I hate to discredit a Hall of Famer, but I came across this quote from Hakeem Olajuwon in LZ Granderson's otherwise wonderful story about the rarity of quadruple-doubles in the NBA:
"When I was playing, it was expected that a good player, especially a big man, would get a double-double. Today, getting a double-double is considered special."
Hakeem Olajuwon's career double-doubles (data only from 1986-87 season): 674
Average per 82-game season: 53
Double-double leaders, last four seasons: 69, 66, 62, 69
Number of players who compiled 53 or more double-doubles, last four seasons: 4, 3, 4, 2
Even giving credit to Olajuwon due to the fact those numbers encapsulate the decline phase of his career, and while it may be true that the number of players achieving double-doubles were greater "back in the day," it would seem pretty obvious that double-doubles by the elite players are as frequent now as they were back in the day.
And, of course, none of this takes into account pace or number of possessions.
Wednesday, March 11
Eye-opening Story in PI About SU Player
The PI's demise is on a when, not if, basis these days (Wednesday? Thursday?), so it's bittersweet to see a story such as this one in the paper today.
Reporter Dan Raley details the story of Peller Phillips, a former point guard who attended Seattle University in the 1960s, was accused of point-shaving, kicked off the team, denied entry to the NBA, then completely exonerated.
Philips' ability to let the charges and impact upon his life roll off his back is admirable, as is Raley's telling of the story. Well worth a read.
Reporter Dan Raley details the story of Peller Phillips, a former point guard who attended Seattle University in the 1960s, was accused of point-shaving, kicked off the team, denied entry to the NBA, then completely exonerated.
Philips' ability to let the charges and impact upon his life roll off his back is admirable, as is Raley's telling of the story. Well worth a read.
Tuesday, March 10
NBA Attendance, From Another Angle
In studying the NBA attendance figures this season, my eyes have gone a bit bloodshot entering in daily totals for every single team. Still, it hasn't been without its rewards, garnering such insights as:
-If every NBA team could play every game on Saturday night, the Sonics would be in KeyArena right now and David Stern would be wearing platinum-plated underwear instead of those miserable gold-plated boxers Larry O'Brien gave him in 1982. LeBron, Kobe, Shaq ... nobody has as much impact on an NBA team's attendance as a Saturday night.
-I don't know which is more worrying for the league, that the Bobcats are as popular in Charlotte as George Shinn biographies, or that the Pistons have dropped from the ranks of the Sellout Every Night Club. If the Pistons don't advance to the second round in the playoffs this season, I'm guessing next year might be a bit tough at Auburn Hills.
Sideways banter aside, allow me to provide you a new graph for your reading enjoyment. This time, I've taken the average attendance of every team and paired it with their standard deviation from said average.
You'll notice that fans of the teams grouped in the bottom right corner are those in no danger of seeing the word "relocation" any time soon in their local newspapers. Fans of those teams in the upper left and, especially, in the bottom left, on the other hand, are free to start their bitching about the inequities of modern professional sports. Not that it will do you any good, mind you, but I thought you ought to prepare.
As you'll gather by looking at the chart, teams which fall into the bottom left quadrant are victims of (1) low attendance and (2) apathy, in that their attendance is neither high on average nor on a once-a-month scenario, regardless of a LeBron sighting, a foam finger giveaway, or what have you.
Teams with high deviations, those at the top half of the graph, tend to have more fluctuations, which is why you'll see the Wizards and their schizophrenic attendance at the very peak, located nearby Charlotte, Minnesota, and Philadelphia, who have managed to get good numbers occasionally, but not often enough to off-set the bad nights.
The graph points out all too well how precarious the situation is in Sacramento these days. Not only is their average attendance quite poor, but it very rarely changes. Please don't take this to mean that I believe Kings' fans are unjustifiably apathetic. Far be it. Rather, I think they've been afflicted with the same malaise we've seen in other cities (cough, Seattle) that visits fans of teams with uncertain futures and miserable on-court play.
-If every NBA team could play every game on Saturday night, the Sonics would be in KeyArena right now and David Stern would be wearing platinum-plated underwear instead of those miserable gold-plated boxers Larry O'Brien gave him in 1982. LeBron, Kobe, Shaq ... nobody has as much impact on an NBA team's attendance as a Saturday night.
-I don't know which is more worrying for the league, that the Bobcats are as popular in Charlotte as George Shinn biographies, or that the Pistons have dropped from the ranks of the Sellout Every Night Club. If the Pistons don't advance to the second round in the playoffs this season, I'm guessing next year might be a bit tough at Auburn Hills.
Sideways banter aside, allow me to provide you a new graph for your reading enjoyment. This time, I've taken the average attendance of every team and paired it with their standard deviation from said average.
