Stories the box score never told.
Longform writing on forgotten careers, and the margins of basketball history.
Research-driven stories and original visuals.
I’ve spent a long time working on this.
New story: Utah Jazz 1997–98: The Other Side of The Last Dance (Part 1):
https://t.co/tN3C6BeF9H
Locker-room tensions, injuries, strange incidents, and the turbulent road to the 1998 NBA Finals.
Remembering Dražen Petrović today.
October 22, 1964 – June 7, 1993.
I recently received Dražen: The Years of the Dragon by Marjan Crnogaj and Vlado Radičević.
Probably a reading note coming later on Deep Bench Chronicle
🚨 New story on Deep Bench Chronicles
Tom Chambers is one of the strangest Hall of Fame blind spots in NBA history.
20,000 points, 4 All-Star selections, ASG MVP, 2 All-NBA teams.
I wrote about the career and the case of “Tommy Gun.”
🔗https://t.co/7T2KuVds3O
I get that point, and there’s some truth to it. But when Barkley arrived, Chambers was already on the downslope: 11 years in, 33 years old, less mobile, a little stiffer physically. I’m not sure he could still have been a No. 1 somewhere else. His strongest Hall case had probably already been built before Barkley.
@NBAPredictLab Exactly. When Chambers crossed 20,000 in 1995, that was still rare air. Only about 20 players in NBA history had reached that mark at the time.
Thank you, really appreciate it.
I agree on Marion and Amar’e. Since they’re more recent, I still think they have a real shot eventually.
With Nance, Kemp, Laimbeer, Price, KJ, Chambers, that older generation feels more worrying to me. I’m afraid the window may have passed, unfortunately.
Wembanyama reaches the NBA Finals in his third season.
He is right on schedule with the great centers:
Mikan and Russell made it in Year 1.
Olajuwon, Kareem and Ostertag in Year 2.
Shaq, Unseld and Walton in Year 3.
Cowens in Year 4.
🆕Pendant 10 ans, les Pistons ont enchaîné les erreurs de management, les paris ratés et les saisons cauchemardesques. Retour sur une décennie qui a plongé Detroit dans l’une des plus longues traversées du désert de la NBA.
https://t.co/IFlshy9xJw
Lo vi, con retransmisión de Montes y Daimiel, en la habitación de mi hermano. Iba con los Rockets, y hubo un momento que parecía hecho para Houston. Así que entonces me llevé una decepción.
Casi 30 años después, y después de haber visto muchísimos partidos de los Jazz de esos años, pocas celebraciones me emocionan más. Años de batallas tremendas al límite (séptimo partido contra Sonics en el 96), con medios más precarios que otros equipos (muchos jugadores no querían ir a Utah). Por cierto, comportamiento intachable después de cada derrota, felicitando al rival, atendiendo a los medios y prometiendo volver a intentarlo.
Y llega el tiro de Stockton (en realidad todo el último cuarto) y ocurren cosas que nunca habían pasado. La sonrisa de Sloan, la explosión de alegría del banquillo, el abrazo de Hornacek/Stockton/Malone. Emocionante por lo excepcional, dada la sobriedad marca de la casa.
Ya lo he comentado alguna vez, pero soy fanático retrospectivo de aquel equipo. El baloncesto que más he aprendido a apreciar.
Books are probably the most interesting basketball content to me, along with the games themselves. Podcasts and YouTube can be great, but biographies and old books often give you details, context, and little behind-the-scenes moments you just don’t get anywhere else.
I don’t write about every book I read, but I try to cover as many as I can, especially the ones that really stay with me. Thanks again for your feedback
🚨 New story on Deep Bench Chronicles
Paul Westphal’s most enjoyable coaching season came unpaid, at a tiny Bible college, with a team full of players almost nobody remembers.
His most difficult one came in the NBA, with a late-90s Sonics locker room that became nearly impossible to manage.
I wrote about A Tale of Two Seasons.
🔗 https://t.co/Pw8hURCbki