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Sports Quote of the Day:
"Never quit. It is the easiest cop-out in the world. Set a goal and don't quit until you attain it. When you do attain it, set another goal, and don't quit until you reach it. Never quit." ~ Paul "Bear Bryant, Legendary University of Alabama Football Coach
Texas Western's 1966 title left lasting legacy.
By Frank Fitzpatrick (Special to ESPN Classic, Wednesday, November 19, 2003.)
Note: With "Black History Month" just ending and the NCAA "March Madness Tournament" starting March 18, I thought I would take you on a stroll down memory lane. Please read this article and if you would like a little visual gratification, please see the movie, "Glory Road". I promise you'll like it. ~ Marion P. Jelks, Chicago Sports & Travel, Inc./AllsportsAmerica Editor.
Watch the 1966 NCAA Championship game now and you'll probably wonder what all the fuss is about.
This is the most important college game ever played? It looks more like Princeton-Dartmouth on a Friday night in January.
Ten players in laughably short pants move slowly through 40 minutes of ordinary basketball. There's not much drama, very little passion, and, in 2001, you'll see more athletic talent at many high school games.
The NCAA title game had yet to morph into March Madness when Kentucky and Texas Western met that Saturday night, March 19, 1966, in the University of Maryland's Cole Field House. There was so little madness surrounding the contest, in fact, that its starting time was 10 p.m., it wasn't carried by a major network, and it was televised only on a tape-delayed basis in several American cities.
But examine the grainy film more closely. The crowd is white. So are the NCAA officials, the referees, the coaches, the cheerleaders and almost all the sportswriters on press row. High in the bleachers, Kentucky fans wave a Confederate flag as the Wildcats' five white players line up for the opening tap.
Then history steps into the picture.
Walking toward the red "M" at center court, in their orange uniforms and white Converse All-Stars, are the five starters for Texas Western. They are all black.
Until that moment, at the height of the civil-rights era, no major-college team had ever started five blacks in an NCAA championship game. In fact, until Texas Western coach Don Haskins did it earlier that season, no major-college team had ever started five blacks in ANY game.
For the first time that night, on the edge of the Mason-Dixon Line, a major American sports championship would be contested by one team that was all-white and another whose starters were entirely black.
"What a piece of history. If basketball ever took a turn, that was it," said Nolan Richardson, the Arkansas coach who played for Haskins at Texas Western.
Texas Western, an independent from remote El Paso, was little known outside the Southwest despite its 27-1 record and its No.3 ranking. Their 72-65 victory that night over No.1 Kentucky, coached by the legendary Adolph Rupp, stunned college basketball and upset conventional wisdom.
In 1966, American cultural and sporting mythology insisted at least one white starter was necessary for success. Black athletes, prevailing wisdom implied, needed the steadying hand of a white teammate. Otherwise, games would dissolve into chaos.
"There was a certain style of play whites expected from blacks," said Perry Wallace, who a year later at Vanderbilt became the first black basketball player in the Southeastern Conference. "`Nigger ball' they used to call it. Whites then thought that if you put five blacks on the court at the same time, they would somehow revert to their native impulses."
Sportswriters who had never seen Texas Western play until that weekend and knew nothing about the team but its curious racial makeup helped sustain those racist myths.
"Rod Hundley, the former West Virginia and Lakers star, had the funny quote of the tournament when he was talking about Texas Western," wrote John W. Stewart in the Baltimore Sun that weekend. "`They can do everything with the basketball but sign it.'"
"The Miners, who don't worry much about defense but try to pour the ball through the hoop as much as possible, will present quite a challenge to Kentucky," wrote the Sun's James H. Jackson. "The running, gunning Texas quintet can do more things with a basketball than a monkey on a 50-foot jungle wire."
In fact, the opposite was true. Texas Western walked the ball up court, ran a rigidly patterned offense, and emphasized defense-- allowing just 62 points a game.
"We were more white-oriented than any of the other teams in the Final Four (Duke and Utah were the others)," said Texas Western guard Willie Worsley. "We played the most intelligent, the most boring, the most disciplined game of them all."
No.1-ranked Kentucky, meanwhile, was the run-and-gun team. Rupp's Runts, featuring future NBA coach Pat Riley, future ESPN broadcaster Larry Conley and Louie Dampier, were small, quick and athletic. And, like all of coach Adolph Rupp's teams, they ran at every opportunity.
That night, to the surprise of almost everyone, Texas Western's defense and superior rebounding stifled Kentucky. The Wildcats, whose only previous loss had come to Tennessee (on the same day Seattle beat Texas Western), shot just 38 percent.
But even as the jubilant Miners celebrated a new set of myths was emerging. Rupp's lingering bitterness helped paint the Miners as urban street thugs, quasi-professionals imported from Northern cities to win Haskins a championship.
Writing a decade later in his book, "Sports in America", James Michener characterized the game as "one of the most wretched (stories) in the history of American sports. He called the Texas Western players "loose-jointed ragamuffins. Hopelessly outclassed (by Rupp's pristine Kentucky program)." That, again, was nearly opposite the reality.
Of Texas Western's seven black players -- the Miners also had four whites and an Hispanic, none of whom played that night -- four graduated. The other three came within a semester of their degrees and have not suffered because of it: David Lattin is an executive with a Houston liquor distributor.
Orsten Artis became a detective sergeant in Gary, Ind., and Bobby Joe Hill was a senior buyer with El Paso Natural Gas Co.
Meanwhile, though it was never mentioned until decades later, by the mid-1970s, four of Kentucky's five starters, including Dampier and Riley, had not earned degrees.
The game began with a message. Informed by Haskins that Rupp had vowed five blacks would never beat his team, Texas Western center David Lattin had a point to prove.
On the Miners' second possession, he took a pass from Bobby Joe Hill and, as Haskins had suggested, slammed a forceful dunk over Kentucky's Riley. "(Lattin) said, `Take that you white honky,'" recalled Riley. "It was a violent game. I don't mean there were any fights -- but they were desperate and they were committed and they were more motivated than we were."
The Miners nursed the lead, pulling ahead to stay when Hill converted consecutive steals from Kentucky's guards. Those two layups gave the Miners a 16-11 advantage. They never trailed again.
"(Rupp) jumped up and called timeout, (and) as they were coming off the court, he confronted his two guards about the steals," recalled Eddie Mullens, then Texas Western's sports-information director. "(He said) `You stupid sons of bitches!' He just couldn't take it."
His only defeat in an NCAA title game haunted Rupp. "(He) carried the memory of that game to his grave," wrote his biographer, Russell Rice. Friends noted that even as he was dying with cancer in a Lexington hospital in 1977, the old coach lamented to visitors about the loss.
He always blamed the loss on a flu bug, on inept shooting, on the referees, sometimes embellishing his excuses with hints that Texas Western somehow had cheated by using ineligible players.
Haskins fumed at his counterpart's reaction. Later that year, when he and Rupp crossed paths at a sports banquet in Ohio, the younger coach nearly snapped. "I had been listening to all this damn crap out of him," said Haskins. "and it's a wonder I didn't say something to him about it. But I didn't."
It was the presence of Rupp, with his four national championships, his then-record 749 victories, and his history of foot-dragging on integration that leant the 1966 championship game much of its significance.
He and his all-white Kentucky program were not only the epitome of college basketball at the time, but the ideal foils for Haskins and Texas Western. It was as if history demanded that for change finally to occur, a great hero and a great villain must meet. Rupp and Haskins fit those roles perfectly.
