Euroleague CEO Jordi Bertomeu tells Ian Thomsen of Sports Illustrated that the business of basketball is very different in Europe: "'These owners,' Bertomeu said of the top basketball clubs in Europe, 'they think this is something they are giving to the community. If you ask Mr. Gilberto Benetton [who owns Benetton Treviso, one of the leading basketball clubs in Italy] why he is spending this crazy amount of money on the team, he will say that this is something I have to pay back to my region because I am from here, all of my business has been grown here, and I want to do this. So he spends money for the rugby team, for the basketball team, for the volley[ball] team, and he spends tons of money. And you talk about the owner of Panathinaikos [of Athens], he is proud to spend -- not invest -- every year 15 million Euros [equivalent to $22 million] just to cover the budget of the basketball team. He loves this. It is his passion. He is like some crazy fan.'" Insert your own Howard Schultz joke here.
Remember all the talk about ten good teams in the West? Portland's recent five-game losing streak has pretty much ended all that. The Blazers or Kings will have to get super hot -- or two teams will have to get really cold -- for this to be considered anything other than a nine-team race. John Hollinger's playoff odds machine now gives Portland just a 1.1% chance of even making the playoffs, and a 0% chance of winning the division they led just a few weeks ago. And is that another Brandon Roy injury?
A conundrum of modern basketball statistics is how much to value rebounding. And one of the essential elements of the conundrum has been that everyone knows a great rebounder is a great thing. But what about playing him alongside another great rebounder. Or how about three, four, or five? At some point, don't they take rebounds from each other? And if they do, if there are diminishing returns to be had from lots of rebounders, shouldn't that somehow factor in to player rankings? (Doesn't that make rebounders a tad less valuable than was otherwise apparent?) Here's the first study I have ever seen doing a slick job of showing that apparently a lot of good rebounders do, indeed, take rebounds away from each other, especially on the defensive end.
On NBA.com, the Hornets' Tyson Chandler explains how his family took the news that Bobby Jackson had been traded to the Rockets: "My daughter was helping him pack, bringing him hangers and just spending time. He and her had gotten really close, because he would always come, pick up my daughter and take her with his girls to the movies, Chuck E. Cheese, the museum, or just on family outings. He was just sitting in there, getting his stuff together and we were actually watching the game, Miami and Houston. He was in there watching his team now. Normally, we're teammates watching the game together, but he was watching the team he was about to go to. He was just moving slow and I could tell that he was going to miss everything. His daughters are four and seven, and they're like sisters with my daughter. They spend so much time together, and I've seen how much my daughter has grown, being able to play with his daughters, because they're so much older. When she wakes up in the morning, she calls their names because she wants to go over their house. Actually, one of the first names that she got down was Bobby's, because she was always like 'Bobby, Bobby.' It was just hilarious the way she said it. So, I would pick up his girls sometimes and he would do the same. They're like sisters. They fight, they run around the house together and they get into stuff together. Right now, my daughter's almost two. And she doesn't understand to tell us 'Where's the girls?' but you can just tell it's going to be a little different, an adjustment for her."
Thanks to TrueHoop reader Cyn for digging up an Ian Thomsen Sports Illustrated article with coverage of a competition committee meeting last summer: "When the issue of the Phoenix suspensions came up, the Suns made their case about how unfairly they had been treated. But it was Pacers president Larry Bird who made the most impressive statement of the day. He implored Stern not to change the rule. Bird's point was that players lack self-control in emotional moments, and while they often run onto the court during a fight with no plan to cause harm, little good can come of it when they do leave the bench. What happened to the Suns was unfair, Bird said, but the rule is a good rule."
There is, as far as the author of this article knows, only one high school basketball player in the country with Down Syndrome. The story of Brad Hennefer.
People ask me all the time how they can get a job in sports. There are few openings compared to the number of people who want to fill them. It's brutal, frankly. A lot of people break in by working for free. But look, here's a rare exception. Young stat geeks wanted for paid internships.
In all these recent trades, those moving East were notably younger, while the average PER of those moving East and West was similar (and not that great).
Tyrus Thomas -- who essentially never plays enough minutes to foul out -- gets pulled early with two fouls. And then finishes the game with two fouls in 26 minutes.
SuperSonicSoul on that dreadful feeling when a mediocre shooter gets a little hot early: "When Earl Watson hit a three at the beginning of the third quarter, I got a bad feeling in my stomach, because I knew we were going to see at least three more attempts from that 'sharpshooter' before the night was out. EW finished 5 of 17."
Speculation about European superstar coach Ettore Messina coming to the NBA. The Raptors have long been considered a most likely target. (Just for the record, that speculation is fueled by Turkish message boards. Nothing more reliable! And can you believe how the world is changing thanks to the internet? Fans in Toronto ... meet fans in Turkey. Discuss the future of Ettore Messina, and get back to me.)
You know how the Suns spread the floor with three-point shooters? Not any more. Paul Coro of the Arizona Republic: "Now, the Suns are down to three 3-point shooters in Nash, Raja Bell and Leandro Barbosa and they can't even play together for risk of being too small."
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