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The concept of the NBA All-Star game (like most All-Star games), is more interesting in theory than in reality.  It’s great to debate who deserves to be chosen and to see the superstars play.  Ultimately, the game is a letdown because the players rarely can manufacture the intensity and it has the feel of a casual pickup game. Despite all that, following the fan vote is fun.  It is a glorified popularity contest and there have been some crazy outcomes.  This has changed a bit this year, where … [Read more...] about Fan All-Star Voting, It’s Fantastic!

Are NBA teams shooting too many threes?  The three-point shot was instituted in 1979-80 and, since then, its use has been going almost straight upwards.  To get a concrete sense of how this trend has played out, here is a chart of the average three-pointers made and attempted by the average team per game since … [Read more...] about Examining the Three-Point Barrage

The big story last week involved an interview that Knicks GM Phil Jackson gave to ESPN, where, per his usual protocol, he was quite candid in his opinions about many things.  The big public takeaway from the interview was that Jackson’s comments about LeBron James and his management team (which is comprised of many lifelong friends), which were called LBJ’s “posse.”  The consensus was that Jackson’s comment was, at best, disrespectful, and, at worst, subtly racist. Is it fair to criticize … [Read more...] about Phil and the Posse

As the NBA off-season kicks into low gear, this is usually a time we like to take a look at some old-timey stats/stories.  To that end, I happened to have revisited Bill Simmons’ old “The Book of Basketball,” just to kill a little time at the beach this summer.   The book was written in 2009 and is still entertaining, even though I can never wholly support a book that listed Robert Horry in the top 96 players of all-time. Still, the book is definitely worth reading even now.  It is packed … [Read more...] about NBA’s Unbreakable Records?

This week, the big story in sports is the refusal of 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick to stand for the pregame national anthem in protest of racial inequality.  Kaerpenick’s explained that “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color.  To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”  In … [Read more...] about Mahmoud’s Protest Revisited