Wolves' Roy: 'So far I haven't had any setbacks'

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Brandon Roy had just wrapped up a lengthy workout with a spirited game of five-on-five and gathered with several of his new Minnesota Timberwolves teammates near halfcourt.

''Let's run it back,'' Roy said, with several others agreeing. ''One more.''

That's when Wolves assistant Shawn Respert stepped in, waving his arms and telling everyone that they were done for the day. A little more than two weeks away from the beginning of training camp, Roy's chronic knees are feeling great. And it's up to the Timberwolves coaching and medical staff to try to keep it that way.

''This is the best I've felt in a long time,'' Roy said Thursday. ''The reason why I say that is I'm able to improve. I'm able to come in the gym and work on my game and get better. Where I felt that the last couple years in Portland I was just doing my best to maintain.

''That's the biggest thing I'm excited about is I'm in the gym, I'm working hard and coach has to tell me to stop playing instead of me saying, 'OK that's enough. I'm feeling my knees.'''

That's going to be the balancing act the Wolves perform with Roy, in training camp and in all likelihood for much of this season. The former Portland Trail Blazers All-Star had his contract cleared with the amnesty clause before last season, and he abruptly retired because of knee issues that derailed a brilliant young career.

After sitting out last season, Roy's knees felt good enough for him to come back. With the Timberwolves in search of a veteran presence at shooting guard for one of the youngest teams in the league, they signed Roy to a two-year deal and now are working to get him prepared for the grind of camp and the long NBA season.

Roy has been in town since the start of September to make sure his son could start school here on time, and he's taken advantage of the early arrival to throw himself into workouts and establish a new routine aimed at minimizing the pain in his knees.

''I set a plan for myself going into the season and so far I haven't had any setbacks,'' Roy said.

Roy has been working primarily with Respert and David Adelman, as well as the strength and conditioning staff to get ready, and the coaches see Roy's approach as a breath of fresh air for a team that had too many young players who didn't know what it takes to be successful in the NBA.

''We know we had a situation here last season where it was really difficult for guys to be self-starters,'' Respert said.

The team jettisoned Michael Beasley, Anthony Randolph and Darko Milicic in the offseason, bringing in Roy, Chase Budinger and Andrei Kirilenko to try to inject a little more maturity and professionalism into a young team with a core of Kevin Love, Ricky Rubio and Nikola Pekovic.

''With Brandon it's just a healthy attitude where he wants to see how much he can push himself to that limit before we have to shut him down and be smart about it,'' Respert said. ''He's been spectacular so far as far as the mentality, his toughness, his willingness to do what we ask him to do and still find that little bit of room to do a little bit more.''

He spends about 30 minutes before each workout going through exercises to get ready, and he said he's lifting more weights than ever, as well.

''I try to come in early to build my quads, do some work on my calves. I'm going to have to do that for the rest of my career,'' Roy said. ''That's just become normal to me. Nothing special. Just some weight room stuff, some different things to get my quads flaring and keep my joints loose.''

Roy worked out on Thursday with Budinger, Pekovic, free agent Anthony Tolliver and several others who have been invited to training camp. Pekovic has lost eight pounds and put on more muscle to his considerable frame and said that his recovery from offseason surgery to remove bone spurs in his right ankle is right on schedule.

''All this bothering that I got at the end of the season, it was really bad,'' Pekovic said. ''I couldn't play like I was playing during the season so for now it's great. I hope it will stay like this all the time.''

Tolliver is still waiting for a contract, either from the Wolves or another team. He spent the summer in Minnesota and hopes to return to the Timberwolves, especially after the addition of Roy and several other veterans to make the team a playoff contender.

''I think it's a good risk to take,'' Tolliver said of Roy. ''Whenever you're dealing with someone at that level of talent, a lot of teams shy away from it. But I think they made a good decision.''

---

Streamlined News: Ben Titley Heads to Canada; Sun Yang Makes News in China; Australians Fast in Nationals

PHOENIX, Arizona, September 13. ONE of Great Britain's top coaches is packing up and moving across the Atlantic Ocean to Toronto, Canada, to coach at the National Swim Center there. Ben Titley has been coaching at Loughborough University for 16 years, putting at least one swimmer in the Olympic final in the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Olympics. He guided Liam Tancock to a world championship title in the 50 backstroke in 2009 and 2011 as well as his world record in 2009. Two of his swimmers won Olympic medals in 2008: A silver for David Davies in the 10K marathon and bronze for Joanne Jackson in the 400 freestyle.

