NBA

[briggaman]

I'm an Orlando Magic supporter and have been for a good many years. Of course, footy will always be more important (as will Villa), however I do enjoy basketball aswell. It's a shame that the coverage over here is so shoddy....

[Vojskovoda]

Like Arsenal in football, I have a soft spot for Orlando. They were unlucky in the finals last season I thought against LA... if they didn't blow that 8 point lead in the 4th in the second game, it would of given them the pyschological advantage over LA... but the rest was history.

Still, they've kicked on and are doing well so far, it'll be tight between Atlanta, Orlando and Cavs deciding who comes out top on in the Eastern Conference but I imagine Orlando will come out top.

P.S. ESPN usually shows 1 or 2 live NBA matches a week and shows highlights of other matches. It's OK, but for someone more keen like me who wants to watch more NBA, I'll watch live matches on the NBA website.

[briggaman]

Still, they've kicked on and are doing well so far, it'll be tight between Atlanta, Orlando and Cavs deciding who comes out top on in the Eastern Conference but I imagine Orlando will come out top.

I agree. One of my mates from High School lives over in Cleveland right now and is a big Cavs fan. I've got a bet on with him that the Magic will win the title this season and that Carter or Howard will get MVP.

On another note two games on the trot have been lost now by the Magic after that fantastic stretch of wins on the road. Anyway, I still think that the Magic will win it all this season and I hope so too.

[Artetasgirl]

Cavs are my team too, but I have a major liking for the Celtics too..

..and Everton Tigers in the BBL

Too lazy to search for it now, but if anyone can point me to any video clips of the BBL, I'd be curious to see what they level of play is. I didn't know until recently that there even was a basketball league in Britain.

It's not a fantastically high standard, but it is improving. The main players seem to always move to mainland Europe though, as it's obviously more popular there. Some come over here though and like it.

[leviramsey]

Confessions of an NBA scorekeeper

"I went into the NBA as bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as I could get," Alex says. "I loved the game. I didn't want to taint it." Of course, that was before Alex did all those "bad, bad, bad" things.

Not long ago, we brought you the story of a stat-padding NBA scorekeeper who, one day in 1997, awarded 23 assists to Lakers guard Nick Van Exel, mostly for the hell of it. That was Alex. (He is now an officer in the Navy and asks that I not use his last name.) From 1995 to 1998, he headed up the Vancouver Grizzlies' stat crew. Alex is a numbers guy, and he came at the job from the perspective of someone who spent his childhood, as he says, "recreating baseball games with Dungeons and Dragons dice and baseball cards." So it was particularly galling for him to find that the seemingly cold and objective NBA box score was, on many nights, a self-serving fiction, subject to so much artful embroidery and deliberate manipulation that one might reasonably conclude that the boys from Enron were sitting courtside, counting dimes.

"I wanted the numbers to be meaningful and accurate, and I knew they weren't," Alex says, a lesson he soon came to know firsthand. "I was good at making them inaccurate."

Alex was hired by the expansion Grizzlies in 1995 while still in school in Ontario, where he kept score for his college team. That offseason, the NBA was in the process of switching over to a computerized stat-keeping system, and at some point during the summer, Alex found himself at a training seminar in Detroit with the rest of the league's stat crews.

"That was my first exposure to the subjectivity of NBA statistics," he says. "I had come from the ivory tower where everything was straightforward. ... In Detroit, they'd show us a little video clip, and we'd enter it on our computer. That's a basket, no assist or whatever. Everyone around me would be giving assists. I was like, 'Really?' The dude passed it to a guy on the wing, who did a headfake, took two dribbles and made a jumper. And that's an assist?"

Alex quickly found that a scorekeeper is given broad discretion over two categories: assists and blocks (steals and rebounds are also open to some interpretation, though not a lot). "In the NBA, an assist is a pass leading directly to a basket," he says. "That's inherently subjective. What does that really mean in practice? The definition is massively variable according to who you talk to. The Jazz guys were pretty open about their liberalities. ... John Stockton averaged 10 assists. Is that legit? It's legit because they entered it. If he's another guy, would he get 10? Probably not."

