http://www.nba.com/suns/news/colangeloqa_060728.html
One-on-One with Jerry Colangelo
By Steven J. Koek, Suns.com
Posted: July 28, 2006
Suns Chairman Jerry Colangelo has been anything but idle since selling the Suns a couple of years ago. Taking on the responsibilities of USA Basketball Men’s Senior Team managing director, Colangelo has vowed to recapture gold at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
After returning from the first gathering of the team in Las Vegas, Colangelo talked with Suns.com about the USA camp, the status of Shawn Marion and Amaré Stoudemire, as well as the significance of the Suns’ trip to Italy for training camp in October.
Suns.com: What was your overall impression of the USA Basketball camp in Las Vegas?
USA Basketball Men’s Senior Team Managing Director Jerry Colangelo: It was a great week. We accomplished everything we set out to accomplish. It was a year in planning to have our camp site in Las Vegas. The venue, the accommodations were terrific. We had great responses from the coaching staff and players. All the organizational work that was put into the effort came to fruition and I thought we accomplished an awful lot during that first week or our camp.
We look at camp being four weeks before we actually play in Japan on August 19 and that’s just phase one.
Suns.com: What is your role at this point?
Colangelo: My role is that I have totally responsibility for the programs. So, I’ve been engaged in the entire process from soup to nuts. Sitting in on all meetings, attending all practices, all the events around the activities that go with the program. It was a very rewarding week and we’re looking forward to Week 2, if you will. We reconvene on Monday in Las Vegas.
Suns.com: How do you feel the players reacted to Coach Mike Krzyzewski and the staff?
Colangelo: The plan was to put in a new infrastructure for USA Basketball. The staff was hand-picked; starting with Coach K. Mike D'Antoni brought a lot to the table as the most experienced international coach, Nate McMillan because of his forte in terms of coaching and teaching defense, and Coach Jimmy Boeheim of Syracuse University, one of the top zone coaches in the league, both offensively and defensively. So, each coach had something they brought to the table and that’s how the practices went. Coach K assigned responsibilities. He took over the defense and Mike D'Antoni was given the offense.
The response of the players was great and we accomplished a lot during that first week.
Suns.com: Did the players respect and serious attitude of the task carry over from the enthusiasm you saw during the initial interviews?
Colangelo: The attitude could not have been better. The people we selected were picked because we felt they had character to along with talent. We weren’t let down at all. We are really pleased with the mindset we were trying to establish. We’re off to a good start. I expected that and it’s nice to see it come to fruition.
Suns.com: What is the status of Shawn Marion and his knee soreness?
Colangelo: The good news is he did not get injured. He didn’t have a collision, he didn’t go down and twist his knee; it just ached. The good news is the MRI was negative. The fact is with some rest he’ll be just fine. We’ll miss him on this team because he’s such a multi-talented guy offensively and defensively. He’ll be missed because of the skills and who he is as an individual.
But you have to take these setbacks in stride. Other people have opportunities to step up and get the job done. So, he’ll be missed, but he’ll still be a big part of this team.
Suns.com: Talk about Amaré Stoudemire’s week in Las Vegas. All reports are that he made some good progress.
Colangelo: He came a long way from informal workouts in Phoenix and then the summer league prior to our USA camp starting. He made progress each day and his last day was by far his best, and that’s very encouraging. I know Amaré’s at a place right now where he needs positive results, emotionally and mentally, to keep pushing forward. There’s nothing structurally holding him back. It’s a matter of having the confidence and playing up on competition. I knew that it would help him by participating in this camp and it did. Playing against healthy jumpers and people with strength who would contest him.
He’s not where he wants to be or where he will be. But he’s making the kind of progress that makes us very pleased.
Suns.com: After watching him at the summer league, how concerned were you, if at all, that he could have taken a step back in his progress because of the competition he was to be playing with at the USA camp?
Colangelo: I’ve been in the business for 40 years and have had a lot of experience. This is his first experience with any kind of major injury. The only way to get back to where he was is to fight through the disappointments and fight through even being embarrassed to some degree. He needs to play up, he needs to bust through some barriers so that he has the kind of confidence that he’s always played with. He’s been one of the more supreme confident players I’ve seen and that’s part of who he is. He needs to get that back.
Suns.com: Have you seen glimpses of that?
Colangelo: That’s where we are. It’s always important to be realistic. He’s come a long way. He made the 15-player list based on merit. Is he 100 percent? No, he’s not. Where will he be three weeks from now? A lot further ahead.
Everybody wants instant gratification and hear, “Amaré’s back.” Well, no, you’re not going to hear that. You’re going to hear that he’s working hard, he’s doing well, he’s getting better and making progress. We have to be patient and see where he is three weeks from now, a month from now, six months from now, and I think he’ll get better and better.
Suns.com: How difficult a process was paring the team down to the 15-man roster when you’re dealing with the best players in the world?
Colangelo: It’s always difficult when you have to make choices. It’s going to become even more difficult when we go down from our 15 to the 12 when the competition begins in Japan, but that’s what this process is all about. The good news is that we started with 24 players and all of them stay on the team. We’re not cutting anyone; we’re actually just selecting players to represent at the next competition. Next summer, we’ll reconvene. Hopefully, all 24 will be ready to come back.
If we’re successful this summer at the World Championships, next summer will just be a get together scrimmage preparation camp for a week and a half waiting for the 2008 Olympics. If we’re not successful this year in Japan and don’t win, then we have to go to the qualifying in Venezuela next summer. That would be a very busy summer and something we’re not looking forward to.
We’re going for it. We want to win this competition and establish ourselves.
Suns.com: Are you enjoying this whole process as much as it seems you are?
Colangelo: it’s been great. I jumped at the opportunity when asked to take on the responsibility. At this stage of my life, this has been a bit of a Godsend. Basketball has meant so much to me my entire life. My whole career has been in the game and I owe everything to the game. It’s an opportunity to give back and be totally engaged in an effort in basketball representing our country on an international stage. It’s been everything I thought it would be and I’m very excited to move on.
Suns.com: Another trip you’ll making is to Italy in October for the Suns’ training camp. How much are you looking forward to that?
Colangelo: Certainly, I’ve been to Italy many times. I think it’s going to be very special for Mike D'Antoni because he spent so many years there as a player and a coach. To go back to Treviso where he came from, in terms of his last job, is going to be a terrific homecoming and terrific experience for a lot of our young players.
One thing is for sure. They won’t get a bad meal.
Suns.com: How important is this in the efforts to spread the game of basketball to a global level?
Colangelo: The NBA was the leader in terms of professional sports teams to really understand the importance of the international marketplace. We’ve been out there for years developing an interest base for fan support and media support around the world. We’re pretty well established in Europe; we’ve had representation in Spain, Italy, France, England and Germany. We’ve gone to a lot of countries who hosted the McDonalds Open. We’ve had exhibition games in all of those countries.
In fact, the Suns were the first team in the NBA, along with the Utah Jazz, to play a regular season game on foreign soil. That happened in Japan in 1990.
Suns.com: What are your thoughts on the upcoming Suns season?
Colangelo: We want to be healthy, that’s for sure. Amaré is well on his way to getting back to what he was. Kurt Thomas is healthy and we missed him the better part of half the season. We’ve got some good young players and we’ve got a good mix of players. I think we’ve helped ourselves somewhat with the additions in the offseason. It could be a huge year for the Phoenix Suns. I think it’s a season our fans should be very excited about.
