The basketball term "jump shot" describes the act of a player springing from their toes and flicking the ball toward the rim. Its form was perfected by Ray Allen: body oriented toward the basket with the exactness of a NASA flight path, feet quickly off the ground with token resistance from…
It's the first day of March Madness and I'm at a community center playing volleyball.
I hate instant replay. Hate it, hate it, hate it.
In this latest micro episode, the Substandard recaps the NCAA history-making defeat of 1-seed UVA at the hands of 16-seed UMBC. Sonny remains stoic, unfazed, and indifferent, despite being a UVA alumnus. (It helps that he really is not a fan of college basketball.) JVL asks Vic how Georgetown did.
There is an argument, based on both stats and results, that the 10 best programs in Division I men’s basketball the last half decade are Arizona, Duke, Gonzaga, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan State, North Carolina, Villanova, Virginia—and Wichita State.
Ben Carson’s new silverware. Ironically, Ben Carson might not get to enjoy his newly refurbished office at HUD for very long, if recent history is our guide. This from CNN:
Shortly before Christmas, I got an email from the Washington Wizards basketball team. “You are in your 45th year with the Wizards!” it said. “We will be taking you and a guest on a trip to see your Wizards in Atlanta on January 27th.”
Basketball is “Indiana’s Game,” says the slogan of the state’s NBA franchise, the Pacers. It’s not Hoosier imagery of burnished hoops nailed to barn doors, the scent of popcorn inside a gym, keeping warm in winter with the exhalations of 5,000 spectators under the same rafters. It’s two of those…
Michael Cromartie, by his wits and his Christian faith, created something out of nothing, what investor Peter Thiel calls going from 0 to 1. And he became an important and influential figure in Washington, though that wasn’t his aim.
The summer of 1992 was owned by Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson—in that order, His Airness certainly would attest. It was 25 years ago this week that they led the Dream Team to Olympic gold in men’s hoops in Barcelona: an eight-game romp in which they outscored their opponents by 350 points. It’s…
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced last week that it will be adding 3-on-3 basketball to the standard hoops presence at the Olympics in 2020. The new format will follow the rules established by FIBA, which has has been hosting international tournaments the past several years.
What the Golden State Warriors accomplished Monday was, as it had been most nights of the NBA season, amazing. Not because they won and did so in emphatic fashion—12 months ago they were a juggernaut, Kevin Durant made them a cyborg, and their victories typically have been inevitable. Rather, they…
On this mini episode, the Substandard talks college hoops, NCAA bracketology, and Fred Barnes's curious winning streak, plus the latest on Vic's alma mater, Georgetown (and why it's not JVL's alma mater).
Craig Sager, the beloved NBA broadcast reporter who won over the most uncooperative of athletes and coaches with his geniality and garb, died Thursday after a nearly three-year fight against leukemia. He was 65.
An odd thing occurred in the world of sports recently: The Southern Conference (SoCon), an intercollegiate athletics league, decided to honor its commitments to North Carolina, refusing to pull four upcoming tournaments from the state. This, as other associations, both professional and amateur,…
If you want to see basketball played brilliantly, watch a video of the second quarter of the U.S.-Serbia game. It was the gold medal game and Serbia, having come close to beating the Americans earlier in the Olympics, was anything but a pushover.
Tim Duncan retired from professional basketball this week. This was no diva departure as we have become accustomed to in big-time sports, especially basketball. Duncan played hard until the final whistle the way he always did, and then he announced his retirement and included this in a letter of…
Imagine being about the fiftieth-best employee in an organization of 400 people and making $24 million a year.
Pat Summitt, the women's college basketball coach who won more games than anyone to have led a program at the Division I level, died Tuesday at age 64.
President Obama hosted the 2015 WNBA champion Minnesota Lynx at the White House on Monday for the third time in five years. As the president wound down his remarks praising the players for the examples they set for young people, he quoted one of the Lynx's players, Maya Moore:
By the standards of normal human measurements, Stephen Curry is tall. He's 6 feet, 3 inches, which substantially outstrips the average height of a male as recorded by U.S. government data, a little more than 5 feet, 9 inches.
The greatest power forward in the history of professional basketball—not a modest description for such a modest competitor—turned 40 in April, and despite his 7-foot height and two decades of mileage in the NBA, he's maintained a modicum of his best form. He scored an efficient 19 points Thursday…
Knightstown, Ind.
