One Last Thought on the Chris Paul Trade (and a couple other thoughts)

I've been developing this tool for a while now, which I originally intended to find a player's three year "peak" - the best three season stretch of a player's career. Incidentally, this can be used to identify the value of any three season stretch of a player's career. Of course, I've only been using this to evaluate (mostly) elite players and compare them to other elite players so far, so, it may need tweaking to accurately rate role players. But I think it works well for the greats right now. Anyway, I'm going to use this to analyze the value of the two Chris Paul trades, and see which one actually would be more beneficial for the Hornets.

Winners and Losers of the Chris Paul Non-Trade

In the wake of the ridiculous blocking of the trade that would have sent Chris Paul to the Lakers, I'm going to try to assess who actually came out ahead on this, and who has gotten hurt the most.

The Trade That Wasn't

Hey, remember when the Lakers, Rockets, and Hornets were involved in a three-team deal that sent Chris Paul to Los Angeles, Pau Gasol to the Rockets, and Lamar Odom/Kevin Martin/a few other players to the Hornets? No? Well, I can't blame you. It happened, and then un-happened in the span of about two hours. "How can a trade un-happen?" you ask. Good question.

Labor Deal Done

Well the new labor deal is "officially" done. I have it in quotes because there aren't any official details released yet. Sources are just reporting that the deal is in place, all sides have agreed to everything, and the season is set to go Christmas Day. Huzzah! I'll put up the details of the deal as soon as I hear the "official" news of what exactly is in it.


In other, sadder news, Caron Butler has signed a deal to play with Clippers next year. R.I.P. Caron. You had a lot of potential and it just never happened.

The List of Greatness - Active Players

In anticipation of the return of the NBA as well as the (probably to a much lesser extent) my List of Greatness posts, I thought I'd let everyone take a sneak peak at how the active players stack up so everyone can kind of keep track of them throughout the year. I was thinking about putting up who the closest candidates were for making it in 2012, but that'd give too much away for the future 2000 onward posts of who gets in and who doesn't. (Although you can probably guess, anyway.) Also, as a side note, the "Ultimate Season" will happen, it's just slow going figuring out how to make it work in this format. Anyway, on to the rankings.

Pre-1951 All-Stars

I've been on a kick lately of figuring out awards that never got handed out. I'm not sure why. But it's fun. So let's just keep on rolling with it. Here's the All-Stars from before the first All-Star Game in 1951.

The Pre-1956 MVPs

As many of you probably know (and for those of you that don't), the NBA's most valuable player award was first given out in 1956 to Bob Pettit. However, that leaves us with nine seasons where there was no MVP named. So, I thought, just for kicks, I'd go back through the record books and see who would/should have been named MVP in each of those years. This won't be quite as in-depth as the 1999 All-Star Selection process was, but it should still be fun.

The 1999 NBA All-Stars

One of the worst things about the 1998-99 NBA lockout (for me, at least) was the cancellation of the All-Star game. As a kid, I always looked forward to the ridiculous athleticism on display and sheer amount of fun that game always is - despite its ultimate irrelevance and the fact that it can only loosely be called a "basketball game." As an adult, I still look forward to those same things, but even more than that, I look forward to seeing who gets the honor of being named to the team. Furthermore, those All-Star selections add up and can be an excellent indicator for historical relevance. The 32 games that were missed during the 1999 season really aren't that big of a deal in terms of career totals - they can basically be written off as an extended injury. But you'll never get those All-Star selections back. (This was my biggest worry about losing the 2012 season - not getting the awards and the stats to accurately reflect a player's historical significance/greatness. Well, the biggest worry about besides not getting to watch basketball.) Anyway, with that in mind, this is a one-time one-off project I've been wanting to do for quite some time but finally have the means to do so: figuring out who would/should have made the 1999 All-Star Game.

2012 Season - Games for Nov. 4

Sorry, everyone, but I've been having some serious issues with my formatting. I've been trying to work on it over Thanksgiving here, but so far no luck. Hopefully I'll get it figured out soon. Luckily, we'll have basketball relatively soon, so, I won't feel so bad if I have to put the "Ultimate Season" on hiatus for a bit and go back to the "List of Greatness" or "Hanging from the Rafters" for a while.

2012 Season - Games for Nov 3

Only three games scheduled for today, but I'm catching up on games in general, so we're getting there. (And it sounds like there may actually be the slimmest of hopes for a real NBA season. But even if there is, I'll continue with this 82 game ultimate season.)

2012 Season - Games for Nov 2

Okay, so we're way behind already with this, but I think I've got most of it under control for now - as far as formatting and things go. There will still probably be some lag with the games because I can only save three teams at a time with What If Sports, so essentially, I have to re-create each team for each matchup. BUT this means I can run every matchup between the two teams in one sitting. For example, the Thunder and the Lakers played each other on opening day, so I have the results for all of their matchups all season completed already. However, if they play any other team, I have to re-create those teams again. So, to start with, things are gonna be a bit slow and behind, but eventually, the games will completed will catch up with the date. Anyway, click ahead for a whole lot of box scores.

2012 Season Update

I just wanted to give everyone a quick update on how things were progressing since I didn't get the scores up yesterday or today. I'm still working out some kinks in the formatting, record keeping, and automatic posting departments - but hopefully I'll have time to get those taken care of this weekend. Regardless, the process will only go smoother from here, so every game will get played and every stat will get posted eventually, even if I have to back date some of it.

2012 Season - Games for Nov. 1

I'm still messing with the format to get everything aligned correctly. But, I think you guys are smart enough to figure it out. From left to right we have minutes, field goals/attempts, 3 pointers/attempts, free throws/attempts, offensive rebounds, total rebounds, assists, blocks, steals, turnovers, fouls, points... So, for right now, the easiest way to look at it is the last number listed for each player is their total points. Anyway, we have three games for opening night.

2012 Southwest Division Preview

We don't really have any "storied" franchises in this division. The Rockets are the oldest, having been founded in 1968. Then the Spurs (an ABA team, so you could say either 1968 or 1977), followed by the Mavericks (1981), Hornets (1989), and Grizzlies (1996). So, realistically, I'm expecting maybe two teams, tops, to make the playoffs out of the Southwest. (And I've definitely got the two in mind already.)

2012 Pacific Division Preview

We've got another loaded division here, with only one really terrible team... I bet you can guess who it is...

2012 Northwest Division Preview

The Northwest Division features three really good teams, one team that I think can do some damage out there, and one team that's, quite frankly, going to be terrible. (Sorry, Minnesota.)

