Picks and Policy

I've moved on

2009-03-09T01:49:00.001-04:00

To Wordpress. My new blog is called Found Connections.

2006-07-14T12:48:00.000-04:00

[this is a sample post for KnowBrainers.]

It's a classic sports trivia question: Name the sport in which the defense controls the ball.

The answer, of course, is baseball. But it's not the only answer--don't forget baseball's many relatives! It has ancestors (cricket and rounders), children (kickball and softball), and even foreign cousins (like the Finnish game pesapallo).

But it's baseball, not any of these other games, that is known as America's national pastime. Baseball is the game that has caused writers to wax poetic and that has driven statisticians wild. It is also the game that has given and continues to give us national celebrities, like this home run king, this legendary figure, and this great humanitarian.

Still, baseball is an old sport. Unlike basketball, baseball hasn't had any major rule changes in the last few decades; it is a sport of the past. Baseball doesn't get as many viewers per game as football does. And as Slate magazine points out, these days intellectuals are writing about soccer, not baseball. That leads into today's question:

Should baseball still be considered America's national sport? If so, why? If not, what sport would be a better choice?

[not sure whether I would put this question in the blog or just link to the question on KnowBrainers (which I haven't written, but would have if the blog was up and running).]

Edinburgh

2006-04-17T18:34:00.000-04:00

A few photos from Edinburgh, which you can also view in an album here. I'm trying to ease back into updating this particular blog, so more in-depth descriptions of the trip and what else I've been up to may have to wait. Sorry!

Edinburgh is a medium-sized city, and four days was enough time, I think, to become pretty familiar with the major daytime attractions. It's not only surrounded by mountains (which, millions of years ago, were much higher), but built on hills. Parkland is plentiful both in and around the city:

That's Arthur's Seat in Holyrood Park (which is next to the Pollock Halls).

The Salisbury Crags, also in Holyrood.

This is either from the Edinbugh Castle parking lot or the top of Caldon Hill, I forget.

So here are the people I met the last couple of days:

A sleepy Carmen. She looks strikingly similar to my friend Jolie - I suppose after you've met enough people everyone you meet looks close enough to someone you already know.

Tomi Swick, the man providing background music to everyone on the hostel ground floor.

Mrs. Jessie Whitwell zones out.

I did not, unfortunately, take any photos of Ron Lopata, who finished up that foursome. But you can go to that link and look if you so desire.

More photos at the facebook album linked above, including: more Caldon Hill photos and the gravestones of Adam Smith and Greyfriars Bobby.

sport in the UK

2006-02-06T13:52:00.000-05:00

Sport here is as big as it is in the US, obviously. But it takes some time to get adjusted to new national sports. Obviously football (soccer) is huge here and we're right in the midst of the FA Cup. The other big sport right now is rugby; the Six Nations tournament just kicked off last weekend - England crushed the defending champion Wales 49-13, while Scotland upset France (which many had picked to win the whole thing) 20-16.

Both of these sports are pretty easy for me to follow, but I haven't yet grasped many of the more technical aspects of either, as I haven't done my research yet. Being intimately familiar with a sport requires you to understand every nook and cranny of the rules, as well as the teams and the business side of the sport. Right now it's rugby that I need to bone up on, as I haven't fully figured out when a ball is ruled dead.

ITV actually does carry American sports on occasion. It ran the Super Bowl last night (though instead of the American commercials that are as much a draw as the game, we were treated to the same two Coors and Reebok commercials and a smattering of British adverts that we'd all seen before), and I've even seen an NBA game (very late at night).

As I wrote in WSN last year, what the popular European sports have in common is constant motion - rugby for dummies is essentially football that never stops play (minus the forward pass). This necessitates that all players be well-rounded skill-wise, to a certain degree. It also explains - to my mind - why basketball is so popular on the continent but other American sports are not. Note that basketball is not popular here - though Dennis Rodman played a few games for a British Basketball League team and got some publicity (he was also on Celebrity Big Brother until recently).

But Britain is also crazy about less fluid sports. I'm not sure cricket is really all that popular, but snooker is surprisingly popular, and gets a television audience second only to football. I arrived just in time to watch John Higgins defeat Ronnie O'Sullivan in the final of the Masters (which is the UK championship). Snooker, so far, is the only sport I've taken the time to really learn; unfortunately I grasped the subtleties of it just in time for snooker to drop off the air (I'm sure it'll be back on once it's time for the world championship.

Football hooliganism is apparently not the problem it used to be, and stadium operators have pulled all kinds of measures to try and tone it down, from cutting sales of alcohol, to having police escort away fans from the stadium only after home fans have left (this is much more of an issue in international matches). Spectators are required to stay in seats (as opposed to gathering in terraces where they can lead the section in cheers, etc.), and glass bottles are prohibited though there are now problems with people throwing coins and even (in the Mediterranean leagues, it seems) FLARES onto the field. It'll be interesting to see what happens when I go and see Fulham take on West Brom this weekend.

a few comments on the media

2006-01-25T16:20:00.000-05:00

From Monday's Guardian:

I am not a qualified doctor, never having had the Latin, but I have reached the age when a man needs to pay particular attention to his prostate and, having read somewhere that masturbation and cherry tomatoes can confer immense benefits in that area, I decided to give them a whirl. Not simultaneously, obviously. Those tomato seeds can make a heck of a mess on your jim-jams.

That's the beginning of sport columnist Martin Kelner's most recent article, which is really more about food than any sort of sport.

Since I arrived about a week ago, I have regularly perused both the Guardian and the Sun, which are roughly equivalent to the New York Times and the New York Post, respectively (the Sun, as you probably know, has some obvious parallels to the Post that I'll go into later). What immediately sticks out, at least in British sport journalism, is that there is none of the pretense of objectivity which is still largely demanded in American sports journalism.

Attitudes towards sex are also much more relaxed, as seen in the column cited above and (of course) in the topless women which grace the Sun every day on page 3. The Guardian also prints comics that would never make it past the editorial boards at the New York Times; I was shocked and gratified to learn that the Guardian (or G2, a section which appears within, to be more exact) prints one of my favorite webcomics, the Perry Bible Fellowship.

Reading the Sun gives one an entirely new understanding of the New York Post; the papers are very similar in their pun-filled headlines, shock-laden stories, concern with celebrity, and conservative politics (the two are also both owned by News Corporation). The Sun does not have the stable of conservative opinion writers that the Post does, but liberally sprinkles terms like "evil," "devil girl," and "pussy prat" in its news copy (referring to gang members in the first two instances and MP and former Big Brother contestant George Galloway in the last). When I think of the Post in terms of the Sun, it suddenly stops being so mystifying and so journalistically wrong - rather, I realize that it views its journalistic mission very differently than most American papers do.

The British sandwich culture

2006-01-21T11:41:00.000-05:00

One thing that I have immensely enjoyed in British culture is the multitude of sandwiches which are available. As you all likely know, the sandwich is a British invention. There is a great variety of sandwiches in the States and I would be hard-pressed to say that the British range of sandwiches is greater than the American. However, there are a number of British sandwiches which do not exist in America. Already I have had sandwiches of salmon, prawn and mayonnaise, pork sausage and brown sauce (gravy), egg salad and bacon, and cucumber and cream cheese. If possible, I'd next like to try chicken and sweet corn. These sandwiches are readily available from grocery stores, the ubiquitous Pret a Manger chain cafes, and some other places. The variety of bread seems to be not as great as it is in America (in most grocery stores you can only buy white, wheat, or naan), but the range of fillings is impressive. I'm likely to become familiar with sandwiches as eating out is quite expensive here.

2005-10-28T19:34:00.000-04:00

There's a lot going on in the White House, that's for sure. I won't go over the withdrawal of the Miers nomination or the indictment of Mr. Libby. It just seems to me that after Bob Taft, Tom DeLay and Judy Miller, after paying members of the media to push education policy and producing "news segments," everything the Bush administration has pulled and gotten away with has finally caught up with them.

There was once a time, not very long ago, that the Bush administration was defined by its values. Support and opposition to the GOP was cast in moral terms. You liked or hated those in power because of their opposition to reproductive rights, support of unilateral action, and willingness to mix church and state.

Now, however, corruption and political machinations have leapt out of the basement. DeLay would have been forgiven, I think. Taft was just some novice governor. But the leak, though it was seemingly nothing but politics as usual for this administration, is the last straw.

The runup to the 2006 elections are going to be very interesting.

WSN op/ed

2005-10-12T23:54:00.000-04:00

You might like this op/ed on privacy rights and information access, by me.

After the hysteria

2005-09-17T18:38:00.000-04:00

Part 1 (liberals): See, Bolton's not so bad.
Part 2 (not-liberals): See, gay marriage isn't so bad.

2005-09-16T12:24:00.000-04:00

I've been reading the transcripts of the Roberts hearings. Quite possibly the funniest part of the procedure is the gloom and doom over at Feministe and other parts of the liberal blogosphere. Roberts hasn't said all that much (as to be expected - actually, he's said quite a bit more than many nominees) so everyone is pretty much just whining about how the future will suck and falling back on the 20-year old memos. Their take on Roberts has been the same pretty much since he was nominated (also to be expected, given the lack of new information). For a sort of center-right, irreverent take on the proceedings, check out Althouse (you'll have to scroll down a little). You can also check out the inimitable SCOTUSblog.

As for me, I have two thoughts. First, obviously this guy is going to get confirmed, so it's irrelevant what I think of him - and what I think of him is that he's intelligent, competent, and a true believer in the law. Second, it's really impossible to know how Roberts is going to act until he's on the court, so let's just wait and see what happens. People are arguing that this time, the White House must know Roberts is a strong conservative - it's just us who don't know anything about him. I doubt that very much.

2005-09-07T16:57:00.000-04:00

From the Chicago Tribune: FEMA leaders had little experience in disaster management:

Before joining FEMA in 2001, [FEMA head Michael] Brown, a protege of longtime Bush aide Joseph Allbaugh, was commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association and had virtually no experience in disaster management.
...
The credentials of top FEMA managers stand in contrast to the backgrounds of leaders of the agency during the last years of the Clinton administration.

Clinton-era FEMA Director James Lee Witt headed the Arkansas office of emergency services before he was tapped by Clinton in 1993 to run the federal disaster relief agency.

Witt's top aides in 2000, Lynn Canton and Michael Armstrong, ran regional FEMA offices for at least three years before assuming senior positions in Washington.

To Bush's credit, his appointees to the EPA and NASA had plenty of experience in their respective agencies - the EPA's current administrator is a 24-year veteran of the EPA. I don't see why FEMA deserved different.

2005-09-02T01:37:00.000-04:00

Thanks to my new, more hectic sports editor life, I'm not sure this blog will continue to be updated with posts of the depth I'd like to write. That being said, another aspect of my silence is that it is impossible for me to blog about Katrina. This is absolutely tragic. The idea that New Orleans is basically gone is bad enough, but the anarchy that is occuring on the ground right now is unthinkable to me. My roommate hasn't arrived with the TV yet, which is good because I'd just turn on CNN and start crying on the inside. I did not react this way to 9/11, which might be because we never were in a situation where we needed martial law. The New York Times was able to throw in a snark like "the National Guard must be treated as America's most essential homeland security force, not as some kind of military piggy bank," which is TRUE, but come on, I'm not in an emotional state where I can deal with this. This really hurts, because we have lost our dignity with Katrina. The government response has been ineffectual, our poorest citizens are becoming our most desperate, and most barbaric. I don't think the people of New Orleans are going to put American flags on their doors after this one.

Blue State Laboratories

2005-08-24T01:18:00.000-04:00

Unrelated to the California Supreme Court rulings (obviously) comes an effort by nine Northeastern states to freeze power plant emissions at current levels and reduce them by 10 percent by 2020. Is federalism a good thing? I don't know, but it sure feels nice to see some progress.

2005-08-22T21:20:00.000-04:00

California's Supreme Court rules that "women whose lesbian partners bear children are both entitled and required to be treated as the children's mothers in many circumstances" (quote from NYT, not the court). Thumbs up! Gay marriage is in the appeals pipeline as well.

Note: the article is pretty crappy at the moment, but I have a feeling it is more of a stub than a finished product.

2005-08-21T21:35:00.000-04:00

Sigh. Well, Firefox actually crashed and took my last post with it, so to summarize:

Holdouts are bad in any sport, especially rookie holdouts. Everyone is hurt, though everyone is acting in their own self-interest. The NBA has a rookie pay scale so that this doesn't happen. Maybe it should be emulated. In pro sports, the interests of the player and the team almost always run counter to each other, which is an interesting tension competing with the "play the right way" ethos (which was stronger back when management was screwing labor).

Friday Random Ten, return to New Jersey edition

2005-08-19T17:10:00.000-04:00

I've actually been back for a few days - and there's no better way to ease back into blogging than the Friday Random Ten, when you set your music player to random, ease back, and enjoy the rain.

1. The Strokes - Meet Me in the Bathroom
2. Alabama 3 - Woke Up This Morning
3. Fuel - Hemmorrhage
4. Miles Davis Quartet - If I Were a Bell
5. Eels - Your Lucky Day in Hell
6. Barenaked Ladies - It's All Been Done (this was *our* song... when we were in 8th grade.)
7. Allman Brothers Band - Melissa
8. Billy Joel - For the Longest Time
9. Common w/Kanye West - The Food
10. Martha and the Vandellas - Dancing in the Street

Bonus Rain Track: Frou Frou - Only Got One

I have to say, blogging is such tiring work sometimes. There's more I want to say on John Roberts (it seems like he was kind of a jerk early in his life - a nice jerk, anyway. But I don't think that any of these documents provide much insight into his current character. People change over the course of a few decades, as you know, and Roberts did marry an attorney.), but right now I'm focused on trying to get the WSN sports section in gear.

