NBA vs. College Rules

Shamefully it's been a long time since I last posted to this blog, but as I watch tonight's Final Four showdown between the Villanova Wildcats and North Carolina Tarheels, I was just thinking about why NCAA basketball rules are so different from NBA rules. To wit, here are some differences:

-NCAA plays 20 minute halves, vs. 12-minute quarters in NBA
-1 and 1 foul situations in NCAA, but not in NBA
-possession arrow in NCAA vs. jump ball in the pros
-shorter 3-point arc in NCAA

I'd like to know what the reasoning is behind having these disparate rules. Seems to me like the NCAA should mesh with the NBA rules since they're essentially training their players on how to play in the pros. In addition, it takes out the confusion for novice fans if the rules are more universal.

All in all, what's the benefit of having different regulations between the two?

Fun with H-O-R-S-E and One-on-One

The NBA announced that it will be adding a competitive game of H-O-R-S-E to its lineup of All Star Game festivities in Phoenix next week. I think this is a welcome addition to the otherwise stale weekend.

This shootout competition, for whatever reason, harkens back to the "Dr. J vs. Larry Bird Go One on One" video game that was as simple as it was addictive. This game featured the timeless one-on-one basketball battle of two classic NBA stars, brought to your home entertainment system. I remember playing this game on my Atari 7800 for hours at a time. Now granted the H-0-R-S-E battle is a little different than one on one, but hopefully the live All Star version is just as fun to watch!

Now for the one-on-one vintage Sixers matchups I'd like to see in a game of H-O-R-S-E:

Charles Barkley vs. Clarence Weatherspoon
-"Baby Barkley" vs. the "Real Barkley"

Scott Williams vs. Sharone Wright
-Battle of the Let Downs

Derrick Coleman vs. Glenn Robinson
-Battle of the Free Agent Frauds

Manute Bol vs. Shawn Bradley
-Fifteen Feet of Fame

Greg Grant vs. Speedy Claxton
-Mini-Me Squared

Mo Cheeks is Gone, Back to the Merry Go Round

The NBA is one big circus of coaches. I'm not sure what the mentality is with general managers, but it seems like once a month of every season there's another NBA coach getting fired. Maurice Cheeks, in his fourth season with the Sixers, was let go this weekend by the Sixers after his team just never took things to the next level as hoped, and in fact have gone through a slump in recent weeks. Now another coach will lead the team (temporarily it will be Tony DiLeo) until he proves that he cannot take the team to the next level, and so on and so forth. (Sorry to be negative Tony, even after winning today, but let's face facts, you're already on the hot seat, just like every other coach...). All in all, this is the fifth firing of the year in the NBA. In other words, don't get too comfy on your folding chair if you run a pro basketball team.

The NBA's internal job opening department must go through reams of paper to keep up to date with all of the new job postings, and each team's HR department must be scrambling to keep up with all of the interviews, personnel info, and health insurance plans with so many changes. Interestingly, it always seems to be the same coaches getting circulated amongst the teams. To a certain extent that's true in every sport, but seemingly more so in basketball. The Sixers are a perfect example, having had 6 different coaches in the last ten years and 12 different coaches in 20 years. That's a far cry from the Utah Jazz, where Jerry Sloan has reigned for the entire time in that span. But unfortunately, more teams are like the Sixers in this regard than the Jazz.

At any rate, best of luck to Mo Cheeks in whatever he does, and hopefully Tony DiLeo proves himself worthy enough to hang around for a while. Ultimately, as the saying goes, you can't fire the players, you fire the coaches, so we'll see how that old motto plays out. And we'll see how DiLeo's term plays out...

NBA Basketball: Yawn

I don't know. Maybe it's me. But I just can't seem to find much room for NBA basketball in my life.

I ventured to the Sixers game tonight with 3 friends. Free tickets, great seats, Sixers had a blow out win over Oklahoma City (who??). But the most memorable part turned out to be listening to my friend get excited over Matt Cord's echo effects on the PA system. This enthrallment led to endless imitations of said echo by using a plastic drinking cup and saying stupid words and sentences and ending them all with a fake echo. Oh yeah, that and seeing the Camden High School band win the evening's battle of the bands contest. In other words, the game was quite boring.

