Proud to Be Me
I love David Stern. I don't care that he may have ruined this series, or that he superficially courts red state audiences (zero tolerance and dress code have both found an equilibrium). He is the biggest Jew in sports, and when he speaks, my genes stir. Today's politcally correct Gentiles don't seem to get that he's like if Iverson were the head of the Players Association. The raw uncut. Pegasus.
Dan Patrick's interview with him today was unreal. While I like Patrick, he is no match for an absolutely dazzling display of classic Jewish argumentation. Basketball is cool and all, but blood is forever.
Incidentally, NBA conspiracy theories = Elders of Zion-style anti-Semitism. Back off, Simmons!!!!
(That was a joke. Simmons' latest column was fantastic.)
posted by Bethlehem Shoals @ 5/16/2007 05:45:00 PM
46 comments
46 Comments:
Darkofan: The tape seems to show the suspended players well beyond the bench area. There is some justification for applying the rule as regulation, no proof of intention ( mens rea ) required, objectively prohibited conduct is sufficient. Staying germane to to the post, whatever happened ot Neal Walk ?
Co-sign on Stern. He is like the JFK of our people and the closest thing there's ever gonna be to a Jewish President of these USA unless Bloomberg buys his way in.
He is the single greatest debater I've ever seen on tv. There's never been an interview where his point did not become scripture through words or an insanely intimidating look.
This hurts though, and it parallels exactly the microcosm of my current working life.
I'm not Jewish nor do I know many Jews so I'll admit ignorance on this subject so can you explain to me how DS exhibited "classic Jewish argumentation?" To me, it sounded like a 15 minute tantrum consisting of Dan asking the commish hardball questions and the commish returning with various ways of saying fuck you.
peep urbandictionary.com, son!
Classic Jewish Argumentation: Various ways of saying Fuck You.
Violence will be in the air tonight in Phoenix. Hopefully, Jalen Rose will sucker-punch Bruce Bowen at some point.
By the way: the whole suspension ordeal is really testing my faith in the NBA. It's almost as if Stern and his crew want to NFL-ize the NBA to the point where the game completely lacks any soul or personality. Maybe it's an attempt to appeal to the "Heartland" (where the hell that is in this country, I don't know) or something, but I have to say that enforcing a stupid and unfair rule is not going to make ratings go up.
Anyway, this all very dissapointing to me because Stern is probably the best commissioner in sports, and yet he refuses to see how detrimental to the league this is going to be in the long run.
Wow re: Simmons--though I've flouted him and flayed him, by the living god that made him, kid knows his ball. He hit several nails on their respective heads. I loved Stern until very recently--he could have justified said love if he had uniformly enforced the dopey rule by suspending Duncan and Bowen for stepping on the floor too. Lot of leeway in the definition of "altercation."
PS As if Stern gives a god damn about being consistent--dude changed the ball twice in one season!
Has anybody read Paul Shirley's and Neal Pollack's correspondence on Slate yet? Shirley raises some good points about how the NBA has screwed itself in terms of marketing its product.
I would take Jason Kidd over Steve Nash any day of the week. Anyone agree or disagree?
Ewing, I don't know if you can lose picking between Kidd and Nash. I'd lean toward Nash, because he scores and assists more frequently, shoots a higher percentage, and is a year younger. However, Kidd is a much better rebounder, and is more of a triple-double threat.
Yeah, I'd be happy with either of them on my team.
Ewing, I try not to feed the trolls.
Something the media types never want to talk about, of course, is the race issue and how important that is to ESPN and ABC getting viable audiences. Simmons' article is on point, but he skips lightly over the fact that SportCenter provides the morality play. Substitute "light drug use" for "protecting your teammates' back" in this example and you have exactly the same logic of white advertising-fodder getting outraged at young black men not following the rules.
Until the NBA gives up trying to compete with the NFL/MLB on reaching that audience and creates rules that suit the game, this kind of stuff is just going to happen all the time. Of course, they can't afford to do that, so they have to be the not-quite-mainstream sport always trying to tuck their shirt in while white capitalist america comes up with new moral standards to enforce. Frantz Fanon would have a fucking field day.