2005-08-09T16:34:00.000-04:00

By the way, I am currently on vacation and will not return until Tuesday. See you then.

2005-08-05T21:55:00.000-04:00

This is not a post about the real John Roberts. This is a post about how I think about potential Justice John Roberts, though it is not a post about how I may ultimately think of him. This is not a post about some sort of media cloak, but it is a post about how the media have portrayed John Roberts.

This is a post about how I love John Roberts.

Jon Stewart called him "Judge Cutie." Pundits called him a nice, agreeable man.

And, in an article that only built upon the New York Times' first profile of Roberts, Newsweek said his "reverence for the law may be quaint":

In the modern view, widely held in many law schools and among lawyers of all kinds, the law is just politics in disguise. Because the law is essentially whatever one faction or another says it is, say so-called postmodernists, there is no point in idealizing the practice of law as a kind of higher calling. But Roberts devoutly does.

And I love him for that. Is it true? I don't know. Roberts seems to always do his Goddamn job. As a lawyer, he seems to have argued for his clients using whatever legal arguments he believed could stand scrutiny. As a judge, he seems to have been a stickler for the law, (i.e. the French fry incident). And that's what he's going to be doing now. Judging. And if there is one person on that court who thinks that the law still means something, I am all for it. The law is an institution that can be reshaped - it doesn't have to be evaded! God, what a romantic point of view.

So, what does that mean?

2005-08-05T00:20:00.000-04:00

I'm interested to see what the blogosphere will say about Roberts' pro bono work on behalf of gay activists. And also interested to see how certain right-wing groups will attempt to semantically shield their bigotry.

From the LA Times:

"It reinforces the notion that the guy is a lawyer's lawyer," [Norm Ornstein, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute] said. "To whatever degree people are trying to view Roberts as an ideologue whose first instinct is to take his world view and impose it on whatever decision he's taking -- this cuts against it."

The result, Ornstein said, is that the Romer controversy is likely to help Roberts win more support from moderates.

And you know what? I'm a moderate, and it does.

Friday Random Ten, "Massacre at Midnight" edition

2005-07-28T23:54:00.000-04:00

I bring you the Friday Random Ten mere minutes after seeing Shaun of the Dead, everyone's favorite zombie romantic comedy. In the greater world, things have settled down. It's a time for simmering: London deals with the limitations of "fortress urbanism" and the consequences of understandable paranoia. John Roberts awaits Senate confirmation under a cloud of secrecy and a charming smile. The Irish Republican Army renounces the use of violence, but in the age of post-irony, armed political parties seem almost quaint.

1. Guster - Amsterdam
2. Green Day - King for a Day
3. Avenue Q (original Broadway cast) - If You Were Gay
4. The Mars Volta - Inertiatic Esp
5. ??? - The Entertainer (don't know the pianist)
6. Beck - Where It's At
7. Modest Mouse - Bankrupt on Selling
8. Dave Matthews Band - #41 (Live at Chicago)
9. Barenaked Ladies - Get in Line
10. Sahara Hotnights - Who do You Dance For?

rick & jon

2005-07-26T10:45:00.000-04:00

Sen. Rick Santorum was on the Daily Show yesterday to talk about his book It Takes a Family. His argument essentially went as such: For 4,000 years society has held marriage in an exalted state. Why? Because the pairing of a man and a woman is the ideal scenario for children. While there are plenty of virtuous gay people (and single-parent families doing their best), government should try to "legislate the ideal" by reinforcing marriage in every way it can.

Well, I'd like to see what Sen. Santorum's thoughts are regarding adoption by gays. Is a healthy heterosexual family ideal? I'm not going to go ahead and say yes or no. I think that most psychological theories of child development would suggest that, to put it simply, children need gendered role models (to put it another way, children will inevitably look for gendered role models as part of their development). If there aren't two heterosexual parents, perhaps children will look elsewhere - and elsewhere is slim pickins'. The question here is, for example, will a young girl truly learn how to be female (I am not suggesting that there is a proper gender role, only that people will create one) from a man, or will she look to the culture to do so? When you reverse the question, you are looking at one of the more relevant questions in the African-American community. The question is not whether a girl can learn a gender role from a man, but whether she will choose to.

That being said, the question must be asked: Why oppose gay marriage and gay adoption? Unless you believe, as I'm sure many people do, that there is something morally wrong with homosexuality (whether or not Santorum believes this, he did not argue as such), I think you would have to conclude that a healthy gay marriage is better for a child than a single-parent household. If you're really going to say that you're trying to do what's best for the kids, then you should try to get as many orphans out of the orphanarium as possible and into healthy families, single-parent, gay, straight, or whatever.

2005-07-25T22:28:00.000-04:00

Nine women underwent a double super secret (or not, since it was reported) ceremony to become Roman Catholic priests and deacons. I wish I had more of an opinion on this. I'm no scholar of Catholic doctrine, though it should be pretty clear that female ministers are not proscribed by the Bible. One the one hand, I think the Catholic Church should liberalize, allowing female clergy and doing away with celibacy restrictions. On the other hand, I really don't care about the Church.

Catholic institutions are pretty entrenched where I live, and the Catholic focus on education is very heartening when compared to some of the blindness of Protestant churches. But in my mind the Catholic Church has already lost its relevance. Catholic churches are closing up shop, and I'm not sure the Catholic aspect of Catholic schools and universities is so relevant anymore. American Catholics are using birth control, getting abortions and divorces, paying lip service, and not paying their tithes. Far from holding the torch of enlightenment, the American and European Catholic churches hide in shadow. Won't they just die already?

Friday Random Ten, insecurity edition.

2005-07-22T14:23:00.000-04:00

Things are getting crazy. Police in New York are conducting random bag searches in the subway; the London constables shot and killed a knapsack-wearing man who was probably trying to pull off another attack. Oh, and Larry Brown left the Pistons. In the midst of this panic, it's time for your weekly eye of the storm, the Friday Random Ten, as seen at Feministe (go there for instructions and other editions of the FRT).

1. Sublime - Wrong Way
2. Fuel - Shimmer
3. B-52s - Rock Lobster
4. System of a Down - B.Y.O.B.
5. Frou Frou - Let Go
6. Jurassic 5 w/Nelly Furtado - Thin Line
7. Outkast - Hey Ya
8. The Strokes & Regina Spector - Modern Girls and Old-Fashioned Men
9. Radiohead - Subterrenean Homesick Alien
10. Apples in Stereo - I Want

Bonus "Sarin Solidarity" Track: Asian Kung-Fu Generation - Mugen Slider

Was that a bit tasteless? If so, I apologize. I have been doing the Friday Random Ten for three weeks now. I prepare myself every Friday to provide commentary that is edgy, yet not insensitive. In this instance, I failed miserably. Thank you.

Yes, that was my very own (Kenny) Rogerian apology.

Thursday roundup

2005-07-21T10:43:00.000-04:00

The ESRB has caved to pressure and common sense, and re-rated Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, giving it an Adults Only rating. Retailers are taking note and removing the game from shelves. Rockstar is reworking the game so that the Hot Coffee mod is no more. The sex scenes in GTA can't be blamed on third parties - why can you access them in the PS2 version of the game?

Penny Arcade frames the question in the right way: Why is it that defending free speech in videogames always comes down to defending Rockstar Games?

London's bombed again, but apparently with no injuries except psychic ones. Mass transit is going to be hard to secure, no matter how much money gets poured in. Are commuters really going to accept airport-style security checkpoints? Hopefully, things won't get to the point where we have to - but how do you catch a suicide bomber except through training citizens to have a vigilant eye?

Jon Stewart over at the Daily Show has been socking Republicans over Karl Rove, so I was surprised and pleased by the way the Daily Show covered Supreme Court nominee John Roberts. The Daily Show took liberals and the media to task for spreading divisiveness over a qualified judge.

Not exact quotes:
"Liberals were outraged over Bush's choice. They have been for weeks." "The left wanted President Bush to nominate someone they wanted, not someone he wanted - I mean, who gave him the authority to do that? It's an abuse of power."
"Oh, media. Why must you spread the hate? Can't you just go back to being wrong?" (Stewart refers to the media's pre-nomination insistence that Edith Clement would be nominated.)

My faith in Stewart has not been restored, but reaffirmed. Or perhaps I shouldn't be so surprised. While the liberal blogs I read have gone off the deep end citing Roberts' briefs as deputy solicitor general, the MSM seems to view Roberts as an intelligent, nice (and handsome) man whose life is "Rooted in Faith and Respect for the Law" (NYT).

2005-07-18T22:30:00.000-04:00

ESPN and the AP report that Larry Brown will soon be out as head coach of the Detroit Pistons, which I find incredulous. This is quite possibly the best coach in the league; you swallow his antics - as long as the players are okay with them - and move on. I'm not a reporter, I don't know how much of this has to do with GM Joe Dumars, owner Bill Davidson, or the players. What I do know is that none of the Pistons should be happy out this - except maybe Darko Milicic.

Also - Bush says he will announce his Supreme Court nominee tonight at 9. The rumormongers say it's Edith Brown Clement.

Update: It's not.

2005-07-17T12:46:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite NYT Magazine writers, Matt Bai, has an interesting article about Democrats' new ability to "frame" stories.

Democratic politicians assumed that voters saw the filibuster fight primarily as a campaign to stop radically conservative judges, as they themselves did. But to their surprise, Garin found that making the case on ideological grounds -- that is, that the filibuster prevented the appointment of judges who would roll back civil rights -- was the least effective approach. When, however, you told voters that the filibuster had been around for over 200 years, that Republicans were ''changing rules in the middle of the game'' and dismantling the ''checks and balances'' that protected us against one-party rule, almost half the voters strongly agreed, and 7 out of 10 were basically persuaded. It became, for them, an issue of fairness.

It's a good article on the tactics of politics.

Close to home

2005-07-11T09:34:00.000-04:00

It's interesting to read articles like this one, about developers bribing officials in Monmouth County. Suburbs in New Jersey are required to build low- and moderate-income housing, and when doing so are allowed to build at higher densities than market-rate housing is constructed at. Developers played "a shell game of land swaps in which units of low- and moderate-income housing that were included in early drafts of plans fell by the wayside, and the resulting developments were solely market-rate housing at the higher density."

The result is too much traffic and congestion, strained schools and services - and, of course, negligible increase in affordable housing. I found the article interesting in a number of ways.

First, it represents a look into New Jersey's machine politics. You don't often read about the nuts and bolts, instead reading vague references to George Norcross, South Jersey's "power broker," "party boss," and/or "political kingmaker" (that last term is from the Philadelphia Inquirer).

Second, it shines a light on the intricacies of urban planning. Marlboro Township has doubled in size over the last 15 years, and the aforementioned strain on services has been exacerbated by a resistance to raising property taxes (not uncommon in this state). While it would be pure folly to draw any sort of comparison between Marlboro's situation and the "smart growth" movement, it's clear that densification - one of the central tenets of smart growth - has to be balanced with central planning. That's just common sense; laissez-faire growth leads to cancerous developments, choking on their own excess.

Now the question is: What to do? Marlboro is requesting that the state's order for low-income housing be delayed, as adding even more people would amplify existing problems. And also: should towns require low-income housing in the first place? This sort of quota system has multiple malignant effects:
1. By taking a certain amount of units off of the market, low-income quotas drive up the equilibrium price of market-rate housing.
2. This creates a disincentive for low-income residents to increase their incomes. After all, once they move up to lower-middle class, they won't be able to afford an apartment!

But on the other hand, abolishing low-income housing will probably not lower the market price of housing enough to enable the poor to live anywhere, furthering the spatial polarization that has defined suburbs since day 1 of their existence. To put it in English, without low-income housing, the poor will have to move to dangerous neighborhoods with long commutes to their place of employment. Now, does poor = dangerous, to a certain extent? Perhaps, but the neighborhoods I am talking about have their dangers exacerbated by poor design. I imagine that new low-income developments will emulate the successful townhouse model, as opposed to the unsuccessful asylum/apartment tower model.

the Daily Randomness

2005-07-08T10:11:00.000-04:00

British investigators that over-the-counter availability of the "morning-after pill" does not increase the frequency of unsafe sex (or rather, OTC availability of the pill does not increase its use), which is both good news and incredibly obvious. I wonder how many of those who oppose the use of Plan B know anything about what a pain it is to use. Arguing against OTC Plan B in this way is like saying air bags should be disallowed because they will increase risky driving behavior.

Hurricane Dennis is looming over Cuba and possibly Florida, causing slight damage to Guantanamo Bay, possibly delaying the launch of the space shuttle Discovery, and reminding us all that nature is the supreme killer, arbiter of life and death, though it is rather too busy to affect much the geopolitical landscape.

Some basketball news for a change: ESPN reports that the Cleveland Cavaliers will sign Larry Hughes to a six-year deal once the free-agent moratorium ends. I'm sure they would have preferred Michael Redd, who is a much better shooter and chose to stay with Milwaukee, but Hughes is a good scorer and rebounder who also picks up lots of steals. You know who would be a good fit there? Vladimir Radmanovic - but I have no idea what his contract situation is like.

the straw

2005-07-07T10:45:00.000-04:00

I was pretty saddened by the terrorist attacks in London this morning, but what really made my heart sink was the news that the insurgency had killed Egypt's envoy to Iraq. If you had any doubt as to what the insurgency stands for, I hope it's disappearing. I know, at least, what they don't stand for - a unified and strong Iraq.

The problem with Roe

2005-07-02T17:38:00.000-04:00

It's important to remember that Roe v. Wade was a 6-3 decision, and thus not imperiled by the resignation of O'Connor. Talking about the historic case is difficult for me, however, because as much as I hate to admit it I find the reasoning behind the case problematic. While I personally am a supporter of full-fledged abortion rights with no restrictions, I would be much more comfortable with a right to abortion ensconced in legislation (and I can guarantee you that's not going to happen) or a constitutional amendment (I hesitate to even mention that option while keeping a straight face).