Unfortunately the NBA just doesn't have that spark like it once did, at least in my eyes. Maybe I got spoiled watching Jordan, Magic, Barkley, Bird, and players from that era who seemed to have a lot of personality, skills and heart. Or maybe it's just that it's the same old highlights over and over... dunks, blocked shots, and three pointers. It's not like football where there are so many possibilities of what will happen on any given play, or like baseball where there are countless intricate strategies going on at any moment, or even soccer where the players essentially do the same basic things as basketball players do but do it using their feet instead.

Not only that but every single second at the game there's some incessant music playing, promotion being announced, ad flashing all over the place or other unnecessary distraction going on. There really wasn't much noise at the half-empty Wachovia Center other than when there was music trying to pump people up or a few pep squad wannabes banging on boards trying to make noise. Just doesn't feel genuine to me, not to mention the fact that you can't even talk to your friends because the music's so loud.

Well, what can I say, I'm not much of an NBA fan. But at least college basketball is starting...

A Brief History of Canadian 76ers

Curiousity got the best of me today. Fortunately, the ever-helpful Mr. Google was there to satisfy my itch to find out about Canadians that have played for the Philadelphia 76ers. Why did I need to find this bit of useless information out? I don't know, same reason that your shoes stick to stadium walkways... it's simply a mysterious facet of life that you have to deal with.

Anyway, I searched "Canadian basketball players" and got this page from Wikipedia, which lists anybody who was/is relatively famous in the basketball circles in Canada. I zipped through list of 86 Canadain basketball players, clicking on each link to skim through each bio, and found that I'd never heard of most of the guys on there. The first name that jumped out at me, however, was the one and only Sixers' starting center for 2007, Mr. Samuel Dalembert. The trick with him is that he was born in Haiti, but apparently played basketball at high school in Montreal, Canada. So, does that count? I'll let you be the judge.

Of course I came across Todd MacCullough, a Sixers center from 1999-2003. His playing career was unfortunately cut short, but one of his claims to fame was having been born and raised in Winnipeg, Canada. He had a nice touch on his shot, but otherwise kind of slid under the radar during his brief career.

A few other Canadian gents played for the Sixers at one time or another. Here's the list of players I found:

-Rowan Barrett: Rowan was on the Sixers' squad in 1999. (Sorry, I couldn't even find any other information on what he did on the Sixers... must not have made much of an impact)

-Olu Famutimi: Well the information on Olu is pretty much as thin as it gets. Apparently Famutini, from Toronto, played in Sixers' training camp in 2005. So, umm, yeah, that's about all I got on him.

-Leo Rautins: Rautins (pictured) was drafted by the Sixers in 1983 out of Syracuse University with the 17th pick. In 28 appearances during his only season with the Sixers, Leo popped in 48 points, roped 29 assists, and pulled in 33 rebounds as a 6'8" forward. In 1985 he played for the Atlanta Hawks in four games. He then skipped off to Europe. He is now the coach of the Canadian national basketball team and can be heard as an analyst for the Toronto Raptors. Of note, Rautins has undergone 14 knee operations at the time of his retirement. That's one knee surgery for every two NBA games he played. Ouch. Also of note: his son Andy now also plays at Syracuse. Hopefully his knees fare better than his pop's set.

Well, that's a brief history of Canadian 76ers. Six Sixers (that I could find, at least) hailed from Canada. Don't you feel a bit more wordly?

Sorry for the Heat, Mr. Bell

I ask you first to read this article about Charlie Bell. (Note for Philly fans, this is not Philly related. Sorry.)

Now I ask you, is this a sob story?

The guy just signed a contract for $18.5 million dollars. And yet we get comments like:

-Bell is "getting his thoughts together." And...

-The 6-foot-3 Bell had said he did not want to play for Milwaukee and instead wanted to go to Miami. And...

-"Restricted free agency is a very tough process," Bartelstein said. "As a player, you don't know where you're going to be, you have through getting an offer sheet. It's hard, very hard."

Times is tough, times is tough.

