MetaFilter posts tagged with basketball

You know how to whistle, don't you? Just put your lips together and blow....

msalt — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:40:02 -0800

The book the NBA doesn't want you to read. Former NBA referee Tim Donaghy was convicted of passing inside information on NBA games to gamblers, for thousands of dollars. He has written a book purporting to reveal many explosive scandals about NBA officiating (detailed excerpts). It was scheduled for publication by Random House (cached Amazon page), then cancelled after an alleged lawsuit threat by the league. Donaghy's book names names about organized referee manipulation 1) favoring Kobe Bryant and the LA Lakers, 2) to extend playoff series, 3) against strong defenders such as Raja Bell, 4) betting with each other on calls during games, 5) makeup calls, 6) feuds with players, etc. In 2007, when Donaghy was arrested, a league investigation found that every single NBA referee gambled in violation of the rules, half betting in casinos. In response, they relaxed the rules against betting.

Artis Gilmore, best hoopster denied HOF entry

planetkyoto — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 08:55:19 -0800

Basketball doesn't have baseball's numerous simmering controversies over Hall of Fame inductees, but the greatest basketball player denied enshrinement may be 11-time ABA and NBA All Star center Artis Gilmore. At 7-foot-2 plus 4 inches for his towering afro, they called him "The A-Train" for his powerful but unpretentious play, and today on his 60th birthday he still owns career records in the NCAA (22.7 rebounds per game) and NBA (59.9% field goal percentage). OK, I only posted this so I could link to these three photos. Despite an ABA career in which he averaged 22.3 points and 17.1 rebounds per game, NBA career averages of 17.1 points and 10.1 rebounds per game, ranking in the top ten in rebounds, blocked shots, games, and minutes played, among the top 25 all-time in points, and first overall in field goal percentage, Gilmore has yet to be elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. For the past three years, he failed to receive even a single vote of support from a panel of nine anonymous members serving on the North American screening committee. He remains ineligible for enshrinement until 2012.

He was a friend of mine

escabeche — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 17:43:04 -0800

Jim Carroll has died. Avant-garde writer, punk rocker, doped-up downtown scenester, never-made-it schoolyard hoop-dreamer. He couldn't have expected to live to see a master's thesis in English at San Diego State written about his journal/novel The Basketball Diaries, or to be interviewed by Jon Stewart about being played by Leo DiCaprio in the movie of his (early) life. Jim Carroll interviewed in Cleveland in 1991, hiding behind a big hat, a big cup of coffee, and a big accent. Obligatory (but follow it if you haven't heard it!) "People Who Died" link. catholicboy.com, as thorough a collection of Carrolliana as you're going to find.

Anatomy of the Blazers' offense

AceRock — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 20:19:24 -0800

Basketball-filter: The Portland Trailblazers' offense broken down and explained with custom videos. [via]

Livin' Large

emd3737 — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 06:32:26 -0800

Ever wonder what it would be like if you showed up to your freshman year of college...and your roommate was a 7'2" Division 1 basketball player from Holland? The author of sports blog Basketbawful is currently publishing a series of stories describing that exact experience. These chronicles vacillate between hilarious, shocking, depressing, and disgusting, but all are extremely entertaining. Part 1. Part 2. Part 3. Part 4. Part 5. Part 6. Part 7.

The Disposable Superstar

Roach — Mon, 11 May 2009 15:28:56 -0800

Tom Friend's retrospective of Chauncey Billup's career is as fine a profile of leadership, tenacity, and redemption as comes along in American sportswriting. And I'm not even a basketball fan

The Greatest Series Ever?

Lacking Subtlety — Fri, 01 May 2009 10:55:11 -0800

For those who might be unaware: One of the great basketball games concluded last night in thrilling fashion during triple overtime. It is only par for a series that has gone into overtime for the fourth time in games in six games (one of which was double OT, and last night's aforementioned triple OT). The heroic moments and failures of players are too numerous to count at this point, but five of the six games have been decided by 11 points... TOTAL. On Saturday 8PM EST, what is arguably one of the greatest series ever, will conclude with the final game 7. Game 1 Bulls Game 2 Celtics Game 3 Celtics Game 4 Bulls Game 5 Celtics Game 6 Bulls Adding more to the gravity of the series, is the fact that both teams figure heavily into the history of the NBA; one being the greatest franchise ever (17 titles) and the other being the best franchise of the 1990s (6 titles, two 3-peats) Celtics History Bulls History

Lebron sinks one as the shas clock runs down!

ericbop — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 17:17:46 -0800

My April 1st spidey sense was tingling like crazy, but I guess it's true if it was in Time Magazine, that bastion of serious journalism, where Time 100 nominee LeBron James nominated Ohio businessman Jay Schottenstein for the next Time 100 because he, "supported the translation and elucidation of the Talmud Bavli into English, Hebrew and French." Now if only Jews could play basketball...

