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JMcG's avatar

Very well done, indeed.

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Boulevardier's avatar

Lol. Probably need one more exchange in which ‘him’ says something like “OK, fine team does exist. But with the right drills, redistribution of player salaries, and limiting which athletes can participate we can produce a league with perfectly balanced win-loss records, which is right and just”.

This is basically how every conversation with someone on the left who begrudgingly admits to biological cognitive differences has gone. And when I point out their solutions have been repeatedly tried with no real effect, the response is “but it might work if we try again.”

It reminds me of a scene in Arrested Development when Lindsay and Tobias (former analyst/therapist, which he has on his business card as ‘analrapist’) are discussing how troubled couples sometimes propose an open marriage as a solution. Lindsay asks does it ever work, and Tobias say never, people just delude themselves it will and then pauses and says “but it might work for us.”

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ScarletNumber's avatar

I liked when Tobias referred to his wife as a country-music lover

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Boulevardier's avatar

Recently rewatched the first two seasons with my 16 year old, he loved the show.

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The Anti-Gnostic's avatar

"There's no I in team." "There ain' no we either."

https://youtu.be/OKiNWJTnQUg?si=MMqHGIfjfx-_1af9

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Erik's avatar

There is an M and an E

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JM's avatar

lol

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ScarletNumber's avatar

> I mean, the team with the best chance to get Cooper Flagg from Maine in the NBA draft lottery is Utah

I would say that Salt Lake City is probably the NBA market spiritually closest to Maine, even though Boston is geographically closest

> Then Wilt got traded back to the expansion Philadelphia 76ers

Strictly speaking the 76ers were the old Syracuse Nationals, a team most famous for literally inventing the shot clock, saving the game of basketball. For the Knicks to approve the move, the 76ers had to agree not to claim Princeton's Bill Bradley as a territorial selection in the 1965 NBA Draft. It ended up being a moot point as the Knicks ended up selecting ahead of the 76ers that year anyway; the 76ers ended up with Billy Cunningham from North Carolina

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Derek Leaberry's avatar

Billy Cunningham was a better player than Bill Bradley.

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ScarletNumber's avatar

Yes it turned out that way; the Knicks missed a chance at having both Bradley and Cunningham by selecting Dave Stallworth out of Wichita State instead

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Derek Leaberry's avatar

Stallworth was a mediocrity who had a heart attack. Thinking out loud, what would have happened if Len Bias had not died of a drug overdose after being drafted first by the Celtics?

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ScarletNumber's avatar

The Celtics would have not had to have waited over 20 years between titles. Also it was unclear from context what you meant specifically but Bias went 2 in that draft; Brad Daugherty (CLE) went 1 and Chris Washburn (GSW) went 3, all from the ACC

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Derek Leaberry's avatar

You have a very good memory. And Daugherty was a very good player on those Price-Nance-Daugherty teams that couldn't get passed the Bulls. Washburn was a complete washout, one of the worst draft picks in NBA history.

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ScarletNumber's avatar

Hot Rod Williams and a young Steve Kerr as well. Thanks for the memory hat-tip, but I have to admit that I was going to say it was Mike Fratello who was their coach but in reality it was Lenny Wilkens the first four times they played (and lost to) the Bulls in the playoffs (Fratello was there for the 5th and final loss)

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Derek Leaberry's avatar

I'm not going to research it but would the Knicks have traded for DeBusschere if they had both Cunningham and Bradley. DeBusschere was different than Cunningham and Bradley in that he did a lot of the gritty work of winning basketball. With Willis Reed, DeBusschere and the Knicks almost always outrebounded their opponents.

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ScarletNumber's avatar

You can't go wrong with what the Knicks did, as DeBusschere and Bradley (along with Walt Frazier) were the three mainstays of both Knicks titles, while Cunningham only won one as a player.

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Derek Leaberry's avatar

Don't forget Willis Reed.

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ScarletNumber's avatar

By 73 Willis had dropped below Earl Monroe and Jerry Lucas in the rotation

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Derek Leaberry's avatar

The last decade I really followed pro basketball was the 1980s. It is rather interesting that the Celtic dynasty was formed by Red Auerbach drafting Larry Bird the year before Bird's last game. Bird had transferred from Indiana to Indiana State after his freshmen year making him eligible for the draft before he became a big name to the basketball public. The Laker dynasty was formed by Jerry West when the Lakers shipped an aging Gail Goodrich for a draft pick who became Magic Johnson. Yet the best team of the 1980s was arguably that outstanding 76ers team with Moses Malone, Julius Erving, Mo Cheeks, Bobby Jones, Andrew Toney and a deep bench of outstanding role players but that team won only one title. The late 80s Pistons were very good with their aggressive defense. And I remember the Bucks, a very deep team, that just couldn't get over the hump.