2012 Southeast Division Preview

For our final eastern conference division, we've got two older franchises, two that are pretty young, and one that's practically an infant... Guess which ones will be battling it out for the division title?

2012 Central Division Preview

The Central Division is quite a bit more eclectic than the Atlantic. We've got the team with the 3rd most titles ever - but all within a span of eight years, a team that's had a lot of good players and a lot of bad luck, another team akin to the Knicks and Sixers with a very long history, a team composed almost entirely of ABA players, and a team that's been around for quite a while yet still hasn't managed to keep any point guards or big men. It's a weird grouping. I'm excited to see how some of these rosters pan out in the standings.

2012 Atlantic Division Preview

First up, the Atlantic Division, which contains three extremely storied franchises with deep, rich histories, one former ABA team with a modest amount of decent players, and one franchise whose two best players are deeply hated by it's current fan base. (That should be fun.) For each of the teams, I'll list their starting lineup, their bench, and a little bit of commentary about how I determined the starting lineup. (The number before the player's name is the year of that player's career I'll be using, the number immediately following the player's name is his career Greatness Rating with the team, and the number in parentheses after that is his "salary", in millions, for the given year according to WhatIfSports.)

2011-12 Season Overview

Alright, so this is how this is going to work. The entire 2011-2012 NBA season will be simulated using rosters that I've developed to determine the 12 best players in each franchise's history. There's a few things that should be noted about how the rosters were made up:

Site/2012 Season Update

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, everyone. Particularly on the List of Greatness. (That will get done though, I can assure you.) But on the Hanging from the Rafters as well. But I promise there's a good reason.


Since the 2011-2012 NBA season is basically dead. I'm just operating under the assumption that we'll have no pro hoops at all this year (and if that reverse jinxes it into happening, all the better, but I'm still doing this.) So I've been working frantically to run the entire 2012 season with updated "Ultimate/All-Time Rosters."


The season was scheduled to start November 1, so I'll have a series of posts the week prior to that - first outlining the concept in general, and then the next six days will outline each of the divisions, with each team's roster and starting lineups and such. Then, I should (hopefully) have it automated to kick things off so that the results of the games show up daily (with full box scores!).

ABA Ultimate Roster Comparisons

So, here's how the rosters for the Nuggets, Pacers, Nets, and Spurs look with various values given to their ABA accomplishments:

ABAers on the Ultimate Season Rosters

It's been pointed out in a couple comment threads that ABA players should get full credit for their ABA accomplishments when determining the rosters, since a team's ABA history is legitimately part of the team's entire history. And that's a valid point. However, I've been reluctant to do that, and didn't want to include ABA players (who might not be as skilled as players, but accumulated more stats in a weaker league) at the expense of NBA players and potentially hurt the team. So I figured instead of keeping this in various comment threads, I should just make a post where it could be discussed in a central location. Anyway, I'm currently giving players 40% credit for their ABA accomplishments (the same percentage as the Greatness Equation).


Here's the list of ABA players that would make the All-Time Rosters under this system:

The List of Greatness - 1985

Okay, I'm going to try this with my updated older data and hopefully everything matches up. Please let me know if you notice any inconsistencies so I can get them corrected ASAP. (I'm not sure exactly how much I had changed from this earlier stuff to the most recent data I was using, so I think I changed everything, but it's possible something slipped under my radar.)

Site Update

Sorry about the lack of updates recently everyone. There's been quite a few factors involved in that. First, my "List of Greatness" data may have been lost. Not sure how or why - but my computer does not seem to think it exists anymore. I've been working on updating some of my older files/versions of it to bring it all back up to speed but it might take some time. Secondly, I'm trying to get everything prepared so I can have the 2012 season play out with Ultimate Rosters in time for the actual, scheduled tip-off day. Not sure if it'll happen, but that's the goal. And finally, I'm getting married October 21, so the planning and everything for that has really been cutting into my blogging/research time. (Gotta have priorities, I know.)


Hopefully, I can find some kind of serviceable work-up to get the List of Greatness back up and going before too much longer, but it's still a lot of number crunching, and I'd rather have it done right than do it half-assed just to get a post up. Thanks for understanding.

2011-12 Ultimate Season (Update)

So, apparently, WhatIfSports sucks at allocating minutes to "Dream Teams." Here's a few examples - 1.) Jerry West starts over Magic Johnson on the All-Time Lakers squad, which would be fine, but they split minutes at the point right down the middle and each end up with only about 18 minutes a game. (Slater Martin picks up the rest.) 2.) Michael Jordan does not start for the All-Time Bulls. Jerry Sloan does. And the split time at the 2-guard slot. 3.) Larry Bird not only doesn't start for the All-Time Celtics, but he averages only 9 minutes a game... And this is when I stopped letting What If Sports do it's own thing and decided I needed to step in.


So, here's my plan - I'm going to come up with a system to determine which five guys would be most beneficial for each team to start. I'll try to stay as close to their original position as possible, but I may move some guys up or down a slot if it seems like they could handle that spot and still be far superior to their replacement. (Example: I will probably start both Shaq and Kareem for the Lakers, rather than Pau Gasol, who is the best true "Power Forward" on the team.)


Basically, I'm going to start the best true point guard, the best two wing men (these will most likely be shooting guards or small forwards, but could conceivably contain a point guard under the right circumstances), and the two best big men (either power forwards or centers - or small forwards if a team is desperate.)


And I plan on allocating minutes based on whatever the minute per game average was for the player's best year according to What If Sports. (Yes, I realize that won't add up to the correct number of minutes every time, but WIS can short the non-starters if need be.)


Does that make sense to everyone? Or does anyone have any better suggestions for formulating a team's starting five?

Ultimate Season

In anticipation of the looming cancellation of the 2011-2012 NBA season, I've decided that instead of doing the Ultimate Tournament this year, I'm going to try to do the Ultimate Season. I'm going to take the ultimate rosters (I'm in the process of updating them right now) and run the entire 2011-2012 schedule with those rosters. A couple notes:


1. The Rosters will be mostly the same as they were last year for the Ultimate Tournament, a few teams might be slightly updated because of the results of last year and the addition of win share data from before 1952.
2. The games will be run through the WhatIfSports simulator. During last year's tournament, I determined the minutes and positions and whatnot myself, but due to time constraints, I'm afraid I'm going to have to let WIS do that on it's own.
3. If this takes off enough, hopefully we can do an All-Star Game and season Awards and Honors. If I get enough readers, maybe I can even have people vote on it. That'd be kind of cool.
4. If anyone has the schedule for every team for every month on one sheet/page or knows where I can find it, please post the link in the comments.
5. Wish me luck!

