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Fred Katz

👤 Person
1536 total appearances

Appearances Over Time

Podcast Appearances

The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points

And part of it, which I didn't know going into the story, is that he wasn't always so big. He had a late growth spurt. He was 5'6", 5'7", when he was 13 years old. And he was in eighth grade. And he started working with the coach you just mentioned, Dwayne Washington, who was his club coach. And Dwayne Washington was also a science teacher at the first high school that Shea ended up going to.

The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points

And part of it, which I didn't know going into the story, is that he wasn't always so big. He had a late growth spurt. He was 5'6", 5'7", when he was 13 years old. And he was in eighth grade. And he started working with the coach you just mentioned, Dwayne Washington, who was his club coach. And Dwayne Washington was also a science teacher at the first high school that Shea ended up going to.

The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points

And part of it, which I didn't know going into the story, is that he wasn't always so big. He had a late growth spurt. He was 5'6", 5'7", when he was 13 years old. And he was in eighth grade. And he started working with the coach you just mentioned, Dwayne Washington, who was his club coach. And Dwayne Washington was also a science teacher at the first high school that Shea ended up going to.

The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points

He never actually had him in science class. I asked that. I wanted to know what Shea got, what grade Shea got in his class, because I thought that would be a great detail for the story. And he didn't have him in the class. And I was like, damn, that really kills the narrative. You can go back to high school, take his class and see what you get just to get it.

The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points

He never actually had him in science class. I asked that. I wanted to know what Shea got, what grade Shea got in his class, because I thought that would be a great detail for the story. And he didn't have him in the class. And I was like, damn, that really kills the narrative. You can go back to high school, take his class and see what you get just to get it.

The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points

He never actually had him in science class. I asked that. I wanted to know what Shea got, what grade Shea got in his class, because I thought that would be a great detail for the story. And he didn't have him in the class. And I was like, damn, that really kills the narrative. You can go back to high school, take his class and see what you get just to get it.

The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points

Yeah, exactly. But so Dwayne Washington, when he coached him, was like, I'm going to blend the two things I know best in teaching. And for what it's worth, you look at some of the other guys we've worked with, because Shea is not the only NBA player who has worked with.

The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points

Yeah, exactly. But so Dwayne Washington, when he coached him, was like, I'm going to blend the two things I know best in teaching. And for what it's worth, you look at some of the other guys we've worked with, because Shea is not the only NBA player who has worked with.

The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points

Yeah, exactly. But so Dwayne Washington, when he coached him, was like, I'm going to blend the two things I know best in teaching. And for what it's worth, you look at some of the other guys we've worked with, because Shea is not the only NBA player who has worked with.

The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points

And I didn't include this in the story because I thought it kind of led me on a path to a place that like made the story too long and kind of not as focused. But you look at Andrew Nembhard, Andrew Nembhard's ability to stop on a dime. All these guys are elite at changing speeds and stopping. Andrew Nembhard, not as good of a player as Shea Gildress Alexander, but he's good. He's very good.

The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points

And I didn't include this in the story because I thought it kind of led me on a path to a place that like made the story too long and kind of not as focused. But you look at Andrew Nembhard, Andrew Nembhard's ability to stop on a dime. All these guys are elite at changing speeds and stopping. Andrew Nembhard, not as good of a player as Shea Gildress Alexander, but he's good. He's very good.

The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points

And I didn't include this in the story because I thought it kind of led me on a path to a place that like made the story too long and kind of not as focused. But you look at Andrew Nembhard, Andrew Nembhard's ability to stop on a dime. All these guys are elite at changing speeds and stopping. Andrew Nembhard, not as good of a player as Shea Gildress Alexander, but he's good. He's very good.

The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points

And he is elite at playing with speeds. And he taught Shea how to play with speeds, how to compensate for that lack of size by messing with timing. He taught him about acceleration and deceleration. He used the analogy of Shea being a car that has four gears. And he came up with a formula that Shea could use at the time.

The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points

And he is elite at playing with speeds. And he taught Shea how to play with speeds, how to compensate for that lack of size by messing with timing. He taught him about acceleration and deceleration. He used the analogy of Shea being a car that has four gears. And he came up with a formula that Shea could use at the time.

The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points

And he is elite at playing with speeds. And he taught Shea how to play with speeds, how to compensate for that lack of size by messing with timing. He taught him about acceleration and deceleration. He used the analogy of Shea being a car that has four gears. And he came up with a formula that Shea could use at the time.

The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points

You never want to go to fourth gear because then you're going to lose control of the wheel. You don't really want to vacillate between second and third gear because that's too predictable. They're too similar. So you want to go from three to one, one to three, ratchet back down to two, and then two to one, and then one to two or one to three.

The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points

You never want to go to fourth gear because then you're going to lose control of the wheel. You don't really want to vacillate between second and third gear because that's too predictable. They're too similar. So you want to go from three to one, one to three, ratchet back down to two, and then two to one, and then one to two or one to three.

The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points

You never want to go to fourth gear because then you're going to lose control of the wheel. You don't really want to vacillate between second and third gear because that's too predictable. They're too similar. So you want to go from three to one, one to three, ratchet back down to two, and then two to one, and then one to two or one to three.

The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points

And that's the way that you can just kind of mess with people's timing. So she started working on shifting between those gears. And he taught him about the strength of triangles, which is not really. I mean, look, if I'm going to have a criticism of this story, if I'm a reader and I'm non-bias, I said science. And I mentioned it is geometry, but geometry is not science. It's math.

The Athletic NBA Daily
Cavaliers clinch playoffs | Giannis gets 20k points

And that's the way that you can just kind of mess with people's timing. So she started working on shifting between those gears. And he taught him about the strength of triangles, which is not really. I mean, look, if I'm going to have a criticism of this story, if I'm a reader and I'm non-bias, I said science. And I mentioned it is geometry, but geometry is not science. It's math.