Sports
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Why the Celtics will win the NBA finals
Marcus Smart. Photo by Eric Drost, via Wikimedia Commons. Back in 2016, I correctly predicted that the Cleveland Cavaliers would win the NBA finals, beating the heavily favored Golden State Warriors, which had won a record 73 games in the regular season. In 2021, I incorrectly predicted that the Kansas City Chiefs would beat the Tampa… Continue reading
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A thermal theory of basketball
Chemistry is a good metaphor for how teams work—especially when times get tough, such as in the playoffs happening in the NBA right now. Think about it. Every element has a melting point: a temperature above which solid turns liquid. Basketball teams do too, only that temperature changes from game to game, opponent to opponent, and… Continue reading
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Why the Chiefs will win the Super Bowl
I think there are more reasons to believe in the Bucs than the Chiefs today: better offensive line, better defense, Brady’s unequaled Super Bowl experience, etc. But the Chiefs are favored by 3.5 points, last I looked, and they have other advantages, including the best quarterback in the game—or maybe ever—in Patrick Mahomes. And that’s… Continue reading
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How to get fans inside the NBA’s playoff bubble
Sell tickets to attend online through Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Google Hangouts, Webex, GoToMeeting, Jitsi or whatever conferencing system can supply working tech to the NBA. Then mic everyone in the paying crowd, project them all on the walls (or sheets hanging from the ceiling), combine their audio, and run it through speakers so players can… Continue reading
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All hail the Houston Rockets—especially next year
I thought the Rockets were great in last night’s game—and say that as a Warriors fan. (I even had season tickets back in the Run TMC era, when tickets were still affordable). The Rockets’ problem was that the Warriors were greater, and it wasn’t just because SuperSteph showed up in the second half. Basketball is… Continue reading
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Why the Cleveland Cavaliers will win tonight
I’m a Golden State Warriors fan. Not huge, but big enough to have held season tickets through the Run TMC years. (I grew up a Knicks fan, and liked the Celtics when I lived in Boston, but those are less leveraged these days.) So I do want the Warriors to win tonight. But I don’t… Continue reading
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Remembering Bob Kauffman
When the Los Angeles Clippers open their first game at home this season, I want them to pause and celebrate their original franchise player: Bob Kauffman, the team’s all-star center for its first three seasons, when they were the Buffalo Braves. I also think the team should retire Bob’s jersey, #44. For the ceremony the team should also bring out his four daughters,… Continue reading
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Idea: nets from the Nets for Brooklyn’s schools and playgrounds
Here is a simple idea for the Brooklyn Nets that will do a world of good for their borough and their team: provide new nets for every net-less basketball hoop in every school and playground. The cost of few thousand team color (black and white) nets probably wouldn’t be more than the cost of one… Continue reading
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LeBron is the true MVP
Here’s the best way to determine a most valuable player on any team: look at how the team would have done without him, or her. In the case of the NBA, look at Cleveland and Miami with and without LeBron James. Day and night aren’t much more extreme. True: Golden State would have been far… Continue reading
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Rooting for LeBron, Steph, great team ball, and seven games
If you care about sports at all, you need to see the NBA Finals this year. What you will see are the two best players, on the two best teams — perhaps ever. We’re not talking just about talent here. We’re talking about teams. Basketball at its best is a pure team game, and these guys… Continue reading
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The best 3-point shooter you never saw
I remember the first time I saw Dwight Durante shoot. It was in the old Guilford College gym. Catawba College was the visiting team. Guilford in those days was a small college basketball powerhouse, ranked among the top NAIA schools. Our coach was future hall-of-famer Jerry Steele. We had three players who would be drafted by… Continue reading
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#Deflategate needs facts
Check out this map: This isn’t new. Way back in 2008, after the Patriots’ undefeated season ended with a Super Bowl loss to the Giants, The Onion wrote Patriots Season Perfect for Rest of Nation. It’s easy to hate an overdog. Sports is an emotional thing. We care about teams, games and players because we… Continue reading
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Remembering Dr. Jack Ramsay
Back in the early ’90s I was waiting for an elevator one night at a high rise hotel when I was joined by a group of Miami heat basketball players and Jack Ramsay, who was then most famously the former coach of the Portland Trailblazers, a team he led to an NBA championship in 1977. But… Continue reading
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Some thoughts on the Celtics-Nets trade
I love watching basketball. Loved playing it too, back in the Millennium. I grew up a Knicks fan. In my North Carolina years (’65-’85) I was a fan first of Guilford College (my alma mater), then of the ACC’s Big Four (Carolina, Duke, State and Wake). I have many family connections to Wake, lived in… Continue reading
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Wanted: truly crowd-sourced NBA all-star voting
Interested in the NBA all-star game? Go to the latter (at that link) and you’ll see a panel for AllStarBallot.NBA.com. Go there and you’ll find Step 1: Sign in or create an account as an NBA.com All-Access member. SIGN IN TO VOTE CREATE AN ACCOUNT Click the second link and you’ll find a pop-over form with lots… Continue reading
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How Apple will turn the Net’s top into TV’s bottom
Apple TV (whatever it ends up being called) will kill cable. It will also give TV new life in a new form. It won’t kill the cable companies, which will still carry data to your house, and which will still get a cut of the content action, somehow. But the division between cable content and other forms… Continue reading
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NCAA basketball is now officially the NBA’s farm system
I enjoyed watching the Kentucky-Kansas NCAA Championship game last night, but not nearly as much as I have earlier finals, such as the Butler-Duke game two years ago. That game was in doubt even during the final second, when Gordon Hayward came inches away from winning it for Butler with a 45-foot shot released microseconds… Continue reading
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Why Jeremy Lin will be fine
The Knicks just beat the Pacers, 102 to 88, in Indiana. Jeremy Lin had 19 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 steal and 1 block. He only had two turnovers — his one problem stat. But that problem will end, because Jeremy Lin is a learner. That’s the second reason why he won’t be relegated… Continue reading
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The death rattles of AM, then FM
Check the Arbitron radio listening ratings for Washington DC. You have to go waaaay down the list before you find a single AM station that isn’t also simulcast on FM. But then, if you go to the bottom of the list, you’ll also find a clump of Internet streams of local radio stations. You’ll see the… Continue reading
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The Jeremy Lin story
Why Jeremy Lin suddenly such hot stuff? Last night I listened to sports radio from ESPN, WFAN in New York, KNBR in San Francisco, and WEEI in Boston, as well as to KOVO here in Provo, Utah (where I’m hanging this week). One of the talkers put it best, saying something like this: “Let’s face it.… Continue reading