Sorry Shaq, point guards hold the key to success these days

It's long been an article of faith that the most treasured commodity on any basketball team is a big man. This goes back to basketball antiquity, right on up

Frank Deford | Apr 15, 2009

Sorry Shaq, point guards hold the key to success these days /

It's long been an article of faith that the most treasured commodity on any basketball team is a big man. This goes back to basketball antiquity, right on up to Shaquille O'Neal. The big man had to be doubled-teamed. He would get you the rebounds. He was victory on the hoof. Most colorfully, per usual, Al McGuire called them "aircraft carriers."

But with all due respect for the aging Mr. O'Neal and Kevin Garnett and other nimble giants, may I suggest that that mantle of positional pre-eminence has passed from inside to outside. The one player who can most improve a team, who can make it coalesce and thrive, is now the point guard. It's certainly no coincidence that when North Carolina and UConn won their respective NCAA tournament last week, they were guided by the two finest point guards in college -- Ty Lawson and Renee Montgomery.

And point-guard value-plus is to be seen everywhere in the NBA. Who would have predicted a decade ago that a skinny, unheralded kid from Canada, Steve Nash, would twice be voted MVP? Denver went up and Detroit went down as soon as the Pistons traded Chauncey Billups to the Nuggets. A 20-year-old rookie, Derrick Rose, has personally overhauled the Bulls. And I haven't even mentioned Chris Paul of New Orleans and Deron Williams of the Jazz, who may now be the best of all. Evidence abounds.

Of course, the point guard is hardly a new force. Bob Cousy, a half-century ago, was the first glamour boy at the position -- although then it was called "playmaker." But the role grew in importance with the introduction of the three-point shot -- a factor which cut down on the strategy to force the ball inside. The three-point shot also obliged the point guard to be more of a shooting threat himself. The classic old playmaker was supposed to look first to set somebody else up -- ideally under the basket. Now, it's much more of a legitimate option to, in effect, feed himself the shot.

I think, too, that if one man had the greatest effect on changing the job description, it would be Magic Johnson. He, after all, was 6-feet-9. Suddenly, the physical ideal was thrown into a cocked hat, and I'm sure that many of the best young basketball athletes who once might have grown up with a shooter's mentality developed as taller point guards. I mean, what kid who's good, wouldn't want the ball? The old philosophy went that a great big man would get you the ball.

Sure, that still obtains, but since there are fewer missed shots now, the big guy doesn't have as many rebound chances as he used to. If someone could break basketball down more statistically, as the number-crunchers have divined baseball, then I have the feeling that the numbers would say, who's more vital: a guy who can get you the ball sometimes, or a guy who handles it every time?

If Al McGuire were still around, the aircraft carrier would now be in the backcourt. After all, that's where the game is launched ... and won.

Published Apr 15, 2009

FRANK DEFORD

Frank Deford is among the most versatile of American writers. His work has appeared in virtually every medium, including print, where he has written eloquently for Sports Illustrated since 1962. Deford is currently the magazine's Senior Contributing Writer and contributes a weekly column to SI.com. Deford can be heard as a commentator each week on Morning Edition. On television he is a regular correspondent on the HBO show Real Sports With Bryant Gumbel. He is the author of 15 books, and his latest,The Enitled, a novel about celebrity, sex and baseball, was published in 2007 to exceptional reviews. He and Red Smith are the only writers with multiple features in The Best American Sports Writing of the Century. Editor David Halberstam selected Deford's 1981 Sports Illustrated profile on Bobby Knight (The Rabbit Hunter) and his 1985 SI profile of boxer Billy Conn (The Boxer and the Blonde) for that prestigious anthology. For Deford the comparison is meaningful. "Red Smith was the finest columnist, and I mean not just sports columnist," Deford told Powell's Books in 2007. "I've always said that Red is like Vermeer, with those tiny, priceless pieces. Five hundred words, perfectly chosen, crafted. Best literary columnist, in any newspaper, that I've ever seen." Deford was elected to the National Association of Sportscasters and Sportswriters Hall of Fame. Six times at Sports Illustrated Deford was voted by his peers as U.S. Sportswriter of The Year. The American Journalism Review has likewise cited him as the nation's finest sportswriter, and twice he was voted Magazine Writer of The Year by the Washington Journalism Review. Deford has also been presented with the National Magazine Award for profiles; a Christopher Award; and journalism honor awards from the University of Missouri and Northeastern University; and he has received many honorary degrees. The Sporting News has described Deford as "the most influential sports voice among members of the print media," and the magazine GQ has called him, simply, "The world's greatest sportswriter." In broadcast, Deford has won a Cable Ace award, an Emmy and a George Foster Peabody Award for his television work. In 2005 ESPN presented a television biography of Deford's life and work, You Write Better Than You Play. Deford has spoken at well over a hundred colleges, as well as at forums, conventions and on cruise ships around the world. He served as the editor-in-chief of The National Sports Daily in its brief but celebrated existence. Deford also wrote Sports Illustrated's first Point After column, in 1986. Two of Deford's books, the novel, Everybody's All-American, and Alex: The Life Of A Child, his memoir about his daughter who died of cystic fibrosis, have been made into movies. Two of his original screenplays have also been filmed. For 16 years Deford served as national chairman of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and he remains chairman emeritus. He resides in Westport, CT, with his wife, Carol. They have two grown children – a son, Christian, and a daughter, Scarlet. A native of Baltimore, Deford is a graduate of Princeton University, where he has taught American Studies.