Category: basketball

• This guy must be someone. in basketball · Jun 18, 03:09

  The guy on the left, in the black hat; the one who looks like he just stepped out of a Coen Brothers movie. He was on the floor during every game of the NBA Finals. Who the heck is he? Anyway, you gotta give him credit for breaking the mold with regard to Finals attire: [...]

• Ideas / NBA Season Ticket, the trash-talk edition in basketball, ideas · Jun 11, 19:30

  I’ve got the killer app for the NBA television-viewing experience, something that will melt faces around the world and provide the league with yet another license to print money. (Props to Justin and Zidane who sparked this idea last night as we watched Game 3.)
  You could call it: NBA 360, or the Courtside Package, or [...]

• The NBA / Where accountability happens in basketball · May 7, 18:40

  Mark Cuban is not afraid to talk about the blockbuster trade that wasn’t …
  [Donnie Nelson, Avery Johnson and I] went back and forth about whether or not we should trade Devin [Harris]. We knew he was a good point guard, with the potential to be amazing. What we didn’t know was how long that [...]

• March Madness / Zapruder analysis of Mario’s shot in basketball, kansas basketball · Apr 13, 01:48

  A couple of days ago, I was watching Mario’s three-pointer for like the 150th time, and I decided to do it JFK/Zapruder style. Click. Sherron blows by Derrick Rose. Click. Click. Click. Sherron begins to fall. Click. The ball emerges in Mario’s hands, he takes a big jump-step toward the top of the key, jumps, [...]

• Kansas basketball / A dadgum classic in basketball, kansas basketball · Apr 8, 21:32

  Surreal. That’s the word that keeps coming to mind. Kansas trailed by nine points with two minutes left, and yet somehow managed to win. Chalmers’s shot. Collins’s steal. Roy Williams — “Benedict Williams” to many Jayhawk fans — wearing a Jayhawk sticker. Is it possible that all of that *really* happened?
  Watch the last few [...]

• March Madness / Final Four shit in basketball, kansas basketball · Apr 2, 02:06

  If words are windows to the soul, this blog has become a massive vista onto my sports obsessions and, specifically, Kansas basketball. Soon enough it’ll all be over, the fever dream will end, the sun will rise, and I’ll be back to the old stuff. Until then, I want to post one more thing, to [...]

• March Madness / Where have you gone, Bobby Hurley? in basketball · Mar 25, 02:06

  Despite being stocked with recruiting riches, Duke is going home early and it’s not too surprising why: streaky offense, untimely turnovers, killed on the boards, nothing in the post, the list goes on. But what’s different about this team? Why isn’t Coach K’s formula working anymore?

  “Promise me you’ll never leave.” Photo: Replay photos.

  Coach K [...]

• Basketball / It’s bracket time in basketball, kansas basketball · Mar 19, 02:54

  You probably can’t tell, but I’ve been worrying over my picks for the last couple of days.

  My patented approach = tossed out the window
  I’ve filled out 20+ brackets in my life, and each year I take basically the same tack: At least one #1 seed goes down relatively early; every Big 12 team represents. This [...]

• Basketball / Jayhawks, predictions, bracketometry in basketball, kansas basketball · Mar 18, 03:36

  Man, this year is going to be good, not only because the teams are good, but because there are good stories out there. I tell myself that I don’t care about storylines, but at some point, I absorb them. I repeat them. They become part of my conversations. All the extraneous detail from those player [...]

• Basketball / Tale of two teams in basketball, kansas basketball · Feb 26, 14:57

  The Bay Area: Where Baron happens. Photo: Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images

  Living in the Bay Area, I’ve watched Baron Davis and Don Nelson breathe life into the corpse of the Golden State Warriors by playing fast, loose, undisciplined, unpredictable basketball. When they’re clicking, the Warriors are invigorating and life-affirming. Nellie doesn’t burden the team with structure — [...]

• Classic NBA / Red hot and rollin in basketball, cinema · Jul 8, 02:34

  If you’re 35-ish and you’ve followed basketball, you probably recall the virtues of the pre-David Stern NBA, the simpler times when corporate logos were incidental, local heroes more accessible, and the entire sport more truly fan-friendly. Stern always talks about fan-friendliness, but his NBA is a Product and the “friendliness” seems as produced as two-for-one [...]

• Warriors / Drama, elevation, a posterization, terrible officiating in basketball, san francisco, visual · May 17, 20:52

  The Warriors playoff ride is over, the Jazz’s ride will come to an end sometime in the next week or so, but Baron’s dunk over Kirilenko will live on FOREVER. Let’s just sit back and appreciate it for a minute. (It’s much better live).

  Baron elevates and elevates; he begins his leap before Kirilenko and is [...]

• Gamers / That’s not even your blood in basketball · May 10, 21:14

  SI’s Jack McCallum just published an article about the Suns-Spurs series that includes an intriguing peek into the mind of Robert Horry. As every NBA fan knows, Horry’s blood runs cold during the playoffs, evidenced by his penchant for hitting dagger-like three-point bombs and his nickname, “Big Shot Rob.” (NBA.com has a page dedicated to [...]

• Kansas basketball / Post-Julian thoughts in basketball, kansas basketball · Apr 10, 16:53

  Julian Wright is taking the opportunity of a lifetime, and who can blame him? He brought enthusiasm and energy to every game, contributed hugely in many of the big wins in the last couple of years (cf. these dunks during the Florida game and this epic 33-point performance at MU), and showed enough skill and [...]

• March Madness / My bracket, with explanations in basketball, kansas basketball · Mar 13, 02:26

  UPDATE 1: A couple of changed picks; UPDATE 2: Some eerie resemblances my bracket and those of SI writers; UPDATE 4: Surveying the carnage: Thoughts after the first two rounds
  Here’s the bracket that I made on the Monday after the seedings were announced.

  UPDATE: Since Monday, I’ve been spending a lot of time reading up on [...]

• Pre-post-season thoughts / Containing Kevin Durant in basketball, kansas basketball · Mar 5, 20:57

  In a previous post, I suggested that the Kansas defense must “contain” Kevin Durant, thereby implying that Kevin Durant could, in fact, be contained. I said: “he’s going to get 10-15 points no matter what you do,” and anything in excess of that was a matter of the opposing team’s defense shutting him down. Against [...]

• Big Saturday / KU-UT thoughts and predictions in basketball, kansas basketball · Mar 1, 21:09

  Watching the Longhorns repeatedly (and ultimately successfully) drive a stake into the heart of Acie Law IV last night, I got to thinking about Saturday’s showdown between the Longhorns and the Hawks. (I also penciled in A&M for the Final Four. Is there any team in the nation — other than UCLA, I guess — [...]

• Geniuses / In praise of Bill Walton in basketball · Jan 25, 17:05

  Whether he’s criticizing a particular player (”Tony Parker just made the worst pass in the history of Western civilization”) or the refs (”Why even have a rulebook?”), or extolling the virtues of a benchwarmer who hits a couple of shots in a row (”If Eric Piatkowski continues playing at this level, he’s going to replace [...]

• Basketball / Hibachi! in basketball · Jan 18, 20:57

  I’m planning to write a manifesto regarding celebrations in professional sports — Are they ever appropriate? I think so. But when? Where? How should they be regulated? All good questions. As I was looking for evidence of different styles of celebration, I found myself reading a lot about Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas. In the [...]