Category: Sports

About yesterday’s NBA action —

Nothing surprising happened in Dallas, New Jersey, or Sacramento. As expected, the Sacramento/Utah series looks like it’ll be the most enjoyable series of the playoffs. As far as I’m concerned, watching those two teams play each other for a minimum of four games justifies the seven-game first round.

I would not be surprised if Byron Scott went to his players before that first game and pointed out that if they don’t go a long way into the playoffs this year, Jason Kidd will be playing elsewhere next season.

My first reaction to the Celtics win: well, sure, if Pierce hits 21 of his 21 free throws and Walker goes .500 from the floor, the Celtics will win. But how likely is that to happen every night? My second reaction: on the other hand, Battie won’t get ejected every night either. Hm. My third reaction: I wonder if Ron Mercer feels stupid yet. Anyhow, there’s plenty of time for the Pacers to turn it around.

Phoenix got lucky twice but San Antonio deserved to lose. Consider that Duncan went 7 for 12 and Robinson went 8 for 8 — from the floor. Then consider that Tony Parker and Stephen Jackson both got more shots than Duncan, and Malik Rose and Emanuel Ginobili got more shots than Robinson. You’re the Spurs. You own the paint, with the best big man duo in the game today. How do you manage to take 24 three pointers? Also: don’t miss three out of four free throws in the last ten seconds or so of the game. Sigh.

A lot of people are saying that Michael Jordan had the best year ever for a 40 year old NBA player, and I guess I gotta agree with that. Look at these numbers: .483 from the field, .363 from three point range, .826 from the stripe, 7.7 assists and 1.7 steals per game in a mere 27.7 minutes…

Oh, sorry. That’s John Stockton at 40. OK, OK.

Shooting .462 from the field, with 7.8 rebounds per game, 4.7 assists, and 20.6 points per game, it’s… damn it. Karl Malone.

Jordan, bless his indecisive little heart, shot .445 from the field, .291 from three point range, .821 from the stripe, had 6.1 rebounds per game, 3.8 assists per game, and 1.5 steals per game. An even 20 points per game, too.

If I’m choosing up teams, I think Malone has it by a whisker or two. He won’t hit as many three pointers for you, but the rest of his game is clearly better. Malone doesn’t actually turn 40 until July 24th, but there’s no reason to think he couldn’t turn in about the same numbers next year; the guy keeps in shape.

The Stockton/Jordan choice is more difficult, because they fulfill such different roles. Still, Stockton is a better shooter despite playing the position that doesn’t demand good shooting, and 7.7 assists per game! At his age! In fairly limited minutes! Insane skills. I think in general you want to fill the PG slot before the SG slot, too, so I pick Stockton over Jordan. And Stockton is a legitimate 40, so there you go.

I might as well make some bad predictions about the NBA playoffs, right?

First Round

Spurs over the Suns, because rookies can only lift you so far.
Kings over the Jazz, because… well, it should be obvious. The Kings are hungry.
Mavs over the Trailblazers, cause the Trailblazers just can’t handle the playoffs.
Lakers over the Timberwolves, because the Lakers have enough talent to get past the first round.

Pistons over the Magic, despite Ben Wallace being out. The Magic are nowhere this year.
Nets over the Bucks, cause the Nets have a lot of talent which will carry them through this year until Jason Kidd leaves.
Pacers over the Celtics, which I really hate to say. It should be an interesting series, and the Celtics could win it if they got on a streak, but they won’t.
Hornets over the Sixers, which is a bit of a gamble but without Coleman at his best the Sixers are in trouble.

Second Round

Lakers over Spurs, because Shaq is in Duncan’s head. I could easily be wrong here but that’s my guess.
Kings over the Mavs, because in the end you gotta play defense.

Pistons over Hornets, because defense wins championships.
Pacers over Nets, because they’ve been on that interesting roll all season and Isaiah found himself a good system.

Semis

Kings over the Lakers, because it’s the year. The Kings are solid all the way through and the Lakers are severely flawed.

Pacers over Pistons, because lack of offense does not win championships. You can’t play 4 on 5 on the offensive end, and the Pistons have such a broad offensive scheme that Wallace simply won’t make as much of a difference as he does when he can focus on a few players.

Finals

Kings over Pacers. West versus the East. You know how it goes.

Masanori Murakawa, better known as the Great Sasuke, won a seat in the Iwate Prefectural Assembly today. By special arrangement, he was permitted to run and will be permitted to take his seat masked; also, he was allowed to use his wrestling nom de plume on the ballots.

Well, he’s not the first wrestler ever to be elected to a government, but he’s probably the first one to do so masked. Also probably the best of them all (sorry, Jesse). In fact, you could make a decent argument for him as the best athlete ever to reach elected office.

