A sports blog by and for Midwest Sports Fans
When the time comes for NBA players to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, why is it that many times half the people getting inducted aren’t even NBA players? The reason is because the NBA doesn’t have a Hall of Fame and is instead lumped in with the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, which includes everything and everyone that has contributed greatly to the game of basketball.
In my opinion it is time the NBA gets its own Hall of Fame. Here are three reasons why it needs to happen.
The new Bill Simmons writing project, Grantland, which I am very excited about, launches today.
I will be very disappointed if this is not a superb, must-read site with the who’s who of great online and offline writers Simmons has assembled.
I was never a big fan of wrestling, so I was not really able to relate with so many of peers as they tried to put the life and career of Macho Man Randy Savage into perspective over the past week in the wake of his untimely death.
However, reading this terrific column by Bill Simmons helped me to do just that.
Not many writers could hold my attention about a “sport” I never cared about or ever set aside time to watch. Simmons can.
In related news, Grantland is going to be awesome.
Yesterday, Jerod wrote a fantastic article on Dirk Nowitzki’s historically efficient night. In his article, he took an idea that was initially launched by Bill Simmons about a stat that measures a player’s efficiency on the offensive side of the ball.
He called the stat Points Per Miss, or PPM.
The stat really speaks for itself. How many points does a player score for every one of his missed shots? Really, it’s determining if a player brings more to the table than he takes from it. Every missed shot is a blown possession for his team while every make is a converted one.
We discovered that Dirk had an outstanding single-game PPM of 16 in Game 1. For every one of his misses, the big fellow scored SIXTEEN points. Simply outstanding.
However, as we thought about the stat more, and took the insightful and analytical contributions of commenters into consideration, we realized a few things.
Last night, Dirk Nowitzki turned in one of the most mind-bogglingly awesome individual basketball performances I have ever seen. As I tweeted near the end of the game: “Nowitzki is German for un-fucking-believable. Sometimes, only the f-word will do.”
Here are the raw numbers: 48 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 blocks in 41 minutes. As impressive as those numbers are by themselves, they do not even begin to tell the story of just how close to perfect a basketball game Dirk played last night.
Here are the most impressive numbers: 12-15 from the field, 24-24 from the free throw line. Feel free to re-read those numbers a few times to ensure that they sink in.
As Bill Simmons tweeted: “48 points, 3 missed shots total (FG + FT). We need a stat like ‘points per miss’ to see if that’s a record for a 40+ point game.”
For the evening, Dirk’s “points per miss” (or PPM as we’ll refer to it henceforth) was 16. 16! 16 points for every missed shot. That is astounding, and it is a terrific way to appreciate what was one of the best single-night shooting performances on any level of basketball ever.
And as I went to bed last night, Simmons’ tweet had me thinking. Just how useful of a stat would PPM be? So I decided to get up this morning and investigate it a little further.
Welcome to Today’s Best by MSF. This is our daily rundown of links, laughs, and lovely ladies that will help you get through your work day.
In today’s edition, Anna Kournikova looks good while putting her house on the market, Bill Simmons breaks down Phil Jackson, an infographic breaks down why sitting is literally killing you, and a trip into the archive provides a hilarious high school drunk by Rajon Rondo. And a whole lot more.
We are only 11 games into the 2011 season and the Minnesota Twins have already turned me into Bill Simmons.
You know what I mean. That guy who calls overreacts to every single little thing and claims the season is over when Tsuyoshi Nishioka can’t figure out the strike zone and doesn’t know how to avoid a base runner trying to break up a double play.
When you really love somebody, you tend to overlook that person’s flaws. You know what I’m talking about. Sometimes, you purposefully overlook a girl’s terrible personality just because she is so incredibly hot. Other times, you are so infatuated with them that you are just completely blind to their faults.
Please don’t think that’s what I’m doing here. This is not a blind defense of Reggie Miller.
Am I a die-hard Pacers fan? Yes. Is Reggie Miller my favorite player of all time? Absolutely. Do I think he was the greatest player of all time? Absolutely not.
However, I am firmly convinced of one thing: Reggie Miller is the greatest SHOOTER of all time.
Earlier today, I was intrigued by this SI.com headline: ‘Euro Blake Griffin’ to enter NBA draft. The link takes you to a T&R post that excerpts the following from this SLAM Online article:
Jan Vesely says he’s in the Draft. The 6-11, 20-year-old told SLAM Magazine that he will “enter the 2011 NBA Draft” and that he’s “ready for the NBA after this season.” Vesely is spending time between the small and power forward spots for Partizan, though he says that he envisions himself as a “power forward” in the NBA. Donned “the European Blake Griffin” by many, he’s had no problem putting guys on posters and has more bounce than any true European in recent memory.
