Decline of the Big Man a Fundamentals Issue

The Lakers’ Shaquille O’Neal recently called the NBA’s centers “bums.” That may be a compliment compared to what he’ll label the league’s future crop of big men based on the lack of true post players in this year’s NCAA tournament.

“There’s a difference in what we’re teaching and what should be taught,” said Pete Newell, the first coach to win the NIT (San Francisco,1949), NCAA (California, 1959) and an Olympic gold medal (1960). “I just don’t see the individual fundamentals being taught at the lower-level programs. As a result, we see [the] disappearance of the American big man. God knows when we’ll have another Shaquille.”

Known among coaches as a “basketball guru” because of his ability to teach the game, Newell has worked with hundreds of centers in his Big Man camps over the years. He’s bothered by the recent demise at the position.

As a voter for the John Wooden Award -- which honors college basketball’s player of the year -- Newell can’t believe that there’s not a true center among this season’s 30 finalists. Connecticut’s Emeka Okafor and Mississippi State’s Mario Austin are listed as forward/centers.

“That kind of tells you something; there’s not one post player on the list,” Newell said. “All of the signs are pointing the same way.

“I hope this is not true, but this reminds me of how the quarterback position changed in football. In the 1940s, Clark Shaughnessy ran a T-formation offense at Stanford. Until then, the quarterback position called the signals but was mainly a blocker. The star of the offense was the triple threat. Now, you don’t even hear that word used anymore while the quarterback at the college and NFL level is anything but a blocker. In a sense, this may be happening with the center position in basketball.”

Newell’s top three reasons behind basketball’s disappearing big man:

* Motion offenses: “At the high school level, there’s less court time for coaches to work with players so they have to put in a system of play that doesn’t demand the individual teaching of fundamentals. Many of your motion and flex offenses reflect this.

“In these type of offenses, there’s a totally different physical demand for the center than in a post offense. They want a wider body who can set a good screen, do a good defensive job and rebound.

“It takes time to develop true post centers. They have to learn the skills of passing and shooting a variety of shots -- with their left hand as well as the right -- with their back to the basket. When a [potential post center] is young, they usually do not fit the system of play used today. There are a few exceptions, but centers are basically used as a second option. Guards and forwards are the scorers now. If you look at the starting centers in the NBA, you’ll find that over a two- or three-week period, 60% score less than 10 points in a game. That shows that the ball simply doesn’t go in much to the center.”

* A dearth of good teachers: “Many of these players who have gone into coaching after they got done playing high school or college ball have little relationship to teaching because they were not taught individually. We’re just not developing teachers.

“It’s sad but true that the international world has passed us when it comes to teaching the game of basketball. Starting at the age of 10, kids are being taught throughout Europe and in Asia, the fundamentals of the game.

“You are going to see the amount of international players continue to increase because they are coming into the NBA more skillful than the players who’ve been in the league for three or four years. Just look at Yao Ming. Who would have ever thought that a Chinese center would be the first pick of the NBA draft? He has excellent footwork and understands the game. He’s been taught the game. Most of the foreign teachers out-teaching us are guys we taught the fundamentals of the game to, either through our tapes, clinics or books. That’s how they learned the game.”

* Summer teams: “They are worse than ever. Rather than working on the proper development of their fundamentals, young players are going out of their area playing in competitions. Sometimes, they play three games in one day. Gosh, if they spent half of that time teaching those kids the fundamentals of offense and defense.

“But if you talk to some of those [summer] coaches, they’d have a hard time telling you what the five fundamentals are. Kids are just not being schooled on things like knowing how to create a post, how to properly hit a guy with a bounce pass or the fan pass; or the ability to create a lead when a teammate is double-teamed.

“It’s a shame but our [youth] programs are more about winning than learning the fundamentals now. Those other countries are taking kids through the basics of the game and are being shown the proper development.”