Since it has yet again become obvious that I’m a poor blog updater this week, here’s plenty of words from other people to keep you satisfied until I drop some new knowledge on you tomorrow.
First up is Malcolm Gladwell’s recent New Yorker article talking about How David Beats Goliath. Honestly, I wasn’t particularly blown away with this one, but it’s Gladwell and even his dumps are probably well written, so it’s still better than 95% of the other things you will read this week (Both Teams Played Hard notwithstanding). Plus, the main underdog technique he talks about is the full-court press, which is much more fun to read about than play. And the other main focus is Lawrence of Arabia, which is one of best flicks you could ever see and one likely still buried in your Netflix queue behind Tokyo Drift, much to your guilty film-watching conscience’s dismay.
If that’s not enough Gladwell for you, he and Simmons reclaimed the back-and-forth email bit that me and Zach Harper of Talk Hoops have been recently implementing to entertain dozens and make literally fives of dollars. (You can read me and Zach’s March exchanges here and our recent First Round Playoff exchanges here.) Sports Guy and Writer Guy discuss the NBA implications of the full-court press and Simmons recounts his good, first-hand memory of Rick Pitino’s attempts to bring the Kentucky press to the Celtics in the late nineties. I grew up in Maine and also have fond memories of watching all those Celtic games to the point that, in 1997, Bruce Bowen bestilled my heart to nearly the same level that Trevor Ariza has done so in 2008-09. I fear this means Ariza will start kicking, tripping and gouging people in a few years. Young Antoine was also a marvel. His ball-handling and mid-range game at that size was just a treasure to watch. And, yes, it is very hard to convince anyone that that statement is accurate and meant without sarcasm just one short decade later. The Walter McCarty flashbacks from Simmons are another good takeaway. New England truly loved Walthah. And, if I remember correctly, Tommy Heinsohn may have also had some affinity for the guy as well. Then again, I have alzheimer’s — but at least I don’t have alzheimer’s.
Lastly, if you haven’t read Gladwell’s latest book Outliers yet, do yourself a favor and go buy it now. It is easily his best work thus far — which is saying something — and it was definitely the best book I read last year. (Keep in mind, however, this is coming from a dude who basically only read like seven books on Hugo Chavez, twelve covering Latin America generally, like three others about Wall Street and a couple on hoops last year, so I’m clearly not the barometer of 2008 literature.) If you’re really bored, you can go read my review of Outliers here.
The Jason Kidd of writering. (c) Brian Spaeth (The word, not the photo. I just lifted the image sans attribution from Google Image Search.)
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