Letters to the Editor
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World Cup Ratings
King,
Do you think TV ratings, especially national TV ratings, are as meaningful for sports as they were thirty years ago?
You make a good point about the number of people watching the Mexico match in Los Angeles. Sure, most Americans don't give a hoot about the World Cup, but in local areas there are heavy concentrations of people who do. It reminds me of basketball in Canada: Not many Canadians give a crap about the NBA, and the TV ratings demonstrate this (Raptors games get beat by curling on TV). But in Toronto the games are sold out regularly.
Is it possible that "national TV" ratings neglect the pockets of, for example, ethnic communities that may not have the same interests as the Nielsens? Are there other ways these niche ratings manifest (Internet audiences?)? I don't know. I don't know how TV ratings are measured.
Maybe all those jokes about the World Cup on late night TV are intended for the small groups of people who watch those shows, and don't reflect the true interest in soccer in America?
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O'Neal's free throw shooting...
is of course utterly abysmal, but then when I sat down to think about, I couldn't remember a single big game during his Laker tenure where he didn't hit them in the clutch. So the Big Fella is true to his word when he promises he'll sink his free throws when he absolutely has to. The same can not be said, however, for chokers like Karl Malone: an 80% free throw shooter, and yet he will never live down his cracking under pressure during the Jazz-Bulls finals. No excuse for that.
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Keeping the Heat turned up
C'mon, you've got to give it up more than that for Udonis Haslem; it seemed like every time I was ready to count the Heat out in the late 3rd and early 4th quarters Haslem made some something happen on pure hustle, contesting every shot and scrambling for every loose ball. I'd never heard of Haslem before this postseason but he really impressed me last night.
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Annoying PA Announcers
Is there a more grating, irritating, awful, horrible, annoying PA announcer than the clown in Miami? The pregame introductions could not have possibly been worse. And then his having to prod the crowd to start chants (such as the always invigorating "let's go heat!") actually made me mad. What ever happened to the schtick-free PA announcer? The dude who just announced to the crowd the important things that were happening in the game, and weren't also the head cheerleader? Remember the guy from the forum in LA? He had a great voice, and all he did was say the player's name after a basket - "James Worthy." Not this ridiculous "SHAQUUUIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLEEE O'NEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAL" crap after every made basket.
The guy in Detroit gives the Miami guy a run for his money, but what makes the Miami guy extra horrible is that there is nothing unique or interesting about his voice - he's just a dude who has a deep love for his own voice screaming into a microphone. It brings a falsity to the proceedings - let the crowd get excited on its own ... trust me, when a big play happens, they will respond. They don't need your prodding, Mr. Obnoxious PA Announcer. Please, please - for the sake of us all - just shut up.
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Rich
Take a look in the archives. Shaq has missed so many free throws in big games one couldn't count them all without a calculator. Every time he actually makes a big one he trots that line out, but it isn't true. He's lost dozens of playoff games even if you exclude seasons in which he was the ultimate champ. All those playoff losses were 'big games'. He missed an assload of free throws during those games. Ergo....
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Miami's P.A. Announcer
I couldn't agree more. This guy brings absolutely no originality to the table. Mason (the Pistons announcer), as annoying as he can be, at least vocalizes some creative sonants. The Miami announcer's shtick consists solely of drawing out EVERY SINGLE WORD he says. If I have to hear the Heat emerge from even one more timeout to the sounds of, "LADIEEEEEEEEEEEEEZZZZZZZZ ANNNNND GENTLEMENNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!..." I might wreck my television. (And what about how at the end of the game, when there are multiple timeouts in a row, he says this same thing EACH TIME?!? It's bad enough hearing it even once, let alone every sixty seconds until the end of the game.)
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gp, you may be right
But I just think it's noteworthy that no key games come to mind (at least to my mind) where Shaq missed critical free throws in the final minutes which cost his team the game (tell me if you remember any). During the Philly series I remember him hitting them down the stretch more than once, for instance. What we need is a play-by-play recap of these games--something I find annoyingly difficult to find on the Internet. Basketball-reference.com is an excellent resource, with complete box scores, but in order to find out, say, which free throws a player missed/made, we'd need a play-by-play listing. While sites like espn.com provide this info for recent years, we need a fat database with archived play-by-plays going way back. C'mon, Internet!
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Who cares if he hits them "in the clutch?"
If you really want to assess Shaq's free throw shooting, look at how many games he's played in where his team has lost by less than (free throws Shaq made) and 80% * (free throw attempts for Shaq).
I'm sure it's a lot. Frankly, if your team loses a game by 1 point, I don't care if you missed two free throws at the end of the game or 2 minutes into the first quarter.
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Shaq-thru
I don’t mean to state the obvious here but Shaq isn’t just cooling down, he’s done. At this point in his career all he has is one good playoff series left in those mammoth legs of his. Unfortunately for Heat fans he spent that series in the last round against Detroit. Two examples: 1 – He is getting consistently out-played by Eric Dampier in this series. 2 – He took not one, but two charges (read: flops) last night. Does the old Shaq resort to playing “finesse” basketball like that? C’mon Shaq! Two terrible calls, by the way. Maybe if he takes those against Dampier or Diop I’d believe it but he was flopping against Howard and Stackhouse. His 380lbs couldn’t hold up to those two? Please.
If I’m a Heat fan I’d be a little worried right now. The Heat need to win the championship THIS year because it doesn’t look like there will be another shot in the near future. Shaq certainly isn’t going to play any better next year than he did (sporadically) this year and he still has, oh, four years and EIGHTY million left on his contract. And if you were Dwyane Wade wouldn’t you be a little tempted to go play with a younger team knowing that you’ll be stuck with a broken down Shaq and no real good chance of bringing in quality young guys for the next 4 years?
On another note, with Miami’s win last night at least we have a series. I know it’s a long season but it’s been great and I’m not ready for it to end.