"True friends stab you in the front." - Oscar Wilde
Keywords: Muhammad Ali, Boeing, Donald Sterling, Bill Russell, Spencer Haywood, Dream Team, NCAA Scandal, Rudy Gobert, Etorre Messina, Pistol Offense
Life is filled with unintended consequences. Actions leave positive and negative ripples. Seven year-old Cassius Clay saved to buy a blue bicycle. Within a week, someone stole it. Every time he entered the ring, Clay, later Muhammad Ali seethed, "he stole my bicycle."
Boeing's redesign of the 737 MAX boosted fuel economy, but created aerodynamic risk. by moving the thrust forward on the airframe. That created a stalling angle risk that they tried to fix with sensors and software. Nineteen months later, the 737 MAX remains grounded. Boeing's stock took a haircut from over $400/share to under $100/share.
A former NBA owner never intended racist comments to become public. But they triggered a cascade of misery leading to his ouster. Ironically for wordsmiths, Silver sacked Sterling. Our words can follow us forever.
The Ice Capades helped launch the Celtics' dynasty in 1956. Celtics' owner Walter Brown guaranteed Rochester owner Les Harrison lucrative Ice Capades bookings in return for agreeing not to draft Bill Russell. The Celtics wound up with Hall of Famers Russell, Tommy Heinsohn, and K.C. Jones from that draft. Some argue that the story wasn't that simple.
In 1971, courts ruled that the NBA could not stop a player from being drafted before four years after his high school class graduated. Overturned in the Spencer Haywood lawsuit, the ultimate consequence benefited the league as young players entered. The court's logic, "First, the victim of the boycott is injured by being excluded from the market he seeks to enter. Second, competition in the market in which the victim attempts to sell his services is injured. Third, by pooling their economic power, the individual members of the NBA have, in effect, established their own private government."
The Dream Team took the Olympics by storm, crushing opponents in 1992 by an average of 43.8 points. Moreover, their dominance helped grow international basketball, leading to an increasing influx of terrific foreign players.
Rudy Gobert (below) mocked the seriousness of the coronavirus. Later, he tested positive, part of the process triggering the shutdown of the NBA and professional sports. The Jazz center later pledged $500,000 to assist with COVID-19 relief.
I thought the likelihood of the NBA pulling off the restart and season completion in the Bubble was about 20 percent. I couldn't have been more off.
Only time will tell when the next unintended consequence shoe drops as the NBA seeks another restart during a third wave of pandemic illness.
Lagniappe: Character
"Character is skill number one." - Etorre Messina
"Sports don't build character, they reveal character."
“Tell me who your friend is — I’ll tell you who you are.”
"The players know basketball and they immediately understand if you can help them get better."
"When you give up on principles, you break down."
"We try to make thought into instinct."
Lagniappe 3: Break down film into bite size chunks. I think serious players should watch video every day. Excerpt from Coach Daniel...
Young players often struggle with early offense. We could provide teaching templates and pistol does that. I've selected three actions (47 seconds of video).
- Pass entry
- Screen entry
- Screen the screener