You'll notice that fans of the teams grouped in the bottom right corner are those in no danger of seeing the word "relocation" any time soon in their local newspapers. Fans of those teams in the upper left and, especially, in the bottom left, on the other hand, are free to start their bitching about the inequities of modern professional sports. Not that it will do you any good, mind you, but I thought you ought to prepare.
As you'll gather by looking at the chart, teams which fall into the bottom left quadrant are victims of (1) low attendance and (2) apathy, in that their attendance is neither high on average nor on a once-a-month scenario, regardless of a LeBron sighting, a foam finger giveaway, or what have you.
Teams with high deviations, those at the top half of the graph, tend to have more fluctuations, which is why you'll see the Wizards and their schizophrenic attendance at the very peak, located nearby Charlotte, Minnesota, and Philadelphia, who have managed to get good numbers occasionally, but not often enough to off-set the bad nights.
The graph points out all too well how precarious the situation is in Sacramento these days. Not only is their average attendance quite poor, but it very rarely changes. Please don't take this to mean that I believe Kings' fans are unjustifiably apathetic. Far be it. Rather, I think they've been afflicted with the same malaise we've seen in other cities (cough, Seattle) that visits fans of teams with uncertain futures and miserable on-court play.
Donaldson Eyes Mayor's Seat
As per today's Seattle Times, former Sonic James Donaldson is exploring the possibility of running against incumbent Greg Nickels in this year's mayoral election in Seattle. Donaldson, who earlier announced his intention to run for city council, said he would make a decision within the next two to three weeks on his decision to run for mayor.
At 7'2", Donaldson would obviously become the tallest mayor in the country (world? checking various sub-Saharan African cities) should he pull off the upset over Nickels, but I couldn't help but ponder a bizarre bit of trivia upon hearing of his plans.
With former Phoenix Suns guard Kevin Johnson in Sacramento's mayoral chair, and the possibility of Donaldson in Seattle's, and with Sacto facing the possibility of losing their team in the near future (I'm not saying it will happen, but bear with me here), it's entirely possible that the only two cities in the United States with former NBA players as mayors would be the two most recent cities in the United States to lose their NBA teams.
And, maybe, if I'm living in Detroit, I think twice about voting for Dave Bing.
At 7'2", Donaldson would obviously become the tallest mayor in the country (world? checking various sub-Saharan African cities) should he pull off the upset over Nickels, but I couldn't help but ponder a bizarre bit of trivia upon hearing of his plans.
With former Phoenix Suns guard Kevin Johnson in Sacramento's mayoral chair, and the possibility of Donaldson in Seattle's, and with Sacto facing the possibility of losing their team in the near future (I'm not saying it will happen, but bear with me here), it's entirely possible that the only two cities in the United States with former NBA players as mayors would be the two most recent cities in the United States to lose their NBA teams.
And, maybe, if I'm living in Detroit, I think twice about voting for Dave Bing.
Monday, March 9
Sonics & Huskies: Another View
Last spring, the Sonics (this is when they were still the Sonics and before they were the Something Elses) were in a unexpected pickle: They needed to extricate themselves from a lease they had signed, and their only excuse for doing so was to prove that they had no impact, economically anyways, on Greater Seattle.
It was a surreal experience, seeing a professional sports team begging others to understand that professional sports teams have no monetary impact, as odd as seeing Dick Cheney trying to convince the House of Representatives that they needed to excuse Halliburton from its contract because defense contractors do nothing to help employment, or, at least, some much more well thought out analogy.
And, so, as I watched/read the deliberations in court, I wondered to myself, "How long is it going to be until somebody uses the Sonics' words against them?" Well, if not them, then at least another pro sports team clamoring for public financing for its stadium so that its fans can have bigger cup-holders, because, hey, those other kids in the next state have them, and, geez, how can you expect us to compete against those cup-holders when we've still got these puny, 1996-style ones? I mean, come on, I wouldn't even put a warm cup of Mountain Dew in these things!
Well, to answer my question from seven months ago, it apparently took about seven months. From The Heartland Institute (which, apparently, is run by the Son or possibly Nephew of Zod, at least judging by his photograph), in an article discussing the merits/lack of merits of improving Husky Stadium and KeyArena:
It means nothing to Bennett & Crew, obviously, since they have long since packed up the wagon and moved on down the road, but is it not the least ironic that in swiping our favorite basketball team, the Sonics' former owners not only managed to harvest the crops — as it were — from our fields, but to salt the earth on their way out of town?
It was a surreal experience, seeing a professional sports team begging others to understand that professional sports teams have no monetary impact, as odd as seeing Dick Cheney trying to convince the House of Representatives that they needed to excuse Halliburton from its contract because defense contractors do nothing to help employment, or, at least, some much more well thought out analogy.