Obviously, I agree with you Ewing:
http://jonesonthenba.blogspot.com/2006/12/jason-kidd-vs-steve-nash-revisited.html
http://jonesonthenba.blogspot.com/2006/04/jason-kidd-is-much-better-than-steve.html
http://suns.aolsportsblog.com/2007/03/01/comparing-steve-nash-to-the-all-time-great-point-guards/
http://www.aolsportsblog.com/2007/04/02/marty-burns-steve-nash-over-jason-kidd-and-gary-payton-for-hall/
Nate: While I'd have to put Payton and Kidd ahead of Nash in terms of all time greatest point guards, I think eventually Nash will work his way into the top 10. IMO, people seem to be overly obsessed with statistics when it comes to measuring a player's greatness; I think someone like Nash can only be fully appreciated by watching him work.
db: I agree with everything you said. ESPN and ABC have displayed an almost blatant disregard for the NBA over the past few years, which is puzzling in more ways than one. It's funny, though, because people always bring up the fact that the NBA is 75% black as a reason why the media ignores it as much as possible; yet, the NFL is 65% black, and its the most talked about league on all the major American sports outlets. So, what the hell is going on?
Back to Simmons... I'm glad other people were as impressed by this column as I was. (And I typically rag on Simmons because I find his writing style sort of obnoxious.)
I know this sort of thing isn't allowed around here, but I still consider myself a "Bulls fan" from my roots. But oh man, if I see Kirk Hinrich flop one more time, it's back to cheering for 'Sheed and co., as I'd be inclined to do against any other team. And 'Sheed was right--the call that got him T'd up was, in fact, "fuckin' bullshit.") Seriously, Hinrich is one of the flop-iest--not to mention most overpaid--players in the league.
"Ok Dan, let me write that down."
What a fucking baller.
T: On your abandoned reply about the comparison between the coverage of the misbehavior of the NBA vs. that of the NFL, I'd have to say the sports media does have a bias in favor of the NFL. If an NBA player gets in trouble with the law, then it's a symptom of a wider problem for the League. If an NFL player gets in trouble with the law, it's an isolated case
with no larger ramifications.
Your Chris Berman theory is interesting. He does seem to have some power within ESPN, though how much is probably a question which will never be answered.
Ever since I heard about the suspensions I’ve been thinking about Dave Hickey’s excellent essay, The Heresy of the Zone Defense, where he praises professional basketball for constantly making rule changes that liberate the game and make it more lively and exciting. The list of such rule changes is long but includes the introduction of the shot clock, the ten-second rule, the backcourt violation, the three point shot, and, as the title suggests, the insistence on man-to-man defense. Obviously that last rule was eliminated a couple years ago. I suppose it should have been an omen. Or at least one more instance of Stern’s legacy of rule changes that disregard the spirit of liberation so vital to this game and replace it with an overwhelming desire to govern. Stern has given us the dress code (both off and on the court), the overuse of technical foul calls, the restricted zone (ostensibly created to return the game to its glory days of driving and penetration and exciting post play but has instead given players tacit permission to take a charge and flop away anywhere else in the paint knowing the call will go their way—and thank you Bill Simmons for your comments in this area), and of course the bullshit rule that left Amare and Diaw high and dry for this game. Stern and the NBA are so desperate to return the league to its past glories but with each passing year are eroding the game’s very foundation. He needs to go.
I love how the Spurs play without any passion whatsoever. It's almost like they don't enjoy playing basketball, or something.
I wish someone wipe that dazed fucking look off their faces.
Oh yeah: Fuck Stern and Stu Jackson.
Those boring bastards squeezed the life out of the game and won it. I really thought the suns would come through in that one, which makes me even sadder that I likely will not be watching a decent match up in the finals... I'm so sick of the spurs.
That game was so predictable. The Suns play with passian and fire through 3 quarters, then unravel at the hands of the Spurs 3-point shooting. Series over. Good job Nets taking it back to NJ (or should i say neutral playing zone?)
As far as I'm concerned, the Nets and Cavs don't even exist right now. Talk about awful basketball.
Sean, Nets/Cavs is the reason why the Suns have to advance, especially now that the Warriors have been eliminated. Spurs/Jazz has no appeal to me, and the East has been dead since the Magic and Raptors were eliminated. Boo.
Free agency and draft ho!
Ben Q. Rock: It's pretty sad that the Draft Lottery is going to provide more drama than the Playoffs.
I just got back from the game. I haven't read anything from any media outlet about the game. I don't want to. Here's my trip report:
Everyone at U.S. Airways tonight gave their heart and soul for the Suns. I don't know how it sounded on TV, but we booed the hell out of the Spurs on each offensive possession. We cheered the fuck out of the Suns nearly the whole game, no matter what they did. We were up the whole game, then when it got down to crunch time, we still couldn't win.
The Spurs hit big shot after big shot, and we couldn't answer. I feel dead inside. My ears are ringing, and I can barely speak. We had no bigs, had James Jones playing center quite a bit, we still controlled Duncan for the most part, and we STILL still lost.
