Court Vision: Catching up with the 'Jewish Jordan'

Tamir Goodman played college ball at Towson and professionally in Israel. (Gail Burton/AP) • Ian Levy of Hardwood Paroxysm interviews Tamir Goodman -- the

Tamir Goodman played college ball at Towson and professionally in Israel. (Gail Burton/AP)

• Ian Levy of Hardwood Paroxysm interviews Tamir Goodman -- the once and forever "Jewish Jordan." It's a great read in general, but particularly so for the way it captures the peculiar kind of bottled basketball superstardom that circles around totem prospects:

But here I am 31 years old and I go through the airport in some random city and the guy checking my bag says, “You’re the Jewish Jordan.” That affects the rest of your life and it happens so quickly.

The thing about me was that I was lucky because it wasn’t about me. It was something that was bigger than me. It allowed me to handle everything much better because it wasn’t about me personally. That allowed me to handle the ups and downs of my career much better. From what I understand with

Jeremy Lin

and definitely with Omri Casspi, who I’m close with and was the first Israeli player to play in the NBA, for them it’s also about something that’s bigger than themselves. If you have a lot of success, you say “This is not about me, it’s about something bigger than me.” If there are challenges you know how to get right back on track because it’s not about you, and that gives you extra motivation. I can’t quit now. There are a lot of things out there I need to accomplish so I can inspire other people. So that’s the mindset that allows them to handle these kinds of situations and I think that’s what Lin has done, and that’s what I see Omri doing almost on a daily basis.

• Gary Washburn of TheBoston Globe offers a good look at Doc Rivers and Chris Paul as students of the game. On Doc (via BDL):

Rivers said he has spent a good portion of the summer breaking down game video and trying to learn about his new players. He said he already had analyzed 42 of the

Clippers

’ 82 regular-season games, and was going to do the same with the final 40 regular-season and six playoff games.

“We have to play catch-up in that respect,” Rivers said. “I have to figure out why they were so good at times and why they struggled at times. They were a streaky team last year and we’ve got to figure out how to be more consistent.”

• Go get it, John Wall.

• An interesting tangent from the DeMarcus Cousins extension discussion: how his high-usage/lower-efficiency game functions within the context of this Kings team.

• The NBA's official kid reporters, killing it.

• Dylan Murphy of Posting and Toasting put together a nice nuts-and-bolts examination of three Knicks summer-league notables. Two of the players dissected -- C.J. Leslie and Jeremy Tyler -- are athletic standouts with interesting long-term potential, but Toure Murry is served particularly well by this kind of up-close analysis. Nothing he does on the court pops on a superficial level, but Murry's poise as a playmaker was a rarity on the summer-league scene.

• Making hashtag puns of your own name is the new speaking in the third person. (via Mike Prada)

• A needed reminder that the Thunder aren't merely interested in avoiding the luxury tax this season, but in avoiding the extra penalties that come with being a repeat offender.

• The Suns are optimistic that Channing Frye will return in 2013-14 after missing last season because of an enlarged heart.

Josh Childress

holding out hope of finding an NBA roster spot

Nets