Ok. We've had fun with the Tamir Goodman story. We find it fascinating and
refreshing. We hope the kid does great, yada yada yada...we're sure you've heard
enough from us about it.
Not yet. We saw a tape of Goodman's game, the same one that made Gibbons go
wild with excitement. We have to tell you guys,
this kid understands the game. Any coach who saw this tape would put any
reservations about competition, religious obligations, or what have you aside. You have
to take a chance when you see a game that is this developed (Gary Williams was thought to be crazy, but really it was was just a sheerly atavistic response). We saw him make
passes with his back turned, touch passes, shots from way past the top of the
key, switch hands in mid-air -to his weak hand, no less. We saw him run a ball
out of bounds and save it for a layup pass - behind his back. We saw him
make a steal, and use the correct hand so as to not get called for a foul.Â
His skill level, to make an interesting comparison, is far beyond William
Avery's.
We thought his ballhandling could use some work, and he needs to get stronger
and develop his body as much as possible. But if there is a kid anywhere
in the U.S. who is more sound than Goodman, please, please - baby,
please! send us the tape. For
the first time in years, a ballplayer got to us the way any ballplayer gets to
Vitale - he made us scream out loud.
Now to be fair, we are talking about his skill level, not his talent level,
and this has been where the controversy comes in. But this kid has deep
deep range, and Gary Williams is right, he has eyes in his ass. He may
never have an elite athletic talent, but what he's got is probably good enough
to compete. It's hard to tell because most of what we saw was one short,
undertalented Jewish team against another. On the other hand, though, the
center on Tamir's team is stout and slow - and Goodman made him look pretty
good, and if you can make a bad player look good, you've got game
We also hear that he has been playing in a Pro-Am League with guys like
Derrick & Cedric Lewis, and has, on a few occasions, been the leading
scorer. So apparently he can hold his own. We can't wait to see how
he does at Maryland. What we saw on this tape was brilliant.