The NBA: Ball + Basket = Billions

This past Wednesday, I went to see the Sixers play (and defeat) the Phoenix Suns at the Wachovia Center, the first game I've gone to in well over a year. The game was pretty good, save for the fact that Steve Nash was visibly not 100% and Shawn Marion was out for the game, thus rendering the Suns less potent than usual, but all in all it was a fun time.

While at the game I did some thinking. I saw Ed Snider-- the Sixers' President who represents Comcast, the team's owner-- walking around his establishment that holds around 20,000 fans on a full night. He watched his investments, errr, players who are collectively paid about $40-50 million run up and down the court. He undoubtedly smiled as he watched ticket-purchasing customers spend more hard-earned money by devouring overpriced food and beverages. And perhaps he thought about the income he would get from people who paid for parking, team gear, and other in-stadium purchases. And I'm sure he didn't forget the hundreds of ads that are plastered on the walls and other marketing messages announced throughout the game. He's got a lot to smile about... There's a lot of money floating around this building in just this one evening.

And all for putting a ball through a rim.

Think about it for a moment. A handful of guys in shorts, sleeveless jerseys, and sneakers run back and forth on a wood court trying to get a ball through a metal hoop. And people will pay tremendous amounts of money to witness it.

In fact, I did a quick estimate based on last year's Forbes Franchise Values and found that the NBA's teams are collectively worth well over $7 billion. All for getting that bouncy leather ball into a circular basket.

Is that unballievable or what?

Philly Sports Quest Profile: Ron Anderson

Ok, you just read the name "Ron Anderson" and I can GUARANTEE I already know what you're thinking.

Answer: Baseline jumper!

Ronald Gene Anderson was a Sixer from 1989 to 1993 and I think somewhere around 92.6% of his points came from hitting that baseline jumper from 10-15 feet out. Am I right?

In thinking about all of the players that I've ever seen play, I can't think of another player who made his living from that baseline jumper shot like Anderson did. Some players make their living in 3-point territory, some from planting themselves in the post, others from a jumper from the elbow, or something of that ilk. But Ron found that hole on the baseline and exploited it. And I'll tell you what, for a guy that put up 18 points per game over his career, he did pretty well for himself there. Shoot, the Sixers today I'm sure would love to have a guy like Anderson... a guy who can shoot reliably well (47% from the field during his career), hit his free throws (81%), get about 3-4 boards a game, not turn the ball over, and generally just fill in where needed. Nice kind of role player to have around.

But anyway, here are some little known facts that I just learned about our buddy (and that's what he seemed like... a buddy, average Joe kind of guy who just did his job with little fanfare)...
(Note, for some reason my prized bullet feature disappeared so I'm winging it with the bullets and also the hyperlinks)

-Ron went to Fresno State and joined the NBA in 1984 after just 2 years of college ball
-He played from '84 to '94 on 4 teams: Pacers, 76ers, Nets, Bullets, and scored over 7,000 points
-After the NBA he ventured off to play in France and later to Israel... nice gigs there for him I reckon
-He played on the '89/90 team with "Thump and Bump" (Charles Barkley and Rick Mahorn... Man, that must have been a fun locker room!), and yes, Chris Welp
-If you go here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyZilWOTi8U and here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFsrb-M3CJg

You can see a glimpse of Ron in action (#20)... Okay, so they were the best I could find. Sorry! (At least you got to see Manute Bol dunk-- twice!)

Well that about wraps it up for Ron Annnnnnndersonnnnnn, as he was affectionately called from the Sixers's PA announcer whenever he scored. Ahh, memories.

Till next time, keep the Philly Sports Quest alive!

That Mr. Smith is an Ice Guy

According to this recent news item, the Sixers' Joe Smith had over $100,000 in jewelry nabbed from his hotel in Philadelphia.

Um, simply, wow.

First, I don't think I'll ever see $100,000 worth of jewelry belonging to one person in my lifetime.

Second, on the off chance that I do see $100k+ of jewelry belonging to one person, I would hope that this person would not leave said jewelry in a hotel room, unsecured.

Last, I will never feel bad for an NBA player who is traded because he's a throw-in as part of a salary-maneuvering trade.