In 1966, two years after the passage of the Civil Rights Act, SEC athletics remained segregated. For several years Kentucky president John W. Oswald, realizing changing times and the school's border-state geography gave it a unique opportunity, had been pushing Rupp to recruit a black.
According to longtime Kentucky assistant Harry Lancaster's autobiography, Rupp, after his first meeting with Oswald, told Lancaster, "Harry, that son of a bitch is ordering me to get some niggers in here. What am I going to do?"
Still, Rupp held out. His reputation was such that even those black players he did recruit -- like Kentuckians Butch Beard and Wes Unseld -- were reluctant to play for him.
It wasn't until December of 1970 that a Rupp team first dressed a black player, Tom Payne. Two years later, Payne had left, and Kentucky was all-white again. By then, even deep-South SEC schools like Auburn and Mississippi had several blacks on their teams.
Curiously, while Oswald had been prodding Rupp, Texas Western president Joseph Ray tried to move Haskins in the opposite direction. Ray suggested Haskins start at least one white player.
Haskins contends he doesn't recall the incident, but Ray spoke of their meeting in an interview for the oral-history project at Texas Western, now renamed the University of Texas at El Paso. Whether it happened or not, five blacks continued to start for the Miners.
A pool-shooting hustler from Enid, Okla., Haskins was a pragmatist on racial matters. While blacks couldn't play at most Southern and Southwestern schools in the mid 1960s, Haskins welcomed them at Texas Western, recruiting them from New York City, Detroit and Gary, Ind.
"The fact that he was doing something historic by playing five blacks, that probably never crossed Don's mind," said his assistant, Moe Iba. "Hell, he'd have played five kids from Mars if they were his best five players."
In the years immediately after Texas Western's title, the integration of college sports took a great leap forward. Between 1966 and 1985, the average number of blacks on college teams jumped from 2.9 to 5.7.
At Northern colleges, where the unwritten rule for coaches had been, "Two blacks at home. Three on the road. And four when behind", things changed quickly.
Blacks now were recruited as reserves as well as starters. Athletes who had been directed to small black schools now were being lured to major state universities.
The bigger change, of course, came in the South. In the 1966-67 season, every Southern conference, even the SEC, had integrated basketball teams. "It was quite clear after March 1966 that Southern basketball teams would have to change or become increasingly noncompetitive nationally," wrote historian Charles Martin.
Haskins coached until 1999, never reaching another Final Four. In the last of Rupp's 1,066 games at Kentucky, in March of 1972, his team lost to Florida State. Kentucky was all-white again. Florida State started five blacks.
"No one will remember him without remembering us," said Texas Western's Harry Flournoy. "And I guess there is a certain justice to that."
How 'bout them Chicago Blackhawks? Blackhawks' depth will be tested with Hossa sidelined.
By Tracey Myers
Marian Hossa will be out 2-3 weeks with the upper-body injury he sustained on Saturday night against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Hossa took a big hit by Craig Adams along the glass in the first period of the Blackhawks’ 5-1 victory over Pittsburgh at Soldier Field. Hossa stayed on the bench the rest of the first period but did not return after the first intermission.
Brandon Saad played some on the top line with Patrick Sharp and Jonathan Toews after Hossa left, and coach Joel Quenneville said Saad will get a chance there again starting Tuesday night against the Colorado Avalanche.
“There’s going to be some quality ice time shared among the guys,” Quenneville said. “We’ll put Peter (Regin) back in the lineup and we could put (Andrew) Shaw on the right. We’ll see what happens.”
The Blackhawks could call someone up, although Quenneville wasn’t sure if that would be on a need basis or done earlier “to have (an extra forward) here as we go along.”
Hossa was having a strong season for the Blackhawks. He didn’t participate in a lot of practices or skates as the Olympic break neared but the extra rest came through in his games. Hossa has 24 goals and 26 assists in 57 games this season. Now the Blackhawks will have to make do without him for a bit.
“He’s a big part (of our team) and he’s been great all year. If he’s out for a while, I’m sure we’ll adjust,” Bryan Bickell said. “We’ve adjusted through injuries before with other players. I’m sure we have the depth to fill in that spot. For him to be missing, it’s unfortunate. But hopefully he can get back sooner rather than later.”
Hawks Game Summary: Avalanche gets big 4-2 win over Blackhawks.
By MATT CARLSON (Associated Press)
Chicago Blackhawks Patrick Sharp #10.
Colorado is in the mix for one of the top playoff seeds in the Western Conference, and first-year coach Patrick Roy thinks the Avalanche are one of the NHL's biggest surprises.
Tyson Barrie scored a tiebreaking power-play goal with 7:10 left in the third period, and the Avalanche beat the Chicago Blackhawks 4-2 on Tuesday night for their third straight win.
Colorado reached the 40-victory mark faster than any team in franchise history. It also improved to 3-1 against the Blackhawks this season and moved within one point of the Stanley Cup champions for second in the Central Division.
''Our objective at the start of the season was to surprise the world of hockey,'' Roy said. ''Today, I guess we're making it even more interesting. We're one point behind these guys with one game in hand.''
Barrie got open in the left circle and one-timed Erik Johnson's perfect cross-ice feed high past Corey Crawford on the glove side. It was Barrie's second game-winner against Chicago this season, following an overtime goal against the Blackhawks on Jan. 14.
''He put it right in my wheelhouse and I was able to get everything on it,'' Barrie said. ''You always want to put it upstairs. I was lucky to beat Crawford there.''
Paul Stastny completed the scoring with an empty-netter with 32.6 seconds left. Rookie Nathan MacKinnon got an assist on Stastny's 20th goal, extending his point streak to 12 games, tying Wayne Gretzky's record for an 18-year-old set in 1979-80.
Barrie scored for the second straight game as Colorado's defensemen continued to contribute offensively. The Avalanche got four goals from defensemen in a 6-3 win over Tampa Bay on Sunday.
Ryan O'Reilly and Maxime Talbot also scored for the Avalanche, who are 17-6-1 since New Year's Eve. O'Reilly has three goals and three assists in his last four games.
''I think we know what we've got in here,'' Barrie said. ''We've got a great group of guys. It's a lot of fun to play.''
Ben Smith and Jonathan Toews scored for Chicago, which was without veteran forward Marian Hossa. Toews has three goals in his last two games.
Hossa left Saturday night's 5-1 victory over Pittsburgh at Soldier Field with an upper-body injury and is expected to miss two to three weeks. Brandon Saad moved up again to take Hossa's spot on the right side of Chicago's top line with Toews and Patrick Sharp.
The Blackhawks outshot Colorado 38-21, and Chicago coach Joel Quenneville thought that statistic reflected the play on the ice for most of the game.
''I think we outchanced and outplayed them,'' Quenneville said. ''I didn't like any of the goals that went in tonight. It was one of those games.''
Chicago also lost ground to St. Louis, which beat Tampa Bay 4-2 and is all alone in the Central lead, three points behind Anaheim for the top spot in the conference.
''We lost a lot of ground,'' Quenneville said. ''A four-point swing.''
Chicago and the much-improved Avalanche could meet in the opening round of the playoffs under the NHL's new alignment.
''I would say 80 percent, if not 90 percent, said at the beginning of the year the Avalanche will miss the playoffs,'' Roy said. ''It's not done yet, but we're certainly in good shape right now.''