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ScarletNumber's avatar

The Bucks qualified for the Eastern Conference finals three times in a four-year stretch, each time losing to the eventual NBA Champion. I will say that they were not competitive in any of those three series, not even making Game 6

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Richard Milhous's avatar

Goodrich wasn't exactly traded for a draft pick. The New Orleans Jazz signed him as a free agent, which the league frowned on at the time. They stepped in and awarded the Lakers two first round picks and a second. Then after the Jazz had the worst record in the league the first pick belonged to the Lakers.

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ScarletNumber's avatar

The Lakers had to win coin-flip with the Bulls, who had the worst record in the west in 1979; at the time the Bulls were in the west and the Jazz were in the east.

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Richard Milhous's avatar

Steve probably already knows, but after his playing days, Goodrich moved back to Los Angeles, where he got into the golf course business (buying, selling, leasing and managing).

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Lucky Hunter and Corn Mother's avatar

Basketball was invented by white people in a racist attempt to prove their own superiority to Asians, so they culturally biased the rules in favor of white people, which is why most NBA players today are white. Also, since basketball is socially constructed, there are no physical differences between NBA players and the average person. Basketball games just tautologically measures how good they are at basketball.

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Lucky Hunter and Corn Mother's avatar

/s probably needed because of Poe's Law.

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Derek Leaberry's avatar

Height isn't everything.. I saw tiny Todd Rundgren humiliate tall, gawky Howard Stern in one-on-one basketball.

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ScarletNumber's avatar

No, you saw Nils Lofgren (5'3") of the E Street Band play Howard Stern (6'5") in basketball, genius 😊

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Apr 19
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Derek Leaberry's avatar

Got me again. My memory is a little off. I am ashamed to say I watched Lofgren make a fool out of Stern.

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ScarletNumber's avatar

LOL I was more of an Imus fan back then so I didn't watch the show that originated from WWOR in Secaucus that was colloquially known as The Channel 9 Show. I did watch the now-disgraced Dominic Barbara play Robin Quivers on The E Show, however.

You were correct that Stern was humiliated in that game

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Derek Leaberry's avatar

Stern learned nothing in PE at Roosevelt High School.

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Erik's avatar

I'm trying to follow the analogy and pull it back to race. Him (nice pronoun) says a bunch of things that are probably true or close to true (except the mismeasurement of height thing) but all the while ignoring that it is possible to make predictions based on the current state of the teams before you.

So what are you saying? Are white people gonna win? Should I take the points? Does that last sentence make sense; I've never bet on sports so I don't know the meaning of the lingo.

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Justin Mindgun's avatar

Everyone knows that teams were just an invention of Rich White Men (team owners) so that they could justify their domination of athletes. The only reason that there are disparities between “teams” is this legacy of oppression.

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SJ's avatar

Race isn’t real until your guide tries to drink from another man’s watering hole.

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Adamantus's avatar

Terrible analogy, makes no sense.

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Thomas Foydel's avatar

What? Are you writing fiction now? That's my thing, man!

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Alan Smithee's avatar

Denver Nuggets r going all the way, u heard it here first

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questing vole's avatar

You neglected the first Laker legend, George Mikan (though he was a Minneapolis Laker).

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ScarletNumber's avatar

Because of Mikan the key is no longer key shaped

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Derek Leaberry's avatar

I wonder if basketball would change with the old key. Players like Jabbar, Hayes and O'Neal would KILL with the old key.

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ScarletNumber's avatar

Recall that Wilt still dominated with the college key so they expanded it two more feet on each side for him. Personally I liked the old FIBA key but even they adopted the NBA one as the felt the trapezoid was too foreign

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Derek Leaberry's avatar

Chamberlain may not have been the greatest player in basketball history, he was the most dominant. Can you imagine a player averaging 50 points a game? Or a player averaging more than 48 minutes a game? Only Bill Russell and the Celtics kept Chamberlain from championships.

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Lysander Spooner's avatar

lol

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Harrison Chapin's avatar

Love this! I’m Harrison, an ex fine dining industry line cook. My stack "The Secret Ingredient" adapts hit restaurant recipes (mostly NYC and L.A.) for easy home cooking.

check us out:

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