[quote]therajraj wrote:
That had to be the worst dunk contest I’ve ever seen.[/quote]
What’s the best dunk you guys think has ever been done in a contest?
I was watching Sixers highlights and remembered that behind the backboard dunk Iguodola did. That might be the best ever, although I am obviously missing a few candidates since that wasn’t exactly a thorough year-by-year breakdown by me.
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
I work with a guy who used to manage a Saks here in Houston, and he was telling me that a few years ago when Boston was in town Rondo, Glen Davis and Kendrick Perkins came through and basically treated the joint like their dorm room. He said Davis literally lifted his leg and farted loudly and when a woman looked over at him, Rondo snapped “What you lookin’ at bitch?” I wasn’t there so don’t know if it’s true, but don’t know why my coworker would lie. As soon as Rondo’s shipped to a lesser team he’ll be exposed for what he is: a mediocre guard with NO jumper who looked a lot better than he is due to his environment.[/quote]
Funny story, but Rondo is far better than mediocre. Of course he gets help from his teammates and needs a better jumper to be truly elite, but he is very very good.
He’s one of the best defensive PGs in the game, so half of the game you have an elite player, he only needs to be average on offense to be all-around above-average. Outside of defense, he’s great in transition (wasted on the Boston Geriatrics), a great rebounder for his size/position, and somehow manages to get off close to 12 shots a game at 48% FG shooting despite the fact everyone in the building knows he can’t shoot and is looking to drive.
[quote]scj119 wrote:
[quote]therajraj wrote:
That had to be the worst dunk contest I’ve ever seen.[/quote]
What’s the best dunk you guys think has ever been done in a contest?
[/quote]
Obvious bias here: Vince Carter’s reverse 360 windmill dunk.
Actually the 2000 dunk contest as a whole was amazing. VC, T-Mac and Steve Francis all put on a really good show. One of my favourite bball memories.
I’ll even say VC holds the best in game dunk ever made too, of course it was in International play. he dunked over a 7’2 guy on team france.
Awesome article on truehoop today about the role of advanced stats in NBA analysis (and how to better get across to people that they really mean something):
A couple key outtakes:
First, a general point:
[quote]Henry Abbot wrote:
Statistics are of particular interest right now because this is their moment, in the NBA. They are not only new, but they are screaming, convincingly, that teams have been making silly mistakes for decades.
Because of this kind of insight, teams are, as we speak, throwing more dollars at more efficient players.
It’s cool to understand that the league is transforming itself in this way, in real time, and unless you want to be proved wrong, often, you have to follow the conversation. There are new ways to see the game, and they matter. There is real, useful, actionable information among the true shooting and rebounding percentages.
You can laugh it off if you want, but know that armed primarily with Microsoft Excel, John Hollinger can beat Vegas, the Bulls can win playing offensively challenged players long minutes, and teams can recognize that some undersized draftees will still rebound like maniacs at the next level.[/quote]
(link to the guy who studied 25 different sets of predictions and showed John Hollinger was the only one to beat Vegas Odds for W/L over/unders in 2010-2011: Accuracy of Predictions for Wins in NBA in 2010/11 | Weak Side Awareness )
Second outtake, about Kobe because why not:
[quote] Henry Abbot wrote:
…these kinds of stats will thrive primarily behind the curtain. Like plumbing, cars or the collective bargaining agreement, they will become ubiquitous once users can get the best of them without having to learn how they work. The rules surrounding trades are important as hell to fans, writers, player and GMs – nevertheless almost all those people would be lost without the trade machine.
So, what is the stat equivalent of the trade machine? The tool that can encapsulate the wisdom without the lecture?
Video. Game footage.
In other words, don’t tell me Kobe Bryant takes a lot of insanely difficult shots in crunch time, show me those fallaway leaners against the triple team.
Right now the reason a lot of teams don’t make smarter decisions is, I’d argue, because they have key decision-makers who simply don’t get statistics. They are so incredibly incurious that it matters not at all what any stat person might say.
These people say things like “I watch the game,” and “I believe my eyes.”
Kobe’s response to data that he hurts the Lakers in crunch time was, essentially, you’re going to believe stats?