Essentially, the reasoning behind Roe is as follows: People have rights not mentioned in the Constitution (penumbras); among these rights is the right to privacy, a right which has been upheld and expanded by the Court since 1886. The right to privacy encompasses only those rights which are "fundamental" or "implicit in the concept of ordered liberty" and includes activities having to do with marriage, procreation, contraceptives, and education of children. Clearly, the right of a woman to terminate a pregnancy is covered by this right as well.

I think I've just convinced myself of the legitimacy of Roe, but I think it's pretty obvious why some people would be upset about a claim that (a) People have a constitutional right to privacy even though the Constitution says nothing about it, (b) and this right to privacy covers the constitutional right to an abortion. Not to mention the fact that the majority justices spend much of the opinion citing American and English common law from the 1800s and earlier in an attempt to buttress their argument.

When you get right down to it, the problem with the Constitution is that it doesn't do enough to establish a sane society. Shout judicial activism as much as you want, but I'd rather be living in this world than a textual one.

I feel an ill wind.

2005-07-01T10:57:00.000-04:00

I'm sure I'm not the only one who has a very bad feeling about Sandra Day O'Connor's resignation. My only hope is that Alberto Gonzales will be nominated to replace her. Then, when Rehnquist retires, a conservative judge will replace him. Thus the ideological balance in the Court will be conserved and all will be as it is today. And who could possibly complain about that?!

For the former and current staff of the WSN

2005-06-30T16:22:00.000-04:00

NYU's own Noah "Fuckable" Feldman argues that the way to solve the problem of church-state separation, or lack there of, is to stop clamping down on religious speech and symbols in public debate and spaces, including courthouses - but also stop virtually all state funding of religious institutions, including faith-based charities.

Too much!

2005-06-30T09:25:00.000-04:00

I feel awful about not blogging for the last couple of weeks, because so much has happened that I find interesting. Part of the reason is that I have started a daily grind, working 8-5 at Countrywide Home Loans. The money's right, and now I know what it's like to work at an unsatisfying job. My personal life has also been somewhat busy, so I've been too tired to blog.

Anyway, while I've been gone:

- The Spurs won the NBA Championship. I had seriously underestimated their toughness.
- The NBA Draft was held. Charlotte had a great draft. What is Toronto doing? New York had better get a good center this offseason. Milwaukee GM says Bogut will be the best center in the Eastern Conference in five years. When you consider that that position has been held in the past by Brad Miller and Jamaal Magloire, sure, it's possible.
- Rhode Island's legislatures voted to legalize medical marijuana. Yesterday, Governor Carcieri vetoed the bill, but the lawmakers have the votes to override the veto and then some (it passed the House 52-10 and the Senate 33-1. Carcieri raises some good points (law-abiding citizens may get screwed, thinking that they can't be prosecuted - watch out when the feds come around), but it might be time for some good old-fashioned nullification (you know I don't mean that). Can we please get mary jane reclassified as Schedule III, at least? I don't see how the risk/reward of marijuana is all that different from the risk/reward of a Schedule III drug like steroids.
- Same-sex marriage is on its way to legalization in Canada. It IS now legal in Spain. Great news!
- The new plans for the Freedom Tower were unveiled. The New York Post says the design looks like "a fortress." I agree, and I like it. Now, as the Post says in its house editorial - just build the damn thing already!

the doom train stops, pt. 2

2005-06-21T23:37:00.000-04:00

From Reuters:

"The new agreement includes an increase in the salary cap, and a guarantee by the league that the players will receive no less than 57 percent of basketball-related income," Stern said.
[...]
Other highlights of the deal include a one-year increase in the minimum age to enter the league and active rosters being expanded from 12 players to 14.

The maximum length of player contracts will also be reduced to six years from the seven that is currently allowed in the existing seven-year agreement due to expire June 30.

Additionally, teams will have the ability to assign players with less than two years experience to the NBA Development League.

That last development is by far the one that will have the most impact. With expanded rosters and the ability to assign players to the NBDL, the NBA is moving closer to having a legitimate minor league - and unlike MLB, minor leaguers will be making NBA money. It's just too bad that a player like Darko Milicic won't be able to take advantage of this opportunity. I love the progress that's been made here. I don't like the watered-down age limit (why make colleges recruit players knowing they'll only have them for a year? Go all-out or don't have a limit at all); I do like reducing contract length (I would have liked to see it get down to 4 or 5 years). Glad to see that unlike the NHL and Formula One, the NBA's people have the good sense to keep their bread buttered.

and the doom train stops

2005-06-21T15:14:00.000-04:00

David Stern and Billy Hunter (the NBA and NBAPA) have reportedly agreed on the terms of a new collective bargaining agreement. Press conference at 5 pm, more blogging later.

2005-06-14T23:57:00.000-04:00

I guess you could say I was wrong about the Pistons. Everyone played better, but the person who really stepped up was Ben Wallace. The bench was also great. I really, really enjoy watching this team play. More later, perhaps.

Whenever I watch SportsCenter I can't help but think of my old editor, Zach Falk. The convergence of sports and pop culture - and by pop culture I mean a certain kind of nerd-cool culture - has become pretty disturbing. Do you think Tony Kornheiser has any idea what Scott Van Pelt (is that his name) means when he says "number one in the hood, G" and "the only cure is more cowbell"? Somehow, ESPN has learned that the only people who watch SportsCenter are urbanites awash in a sort of dweebish hipster culture - like me. That first reference comes from a Cartoon Network show about a talking shake, meatball, and container of french fries that live in New Jersey. The second reference, of course, is from a Saturday Night Live skit centering around Blue Oyster Cult. Relevance to sports... zero. Which is fine, no one ever said clever allusions were unwanted. But these aren't exactly clever allusions; they've become stock catchphrases.

Now, back to SportsCenter's target audience. Now, that aforementioned Cartoon Network show is Aqua Teen Hunger Force, one of the programs that make up the Adult Swim block of shows. More males age 18-34 watch Adult Swim than watch Leno, Letterman, or Conan. So I guess they've got something there. And if you haven't seen the cowbell sketch, than just forget it. You're so not relevant.

It amazes me that none of the SportsCenter anchors have yet said "boom goes the dynamite!" Or maybe I just haven't caught them yet.

2005-06-14T17:32:00.000-04:00

It may surprise you that I haven't been blogging for the NBA Finals. Suffice it to say that I am shocked and dismayed by the drubbing that the Pistons have been taking the first couple of games. One thing that has made me really happy, though, is finally being able to watch andd listen to the public address of each arena. San Antonio is delightfully small-market, with its nasal, twangy announcer and Jock Jams introduction music. And Detroit (Auburn Hills), well, if you have ever heard the Pistons PA guy you don't need me to say more. Both of these stadiums feel incredibly distinctive, thanks to the announcers. Oh, and Will Smith was pretty good, I guess. When it comes to pregame entertainment, the NBA has recently tried to walk a thin line between its two perceived constituencies, which are old white men and young black men.

[I may be wrong about that - very wrong. But what do you call the Black Eyed Peas and Will Smith besides a lukewarm compromise? Thanks to Detroit, the league has managed to work in the Motown quite a bit recently. The question becomes, if you accept this supposition, where do Dave Matthews and Kelly Clarkson fit in this situation?]

I suppose the difference between the Spurs and the Pistons here is that the Spurs are identical to the Pistons - except that they have an All-World superstar and Manu Ginobili, who can create his own shot any day of the week. The Pistons' most talented player is Rasheed Wallace, who shies away from his full potential. Rasheed can score on Tim Duncan at least as well as Duncan can score on him, so I don't see why he isn't embracing that role. Or perhaps I do - Rasheed doesn't have to "embrace a role" like Antawn Jamison coming off the bench for Dallas; he has to become the Pistons' go-to guy. He can score 20 points every night, and he has to for Detroit to turn this series around.

Self-improvement; I am a values voter

2005-06-05T16:46:00.000-04:00

We all change.

After a lot of shooting around in my driveway, I have developed a pretty decent right-handed jump hook. Now, as a not-particularly-strong man with a 5'8" frame and average wingspan, I'm not sure when I will ever get to use this particular manuever. Maybe if I'm in a co-ed league.

Really, since I first entered the bastion of radical (read: passe) liberalism that is NYU, I have moved to the right politically, so much so that scientific testing has confirmed that I am a libertarian. Now, I am not so sure about this.

True, I am increasingly against gun control, and increasingly for charter schools (and of course, I've always been against affirmative action). But I am also committed to my local public radio station, if only for the Saturday-morning delight that is Car Talk. I am lukewarm on Social Security reform - I'm willing to try new things, I suppose. Same goes for staples of the economic conservative like the national sales tax. This little shift of mine isn't going to change the way I vote, as I have always been a values voter. Pro-choice all the way, babe.

Pistons, video games, respect, CBA

2005-06-04T23:18:00.000-04:00

Some crazy swings in the Miami-Detroit series, eh? Detroit rolled right over the Heat with defensive pressure, and I expect them to do the same in game 7. The thing is, you could almost fault the Pistons for being a team that "turns it on and off" like the Lakers of yore. The difference? Detroit isn't necessarily being lazy when they "turn it off" - but they need to play perfectly to dominate the way they do, and it's hard to do that every game. Kenny Smith (I believe) had the best analogy: Detroit is like Dennis Rodman. If Rodman didn't play with a lot of effort, he was just an average player. But when he played with passion, he was a superstar. That's why Detroit so often has to fight its way back in series, and why the Pistons don't win 60 games in the regular season.

But when they do give it their all...

A bill before California's assembly to ban the sale of violent video games is dying due to lack of support. Thank goodness, as California leads the nation, of course. I'm pretty happy with the way Arnold is running the state - I don't know if I'd feel the same way if I lived in California. From a national perspective, though, it's good to see California lead the way when it comes to emissions and stem-cell research.

SI's Marty Burns reports that Chicago coach Scott Skiles is having a hard time getting a new contract. Why?!

Shaquille O'Neal has offered to pay for the funeral of George Mikan, and the Mikan family has accepted. A wonderful gesture of respect for Mikan, the prototypical big man and fellow Laker.

Oh... and there still hasn't been progress towards a new collective bargaining agreement. We could have a lockout by July; please don't screw this up.

boy George

2005-06-02T17:34:00.000-04:00

The Spurs are your Western Conference champions, despite a transcendent performance from Amare Stoudamire. When San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich said that Nash and Stoudamire "make Stockton and Malone look like Laurel and Hardy," I kind of wrote it off as typical Popovich perfectionism. But it's pretty accurate, isn't it? Stockton and Malone were better defenders (note: I'm really only familiar with StocktontoMalone's work after about 1997; I don't remember their early careers), but Nash and Stoudamire are offensive geniuses. They both looked like Hall of Famers in this year's playoffs.

George Mikan is dead at 80 years of age. The former Laker should be remembered for inventing the post player. How great was he? The NBA changed the rules because of him, making goaltending illegal and doubling the size of the lane. I can think of only one other player who was so dominant he changed the rules of the game; that was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (nee Lew Alcindor), who forced the NCAA to make dunking illegal for a time. Mikan was the game's first superstar, and he also led a so-far unsuccessful fight to increase the pension of NBA players who played before 1963.

Roll Call

2005-06-01T21:22:00.000-04:00

Murray Chass asks, Do Congressional efforts to regulate steroid use run afoul of the Fourth Amendment (against unreasonable searches and seizures)? Good question.

The Dutch have joined the French in rejecting the new EU constitution. I'm not qualified to have much of an opinion on this, but for the record I don't think this is a good thing. I'd like to see a more unified and free-market-oriented Europe.

Heads are finally rolling at the UN, which fired the first staffer related to the oil-for-food scandal. Could this passing of the buck rival Abu Ghraib? Let's wait until the investigation is finished.

McDonald's is now accepting debit and credit cards. I await the day when Big Macs can be beamed to your house with a click of the remote control.

What's it like to be the twelfth man on the Suns (and also a vociferous smartass)? Check out Paul Shirley's blog. Yes, I know Paul is old news.

Last week's ESPN Magazine had an excellent series of articles on how tough football players have it after retirement, compared to other athletes and indeed to many people in general. Mangled fingers, knees with no cartilage, malaise, and often a steady diet of painkillers and antidepressants.

With Reggie Miller retiring and Vlade Divac out with injuries and soon to retire himself, Manu Ginobili is quickly becoming that guy: the league's most blatant flopper who also plays with passion and has loads of talent to boot. The difference? It's hardest (or perhaps easiest) to hate Ginobili because he is a real magician with the ball. Miller has never thrown down a reverse dunk in his life. Anything to win, I guess.

2005-06-01T20:31:00.000-04:00

I would really like people to calm down about Larry Brown.

Prep star Gerald Green has hired an agent. More power to the young man, I suppose. It may be the last chance for any high-school player to jump into the draft. Increasingly, I'm coming around to Jermaine O'Neal's statements, which are a bit more nuanced than most people have given him credit for. Why is it that high schoolers are so bad for the NBA but not for, say, tennis? It's a little more complicated than black and white - no one's complaining about 15-year old tennis prodigy Donald Young (who is black), for example.

Of course, one problem with believing that the backlash against high schoolers is at least partially motivated by race is that these high school ballers are getting paid. Ndudi Ebi and Robert Swift are making first-round money, the kind of money that any savvy investor can live off of until death. Donald Young might have played in the French Open, but he didn't take home any prize money, because he didn't win anything. Developing baseball players have to play in the minor leagues for a couple of hundred bucks per week; no one watches hockey. Meanwhile, Swift played in 16 games this year, and was on the court for 4.5 minutes each game. He pulled down more than a million dollars this season for 72 minutes of action (plus practice, and travel time, which isn't exactly "work" from a fan's perspective). Those are the kinds of numbers that will inspire outrage among Joe Blow and his compatriots.

