Archive for the ‘nba’ Category

Five Sports Thoughts Under the Fedora

Posted: April 18, 2022 by datechguy in baseball, nba, nfl, nhl, Sports
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Is it just me or has the left side of the Boston Red Sox infield suddenly learned how to field their positions? Xander Bogarts (SS) and Raphael Devers (3b) are great and feared hitter but not known for their glove work but over the first couple of weeks their level of defensive play has risen considerably.

Part of it might be Trevor Story now at second, part might be rather young Devers finally maturing as a player but a lot of it also might be the opt out clause that Bogarts has and the extension that Devers is seeking.

Either way it’s something to see.

Yesterday the Boston Celtics beat the Brooklyn Nets 115 to 114 in an exciting game where after a Three Pointer gave the next a 3 pt lead with under a minute to go, the C’s drove down, scored to make it a one point game, managed a defensive stand and without calling a time out rushed back down the court were after a series of great passes the winning basket was laid in with no time left on the clock.

To me the big story was the decision to drive down the court, rather than take a time out to get a set play. Ninety nine times out of 100 with a time out remaining a team uses a time out in that situation inbounds on a set play and goes from there. The decision to not call the time out was a gutsy one but demonstrates the value of not letting an opponent prepare a set defense or get a heads up from their coach to watch for a particular thing.

Of course if they didn’t get the winner shot the only story today would be “Why didn’t they call that time out?”

Oh speaking of the Celtics game two more things concerning the narrative. There was a huge debate in the local sports talk radio about their winning their last game forcing them to meet the Nets vs losing it and facing a weaker opponent. The game bolstered both sides of the argument.

You can make the case that this was one of the most competitive games of the first round and they would have been better off with a different opponent. They were one second away from a loss. On the other hand it showed the advantage of home court as a side story was Irving the former Celtic flipping off a heckling fan which generated a whole lot more talk than his spectacular game.

Give me the home court any day.

There is a ton of talk about the NFL draft around here and what the Patriots will do in it but the bigger subject here is year two of Mac Jones at QB with an offensive coaching by committee and how he is expected to do without proper coaching now that Josh McDaniels is gone. Three things:

  1. Belichick has not one but two ex head coaches on staff below him, if a former head coach can’t coach a 2nd year QB let alone two then you’ve got real trouble here.
  2. The AFC competition has significantly improved all around both in division and out. Even if McDaniels had stayed the Patriots and Jones would be hard press to repeat their record of last season
  3. This illustrates once and for all the value of Tom Brady and how much he skewed the field in the past. If you took this same lineup with the same coaching staff but put 45 year old Tom Brady at QB does anyone doubt they would be the favorite to win the AFC east? Signing Brady was the single best move this franchise ever made, letting him go was the worst.

The Hockey Season is almost over and the Bruins face their first post season without Tuukka Rask in a decade.

Rask was an excellent goaltender who played his entire career in Boston but was unable to take them over the top and he got a lot of heat for that and there was plenty of talk that he wasn’t tough enough to do so.

With two younger goaltenders on the ice this time around it will be interesting to see just how far the team goes. If they manage to go all the way in the next few years the trash talk about Rask will only get louder.

Finally some members of the Red Sox will not be heading north for their series against the Blue Jays because they are unvaccinated against COVID 19 and trucker convoys not withstanding Canada still has strict rules on the subject. There is some speculation that this is the reason why the Celtics didn’t want to face Toronto in the 1st round as well.

It seems insane to still be playing this game but Canada is their own country and if that’s what they want to do so be it. Frankly given Trudeau I wouldn’t put it past him to keep this stuff up just to give Canadian teams an additional home field advantage.

Kyrie gets the last Laugh

Posted: December 18, 2021 by datechguy in covid, nba, Sports, vaccine mandates
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I really cracked up when I read this story:

It’s kind of hard to argue that the unvaccinated Kyrie is a danger to the team when all over the NBA, NHL & NFL games are being delayed and postponed by COVID breakouts among fully vaccinated players but I give yahoo sports credit they give it their best shot:

Players of all levels are testing positive, so what’s the harm in bringing in a healthy body for road games, to help out the overworked Kevin Durant even in a pinch?

The harm, aside from common sense, science and everything believed to be true about teams with championship aspirations, consistent standards and chemistry concerns, seems to open a sliding door that may never be closed again, as Irving will be allowed to play in road games — except for Toronto.

Alas both common sense and science suggests that it’s Kyrie and not those who banned him that were right.

Now this doesn’t change the fact that Kyrie brings the same non-covid baggage that he always carried before there was such a thing as a pandemic and the fact that he almost immediately ended up in the COVID protocols means a delay in the Nets getting him on the floor.

But the bottom line is that Kyrie’s return is a blow to the narrative that has been pushed by the various sports teams in solidarity with the Biden Administration on the vaccine but reality doesn’t care about the narrative and the reality of the cost of cancelled games in cash is starting to have an effect to the point where leagues are reconsidering rewriting the rules concerning COVID protocols.

The NFL and the NFL Players Association continue to discuss changes to their COVID-19 protocols that could ease the burden on vaccinated individuals, according to sources familiar with the discussions.

The two sides are working to test vaccinated players less frequently and address player concerns about the number of vaccinated, asymptomatic players who are being forced to miss games because of positive tests.

