I watched most of the Suns vs. T-Wolves game tonight on theScore. For those of you who don't know, theScore is a Canadian cable station that runs sports scores and highlights 24 hours a day. They keep a running ticker along the bottom of the screen that continuously updates with live scores from all the major sports. Needless to say, it's an annoying feature. Honestly, who really looks at that when the internet exists? Plus, it reduces the viewing area of the actual show by at least 15%. Maybe that's why televisions are getting bigger and bigger, to make up for all this clutter. Oddly enough, I flipped channels and noticed that rival TSN was showing the World Junior Hockey championship game without any sort of score or clock overlay at all. Instead, the entire screen was filled with hockey. I think sports needs to revisit this and return to the day when they actually filled the screen with the show. I will admit that basketball, more than most sports benefits from having a clock appear periodically, or the score. But really, having this appear after a made basket on occasion or only at commerical breaks is long enough. Most of us aren't stupid. We can keep a running tab of the score in our heads.
Now as for the game itself, I have to say I was very impressed with the Phoenix Suns. Now, don't get me wrong, I do not think they are a great team. Their defence is mediocre, and their halfcourt offence frightfully individualistic at times, but I have to admire their desire to push the ball up the floor and play run and gun basketball. Most people thought that with the loss of Joe Johnson to trade and then Amare Stoudamre to injury, coupled with the addition of certified slow poke Kurt Thomas, that the Suns would be turning things down a notch from last year's high octane attack, but they have kept up the pace. Most likely, their inability to put the defensive clamps down on people and over-reliance on streaky perimeter shooters will be their downfall, but in a league that has become too burdened by over controlling coaches (Larry Brown, I'm talking to you) and a "win at all costs even if it means maiming my opponents" mentality (Pat Riley, I still remember what havoc you wreaked in New York), the Suns rapid fire attack is a pleasure to behold. Here's to hoping that other teams follow their lead and continue to open up the game!
Monday, December 26, 2005
Sunday, December 25, 2005
Book Review: "The Last Shot" by Darcy Frey
The original edition of this book, published in 1994, documents the story of four basketball players at Lincoln High in Coney Island around the year 1991. The story though, is really about the micro-culture that is big time high school basketball and its relationship to the ghetto that these kids inhabit. For the kids, rightly or wrongly, basketball represents their only chance for escape from a life of poverty and though its never stated explicitly in the book, we all know that the players here are facing nearly insurmountable odds and almost certain failure.
The author followed these kids throughout their senior season at Lincoln. In doing so, we gain a fairly intimate portrait of the three seniors. By following the players so closely, Frey achieves something remarkably powerful. We see just how young and vulnerable these young man-childs are. They may be over six feet tall and able to do things with a basketball most of us only dream about, but they are at their core, young and impressionable young men who've had almost no real education to speak of, and no realistic chance to succeed in anything in life, for whom basketball represents the only real way out of a crime and drug ridden neighborhood. Some are still struggling with dealing with their first serious girlfriend or selling Cokes for spare change in the summertime, but at the same time, they must fend off hordes of seasoned and slick college recruiters who are almost entirely self serving (at least as they are described by Frey).
The fourth player Frey studies is of course, Knicks' star Stephon Marbury, who at the time was a fast talking, brash, 14 year old freshman superstar in the making. Marbury really gives the book its focus. We know that in the end, he manages to break out of this cycle of poverty, something none of his older brothers were able to accomplish. We're left to ponder if its simply a matter of his talent level that allows this to happen, or perhaps, it has something to do with the cocksure attitude he displays even as a youngster in this book, that somehow cocoons him from the insecurities and threats that ultimately cause the downfall of the other characters in this book. Marbury's story calls to mind the story of another ghetto player turned NBA superstar - Isiah Thomas, who was built of similar mental resolve. Looking back on Marbury's career, one remembers that he was heavily derided for the "management" of much of his career, ie. his decision to turn his one year stay at Georgia Tech into essentially a one year prep course for pro basektball (which of course sent so called college hoops "purists" into a tizzy). In retrospect, given the backdrop he grew up against, suddenly his career decisions do not seem so unreasonable.