Still, I think what O'Neal was really talking about was those naysayers who say high school kids should go to college, in case they don't make it as athletes. You don't hear the columnists screaming about the golfers and tennis players; that's a fact.

Regardless, one has to accept the fact that letting high schoolers in the NBA really is bad for the game. Everyone loses - the fans who see poor quality basketball, the team owner who shells out millions of bucks for bench-warmers, the coaches who have to minister to kids - except the kids, the agents, and the shoe companies. Look, Kobe Bryant would have gotten into Duke; Kevin Garnett would have run with the Tar Heels. The high schoolers with talent will still eventually make it.

Though, truth be told, something still seems inherently wrong about the age limit. I've already talked about this, and I'm sorry I rehashed it for y'all.

2005-05-31T20:36:00.000-04:00

One other reason I'm a big fan of Charles Barkley is because he clearly spends time thinking of other issues. I don't know if I'm actually going to buy Who's Afraid of a Large Black Man (which is actually a series of interviews between Barkley and figures like Tiger Woods, Bill Clinton, and Jesse Jackson), but I have a great admiration for CB for writing it.

The Suns held on to win, but it's pretty clear they aren't holding on much longer. The Suns executed very well down the stretch, but their crunch-time performance wasn't really better than it had been in the first three games. They were just desperate this time around, and that translated into some pretty miraculous plays (ex. the pass Nash made while falling out of bounds that led to an easy score).

As a result of browsing Taylor Yu's blog, I've stumbled upon some of the writings of John Derbyshire, who frequently makes the sort of inane comments that characterize most political commentary (example: "Only Anglo-Saxon countries can do democracy ... Other cultures can fake it for a few decades, as France, Germany, and Japan are currently doing, but their hearts aren’t really in it and they will swoon gratefully into the arms of a fascist dictator when one comes along"). Regardless, he does ask some pointed questions about the political attitudes and traditions that immigrants bring with them. Regarding the Chinese vote (response and counterresponse).

2005-05-30T21:40:00.000-04:00

May I just say that despite my nostalgia for the NBA on NBC - excellent theme music, great play-by-play, and the stadium introductions - moving games to TNT was one of the best things the league ever did. I can't watch the halftime shows on ABC and ESPN, particularly when I compare them to E.J., Magic, Kenny, and Charles. To NY Post columnist Phil Mushnick, Charles Barkley may be the epitome of what ails sports analysis today, but to me Barkley stands out where the theatrical Bill Walton and the overblown Stephen A. Smith (for god's sake, you're a journalist!) fail. He has true insight - and the dynamic of the TNT crew is so much smoother than any other outfit out there.

I write this having just turned off the train wreck that is ABC's studio show: A struggling Bill Russell, Rick Fox, Bill Walton, and Mike Tirico. I don't think I need to say any more.

get on, get off

2005-05-23T18:00:00.000-04:00

The Philadelphia 76ers have reportedly fired Jim O'Brien after one year as head coach. I'm not going to whine and say, "whatever happened to learning on the job?" because this firing really had more to do with O'Brien not getting along with his players, and less with his inability to use Chris Webber (you could see that C-Webb was really starting to fit in the team's offense when the playoffs rolled around). Mo Cheeks is in as new coach; I'd like to see him stay there for a while. The players didn't like Jim, the 76ers' man was available; it was an easy decision. We'll see where O'Brien ends up - how about Minnesota?

NYT: Coal plants could be much, much cleaner. Is it regulation or lack of regulation that's to blame for the lack of "gasification" plants?

Peacemaker was a pistol

2005-05-23T01:28:00.000-04:00

NYT has a story on the UN's increasing use of "robust peacekeeping" - returning fire when attacked by snipers, searching for weapons, conducting raids. I don't see how the UN could do anything else and hope to escape the increasing perception of its irrelevance. One interesting trend mentioned in the article is the shift in the makeup of its forces; increasingly UN soldiers are coming from the Global South.

The most pertinent philosophical question seems to be this one: What happens when a peacekeeping effort leads to civilian casualties and collateral damage? That is, must peacekeepers do no harm? What if robust peacekeeping leads to a quicker peace - and if so, can it be justified or not justified by using the calculus of body counts? In the Congo, aggressive peacekeeping seems to be succeeding; militias are disarming and peace pacts have been signed. But when the UN becomes a combatant, does an insurgency result?

woo hoo

2005-05-15T22:41:00.000-04:00

Since school ends about the time that the NBA playoffs begin, I typically have to predict the NBA champion weeks before the finals. As the playoffs go on, I always worry that they aren't proceeding according to my predictions. Anyway, here's the short version of how I thought the playoffs would go, according to my last column:

Miami makes it to the conference finals, but Shaq doesn't heal. This is almost exactly as I called it; Miami did a little better than I thought they would; they haven't lost a game yet - but Shaq isn't even playing right now.

Detroit breezes through to the conference finals. They're having a tougher time than I thought they would. I shouldn't have expected Indiana to go down easily.

Phoenix makes it through to the conference finals easily. Dallas might even the series at 2-2 after tonight, but for some reason I don't feel like they can win. I think the Suns will make it through without a lot of trouble.

San Antonio struggles through, making it to the conference finals beat up. Duncan doesn't fully heal. It didn't seem like it, after the Spurs disposed of Denver and went up 2-0 on Seattle, but the Sonics have now evened the series. But Duncan seems like he's in pretty good shape.

San Antonio beats Phoenix, Detroit takes the series over Miami with Shaq at half-strength. Detroit repeats, taming a completely exhausted San Antonio team. In retrospect, I think it's a little naive to say that San Antonio will have problems because they'll be "exhausted." I was really talking about Duncan's health, and I think that's what the entire playoffs hinge on. If he's healthy, the Spurs will win. If he's not, Detroit will.

Anyway, just wanted to let you all know that I am going to be WSN's next sports editor! I'm very excited about this, and grateful to Mallory for encouraging me to apply for the job, as well as showing everyone how it should be done.

So what's my first move? Probably... no more stories about volleyball!

Just kidding.

2005-05-11T22:57:00.000-04:00

Quick observation on the Suns-Mavericks game. Erick Dampier is really responding to the comments Dirk Nowitzki made after game 1, being active on defense and contributing on the offensive end. Good to see this sort of positive response rather than any sort of continued ill will. That's the playoffs.

During the game break between Indiana-Detroit and this game: Magic Johnson has a little bit of a cold.

Ernie Johnson (paraphrase): "For those of you who've heard Magic's voice, know that he isn't playing at full strength. But a virus isn't going to stop him from coming to work."
[awkward pause]
Charles Barkley, who was sick last week: Ernie, you have got to be kidding me.
[commercial break, or maybe a highlight reel. I forget.]

Anyway, I'm glad to see that the Detroit and Phoenix series look to be interesting. I was awaiting an extreme letdown after the hotly competitive round one - I wouldn't have been surprised if all four of these series went five games max, especially after Allen went down with the ankle injury.

I'm glad to see D'Antoni win the Coach of the Year award. In some ways, there are some similarities between how he won the award and how Nash won the MVP. D'Antoni isn't the best Xs-and-Os guy in the league, and he probably isn't the best motivator either. If he was on a different team he might not have won the award. But for his willingness to give up control of his team got him both the best record and the coaching award. Just as Larry Bird won Coach of the Year while delegating much authority to his assistants, D'Antoni won the award even though he's probably not as good at the helm as, say, Rick Carlisle (the runner-up for the award).

i'm back!

2005-05-07T02:31:00.000-04:00

My computer has finally regained its health (with the help of Steve Gibson's SpinRite), and blogging is back on schedule.

Ric Bucher has a good piece on why Jeff Van Gundy has made his accusations (it's all about protecting Yao).

I no longer consider myself a knee-jerk defender of Yao because there are some pretty obvious problems with his game and moreover, his mental toughness, but Bucher makes the kind of points that basketball outsiders wouldn't consider: that Yao is not a good shot-blocker because vertical leap and wingspan are more important than height when it comes to blocking shots, and that Yao is asked to defend the pick-and-roll by jumping out on the ball-handler than racing back to the bucket to defend the roller, a task very few big men are asked to do (Bucher contrasts Yao with Shaq, who doesn't step out on the dribbler - a weakness every team facing him exploits).

Bucher notes that the Rockets are looking for an athletic power forward to reduce some of Yao's responsibilities on the defensive end - not surprising, as Yao has really missed Kelvin Cato (as I wrote earlier this year).

last column of the year

2005-04-29T22:19:00.000-04:00

Again, sorry for the last post and the lack of postage in general. I'm still working on the computer. Anyway, here's the last column of the year: Pistons will fire at NBA championships. Anyway, I've been watching the playoffs intently of course. Houston has been spectacular; I try not to have favorite teams but Houston is mine.

So, how about Jerome James? I've read in so many places that James had the potential to play like he has; I wonder why he's suddenly gotten it together. Is it that he's in a contract year? Is it that for once in his life his team is a contender? Either way, I hope he keeps it up next regular season. He's got some talent.

Anyway, Webber and Iverson have actually seemed to gel a bit during this playoff series. Philadelphia is playing inspired basketball (in game 3) and a lot of that is Webber - he tried to get back in the post with limited success, which seems to have opened up his game. He's been hustling for rebounds and I saw a couple of nice passes to Iverson.

On a mostly unrelated note, I've been reading some Sherman Alexie. Alexie's a great writer, who often gets political (he is, after all, an American Indian). I think he's at his best, though, when he stays away from politics. "What You Pawn I Will Redeem" and "Whatever Happened to Frank Snake Church?" are much better stories than "The Search Engline" and "Lawyer's League," for example. There are only so many ways to talk about racism, though it's a story that has to be told. Anyway, the reason I mention Alexie is because a lot of his stories have to do with basketball. Many of his characters are former basketball players, good, bad, washed-up and used to be great, washed-up and weren't that good to begin with - I really appreciated a writer who talked about set shots and posting up in the left box.

silence

2005-04-22T23:42:00.000-04:00

Just FYI, I've been having some pretty serious computer issues, which is why I haven't been blogging lately. My laptop's hard drive is dead. Rather than make some horribly offensive joke comparing by laptop to Terri Schiavo or the Pope, I'll end here. We are working on this drive and might be able to get some data out, we'll see. Either way blogging will resume affter this weekend. Good night and Godspeed.

EDIT: Here is a belated link to this week's column: Despite brawl, NBA still about skill. It's sort of a regular-season recap.

Benedict XVI

2005-04-19T20:39:00.000-04:00

So, we have a new Pope today. I have to admit I was pretty excited, but in the end I will probably have to be depressed about Pope Benedict XVI, nee Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger of Germany. From the church's perspective, I think Ratzinger is an excellent choice as the church's head administrator. He's well versed in Vatican protocol, fluent in Italian, a top-flight theologian, and strong in doctrine.

But I think it goes without saying that Benedict XVI will lead the Catholic Church along the road it is currently leading, becoming increasingly less relevant in the developed world, and running headlong into the AIDS problem in Africa. How long is the church going to hold on to the idea that contraception is morally wrong? At the very least, since the church holds that life begins at conception, I would expect that someone step forward and proclaim barrier contraception alright.

It also goes without saying that I am at odds with Ratzinger's opinions on homosexuality, celibacy, etc. I would make a bigger deal of it if I thought that any American Catholics really cared. I'm not a big fan of liberation theology or anything, but I'd like the next pope to be one who eschews hatred and myopia.

some thoughts

2005-04-18T22:42:00.000-04:00

Phoenix handily dismantled Denver today, which makes pretty good sense. Denver is a running team and they can out-quick a lot of teams but there's no way they're going to beat Phoenix playing that style. There's a huge contrast between Phoenix's fast breaks and the comparatively disjointed runs Denver is putting together.

So Monday Night Football is finally making the jump to cable next year, moving to ESPN. I don't think this is a development that's in the public interest. I find the gradual move of sports from network to cable channels depressing, despite the fact that nearly everyone has cable today. Just one more sign of sports' move to the middle class.

Excellent Tom Toles a few days ago.

And it is not true that 1 in 2 marriages ends in divorce; in fact, it has never been true.

Most unimaginative headline ever

2005-04-14T17:21:00.000-04:00

No hard feelings when it comes to the copy desk, though. It's not a job for the faint-of-heart. Here's this week's column: Nash over Shaq for NBA MVP.

This post is a bit Shankar-ish

2005-04-11T02:42:00.000-04:00

Well, not really, but it is random. I've been playing this game called Text Twist, which shouldn't be too much of a surprise given my fetishization of vocabulary. I think the word I'm going to hang on to from that game is "chine," which it turns out primarily refers to the spine of an animal.

I've been thinking a lot about the divergence between the college game, dominated by the coaches, and the NBA, dominated by the players. Most of the time, the subtext behind a lot of basketball criticism privileges the coach-oriented game; the college game is the thinking one, the one where players work together and respect authority. If I was Ralph Wiley or (maybe) Jason Whitlock, I would say that this subtext privileges the white game, but I'm not even going to go there (it's too easy of a claim to make, too hard of one to support, and too irrelevant to bother with. I've always thought that pieces on race too often focus on a sort of mythic oppression that has less to do with reality and more to do with symbolism, which comes easy).

It's interesting to watch as the two diverge, though I may later argue that they aren't as much. Talent causes player domination, because what's most important is winning. In the NBA, you need good players to win, therefore they gain power. Meanwhile, the talent pool is decreasing in the college game, and coaching becomes more important as the team works together to mask its weaknesses and amplify its strengths. Like football coaches, basketball coaches work to install intricate offenses and defenses, moving their players around like interchangable game pieces.

