Stanley Kubrick died shortly after completing the final edit of Eyes Wide Shut, a modern adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler’s novella Traumnovelle. Both analyze the juxtaposition of dreams and reality, the conscious and the sub-conscious, differently. Schnitzler’s work lacks the sexuality that smolders throughout Kubrick’s film but the written word offers a medium to communicate all of the protagonist’s thoughts – expressed and repressed desires, future plans and regrets – accurately depicting how he is no different from any other person. Eyes Wide Shut delves into what is real and what is not. Is Bill’s sequence of unsuccessful sexual adventures more …
Wizards Throw One Away, Raptors Win!
Congratulations to the Raptors and their Association playoff berth. After Andrea Bargnani’s appendicitis, Jorge Garbajosa’s broken leg, and an underwhelming performance versus Kevin Durant’s next team, the Boston Celtics, Toronto regrouped and won the next two games, clinching a playoff berth. Many players shouldered the load and the team executed well under the pressure caused by the recent adversity. Michael Ruffin, on the other hand, did not execute well under pressure. On Friday, Washington was leading by three points with seconds remaining. After Ruffin intercepted a sixty-foot pass by Anthony Parker, he simply needed to dribble out the clock and …
Go Up for Glory
Go Up for Glory – Bill Russell’s precursor to Second Wind (a frank and honest account of sport and life that I thoroughly enjoyed) and Russell Rules (a seemingly clichéd book about leadership that I hope to avoid as long as possible) – is a fascinating account of his youth and career with Red Auerbach’s Boston Celtics. One particularly remarkable theme is the idea of an incredibly thin line between success and failure: choosing a collegiate scholarship instead of a job in a shipping year because of a chance encounter with a scout, focusing on the game of basketball skills …
Exogenous Events
Like all the exogenous events inspire the price of crude to surge, bandits raiding a village and seizing the barley crop should drive the cost of the commodity to new highs. Amid the death and destruction, farmers face financial ruin and decide to take action by hiring a number of samurai to protect them. Showcasing innovative cinematography and a tremendous score, Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai illustrates the significance of trust and teamwork and the importance of brains over brawn. Initially, tensions prevent the ronin and the town’s residents from working together well. Nobody wishes to risk their life to save …
Three Lessons from Joe Lapchick
Lapchick chronicles the life of Hall of Famer Joe Lapchick, who links the barnstorming Original Celtics to the explosion of college basketball in New York City and Madison Square Garden to the New York Knicks and the origins of the Association to the introduction of television to the sport. Despite the fact that Lapchick last coached St. John’s when the teams were known as the Redmen – as opposed to the Red Storm – the book remains relevant to today’s player and coach. Placing Value in People: Many commented that Joe Lapchick was not the most technically astute coach but …
Do the Right Thing
So Reggie Evans put his foot under Chris Bosh as he released a jumpshot, rolling his ankle. In response, Rasho Nesterovic punched Evans the next time that he attempted a lay-up. “Violence does, in truth, recoil upon the violent, and the schemer falls into the pit which he digs for another.”– Arthur Conan Doyle Do the Right Thing depicts Mookie – a pizza delivery boy – as he tries to balance his employer, family, partner and son, and community. He eventually tosses a garbage can through the pizzeria window. After being told how he would always be welcome at the …
M & The Departed
Having screened these two films lately, some points have come to light. One can’t help but remark how much cinema has decayed lately. Unlike other recent films, The Departed was driven by skill on-screen and behind the camera instead of special effects — the plot was compelling throughout and genuinely surprising. Likewise, M was thoroughly entertaining despite its technical limitations. Fritz Lang created a screenplay that was both dramatic and humorous, employed innovative camera angles, and benefited from several strong performances. Both stand out among the greatest ever in stark contrast to the sea of mediocrity that most films released …
The Rivalry
Can determination trump talent? Apparently so, according to The Rivalry by John Taylor. The battles between Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain and their respective teams are detailed within the context of the growth of the game throughout the 1960s. Chamberlain was one of the most prolific post scorers in the history of basketball yet during the ten seasons that their careers overlapped, Russell and the Celtics claimed the Association title nine times. The book delves into the psychological warfare waged between the two. For example, once Russell blocked Chamberlain twice on the same possession. When Chamberlain recovered the loose ball, …
