was collaborating to reduce the risk, which is not always the case as we saw from the TV images during Memorial Day weekend and the demonstrators who were outside but standing next to other people for a long period of time over the last couple of days.

How much testing needs to be in place, and who is supposed to pay for all of it? We have several months before schools open up and we know that the testing capacity will increase between now and then. Some schools are considering testing all of their faculty/staff before students arrive and testing the general student body at certain intervals. Our medical center has testing that is rigorous/very accurate but we are working hard just to keep up with the clinical demand so we do not have the physical capacity to test all of the students. We would need to contract with a large commercial facility with the costs borne by the school, which might result in a higher tuition. Another strategy that some schools are considering is to get students tested at home within 2 weeks of when they arrive on campus and then get a certificate. That would give us a foundation on which to build and put the initial responsibility on the students and their families, which is another strategy that could relieve the pressure of arrival day.

Should NCAA student-athletes be allowed to play sports/fulfill their scholarship obligations if their fellow students have not yet returned to a traditional classroom setting? Sport is part of life and has been so since the 1st 2 cavemen tried to see who could run faster to a tree! It is an integral part of our society and of collegiate life in the US. Large survey courses could be given on line without losing too much but seminars/laboratories would require an in-person setting, although you could wear masks and arrange the desks to spread people apart. Every little aspect is being looked at: we are not stopping the educational enterprise and we ought to do what we can to facilitate intercollegiate/intramural athletics. We might have to modify things a lot at 1st: perhaps exclude spectators or spread them apart. However, you still have to think about things like transportation to the stadium, pregame parties, etc.

Since travel to sporting events involves physical distancing challenges, do you think that we need any changes made in connection with opponents/locations/travel? Everything is being considered but to hold a sporting event you need teams to meet in 1 place. Finance has to be part of this equation but I am not part of those discussions and they are barely mentioned within our panel. It relies heavily on testing: you contract with a commercial lab, ask people to sequester themselves before the game, have the visiting team come in late, define the bubble around the team and virtually isolate them, test everyone the night before the game and get the results the next morning, and if everyone tests negative then you can play the game. At the pro level managing the behavior of the individuals is easier because they are getting paid to play.

How do we address the concerns from the recent NCAA survey of student-athletes that a majority of participants reported experiencing high rates of mental distress since the outset of the pandemic? The 1st thing is to acknowledge that there is a problem because students deal with stress in a variety of ways. There are some elements of cabin fever, training has been impacted, and it has ruined the rhythm of their lives. You have to be aware of it and provide good counseling/information/support.

Do you think that the college basketball season will start on time this fall, and do you think there will be an NCAA tournament with fans next March? That is a crystal ball question but I will venture some cautious optimism. The vast majority of colleges will open up in a new way and I think that football will show the way. We will have all kinds of issues come up, including some that we did not consider in advance, and we will see how they change over the course of the season. I think that we will have a basketball season but do not ask me about the details because that remains to be determined. Our entire society will try to muddle through and balance the need for cultural/social/financial reasons with the medical/health impacts while trying to reopen. My metaphor is of a person walking across a tightrope: if we emphasize 1 thing over another then we will get shaky on the wire. We need to move slowly/carefully because there is no ideal answer. I was told of a pilot program this summer where a school tested every student and all of the results were negative…which led to some of the administrators wondering why they needed to conduct testing if everyone tested negative. Will you be satisfied with 85% or will you try to get all the way to 100%? Everyone will be attuned to who is getting sick/hospitalized this fall when we expect a surge: we will have to test for both COVID and influenza. The flu vaccine is not perfect but it can mitigate a lot of illness so there are things we can do to take some issues off the table. The NCAA has different divisions and some of the D-2/D-3 schools do not have the same resources as D-1 school so we will see variations on a theme.

