Is this the place where I say how overjoyed I am that, with the opening of the NFL regular season tomorrow night, the deep narcotic abyss of summer "spectator" sports is finally drawing to a close? Hooray!
Totally agree. The summer is a sporting wasteland, and that's perverse and wrong.
My twelve Wilts/Kareems/Waltons would still have won.
Wha?? Wilt and Kareem couldn't shoot with range or dribble for shit. I haven't actually ever seen Walton play, except for a few highlights.
I think we can probably make sexist comments here with impunity. Thank you Arvydas Sabonis!
Am I right to be a bit icked out by my 18YO brother repeatedly referring to his Halo tournament as a "nerdgasm"? I think so.
Becks can't stay away from any post that contains "7'3"".
It must've been sock-puppet Becks.
12 Waltons would have a total of twelve legs, which would mean only one man to come off the bench.
9 - Dude, I saw that documentary about Mutombo that my TiVo recorded. I would so sex Mutombo now. He's an impressive philanthropist.
4 -
Kareem = sky hook. Sky hook = unstoppable, high percentage shot. As Jerry West and others have pointed out, the sky hook is the most effective shot in basketball, and Sabonis, just like everyone else, wouldn't be able to stop it. I'd like my chances with the 12 Kareems/Wilts/Waltons against 12 Saboni.
You play video games? Dude, you are so gay.
Re: 1& 2: Tennis is awesome.
Kareem couldn't shoot with range or dribble for shit
This perception might be exaggerated by your age. Dude entered the NBA in 1969. I'm only a couple years younger than you are, and most of the years I was watching him he was already past his prime. In the older clips of him I've seen he looks much quicker and better on shooting and the dribble than I remember.
While looking for older clips I found this, which only reminded me that watching basketball will probably never again be as fun as it was when I was ten.
I think you could make an argument that Magic was at least as great as Jordan, maybe greater. He's the only player in my lifetime about whom I would say that.
That's a great video. Here's Knicks-Rockets finals, which by comparison is like water torture.
18 - Magic was a metric shitoad better than His Airless. Magic, Bird and everyone else played under the actual rules of the NBA (traveling, palming, all that ancient history stuff). David Stern panicked when he was presented with an NBA without a dominant talent, and "Air" Jordan was born. Must have been air he walked on, since they weren't calling it on the court. Every problem with the NBA, and I mean every problem, is a direct outgrowth of Michael Jordan's career, and his shrewd manipulation of the rules.
You know, I was gone for about a week, and apparently incivility broke out. I guess I have to be here all the time.
The summer is a sporting wasteland, and that's perverse and wrong.
Heathens don't recognize sailing fastballs until fifteen minutes after one beans them.
I suffer through the agony of the Red Sox's post-ASB season and these barbarians are kvetching that there's no sports. *grumble* God would smite you all, but He's too busy cheering on the Yankees and giving Red Sox pitchers cancer.
Baseball lost me after the last strike. Also, it just isn't that great of a TV sport, and fantasy baseball lacks the punch of f-football and f-basketball, so the gambling isn't even that much fun.
With basketball, I got spoiled growing up in L.A. in the 80's. It ingrained in me the expectation that even with multiple All Stars on a team, that they would still, you know, play as a team and stuff. If I see that kind of play now, it usually means I'm watching the foreigners kick our ass.
The 80s really were a golden age for basketball. But I think it's possible that we're on the brink of a fantastic era in the NBA. LeBron really is some weird mix of Magic and Jordan, and, if the World Championship games were any indication, he feels comfortable in that role.
it's possible that we're on the brink of a fantastic era in the NBA
I agree. Certainly the talent is there for it.
23: Preach it brother. F'ing cancer! And meanwhile Anibal Sanchez is pitching no-hitters.
Baseball lost me after the last strike. Also, it just isn't that great of a TV sport...
Slammin' Sammy didn't bring you back? Have you no soul?
