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Bye bye boo birds Cavs guard Sura revives game under new coach
Posted: Friday December 10, 1999 02:15 PM
CLEVELAND (AP) -- Bob Sura has gone from goat to go-to guy. Last season, the Cavaliers guard was booed nearly every time he touched the ball at home. It seemed he couldn't do anything right. Any forced shot or turnover meant an immediate benching by coach Mike Fratello and a chorus inside Gund Arena. "Boo!" That's all Sura heard. He got it from the guys in business suits sitting courtside and the little kids in the upper deck. Even when he started, he couldn't get a break. "At guard, Number 3, Bob Sura." "Boo!" "Hey, that's part of it," Sura said. "You've got to accept it. If you're not playing well you can't expect people to be happy with what you're doing. But you can do one of two things. You can either go and hide or you can bounce back. "And I chose to work hard and bounce back." There isn't another player in the NBA enjoying a bigger turnaround season than Sura. Right now, he'd be a lock for the league's Most Improved Player award. "Huh, I never really thought about that," Sura said. "I guess I might be the leader." Sura's statistics are up all the way across the board. So is his confidence. Entering Friday night's game at Indiana, Sura was averaging 15.9 points per game -- 11.6 points higher than his average in '98-99 -- and he ranks among the league leaders in steals. Sura has also added a new weapon to his offensive game, the 3-pointer. He's made at least one 3 in 16 of the Cavs' 17 games, and his 35 treys are seven more than he had in his previous two seasons combined. On Tuesday night, he scored 24 points in the first half and finished with 29 in a win over Chicago. Big deal, it's just the Bulls, right? Well, even Chicago's players noticed a transformation in Sura. "He's not the same Bob Sura as last year," Bulls guard Randy Brown said. "He's a different player." Sura has his swagger back for sure. The 26-year-old is finally fully recovered from a serious ankle injury sustained in 1997-98, and is seeing the rewards of an off-season spent running, lifting weights and shooting hundreds of jump shots everyday. "He's put a lot into this," Cavs first-year coach Randy Wittman said. "It's not like something just happened. He's put in a lot of work." Sura's game has blossomed under Wittman, hired in July after Fratello was fired. Wittman's offensive philosophy is uptempo, perfectly suiting the athletic Sura's game. Under Fratello, the Cavs walked the ball up the floor and played every possession as if it were their last. It cramped Sura's style. Now, he's able to push the ball up the floor and even if there isn't a teammate under the boards, Wittman has told Sura that if he's open, go ahead and shoot. "He's getting out on the break. He's running," said Wittman. "And when he's getting into the flow and understands good shots and bad shots and doesn't force things, he's very effective. He's shooting the ball with a lot of confidence." Sura chooses his words carefully when speaking of Fratello. It's no secret the two weren't always on the same page, but Sura is too nice to knock anybody. Still, he admits that Wittman's arrival has allowed him to relax on the floor. "That's a big part of it," Sura said. "Being yanked in and out in a game when you make a mistake kind of messes with your confidence. Randy was a player. He understands what it's about and what players go through. So it's been a big plus for a lot of us." As the final seconds ticked down against the Bulls, Sura had the ball at mid-court needing a basket to set a career scoring high. Instead, he dribbled out the clock while some of the same fans who booed his every move last season pleaded for him to shoot. Sura heard them. "It's no question that they're back," he said. So is he.
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