Monthly Archives: April 2011

Is ref Danny Crawford biased against the Dallas Mavericks? And why isn’t the NBA smart enough to run basic statistical analyses?

By Sam Smith | Published: April 19, 2011
The NBA assigned referee Danny Crawford to work tonight’s Dallas Mavericks/Portland Trailblazers game, touching off a series of galloping hissy fits across Greater East Texas/Shreveport metropolitan area. The reason for the unhappiness can be found in this paragraph. See if you can spot it. The Mavs have a 2-16 record in playoff games officiated by Crawford, [...]
Posted in Basketball | 19 Comments

The Most Valuable of All

By Mike Lux | Published: April 11, 2011
There have been many all time greats lists put together over the years, and the debates those lists generate are a blast. But I’m going to make the argument that the conventional wisdom standard for the all time greatest player which is assumed by so many writers – that Michael Jordan is the undisputed number one against whom all other players have to be measured and found wanting – is like most conventional wisdom – wrong.
Posted in Uncategorized | 53 Comments

The UConn/Butler trainwreck proves it: we need to be done with one-and-done

By Sam Smith | Published: April 5, 2011
Last night’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship Game doesn’t get a recap. It gets a post-mortem. I won’t mince words – it was the worst championship game I can recall seeing in my lifetime. Hell, it was one of the worst college basketball games I’ve ever seen, period. That may be because when games get this [...]
Posted in Basketball | 2 Comments