Matt Yglesias

32 Responses to “Basketball-Like Activities”

1. Gabriel Says:
   November 30th, 2008 at 11:25 am

   It just wasn’t much like “professional basketball” as that’s normally understood.

   Well, yes. This sounds like it might have been entertaining.

2. lfv Says:
   November 30th, 2008 at 11:31 am

   LeBron must be dying waiting to go there. After all, D’Antoni has had so much playoff success and so have countless other franchises that play no defense.

3. Chris O. Says:
   November 30th, 2008 at 11:42 am

   Yeah, too bad that Knicks assist record didn’t stay in the hands of Richie Guerin…wait, who?

4. Petey Says:
   November 30th, 2008 at 11:45 am

   What? You don’t think Duhon will average 20 assists? You don’t think Lee is an automatic 30/20 guy?

   —–

   More seriously:

   I’d pay good money to watch a seven game series between Nellie and D’Antoni. It’d be amazingly fun.

   —–

   And “sad”? Your home team wins a shootout and you’re sad? You’ve got odd notions of sad.

   Not every team can be as inspiring and entertaining as the ‘zards, (who combined lousy defense with a slow pace even back when they used to be a .500 team), but still…

5. kforceone Says:
   November 30th, 2008 at 11:47 am

   “Chris Duhon now holds the Knicks franchise record with 22 assists. It’s a little sad. For a longtime franchise like the Knicks, that record should be held by a great point guard.”

   Very true, I saw this spectacle of NBDL player and avg to good NBA players posing as “stars” and must agree.

   Igloo, Coates must have FedExed you the package over the long weekend, glad to see you got your stuff back.

   k1

6. rupert Says:
   November 30th, 2008 at 12:14 pm

   Sounds like an old ABA no defense game; did they use a red, white and blue ball??

7. mike Says:
   November 30th, 2008 at 12:15 pm

   Dude….It’s the NBA. Whole thing’s a joke.

8. Marlowe Says:
   November 30th, 2008 at 12:31 pm

   At the risk (or more likely certainty) of being labeled an old curmudgeon, I was weaned onto basketball by Frazier, Reed, DeBusschere, Bradley and Barnett (and soon after Earl the Pearl). For these reasons, I don’t think much of the NBA today. For similar reasons, I no longer follow my first love, the Yankees and baseball, at all–remembering complete games, no wild cards (or even playoffs), and real stadiums with peculiar characteristics, not Disnyfied theme parks with corporate names.

9. hubcap Says:
   November 30th, 2008 at 12:46 pm

   At the risk (or more likely certainty) of being labeled an old curmudgeon, I was weaned onto basketball by Frazier, Reed, DeBusschere, Bradley and Barnett (and soon after Earl the Pearl)

   ===
   Well, at least you’re an old curmudgeon with an impeccable pedigree.

10. Walter Crockett Says:
    November 30th, 2008 at 12:52 pm

    Earl the Pearl. Don’t I recall him scoring a basket for the opposing team late in the game to beat the point spread? That would almost wean me off of basketball.

11. Josh R. Says:
    November 30th, 2008 at 1:12 pm

    I didn’t get to see the game, but looking at the box score, what the Knicks did (or the Warriors let them) is even more impressive considering that they only used seven players. David Lee, Chris Duhon, Wilson Chandler, Al Harrigton, Quentin Richradson, Tim Thomas, and Anthony Roberson…that has to be the least impressive group ever to score 138 points in a game.

12. eli b Says:
    November 30th, 2008 at 1:13 pm

    I was saying this the whole game, too. I still chanted de-fense, even though I knew I was chanting in vain. But honestly, I wasn’t disappointed by my experience. I go to Knicks games maybe once or twice a year, and usually, those have not been times that they came ahead – quite the contrary. The standing ovation for the Crawford was classy, and the little variety shows that never make it to TV are always fun. So yes, I agree with you that defense is dead and we’ll probably never be a great team while that’s true…at the very least, though, the ride’ll be more fun than the one we’ve been subject to since December 2001.

13. jackson Says:
    November 30th, 2008 at 1:56 pm

    Wait a minute…everyone and his mother complains for the past decade and a half that the NBA is too slow, too much defense, too much one-on-one, too much standing around, not enough showtime. Did you like that? Sounds like this game was actually entertaining. It also sounds like you’d rather have an 80-70 game where Jon Starks gets in a fight with a fan, and Charles Oakley gets ejected after his second flagrant foul.