Hanging from the Rafters - Dallas Mavericks

On to the reigning champs. Not exactly a rich history here. But we've got a definite top 20/top 25 all time player here and probably three fan favorites. (Not that Dirk's not a fan fave, but you know what I mean.) It's a good balance of players, I think.

The List of Greatness - 1984

I hope everyone's enjoying their Saturday. I'm currently putting off doing homework for my graduate degree by brushing up on some Big Ten football (as a newly minted Big Ten man/Nebraska alum, I need to start figuring this stuff out) and putting together basketball stats. I just watched Ohio State barely hold off Toledo (yeesh...) and I'm currently watching Iowa-Iowa State go into triple overtime. I love overtime in college football. Especially when you hit the third and you gotta start going for two after every touchdown. Anyway, we've got a Legend joining the List today (and a surprise joining the supplementary list, as well.)

Hanging from the Rafters - Cleveland Cavaliers

One thing that I might not have made clear in my intro to this series of posts is that the point of running these is to establish a consistent, uniform basis of requirements for all teams by which a jersey should be retired. Right now, it's all a hodgepodge of what each team wants to do, and consequently, a guy who did great for one team might not get his jersey retired even though 25 other teams would gladly put it up there. For example, the Lakers and Knicks only retire Hall of Famers, the Celtics will retire just about anyone who's won a title or two, the Cavs will retire anyone they feel like. So, the point of this is, "if every team had the same rules, who would we see hanging from the rafters." I may adjust the requirements when all is said and done and we can look at who we have and haven't retired, but for right now, it's just an exercise in making sure equal accomplishments result in equal honors.


Anyway, I bring this up now because the Cavs have retired a lot of jerseys. Way more than you'd expect. But I imagine they won't be retiring LeBron's any time soon. Even though he's far and away the best player that's ever played for the franchise. He will be on this list. And the above paragraph explains why.

The List of Greatness - 1983

I hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend. Well, all my American readers anyway. I dunno how stuff works in other countries. I assume you had a regular weekend. Which I hope you had a good one of anyway. I did absolutely nothing productive with my three days off, this was as much as I got done, so enjoy it, folks.

Hanging from the Rafters - Updated Requirements

Originally, I had the games requirement to have a number retired set at 800, but I have been thinking about tinkering with that number a little bit. I felt like ten years with a team had to be the requirement in order to make it as a "fan favorite" and someone a fan base would really want to see honored, which would make it 820 games. Then I thought I'd just round down to account for injuries and whatnot and make it an even 800.


But now I'm thinking missing 20 games over 10 years is asking a bit too much. So, I've come to the conclusion that the requirement should be 739 games. Which is nine full years of service plus one game. So essentially, a guy had to be on a team for ten seasons, but he could miss 81 games throughout those ten years and still be have has number retired. (Any more games missed than that and fans aren't really going to get behind him with their full support anyway.)


Similarly, the 400 games & Hall of Fame Inductee was supposed to be five years and Hall of Fame, so I think I'm going to adjust that down to 329 games and making the Hall of Fame. I'm going to be making adjustments to the ones I've already posted throughout the week and then just go with those numbers from there.

Hanging from the Rafters - Chicago Bulls

Well the Bulls certainly have more guys than the Bobcats, but we're still not getting anywhere close to Boston Celtics territory.

The List of Greatness - 1982

An All-Time Great joins the ranks this year. Click ahead to find out which one.

Hanging from the Rafters - Charlotte Bobcats

Well, there obviously haven't been any Bobcats who have done enough to merit a jersey retirement in the team's seven years of existence. But click ahead if you want to see the "close calls" on who made it the closest for each criteria.

Odds & Ends

I think I'm going to expand the "Supplementary Members List" on the List of Greatness to include guys that are in the top 25 for X number years rather than just the top 10. So far it only adds two players Arnie Risen who spent 11 years in the top 11, and Carl Braun who spent 14 years in the top 14. If it ends up getting ridiculous with too many members I'll take it back down to just the top 10, but we'll go from here and see how it goes.


Also I'm in the process of updating the Hawks' Hanging from the Rafters article to include the "close calls" so that should be up by the end of the night.

The List of Greatness - 1981

I don't have much commentary for an intro today, but for some reason I found quite a bit to say about a lot of the guys after the career summaries, so read ahead for 1981's top ten.

Hanging from the Rafters - Boston Celtics

Here's our (probably) longest list of retired numbers. There's 21 actual Celtics jerseys hanging from the rafters. Or 23 if you want to count "LOSCY" and Johnny Most's microphone. And actually, there's only 19 players that have had their jerseys retired because Walter Brown (owner) and Red Auerbach (coach) have #1 and #2 respectively. Personally, I think it's ridiculous to retire actual numbers for non-players. I'm all for giving them banners, but players wear numbers, not coaches and owners and other personnel. Anyway, let's see if my list of criteria ends up being longer than the actual Celtics list.

The List of Greatness - 1980

If you were paying close attention to the List in 1979, our man in the driver's seat is Chet Walker, sitting with a total score of 190.4. Our top prospects to overtake him are now Bob Dandridge at 174.1 and Bob McAdoo at 162.9, neither of whom were in their prime in 1980. Here's where the interesting things start to happen. Do we see a few of the long standing second and third ranked guys (Walker and Hagan) make the List proper? Do some of the other veterans manage to overtake them first? And how long before the young guns (Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas, etc.) start to overtake them. It's going to be very interesting from here on out.

Hanging from the Rafters - Intro and Atlanta Hawks

I'm introducing a new, ongoing feature today at the Glorious Extra Pass: Hanging from the Rafters. I've always been fascinated by how teams decide which players to bestow the honor of retiring a jersey upon on which ones they decide don't make the cut. But I'm going to tackle this from a perspective that every team must follow the same rules to retire a jersey, and then we'll see which players from which teams get to have that honor. I'm also going to look at which jerseys teams have actually retired, and whether or not they meet the criteria that I set up.

Upcoming Site Projects/Ideas

Hey guys, just wanted to give everyone a brief heads-up on what to expect from the Glorious Extra Pass in the coming weeks. The List of Greatness will continue, most likely as it has been (sporadically - but with at least one post a week), but I realize that that project might not be everyone's cup of tea, so I think I'm going to mix in a "Retired Jerseys Project" now as well.


Basically, I'm going to look at what jerseys teams should have retired versus the jerseys they actually have retired.