Colorado's Semyon Varlamov made 36 saves. Crawford had 17 stops in the Blackhawks' first game at the United Center since a 3-1 loss to Winnipeg on Jan. 26.
The Blackhawks outshot Colorado 11-3 in a scoreless first period, but didn't generate many prime chances.
Talbot put the Avalanche in front 2:49 into the second when he got his stick on Johnson's low shot from the right point. Positioned in the right circle, Talbot barely ticked Johnson's wrister, but it was enough to direct the puck between Crawford's pads.
The Blackhawks turned up the pressure after falling behind, outskating the Avalanche and forcing turnovers. Varlamov helped keep Chicago off the board with several sharp saves, including point-blank stops on Toews and Peter Regin.
Smith and Chicago's solid fourth line tied it at 1 with 3:08 left in the second. Capping some work along the boards with Brandon Bollig, Smith cut into the left circle and fired a shot past Varlamov with Avalanche defenseman Jan Hejda screening.
O'Reilly snapped off a low shot from the right circle that slipped between Crawford's pads at 1:23 of the third to put Colorado ahead 2-1.
Toews replied with a power-play goal at 7:17. After slipping to the right side of the net, Toews took Sharp's feed and fired it past Varlamov to complete a slick passing series.
NOTES: The Blackhawks acquired D David Rundblad and D Mathieu Brisebois in a trade with Phoenix before the game. Rundblad will join the Blackhawks and give them eight defensemen on the roster. Brisebois will report to Rockford of the AHL. Chicago parted with a second-round selection in this year's draft to complete the trade. ... Crawford wore his black leg pads against Colorado. His favorite set, custom white models, disappeared from Soldier Field after Saturday's game.
Bear Down Chicago Bears!!! Report: NFL might experiment with 42-yard extra-point attempt.
By Scooby Axson
The necessity of extra points after touchdowns has become a hot topic during the offseason.
(AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
The NFL has discussed experimenting with a longer extra point during the preseason, reports NFL.com’s Judy Battista.
According to the report, the league’s competition committee held preliminary talks last weekend and discussed placing the ball at the 25-yard line for the kick, which would essentially make every extra point a 42-yard attempt.
Currently, the ball is placed at the two-yard line on extra-point attempts.
In 2013, kickers missed only five of 1,267 extra-point attempts, a 99.6 percent success rate. Twenty-seven kickers hit 100 percent of extra-point attempts last season.
In January, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said the competition committee might eventually get rid of extra points in favor of a revised scoring system.
More from NFL.com:
The conversion rate of field goals between 40 and 49 yards last season was 83 percent. The last time the extra-point conversation rate regularly fell below 90 percent was in the 1930s and early 1940s. That would surely give coaches something to ponder when weighing whether to kick for one point or try for two, with the success rate for two-point conversion attempts typically around 50 percent.
NFL franchise season to open with a bang.
By Howard Balzer, The Sports Xchange
The first major deadline of the offseason is expected to hit with some drama Monday afternoon when all NFL teams must decide whether to designate one of their soon-to-be free-agent players with a franchise or transition tag.
Being franchised is a good-news/bad news situation for players. And this year's franchise actions could get explosive as players seek to maximize their franchise income based on their designated position.
The good news is they are guaranteed an excellent paycheck based on a formula that includes the average income of the top five players at their position over the last five years.
The bad news is they are realistically prevented from testing their value in free agency because even if another team is willing to pay a high salary, it must also compensate his current team with two first round draft picks.
Teams can franchise only one player a year.
Three teams did so Friday, two officially, when New Orleans Saints tight end Jimmy Graham, Carolina Panthers defensive end Greg Hardy and New York Jets kicker Nick Folk were franchised.
The Saints didn't inform the league by Friday's 4 pm Eastern deadline so Graham will be officially listed Monday.
After that, Graham will likely appeal if the NFL Management Council rules he should be considered a tight end. The tender for tight ends is $7.035 million, while it is $12.312 million for wide receivers. Graham contends he should be considered a wide receiver because the majority of his snaps came lined up in the slot.
The league will likely argue that the tight end position has evolved into one where most pass-catching tight ends play in the slot, and that true wide receivers never line up as a tight end.
The Baltimore Ravens avoided a similar situation with tight end Dennis Pitta when he signed a five-year contract worth $32 million last week.
The Buffalo Bills have reportedly decided not to franchise safety Jairus Byrd for a second consecutive year, while the Washington Redskins are deciding whether to tag linebacker Brian Orakpo. The Cleveland Browns are unlikely to franchise center Alex Mack because the league does not have separate tenders for tackles, guards and centers, and the tender for all offensive linemen is $11.654 million.
Players given the one-year non-exclusive franchise tender can negotiate with all other 31 teams. If they receive an offer, the original team can match it or receive two first-round draft picks as compensation. A player receiving the exclusive franchise tag is prohibited from negotiating with any other teams.
The transition tag, which is lower, is also available for teams but has rarely been used in recent seasons. Teams retain matching rights for transition players, but there is no compensation if the player leaves.
Once tagged, it remains possible for the player and team to agree on a long-term contract. However, if there is no agreement by July 15, the player can only be paid the amount of the tender for that season.
Last season, eight players were franchised and only one, Denver Broncos tackle Ryan Clady, eventually signed a long-term contract. The other seven -- Byrd, Chicago Bears defensive tackle Henry Melton, Cincinnati Bengals defensive end Michael Johnson, Dallas Cowboys defensive end Anthony Spencer, Indianapolis Colts punter Pat McAfee, Kansas City Chiefs tackle Branden Albert and Miami Dolphins defensive tackle Randy Starks -- all played the 2013 season for the tender and are expected to become unrestricted free agents on March 11.
Following are the franchise and transition tags for each position, with the first number the franchise tender:
Quarterbacks $16.912 million/$14.666 million; running backs $9.54 million/$8.033 million; wide receivers $12.312 million/$10.176 million; tight ends $7.035 million/$6.106 million; offensive linemen $11.654 million/$10.039 million.
Defensive ends $13.116 million/$10.633 million; defensive tackles $9.654 million/$8.060 million; linebackers $11.455 million/$9.754 million; cornerbacks $11.834 million/$10.081 million; safeties $8.433 million/$7.253 million.
Kickers/punters $3.556 million/$3.205 million.
Just another Chicago Bulls Session… Nets 96, Bulls 80.
By The Sports Xchange
The Brooklyn Nets managed to slow down one the NBA's hottest teams, defeating the Chicago Bulls 96-80 on Monday night.
The loss ended a four-game winning streak by the Bulls, who entered Monday night with wins in nine of their last 10 games.
The Nets continued their solid play at home in 2014 and are now 12-2 at their arena since January 1. At 29-29 overall, the Nets reached the .500 mark for the first time since Nov. 5, when they were 2-2.
Guard Deron Williams led the Nets with 20 points while guard Joe Johnson was not far behind with 19 to pace Brooklyn's offense. Guard Shaun Livingston, who has been taking advantage of his starts, recorded 14 points.
The Nets prevented the Bulls from scoring a single point in the first 4 1/2 minutes of the third quarter, helping the Nets established a 17-point second-half lead that they would not relinquish.
Bulls center Joakim Noah, who has become one of the best passers from the low post, was held in check all night with 10 points and one assist as the Nets forced him and his teammates outside.