In the NBA, players have gained financial leverage and organizational leverage to go with it. Superstars become general managers. Those less talented still have power over the coach. Certainly, players are rarely coaches on the floor, except maybe the virtuosic point guards - but in a way players have always been coaches, or at least quarterbacks without the audio feed. Coaches do much of their work in practice, teaching their team how to play in a game situation and letting it fly in actual games, building basketball instincts (which is another reason coaching is so important in college - kids come in without the instinct they need).

I am really intrigued by the Phoenix Suns because of this. To me they seem the ideal of the player-oriented team. From what I understand, D'Antoni lets Nash make much of the decision-making on the floor, teaching principles in practice. Or at least, that's what I'd like to understand; I can't say I can recall ever reading about his practice sessions. I have a feeling that Larry Brown is the same way, watching his team's defense and only excoriating them when they've failed to execute. What's the difference between Brown and a college coach?

I think it's the difference between systems and principles, if that makes sense. I think in the NBA, you must tell players how you want them to play without reducing them to indistinguishable ciphers. I think that's why UNC seemed so different from so many of the other college teams - it had the talent to freelance (a good freelancer, like Manu Ginobili, is one that knows the fundamentals).

I'm going to end here. This week's column is going to be about Nash, by the way. Oh, and this post is nothing like Shankar at all, so please ignore the title.

2005-04-06T12:59:00.000-04:00

I'm always willing to own up to my mistakes, and in that spirit, I present today's column.

I have never liked Chris Webber's game. He just never seemed to do anything right. Every time I watched a Kings game, I waited to see why he was so good, and I didn't see anything besides an Antoine Walker-style hook shot and some bounce passes. I still don't know why he's a good player. Bill Simmons compared him to that guy at the YMCA with the knee brace who makes you laugh at least once as he flops around, then manages to kick your ass and piss everyone off. Except that would imply that Webber is tough, which he isn't. Savvy, maybe.

But then again, I never saw anything good from Peja Stojakovic either, so maybe it's just that I'm seeing the wrong games?

The other thing I realized as I thought about this was that it takes a certain amount of talent just to be able to take 15 shots in a game. So that says something about someone like Stojakovic, even if he only makes three of them on a bad night. In the NBA you have to be able to create your own shot. You have to be fast like Allen Iverson, strong like Shaq, skilled like Yao, or use screens like Rip Hamilton. And it helps a lot to be smart; that way you can help create for others. Otherwise your dribble is stolen, your shots are blocked, or you're trapped by the defense. Just getting the shot off is a difficult endeavor.

Fandom, or: Fuck UNC

2005-04-04T23:36:00.000-04:00

It's a strange thing to be attached to a team. I've never been someone who held life-time allegiance to teams - I was never one of those long-suffering Cubs fans, and I didn't become a Nets fan until they started doing well. I don't see anything wrong with this; teams are institutions, true, but they are also made up of human beings. The 1998 Chicago Bulls were not the same team as the 1993 Chicago Bulls, though there was enough continuity that one can think of them as the same. The 2004 Chicago Bulls bear no resemblance at all to either of those squads. They just happen to play in the same city.

I guess what I'm getting at is that people need a reason to love a team. Eric Neel wrote recently about how he was rooting for the Spurs and the Suns - the overdogs. His reason was technique. I wanted West Virginia to beat Louisville so terribly - for their audacity. Ostensibly I supported Illinois (they lost, by the way) because that's where I used to live, that's where my family lives (some in Champaign, even), but Illinois was also good, ranked #1 in the country. And they weren't cocky about it, and they played a beautiful motion offense, with balanced scoring and multiple ball-handlers. I liked that they were from what I consider my home state, but I felt such a connection to them because of their philosophy.

I have always admired technique. I like to see the lesser-skilled be outclassed (being overpowered is not the same thing). I want to see Curt Schilling throw a perfect game, and strike out 10 along the way. I think most Americans respect heart the most and I will not begrudge that; heart, like skill, is primarily a measure of the will and mind. Ali would never have been Ali without his God-given speed but beating Sonny Liston was a matter of technique (Ali's trainer might have been the one with the will though; he made Ali go back out after the young man wanted to quit - Liston had cheated and put liniment on his glove, then blinded Ali with it in the fifth round).

I have to be honest, though. I always accepted the Death Stars being blown up - but the Ewoks beating the Empire on the Endor moon always pissed me off. I wanted those furry fucks blasted to pieces.

Anyway, Sean May was great for UNC, though he always looks a little overweight to me. I can't even blog about this, it's still bothering me. As most of you know, testosterone levels drop in men when their teams lose. That may be the problem here.

Ah, the Illini

2005-04-02T11:11:00.000-05:00

Meanwhile, Governor Blagojevich of my old state of Illinois filed an emergency rule (which I assume is akin to an executive order) clarifying state law - emphasizing that pharmacies accept and dispense all prescriptions promptly. In other words, no withholding EC or birth-control pills due to "conscience." As Jill of Third Wave Agenda has said time and time again, there's no place for pharmacists who won't perform their duties, especially when EC is concerned (as time is of the essence). Prescribing medicines you may not feel comfortable with comes with the territory, and if your moral objections are that strong you should probably seek a different career. Pharmacists have the right to counsel their patients about prescriptions but there's a difference between medically-based counsel and counsel based on ethics. If my mechanic refused to change my oil because he believes oil should only be changed every 100,000 miles (to reduce pollution and our dependence on foreign oil), I might go drive to another mechanic - but my car might not make it that far.

The other thing I wanted to mention is the Fighting Illini. There was an article regarding the Illini's mascot, which is Chief Illiniwek (the current mascot is played by a white man, whether or not that makes a difference). The mascot is not coming to the Final Four (I can't find this article, so I'm not sure whether or not this is due to an actual NCAA ruling, or simply due to pressure from outside groups), while the other three mascots are. Illinois has argued that Illiniwek is not like other native American-themed mascots because he doesn't run down the sidelines or lead cheers, though he does sometimes perform at halftime.

Essentially, Illinois is arguing that their native American mascot is more dignified than all the other ones. That's probably true, but it's not their place to say "our mascot is dignified enough." The Boston Celtics' mascot, Lucky the Leprechaun, is a pretty ludicrous guy whose favorite food is listed as "Lucky Charms and pizza with green peppers." Not very dignified - but I don't see any Irish complaining about him. No one complains about Notre Dame's leprechaun mascot either, and I don't see any Greek-Americans complaining about the Michigan State Spartans. It's simply not the university's call here.

That said, go Illinois!

Fighting the war on terror and the war on pollution, all at once

2005-04-02T10:56:00.000-05:00

Plug-in hybrids: 100 miles per gallon? (NY Times)

I've gotten anywhere from 65 to over 100 miles per gallon," said Mr. Gremban, an engineer at CalCars, a small nonprofit group based in Palo Alto, Calif. He gets 40 to 45 miles per gallon driving his normal Prius. And EnergyCS, a small company that has collaborated with CalCars, has modified another Prius with more sophisticated batteries; they claim their Prius gets up to 180 m.p.g. and can travel more than 30 miles on battery power.

Of course, the real policy implications here are discussed later in the article. Neocons support anything that will reduce dependence on oil. Utilities think people plugging in their cars overnight is wonderful, since demand for electricity is currently very low at night. Environmentalists caution that if all you're doing is replacing car emissions with, say, emissions from the coal power plants that provide electricity, this won't help the environment - but if you're in a place that uses cleaner than average power plants, plug-ins could have a huge beneficial effect on emissions.

Column

2005-03-30T13:25:00.000-05:00

It's Wednesday, which means it's time for more Roundball by Numbers: Age limit keeps NBA old school. For the record, my position in the issue is the last paragraph. Even people who support the age limit admit that LeBron James is awesome, but I think you really have to look at Josh and J.R. Smith, who are high school rookies contributing in a big way. In Boston, Al Jefferson is a contributor as well. Jermaine O'Neal may have put it best when he said the best training for the NBA was the NBA. On the other hand, I do think these kids are holding teams hostage for a while. Too often the team that drafts a young kid has to wait for him to develop, and then hits a critical point once his contract expires - does it trade him and watch him grow into a good player, like Portland did with O'Neal, or does it hold on and risk him never developing, as Washington has with Kwame Brown? It's not fair to ask teams to pay millions of dollars to incubate these kids.

2005-03-26T08:56:00.000-05:00

All I have to say about Terri is that it's a hell of a lot easier for the GOP to use this issue to rally the social base instead of something like gay marriage. Even though Congress' intervention here is less popular with the American people than banning gay marriage, this is an issue that will fade from public consciousness pretty fast; the gay marriage battle is going to keep going on - and in my mind, the GOP leadership views their socially conservative faction as a necessary evil, nothing more. Better to gain some political capital this way rather than jump into gay marriage again, diverting resources from what really matters: Social Security, taxes, and the war.

column and thoughts

2005-03-23T20:25:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the late post, posting this week's column slipped my mind. Here it is: Sports on the Emerald Isle. Yeah, I wasn't going to try and follow basketball while I was there.

I'm not sure if this column tells you anything you don't already know (about basketball, that is). I was watching some rugby when I made the connection (that's already been made, of course). Rugby is essentially like American football, except that when someone's tackled, the game doesn't stop - there are exceptions to this, but I don't know the specifics of the rule book. This means that anyone can just go grab the ball and keep running. This is, as far as I can tell, the only major rule difference - but it changes the entire game. There aren't any fat linemen who can't run. There aren't any skinny kickers who are protected by the rules from being hit. There is no quarterback because there is no pocket; every player has to run, play defense, know how to kick the ball between the goalposts, etc.

I found it a lot more exciting than football (not to diss football; this year's playoffs were pretty great) - it's a constantly moving game. A man will rush with the ball, lateral pass it right before getting tackled. Rushers are juking and evading tackles just like any running back, and when they go down their teammates just go in, pick the ball up, and keep running. Players will kick the ball high in the air and their teammate will outrun the defense to pick it up and score a try (touchdown). It's kind of a brutal game, though; the only protection I saw players wearing were soft helmets, similar to the leather helmets used in the early NFL.

The connection I'm talking about, if you didn't read the column, is the kinship between basketball and the sports popular in Europe. FYI, it does turn out that there are basketball leagues in Ireland, but since they are playing games now and I haven't read anything about them in the papers over there, it's probably a low-key thing. I do wonder why basketball isn't a big deal in England and Ireland. It seems to be popular enough in Spain, France, Germany, Italy, and Eastern Europe. Maybe it's just an island thing?

But then, there have surely been some Irish-American NBA players. Hmm.

I originally had some more hurling and Gaelic football rules in the column, but took them out because that wasn't what I wanted to write about. But, as an addendum: In hurling you can pick up the ball and run with it limited distances, but all passes and shots must be made with the hurling stick. In Gaelic football, the ball can only be carried four steps (I think) and then players must dribble it off of the ground or off of their foot before continuing to carry it. So don't think it's just rugby with a round ball; contact is penalized as in soccer, and the game plays a lot more like soccer than rugby.

quote of the day

2005-03-21T20:37:00.000-05:00

"The difference between those three is the 'Godfather' trilogy. One is Alfredo. He was never ready for me to hand it over to him. And one was Sonny. He'd do whatever it takes to be the man. And one is Michael. If you watch the trilogy, the Godfather handed it over to Michael, so I have no problem handing it over to Dwyane."
- Shaq, on Penny Hardaway, Kobe Bryant, and Dwyane Wade.

Anyway, one coaching change I do think should be made is in Philadelphia. Jim O'Brien is not utilizing Chris Webber very well. Webber is more than a unique talent; he is a unique player, with unique weaknesses to go with his strengths. O'Brien is neither covering Webber's weaknesses (lateral movement on defense) nor using his strengths (his passing from the low post). Many people think Maurice Cheeks is the logical choice to take over in Philly. Thanks to the recent firing spree, there are plenty of good coaches out there, and don't forget Larry Brown...

Quick strings

2005-03-21T17:32:00.000-05:00

Ugh. How dare the Cavaliers fire Paul Silas. That's my first reaction to what has happened. SI.com's Marty Burns speculates that the Cavs are seeking to hire Flip Saunders, who has previous experience working with a preps-to-pro star. Steve Kerr notes that the new, unsettling trend is to fire coaches in order to try and save the season.

But these sorts of moves are ultimately counter-productive. They serve to undermind the coach's authority even more than it already has been. Silas was fired in the second year of a five-year contract; why not extend this sort of accountability, if you can even call it that, to the players? George Karl was given a six-year contract, one thing players cited as giving him credibility that interim coach Michael Cooper and ex-coach Jeff Bzdelik lacked. But with Silas's firing, who cares? Of course, Karl is very respected around the league. But so was Silas, so again, who cares? Something has to be done during this summer's negotiations on the collective bargaining agreement.

Of course, this also has to do with Dan Gilbert's ownership of the team. I doubt Gordon Gund would have fired Silas, and while I'm not sure how much Gilbert knows about basketball, I'm sure he wants to make some sort of mark on the team. Silas's run-ins with Eric Snow and Jeff McInnis might also have something to do with this firing. Still, this is the players' house now and the league is probably the worse off for it. Perhaps the coaches ought to get together and form a union of their own.

In Dallas, I'm interested to see how Avery Johnson is going to run the team. He's pushed an emphasis on defense that has stuck (at least until Erick Dampier got injured), and he has instant respect from the Mavericks. I think his apprenticeship to Don Nelson was a great idea; he's now in practically a perfect situation.

Hiatus

2005-03-12T12:30:00.000-05:00

Like many NYU bloggers, I will be away this week. I'm going to beautiful, (not) sunny Dublin and will resume posting when I return. Feicfidh mé arís tú! (I'll see you again)

2005-03-09T00:12:00.000-05:00

Sorry about all the posting recently; I just read a column by Sean Deveney addressing exactly the kind of problem I wrote about this week.
...players have created a loophole, a way to stick it to the teams that signed them to big-money, long-term deals: They simply can roll back their effort. By not trying, by turning every bump, bruise and blister into a long-term injury, players can make themselves such nuisances that teams have no choice but to trade them.

surprise in the garden

2005-03-08T23:43:00.000-05:00

Well, the Knicks have been playing pretty well since the trade deadline, confounding everyone's expectations. They're 5-1. I'm still not sure you trade Mohammed etc. to get back Rose and Taylor with their salaries, but I have a feeling Isiah Thomas saw something I didn't. People mostly talk about Isiah running the CBA into the ground (that's Continental Basketball Association), but remember that when he was in Toronto he was a pretty good talent evaluator. He's the one who drafted Tracy McGrady, and a few other gems I can't remember.