And as soon as we hear word on whether or not games will be cancelled this season (any or all), I will let you in on the "season long project" I've got under wraps. So, if we lose any games, it'll be one thing, if we don't, it'll be another. I just don't want to say one way or another yet until we know for sure.

The List of Greatness - 1979

I'll be honest with you guys, I've kind of been slogging through the List of Greatness for most of the 70's here. Without particularly enjoying it. I mean, let's face it, 1972-1979 was kind of a rough patch as far as the NBA was concerned. During that eight year stretch, we had only six Hall of Famers enter the league. (They were Bob McAdoo, Bill Walton, Adrian Dantley, Alex English, Dennis Johnson, and Robert Parish.) And four of those guys (the last four listed) were from the draft of 1976. That's not exactly hitting for power or average there. Basically, we've been watching the old guard fade away with no one to really replace them, and by about 1979, the NBA is really hurting for superstars.

The List of Greatness - 1978

Last week, one of my readers made a guarantee that Chet Walker would be 1978's inductee. Was he right? Click ahead to find out.


(Also, no "Honorary Members" this year, which is good, because I don't want to end up with too many of those guys.)

The List of Greatness - 1977

For some reason, I always associate 1977 as "The Year of Bill Walton." I know why - because the Blazers won the title in '77. And he was really the only superstar on that team. (And I kind of just assume he won the MVP that year, even though he didn't - that was 1978.) But I don't do that with any of the other one hit wonders of the late 70's. I guess 1975 is sort of "The Year of Rick Barry" in my mind, but not even close to as much as 1977 with Walton. 1978 is not Wes Unseld's or Elvin Hayes's year in my mind, or even a combo Hayes/Unseld Year. And 1979 is definitely not the "Year of Jack Sikma" ... I kid. It should probably be Dennis Johnson or maybe Gus Williams. I don't know really know why. I don't know if it's because there were two big Hall of Famers on the '78 Bullets and there were no really big names on the '79 Sonics, or if there's just a certain mystique about Bill Walton - or a combination of all of the above.


Anyway, I just wanted to say that because Bill Walton isn't going to be anywhere on this list. In fact, he'll probably never be Top 10. He just didn't have a long enough career to do well on my Greatness Equation. I mean, he played a total of 209 of 328 games for 63.7% of his possible games. (What's with Portland and big men? Bill Walton. Sam Bowie. Greg Oden... Joel Przybilla... When will the hurting stop?) So, I had to get a little Bill Walton shout-out in here while I could, because it likely won't come later on.


But click ahead for the actual 1977 inductee into the List of Greatness.

New Sporcle Quiz

Here you go guys, "The Most Depressing Sporcle Quiz Ever."

The List of Greatness - 1976

We've got a complete surprise for this year's inductee. As in, someone who wasn't even in the top ten last year.

The List of Greatness - 1975

I don't have much for a preamble today, so let's just get right to the rankings.

Player Peak Performance Equation (Revised)

I've been playing with this peak performance concept for the last few days and added a few components (which I'll explain later on) and tweaked the values for some of the others a bit. It's still pretty rough, and it started out as a look at Yao Ming's career, so most of the players I've evaluated so far are centers. But I wanted to see how well it translated to other positions, so I threw in the rest of my current top 20 players and a couple players I was curious about, as well. (Also, don't worry, I haven't forgotten about the List of Greatness. I just need to get off my ass and type up the results.) Anyway, here's the quick and dirty results of my revised system:

Player Peak Performance Equation (Initial Results) - Updated with Stats

Here's the initial results with the Peak Performance Equation and the first 12 (okay, technically 13) players I've tested it with. I still have a bunch of other guys to throw in to the mix to fine tune it (pretty much everyone listed in the comments) but I wanted to get some initial reactions and feedback from my readers first.

The Legacy of Yao Ming

*Update: I had an idea for this that turned out to take longer than what I was originally going to do. I'm going to test out my "player's peak" formula with Yao and see how it stacks up against some of the all-time great big men. It's taking a bit more time than I anticipated to work the kinks out of that, but I'd guess it'll be up by the end of the week.


Basically, I was just going to look at how his career measured against the careers of other greats, but since Yao's career was "injury-plagued" at best, I decided to look at his "peak performance" of his best year, his best three year stretch, and his best five year stretch, and compare those to the following centers:


Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
Bill Russell
Wilt Chamberlain
Shaquille O'Neal
Hakeem Olajuwon
Moses Malone
David Robinson
George Mikan
Patrick Ewing
Robert Parish
Bill Walton


(These are currently the top ten centers according to my Greatness Equation, plus Bill Walton, who, like Yao, was an amazingly gifted big man whose body just couldn't do what he wanted/needed it to do in the long run.)


Any other centers you'd like to see in this test run of my Peak Performance Equation?

List of Greatness - Honorary Members

I'm going to try something a little bit new with the List of Greatness here. I'm starting to feel like the guys who have been in the top five for, oh, a couple decades now but keep getting jumped should have some kind of recognition. So here's my plan: I'm going to take a look at how everyone finished for every year since 1956. If a player finishes in the Top 10 ten times, he gets in the list as an "Honorary Member." Same if he finishes Top 9 nine times, Top 8 eight times, etc. (I'd also kind of like to come up with a better term than Honorary Member, since that kind of makes it sound like they didn't quite earn it, even though they definitely did. But Honorary is the best thing I can think of right now.) However, I still want to try and make sure the List is a fairly exclusive club, so, once somebody becomes an Honorary Member, they are still eligible to receive the yearly recognition. Jerry Lucas a perfect example of what I mean. Here's how his top ten finishes looked:


1968 - 7th
1969 - 5th
1970 - 4th
1971 - 3rd
1972 - 2nd
1973 - 2nd
1974 - 1st


So, Lucas would have become an Honorary Member in 1973, for finishing 2nd twice (also Top 3 three times, Top 4 four times, and Top 5 five times). But in 1974, he became that year's inductee for finishing first. By keeping Honorary Members still eligible for the yearly induction, I'm hoping it will still keep the Top 10 fairly exclusive, and therefore keep the List in general fairly exclusive. If we end up with a ratio of one Honorary Member every five years or so, I'll be happy with that.


