Wrongheaded Basketball Columns Not that I'm much of an NBA fan but this Gregg Easterbrook post contains so many howlers that I have to at least attempt to set things straight. (Not really "set him straight" since it's not as though he'd find this blog, even if he Googled himself.)
First paragraph: He's actually right that the game's start time was a terrible idea. I was stunned to find the game starting that late when I flipped through channels.
Second paragraph: The Oscar Robertson article he quotes may be right, I don't know. A plurality of NBA games I've seen the past two seasons involve the Sacramento Kings. (How lucky are contrarian-sports people in these parts to have the A's and the Kings? Talk about outlier franchies...) Anyhow, Sac at least does strategize, pass the ball around, and so on.
Third paragraph: It does my heart good to see a LeBron James marketing campaign built around his "court vision" and crisp passes. Maybe that will start the counterrevolution a bit... The derogatory reference to Eastern Europeans is just asinine, at least the implicit assumption that they're inferior athletes.
(It's like the opposite of the racist assumption people supposedly make about white players having intelligence/hustle and black players having athletic ability.)
Howler #1: "Do you know anybody who would rather watch an NBA game than the NCAA men's college tournament [...]?"
Did you catch the dishonest parallel? Hint: Most people prefer the NCAA tournament over a regular season NBA game (or even playoff game, aside from Game 7), because--get this--the loser goes home! You might say there's a bit more riding on a game like that.
Howler #2: "Defense is ascendant because, unlike offense, it requires little cooperation."
Well, a zone defense does. He does mentions the "man-to-man defense that NBA teams play most of the time," but from my (admittedly non-scientific) viewing sample I've seen a lot of zone.
Even in man-to-man, if you don't cooperate, some team will master the art of pick-and-roll and just shred your "every man in his own world" defense. In fairness, I suppose that's exactly what the Utah Jazz did the past few years.
Howler #3: "The Lakers and Spurs have dominated the NBA recently in part because they have the league's two best players (Tim Duncan and Shaq) but in part because they are among the few NBA clubs that still run a coordinated, disciplined offense."
Whoa. I never thought I'd see the San Antonio Spurs held up as a paragon of virtue for their offense. Has Easterbrook even watched an NBA game this season? Spurs games are butt-ugly because they don't score much and rely on holding you to even fewer points. The only way Easterbrook's claim could make sense is if they have a super-low turnover rate. (Since I'm "typing on tilt," heaven forbid I actually look something up, I'll leave that lookup to the reader.)
As for the Lakers... they're good but "discplined" isn't the first thing I think of about their offense, at least not the connotation Easterbrook intends with "discipline." Somehow, funneling the ball to Daddy all day for him to muscle it in doesn't quite strike me as the right counterexample to the teams who freelance. Then again, maybe I'm deeply underestimating his passing skills. Surely when he gets triple-teamed, he has to dish the ball back out, no?
Blah. This whole post--this whole rant--really stems from both the idiotic NCAA tournament reference and his overlooking Sacramento (and also Dallas).