The bias is plain to see. Just look at the home-road splits. Last season, home teams leaguewide scored 101.58 points per game; road teams, 98.32. That's to be expected: Teams play better at home. What's surprising is that assists and blocks rise disproportionately for home teams — assists by nearly 8 percent, blocks by more than 15 percent. Last year's Nuggets averaged 25 assists at home, only 19.4 on the road. They recorded 7.3 blocks per game at home and just 4.7 outside Denver. (Hell, Chris Andersen swatted 117 shots in 38 games at home against only 58 blocks in 33 games on the road. It was as if he stepped into the Pepsi Center and suddenly turned into Larry Nance.) The reason? People like Alex.

In Vancouver, Alex ran the stat crew, which is usually a two- or three-person operation (and always the responsibility of the home team). Alex was the caller, which meant that he'd call out the game to someone tapping feverishly away at his computer and rarely even glancing at the floor. "I would sit there, and I would call out things like, 'Field goal, miss, Bryon Russell, 18-footer from the elbow.'" He'd note "location, shot type, whether it was missed or made, assisted if necessary, blocked if necessary," and all this information would coalesce into a box score that would wind up, in shrunken agate type, in your morning newspaper. The process allows for what Alex calls "two points of failure — the guy subjectively seeing the action on the floor and then calling it out to the inputters." Errors, deliberate or otherwise, weren't easily corrected, given the NBA's growing desire for "immediacy over accuracy" in the Internet age.

On Dec. 13, 1995, the Grizzlies hosted the Houston Rockets, who were coming off their second straight NBA championship and still had Hakeem Olajuwon doing his Arthur Murray routine in the post. The Rockets won by 11. Have a look at the box score. "There will be something that jumps out at you fairly quickly," Alex says.

It's Olajuwon's line, a tidy 15-14-10.

"It's the one incident that stands out in my mind," Alex says. "That was the only time I was ordered to do something."

As Alex remembers it now, Olajuwon had a double-double with nine blocks at some point during the fourth quarter. "Someone in management came to me and said, basically, Thou shalt give Hakeem Olajuwon a triple-double. Come hell or high water, he's getting a triple-double. I'm like, uh, OK." The Grizzlies had small monitors on which they kept a running box score. Anyone could see if someone was closing in on a milestone. "If a guy is in vicinity of a record, people are tracking those things. I know those things," Alex says. "If a guy has an eight-game streak of getting 10 rebounds, I'll know that. Am I gonna help that? Probably." The Rockets game, though, "was the one time someone said, 'You'll do this.' And I did." (For the record, Alex is reasonably certain that the 10th block was legitimate. "If he got a bullshit block," he says, "it probably happened before the 10th one.")

He won't say who issued the commandment, other than that it was someone in basketball operations who helped compile statistical packets for the media. "It was a mid-level guy, not a GM or an assistant GM," he says. Alex believes the suit was acting on his own initiative, though the habit of fudging statistics upward was practically an organizational, if not leaguewide, imperative. "When you get a triple-double, that dramatically increases the potential of our game being shown on ESPN. 'Here are some highlights of Olajuwon, and oh, by the way, they happen to be in Vancouver.' A team like ours was getting zero national media coverage. There's some value in that, even if someone is lighting us up, for marketing and longterm growth."

Alex was new to the game, however, and the request pissed him off. "I was immature," he says, "I was 20-21 years old, and some dude was telling me I needed to do something."

Which is perhaps why, a little more than a year later, with Nick Van Exel and the Lakers in town, Alex decided to act out. "I was sort of disgruntled," he says. "I loved the game. I don't want the numbers to be meaningless, and I felt they were becoming meaningless because of how stats were kept. So I decided, I'm gonna do this totally immature thing and see what happens. It was childish. The Lakers are in town. We're gonna lose. **** it. He's getting a shitload of assists." If you were to watch the game today, you'd see some "comically bad assists." Alex's fingerprints are all over the box score. He gave Van Exel everything. "Van Exel would pass from the top of the three-point line to someone on the wing who'd hold the ball for five seconds, dribble, then make a move to the basket. Assist, Van Exel."

