The Official Site of Jordan Farmar

Wed, Mar 25th 2009, 11:22

Friendly Success

Luke Walton and Jordan Farmar have their Matt Damon – Ben Affleck thing going on, no question about it.

The question is, does that friendship translate into success onto the NBA floor?

“I don’t know if there’s a direct correlation between being good friends and playing well together on the court,” said Walton upon first consideration. “I think it more has to do with our styles of playing the game. We both understand the game pretty well and over the past two years, we’ve played a lot of 2-of-2 and 3-on-3 with each other and developed a good feel for each other’s games.”

Farmar had a different perspective.

“It definitely helps,” he countered. “If you’re friends with someone, you know their game, you know what they’re good at, you know how to put them in a position to be successful and you want them to be successful. They want the same for you, so it’s a different kind of chemistry and feeling out there when you like, know and enjoy people you’re playing with.”
So … which is it?

Perhaps being good friends encourages more time spent with a guy on and off the basketball court, which encourages a better understanding of one another’s game and thus, more success on the floor?

“Yeah, that’s more like it,” Walton allowed. “It’s a little easier to make things happen when you’re that familiar, and Jordan and I tend to complement each other better because of that.”

Generally, while any NBA basketball player is on the floor, he will try and make the right basketball play. You know … If a guy’s wide open under the rim, feed him the ball instead of taking a contested shot. Things like that. As such, while Farmar and Walton may look to find each other due in part to their familiarity, they won’t force something if it’s not there just because they’re buds. Still, playing together in the summer (all those 2-on-2 and 3-on-3 games Walton referenced) pushes familiarity past the normal level of guys who’ve spent only three seasons together, and haven’t played a ton of minutes together on the floor.

“We know each other’s games and we’re comfortable enough to say something to one another if one of us is a little off,” he said. “Sometimes Jordan will call a play to get me going if he thinks I have a good matchup or something.”

For example, to spark L.A.’s fourth quarter comeback in Saturday’s win at Chicago, Farmar called the play “center opposite” to get Walton down on the block to take advantage of mismatches within the Bulls’ small lineup.

“We actually tried to run it a couple times early with Kirk Hinrich guarding Luke, and Luke passed out to guys who didn’t finish,” explained Farmar, who scored eight fourth quarter points of his own in the United Center. “We were about to go away from it, but I thought, you know what, let’s clear out, give Luke space and have him do what he does. It worked.”

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