The Basketball Jones

"Basketball Jones, I got a Basketball Jones, Got a Basketball Jones, oh baby, oo-oo-ooo"

The famous song from Space Jam, Basketball Jones, is a tune that I'll never forget.  It has a sound all its own, and it just so happens to also be the name of one of my favorite basketball related blogs. The Basketball Jones is written as a collaborative project between a few writers, but my favorite writer of the bunch is definitlely the man who also serves as editor of the blog, Trey Kirby.  

Trey takes a mainly sarcastic tone in his blog.  The Basketball Jones focuses on obscure stories in the world of basketball.  For example, in one of his most recent posts entitled Jose Calderon just wants to sell some hams, geez, Trey talks about Toronto Raptors point guard Jose Calderon, and his stake of ownership in a pig farm.  Trey starts the post, 

"Hey guys, lay off Jose Calderon about the pig farm he is part owner of, OK? Just relax about it, so he can sell hams in peace."  

From this opening sentence and the title of the article, you can clearly see the sarcastic nature of his blog.  No one is really giving Jose Calderon a hard time that he owns part of a pig farming enterprise.  But the fact that he is from Spain, famous for their cured pig meats, and he plays in the NBA (he isn't poor), makes for a funny premise. Through his written sarcasm, Trey points out the ironies of specific situations in the NBA.  He finishes the post, 

"Enough with the Hams, moving on, sheesh."

By ending sentences with words like "geez" and "sheesh", Trey uses the slang to show that these sentences are overly sarcastic, as these words are normally meant to dismiss a topic.  

This sarcastic voice stays pretty consistent throughout most of Trey's writing on the blog, and he continues to use it to show the absurdity behind some stories from the NBA.  It is a perfect complement to the topics he blogs on, as they are not really basketball news, but more fun and unnecessary  side stories that a reader might otherwise never know about certain players or teams, and could definitely be a great fan without ever knowing.  The stories are short but sweet, and his posts are almost his train of thought put onto paper.  

 In another post entitled "Tim Duncan will Pimp Your Ride", Trey starts off by saying,

"Yo dawg, we heard you like basketball players, so we put a basketball player in your car customization shop."

For anyone who has seen the once hit tv show, Pimp My Ride, it is easy to see that through slang and great use of punctuation, Trey is imitating the voice of rapper Xzibit in this opening, the host of the show.  He is doing this to show the hilarity behind one of the best basketball players of all time's favorite hobbies.  He continues his sarcasm by saying, 

"If we know anything about Tim Duncan, it’s that his custom creations will be very efficient, probably black and silver, definitely Punisher themed, and people will complain that they’re boring even while agreeing that they’re some of the best cars available."

This is a reference to the fact that Tim Duncan as a basketball player, while definitely not the most fun to watch, is one of the best players of all time.  He even earned the nickname the Big Fundamental for his plodding and meticulous style of play.  

From these two posts (of many, many more), Trey's voice is very evident and distinct.  He uses sarcasm to expound on funny side stories from the world of professional basketball, and he is a great read for anyone who might be interested.  This blog is great for all basketball fans and sports fans in general.  Go ahead, give it a whirl!

Lost Angeles

As most of my readers know, I've been known to rant during my blog posts.  I get frustrated with bad basketball management, and it comes out in my writing.  The same is true of one of my favorite blogs, Lost Angeles.  This blog is all about USC Football and the frustrations that came to their fan base when the NCAA handed down sanctions to them.  The blog is written by USC Alum Zack Jerome, who I've actually had the pleasure to meet and socialize with, and he's a die hard USC fan who knows plenty about football to boot (find the blog here).  As he says, he's "hell with a pen".   Zack is an amazing writer, and during his rants he picks on USC opponents with sarcasm and wit.  Here's what he had to say about USC's upcoming game, "I humbly throw my chiseled, handsome frame on the barbecue so you may all smell the aroma of greatness.  I’m hell with a pen and it’s time for you to appreciate that it’s the day before the day before."   I know that a football blog isn't necessarily related to a basketball management blog, but I would hope that most of my readers are sports fans, and I wanted to share this awesome blog with all of you.

Zack posts every week, twice a week.  Once before the USC game, his arrogant game preview or AGP, and once a few days after the game, his game recap.  His blog is pretty popular for a small blog not run by a larger company (such as ESPN).  He is ranked 84,162 in America (according to www.alexa.com).

I know this blog doesn't really relate to basketball, but I love all sports, and I love this blog.  It doesn't try to be what its not.  Zack often mentions how he's not ESPN and his score predictions for games often don't even include real numbers.  It's a fun, casual blog about a sport and team that he loves, and that's what makes it great.

One of the most interesting posts on the blog came the week before the first games of the college football season.  Zack calls it his Arrogant Nation Mission Statement.  The post was about his and the USC football team's goals for the year, and it got so many views it crashed the site.  You can find the post here.  Zack likes to be what he calls "Arrogant".  A lifestyle he thinks USC students and alums embody in the best way.  He often goes into detail in his posts about specific players, both Trojans and opposing team players.  He also talks about the coaches and programs in general.  He likes to pick on and make fun of the other teams, and often does it in very witty ways.  His typical banter is on full display in his most recent post about the recent USC vs. Colorado game. (On Colorado: "Look, you named your team the Buffaloes, an animal famous for being easily hunted and almost dying out.") You can see it here.

Zack's audience is mainly USC current students and alumni, but fans of opposing teams often frequent the blog leaving less than intelligent trash talk in their wake.  Zack often responds to the trojans opponents, putting them to shame every time.  

