Basketball's big men going back to camp
By Michael Tsai
Advertiser Staff Writer
Whither the great American center?
According to Pete Newell, legendary cultivator of size-XXXL talent, neglect has leeched the once-rich American basketball terrain of elements necessary to produce centers with the skills and savvy to dominate the NBA game.
The former coach and basketball executive is back in Hawai'i this month for the 24th annual Pete Newell Big Man Camp.
The camp, Aug. 13-17 at The Kamehameha School's Kekuhau-pi'o Gymnasium, provides intensive instruction in the finer points of post play to forwards and centers on the professional and college levels.
This year's pro camp includes Antawn Jamison of the Golden State Warriors, Stromile Swift of the Memphis Grizzlies and Malik Rose of the San Antonio Spurs, as well as heralded incoming rookies Rodney White (Detroit), Zach Randolph (Portland) and Troy Murphy (Golden State).
About 40 players have signed up for the college camp, including Hawai'i's Haim Shimonovich, Texas' Brian Boddicker, Marshall's J.R. Van Hoose and Virginia's Travis Watson.
Newell's camp staff includes former Chaminade coach Merv Lopes, new Denver Nuggets general manager Kiki Vandeweghe, recently named Detroit Piston head coach Rick Carlisle and Portland Trail Blazers assistant coach Tim Grgurich.
Over the years, Newell and his staff have taught drop steps and step-aways to the likes of Bill Walton, Bernard King, Shawn Kemp, Hakeem Olajuwan and Shaquille O'Neal. But Newell's job has grown more difficult in recent years, a result of the growing disparity between the college and pro games.
"In the last 20 years, we haven't developed an MVP-calibre center, with the exception of Shaquille O'Neal," Newell says. "There's a lot of gap between the college and pro game, and it's very obvious at the center position.
"In the NBA you need to create your own shot in isolation with the 24-second clock running," Newell says. "Foot skills, passing skills and dribbling skills are not taught today in college basketball. The post-up game is a minor part of basketball at the college level with motion and flex offenses. It doesn't prepare players for the NBA."
Newell says part of the problem is competition for facilities at the high school and college levels, resulting in less time for individual instruction during and after practice.
"There's less time to coach now," Newell says. "The motion and flex offenses are used more because they're easy to teach . But the system doesn't develop people who can teach the component parts of the offense."
The dearth of young U.S. athletes proficient in post play has cleared the way for foreign prospects who have had more traditional instruction — as evidenced by the number of foreign post players taken in the first round of the NBA Draft in recent years.
And yet, when the need for Newell's instruction seems the greatest, fewer NBA players are taking advantage of his camps. Newell says part of that is due to long-term contracts which assure a player's security regardless of their improvement, and to increased emphasis on summer league play. In addition, enrollment in this year's camp is also down as many foreign players have been called on to help their countries qualify for the Olympics at various international tournaments this summer.
A keen evaluator of the pro game, Newell also has opinions on:
The NBA's new guidelines allowing limited zone defenses — "I feel this is a big step forward. Zone defenses in the NBA game will allow for better use of the fast break. Because of the placement of players in the zone, rebounders will know where the outlet is to start the break. What I don't like is they Mickey Mouse this by putting in the technical foul if you're not in touching distance of your man. I think by amending the zone, they're losing a lot of what they wanted to get, which is a more complete game."
Players jumping from high school straight to the NBA — "I think that time is going to show, and it has shown, that it's a negative thing. There are (high school) juniors who have said they're thinking about coming out. I think they have to take it to court or get a rule similar to what football and baseball have where there are some barriers to 15-, 16- or 17-year old players coming in. In five year's time, the game will have lost Karl Malone, John Stockton, Shaquille O'Neal. You lose the experience and the knowledge that these players have of the game and they're being in a sense supplanted by young kids who have no real relationship to the game in terms of what's expected at the NBA level."
2001 campers
Pros
Ruben Boumtje Boumtje (Cleveland)
Jason Collins (New Jersey)
Alton Ford (Phoenix)
Seo Jang Hoon (S.K. Knights)
Antawn Jamison (Golden State)
Dan McClintock (Denver)
Chris Mihm (Cleveland)
Troy Murphy (Golden State)
Zach Randolph (Portland)
Zelijko Rebraca (Detroit)
Malik Rose (San Antonio)
Stromile Swift (Memphis)
Jake Tsakalidis (Phoenix)
Ben Wallace (Detroit)
Rodney White (Detroit)
College
Brian Boddicker (Texas)
Willie Davis (Chaminade)
Soloman Hughes (California)
Jared Reiner (Iowa)
Haim Shimonovich (Hawai'i)
Andy Slocum (Texas A&M)
J.R. Van Hoose (Marshall)
Travis Watson (Virginia)
Glen Worley (Iowa)
Chris Young (Michigan)
