TrueHoop reader Brennan makes a really interesting point, which I'll paraphrase. We have all seen this a thousand times. Two opponents are chasing a ball as it heads out of bounds. One leaps for the ball, as the other steps out of bounds. The leaper gets the ball, and throws it off the other guy, who is by this time undeniably off the active playing surface. The referee then awards the leaper's team the ball, and in general I think I understand why. But consider this: What if the leaper had thrown the ball off something else that was out of bounds? What if he had thrown it off some broadcaster, a coach, or a large bucket of sport beverage? In general, throwing the ball off something that is out of bounds means your team loses the ball. But if that out-of-bounds thing is an opposing player, your team gains the ball. A little funny, huh? UPDATE: TrueHoop reader Jason chimes in: "I was taught (from high school basketball, so take it for what it's worth) that the ruling on possession depends on where the player who is hit with the ball (let's call him Player #2, and call the thrower Player #1) is at the time of the contact. To clarify -- if Player #2 is leaping in the air at the time, but left the ground with any part in bounds, and the ball makes contact with him then, he was considered in bounds, and so the ball, careening off him and out of bounds, is off him, and so possession goes to Player #1's team. However, if Player #2 is firmly already out of bounds -- i.e., standing with both feet out of bounds -- when the ball hits him, it is just like the ball hit any other out of bounds object, so it was last touched by Player #1, and possession goes to Player #2's team. Now, in reality, it happens so quickly that I think referees just tend to reward the effort of Player #1, but I've been in a game before where a Player #2 was savvy enough to step fully out of bounds when Player #1 jumped in the air, before contact, and fortunately the ref was savvy enough to make the call, possession to Player #2's team." THE FINAL WORD: An anonymous TrueHoop reader was nice enough to look up, you know, the actual NBA rule: "Rule No. 8(II)(c): The ball is caused to go out-of-bounds by the last player to touch it before it goes out, provided it is out-of-bounds because of touching something other than a player. If the ball is out-of-bounds because of touching a player who is on or outside a boundary, such player caused it to go out. The "why of Rule 8(II)(c) is a different question, but at the very least this ought to answer your question: If you throw it out off of another player who's standing off the court, it's your ball, since by this rule the other player caused it to go out of bounds."
Andrew Bogut has an entertaining blog on his website. (Registration required.) He does funny stuff, for instance referring to the Cleveland team as "the LeBronaliers." From a recent post: "Let me tell you why I like Milwaukee. After my brunch meal of an egg sandwich or some sort, I asked the waitress for a cappuccino. She then informed me they just had regular coffee so I told her that's ok and not to worry about it. I guess as she went to the bar a patron must have over heard her asking the boss if they could do a cappuccino. Then get this, this gem of guy goes a couple of doors down in the freezing cold, buys a cappuccino and sends it up to my table. I couldn't believe it. It's not about the money at all, it's the gesture, and I highly respect and appreciate that there are still great people in this world. As I left I went and talked to him for a couple of minutes and thanked him for the drink. I offered him a drink in return but he told me not to worry about, he was just a fan that enjoyed watching us play. People knock Milwaukee all the time, but I don't think you could tell a story like that if you lived in a bigger city. Great stuff."
Yesterday's talk of former NBA player Rodney White prompted SLAM's Lang Whitaker to send me a link to a 2003 Bob Raissman New York Daily News article about the time in 2003 when a Knick game was delayed for quite some some time owing to White's vomiting on the court. Raissman relates what happened, during that delay, on the radio, where Mike Breen and John Andariese had the call. Great stuff: "'First 50-point game. First 20-20 game. First triple-double. First hurl on the court. Some of the great moments in Garden, and NBA, history. And we had the pleasure of witnessing it. ... You know, John, I remember the first time I threw up in public. I was just a wee bit of a baby.' Andariese: 'I think everybody involved here tonight is undergoing a new experience in their life.' Breen: 'John, it was the quantity that was so eye-opening. The color was rather interesting as well.' Andariese: 'Now you're out of control. I'm taking over the broadcast.' Breen: '... I'm glad we had a chance to share this moment together.'"
Did I interpret correctly where Phil Jackson said that the reason his team would not win 70 games was because of their time zone? The travel from West to East, he seemed to imply, was troublesome in how it prevented good rest. Could somebody please write 5,000 words analyzing this? We'll need to hear from sleep experts, as well as look at the historical records of Western teams on the road.
Ross Siler of the Salt Lake Tribune: "Carlos Boozer was approached in the locker room before the game by a Miami reporter and gave him the brush-off when it came to a question about the Heat. I guess Jazz fans have to take that as a good sign. 'I don't worry about that,' Boozer said. 'That's just speculation. I think everything this summer will work out this summer, depending on what happens. During the season, we're just going to focus on the season. I live there, so that's why rumors start to flow.'"
Joel Przybilla is leading the league in field goal percentage, and much more importantly (he doesn't shoot much) he and Greg Oden are both ahead of Dwight Howard, leading the league in the percentage of rebounds they grab while on the court. Now coming off the bench, Przybilla has to be considered an early candidate for sixth man of the year.
The other day I talked to a guy who is close to several NBA players. I asked him to estimate the percentage of NBA players who are depressed. I guessed 60. He said more like 95. It's probably a topic for another post, on another day, when I understand that better. But it occurs to me that one who is not is Martell Webster. The kid showed up for camp in the best shape of his life, then got a stress fracture, was replaced in the starting lineup by a rookie, and has watched the team get really hot. Despite all that, he's on the bench cheering, he's saying he's fine not playing for several games even when he's healthy, and telling Caseyl Holdahl of Blazers.com stuff like: "When you think about it, kids commit more hours in school than we do to basketball all day. We come to practice for two hours and I get the rest of the day with my family. I feel blessed. We don't deserve it, but I make sure that I play hard and I have no regrets. The most important thing is your family, but this is your job so you have to take care of this first. But two hours a day? Why would anyone complain about that?"
