Author: David Shama

David Shama is a former sports editor and columnist with local publications. His writing and reporting experiences include covering the Minnesota Vikings, Minnesota Twins, Minnesota Timberwolves and Minnesota Gophers. Shama’s career experiences also include sports marketing. He is the former Marketing Director of the Minnesota North Stars of the NHL. He is also the former Marketing Director of the United States Tennis Association’s Northern Section. A native of Minneapolis, Shama has been part of the community his entire life. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota where he majored in journalism. He also has a Master’s degree in education from the University of St. Thomas. He was a member of the Governor’s NBA’s Task Force to help create interest in bringing pro basketball to town in the 1980s.

Time Expired on Whalen Experiment

Posted on March 3, 2023March 3, 2023 by David Shama

Lindsay Whalen and Mark Coyle announced the right decision yesterday regarding Whalen stepping down as the University of Minnesota women’s basketball coach. Whalen had five seasons to make winning progress with the program and she was unable to do so.

On the street and among media there was a common view that Whalen was going to receive one more year to show she was the right coach for Minnesota. But Coyle is justified in moving on now from Whalen who had never coached before accepting the job at her alma mater.

The women’s program is capable of not only more on court success but coming closer financially to operating in the black. The program has never paid its own way, and now the disastrous season by the men’s basketball program has resulted in revenues being far less than the potential for that cash cow. Maybe Coyle, who waited too long to part ways with former men’s coach Richard Pitino and made an iffy hire in Ben Johnson, wanted to move on from Whalen and not wait a year when he could be dealing with change in the men’s program, too.

Whalen remains one of the most revered sports heroes in state history for her on-court play for the Gophers, Lynx and U.S. Olympic teams. The Hutchinson native had an emotional day yesterday and understandably chose at the last minute not to participate in a news conference with Coyle who described the departure of his coach as a mutual decision.

Maybe not. Whalen posted this on Twitter last night: “I will be ‘appearing’ and ‘showing up’ for a press conference in the near future. My sincere apologies for not being there today as I was overcome with emotion in the elevator on my way to the press conference. I am a human being.”

The season ended with a thud Wednesday afternoon. Playing in the opening game of the Big Ten Tournament—a home environment in front of supporters at Target Center—Whalen’s team lost to Penn State, another bottom feeder in the league who the Gophers had defeated twice earlier in the season.

It wasn’t a pretty loss. The Gophers trailed by as many as 18 points and struggled against a full court press. Minnesota rallied late in the fourth quarter before losing, 72-67, and the team received obligatory praise for its efforts from Whalen.

The Gophers finished the season with a record of 11-19. Their regular season conference record was 4-14. That landed Whalen’s fifth Gopher team in next to last place in the Big Ten.

Not an uplifting way to recognize 50 years of women’s basketball at the U.

Since taking over the Gophers Whalen’s teams never finished above .500 in the Big Ten, with the best showing 9-9 her first season. A legendary Final Four player for the Gophers, she never coached her team to the NCAA Tournament. Whalen’s three predecessors this millennium have all been more successful by far than she has been.

Whalen will stay with the department as a special assistant to the AD through April 12, 2025. That is the date her five-year coaching contract ends. It’s not known what her compensation will be in the new role.

Starting in contract year four (was to begin next month) her base salary was to be $574,761. Most recently she earned $547,391.

Worth Noting

St. Thomas is fast earning respect and attention for its success in Division I sports. With wealthy alums and admirers, it wouldn’t be surprising to see NIL become a bigger success with the Tommies than the Gophers.

The No. 1 ranked U men’s hockey team has a talented line for the ages in freshmen Logan Cooley and Jimmy Snuggerud, and sophomore Matthew Knies, but all three could be gone to the pros next season. Cooley might be the most likely returnee, with chances greatest that Snuggerud and Knies will leave.

Former MLB umpire and St. Paul native Tim Tschida speaks to the Capital Club March 8 at Mendakota Country Club. More information about the club is available from Patrick Klinger, patrick@agilemarketingco.com

Burl Oaks Golf Club is the Minnesota Golf Association’s Club of the Year for 2022. The Minnetrista course hosted the MGA Players’ Championship last year.

Minikahda pro Jeff Sorenson recently won the Pebble Beach ProAm at Pebble Beach and Spyglass, earning his 157^th career win in harsh conditions including cold, wind and snow.

Kaat, Carew & Oliva. Photo contributed by Marshall Tanick.

Rod Carew, Jim Kaat and Tony Oliva, a trio of Cooperstown Hall of Famers, entertained a recent crowd of about 500 at a Minnesota Breakfast Club gathering in Naples, Florida. The former Twins all played together including on the West Division championship teams of 1969 and 1970. Baseball’s efforts to speed up the game is welcome news to Carew who said he has lost interest.

Players earn a lot more now than when Carew, Kaat and Oliva played. MLB player salaries averaged a record high $4.2 million last season, per Front Office Sports.

Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell will give a video presentation at the 2023 Minnesota Football Coaches Association Clinic. The nationally admired annual clinic will again feature Gopher coaches including P.J. Fleck. Clinic dates are March 30, 31 and April 1 with more information available at https://www.mnfootballcoaches.com/

The U Athletic Department has suites available for the upcoming football season starting at $4,500 per game. The home schedule is attractive with games that include Illinois, Michigan, Michigan State, Nebraska and Wisconsin.

Elite Ink is promoting a Kirill Kaprizov memorabilia sale that includes a signed $890 white jersey.

Taylor Heise and Grace Zumwinkle, Gopher forwards and native Minnesotans, are two of 10 finalists for the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award given annually to the top player in Division I women’s college hockey.

Former Gopher Jamal Mashburn Jr., now at New Mexico, leads the Mountain West in scoring at 19.4 points per game. The Lobos, led by coach Richard Pitino, are 21-9 overall but only 8-9 in league games and are questionable to make the NCAA Tournament.

Former Viking Herschel Walker is 61 today.

I am speaking to the CORES lunch group about my column and career Thursday, March 9 at the Bloomington Event Center. Reservations can be made by emailing Jim Dotseth, dotsethj@comcast.net. CORES is an acronym for coaches, officials, reporters, educators and sports fans.

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Great Read Makes Vacation Better

Posted on March 1, 2023March 1, 2023 by David Shama

There are countless ways to make a February vacation away from the Great North a pleasurable experience. Always on my entertainment list is a superb book. As of late, I have reveled in a terrific basketball read: Wish it Lasted Forever: Life with the Larry Bird Celtics by Dan Shaughnessy.

Shaughnessy was the Boston Globe beat reporter on those wonderful Celtic teams from 1982-1986. He didn’t cover Bird’s first NBA title team in 1981, but he was on the scene for the 1984 and 1986 championship seasons. His book has Minnesota connections and is so compelling I was nostalgic reading it.

I traveled to Boston in the spring of 1986 on behalf of the Gund brothers’ organization that owned the NHL North Stars and operated the Met Center. I made the trip to meet with Celtic management regarding the team’s participation in a potential exhibition game at Met Center.

The Celtics provided tickets for my wife and me to watch an NBA finals game at legendary Boston Garden. The Garden, built in the late 1920’s, didn’t have air conditioning and the old building felt like a sauna for the Celtics, Houston Rockets and fans fortunate enough to be in attendance that night.

The Celtics were always alert for gamesmanship that might turn a game or series in their favor. During the 1984 championship series against the hated Lakers, the Celtics were accused of turning the Garden heating system on in the antiquated Los Angeles locker room during a warm spring in Boston. Part of the lore, too, was the showers ran cold water in the Laker locker room.

In the 1984 series, with the Lakers leading two games to one, former Gopher and Hibbing native Kevin McHale made a play that is talked about to this day. Bird had challenged his team’s heart and manhood after a Game Three loss and McHale showed he got the message in the next game by aggressively knocking Laker forward Kurt Rambis to the floor. The Lakers saw the confrontation as a dirty play then and now.

What followed in Game Four was more physical play and contentious jawing including a spat between Bird and the Lakers’ Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Along the way, the Lakers lost their cool, with the Celtics winning in overtime.

The Celtics went on to win the championship four games to three. “You could feel the whole thing turn,” McHale said in Shaughnessy’s book.

McHale was a rookie on the 1981 championship team coached by Bill Fitch. I met Fitch when he coached the Gophers from 1968 to 1970. He was often a writer’s dream and a player’s nightmare. With the media, he could be a standup comic but he was beyond hard at times with his players, pushing them to extremes and even embarrassing them.

Fitch, who wisecracked that some days you wish your parents had never met, excelled with the Gophers leading them to consecutive fifth place Big Ten finishes after 10^th place finishes the two previous years. He left Minnesota for the Cleveland Cavaliers, an NBA expansion team. He likened the assignment of coaching a first-year team to a religious experience, noting that a lot of prayer was involved “but most of the time the answer is no.”

Fitch was a success with the Cavs, coaching them for nine seasons before joining the Celtics for the 1979-80 season. His timing coincided with Bird’s rookie season and the Celtics became a powerhouse with the demanding coach in charge. But Fitch’s harsh style with players came at a price and by the spring of 1983 he had lost control of the team. “…Bill had jumped a lot of ass and there was a lot of angry feelings,” McHale said in Shaughnessy’s book. Fitch moved on to Houston where he coached the Rockets for several seasons including that NBA Finals in 1986.

K.C. Jones coached the 1984 and 1986 champions. The view from here is he was more of a caretaker than the coach. Shaughnessy describes how it was a player, not a coach, who made the key strategic move on using defensive stopper Dennis Johnson on Magic Johnson in the 1984 series. And when games were on the line for the Celtics, it was Bird calling his own play.