Posted in Interviews | Tagged , | Comments Off on Saving Sports: HoopsHD interviews NCAA COVID-19 Advisory Panelist Dr. William Schaffner

Memories of MJ: HoopsHD interviews Tom Chambers

Posted on May 29, 2020 by Jon Teitel

When the NCAA tourney got canceled in March we entered a whole new world, which included a sports void the likes of which we have never seen before. The fine folks at ESPN came to the rescue in mid-April with “The Last Dance”, a 10-part miniseries about the 1998 Chicago Bulls and their quest to win a 6th NBA title in an 8-year span before Coach Phil Jackson and most of his star players all went their separate ways. While it has been comforting to spend the past several Sunday nights with behind-the-scenes stories from Steve Kerr/Scottie Pippen/Dennis Rodman, the star of the show as always is Michael Jordan. Even though the documentary concluded on May 17th, HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel has dug through his archives and discovered oodles of unpublished interviews about Jordan’s career, from his early days as the leading scorer for team USA at the 1983 Pan Am Games to a 55-PT playoff performance during Chicago’s final title run in 1998. We continue our trip down memory lane by chatting with Tom Chambers about facing Jordan in the 1993 NBA Finals.

What are your memories of the 1979 NCAA tourney (you had 26 PTS/12 REB for Utah in a 4-PT OT loss to Pepperdine)? I am not sure: that was a long time ago! I do know that we played well that year and were ranked pretty high.

In the 1981 NCAA tourney you scored 11 PTS in a 5-PT loss to eventual national runner-up North Carolina in Salt Lake City: was the dynamic duo of Sam Perkins/James Worthy (who each had a double-double) just unstoppable? That game was heartbreaking for us because we were expected to go to the Final 4 that year but ended up losing on our home court.

In the summer of 1981 you were drafted 8th overall by San Diego (1 spot ahead of Rolando Blackman) and ended up leading the team in scoring as a rookie with 17.2 PPG: how were you able to make such a smooth transition from college to the NBA? I had a great coach in Paul Silas who helped me with the mental aspect of the game. We did not have a whole bunch of scorers on that team so I was able to get a lot of playing time. We also liked to run so I got a lot of easy baskets on dunks/layups. It might sound odd but it almost seemed to me that it was easier to score points in the NBA.

Take me through the 1984 Western Conference 1st round as a player with Seattle:
In Game 2 Gus Williams banked in a 3-PT shot at the buzzer for a 3-PT win at Dallas: where does that rank among the most clutch shots you have ever seen? It was big: Gus was not our 1st option to take long-range shots! That was a huge series for us.

You scored 9 PTS but Steve Hawes’ lob pass to you was knocked away at the buzzer in a 1-PT OT loss in Game 5: how weird was it to play a decisive NBA playoff game at SMU’s Moody Coliseum (since Reunion Arena was booked due to a World Championship Tennis event)? It was different. There was 1 year when we hosted a couple of playoff games at the Hec Edmundson Pavilion on the University of Washington campus: the Kingdome was booked because nobody expected us to make it that far!

You were a late replacement for an injured Ralph Sampson in the 1987 All-Star Game in Seattle and ended up scoring a game-high 34 PTS in a 5-PT OT win by the West: what did it mean to you to be named MVP in front of your home crowd? It was a spectacular day for me: a real Cinderella story. We had a great team in Seattle: Xavier McDaniel, Dale Ellis and myself each scored 20+ PPG that season. It was unfortunate when Ralph went down but West coach Pat Riley put me into the starting lineup, which was pretty cool. It was a great game: we were trailing in the 4th quarter but then Magic Johnson took over and Blackman hit some FTs to get us into OT. It was definitely a breakout game for me.

In January of 1989 you made a famous highlight-reel dunk over Mark Jackson: what did your teammates say to you about it in the locker room afterward? They had seen me dunk a lot before but that 1 was actually a basket that we needed in a tight game. We always had hotly-contested games with the Knicks…and even a few fights. It was a funny deal for Mark to step in front of me because he was not really a shot-blocker! The guys were pretty excited when it happened and went crazy once we got into the locker room.

On March 24, 1990 you scored a career-high 60 PTS (22-32 FG/16-18 FT) for Phoenix in a home win over Seattle: was it just 1 of those scenarios where every shot you put up seemed to go in because you were “in the zone”? I was in a zone but the key was that I had extra motivation going up against my former team while on our home court against guys who they felt could replace me. Seattle coach Bernie Bickerstaff told me that he thought I was not supposed to play due to a hamstring injury but I was okay and everything seemed to fall through the hoop.