That being said, you have to admit that on the surface this Knick team looks a lot like the Scott Layden Knicks, laden (har-har) with undersized forwards. I know there are more trades coming, but it's a lot of forwards.

column, unbound

2005-03-08T22:45:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow my column's going to run, but it's going to be a lot shorter than I intended. To make a long story short, I handed in a column that was 23 inches long at the beginning of the day but is now 15 inches. Anyway, I think this column really should have been 20 inches long, so I'm going to follow my editor's suggestion and run my ideal version of the column here. I really like the WSN, but some days are just frustrating. But I've got the whole sports page tomorrow, so I guess I shouldn't complain. Enjoy!

Small-market blues
by Steven Higashide

If Vince Carter does a windmill dunk and no one's around to hear it, does it still make a sound?

That's the question confronting the New Jersey Nets, a team suddenly without buzz, noise, or excitement. The buzz belongs to the Philadelphia 76ers, who snapped up Chris Webber in a shocker at the trading deadline. The excitement has moved to the Boston Celtics, which welcomed back Antoine Walker and currently lead the NBA's Atlantic Division.

Meanwhile, the Nets are old news. Though they are still in the playoff hunt, they don't have the talent or the momentum to overtake anyone in front of them.

And what would making the playoffs mean to these Nets anyway? For Jason Kidd, their inevitable first-round exit would be another failed attempt at an NBA title, and an especially futile one. It would be an unnecessary week of work for Vince Carter, who has freely admitted he doesn't have a Jordanesque work ethic.

In New Jersey, the mantra seems to be "wait until next year." But there's more than resignation; there's fear as well. Not everyone is convinced that Jason Kidd is satisfied with the Nets as they exist today, and not everyone is convinced that his trade demands are over.

But such is life for a forgotten small-market team like the Nets. Increasingly, players seem to be controlling the destinies of teams instead of the other way around, as even washed-up former stars like Alonzo Mourning are able to push around the general managers of clubs like the Toronto Raptors. In February, Mourning convinced Toronto to buy out his contract so that he could sign with a contender. He did, playing his first game for the Miami Heat last week.
According to Mourning, he accepted a sum six million dollars less than what he was owed on his contract. That figure should work out to at least eight million dollars. Wow.

I've defended Mourning in these pages before. "I can't blame a man who wants to make the most of his last chance," I wrote last year when Mourning asked the Nets to buy out his contract (they didn't, instead trading him to Toronto where his contract was bought out). I'm not going to blame him this time around either.

But I am going to blame Rob Babcock, Toronto's general manager, for giving in. True, there was some aspect of self-interest in buying out Mourning's contract. Pay him $8 million now instead of $14 million over the next two years, save some money. But the fact is that Mourning never played a minute in Toronto. He didn't even show up to say hi. As irate former-players-turned-analysts said everywhere, Babcock didn't have to pay Mourning anything; the player was breaking the terms of his contract.

So what was Babcock's rationale? I have to believe he was motivated by either compassion or cowardice. Neither belongs in the NBA.

Let me qualify that. When it comes to contracts, compassion doesn't belong here. Compassion was Cleveland owner Gordon Gund believing Carlos Boozer when he said, just don't pick up the team option on my rookie contract and I'll sign with you for $41 million over six years. Boozer went to Utah for six years and $68 million, and hasn't looked back. Compassion doesn't get you anywhere in business, and basketball surely is business.

Cowardice? I can actually understand that. The players are the highest-paid employees on a basketball team, and they're also the most important, at least when it comes to short-term winning. It's always easier to get rid of a coach - or a general manager - than a player. The Portland Trail Blazers just fired head coach Maurice Cheeks, a man so beloved that the Portland city council passed a resolution thanking him for his character.

Who stays? Darius Miles, who called Cheeks the n-word and said he didn't have to listen to a coach who was just going to get fired anyway. For small-market teams, the money's the thing.

Why? The current collective bargaining agreement puts bigger shackles on owners than on players. When owners have to deal with a salary cap, luxury tax, and players with long guaranteed contracts, it's easier to give in to player demands than jump through hoops to send them out of town. And while the Nets' fans may be bored, management is terrified, hoping that this year's squad is good enough for Jason Kidd.

I'm still alive

2005-03-06T23:50:00.000-05:00

Sorry it's been so long. I haven't been feeling well and spent most of yesterday in bed (actually, I turned the couch into a bed and watched TV). I felt pleasantly alive today, however, though I'm far from healthy. The whole newsroom seems sick, though, so I guess I'll just suck it up.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have continued their slump of late, getting manhandled by Miami. Welsch hasn't really helped so far. The Cavs have threats on the break, driving to the hoop, in the post, and in the midrange game. But they really need some deep shooters. That's kind of the consensus among pundits and it's pretty accurate. Nothing new here.

Yikes. Sean Deveney points out that Tayshaun Prince averaged 19.6 points in February after the team worked with him on his post game. You don't think of the rail-thin Prince as a natural post player, but he's got a great wingspan. I personally am a big fan of the post, as everyone who reads me should know. Interestingly, Antonio McDyess is now probably the Pistons' only natural post presence, and he comes off the bench. Ben Wallace can turn the corner but don't expect him to be throwing any hook shots up there. Rasheed seems to becoming more of a jump shooter (Deveney concurs), and though I haven't seen Prince play recently I don't imagine that a small forward lives on the block. The small forwards I've seen turn their backs to the basket (Keith Van Horn, Rashard Lewis, Antoine Walker) usually do it only when they have an obvious advantage over their defender, and I'm not sure how different Prince's game is.

In the headlines

2005-03-01T16:06:00.000-05:00

First of all, as far as John Chaney goes, I don't follow college basketball too well so I don't feel I'm qualified to discuss his punishments, what his legacy should be, etc. I've always felt he was a generally good, likable guy who deserved respect and it's hard for me to get over that. But the fact is, what he did was awful - and I admit that it would seem less awful to me if John Bryant's arm hadn't been broken. I'm inclined to agree with those who say he should be allowed to finish his career with dignity.

Alonzo Mourning is back with the Heat. What a strange situation that must be. Mourning and Shaquille O'Neal went in the same draft class, yet O'Neal is still the most dominant player in the league while Mourning isn't quite there. It must be frustrating to have your body quit on you - to miss the layup at the buzzer like Webber, blow the breakaway dunk like Jordan. Technology prolongs everything; Roger Clemens used to pop Vioxx before they said it was dangerous, Randy Johnson uses artificial lubricants in his knee because his cartilage is all gone. But sports seem to keep pace; I'm thinking mostly of football here, where the players are heavier and stronger than they used to be.

Kobe Bryant's civil suit has allegedly been settled. What a surprise! Anyway, I hope everyone can put this behind them and just move on. Life must be dark for Kobe; he seems like a man without a true friend in the world. I guess it serves him right.

This week's column

2005-03-01T14:00:00.000-05:00

The column is a day early this week as tomorrow's paper will be dedicated to the housing issue. Here it is: The bizarre and the beautiful: NBA trades. Who came up with that headline? It reminds me of a certain retired copy editor. Also, for those of you who like to read hard copy, you will notice my new picture is finally in. Thanks guys.

Anyway, the posts have been rather infrequent lately; I'm a bit under the weather and I apologize for it. How about Chris Webber's missed layup at the buzzer against Sacramento? The sad thing is, he would have gotten that easily if his knees were fine.

John Chaney recused himself from the Atlantic 10 tournament. That's a no-brainer. I don't know if this guy will ever recover, and I'm not sure he should.

more on the deadline deals

2005-02-26T18:19:00.000-05:00

I won't have the space to talk about a lot of these trades in my latest column, so here are my thoughts on the trades not involving Chris Webber and Antoine Walker.

Baron Davis to Golden State, Dale Davis and Speedy Claxton to New Orleans: As Ray Ratto points out, the situation is N'awlins is so bad that Baron is actually moving to a better team by moving to Oakland (link from Click and Roll). This is a great PR move by Golden State GM Chris Mullin, but I would just go ahead and give Baron the whole season off. Maybe the California sun can help him rest his back, heel, Achilles tendon, ankles, and whatever other body parts are hurting. Bay area fans need some excitement, but Davis needs the rest before he can deliver it. Golden State has been horribly mismanaged by its rookie GM; it's really kind of sad. It's too bad Clippers GM Elgin Baylor couldn't trade places with Mullin or something. I'd like to see what he could do backed by an interested owner. This season, Golden State basically got something for nothing, but down the road the opportunity cost may be high (4 years, $63 million to go on Baron's deal). Meanwhile, New Orleans gets some cap space. Yay.

Keith Van Horn to Dallas; spare parts to Milwaukee. I've always liked Keith Van Horn, just not for the price tag. He's going to be a backup in Dallas and should fit in just fine. Nice move. Meanwhile, Milwaukee gets some cap space. See a pattern here?

What is Isiah Thomas thinking? This is the first move he's made that I have a serious problem with. You don't trade Nazr Mohammed to get Malik Rose. You just lost four or five inches, your starting center, and you added a big contract. Then you trade for Maurice Taylor? This is the kind of deal Scott Layden would have pulled. Rose and Taylor combined are probably better players than Mohammed and Vin Baker, but you don't add $30 million in future salary to get this kind of incremental upgrade. Yeah, you get some draft picks. I don't think those are worth $30 million either. San Antonio gets a good center, and... some cap space for Tony Parker.

For the record, Philadelphia added a lot less than $30 million in future salary to get Chris Webber. Think closer to zero.

In Cleveland, Jiri Welsch is a good pickup. GMs everywhere seem pretty high on this kid; he should give the Cavs some help behind the arc.

Same story in Houston. Mike James is just what the doctor ordered for the Rockets. Meanwhile, Milwaukee gets Reece Gaines and some cap space. They had better use all of this cap space to get better. Hopefully, T. J. Ford will be coming around soon (everyone remember him?)

Holy shit.

2005-02-24T17:24:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the language, but this trade deadline has been positively manic. I'm going to list all the details now, and think about them later:

Major deals:
Sacramento sends Chris Webber + 2 (no-name players) to Philadelphia for Kenny Thomas + 2.
Milwaukee sends Keith Van Horn to Dallas for 3 no-name players.
Atlanta sends Antoine Walker to Boston for Gary Payton + 2.
New Orleans sends Baron Davis to Golden State for Dale Davis and Speedy Claxton.
New York sends Nazr Mohammed to San Antonio for Malik Rose and 2 first-round picks.
Philadelphia sends Glenn Robinson (injured) to New Orleans for Jamal Mashburn (injured) and Rodney Rodgers.

Minor deals:
Golden State sends Eduardo Najera and a first-round pick to Denver for Nikoloz Tskitishvili and Rodney White.
New York sends Vin Baker and Moochie Norris to Houston for Maurice Taylor.
Milwaukee sends Mike James to Houston for Reece Gaines and draft picks.
Boston sends Jiri Welsch to Cleveland for a draft pick.

it's probably not a bad trade for Sacto, either

2005-02-24T09:54:00.000-05:00

One thing I failed to realize about Sacramento: Their starting lineup is now Mike Bibby, Cuttino Mobley, Peja Stojakovic, Kenny Thomas, and Brad Miller. That is still a very strong lineup, and if they tell Thomas to focus on rebounding, the other four guys can pretty easily pick up the scoring slack from Webber. Meanwhile, their bench gets stronger; I can see why they would do this trade now.

One step closer to life on Mars

2005-02-24T01:37:00.000-05:00

I know the posting has been frequent lately, but read this:

On Earth, scientists found frozen bacteria from the Pleistocene era - 30,000 years ago. When they thawed the bacteria, they found that they were still alive.

Then, a European space probe discovered a giant frozen sea on Mars.

I think you can put two and two together.

They're clapping in Philly

2005-02-24T00:03:00.000-05:00

Stunning news!

ESPN reports that the Sacramento Kings have traded Chris Webber, Matt Barnes, and Michael Bradley to the Philadelphia 76ers for Kenny Thomas, Corliss Williamson, and Brian Skinner.

I think you can pencil Philadelphia in as the Atlantic Division winner now, assuming Webber stays healthy. Iverson and Webber together - this is going to be an interesting combination. Webber is such a good passer; I foresee a lot of backdoor layups for Ally I. Jim O'Brien has never struck me as an orthodox coach, and I think he'll like this a lot. Philly still has Glenn Robinson's expiring contract on the books, too! If they can get something for him... we may have a new contender in the East... (Who knows; I always like to look to the sky, as those who read my columns know.)

This is a really interesting move for Sacramento. All three players they got can score and rebound; don't get me wrong, the trade really helps their frontcourt depth. Kenny Thomas averaged 13 and 10 last season; Skinner got 10 and 7, and Williamson has a really interesting, energetic game. All of their production is down this year, but a lot of that is due to low minutes.

But when you trade Webber you no longer have the passing presence in the post that has been Sacramento's calling card for years. I think the front office decided, as most people had, that their window for winning a championship had closed. Vlade Divac was gone, the locker room wasn't as harmonious as it used to be. It's time to break out a new style of play. I have a feeling Rick Adelman isn't going to be around that much longer as the Kings go for a fresh start.

Kenny Thomas is younger than Webber but I don't think the Kings are done. We'll see what happens in the offseason.

