Sports
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Because he plays with infectious enthusiasm. Because he's undersized for his position but unfazed. Because he plays a better game today than he did last week. Because he's so often the first man down the floor, outrunning and outhustling his opponent. Because he's not the most gifted athlete in the league, but he makes the…
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Every year, football becomes harder and harder to watch. When the quarterback is blitzed and has his clock cleaned, or a receiver on a crossing pattern gets his bell rung, I no longer think, brilliant play. Instead, I think, pain and concussion. Not a game goes by but that a lineman leaves the field of…
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I have to admit that I'm thoroughly taken with the Jeremy Lin story. It's so wonderfully, ridiculously improbable. Asian-American guy, Harvard!! economics grad, plays OK with the Erie Bayhawks and the Reno Bighorns but is released by two not-so-strong NBA teams. A last-resort number 4 point guard on the Knicks, sleeping on a couch in…
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This year's Nuggets are now at 3-2 and each game has been worth watching. Because there are no superstars, there's a different plot every game. The ball moves and doesn't stop as when, in the old day, it came into the hands of Carmelo, or, even worse, The Answer. Everyone plays defense; everyone runs, almost…
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While in the Bay Area, I visited SF's Museum of Asian Art, where this grotesque, beautiful piece of maximum conspicuous consumption was on display. It's a silver Landau made for the Maharaja of Bhavnagar around the turn of the last century. Needless to say, I was utterly appalled by the waste and extravagance though dazzled…
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What are those beads with which half of the players now accesorize? Why, they're magic titanium necklaces. "The necklaces… work by stabilizing the electric flow that nerves use to communicate actions to the body. All of the messages in your body travel through electricity, so if you’re tired or just pitched nine innings, the electricity isn’t…
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Lady Stallions!?! Not only a New Jersey soccer team, but an oxymoron of Shakespearean achievement. Not a simple oxymoron either, like Romeo's "cold fire, sick health," but a figure of speech on the far frontier of Oxymoronia, along with such classics as Utah Jazz and Christian Science. What, pray tell, is a Lady Stallion? Even…
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It was an excellent win for Dallas. The series isn't over yet, but it's better to be up 3-2 than down 2-3. Terry, Kidd, Chandler, Marion, and Berea all played beautifully. Dirk Nowitzki had another lovely game. And in the booth, Jeff Van Gundy continued to mangle the language at a yogiberra level: "Dirk Nowitzki is now a household name in…
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Rajan Rondo is knocked down by Dwayne Wade and falls awkwardly dislocating his left elbow. Even though it's gruesome, the tape is repeated over and over again. We see Rondo's arm bend backwards and we see him writhe in pain. Jeff Van Gundy: "It's horrible. I can't watch." Mark Jackson (a Brooklynite who doesn't like Van Gundy): …