Jason Whitlock's Dream Team Article Is Shameful

If you didn’t get a chance to read Jason Whitlock’s article on the Dream Team yesterday, you  can read it right HERE. Please take a few minutes and give it a thorough look before reading the rest of this blog. If you’re like me, a true basketball fanatic, your blood pressure will start to rise just a few paragraphs in. 

          In the article, published on FoxSports.com yesterday, Whitlock says that the Dream Team, which had 8 black players and 4 white players, was “color coordinated,” basically because Isiah Thomas did not make the squad. He says the “whitening of the roster” was both “intentional” and “calculated,” and that players like Isiah, Dominique Wilkins, James Worthy and Shaquille O’Neil, were left off the roster for lesser quality, white players like John Stockton, Chris Mullin and Christian Laettner. Whitlock’s arguments in support of his positions are borderline moronic. Yep. I wrote it. I believe it. I know it.

        If you’re not familiar with the theory behind the Dream Team, here is a little background. In 1989, FIBA opened the Olympics up to professional players. After coming in a disappointing third in the 1988 Seoul games featuring all college players, USA Basketball decided to form a team made up of 11 professional players and 1 college player. Whitlock says that there was no way USA Basketball was sending Larry Bird and 11 black players to Barcelona, so they essentially just needed to add some more white players. That’s where Stockton, Mullin and Laettner come in.

        The first debate is whether Shaquille O’Neil should have been named to the team over Laettner. The final spot on the Dream Team was held open for the best college player in 1992. I’ll repeat that because I’m not sure Whitlock understands the premise behind the choice: the best college player at that time, that time being 1992. It was not being held for the best college player with the most professional potential. So let’s get real. During the 1991-1992 college basketball season, Christian Laettner was the BEST college basketball player in the country. And just for full disclosure, this is coming from a true member of Tar Heel Nation. That says a lot.

It does not take much to support this argument. Laettner played 4 seasons in college. He compiled a career record of 123-26. He played in 4 Final Four’s, 3 National Championship games and won 2 National Championships. His senior year, 1991-1992, Duke went 34-2 and Laettner averaged 21.5 ppg, 8 rpg and hit 56% of his three-point attempts. He’s the all-time NCAA Tournament leading scorer. He was selected to the Dream Team because he deserved to be there. No other reason. Whitlock contends that Laettner didn’t belong because Shaq was a “once-in-a-generation force of nature destined for hoops immortality.” But he wasn’t in 1992. That year he averaged 24.1 ppg on a 21-10 LSU team in a weak SEC. Looking back now, twenty years later after both NBA careers are over, it seems comical. Just like picking Sam Bowie with the #2 overall pick in the NBA Draft ahead of the skinny kid from Chapel Hill is laughable now. But it made sense in 1984. Just like selecting Laettner in 1992 over Shaq. In fact, at that time, it shouldn’t even have been close. Laettner was far and away the better college player.

Next, Whitlock suggests that “anyone with a brain realizes that [Isiah] Thomas was a better player than [John] Stockton.” In support of that he points to the fact that Thomas won 2 NBA Championships, and played for a third, without the luxury of playing alongside another all-time great, an obvious reference to the fact that Stockton played his entire career pick-and-rolling with Karl Malone. He’s right in respect of the fact that Thomas didn’t have another all-time great to play with. What he did have, however, was one of the all-time best defenses in the history of the NBA. A defense so good, so dominant, that it had its own nickname, the Bad Boys. So while he didn’t have a Malone, or a Pippen, or a Kareem, or a McHale and Parish, he did have Bill Laimbeer, Dennis Rodman, Joe Dumars, Rick Mahorn, John Salley and Vinnie Johnson. Isiah didn’t win those 2 titles by himself. No chance. And Stockton? He’s only the all-time assist leader for the league with 15,806. He also made the First-Team All-NBA twice and the All-NBA Second-Team six times. Oh, and he was a ten-time All-Star. Not a shabby resume by any means. And let’s not forget the most important reason why he was selected: Stockton was put on the team as the back-up point guard to Magic Johnson. Someone who could dish the ball to MJ and Larry and Barkley and David Robinson and Ewing and Pippen. They needed to balance out the team by adding a second ball handler. Stockton was the wiser choice over Isiah, who was a scoring point guard, due to the fact that the Dream Team already had plenty of offensive weapons.