Update: Man, Sacramento GM Geoff Petrie sounds so depressed about this trade. He keeps talking about how the memories of Webber will remain in the Kings. He's rambling about better depth, but he doesn't sound very convinced. I wonder if orders came from on high (the Maloofs). Philly GM Billy King, on the other hand, is completely "aw, shucks." He seems rather surprised that he was able to make this trade without giving up Sam Dalembert, Andre Iguodala, Kyle Korver, etc. (And he says he wouldn't have done it if he had to give up his "talented young guys")

new column

2005-02-23T13:20:00.000-05:00

This week's column: Midseason classic was not so classic. I don't think it was one of my better ones, though some people have begged to differ.

There should be a new and sexy (according to Ali) columnist mug shot of me in the paper today, but since I haven't gone out yet I'm not sure. Tell you when I know.

Update: Well... photo/production, I am displeased.

our children IS learning

2005-02-23T00:36:00.000-05:00

Great article in the Times today about the efforts the city and the Robin Hood Foundation have undertaken to build beautiful, well-staffed, new libraries in elementary schools:

When a library is the most beautiful room a child has ever seen, it sends a message. "One of my kids, a third grade boy, said to me, 'I want to be a librarian,' " said Concetta Ritorto, principal of P.S. 10 in Park Slope, Brooklyn. "I said, 'You're kidding.' " If you've seen the new library at P.S. 10 it makes sense; the wood-paneled room feels like a Midtown Manhattan law library.

These new libraries include a library aide and a librarian with a master's degree. They are open before school, during school, and even after school, and the kids are really responding to them.

Man. When it comes to non-basketball topics, I'm most passionate about, in this order, the relationship between church and state, sexual rights, and education reform (though I'm not nearly informed enough about the latter topic). I think this article speaks to what money can do for a school if you apply it correctly, and I think it's important that New York City continues to find money to spend on libraries and physical education, especially in elementary schools. If kids grow up cultivating sound bodies and sound minds, they can sustain those habits even if middle and high schools don't have proper facilities. I'm not saying leave the upper schools alone of course; but start young.

If only Oklahoma had enacted this ban...

2005-02-22T12:53:00.000-05:00

The Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal regarding the state of Alabama's right to ban the sale of sex toys, meaning that the ban will stand. Now, I haven't read the case yet (I probably won't), and believe the ban affects in-house Tupperware-style parties and the sale of sex toys in retail outlets. It isn't a ban on possession, and I'm pretty sure buying them online is still an option.

Still, it bothers me - not so much that the Supreme Court refused to hear the case; I can understand if the high court feels it has more important things to get to. Truth be told, the legality of the ban doesn't even bother me. I'm not sure if the ACLU is right when it argues that the constitutional right to privacy (which I'm not sure even exists, though I'm glad people think it does) covers the commercial sale of sex toys. Alabama could go ahead and ban the sale of apples if it wanted to; I don't think the constitution has anything to say about that.

It mostly bothers me that this ban was even enacted. I don't think people are out there selling cock rings in K-Mart. Stores that sell "marital aids" are pretty clearly marked and I doubt that your kids would be hurt even if they were out in the open. This is just one more example of fundamentalism being legislated, and as I've said before, that's too easy of a target for me to attack. So I'm going to stop now and remember never to move to Alabama.

religion and rambling

2005-02-21T22:15:00.000-05:00

The religious right continues to protect your children from the evils of Dreamworks and Nickelodeon. Their newest complaint: the drag/transsexual bartender in Shrek 2 (if you've seen the movie, the picture in the article will refresh your memory).

I'm not going to feign outrage here. The religious right is just too easy a target. What I've been thinking about instead is the writings of Karen Armstrong (which I have not read). She argues that all fundamentalist movements are responses to rapid secularization, which sounds like common sense to me. Militant Islam has to be seen in opposition to the overnight modernization programs that Middle Eastern puppet dictators tried to pull before the Iranian Revolution gave them pause.

Anyway, I'm not going to say definitively whether or not I think America has gone through rapid secularization, though I do think religious institutions and practices have been under attack for decades. Is that the same thing? I'm not sure.

But then, religious institutions seem designed to prevent true spirituality. Rapture is gone; rules remain.

On the other hand, I find the idea of true spirituality to be worrying. To me, spirituality is accepting the unconscious, and thus it has nothing to do with the world being bigger than yourself; it's all about you being larger than the physical world. Rapture still seems like self-delusion. Where are the people celebrating the wonder that is humanity?

dunk contest spiel

2005-02-20T14:21:00.000-05:00

I was really happy with Josh Smith, though. His performance seemed so incredibly old-school; his moves reminded me of the old dunkers. A lot of the new dunks seem so technological - like skateboarding tricks or Burger King. Here are your toppings: bounce off the glass, between the legs, windmill, bounce off the floor, 360-degree spin. Pick two (or three if you're pushing the envelope), and there's your dunk.

This argument really isn't going anywhere; I think what I really mean is that when you look at the old dunks what really hits you is not the technical difficulty (and they were all very hard dunks), but the fluidity. I watched Jordan's 1987 dunk where he takes off down the baseline, goes level with the basket, and does a kind of windmill. The announcers were stunned: "Look at him hang and fly! Look at his head above the rim; look at the hangtime, look at the flying motion!" It was so incredibly graceful and powerful, all at once. Terence Stansbury's 360-degree Statue of Liberty dunk is the same way; so is Spud Webb's bounce-off-the-floor reverse.

When Jason Richardson did perhaps the hardest dunk ever (he threw the ball in the air, ran to the paint, jumped with his back to the basket, grabbed the ball, brought it from behind his back, between his legs, and dunked it backwards over his head), the mind could barely comprehend what he had done. It was one big blur until the replay, and everyone gasped. But when Dominique did his two-handed windmill in 1988 or Michael Jordan did his one-handed cradle reverse in 1985 (I think), it was all about the style. You could comprehend the beauty of it as it was happening. That's what Josh Smith reminded me of.

And of course, Steve Nash and Amare Stoudamire just cracked me up. That must be a fun locker room.

weekend stuff

2005-02-20T13:36:00.000-05:00

So, I didn't see much of All-Star Saturday, just the tail end of the dunk contest, some highlights, and the postgame. Maybe that makes me a bad columnist, but I think considering the extenuating circumstances, you'll understand.

Well, you won't understand since I haven't mentioned them.

Magic Johnson said that thanks to Quentin Richardson, the 3-point contest was back, and the dunk contest was back. Please. Just because All-Star Saturday was exciting doesn't mean it's "back," whatever that's supposed to mean. If he meant "back the way it used to be," then the dunk contest will be back when you don't include Chris Andersen. J.R. Smith? I'm not saying you need a lineup of Vince Carter, Jason Richardson, Kobe Bryant, and Desmond Mason, but doesn't anyone remember when the contest was three rounds? When you can't scrounge up more than 4 people for the contest, it's not the same.

If by "back," Magic meant it's back to being exciting - well, when was the last time All-Star Saturday was boring? Look, All-Star Saturday is what it is - quirky contests spaced by lots of commercials. For a lot of people that's going to be boring by nature. When was the last time All-Star Saturday was boring, though? Last year, when everyone was waiting for Peja and J-Rich to defend their 3-point and dunk titles? 2003, when Richardson and Mason had an epic dunk showdown? I don't remember the 2002 All-Star Saturday too well, but Richardson was there too. I mean, maybe 2001 wasn't so hot, but it's not like All-Star Saturday has been suffering from some malaise and - now, look! Now it's back!

No, this All-Star Saturday has been like all the rest. A few big names, a lot of players no one has heard of, surprising performances nonetheless.

So I was eating some delicious Campbell's chunky soup and I thought: Why doesn't a rival company get the New England Patriots to endorse their soup? Come on, get some clam chowder and lobster bisque and you're in business. Has someone thought of this already?

2005-02-16T17:34:00.000-05:00

Here's today's column: Goodbye to NBA greats. Hey guys, how about putting my new photo in the paper!

blue light special

2005-02-15T12:32:00.000-05:00

Adrian Wojnarowski writes a great piece defending the Nets' choice not to re-sign Kenyon Martin:

Do you win championships?
Do you sell tickets?
To get max-out money, you would have to be capable of one of those two things. ... The NBA is running into trouble when it pays that next tier of ballplayer, like Martin, a superstar's ransom.

On balance I think most people would now say that the Nets are better off with Vince Carter, who is playing like a maxed-out player should. I have really been surprised with Carter's play of late; I thought his trade was a gimmick that traded one disgruntled player for another. Instead Carter has me thinking of next year. The Nets just traded for Cliff Robinson also, which will help a lot this season.

Jason Kidd is getting older every year, but I really want to see what the Nets do next season. If they stay healthy and get their frontcourt settled they could really make some noise. It strikes me that I'm always looking on the bright side, but it's hard not to. I wonder how Jefferson and Carter will mesh when healthy, but I have no reason to suspect they won't work together. I mean, doesn't that group kind of remind you of Steve Nash, Quentin Richardson, and Shawn Marion? At least in a prototypical sense - a visionary point guard, athletic wing players who can shoot the ball from anywhere on the floor. Marion's a better rebounder than anyone on the Nets, but Kidd is one of the best rebounding point guards in the game, and Carter is (of course) more skilled than Q Richardson.

double link

2005-02-13T12:14:00.000-05:00

A couple of links:

First, a professor at UCLA comes to the same conclusion I have regarding affirmative action - that it hurts minorities by sending them to colleges they aren't prepared for.

Meanwhile, it's another familiar critique of basketball over at the New York Times Magazine. Thankfully, Mike Sokolove writes beautifully about youth culture, actually explaining what so many people mean when they talk about SportsCenter and the AAU destroying fundamental basketball. He also mentions the success of San Antonio and Phoenix - Euroball. He seemed to explain those teams' success to the fact that they had lots of international players (and in Phoenix's case, a coach with international experience). I think he did the league a disservice by not talking about Washington and the Princeton offense. And what about Orlando? There's a great quote by Walt Frazier, though, discussing the common drive-and-kick play:

''They do that even on a fast break, not just the Knicks but most of the rest of the teams,'' Walt Frazier explained to me. A Knicks broadcaster now, Frazier diagrammed this on a tablecloth as he spoke. He was quite agitated. ''One guy's got the ball in the middle, and these two guys on the wing here, they should be cutting to the basket, right? But, no, here they go way out here, to three-point land, and they get the ball and shoot it. You're 6 feet from the hoop; why pass it back out 25 feet? And then people wonder why teams can't score 80 points.''

Also a nice basic description of what basketball is supposed to be, and an implicit implication of American basketball:

...The outcome of games, more so than in any other major sport, is determined by a series of social interactions. Basketball coaches have long taught that the ball must be ''shared'' -- passed from player to player until it ends up in the hands of the one with the best possible shot. Players are urged constantly to ''talk'' on defense -- communicate about the alignment and movements of offensive players -- and to ''give help,'' meaning that a defender is not just responsible for the man he is guarding but also for sliding over to help a teammate who has been beaten by his own man. With just 5 players on the court at a time and rosters that consist of just 12 men, N.B.A. teams are intimate groups, extended families almost, and the ones that succeed cover for individual weaknesses and stress their strengths. They play as if they are aware of, and care for, one another.

I thought it was interesting, as he commented on the American's loss at the Olympics, that he condemned the players for not meshing well enough in one month. Most commentators argued that one month wasn't enough time for the U.S. team to get to know each other, especially when they were playing teams which had practiced together for years. Sokolove's response: Americans no longer have a common basketball language. Put five jazz players in a room and they can play the standards easily; everyone knows them.

More news

2005-02-12T20:37:00.000-05:00

What a week for basketball news! Right on the heels of Miller, Malone, and Mourning comes the news that Minnesota has fired Flip Saunders. Saunders is going to be reassigned within the organization; Kevin McHale will be the interim coach. How much experience does he have?

Well, I can't say I have much of an opinion here. Sprewell has just been dogging it up north. More than anything, situations like the one in Minnesota illustrate the need for players to be able to restructure their contracts. Of course, this will make sportswriters whine about Allan Houston not restructuring his deal, so there will need to be some pretty restrictive procedural safeguards involved.

What I was talking about earlier was Garnett's monster contract, of course. He took a pay cut when his contract was up, but with the ability to restructure his deal he could have done so much earlier. No guarantees that Cassell and Sprewell would have jumped aboard two years ago, but I'm sure comparable guys could be found. And if they did come on, well, they'd be that much younger.

The vindication of Craig Sager

2005-02-11T22:19:00.000-05:00

So, Reggie Miller's retiring after the season. Well Craig, you are officially a better journalist than Dan Rather.

Oh, I don't mean that.

Karl Malone's retiring. Alonzo Mourning got his contract bought out and may sign with Miami.

And another column drops into my lap. Hallelujah. I have a feeling the beginning of this column is going to get me another little stare from the wonderful Ms. Kate Editor. What can I say, I like to pull some strings.

2005-02-09T14:28:00.000-05:00

Also, here's today's column: All-Stars are A-OK this season. Some felt that the last line was a bit of a cheap shot, but then again those people are shining examples of the liberal media. =P

Yemen and the war on terror

2005-02-09T10:58:00.000-05:00

With all the talk about the "war of ideas," it's nice to see that some people are actually doing something about it.
When Judge Hamoud al-Hitar announced that he and four other Islamic scholars would challenge Yemen's Al Qaeda prisoners to a theological contest, Western antiterrorism experts warned that this high-stakes gamble would end in disaster.

But it didn't. Actually, along with a Yemeni crackdown on madrassahs, it has worked pretty well. There have been no attacks in Yemen since December 2002, and reformed terrorists have tipped off Yemeni and U.S. forces to the location of weapons caches.