Also, to answer your "also" with my own, I think baseball's a much televised than live, since you can actually see the pitches, how hard, far and late they break, &c. At the game, the angle's all wrong, and you can't follow the pitcher-hitter drama: you can't, for example, see someone like Maddux toying with a hitter he threw inside fastballs breaking in on his hands one at bat by throwing away, away, away...then an inside fastball breaking away from his hands and right down Broadway the next.
29: I think the difference is that if you're at a baseball game, you are often not really paying attention to the game, but rather hanging out with friends. In front of a TV, you're sort of forced to concentrate your attention on something that is not that interesting.
Have you no soul?
The accusation has certainly been levelled before. The issue for me isn't live versus television, it's spectator versus participant. Fun game to play, dull game to watch. Much like soccer, another sport I grew up playing and don't enjoy watching. I assume auto racing to also be in this category, but having never driven a race car, it remains an untested theory.
30 - Not interesting? Not interesting? Alright, so I've had this conversation a thousand times before, but I still don't understand. (Thirteen years of organized ball may bias me.) But baseball has drama that isn't manufactured by a clock; moreover, the lack of a clock also means the game won't end predictably unpredictable, e.g. with endless free throws and timeouts or poorly-executed two-minute drills. There's no equivalent of 2 outs, bottom-of-the-ninth in football, basketball or hockey; in place of concentration, we're treated to sloppy play, entirely different strategies, &c. I hate the final two minutes of all timed sports; whereas I love the final two innings of a baseball game.
I mean, really. How many times have you been watching a basketball game and just gotten beyond bored with all the fouls, timeouts and free throws? Or in football, when the offensive coordinator pulls out his two-minute playbook while his opponent pulls the safeties back and plays prevent? Dull, dull, dull.
31 - Gotcha. Disagree, but didn't see what you were getting at there.
29 gets it exactly right. Baseball live and on TV offer different charms. On TV, you can really watch a pitcher, live, you can really watch the defence. Without TV, we wouldn't be able to get a meaningful sense of a pitcher's ability (and to a lesser extent hitters) but without live game attendence you'd never get a meaningful sense of defensive ability (on TV you only see the end of the play; diving catches are nice, but if you position yourself correctly and get a good enough jump you don't need to dive, and only at a game can you get this).
Football and Basketball can be amusing, but all I really need are the highlights. Football, especially. Few things amuse me less than a 3 yard run up the middle. On the other hand, if I could stop time at will, I'd make a point to watch every single MLB game in its entirety.
I've just given up on persuading baseball-haters, but I appreciate those of you still fighting the good fight.
34: Some of us prefer to watch sports. Different strokes, that's all.
35: as opposed to pornography you mean?
But baseball has drama that isn't manufactured by a clock; moreover, the lack of a clock also means the game won't end predictably unpredictable, e.g. with endless free throws and timeouts or poorly-executed two-minute drills. There's no equivalent of 2 outs, bottom-of-the-ninth in football, basketball or hockey
This expresses the appeal of baseball for me. But I also like a nice three-yard run up the middle. Also a sport in which a team from Pittsburgh wins the championship.
Soccer has something like two-outs bottom of the ninth in the shootout, and the college football overtime may be like that too, but both those sports are teh suxxor. (OK, I enjoyed the world cup matches I watched, but as discussed on that other thread I don't like penalty kicks.)
The issue for me isn't live versus television, it's spectator versus participant. Fun game to play, dull game to watch... I assume auto racing to also be in this category, but having never driven a race car, it remains an untested theory.
I remember this coming up before in a thread with JM. I am a former participant, (not competitive driver, although I have driven and tested them) with a lot of technical knowledge and experience. What I get out of the races is very different from what people without that knowledge get; I don't understand the appeal to them any better than you do.
But this is probably true for other sports and games as well. How can a sport we've never played appeal? Sumo is spectacle and wonder to me. I've tried to push people out of rings, but I've never weighed 400 pounds.