And here's what really pisses me off: when we were down three with 30-some seconds left, the crowd was pouring out the exits. Living in Phoenix, I know how vapid the people are here, but seeing everyone give up like that just KILLED me inside.
It's like the Spurs played like shit on purpose for 3.5 quarters, then turned it on, just to crush us.
I've watched nearly every Suns game in its entirety this year, and invested so much emotion into them, and I don't know where to go from here. I'm numb right now, but hopefully the team isn't as crushed as its fans are, and can win Game 6 in San Antonio. All I can say is this: props to the Spurs. This fucking HURTS.
cmg, I feel like I can relate to you on some level. I attended the Magic's third game with the Pistons this year, the franchise's first home playoff game in 5 years. We jumped out to an early lead, only to see the Pistons hit buzzer-beater after buzzer-beater before putting us away for good in the third quarter. Some fans left halfway through that period. It was maddening and soul-crushing at the same time.
Also, where has John Hollinger been?
You know what I love about this suspension stuff in the Spurs-Suns series? Finally, the Spurs are the villains. Took 'em long enough.
http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=2872530&name=hollinger_john
Okay, John.
Sean,
re: your earlier comment about popularity of the NFL despite its blackness. Yeah, the NFL is majority black, but who are its poster boys? Manning, Brady, Favre - the marquee position is still majority white, while most of the black players are grunts and/or made redundant within 3-5 years by the annual influx of similar athletes.
The NBA, it's nearly the converse. The stars are black (or European), and the all-American white boys are generally 12th men (i.e. the "fan favorite") whose contributions are easily replaced by younger, cheaper role players.
Poor Jalen Rose. The Suns could be down to five players and I get the feeling he would still not get in the game. D'Antoni would just say, "fuck it, we're going with four." Have his skills really eroded to the point that even Pat Burke gets 3 minutes over him?
I was hoping for some Jalen action too. I read somewhere (insidehoops msg board, I think) that Phx told him they were sorry he wasn't fitting in and that they were willing to release him if he wanted to pursue an opportunity with another team, but he was like, "Nah, I'm good." As a big Raps fan, my relationship with Jalen is complex - he was our only source of swag during some dark times, but it's much easier to love him now that he's gone.
And I sort of love that "Nah, I'm good" response (regardless of whether the story is accurate) - I mean, when Isiah's paying you $17 mil to have a bench seat for the Suns, life IS good.
I've always liked Jalen from back during his Fab 5 days. I like those big guard/forward types. I think he can still contribute somewhere coming off the bench for a couple more seasons. Lakers? Pistons? Mavs? I'm not sure. But yes, for now getting $17 mil to watch the Suns every night isn't the worst gig in the world.
Spinachdip--the black quarterback is ascending (witness the last two drafts) over the great white hype. In ten years the only white NFL QB will be Favre.
P.S. I messed up the Kipling quote thirty comments ago. My bad.
You know, I think people need to give D'Antoni a large share of the blame for that loss last night. The league gets most of the blame, but the rest should go to D'Antoni. What kind of a response to the suspensions is it to just go with a 6-man rotation? Is it any wonder the Suns couldn't hold on at the end of the game? They must have been exhausted! The Suns had that double-digit first half lead and that would have been a great time to try to buy Nash and Marion a couple minutes. You're telling me Jalen Rose and Marcus Banks couldn't have come in and held status quo for 3-4 minutes in there? 46 minutes for Nash, 46 minutes for Marion, 47 minutes for Raja. Just not smart. Everybody gets tired at the end if they play that many minutes. I give the Suns a lot of credit for staying ahead as long as they did, but I give D'Antoni the blame for why they couldn't hold it at the end.
At some point, the appeal of 'heartland' america isn't going to matter anymore. You think Mexican immigrants give a fuck less whether AI has tatoos and speaks his mind? What about Asian immigrants?
I have this utopic vision of an urban, integrated United States where new and delicious forms of bigotry (like the traditional Asian dislike for other Asian cultures, or maybe an influx of Irish, making the insult "papist" have some weight again) replace the tired black-white dynamic.
When racial anarchy becomes the norm, then maybe every basketball team will play like the Warriors!
PS Fuck David Stern, double-fuck Stu Jackson, Robert Horry goes back in the box or he gets the hose again
@Wild Yams:
I got a sense that the Suns wanted to lose the game, somewhere in their injured hearts, because to win would have validated, on some level, David Stern's idioditry.
