A Brooklyn Culture Mafia

[padraig (u.s.)]

Will the Brooklyn Nets pull it together with Kyrie and a healthy Kevin Durant?

if Harden manages to force a trade, maybe. I still don't understand how that trinity would actually work with only one ball, but they'd at least have the firepower you'd think to challenge the Lakers. they have a pretty nice peripheral cast of players too.

just Kyrie and Durant idk, definitely a contender in the East but how strong of one depends on how well Durant comes back from an Achilles tear - one of the most devastating injuries - and I certainly wouldn't rate them much of a threat to the Lakers even if they made it out of the East

 

[Leo]

I like college ball because it's more unpredictable. there are stars, but they are still unseasoned kids with raw talent as opposed to highly calibrated scoring machines, so anything can happen. and the passion of the young screaming fans just amplifies the excitement, as opposed to an arena filled with older folks (the only ones who can afford hundreds of dollars for a ticket) who clap politely and then leave at the start of the court quarter to beat the traffic home.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

and you said (if I remember) that dunks are "the blackest thing ever"

wait what?

 

[IdleRich]

Basketball scoring is more attritional... it always reminds me of (and I know this sounds crazy) cricket in that the pattern slowly emerges over the course of the game rather than down to particular moments... events.

 

[IdleRich]

wait what?

That was your words.

 

[Leo]

Cycling seems to me the most psychotic of sports... what they put themselves through in the big events is just crazy.

I was originally talking about team sports. I mean, wrestling, boxing and ultimate fighting are obviously more physical than basketball.

 

[IdleRich]

Ah it wasn't you @padraig (u.s.) - sorry... some guy called Trouc

The dunk's the ultimate expression of individual style and flair in a sport that's perfect for it. Over here it's about the blackest thing possible. You've got some company with old curmudgeons in hating it, but most of em died off in the 70s...

 

[IdleRich]

I was originally talking about team sports. I mean, wrestling, boxing and ultimate fighting are obviously more physical than basketball.

More physical but not necessarily requiring a higher level of fitness. I dunno. I don't even know what that means really.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

Ah it wasn't you @padraig (u.s.) - sorry... some guy called Trouc

OK there we go

yeah I do know exactly what he meant by that and he's not wrong - there was a huge racial dynamic around the rise of the dunk, the NCAA (college basketball) literally banned it to prevent Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Lew Alcindor at the time) specifically and black athletes in general from taking over the game. and more generally there have been many racially-tinged and/or euphemistic headaches on the road to modern-day, which the pros are lazy narrative unfortunately plays into.

but I definitely would've expressed it, yunno, more subtly

 

[IdleRich]

Ha yeah fair enough, I don't intend to put words in anyone's mouth obviously.
Never knew it was banned. Isn't it KAJ who is in Airplane incognito as a pilot or something and the kid is going "My dad says you're lazy".

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

Cycling seems to me the most psychotic of sports... what they put themselves through in the big events is just crazy

cycling is possibly the only sport I love more than basketball (combat sports are a distant third)

and its mythology of suffering and agony is totally deranged. Simpson dying on Mont Ventoux is like a symbolic apogee - Pantani as well in this sense that you they died largely for the sins of entire eras of cycling - but just in general the fetishization of suffering especially certain segments of the fanbase is wild

 

[IdleRich]

I read his columns occasionally, weird how sometimes I will read stuff about NFL, cycling, whatever although watching any of them (especially NFL of course) is just total anathema to me. Although his columns are not just about sport fair enough.

 

[Leo]

as a Celtics fan, I'm not big on Kyrie, chemistry wasn't right for the team. love the young Celtic talent, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, coupled with vets Kemba Walker and Marcus Smart. and of course, crowd-pleaser tacko fall. still lacking the big man in the middle, tho.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

Never knew it was banned

only in college basketball, for about 10 years, late 60s-late 70s

and yeah that's KAJ in Airplane, directly refuting the myth of (black) laziness - his answer to the kid is "you tell your dad to trying dragging Walton and Lanier [two tough, skilled, athletic giants] up and down the court for 48 minutes every night". Kareem is obviously a very intelligent, articulate dude.

 

[IdleRich]

cycling is possibly the only sport I love more than basketball (combat sports are a distant third)

and its mythology of suffering and agony is totally deranged. Simpson dying on Mont Ventoux is like a symbolic apogee - Pantani as well in this sense that you they died largely for the sins of entire eras of cycling - but just in general the fetishization of suffering especially certain segments of the fanbase is wild

Yeah my friend who I used to play squash with (or rather he used to teach me cos he was a lot better) absolutely loves all that stuff. He was a fast-bowler in cricket and he loved the gladiatorial aspect of battering the batsmen really hard with the ball... also I played squash with my friend and she said "Need a rest before the next point of I'll faint" and my friend said "Continuous play - no mercy"... anyway, the point is he just stopped doing all that and only does cycling all day every day, he won't even hit the squash ball around with me cos he only wants to concentrate on cycling fitness etc

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

there are wild stories of the racism NBA players in earlier eras endured

Bill Russell - legend, one of the greatest players ever, 5-time MVP - is to this day bitter about the racism he experienced in Boston, a town he won fucking eleven NBA championships for. which is partially just, yunno, Boston (and I say that as a person with extensive family roots there) but also it was pretty standard in those days.

the Clippers had an openly racist owner - Donald Sterling, basically a West Coast Trump-lite - until 2014

 

[IdleRich]

My favourite sport is obviously football by miles... then, I dunno maybe squash to play, it's kinda like sublimated fighting I guess, a one-on-one battle with no (or minimal) touching but intense all the same.

 

[IdleRich]

there are wild stories of the racism NBA players in earlier eras endured

Bill Russell - legend, one of the greatest players ever, 5-time MVP - is to this day bitter about the racism he experienced in Boston, a town he won fucking eleven NBA championships for. which I mean, yunno, Boston (and I say that as a person with extensive family roots there) but also it was pretty standard in those days.

And baseball.. who was the guy who got sent a bullet when he was gonna beat the home run record?
But football same of course... monkey noises, bananas thrown on the pitch and so on.

 

[padraig (u.s.)]

who was the guy who got sent a bullet when he was gonna beat the home run record?

Hank Aaron

 

[Leo]

the college ban on dunking was a big factor in Lew/Kareem developing his legendary skyhook shot.