Category: Event

Shaq’s influences on the NBA

 

Since Shaquille O'Neal announced his retirement, many people have already mentioned the Wilt Chamberlain-inspired quote from the Big Dipper's favorite coach, Alex Hannum, “Nobody loves Goliath.” Shaq was the first Goliath to be not only loved but eventually the most popular player in league. The notion that normal sized fans could never relate to physical titans was disabused by Shaq. His charisma, energy, humor and kindness is legendary. Even folks who didn’t like the NBA knew and liked something about Shaq.

  

Shaq also became the first ultra modern NBA player. It’s not surprising that he used social networking to break the news of his retirement. That’s who he is. In the 90s, Shaq was the guy who made multiple albums, had starring roles in multiple movies (including Kazaam which is not about basketball) and made commercials for everything under the sun.

 

Famously, Shaq also left the team that drafted him, the Orlando Magic, for the bright lights of LA. It’s Shaq who used free agency to re-set the balance of team vs. player control. His exhibition of his own power to choose his playing destiny was the start of the current trend of big time free agent movement being determined mostly by the players themselves. So yes, it’s Shaq we should thank or blame for leading indirectly to the Heat trio of stars hoping to win their own championship this season. More broadly, he helped change the landscape of the NBA by picking location over other considerations. Now, some cities are clearly more equal than others.

 

Shaq’s most important on court achievement is one that I have never seen noted before. Shaq was so physically dominant that he changed the positions of his most worthy adversaries. The tallest guys in basketball have avoided being labeled centers in response to Shaq. The level of Shaq avoidance is amazing.

       

Consider that the most prominent NBA centers when Shaq arrived in the league were Hakeem Olajuwon, Patrick Ewing and David Robinson. These guys were all centers by both size and choice. Because of their size, it is perfectly natural to think of them as centers. They also chose that position when they had an option to be power forwards. All 3 were in Twin Tower situations but wanted to be centers.* Center is the position of greatest historical legacy in basketball.

 

Since Shaq’s arrival in the NBA, the generation of guys who should have been the next great centers chose not to be centers. Chris Webber, Tim Duncan, Rasheed Wallace, Kevin Garnett, Dirk Nowitzki, Jermaine O’Neal, Pau Gasol and LaMarcus Aldridge would have been centers at any other time but have simply decided not to be centers. Now it’s common that those 6’ 10” plus men aren’t thought of as centers at all now. Duncan is so adamant about being listed as a forward instead of a center that it’s often caused trouble for voters for All-Star and All-NBA teams. These guys went out of their way to avoid guarding Shaq and now many starting centers in the league have jobs simply because of their ability to provide a strong defensive presence. Now, that’s impact.

 

 

FDO

 

*-Olajuwon had Ralph Sampson, Ewing had Bill Cartwright and Robinson had Duncan. While Robinson was taller, Duncan’s strength, relative lack of speed and post game all meant he was a more natural center than Robinson. For instance, ESPN’s John Hollinger refuses to acknowledge Duncan as a forward.

 

First Thoughts on Heat-Mavs Part Deux

 

Yes, part 2 is how this series is being presented because it’s only been 5 years since the teams met in the Finals. There is a core of institutional memory of that series in both organizations that’s interesting. There has been consistent ownership and management and the two players remaining on each side fill important roles. Dwyane Wade and Dirk Nowitzki are the home grown superstar/best player in franchise history and Udonis Haslem and Jason Terry compose the emotional core of their teams. Otherwise, though, for both squads, there have been such substantial changes that neither team seems very connected to 2006. 

 

Almost the entire rosters have turned over for these teams. The Mavs are a collection of cast offs, former All-Stars and just past their prime guys who have all coalesced around the goal of winning a title. The Heat are, of course, the model for contemporary team building. Grab as many stars as possible and fill in the blanks around them.

 

It is that collection of star players, Wade, LeBron James and Chris Bosh, that seems to be the key to this series to me. While Dallas’ players largely get the ball in scoring areas based on ball movement and double teams of Nowitzki, Miami has a more consistent offensive attack. Wade and James are almost always in scoring areas because with a move or two, each guy can get to a comfortable spot with an advantage. There were times in the Mavericks’ victory over the Thunder that Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook seemed to be able to score at will. That scoring was predicated on speed and athleticism.  Wade and James have speed, athleticism, experience, confidence and great options when they need to pass the ball.

