PASSING, PLEASE

This is part of my social argument. (For more such, see "The Wisdom in Words" at blogger.com.) It's about basketball, this time.

A team plays together, and in basketball the way you play together on defense is by switching and picking up; on offense yoyu do it by setting screens and passing.

The other night I watched the Boston Celtics beat the Chicago Bulls. The Celtics averaged 3.5 passes per possession, and sixty percent of their possessions ended with more than eight seconds to go on the clock. What that means is that the Celtics had, on average, three looks before they took a shot, and if they hadn't had a good look could have afforded to take a fourth look. Last night I watched the Sacramento Spurs win, making an average of 4.5 passes per possession. They had three possessions that ran more than twenty seconds--and rhey had 7, 9, and 10 passes. The Spurs weren't shooting well, but they were getting good, considered shots.

In the Spurs game, the reserves came in with about eight minutes to go. They played mostly a one-against-five game--which was painfully obvious after what we had been watching. The point guard would dribble, and try to drive; frustrated, he would pass, and somebody else would do the same thing. By then it would be time for somebody to try a wild three-point shot. The reserves weren't playing basketball--the game had been decided; they were playing, individually, to make the team, to earn a bigger salary, to be LeBron James. Each one of them.

The reserves were playing to make the team--in ways the team would never play. They were scrapping for more playing time--by playing in ways you wouldn't want them to play.

Today I watched an NCAA semi-final game. I was pulling for North Carolina, simply because they were making such a remarkable come-back. But then the camera panned to some North Carolina kids in sky-blue sweatshirts that said, so quietly, "TAKE EVERYTHING, GIVE UP NOTHING." And I decided I wanted Kansas to win.

The connection between the way the pros were and weren't playing with the North Carolina kids' sweatshirts is for next time.