Lastly, Whitlock criticizes the choice of Chris Mullin on the Dream Team over Dominique Wilkins. Now, just as in the choice to add a back-up ball handler to the squad, the Dream Team logically included Mullin over Wilkins for his outside shooting ability. Other than Larry Bird, there would have been no other outside shooter on the team had Mullin not been selected. In a mocking tone, Whitlock says, “There wasn’t an international zone invented that could stop Jordan, Barkley, Robinson, Ewing, Malone, Pippen, Bird and Magic in 1992.” Suggesting that Mullin’s outside shooting ability wasn’t necessary for the Dream Team to be successful. That’s absolutely true. But, now, let’s use Whitlock’s idiotic reasoning against him: the Dream Team won all their games by an average of 44 points – did they really need Scottie Pippen on the team? What about Barkley? Clearly, the Dream Team still would have won the gold medal if Barkley was kept off the team. They also would have won if Pippen or Drexler, or even Malone, had not made the trip to Spain. Mullin wasn’t selected IN CASE they needed an outside shot. He was selected to form the greatest sports team ever assembled and to achieve that, it had to be well-balanced. And to balance off that squad, they needed another outside perimeter threat and in 1992, that was clearly Chris Mullin, one of the greatest shooters of all-time.

And what exactly would Dominique Wilkins have brought to the team? If there was a dunk contest for a medal, I would absolutely say he needed to be there. But other than some highlight dunks, which Whitlock references as his “imprint”, what would he have contributed? I would like for Whitlock to answer that because as a professional sports writer, I think he loses any and all credibility with me for making that argument. Wilkins essentially was the same type of player as MJ, Pippen and Drexler, except NOT AS GOOD. So why did they need a fourth option for an alley-oop? They didn’t and that’s why he wasn’t on the team. If Chris Mullin was a poor man’s Reggie Miller, as Whitlock suggests, than Dominique Wilkins was a very poor man’s Michael Jordan.

The 12 players chosen for the Dream Team were selected because they made up the greatest, the most well-balanced sports team that would ever be assembled. And that team was created so the rest of the world remembered that the United States of America was the absolute best at basketball. The team was created to teach the world a lesson and to make sure other countries were not getting too cocky about their skills and their level of play. No one was upset that John Thompson’s 1988 Seoul team was not white, they were upset because they were not good, leaving the Olympic Games with a third place trophy. The only agenda with the formation of the Dream Team was to dominate. And that’s exactly what they did. Any reference to the racial makeup of that team, and to any underlying plan to whiten up the roster, is just a ploy for attention from a writer that has now lost my readership. Yep. I wrote it. I believe it. I know it. 

One and Done: Leave It Alone

Why do we need to “fix” the one-and-done scenario in college basketball? What’s wrong with it? First of all, it’s not the NCAA’s rule; it’s the NBA’s age restriction, which was collectively bargained for by the players’ union and the owners alike. The League, essentially, does not want players younger than 19 years of age who are not at least one year removed from their high school graduating class. That’s fine. The NFL does not want any players unless they are three years removed from their respective high school class. Nobody has a problem with that. The NBA’s age restriction has given us the benefit of getting to watch exciting and fascinating NCAA games featuring Anthony Davis and Greg Oden and O.J. Mayo and Brandon Knight and Derrick Rose and Kevin Durant and Kevin Love. And the list will continue. Even if it is just for one season, at least it’s something. To this author, that’s far greater than not seeing them play any college ball. Look what we missed out on before the rule was enacted. How entertaining would it have been to see LeBron James or Kobe Bryant play in the NCAA tournament?