I love reading Zack's posts because I can see his passion come through in his writing.  This is the same thing I try to achieve in my blog.  Being passionate about the mistakes and successes of basketball management, while having the facts to back it up.  My site obviously differs in the fact that it is more generally about professional basketball as a whole, but at their core, both of our blogs are the ranting of passionate fans of their sport.  I hope that this comes through in my posts, and my audience enjoys reading them as much as I enjoy writing them.  

Basketball Bookmarking

Recently I have begun tagging websites on the internet.  What I mean by this is that I have been using social bookmarking on sites such as Diigo and Delicious to tag articles about basketball and see who else has viewed the same articles.  By doing this, I am able to find people who also love to read about hoops online, and may have tagged other websites that I have either not visited in a long time, or I have never seen before.  It has been very helpful to me in my ongoing basketball research as well as for my personal enjoyment.  While I was searching around the web, I happened on another web surfer who seemed to share many of my interests.  My social bookmarking soulmate if you will.  User kieranrae08 is someone who seems very interested in basketball.

I first noticed this person because of the way he/she tags her pages.  Her bookmarking topics varied from "basketball", to "basketball coaching", to "drills, to "training", to"nba".  It would appear that not only is kieranrae08 an avid basketball fan but he/she is also a coach or an aspiring one at least.  Many of her websites are devoted to basketball news and information (the kind of sites I look for online), while the other half are all devoted to improving as a basketball coach, with specific drills, tips, and guides for basketball coaches of all levels.  He/she is also very organized in the way he/she tags the articles.  First any article is tagged with "basketball".  Then the sub-categories are listed.  If it is a coaching page then it will probably be tagged "basketball coaching" along with "drills", "tips", or "plays".  If its a basketball news site it is tagged with "nba" and other specific markers like "espn" or "nba finals coverage".

In terms of his/her bookmarking practices, kieranrae08 has bookmarked around sixteen different pages about basketball on the varying topics I discussed in the above paragraph.  He/she was doing a lot of bookmarking in the month of June, but has not done much since.  This is sad as the websites he/she was tagging were all very useful for all shapes and sizes of basketball fans.  Kieranrae08 isn't necessarily the most thorough book-marker (he/she doesn't highlight and comment on the websites she bookmarks), but he/she makes up for it with her wide variety of tagged sites she has visited.  Maybe when he/she comes back from her bookmarking hiatus, he/she will be more thorough when bookmarking websites and will leave his/her own insights on the new and old pages that he/she visits.

There are definitely a few hidden gems that kieranrae08 has discovered.  Basketball websites that even I have never stumbled upon.  There are two in particular that stand out to me.  Sheridan Hoops is a well organized and beautifully laid out, all-purpose basketball blog.  With its multitude of topics on everything from free agency, to fantasy hoops, to the European leagues, it seems like a very useful basketball information gathering tool.  I was surprised at myself for never having heard of it before (you can find it here).  The second site that stood out to me was Breakthrough Basketball.  This is an essential resource for people coaching on any level of the sport.  As a former coach of youth basketball myself, I know I will use this page if I ever start coaching again.  There are thousands of plays, drills, and pieces of advice for coaches (find it here).

Kieranrae08 is an excellent basketball book-marker and an excellent source for all of you, my readers.  Whether you are trying to find basketball stats, news, and information, or are looking to brush up on your coaching chops, he/she definitely has exactly what you need.  Check him/her out if you don't believe me!

Moneyball

Now I know this is usually a basketball blog but I just had to post about this.  What a year for Billy Beane! I mean first you've got this guy playing you in a movie.

The Brad

If I ever have Bradley Pitt playing me in a movie call my life complete.  On top of this, the Athletic's are on fire, just locked up the American League East, and are a dark horse world series candidate.  Beane is the absolute man, and no one can touch him.  Moneyball is in full swing like it was 2003.  

The NBA has a rare problem these days.  All of the superstar players are teaming up rather than competing against each other.  In the 80's and 90's Bird, Magic, and Jordan had famous rivalries.  Nowadays, the Lakers, Thunder, and Heat are the only teams with a shot at the title.  Many general managers are wondering how they can possibly compete in smaller markets.  Players are bolting as soon as they become free agents to go play in the bigger markets of Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, and Boston.  

Hard to compete with...

The answer is moneyball.  Billy Beane's system in baseball is to sign players that are undervalued by other teams but perform well in certain statistical categories.  By doing this, Beane is able to build efficient teams that compete with the likes of the New York Yankees who have unlimited spending power.  

I believe this system is also possible in basketball.  Teams in smaller markets must try to sign undervalued players that can help them compete.  Teams should focus on certain statistical categories and sign players that mesh well together and have good +/- differentials.  But what categories would work for basketball?  The first few that come to mind are shooting percentage, usage rate, free throw percentage, and rebound rate.  By meshing efficient players together who hit a high percentage of their shots and love to share the ball, I believe a small market team could build  a championship contending roster.  

There are some potential drawbacks to moneyball in basketball.  Baseball is very much a one-on-one sport.  A player comes to the plate, and then its him versus the defense until he either gets on base or gets out.  Basketball is a team sport with five players working together on the court at the same time.  The pieces must mesh while also being efficient as individual players.  Each player brings different skill sets to the table.  This would have to be accounted for in a formula for moneyball in basketball.  

This system of moneyball in basketball could make for a much more competitive NBA, and therefore a more exciting product for the fans.  Research has been done on how certain statistics affect winning percentage, and how players affect each other while they are on the court together.  Much more research in these categories could lead to a refined system of moneyball in basketball.  More small market teams should use this system to be able to compete with the big market teams that can outspend them and have the endorsement appeal that the bigger markets bring for players.  Moneyball is the answer, teams in smaller markets just need to start using it.