And, so, as I watched/read the deliberations in court, I wondered to myself, "How long is it going to be until somebody uses the Sonics' words against them?" Well, if not them, then at least another pro sports team clamoring for public financing for its stadium so that its fans can have bigger cup-holders, because, hey, those other kids in the next state have them, and, geez, how can you expect us to compete against those cup-holders when we've still got these puny, 1996-style ones? I mean, come on, I wouldn't even put a warm cup of Mountain Dew in these things!
Well, to answer my question from seven months ago, it apparently took about seven months. From The Heartland Institute (which, apparently, is run by the Son or possibly Nephew of Zod, at least judging by his photograph), in an article discussing the merits/lack of merits of improving Husky Stadium and KeyArena:
Ironically, the SuperSonics—Seattle’s former professional basketball franchise—last year went to court to get out of a lease at Key Arena and agreed sports facilities do not promote economic development.
“The financial issue is simple, and the city’s analysts agree, there will be no net economic loss if the Sonics leave Seattle,” the Sonics said in a brief. “Entertainment dollars not spent on the Sonics will be spent on Seattle’s many other sports and entertainment options. Seattleites will not reduce their entertainment budget simply because the Sonics leave.”
It means nothing to Bennett & Crew, obviously, since they have long since packed up the wagon and moved on down the road, but is it not the least ironic that in swiping our favorite basketball team, the Sonics' former owners not only managed to harvest the crops — as it were — from our fields, but to salt the earth on their way out of town?
Saturday, March 7
Whoops
Bend it Like Bennett checks in with a report from the MySpace page of Graham Bennett, son of Clay.
With these sorts of things, you never know what the truth is, but if what we see is true, and Graham's dad did indeed ask what was up with the "black midget with a pickle in her hand," well, it can't be good.
If nothing else, it might serve as an interesting test of Charles Barkley's hypothesis that Oklahoma is "no place for black people."
With these sorts of things, you never know what the truth is, but if what we see is true, and Graham's dad did indeed ask what was up with the "black midget with a pickle in her hand," well, it can't be good.
If nothing else, it might serve as an interesting test of Charles Barkley's hypothesis that Oklahoma is "no place for black people."
Thursday, March 5
Wait a Minute, Clay Bennett Owns a Bookstore?
Were one to compile a list of possible retail soups in which Clay Bennett would dabble his entrepreneurial finger, small-town bookstore owner would surely are one of the least-likely possibilities, perhaps right below running a laundromat in Ballard and above operating a GLBT Sex Shop in San Francisco.
And, yet, surprisingly, small book store owner is exactly what Mr. Bennett has listed on his resume, Owner, Town Center Bookstore in lovely Basalt, Colorado. (It's right there on the sheet, see it? next to Carpetbagging Owner of Seat ... well, let's leave that alone for one day, at least, shall we?)
Unfortunately for the employees of said store, the swinging ax of the economic downturn has finally landed upon their heads, as Mr. and Mrs. Bennett have decided to close the doors on their little operation. Naturally, as someone who has witnessed first-hand the havoc of which the Bennetts are capable and the rapidity with which they are able to yank rugs out from underneath unsuspecting victims, I'm less than enthusiastic about dancing a jig over the Bennetts failed store. After all, the dozen or so folks working there aren't exactly thrilled about it.
No, my reason for bringing this up is more pertinent to the operations of a certain basketball team in Oklahoma City.
You see, the bookstore's General Manager, Fred Durham, dropped an interesting tidbit of information while in conversation with Aspen Daily News reporter Brent Gardner-Smith. Quoting the article here:
"Durham said the Bennetts looked down the road at the challenges facing both newspapers and independent bookstores and decided to close up shop in Basalt.
“'When you have to write a check every month to make something work, you begin to say ‘Now wait a minute,’” said Durham."
Why is this relevant? Simply because Clay Bennett's fortune is tied extremely closely to two entities: Chesapeake Energy and Oklahoma Publishing, the Bennett's media conglomerate. We're all well aware of the sad state of affairs at Chesapeake (no need to document them on this site, surely), but it might surprise you to know that the Daily Oklahoman is no stranger to financial problems.
With the ongoing death watch of newspapers across North America, is it any wonder that the Bennetts decided that it might be a good time to tighten their belts when it came to their financial holdings? And is it any wonder that 99.9% of Sonic fans in Seattle are cursing the day the city caved in to Bennett's group last summer?
Because, mind you, if Clay Bennett is willing to sell a 10-man operation in Colorado to save a few bucks, don't you think he might have been the same about a basketball team in Seattle?
Tuesday, March 3
Attendance Report, March 3, 2009
All data through March 2, 2009. Teams are shown with their attendance on a year-over-year basis from the 2007-08 season.
|