All the talk and criticism over the last week or so has been about Coach Calipari and his “manipulation” of the system in respect of the one-and-done athletes. Most of the comments have suggested that something needs to be done to end this continued abuse. Although some may have judged my prior post as bashing Calipari about those same propositions, I, for one, actually believe that the rule should not be touched. Why? Mostly because the alternatives are bordering on idiotic. David Stern, the all-knowing, all-powerful Commissioner of the NBA, wants to increase the rule by a year. So two-and-through is okay? Even better, Dallas Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban, wants to increase the waiting period by 2 years and have players ineligible for the NBA Draft until they are 3 years out of high school!! See ESPN Cuban Article But how do you force a young man, whether from a modest background or an affluent family, to stay in school for 3 years when his professional ability is worth millions and millions of dollars? You can play professional tennis or golf in your mid-teens. Jennifer Capriati was on the women’s professional tennis circuit at 13 years old, without even graduating from middle school!! Not allowing young men to earn a living based upon their god-given talent until multiple years out of high school seems a little un-American. If a 17 year-old mathematical whiz kid wants to bypass college and go work for Wall Street firm doing quantitative analysis, nobody tells him or her that they can not do that.

Others schools of thought have suggested allowing athletes to once again declare for the draft straight out of high school, but if they instead decide to go to college, it has to be a 2-3 year commitment. What is that going to accomplish? All it will tend to do is force some high schoolers not yet ready for the League to declare for the draft out of high school if only for the fact that they do not want to stay in school for 2-3 more years. It will only cause to generate more bad decisions and more cases where a player is “washed up,” so to speak, at the age of 20.

Leaving the rule exactly as it is today allows the athletes to further their education, if only for an additional year, but it also allows them to develop their game at a higher level for that same time frame. Most importantly, it allows the athlete to come to an informed decision about their draft potential by obtaining impartial opinion and analysis about their professional promise from the school’s coaching staff and evaluators prior to entering the draft, and that is something these kids do not get straight out of high school. At 17 or 18 years of age, most of these kids have dominated the competition for some time, and are flocked with hangers-on and wannabe agents telling them whatever they want to hear. And let’s face it, as good as a lot of these kids are, most are not ready for the NBA straight out of the prep ranks. Do not forget, before Kobe was one of the best players on the planet, he saw a lot of pine in his first two seasons with the Lakers. In 1996-1997, his rookie year, Kobe only averaged 15 minutes a game, started in only 6 of them, and dropped less than 8 points per contest. His second year was just a shade better, averaging 15 points, in 26 minutes of action, starting in only 1 of them. And to counter that argument, I don’t want to hear about LeBron. Forget LeBron. He’s a freak. We will not see another LeBron.

What about paying college kids? Dumb. If you think it is hard to control the recruiting of top notch, All-American players now, just imagine if they were allowed to receive compensation. And if the universities did start paying the athletes, where would the line be drawn? How much compensation? Does everyone receive the same amount? If not, who decides who gets what amount? Additionally, it will be almost impossible, more so than it is now, to determine whether or not players are receiving improper benefits. The athletic scholarship, which also includes lodging, food and books, is enough. At most, maybe have the universities insure the athletes against career ending injuries.  

The “one-and-done” rule accomplishes two important things: it allows players to attempt a professional career at a young age, but at the same time forces them to take a step back for a year, enjoy being a kid a little while longer, and make a more informed decision about their futures. Look, its not broke, so don’t fix it. 

Calipari - Great Recruiter or Great Cheater?

On the cusp on this year's Final Four, which again features Coach John Calipari and his Kentucky Wildcats for the 2nd consecutive season, and which is also Calipari's third trip in five years, (he took Memphis there in 2008), it's only fitting to discuss his consistent ability to sign the top high school talent over the last decade. 

When Calipari arrived at Memphis in 2000, after a brief NBA stint, he inherited a team that had gone 15-16 the year before in Conference USA. His first season, 2000-2001, they went 21-15. Following that season, however, despite Memphis not making the NCAA Tournament for the fifth consecutive year, Coach Calipari was somehow able to lure the highly touted, McDonald's All-American, DeJuan Wagner to come and play for the Tigers. Coach Cal was also able to land the #76 recruit in the country, Anthony Rice. The following season, Memphis improved to 27-9, but again missed the NCAA's. Wagner left after that one season, a trend that continued among Calipari recruits, and became the 6th pick in the 2002 NBA Draft.

