Tag NBA

The Problem with Playoffs

Danny Vinik Leave a comment

As I watch the NBA and NHL seasons winding down, I have been thinking about how many teams have stopped caring about winning, and instead are just trying to avoid injuries. So many teams in both leagues clinch a playoff berth or home field advantage and immediately rest their players. Now, if you’re a team ranked around 4-6 in each conference, I can understand resting players. Those teams have no shot at winning the league and thus have nothing really to play for, but for teams ranked above them that do have a chance to have the best record in their sport, why are you resting players?

The most underrated part of American Sports is the idea of how much more important the playoffs are than the regular season. Why is a team that does well during a 3-week stretch deemed the champion over a team that does well during a 5-month stretch? Why does a team that gets a couple lucky bounces in 15 games in the playoffs “better” than a team that is the best over the course of an entire season? The champion of soccer leagues throughout the rest of the world is considered to be the team who accumulates the most points (best record) throughout the entire season.

Now, like the metric system, doesn’t that make a lot more sense? Continue reading “The Problem with Playoffs” →

Allen Iverson: The Cancer of the NBA

Danny Vinik 1 Comment

The Detroit Pistons announced today that Allen Iverson is done for the season with a bad back. This comes just days after Iverson returned to the Pistons’ lineup, but in an unfamiliar role: as a reserve. Playing 21, 17, aiverson1nd 16 minutes in his three games back, Iverson complained about his playing time and even spoke about retirement. From Philadelphia to Denver to Detroit, the only thing we’ve learned about Allen Iverson is that he is a cancer.

 

The greatest players of all-time all have one thing: a championship ring. As great a player as Iverson is, he has had only one real chance to capture the crown and even that chance wasn’t that great. He took the 2001 Philadelphia 76ers to the NBA Finals, but they were easily defeated by the Lakers in five games. Except for that one season, Iverson’s record in the playoffs with the 76ers is 17-23, nothing to brag about. He may have been a superstar during his time with the 76ers, but he never was a winner.

 

Then he was traded to Denver to team up with Carmelo Anthony with what was deemed the best 1-2 punch in the NBA. Iverson was even more unsuccessful with the Nuggets as he won only one out of nine playoff games in his two seasons there. The tandem of him and Anthony should have done better. They should have been nearly unstoppable. All Anthony and Iverson had to do was to play unselfishly and to give the ball up for them to win. For whatever reason, neither really did that and the Nuggets never threatened for the Western Conference crown. Continue reading “Allen Iverson: The Cancer of the NBA” →

Leaving The NBA?

Danny Vinik 1 Comment

Yesterday, Josh Childress became the fifth NBA player this year to dart from the pros in America and cross the water to Europe. Now a former Atlanta Hawk, Childress was a restricted free agent, meaning the Hawks could match any offer by another NBA team. Unfortunately for Atlanta, Childress signed with Olympiakos, a Greek team, so they do not have the chance to match the offer. That means Childress is gone. The deal with Olympiakos was worth $20 million over three years. Childress is a very good sixth-man and a great energy guy off the bench for the Hawks, but I don’t think he is worth more than six million dollars a year.

So Olympiakos overpaid, but that isn’t exactly newsworthy in sports. What is newsworthy is that a key NBA player chose to play in an inferior league overseas instead of the NBA. It has even been reported that the Hawks were offering Childress a deal worth around $36 million. If Childress was getting a solid deal from Atlanta, then why did he choose to leave the NBA. As I said above, this seems to be a growing theme amongst NBA players as Childress is the fifth, and most notable, player to leave the NBA for a European league this year. Continue reading “Leaving The NBA?” →