ETB’s Scribes of the NBA Interview Series - Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Part 1)
September 17, 2008

We have a real treat for you today, loyal readers and NBA fans.

There are few NBA writers we hold in higher regard than Mr. Adrian Wojnarowski, the backbone of Yahoo! Sports’ excellent NBA coverage. He also just happens to be the author of the New York Times bestseller The Miracle of St. Anthony: A Season with Coach Bob Hurley and Basketball’s Most Improbable Dynasty, which is being made into a major motion picture. (Buy the book on Amazon.)

We’ve broken Wojnarowski’s interview into two parts, with Part 1 focusing on his thoughts and experiences from Beijing in covering Team USA’s run to gold-medal redemption. Part 2 will follow tomorrow, and boy howdy is it ever juicy–don’t miss it. Without further ado, we welcome Adrian Wojnarowski as the latest subject of our ongoing Scribes of the NBA Interview Series.

Empty the Bench: You spent a few weeks in Beijing for the Olympics. In covering the U.S. team as they played and lived in a much different environment than what they’re accustomed to, what did you learn about a few players on the U.S. team and their personalities, skills, etc. that was surprising?

Adrian Wojnarowski: Spending a lot of time around that team mostly reinforced some things that I already believed about the players. Here are a few:

Kobe Bryant is calculating, smart, and maybe the league’s most ‘aware’ player of circumstances, surroundings, and angles. LeBron James doesn’t like when things aren’t all about him. Dwyane Wade is never too impressed with himself. Carmelo Anthony will always tell you the truth.

To me, the biggest surprise was how much credit that people wanted to give Mike Krzyzewski for this team. The least surprising? The fact that he has already sold another ‘motivational’ book that will detail his leadership of the gold-medal winning team.

As one NBA GM said to me, “I guess K didn’t have time to do a book after ’06.” Those were the world championships when Krzyzewski couldn’t make an adjustment to stop the Greece pick and roll and didn’t prepare enough to know the names of the Greek players. The insistence after that semifinal loss was that the team was too young and too inexperienced. They had enough to win in ’06, but obviously they were much better by ’08. Still, putting that loss in the Worlds on the players was typical of the college coaching establishment. They want the credit when it goes well, and none of the blame when it doesn’t.

Krzyzewski said it himself: This was an easy team to coach. It really was. They were motivated. They were focused. They were determined to be unselfish. The biggest thing of all was this is that they had been together for most of 3 years. He had the best talent. The best preparation time. And to his credit, he made the most of it.

But I’ve been around that program enough the past two years to know this: The leadership on this team came primarily from two places: Jerry Colangelo and Jason Kidd/Kobe Bryant. Listen, Colangelo gave Coach K an excess of talent, and he still needed every last superstar—Kobe, Wade, LeBron, etc.—to beat Spain in that gold medal game. It’s kind of typical of the college culture and its enablers to make sure the coach gets all the credit.

Jerry Colangelo and the USA Basketball staff—which includes behind-the-scenes guys like Jim Tooley and Sean Ford—gave this national team the structure it needed to succeed. Colangelo convinced everyone that for a true national program, Team USA needed to turn to a true European model. David Stern gets a lot of credit, too, because he gave Colangelo the resources and autonomy to make this work.

Yet, understand this: mostly, they had great, great players. A-list NBA stars. The B-list guys won’t do it anymore. Unlike in college, they don’t let the coach stand on the ladder and cut down the nets. In the pros and the Olympics, they know the truth: you win with the players.

More on the Team USA Olympics experience from Adrian Wojnarowski after the break…

ETB: Which players do you think will benefit most from their experience playing with the U.S. team this summer? Has it been a detriment to anybody’s development? For example, it looks like Dwight Howard still hasn’t worked on any go-to moves in the post beyond the dunk.

Wojnarowski: Colangelo and I talked a lot about this over the summer. This program will make the NBA a better league. I think the experience taught these guys a lot of things. For guys like Michael Redd and Carlos Boozer, they found out what it’s like to not be a star for the first time, to sit on the bench and hope they’ll get a chance to play. I think that gives those guys more empathy and understanding of teammates on the Jazz and Bucks, for example. That’s a perspective All-Stars don’t often get in the league.