So here's the list of guys for Honorary Inductees through 1974.
Max Zaslofsky - five Top 5 as of 1960
Larry Foust - five Top 5 as of 1960
Joe Fulks - eight Top 8 as of 1963
George Yardley - five Top 5 as of 1963
Cliff Hagan - four Top 4 as of 1964


And two other Honorary Members got inducted as Annual Members later on:
Slater Martin - Honorary in 1959, Annual for 1961
Jerry Lucas - Honorary in 1973, Annual for 1974


So let me know what you guys think. Is this a good idea? Does it make the List too cluttered? I'm definitely going to see how it'll play out down the line and if it ends up causing a huge surplus of players I'll have to change the criteria or do away with it altogether.

The List of Greatness - 1974

1974's inductee is somebody who probably shouldn't come as much of a surprise to anyone who's been following the last few posts: he's been in the "on deck" circle the last two years but kept getting jumped. But if you haven't, here's a hint: it's someone who's probably underrated by quite a bit, and it's someone I share a name with. (Well, kind of. His last name is my first name. And it's merely a coincidence, not like I was named after him or anything. But it's still there.)

New Sporcle Quiz

I put up a new Sporcle quiz tonight. See if you can guess all of the Hall of Fame players who haven't had their jerseys retired by any team.

The List of Greatness - 1973

To soften the blow of the NBA lockout, which starts at midnight, July 1, here's another List of Greatness post. (I have no idea what to expect from this lockout. I would assume the players will almost have to cave first - since some teams claim to lose more money by playing the games than by doing nothing. The question now is - how long do the players hold out? How long can the players go without paychecks? Does this become a point of pride thing where Billy Hunter just refuses to budge even though everyone can see it has to happen and by not conceding he's just hurting his players even more? Think the "Canada on Strike" episode of South Park. And for the record, I'm not really backing one side or the other, I just think the owners have more leverage here. Ugh... Now I'm depressed...) Anyway, an interesting thing about this year's list: I'm 99% positive this year's top ten features more active players (7) than any previous year. There not all getting in, so it's going to be interesting to see who gets squeezed out going forward.

The List of Greatness - 1972

How about this? I cranked out two of these AND a recap column in two days. I'm rather proud of myself. Don't start expecting daily updates or anything, I mean, I'll try to keep it up, but let's just enjoy this while it lasts.

25 Years of Greatness

I thought it might be cool to take a look at everyone who has made the List of Greatness so far after the NBA's first 25 years, and then do a breakdown of how many players there are in various categories to see if there's any kind of pattern we can discern so far. So here's the master list so far:

The List of Greatness - 1971

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Life gets in the way of super fun basketball stats sometimes. (Sigh...) But here's our first new List of Greatness entry under the new criteria where every player gets full credit for the win shares during their entire career, rather than just from 1952 forward. As a result, there probably won't be much continuity between this post and the 1970 post. I may go back and update the older posts eventually, but I'd like to just progress forward and get all the years done first and then go from there. Anyway, here are the numbers, with all stats through the 1971 season.

The List of Greatness - Updated

Well, I've finished updating the numbers on the List of Greatness through 1970 (it should go quicker from here, since the updated stats on basketball-reference only affect players who played before 1952) and here's how the updated List shakes out:

Major News

Basketball-Reference.com has just added win share data going back to 1947. This may not be big news to some, but I can now finally accurately gauge every player according to the "Greatness Equation." The downside? I have to completely recalibrate every year by year result in the List of Greatness... This could take a while. Expect a slowdown and possible revamp in the List of Greatness postings from here.

The List of Greatness - 1970

I decided to wait until after the 1971 List to do the review/recap/breakdown of the inductees so far, just because that'll give us 25 inductees to work with which just seems to make more sense than 23. I still plan on doing the recap every ten (maybe five) years, it'll just be based on the number of inductees instead of the year. I'm also going to start listing what college players went to. It doesn't really have any bearing on anything, I just think it's interesting. With that in mind, here's our 1970 players.

The List of Greatness - 1969

This post will finish off the 60's for the List of Greatness inductees. (I'm thinking I may do a recap/breakdown of those inducted so far for the next post instead of moving right on to the 1970.) This also marks the end of the most epic dynasty in sports history: the 1957-69 Boston Celtics. Winners of 11 titles in 13 years. Perhaps we'll start seeing some more, um... diversity... on the List from here on out. That's not a comment on race at all, I just mean there are seven (soon to be eight) Celtics inducted so far. Since the Celtics only win five from 1974-86 (and I use the word "only" there in a strictly relative sense) and then one in 2008, there's bound to be a much more varied group of teams represented coming up.

2011 NBA Finals Preview/Analysis/Predictions

The most entertaining NBA postseason that I can remember is coming to a close within the next two weeks, and we're closing it out with one of the most exciting potential Finals matchups: Dallas's "Dirk Nowitzki and the Virile Veterans" Experience vs. Miami's "Why, Yes, We Are Bigger/More Important Than Jesus" Ego All-Stars. (I loved that Joseph Kimberly Noah just referred to Miami as being "Hollywood as Hell." It was fairly apt, and I'm going to steal it when referring to egotistical jerks from now on, but c'mon Joseph Kimberly, give Hollywood some credit...) And while I did rate this particular matchup as the most potentially exciting and enthralling, I still would've rather seen Chicago here. I just can't stomach the thought of Miami hoisting the trophy.


Anyway, I'm going to do the "Which team has the edge?" concept with this, but instead of comparing each team's specific position players and bench against each other, I'm going to try to look at which team has the better "best player," the better "second best player," the better "third best player," and so on. How am I going to decide the difference between 2nd and 3rd best on each team (or 3rd and 4th, or 4th and 5th, etc.)? With my old standby: win shares. Specifically playoff win shares. Keep in mind, the win share totals aren't going to necessarily decide which team's player is better, they're just used to sort out the rankings on each side. (And I'll try not to let my blatantly obvious anti-Miami sentiments color this too much.)

Finals Preview

Okay, that's a bit of a tease, but it should be up tonight. Then a List of Greatness post tomorrow, and since that'll finish up the 60's, I'm thinking of doing some sort of analysis of the members to date on that list for another post. I should have some extra time since I've got a long weekend and no basketball to watch.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's Statue and Legacy

There was a bit of a dustup last week regarding Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and his status within the Lakers organization. Now, most of these stories got boiled down to "Kareem's upset because he doesn't have a statue," which isn't exactly accurate or fair. Yes, he does seem to be ticked off about that, but that seems to be more of a tipping point thing than the actual issue. The fact that he doesn't have a statue was the proverbial "last straw" in what he feels is a continual lack of respect from the Lakers organization - and probably from fans and the NBA in general.