Take me through the 1993 playoffs:
Regular season MVP Charles Barkley made the series-winning 18-foot jumper over David Robinson with 1.9 seconds left to beat San Antonio on the road in Game 6 of the Western Conference Semifinals, then had 44 PTS/24 REB to help beat Seattle in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals: did Barkley just put the entire team on his back during that playoff run? Charles was definitely our go-to guy…which is why he had the ball for most of the shot clock! As far as getting rebounds and making big plays Charles was the man. We ran a lot more on offense before Charles arrived, but even though we slowed down after he arrived we got better.

In Game 3 of the Finals you scored 12 PTS in an 8-PT 3-OT win over Chicago: did you think that win would give you the momentum you needed to upset the 2-time defending champs (despite Michael Jordan averaging a Finals-record 41 PPG during the series)? We struggled against all of our opponents throughout that playoff run after falling behind early so that was a huge win for us. We had to play great basketball to get that win on their floor. That game had the most on-court intensity that I have ever seen.

In Game 6 you scored 12 PTS in a 1-PT home loss to Chicago after John Paxson made the series-winning 3-PT shot with 3.9 seconds left: where does that rank among the most devastating losses of your career? That is #1 for sure. We thought we were going to win that game and then go on to Game 7. We did not want Michael to beat us…but you cannot leave a guy like Paxson open because making shots is what he does.

Your 20,049 career PTS is still top-50 in NBA history: how satisfied are you with your career, and what do you hope to do in the future? I loved my career and was blessed to be on good teams with good players. I was fortunate to play with selfless guys who would get me the ball in a position where I could try to score. My teammates were great both on and off the court. My future is here: I am doing TV with the Suns and enjoy that a great deal, as well as getting to spend time with my family.

Posted in Interviews | Tagged , | Comments Off on Memories of MJ: HoopsHD interviews Tom Chambers

Saving Sports: HoopsHD interviews NCAA COVID-19 Advisory Panelist Dr. Amesh Adalja

Posted on May 29, 2020 by Jon Teitel

Since the NCAA tourney was cancelled in March every college basketball fan is dying to know when we will next get to see our favorite teams/players back on the court. The bad news is that we still do not know for sure but the good news is that there are some very smart people who are working hard to give us some much-needed guidance. Last week the NCAA’s D-1 Council voted to lift a moratorium on athletic activities which will allow schools to host voluntary workouts/training sessions. Earlier today the NCAA released a plan for bringing student-athletes back to campus called “The Resocialization of Collegiate Sport: Action Plan Considerations”: www.ncaa.org/sport-science-institute/resocialization-collegiate-sport-action-plan-considerations. The document was developed with the help of the NCAA COVID-19 Advisory Panel, which is comprised of NCAA Chief Medical Officer Dr. Brian Hainline, 7 leading medical/public health/epidemiology experts, and 4 college athlete liaisons. Earlier today HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with 1 of those experts (Dr. Amesh Adalja, Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security) about his work on the panel and the challenges involved in getting college athletics back on track.

What do you do as a Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security? I am an infectious disease doctor who publishes on/researches many topics related to pandemics and emerging infectious diseases, while also spending 50% of my time seeing patients.

In March the NCAA established a coronavirus advisory panel of leading medical experts and NCAA schools to guide its response to the outbreak of the pandemic: how did you get picked? The panel was looking for people with expertise who were working on the COVID response. After the NCAA reached out to Johns Hopkins the school connected them to me.

How do you balance the different factors of individual safety/public safety/college athletics/etc.? This virus is going to be with us until there is a vaccine. We need to think about how to move forward despite the risk involved with every activity while reducing the harm to individuals and not creating a false alternative of no activities being performed at all. The balance involves a lot of shades of grey: there is no black or white. We can minimize the risk but it will never be zero.

How do considerations change as the rates of infection stabilize/decline/get reduced to near-zero after a vaccine is created? The guidance is specifically about COVID so once there is no longer a threat the guidance will no longer be applicable. We just want to minimize the impact of the virus via our recommendations.

Does social distancing only apply to fans and athletes in non-contact sports as opposed to something like college basketball players who often spend 40 minutes/game within 6’ of their opponent? Obviously some sports are not conducive to social distancing but we can modify the basketball locker room/bench. We are giving overarching principles that each school can implement individually but you can keep people 6’ apart in the locker room or use more than 1 locker room and also keep the common-touch areas cleaned as much as possible.

How much testing needs to be in place, and who is supposed to pay for all of it? There is no right or wrong answer but we have heard about German soccer leagues testing twice/week. There is no proscribed frequency of testing but it will likely be once/week and paid for by the schools themselves.