Ira Winderman of the Sun-Sentinel with several interesting Heat observations: "The Heat is 3-1 since the insertion of Joel Anthony into the starting lineup. More than the effort Anthony has been delivering, the 3-1 record says this is a team that could thrive with an upgrade in the middle. Love the hustle from Anthony, a truly nice guy, but you don't consistently win with three rebounds a game from your starting center. ... I have never seen a team so physically blitz the pick-and-roll as what the Jazz got away with Wednesday night against Mario Chalmers. If the officials continue to hold their whistles, Chalmers could be in for a nightly bruising. It was tackle basketball. ... It's kind of fun watching Jamaal Magloire out there. You know he's going to break something, whether it's himself, an opponent, or a part of the basket. There is nothing subtle about the man."
ESPN's John Hollinger writes that the Thunder are on pace to tie the worst record in NBA history. But he doesn't think they'll get there. He points out that young players like Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, and Russell Westbrook tend to play better in the second half of the season. He adds that a lot of their poor play has been tied to worse-than-career average showings from veterans Chris Wilcox, Nick Collison, Damien Wilkins, and Earl Watson: "It's possible that all four players suddenly became awful, but it's far more likely that it's just a 20-game fluke and their numbers will return to something more normal. Because those four are likely to see their numbers rebound, and the three youngsters also are likely to put up better numbers as the season goes on, that gives us seven key rotation players who are likely to play a lot better than they've done so far. And that, in turn, leads us to the conclusion that the Thunder will be better than they've shown so far. Not good enough to do anything of significance, probably, or even to avoid the worst record in the league. But at the end of the day, it seems to me they'll easily surpass the nine-win threshold of historic awfulness and finish with about 18 to 20 victories."
Wizznutzz knows and does not care (a little PG-13) about the spelling errors here and tardiness there. And it's hilarious: "Washington hoops coaches get replaced all the time. They are like 'DR WHO': mysterious strangers who change bodies every few years but are really all the same ancient wandering man who has racked up losing seasons across space and time for infinity. They dont even look that different really. Ed Tapscott especially, u take away the ampler tummy and ampler geri-conk and theres EJ, staring back at you. At least Gar Heard wore that distinctive knit scarf."
An anonymous TrueHoop reader: "I don't know how closely you looked at the Forbes list of franchise values, but this one jumped out at me: Cleveland, 5th overall at $477 million. How much of that is directly due to LeBron James? Without LeBron, would Cleveland be an average team, at $379 million? Probably not -- Cleveland-Akron is only the 14th-largest 'combined statistical area' in the country, according to wikipedia, which makes it smaller than the Seattle or Denver or Minnesota areas and about the same size at St. Louis. And basketball-wise, the Cavs without LeBron would be a very bad team with no marketable stars. I could easily see them being worth about the same as the T-wolves ($301 million) or even the Bucks ($278 million). So is LeBron James worth $200 million? Could be. If so, he'd be the most underpaid guy in the league."
Basketbawful points out that Goran Dragic, the guy the Suns touted as their point guard of the future, did not get off the bench in a game that Steve Nash sat out with flu-like symptoms. It's super early, but that's not a great sign.
Britt Robson of the Secrets of the City on the 4-13 Timberwolves: "The more diligently one covers the Minnesota Timberwolves recently, the more difficult it is to find honestly positive or kind things to say."
Rip Hamilton says he lets his dogs out of the house and runs with them until they tire, which is a long time. That sounds cool. But most dogs run around in spasmodic loops, leaping and grabbing each other as they go -- stopping occasionally to knock each other over. It's not like going for a five-miler, you know. Is that really what Rip does? It seemed somehow absurd. But then I realized, that's pretty much the same template for an NBA game. Good idea, Rip.
Dwight Jaynes with an interesting idea: "In my more than two decades of covering the league I've been fascinated (and irritated) by how many players will just dribble out the clock, pass it to someone else or time their shot attempt for just AFTER the buzzer in order to avoid taking a missed shot on their state line in the box score. If you took one of those shots just every other game, it's a potential 41 extra misses over a season. That's going to hurt your field-goal percentage a lot. But you know what I mean -- your team is going into the fourth quarter trailing by 2 points and has the ball in backcourt with 1 second left on the clock. A long 3-pointer at the horn would change the momentum of the game and give your team the lead to start the fourth period. But no, your point guard just kind of dribbles the clock out or launches a half-hearted attempt just after the clock expires. He doesn't want that missed shot (that's what it is, 90 times out of 100) on his stat line. What I've long proposed is that scorekeepers should be instructed thusly: on any buzzer-beating shot from past half court, do not count it as a field-goal attempt unless the shot is made. It's not really a "shot, anyway. Just forget about it, or put it in a separate category. Come on, logically speaking, it's no indication at all of what kind of shooter a player is. It's not statistically significant. Just put it in a little box, all its own -- call it desperation heaves. You could even, then, keep track of who the best players are in making those shots. And if you did that, you'd see some miraculous shots made. Shots that would ignite an arena. These guys can actually make more of them than you think. They're just not inclined to take them -- which hurts the game and the league." Another alternative: Realizing it helps their team, players could just man up and shoot the damn ball.
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