Posted on 12/27/2002 10:19:31 AM PST by GeneD
The debut of ABC's NBA telecasts, largely depicted as a "loss leader" for the network, turned out to be no leader at all Wednesday night as a double-header wound up in third place with an average 3.6 rating and a 7 share, falling behind the umpteenth rerun of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer on CBS (4.3/9) and a repeat of The West Wing on NBC (4.0/7). The top-rated show of the night was a rerun of NBC's Law & Order (6.8/13), which gave NBC a slight edge in the overall ratings for the night, as it scored a 4.8/10 to CBS's 4.7/9. On Thursday, in a night of reruns, CBS bested NBC's must-see shows, most impressively in the 10:00 hour, when a repeat of Without a Trace, with a 9.6/16 rating beat a repeat of E.R., with a 7.0/11. CBS averaged an 11.3/18 for the night, more than 50 percent above NBC's 7.5/12.
It's a shame, because it's a great game when the fouls and violations are administered evenhandedly. Until they are, I won't watch.
I used to play 3-4 times a week. Sprained ankles were my primary problem, since I played inside and was always going after rebounds. Plus I had to get stitches on three occassions, sprained my thumbs twice each (once requiring a cast), bit through my tongue (that really hurt), got bursitis on both elbows from all the charging fouls I took, and got broke my fibula (but played five games after that, not realizing I had a hairline fracture). I finally called it quits once the knees started to go, at age 40, the cartiledge was getting a few minor dings and tears, and I had to decide if I wanted to play a few more years or be able to walk when I was 65...
In baseball, it's not uncommon for a team to come from out of the blue and win it all. Football has almost achieved parity. The NHL...anything can happen in a 7 game series.
When was the last time a team came from nowhere to win the NBA crown? The 1974 Warriors?
Oh, man. You haven't seen an NHL game recently, have you?
Things started to improve when they eliminated the "delayed off-side" dump-in. Now, if the defensive team gets the puck out of the zone, the offensive player who gains possession in the neutral zone actually has to pass it or carry it around while his teammates clear the zone. As a result, there is much more of an emphasis these days on mobile defensemen with puck-handling skills.
My complaint about most sports these days is that the playing areas have shrunk so much due to the increased size and speed of the modern athlete. Every sport should immediately increase the size of its playing surface by 10%-20% to restore some excitement to the games.
I also met a 55 year-old guy in Saskatchewan who looked like he was about 40. He played in an amateur hockey league with a 50-game regular season schedule.
What always amazed me about those older guys is that a team of them would always seem to play better than any other group of young skaters.
Increasing playing area is a good idea. I believe that the Europeans play on bigger ice surfaces. That's why I like watching ice hockey in the Olympics. If that brand of faster, more wide-open hockey came to the NHL, we'd have a much better game.
College basketball is another story.
Part of the problem is that the season is too damn long. 80 games, and four playoff rounds. That is a lot of wear and tear on bodies, and it has to impact the level of play by midseason. They should cut the season to 50 games, have four divisions and two playoff rounds. But they won't do that, they'd rather have more games to sell...
foreign players nowitski and nash playing zone defense might be the new saviors of the league; something weak knee jordan is having trouble doing
I really didn't get coordination until I was in college, but turned into a pretty nasty power forward in my twenties (played a lot with former college and European ball players), and then switched more to center in my thirties, and then at the end I was having to more and more play, of all things, point center, because the local kids who would show up for our old-guy pickup games, kids who were the starting guards at one of the local high schools, had absolutely NO idea how to run an offense, only had eyes for that orange piece of metal, and would both go down to the baseline, leaving us wide upon for fast breaks. So I was stuck in the absurd position of being a 6-7 point guard hanging at the top of the key and running the offense if we wanted to win the game and stay on the court.
The NHL adopted a variation of that last rule this season (I think it's a 20-second lag instead of 15), and the result has been faster games, quicker line changes, and more ice time for the third and fourth lines. No more of that bullsh!t you used to see, with centers taking their sweet old time getting ready for the face-offs.
I think that's silly. Rodman, for all his stupid antics and crazed tattoos, was on the court one of the most sound fundamentally sound players of his time. He studied every player and how their shots tended to come off the rim so he could be in the right place to get the best chance for a rebound of a given shot. I hated Rodman the person but admired Rodman the basketball player and how he worked his butt off to win. It isn't what's on a player's skin that's the problem, it's the attitude between their ears.
I really don't care what a player looks like. I care how they play and their team attitude. These are grown men, not high school boys where the school can tell them that they can't have a tattoo.
Used to love to watch Celts with Bob Cousey referring to "Lawwy Bud and Wobert Pawwish."
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