GMATCallahan wrote:MrMiyagi wrote:Skip Bayless is a jackass.
... point being that most media people know nothing about basketball. I got a kick out of hearing Marv Albert again trying to editorialize and analyze the game on a couple of occasions during the Game One broadcast and, as usual, totally missing the boat.
Most of these folks are just disseminate hype.
Regarding Albert's fallacious comments, first there was a play in the second quarter where Enes Kanter stepped up to contest or take away a potential jump-shot by Klay Thompson as the Warrior guard curled off a Festus Ezeli down-screen on the right wing. Thompson then hit the rolling Ezeli with a pocket pass that Ezeli, now uncovered because Kanter had stepped up on Thompson, took in stride for the score. Albert claimed that Kanter had been guarding the wrong guy, indicating that the Thunder big man had committed a mental mistake. Actually, Kanter was doing what he probably should have done, not giving Thompson space for his jumper. Oklahoma City's weak-side defense just did not rotate to Ezeli in time, and Albert had possessed no idea what he was talking about.
Then there was a play out of a timeout early in the third quarter where Kevin Durant posted up on the left block and kicked the ball to an open Andre Roberson on the right wing for a successful three-pointer. Albert lauded the Thunder for supposedly drawing up a great play out of a timeout, but in actuality, Golden State had simply suffered a defensive mix up. Both Harrison Barnes and Draymond Green ended up defending Serge Ibaka as the big man cut down the middle, while no one guarded Roberson. There was no intricate movement or back-screening on the play, either—just a mix up in assignments. After the three-pointer, Green was visibly upset about the confusion, yet according to Albert, it represented some incredible designed play.
And I reviewed these plays multiple times (via the "rewind" button on my remote).
Albert was doing this kind of thing in the nineties, too, if not earlier. Most memorably, he stated that John Starks should have stopped shooting late in Game Seven of the 1994 NBA Finals where Starks infamously shot 2-18 from the field and 0-11 on threes. Actually, Starks, who was New York's leading offensive player in that series (he would have been the Finals MVP had the Knicks won in six, which they almost did), and who had been an All-Star that year, was shooting a lot of good shots or normal shots within the flow of the Knicks' offense, usually with sufficient space and rhythm. If he had been unwilling to shoot the next one because of all his previous misses, New York's offense would not have functioned properly, he would have been a coward, and he should not have been on the floor. Starks was playing the game the right way and taking the shots that he needed to take—they just were not going in. But Albert got on his soap box and condemned the way that Starks was playing, even though the guard was doing nothing wrong.
The same thing happened three years later in another winner-take-all game, Game Five of the 1997 Western Conference First Round between the Suns and the Sonics in Seattle. Kevin Johnson, who suffered a cold-shooting series and was playing on a sprained ankle, ended up shooting 8-27 for the game and went 1-7 in the fourth quarter (with 2 assists and 0 turnovers in the period). According to Albert, he should have stopped shooting jumpers and ran the offense more patiently. The problem with the broadcaster's analysis was twofold. First, the Suns were trailing by double digits for nearly the entire fourth quarter (they would end up losing by 24 points), and there was no time to patiently run the offense. Phoenix needed lots of points in very little time, which meant shooting the first good shot that materialized. Second, that philosophy was exactly how the Suns—down by 22 points at halftime—had stormed back in the third quarter, cutting Seattle's lead to eight entering the fourth quarter and down to five points after the first possession of the final period (when Wesley Person buried a long three-pointer off a Kevin Johnson assist). When Phoenix had mounted its spectacular third quarter comeback, K.J. had scored 12 points on 5-10 field goal shooting. At one point, after a driving layup plus the foul, Albert exclaimed, "Kevin Johnson inspiring the Phoenix Suns!" And the Suns were playing a four-guard offense with Johnson, Person, Jason Kidd, and Rex Chapman, and they were all using that approach of launching the first good or reasonable shot available—obviously encouraged by their head coach, former shooting guard Danny Ainge. Even Kidd was coming down the court and bombing threes from the wings. The Suns were basically previewing Mike D'Antoni's "Seven Seconds Or Less," only they were using that philosophy even more deliriously and thrillingly due to the presence of two floor-burning point guards and two lithe shooting guards all on the floor together, conventional positions be damned. So naturally, the Suns maintained the same approach in the fourth quarter, and that approach became even more necessary as the Sonics' lead again swelled and time was dwindling. But now Albert found it problematic and seemed to believe that Kevin Johnson and the Suns should have milked the shot clock in a conventional manner. He even analogized K.J. to Starks in 1994—and he was as wrong now as he had been three years earlier. For again, he did not understand process and was just trying to judge the game on results, which represents a slipshod form of analysis.
But many fans and media members believe that loudmouths such as Skip Bayless and Marv Albert actually know what they are talking about, or at least these people shape perceptions of what is occurring.
