Bill Walton, RIP

When I was in grad school at Stanford, Bill Walton had started Stanford Law School (he never finished). There was a rumor going around that he was going to be on a team of lawyers for the three-on-three intramural basketball tournament, so a few of us decided we had better field our own team of Econ PhD students, if only for the opportunity to step onto the hardwood in the presence of greatness. I can't recall if we actually did enter, but for sure we never got far enough to play against Mister W, if indeed he was on a team (I think not). I played a lot of pickup hoops as a youngster, so I would have been able to appreciate getting my ass kicked by this absolute beast of an athlete... even if his feet and ankles were already pretty shaky at that point. I like to think he would have been kind to us. Anyway, it would have been something.

Ditch the trey

Or at least move the lines back. Steph is great, for sure, but this piece from FiveThirtyEight helps explain why the game has become a little less fun to watch, because the palette of shot selection has become much more limited.

Martina on Serena

I agree with her completely. Just because the men get away with bad behavior more often doesn't make it right. On the other hand, I can't help thinking the umpire should have shown more forbearance and refrained from administering the one-game penalty, rather than have risen to the bait. When it comes to refereeing, I generally favor the more minimal "play on" school of thought... especially when being a stickler for the rules ends up tainting the innocent opponent's victory, as it did in this case. Osaka sure didn't need that game to win the match.

You know you are getting old when...

... curling and skiathlon are more interesting than men's figure skating...

Olympics report

Lots of swimming: Now that I am swimming regularly, I find it more impressive than I used to. Still not terribly exciting... way too many events.
Women's cycling road race: Earlier in the day I was agreeing with my sports fan neighbor that it is like watching paint dry. Why are they devoting so much air time to this? By the end of the race you could not have pried me away from the TV. Wow.
Men's tennis: Djoko and del Potro. Awesome.
So far, so good!

At the risk of immodesty...

... I would say I am an excellent stone skipper. But not this good.

Scottish Highland Gathering and Games

I've never been to Scotland, but it's hard to imagine there are many places less like Scotland than Pleasanton, CA, a pretty and prosperous little town in the "Tri-Valley" near San Jose. Being over the ridge to the east of the Bay, the climate is hot and dry in the summer... the hills are crispy and dormant, not misty and verdant. Nevertheless, the Scottish Games have settled here on the Alameda County Fairgrounds. The organizers claim this is the sesquicentennial. Impressive... Scots can hardly have been her much longer than that...

Plaid and kilts much in evidence... and beer, and whisky. Of course, county-fair food, and the big bellies and butts that accompany it. Folks who claim Scots heritage or affinity come in droves and park their RVs among their "clans."

What were the highlights?

#3: Caber-tossing. I learned a lot about this sport. That's not saying much... I knew nothing about it except brawny guys try to hurl a big log. Most importantly, I learned that it has nothing to do with how far you toss the thing, but rather with how the caber lands. It's rather difficult. There are now women as well as men tossing the things.

#2: Albannach. A very spirited Scottish band featuring percussion and one bagpipe guy and a lot of tattoos, plus a dude on didgeridoo, which is a fine addition to any band with bagpipes. Drone on!

#1: Sheep dog trials. We arrived late and managed to catch only three dogs. I've seen this on TV, and, frankly, it's a lot more entertaining than you might suppose. Alas, these dogs were not the best, but the task is extremely challenging. The sheep really are not inclined to cooperate, and the dog must be unfailingly focused and strategic. I have thought of sport as a human activity at a very high level, but these dogs are fine athletes in every sense of the word.

Humans, frankly,

... are crazier than shit-house rats. And when it comes to dramatic endings, no other species comes close. I don't think I'll feel quite so proud about making it 12 yards underwater on a breath since learning of Molchanova's 200... Then again, I've always resurfaced...

Tennis is really hard...

... and one of the hardest things to do is return a really good serve. Suppose it is coming in at around 120 mph, and buried in either corner... what to do? Novak knows. Everyone loves Federer, and rightly so. But has there ever been a return machine like Djokovic? Maybe Federer a decade ago?

This is sad

Of course, Serena would probably be the best ever anyway... but is it really possible, in the year 2015, that the reason she has so little competition is that many of her best potential competitors are too concerned about their body image to build the necessary strength?