Colangelo believes that Krzyzewski’s teaching will actually make these players better. I think the players learned far more from each other though. To think that Dwight Howard is getting something that Stan Van Gundy and Patrick Ewing couldn’t give him? I’m not buying that. There are always exceptions, I know, but far, far more quality coaching goes on in the NBA than NCAA. As you might have noticed, NBA coaches don’t have to fill out their staffs with AAU coaches to bring in recruits.

There’s never been much of a correlation between a Duke apprenticeship and NBA success. The great pros out of Duke—namely Grant Hill and Elton Brand—would’ve been terrific NBA players had they gone to, say, Medaille College. What’s more, the Team USA guys watched how true superstars like Wade, LeBron, and Kobe gave of their games for the greater good of the team. They saw how hard the great ones worked at it.

To me, Chris Paul’s growth has a leader has really been measurable as part of Team USA. That’s true with Howard and Bosh, too. In fact, the Olympics left you thinking that Bosh could be the most underrated talent in the league. If nothing else, Anthony’s game is incredibly tailored for international basketball. And I really hope it’s the case with ‘Melo. He’s needed this more than anyone.

ETB: What was your most memorable non-sports experience of the Beijing Olympics?

Wojnarowski: I’d say my most memorable experience in China was the arrival of the Internet traffic scores that reported the historic gulf in users and readership between Yahoo! Sports and the rest of our competitors. (Ed note: zing!)

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A certain well-known head coach from the collegiate ranks found his hide slightly more tanned yesterday following Part 1 of our interview with best-selling author and Yahoo! Sports columnist Adrian Wojnarowski. In the second part of our virtual fireside chat with this titan of NBA writers, it’s certain recycled–and unnamed–league GMs taking a few jabs to the chin.

Of course, that’s just our juicy, gossipy hook: these interviews with Wojnarowski have mostly focused on the positive aspects and developments in this league we all love so dearly. As with all of the interviewees we’ve featured in our ongoing Scribes of the NBA Series, we owe a hearty thank you to Adrian for taking time out of his busy schedule to talk hoops with us.

Alright, let’s get to it: Part 2 of ETB’s interview with Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski.

ETB: There’s been lots of moving and shaking going on this summer. Between the draft, free agency, and trades what are your favorite moves on paper so far?

Wojnarowski: Elton Brand changes so much for the Sixers. Ed Stefanski did a great job to exploit that wedge between David Falk and the Clippers, create more cap space, and get that deal done. Philly adds Brand to such an intriguing, young nucleus in Philly.

Obviously I love New Orleans’ signing of James Posey. They had to overpay a little, but that’s the only way they were going to get him out of Boston. He’s exactly the winning, veteran presence that they needed on those two long off days between the Hornets’ Games 6 and 7 against the Spurs. And while he didn’t play much a year ago, the talent and growth of Julian Wright in New Orleans will be dramatic. He was a great pick late in the lottery for GM Jeff Bower and his assistant, Brian Hagen, a year ago. Once Wright blossoms this year to bolster that Hornets bench they are going to have a frightening array of weapons.

With a motivated Jermaine O’Neal, Toronto will return to the elite in the East. This was a good gamble by Bryan Colangelo. He is getting O’Neal at the right time in his career and the fact that he can play off Chris Bosh—and no longer needs to be the star—is a huge benefit for him.

A couple of smaller pickups that are underrated:

- The Spurs grabbed Roger Mason, who can score the ball off the bench.

- Marc Gasol is going to be a good NBA player for Memphis. I really was surprised by his versatility at the Olympics. I had thought he was just a bruiser, but he has some ‘stuff’ in his offensive game.

- Also, I think Darius Miles has done a lot of maturing. His knee appears better. Danny Ainge had nothing to lose bringing him into Boston. Finally, Miles will have some real peer mentoring around him. He had spent most of his career with knucklehead crews with the Clippers, Blazers, and Cavaliers. That said, Darius was one of the leading knuckleheads, so we’ll see.

- The move that DIDN’T happen that still blows me away: Why didn’t the Knicks give Zach Randolph’s contract to the Clippers when the Clips were far enough under the cap to not have to return any salary to New York? Donnie Walsh had a chance to shed that deal, take back no money, and he didn’t do it.

