Ivan's minutes - I'm not pleased

[coachx]

Ivan speaks like he's got a gun on him at all times but doesnt have to use it because he'd rather choke you half to death. Glad to see him turn his life around and control his attitude. We definately need him of sound mind, focused, and evidently doing whatever Drew asks of him. Not just any coach would be hard on Ivan with no fear. Sprewell is a little girl compared to Ivan, and he choked his coach out. With the way this team plays and him hopefully finally getting through to Ivan, Im starting to think Drew is some kind of tough guy, especially with his reserved demeanor in front of the camera. I don't remember his playing days. Was he hard-nosed?

Honestly Drew spent most of his career with the Kings so I can't say I saw him play more then a few times and those games would have been vs. the Hawks or Lakers.

In those days you had to be hard nosed. Hand checks were allowed on the perimeter and tackling players on a fast break was the norm. Good hard fouls of the 80's warrant 2 game suspension today.

Jordan used hand checks with 50 lbs of pressure to keep you from going in the direction you wanted to go. Magic was great at slapping those hands away like offensive lineman do to defensive lineman in football...........accept Magic was dribbling a basketball and directing an offense as he did it.

Just a different era and style of basketball then........the 80's were the best era of basketball to me. You had big PGs all over the place since physical perimeter play was allowed. Back then the NBA stood for "No Babies Allowed." Then around 2000 everyone turned all buddy - buddy. Stern made the perimeter hand checks illegal to speed up the game due to waning national interest after Jordan's retirement, and everyone started flopping b/c referees allowed it. First Stern said no hand checks but you can use your fore arm........then he outlawed any contact on the perimeter. What was good perimeter defense turned into fouls over night to help guys like Allen Iverson be succesfull. Had Allen Iverson played in the 80's he would not have spent a lot more time on the injured reserve list.

Sure you had the Show Time Lakers playing fast break ball but they had plenty of enforcers like Rambis and Woolridge..........not to mention Kareem had a black belt and AC Green was as fiesty and nasty as they come. Michael Cooper was the best perimeter defender of that era at the SG position. Then you had the hard nosed Celtics lead by Bird and his monster frontline. The Bad Boy Pistons were loaded with goons like Lambier, Mahorn, Salley, Rodman, Edwards............not to mention Moses Malone being a bad man for 76ers in the early part of the decade........to bad the Hawks got him a little too late. The most physical frontline I ever witnessed was probaby the 80's Jazz with Karl Malone, in his physical prime, with the 7'4'' and 300 + lb oger in MArk Eaton.

In summary you had to be hard nosed to survive the NBA in the 80's. Put in game tape of the 80s today and its hardly the same game we play now.........though taking out the flops this season does help. Ivan Johnson would have loved it back then !

Edited December 14, 2012 by coachx

[Randy]

If Ivan was playing for a really bad team and got to play more, he'd be putting up some pretty big numbers.

[Peoriabird]

Knowing Drew, I wouldn't be surprised if this game was followed by an Ivan DNP-CD Saturday night

[BrazilianHawk]

That was a great summary coachx.

[AHF]

I'll keep posting the same thing I've been posting:

FREE IVAN!