Re: Pitino on Mark Jackson

[Joe Hironaka <j.hironaka@unesco.org>]

    I also thought this article was fascinating, including the parts about
Pippen and also Rodman, where Jerry West reportedly looked over at Red Auerbach
and mouthed out "Who IS this guy?"

    You should check out these articles. I didn't realize that Pippen was one of
12 kids and basically began as a "water boy" for his NAIA junior varsity team.
Or that Rodman finished high school at 6-1 without ever having played highshool
basketball and went on to work as a night janitor before enrolling in community
college. Both were eventually invited on a lark to the Portsmouth tournament and
the rest is history.

    The article in question is at:

http://www.foxsports.com/nba/draft/2000/stories/feature_topsleepersever.sml
Sneaking in
Best sleepers ever in history of NBA
Jun 15, 2000 6:51 p.m. ET
By Tom Kertes
SportsWritersDirect


--------------

"Berry, Mark S" wrote:

> No, not as a free agent signing. I cut and pasted this from a Fox Sports
> story about draft sleepers. I don't know what it says about Pitino and his
> talent evaluation skills. Maybe he has learned something over the years. You
> have to hope so. Joe Wolf?
>
> Oh, I forgot to clip the writer's name. Tom something.
>
> The Jackson story
> Mark Jackson, who will finish his career as the third greatest assist-man in
> history-behind John Stockton and Magic Johnson - was the lowly 18th pick in
> 1987 NBA draft. Considering his astonishing accomplishments - NBA Rookie of
> the Year, 1997 NBA assist champion, NBA All-Star, third-most assists in
> playoff history, etc. - it has to be quite clear by now that he should have
> gone about 15 places higher.
> Worse, there were some truly terrifying hoop nonentities that year - Armon
> Gilliam (2nd), Dennis Hopson (3rd), Reggie Williams (4th), and Joe Wolf
> (13th) - who were picked way ahead of him.
> But when it comes to drafting, weird circumstances can sometimes conspire
> against you. And, in Jackson's case, there was a slew of those - all bad.
> 1. Jackson, in a game that sometimes overvalues scoring and overlooks other
> factors, was not a naturally great shooter.
> 2. During the later stages of his college career, Jax has acquired a bum rep
> as a slow and defensively deficient player. "You must understand, most
> scouts don't know what the hell they're looking at so they just parrot what
> everyone else's opinions," New York Knicks chief scout Dick McGuire says.
> "So it's all too easy for a player to acquire an unfair reputation he'll
> never get rid of. Whether it's too good-or too bad."
> 3. Jackson is a point guard. Point guard, more than any other spot on the
> floor, is mainly a position of intangibles, one that's about a lot more than
> "just" physical talent. And, the fact is, too many scouts don't understand
> intangibles.
> 4. Jackson, just a few weeks before the draft, got burned horribly (for a
> then-record 32 points) in the Big East Tournament by Providence's marginally
> talented Billy Donovan.
> 5. And, most mysteriously, some of the greatest basketball minds in the game
> - as far as "X's and O's" goes - could not recognize talent if it hit them
> in the face at times.
> Then-new Knicks coach Rick Pitino - now President and Coach of the Boston
> Celtics - was one of those guys. He also just happened to be Donovan's
> mentor at Providence, making things look far worse for Jackson.
> He was also my friend. So he called to talk about the draft - his first with
> the Knicks - and, believe it or not, took notes for a full hour and a half.
> Astonishingly to me, he wanted the woeful Wolf. "Ricky," I said. "Your new
> team won 23 games last year because you already have a whole team of Joe
> Wolfs. This is a 6-11 guy who can only do one thing: Shoot. And he is way
> too slow to ever translate that one skill to the NBA level."
> I advised Mark Jackson. Pitino, after relating all the common dogma floating
> around about Mark, claimed "he'll never play well in the NBA. I can't see it
> - not after what Billy [Donovan] just did to him."
> He was too close to the situation, I told him, entirely unable to see the
> forest through the trees. "Don't box in your thinking based on one game," I
> said. "Jackson is the best intangibles-type point guard out there in years,
> the one kid who will turn everyone else on your team into a far better
> player."
> We argued for another half an hour - and basically agreed to disagree. A
> week later, the Knicks picked Jackson.
> A year later, after improving a full 18 games in the standings and Jax
> winning Rookie of the Year (over Pippen, David Robinson, and Reggie Miller,
> among others), there was a big game at the Garden against Michael Jordan's
> Bulls. Jackson, in perhaps his best-ever effort, went for 33 points and 16
> assists. Afterwards, an overjoyed Pitino pulls me out of the group of
> writers interviewing him, spins me around completely and says "This could
> have never have happened without Tom. He deserves most of the credit for us
> drafting Mark."
> Rick Pitino was (is?) that great a guy.
> And drafting for the NBA is a difficult, complicated process. It's truly one
> of the world's greatest mysteries, one that'll never be completely solved.
>
> Mark