No one noticed. From his chair, Alex could hear the legendary broadcaster Chick Hearn calling the game. Van Exel's having a great game! He's moving the ball exceptionally well! And in the next day's writeups, Van Exel was of course the hero. Alex thought, What the ****?

"This is a bad analogy, but it's like a husband cheating on a wife in such a way as to guarantee he's going to be caught," Alex says. "There's nothing to justify it. It was stupid. And there were no consequences." He figured he'd at least get scolded. He wasn't. In fact, a management guy congratulated him. The game was sure to get on SportsCenter now.

Everyone cooked the books, and the tendency, by and large, was to overcount — with a few notable exceptions. "Why would you underrerport? The only reason is to make your players look bad," Alex says. "Normally, you wouldn't want to do that. If the players look good, they're more likely to be All-Stars and generate trade value. You don't want to undervalue your own assets. But if you're a stupid franchise, and you don't intend to make deals, and you want to depress your own players' signability — well, which franchise is stupid enough to do that?"

In the latter half of the 1990s, the Clippers held down their own players' assists with an almost suspicious regularity. Between 1987 and 2009, home teams assisted on 61.8 percent of their field goals; away teams, 58.3 percent — a gap of 3.5 percentage points in favor of the home squads. Year after year, the Clippers reversed the trend. In 1996, the Clips' scorekeepers credited the team with assists on 47 percent of its field goals (with only Pooh Richardson averaging more than five assists per game); in other arenas, the same Clippers team assisted on 60 percent of its field goals, a difference of 13 percentage points. No team since 1987 has underreported its own assists by a larger margin. Second-largest: The Clippers in 1999, with a difference of 12.2 percentage points. Third-largest: The Clippers in 1998, at 12.1 points. Fifth-largest: The Clippers in 1997, at 9.1 points.

"The numbers are huge," Alex says. "It's pretty amazing. This is total conjecture. But do I think someone from management went to them and said, 'You need to underrerport stats'? There's no way — even with an organization as dysfunctional as the Clippers. That would expose them to civil liability, if they're intentionally diminishing the market for a player — that's almost criminal. But if someone goes to a statistician and says, 'We're being way too liberal on steals, blocks and assists,' that's probably legitimate. You can define that as, 'We want the numbers to be correct.' But as a practical consequence, your own players look worse on paper."

The question, ultimately, is whether this really matters to anyone beyond the people who had the misfortune of playing for the Clippers in the 1990s and those handful of figure filberts who've dedicated themselves to building a science on the whims of a few people sitting courtside. It certainly doesn't matter to the NBA.

"Teams have a legitimate, vested interest in stats being inflated, just like the league does," Alex says. "Ten assists is way more interesting than eight assists. As humans, those are more appealing and interesting numbers. The NBA benefits and every team benefits from bigger, flashier numbers."

In the end, the league has little incentive to address the issue, even now, in this tight-assed, post-Donaghy era, when the NBA wants desperately to convince you there are no magnets in the pinball machine. And so the scorekeepers will continue doing the professional equivalent of rolling their Dungeons and Dragons dice, perhaps saying, "**** it" now and again and giving a guy a shitload of assists, mostly for the hell of it, and Chris Andersen will go on looking like Larry Nance every Nuggets homestand. The NBA: Where Fudging Happens. "It is," as Alex says, "an entertainment thing."

[leviramsey]

Fox Sports"]

Milwaukee Bucks center Andrew Bogut has a broken hand, dislocated elbow and sprained wrist that will keep him out indefinitely after a hard fall in Saturday night's victory over the Phoenix Suns.

The team said Sunday it does not know when he will return, but the injuries leave his availability for a potential playoff run in doubt. He has been released from the hospital.

With Milwaukee leading late in the second quarter, Bogut took a long outlet pass in for a fast break slam dunk. He hung on the rim afterward, was touched in the back by the Suns' Amare Stoudemire and crashed to the court. He wrenched his right elbow in ugly fashion trying to brace his fall.

