NBA Geeks
Picking up from where
GuacamOLI left off, a job as an NBA team analyst is the Mt. Everest for this jock poser who's a true geek at heart. It's nothing new, it's being done by experts and
amateurs alike. I remember reading an article on ESPN The Mag of how Gregg Popovich and the Spurs use game analysis software and statistics to help them scout their opponents and even study their own players' strengths and weaknesses. They watch and re-watch stacks of game tape (with 30 teams and 82 regular season games each, that makes 1,230 games) in order to break down every offensive and defensive play.
Imagine a defender facing up, one-on-one, against Kobe or Dwyane Wade in the dying seconds of a tied game. He is trying his best to avoid becoming the fodder for this superstar's cannon, for all to see, repeatedly, in an ESPN highlight reel. Through a strange brew of math, a keen sense of observation, and innate basketball instinct, this hapless defender could figure out, up to a certain level of confidence, the offensive player's next move---where he'd likely take his next shot---and whether the best ploy is to force him to go to his left or his right where a secondary defender would be waiting. The defender would make his decision, he'd take his chances based on a number, a probability, and let the chips fall as they may. He would gamble, yes, but he would do so with a loaded die. Instead of putting up Xs and Os, and telling his players, "Ok, Chito, this is you, Joey, this is you", while holding a magnetic clipboard, a coach could mouth off numbers like, "61% going to the left, 45% to the right, 36% at the 3-pt line, 28% fade-away jump shot, 16% chance he'll pass up the final shot and give it to an open teammate etc., etc., ".
In the pros where games are played at blinding speed, it's a tug-of-war between instinct and reason, while instinct wins 3 out of 5 times, the numbers, at least, help put some method in the madness. Coaches like Don Nelson, formerly of Dallas Mavericks, relied on numbers to decide whether or not his team would double-team a player of Tim Duncan's caliber on the low post. Even NBA.com puts up players' efficiency ratings*, both in aid of fantasy leagues and sports analysts, so they can say, with some amount of conviction, why they think so and so is better than this or that player.
Notes:
* EFI : [(points + rebounds + assists + steals + blocks) - ((FGA - FGM) + (FTA - FTM) + TO)] / Games
No Thanks
The big, sad, news today is the stampede at the Ultra.
Wowowee host Revillame earlier apologized for the tragic accident. He said, "We only wanted to make these people happy and
help the poor". How does giving a million pesos, or a thousand here and there, to a handful of people help the poor?
Sermon
I believe that a good pulpit sermon does not preach or moralize, but compels one to think hard on the state of one's life. Last Sunday's exhortation could not even spark a flicker of thought in my head. I'm not sure which hit me first, the listener's block or the overwhelming desire to leave and bum around at the children's Sunday School area. As it was, I stood up and spent the rest of the morning outside with the rest of the stray flock. I don't blame the preacher, it's us. We couldn't sit back, in relative discomfort, for a good hour or so and set aside the grim nuisances of our real lives to listen to God's message.
The first few minutes are critical. The preacher virtually walks the fine line between an eye-opening or a sleep-inducing sermon. And I have seen people, as I often sit at the back rows, bobbing their heads like chickens pecking corn, lost in slumbers. It makes me snicker, and alternately, saddened at the thought of what they could be missing. "For each minute we close our eyes, we lose sixty seconds of light"*...
...and gain a minute of rest and respite from the troubles of the world? It depends on where one's mind wanders off while he is asleep.
* * *
I swear, I may have seen every single sports-themed movie featured in the last decade or so. That includes Whoopi Goldberg's stint as head coach of the New York Knicks in "Eddie", and other similarly pitiful outings. There's something in them that draws me in no matter how horrid the trailer looks (think "6th Man"). So when I came upon the trailer of this new football movie, "Goal!", I immediately made a mental note to see it. I was sold on the movie's simple by-line, "one life to live". It lit a spark, so to speak. I find stories of triumph of the human spirit in the face of adversity irresistable, even inspirational. One finds inspiration from the strangest things, and similary, I happen to find myself crying at the strangest of provocations. Like when I'm watching a highlight reel of John Stockton sinking a three at the buzzer to send the Utah Jazz to their first ever finals series, but that story is fit for a different day. Anyway, I'm sure to find myself crying at the heart-rending, triumphant moments of this movie and no amount of potential embarassment and teasing could stop me from doing so.
* Words of Gabriel Garcia-Marquez (according to the widely-circulated farewell letter).
