The Friday Album Cover #21

I recently read Jack McCallum's outstanding "Seven Seconds or Less" - a fly-on-the-wall account of a season the Sports Illustrated journalist spent with the Mike D'Antoni coached Phoenix Suns basketball team.

Like all NBA coaches, D'Antoni diligently prepared his team with a meticulous, attention to detail. Hours of video footage were watched and analysed. Training sessions were tailored to suit their next opponents. Strategies were drawn up and discussed. Finally, each player was given a 10-page dossier highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of their opposite number.

Yes despite this, D'antoni firmly believed that his players shouldn't be overly concerned with strategy and tactics, arguing that a player's natural talent was more important, particularly when it came to adapting to the fluid nature of the game. To this end, at the top of the third page in each and every dossier was the line "If you get this far, come see me".

Nobody ever came - the players trusted their own abilities (and those of their team mates) preferring instead to just get on with the game.

I wonder if the album cover preambles are in some way similar. Do you cut straight to the chase in an effort to beat sheepworrier to the punch.




This week's album cover is another easy-peasy classic. I had some trouble with the nose as usual. However, although it may not match that on the original cover, I'm sure it was right at some moment in time.