When I was in grade school I use to attend a local basketball camp every summer at my high school. Similar to the way the Celtics adapt to defensive principles, the system I was in stressed defense from 1st grade youth basketball all the way up to your senior year in high school.
The theory: If you play good enough defense to hold your opponent scoreless, all you need to do is score one point to win the game.
Yeah, that may be stretching it a bit but that was what I heard every summer when I went to camp. Rarely did we work on shooting fundamentals, offensive principles, or anything of that sorts. It was all about the defense.
Have you ever heard of the hamburger drill? The name doesn't make a heck of a lot of sense but the drill pretty much consisted of this: One of the coaches would roll the ball across the court, you would line up next to another player, and your goal was to do everything possible to make sure you got the ball over the other player.
Another thing the coaches at the camp would stress is taking charges. During stretches they actually made us practice flopping 5-10 times in a row in an attempt to become the next Anderson Varejao. We'd also have scrimmages against other schools and if you took a charge in one of those games you would get a free t-shirt. Pretty crazy, right?
Well, enough about my camp experiences, let's get to the point of this article.
If you were happening to watch the Celtics-Sixers preseason game last night then you probably noticed Jermaine O'Neal taking a charge early in the game. There's a story behind that.
Jermaine is currently competing in a season long contest against Glen Davis to see who can take the most charges. Davis is one of the best guys in the league at drawing offensive fouls but that doesn't mean J.O is giving up already; he thinks he can win.
"It's a contest this year: Who can draw the most charges," O'Neal said after the game with a big grin. "And I believe I'm going to win it."
"You can't teach it," he said. "It's about giving up your body. It takes a lot out of you, but it helps the team."
After watching Jermaine O'Neal take that charge last night and follow it up by getting a technical foul for arguing a block/charge call, I think it's safe to say he's serious about this. Now it's just up to Big Baby to decide if he wants to win or lose the contest to Jermaine.
It sure will be fun to watch these guys going back in forth doing whatever they can to take a charge. Let's just hope one of them don't end up injured because of it.
Now there's only one thing left to ask. Who ya got?
Written by:
