RARE ERIC
Basketball Fundamentals With A Twist
by
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Basketball is simple. Whichever team puts the ball in the basket more often generally wins, at least before the three-point shot was born. Listening to the radio one day probably forty years ago or so I heard some official sounding person declare that he couldn’t decide whether that ball goes through the hoop because of good offense or bad defense. What? And so began the rest of my life. That declaration vexed me then and vexes me today. I cannot help hearkening back to it in my fundamental thinking of basketball. After all these years of watching, thinking, analyzing, teaching, reading, playing, and reviewing this game I still reflect on the speaker’s apparent quandary which I really think expressed one of the most, if not the most, loaded and essential of all concepts in basketball and perhaps other sports, especially if they involve a ball. The very kernel of this sport bears at its core the nature of the interrelationship of offense and defense. I try to decipher that philosophical, yet all important distinction. Some would say I have succeeded in becoming obsessed with trying to understand these natures. Maybe that’s why I’m writing a book. It becomes a little unsettling when people look at you with blank expressions as you describe a particular point of how and why a specific action should be attempted which constitutes offensive or defensive movement. Don’t you agree an attention span of only eighty-seven minutes is a little short, and I should be granted an audience of however long it takes to explain? Forces struggle, countering philosophies collide, and the ensuing mayhem gets confusing after a while both in theory and practice. Thoughts and actions result in ball movement. What really causes the ball to pass through the basket? Offense or defense?
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About the Book
We all seek to be in the presence of greatness. Some of us have actually been there. I knew I was there before reaching the age of ten. Saturday after Saturday, year after year, along I tagged with my dad and Butler University’s Coach Hinkle. We marched together down the tunnel connecting the fieldhouse and football field, accompanied by a herd of stampeding metal cleats echoing throughout the concrete tunnel. These titans were preparing for battle. Out of the tunnel into blazing sunlight ran the warriors to the cheers of throngs of Bulldog fans. I never stopped asking dad and Coach Hinkle every question that came to mind, which were many. They even suggested at one point that I go over to a long wooden bench of some kind and ask some more questions directly to a real football player who was apparently awaiting his turn to play. It just couldn’t get any better than this. That is, until it was basketball season.
About the Author
Indiana is my home. Basketball and racing always come to mind. I practice law for a living, but that is not my primary passion. My passions are basketball and racing, in that order. A massive and roaring historical racetrack beckons only fifteen minutes from my office. Supposedly nine out of the top ten seating capacity high school basketball gymnasiums in the United States are in Indiana. Life brings opportunities you either seek or simply fall into. In the beginning I was lucky to fall into basketball. As life unfolded, seeking took over. As a nation we play basketball pretty well but in some ways I think we have reached a plateau. I want to take us higher. And exactly how should we progress? By shifting into reverse. Let's back up to the starting line, push it into the garage area, roll up our sleeves, and re-tool the machine. Build it all over again. Get back to the basics. Re-plant our roots. When you finish this book I am quite certain you will not soon forget some fundamentals of basketball that in recent times seem to have disappeared. I dare you to even try. She will not allow that.