The real losers in all of this are the players who took the jab and feel like chumps who’ve been played:

The NFLPA has been under pressure in recent weeks from players who are upset because they feel they were effectively forced to get vaccinated (because of the far stricter rules that apply this year to unvaccinated individuals) and as a result of the proliferation of COVID-19 variants are now testing positive and missing games anyway. This has led to player dissatisfaction with other of the league’s COVID-19 mitigation strategies, such as mask wearing and physical distancing in team facilities. 

Now as I’ve said repeatedly I have no problem with people getting the vaccine if they feel the cost benefit analysis works for them and I’m sure there are plenty of players in the all the major sports who took the vaccine and thought it was the right move for them.

Kyrie didn’t think so and in the long run it’s worked out for him, and if nothing else he will always be one up on those who took the vaccine unwillingly to play and now feel like chumps.

Five Reasons Why Tom Brady is Superior to Michael Jordan as the Sports Goat

Posted: September 9, 2021 by datechguy in nba, nfl, Sports
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There was a bit of a fuss on TV over Michael Irvin & Stephen A Smith over who is the overall Goat Jordan vs Brady.

In my opinion there is no debate at all. The nod is to Brady for these reasons

  1. Brady won championships and made finals all through his career Jordan did not

Michael Jordan career spans from 1984 at age 21 to 2003 at age 39 with one year off for baseball and three years off for retirement before returning with the wizards. Jordan won six championships during that period at ages 27-29 & 32-34.

Tom Brady’s career spans from 2001 at age 24 (in 2000 he appeared in one game and threw 3 passes completing one for six yards) and continues in 2021 at age 44. During this period he has won seven championships at ages 24,26,27, 37, 39, 41 and 43. He also made the finals three other times at ages 30, 33 and 40. Which is far superior to Jordan

  1. Brady won championships in a sport where it is harder to win a championship

In basketball playoffs it is very easy for the cream to rise to the top. Series are best of five or best of seven. So a single off game or hot game from your opponent or freak play might cost you a game but is unlikely to cost you a series.

In football it’s one and done. One bad throw, one off game, one supreme effort by an opponent or one freak catch off the top of Helmut can be the difference between a title and an also ran. Jordan had a margin of error, Brady does not.

Furthermore Football weighs a schedule based on your finish thus when he was regularly winning AFC East titles he was doing so when constantly playing a 1st place schedule. He succeeded against a system designed to make him fail.

  1. Brady has won championships with different lineups on different teams with different systems

Jordan won six titles in Chicago under Phil Jackson with a fairly consistent lineup around him. Tom Brady has not only won titles with two different teams with two different systems but even when he was with the Patriots over twenty years he managed to win titles and get to titles with a completely different cast of characters around him. None of the teammates from his first three titles played with him in his last two.

  1. Brady has taken a sub .500 team to a title not once but twice.

Michael Jordan’s did take a Chicago team with a losing record to the playoffs then later to the conference semis, then the conference finals and then at age 27 to the finals where he established the Bulls Dynasty. But while he was able to make a horrible Wizards team 20 games better then they were he was unable to get them even to the 1st round of the playoffs

When Tom Brady at age 25 started for the injured Drew Bledsoe in game 3 of the 2001-2002 season the Patriots’ were coming off a 5-11 last place season and were 0-2. He would lead them to their first superbowl victory. When he came in as the new QB for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at age 43, he took over a 3rd place team with a 7-9 record and took them to their first superbowl in almost twenty years.

  1. At age 44 Brady is favored to make it to the Superbowl AGAIN!

All of these previous points would, in my opinion be enough to close the case here, but if that wasn’t enough the icing on the cake is that at age 44 nobody is picking Brady and the Bucks to do any worse than the NFC title game and many are picking him to win yet another Superbowl. It’s true that both Aaron Rogers and Patrick Mahomes will likely be standing in his way with a big chips on their shoulders and nobody would be shocked if either Rogers kept Brady from another superbowl appearance or Mahomes kept him from his eighth ring.

But the fact that we are even having this conversation makes my point for me.

In conclusion with all due respect to Stephen A Smith there is no debate to have here. Brady is over Jordan. WAY over.

Full Disclosure: I don’t rate Michael Jordan as the GOAT of the NBA or LeBron, I give that to Bill Russell who in 13 years in the NBA made the finals every year but one and won the title every year but two and won two of those titles as a player coach.

He is the person Brady should be compared to and points 2-5 count in Brady’s favor, however Russell gets points for

  1. 2 titles as player coach (and as the 1st black coach in the NBA)
  2. Coming up in an era of segregation and STILL ruling the roost.
  3. playing in a smaller NBA where the talent was more concentrated

To me it’s a tough call, but if Brady goes to another Superbowl then I’d have to give it to Tom.

My WNBA Draft Question

Posted: April 15, 2021 by datechguy in nba, Sports
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I understand the WNBA draft is today and I have a question:

If a NCAA player who played in the men’s tourney, say a low level NBA prospect publicly defines himself as a woman is he/she eligible for the WNBA draft?

If not why not?

I imagine a player who has no chance at the NBA and looking at a regular job having a huge incentive to do so but that’s just me?

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