Feel-Good Fail

Mountain Goatse — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 07:58:32 -0800

Ken Mink became a national feel-good story late last year when, at age 73, he joined the basketball team of Roane State Community College in Tennessee. At the end of an early season game, with his team up big, Ken was subbed in and managed to draw a foul and make two free throws. Fame followed. But is this feel-good story really all its cracked up to be?

March Madness 2009

woodway — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 10:44:15 -0800

March Madness is less than a month away, and sports fans are snapping up tickets to watch men’s and women’s NCAA basketball teams battle their way to the Final Four. Projected brackets are going online, with speculation about likely picks and the prospects of finding a Cinderella team in the field this year. Cheerleaders get their moment on screen before commercial breaks, but should these student athletes be considered members of a sports team, too? On court fashion generates debate, and mascots range from the obvious to the really odd. PETA continues its crusade against the use of live animals, but one overriding question remains: “What the hell is a Saluki?”

This is true sportsmanship.

Four-Eyed Girl — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 06:47:11 -0800

Two high school basketball teams unite in grieving a player's recent loss. Johntel Franklin, senior basketball captain for Milwaukee Madison, lost his mother to cervical cancer on the day of a game with friendly rivals from DeKalb. In a beautiful act of sportsmanship, both teams decide to forgo points in order to help Johntel deal with his grief.

If X is Kobe Bryant and Y is the ball...

jourman2 — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 09:20:45 -0800

The selfless NBA stats geek, by Michael Lewis. Michael Lewis previously on mefi Battier, even as a teenager, was as shrewd as he was disciplined. The minute he figured out where he was headed, he called a sensational high-school power forward in Peekskill, N.Y., named Elton Brand — and talked him into joining him at Duke. (Brand now plays for the Philadelphia 76ers.) “I thought he’d be the first black president,” Wetzel says. “He was Barack Obama before Barack Obama.” Last July, as we sat in the library of the Detroit Country Day School, watching, or trying to watch, his March 2008 performance against Kobe Bryant, Battier was much happier instead talking about Obama, both of whose books he had read. (“The first was better than the second,” he said.) He said he hated watching himself play, then proved it by refusing to watch himself play. My every attempt to draw his attention to the action on the video monitor was met by some distraction.

Abandon cynicism all ye who enter here

theora55 — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 08:28:17 -0800

2 very moving stories about high school kids with heart.

Not a very Christy win

BrnP84 — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 08:18:59 -0800

Basketball coach is fired b/c of 100-0 point game, his team won The losing team was a school for the learning disabled, the winning school claimed the win was "not very Christ-like."

The President-To-B-Baller

Poolio — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 21:43:37 -0800

The Audacity of Hoops Alexander Wolff (Sports Illustrated) examines the importance of basketball in Barack Obama's life.

"It wasn't that he made or missed that shot," Robinson says of Obama's three-pointer in front of the troops in Kuwait. "It's that he took it."

Basketball rats

i_cola — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 08:34:30 -0800

Basketball rats. So the folks at the Finnish Science Centre Heureka have trained rats to play basketball.
Any tame rat can learn to play basketball, but brave rats which are relaxed playing in front of an enthusiastic audience will be the best professionals!
Video here and more here. Via TrueHoop.

Slovenian farm-league analysis

saladin — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 15:51:35 -0800

FreeDarko: the intersection of basketball and everything else worth talking about. Witness the 2008 U.S. Presidential election as seen through the lens of the UNC/Duke rivalry, and a look inside the noir world of Pat Riley.