When tales of an Italian codista combined with the NCAA tournament, I was afflicted with remembrance of sports events past. In post-WWII New York City, basketball was the sport of obsession with Jews, in part because it was a low-cost, low user of space. The City College of New York, known as the…
Marcus Paige acknowledged his immediate future late Monday. "At some point tonight, I have to take this jersey off, and I'll never put it back on." It was wet with sweat. To his right, his coach's eyes were wet with tears. The press area in which both men sat, one of those oppressively fluorescent…
In honor of Opening Day, I had a short discussion of baseball in yesterday's weekly newsletter (yes, you can get it--it's easy, just sign up here. And yes, it's free!) But I'll admit last night's Villanova-North Carolina game could call into question my endorsement of the superiority of baseball.…
The man had tiny hands. Or, at least, hands that looked tiny on his huge frame. Six foot ten, 275 pounds, and Moses Malone had the hands of a 5′9″ grocery bagger. Embarrassing hands, he seemed to think, stubby and ill-proportioned, and when he was young he would often hide them—tucking them into…
Former Obama hand Dan Pfeiffer does some player evaluations on the political scene and comes up with this regarding Hillary Clinton:
People not from Cleveland often ask us natives during the rare instances when one of our sports teams is in a championship, “are you nervous?”
Watching the NBA playoffs one cannot but be upset at the rampant inequality that the league tolerates. LeBron James constitutes less than 10 percent of the number of players on the Cleveland Cavaliers, but scores about 40 percent of the team’s points. Think what this does to the self-esteem of the…
Assuming the WNBA approves, Isiah Thomas will be part owner and coach of the New York Liberty, the women’s team owned by James Dolan, the man who brought the Knicks to their current position in the NBA. Thomas, general manager of the Knicks, was convicted of sexual harassment in 2007. Not to worry.…
So the madness has begun with two big upsets, yesterday. In one, Georgia State guard, R.J. Hunter drained a three with that many seconds left in the game to upset three-seeded Baylor. After the game, Hunter’s father, who is also team’s coach, had some words for President Obama who had picked…
President Obama honored the NBA champions, the San Antonio Spurs, at the White House Monday, but joked that he almost sent in the second team, Vice President Biden, to host the event to keep himself "fresh for the State of the Union." The president said he would have been just following Spur's…
Many youngsters dream of an NBA career, despite warnings from parents and coaches about the meager odds.
I experienced some rough emotions rooting for my alma mater, the University of Kentucky, during the NCAA tournament. Partly because of the close games and come-from-behind wins, and partly because of their one-and-done reputation under Coach John Calipari. The media contrasted UK’s likely NBA-bound…
Over at Powerline, Paul Mirengoff asks, “Who was that cranky old man and why did he ice Kevin Durant?” That “cranky old man” would be Joey Crawford, the 62-year-old referee who grabbed the ball and ran over to the scorers’ table Tuesday night after Durant hit his first free throw with 27 seconds…
THE WEEKLY STANDARD Casual Podcast, with Fred Barnes reading his Casual Essay, "They Got Game."
Vladimir Putin has claimed Crimea. Obamacare premiums are about to skyrocket. And Barack Obama is filling out his NCAA "March Madness" basketball bracket.
The Obamas are attending a University of Maryland basketball game in College Park, Maryland tonight. The home team is playing Oregon State, which is coached by Michelle Obama's brother. The fans are, apparently, excited to see the first family.
A strange story today via a Portland, Oregon police press release: NBA Houston Rockets player Terrence Alexander Jones was arrested early this morning after allegedly stomping on a homeless man's leg:
In the wake of his scintillating 2-for-22 shooting exhibition on the White House basketball court — complete with an air ball, a steady barrage of bricks, and a layup that didn’t so much as draw iron — President Obama is now reportedly trying to enlist the National Basketball Association to help…
THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast with William Kristol on the Boston marathon bombing, Benghazi, and Jason Collins, the NBA's first openly gay player.
President Barack Obama called Jason Collins today to congratulate the NBA player for announcing that he's gay. The Huffington Post reports:
Just weeks after going 2 for 22 on the basketball court, President Barack Obama went to shoot hoops again -- but this time there were no camers allowed. He was joined by his former aide Reggie Love, who played basketball for Duke.
College basketball player Kevin Ware's compound fracture in Sunday's Elite Eight game has gained widespread media attention. And now a Kentucky group is trying to capitalize off the Louisville player's injury.
Via the pool report:
According to Art Carden in Forbes:
As the men of Harvard exit the NCAA tournament at the hands of the Arizona Wildcats, you'll surely want to wish them a fond and hearty farewell. So sing along with the final verse of "Fair Harvard," written by Reverend Samuel Gilman for the university's 200th anniversary in 1836.
Mighty Georgetown, a number two seed, fell to Florida Gulf Coast, a number fifteen seed, last night. Florida Gulf Coast has only been eligible to play in the tournament for two years.
On March 21, 2013, history was made. Ivy League champion and 14th seed Harvard men's basketball team busted brackets everywhere as it upset 3rd seed New Mexico, winning its first NCAA playoff game ever and notching its first victory over a top-ten team. Read all about it here and here.
