Incompetent Sports Writers
Yay For Sports Writing Incompetence
I used to really love FanHouse. They had awesome articles, awesome interviews, awesome writers. I still swing over there to read guys like Ziller and Matt Watson, who are among the elite in this whole blogging thing.
But then you get crap like the following. The bold is text from the article, non-bold is me.
Chris Paul is Overrated-- Brett Pollakoff
Anytime the guy does anything remotely above average, the NBA world stops to bow down and worship at his altar.
Fine, whatever. Success can oftentimes breed contempt.
Exhibit A: that bounce through Jason Terry's legs that Paul pulled off on Thursday night. Does... one relatively routine highlight have to get described as potentially the greatest play in the history of the NBA? Please. Someone get Tyson Chandler a Magic Johnson highlight reel, ASAP.
Tyson Chandler's exact quote: "He made one of the best moves I've ever seen in my life - on an NBA player." TC was born in 1982. He was 8 years old when Magic retired for the first time. Please explain to me where Tyson says that is "potentially the greatest play in NBA history." Please. Someone get Brett Pollakoff a "How to Read and Understand Basic English" Guide, ASAP.
Watch the replay again and tell me that Steve Nash, Deron Williams, or even Jason Kidd (six years ago when he could still play) wouldn't have done the exact same thing in that situation. If Paul wants to continue the fast break, bouncing the ball right through the defender's legs is the only option at that point. Otherwise, he has to run him over and pick up an offensive foul.
Yeah, very easy for you to say after the fact. This is like dismissing a Kobe Bryant game winner by saying, "if Kobe wants to win, shooting the ball is the only option at that point." Having an idea and actually implementing it are two very, very different things. If Deron's, Nash's, or JKidd's turnover rates suggest anything, it's that they would have been far less likely to implement it properly than Paul.
If a 37-year-old, seven-foot tall, 350-pound Shaquille O'Neal can do the exact same thing, sorry: the degree of difficulty just can't be that high.
Right. Let's compare a set play in the All-Star game against a center not even pretending to play defense to a point guard thinking on his feet in the open court against an infinitely quicker player in a game that actually matters. Yeah, that makes perfect sense.
Perhaps the ultimate irony here is that you could clearly hear Chris Paul instructing Shaq to perform that move in the All Star game before the play ever happened.
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Hey Everybody! Let's All Overreact Wildly to a Couple Bad Games!
Bill Simmons has one of his usual, hyperbole filled pieces up at ESPN. Among other things, he calls Melo "more efficient" this season despite a ten percent (yes, ten percent) drop in shooting this season and decides to make some broad generalizations about teams "wanting to score less" based on 10-15 games of evidence. So par for the course. On top of all that, he claims deep understanding of the psychologies of the New Orleans Hornets and Byron Scott. How came he to possess this knowledge? Oh, he attended the Clippers game. Duh.
A few of Simmons' claims: (1) Chris Paul and Byron Scott have a "C" relationship, as opposed to an "A" and (2) The Hornets don't like Byron Scott. I really don't feel like diving into an extended, point-by -point Simmons bashing session here. But I do want to highlight this section of his article, purely for amusement:
"I watched the Spurs beat the Clippers [2 weeks ago]... things can't splinter for them. That Pop-Duncan foundation is just too strong. You could see it during every timeout huddle, you could see it with how they interacted and supported each other, and you could see it with the way they carried themselves. When Roger Mason drained the game-winning 3-pointer, there was no chest-pounding or pointing to God, just a quiet fist pump and a leisurely walk back to the huddle. It's a professional team in every sense.
The Hornets gave me a different vibe. They seemed a little detached."
Wait... so Roger Mason performs perhaps the most exhilarating feat in basketball- hitting a game winning three with the clock winding down, barely celebrates at all, and you praise it as "professionalism." Then you turn right around and dismiss the Hornets' "lack of celebration" as "detachment"?
Simmons, 10/28: "New Orleans [will be] in the 2009 NBA Finals."
Simmons, 11/26: "I am no longer sold on the 2009 Hornets."
Hey Bill, ever heard of this thing called a "small sample size"? No? Well, how about a "double standard"?
Didn't think so. (Ticktock6, I'm expecting you to break out the heavy artillery!)
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