"It’s our decision to keep her as the smallest player in the top 10," said Tomasz Wiktorowski, the coach of Agnieszka Radwanska, who is listed at 5 feet 8 and 123 pounds. "Because, first of all she’s a woman, and she wants to be a woman."

Then again, money talks. "Maria Sharapova, a slender, blond Russian who has been the highest-paid female athlete for more than a decade because of her lucrative endorsements, said she still wished she could be thinner."

For my part, I think Serena looks pretty damn womanly. In a scary way.

Is it wrong...

... that I, a self-described egalitarian, am rooting for LeBron against my home town boys, and that I smile every time Serena kicks ass again, and again? The greatest athletes of their generation?

Nah...

Steph

Not much of a sports fan, am I. No home-town loyalty either. But hoops is my favorite sport, and I gotta say I like these Warriors. I hope Curry is OK. Bad fall, gutsy game. The Rockets are doomed. Looking forward to watching Steph go up against LeBron.

Huskies

As a faculty brat growing up in Storrs, CT, I attended many of the UConn men's basketball home games. We sat in the huge, rickety bleachers in the old stadium, and it was loud and fun even when the team was mediocre, as it often was. Women's hoops existed, I think, but was not really on the radar screen. Times have changed.

"... running a so-called negative split...

"... by covering the second half of the course 33 seconds faster than the first half." The first half being 13 F-ing miles, in just over one hour. Then Kimetto apparently decided to step up his game. Mind-boggling.

NBA salary cap and league competitiveness

If LeBron were paid his market value (about double his current 20 million), along with his fellow players, would it make the league more or less competitive?

Last year, the ever-unreliable Planet Money said "less": under the individual player salary cap, superstars are affordable even by poor teams, making the league more competitive... hence even LeBron would agree that the player cap is good for the league.

Roger Noll disagrees: Surely if the NBA kept its team cap rules and eliminated the individual cap, no team could afford to assemble the Heat's talent... and hence the Heat would be beatable in the playoffs by more than one or two other teams. Seems to me that Roger must be correct. The most obvious piece of evidence is that the league really isn't very competitive!

Regardless, Miami vs. San Antonio should be a good show.

Sir Charles

I regret that I never manage to see much of the NCAA playoffs, but I somehow lucked into yesterday's Kentucky-Louisville nailbiter. Great game. I also caught the CBS hoops guys on today's pregame show, discussing the NLRB ruling that college athletes can unionize. Frankly, it was a more substantive debate than you will ever hear from Brooks and Dionne on NPR. Kenny Smith was all for unionization, and rewarding the jocks in the big-money sports in proportion to their marginal product. Some cracks about "field hockey" were made... thinly veiled code language for double-X chromosomes. Sir Charles would have none of it. "What about Title IX?" he demanded. Revenue has to be redistributed to the less lucrative sports. The important thing is supporting the academic achievement of the 99% of college athletes who will never make a career of it. Mind you, he did not seem at all opposed to getting the jocks a bigger piece of the pie. Oh... and he also correctly called it for Kentucky at the half.

Winter Olympics Update

Viktor Ahn: Athlete of the games.

Winter Olympics Update

Women's figure skating: Very fine. I thought Kim Yu-na was better, but then, I can't tell a Lutz from a Salchow...
Women's half-pipe skiing: Less than half-worth watching, like any half-pipe event.

Winter Olympics Update

Ice dancing: Gorgeous!
Interview of Bode Miller: Shameful
Aerials skiing: Yawn
Curling: Haven't seen it, haven't missed it
Caddy ELR commercial: The perfect 60-second commercial; narrative, pacing, acting, cinematography, music, and theme all come together as they rarely do in 2-hour movies. Did I mention that it is almost insufferably obnoxious? The ironic tone does not cancel out the self-satisfied jingoistic swagger of the thing. But hey, if it gets bros with dough to consider a plug-in hybrid, I'm all for it...

Winter Olympics Update

Men's figure skating: snoozefest, falls, bad outfits.
Bobsledding: Perennially boring.
Super G: Super.
Short-track speed skating: Best winter olympic sport ever.
Ice dancing short program: Ella and Louis... need I say more?
Charmin Zamboni bathroom break commercial: Outstanding.