Consolation Champs

I was out celebrating my birthday last night, and so missed the NBA All-Star game, but the statistics point out exactly what’s wrong with the game today. 44 dunks and 16 missed free throws (out of 32). The truth is that players are no longer shooting the ball all that accurately. Free throws are just the most glaring example. Sports Illustrated had an article this week about why most NBA games are so low-scoring. Sure, there’s some better defence being played. But on the whole, I think there are far too many shots clanging off the rim these days. If I were a coach, I’d have my players shooting hours of free throws.

UPDATE: 12-time All-Star Oscar Robertson just published a scathing piece in the Sunday New York Times slamming the NBA’s deterioration into a shoe-selling organization and decrying the lack of fundamental skills among many of today’s players. Choice quotes:

• “Many players can’t dribble or defend. It’s dunks and 3-pointers, with nothing in between.”
• “When people tell me that scores are lower because defenses are better, I have to laugh.”
• “The NBA has made a conscious decision to function as a marketing and entertainment organization, and seems much more concerned with selling sneakers, jerseys, hats and highlight videos than with the product it puts on the floor.”

(Link – free NYT registration required)

P.S. Paul, if you’re reading this, I promise one day to blog about “What’s Wrong With Our Political System” but, contrary to Mr. Chomsky’s views, I don’t see that as quite as simple. We could start by getting our politicians to shoot more free throws, though.

I’ve always been a huge fan of the Olympics. The first Olympic games I remember were those in Munich in 1972. I was seven. I’ve always been drawn by the idealism and innocence of the Olympic Movement, and the Opening and Closing ceremonies more often than not find me in tears. I watched the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid on my tiny black and white TV, and I remember my shock at witnessing the US hockey team beat our Canadian boys. “Miracle on Ice” indeed! In 1984, I even developed an unhealthy and inexplicable crush on the dwarfish and overtoothed American gymnast Mary Lou Retton. My name is James, and I’m an Olympics junkie.

All this is fresh again this year as I eagerly anticipate the Summer Games in Athens. For my birthday, I asked for (and received!) the excellent Criterion DVD of Kon Ichikawa’s amazing document of the 1964 games, Tokyo Olympiad. I could watch the segment on Ethiopian marathoner Abebe Bikila over and over. The film also features the surprising victory in the men’s 10,000 metre race of previously unknown American Billy Mills, whose life was featured in the film Running Brave.

If you’re interested in some of the amazing stories behind the Summer Olympics, a great book is David Wallechinsky’s The Complete Book of the Summer Olympics, which he updates every four years.

There are also some very cool web sites if you’re interested in doing a little Olympic surfing:

• Official Site of the International Olympic Committee – there’s also a good section on the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, whose existence was previously unknown to me.
• Official Site of the Athens 2004 Summer Games
• Official Site of the Beijing 2008 Summer Games
• Olympicanadiana
• Canadian Olympic Commitee
• United States Olympic Committee

I also found some sites for cities that are bidding for the 2012 games. It might seem very early, but the decision will actually be made next July.

• New York 2012 Olympic Bid – this bid has been endorsed by the USOC, but San Francisco, Pittsburgh and Houston were also under consideration at one time.
• London 2012 Olympic Bid

See, the title of this entry is pretty accurate, huh?