Chicago's defense, which was ranked second in the league in fewest points allowed entering the game, was abused most of the night by a fast-paced, aggressive Nets offense. Brooklyn's defense was more effective, holding Chicago to just 17 points in the third quarter.
Bulls guard D.J. Augustin led the Bulls with 16 points.
The Nets quickly had the Bulls defense on the ropes early with a first-quarter surge that built a 15-point lead. The Bulls had more turnovers in the game's first four minutes (four) on Monday, than they had all of Sunday night against the Knicks (three). Chicago turned the ball over 25 times on the night.
Chicago battled back to get within three points, but a late surge put Brooklyn up eight at halftime.
NOTES: The Nets are enjoying a recent run of good form, winning five of their last seven. ...The Bulls entered the game with the second-best defense in the NBA, allowing an average of 92.3 points per game. Only the Indiana Pacers (91.2 ppg) allow fewer. ...The Nets are back in Brooklyn after a seven-game road trip. Their last home game was Feb. 12 against the Bobcats. ...Bulls C Joakim Noah is averaging a double-double this season -- 12.1 ppg and 11.5 rebounds per game before Monday -- which is good for sixth-best in the NBA. ... Nets F Kevin Garnett did not play Monday night as he is nursing a back injury. ...Yahoo! Sports report that Nets C Jason Collins will sign a second, 10-day contract with the team Wednesday. Collins is the first active openly gay athlete in NBA history.
Bulls-Pistons Preview.
By JEFF MEZYDLO (STATS Senior Writer)
The Chicago Bulls hope they're poised to learn from their latest loss and ready to begin another winning streak.
After seeing their four-game run end and losing for the second time in 11 games, the visiting Bulls look to rebound Wednesday night against a Detroit Pistons team trying to win two in a row for the first time in more than three weeks.
A day after Chicago (33-27) recorded a franchise-low three turnovers during a 109-90 rout of New York, it committed 28 that resulted in 30 points for Brooklyn in Monday's 96-80 road defeat.
"It was definitely a letdown," center Joakim Noah told the Bulls' official website. "The highs and lows of the NBA. It's all part of the journey."
The Bulls, one-half game behind Toronto for the third spot in the Eastern Conference, averaged 104.8 points during the four consecutive wins. Though it shot 46.4 percent Monday, the Nets scored the first eight points and led by as many as 18.
D.J. Augustin scored 16, but Noah had only 10 with six rebounds, one assist and six turnovers. The center recorded 13 points, 12 boards and 14 assists against the Knicks.
"Things can change quickly," coach Tom Thibodeau said. "So the important thing is to study this one, make our corrections, get ready for the next one. Sometimes you're not going to play great. When you don't play great, you have to bounce back and get the next one."
Chicago hasn't dropped consecutive games since Feb. 1 and 3, but it's lost two of three to Detroit (24-36) since winning 18 straight in the series.
The Pistons, though, haven't won two in a row since a three-game run Feb. 7-10.
Andre Drummond had 17 points and a career-high 26 rebounds to match a single-season team record with his 44th double-double Monday, helping Detroit snap a four-game slide with a 96-85 home victory over the Knicks. Reserves Will Bynum and Rodney Stuckey each scored 16 for the Pistons, 2-7 in their last nine.
"We definitely need to play like that more as a team; everybody needs to play with that type of heart and tenacity," Bynum said.
Drummond matched Houston's Dwight Howard for the most rebounds in a game this season. His double-double team mark tied Bill Laimbeer's set in 1983-84, which Grant Hill equaled in 1995-96.
"I haven't really seen a person (like) that who goes aggressively to the boards and gets a lot of tip-ins or extra possessions for a team," teammate Josh Smith told the Pistons' official website. "He's playing great for us."
Drummond, who grabbed 17 rebounds in each of the previous two contests, has also averaged 16.3 points in the last three. He's averaged 12.3 rebounds in his last four against Chicago but only 7.3 points in six career matchups with the Bulls.
Teammate Brandon Jennings is scoring 16.7 points per game, but he's averaged 7.5 and 28.1 percent shooting in the last six contests. He scored 33 and went 12 of 22 from the floor in a 92-75 win at Chicago on Dec. 7.
Noah had nine boards and two points on 1-of-7 shooting in that contest.
Augustin has scored 39 points and shot 11 of 19 in two games after totaling 26 and going 7 of 37 from the field in the previous four.
By Matt Sullivan
Another offseason is almost done and several more free agents have felt the sting of the qualifying offer. Ervin Santana, Stephen Drew and Kendrys Morales are still unsigned. Ubaldo Jimenez had to wait until February 17 to sign a slightly disappointing four-year, $50 million deal. Nelson Cruz even had to settle for a one-year, $8 million deal, after walking away from the $14 million qualifying offer, though his connection to the Biogenesis clinic was also a factor in his underwhelming market. These free agents all have their flaws but the key factor slowing down their market appears to be the cost of a draft pick that comes attached with signing them.
As Michael Clair noted on these pages recently, teams are probably more invested in the draft now than ever before, thanks to the hard-slotting system and the trend towards signing players to extensions prior to free agency. As a result, the less-than-premium free agents appear to be looking at a severely reduced market and being forced to accept lower offers than they would have likely received without the cost of draft picks attached to them. Faced with this tepid market, these free agents are waiting longer and longer to sign and even considering holding out until after the draft to cut a deal.
For many fans, this might be infuriating. The draft doesn't produce instant results the way a free agent addition can and watching teams turn down potentially productive additions because they aren't willing to sacrifice a pick that will have little impact on the 2014 can be hard to take. For teams, however, the additional cost of draft-pick compensation should be primarily a financial concern. A draft pick is an investment and it has an expected rate of return. If they lose that pick, they need to save the value of that expected return somewhere and the obvious solution is to discount the rate they are willing to pay for the player that will cost them that pick.
Last offseason, as Michael Bourn, Kyle Lohse and Rafael Soriano battled with this effect, I attempted to calculate the value of the draft picks in question using the model for draft-pick valuation developed by Victor Wang of the Hardball Times. I found that draft picks in the 10-30 pick range had a net value of just under $8 million and the second round picks of teams with protected first round picks were worth approximately $3 million dollars. Inflation bumps that up slightly for this season, but with two years of data on the books, these estimates don't seem at all unreasonable. There is a sliding scale of value for these picks depending on the exact spot of each pick and there also might be some additional opportunity cost to missing the ability to pick to consider, but the numbers appear to have some reasonable predictive power when it comes to contracts for free agent players who are extended the qualifying offer.
With that in mind, I want to try to look at the value assigned to draft picks from the other side. Rather than trying to determine the value produced by the draft pick in question, let's try to take a look a the impact the qualifying offer has had on those players who have had draft compensation attached to them. I am employing the same basic process I used to look at pitcher risks, but using Zips projections this time around instead of Steamer projections.
