Every once in a while, we hear about a young person who digs down deep and shows us that all those negative stereotypes we think we know about young people can be wrong.
Way, way wrong.
My latest column at The Love of Sports is about one such young man.
Ryan Paxson is the 20-year-old son of John Paxson, former NBA star and current GM of the Chicago Bulls. Ryan was the son of privilege, and he knew it. Last year, instead of continuing down that easier path of life, he chose to become a US Marine.
There is no price to pay, other than a regular personal foul.
This is really good to know. So if tonight Paul Pierce gets mugged in broad daylight in that same situation, we won’t hear any complaints. Will we, Doc Rivers?
Because the NBA has now clarified this whole thing for us.
Please do not be confused by the fact that the NBA invented the flagrant foul rule to address this exact situation, where a player makes zero effort to play the ball and instead bashes some poor schmuck directly in the face.
You see, they’re also cool with the face-bashing, if the score is close, and the game close to over. And if the mugger didn’t wind up and/or follow through aggressively enough, apparently. So, you can relax, it’s all nailed down now!
Listen up, muggers! Just make sure you bash the guy really hard, with a closed fist, right in the mouth, with no windup or follow thru, so that he is so woozy he can’t see straight and is still swallowing blood when he tries to shoot the free throws. Tends to work a lot better, and hey, you won’t get nailed for it anyway, so why the hell not?
The burning question on everybody’s mind, as we approach Final Four weekend, is this: is the Big East the best conference if they don’t win a title?”
The answer: who cares? Why is the entire sports world all a-twitter about this stupid idea, comparing one conference to another?
To even ask the question is to ask the nonsensical. Here’s why: in actual games, conferences don’t play each other; teams do. Srsly!
Therefore, comparisons between teams can be settled on the court, which is the only comparison that matters.
Plus, if conferences did play each other, there’d be like 60 or 80 players on each side. The court would be as crowded as a Tokyo subway car.
Fouls would get totally out of control. You’d need, like, 18 refs. They’d probably just call three seconds on every possession anyway, with all those players out there, clogging up the lane all the time.
And the substitutions! What a nightmare. Coaches would have to send in 10 or 20 guys at a time. I’m not sure how you’d keep it all straight.
Clearly, not workable.
Yet every time we turn on ESPN, or listen to sports talk, or read articles and blogs on the web, this question about which conference is “better” gets brought up. Over and over and over again.
OK, just for fun, let’s play along for a minute. If a definitive answer to this burning question could be found, what would it change?
Um, nothing. Teams would still play other teams, and sometimes teams from one conference would win. Sometimes, the other. Some years, more teams from one conference would win. Other years, the other.
Starting to see a pattern yet? Me too.
So what all this tells me is that a whole bunch of supposedly smart people like to argue about dumb, meaningless stuff on TV, the radio, and on the Internet.
Ed Sherman interviews former Chicago Tribune sportswriter Sam Smith about his new gig writing for bulls.com. Sherman also used to write for the Tribune; I imagine both are pretty happy to be out of there now, with the current financial state of that newspaper.
Sam covered the Bulls for years, including the Jordan era, and is a nationally known basketball writer. His gig with the Bulls is somewhat revolutionary in the sportswriting world: exclusive content provided by an old-school journalist for a team website.
They discuss the potential conflicts of interest, It’s pretty interesting stuff. Read the whole thing.
A quote from Sam about the failures of newspapers:
… [The Bulls] treat me well because they know me from covering them and the league for 25 years. That’s where my credibility and relationships come from. It’s what newspapers have forgotten. It’s not who you work for, but what you do.
You can have your Carolinas and your UConns: I have seen the light, and it’s name is Division III NCAA basketball.
Over the last two weekends I’ve seen #3 Wheaton (Ill.) College play in two big games — a conference championship and a regional championship — and I’m here to tell you, this is some great basketball for the fans.
First, you’re right there with the action. Wheaton’s gym, called King Arena, is pretty small. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve been in some bigger high school gyms. But that just adds to the intensity and excitement when something good happens. The crowd literally explodes all around you.