Since travel to sporting events involves physical distancing challenges, do you think that we need any changes made in connection with opponents/locations/travel? Travel is something we will have to address in future phases of the resumption of sports. The NCAA website talks about different kinds of bubbles of people, which might affect how travel occurs and who travels. It is challenging for the inner-bubble people (who include the athlete and those in close proximity to the athlete) because of the risk of exposure entailed by travel and travel might be constrained by “hot spots” at the state/local level that could even require quarantine. Even just having athletes return to campus requires following some general principles regarding travel.

How do we address the concerns from the recent NCAA survey of student-athletes that a majority of participants reported experiencing high rates of mental distress since the outset of the pandemic? This pandemic has touched everybody so we need to ensure that it does not cause undue mental distress. We need to make sure that student-athletes are coping with their new normal and the risk involved with playing sports. There is a package of health concerns that we have to address.

Do you think that the college basketball season will start on time this fall, and do you think there will be an NCAA tournament with fans next March? I think there will be games and the goal is to have March Madness…but mass gatherings will be governed by the state/county and what is going on there as well as vaccine development. In the absence of a vaccine I think that a large crowd is concerning so it will be very challenging not just for sports but for concerts/political gatherings.

Posted in Interviews | Tagged , | Comments Off on Saving Sports: HoopsHD interviews NCAA COVID-19 Advisory Panelist Dr. Amesh Adalja

Memories of MJ: HoopsHD interviews Cedric Ceballos

Posted on May 28, 2020 by Jon Teitel

When the NCAA tourney got canceled in March we entered a whole new world, which included a sports void the likes of which we have never seen before. The fine folks at ESPN came to the rescue in mid-April with “The Last Dance”, a 10-part miniseries about the 1998 Chicago Bulls and their quest to win a 6th NBA title in an 8-year span before Coach Phil Jackson and most of his star players all went their separate ways. While it has been comforting to spend the past several Sunday nights with behind-the-scenes stories from Steve Kerr/Scottie Pippen/Dennis Rodman, the star of the show as always is Michael Jordan. Even though the documentary concluded on May 17th, HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel has dug through his archives and discovered oodles of unpublished interviews about Jordan’s career, from his early days as the leading scorer for team USA at the 1983 Pan Am Games to a 55-PT playoff performance during Chicago’s final title run in 1998. We continue our trip down memory lane by chatting with Cedric Ceballos about his Suns facing Jordan in the 1993 NBA Finals.

You started your college career at Ventura College, where in only 2 years you were named a JC All-American, led the Pirates to their 1st state title in 35 years, and set a school record with 1609 career PTS: why did you choose to go to Ventura, and what did it mean to you to win a title? I was not highly-recruited out of high school because I did not get to play on the varsity until I was a senior: even after I made the team I just sat on the bench a lot. However, 1 of our star players broke his wrist at a pep rally towards the end of the season so I got a lot of playing time in his absence. I averaged a double-double during our final 6 games but we ended up losing to Stacey Augmon’s John Muir team in the 1986 CIF Finals. There were a lot of scouts there to watch Stacey but nobody wanted to take a chance on a guy like me who only played great in 6 games. I lived in Los Angeles my whole life but wanted to get out of the city so I could focus on being a student.

After transferring to Fullerton you set a school record with a career scoring average of 22.1 PPG, and your 12.5 RPG as a senior was among the top-10 in the nation: why did you decide to transfer to Fullerton, and how were you able to get so many REB despite being only 6’6”? My older brother Chris went to Fullerton so I knew their coaches/system. Teams like UCLA/UNLV started coming around after I was named an All-American but they already had great players at my position. I thought that I would only play 2 more years before wrapping up my career so I wanted to go somewhere where I could be on the court all of the time. I was not trying to get to the NBA: I just wanted to have fun and get my degree! At 6’6” I got to run all over the court and grab whatever rebounds I could.

