It's video advocacy.
Here is about ten minutes of video from last year's Finals which is essentially making the case that Kobe Bryant has it harder than Michael Jordan ever did.
I couldn't care less about the unwinnable Bryant vs. Jordan debate, but I sure do love some intelligently edited tape building a basketball storyline.
There are some claims here that are dubious: For instance, the assertion that such and such a collision has to be a block or a charge -- that's just not so. (Sometime there's contact that is neither block nor charge.) The video clip which purports to show a violation of the defensive three seconds rule to my eyes shows a defender who is guarding someone, which gets you off the hook. And does anyone really want technicals on the bench during close games Finals games?
But on the other hand, Kevin Garnett setting a massive series of moving screens, all on the same key play ... that's something people should see.
I also suspect a Celtics fan could edit together a bunch of plays showing non-calls or weak calls the other way.
However, in the big picture, I love this. There are a million Laker fans whining about all the ways the league has it in for their guy, and most of them are too partisan to take seriously. With video, however, we get to dig into what actually happened, and learn a thing or two about basketball.
This kind of tape is probably also the kind of thing that has the NBA scared of online video. A highlight reel of bad calls?
I dream of a day when the NBA would fire back with their own video argument for the way things went. When you have a real expert explaining the calls, you can learn a lot, some of which is surprising.
That's exactly the kind of informed sports conversation the internet allows, and I think it's just smart to take advantage.
UPDATE: A TrueHoop reader points out that in the Jordan vs. Bryant debate, it's worth pointing out that Jordan faced some brutal physical attacks that are absent from today's game.
