Basketball and jazz in perfect harmony in KC

[filbert]

Kansas City Star feature article:

“There was a certain patience to KU’s offense that is like jazz,” Trim (a master’s student of jazz performance and pedagogy at the University of Colorado) wrote. “The idea is about space. When we play jazz, we are usually working within a formal structure. It is what you can make of the structure that sets one apart as a unique improviser.

“So, when Morningstar made that pass, I thought, ‘Here is a player who understands the formal structure of dealing with a zone defense and waiting for the open shot by utilizing good ball movement.’ It’s like Miles Davis once said: ‘Don’t play what’s there, play what’s not there.’ ”
. . .

“If you really want to find out if a guy knows how to play, play him against a zone,” (Kansas coach Bill) Self says. “Because against a zone, the zone takes different shapes all the time, and how do you attack those different shapes? Whereas man-to-man, you’re supposed to set a cross screen or a down screen, there’s probably more rules. Against a zone, there’s not as many rules. There’s more freelance within the structure. The teams that know how to play are good at attacking zones. Teams that don’t know how to play struggle with zones.”
. . .

Neat article, I thought . . .

[zooropa]

Re: Basketball and jazz in perfect harmony in KC

“This is what I call Kansas City’s world address,” Dixon says. “Who would know about Kansas City if it were not for Bennie Moten, Charlie Parker, the jazz district and the barbecue of this place? If there is another reason to come to Kansas City, I’d like you to show it to me. Why would someone actually remember it?”

That's a pretty good line right there.

On the overall subject--the guy ignores defense entirely!! It left me hungry for more. Where's the discussion of the elegance of passing under/over/rotating through a screen so effectively that it's as if it was never set? Isn't that comparable to a seamless transfer of a theme from one musician to the next during a jazz solo?