Now everyone can continue to be angry, and if the suns fail, hey, it was Stern's fault!
There's a sentiment floating around, that I'm sympathetic to - Stern deserves a low-ratings Spurs-Pistons finals now, because maybe that'll convince him to loosen up on the reigns a little. It's a passive-agressive response, and it should be beneath the Suns, but it's definitely not beneath me.
cmg: exellent trip report. I am a spurs fan who was watching the game at home. I was scared shitless about this game and did not think for a second beforehand that it would not be hard as hell for the Spurs because I respect Phoenix's abilities that much. As it turned out the game was the sun's the entire night except for the last five minutes. It is pretty muh exactly what happened to the spurs in game 4. I will not assume anything about the outcome of this series until the final buzzer sounds.
You and the rest of the crowd did an amazing job last night. When the game began I noticed the crowd was booing the spurs hard and loud on every possession. I thought damn, they are as loud as the golden state crowd. I also did not think the booing would last past five minutes into the game. I was wrong. When the spurs came out playing like dogshit, and the suns went on that 20-2 run in the first quarter, I had to put my tv on mute because I could just feel the noise of the crowd willing the action on the court. The cheers were so loud for the suns, and the boos for the spurs never stopped. That combined with Steve Kerr's Suns sided commentary forced me to turn off the volume and watch a basketball game in silence for the first time in my life. I did not turn the sound back on again until the fourth quarter, and the booing was still going on! That was perhaps one of the most amazing performances by a crowd ever. It is a damn shame that you witnessed folks filing out when the game was still yours to win, but then I have seen the same bullshit at spurs games in san antonio.
Wild Yams: You are exactly right about D'Antoni working his horses too hard in that game. This something I have noticed about him for a few years now. This is just one of several reasons I think he is not that great of a coach. As a spur fan I don't get it because Pop is very smart about getting his star players rest whether the team is up by 20 or down by 20. Last night was a perfect example. The Suns go on a 20-2 run in the first quarter, but rather than panicing about the lead and leaving his stars on the court, Pop sat Tony and Tim with about 3 minutes left in the quarter like he does every single game. In fact his rotations are so predictable to people that watch every spur game throughout the year that we can set our watches by them. Tim, Tony, and Manu always end up with about 35-38 minutes maximum. To overwork your stars by playing them 46-47 minutes is well... dumb. For christ's sake the team was up by 18 points in the second quarter. How can D'Antoni be so insecure that he keeps Nash on the floor during a stretch where the lead is that high? I think he worries too much about each individual possession during the game(as evidenced by his childish over-reactions to foul calls/no-calls). Pops big philosophy is to not be in a hurry to win but rather to win over 48 minutes, and the importance he places on getting players rest reflects that. I think D'Antoni could stand to grow a bit in this way. I also think some of the things he says to the media prove that he does not have the class/character of a great coach. Then again Phil Jackson was always acted cocky and put down opponents in his interviews too. As much as suns fans might not believe it after this series, the Spurs are an organization that pride themselves on being classy and humble. You will never hear anyone on the team, especially Pop putting down opponents or saying that the spurs are great or "more talented".
Thats all. Thanks
spinachdip: True. That's all I've got right now.
Maxwelldemon: If what you're saying happens, I bet the NFL will start to lose a little bit of its popularity. I can only dream, I guess (not that I don't like football; it's just that it's way overhyped, IMO).
Wild Yams: Yeah, I agree. D'Antoni does deserve some of the blame from last night's loss. It's not like his bench is that awful.
Matt: I think it'd be even cooler if rural areas started to become more diverse, thus forcing the media and the political class to recognize that blacks, Latinos, Asians, etc., are Americans too. Even if they don't watch lots of football or vote Republican (not that there's a connection between the two or anything; I'm serious).
Last year’s finals taught me to not think of basketball in terms of the confining frame of ‘championship.’ If it matters to you who wins in the playoffs, you will inevitably be disappointed, not just because your favorite team (probably) lost, but also because the whole procedure is a dramatized sham. Not only were last year’s finals not ‘sport,’ they weren’t especially entertaining, unless you are entertained by people ranting about officiating (in that sense, for the nba, all publicity is good publicity). This year’s finals will be the same. But in general, how often does something actually good happen in sports? In the past 365 days, the Indianapolis Colts, St. Louis Cardinals, and Miami Heat have all won championships. Reggie Wayne is a champion. Antoine Walker is a champion. Whoever plays for the Cardinals is a champion. Any team worth rooting for, above and beyond your ‘own,’ fails, and in the nba they fail because of David Stern and co. If you were a fan of last year’s heat or this year’s spurs, could you possibly be satisfied with your team’s ‘success’? Yes, if you were a complete douchbag (and from watching heat games it seems that most of the are). This year’s Golden State team was an example of a good thing happening, and that was that.