The 2003 Basketball Hall of Fame inductees were announced today. Unsurprisingly, Robert Parish was elected in his first year of eligibility. James Worthy also made it in, as well he should have. So did Chick Hearn. I can’t quibble with his inclusion but they really ought to at least nominate Johnny Most next year; if you’re going to include broadcasters who were identified with great teams, you need to include Most for his association with the Celtics.

Mo Cheeks probably should have gotten in. He’s a multiple all star, he is second in steals all time, and he is sixth in assists all time. His Philly team won a title, too. DJ should also have made it — he was maybe the best defensive guard of the 1980s, plus he won titles with two teams and was the scoring star of the Sonics the year he won a title with them. DJ may never get in cause he’s a prickly guy; Cheeks might get in someday. Le sigh.

Man, this is why I love sports.

Battie just blocked a shot which saved the game for the Celtics. You can’t really tell from the picture, but he’s pogoing up and down here, arms tight to his side, looking just like this. Cutest damned thing I’ve seen in a while.

How can you not love this team?

Kevin Drum comments on an excellent post by Eugene Volokh on college sports. The core question: “Why should we be demanding that athletes who are getting an education in athletics pass muster under academic standards, or for that matter engage in academics at all?”

I feel obliged to observe that in many cases, we aren’t. Let’s look at the four major North American professional sports. Neither the NHL or MLB really care much about college educations. Not coincidentally, both of them have very good minor league systems, in which hockey or baseball players respectively can get fine educations in their sport. The NBA doesn’t have much of a farm league, and angsts a fair bit about kids coming straight to the NBA. Since there’s no way for a team to keep the rights to a player while sending him to the minor leagues to mature, this is no big surprise. The NFL is in the same boat.

It can’t be a coincidence that college basketball and football are big money, while college baseball and hockey are not. I think the connection is that the significant talents in the former two sports almost have to go to college; on the flip side, the best baseball players may not wind up in the college game. We Americans like to see the best and the biggest, after all.

This implies that one very practical road to reform for college athletics would be for the NFL and NBA to revise their draft rules such that it was possible to draft a player and keep his rights while he played in another league. Wouldn’t require any significant infrastructure investments, wouldn’t require any changes to NCAA regulations. It wouldn’t be necessary to affiliate minor league teams with the major league teams, although such affiliation is useful for other reasons. Just let teams keep the rights to people they draft for a couple of years.

The Retrosheet folks are more obsessive about a larger quantity of data (not to mention more productive) than you. I can almost guarantee this. They are engaged in the slow process of compiling as much data as possible about every Major League Baseball game ever played. They have the day by day standings for every season since 1900. Here’s April 11th, 1912. They have play by plays for most games between 1967 and 1990. They find it disappointing that they don’t know which umpires were assigned to all their games. I am in total awe.

I have a very clever idea regarding all this data, which I will debut sometime. Woot!

I could just spit. The Sonics traded Kenny Anderson to the Hornets for Elden Campbell. The Celtics traded Anderson for Vin Baker before the season. Baker has been an utter bust. Campbell would be a huge upgrade. This sucks more than I can possibly express.

Both Antoine Walker and Paul Pierce were chosen as reserves for the Eastern Conference All-Star team, which is as it should be. Paul Pierce clearly belongs. Despite his shooting slump, which is largely due to the lack of a break during the summer, he’s one of the best players in the NBA.

Antoine Walker is a more interesting case. I suspect that in fifteen years Walker is going to be remembered as one of the most frustrating players in the NBA. There’ve been plenty of players who’ve sacrificed their talent completely, and there have been a handful of players who’ve realized their potential. But Walker is one of a very few players who are clearly capable of playing the game at an exceedingly high level, yet are content to merely be very good. Few come so close to greatness for such a long time without reaching out and taking the brass ring.

He is quick down low, able to work against almost any other power forward, yet he can also shoot the three well enough so that you can’t leave him unguarded on the perimeter. He has excellent court sense, and passes the ball as well as any non-point guard out there. He’s had a 20-10 season.

On the other hand, he often gets lazy in the post and tosses up weak shots. He insists on shooting the three even when he’s got a man in his face. He dribbles the ball off his foot. He doesn’t have a good mid-range jumper, for no apparent reason other than that he never bothered to develop one.

He deserves to be on the All-Star team, but my god, he’s frustrating.

On the Boston Celtics newsgroup, people occasionally bitch about how Walker would have had no place on the 80s Celtic team. They’re dead wrong. I imagine Walker coming in as a rookie in 83 or 84, and I know exactly where he would have wound up. He’d be the Celtics sixth man, a role for which he is incredibly well suited. He could take any position in a pinch, allowing the coach to optimize the matchup problems he creates. He wouldn’t have had to be the leader of the team at a premature age. He’d have McHale talking to him about footwork down low.

It makes me sad, thinking about how he’d be remembered if he’d played back then. Instead? Instead, we get the frustrating guy who leads the team but doesn’t push himself, who’s never going to be one of the top 50 of all time.

Still. I’m glad he made the All Star team again.