Common Bonds

Last Thursday saw the much anticipated return of the (self-titled former) king of sorts as Lebron James and the Miami Heat went to the Q to play the Cleveland Cavaliers. The reaction was actually more mild than I was expecting (I DVRed it in case a riot/murder occurred during the game. Seriously, I stopped watching the recording about 2 minutes into the first quarter), but still vicious with various taunting signs and, of course, thunderous boos aimed at Lebron the entire time.

It reminded me of the incident that happened shortly after Lebron's ill-fated Decision when a James fan and his girlfriend went to an Indians game. Nothing unusual, except he was wearing a Lebron Heat jersey.

The scene was ugly and security had to escort the couple out.

I remember when I first saw/heard about that incident, one of the things that stood out to me for whatever reason was that that guy's girlfriend was wearing an Indians jersey. If she's a big enough Cleveland fan to be wearing a jersey (and trust me, to rep any Cleveland team you have to love your city), shouldn't she have been able to have anticipated the reaction they'd receive? In fact, shouldn't she too have been disgusted by her boyfriend wearing the new uniform of the man who had stabbed the city's back on a national tv special?

Cleveland sports fans are a passionate bunch. They are extremely devoted to their teams despite the bleak outlook for all of them. They're probably more fatalistic and consistently, constantly depressed than any other fan base of any team, in any city, in any sport. Like, it is so bad. It is really bad. For real. Honestly, I can't imagine what they must have felt for their hometown hero to abandon them on live television.

The minute he uttered the words "take my talents to South Beach" there was a rift that separated him from the city of Cleveland. You simply cannot be a Lebron fan and a Cleveland fan because the two have been so fundamentally different post-Decision.

Maybe you think you can. Maybe you do enjoy watching the Indians play baseball every now and again. You could go to a sports bar and chat up the local fans there. But if you're a Lebron fan, you've aligned yourself with someone who (at least in their mind) has done that city so wrong that mentioning that fact about yourself will cause those you just met to shun you. At this point, Lebron and Cleveland are in complete opposition. To identify with both is to be confused and have a basic misunderstanding of either Lebron, Cleveland, the relationship between the two, or all of the above.

This whole thing made me think of 2 Corinthians 6:14-16a. It reads:

¹⁴ Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? ¹⁵ What harmony is there between Christ and Belial^b]">[b]? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? ¹⁶ What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?

Lebron and Cleveland. The world and Christ. Yeah, you might think that you can have a foot in both, but that's simply not possible. If you say you're a Lebron and Cleveland fan, you're just a Lebron fan. True Cleveland fans won't want anything to do with you. Likewise, if you think you can be of this world and of Christ, sorry to say, you're mistaken. At some point, something's got to give.

And for those of us who are followers of Christ, we do have to be careful about who we associate ourselves with. I'm not trying to come off as a snob saying we shouldn't hang out with non-believers. That's definitely not what I'm trying to say and not an accurate statement at all. But we do have to have an idea of the difference between pursuing friendship and ministry and just being absorbed and completely conforming.

It makes sense if you think about it. Our relationship with God should be the center of our existence, driving everything we do. For non-believers, their center is something else. Whether it's the pursuit of success, a desire for sensual satisfaction, or even an attitude of philanthropy, if it's not God-centered, it's going to lead them to a completely different place from us. The "equally yoked" phrasing of course brings to mind the image of beasts of burden plowing a field. Two animals can't be yoked together and headed in different directions. Again, at some point, something's to give.

Geeks and Jocks

There's always been a certain kind of tension in the sports world between stat heads and traditional analysts. Every sport has a set of traditional knowledge, things that people who have played the game just know and understand as part of the game and how its supposed to be played. These insiders and analysts don't take too kindly when people focusing on stats, "quants" as they're sometimes called, come along and dispel or at least call into question things everyone already knows is right, no matter what or how many numbers and data sets they have to back it up.

A famous example would be Michael Lewis's Moneyball, a book discussing Oakland A's manager Billy Beane and how he used advanced and non-traditional statistics to find undervalued production. In the book, on base percentage is preached over batting average, walks are king and sacrifice bunts and stolen bases shouldn't be bothered with. There's a lot of detail and logical arguments supporting these ideas, mostly based around the fact that the most important thing on offense in baseball is to avoid making outs. Of course, you still see teams move guys over with bunts and send runners, and batting average is still prominently mentioned.

Who knows if there will ever be a perfect coexistence between the box score people and the "watch the game" people or even what that would look like, but there's no question that you need both. Just looking at stats often ignores elements that don't show up in any box score such as momentum, leadership, and a general understanding of the flow of a game. Not taking into account stats at all leaves someone vulnerable to small sample sizes and misinterpreting fluke occurrences as patterns. Neither is necessarily better than the other, rather, they inform and complete each other.

While Moneyball might be the most famous example, advanced stats are making a push in basketball as well. Often, these stats can validate or disprove certain things that observers notice through watching the game.

