http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=hollinger_john&page=PERDiem-090324
i haven't even read all of it yet but i know this is premature....anyway i figured this was coming...last week i heard a sportscenter broadcaster pose the question whether lebron can ever avg a 3x-2x (most ppl say NOOOO!)....then he said if the big o is the blueprint lebron is avg'ing a 3x-2x now because in the big o's timeframe they shot like ~35% more shots...the game was more up and down...if you extraploated/normalized lebron's numbers based on mere shot attempts, he would be avg'ing ~50, 10, and 10...i can hear otis now saying "look how ppl continue to fudge data to meet their claims." i think in this case otis would be absolutely right though....you can't have it both ways....times are different; extraploate who would be the youngest player to reach all those milestones kobe and lebron keep getting due top the deterioration of the college game. either do a straight baseline comparison all the time or an asterisk based on changing times all the time but don't intermix them when convenient.
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I'm not big on Holinger's manipulation of the data. In general, I judge different players in different generations by how they performed vs. their competition. Anything else is far too subjective. It's all subjective, but whatever. Regarding Lebron's season... yes he's having an awesome season. Is it a historic season. Sure, whatever. Call it what you want. This isn't baseball. Hoops is not about stats. It's all about the championship. Can he lead the Cavs to the promised land? The Cavs will likely have home court throughout the playoffs. They've only lost 1 home game all season. He has no excuses. I still feel that Boston will get them in the East Finals. Which is fine with me, because I want a Lakers/Celtics rematch. Time will tell.
ReplyDeleteKing James is great no question. But MJ paved the way for the modern basketball athlete on and off the court... There was no blueprint, boilerplate, etc. before his airness. He blazed that trail... Of course there were others before Jordan, and I dont mean to minimize their accomplishements. But Jordan was the first in an era of multimillion dollar endorsement deals with increased exposure coupled with the insane expectations to win BIG...
ReplyDeleteGive to his airness... Bron Bron check back with me after lets say 3 championships....
You cannot even think about putting LBJ on His Airness' level (which he currently owns by himself) because Lebron isn't clutch yet. Simply put end of story. Any other questions?
ReplyDeleterules changes in basketball make the differences in eras hard to compare. there's no hand-checking, there is zone, scouting is better, overcoaching by so-called basketball gods on the sidelines, etc.... Hollinger makes a good point about the pace of the game being slowed down, and the # of minutes guys playing during the regular season being reduced though. i don't think it's sacreligious to say that lebron @ 24 is putting up jordan like #s though.
ReplyDeletewe'll see if he has a jordan like impact on the game, though. when it comes down to it, basketball is the only sport where a superstar can singularly dominate a playoff run since there are only 5 guys on the court.