This is a pretty rote documentary about the 2008 USA Olympic basketball team, which won gold in 2008 after the previous team had won only bronze for the first time in decades.
Tag: Basketball
Untold: Operation Flagrant Foul (2022, David Terry Fine)
This is an interesting, compelling and entertaining documentary about Tim Donaghy for most of its run, and then it runs into conspiracy territory at the end and becomes rather frustrating.
Your 2021-2022 Toronto Raptors
There are people who will tell you that this season was a disappointment. (I saw one commenter in the normally reasonably sane comment section of The Athletic call the season “a disgrace.”) These people, as far as I know, are fans who joined due to the championship, or the years of success preceding it, as …
Vince Carter: Legacy (2021, Justin C. Polk)
Vince Carter is not why I’m a basketball fan, that’s Steve Nash. But Vince Carter is why I paid enough attention to basketball to discover Steve Nash. And, of course, I was a pretty impressionable age when Vinsanity was happening. So I have a soft spot for him and for his story. (I am the …
Untold: Malice at the Palace (2021, Floyd Russ)
This is a roughly hour-long episode from a new Netflix documentary series about the infamous “Malice at the Palace.” I was just getting into basketball then – I think Pistons/Lakers may have been the first NBA finals I really watched – but I did not watch this game live as far as I know. But …
Scottie Barnes and Uncertainty
During the 2021 NBA Draft, the Raptors drafted Scottie Barnes 4th overall, their first draft pick this high since Andrea Bargnani in 2006. Raptors Twitter reacted like it was the end of the world.
Your 2020-21 Toronto Raptors
To tell you the truth, I’m still basking in the glow of NBA Champion Toronto Raptors. I don’t care if it’s been nearly two years. I didn’t think they would ever win the championship. The day before the Kawhi trade, I would have bet you money they never would have in my lifetime. Its’ still …
Old Guys Without an NBA Ring
Who are the oldest active NBA players without a Championship and should you be rooting for them?
The Victory Machine (2020) by Ethan Sherwood Strauss
This is a portrait of the Warriors that is both fascinating and maddening. I am not super familiar with Strauss beyond his podcast guest appearances on the Lowe Post and maybe the odd article I’ve stumbled across but I don’t know how much I’ll be seeking out his writing after this.
Your 2019-20 Toronto Raptors
There is a lot of disappointment in Toronto right now and I’m not sure it’s warranted. The Toronto Raptors won the title last year. They then lost two starters: one of the 3-5 best players in the entire league – and best Raptor ever in terms of pure two-way talent – and a candidate for …
Vince
Vince Carter retired yesterday (June 25, 2020). Almost immediately a bunch of Raptors fans online were talking about how he might deserve a statue, maybe, but his jersey number can never be retired. So let me briefly yell at a cloud and say: only people who are so immature they cannot get over a trade …
The Last Dance (2020)
This is an engaging but somewhat skin-deep documentary about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, based in part upon never-before-seen footage of the 1997-98 team, which won their sixth championship.
Seven Seconds or Less (2006) by Jack McCallum
For many people this is the definitive basketball book since The Breaks of the Game. It has been written and talked about so much that it was unavoidable that I would have preconceived notions about it and that it would inevitably not live up to those notions. Shock of all shocks, it is different than I …
The Soul of Basketball (2018, Ian Thomsen)
This book is basically meant for me as the Mavericks’ championship was the greatest thing to happen in my adult sports fan life prior to the Raptors winning recently. So I should love this. But I don’t quite. I’m going to try to articulate why.
Your NBA Champion 2018-19 Toronto Raptors
I attended a Raptors game at Sky Dome. But I’m not one of those fans who can say that I have been a fan of the Raptors the entire time. The seats we had at the Dome were bad enough my only memory is not being able to see the ball well and not understanding …
Boom Town: The Fantastical Saga of Oklahoma City (2018, Sam Anderson)
I didn’t know I wanted to read a book about Oklahoma City. (I bet you don’t think you need to read a book about Oklahoma City.) I’ve never been there. All I knew about it was that there is a basketball team there (stolen from Seattle), that the Flaming Lips are from there, that there …
Your 2017-2018 Toronto Raptors: Blow it all up?
Every year at this time of year I usually write a recap of the Raptors season. (Before I switched allegiances, it was a Leafs’ recap.) I’m sorry to say I don’t really do this for other people. I know there are actual basketball writers in the world who have actual things to say about Toronto …
Boys Among Men (2016) by Jonathan Abrams
This is a pretty excellent narrative history of the one and only generation of NBA stars to come directly from high school. Though I have one minor quibble, I got over it and, for the most part, it’s probably the definitive book about this topic.
Initial Reactions to the Raptos’ 2016 Draft
I saw a CBC story that claimed Raptors fans (on twitter) were not happy with Toronto’s #9 pick. Some twitter users were unfamiliar with Poeltl because they apparently do not follow college basketball or NBA mock drafts or…maybe they aren’t even actually Raptors fans (but just play them on twitter)?
Your 2015-2016 Toronto Raptors
Putting aside any disappointments we may feel about those last two games, it must be acknowledged that, by nearly any standard, this was the Greatest Team in Franchise History; the most regular season wins, the most home wins, the most road wins, the most playoff wins… I may have had my expectations raised too high …
2015-16 NBA Awards
MVP Curry is
Triple Doubles
Draymond Green is two blocks away from being the first player in NBA history to record 1000 points, 500 rebounds, 500 assists, 100 steals and 100 blocks in a single season, since steals and blocks were recorded. That’s big news.
Does Andrei Kirilenko belong in the Hall of Fame?
Does Andrei Kirilenko belong in the Hall of Fame?
Does Shawn Marion Belong in the Basketball Hall of Fame?
Shawn Marion is retiring apparently. So, does he belong in the Hall of Fame? As usual, all data from Basketball Reference.
2015 NBA Finals MVP Bull Shit
In hockey, there is a rare but time-tested tradition of awarding the playoff* MVP to the best player on the team that loses the finals if he excels so much that the Professional Hockey Writers Association thinks he deserves it, i.e. he drags a team to the finals. (*In the NHL, the award is for …
The Top 5 Raptors Draft Picks of All Time
The other day, I covered 10 of the “best” 15 draft picks the Raptors have made. Today we’ll be talking about the Top 5 players the Raptors have drafted, a couple of whom might actually make it into the Hall of Fame some day. I will be using a different format for covering these players, …
Raptors Best Draft Picks as of 2015
Earlier this season (2014-15), a click-bait article was published on TSN about the “best” Raptors draft picks of all time, given that this was their 20th season and all. They were, according to the author: Bosh Mighty Mouse Mo Pete DeRozan T Mac No explanation was given for why Mo Pete is considered to be …
Your 2014-15 Toronto Raptors
Last year, as the Raptors neared setting a record for regular season wins in a season, I wondered which was the best Raptors team ever. A weeks later I concluded last year’s edition ranked among the best. But at the beginning of this calendar year, I was optimistic that we were seeing the best team …
Dirk Nowitzki Changed Basketball
As you may know, the other day Dirk Nowitzki became the only player in NBA history to reach 25,000 points, 10,000 boards, 1,000 blocks and 1,000 made 3-pointers. As others have noted, there have been good-shooting bigs before, but since the 3-point line was introduced, there has never been a player to combine size, scoring, …
Does Steve Nash belong in the Basketball Hall of Fame?
Obviously the title of this post is redundant, as they often are when discussing the legacy of star players. Anyway, what do you say about the greatest Canadian basketball player of all time?