Today's Superstars

I'm watching "The Best of Mike & Mike in the Morning" right now (for my money, M&M is the best show ESPN currently airs), which is actually "Mike & Jalen Rose" today because Golic is out for some reason. Anyway, they're discussing what an NBA "superstar" is, how many there there are in today's league, and who they are. Before they gave their answers, I paused the show and wanted to come up with my own list. Here's who I've got, in no particular order:

Kareem Fallout & Site Update

I'm sure everyone's heard the commotion/scuffle between Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the Lakers by now. I have some definite thoughts on this, and I was going to post them now, but I think I'm going to do a little research after I get off work tonight and see if I can get some extra stats and stuff to back up my claims. My initial premise, though, is that Kareem is absolutely the most underrated superstar in NBA history. That's probably a weird thought to some people, since everyone, even non-basketball fans, know he is, but I'll explain myself in more detail in my actual post about it. So, look for that and the List of Greatness - 1969 post this weekend.

The List of Greatness - 1968

Okay, things are going to start getting complicated now. Why? It's all the fault of the American Basketball Association. One of the toughest parts of putting the Greatness Equation together was figuring out how much value to give players for their ABA accomplishments. This is a list of the greatest NBA players of all-time after all. But there were enough great players that missed NBA time to play in the ABA that those years had to be accounted for in some way. I had ABA accomplishments set at 25% for a long time, but ultimately that didn't give enough credit to guys who did quite a bit in the ABA. So now it's set at 40%, which seems to work much better overall. In other words, 1 ABA Win Share is worth .4 points instead of 1, 1 ABA All-Star Team is worth 2 points instead of 5, 1 All-ABA 1st Team is worth 6 points instead of 15, etc. You get the idea. The only accomplishment this doesn't work perfectly with is the ABA MVP. The ABA doesn't have voting results for its MVP awards, so I can't give points for MVP Award Shares, instead, winning an ABA MVP is worth the full 25 points - which at 40% puts it at 10 points. It's all or nothing for the ABA MVP. Anyway, you won't see any ABA stats on this year's top ten list, but they're going to start coming. On a separate note, this year's inductee is probably a complete surprise to absolutely everyone.

Potential Finals Matchups

Now that the Grizzlies Cinderella run is over, here are the matchups I'm rooting for, least to most, to happen in the Finals. Both in terms of entertainment value and historical impact.

Um, what happened here?

So, apparently my blog reverted back to last how it looked last Wednesday for some random, unexplained reason. I thought for sure I had posted the 1968 List of Greatness results, and I'm almost positive I wasn't drunk enough in the last few days to hallucinate that or to delete it without remembering. I'll try to get it back up today. And if you posted anything on that or any other posts since Wednesday, they appear to be gone forever. Sorry about that, I honestly have no idea what happened there.

Retired Jerseys Project

Hey readers, I'm looking for help/advice/suggestions with my next project and wanted to toss it up to you guys to see what you thought. (Don't worry, the List of Greatness will certainly continue and be completed, but the research is done on it and I like to be way out in front on the research for my projects before I type anything up on them. So I want to at least get the framework up for the next one right now.) But my next project, I think, is going to take a look at all the retired jerseys/numbers around the league. Specifically, what each team sets as it's criteria for a player to get that honor - and then using that to predict which jerseys will be retired in the future. That part of the project will cover what jerseys have been and will be retired, but I also want to look at what jerseys should be retired. So here's where I need your help. If you were running your favorite team (or any team) what would you set as the criteria for jersey retirement? And this can be whatever you think is important - years played on the team, a certain number of titles and/or awards won, All-Star selections, Hall of Fame enshrinement, statistical milestones reached, and anything else you can think of. And any combination of those things, too. Are there jerseys your team hasn't retired but should? Are there jerseys they have but shouldn't? Let me know who (and just as importantly, why.) Post your ideas in the comments here or shoot me an e-mail (lucas_ewalt@hotmail.com) and let me know and then I can get this new project off the ground. Thanks!

The List of Greatness - 1967

Well, it's a bit later than I wanted to put it up, but I'll make it up with a double dose of greatness this week. As always, all stats and accomplishments are as of the end of the 1966-67 season.

Dirk Nowitzki's Legacy

I know I promised a List of Greatness post by tonight, and I'm still going to try to get it up, but there was a recent comment that I can't let slide by without making my own comments on it, because it's exactly the kind of statement this blog is dedicated to analyzing. After the Mavericks just absolutely demolished the no-longer-defending-champion Lakers, Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said "In my opinion, he's one of the top 10 players in NBA history because of the uniqueness of his game and how he's carried this franchise on his back for over a decade." Alright, Rick, let's not get carried away here. What's wrong with this statement? Um, several things.

Quick Update - Playoff Rooting Index

Sorry for the recent lack of posts, everyone. Things have been pretty busy this last week, but look for another List of Greatness post Sunday or Monday. Possibly Saturday if I get lucky, but don't get your hopes up. Also, the Lakers absolute sucktitude recently has gotten me into kind of a funk basketball-wise. I mean, I knew it was coming, I just hoped it wouldn't be until next year. (I'm a Lakers fan, if you were wondering. You can blame a combination of Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, John Stockton, Charles Barkley, the Phoenix Suns, Houston Rockets, and my father if you're wondering why I root for the Lakers. I should probably explain that fully in a later post.) If you're wondering who I'm hoping wins this thing, besides "anyone but Miami," if the Lakers don't win, here's the list:

Advertising

As you may have noticed, there are now ads on my site. I'm not really sure how I feel about that yet - I hope it doesn't count as "selling out" considering it's almost 100% certain that I won't make any money off of them, but I figured it couldn't hurt to check it out and just see what happens. The smaller, clickable ads probably won't result in any income whatsoever, however, the Amazon link might. If you use the little search box in the upper right corner and then buy something from Amazon, I get a small percentage of however much you spend. I certainly wouldn't ask or expect anyone to buy anything they weren't planning on getting in the first place, but if you're going to buy something from Amazon anyway and you're enjoying what I'm doing here, then I would greatly appreciate it if you'd consider using that link to buy whatever it is you were going to buy in the first place. They really cool/interesting projects do take quite a bit of time to put together, and while I'm sure I'd do them regardless, and will continue to do them regardless, a little extra cash would help offset the time costs. And thanks again to everyone for reading!

The List of Greatness - 1966

If you've been paying attention to the List of Greatness, the 1966 inductee should be no surprise whatsoever. If you haven't, for shame... but you can find out who it is by clicking the little "read more" link there. (Or you can cheat and just look over on the sidebar, but come on, who wants to do that?)