The attention at the Chinese University Games has suddenly shifted from the pool to the deck, as Olympic champion Sun Yang is getting attention for his demands at the meet. A blogger in China initially reported that Sun requested a team of male bodyguards, as well as his mother, who acts as his agent, accompany him into the locker room. Also insinuated in the blogger's report that was later removed was that Sun's mother hit a cameraman with a water bottle when he got too aggressive. Sun has become the sports world's biggest celebrity after winning two golds in London. Sun was able to put all the controversy behind him in the pool today, winning the 400 free with a 3:47.23. He is likely to head back to Australia to train with Denis Cotterell soon, escaping all the pressures that follow him whenever he is at home.

Also at the Chinese meet, Cheng Feiyi swam a 54.32 in the 100 back, about six tenths off the time he swam to get eighth place in the final in London.

Robert Hurley, known mostly as a middle distance freestyler, won the 100 backstroke today at the Australian short course nationals in 50.98. Christian Sprenger, the silver medalist in the 100 breast in London, won that event today with a 58.70.

Olympic Medalist Kosuke Hagino Considered Attending College and Swimming in United States

PHOENIX, Arizona, September 13. KOSUKE Hagino, the 18-year-old who won a bronze medal in the 400 individual medley at the London Olympics, strongly considered attending one of two major universities in the United States, but has decided to stay in Japan.

A report on the Japanese news website sanspo.com indicates that Hagino had talks with David Salo at the University of Southern California and with Gregg Troy at the University of Florida about the possibility of attending either school. In the end, it wasn't the swimming or academic programs that dissuaded Hagino from pursuing the matter further, but the large language barrier that the teenager was concerned about bridging. The report did not say how well Hagino speaks and understands the English language, but did say it was the main factor in Hagino's decision to stay home and enroll at Toyo University.

Hagino, who also is gaining notoriety for his backstroke prowess after a strong 200 back recently, will work with Norimasa Hirai at Toyo University. Hirai guided Kitajima to Olympic success in 2004 and 2008 before Kitajima moved to Los Angeles to work with Salo for the 2012 Olympics. Hirai was also the Japanese Olympic head coach in London.

Hagino is wrapping up his final year at Sakushin Gakuin High School, and reports indicate he's set for his first semester at Toyo University in April.

Full text of sanspo.com article (in Japanese)

No. 1 Player of All Time: Jack Nicklaus Read more: http://www.golf.com/tour-and-news/jack-nicklaus-no-1-player-all-time#ixzz26RHisL7W

There was no World Golf Ranking until 1986, when his prime was behind him, so Jack Nicklaus never officially claimed the top spot. But that's okay. He can settle for the honor of No. 1 Player of All Time, according to more than 3,000 votes cast on Golf.com.

Nicklaus reached sublime heights as a player, with 18 major wins. And the father of five did it as the consummate family man. (One afternoon in the late 1970s, he jetted from Ohio to Florida to catch one of his sons' high school football games, then flew back for the third round of the World Series of Golf.) Since bidding farewell to competitive play in 2005, Nicklaus has embraced the role of golf's No. 1 Ambassador, designing dozens of courses and growing the game in far-flung places like China and the former Soviet Union; he also played a pivotal role in the campaign to make golf an Olympic sport in 2016. Not to mention that everyone from Rory McIlroy to Ernie Els seeks his counsel.

Although he's spent his adult life in the spotlight, were you aware of the 72-year-old icon's passion for tennis? Or that he keeps bugging Arnold Palmer to go fishing? Or that he came this close to throwing away a legendary career to become...a pharmacist? You may think you know the Golden Bear, but as this candid conversation shows, you don't know Jack.

Jack, our readers named you the No. 1 player of all time. Not bad for an Ohio kid who almost became a pharmacist.

I thank them for their vote of confidence. My record [18 major wins, 73 Tour wins], and what I did over time and against my competition, it's generally determined and voted on by other people, like your readers. And that's very nice. But all I ever wanted was to be the best I could be.

You won majors in three different decades. Your first win was the 1962 U.S. Open, and your last was the 1986 Masters. If 1962 Jack played 1986 Jack in match play, who would win?

That's hard to answer, because in '86 I don't know what I would have played like the week after I won the Masters. Now, if you take Jack from 1980 vs. Jack from 1962, I would say '80 Jack wins because he would be more experienced, a better player. I was more powerful in '62. I think my nerves would not have been much different year to year -- I always had pretty good nerves. But my experience in 1980 was far greater than it was in 1962.

So when does 40-year-old Jack close out the kid? On 18?

I say it goes into overtime.

You mentioned always having good nerves, but you're still human. What was your most nervous moment as a pro?

When you have a dangerous shot without any bailout or relief -- water on one side of the fairway and out of bounds on the other, and there's not enough room to play the shot -- those situations I disliked. You're forced to play a shot, without an option. Where? The sixth at Carnoustie, a par 5 -- if you played to the right [off the tee] you didn't leave yourself with anything, and if you played left, out of bounds was staring you in the face. I hit out of bounds there in the last round of '75 [British Open]. It cost me the tournament. Also, the [par-4] 17th at St. Andrews -- on your second shot you've got the road on one side and the [Road Hole greenside] bunker on the other, which doesn't leave you a whole lot in between. Yes, you can play it short, but if you have to make birdie, what do you do?

