There will be no Worst of the Night post, folks. There were only two games, both pretty good, and I'm suffering All-Star break letdown.

Instead, here's a different sort of treat. The RedEye -- a free daily publication put out by the Chicago Tribune -- ran a story in which various members of the Chicago Bulls recount the tale of their first dunk. And, in case you've forgotten, Brian Scalabrine and Kyle Korver both play for the Bulls.

And so...

first dunk

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30 Comments:
Blogger chris said...
Is it me or does Mr. Korver bear a striking resemblance to one Justin Bieber?!

Blogger Will said...
Who the fuck dunks in a game of HORSE? If I was the opponent of Mr. Elf defense I would call bullshit.

Anonymous The Other Chris said...
@chris

I believe his professional teammates have historically mocked him for resembling Ashton Kutcher. Perhaps his hair has now evolved to a more Beiber-like place.

Tangentially relevant: The website Lesbians Who Look Like Justin Beiber. This exists, and these people are serious. I shit you not. I don't know what to say about it, because I think I'm just too old and confused to "get" it.

Blogger Dan B. said...

Blogger AnacondaHL said...
Dan B - I read that study referenced in your link when it was first published (regarding the inverse relationship correlation between injury and shoe cost), and always kept it in mind every time another Trail Blazer went down with an injury (as Oregon is like the Nike capital).

Blogger AnacondaHL said...
Sorry, I meant normal correlation. Higher shoe cost, higher injury rate. And this was among marathon runners.

Anonymous Czernobog said...
OK, that's pretty mind-blowing.

Still, the publication seems to ignore all the jumping up and down basketball players do. The effect of jogging up and down the court incorrectly might not be the greatest culprit in causing these injuries.

Blogger Dan B. said...
Czernobog -- Agreed. Landing from jumping for a rebound or a layup or a dunk is really hard on your knees and ankles. Just feel the tension and pressure you get in those joints whenever you jump. Of course, also landing improperly and not cushioning the blow by landing on the balls of your feet and keeping your knees relaxed can't help either. It's a little of both -- the landing and the jogging/running.

Blogger Unknown said...
If Scalabrine says you "didn't do much after" signing with a school, you know your career was a flop.

And why did I expect his story to be the flip-side of Korver's? "I was in sophomore year of high school and I was S-S with this guy in a game of H-O-R-S-E..."

Anonymous Anonymous said...
The best part about this is they both did it in 10th grade which is similar to every 6'4" buddy of yours that couldn't play D3 ball. Just seems amazing they were at the same athletic/jumping level as those guys and then made it to the NBA.

Anonymous Stockton said...
So, there is a Bawfull-Star game, and no poll??? Where's the respect for the fans???
Anyway... I hope Scal, Magloire and J. Howard get their places...

Blogger The Sports Hayes said...
This is starting to irritate me. How can people have "Justin Bieber hair" when they've had the same haircut long before he ever had it?

If anything Justin Bieber has "Kyle Korver hair"

Scalabrine on the other hand, no such problems.

Anonymous balazs said...
There should be a basketball position for guys whose job consists mostly of towel waving and high fiving. It should be called... TOWEL FORWARD!!!

Blogger Dan B. said...
Stockton -- As we did last year, the team is being selected through the Bawful advanced metrics of Marios, trillions, Voskuhls, and suck differentials. I will include the stats when I post the rosters. But you can count on Scalabrine making it, along with guys like Jason Kapono, Joel Anthony, Quincy Pondexter, Von Wafer (who was a lacktion machine earlier this year before getting to play some servicable minutes in the wake of Celtics injuries lately), and of course Darnell "Lacktion" Jackson.

Blogger chris said...
balazs: That's Jud Buechler's championship-collecting career in a nutshell. WOOOOT.

Blogger stephanie g said...
Hey, Scal isn't that bad. He drains 3s, flops, gets the crowd juiced up, and I'll always fondly recall 2 years ago when he shut down Amare. Amare tried to post him up many times but then he realized he sucks and gave up. It was classic.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/200901190BOS.html

Blogger AnacondaHL said...
Haha, according to this Woj article reporting on CBA talks, Sarver just got his shit REJECTED by David Stern.

On a serious note, it's really sad to see the decertification option being talked about this early. I was expecting those options to be explored in June, but to say it's your "one bullet"... I can't believe it really is this bad.

Blogger Wormboy said...
So these guys couldn't dunk until they were 6'4"? Hell, I could dunk at 6'1", and I never grew any taller). OK, not very well, but it did happen, with witnesses.

Blogger AnacondaHL said...
I...I'm about to watch Justin Bieber play basketball.

I need to re-evaluate my life.

Anonymous allison said...

Blogger stephanie g said...
Observations from the celebrity game:

"The Secretary of Education" would be a badass nickname. Someone needs to use it.

Walton needs to get back to ESPN/TNT ASAP.

Pip could fill in SG for the Bulls, right?

West would've won if they played more Bieberball. Romeo is a blackhole chucker.

It's too bad Jordan only plays if you pay him a couple million, it'd be funny to have him and Pip on different teams.

The green screen stuff was mortifying. Eric Gordon will never live that down.

Anonymous kazam92 said...
Pretty much everything Stephanie G said.

Blogger Ryan said...
Scalabrine taking his game to another level..perfect.

Hard to not like the guy.

Blogger AnacondaHL said...
This Rookie Challenge is turning out way more entertaining than any ASG I've ever seen (recently).

Blogger AnacondaHL said...

Blogger chris said...
i won't deny it - that trillion stat officially wiki'd has made my day.

Anonymous SportingLisbon said...
the other Chris: i know we kinda insulted each other in the other post but you made me laugh with that bieber´s lesbians sh1t, so theres that, piece.

my contribution comes from mister STA´´´´´T: "me and Melo?! yeah, im sure that would be great for NYCity and THE ECONOMY"..theres overstatements and then theres STA´T

Anonymous OneZero said...
this is f'ing retard, Bieber got an MVP trophy over Scottie freakin Pippen the living legend.

I want to gouch my eyes to ever tuning that celebrity game even for just a couple of minutes, I wish Bieber will someday play in that game with any of KG,Sheed,Latrel,JR Smith,or Delonte, so that I can see him cry and shit in his pants in front of national television and millions of giggling girls after he gets whacked or something.

there I said it.

Anonymous AK Dave said...
Agh. Way late to the game on the running thing. My 2 cents: Dr. Romanov is right. Heel-striking is inefficient and leads to injuries.

Shoes aren't really the "problem" but try taking your shoes off and then go for a walk. You'll land on your fore-foot and almost never your heel, I promise you. That's not to say you can't run properly with shoes on, it's just that you are less likely to run "naturally."

In some circles, this scientist is considered a quack. I think he's a genius, and his book changed me from a 7:40/mile 10k guy to a 6:00/mile 10k guy. Well, either his book or all the training... But maybe it is just correlation. W/E.

Anonymous Anonymous said...
AK - But I bet if you're running at even a moderate rate, you'll land on your heel. The greater the stride, the more likely it is to land on the heel.

This guy also seems to ignore the most important factor: fatigue. Eighty-two games, plus play-offs for many players, not to mention the practice, the travel and all the high-octane fucking, these guys get wore down. As they tire, their eccentric strength and proprioception drop off dramatically.

Now, some Feldenkrais or Alexander method would undoubtedly help, but such approaches are of course no guarantee, especially since the primary problem is difficult to solve: how do you find more rest time for these guys?