To me, the fact that the Laker offense loses all punch in crunch time, that they’re outscored, and that Bryant is setting all-time records for misses … those aren’t stats. That’s counting. That’s counting real stuff that really matters on the basketball court.[/quote]
A-FUCKING-MEN
[quote]Henry Abbot wrote:
To Bryant, though, and a ton of other people who play, coach, and watch basketball, all that amounts to: I don’t know who counted what, but it doesn’t mean a damn thing to me.
And in a world where stats have been crude and misused for years, Bryant’s skeptical approach is the dominant one.[/quote]
-SNIP-
[quote]…Use the stats and the spreadsheets more than ever, but behind-the-scenes, like plumbing – not as the final element in the presentation.
If I had the video rights, I’d be working on that crunch time video right now. Here Kobe, see for yourself how that iso crunch time offense is going.
That video would be devastating. That’s the way to make your arguments. That’s the way to win – not just the argument, but basketball games[/quote]
The whole thing is really well written and I suggest if you want to comment on those passages you read it in its entirety.
EDITED
[quote]therajraj wrote:
[quote]scj119 wrote:
[quote]therajraj wrote:
That had to be the worst dunk contest I’ve ever seen.[/quote]
What’s the best dunk you guys think has ever been done in a contest?
[/quote]
Obvious bias here: Vince Carter’s reverse 360 windmill dunk.
Actually the 2000 dunk contest as a whole was amazing. VC, T-Mac and Steve Francis all put on a really good show. One of my favourite bball memories.[/quote]
Vince Carter is HANDS DOWN the best dunker of all-time, and 2000 is the best contest for a variety of reasons. I just wish Carter would’ve defended his crown against Richardson and that Bryant woulda gone against both of 'em.
I spent hours practicing this one in my driveway, with a layup instead of a dunk of course lol
I see someone already posted on the previous page the malice in the palace article from grantland, great read.
Why anyone would try to fight Ben Wallace just shows how outside of his mind ron ron is.
[quote]TheBodyGuard wrote:
[quote]overstand wrote:
I actually respect him for not making a fool of himself like Lebron there.[/quote]
this
in another life, when I’m a super-sports agent, (and I’ve said this before) my advice to 99% of all situations they face is to “shut your fucking mouth and play ball”.
In spite of all his shortcomings, that’s EXACTLY what MJ did and with all his faults, his media image was fairly pristine.
Shut the fuck up. It will blow over.
Fucked someone not your wife and got caught? Shut the fuck up.
Want a trade? Rumors floating? Shut the fuck up, deal with it behind the scenes.
11 year olds making .10/hr to make your sneakers in a third world country? shut the fuck up and play ball.
you like to gamble? shut the fuck up and play ball.
Wife took some swings at your SUV and you crashed it into a pole in the middle of the night? Shut the fuck up and play.
The fact is, in the modern era of this media, with attendant overload, some other poor fuck will be the center of attention within the week. Some stupid politician will fuck up. There will be war. There will be an act of terrorism. Some dumb “reality star” will do something dumb. Jay-Z’s new album will come out. Give it a week, along with America’s short attention span, and unless you’ve raped a classroom of 10 year olds, the story WILL blow over.
SHUT UP AND PLAY - should be a new NIKE commercial.[/quote]
Okay that’s good advice but you’re addressing athletes that talk too much.
There’s nothing wrong with dancing and having a good time, especially at the All-Star game where you’re supposed to have fun.
D-Rose being reserved is fine, it’s obviously that’s who he is as a character. LeBron on the other hand is energetic and isn’t afraid to publicly display his emotions, as evidenced throughout his career so far. The problem arises when you deem one guy having the right attitude and the other guy not. You’re talking about athletes being smart and sticking to what they do best, which is playing ball. But keep it in context. The All-Star break gives NBA players the opportunity to let off some steam and enjoy themselves on and off the court.
D-Rose’s concentrated expression at the All-Star break doesn’t make me see him in any better way, especially when the guy making a ‘fool’ out of himself was dominating the game.