14. Mister Jim Says:
    November 30th, 2008 at 2:10 pm

    Jackson nails it. This is how professional basketball, as it was “normally understood,” was played 20 years ago in the era of Magic Johnson’s Showtime. Back before the Pistons, Knicks and Bulls started playing defense in search of competitive advantage.

15. Petey Says:
    November 30th, 2008 at 2:56 pm

    “Jackson nails it.”

    I’m not joking when I say I’d pay good money to watch a seven game series between Nellie and D’Antoni.

    “At the risk (or more likely certainty) of being labeled an old curmudgeon, I was weaned onto basketball by Frazier”

    Then I’d think you’d appreciate all the swishing and dishing in the NYK/GSW game…

16. too many steves Says:
    November 30th, 2008 at 3:11 pm

    If you’re a Knicks fan and you didn’t enjoy watching that game, I question your sanity.

    I mean, everybody talks about how the Knicks and the Warriors run-n-gun and play no d — but they’re each giving up 107 points a game. 107? That’s not a fast pace at all, in historical terms. The 89 Pistons, the original Bad Boys, scored 106.6 a game. The Warriors that year averaged 117. Now that’s basketball.

17. Petey Says:
    November 30th, 2008 at 3:19 pm

    “If you’re a Knicks fan and you didn’t enjoy watching that game, I question your sanity.”

    I’m neither a Knicks nor a Warriors fan, and I’m pissed as all hell that I didn’t TiVo the game.

    David Lee for 30/20. Fucking hell.

    The Clippers are the team to watch, too many steves. Z-Bo and B-Diddy are soul mates from another dimension…

18. too many steves Says:
    November 30th, 2008 at 3:25 pm

    I never felt good about Baron on the Clippers. Dunleavy is the worst possible coach for him. I read somewhere that Baron has admitted he didn’t really know anything about Dunleavy’s style or the slow pace the Clippers play — he just wanted to go home to L.A. And now they’ve got Kaman, Camby and Randolph? What the hell are they going to do with those three guys? It doesn’t make any damn sense. Unless they just count on Camby being hurt all the time. You’re right though, it could be fun, in a train-wreck sort of way.

19. Petey Says:
    November 30th, 2008 at 3:31 pm

    “I never felt good about Baron on the Clippers. Dunleavy is the worst possible coach for him. I read somewhere that Baron has admitted he didn’t really know anything about Dunleavy’s style or the slow pace the Clippers play — he just wanted to go home to L.A.”

    All true.

    But Z-Bo solves all of the problems. Baron and Zach are Stockton and Malone on acid.

    Even Arnovitz is coming around…

20. howard Says:
    November 30th, 2008 at 6:57 pm

    chris o., as someone even older than marlowe, i find it amusing that you don’t know richie guerin. in the early ’60s, when the knicks sucked, they had two pretty good players surrounded by junk, willie naulls (who ended his career winning a ring or two as a celt reserve) and richie guerin, who was a heady all-round guard with a good shooting touch who went on to be a player-coach and then straight coach (with, as i recall, only modest success).

    anyhow, in the scheme of things, a better player than duhon, although i must admit that i would have guessed that either frazier or michael ray richardson had the single-game assist record….

21. evan500 Says:
    November 30th, 2008 at 7:11 pm

    As someone else commented above, I think you also need to put the game in a little more context. The Knicks are shorthanded because of injuries and the Marbury situation. They have two new players also who have not been fully integrated into the team. I also think Duhon deserves more credit than you give him. The Knicks are improved this year, and Duhon, and Antoni, deserve some props for that.

22. centerfielddj Says:
    December 1st, 2008 at 12:11 am

    Here’s one from a Warriors fan. Matt, I’d concur that the big O/bad D style is highly entertaining as long as the team manages a decent win-loss record; our “Run TMC” teams of the mid-90’s gave us a chance of making the playoffs along with half a dozen spectacular plays every game. The last couple of Baron Davis-led teams were also very dynamic.
    On the other hand, when you’re out of the chase with this style, as the Warriors often are and look to be again, the fun is ruined by the craptacularness.

23. lfv Says:
    December 1st, 2008 at 11:09 am

    There is a difference between wanting a more exciting, offensive NBA game and wanting a game which is played like the all star game. Last year was a phenomenal NBA season, but they weren’t putting up 130-125 scores every night. If teams are scoring between 90 and 110 points the games are usually great.

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