You played conservatively in majors, so those must have taken you out of your strategy.

Yes, they put me in situations where I couldn't play conservative golf. The [par-4] seventh at Augusta is another -- you want to hit driver, but miss it on either side and you're dead. The situations where I didn't have an alternative I found the most difficult.

Since this is the No. 1 Issue, what's the No. 1 greatest swing you ever saw?

Sam Snead. I don't think there's ever been a swing more rhythmic, fluid, or prettier than Sam's.

How about the best shot you've witnessed?

The one Tiger hit at the [2012] Memorial was about the greatest shot I've ever seen.

You're talking about the greenside flop shot Tiger holed on No. 16 on Sunday. You're ranking that above, say, Watson's chip-in on No. 17 at the 1982 U.S. Open?

If Watson's shot at Pebble Beach doesn't go in the hole, he still has a 12- to 15-foot putt to salvage par. He doesn't put himself out of the tournament. Lee Trevino's shot [chip-in for par] on the 71st hole at Muirfield in 1972, if it doesn't go in he's not out of the tournament. But Tiger's shot? You couldn't tell on TV how difficult it was. He didn't have a good lie. If he'd hit it two feet shorter, he's faced with a similar shot, just shorter. If he'd hit it two feet farther, it goes in the water. Given that he's trying to recover from all the issues he's had with his game, and with the game of life, he played it fantastically. The ball went in the hole, but that was immaterial. It's how he performed the shot that was so good.

You had one swing coach, Jack Grout, and you didn't change your swing much over your career. That's very different from Tiger's approach. How many majors would you have won if you'd had three different coaches and several swing overhauls?

I don't know. Jack Grout was smart. He knew that he didn't know everything about golf, so he sent me to Byron Nelson and Claude Harmon and other guys. When I came back, I would say, "That's much different than what you taught me. What do I do?" He said, "Jack, understand that there's more than one way to play the game." From that, I learned that I was able to blend [other philosophies] into my swing. It was part of my learning process. So if you talk about Tiger and different swing coaches and different swings, Tiger knows more about the swing than anybody. He doesn't need a swing coach. It's just another pair of eyes, as long as he understands that he has to be responsible for his own swing, just like I had to be responsible for my swing. Do you understand what I mean?

You're saying that the media makes too much of who's coaching Tiger.

The press makes a lot more of the issue of Tiger's swing coach than it actually is. Tiger understands the game and his swing very well. His dad did a great job. As long as you understand what you have to do and how to correct yourself on the course, and Tiger's been pretty good about that. Early in my career, I used to go see Bobby Jones, and he said to me, "Jack, I used to be just another golfer. I had my seven lean years, until I learned what [Jones's teacher] Stewart Maiden taught me, which was to be responsible for my swing and learn how to correct it -- and how to be patient. And that's when I became a golfer." It's a learning process that Tiger's going through, and that I went through.

You're 72. If you could go back 50 years and give young Jack advice, what would you tell him?

Obviously, it would be something a 22-year-old would never listen to [laughs]. I'd tell him to be more patient. I had pretty good patience in my twenties, and that's probably why I won so much, but I made mistakes in my early years on Tour, and [had I corrected] those, I would have won several more majors. But near misses in majors are part of the learning process. Tom Watson went through that. Rory McIlroy went through that -- you blow a couple of majors, but you learn how to win. I wouldn't want to trade it, because the learning process is so valuable. But still, I look back and say, "Boy! If I would have just done that, bam, what I could have won."

Your old rival Johnny Miller speaks movingly about the role his father played in making him a champion. What's the No. 1 most important thing that your dad, Charlie, taught you?

That I'm not the only person on the golf course and I'm not the only person in life. I had to treat other people the way I wanted to be a treated. He taught me sportsmanship -- how to smile and sincerely congratulate someone when they beat me. I remember him saying, "Go beat your head against the locker later. When you're on the course, you genuinely say congratulations." I felt that if a guy played better than me, he deserved to be congratulated. He also taught me family values: how to be part of your kids' lives without intruding on their lives.

Didn't he also correct your career path?

He always let me choose what I wanted to do. I was going to college to be a pharmacist, because that's what he was. After three years of pre-pharmacy, he said, "Jack, with your golf game, do you really think the best way to spend your life is behind a medicine counter? I suggest you find something to utilize your talents."

So if it wasn't for your dad, you would have been one hell of a player in the Columbus pharmacists' golf league.

My dad had a lot of wisdom for me. What I truly regret is that he didn't live long enough to impart more. He was 56 when he died.

Read more: http://www.golf.com/tour-and-news/jack-nicklaus-no-1-player-all-time#ixzz26RHnz7se