In the summer of 1990 you were drafted in the 2nd round by Phoenix: were you thrilled to realize your dream of making it to the NBA or disappointed that you did not get selected in the 1st round? I had no expectations of making the NBA until Jerry West showed up at 1 of my games, which was really shocking. I had already enrolled, paid up for my 5th year of college, and even had an internship lined up. I knew a lot of guys when I was younger who ended up making it to the NBA: I grew up playing against future stars like Gary Payton/Derrick Coleman and my buddy Elden Campbell got drafted by the Lakers 21 spots ahead of me. I was happy for Elden but disappointed that I did not become a Laker myself. I do not think they even said my name live on TV: they had already cut away to a commercial! My mom was a fan of Walter Davis so she liked the Suns. I scored 20+ PPG both in rookie camp and the preseason…but on opening night against Portland I did not even get onto the court. That is when reality set in for me: I became a professional that night and worked hard to see what I could become.

In 1992 you scored a perfect 50 with a blindfolded dunk en route to winning the NBA Slam Dunk Contest: how did you come up with the idea, and could you see through the blindfold or not? I was invited to the Orlando Classic as a senior and won the dunk contest over Dee Brown. Every dunk that Brown used to win the 1991 Slam Dunk contest was stuff that I had done before in college: covering my eyes, pumping up my shoes, etc. I remember playing the Lakers in the Forum after Magic Johnson announced that he had HIV: he told me that I would have to do something big in the contest like “going blind”. I had 10-20 dunks in my repertoire but there were a lot of other great dunkers I was going up against like Shawn Kemp/Larry Johnson. I was 50-50 on whether or not to do the dunk but I figured that even if I missed it people would still be talking about it for years. After I won the contest I got more autograph seekers on the road and people watching me dunk during warm-ups than ever before. Coach Cotton Fitzsimmons ended up putting me in the starting lineup during the playoffs because he was not getting along with Tom Chambers so I just took advantage of it and continued to be a starter the following season.

In 1993 you led the NBA with 57.6 FG% despite only playing 22 MPG: what is your secret for shooting, and do you think that you should have gotten more playing time that season? We ended up going to the Finals that year. Richard Dumas and I split time as a dynamic duo so my shots always had to be good ones. We had a bunch of great scorers like Chambers/Charles Barkley/Kevin Johnson/Dan Majerle/Danny Ainge. The star players were allowed to take/miss a few bad shots but I made sure to not take any bad shots myself.

What are your memories of the 1993 NBA Finals that you had to miss due to a stress fracture in your left foot (John Paxson made a 3-PT shot with 4 seconds left for a 1-PT win in Game 6 to clinch a 3-peat for the Bulls)? I remember everything being so much brighter: the farther we went in the playoffs, the more media attention we received. The Finals is the biggest stage in the basketball world. It was disappointing to not play but it was still great to watch Barkley and Michael Jordan go head-to-head.

In December of 1994 after joining the Lakers you scored a career-high 50 PTS/21-31 FG in a win over Minnesota (which was the highest scoring game by a Lakers player in 2 decades): was it just 1 of those scenarios where every shot you put up seemed to go in because you were “in the zone”? I do not really think that I was in the zone. Nick Van Exel had 13 AST and Vlade Divac/Campbell also combined for 8 AST. I was not on fire from outside: I just took a lot of good shots inside and made some put-backs and the other guys made great passes to me all night long. I had 46 PTS with about 5 minutes left in the game and the crowd started booing my teammates when they took a shot instead of getting the ball to me! I made a 3-PT shot at the buzzer to get over the hump.

In 1995 you were named an All-Star but could not participate due to a torn ligament in your right thumb: what did it mean to you to be named an All-Star, and how frustrating was it to have to miss the game due to your injury? It was another opportunity to get onto the big stage. Every stage of my high school/college career featured a chance for me to step into the spotlight but when I got to the NBA Finals/All-Star game my injury luck just ran out. I could not really get upset at the time but looking back on it now it would have been cool to have played in both of those.

After retiring from the NBA you played professionally in Israel/Russia/the Philippines: what did you learn from these experiences, and how did they compare to the NBA? There is no comparison at all because everything is different: the talent, the way they treat you, the accommodations, etc. The only place I had a good time was in the Philippines: everywhere else was just torture. It was a different world with a different mentality.

You averaged 14.3 PPG during your 11-year NBA career: how satisfied are you with your career, and what do you hope to do in the future? I am more than satisfied: my accomplishments went far beyond what I thought I would be able to do. I will just continue to try and help others whether I am on the microphone or on the bench.

Posted in Interviews | Tagged , | Comments Off on Memories of MJ: HoopsHD interviews Cedric Ceballos