 

Some of Dallas’ offensive limitations have been masked by their incredibly accurate three point shooting during the playoffs. Miami expects to give up 3 pt attempts as long as they are contested. Miami will be able to slow down Dallas’ offense and force Nowitzki to win games by scoring 50 points a night. Dallas has very little chance of corralling James and Wade; that will be the difference.

 

Official Prediction: Heat in 6

Gut Feeling: Heat in 5 games. Yes, that means clinching the title in Big D. What a perfect scenario that would be for the most popular villains in NBA history.

 

FDO

 

 

RIP Macho Man

 

It's been a week since Randy 'Macho Man' Savage died. It took me a little while to gather some thoughts about him. These are them.

 

I’ve been a fan of professional wrestling since the late 1980s. Unlike most kids at that time who were able to choose between the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) and World Wrestling Federation (WWF), I never preferred the WWF. My granddad was a big fan of boxing and my dad liked it pretty well so it feels natural to me that when I began exploring wrestling with some real passion, I gravitated to the more realistic of the Big Two.  That was clearly the NWA.  

 

For me, one of the important differences between the wrestling organizations was the World champion. In the WWF that was usually Hulk Hogan and in the NWA it was usually Ric Flair. While most kids were awed by the larger than life Hogan, I was awed by the pretty normal looking Flair. Hogan was billed at being 6’ 8” and 300+ lbs. To me that seemed absurd as did his in ring antics. He’d get beaten up by some monstrous looking guy then shake his head a lot and become invulnerable. Uh, yeah. He’d run through a couple moves, pin the guy and the parade started. (There was not really a parade but that’s what it felt like.)

 

On the other hand, Flair was incredibly vulnerable! In order to stay the champion, he sometimes needed to cheat, sometimes he needed help from someone else and sometimes he needed to get lucky. That seemed perfectly realistic since Flair was listed as 6’ 2” and around 240 lbs. Even though he was a big guy, Flair was never physically overwhelming and was often overmatched by bigger, stronger, faster guys. He used his brain as much as his body and that appealed to me greatly. Hogan’s successes seemed overly scripted and painfully predictable while Flair’s seemed uncertain and complicated. That Flair was just as successful as Hogan awed me.

 

Then in the late 80s, Randy Savage moved from being an up and comer to being one of the biggest stars in the wrestling universe. He was one of the smaller guys in the WWF but wrestled with the same kind of attitude, intensity and spirit as Hogan did. His ascendance was marked by a change in his wrestling style to fit into the Hogan mold and that’s ultimately why I never became a fan of his. The paint by numbers approach sold lots of tickets but left me cold. I thought I was kind of missing out on Savage but I wasn’t sure why.

 

The difference between his Wrestlemania matches in 1987 and 1989 is amazing. In 1987, wrestling against Ricky Steamboat, Savage utilized an amazing array of holds, flips, dives, counters and counters to counters. In 1989, wrestling against Hogan, Savage used lots of punches, power moves and presentation elements. The first is a revolutionary technical, artistic exhibition while the second is a triumph of style over substance. It is, of course, to Savage’s credit that he excelled at both styles. It’s interesting for me to recognize that I was never a fan of Savage’s particularly though I always recognized his ability. What I've realized in the past couple years is that he always seemed to have excellent matches with all the guys I really was a great fan of.

 

Savage had tremendous wrestling based feuds with guys like Tito Santana, Steamboat, Ted DiBiase, Flair and even Jake “The Snake” Roberts. In all these feuds, Savage made his opponents look great and kept up with them, move for move. I suppose the bottom line is that Randy Savage could always do everything he needed to in a wrestling ring. That strikes me as a pretty good definition of greatness.

 

 

FDO

 

 

Race Day

 

As a Circle City native, Memorial Day weekend always feels festive. I never participate but the Indy 500 permeates the environment in Indianapolis.

FDO

 

 

Race Day

 

Camper cities

Traffic for miles

Checkered flags wave

In all directions

Coolers full of Bud

Dirt cheap sunglasses

Tank tops

Jake the snake around

Brother Henry’s neck

Grilled brats and burgers

“Show us your tits!”

