Jermaine O'Neal is starting to live up to some of the expectations that he, his teammates and the Raptor fans had for him at the start of the season.
Over his last five games, O'Neal is averaging 17 points and 13.4 rebounds and has made 21 of his last 23 free throws. He has posted a double-double in five straight games, the first time he’d done that since January 2007, and if he turns the trick Friday against New Jersey you'll have to go back to January 2004 to find the last time he had six consecutive double doubles.
O'Neal's run of double doubles started the night after the Raptors played in Charlotte. Seems like O'Neal's former high school coach, George Glymph, a South Carolina coaching legend who has always kept tabs on one of his prized pupils, had a chat with O'Neal after reviewing some game video. Glymph was in Charlotte and pointed a few things out to O'Neal and he has put them into practice, hence the improved performance.
Glymph has been an assistant for the Trailblazers, Pacers and Knicks. Yes, O'Neal was with both Portland and Indiana when O'Neal was there but the native of South Carolina went to New York without O'Neal. Look at his resume and you'll see he knows his ball. Glymph is in five Halls of Fame and yes he probably received an opportunity because of his connection to a star player, not uncommon in the coaching world, but if you are a fraud, you'll soon be exposed.
-- Speaking of Hall of Fame, look at the people in the Basketball Hall of Fame and tell me why Dennis Johnson, the man Larry Bird once called the best player I ever played with, is not there. It's crying shame! A story for another day.
-- Loyalty is a tricky word in sports. Antonio McDyess was upset with his trade to Denver and basically did not report to the Mile High City and was bought out of his contract. So why does he feel this loyalty to Detroit? By the sounds of it, he's going to end up back in the Motor City after the 30-day waiting period following the buyout. The rule in itself makes a sham of the whole buyout process but like I mentioned above, it's a story for another day around the trading deadline.
-- Interesting take on the Shaq-Kobe falling out in Los Angeles years ago as it is now being claimed that it was purely an economic decision by the owner. Not sure why Dr. Buss would not want to keep a title team or potential championship team together. Should there not be some loyalty to the "Big Diesel" whose play enabled the Lakers to raise three banners to the rafters. It's not my money but hey, I guess it just asks the question, how much do you want to win?
-- Speaking of Shaq, his flagrant two against Rodney Stuckey has been downgraded to a flagrant one. Did you see Andrew Bynum's fourth foul last night against O'Neal or Lamar Odom's chop on the "Big Aristotle" minutes later? Neither one saw an attempt to make a play on the ball but there was no flagrant called as the officials called both hacks and didn't bat an eye. Further to my point that O'Neal and Dwight Howard are the two most difficult players in the NBA to officiate.
-- Kevin Garnett returns to Minnesota Friday and the Timberwolves organization is showing KG some love and loyalty. Fans will receive commemorative posters of the "Big Ticket". Garnett's jersey is still one of the big sellers in the gift shop of the NBA City Restaurant attached to the Target Centre in Minneapolis.
-- And finally up at Hoopdome, the basketball-only facility in the northern part of Toronto, there was a celebrity ballin' there on Thursday. Ted Badner, the man that runs the place where you can play pick up any day of the year, said Woody Harrelson of Cheers fame was there shooting hoops. While some will remember him from the TV sitcom, my favourite recollection is Woody as that "no-vertical-gravity-machine-working-on-you-man-you-can't-ball-suburban-jump-shooter-looking-cat" that hustles before teaming up with Wesley Snipes in White Men Can't Jump. It's one of my all-time favs as a basketball movie. Harrelson is in Toronto filming a movie. Hey, didn't his character Billy rise up and rub down a dunk near the end of the movie?
