Pete Carril died yesterday at the age of 92. Carril was the head basketball coach at Princeton from 1967 to 1996 and his record over those years at Princeton was a gaudy 514-261. Carril used what came to be known as the “Princeton Offense” which was deliberate and featured a lot of passing to get close-in/open shots. Many teams were unfamiliar with that style of play, and it made Princeton a dangerous opponent in the NCAA Tournament. In the late-80s, Princeton – – seeded 16th – – took top-seed Georgetown to the wire losing 50-49 when a last second jump shot by the Tigers did not fall. Then in 1996, Carril’s Princeton team beat the defending NCAA Champion UCLA Bruins in the tournament by the score of 43-41. Coach Carril is enshrined in the Naismith Hall of Fame and in the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
Rest in peace, Pete Carril.
Let me stay with the sport of basketball for the next item for today. The Kevin Durant Days of Discontent with the Brooklyn Nets continue to bubble up and take new forms. Recall that Durant demanded a trade about 3 weeks ago, but nothing has materialized because there are not a lot of teams that want to give away the ranch to get a really talented player who also seemingly has difficulty staying happy with whatever team he is playing for this week. The Nets realize his talent and have made it clear that they will only trade Durant for a huge haul of assets in return – – and Durant has only a minor bit of leverage here because he signed a deal with the Nets that puts him in Brooklyn for the next 4 seasons.
The latest twist in this soap opera is that Durant asked for – – and presumably got – – a meeting with owner Joe Tsai in which Durant said he would be willing to stay with the Nets if they would only fire head coach Steve Nash and GM Sean Marks. According to reports, owner Tsai essentially told Durant that owner Tsai would make those sorts of decisions for the team and not Durant.
If Joe Tsai holds the line on these sorts of points, he will vault to the head of the line for “great owners in US major sports in the 2020s.” Just as it was true that owners and leagues had players under their thumbs for many years in the past, the fact is that “player empowerment” over the past decade-and-a-half has spun out of control. According to Forbes, Joe Tsai is worth $8.5B; even if he must pay Kevin Durant to play as a disgruntled employee, Joe Tsai and his family will not need to be shopping at Dollar General any time soon. And Kevin Durant has only the smallest amount of leverage here:
- Durant is 34 years old and is committed to the Nets for the next 4 years. If he gives even a smidgen about his “basketball legacy” he has to find a way to get on the court and stay there playing at a high level for a few more years.
- Durant could – theoretically – sit out and refuse to play if not traded. According to spotrac.com, he would either forfeit his $45M salary for the upcoming season and maybe the contract would toll extending his tie to the Nets for another year.
- The Rudy Gobert trade earlier in this NBA offseason set the current market. Gobert is a very good player but not nearly as good as Durant. When the Jazz traded him, they got 4 first round picks plus the guy picked in the first round this year by the Timberwolves. So, Joe Tsai has a benchmark he can use to see if any trade offers “measure up”.
This soap opera is not over by a longshot. If Joe Tsai stands firm on his current position, this could become VERY interesting in another 6 weeks or so. Hold that line, Joe Tsai…!!
Last week, Serena Williams announced that she will be “evolving away from tennis” after the US Open event which runs from August 29th through September 11th. She is not “retiring”; her announcement of her new status allows for her to pick and choose tennis events she might “evolve into” as her new status allows. The US Open was Williams’ first “major” back in 1999 and just that data point tells you something about her greatness as an athlete. Longevity is an important element in assessing the greatness or near-greatness to a world class athlete; Serena Williams has a longevity factor of more than two decades of outstanding tennis play. Think about the players who are at or near the top of their sports in the US and ask yourself how many of them have been in that status for 22 years. The answer is – – not a whole lot of them…
#2 son sent me a text saying that Serena Williams was the best women’s tennis player he ever saw and asked me if I thought she was the greatest tennis player ever. For sure, she is the best woman I ever saw play tennis – – but I am an old codger who remembers Rod Laver at the top of his game which put him at the top of the tennis game. I have enjoyed watching Serena Williams dominate on the tennis court for a long time now – – but if pushed to name the greatest player I ever saw, I would have to stick with Rod Laver.
Finally, apropos of nothing, let me close with this observation by Laurence J. Peter – – known for his identification of The Peter Principle:
“A bore is a fellow talking who can change the subject back to his topic of conversation faster than you can change it back to yours.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………