In the following recruiting class, perhaps not knowing Wagner's plans to leave early, Calipari was only able to sign two lower ranked recruits, #72 Jeremy Hunt and #84 Almamy Theiro. Memphis, however, finished 23-7 in 2002-2003 and earned a #7 seed in the NCAA Tournament (losing to Arizona State in the first round). The top recruit in 2003 was Sean Banks (ranked #33 overall) out of Bergen Catholic High School in New Jersey. The Tigers finished 22-8 in 2003-2004, again earning a #7 seed for the Big Dance and advancing to the second round before losing to Oklahoma State. In 2004, Coach Cal was able to sign another McDonald's All American, Darius Washington, Jr., along with the #38 recruit, Ronald Steele. The Tigers fell off a little the following year, finishing 22-16 in 2004-2005, missing the NCAA's.

This is where things start to get interesting. Despite a season finishing barely over .500, despite missing the NCAA Tournament and despite not earning anything higher than a #7 seed over the last nine years, Memphis and Coach Cal were able to land a phenomenal recruiting class, ranked #6 overall, in 2005. Coach Cal signed #27 Shawne Williams, #41 Chris Douglas-Roberts and #66 Antonio Anderson. With Washington and Steele returning, Memphis improved to 33-4 in 2005-2006, and earned a top seed for the tournament, losing to UCLA one game short of the Final Four. Calipari then added three more Top 100 recruits in 2006, with #41 Willie Kemp, #72 Pierre Niles and #84 Doneal Mack. The Tigers again finished 33-4 in 2006-2007, this time grabbing the #2 seed for the tourney and again losing in the Elite Eight, this time to Ohio State.

With back-to-back outstanding years, and with the core of his team returning, things looked bright for Calipari and Memphis going into the 2007-2008 season. And that was before Calipari signed Derrick Rose out of Chicago, one of the top five players in the country. Added to the mix, along with recruit #55 Jeff Robinson, Memphis reeled off its best season yet, finishing 38-2, earning a #1 seed in the NCAA's and falling one Mario Chalmers three-pointer short of winning a National Championship. Well, in theory actually. If you recall, that 2007-2008 season, with an NCAA record 38 victories, was subsequently vacated by the NCAA after it was discovered that Rose had a fraudulent SAT score and his brother Reggie received more than $2,000 in free travel. Rose Article. Vacation of a season was nothing new to Calipari, however. Back in 1996, his UMass team, featuring Marcus Camby, was also stripped of its season and its Final Four banner for NCAA violations, although Calipari was not personally implicated there (snicker). Camby Article.

Following the 2008 National Championship Game, and before the NCAA violations came to light, Rose left for the NBA, where he was the #1 overall draft pick and future winner of the Rookie of the Year Award. Calipari, not skipping a beat, brought in the #3 ranked recruiting class in 2008, which included #2 Tyreke Evans, #38 Wesley Witherspoon, #54 Angel Garcia, and #78 Matt Simpkins. Memphis again finished 33-4 in 2008-2009, earning a #2 seed in the NCAA, before losing to Mizzou in the Sweet Sixteen. Following the season, Calipari skipped town for Kentucky, cognizant of the Rose investigation. When the NCAA sanctions came down, Calipari was already living the high-life in Lexington, receiving no personal sanctions.  

Evans left Memphis for the NBA, where he was the #4 pick overall by the Sacramento Kings, and earning his own Rookie of the Year Award in his first season.  

And so the Calipari-Kentucky era began in 2009. Before Cal's arrival, the Wildcats already had commitments from some top notch recruits, including #19 Daniel Orton, #52 Eric Bledsoe and #64 Jon Hood. After his arrival, Calipari was able to sign #3 DeMarcus Cousins and #1 John Wall (both of whom were also considering Memphis before choosing the Wildcats - hmmm, they must have really liked Cal's coaching style). This was the first of three consecutive #1 ranked recruiting classes for Calipari at Kentucky. Kentucky went 35-3 in that first season, earning a #1 seed for the NCAA's before losing in the Elite Eight.

