Quick Thoughts

by Harlan Schreiber

1.    Gold:    In reality, the United States only lost one Olympics in a row but the feeling of futility has been palpable in the World Championships in 2002 and 2006 as well.  So, now the United States has returned to gold in the Olympics and the question is what does this all mean?

I suppose it does touch on all of our jingoistic pride but winning the Olympics doesn’t validate (or invalidate) the notion that the United States produces the most and best basketball players in the world.  But some notions coming the Team USA had coming into the Olympics are quite clear: Continue reading Quick Thoughts…

Best Team In Franchise History: Central Division

by Harlan Schreiber

Continuing with our divisional tour of best teams by franchise, we come to the Central Division, where we have some tough choices to consider.  If you’re interested in the parameters of our discussion and our standard of review, you can check out the intro here.  But going forward, we get to look a pretty fun bunch of franchises, all of whom had several different years of success to measure against each other… Continue reading Best Team In Franchise History: Central Division…

Best Team In Franchise History: Atlantic Division

by Harlan Schreiber

Sure, we have the Olympics to keep us quasi-interested in basketball this summer but usually we like to get a bit historical in the summers.  In particular, we like to play with the usual unanswerable (and sometimes irrelevant) questions that we all think about.  This summer we’ll tackle the question of which team is the best in each franchise’s history.  This question is complicated on several levels.  First, you have to define “best.”  Obviously, winning a title may seem like a pre-requisite if you are defining “best” by the team that accomplished the most in a single season.  Playoff success is something to consider but, for better or for worse, we are defining best by guessing who would win in a head-to-head match up most often.  This leads to the next question of whether the level of play has improved over time and how that fact should be incorporated into any assessment.  Our standard answer on this point is that the level of play jumped up in the 1960s and has steadily risen since then.  So, we are skewed more towards modern teams in this inquiry but certainly there are exceptions to this rule.  Continue reading Best Team In Franchise History: Atlantic Division…

Quick Thoughts

by Harlan Schreiber

1. Team USA Is A-Coming:    With the Olympics has approaching, we find ourselves again watching another Team USA take a shot at the gold, that has eluded them to varying degrees since 2000.  When we examine this issue, we are quick to point out a few things.  The idea that the United States hasn’t won the gold isn’t some sort of silly national shame.  Rather, the world has improved, the rules of international basketball (shorter court, three point line, and length of game) encourage upsets, and Team USA has made some bad choices.  Still, the United States team is obviously the favorite.  Here’s a quick look at the notables on the other squads: Continue reading Quick Thoughts…

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