Beyond the surface, I think this article illustrates that Alberto Gonzales and his cohorts are wrong to suggest that the Geneva Conventions don't apply to Al Qaeda. No one is saying that terrorist groups are like standing armies, and I'm not going to say that a suicide bomber is like a soldier pressed into duty against his will. But the men in this article are basically programmed soldiers, and they can be deprogrammed. If the Geneva Conventions would have applied to the Cold War, they must apply to the War on Terror.

All-Star Reserves are in

2005-02-08T17:50:00.000-05:00

Nice picks here by the coaches.
East: Gilbert Arenas, Dwyane Wade, Antawn Jamison, Jermaine O'Neal, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Paul Pierce, Ben Wallace.
West: Steve Nash, Ray Allen, Rashard Lewis, Manu Ginobili, Amare Stoudamire, Shawn Marion, Dirk Nowitzki.

I did not realize that my column, which discusses my picks for All-Star reserves, would be printed after reserves were announced. Oh well.

So if you look at my picks for All-Star reserves, you see that the coaches chose Rashard Lewis over my pick of Chris Webber, and Gilbert Arenas over my pick of Steve Francis.

Lewis is easy to justify; this is his first All-Star game, he's the other big star on the Sonics. I can't complain, even though I think Webber is really getting the most out of his broken body to help the Kings maintain their position.

As for Arenas over Francis, they are virtually identical in my book. Their teams are doing just as well, both players are very important to their team. I don't know. You know, ideally you probably leave Grant Hill off of the All-Star team, move Jamison into the starting lineup, and put Francis on the team. Actually, that doesn't help since you need two forwards on the reserves anyway. So basically it's a space issue here, unfortunately. Arenas is in his first All-Star game; that might factor into the decision. Anyway, props to Francis.

Performance anxiety

2005-02-07T23:27:00.000-05:00

The Knicks just can't get it done in the clutch. There's a marked lack of composure - the Knicks went 5-12 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter after going 28-30 in the first three. This team is absolutely desperate for a win - they've lost 16 games by six points or less, according to MSG. I do notice a lot of injured Knicks in suits (Jerome Williams, Jamal Crawford, Moochie Norris) but at this point it's not an excuse. Let's see if they hold on.

Oh man. Ariza FOULS Giricek, who was attempting a buzzer-beating shot. Giricek makes both free throws, the game goes to overtime. It's not quite a Chernobyl-level meltdown, but what a rookie play. The guy did make two amazing defensive plays on the previous possession, which led to a Jazz foul - and two missed free throws from the Knicks.

Just another sign of Utah's calm. Though this season they're pretty desperate for wins also. Still possible that the Knicks might win this game, but they don't deserve to unless they show some real resolve here. I'm out.

Update: Thankfully, the Knicks win the game by riding on Marbury's shoulders. He actually makes some free throws, plus he burns the Jazz on two virtually identical plays - passing the ball, coming off a screen, and sinking an 18-foot jump shot from the left side of the court.

Watching the Knicks go down

2005-02-05T23:12:00.000-05:00

It seems like there are lot of late calls this season. At the least, the announcers seem to be picking up on it a lot. What I'm talking out is when a player drives to the basket, makes his way into contact, and the referees seem to wait until the ball doesn't make it in before blowing the whistle, as if they wouldn't have made a call if the basket had been made. I'm pretty sure the average level of experience for NBA refs is going down, though. Maybe that has something to do with it.

The Knicks hung tough with Phoenix for a while - the Suns had an interesting rebounding strategy going for three quarters: they just didn't rebound. They didn't send players under the basket; none at all. I don't think they did that on purpose, even though they're an undersized group. Doesn't a fast-breaking team need rebounding to succeed? Then again, the Suns are not bad in the halfcourt offense either. When you have someone like Steve Nash, opportunities just seem to present themselves.

Bloomberg appealed the gay marriage ruling, which I thought was a smart political move and a good way to play by the rules; he said he felt that it would be unfair to leave anyone hanging - that is, he wants a definite ruling from the Court of Appeals earlier rather than later. It was... an honorable thing to do, though hardly a difficult choice to make. So maybe it wasn't honorable.

link of the day

2005-02-04T20:19:00.000-05:00

Gay marriage moves forward - maybe. I'm not going to comment until I read some analysis of New York's constitution. Let's wait for this to move through the higher courts.

Well, All-Star starters have been announced. LeBron's going to his first All-Star game, and he deserves it. Iverson, Shaq, Vince Carter and Grant Hill. I can actually understand Carter this year.

Anyway, most of this is in my column for this week so I'm not going to belabor the point. Here are my All-Star picks:

East starters (fan picked): James, Iverson, S. O'Neal, Carter, Hill.
West starters (fan picked): Bryant, McGrady, Yao, Garnett, Duncan

East reserves (my picks): Wade, Francis, Jamison, J. O'Neal, B. Wallace, Z. Ilgauskas, P. Pierce.
West reserves: Nash, Allen, Webber, Nowitzki, A. Stoudamire, Ginobili, Marion.

Basketball!

2005-02-02T02:18:00.000-05:00

My column is here.

So, it looks like Vince Carter is having fun again. I now realize, for the first time in years, why this man is a perennial All-Star. And no, of course he doesn't deserve it - if you think that All-Star Weekend should reward merit and shouldn't take into account what the fans want to see, which is debatable.

I'm telling you, All-NBA is the merit-based honor, but it just doesn't have the same cachet as All-Star to many people. Does that have anything to do with our country's love for democracy? Could be, could be. It probably has more to do with the fact that lots of people watch the All-Star Game, but to learn about the All-NBA teams you have to read the news (and probably Internet news; print newspapers aren't going to write about All-NBA). There's no All-NBA Game, so there's no incentive for anyone to write about All-NBA. And All-NBA tends to recognize players everyone knows are good anyway. Here's some sample All-NBA teams:

(G, G, F, F, C)
First Team: Steve Nash, Ray Allen, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Shaquille O'Neal
Second Team: LeBron James, Allen Iverson, Amare Stoudamire, Dirk Nowitzki, Jermaine O'Neal
Third Team: Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Tracy McGrady, Shawn Marion, Yao Ming

Now, that might not be the way things turn out, but my point is, everyone knows these guys are the best in the NBA, even if you take off someone like McGrady and put on someone like Rashard Lewis. But when it comes to the All-Star Team, first there's the democratic thrill in knowing that you kept Vince Carter on the team for the fifth consecutive year or whatever. Second there's the sentimental value (Grant Hill is going to start for the East, which I admit makes me feel pretty good inside). Third there's the coach-picked reserves, which generally reward players who are doing well this year (like Jamaal Magloire last year or the year before, Ron Artest, Michael Redd, etc.). Magloire is never going to make an All-NBA team - not even if there was a fourth and fifth team - but he was deserving of an All-Star nod.

What I meant to talk about originally was: So Vince Carter admits he didn't give his all. Yeah, so he's human just like us. That's disappointing for your fans and teammates, and the front office which spent max dollars on you. But on the other hand, Michael Jordan got the best out of his teammates through mind games and yelling. Maybe I'd rather play with Jordan, but I'd chill with Carter. Not giving 110% is not an inexcusable offense. Basketball can't always be a passion for everyone. For some people, it's a job, and this only bothers us because fans are the purpose of professional sport.

2-for-1: Ineffectiveness of Abstinence-Ed., plus liberal media bias!

2005-02-01T13:01:00.000-05:00

Texas Teens Increased Sex After Abstinence Program

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Abstinence-only sex education programs, a major plank in President Bush's education plan, have had no impact on teenagers' behavior in his home state of Texas, according to a new study.
Despite taking courses emphasizing abstinence-only themes, teenagers in 29 high schools became increasingly sexually active, mirroring the overall state trends, according to the study conducted by researchers at Texas A&M University.

Note that the lead and nut graf clearly state that abstinence-only education has the same impact as traditional sex education in Texas, yet the headline is meant to suggest that teens have more sex than average after abstinence-only education.

"We didn't see any strong indications that these programs were having an impact in the direction desired," said Dr. Buzz Pruitt, who directed the study.
The study was delivered to the Texas Department of State Health Services, which commissioned it.
The federal government is expected to spend about $130 million to fund programs advocating abstinence in 2005, despite a lack of evidence that they work, Pruitt said. "The jury is still out, but most of what we've discovered shows there's no evidence the large amount of money spent is having an effect," he said.
The study showed about 23 percent of ninth-grade girls, typically 13 to 14 years old, had sex before receiving abstinence education. After taking the course, 29 percent of the girls in the same group said they had had sex.
Boys in the tenth grade, about 14 to 15 years old, showed a more marked increase, from 24 percent to 39 percent, after receiving abstinence education.

No re-mention of the fact that this mirrors state trends.

Abstinence-only programs, which have sprouted up in schools across the nation, cannot offer information about birth control and must promote the social and health benefits of abstaining from sex.
Pruitt said he hoped the study would bring about changes in the content of abstinence-promoting programs.
"These programs seem to be much more concerned about politics than kids, and we need to get over that," he said.

It's a quote, but when he says these programs seem to be concerned with "politics," he might want to substitute "the beliefs and preferences of the state's adult citizens." But I agree that this isn't helping the kids.

One program technique has been to try to bolster students' self-esteem, based on the theory that self-confident teenagers would not have sex. Those programs, which sometimes do not even mention sex, have shown no effect, Pruitt said.

Gee, what a surprise. Teenagers need information; better information leads to more informed decisions. This is why abstinence-only education is never going to work.

Other programs that focus on the social norms and expectations appear to be more successful, he said.

An explanation of what that means might be nice.

Iraq and New Jersey

2005-02-01T01:01:00.000-05:00

Look, folks. There is no such thing as democracy imposed under the barrel of a gun. No one came into people's homes and forced them to vote, and no one forced anyone to vote for a given candidate. The "elections" held under Saddam were the closest thing to "democracy at the barrel of a gun," and of course that's a standing oxymoron.
--
It looks like the NJ Nets are starting to pull things together; not to any avail of course. I like the pickup of Elden Campbell, I like the prospects for next season - but it's over. Jason Kidd is losing his defensive ability-

-actually, I don't know if it's over. With the new defensive rules in the NBA, anything can happen next year, since the Nets seem built along the lines of a Phoenix-type team. A point guard with court vision, athletic wing players, etc. They also have a very thin bench. Success breeds imitation in all sports, and the NBA is no exception.

Of course, what Phoenix has that the Nets do not is shooters. Carter and Jefferson aren't bad from behind the arc but if the Nets had one more guy they could go small - how about a three-guard lineup with Kidd, Michael Redd, and Carter, with Jefferson and Krstic up front?

I am telling you, Michael Redd is just begging to make it to a good team. He is going to be big. Here's another random thought - does anyone remember Flip Murray from Seattle? I'm sure someone would be willing to give him more than 14 minutes a game.

Speaking of Seattle, San Antonio is killing them right now. Looks like someone wanted to establish itself as the best team in the Association...

Update: What am I talking about? Seattle was playing without Ray Allen. Looks like this debate is on hold for now...

a bit more

2005-01-30T23:49:00.000-05:00

Actually, I think Michael Ignatieff put it best in the New York Times Magazine. This piece was written before the election.

Liberals can't bring themselves to support freedom in Iraq lest they seem to collude with neoconservative bombast. Meanwhile, antiwar ideologues can't support the Iraqis because that would require admitting that positive outcomes can result from bad policies and worse intentions. Finally there are the ideological fools in the Arab world and even a few here at home who think the ''insurgents'' are fighting a just war against American imperialism. All this makes you wonder when the left forgot the proper name for people who bomb polling stations, kill election workers and assassinate candidates. The right name for such people is fascists.
Here's a link from someone who was there.

Election Day

2005-01-30T13:31:00.000-05:00

But if the insurgents wanted to stop people in Baghdad from voting, they failed. If they wanted to cause chaos, they failed. The voters were completely defiant, and there was a feeling that the people of Baghdad, showing a new, positive attitude, had turned a corner.

-NYT

You know, that is just great. I admit I was really worried about the way things were going to turn out, but if anything this underscores how little support the insurgency has in Iraq. I think I'm going to try to be a little more optimistic - not just hopeful - from now on.

I was surprised that the insurgency could only muster about 36 dead. After the attack on the U.S. military compound the media perpetuated the notion (and I'm not saying they were wrong to do so) that the insurgents were a more formidable, strategic, and focused opponent than previously known.

I was thinking about the comment Professor John Waters (not the filmmaker) made last Wednesday. Speaking about the situation in Northern Ireland, he noted that the Irish Republican Army really had only about 300 members by [I forget which time period] - yet those 300 members were able to occupy 27,000 British troops for years. I think that says something about how intractable an Iraq-like situation can be, but you also have to understand that without public support an organization like that cannot survive. So I think the question is, how much public support does the insurgency have?

2005-01-29T13:50:00.000-05:00

There are only a few hours before the Iraqi vote goes off. KEEP YOUR FINGERS CROSSED.

ESPN

2005-01-28T22:19:00.000-05:00

So the Kings-Rockets game is in timeout, and ESPN cuts to Jim Gray with Peja Stojakovic, who is injured. Never mind that the interview is hilarious:

Jim: So what's the prognosis on your back? [Not a direct quote]
Peja: (deadpan) It doesn't feel good.

Jim: Speaking of your team, they recently traded Doug Christie for Cuttino Mobley. What does Mobley bring to the team?
Peja: He's a good teammate.

Anyway, so action is back on the court, and they just keep playing the interview audio. They keep the interview on for four possessions of the game. I don't know why they didn't move the interview to halftime, especially considering the number of questions they asked.

Gray reporting: The NBA doesn't want its players wearing hats in interviews. Okay. Why, again? The league almost fined Mobley for wearing a Sacramento Kings hat in an interview. That's the team he plays for! Very NFL, wouldn't you say?

Besides, hats are quite stylish. They also help you retain heat.

Postscript: Meanwhile, what does ESPN do at halftime? They spend time promoting the X-Games! For serious, man.