Friday Java Fun

Rhaomi — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 20:45:07 -0800

Two slimes. One circle. Infinite addiction. Welcome to the world of Slimeball. Slime Volleyball, AKA "One Slime", is the old standby, but scads of mods and variants have proliferated over time: Two-player Slime Volleyball, with stats and uniforms and game-modifying codes Power Slime, a Volleyball variant where the players are given random special abilities Slime Soccer, Slime Space Soccer, Slime Bowling, Slime Tennis, Slime Ice Hockey, and Slime Basketball Slime Dodgeball and Slime Rugby, two games with magnetic play in which slimes can "pick up" the ball on their domes and toss them across the field. Slime Cricket and Slime Boxing, too. Have you proven yourself unworthy? Search for winning strategies on the SlimeWiki. Or just vent your frustrations to your fellow Inferior Human Controlled Slimes on the Slime Forum. And finally, an (aging) online solution for enterprising Mefites itching to deliver a virtual smackdown.

Better to limbo under a stick than become one...

OhPuhLeez — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 10:36:43 -0800

See Nemo fetch. Want to train your comet to join the Comets? Your Shubunkin to do some dunkin'?

Goldfish training.

A school of fish or a school for fish? You be the judge.

"It's good to know sports - at its core - still can bring out the best in us."

kyleg — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:02:23 -0800

An inspirational update to the story of Jason McElwain.

Go OKC!

parmanparman — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 19:58:00 -0800

Goodbye Seattle! Hello Oklahoma! Get ready for the NBA's newest team, the Oklahoma City SuperSonics! Whither Seattle basketball? Methinks not.

Big Deke

John Smallberries — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:25:15 -0800

He is a sports character for the ages. At 41, he is the NBA's oldest active player. Number two all time in blocked shots, he is probably best known for his trademark finger wag and ~~unimitable~~ deep gravelly voice. His current team's 20 game win streak has led him to gleefully suggest that their critics pucker up. And all that pales in comparison to what he really should be known for: he is a great humanitarian. Capping the laundry list of his charitable activities, he has spent more than 15 million dollars of his own money endowing and ensuring the completion of the Biamba Marie Mutumbo Research and Teaching Hospital outside of Kinshasa, the first modern medical facility built in the region in forty years. He is an example for all professional athletes. He is Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean-Jacques Wamutombo, and he is what a true sports hero should be.

11 Point Underdogs

Stynxno — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 08:03:48 -0800

The 41st Annual Holy Angels/Santa Anita Jockeys Charity Basketball Game takes place tonight. The 7th/8th grade basketball team for Holy Angels Catholic School will be facing against jockeys [scroll down for details] from Santa Anita Park. The charity game [youtub vid from last year's game] raises money for Holy Angels Athletic department. The jockeys are currently 11 point underdogs for tonight's game.

Hoosier Daddy Sampson to Dakich

dragonsi55 — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 10:31:24 -0800

Kelvin Sampson probably gone Sooner than later. Ever since Bob Knight got fired from Indiana University, alumni have been upset that one of his lineage was not brought in to replace him. Mike Davis was never able to rally the troops, IU alumni pulled donations and the athletic department balance sheet went from black to red. IU hired a great coach in Kelvin Sampson, but he came with sanctions from his Oklahoma days. It looks like IU Athletic Director Rick Greenspan may have had the machine going to replace Sampson over a year ago. Former IU player and assistant coach (under Bob Knight) Dan Dakich resigned his Bowling Green coaching job last March, walking away from a $125,000 salary with no apparent plan. By June, he was IU's Director of Basketball Operations, an administrative position with no coaching duties. However, after Assistant Coach Rob Senderoff resigned under fire, Dakich found himself on the bench behind Sampson. Dakich had walked away from tripling his salary at West Virginia after one week due to concern over possible program violations. He said 'This is how you do things honestly, not based on money,' and so he looks very clean for a tarnished IU program. One more advantage; he already knows about IU's problematic phones.

barefoot for a cause

geekyguy — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 17:40:49 -0800

Barefootin'! Ron Hunter, men's basketball coach of IUPUI, decides to raise awareness for Samaritan's Feet, a charity that collects shoes for needy children, by coaching barefoot. Initially, he hoped to collect 40,000 pairs in honor of the 40th anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King Jr. - 110,000 pairs of shoes were collected by tip-off. An inspiring(?) story. as seen at SpoFi