With the way Blake Griffin is dominating the NBA with his freakish athleticism, the unbridled power of his dunks, and his consistent onslaught of 20-10s, any player being compared to Griffin should pique the interest of basketball fans. And when it’s a skinny white dude from Europe – a continent not exactly known for producing Blake Griffin clones – the intrigue is even more acute.
So I went to YouTube to see Jan Vesely for myself and determine if there is any validity to the “Euro Blake Griffin” moniker. Before I tell you what I think, check him out for yourself.
Yesterday I had the good fortune of getting to spend about 45 minutes on the phone with a true sports blogging pioneer: Will Leitch, the founding editor of Deadspin, author, and currently a contributing editor for New York Magazine.
Will has a new book that recently was published called Are We Winning, which chronicles a Cubs-Cardinals game that he and his father went to. Will uses the game as a vehicle to touch on many bigger issues of baseball, life, and relationships, especially those between fathers and sons.
You can buy the book via Amazon here: Are We Winning [affiliate]
I think you’ll really enjoy our conversation, which is wide ranging on a number of topics related to baseball.
The newest episode of Mayne Street goes “behind the curtain” to reveal the truth about The Sports Guy. Since I gave Simmons a little tongue-in-cheek ripping earlier today for jinxing Blake Griffin, I figured it’s only fair to bring you something that sheds such a hilarious light on Simmons’ career.
And the Doug Christie jersey just tops the whole thing off.
Enjoy:
The following excerpt appeared in Bill Simmons’ most recent NBA preview column, which was posted on October 23rd:
Griffin is the luckiest blue-chipper since them: not only does he play for a potential playoff team, but he doesn’t have to fight with someone for minutes or carry the scoring load. He just has to worry about running the floor, rebounding and finishing. A cushy situation, to say the least. For once, it appears as if becoming a Clipper was the BEST thing that could have happened to someone.
(Note: Please don’t e-mail this paragraph to me in three weeks if Blake is rolling around on the floor holding his right ankle. Thank you.)
Unfortunately for Blake Griffin, Clippers fans, and basketball fans in general, the following headline appeared on ESPN.com this morning: “Clippers’ Griffin has broken kneecap, out weeks.”
Well that sucks.
If you’re a Clippers fan, looks like it’s time to start emailing or tweeting Simmons.
Words cannot express how excited I am for the upcoming IU basketball season.
Actually, I take that back. Certain words can express my excitement, such as the ones written by Dana O’Neil (thanks @ryancorazza) a few days back at ESPN.com.
Since I don’t have much time today for writing, I will give you an excerpt, a link to her story, and then some other intriguing Friday afternoon links.
I love the NFL and the MLB playoffs, but I will always be a college basketball fan at heart. I’m ready for Year Two of the Tom Crean Era (i.e. The Purge Kelvin Sampson From the Memories of All IU Fans Era) and it cannot get here soon enough.
So why bother? Why sign on with a program that is just laying the first bricks of rebuilding?
“We’re going to hang banners and win awards before we leave here,” Elston said. “But we’re also going to change the program. We’re going to be the team people talk about for a long time, the ones that brought Indiana back. That’s something a lot of people don’t get the chance to do.”
Sports:
Non-Sports:
Quick and to the point this morning.
If you haven’t read the incredibly insightful, entertaining, forward-thinking, and brilliant email conversation between Bill Simmons and Malcolm Gladwell that was posted on ESPN.com yesterday, drop whatever you are doing and click on the click on the links below.
I’m not even going to get into the many topics they discuss or provide any highlights. Why? First, because it doesn’t matter. It’s Bill Simmons and Malcolm Gladwell, who by name and past accomplishment alone should compel you to read anything they have to say together. And second, because I could not encapsulate it well enough to do it justice. Just read it.
Content like this is why I love Bill Simmons and think he is one of the five most indispensable voices in sports today. Don’t ask me to name the other four because I’d have to sit and think about it for awhile, but I know Simmons is in there. Even when he’s pontificating or reminiscing about Boston sports teams that I don’t care about, he provides insights and observations that you just don’t find anywhere else.
Anyway, here are the links. Click now, thank me later:
And once your are done with those links, here are a few others for you:
