My Call-In Request for Eric Musselman
What the greatest cover song of all time can teach the head ball coach
Remember those old radio call-in request shows? People would write these flowery, mawkish letters to their loved ones for Casey Kasem or Delilah to read on air only to have it end with something like, “…So please play ‘Tubthumpin’ by Chumbawamba so Joyce will come back home…” I want to make one of those requests for Arkansas Razorbacks head basketball coach Eric Musselman:
Dear Ryan Seacrest (who I assume hosts the modern-day version),
I’d like to send out a long-distance dedication from St. Louis (and really Hog fans around the globe) to Fayetteville, Arkansas. Specifically to 1270 Nolan Richardson Drive. Even more specifically to the diminutive gentleman with a fire shoe game slugging Diet Cokes.
He’s been in all of our hearts and minds recently. Things haven’t been going his way this season, but we (well, most of us) still believe in him. The joy he has given us over the past several years is unlike anything we’ve felt in decades. Damn-near thirty years, to be frank.
We aren’t seeing that joy from him right now, and we certainly aren’t feeling it ourselves. We know he has something he can tap into. He has developed a network of basketball gurus across his almost 40 years in coaching that he could seek out for counsel.
Would you please play the greatest cover song of all time, Joe Cocker’s rendition of “With a Little Help From My Friends,” for Eric Musselman? It’s got a pretty important message for him to hear.
Ryan, I’d like to address Muss directly now if that’s ok with you.
Muss, Saturday night was an emotional night for New York Knicks fans. (It was a different kind of emotional for Arkansas Razorback fans earlier in the afternoon, but more on that later.)
As I was watching the Knicks drubbing the Toronto Raptors last night, I couldn’t help but notice that right now, “The Bockers” are everything our Hogs are not. Razorback basketball lovers are sick and tired of being sick and tired.
We’re feeling angry with you, Muss, which is foreign to us. You’ve given us a ton of emotions since you got here, but anger hasn’t been one of them. Neither has embarrassment, but the margin in these SEC losses has us teetering on the brink of that one, too.
Give your old buddy Thibs a call. Ask him what he’s done to get the Knicks to this point. If I’m guessing, his answer will probably have two key components.
First, the Knicks have a clear identity. They are a hard-nosed, wear-you-down, defensive-minded basketball team. They are built in Thibs’s image. He is the keeper, master, and molder of that identity. It’s unclear what you want the Hogs to be right now, Muss. That starts and ends with you. You are the leader. You are the cartographer who designs the map for everyone else to follow.
The second key component is everyone having a clearly defined role within the scope of that vision. Part of what made Saturday night so emotional for Knicks fans was the return of RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley, who were traded as pieces of a package for OG Anunoby. Fans loved RJ and Quick, but OG is a better puzzle piece.
Now you have a Knicks team where everyone can play a clear role. Jalen Brunson is the crucial offensive engine and team leader. Julius Randle is the second option and connector. Anunoby and Donte DiVincenzo are defensive weapons and knock-down shooters. Isaiah Hartenstein (and Mitchell Robinson before him) is a glass eater and lockdown rim protector.
Everyone fits. Everyone knows what to do. The whole team thrives. The Knicks are 8-1 with that starting five since the trade while being the second-best-rated defense across the entire league during that stretch.
Once you make it clear what identity you are searching for, Muss, anyone who doesn’t fit into a defined role in that overarching theme has to hit the pine. What baffles all of us is that you’ve done this thing before. We’ve seen you trim the rotation down to six or seven guys who know their role on the floor.
So the question is, do you have the wrong role players, or is the team’s larger identity unclear to them?
We know you can do it, but time is running out. If things aren’t fixed soon, this will be the only song we request during March.
With love,
Fatigued of Losing in Fayetteville, AKA. The Pig Sty