I had the chance to watch Shane Battier up close while working at Duke University, and he was probably the best team leader I had ever seen in college athletics.
Teamed with Ron Artest, the tandem are leading the upstart Houston Rockets in a head-to-head battle with the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Playoffs.
I was in Houston this past week, and Battier was quoted as comparing his Rockets heading into the Staples Center to play the Lakers 'like taking the Bad News Bears into the Astrodome to take on the Toros'.
J.A. Adande wrote a great piece on the NBA's version of Felix and Oscar.
Says Rockets forward Chuck Hayes: "With Shane, he demands respect because of his credibility. And Ron, he demands respect because he'll get in your face. We look up to them, we respond to them."
You'll see Artest gathering the players and trying to motivate them. Battier is often the one providing the technical details, pointing out where they should be on defense. He gives the final words to his teammates before they leave the tunnel and take the court, trying to leave them with a couple of last-minute reminders to focus on, like golfers' swing thoughts.
Battier's also the emergency sprinkler system in case Artest or anyone else gets too hot.
"I need to be a stabilizer for this team," Battier says. "It's up to me to stay the course and keep it steady. We have a lot of guys with a lot of emotion. That emotion can be good, and it can be bad. But it's my job to just sort of keep perspective to the guys and just be a calming influence."
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