Teamwork wins Championships

One thing I love about basketball is the importance of team play. When a team is playing together, it's a thing of beauty. Even if one team has the best player, a team with less talented, but team oriented players, can win.

In 2004, the Los Angeles Lakers were set to face the Detroit Pistons for the NBA Championship. This finals match up was considered a classic David vs Goliath battle where the Los Angeles Lakers were heavily favored to win it all over the Detroit Pistons.

The Lakers had the likes of 3-time NBA champions in Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal along with newly acquired All Stars in Gary Payton and Karl Malone (congrats to the Mail Man for his induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2010). These guys were household names when it came to talking about basketball. Each in conversations to be the best player in their position of all time.

The Detroit Pistons had a much less glorified group of players. Chauncey Billups had played for 4 different teams with minimal success before coming to the Pistons in the '02-'03 season. Rip Hamilton was known more for his college days in UConn rather than his pro days with the Washington Wizards, before joining the Pistons. Tayshaun Prince was barely a sophomore and not much was known about his abilities as a player because of his limited play during his rookie year. Ben Wallace had some credentials as he was a 2-time Defensive Player of the Year, but apart from that accolade, he didn't have much playoff success with the Pistons. The most notable of the Detroit Pistons was Rasheed Wallace for his success on the Portland Trailblazers and he had not even joined the team until after the All-Star break in 2004.

It wasn't easy for the Pistons to get to the Finals either. They had to play amazingly in order to get there.

Everyone remembers "The Block," by Tayshaun Prince on Reggie Miller. It was with this kind of hard effort and defense that brought the Pistons to the Finals.

Kobe Bryant averaged 25.1 pts, 5.3 reb, 5.8 asts and 1.9 stl in his first 3 play off games that led the Lakers to the 2004 NBA Finals. Shaq averaged 20.0 pts, 13.9 reb, 2.8 ast, and 3.4 blk. These are the kind of numbers that win you championships in the NBA. For the Pistons, only Rip Hamilton was averaging over 20 pts per game, averaging 21.5 pts during the playoffs. The next leading scorer for the Pistons was Chauncey Billups who was only averaging 15.2 pts during the playoffs.

Not only were the Pistons outmatched in star power, but they were outmatched offensively. Defensively is where the Pistons had the edge. Although the Pistons seemed to look like a team of second-rate misfits, as a team, they defended very well. For the regular season, the Pistons held teams to 84.3 points per game, being the top defensive team in the NBA for the 2003-2004 season.

These Finals were a straight battle of offense and defense. In the end, defense prevailed. Although Shaq and Kobe continued to score, the Pistons held the Lakers to just 81.8 points per game in the Finals. No one else on the Lakers team averaged more than 10 points except Shaq and Kobe. Kobe was held to 38.1% shooting and the rest of the Lakers were held to just 33.9% shooting. Kobe and Shaq took a combined 197 shots and the rest of the Lakers took a combined 183 shots. On the other hand, the Pistons had 5 players average in double figures. Chauncey Billups and Rip Hamilton both averaged 20+ points for the Pistons during the Finals.

The difference between both teams was that one team actually played like one. Instead of focusing on the inability of the Lakers to share the ball and get team mates involved, I praise the Pistons teamwork and unselfish attitude. Their strict discipline on defense led to their opportunities on offense. Internally, there was no conflict of who deserved the ball. Everyone knew their part and did their job.

If you're ever looking for a team to model after, I suggest the defensively minded, team oriented 2003-2004 Detroit Pistons. They displayed the definition of team unity as they took apart the talented, yet individually focused Los Angeles Lakers (it only took the Pistons 5 games as they won 4-1). Just ask Kobe how it went...

Who is Jeremy Lin?

Well, he's an Asian-American (specifically Taiwanese-American) kid who grew up in Palo Alto, California. While living in Palo Alto, he went to Palo Alto High School. After high school, Jeremy went on to attend the prestigious Harvard University, graduating with an Economics degree.

Don't you feel like you've heard this story before? Asian kid with immigrant parents studies hard so he/she can attend an Ivy League school to graduate with some sort of business, medical, or law degree. Yeah, I'm pretty sure you've heard this one.

So let me spice up the story a bit. Jeremy Lin is also a basketball player. He led his high school to a CIF State title in 2006 and was considered by many California publications as the player of the year. He didn't receive any scholarship offers from Division I schools, so he decided to go to Harvard University. Although he was known for his basketball, Jeremy still had to pay Harvard's full tuition because the school did not offer sports scholarships. In his senior year (2009–10), Lin averaged 16.4 points, 4.4 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 2.4 steals and 1.1 blocks, and was a unanimous selection for All-Ivy League First Team for the second time in his college career.

Getting a bit more interesting? After graduating Harvard, he was offered a spot on the Dallas Mavericks Summer League team. During the NBA Summer League, Lin garnered much attention after his tremendous play against the #1 draft pick, John Wall. Here are some highlights from that game...

After playing in the Summer League, Lin was offered a contract from his favorite team growing up, the Golden State Warriors. With this signing, Lin has a great opportunity to shine in the NBA. Lin is the first graduate from Harvard to play in the NBA since the 1953-54 season, when Ed Smith appeared in 11 games with the New York Knicks. Lin is also the first Asian-American to play in the NBA since Wat Misaka, a Japanese-American, played in 1947. Misaka was also the first non-white player to ever play in the league. When asked by ESPN writer Kevin Arnovitz, "How important is the [Asian-American] identity stuff," Lin replied by saying, "You know, it's important but not as important as my being a Christian. That's first and foremost the most important thing to me when it comes to my identity."

Although I wish Arnovitz would have followed up on Jeremy's statement that being Christian is important to him, he didn't. Haha. So here's a more in depth interview about Jeremy Lin's faith and how important it is to him regarding basketball (please read!).
The Faith and Fate of Jeremy Lin
There is also a second part to the interview. Link below.
Jeremy Lin, Faith, and Ethnicity

What a great encouragement it is to see a fellow Asian-American succeed where it's been 60+ years for anyone else to do so. But it's an even greater encouragement to see a fellow Christian succeed. I know I'll be tuning in to watch a few more Golden State games than usual, to see Lin play on the hard court. My hope and prayer for Jeremy Lin is that he would really use this opportunity to show Jesus whenever, wherever, however he can. He's already proclaimed his faith, now it's up to him to show it.

So who is Jeremy Lin? A Taiwanese-American basketball player? Yes, but more importantly, he is a Christian. God bless and Good luck in the NBA, Jeremy!