Playing the Game the Right Way

I was driving around today and listening to Freddie Coleman on ESPN Radio talking about how he despises the phrase "they play the game the right way" in basketball. I completely agree with Coleman and I started to do some deep thinking. As with all my posts (I know, this is only the second one) I use one topic to explore a variety of topics within it. Today, I want to talk a little bit about the covert racism that comes from playing the game the right way as well as the differences between college and pro basketball's style of play.

Back In My Day (and Other Things Old White Guys Say)


"They play the game the right way." (PGRW, I'm going to shorten it to an acronym for the purposes of this post) Think about that phrase. Think about who people are referring to when they say it. PGRW is praise often levied on white players that lack sufficient athletic ability and must master the fundamentals to compete. Coleman was talking about how Butler has been tagged with the PGRW label. Butler happens to be a mid-western school that is known for its white players (Matt Howard is probably their best player this year, Gordan Hayward was last year). PGRW has also described a program like Duke and a player like Jimmer Ferdette this March. Notice something? Duke is known for having successful white players and Ferdette is the most high profile white player in college basketball this year.

PGRW, I assume, means fundamentals. Google image search "fundamentals of basketball" and about one image of a black player is returned for every three of a white. You're damn right I am going to classify this as "research."

Pictured: Playing the Game the Right Way

I've had people tell me that basketball needs to do away with dunking, because it is ruining the game. They are white by the way, and want to remove one of the biggest advantages black players have over white players (hmmmm). Players throwing down rim-rocking jams may be exciting, but it is detracting from a game that used to be about precision passing, backdoor cuts and set-jump shots.

Pictured: The ruination of basketball

Race is always a complicated subject matter and I am definitely not trying to make any accusations. People that use PGRW are not necessarily racist, they have, often unintentionally, bought into its narrative. The same goes for the term "scrappy." Has there ever been a scrappy black basketball player? Yet anytime a white guy fights for the rebound he is called scrappy, its a term of endearment. PGRW is more of an issue in college basketball than the pros, because college basketball contains so many more white players than the pros.

What exactly is playing the game the right way? Is the right way relying on pure fundamentals, passing, cuts, picks, defense and scraping out every possession against a superior athletic team?  Is being able to use your natural athleticism to make a play that most can't the right way? Take this amazing play by Dwyane Wade:

Is that not how basketball should be played? I'll continue this conversation by stepping away from race to discuss . . .

Pro Basketball vs College Basketball

People love to debate what is better, pro or college ball. People who like college ball better usually talk about how the pro players don't try and the regular season is meaningless. People who like pro ball better usually just point to the inferior quality of play found in college ball.   Personally, I think the NBA is far better, but I also think the two products should only be compared when attempting to evaluate the pro potential of the top college players.

College basketball is a completely different animal. The sport is all about coaching, or more aptly put, its all about over-coaching. Take the difference between a coach like Kentucky's John Calipari and Wisconsin's Bo Ryan. Ryan is considered a great coach, even if his team is unwatchable. He has complete control over every possession. On offense his team slows it down and runs long, drawn out sets that chew up the majority of the shot clock. Coaches like Ryan usually prefer to have their team execute these offensive sets over letting them run a fast break or attack a weakness. I've seen college basketball teams continue to pass the ball in a precision manner over exploiting a mismatch in the post - it drives me nuts and it leads to some very uninteresting basketball (Exhibit A).Calipari, on the other hand, recruits the top players in the country and sort of lets them run the show. He's known for the dribble-drive motion offense, an offensive set that doesn't start until the PG beats his man off the dribble. Often he relies on the superior athleticism and play-making ability of his top stars over instituting complicated set offenses. Yet Calipari gets criticized as a coach who just "rolls the ball out there at lets them play." So I guess Ryan's teams PGRW?

Blake Griffin serves as a specific player example. In his days at Okalhoma he was the best player in the country and the surefire number one pick in the NBA draft. Yet he wasn't that spectacular, or so it seemed. In the Sooner offense he would often post up and wait for one of the perimeter players to pass the ball around the key. If there was an opening to dump the ball in the post, they would get it to their superstar and he would usually finish the job. Griffin never wowed me in college, so when he transformed into one of the most exciting players in the NBA in his rookie year I was shocked. Playing in the wide-open offenses that most NBA teams employ, Griffin was throwing down spectacular dunks almost nightly. Even his missed dunks and charges were YouTube worthy. It was hard to tell he was capable of such exciting play because he was handicapped by the over-coached, plodding nature of college basketball. So, who really does play the game the right way?

I'd like submit this into evidence in the "Why NBA is better than college basketball" case, please

I also understand why fans of the college game might dislike the pro game. It's all Michael Jordan's fault. Once Jordan dominated the NBA in the 90s, every kid wanted to be like him. They saw Jordan's spectacular dunks and athletic ability get him a) championships, b) sponsorships and c) on Sportscenter. Kids overlooked that Jordan was an amazing defender, one of the hardest workers ever and was adept at setting up his teammates until he had to take over the game. Kids coming into the NBA (cough, Vince Carter, cough, Tracy McGrady, cough, Stephan Marbury, cough) thought they could go one-on-one, throw down a slam dunk and win championships. Instead, the NBA developed into an almost unwatchable product. So I get it, except I don't. The NBA is not like that anymore, it's populated with many talented players that are great teammates and incredibly hard workers. I think college basketball fans need to update the image they have of the league.

Considering the reliance on pure athleticism hurt the NBA from 1998-2004, I get why some people would gravitate toward the college game more. But the idea that they PGRW and NBA teams today don't is a bit ridiculous. The idea that a team of players that execute a set offense PGRW better than a team of athletic wing players that know how to exploit mismatches is a bit ridiculous. 

If you win, you've played the game the right way. That's all there is too it.

Oh, if anyone ever tells you that Steve Nash PGRW, they are probably succumbing to racist undertones. Nash sets up his teammates, yes, but he plays a wide-open, improvised style with little regard for defense that is usually associated with players that don't PGRW.

Also, if there was ever anyone that PGRW it would be Grant Hill. But he isn't white. Conundrum!