First, the 2013 qualifying offer players, excluding those players who resigned with the same team:
| Player | QO Team | New Team | Salary (in Millions) | Years | Average Annual Value | Projected WAR | $/WAR |
| Michael Bourn | Braves | Indians |
$48
|
4
|
$12.0
|
4
|
$3.0
|
| Josh Hamilton | Rangers | Angels |
$125
|
5
|
$25.0
|
3.8
|
$6.6
|
| Kyle Lohse | Cardinals | Brewers |
$33
|
3
|
$11.0
|
2.7
|
$4.1
|
| Rafael Soriano | Yankees | Nationals |
$28
|
2
|
$14.0
|
0.8
|
$17.5
|
| Nick Swisher | Yankees | Indians |
$56
|
4
|
$14.0
|
2.5
|
$5.6
|
| B.J. Upton | Rays | Braves |
$75.25
|
5
|
$15.1
|
3.5
|
$4.3
|
| Average $/WAR: $6.84 M | |||||||
The first thing to note is that the average dollar per WAR ($/WAR) is well above the norm for 2103 free agents, which was around $5.5 million, but that total is completely deceptive. Remove the lone reliever, Rafael Soriano, from the group and the $/WAR rate drops to $4.71 million. Excluding Soriano, this group had an average projected WAR of 3.1, so there certainly appears to be a sizable hit from the offer across the full sample. For these players, the average number of years on their deals is 3.83, so the discount here totals an average of $9.38 million, well above the $7.73 million estimate I put on an unprotected first-round pick. However, including Adam LaRoche, who resigned with the Nationals after failing to find a deal outside of Washington, in this sample drops the price down to $7.83 million, practically the same number I reached using Wang's model.
Now, here are this year's qualifying-offer players, excluding those how have not signed and those who remained with the same team:
| Player | QO Team | New Team | Salary (in Millions) | Years | Average Annual Value | Projected WAR | $/WAR |
| Jacoby Ellsbury | Red Sox | Yankees |
$153
|
7
|
$21.9
|
4.1
|
$5.3
|
| Robinson Cano | Yankees | Mariners |
$240
|
10
|
$24.0
|
4.8
|
$5.0
|
| Curtis Granderson | Yankees | Mets |
$60
|
4
|
$15.0
|
2.2
|
$6.8
|
| Carlos Beltran | Cardinals | Yankees |
$43
|
3
|
$14.3
|
1.8
|
$8.0
|
| Shin-Soo Choo | Reds | Rangers |
$130
|
7
|
$18.6
|
3.2
|
$5.8
|
| Nelson Cruz | Rangers | Orioles |
$8
|
1
|
$8.0
|
1.8
|
$4.4
|
| Ubaldo Jimenez | Indians | Orioles |
$50
|
4
|
$12.5
|
3.1
|
$4.0
|
| Brian McCann | Braves | Yankees |
$85
|
5
|
$17.0
|
3.1
|
$5.5
|
| Average $/WAR $5.61 | |||||||
There are no relievers in this group to throw off the dollar per WAR rate and with inflation pushing that rate up to approximately $6 million this season, the overall discount is slightly smaller than it was for the previous group. This group features three deals longer than any of the qualifying offer players from 2013 received as well, however. All told, qualifying offer players as a group are being hit with what looks like a discount of $8.4 million this offseason, slightly above the $8.1 million inflation-adjusted cost of a 2014 draft pick from my previous estimations.
The numbers for draft pick compensation created from Wang's model certainly seem to be in line with the values teams are assigning to draft picks as judged by the difference between the average free agent's $/WAR rate and the one being paid to those free agents who are costing teams draft picks by this method. These are small samples and it would be going too far to say that these numbers are anything like precise calculations of the cost of draft compensation. However, they do match up with my previous estimates of that cost well enough to give us some confidence that team's value draft picks much the same way we have guessed.
If anything, teams appear to be valuing draft picks slightly more, especially since so many of these players had trouble finding a deal and several signed with teams that had already lost a pick by signing a player with draft compensation attached. They may not be subtracting the cost of signing the draft from the pick's surplus value since the opportunity to sign the player is inherently more valuable than the savings that losing the pick brings. They may also have a more nuanced model to build upon than what experts like Nate Silver and Victor Wang have used thanks to their ability to join their scouting information to the statistical results, helping them to adjust their models to account for the talent level of the specific draft and their place in it.
Even so, the estimated costs of draft compensation from my original look at the issue are still persuasive when looking at the results from the first years of this system. Though the popular viewpoint seems to be that top free agents aren't impacted by the cost of draft picks, this simple analysis seems to suggest otherwise. It may be that we have a harder time recognizing the discount applied to the top free agents because that deduction is a much smaller percentage of their overall contract. It could also be that the cost of draft compensation is still applied to their deals, but it is not keeping anyone from bidding on them as it certainly seems to be doing for the lesser free agents who receive the offer.
Though the numbers here are close enough to what I expected to see, we can't simply say that each of these players signed a deal that was discounted by $8 million to compensate for the lost picks. Teams are buying in bulk on long-term deals like Cano's and Ellsbury's and they should be under the $/WAR as a result even before compensation. The end of these deals will occur in a market that has a much higher $/WAR average and these players will decline as well. We are only looking at 14 players here and each player has their own risks which could affect their $/WAR separately from the qualifying offer. We can't isolate the cost of the qualifying offer from those factors here and the small sample size means the differences in other factors are not necessarily balanced out.
The numbers this method gives us are not proof of anything by themselves, but rather evidence towards an estimation on how teams are valuing draft compensation. As such, they appear to support the idea that teams are currently discounting players who cost them a draft pick by approximately $8 million dollars on average. Specific cases will vary greatly from this guideline, but it seems to be a helpful starting point. Incorporating that number (adjusted for inflation) into projections of salaries for future qualifying-offer players should allow us to be more accurate in predicting free agent salaries.
Why golf clubs have numbers.
By T.J. Auclair
As we all know, golf has many intricacies. One of those comes from the most important pieces of equipment you need to play the game -- your clubs.
Did you know that your clubs weren't always numbered? Instead, they had names like the "mashie" and the "niblick." In fact, not only that, but clubs didn't always come in the complete sets that we have come to know today.
We wondered: When and how did the transition from named clubs to numbered clubs come about?
We turned to golf historian Fred Beltz for an explanation.
"Prior to 1850, when the golf ball used was the feather ball, almost all golf clubs were wooden," explained Beltz, a member and Club Historian at Oak Hill Country Club, site of three U.S. Opens, three PGA Championships (including 2013; Beltz is the co-historian of that tournament), one Ryder Cup, a Senior PGA Championship and two U.S. Amateurs.
"They were rather delicate, long-nosed and swung with a relatively flat swing; if irons were used at all it would have been as a trouble club where the situation would have damaged the early wooden 'play' clubs."
Right around 1850 and with the advent of the gutta percha ball (a "guttie"), Beltz told us, is when irons began to take on a more important role, "partly because hitting a 'guttie' was akin to hitting a rock and the wooden play clubs were too easily broken. Partly too because of Allan Robertson, a very early golf professional, who developed a highly successful short game using irons which was quickly imitated by other competitors."
At this point in time, clubs were unmarked and neither named nor numbered. Instead, they were referred to more by their usage.
"A 'cleek' for fairway shots and a 'rut' iron for trouble shots," Beltz said. "As irons became more popular and the number of club makers increased, there was a need to differentiate who made the club for marketing reasons and also to differentiate the more subtle differences as the number of irons in the bag (if a bag was being used) multiplied."
At the end of the 19th century, not only were the usually recognized names for clubs (putter, to niblick, mashie niblick, spade mashie, mashie, mid-iron, spoon, brassie and driver) in use, but then all sorts of utility clubs became common -- the jigger, the sammy, the chipper, the lofting iron, the sky iron, semi-putter and many others.
Beltz told us that up until the 1920s, players accumulated their clubs as a collection of what worked for them and obtained them from various club makers. Players bought and used what worked and the club names were more of a guide than a precise statement of loft and weight, with one club maker's mashie more similar to another club maker's spade mashie and so on.