2011 NBA Playoffs Quick Thoughts

Damn. Have these playoffs been fantastic or what? If you answered "or what," get the hell out, I've lost all faith in you. If you answered, "yes, they have been fantastic," get ready for some bullet points.

The List of Greatness - 1965

Now that we're caught up in terms of having an equal number of players and years, there will be only one inductee onto the List of Greatness per year (you know, the way God intended, anyway.) This also makes it more interesting because a player in the top ten could easily have an excellent season and leapfrog three or four guys to "inductee" or "next in line" status. It also means if a player who's close retires before he gets inducted, it'll be much more difficult for him to get in later on down the line. Not impossible, but difficult. The third change you'll probably notice is that the "Greatest XX Players Ever After XX Years" list will not always reflect the players who have already been inducted. You'll see what I mean. But for now here's how things shake out after 1965.

The List of Greatness - 1964

We're finally caught up with this year's inductees, insofar as we have 18 players after 18 years of the NBA's existence. Starting with 1965, we'll have one inductee every year - which was what I wanted to do originally anyway, but since the only component of my greatness rating formula that existed prior to 1951 was the All-NBA team there was a five-way tie for first place between Joe Fulks, Bob Feerick, Stan Miasek, Bones McKinney (yes, that Bones McKinney), and Max Zaslofsky. All were tied with a greatness rating of 15.0... No offense to any of those guys' careers, but they're not exactly all-time greats. And 15 isn't exactly an awe inspiring number. (In case anyone was wondering, the All-NBA teams started in 1947 - the league's first year, the All-Star Game started in 1951, win share data is available starting in 1952, and the first MVP was handed out in 1956.)


Getting back to this year's inductees, we've got one player who's an all-time legend, and one player who you're probably not familiar with unless you're really into old-school hoops.

Tonight's Games (4/19)

I thought it might be interesting to get some other perspectives and thoughts on the playoffs here, so I wanted to try this. Here's a couple quick thoughts on the playoff games that are happening tonight, and if anyone has any thoughts or insights on them, please feel free to post them and we'll see if we can get a discussion going. Probably not, but I thought it might be interesting to try to get an "open thread" started on this years playoffs.

My Picks for 2011 Awards

I wasn't planning on doing this for this year since I think my picks will probably match the consensus picks, but I figured, I'm watching basketball all day today anyway, so why not? Here's who I would pick for each of the major NBA awards:

The List of Greatness - 1963

What? Has it been two years since we inducted a Celtic onto the List? Good God! Is that a record? We must remedy that immediately! That's only slightly sarcastic. But that is a record. Well when you've won 6 of the last 7 titles (and counting), that's bound to happen. (Also, for the record, yes, it is kind of weird to write semi-pretending to be in 1963. But I'm getting used to it. Anyway...) But that raises an interesting question I've always wondered about dynasties. How many of the great players on great teams are legitimately great players, and how many are good players that just seem great because they win multiple titles with transcendent players? I dunno yet. Haven't been able to make up my mind - it's certainly something that happens both ways, and it pretty much has to be determined on a case-by-case basis. Maybe it's something to look at after the List of Greatness wraps up. Or a few cases during. We'll see.


And I just re-read that, and it seems like it might be kind of confusing, but I don't know how else to explain it, so I'll give an example: Scottie Pippen - "Great" or "Really Good with a Side of Michael Jordan"? I know where I stand on that particular issue, but that's for another day. Okay, tangents aside, on to the list. Here's our players and stats through 1963:

The List of Greatness - 1962

What the inductees for 1961 lacked in star power, the 1962 duo more than makes up for it. With pizzazz! Pizzazz? Yeah, sure, why not? Pizzazz! These are also guys who shot straight to the upper levels of the rankings pretty quickly. I know the league was still relatively young at this point, but when you can compile the 11th and 12th best careers to date in your 4th and 3rd seasons, respectively, you're doing something right. These two all-time greats give us 14 members through the NBA's first 16 years. Here's what they did to get in: (all stats through the 1962 season)

The List of Greatness - 1961

1961 was a bit of a slow year for NBA greatness. The next generation of superstars hadn't quite come into their own and the previous one had mostly retired or were on their last legs. (Or had already been inducted onto this list.) Consequently, we've got a couple players this year who most people probably don't know. They were still fairly significant players through the 1950's, but their names don't carry quite the weight of a George Mikan or Dolph Schayes. This brings us to 12 players in 15 years (getting close to one per year...) And, as always, all stats are through 1961.

Site Update

Hey, everyone - sorry for the lack of posts lately. Life's been kind of hectic with grad school, work, and family stuff. And most of my writing time's been devoted to a book I'm working on, which unfortunately pushed my blog to the backburner. However, things have (thankfully) slowed down a bit lately, and I really miss writing about my first, true passion. So hopefully I can get into a much better routine of posting at least once a week, and hopefully more. They might not all be big projects like my List of Greatness or the All-Time Tournament, but a few tidbits here and there at the very least.


There will be another List of Greatness post tonight. (Hopefully two.) And my big goal right now is to get the whole thing done by the end of the Finals so I can add 2011's inductee to the list as soon as it's determined. So look for 1961 tonight, and 1962 to follow shortly.


Thanks again to everyone who's been reading this and for the feedback and encouraging words.

Artis Gilmore is a Hall of Famer!

Well the Hall of Fame's biggest glaring omission to date has finally been rectified. Artis Gilmore has been inducted into the Hall of Fame with the Class of 2011. He gets in this year along with other players Chris Mullin, Dennis Rodman, Arvydas Sabonis, and Tom Sanders. (Others inducted were Teresa Edwards, Herb Magee, Reece Tatum, Tara VanDerveer, and Tex Winter.) So how worthy were these guys of making the Hall this year? Let's take a look.

Derrick Rose and the History of the MVP

Derrick Rose is almost certainly going to win the 2011 MVP. It's been a fairly consistent, recent trend that you could determine the league's MVP by the All-Star break, and almost certainly after about 60 games. I think the close Nash/Shaq vote in 2005 was the last time the winner was really up in the air until the votes were counted. Now, I'm not going to argue whether or not Rose deserves to be the clear cut front runner. He's certainly one of a handful of players this year who could win it and ten years from now, no one would argue that someone else was robbed. He has great numbers and he's carried a team to the (currently) second best record in the East without it's second and third best players (Boozer and Noah) for long stretches this year. So, if/when he wins, you'll have a hard time saying he didn't deserve it. However, I don't think enough is being made of how absolutely crazy it will be if this guy wins. Take a look at some of these numbers.