Bogut appeared to be in serious pain, briefly writhing on the floor before being helped to his feet by the team's medical staff. Hunched over and clutching his arm, he ran down the tunnel toward the locker room.

Teammate Brandon Jennings said after the game that he saw Bogut's elbow "pop out."

A flagrant foul was called on Stoudemire, and he was booed loudly by Bucks fans, but television replays showed what appeared to be relatively light contact with Bogut.

"The fans didn't have a clean view of what happened," Stoudemire said. "But I think once they see the replay they'll see that there was nothing intentional."

Jennings said he didn't think Stoudemire was trying to hurt Bogut.

"Amare doesn't seem like that type of person," Jennings said. "I think it was just an accident."

A long-term injury to Bogut could be a serious loss for the Bucks, who have been one of the NBA's surprises this season. With Saturday's win, the Bucks are sixth in the Eastern Conference and are close to clinching a playoff berth.

Bogut, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2005 draft, is having a standout season for the resurgent Bucks, averaging 15.9 points and 10.2 rebounds. Nagging injuries have hindered his development during his career.

The Bucks only recently got over another unsettling injury, as Carlos Delfino played his second straight game Saturday after he was taken off the court on a stretcher during a March 26 loss to Miami.

Ouch.

[Milfner]

That's **** horrible!

[AVFC-Prideofbrum]

Boring game. Too many points.

[kurtsimonw]

It can be more entertaining when it gets to the playoffs, but I'm with POB on that too many points makes it a bit boring to watch at times. Certainly the worst of the 4 major US sports. It doesn't help that my team is far and away the worst team in the league.

[maqroll]

The thing that sucks about basketball is when there's a close game with two minutes remaining, there begins an string of timeouts, fouls, more timeouts, and commercial breaks. It sucks the drama right out of the game. They should impose a rule that states "No timeouts with under three minutes remaining". That would force the players to use their heads more, and raise the intensity of the game and atmosphere in the arena.

[parisvilla]

fairly confident in saying im likely the only Clippers fan on here; a pretty dedicated one too even if i say it myself. been to see them 4 times (3 losses in LA but saw them win @ the Knicks last easter). some of the fans in new york spoke to me before the game and they were like man you've come a long way from LA for this game... needless to say they were pretty bemused when i said i came over from the UK!

[kurtsimonw]

Somebody not from LA, that supports an LA team, that isn't the Lakers!? Well done to you, sir.

[maqroll]

fairly confident in saying im likely the only Clippers fan on here; a pretty dedicated one too even if i say it myself. been to see them 4 times (3 losses in LA but saw them win @ the Knicks last easter). some of the fans in new york spoke to me before the game and they were like man you've come a long way from LA for this game... needless to say they were pretty bemused when i said i came over from the UK!

Good man!

Glutton for punishment, eh?

[parisvilla]

fairly confident in saying im likely the only Clippers fan on here; a pretty dedicated one too even if i say it myself. been to see them 4 times (3 losses in LA but saw them win @ the Knicks last easter). some of the fans in new york spoke to me before the game and they were like man you've come a long way from LA for this game... needless to say they were pretty bemused when i said i came over from the UK!

Good man!

Glutton for punishment, eh?

haha yup very much so. im hoping that if ever we achieve anything it'll be infintely sweeter than if i was a laker, celtic, magic fan or whatever. then again, im fairly certain that the 'clipper curse' truly exists and we'll be lottery bound for ever.

[b23avfc]

New Jersey Nets.

What on earth is it getting moved to Brooklyn for? I mean.. everyone I spoke to in Brooklyn can't get their heads around it.. the main reason they gave tho "nets never win!"

NJ Nets, Brooklyn. What on earth.

[Guest Ricardomeister]

Come on the Suns!

[leviramsey]

Nick Gillespie gets a good rant off his chest

Multiple MVP award-winner and known Canadian Steve Nash helped the NBA's Phoenix Suns beat the San Antonio Spurs in a playoff game last night. To acknowledge the Suns' many hispanic fans and to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, the most blatantly anti-American holiday since St. Patrick's Day and Columbus Day combined, the Suns donned jerseys that read "Los Suns," the clearest sign of sports-related cultural surrender since the Anaheim Amigos took the floor in the old ABA.