Once again, it was in with the new, and out with the old for Calipari. Wall, Cousins, Patrick Patterson, Bledsoe and Orton all left school early (four after just their freshman seasons), and were first round draft picks in the 2010 NBA Draft (Wall going #1 overall and Cousins #5 overall). Have no fear, however, as top ranked recruits #4 Brandon Knight, #7 Enes Kanter, #11 Terrance Jones, #26 Doron Lamb and #50 Stacey Poole were waiting in the wings for the annual mass exodus. Struggling a bit (lol), Kentucky went 29-9 in Calipari's second season, reaching the Final Four before losing to eventual champion UConn in the national semi-finals (Kanter missed the season after being ruled ineligible for his professional play in Turkey). After the Final Four, Knight, Kanter, DeAndre Liggins and senior Josh Harrellson all left for the NBA Draft (Kanter the #3 overall pick and Knight the #8 overall pick) (Poole also transferred to G Tech after the season).

In 2011, Calipari outdid even himself. With Lamb, T. Jones and Darius Miller already returning, the Wildcats signed four of the top twelve high school players in the country, including #1 Anthony Davis, #3 Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, #8 Marquis Teague and #12 Kyle Wiltjer. So far in the 2011-2012 season, Kentucky is 36-2 and the odds-on favorite to win the whole thing. The question looms, however, then what? Davis and Kidd-Gilchrist are already projected to be the #1 and #2 picks in the NBA Draft. I don't think there is any question that Jones and Lamb, and probably Teague, are leaving too, and will be first round picks. Calipari has already signed shooting guard Archie Goodwin (#15 overall) and small forward Alex Poythress (#16 overall) out of the Class of 2012. What this author finds most interesting, however, is the fact that at this late date, five of the top twenty high school players in the country, including the two top ranked players, are uncommitted, but all of whom have Kentucky on their respective lists.

The #1 ranked player, Nerlens Noel, who just re-classified to the class of 2012 from the class of 2013, is a a 6'10" shot blocking machine. Check him out HERE. The #2 ranked player in the country, 6'6", lefty, Shabazz Muhammad out of Bishop Gorman in Las Vegas, is going to be the next great thing in basketball. Don't believe me? Check the video HERE. There's also #7 Anthony Bennett, #18 Amile Jefferson and #20 Tony Parker.

My thoughts are, all five, or at least three to four of these high school players, are waiting for Kentucky to finish their season and for Davis, Kidd-Gilchrist, Teague, Lamb and Jones to declare for the draft, so they can sign with Calipari and the Wildcats. Giving Cal his fourth consecutive #1 ranked recruiting class. But what is it with this guy? Why do all these top ranked players want to play for John Calipari? Is he that great a guy? I doubt it. Is it the prestige of Kentucky? Doubt it, UCLA, UNC, Duke, Kansas are pretty prestgious basketball schools and don't attract this consistent level of talent (and BTW, Memphis wasn't exactly a college bball powerhouse before Calipari starting luring top ranked talent). There must be something else. But what? I hope we don't find out the hard way, that being the ultimate trifecta of vacated seasons, therein shaming Kentucky even more than in the 1980's by taking down a National Championship banner from Rupp Arena.

Who's The Best NCAA Three-Point Shooter of All Time?

So, the NCAA 3-point line turns 25 years old this season. In its honor, of basically revolutionizing the game, ESPN recently took a poll to rank the all-time top five 3-point shooters. If you’re a loyal college basketball fan like I am, the results surprised you.

First off, it should be noted that ESPN gave you a list of ten players to choose from: Dennis Scott, Steve Kerr, Jimmer Fredette, Tony Bennett, Keith Veney, Stephen Curry, J.J. Redick, Chris Lofton, Curtis Staples and Kyle Korver. Not a shabby list at all. But, some important names were left off. I really can’t even tell what criteria ESPN used to come up with these ten guys. It can’t be career 3-point field goals because David Holston (450 – 2^nd all-time), Keydren Clark (435 – 3^rd all-time) and Jack Leasure (411 – 7^th all-time) were all not on the list. It can’t be career 3-point field goal percentage because Stephen Sir (46.9% - 2^nd all-time), David Olson (46.6% - 3^rd all-time), Jaycee Carroll (46.5% - 4^th all-time) and Ross Land (46.4% - 5^th all-time) are excluded. And it also can’t be notoriety because guys like Glen Rice, Steve Alford, Ray Allen, Jason Kopono, Dana Barros, Salim Stoudamire, Shawn Respert, Jon Diebler, Allan Houston, Al Dillard, Dan Dickau, Erwin Claggett, Timothy Pollard and Bryce Drew, players you associate with the 3-pointer, were nowhere to be found when trying to cast a vote. Instead, they gave us guys like Jimmer Fredette who, while being a great shooter and a lot of fun to watch the last two seasons, ranks nowhere in the record books. He’s not even in the top twenty-five in 3-point field goals made or career 3-point field goal percentage. Neither is Dennis Scott. I’m not by any means suggesting that career stats should have been the only criteria, because then Keydren Clark, who played his career in the MAAC, must be on the list. All I’m saying is the list should have been expanded and if you’re making me vote on Fredette and Scott, then players like Rice, Allen, Houston and Drew need to be there as well.