More good stuff in Part 2 of ETB’s interview with Adrian Wojnarowski after the break…

ETB: A lot of casual fans see today’s trades as more financial and salary cap games than actual exchanges of talent. Then, of course, there’s this summer’s mid-tier free agent exodus to Europe. Is the system broken, and if so how can it be addressed?

Wojnarowski: I actually think it’s good for the NBA to lose a few guys to Europe, Russia, etc. I don’t think it’s harmful. The NBA will import some and it’ll export some.

Here’s the bigger issue the NBA is facing: They have franchises like Memphis and Atlanta that are such nickel-dime operations, so dysfunctional, that players feel leaving for Europe might give them a better, more professional environment. That’s a sad statement on the bottom-feeding franchises in the NBA.

To me, that’s a big part of why Josh Childress left for Greece. He could’ve stayed for more money in Atlanta, but understandably had had it with that organization. Juan Carlos Navarro left Memphis to go home to Spain, too. In a lot of cases, it’s just restricted free agents getting low-balled by NBA teams who are finding an appetite for the burgeoning international dollar. There’s no chance the NBA is going to make this a more player-friendly free agent system. They’ll take their hits, let guys go, and wait to see if this ever costs them a Kobe or a Wade.

ETB: In your estimation, who is the most savvy personnel man in the NBA today and why?

Wojnarowski: I can’t pick one, but I’ll say this: The best GM’s are those who pick the right players for their coaches and their systems. Here are five consistently good ones:

1. Joe Dumars, Detroit Pistons
2. R.C. Buford, San Antonio Spurs
3. Bryan Colangelo, Toronto Raptors
4.. Jeff Bower, New Orleans Hornets
5. Kevin O’Connor, Utah Jazz

I’ll say this, too: I wish the same guys would stop getting recycled so often for GM jobs. Tommy Sheppard (Washington), Chris Grant (Cleveland), and David Griffin (Phoenix) are assistant GM’s ready to make the leap.

ETB: The Tim Donaghy Scandal was in the news again, with referee Scott Foster also revealed earlier this summer as a possible accomplice. As a writer you have to cover it, but as a fan do you care? Does it affect the way you watch or think about the NBA?

Wojnarowski: I care deeply. Everyone should. Nothing in the NBA matters unless not only is the officiating above board, but the perception is that the officiating is above board. For years, the NBA insisted that it just had a perception problem; only it had a real problem. They need to keep doing a better job of developing young officials, monitoring them, and giving teams and fans a real sense of transparency about the operation.

ETB: Philly, Atlanta, New Orleans, Portland: there are a number of exciting young teams in the NBA right now. Which is your favorite and which is most likely to bring home an NBA title first?

Wojnarowski: That’s easy—the Hornets. They have a chance to win a title this year. They are a wildly entertaining team to watch play, and they do it on both ends, too. The others would be happy to win a playoff series this year.

ETB: Where do you feel the D-League has the biggest room for improvement? Do you agree with the approach as far as in which markets (read: small) many teams have been placed in so far?

Wojnarowski: You know, I love the D-League and had a blast covering the D-League Showcase in Idaho last year. It’s a great event to connect with front-office guys from the league, but there’s so much good development going on there. There are coaches in the D-League, like Bryan Gates in Idaho, who belong in the NBA… and will get there. Jeff Ruland left Albuquerque for the 76ers, where he will be a great resource for Philly’s big guys.

You are starting to see franchises like the Spurs use their affiliate (Austin) team as a true extension of their own organization, a place to teach “The Spurs Way.” (Much to the dismay of the commissioner’s office, of course.) To me, San Antonio has built a model of how to do things with Austin. They will reap benefits there.

ETB: A lot can and will change between now and opening day, but if you had to pick the 2008-09 NBA Champ right now, who would it be and why?

Wojnarowski: I wonder if Boston can stay injury-free this year. They’ll miss Posey. As much as everyone is waiting for the return of Andrew Bynum, he still needs to prove he can be a consistent and motivated player through 82 games… never mind a long playoff chase. That said, I think he’ll get there. I’ll take the Lakers.

To answer AW's question - it was because the Clips were reportedly demanding the Knicks first round pick as part of the deal.