This is a very important book. I think it is must reading for anyone who sits at home on lazy Saturday afternoons watching their favorite college or pro basketball teams but has never stopped to wonder where on earth many of these players actually come from.
The edition of the book I read is lacking the updated epilogue which shows what happened to the players ten years after the fact. I will post an addendum once I have perused that at the local bookstore. Still, regardless, this is an important book, more so about blacks and poverty than just about basketball. The writing is journalistic and less than beautiful but the subject is powerful enough that it doesn't matter.
Overall rating: **** (out of 5)
The author followed these kids throughout their senior season at Lincoln. In doing so, we gain a fairly intimate portrait of the three seniors. By following the players so closely, Frey achieves something remarkably powerful. We see just how young and vulnerable these young man-childs are. They may be over six feet tall and able to do things with a basketball most of us only dream about, but they are at their core, young and impressionable young men who've had almost no real education to speak of, and no realistic chance to succeed in anything in life, for whom basketball represents the only real way out of a crime and drug ridden neighborhood. Some are still struggling with dealing with their first serious girlfriend or selling Cokes for spare change in the summertime, but at the same time, they must fend off hordes of seasoned and slick college recruiters who are almost entirely self serving (at least as they are described by Frey).
The fourth player Frey studies is of course, Knicks' star Stephon Marbury, who at the time was a fast talking, brash, 14 year old freshman superstar in the making. Marbury really gives the book its focus. We know that in the end, he manages to break out of this cycle of poverty, something none of his older brothers were able to accomplish. We're left to ponder if its simply a matter of his talent level that allows this to happen, or perhaps, it has something to do with the cocksure attitude he displays even as a youngster in this book, that somehow cocoons him from the insecurities and threats that ultimately cause the downfall of the other characters in this book. Marbury's story calls to mind the story of another ghetto player turned NBA superstar - Isiah Thomas, who was built of similar mental resolve. Looking back on Marbury's career, one remembers that he was heavily derided for the "management" of much of his career, ie. his decision to turn his one year stay at Georgia Tech into essentially a one year prep course for pro basektball (which of course sent so called college hoops "purists" into a tizzy). In retrospect, given the backdrop he grew up against, suddenly his career decisions do not seem so unreasonable.
This is a very important book. I think it is must reading for anyone who sits at home on lazy Saturday afternoons watching their favorite college or pro basketball teams but has never stopped to wonder where on earth many of these players actually come from.
The edition of the book I read is lacking the updated epilogue which shows what happened to the players ten years after the fact. I will post an addendum once I have perused that at the local bookstore. Still, regardless, this is an important book, more so about blacks and poverty than just about basketball. The writing is journalistic and less than beautiful but the subject is powerful enough that it doesn't matter.
Overall rating: **** (out of 5)
Welcome to Our Game
Hello everyone. Welcome to the inaugural posting here at 3pointland. I'm not sure how you might have stumbled on to this website, but now that you're here, allow me to introduce myself and my site. My name's Dave and I'm what you might call a highly opinionated hoops diehard.. Now I know there are a ton of basketball websites and blogs out there already. I've listed a few of my favorite ones on the links section of this site. Many of them have great insight and commentary on the games and players that make basketball the greatest game. It's not my goal to compete with these sites. Rather, I'd like to take a step back (out into three point land) and look at the bigger picture from a more cerebral point of view. We'll look at anything and everything that is related to hoops, from the hypocrisy of the NCAA to the latest overpriced sneakers released from Nike, and we'll do it from a dark, irreverant point of view. I'll do my best to keep this site up and interesting in the coming months and I welcome all your comments and ideas! So, hope to see you back here soon!
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