Reggie Miller and the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame

If you can figure out why Reggie Miller is not a finalist for the Professional Basketball Hall of Fame and Ralph Sampson, Maurice Cheeks, and Dennis Rodman are finalists, please let me know.

Because this makes absolutely no sense.

David Brooks, Duke, and the Rich

A lot of people have linked to David Brooks' prime piece of wankery, talking about how he rooted for Duke in last week's NCAA Championship game because as rich people, they deserve to win.

Unlike 90 percent of America, I was rooting for Duke last night. This was widely cast as a class conflict — the upper crust Dukies against the humble Midwestern farm boys. If this had been a movie, Butler’s last second heave would have gone in instead of clanging off the rim, and the country would still be weeping with joy.

But this is why life is not a movie. The rich are not always spoiled. Their success does not always derive from privilege. The Duke players — to the extent that they are paragons of privilege, which I dispute — won through hard work on defense.

Yes. I was going to say that for the first time in human history, rich people work longer hours than middle class or poor people. How do you construct a rich versus poor narrative when the rich are more industrious? 

Oh, where to start...

It's hardly surprising that Brooks is a Duke fan and alum (though he seems to have only taught there). Every thing about the man screams Dukie--wealthy, white, privileged, self-centered, condescending to the rest of the world, elitist, etc.

Only a man like this could claim and in fact believe that the rich work harder than the poor. Brooks might as well be working for the New York Times in 1890 rather than 1910 with his gospel of wealth mentality.

Only a man who has never worked in a sewer, as a logger, as a vegetable picker, as a janitor, or as a maid could claim that the rich work harder. Yes, some rich people put in long hours at the office. But that's irrelevant for making a claim over whether the rich or poor work harder--they do so because they want to and because they can. Meanwhile, the poor, who work very hard when they can find a job, work long hours because they have to feed their families and because they will be fired if they don't. And unlike David Brooks, who if he did so little work for the Times that they would fire him, they can't go get another job teaching at Duke University.

Today in Useless and Empty Analogies

Laker-partisan Marc Stein thinks playing basketball is the same thing as pitching in baseball:

Monta has played all 48 minutes six times this season ... after 20 of 30 MLB teams got fewer than six complete games from their starting staffs last season.

Yes - because nothing says "exact same thing" as running back and forth for 48 minutes, and throwing a ball 92-98 mph 100-120 times. Strain on the legs is the same; effects on the shoulder and elbows is the same; even the time to play each game is the same! It's a perfect analogy!!!

It's fine if you're a partisan of one sport or another, but Stein has apparently decided to show how little he understands about any other sports while talking about them. In other words, Stein often enjoys showing what an idiot he is even while talking about what he knows best, and even by his low standards, he's outdone himself on the stupid here.

No Love for Cleveland, Example #582,193

In recapping the Lakers' loss to the Suns last night, the Game notes included the following little item: "Phoenix has a victory over the teams with the three best records in the league -- the Lakers, Boston and Orlando." Incidentally, L.A. is 24-6 (.800 winning percentage), Boston is 23-7 (.767), and Orlando is 22-8 (.733). Funnily enough, though, Cleveland is 24-8 (.750), a full game better than Orlando (and neither team played last night, so it's not like that is a sudden shift). I guess that would mean that the three best teams in the league are L.A., Boston, and Cleveland, not Orlando. And in the two (and only) games Cleveland and Phoenix have already played this year, Cleveland handily won both games. So I guess Phoenix hasn't won games over the top three teams in the league this year, and I guess Cleveland has once again been overlooked.

Amazing what a little research can do.

Historical Image of the Day

1911 basketball team, Independence High School, Independence, Missouri.

What did Portland Do to the World?

The poor Trailblazers. They spent all those years in the wake of the '92 Finals famous as the "Jailblazers." They finally clean out the front office, and get rid of all those terrible players with awful off-the-court records, and for what? So they can become the Portland Ail-Blazers? I mean, first this, and now this. And all this after years of languishing thanks to trades for people like Shawn Kemp and Darius Miles and the like, and now that they're finally getting a good youth movement, and people keep getting hurt. I mean, seriously - did the Blazers ownership build the Rose Garden on an ancient Indian burial ground, or shoot a bunch of puppies or something? Sheesh...

Finally, Some Hometown Pride

A urology clinic in Springfield, OR has developed possibly history's finest promotion. Since the NCAA Tournament has started, they suggest that men "lower their seed for the tournament." They have to sit around a few days with frozen peas on their junk anyway, so why not pluck the fruit when it's ripe? Go Hometown Urology Team!

Historical Image of the Day

Advertisement for Harlem Globetrotters pinball game. I don't have a date, but it almost has to be from the 1970s.

An NBA Finals First

There are a lot of great things about the Cavs being in the finals (it's their first time in team history, which is always special; they came together well before anyone expected, as not one "expert" put them in the NBA finals; Lebron finally taking that big-time leap to super-stardom, both in playing and in leadership; the emergence of Daniel Gibson; the Cleveland-San Antonio matchup gets us away from this crappy "need" for it to be "big market" teams in order for the finals to be interesting; the opportunity to see how the best player in the world [Lebron] will do against what may be the best team in the world; etc.).

Brazil is loving the Cavs' arrival, too. Why? Because Anderson Varejão of the Cavs is the first Brazilian player to ever appear in the NBA finals. The globalization of basketball has been nothing but good for the sport, and Varejão's appearance marks another positive in the NBA's efforts to expand globally.

GO CAVS!!

"If you're from Cleveland...."

As I've said before, we Cleveland sports fans don't really understand this "title" thing. It's something that seems like paradise, but since no Cleveland sports team has won a title in anything since the Browns won it in 1964 (pre-Super Bowl), the sheer ecstacy of winning a title is something I always wonder about when other teams win. I'll watch the celebration, the fans, and think, "I wonder what that must feel like". Not only do Cleveland teams not win titles; they periodically lose them spectacularly (Jose Mesa's masterful choke job in 1997; "The Shot" from Jordan; and, (enjoy, Lyrad) "The Drive" and "The Fumble").

Yet last night, for once, everything went RIGHT. A Cleveland team wasn't the victim of one of those legendary nights; it was the legend (in every good sense of the word). Will the Cavs win the title? Probably not. They may lose the conference finals (I would normally say, "of course they'll lose the conference finals," because I'm a Cleveland fan and I know how things work, but now, it seems, things are genuinely different). But that doesn't matter today - what matters is that, for once, everything went historically right, and people will talk about this game for decades to come.

Which is why the following quotation about Lebron James's unbelievable night last night makes total sense, explaining perfectly how bizarre it is to be a Cleveland sports fan and actually have
something go historically, LEGENDARILY, RIGHT for your team.

"If you're from Cleveland, you know what that meant and how it felt and what it was. Actually, if you're from Cleveland, you probably don't know what that meant or what it was."