The List of Greatness - 1960

Here's our 1960 inductees onto the list. This brings us to 10 players and 14 years. All stats are through 1960.

The List of Greatness - 1959

It's time for another edition of the List of Greatness. Two more names will be added, bringing us to 8 after 13 years. All stats and info through the end of the 1959 season.

Trade! (Again) & Revision! (Again)

Deron Williams got traded to the Nets today. Gotta admit, I had no idea this was coming, which is kinda how I like my trades. Surprising. At least, it's preferable to the 6 month Carmelo-to-Knicks trade that went on, which basically felt like the guy was owned by the Knicks and they were just letting him play with the Nuggets for a while. Also, I love this trade for the Jazz. Not so much for what they got in return (Derrick Favors, Devin Harris - excuse me, former All-Star Devin Harris... yeah... that happened - and two first round draft picks) but for the Jazz basically giving a giant "F*** You" to Williams. As in, "You don't want to play here? Well, f*** you, enjoy New Jersey." I appreciate them making their move before Williams has any leverage whatsoever, preventing another "MeloDrama" season with him. Well, it'll probably still happen with the Nets, but it's nice to see teams being proactive.


Also, I forgot to mention this in my "Revision" column the other day, but I increased the value of ABA stats and accomplishments from 25% to 40%. The league as a whole may have only had about 25% of the talent level of the NBA, but I feel like that was punishing the greats that played in that league too much. I decided that a good to great ABA player was more likely to make at least 2 out of 5 All-Star teams/All-NBA teams, rather than 1 out of 4. (I hope that makes sense.)


As an example, Julius Erving's total goes up from 437.6 to 485.4 and from 20th place to 14th. Not a huge jump in the big scheme of all of it, but it's still significant. A few other examples, with scores and ranks before and after the change:
Rick Barry: 309.9 to 329.3, 32 to 28
George Gervin: 277.5 to 287.5, 40 to 36
Artis Gilmore: 208.0 to 247.3, 62 to 45
Dan Issel: 147.9 to 181.2, 109 to 80
Connie Hawkins: 115.7 to 135.1, 145 to 123
Mel Daniels: 74.0 to 118.4, 212 to 145

Revisions

I've decided to tweak my List of Greatness just a bit. The process of deciding who makes it on the list is the same, but I've just decided that 3 guys from any one year is just too many. So, instead of 3 guys for the first 4 years to even things out, we'll do 2 players a year for the first 9 years until the players equal the years, then we'll just do one a year. So, I'll go back and update the previous posts, and then, going forward, we'll do 2 each year until it evens up.


Also, a minor tweak to my Greatness Equation. If a player makes 2 All-Star teams, he now receives 5/6ths credit instead of 3/4ths credit. It was just odd for a player to jump from 2/3rds credit for 1 All-Star game, to 3/4ths for 2, to full credit for 3. I evened out the insignificant jump from 1 to 2 and the substantial jump from 2 to 3.

The List of Greatness - 1958

Here is our third round of inductees, and we're inching ever so much closer to the one player/one year concept. This will bring us up to 6 players in 12 years.

Trade!

Our long national nightmare is over. Carmelo Anthony has been traded to the New York Knicks. Finally we can focus on the important aspects of basketball. Like, where will Chris Paul and Dwight Howard end up in 2012? Yes, that was facetious... I'm seriously contemplating petitioning the NBA to move the trade deadline to December 31. I can't take this every year.


As for the other trade pieces? Denver gets Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton, Danilo Galinari,  and Timofey Mozgov (it's still unclear whether the imprints of Blake Griffin's testicles on Mozgov's face will be included in the deal or not), as well as some draft picks from the Knicks and Warriors (which I'm assuming the Knicks already owned.) In return, the Knicks get, along with Anthony, Chauncey Billups, Shelden Williams, Anthony Carter, and Renaldo Balkman (in perhaps the most glorious return to MSG ever.)


Not sure what number Carmelo is going to wear, since #15 is retired for both Earl Monroe and Dick McGuire. #5 and #6 are taken, by Bill Walker and Landry Fields, respectively. So I'll guess he'll go with #25, which the departing Mozgov now leaves available. That is, of course, only if Anthony can manage to get the musky scent of Griffin's undercarriage off of the number.

A Few All-Star Thoughts

Here are just a few quick thoughts I had after watching the All-Star festivities this weekend. And by festivities, I mean the game and the dunk contest. Everything else is worthless. Everyone knows this, even if we all pretend otherwise.

• The most impressive dunk was DeMar DeRozan's second dunk. I believe he called it the "Show Stopper." It literally elicited an unconscious "whoa!" from me. His first dunk was good, too, but I've seen him do it before. It might have been most satisfying because he did it on his first try.
• None of Blake Griffin's dunks were overly impressive. His first attempts at his first and second dunks were rather spectacular though.
• I liked the double dunk from McGee. Good stuff.
• Ibaka's "sketch" was just plain awful. The dunk wasn't bad, but that skit with the horrible child actor with the horrible haircut and the horrible actress pretending to be a sideline reporter... Oh, wait... That was just a horrible sideline reporter? Either way, that skit just sunk the whole thing.
• On to the game: I think the little stars on the back of the jerseys next to the player's name signified how many All-Star selections he's had. If so, it's a cool idea, but I have absolutely no proof that's what they meant. I may have missed the part if/when Marv explained it.
• Marv referred to Stevie Wonder as "Stevie Wonders." Good stuff.
• My girlfriend wanted to know why Stevie Wonder would attend a basketball game. Or any sporting event for that matter. Good question.
• I didn't like the West's red/gold jerseys. Reminded me too much of China. And Yao wasn't even playing.
• I did like red against blue jerseys though. I always find it kind of interesting when neither team wears white. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I think it worked this time.
• Kobe had a pretty spectacular three and a half quarters. Which is very odd considering his rep as the league's greatest closer. The West was lucky they had Durant to step it up in the clutch.
• I would've given co-MVP's to both Bryant and Durant if it'd been up to me. (And if we still have to follow the tradition of awarding a player from the winning team.)
• Griffin's dunks look much cooler in an actual game than in a contest.
• I liked how Pop and Doc had absolutely no inclination to play their own players. Good stuff. I hope we see this as the new incentive to do the best in the first half of the season - so you can rest your own best players and wear out your primary competition's best players.
• LeBron had a hell of a game. I just don't know if I like where basketball is going when the best player in the game's best/most unstoppable move is "sprint, take two steps from the three point line, and dunk."