Worse than the (admittedly home-court) drubbing Los Suns has dished out to the Spurs so far in the playoffs is the franchise's stance against Arizona's new immigration law:

"I think the law is very misguided. I think it is unfortunately to the detriment of our society and our civil liberties and I think it is very important for us to stand up for things we believe in," Nash said of the bill. "I think the law obviously can target opportunities for racial profiling. Things we don't want to see and don't need to see in 2010."

Amare Stoudemire and Alvin Gentry also expressed their support for the decision with more of a focus on supporting their neighbors. "It's going to be great to wear Los Suns to let the Latin community know we're behind them 100%," Stoudemire said.

There's no question that this public move will receive considerable backlash in this state and likely among many Suns fans and perhaps even sponsors.

The idea of wearing Los Suns jerseys reportedly came from the managing partner of the team, a filthy businessman who only sees the color green and who is every bit as filthy as Canadian superstars in a sport that has lost too many goddamn jobs already to furriners from the North, South, East, and West. Here's hoping that a real red-blooded team that is 100 percent American (love it, leave it, just don't eat it on a tortilla or put cilantro on it) takes home whatever idiotic trophy the NBA winner gets. In other words, go Celtics, an Irish-only squad bravely not afraid to traffic in crass ethnic stereotypes in an ultra-P.C. world. Indeed, such bravery is almost enough to make people think of the micks as white. And by people, yes, I mean white people, whose ranks I expect to join someday.

To recap: Arizona, whose new law remains stunningly popular with freedom-loving volk from Flagstaff to the Sudetenland, bravely stepped in where the feds had abdicated its constitutional function to pass a law aimed at combating a crime wave that doesn't exist and is attributed to a steadily decreasing number of home-invasion mariachi bands from Anthony Quinn's ancestral homeland. The brave and misunderstood and constitutionally reverent legislators in the Grand Canyon State didn't want to have to act but goddamn it the frontier ain't no place to wait on goddamn Washington to step up to the plate and start doing its jobs of busting dishwashers and cracking on landscapers. How else are we going to get the economy and government spending under control if we don't kick out low-wage workers and stimulatize things via hepped-out police spending? Why, if former Gov. Evan Meacham, who once defended himself against charges of racism by calmly explaining that he picks blacks for positions when they are the best applicants for "the cotton-picking job," weren't already dead, this all would have surely killed him.

The Arizona law, despite proposed modifications (now less overtly nausea-inducing than Chi-Chi's old fried ice cream dessert), is still an awful piece of junk, encouraging the less-than-kosher antics of the world's toughest pink underwear salesman and downright un-American to boot (I'll tell you what, I never felt so goshdarned American as when I was driving around 1970s Waterbury, Connecticut with my non-English-speaking wop grandfather who would shout at blacks in Italian that they should go back to Africa and get a job already).

None of this is to make light of the serious problems posed by immigration - which historically include a booming economy (perversely, immigrants swarm to areas with opportunity and forego dead zones such as the Rust Belt); the enrichment of a national culture that prides itself on its syncretism (pizza, chop suey, birthday pinatas made in China, kids with names like Siobhan, Dingus, and Caitlin); the slowly diminishing ha-ha-ha of ethnic jokes (when is the last time you got a really good Polish joke?), and the decline of affirmative-action-based organized crime (yes, the Asians are very good at this too, goddamn model minorities, isn't it enough that they now are so good at the SAT that they are discriminated against in college admissions?), and much more.

And none of this is to suggest that Los Suns deserve to win a national title. Or that the Memphis Tams didn't deserve to be brought into the NBA much more so than the current set of "Grizzlies" imported from the North Pole and now playing (if you can call it that) in that fabled Mississippi River town.

[Guest Ricardomeister]

Come on Los Suns!!!

[korda-slovillan]

Indeed, go suns go! I've been a fan ever since the '93 finals...

[Woodytom]

How many points did charles Barkley get last night then?