In a season when we all become bracketologists, here is an interesting variation that uses the form to conduct a playoff in which the school that costs more to attend wins and moves on to the next round against another institution of absurdly high priced learning. Another elimination and the…
John Kerry knocked Dennis Rodman in an interview today with MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell. Kerry suggests that Rodman should stick to basketball, not diplomacy.
Eccentric former basketball player Dennis Rodman sat down on ABC's This Week to defend his visit last week to North Korea:
North Korea, the most renegade and unpredictable of the world's nations, recently tested a nuclear bomb, which predictably raised tensions that are high under ordinary conditions and that, according to the North Korean regime, is the fault of the U.S. As Reuters reports:
The State Department today announced a basketball exchange program with Brazil, according to a press release from the federal agency. The program is, at least in part, coordinated with the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Today at a White House event celebrating the NBA national champions the Miami Heat, President Barack Obama praised stars on the basketball team for taking "their roles as fathers seriously."
Tomorrow, President Barack Obama will welcome the Miami Heat to the White House. Star player LeBron James, a donor to Obama's presidential campaign, is expected to attend.
President Barack Obama went to his daughter's basketball game today. On the drive back to the White House, the president and his motorcade drove past Bill and Hillary Clinton walking a dog.
The NBA franchise in New Orleans is, long overdue, considering a name change. This is a good thing—even though the proposed nickname Pelicans has been the target of an unfair amount of derision since being floated. To be sure, it’s not slick. It’s not modern. And it is not hip, like the singular…
This evening at the president's "NBA heroes" fundraiser in New York City, featuring Michael Jordan and Carmelo Anthony, Barack Obama was star struck.
This evening in New York City, President Obama will be fundraising with "NBA heroes," according to his spokesman. Those "heroes" include Michael Jordan (who is also a failed baseball player), Patrick Ewing, Alonzo Mourning, and, perhaps most interestingly, Carmelo Anthony.
President Barack Obama will play basketball tomorrow night at a fundraiser in New York City with "NBA heroes," according to campaign press secretary Jen Psaki. The "heroes," one assumes, is a reference to the "Obama Classic" starring Michael Jordan, Carmelo Anthony, Patrick Ewing, and Alonzo…
A loyal reader writes in:
Next to Mitt Romney picking Paul Ryan as his running mate, the best thing that happened over the weekend was the USA basketball team capturing the gold medal at the London Olympics.
The Obama campaign just sent out this email to supporters, asking for donations for a chance to play basketball at the "Obama Classic with Michael Jordan, Carmelo Anthony, Patrick Ewing, Sheryl Swoopes, Kyrie Irving, and Alonzo Mourning.
The U.S. basketball team, both the men's and women's squads, took a break from practicing for the London Olympic games to visit Arlington National Cemetery to pay tribute to those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for this country:
President Obama is catching hoops in Washington tonight, watching the U.S. men's basketball team prepare for the Olympics with an exhibition game against Brazil. "President Obama arrived at the Verizon Center at 7:46 p.m., wearing jeans, sneakers, white shirt, dark blue Under Armor zip up,"…
President Obama, an avid basketball player and fan, called the head coach of the NBA championship team Miami Heat to say congratulations and to invite the squad to the White House. Obama called Heat coach Erik Spoelstra yesterday from Air Force One.
"[T]he president played basketball this morning with staff members and a few special guests, including [actors] George Clooney and Tobey Maguire," the pool report read this morning. Finally, a couple hours and a state later, a reporter asked the president the question on the minds of most…
Zeke Miller reports, "At Easter Egg Roll event, the ball-player-in-chief missed four of five 3-pointers, but you'll only see the one basket Obama made in the White House's video recap of the week." Miller's post is titled, "White House Scrubs Obama's Missed 3-Pointers In Weekly Video."
Facebook makes a big purchase.
Tonight’s NCAA national championship game between storied basketball programs Kentucky and Kansas probably won’t top the 1992 East Regional final between Duke and Kentucky. Sportswriter and ESPN columnist Gene Wojciechowski meticulously recaps that March Madness landmark twenty years later in The…
Another stunning March Madness upset: #15 Lehigh took down "inevitable" #2 Duke this evening, 75 to 70.
The fantastic NCAA upset of #2 Missouri by #15 Norfolk State has big implications:
Fred Barnes reviews ACC Basketball by J. Samuel Walker in the Wall Street Journal:
‘Sports diplomacy lives!” raved a former national security official traveling with the Georgetown University basketball team on a visit to China timed to coincide with Vice President Biden’s trip this week. That was before a brawl ended the Hoyas’ game against a professional Chinese team tied to…
LeBron James, who choked away the NBA championship with another dismal fourth-quarter performance on Sunday, is the most despised athlete in America, possibly the world. No, make that the solar system. I, like most basketball fans I know, rejoiced when the Dallas Mavericks beat the Heat last…
So Obama filled out his NCAA bracket -- we hear he's picked Qaddafi to go all the way.