When Losing Means Winning a Better Draft Pick
Fans often want their team to lose to get a better pick, but teams don’t always comply. So why do teams tank way less often than fans want?
Category: Basketball
Cancel This Entire Season of National Anthem Ball
So, I was expected to have a strong reaction to Mark Cuban briefly directing the Dallas Mavericks to cease playing the national anthem. Ok…
Tampa Bay: The Hub Of The Sports World
Tampa Bay has been able to claim the Stanley Cup Finals, the World Series, the Super Bowl, and Wrestlemania in less than a year
Briefly, About Good Cops And Bad Cops
A funny thing happened yesterday: Ujiri’s legal team released bodycam footage that did not show what Strickland claimed it did.
NBA Suspends Season After Player Test Positive for Coronavirus
The NBA is suspending the season after a player tests positive for coronavirus.
Getting to Ten Times Better
Vikram briefly examines three domains governed by power-law distributions: basketball, programming, and money
Entertainment, Humanity, and the Death of Kobe Bryant
Do we care more about some celebrity’s death than the thousands of other deaths? No. Not really. It just serves as a reminder of how connected we really are.
NBA Legend Kobe Bryant Dead in Helicopter Crash
Stunning news in the sports world, as one of the greatest to ever play basketball is dead at the age of 41 in a helicopter crash.
The (Ratings) Limits of Madness
There was a basketball game on last night. Some of you watched, and many others didn’t. Neither did I.
Some Coaches Are Not Good
Some coaches want us to believe very much that they have nothing at all to do with what their players achieve, or don’t achieve, on the court.
Wojnarowski: David Blatt never stood a chance with LeBron James and Co. – Yahoo Sports
Ultimately, Blatt had little staying power with the Cavaliers, because James had turned Blatt’s removal into an inevitability. As the games wore on, opposing players on the floor weren’t only watching James constantly wave...
Briefly, On Watching Basketball and Advertising
I’ve been watching the NBA playoffs this year. The matchups have been good, but not great, and some of the teams that I’ve wanted to advance – San Antonio, I’m looking at you –...
The San Antonio Spurs Have Won Their 5th NBA Title
The San Antonio Spurs have won their fifth title in the last fifteen years, a remarkable level of achievement, especially considering the way that they’ve done it, winning with a mix of stunning international...
Not So Briefly On Aging, Arvydas Sabonis, And Being Sworn About
My wife and I took our children to the park. There was a newly poured concrete slab with a basketball hoop at one end. Nearby, a father and his son were eating sandwiches. On...
Three Short Essays: One About Jason Collins, One About Basketball, And One About Waiting For Bigots To Finally Be Right
Sam on Jason Collins, basketball, and bigotry.
The Finals
Sports have never been a focal point for the League, so I’ll put this one below the fold . . .
Defending Basketball Mysticism
I know I should be talking about Four Loko or Thomas Friedman’s latest column on the horrors of deliberative democracy, but the start of a really compelling NBA season demands some sports blogging. Despite...
Is winning everything? (for an athlete)
I’m not much of a basketball fan – correction, I’m not a basketball fan at all – but the heavily-reported saga of Lebron James’ free agency has struck a bit of a chord with...
Quote of the Day
“What the heck is Yahoo? Is it one of those computer things? Is that like Twittering?” – The inimitable Gregg Popovich, demonstrating his technological savvy right before tip-off.