The Celtics were a group of high basketball IQ guys. The brain power reached its zenith with the 1985-1986 team that saw the arrival of Bill Walton. It’s a basketball lover’s dream to go back and watch the artistry of the 1986 Celtics including the cutting, passing and playmaking between Bird and Walton.

This was team basketball at its best. Players knew their roles and how to execute them. Textbook defensive positioning, rebounding, fast breaking, ball movement, and high percentage shot selection.

The 1986 Celtics had size, skill, experience and work ethic. All their core players had so many skills including Danny Ange, perhaps the team’s best athlete. He was a Parade Magazine high school All-American in three sports—basketball, baseball and football.

The great Celtics of the 1980’s had camaraderie too. They liked each other and there was constant pranking that went on among teammates. Example: Shaughnessy writes about key reserve Scott Wedman, who was ahead of his time with dedication to nutrition and massage. Wedman drank bottled water and McHale reportedly liked to empty the bottles and fill them with tap water.

The 1986 Celtics were not only the best of the franchise’s three 1980’s title clubs. Many NBA historians, including this one, view them as the greatest NBA team of all time. Hands down, they are the most gifted passing team ever to play the pro game. The ’86 team was 67-15 during the regular season and won the championship series 4-2. They were 50 and one at home during the season and playoffs.

Anyone who knew the game of professional basketball and watched that team will never forget their season for the ages. In 1986, the Celtics painted a Picasso.

Wish it lasted forever.

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Maya Moore: Hero On & Off The Court

Posted on February 7, 2023 by David Shama

I met Maya Moore during her rookie year of 2011 with the Minnesota Lynx. Moore’s demeanor impressed me like few other athletes before or since. She had a warmth, a calm and friendly presence about her, but no one could have predicted that by 2023—now during Black History month—she would be remembered as both a sports and cultural hero for the ages.

Moore was a three-time college player of the year at Connecticut and won two national titles with the Huskies. Recognized as one of the 25 greatest WNBA players ever, Moore was gifted with many basketball skills including the ability to make teammates better. She was an indispensable contributor in the playoffs to four WNBA Lynx championships.

Yes, the basketball resume is awesome but she is also extraordinary because of her high character and the exemplary life she lives as a social justice advocate. Publicly, that commitment first surfaced with the Lynx in 2016 while leading teammates in calls for change. This was long before other prominent athletes were speaking up.

That willingness to see wrong and speak out about it was followed by her stunning decision to take a sabbatical from basketball after the 2018 season to focus on criminal justice reform. Before Moore had reached 30 years old, and at the peak of her on-court skills, she began a journey that helped free the wrongly convicted and incarcerated Jonathan Irons.

Irons, like Moore, is a Jefferson City, Missouri native, and along way the two fell in love and are now married. Moore, who hasn’t played a WNBA game since the summer of 2018, officially announced her basketball retirement last month on Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a guest of the Good Morning America program.

Glen Taylor has owned the Lynx since the franchise’s inception in 1999. He knows that at age 33 Moore could still be leading his team. Several years ago, before Moore left for her sabbatical, Taylor and Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve had hoped to build the team around the 6-foot, multi-positional superstar. Moore’s departure caught the Lynx, who haven’t won a WNBA title since 2017, off guard. “Certainly it did impact our ability to compete,” Taylor told Sports Headliners.

Yet Taylor and Reeve understand Moore’s values and decisions. .”…It’s to be admired that she had the fortitude to take that course of action,” Taylor said.

WNBA players have long been paid minimal salaries as franchises work to develop revenues locally and nationally. Moore reportedly earned $45,000 in each of her first two pro seasons with the Lynx. At the time of her sabbatical, Spotrac.com listed her salary at $117,000.

After Moore stepped away from the Lynx, did Taylor and Reeve try to incentivize a return with more money? “We chose not to do that because we didn’t think money was the issue,” Taylor said. “When I talked to her, we talked about family, we talked about religion, we talked about many things, but we never talked about money.”

Moore made a big impression on Taylor way back in 2011 when the Lynx players were invited to his home in Mankato. After enjoying a meal organized by Taylor’s wife Becky, players went downstairs to play billiards and other games.

Not Moore, though.

“Here’s Maya standing right next to Becky doing the dishes,” Taylor recalled. “She didn’t see herself as something special that way. She just saw herself as that was what she would have done in her house. So therefore, she did it here.”

The Mankato billionaire has owned the NBA Timberwolves for almost 30 years. He’s known a lot of male and female players who have impressed him but Moore is in a special group.

“I think she was one of my favorites,” Taylor said. “Not only for basketball skills but just being the person that she was. The leadership she provided our team, and her own personal goals that she set for herself. I admired that and therefore (it) probably pushed her toward the top of people that I respect.”

Maybe in the not too distant future Moore will step on to the Target Center Court one more time and have her No. 23 jersey number retired. “I see that happening,” Taylor said.

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