One of the biggest stories in the NBA this year has been the explosion of Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose. He established himself as a solid point guard in his first two years in the league, but has really busted out this year, averaging about 5 more points and 3 more assists a game while also raising his PER (player efficiency rating) from 18.60 to 22.72. While he's exceptionally fast and has incredible athleticism, the knock on him has been an inability to hit jump shots. He seemed to have worked on it over the summer, and last night's game against San Antonio led ESPN's Ric Bucher to tweet, "I try like heck not to be reactive, but it's time to stop talking as if Derrick Rose doesn't have a J. Or three-point range. He has both."

And based on last night's game, that's true. He was 5-6 from 16-23 feet (long twos) and 2-4 from 3 point range. But again, we're dealing with a really small sample size (one game). While his 3 point shooting has seemed to improve (up to 34.2% from 26.7%), his improvement from 16-23 ft has been marginal (2%) and he's shooting far worse from 10-15 ft (30%, a huge decrease from 50% last year).

Is his long range shooting better? Yes. But it should be noted that he's still in the bottom half of regular point guards in 3 point percentage, and the shot he improved most (long twos) is the most inefficient way to score in the game.

Don't get me wrong. This is no knock on Rose at all. He is a phenomenal player. It just strikes me as kind of ridiculous to make a disclaimer against being reactive, then proclaim his jump shot to be fixed based on one night. On the other hand, his improvement and the impact he has on this Bulls team can't be stated in any box score or statistical summary.

And this is where watching the games and tracking stats have to meet.

Stats courtesy of Hoopdata

Random Opening Night Thoughts

Sitting here, bored, watching some NBA Countdown before the OKC/Chi game starts. Just had a couple random thoughts to put down here.

- Of course much has been made of the Miami Heat losing in the debut of the Big Three. They'll be fine, they just looked rusty and out of sorts on the floor. It looked kind of like street ball with really bad floor spacing and I didn't really see any offensive movements more complicated than a screen or pick and roll. They should be able to solve this with time, however, they also have to stop settling for ugly jump shots as well, especially since they have two of the best wings in the game who are both awesome at attacking the basket. Also problematic might be their lack of a back-to-the-basket scorer. Lebron, for all his size and athleticism, clearly is not comfortable working down low and Chris Bosh likewise is more of a face-up, jump shooting big man. We'll see how their offense works without a reliable scorer in the post.

- Lakers looked ugly most of the game but somehow found a way to pull out a win. Nice to see new additions Matt Barnes and Steve Blake make the contributions they were signed for, namely scrappiness, good decision making, and timely shots. Also, how about Shannon Brown with his late game heroics. Check out his PER of 34.75 after one game! Kidding aside, I feel like the game he had last night is exactly what the Lakers have been looking for from Sasha Vujacic with quick, disruptive defense and dead-eye shooting from 3. Those are valuable skills in addition to the athleticism and big dunks he already brings. It remains to be seen if he can keep this up over the course of 82 games (and more, hopefully), but if he can, he's going to be an extremely valuable guy off the bench.

- Steve Nash can't do it by himself. That much was clear last night. The Suns just need to hope that new additions Hedo Turkoglu, Josh Childress, and Hakim Warrick step up a lot more than last night. But their lack of size and rebounding is going to kill them (the Blazers had an offensive rebound rate of 43.9% WTF), especially if Robin Lopez gets into foul trouble early in games or hurt. What's Erick Dampier up to these days...

- I am so excited for tonight's nationally televised games. A few of the most electric young players (Durant, Rose, Griffin, Roy) is going to make for a fun night.

Stressed, Thankful

I tried to think of another adjective that described how I was feeling right now that started with "u" but couldn't do it.

Anyway as the title implies, I'm pretty stressed right now but also thankful. The two sort of go hand in hand.

I've got two tests tomorrow, mostly free response. For me, multiple choice is generally straightforward and not too hard because I have developed a lot of experience and skill in the art of guessing (see: my SAT score). Free response is a whole other animal though, and I actually have to study for those portions. I still have several articles to read/re-read tonight so I'm familiar enough to answer these questions. Not so fun, and it's already almost 10 which means I should sleep soon since I have an early start tomorrow.

And I have an early start because I have an interview at 7:30 at school. We had a couple career events the past couple days and I'm very thankful that I got several interviews scheduled for tomorrow. This is unusual (not the "u" word I was looking for but close) for me since I think I've only had maybe three or four total interviews the past two years. Regardless of what happens, I'm really grateful just that I can go and talk to these companies and recruiters. I feel like as far as career stuff, God has really blessed me and put opportunities in front of me even when I don't think they'll be available.

So that's it. Just wanted to throw something about that up here. And just wanted to procrastinate too.

By the way, one of the very first posts I ever had on this blog was this one: http://uniquelygeneric.blogspot.com/2009/03/pet-peeve.html

I was basically complaining about people misusing the word "literally" because, yeah, I'm that much of a stickler. Anyway, theoatmeal.com basically said the same thing, in a much more succinct manner and with cooler pictures.