Naps on the infield

Day long engine drone

A rainbow of cotton candy

Tires over the fence

Some foreign guy wins

May is beautiful

In Indy

 

 

© Gayle Force Press 2004

 

 

Changing the Lenses

 

Much has been made about the super large moon we've seen lately. While Megamoon is beautiful to look at, I am also struck that our perception changes so much, so quickly. Spending a night watching the Moon race across the sky feels wonderful in part because we can see some of the fundamental processes of our universe at work in just a few hours. Really, at moonrise or moonset, we can notice those processes in a matter of minutes.

 

In astronomical terms, it's stunning that an object so close in size as our Moon is to Earth is also so close to us. The Moon is a quarter of the size of the Earth. However, the Moon and Earth are incredibly far from each other in our terms. The distance between the two objects is something like 250 000 miles. Going a quarter million miles in a car means you talk to your friends about how great your car is and how many years it took you to go that far. In the late 60s it took 3 days for Apollo 8 to travel that distance. 3 day! Is that incredibly fast or incredibly slow?

 

I recently had a conversation prompted by something I read on Wikipedia about Sedna, the most distant sizable member of our solar system. I acknowledged that I was overwhelmed by how far away Sedna is from the Sun. Sedna is now about 3 times as far from the Sun as Neptune, but at times, it is 32 times as far! At that distance, how could the Earth and Moon be viewed as anything but a singularity?

 

Close. Near. Fast. Slow. These two celestial relationships (Moon-Earth, Sedna-Sun) make me think concretely about how much our view depends upon the lens we choose to use at any given moment. My guess is that changing lenses impacts our view of our own universes in similar ways. That's maybe even harder to understand.

 

 

FDO

 

 

Super Bowl Blogging-4th Quarter

Super Bowl Blogging-4th  Quarter

 

Damn.

First play and Mendenhall coughs it up. I’m wondering if that’ll be the play of the game. So surreal.

 

The crowd seems hyped but the Packers don’t. That would be disconcerting if I were a Packer fan.

 

What’s up with Jordy Nelson? All my images of sure handed, slow footed, White possession receivers are being distorted.

Especially now that he races across the field like a gazelle. Who are you, Jordy Nelson?

 

Why does AROD keep hopping? He’s done it on 5 or 6 occasions since the 2nd quarter. It looked stupid when Pete Sampras did it but he at least made winning plays out of it.

 

Yep, Mendenhall fumbles and 3 minutes later the Pack has a nice lead and has finally re-captured the momentum.

 

It’s great that in the Super Bowl, there are so many video cameras that people holding television cameras are often on camera.

 

Activity Dogs have to be gone from commercials too.

 

Painfully tacky, adult oriented commercials co-exist seamlessly with movie ads designed for 4 year olds. Is anyone even trying?

 

Flozell. Is mother Flo(rence) and father Zell? Is father Flo(yd) and mother Zel(da)?  I really wanna know.

 

GB 28- PIT 17. This seems like the perfect time for a Big Ben comeback for the ages and Hall of Fame immortality.

SHIT! I wasn't expecting Green Bay to stop playing defense.

 

I suppose if Ben wins another title this year, he’ll at least have to spend lots of time and energy answering uncomfortable questions. So, there’s that…

 

WOW. 3 points down after that awesome 2 point conversion.

 

HA! Pretending that Go Daddy has limits (that the FCC) hasn’t established I mean.

 

Waaay too many people eat during the Super Bowl for VW to have done a Beetle ad with real beetles. The Idiot Wind is blowing.

 

If the Packers get any more nervous they’ll have to carry security blankets.

 

Down the field aggression works for Green Bay! Well, when they catch the ball at least.

 

The Steelers really could have benefitted from having additional timeouts.

 

31-25, just over 2 minutes left, trailing time receiving a kickoff. Wouldn’t most of us have been happy if we knew this would be the situation for this year’s Super Bowl?

 

Another personal foul? In the Super Bowl? Almost comical. Of course, I don’t have any money riding on the outcome so…

 

Hasn’t Kim Kardashian moved from football to basketball?

 

Lots of time being spent on meager gains by the Steelers. I don’t understand. 50 seconds and 20 yards?

 

Pre-route contact? Nah. Not in the Super Bowl.

 

Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers. Now, I can only hope for next years Colts-Vikings grudge match.

 

What a fun game this was.

