March Madness approaches and I hate college basketball. Makes me wanna hide for the next two weeks.
Let’s Be Real, Brandon Knight Did It to Himself
Ren Hsieh
Dat Winning
There was just as much glorification of Brandon Knight’s effort in the play that may define his career (unless he gets going) as there was amazement over DeAndre’s feat. Adrian Wojnarowksi, notably, wrote a piece that chided those who would overlook Brandon Knight’s heroic attempt to prevent the first dunk-related death in NBA history. Luckily, Ren Hsieh of Dat Winning (and the Joy Dunk Club) is here to set the record straight about that little play. Ren points out that Brandon Knight was only in that spot because of a missed defensive rotation by the Pistons’ big, and that in his effort he also gave up a foul. Dumb stuff indeed. This is the best piece from that whole ordeal. Dat Winning is good at winning, so folks should add it to whatever they’re replacing Google Reader with.
- JG
Competitive Fire Leads Kobe Bryant To Play Despite Ankle Injury, Ankle Injury Leads Him To Play Terribly
Isaac Rauch
Deadspin
Playing through a serious injury is very noble—insofar as anything about the game of basketball is noble. But, almost by definition, playing through injury means playing at below 100% of normal ability. There is a point at which injured players, even injured superstars, are less effective than the 15th man on the bench, and they just need to sit out. As Isaac Rauch explains, that was Kobe Bryant the other night. Instead, he insisted on soldiering through 12 particularly ineffective minutes. The Lakers ended up winning the game, but next time they may not be so fortunate.
- KD
Solving for Bayless
Bryan Joiner
The Classical
Though it doesn’t reference basketball directly, the subject of Bryan Joiner’s piece is an important member of the basketball analysis community: Skip Bayless, the much derided panelist on ESPN’s hit show First Take, and sports television’s biggest troll. Joiner deconstructs all the aspects of Skip Bayless that make him one of the most universally criticized pundits in major sports media, including his combative nature and unwillingness to use logic or objectivity in his analysis. However, Joiner points out the most important aspect of Bayless: that he attempts to answer all of sports’ unanswerable questions, even if the answers themselves are unsatisfactory. Joiner argues that this is lock-and-step with ESPN’s evolution as a major media conglomerate that’s become more interested in presentation and summaries than explanation and analysis. It’s a smart analysis, and completely on point.
- JG
Take your kids to see an NBA game in person; it is affordable and very much worth the price
Kelly Dwyer
Ball Don’t Lie
As a 25-year old with a decent paying job and no family, mortgage or expensive habits, it is good to be reminded how truly fortunate I am to not have serious financial concerns. Kelly Dwyer, a man raising a family and paying a mortgage all on a meager internet basketball writer’s salary, doesn’t have the same luxury. But as he so eloquently writes, everybody needs some entertainment, and a professional basketball game provides it relatively cheaply. In the era of big TVs and even bigger cable packages, its worth taking your kids to a game every once in awhile—even if it means missing Steely Dan this summer.
- KD
El N.B.A.: Insulting Latino Names or Smart Marketing?
Stuart Miller
Off the Dribble (New York Times)
Each March, some people (including myself) go into an outrage over “Noche Latina”, the NBA’s annual focused marketing campaign towards Latino viewers, who are watching more NBA basketball, both domestically and internationally. The focus of their (our) ire is the jerseys, which place an article in front of the English name of the team, instead of a direct translation of the team. So, you get Los Bulls and Los Suns, instead of Toros or Sol. It seems odd and slightly insensitive. But Stuart Miller argues that this isn’t the case. He implores critics to look at the role code-switching — when bilingual speakers switch between two different languages — plays in the entire campaign. Miller (and other linguistic experts referenced) explain that teams are seen as things; proper nouns. As such, they aren’t directly translated, much in the same way “Clorox” isn’t translated. Because of this, the jerseys actually do represent what they are for Spanish-speakers, the actual Spanish name of the team in everyday conversation. It’s a really interesting argument, and I, as a critic, feel somewhat silenced. Nevertheless, this commercial is still ridiculous.
- JG