That being said, here are the results released last Saturday throughout the day during live ESPN games: No. 5 – Jimmer Fredette (hysterical); No. 4 – Stephen Curry; No. 3 – Kyle Korver; No. 2 – J.J. Redick; and the No. 1 all-time NCAA 3-point shooter as voted on ESPN.com…drum roll please…Chris Lofton!!!! WAIT !!! What ?!??!? I’ve been watching college hoops for the last 25 years, since Bobby Knight, Steve Alford and the Indiana Hoosiers cut down the nets in 1987 and when I think 3-pointer…I don’t think Chris Lofton. Not at all. Okay, he’s 4^th all-time in three’s made but his career percentage is 42.2%, not even in the top twenty-five. ESPN and its viewers are usually pretty on point but this time, they just got it wrong. Here's the test: Final Four, you're down by three with 12 seconds left - who do you want coming off that screen?

Without a doubt, unequivocally, I want J.J. Redick. He's the best all-time NCAA 3-point shooter. His range was from the bus and in!!! As a die hard Carolina fan, I hated playing Redick. Why? Because if he was squared up, it wasn’t even going to hit the rim. It didn’t matter where he was on the court. If he got a look, count it. Obviously, the nation’s hatred for everything Duke played a factor in the voting, but come on!! Nobody hates Duke Basketball more than me, but I can’t deny that the guy was the best ever in college. I mean check out some of these shots: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXEXmKz-94g

And last time I checked, Tennessee hoops didn’t have that big of a fan base outside of Knoxville.

Next on my list, at No. 2 all-time, is Stephen Curry. He’s fifth all-time in 3-point field goals made and…he’s the only guy on the top twenty-five of that list that only played three years. Remember? He left early after his junior season. Curry hit 414 three’s in only 104 games, that four 3’s a game. Who can forget the shooting exhibitions this guy put on in back to back NCAA tournaments? If Curry played in 139 games, like Redick did, he would have hit 550 three’s, or about 100 more than Redick. But according to ESPN and their voters, he’s No. 4 on the list. WOOPS.

Third, Glen Rice. Rice played from ’85 to ’89. The three point line wasn’t enacted nationally until the 1986-1987 season, or Rice’s sophomore year. Even so, Rice only attempted 12 three’s that year, making 3 of them, and 77 the following year, making 33 of them. It’s Glen Rice’s senior year that put him on this list. For the 1988-1989 season, Rice hit 99 three’s at an astonishing 51.6%. He shot 192 three’s and hit more than half of them!!! Oh yea, he managed to win a measly national championship too.

No 4 on my list, Jaycee Carroll from Utah State. ESPN didn’t even let the people vote on this guy, and he’s 4^th all-time in 3-point field goal percentage at 46.5% and 19^th all-time in three’s made with 369. At No. 5, I have Kyle Korver. He knocked in 371 three’s (18^th all-time) at 45.3% (18^th all-time). That’s good enough for 5^th in my book. At Honorable Mention, there’s Tony Bennett (290 three’s/49.7%), Keydren Clark (435 three’s/36.5%), Curtis Staples (413 three’s/38.3%), Dennis Scott (in only 3 seasons – 351 three’s/42.2%), Salim Stoudamire (342 three’s/45.7%) and, of course, Chris Lofton (431 three’s/42.2%).

What are your thoughts? Who did I miss? Who should be higher/lower? Let me hear it.