I'm on the road! Heading to interview somebody for TrueHoop. I'm excited about it. But it means I'll have little ability to post today. In the meantime, here's a little something to keep you going:
Memo/request to any and all stat geeks out there: You know how the other night Deron Williams scored the game-winner without first calling a timeout? I would love to see a study of late possessions in close games: does calling a timeout tend to favor offense, defense, or neither? I'm open to the idea that letting the defense get set may be a steep price for the offense to pay for being able to inbound and half-court and draw up the optimum play -- especially as a lot of teams just let someone like Kobe Bryant or LeBron James create by themselves anyway.
Oh, man, I love the thing where Ernie Johnson and Kenny Smith grill Charles Barkley about various lesser-known NBA players and ask him which team that guy plays for. They call it "Who He Play For." Charles Barkley's willingness to partake in these kinds of self-deprecating things with a smile is, to me, what makes Barkley fun to watch.
(New Jersey Nets' part-owner) Jay-Z lyric from the song Hello Brooklyn 2.0 (PG-13): "My fine hoe we got some victims to catch/So in a couple years baby I'm a bring you some Nets."
When I was about to graduate from college, I had the hot idea that someone should pay me and a photographer buddy to travel around to different basketball courts documenting what was happening there, perhaps for a book. (I have to believe there was more to it than that at the time, but that's all I can remember now.) I even applied for a grant, but when it was my turn to present, one of the reviewers said "excuse me" and went to the next room to have cake and ice cream to help send off a departing employee. I know this is what he was doing, because throughout my talk, we could all hear the party next door. Needless to say, I didn't get the grant. Maybe what I then should have done is what these people did: quit working and hit the road with a basketball, with some kind of message of basketball as a way to achieve dreams and make friends. They have been at it for a number of years, and now they even have corporate sponsorhip from Spalding.
Say goodbye to Uncle Cliffie, say goodbye to the 1980s. Chris Tomasson of the Rocky Mountain News: "Barring another Kevin Willis comeback, every player from the 1980s has said goodbye to the NBA. Cliff Robinson, who debuted in 1989, was the NBA's sole museum piece from that decade for much of last season before Willis, who debuted in 1984, had a final-month stint with Dallas at age 44. But Robinson is gone from New Jersey. And don't count on the Mavericks -- who brought Willis in for the playoffs and flamed out in the first round -- to bring back Willis."
John Hollinger in the New York Sun on the Los Angeles Clippers: "The end result is that the Clippers, who on paper seemed like a 90-pound weakling at the offensive end, have instead looked fearsome - they rank sixth in offensive efficiency through Wednesday's games. Yes, playing against bad defenses helps, but consider this: The Clips don't need to be a 110-point-a-game juggernaut to succeed. They were a good defensive team a year ago and should be halfway decent even in Brand's absence. Thus, if they can just keep the offense somewhere near the league average, they have a real chance of staying in the playoff race until Brand comes back & which may not be until it's too late anyway, but could be as early February."
David Stern attempts to nip in the bud the idea that if Seattle loses the Sonics, he'll help that large, wealthy, Asia-friendly market get another team any time soon.
Wizard antics: Nick Young and Dominic McGuire wearing furs purloined from the closet of Gilbert Arenas. Oleksiy Pecherov -- veteran of brutal Ukrainian winters -- approves.
Looking forward to getting my hands on a copy of the documentary "Quantum Hoops." Here's from the L.A. Weekly review: "Director Rick Greenwald follows the 2006 Caltech basketball team as they try to break the school's 21-year losing streak - that's over 240 consecutive conference losses. The Caltech Beavers are a surprisingly charming group of overachievers who prove to have as much heart on the court as they do brains in the classroom (almost all team members had perfect math scores on the SAT), which helps in the moments when the film's energy flags. That happens mostly toward the beginning, as Greenwald spends what feels like too much time on the history of the school, its many noble prizewinners and the decline of its once-glorious athletic past. All that context pays off beautifully, though, in a final game that's filled with so many nail-biting twists and turns that, were this a Hollywood film, the audience would scoff at being so cynically manipulated."
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