"Back in the day when you might stop at a rummage sale to find a dozen hickories in an old canvas bag there might be three, four or five club makers represented -- there was no such thing as a 'set of clubs,'" Beltz said.
In the early 1920s, Spalding began to market their Kro-Flight brand of "related" clubs where there was a defined relationship of loft, weight and shaft length from one club to the next, Beltz explained.
Quickly other club makers like MacGregor and Wilson picked up on this trend and began selling their version of related -- or "sets" -- of clubs. By 1925, the idea of "matched" sets where the flex properties of the clubs were also matched hit the market and with it the idea of buying a "set" of clubs took hold.
"It was important for club makers to express the differential between each club, as well as to express the cutting edge technology that the matched clubs offered," Beltz said. "Their solution was a numbering sequence for the irons, but not wanting to alienate the more traditional buyer both the club name and number were stamped on the club. It was even a common practice to number the putter as the '10' club. During the quarter century between 1915 and 1940 the named clubs became name/numbered and then just numbered.
"For whatever reason, this phenomenon was even slower with the woods and finding fairway woods labeled as brassie and spoon even into the middle of the 20th century was not uncommon," Beltz added. "There was a clear trend to make the clubs look alike and look like a progression from less to more loft but other than that, the trend with fairway woods was very slow."
Beltz's guess is that brass sole plate on the woods is what helped perpetuate the name. It wasn't until woods became 'metal woods' that the names began to fade away -- with the very popular exception of two particular clubs.
Beltz's guess is that brass sole plate on the woods is what helped perpetuate the name. It wasn't until woods became 'metal woods' that the names began to fade away -- with the very popular exception of two particular clubs.
"The driver has always been the driver due to the machismo associated with its name and the putter (except for a short period in the mid-1920) has always been the putter -- no machismo there, Beltz said. "So your guess is as good as mine!"
Winter storms claim famed Eisenhower Tree at Augusta National.
By John Kim, PGA.com
Sad news out of Augusta.
The ice storms that hit much of Georgia in mid-February -- not to mention a freak earthquake that shook the Augusta area on Feb. 14 -- took a heavy toll on one of golf's most famous landmarks. The iconic Eisenhower Tree at Augusta National Golf Club, historic home of the Masters, suffered major damage during the storms and was removed over the weekend.
That's right, golf's most famous pine tree -- which for decades guarded the left side of the par-4 17th hole -- is no more.
Billy Payne, chairman of Augusta National and the Masters, released a statement on Feb. 16, saying, "Like so many of our family, friends and neighbors in this community, Augusta National Golf Club has been busy cleaning up after the historic ice storm last week. Everyone affected remains in our hearts and prayers, and we likewise hope for a speedy and complete recovery for all.
"The loss of the Eisenhower Tree is difficult news to accept," Payne added. "We obtained opinions from the best arborists available and, unfortunately, were advised that no recovery was possible. We have begun deliberations of the best way to address the future of the 17th hole and to pay tribute to this iconic symbol of our history -- rest assured, we will do both appropriately.
"I can report that the golf course sustained no major damage otherwise. We are now open for Member play and we will be unaffected in our preparations for the 2014 Masters Tournament."
The Eisenhower Tree got its name because the former President and Augusta National member had a famous disdain for it. Apparently, he used to hit the Loblolly Pine, which sat some 200 yards from the tee box, quite often and he famously lobbied to have it removed. But apparently, the limits of presidential lobbying stop at the gates as club chairman Clifford Roberts overruled Eisenhower's efforts, thus linking the president and the tree forever.
The particularly strong winter storm that swept through the Southeast caused wide-sweeping problems for the region, shutting down airports, roads, schools and contributing to a series of accidents. Along with forcing the removal of the Eisenhower Tree, the storm also blanketed Augusta National in ice and dislodged the course's sign along Magnolia Lane.
Another race at Phoenix, another crash for Danica Patrick after she collides with Justin Allgaier.
By Nick Bromberg
We can say with pretty good authority that Phoenix is now probably one of Danica Patrick's least favorite tracks.
Patrick was caught up in a crash with Justin Allgaier and Travis Kvapil on lap 171 of Sunday's race at Phoenix.
Patrick was caught up in a crash with Justin Allgaier and Travis Kvapil on lap 171 of Sunday's race at Phoenix.
Sunday was Patrick's fourth race at Phoenix and her fourth race having something go wrong. Plus, during last week's season-opening Daytona 500, Patrick was taken out when she was tagged by Aric Almirola's spinning car.
She confronted Allgaier after the race, and according to the Sporting News, it was an animated conversation that lasted for a few minutes. Following the incident, she wasn't too happy with Allgaier on her team's radio.
“She was just upset because she got involved in the crash that we had,” Allgaier told the Sporting News. “She said she’s been through this and that she felt like I needed to settle down at that point.
“I explained my position on why everything happened. I think she understood where I was coming from. It doesn’t fix either one of our racecars; it doesn’t fix either one of our days.”
The crash at Phoenix damaged the left-front fender and left-rear side of Patrick's car. While the front fender damage seemed to be fixed, the damage over the left-rear wheel well led to a tire rub and a short time later, Patrick's car went spinning again from a flat tire.
She finished 36th. Her new Stewart-Haas teammate Kurt Busch also had a poor follow-up to Daytona. Busch spun out in the closing laps at Daytona, but a caution flag wasn't displayed after he saved his car from hitting the wall. He finished 21st. On Sunday, Busch had engine issues before his powerplant grenaded. And yes, the smoke billowing from his car did cause a caution flag. He ended up 39th.
Jeff Bradley: Why you should catch the beautiful, addictive sickness of MLS club fandom.
MLSSoccer.com
One by one they marched into the suite in Red Bull Arena on media day, the league's biggest stars: Tim Cahill and Thierry Henry, Graham Zusi and Matt Besler, Eddie Johnson and Clarence Goodson. Kyle Beckerman and … Michael Bradley.
And one by one we asked them a series of questions, including this one:
"There are a lot of American soccer fans who support the national team, especially during a World Cup year, but not all of them support an MLS team. Is it important for fans to support a team in the league, and if so, why?"
I don't think any players answered that it was not important. They all seemed to agree that, yes, it would mean a lot to the sport if more fans got behind more teams. As to the "If so, why?" part of their answers, my recollection is that it all seemed pretty bland.
When you think about it, there's no easy answer to the "why" part of that question. It is hard to take it past the standard, "Well, just because it is" kind of answer.
So, I've decided to take a stab at it myself.
I don't think any players answered that it was not important. They all seemed to agree that, yes, it would mean a lot to the sport if more fans got behind more teams. As to the "If so, why?" part of their answers, my recollection is that it all seemed pretty bland.
When you think about it, there's no easy answer to the "why" part of that question. It is hard to take it past the standard, "Well, just because it is" kind of answer.
So, I've decided to take a stab at it myself.
It's important to support a team because viewing the game without a rooting interest is an often hollow experience. As a journalist, I'm all too familiar with "rooting for the story." In other words, with no team to pull for, we pull for a great game, a dramatic ending, a lot of goals, something controversial, anything to make it easier for us to write about.
But when you are a fan of a team, every game has meaning. Check that, every touch of the ball has meaning. Every through ball attempted moves you closer to the edge of your seat, every turnover leaves you gasping for air, at least until the play is nullified.
