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Authored by Derek Flack - 18th August, 2008 - 8:10 pm
The 2008 summer Olympics are right around the corner as Team USA looks to get back to their winning ways and bring the gold medal home to the States. I recently spoke with Coach Scott Fields, who was an assistant coach with the Golden State Warriors summer league team in Las Vegas and at the Rocky Mountain Revue this summer, about Team USA and international basketball.
Coach Fields has spent the past two seasons successfully coaching professionally in China and the last 12 years coaching professionally throughout Europe and Asia. Through the years as a Head Coach he has accumulated a .787 winning percentage, which includes an undefeated championship winning season in Saudi Arabia.
Coach Fields also has some National team experiences with the Luxembourg and Austrian National Teams. Coach Fields was also a consultant with the Lebanese and Nigerian National teams at the last world Championships in Japan. With his National Team experience and his recent work coaching in China, Coach Fields is the perfect candidate to speak with about Team USA and the upcoming Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.
RealGM- You’ve coached in China in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) and in their National Basketball League (NBL), what is it like coaching in China compared to the United States?
Coach Fields- The common bond is basketball and the level of basketball with these guys is professional. The opportunity to be in China and work with their top level players is just an amazing opportunity for an American coach. It’s an amazing opportunity to go over and teach basketball and help incorporate new offenses and defenses into team concepts and try to help them develop into the best players they can become and make them more marketable to reach their highest levels.
RealGM- What’s the competition level like over there?
Coach Fields- The competition is actually very good, with Yao Ming coming over to the NBA and being the number one draft pick a few years back brought a lot of awareness of the NBA game, of course Michael Jordan made the game global, but Yao Ming took it to Asia, where they tell me over in China there’s over 3 million registered basketball players in the federation. All those players aspire to be the next Yao Ming, Yi Jianlian, Wang Zhizhi, or Menke Bateer, who started the wave. It’s a great experience for a coach and the players play at a very good level.
RealGM- How do the international players respond to you being an American Coach?
Coach Fields- I’ve never had a negative situation while I was over there. The players are very open minded, they really respect the American game and I think that that’s because of the success that the Americans have had with the earlier international competition. They see the NBA games because of Yao Ming, a lot of those games are televised so when they see the NBA game, or what they call the “western style of basketball”, they’re very open to that because, again, they aspire to be at that level. The real challenge to coaching in China is the translation, I was fortunate to have two very good translators that knew and understood English very well and also spoke the Mandarin language and last season they actually had to translate Cantonese as well as Mandarin. The language is definitely a barrier; China is the one place I’ve coached where I’ve had to have a translator 24 hours a day.
RealGM- How do the foreign players respect the American players that you bring with you?
Coach Fields- Actually that really excites them, I can have two American players on the roster. Usually the teams need a quality big man that can play both the high post and the low post, there’s a very good market for big players over there and they are compensated very well. The teams also look for a versatile type of combination guard that can play both point guard and shooting guard. The Chinese players like to test themselves against the American players that come over to see where their skill level is at. The American players also motivate the local Chinese players; they bring a high spirit to the team.
RealGM- Are there any other dominant centers in China like Yao?
Coach Fields- There are big players in China, but not a dominant big guy like Yao. I think their a few years away and still need years of development. The Chinese National team has a lot of pressure on them being the host country of the Olympic Games. They open up against the Americans, who have something to prove this year. I feel the weakness of the Chinese national team is that their guards don’t handle defensive pressure well and they are not as physical as other countries guards.
RealGM- Has there been a buzz about the Olympics over the last couple of seasons you have spent over there?
Fields- There most definitely has. When I was up in Changchun in the Jilin province, I was way up north near the Mongolian border. Even that far away people were excited about it and it was still two years away. This last year after going through the Beijing International Airport they were adding a new terminal to be able to accommodate everybody that will fly in .Then just to see all the facilities that were being built and all the infrastructure of the games, WOW! The torch carriers that were traveling from city to city, seeing all that on a daily basis on the nightly news you could see the excitement building. The owner of my recent team in Dongquan owned a 5 star hotel and one of the big committee chairmen for the Olympics stayed at the hotel. He brought the torch that will light the caldron for the opening ceremonies and I got chills when I was able to hold that torch and it was just a unique feeling. Knowing the symbolism of it and the meaning behind it was a powerful feeling. I can only imagine the pride of the individual chosen to light the caldron, which is kept a secret until only hours before the ceremony.
RealGM- Its been said that over the last few years LeBron James has tried to learn Mandarin Chinese for the upcoming Olympics, how do you think the Chinese citizens will react to that?
Fields- I think that really excites them, I’ve watched the last few years where a lot of the Chinese people are trying to learn English and taking language classes so that they can help the tourists that come over for the international competition. Knowing that someone with the marketability that LeBron James has will be reaching out to them is going to be a very touching and heart warming feeling for those Chinese people to hear him speak the Mandarin to the local people, that’s going to win them over immediately.
RealGM- You have some National Team experience overseas with countries such as Luxembourg, Austria, Lebanon and Nigeria, what did you learn from those experiences?
Coach Fields- Being apart of a team that represents a country is an amazing feeling because when you put on that jersey your not representing a club or a franchise, you’re now representing the country. I think there’s a lot of pride that goes into that. Just like Team USA, your Kobe Bryant’s are no longer LA Lakers, LeBron James’, their no longer the Cleveland Cavaliers , your Dwayne Wade’s, their no longer the Miami Heat , your Deron Williams’, their no longer the Utah Jazz , you are now the United States of America, the sense of pride that comes with that is an amazing thing. Plus it is a huge responsibility.
RealGM- You have a few years of NBA summer league coaching experience, how do young American players respond to coaches?
Coach Fields- First I have to thank Keith Smart and Sidney Moncrief for allowing me the opportunity to be on the practice court and have input and do some scouting for the upcoming games. That’s been an awesome experience for me to be around some of the elite athletes and coaches. The NBA summer leagues are a very competitive situation. These guys are coming in to showcase their skills, if they were not drafted then they are free agents and they are trying to get an invite into training camps to try and make an NBA roster. With the Golden State Warriors you had Anthony Randolph who was a very high draft pick, but then you have an Anthony Morrow who came in undrafted from Georgia Tech who is a phenomenal shooter and who opened up so many eyes with his quality of play and his game. He was actually signed on the final day of the Revue and will come into camp in September. Some guys might not make the roster for the team they are with but they are also playing to make other teams rosters, but if that doesn’t happen there’s all kinds of international scouts and coaches here looking for players to take overseas. |