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/literally

Quick Hits: UFC 118

UFC 118 took place over the weekend so this is sort of late, but I've been a little busy trying to catch up on school/just being lazy, thus this post comes nearly a week after the event itself. But we press on...

Anyway, Preston and I went to Boston last weekend to catch the UFC Fan Expo, and it was fantastic. There were so many MMA companies and fighters there and it was cool to see so many people there just hanging out and checking out the exhibits. But of course the highlight was getting to meet those involved with MMA, fighters or otherwise. We got to meet pretty much everyone we had wanted to, from former Pride great Wanderlei Silva to ring girl Arianny Celeste. There were just a couple people on our list who either weren't there or just too busy, but overall it was a success. I put up a bunch of pics on Facebook so you can go check those out there.

After the festivities, we went to (of all places) Applebees on Saturday night to watch the fights. Some impressions.

- Dan Miller won his fight over John Salter with a second round guillotine choke, his third career win by guillotine and sixth by choke in 16 pro fights. Miller's a great midlevel middleweight who's exciting to watch, and has one of the nastiest guillotines I've ever seen.

- Another great middle of the pack fighter was on display when Joe Lauzon dominated Gabe Ruediger for a couple minutes before finishing him off with an armbar. I love seeing TUF 5 alumni since that was my favorite seeing, and while it's nice to see Gabe back in the UFC after his embarrassing showing on the show, he's clearly not up to par quite yet. Lauzon's a solid young fighter, but I don't think he'll ever be good enough to crack the top echelon of lightweights. Still, he always puts on a show and has a diverse skillset that will help him stick around for a while.

- Speaking of TUF 5 alumns, Nate Diaz had a solid win over Marcus Davis, his second in a row in his new weight class of 170. He's a fantastic submission artist and his cockiness is always entertaining, but I'm not sure how much a win over Davis really says, who's now lost three of his past four fights. Davis is likely done, mostly just being used as a stepping stone from here on out and a guy the UFC can count on to throw leather.

- Although Demian Maia didn't get the finish, he put on a show against Mario Miranda. He made that fight a personal grappling clinic and at times seemed unsure about which of his many submissions he wanted to go for. Exciting guy who seems to have put the memory of his lackluster loss to Anderson Silva behind him.

- A big theme of the night was wrestlers as Nik Lentz, Gray Maynard, and Frankie Edgar basically wrestled their way to victory. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a totally valid way to win, and dictating where the fight occurs is one of the best strategies in the game. However it's not the most exciting, and anyone who saw Lentz basically spend 15 minutes trying to drag Andre Winner to the ground and not much else can attest to that.
It seems to me as if overwhelming wrestling just doesn't seem as dominating as overwhelming skills in other areas. We think of guys like Anderson Silva, who makes opponents look foolish with his standup game as he weaves in and out before brutalizing the other fighter with punches, kicks and knees. There's also Shinya Aoki, who takes over fights with his submission skills, playing with his opponents as if they were grappling dummies before locking in a choke or joint lock for the win. When we get to guys like Maynard or Edgar, it seems to be not about dominating the opponent, but rather neutralizing and controlling. And while a win is a win, I can't help but want more from them. Even the champions of the past we associate most with wrestling (Matt Hughes and Tito Ortiz) had much more than just suffocating takedowns to win their fights. Hughes would dominate his opponents after he took the fight to the mat, striking them until the ref stopped it or he saw an opening for a submission. Ortiz had some of the best ground and pound in MMA history, often doing significant, fight-ending damage from still within his opponent's guard. Out of 18 combined fights, Edgar and Maynard have 14 decisions. Let's see some finishes boys.

- Still, it's sort of unfair to fault them for going out their and fighting their fight in order to win. Their opponents have to be able to stop the takedowns and/or do damage off their back. Kenny Florian, Maynard's victim, simply could not stop Maynard's relentless attack and had very little to offer from his guard except for a couple feeble submission attempts. If he wants to keep rising as a lightweight, he'll have to be able to fight on his terms.
Much more surprising was BJ Penn's inability to do anything in his rematch against Edgar. It wasn't until the 4th round when he took Edgar down, seemingly content to get hit and taken down himself. But the biggest surprise to me was his lack of offense from his back. BJ is one of the best jiujitsu players in MMA, so to see him attempt so few submissions or use his lethal rubber guard left me confused. Was BJ simply uninterested or is he past his prime? He'll have to answer these questions.

- And finally, the Randy Couture/James Toney fight. Anyone who bought this as a true MMA vs boxing fight is simply deluded. Toney, a talented but aging boxer, can't be expected to fare well in MMA against Couture, a talented but aging mixed martial artist, any better than Couture would against Toney in the boxing ring. The takeaway wasn't that MMA is better than boxing, just that bringing one skillset into the octagon won't cut it, something we already knew.