I have to admit, I kind of like Bill Simmons. Now, don’t get me wrong, the man is juvenile, nauseatingly self-referential and worst of all, a Celtics fan. But that doesn’t mean he’s not capable of entertaining me with an awards show podcast for Beverly Hills 90210 or have me in hysterics over some asinine comment one of his readers makes to his mailbag. And more to the point, it doesn’t preclude him from occasionally having some insight into the world of sports that he writes about.
In the first chapter of Simmon’s Book of Basketball he talks about something called ‘the secret.’ The secret as Simmons describes it is the notion that in order to win an NBA championship, players have be willing sacrifice every individualistic goal for sake of the team. Money, numbers, press clippings, all have to put it all aside. In short, they have to be able to overcome what Pat Riley termed “the disease of more.” To forgo stats for wins, placate playing time for chemistry.
Now it wouldn’t have even occurred to me to mention this except when I was watching Sunday’s Lakers-Spurs game something hit me. It was subtle, like a Charlie Sheen twitter post. But there it was. Andrew Bynum gets it. He understands the secret. It was a notion that was later confirmed when Bynum was giving his post game remarks.
“I realized where I could be a huge help, and that’s on the defensive end of the basketball,” Bynum said. “Try and get every rebound. Try and block every shot.”
Then the kicker.
“This team is going to win regardless if I get 15 points or if I get four points; that’s the kind of team we have,” Bynum said. “This team won’t win if we don’t have defensive toughness on the inside.”
Bam. Note for note, sound bite for sound bite, that’s exactly what you’d expect to hear from a player who is embracing the secret. And yet it’s only in the fact that his actions on the court are backing up that talk that I believe so completely that Bynum has finally turned the corner. Last year he showed grit in dragging his injured knee up and down the court during the finals. Now he’s made the transformation from padawan learner to jedi master, and it’s has nothing to do with his skill set and everything to do about how he is approaching his role on the team.
Next: Finding His Role