A few days ago, Shane Battier was a guest on the “Knuckleheads Podcast”, with Darius Miles and Quentin Richardson. The opportunity to look back on his defensive battles against Kobe Bryant. This is not the first time that the retiree talks about his duels with the “Black Mamba” but the psychological aspect he describes is always interesting.
“So here I am (in 2001/02), as a rookie, defending 40 minutes per game against all the backs in the league. Kobe, AI (Allen Iverson), Paul Pierce, Manu (Ginobili). I got my ass kicked but I learned. »
Using Kobe Bryant’s ego
Especially against Kobe Bryant, who quickly gave him some lessons…
“Kobe, may he rest in peace, is probably two and a half weeks older than me (Kobe Bryant was born on August 23, 1978, Shane Battier on September 9 of the same year) but since he came to the NBA from high school and I spent four years in college, it seems like we’re from a different generation. But he’s only two weeks older than me. So I come out of Duke, I’m proud, “I’m taking Kobe, I’m taking Kobe” and I found out what “Kobe Island” was. Kobe Island is when you’re defending on Kobe Bryant and you look around and there’s no help. You are alone in the world. And this guy scored 63 points on me in three quarters! (Shane Battier seems to be wrong, Kobe Bryant never having scored 63 points against the Grizzlies, but he did however score 56 points in 34 minutes during their third duel, in January 2002). I told myself that I had to understand this guy, because I was going to cross paths with him for the next ten years, if everything went well, and I had to understand him. »
Among the first players to use advanced stats in the NBA, Shane Battier explains that he entered into a mental game with Kobe Bryant, in order to force him to take the least statistically effective shots.
“I knew, statistically, that Kobe Bryant’s worst shot was his off-the-dribble shot. He took a lot of long 2-point shots after dribbling. He was 42% successful (on these situations), which is below the league average actually. What makes him legendary are his finishes at the rim, his ability to recover free throws, with a decent 3-point shot but the shot off the dribble was his worst weapon. My only chance against him is to make him take as many shots off the dribble as possible. So when I started my hand to the face strategy, I knew that Kobe had the biggest ego in the league, and he was going to change the way he played to prove that the hand to the face didn’t affect him. And how could he prove that it didn’t work? The shot off the dribble! So he was doing me a favor by trying to prove to me that my technique didn’t work, and I was happy to let him prove it to me, because he wasn’t trying to attack the circle, he wasn’t trying to cause mistakes. I was trying a “Moneyball” approach with him and pushing him towards his weaknesses. »
Shane Battier assures that he did not care whether his opponent succeeded in his jumpshots off the dribble, because they were very difficult shots, the ones he pushed him to take. Although he admits that this “scientific” approach to defense is mentally difficult, especially when the attacker is successful.
The former Grizzlies, Rockets and Heat player also kept a low profile against Kobe Bryant, refusing to engage in “trashtalking” or to say the slightest thing that could motivate the “Black Mamba” during their duels. On the contrary, he repeated all his admiration for the Lakers player, and minimized the impact of his defense…
“In his book, Mamba Mentality, Kobe dedicated a page to me. I hadn’t read it before he died. His death affected me a lot, because I had never spoken to Kobe off the field. Never. It gives me chills to talk about it, but I always thought we’d never end up talking about our battles. When he passed away, I read the pages dedicated to the “Kobe Stoppers” in his book. I never said I was a “Kobe Stopper”, I was more trying to be some kind of “Kobe Stopper”. human yellow light » to try to pause it a little. In his book he basically says that no one can stop him, that he had super muscle memory, and that the hand on Shane’s face didn’t work. But he says something funny. He said: ‘Shane always downplayed his ability to defend against me, I saw that false humility, and I attacked him for it.’ And I said to myself: ‘He’s right’ (laughs). With Kobe, it was the mental game within the mental game within the mental game that we played with each other. It was meta. No one else knew we were playing this. All these mental battles. »
Identify habits and preferences
For defenders, these mental battles largely stem from their ability to read the tendencies and preferences of opposing attackers. For Ben Taylor, from Thinking Basketball, it is one of the elements that allows us to define athletic qualities in basketball players, from a cognitive point of view.
Alex Caruso, one of the best currently in the NBA to take opposing attackers out of their famous “comfort zone”, by depriving them of their usual strengths, took the example of Jayson Tatum during the last playoffs.
“I wonder if the guys watch videos. If Jayson Tatum has the ball in his left hand, there’s probably a 95% chance he’ll take the shot. Possession after possession, he will do his “jab step” (starting feint to shoot) or dribble for a little stepback or shoot directly. It killed me that no one knew he was going to shoot. Opponents gave him space behind the 3-point line when he already had 30 points. Sorry, I’m rambling but that’s watching the playoffs at home.” he smiled at JJ Redick.
Obviously, Jayson Tatum can shoot after a right-handed or left-handed dribble. But what Alex Caruso noted is that the Celtics winger is so comfortable in his mechanics when his shot follows a left-handed dribble, that he tends to use it almost systematically. Giving a valuable clue to the defender.
In a podcast with Michael Cooper, Dee Brown also delivered a fascinating anecdote on this subject, about the late Dennis Johnson, one of the most underestimated defenders (and even players) in NBA history.
The winner of the Slam Dunk Contest in 1991 thus took over from “DJ” in 1990 in Boston, the latter having just stopped his career but working as a scout for the franchise, before becoming an assistant in 1993, until 1997. He therefore accompanied Dee Brown to Massachusetts (1990-97), teaching her to “count dribbles”.
Know how to counter them at the right time
Michael Cooper is then surprised. Count dribbles? On the attacker? What does it mean ?
“DJ told me, ‘Dee, every player who brings the ball up the court has a particular dribbling sequence. When they are comfortable and when they are uncomfortable’. 1-2-change of hands, 2-1-2-hesitation-change of hands. So he told me, ‘Watch their streak when they’re comfortable because they’re always going to come back to that streak when they’re under pressure. When you put pressure on them in defense, they will always do a 1-2-dribble between the legs, a 1-2-spin or… Well, it doesn’t matter. Watch the first part of the match, pay attention to this dribbling sequence, what they do when they are comfortable, when there is no pressure. Because when you put pressure on them, they will always come back to this sequence, because they know that they have mastered it very well.’ This is how DJ managed to steal the ball from opponents, by counting dribbles. »
Yet a hell of a defender himself (Defender of the Year in 1987, five times in the All-Defensive First Team, three times in the All-Defensive Second Team), Michael Cooper can’t believe it, but some things become clear .
“He was always stealing the balls in the fourth quarter when they needed it. Now I know why, because he was watching during the first half. I always knew this guy was special. »
This is confirmed by Dee Brown, who made good use of this advice by also being a remarkable ball stealer.
“He taught me that in my rookie year” he concludes. “He told me that to be a great defender on the ball carrier, you have to use two things: anticipation and angles. And for that, we had to understand the patterns that were repeated (“patterns”) among the attackers. » To use them against them.
