Bill Simmons is quickly becoming one of my favorite sportswriter. Dude is funny, very committed to the NBA and well-informed about league matters and it's 80's and 90's history. He almost convinced me with his article a few months back that KG for Amare is a good deal for the Suns before other Suns fans back knocked some sense back into me. But in-spite of that questionable call, I like Bill Simmons. He might be my second best sports media guy after Jim Rome, who I probably like more for his non-sports takes than his sports-takes. Sometimes I feel like actual sports-talk slows down Jim's show.
In any case, Bill Simmons had Steve Kerr on his show and I loved the conversation. Of course I wanted to listen to My Suns GM in the off-season, but it was also a great basketball conversation in general. It had a lot of useful tid-bits. First, the Suns conversation. Bill thinks the Suns are the favorite to reach the finals against his beloved Celtics of course. Even as a Suns fan, I don't know why we are the favorites and how we are going to beat the Champions Spurs. That too since we got smaller with the Kurt Thomas trade. Bill quizzed Kerr on this trade calling it one of the most lop-sided trades ever. Sometimes we don't talk enough about such low-profile trades, but Suns lost a lot in that deal. They gave up Thomas and 2 future first round picks for a conditional second round pick. Think about that. What kind of trade is that where you give a decent player plus 2 first round picks for a second round pick? Makes no sense from a basketball standpoint.
Of course we all understand that it's a salary dump and Kerr also noted how the Suns saved 16 mill counting the luxury tax. But one of the reasons the Suns have problem getting better and they have gotten older lately because they have traded away a tonne of picks the last few years and each time it was to save money. They traded away the picks that could have netted Luol Deng, Rajon Rondo and Sergio Rodriguez. Now two more first rounders are gone. Thats not good in the long-term. Kerr din't get too much in to the Suns and just said Grant Hill's addition would be great. He also noted how Steve Nash was playing pick-up soccer and he said soccer helps Nash's passing and how some of his passing angles are just awesome. Thats an interesting point. Kerr also noted how soccer players tend to take a lot of risks with their passes because the downside is low. Turnovers in soccer don't turn to points at the other end like it does in basketball. So players like Nash and Giniobli take lot more chances and that explains their high turnover numbers sometimes.
Kerr also was talking about his days with Cleveland and Bill said Mark Price was probably one of the most underrated players in the history of the NBA. Kerr noted that he was probably the first guy to split the double-team like Wade and a lot of others do these days. Price figured that if he dribbled low and went hard between the two guys, they had to either let him go or foul him. They also spoke about MJ and if 92 MJ was playing in 2007 NBA with the current hand-checking rules, both of them agreed MJ would be unstoppable. May be he'll score 100 in a couple of games. Kerr also noted how MJ and Tim Duncan were both champions and cared only about winning, but had 2 different approaches. He said MJ was real hard on teammates, while Tim always blamed himself for all losses even if he had 30-20. Both works in it's own ways. I guess teammates step-up for both guys because they love one guy and they fear the other!
The other thing that was interesting was how high Kerr was on Pippen. He says he was the ultimate team player and both Bill and Steve were sad that his refusal to go into the game in that playoff game kind of spoiled his reputation forever. I have always thought the 17 point choke job the Blazers pulled against the Lakers in game 7 of the 2000 playoffs has had a profound impact on NBA history. If they had won, they probably would have won the championship and would have prevented the Lakers three-peat. Given that Kobe and Shaq never got along, they might have even broken off early and who knows what happens then. But Bill brought in a new angle to that series. He says it altered how history perceives Pippen. If the Blazers had gotten to the finals, Pipp being their best player and leader would have gotten a lot of credit. Plus he would have done something without MJ and that would have cemented Pippen's Hall-of-Fame career. Now most people just think of him as MJ's side-kick. He was that but he was much, much more.
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