The game itself is so close it comes alive, right in front of you. For me, there is no sport quite like basketball for getting close to the action: the sounds and the visuals are so much more compelling than when watching a game on TV, it really isn’t even in the same discussion. I got down on the floor and took some pics, like this one. Try doing that at a Duke – Carolina game, without a press pass.
And I may be reaching a bit here, but if the rest of Division III basketball is like what I’ve seen these last two weekends, the style of play is very team-oriented. Lots of moving without the ball, give and go, exactly the way the game is “supposed to be played”. Yes, I’m a bit of a purist. How can you tell?
Next, the athletes are the genuine article: the often talked about, but rarely seen, NCAA student-athlete. No scholarships. No hype. No scandals. Just books and basketball. Unadorned simplicity.
And these guys can play. I never really bought into the theory that Division I players are that much better than Division III players. Some of them, yes. Most, probably. But not all, and not by that much. And you get to watch them from 50 feet away, live, with the sounds of the game and the crowd all around you. That’s a win in my book.
Wheaton shooting guard Kent Raymond is number 24 in the picture above. His list of records and awards is a mile long. An All-American last year, he will surely be one again this year. But they’ve got other good players too. The players who’ve impressed me the most include Andy Wiele, Andrew Jahns, and Jake Carwell.
Here’s Andy Wiele, resting next to the very large Jeff Skemp from Wisconsin-Platteville, that he had to guard last night. Wiele made a great effort, but Skemp is both taller and wider, and hung a 38 on him. Still, Wheaton won the war, in overtime, 74-69.
Wheaton now moves on to the round of 16 against Washington U. next week, again at home. This next round is going to be a real barn-burner; two games at Wheaton, featuring some of the best teams in Division III: St. Thomas (29-0) from Minnesota vs. Puget Sound (25-3), and Washington U. (25-2) vs. Wheaton (27-3). Respectively, they finished 1-7-2-3 in the final Divsion III poll.
Norm Van Lier was born and raised in western Pennsylvania, but during his playing career in Chicago with the Bulls, he was welcomed as one of our own.
He passed away last Thursday at 61.
“Stormin’ Norm” played in the NBA for 10 years, from 1969-1979, for three teams: Cincinnati (two years), Chicago (seven years), and Milwaukee (one year).
Over his NBA career, Norm Van Lier averaged about 12 points, seven assists, and five rebounds. His career assist-to-turnover ratio is over 3-1. He made all-defensive team eight times in those ten years. He also led the NBA in assists in the 1970-71 season.
But those are just stats. Stats are a dime a dozen. Basketball fans remember more about his intangibles: intense, hardworking, competitive, and tenacious, physical defense. And together with Jerry Sloan, a physical and intimidating presence. For the opposing guards, a game against the Bulls meant a street fight, more or less.
Norm Van Lier gave 110%, every single play, of every game. For that, Bulls fans loved him, and opposing fans probably hated him.
There really haven’t been many players in the NBA like him: the skills of a point guard, and the attitude of a junkyard dog.
His first coach was Bob Cousy, the legendary former Celtics’ point guard. About Norm, Cousy offered offered this very high praise: “I have never coached or been around a player who could sustain the intensity that Norm did. He had basically double the intensity of almost anyone else out on the floor.”
After two seasons with Cincinnati, the Bulls re-acquired Stormin’ Norman (they had drafted him and then traded him during training camp).
Those Bulls teams were among the best in the NBA. They won 50 games back when it wasn’t easy, and you had to play the Lakers, Knicks, Bucks, and Celtics many times per season.
But they weren’t quite good enough to do much damage. They lost to the Lakers in the first round three years in a row (1971-3), stretching them to seven games twice. Then, when they finally made it to the Western Conference Finals, they lost both times, losing to the Bucks in 1974 and the Warriors in 1975.
Those failures weren’t due to weakness at the point guard position, I can assure you.
Some years after his playing career was over, Norm became a studio analyst for Bulls games, and he brought the same passion and intensity to those telecasts. He was funny, too. You never knew what was going to come out of his mouth. Check out this youtube video of his classic comparison of the Bulls’ heart to a mustard seed, from just last season.