Heck, even the nullification part means something. When you have a team, you don’t channel-surf, live tweet (well, maybe you live tweet). You hold on until halftime, or at least until you see someone writhing in pain on the field and a stretcher headed out to get him.
If I'm not working a game, I often grumble about the poor quality of a game. I find myself muttering, "Will somebody at least create a chance?" I root for an early goal to open things up. I root for equalizers and hope beyond hope that, as impossible as this sounds, a two-goal lead really is "the most dangerous score in soccer."
This is not to say you always come away disappointed. But you never, ever, ever come away feeling ill.
And we all know there is nothing like feeling ill after watching a game. Ill because your team couldn't put three passes together. Ill because your team can't defend set pieces. Or may ill because, even though you won, every time your team failed to capitalize on a scoring chance you muttered to yourself, "That's going to haunt us later on." So you wait as later-on after later-on passes you by, and you guzzle a whole bottle of Maalox.
I know these feelings all too well, though my support of MLS teams has been ever-changing and on-again, off-again…and is about to become on-again, after eight years of watching MLS games with not ever feeling ill.
See, I went from MetroStars fan, since I worked for the club in 1996 and '97, to Chicago Fire fan, since my brother coached them from 1998-2002, back to MetroStars fan when my brother coached them from '03 (and nephew later played for them) until the final two regular-season games of '05, to Chivas USA fan in '06.
And then it all went away. My brother to the US national team and later, Egypt. My nephew to the Netherlands, Germany, England and Italy. No more team. No more illness.
I missed it.
I missed it.
Honestly, I tried to become a fan of the Philadelphia Union. Loved the atmosphere at PPL Park. Liked the direction of the club. But I can't lie. If a Union game started to fizzle, I was channel-surfing. I was thinking about other things. If I had to go before halftime, I went before halftime.When the Union won, yeah, great. When they lost? I couldn't convince myself to care.
I tried. But I had too much history to erase. History as a fan of all those teams I mentioned.
And history as a sportswriter, trained in the art of "rooting for the story." I just couldn't fake it, no matter how I tried.
But, as you can probably imagine, the illness has returned. Yes, with Michael's return to MLS, and his move to Toronto FC, I can tell you I've already found myself feeling ill. I watched them play a preseason game in the fog. I mean, I tried to watch. I watched them cough up a lead in the final seconds of a game against Orlando City. I watched them lose 4-2 to Fluminense.
I've already started to warn the wife about "game nights," which will mean no one bugs me for two hours as I stew. No one will expect me to drive the kids to a friend's house during those two hours. Everyone will understand that those two hours are going to be me and my Maalox. I'm going to be miserable and love it.
So, I'm not going to tell you it's important for everyone to support an MLS team. It's up to you. But I will say, if you're not feeling ill over a team, you're missing out.
So, I'm not going to tell you it's important for everyone to support an MLS team. It's up to you. But I will say, if you're not feeling ill over a team, you're missing out.
2014 NCAA Conference Tournament Schedule for every league.
By Rob Dauster
It’s March, which means that it is time for more brackets and tournaments than you can possibly handle. Here, I give to you a schedule for every conference tournament in the country. Have fun planning your appointment viewing!
(1) AAC TOURNAMENT: March 12-15, FedEx Forum, Memphis
- March 12: First round games (ESPNU)
- March 13: Quarterfinals (ESPNU)
- March 14: Semifinals (ESPN or ESPN2)
- March 15: Championship (ESPN)
- March 12: First round games (ESPNU)
- March 13: Second round games (ESPNU)
- March 14: Quarterfinals (ESPN2)
- March 15: Semifinals (ESPN)
- March 16: Championship (ESPN)
- March 8: Quarterfinals
- March 9: Semifinals
- March 15: Championship (ESPN2)
- March 12: First Round
- March 13: Second Round (NBC Sports Network)
- March 14: Quarterfinals (NBC Sports Network)
- March 15: Semifinals (CBS Sports Network)
- March 16: Championship (CBS)
- March 4: Quarterfinals
- March 6: Semifinals
- March 9: Championship (ESPN2)
- March 12: First round (Big 12 Network)
- March 13: Quarterfinals (Early games on ESPN2; late games on Big 12 Network)
- March 14: Semifinals (ESPNU)
- March 15: Championship (ESPN)
- March 12: First round (Fox Sports 1)
- March 13: Quarterfinals (Fox Sports 1)
- March 14: Semifinals (Fox Sports 1)
- March 15: Championship (Fox Sports 1)
- March 13th: Quarterfinals
- March 14th: Semifinals
- March 15: Championship (ESPNU)
- March 5: First Round
- March 7: Quarterfinals
- March 8: Semifinals
- March 9: Championship (ESPN2)
- March 13: First round (ESPN2)
- March 14: Quarterfinals (Early games on ESPN or ESPN2; late games on Big Ten Network)
- March 15: Semifinals (CBS)
- March 16: Championship (CBS)
- March 13: Quarterfinals
- March 14: Semifinals (ESPNU)
- March 15: Championship (ESPN2)
- March 7: First Round
- March 8: Quarterfinals
- March 9: Semifinals (NBC Sports Network)
- March 10: Championship (NBC Sports Network)
- March 11: First Round
- March 12: Second Round
- March 13: Quarterfinals
- March 14: Semifinals (CBS Sports Network)
- March 15: Championship (CBS)
- March 4: First Round
- March 7: Quarterfinals
- March 8: Semifinals (ESPNU)
- March 11: Championship (ESPN)
- March 6: First Round
- March 8: Quarterfinals
- March 9: Semifinals
- March 10: Championship (ESPN2)
- March 10: First Round
- March 12: Second Round
- March 13: Quarterfinals
- March 14: Semifinals
- March 15: Championship (ESPN2)
- March 10 and 11: First Round
- March 12 and 13: Quarterfinals
- March 14: Semifinals
- March 15: Championship (ESPNU)
- March 6: First Round
- March 7: Quarterfinals
- March 8: Semifinals
- March 9: Championship (CBS)
- March 12: First Round
- March 13: Quarterfinals (CBS Sports Network)
- March 14: Semifinals (CBS Sports Network)
- March 15: Championship (CBS)
- March 5: Quarterfinals
- March 8: Semifinals
- March 11: Championship (ESPN)
- March 5: First Round
- March 6: Quarterfinals
- March 7: Semifinals (ESPNU)
- March 8: Championship (ESPN2)
- March 12: First round (Pac-12 Network)
- March 13: Quarterfinals (Fox Sports 1)
- March 14: Semifinals (Fox Sports 1)
- March 15: Championship (Fox Sports 1)
- March 3: First Round
- March 5: Quarterfinals
- March 8: Semifinals
- March 12: Championship (CBS Sports Network)
- March 12: First round (SEC Network)
- March 13: Second round (SEC Network)
- March 14: Quarterfinals (Early games on ESPNU; late games on SEC Network)
- March 15: Semifinals (ABC)
- March 16: Championship (ESPN)
- March 7: First Round
- March 8: Quarterfinals
- March 9: Semifinals
- March 10: Championship (ESPN2)
- March 12: First Round
- March 13: Quarterfinals
- March 14: Semifinals
- March 15: Championship (ESPN2)
- March 8: Quarterfinals
- March 9: Quarterfinals
- March 10: Semifinals
- March 11: Championship (ESPN2)
- March 13: First Round
- March 14: Quarterfinals
- March 15: Semifinals
- March 16: Championship (ESPN2)
- March 12: First Round
- March 13: Quarterfinals
- March 14: Semifinals
- March 15: Championship (ESPN2)
- March 13: Quarterfinals
- March 14: Semifinals
- March 15: Championship (ESPNU)
- March 6: First Round
- March 8: Quarterfinals
- March 10: Semifinals (ESPN2)
- March 11: Championship (ESPN)
LeBron James vs. Kevin Durant for 2013-14 NBA MVP: It's anybody's race, just like it always was.