 

Let’s hope Rashard Mendenhall gets treated well. He’s gonna need it.

 

Super Bowl Blogging-3rd Quarter

 

Super Bowl Blogging-3rd Quarter

 

 

Wow, James Jones dropped a sure fire long gainer and potential touchdown. Instead, Green Bay punts. Ouch.

 

Immediately followed up by a dubious 15 yard penalty. Double ouch.

 

Chimps and babies. Is it just me or shouldn’t those commercials have gone out with the Clinton Administration?

 

Man, momentum is huge! GB was so close to a 28-10 lead. Seemingly, 5 minutes after the drop, it’s 21-17. DAMN!

 

Nelson dropped another pass he could have caught. Uh oh, are the Packers feeling nervous? With the lead? Not a good sign for them.

 

All the momentum is on the Steelers side of the ball.

 

Timothy Hutton didn’t really do that Groupon commercial did he? How much crack must he be smoking?!? What a bitch!

 

Watching this game reminds me both a) why so many folks think  Big Ben is a great QB and b) why they’re wrong.

 

Charlotte Jones Anderson?!? Who the fuck is Charlotte Jones Anderson?!?

 

Massive, absurd overthrow by Ben. See 2 lines previous.

 

Clay Matthews almost made an insanely great play (instead of just an excellent one). And they say White men can’t jump…

 

4th and 15 from the Packer 34. A FG brings you within 1 point. I gotta go for the yardage. Send a message: We’re gonna win!

 

ISH. Horrible kick.

 

What does this city [Detroit] know about luxury?

They’ve been to Hell and back? To Hell, okay? Back? Not so much.

When your lead ambassador is Eminem, you've got lotsa work to do.

 

AROD running around a bit, throwing downfield, the Pack being aggressive. This is how you got to the Super Bowl!

 

All these injured guys are making visual indications of physical distress. No Cutlers here!

 

56 yd FGA is easily in range says Joe Buck. What a tool.

 

Uh, throwing a judo chop at someone’s helmet is stupid on many levels. Tramon Williams, this means you.

 

Green Bay seems entirely discombobulated. Almost frightened. Don’t be scared. Be happy.

 

Bad challenge, Mike McCarthy. Especially when you’ve already used two timeouts. Ish.

 

My bad, The Steelers have blown two timeouts, not the Pack. That helps.

 

How many times will we hear the word ‘correction’ tonight? I need to retain this for next year’s potential drinking games…

 

I’m thinking Janet Jackson for next year’s Super Bowl. MJ’s dead and there’ll be lots of interests because of NippleGate. Hmmm.

 

 

 

Super Bowl Blogging-2nd Quarter

 

Super Bowl Blogging-2nd Quarter

 

Sounds like the production team spent the whole time between commercials trying to make Joe Buck sound less ridiculous. Fail.

 

Sanders went behind the first down marker on his own. He shouldn’t have been awarded that first down.

 

Didn’t Shaun Suisham used to play for the Cowboys? How nice this must feel for him to play in JerryLand while the Cowboys have been out of contention for 3 months?

 

Elton John can’t be this desperate for money…

 

I saw John Travolta but thought it was Rod Blagoevich. Sad but true.

 

Wait a sec, is BMW being advertised as a pro-America company?

 

Coke, THOR and VW with sci-fi themed commercials consecutively.

 

Big Ben headlines are mentioned but unmentioned a) this was not the first allegation of sexual assault and b) the DA in the Georgia case was convinced Ben was guilty but the accuser was apparently so drunk she couldn’t be a strong witness. If that’s the only 15 seconds they spend on this, I’ll be disappointed.

 

Again, there’s conversation about Ben’s lack of mobility just before he takes off running. Hello guys, it’s not disabling him now so don’t force your square storyline into that round hole.

 

A chimp commercial. Really, in 2011? Who is Career Builder’s lead marketer, Homer Simpson?

 

2 INTs for Big Ben

Legacy is slipping away quickly.

 

Green Bay 21, Pittsburgh 3. Jake is Super excited.

 

Troy Aikman makes a great point about the Pack’s 3rd touchdown of the half. I was starting to wonder why he was in the booth.

 

Advertising FB access as a selling point for a car frightens me.