Minimalism
I was coaching a team that won a league title on Sunday and I didn’t do anything. The credit – as usual – belongs to the team and I was fortunate to coach a team where all the players contributed. Aside from getting one of the referee’s attention and touching my shoulders once midway through the first half, I made sure that I stayed out of my team’s way. Screens permitted ballhandlers to get to the key, traps and pressure forced turnovers, and the team won the rebounding battle. In the previous round, the team had started slowly and needed …
That Championship Season
Myriad films have employed basketball as a plot device (Hoosiers), a Sisyphean obstacle for the protagonist (Hoop Dreams), and an outlet for a character’s creativity (Finding Forrester); That Championship Season utilizes the sport as a symbol of what has been lost. Four high school teammates reunite with their coach twenty-four years after their state championship triumph. During the intervening years, they have married, pursued their careers, and gone their separate ways. “We lost something boys.”– Coach Delaney Subtle changes were made to the Pulitzer Prize winning play of the same title. For example, the play emphasizes how compromising their personal …
Four Lessons from Lute Olson
Reading Lute!, an autobiography by the longstanding coach of the Arizona Wildcats, provided interesting food for thought. First of all, the calm and composed appearance of Lute Olson belies an insatiable enthusiasm for basketball and unwavering loyalty towards those who play on the teams that he coaches. Olson’s fifty-year career links the game’s past to its present, from Pete Newell and John Wooden to Roy Williams and Mike Krzyzewski, from the Pacific Coast to the Mid-West and back. The book is typical of most sports autobiographies and will not contend for the Pulitzer Prize. Yet the text remains capable of …
The Basketball Gods
Tex Winter says that a team must pay tribute to the basketball gods in order to succeed, his metaphor to inspire players to practice solid fundamentals and teamwork. According to the 1958 National Coach of the Year, the team that executes at both ends of floor the best will be rewarded. Fortunately, I was coaching a team that was able to benefit from this today, directly and indirectly. Directly because poise and control resulted in quality scoring chances and defensive pressure produced turnovers and indirectly because fate assessed the opponent with a bizarre technical foul when a player removed their …
The Last Season
I am sorely disappointed with Phil Jackson. Irrespective of the tremendous work he has performed during the current season, he took an enormous step back in the coaching profession due to the publication of his fifth novel: The Last Season. Jackson’s chronicle of the 2003-04 Los Angeles Lakers season seems to break several confidences. What happens in the huddle, the locker room, the team bus, the plan, training camp, the video room, or an office should stay within the team, despite the dollars a publisher may promise. Apparently, Kobe Bryant and Phil Jackson have a very tenuous relationship; how will …
Sport in Canada, Part II
Last week, addressing some of the obstacles that Canada faces in its quest to Own the Podium, I ignore a critical consideration: the separation of sports funding by provincial boundaries. Canada manages National Sports Organizations and the Canadian Olympic Committee but ten provinces and three territories control various Provincial Sports Organizations – and far more money – according to vastly different standards. Certainly, thirteen diverse recipes produce thirteen different outcomes, some more successful than others. For example, the Government of Quebec links sport to the health and fitness of the overall population and spends about $7.40 per capita on sport, …
Assertiveness and Coaching
Different coaches have different personalities, which contribute to the diversity of sport. Some display more energy than others, some have a stage presence, and some have a sense of humour about their job. Nevertheless, there is more than one way to coach successfully. Coaching and control are synonymous in the minds of many individuals inside and outside the profession but that is not an accurate description. Coaches motivate student-athletes to reach their potential as a group. Crafting systems that best suit the team is part of that task, managing every single detail of the team is not. Creating accountability among …
Skiing and Sport in Canada
Saturday’s World Cup downhill gold medal win by Erik Guay in Garmisch-Partenkirchen is a tremendously promising Canadian sporting achievement. Guay’s triumph is full of potential but should not be mistaken as a sign that Canadian sport is positioned to repeat these results consistently. By stringing together three podium finishes in 2007, Guay has proven that he possess the physical and mental abilities to contend at the international level. Coaches who have mentored him, sponsors who have supported him, and skiing clubs and sport organizations such as Alpine Canada who have allowed him to compete all share credit for the victory. …