Barry Tompkins: The draft, the coach, and the Bananas

Now it gets interesting.

The NBA draft is behind us, and what can be learned from it will not be known for a couple of years at least. Notably, more than one-quarter of the players drafted in the first round were born outside of the United States. The reason there weren’t more American-born players is simple: The players who learned the game in other countries know how to play basketball.

Certainly, there are exceptions here of American players who grew up in the game through the AAU system, but for the most part, teams are beginning to not rely so much on innate ability and concentrate on players who know more than just run the floor and throw it down.

The NBA is an incredibly athletic game, and that was always the first priority. But, guys like Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic — who may not look so great walking through the airport – came here knowing how to play the game and look pretty darn great on a basketball court. Looking at the draft’s first round this year makes me think teams are now less dazzled with highlight reel stuff and more interested in character and nuance.

To be honest, the Warriors have been ahead of that game for years (see Draymond Green, Kevon Looney, Brandin Podziemski, and Trayce Jackson-Davis).

And that brings me to the Los Angeles Lakers.

While we all wait for the Warriors’ shoe to drop, the Lakers have one of the all-time greats deciding whether or not he wants to run the Lakers or some other team. I’m guessing LeBron James is back, because it seems he’s decided who he wants to coach the team.

J.J. Redick was hired to do the job last week. He’s never coached before at any level. He was universally disliked as a college player for his arrogance. He played in the league for 15 years and changed his image from jerk to overachiever. He went from player to media star quickly. He was an excellent analyst and started a podcast which quickly became one of the most listened to in sports.

His podcast co-host was – wait for it – LeBron James, who perhaps might have had a hand in his hiring.

As everyone in this sport knows, coaching a team that LeBron James plays for means little more than having a good seat on the sideline.

Redick was asked about all this at his introductory press conference. His reply to a question about not everyone thinking he was the right choice, his response: “As far as haters, I don’t f***ing care dude.”

Boy, do I respect Steve Kerr.

The world has gone bananas

I spent this past week in Savannah, Georgia. It’s a quite attractive city with parks seemingly on every corner. It’s rich in history – mostly good and sometimes not so much. Its inhabitants, to the number, seem to be welcoming and kind. They are good, hard-working, and dedicated people. They have to be.

In order to live in this city in the summer you not only have to be good, hard-working, and dedicated, you also have to spend at least several hours a day with your head firmly wedged into your refrigerator, lest you simply melt into a pool of human flesh.

The only ones who can survive the outdoors during the summer months here are cockroaches and perhaps the occasional camel. And I’m only going to give you even money on the camel.

What does prosper here during the summer months though are the Savannah Bananas. And they’re worth being here for.

If you haven’t heard about the Bananas, they are a baseball team designed by a young couple named Jesse and Emily Cole whose philosophy was to “build a team that is innovative, creative, embraces failure, maintains product control and always keeps fans and consumers front of mind.”

“Banana Ball” has become a traveling circus of former collegiate and minor league players who call Savannah home. Last year, the Bananas played 86 games in 33 different ballparks including Doubleday Field at the baseball Hall of Fame.

This year they’ve been more ambitious, playing a 26-city tour than includes six major league stadiums. They’ve already sold out Minute Maid Park in Houston and Fenway Park in Boston.

They play the game just for fun.

As of today, the Bananas have 2.6-million Instagram followers, 1.3-million subscribers to their YouTube channel, and another million and a half followers on X (Twitter) and TikTok.

They play their home games here at 15,000-seat Grayson Stadium, where there is a five-year wait list for tickets. The Coles subscribe to a simple credo: Fans first.

They have some added rules to their games, too. The first is plain and simple fun. If a fan catches a foul ball in the stands, the batter is out. The other three seem pretty good to me too:

• A batter cannot step out of the batter’s box.
• A player is ejected from the game if he bunts.
• Every game has a strictly enforced two-hour game clock.

The Bananas don’t have the traditional batting practice. They have a two-hour “rehearsal,” where new schtick is perfected before being used.

They have a cheerleading group called the Banana Nanas made up of grandmothers. There is also a male cheer team called the Mananas.

There are weekly meetings a la Saturday Night Live to discuss and accept or reject new routines to use in games.

The first base coach doubles as the hip-hop dance coordinator.

A ticket to a Bananas game includes popcorn, chips, a cookie, and your choice of soft drink.

The team owner, Jesse Cole, wears a banana yellow suit to games and carries around an “Idea book,” one of which is now displayed at the Hall of Fame. He says he’s had 12,000 bad ideas, and about 3,000 which have a chance. He refers to Banana’s games as a two-hour sensory overload.

He adds another thing. “Failures happen and it makes us learn what to do differently to make us better.”

Here’s the thing. I don’t expect Farhan Zaidi to hire a dance coach or replace Lou Seal with a group of grandmothers shaking pom-poms.

As I’ve often mentioned in this weekly yarn, Farhan has a team that is somewhat faceless, and frankly not very interesting.

So, maybe he should heed the Bananas’ advice to get better from failure?

And showing his face in the stands wearing a yellow suit might not be a bad idea, either.

Barry Tompkins is a 40-year network television sportscaster and a San Francisco native. Email him at barrytompkins1@gmail.com.