 

It feels odd to me that Marvel has flown so far ahead of DC in terms of its movies. DC has, arguably, the three most iconic comic heroes in Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. So, what happened?

 

Watching injured players walk down long hallways toward medical care makes me wonder why there aren’t golf carts at the ready.

 

Green Bay secondary injuries may combine with Steelers desperation to provoke a massive second half shootout. Hmm, that could be good.

 

Actually, it looks like the injured guys are walking through a sports bar toward medical care. That’s much better.

 

The last Steelers drive was really impressive. Ben and Hines Ward have clearly played together for a long time. It’s odd seeing the high speed, frazzled looking offense playing against the Packers because Brett Favre was a master of that style.

 

This has not been the kind of first half I expected, largely due to Pittsburgh sloppiness, but it’s been lots of fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Super Bowl Blogging-1st Quarter

Super Bowl Blogging-1st Quarter

 

Why defer possession? Is that about gamesmanship or attempting to stave off nervousness?

 

Ah, momentum swings quickly.  The Steelers fans got so excited at the muffed punt then 2 minutes later, the Pack is at midfield and feeling great.

 

I don’t really care that much about Aaron Rodgers’ family history and how hard it was to be a late first round draft pick. Such tales of misery should wait for the second half.

 

I can already imagine the squawking from Packers fans about the near miss catch by Nelson on the first drive, followed by the near miss at pinning the Steelers near the goal line. So close, yet so far away…

 

The best advertising minds in the country came up with this tripe? I am glad to see that Kenny G still looks like, uh, Kenny G…

 

How many different ways will announcers obliquely refer to Ben Roethlisberger’s ‘troubles’ or ‘year’ or ‘difficulties’? I hope folks are using this as a drinking game…

 

Dwayne Johnson and Vin Diesel in the same movie? Wow, what a great chance to see the baddest ambiguously ethnic action stars in the same movie!

 

A Rod and Cameron Diaz? Are they the least Latin Latino stars in the US? Hey, I’m just asking? (Even the Anthem Killer did a Spanish language album a few years ago.)

 

If Aaron Rodgers is wearing a different helmet because he’s been concussed a couple times, shouldn’t everyone wear that different (presumably better) helmet?

 

Great pass to Nelson. It would have been hard for Nelson to drop that one.

 

When will people start calling Aaron Rodgers ‘A-Rod’? Andy Roddick was never gonna get it but perhaps…

I love that play callers get lots of credit in the NFL. On the touchdown play, the receiver WAS NOT OPEN! The play worked because AROD (see, no hyphen) threw a PERFECT pass. Not because of any schematic genius.

 

Cowboys vs. Aliens followed by Roman Gods vs. Indians? WTF? (No, not ‘win the future’.)

 

So, has Big Ben been 'unredeemed' now?

 

15 yard celebration penalty. Nope, you’re not allowed to celebrate the biggest play of your life in the No Fun League.

 

Boz Scaggs? Who knew?

 

Wow, Eminem sells tea? Wait a sec, did I write that? Yep. Eminem sells tea. Isn’t that the 4th sign of the Apocalypse?

 

Emmanuel Sanders? What a fun name.

 

It’s still hard for me to hear the words “good protection” associated with Big Ben.

 

Within 10 seconds, Joe Buck says something about Big Ben like…

~ ’He looks like he can hardly move.

Now, he can move!’

C’mon Joe Buck, you’re better than that!

  

 

 

 

Super Bowl Blogging 2011- Part 1

Pre-Game

 

I didn't hate Christina Aguilera until tonight. Now, I never want to hear her again. She butchered the Star Spangled Banner in a phenomenally painful way. Marvin Gaye made the anthem soar, swoon and shine during the NBA All-Star game in LA (I think in 1983). It made me want to hear the song over and over. This performance makes me want to hit X-tina. Hard.

 

So far, this pre-game (only since 6) has been atrocious. The Walter Payton Award was great but super quick. The rest has sucked. I also couldn't help thinking: "I wonder how many years it will be before Big Ben wins this award?"

 

Is Michael Douglas dying? Did I get that right? <sigh> Sad, I know.

 

Deion Sanders' tie looks like a candy cane. He's probably still fast enough to have run 20 yards while the coin was in the air.

 

Rachel doesn't like football but she thinks it's absurd that the networks force players and coaches to chat just before kickoff. She's right.