Anyway, what I’m getting at, is that there is probably a reason for watching aside from ‘winning/losing,’ and that point is probably something akin to the much maligned ‘highlight.’ I don’t have cable, and hardly ever watch games. I do watch sportscenter excerpts online, as well as youtube videos. But it also has to do with basketball aesethetics, culture, blah blah. Ie, I’m a nuggets fan, and I would not want melo traded for Duncan, because I’d rather my team look good and lose than feature Tim Duncan.
Now, with regards to those spurs, I would say that their flopping deserves a head-butt, but this already happened, and still the world keeps turning.
Maxwelldemon: If what you're saying happens, I bet the NFL will start to lose a little bit of its popularity.
Exactly right Sean. Middle Amerikkka is already deserting the NFL for poker.
Am @ 10:30pm:
You sound bitter.
I have read so many posts like this in these playoffs. You all love that the warriors beat the mavs because they play a style that holds the interest of people that have no other reason to be interested in the playoffs. If the team you root for (eg: nuggets, other non-contenders) is not in the race, then all you care about is that the style of play by the remaining teams is entertaining by your standards. I get it already. Guess what... the fans of the teams that are still in the show still give a fuck. The rest of you will never be pleased unless every team plays like the warriors which is impossible if you give it any thought. All of you freedarko types only like what is on the fringe. As soon as it would become mainstream you would all be crying for something else. This is true and you know it. I wish you would all find something more productive to do with your time and stop WHINING. WAaaaggghhhh... the playoffs are boring... the NBA sucks... I don't even want to watch... Waaaaagggghhhhh.
Then start watching midseason MLB and shut the fuck up already.
Well, I was actually more responding to the reaction/complaints re: league officiating and rule-making than complaining myself. The argument – which I agree might be somewhat drastic – is that we care about such things because we care about winning, as in who wins, which is somewhat quaint. This is especially true because a) many players themselves do not care (at least for the first 82 games, and if you’ve watched this Cleveland tearm, well into the postseason as well) and b) one cannot always say that the best team won (especially true in the nba of late). But even if those things weren’t the case, I am unable to separate ‘sport’ from ‘entertainment,’ and winning is included in that calculation. If in this age of the coors ultimate highlight and mcdonald’s halftime program and poker as sport you still don’t see or on some level feel that elision, that moment when winning became partially and then wholly consumer product, well then I tip my hat to you, good sir. And speaking of baseball, I hear that Mr. Dimmagio will be returning any day now.
T.:
That's a sick quote, Ichiro is now the one and only baseball player I like.
I love Simmons, but he seems to be arguing too much with his heart here. He actually wants to leave more room for interpretation? Interpretation is what leads to stuff like Stephen Jackson getting booted for clapping his hands.
Don't leave the bench. Period. It's not a pickup game, that example sucks. What more needs to be said? If you leave it up for interpretation, then you're bound to have situations where some guys get reamed and some guys get away with too much. Either way it will be worse than just having a single, easy to follow rule that everybody understands.
Flopping- easy to criticize, hard to fix. There's a fine line between flopping, and taking a charge, isn't there?
About the only thing I can add here is that the refs should try to make calls (or non-calls) based on what the ball handler does, not on whether the defender falls down or not. Flopping has its own inherent risks anyhow- if you don't get the call, you give up an automatic 2.
It seems ridiculous to suggest that you can just 'ban' flopping, unless you want to make yet another one of those interpretive things, and let refs try to figure out whether some little dude really did get decked or not.
Zone Defense and 'Expressionism'- Anytime you try to game things to force players to play a certain way, it's bound to have ramifications. Watching zone defenses (BTW I loved watching GS play that 3-2) is far better IMO than seeing 1 ballhandler in a forced isoation, by that I mean his four teammates are in the stands buying popcorn to prevent the defenders from being able to help on defense. If you're going to outlaw zone defenses, why not go ahead and outlaw double-teams and help defense in general? The game itself is more important than trying to artifically create more scoring opportunities for the NBA's marquee players.
Simplification is generally the solution, NOT the problem. Forcing (which is different from allowing) too much interpretation by refs on the floor (which ultimately confuses players), and contriving all sorts of complicated rules about how defenders can defend, make the game complicated in a bad way. It takes the game away from the street game example that Simmons tries to use to support his claims.
Post a Comment
<< Home