As a kid, I knew him as a great player who gave everything to win. Later, via TV, I knew him as funny, down-to-earth, just a regular guy. You knew that if you saw him on the street and yelled “Hey Norm!”, he’d smile and yell right back “Hey! How ya doin’!”.
Finally, a couple of quotes that sum up everything we need to know about Norm Van Lier.
First, John Jackson, a columnist for the Chicago Sun-times: “I didn’t like being around Kerr and Van Lier because they were former great players. I liked them because they were fun people to be around.”
And Norm himself, about his love of music and his pre-game ritual: “For me, it had to be the Stones or Zeppelin or even Steppenwolf back then. Something to send me into the Stadium with attitude. Aht-ti-toode, my friend.”
That’s Stormin’ Norman: “aht-ti-toode, my friend”.
Take some time out from a busy day and read an inspiring story about a young man, his mom, and how his life’s circumstances affected a basketball game. You’ll be glad you did.
There isn’t much more I can add, except that the coaches and kids at both high schools — Dekalb (Ill.) High School and Milwaukee Madison (Wis.) High School — have a lot to be proud of here. It sounds like everybody acted exactly the way we’d want them to, if it were us in that position.
Basketball fans around the country probably haven’t seen much of Chicago Bulls rookie Derrick Rose yet. And they don’t know what they’re missing.
The first thing you notice is his court sense and basketball IQ. He thinks “pass first”, like any point guard should, and he sees the floor well, and gets the ball to open teammates, usually with a bullet pass. He has to be prodded to shoot, although he is taking more shots now, and making them, which forces the defense to start making choices they don’t want to make.
Then you notice his athleticism. He can jump. Real high. And he has a rare combination of both speed and quickness that make it difficult for most defenders to guard him. On the break, he often runs faster than every other defender, while dribbling and looking for openings. But he seems to hide all this well, with an efficient, almost “sleepy” style of play. He doesn’t waste a single motion, and looks like he isn’t going anywhere, and then, WHOOSH!, he flies by his defender, and the next one, and another one, for a dunk.
Hey, look! A sportswriter has stepped in it again, by writing about politics. Riffing on Bush, and slobbering all over Obama. Like we can’t already get *that* from the rest of the paper.
I’m starting to think sportswriters aren’t real well-informed. Srsly!
Rick Telander, sportswriter, informs us that Obama is a Renaissance Man for the ages, and Bush is a drooling moron.
Plus, Obama plays pick-up basketball! How awesome is that? Coolest. President. Ever!
Mr. Telander knows what he’s talking about, too; seems Obama is a voracious reader, and has even read Telander’s Heaven is a Playground, a book about … pick-up basketball. Which means he is open-minded, and also great presidential material. Bask in the reflection of his awesomeness.
Bush, meanwhile, suffers from countless infirmities, such as not playing pick up basketball, and a “lack of inquisitiveness”. The bad news for Telander: Bush is a voracious reader too; he read 186 books in the last three years.
If Larry Bird were to come out of retirement and miss his next 3,000 free-throw attempts (which would require him to shoot 0 percent for about seven seasons, based on his peak season of 492 free-throw attempts), he’d still have a higher career free-throw percentage than Shaq.
It’s Just a “Perception” Problem … Really, These are the BEST REFS in the WHOLE WORLD !
NBA Commissioner David Stern has brought in Retired Army Maj. Gen. Ronald L. Johnson to “oversee” the referees.
A couple of quotes tell us all we need to know about this hire. Here’s Commissioner Stern:
“Our referees are the best in the world,” Stern said in a statement, “but they never stop striving to improve and Ron has made a career out of getting the very best out of people.”
And Joel Litvin, president for league and basketball operations:
“We don’t want to make him a star, insofar as the point of an officiating program is be as invisible as possible. But we do understand we have a perception problem and to that extent, we hope to put a better face on the program. It deserves that much.”
Um, OK.
Well, one reason they might have a perception problem is because they rarely call traveling, double dribble, or hanging on the rim anymore, and they often play to the home crowd on foul calls. And so, the perception is that they don’t enforce rules and are too compliant to the home crowd.
Now the school finds itself with an AD, Rick Greenspan, that is resigning due to the Sampson fallout, but not until the end of the year, which is more than five months away. Plus, a new coach (Tom Crean), and a bunch of players recruited by Sampson. And, a whole bunch of egg on its face.