By Dan Devine
If the 2013-14 NBA season had ended at the All-Star break, the people who vote on such things probably would have picked Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant as this season's Most Valuable Player. Few right-thinking individuals would've offered a sideways glare at that choice; as Our Fearless Leader wrote in late January, Durant had stepped up and staked his claim to the honor with a ludicrous January that saw him average 36 points, six rebounds, six assists, and 2.5 combined blocks and steals per game while shooting a scorching 55 percent from the floor, 44 percent from 3-point range and 89 percent from the foul line — all-time-great levels of across-the-board productivity and efficiency.
Durant led an Oklahoma City team missing injured All-NBA point guard Russell Westbrook to a 12-4 record in the first month of 2014, turning in late-game heroics and capping it all off by snapping his 12-game 30-point scoring streak because he needed only three quarters to incinerate the Brooklyn Nets. He was insane, and he was leading the charge for the best team in the NBA's (far) superior conference; if the vote had taken place during All-Star Weekend in New Orleans, KD would be finding room on his mantel for his first career Podoloff.
The MVP race isn't all of a sudden a hotly contested fight to the finish because LeBron James scored 61 points on 33 shots on Monday night against what was the sixth-stingiest defense in the NBA. (The Charlotte Bobcats now rank seventh in points allowed per possession, which is still better than 23 other NBA teams, including the Los Angeles Clippers, Houston Rockets, Memphis Grizzlies and James' Miami Heat; this is something you should remember when people slough off LeBron's career-high because they think it came against air. These ain't the Bobcats you remember.) Sure, it helps, but really, the MVP race is a hotly contested fight to the finish because we've got two historic talents performing at the peak of their abilities every other night and, most importantly, we're not finished.
If you did this dance a month into the season, you might've heard about how Paul George, LaMarcus Aldridge or Kevin Love deserved the honors. If you did it on New Year's Day, LeBron (25.5 points, 6.9 rebounds, 6.6 assists in 36 minutes a night on 59 percent shooting and a 41.5 percent mark from 3-point land) might get the nod over Durant (28.8 points, 8.5 rebounds, 4.8 assists on 49.4/42.1/87.9 shooting in 38 minutes per). After Durant's monstrous January, it looked like a wrap; after LeBron's post-All-Star tear (37.4 points, 7.2 rebounds, five assists, two steals in 36.2 minutes per game, shooting 68 percent from the field and 52 percent from deep), though, the answer changes. And when folks realize today that Durant's been putting up nearly 33-8-7 since the start of February, albeit in a cold snap from long-distance (just 30.5 percent from 3-point land over his last 12 games) amid the Thunder's 2-3 post-All-Star slide, the answer will probably start to look more the open question it really is.
Durant and James have once again separated themselves from the pack; after James' Monday explosion, they not only rank first and second in Player Efficiency Rating, but also stand as the only two players in the league with ratings topping 30. (PER is an admittedly imperfect statistic, but it's still pretty useful in terms of game-in/game-out comparisons of apples-to-apples production across eras.) Eight players in the history of the league have finished seasons with a PER of 30 or more — James (four times), Michael Jordan (four times), Wilt Chamberlain (three times), Shaquille O'Neal (three times), David Robinson, Tracy McGrady, Dwyane Wade and Chris Paul (once each).
The only time multiple players have ever topped 30 in the same season was 2008-09, when James (a league-best 31.7 with the Cleveland Cavaliers), eventual teammate Wade (30.4 with the Heat) and Paul (30.0 on the dot with the New Orleans Hornets) turned the trick. Not only are Durant and James on pace to become just the second pair to pull that off in league history, but after James' 61, they're separated by all of seven-hundredths of a point: 30.44 for KD, 30.37 for LeBron. Monster performances could flip their positions in those rankings on any given night, and given the way we're watching the horse race these days, they'd likely juggle our mythical MVP votes, too.
The only time multiple players have ever topped 30 in the same season was 2008-09, when James (a league-best 31.7 with the Cleveland Cavaliers), eventual teammate Wade (30.4 with the Heat) and Paul (30.0 on the dot with the New Orleans Hornets) turned the trick. Not only are Durant and James on pace to become just the second pair to pull that off in league history, but after James' 61, they're separated by all of seven-hundredths of a point: 30.44 for KD, 30.37 for LeBron. Monster performances could flip their positions in those rankings on any given night, and given the way we're watching the horse race these days, they'd likely juggle our mythical MVP votes, too.
And it's not like we haven't seen these guys go off and respond to one another in short order in the recent past — if you'll think all the way back to the second week of February, you'll recall that one night after LeBron went for 36-13-9 and hit a wild game-winning 3 to beat the Golden State Warriors, Durant put up 43-12-7 and scored 19 in the fourth quarter to beat the Los Angeles Lakers. They've been doing this "can you top this?" thing for a while, most notably in the mano a mano "Rucker Park" showdown that came at the peak of Durant's rise to the top of the MVP ladder ... which James answered three weeks later by scoring 33 points in 33 1/2 minutes before Serge Ibaka broke James' nose and unleashed a brand new supervillain on the NBA.
This is less about ebbs and flows and more about one peak being left behind in pursuit of new heights; Durant's 54 points against the Warriors seemed pretty freakin' high until LeBron's 61 showed us a new summit, and now it's KD's serve with an opportunity to break back. The most exciting thing about James' 61 — beyond, y'know, SIXTY-ONE POINTS — is that Durant gets to respond. And then LeBron does. And so on, and so on.
This is less about ebbs and flows and more about one peak being left behind in pursuit of new heights; Durant's 54 points against the Warriors seemed pretty freakin' high until LeBron's 61 showed us a new summit, and now it's KD's serve with an opportunity to break back. The most exciting thing about James' 61 — beyond, y'know, SIXTY-ONE POINTS — is that Durant gets to respond. And then LeBron does. And so on, and so on.
The Heat have 25 games left, and the Thunder have 22; both teams are in the throes of nip-and-tuck races atop their conferences, with Oklahoma City's Western lead over the San Antonio Spurs down to just 1 1/2 games entering Tuesday's action, and Miami trailing the Indiana Pacers by only two games for the top spot in the East. There will be high-leverage moments for both players down the stretch, chances for LeBron to reaffirm that the King stay the King and chances for KD to play Jaime Lannister, and plenty will come with the world watching; eight of OKC's final 22 will be nationally televised, as will 11 of Miami's last 25. The next six weeks, not the past four months, will determine who deserves the MVP, in what's likely to be the closest vote since Nash over Shaq in 2005.
That's as it should be, and how it always should be; if we treat this stuff like politics, calling races before all precincts have reported, we miss out on the opportunity to appreciate truly transcendent moments sparking up in unexpected circumstances, like a random Monday night against Charlotte. With 43 days left in the regular season, the two greatest players in the game have created a circumstance where all we know is that we don't know nothing. Monday night didn't really change that ... and that's fine.
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