I Think I Actually Became a Blogger So That One Day I Could Post This….
As most here know, I am an avowed Basketball & NBA fan. I’m an addict that refuses the 12 steps.
And while we don’t usually do sports highlights here, I am going to do so today. Partially because it’s Friday and I’m feeling lazy, partially because it’s actually sunny here for the first time in months and I feel like treating myself. But mostly because this past week brought the most awesome NBA highlight ever, and the most awesomely bad NBA highlight ever.
So, for your viewing pleasure, here is the best the NBA has to offer:
And the worst:
Seriously, I could watch either one of these over and over and never get tired of them.
ps – For this math & science geeks, here is a pretty fantastic piece by ESPN explaining the physics of how Kendrick Perkin’s bodying Blake Griffn mid-air actually makes Griffin’s dunk possible:
That sports science video just seems like an excuse to play the dunk over and over and over. (Not a bad thing of course.)Report
2014.
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As a fan of a team eliminated from the tournament by Blake Griffin, I cannot approve.
(But holy crap that’s amazing.)Report
At a minimum, at least Diop’s free-throw motion looked better than anything Shaq ever tossed up!Report
Personally, I thought this dunk was better. I realize that Griffin’s took insane strength and body control… but LeBron jumped over a dude. On an alleyoop!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJlp-nJSbr0Report
Didn’t realize the show/allude to the LeBron dunk in the Sports Science video.Report
Lebron jumped over a little 5’11” guy, Carter jumped over a 7’2″ dude!
My favorite YouTube post: The commentators and the entire French team applied for American citizenship after that game.Report
That was a pretty huge dunk.Report
A terrifically athletic move, no question. But it does bring up one of the things that annoys me about some of the NBA rules. The defensive foul gets called, Blake gets continuation and the basket. In the course of scoring, though, Blake commits a blatent offensive foul (hitting Perkins in the face as well as using Perkins to hold himself up). Continuation is normally fine, but it ought not to get you a free pass on an offensive foul.
And don’t even get me started on the variation in the way the refs interpret the rules depending on the game situation. As any number of former players doing color have remarked on live mics over the years, “It’s the fourth quarter and you’re behind by 20 points; you know that the refs are going to let you get away with a lot of pushing and holding that would be a foul in a closer game, or earlier in the game.”Report
Not an offensive foul, Perkins is inside the circle.
No argument with the subjectivity of playcalling.Report
That rule only applies on a secondary, help defender.Report
He is a secondary defender on that play.
Perkins is the center; Blake’s primary defender on that play was Ibaka, who was left in the dust very early on.Report
That does appear to be the case. I was clarifying what I find to be a more general misunderstanding, in that an offensive foul can never be called in the “restricted area”. It is also not an automatic defensive foul if contact is made. But, yes, Oerkins does indeed appear to be a help defender.Report
The rule doesn’t say there can’t be an offensive foul in the restricted area; it says that there can’t be a charging foul down there. There are still illegal things the offensive player can do, particularly with their off hand, and those fouls are regularly called when there’s no defensive foul preceding them. Absent the blocking foul — correctly called without respect to the restricted area, as Perkins was in the air when the initial contact occurred — Griffin’s wildly swinging left arm/hand, hitting Perkins in the face first and then grabbing his shoulder, would be illegal in or out of the restricted area.
Reread my comment. I’m not saying that the call was improper under the current rules; I’m complaining that the rules allow, following a defensive foul, an offensive player to commit an otherwise illegal action and still get a basket. I want the call to be defensive blocking, no basket because of illegal action, offensive player shoots two free throws.Report
MC- I nderstand your point and mostly agree. My initial response was intended for Wardsmith’s post below this one. I put it in the wrong spot.
WS said: “It isn’t a foul because they are inside the “half-circle” below the rim. That was put there just to keep defenders from blocking shooters. Perkins was inside the circle, therefore automatic blocking foul.”Report
I want the call to be defensive blocking, no basket because of illegal action, offensive player shoots two free throws.
Oh, I see. Yes, I agree, according to the literal reading of the rules, that’s the right call.
I imagine that will occur… right about when they enforce traveling, palming the ball, body fouls on shots… actually, any foul that they call on a guard defending a guard but don’t call on a forward defending a forward… and offensive and defensive positioning fouls away from the ball. Heck, let’s go back in time and take away Jordan’s iconic basket for his pushoff on Hornacek. Or give Shaq the 3,291,432 additional foul shots he would have had. Or… ah, never mind.
The status quo makes the game a lot more subjective, when it comes to the refs, but it does make it more dynamic to watch, so there’s that upside. I don’t mind the subjectivity so much, as long as they’re consistent during the game. Call it a foul on both ends of the floor. Don’t call it not a foul on one end and do call it on the other.Report
Or give Shaq the 3,291,432 additional foul shots he would have had
Wouldn’t matter, Shaq would have just missed them all (well, most of them).Report
Yes. Which is why, even though I live outside Denver and am a Nuggets fan, I already know that no matter how well they play during the regular season, they will never go deep in the playoffs. No team does unless they’ve got at least two players with a big-enough name to get those favorable calls in the last several minutes of the game.Report
It isn’t a foul because they are inside the “half-circle” below the rim. That was put there just to keep defenders from blocking shooters. Perkins was inside the circle, therefore automatic blocking foul. In the old days it was a judgement call, but after a certain ref went to jail we should assume NBA refs don’t exercise good judgement. 😉Report
Jinx, you owe me a coke.Report
Not only that, but Jinx is an excellent words with friends choice. Maybe all would be forgiven if only Baldwin could show he was playing that word on the triple letters in the last row! 🙂Report
Great highlights.
I love how in both of them, the announcer’s saying something a second before the highlight that winds up seeming like foreshadowing <i>and</i> litotes. (Yeah, I passed eighth grade English, I’m not ashamed to throw that around). In the Griffin clip, the guy’s saying, “It’s a physical game…” just as he goes up. And in the second one, he’s helpfully setting the background: “DeSagana goes there having struggled, he’s got one point.” On cue: a miss by about 3 feet.Report
Now you got me looking up old plays.
This one is one of my favorites, because he was so hot that night and I honestly think he was so caught up in his hot streak when his foot left the ground he was thinking, “I’m gonna dunk this… wait a second, what the hell was I thinking!!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8GDRcO_-o0Report
Thats fun! I’ve done something similar where I’ve taken off and completely misjudged where I was in relation to the basket. Of course, I never threatened to rock the rim.Report