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
[quote]MattyXL wrote:
Ill always remember Jermaine O’neal swinging wildly at a chubby piston fan who looked like Turtle from Entourage…I give that chubby dude credit he stood up to that Giant O’Neal and swung right back [/quote]
I vividly remember O’neal throwing a running haymaker and slipping mid punch, but he still connected and dropped the dude he stuck. According to the article it was general consensus that if O’neal hadn’t have slipped, that dude might not have survived. Watching the replay, I agree.
[/quote]
That actually reminds me of the other O’Neal (Shaquille on LAL) getting into it with Brad Miller (then on CHI)
Typical NBA “fight” and all, but Shaq just missed tagging Brad Miller’s head. And I remember at the time, most of us LAL fans were more relieved for the sake of Shaq’s hand than anything else:
[quote]BradTGIF wrote:
As for Derrick Rose,
Dude plays some serious ball. He acts like the game is his job and not some sort of party, and he’s clearly doing something right. Adidas just took care of him, his family, his familys’ family and beyond.
13 year deal for over 200 million?
He can be as stone faced as he needs to be. I’ll take his 22 points and 8 assists per game all day every day, especially with PG’s out there like Rondo who are now on the trading block strictly because he’s a jackass.
[/quote]
Damn I didn’t realise he was averaging 8 assists per game. I watched the Spurs-Bulls game yesterday (heart breaker) and he wasn’t dishing it off that often.
On another note Jeremy Lin’s agent has been receiving hundreds of emails a day from companies wanting endorsement deals. Apparently, Nike is putting a huge deal in the works for him. It’s crazy what has happened to him in the last month…
[quote]Gettnitdone wrote:
[quote]BradTGIF wrote:
As for Derrick Rose,
Dude plays some serious ball. He acts like the game is his job and not some sort of party, and he’s clearly doing something right. Adidas just took care of him, his family, his familys’ family and beyond.
13 year deal for over 200 million?
He can be as stone faced as he needs to be. I’ll take his 22 points and 8 assists per game all day every day, especially with PG’s out there like Rondo who are now on the trading block strictly because he’s a jackass.
[/quote]
Damn I didn’t realise he was averaging 8 assists per game. I watched the Spurs-Bulls game yesterday (heart breaker) and he wasn’t dishing it off that often.
On another note Jeremy Lin’s agent has been receiving hundreds of emails a day from companies wanting endorsement deals. Apparently, Nike is putting a huge deal in the works for him. It’s crazy what has happened to him in the last month…[/quote]
I’m glad he had a good bounce back game last night. He got his shit handed to him quite frankly against the Heat and it’s good to see him right back in action. 19/5/13 on 50% shooting with ONE turnover.
[quote]BradTGIF wrote:
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
[quote]MattyXL wrote:
Ill always remember Jermaine O’neal swinging wildly at a chubby piston fan who looked like Turtle from Entourage…I give that chubby dude credit he stood up to that Giant O’Neal and swung right back [/quote]
I vividly remember O’neal throwing a running haymaker and slipping mid punch, but he still connected and dropped the dude he stuck. According to the article it was general consensus that if O’neal hadn’t have slipped, that dude might not have survived. Watching the replay, I agree.
What people don’t remember and the article failed to address is that Artest cheap shotted Wallace and Wallace got up and big faced him. Artest didn’t even try to go back at him, he basically ran away 'cause he knew he’d get murdered by Wallace, sat on the scorers table then went after the smallest guy he could find to restore some of his shattered pride. Artest is a bully and a punk, and after reading the article it’s clear he’s also out of his fucking mind.[/quote]
You’re right. That dude would have been all the way dead if O’neal got the shot he intended. Funny in the article that the dude said “I don’t remember much from that night.” Yeah no shit.
Artest was off his rocker at that point in time.
I live on the west coast but grew up in Michigan and have always been a big Pistons fan. I grew up in the Bad Boys era, etc.
When that game tipped off I was at the gym out here, My brother and one of my buddies started texting me almost right away. Things like
“Get to a TV, Pistons-Pacers is a war right now”
I stopped at a bar on my way home, caught some more of it, and got home in time to see everything go nuts from my living room.
It was definitely a moment in time, especially as a Pistons fan where you remember where you were when it happened.