You have to figure this isn’t going to help with recruiting.
Not that I’m complaining, though. As an Illini fan, anytime something embarrassing happens to IU, you just have to drink it in. And when it is a disaster as complete and perfect as this, you savor it, and swirl it around in your brain, and enjoy a little schadenfreude.
… and for that alone, all of us college hoops fans are very, very happy. Title games are often not all that great.
Even better for me, I picked Kansas to win it all, proving yet again that sometimes, I can get lucky with the best of them. I won my family pool, coming back from the dead after losing a bunch of early round games. If Jacob had picked Memphis to win it all, instead of Carolina, he would have won, because he was leading going into the Final Four. So he picked more of the games right, and I got lucky that only I picked KU.
Random thoughts, in no particular order …
I’m happy for Bill Self, because he’s a good coach — and an even better recruiter — who seems to teach the game of basketball, and the game of life, the right way. As opposed to, say, a Big Fat Cheater like Kelvin Sampson. And I say this as a big Fighting Illini fan who is still stung a little bit by Self leaving for the KU job after only 4 years! But honestly, even though the Illini job is one of the top 10 or 20 jobs in college basketball, who wouldn’t make that upgrade?
Kansas has some of the coolest uniforms in all of sports.
Memphis and John Calipari were a great team as well; for my money, these were the two best teams in college basketball.
And the best team won, just like I had read that they would, based on the average point differential in their games during the season, which was highest in all of college hoops. From everything I’ve read and observed, point differential is more important than a team’s record, because it is a truer indication of the relative strength of a team. Especially in basketball.
This was one of the best tournaments in a long time; four dominant number one seeds, and a bunch of other good teams, some from unexpected places like Western Kentucky, to provide a nice balance of both close games and impressive displays of basketball. Good TV, good basketball.
At Least, The Stuff I Care About, and Am Too Lazy to Provide Links, Edition
Blackhawks Still in Playoff Race; Only Excitement in Town
Four points out with 3 games left to play. They have to win every remaining game to have any kind of chance to make the playoffs, and they know it. And the Hawks played like it on the weekend, with two nice efforts, including a road win against the Blues, and a come-from-behind (twice) win against Columbus that went to a shootout, where nineteen year old rookie Patrick Kane scored the only goal. He also broke the team rookie record for assists with 48. Another nineteen year old rookie, Jonathan Toews (pronounced “Taze”) took over the rookie goal scoring lead with one goal and added an assist.
Final week of season: Detroit (Wed. 7:30), Nashville (Fri. 7:30), at Detroit (Sun 2:00)
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NCAA March Madness – Final Four
Carolina vs. Kansas, UCLA vs. Memphis. All the number one seeds. Which is sort of shocking, really.
Hats off to Davidson; what a fun team to watch. I love the way they play. The NCAA tournament would be better for allowing more teams like them into the tournament. And by “teams like them” I mean “teams in smaller conferences”. Make the tournament bigger, by at least 14-20 teams, and add a bunch of play-in games or something. Today we rely on the polls and biases of a bunch of bureaucrats in the NCAA; wouldn’t it be better for all to let in more teams like Davidson and George Mason and let the players decide it on the court? The tournament itself benefits, the fans benefit, and the teams that make it benefit. They’re already letting in too many teams, and they favor fourth and fifth place teams in power conferences over second place teams from smaller conferences. I’m not sure this is a valid assumption. Expand the pool, I say!
My pick is Kansas, although based on what I saw this weekend, they had the most trouble making the Final Four. I’m still in last place in our family pool. Next year I really need to get the dog to enter the pool so I improve my chances of not finishing last.——–
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Cubs Break Camp
Big Z to start today (Monday) against Milwaukee and Ben Sheets.
