PhDribble

Where I Hope He's Calling A Play Happens

In the Age of the Romantics

It's been a hectic last week.  Got the flu and then got some major Passover action.  So, I've been able to watch, too many thoughts, no time to post.  But I'll leave you with a quick story. 

"Who is that guy?!" My x-hipster-costume-designer-turned-med-student female friend asked me.  I was in the Brooklyn for a seder with my college friends.  "That guy is not a basketball player! What is he doing on the floor??? He looks like a grizzled hippie!"  I couldn't convince her that little Stevie had won two MVPs...until she started to watch him play. "Wait, wait, he's really good."  You see, my friend was having what I like to call, "The Steve Nash Experience."   It's amazing how quickly we forget or maybe how easily we become inured from the true beautiful absurdity of the Lig.   Steve Nash should not exist.  Or if he does, he should be holding a drum circle for under-privileged youths in the Portland suburbs.  But there he is.  Breaking down men twice as big and three times as quick.  He's a phenomenon. But one whose true absurdity only the unintiated can still appreciate.  Luckily, the SNE is not a singular event.  We still have our own SNEs.  Most of us are right now in the midst of submitting ourselves to the hypnotic amazing that is CP3...

And a Classic Walton on Diaw, from a buddy of mine:

Where the Elusive Duevo-Floppas Happens.

Reasons Why Mark Madsen Is the Best Twelfth Man in the League - III

Contrary to popular opinion, Mark "the Maddog" Madsen is NOT a secret agent.  He does, however, double as a State Senator from the Utah's 13th Congressional District.

Evidence A: That is no amateur handshake.

Evidence B: As the Deseret Morning News reported in Jan 2006, "Sen. Chris Buttars', R-West Jordan, presents his bill before the Senate Education Committee Tuesday."

Look familiar?

.

.

Yup.  Madsen has been making that argument
since his days at Stanford -->

 

Evidence C: In August of 2007, Madsen injured himself on his "personal watercraft."  Yet unlike VladRad and his ski accident, Madsen received no public flak or organizational censure.  Why?  CAUSE THEY KNOW!  You see, Rep Madsen had other business to attend to.  Conveniently injuring "himself" in August, one month later...from the September 2007 "Interim Highlights" Newsletter for the Utah Legislature, it seems the Maddog had some international business to attend to...the Commitee:

"Received reports about diplomacy training for legislators as a means of enhancing their effectiveness in meeting with foreign dignitaries and business people in Utah and abroad...A Global Trade Newsletter is also being developed by staff members to inform policymakers as well as foreign visitors and business people about Utah."

The Commitee Chairs: Sen. Mark Madsen / Rep. Sheryl Allen

Vote or Sigh: 2008 NBA Blog Awards

Aww shucks. We got a nom.  Thanks to HP for setting it all up, clearly a lot of work, and much love for all around.  Go over and vote for you're faves...I'm not sayin...I'm just sayin.

Age as a Useful Category?

Brandon Hoffman over at RealGM lays down a wicked case for the Uselessness of the NBA Age Limit.  He argues that there is no evidence that college ball helps players professionally, personally, etc...It's a strong argument, but it also shows the limits of the current debate. 

Hoffman, like most age limit-analysts, bases his argument on an implicit battle between players' rights and Lig vitality.  Yet many, if not most rules, do not fit easily in one category or the other.  Many rules are put into place that are not directly beneficial for individual players (the salary cap, most conspiculously.)  Yet by making the game more competitive, with rules like the salary cap, the Lig prospers and the players reap the rewards. [In theory.]

A different question needs to be (at least) considered: Would a mandatory two years in college benefit the NBA?  If the age limit made the Lig healthier, more competitive, more popular (on the dovetails of March Madness,) wouldn't all the players benefit? 

Furthermore, rosters are a zero-sum game.  19-y-o draftees take up spots from older players still trying to bust into the Lig.  If this frosh class hadn't been drafted, I guarantee that Ronald Dupree would be on a bench right now.  With a few more spots would Jamario Moon have gotten his chance sooner?   The roster spots don't disappear.  Paying a 19-y-o means that you're not paying a veteran.

An age limit would certainly benefit the D-Lig by helping fill its rosters with better-known college players.  The more popular the D-Lig, the bigger its coffers.  The bigger its coffers, the more it can pay its players.  The more it can pay its players, the better it will compete with European squads for talent...

The debate over age limits is a constructive one.  And I certainly have not covered many (and most) of the key issues.  Nonethess, the debate needs to be broadened.  It is not just a scheming David Stern and a loose mob of underinformed selfish fans who back the rule change.  Players are role models.  From dress codes to drug tests, from mandatory post-game interviews to nbacares, sports in the last two decades has passed a torrent of rules to better the image and values of its players.  In this sense, would a mandatory two years in college send a positive message similar to "standard of conduct" clauses?  Or is that impinging too heavily on players' rights? I can appreciate both sides of the argument...

[Update: Cuban weighs in.]

Guest Post : Bill Walton -- Playoff Preview

"I am delighted.  I am ecstatic.  The honor, the glory to think the Big Red, a freckledy-faced mammoth of a man born on the southern tip of North La Mesa Drive, in a hospital, fresh sheets, flowers from her beautiful aunt Sandra, a nurse on duty, America, the only place on this gift of an Earth where a boy with three bad knees and a fatal case of the dreaming could even imagine having the opportunity to share the hardwood with the likes of Bill Russell, Kevin McHale, Mario Chalmers, Corky Calhoun, Larry Legend.  What a gift.  To guest post.  I am delighted. 

"But let's talk seriously, ladies and gentlemen, we're at the precipice, we're at the edge of a cliff, a car speeding off the mountain, Bettye LaVette and a young Jessica Tandy, holding hands, cops at their backs and wind at their heels.  It's the playoffs, ladies and gentlemen.  This is what we live for.  This is life. 

"And as I speak, the very structure of our tournament is at stake.  It could be Phoenix-San Antone, the Lakers and the Spurs, the Spurs and the Lakers.  The permutations are endless.  The Suns and LA or Phoenix at San Antonio.  Who can hope for anything better?  The Q2 has a buffet, this is a smorgasborg. A young Kevin Johnson shoveling the pick-and-pop to a vengeful Boris Diaw.  Malik Rose being Malik Rose.  This is going to be special.  Richard Dumas.  Now there was potential."

Blog-on-Blog Action: Playoff Addition

    LET THE PLAYOFFS BEGIN!!! Brilliant.

    [hattip to HP]

Where A Chip On Your Shoulder Happens.

Unsung Player Day

Phew.  I almost missed this, but let me clock in at the 23rd hour.  With Malice has called for a blogwide tribute to the most unsung players in the Lig. 

From Granger to Peja, it's a great list.  But with one GLARING OMISSION that puts his unsungitude in no doubt.  The following is a poem I call "Jeff Foster/Rebounder/Hero"

              JEFF FOSTER/Rebounder/Hero.

              Six foot Eleven sevenfoot in SHOE.
              Vonteega Cummings
              Who?
                Denis Trauth, PhD, you are my president Cee.
                When Post where posterizing need not be
              Found, he whose Pace
              Brawl in town--another offensive rebound.