[/quote]
I made a mistake it was the piston fan thatt was wearing a jersey that was punched by arrest not oneal . It was right before onesprint took that running haymaker . Attest hit turtle and he went back after him.
[quote]scj119 wrote:
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
I work with a guy who used to manage a Saks here in Houston, and he was telling me that a few years ago when Boston was in town Rondo, Glen Davis and Kendrick Perkins came through and basically treated the joint like their dorm room. He said Davis literally lifted his leg and farted loudly and when a woman looked over at him, Rondo snapped “What you lookin’ at bitch?” I wasn’t there so don’t know if it’s true, but don’t know why my coworker would lie. As soon as Rondo’s shipped to a lesser team he’ll be exposed for what he is: a mediocre guard with NO jumper who looked a lot better than he is due to his environment.[/quote]
Funny story, but Rondo is far better than mediocre. Of course he gets help from his teammates and needs a better jumper to be truly elite, but he is very very good.
He’s one of the best defensive PGs in the game, so half of the game you have an elite player, he only needs to be average on offense to be all-around above-average. Outside of defense, he’s great in transition (wasted on the Boston Geriatrics), a great rebounder for his size/position, and somehow manages to get off close to 12 shots a game at 48% FG shooting despite the fact everyone in the building knows he can’t shoot and is looking to drive. [/quote]
Almost every single shot he gets is a garbage bucket due to the defense focusing on one of Bostons other players. He plausible passing lanes well but his man D is definitely not “lockdown” quality and he might have the brokest (<—just made that up) jumper in the league. His being shopped has more to do than just him being an asshole.
[quote]overstand wrote:
[quote]Gettnitdone wrote:
[quote]BradTGIF wrote:
As for Derrick Rose,
Dude plays some serious ball. He acts like the game is his job and not some sort of party, and he’s clearly doing something right. Adidas just took care of him, his family, his familys’ family and beyond.
13 year deal for over 200 million?
He can be as stone faced as he needs to be. I’ll take his 22 points and 8 assists per game all day every day, especially with PG’s out there like Rondo who are now on the trading block strictly because he’s a jackass.
[/quote]
Damn I didn’t realise he was averaging 8 assists per game. I watched the Spurs-Bulls game yesterday (heart breaker) and he wasn’t dishing it off that often.
On another note Jeremy Lin’s agent has been receiving hundreds of emails a day from companies wanting endorsement deals. Apparently, Nike is putting a huge deal in the works for him. It’s crazy what has happened to him in the last month…[/quote]
I’m glad he had a good bounce back game last night. He got his shit handed to him quite frankly against the Heat and it’s good to see him right back in action. 19/5/13 on 50% shooting with ONE turnover.[/quote]
Agreed, the Knicks were also making a conscience effort of getting the ball out of Lin’s hands before the Cavs had a chance to trap him and he effectively received the ball again at the top of the key, which allowed him to facilitate the ball to everyone else effectively. He received the ball in a spot wherein if the Cavs committed to trap Lin they would of gave up too many easy baskets. It was good strategy on the Knicks part as the Cavs only could fake a trap and then would have to ease off…
The Knicks have a brutal schedule ahead Im keeping my fingers crossed.
According to Hollinger’s PER, Lebron is having the greatest season of all time.
That Shaq fighting video was turrible quality, but i think that might have been the biggest haymaker ever thrown.
[quote]therajraj wrote:
According to Hollinger’s PER, Lebron is having the greatest season of all time.[/quote]
STATISTICAL season of all time. Not even of all-time, just since 73-74 (first season enough stats were recorded to compute it), so no Oscar or Wilt etc.
But the main thing is that a half-season is vastly different than a full season when you are talking about setting records. Hard to keep that up.
I did find it interesting that the top 7 seasons of PER are all MJ and LBJ.
Speaking of one player dominating an “advanced” statistic, I love this one:
http://www.basketball-reference.com/leaders/trb_pct_season.html
[quote]scj119 wrote:
Speaking of one player dominating an “advanced” statistic, I love this one:
http://www.basketball-reference.com/leaders/trb_pct_season.html[/quote]
hahaha yus, the worm dominates.