This team is in pretty good shape with injuries and general health. My own personal preview, in 100 words or less: Defense should be pretty good, approaching excellent, at all positions, which will help the pitching, which already looks deep. Bullpen should continue as a strength, though Kerry Wood as closer seems a bit risky to me, due to issues with durability and control. Bench looks OK. Lineup seems in a state of flux though; they still don’t have enough high-OBP guys at the top, and are still too right-handed. Keeping Fukudome higher up in the order, in the top three at least, seems key to their ability to score runs, assuming he is as good a hitter as advertised. Barring injuries, they seem ready to repeat as Central champs, but advancing in October is going to require a more intelligent approach to hitting than they showed last year.
This week: 3 at home vs. Milwaukee, 3 at home vs. Houston, Off day: Tuesday.
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Bulls Disappear in Rear-View Mirror
After a nice game against Atlanta on Tuesday, they looked bad again in Philly on Wednesday. Lost to Atlanta Friday, beat Milwaukee Saturday.
But few people care what they do, at this point, because they are inconsistent and lacking in desire. My wife is a big fan, and is relentlessly positive, and she doesn’t even care any more.
This week: Boston (Mon. 73o), at Cleveland (Wed. 7:00), Washington (Fri. 7:30).
Hawks up 2-1 in third period, give up tying goal with 8 minutes left, give up go-ahead goal with 1:18 left, then score tying goal (Wisniewski) with :54 left. Overtime. Patrick Kane scores winner at 1:09 into overtime. No points1 point 2 points.
Now only 4 points out of playoff hunt, with 6 games left.
This week: at Columbus (Wed. 6:00), at St. Louis (Sat 7:30), Columbus (Sun 6:00)
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Bulls Continue to Give Up 4th Quarter Leads
What can you say? Losing to Indiana, at home, by 8, after leading by 13 in the fourth?
Like Jim Mora said, “PLAYOFFS?! YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT PLAYOFFS?!”
This week: Atlanta (Tue 7:30), at Philly (Wed 6:00), at Atlanta (Fri 6:30), Milwaukee (Sat 7:30)
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Cubs Ready to Break Camp
Seems like they’re getting the rotation in order, though one of Dempster, Lieber, and Marquis is out. Possible trade?
Kerry Wood has all but sewn up the closer role. He has walked nobody this spring; this is a very good sign. But closers have to pitch on consecutive days and stay healthy enough to appear in 50 or 60 games. Good thing they have Howry and Marmol, too.
Lou continues to tinker with the lineup in ways I’m not sure I like. He wants Soriano in the 2 hole to protect his legs, which probably makes some sense, but Soriano seems too undisciplined to hit there; I like him at 3, 4, or 5 better. Plus by putting him there, you can’t put Fukudome in the 2 spot, who seems more suitable (though I haven’t seen him play yet). Lou seems generally too concerned about protecting Ramirez in the lineup by having Fukudome hit behind him. I think it’s much more important to have a top 3 that generate lots of runs on their own, with speed and good baserunning and situational hitting, and I think a Theriot-Fukudome-Soriano (or Lee) lineup might do that.
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NCAA March Madness – Round of 16
Yay, Davidson. I’ve always disliked Georgetown. And I generally favor the unknown mid-major type programs over the completely over-exposed, usually over-rated, big conference teams.
I’m in last place in our family pool. Yeah, I’m behind an 8 year old and a 6 year old. What of it? At least I’m ahead of the dog. But she is not technically, you know, “in” the pool.
One hundred and nine million dollars to fund amateur athletics. Can you say “conflict of interest”? Knew you could.
But don’t you fret — the athletes don’t get a single dollar of that action, at least as far as you know, so their amateur standing is untarnished. Had you worried there, didn’t I?
At Ohio State and many places like it, the money flows from the fans, alumni, boosters, gamblers, TV networks, and advertisers, to the schools, conferences, NCAA, stadiums, hotels, bars, restaurants, airlines, escort services, and bookies.
Nary an athlete in sight, during all this cash changing hands. Wink, wink.
"As I wrote in my common sense, bulldozer of truth book "Ted, White and Blue," you do not have a "right" to health care, but rather a personal responsibility for it. From my vantage point, too many Americans obviously do not care about their health but have the unmitigated audacity to want someone else to pay for their health care damage control. That attitude is soulless, irresponsible and un-American. I am not of the same species as these bloodsuckers."
Ted Nugent, from "Fedzilla Goes Quack", Mar. 10, 2009
