basketball

From an ESPN graphic earlier, discussing the Jason Kidd trade finally going through.

Most Triple-Doubles, NBA History

                      Games
Oscar Robertson  181  1,040
Magic Johnson    138    906
Jason Kidd        99    997
Wilt Chamberlain  78  1,045

That Magic Johnson guy wasn't too shabby, was he?

A few weeks ago, I noticed that I was approaching Node #1414 for this site (nodes being Drupal parlance for page or story IDs), which wouldn't really be a milestone for anybody except this site. ;) I pondered some possibilities to mark the occasion but hadn't reached any conclusions.

Then, three weeks ago tomorrow, I got, ah, interrupted. ;)

So here I've been, stuck at the house for three weeks straight, apart from a few errands starting this week. I've been pushing my impatient self probably quicker than I should be doing things, but there's only so much daytime television I can take. (Thank God for the FOX Soccer Channel.) Coincidentally, a couple of folks way more famous than I am have had shoulder injuries -- Laker Vladimir Radmanovic and Miami Heat superstar Dwyane Wade.

No outdoors make Robert a grouchy patient.

At the moment, I am feeling better -- I'm able to type more with both hands now, which is a relief, though I do have to take breaks. Except first thing in the morning or late in the day, the shoulder feels much better, as do the ribs. In fact, my shoulder seems "normal" when I don't move it around. When I bend forward, though, it shifts as if my arm is falling off my body. Shudder!

I am now engaged in the usual crap with the medical field. My doctor is awesome, love her like crazy, but most of her office staff is just awful when it comes to paperwork, communication, and other bureaucrap. I was allegedly supposed to see her this week, but then got a referral to an orthopedic doctor and when I called my doctor's office, I couldn't get an appointment till next week. Gah! Anyhow, I'm hoping to get in on Monday if at all possible.

Anyhow, despite that and despite the cabin fever, I'm doing more or less okay. About ready to be talking to a physical therapist. I'm going to try a mile or so walk later.

More news after the weekend.

At last, star status for Kings' Miller

Understandably, Bob Miller wasn't really sure how he was supposed to react a couple years ago when he was told that he'd been selected to have a Hollywood Walk of Fame star cementing his legacy on Hollywood Boulevard.

"The first thing I did was go down there to see how many of the names on that sidewalk I recognized," the Kings' Hockey Hall of Fame play-by-play man said. "And there were a lot of 'em that I had no idea who they were."

Bob's star will be at 6763 Hollywood Blvd. We've been blessed here in Southern California with the best of the best broadcasters.

• Vin Scully, Dodgers -- 6675 Hollywood Blvd.
• Chick Hearn, Lakers -- 6755 Hollywood Blvd.

Peter Pollack at ArsTechnica: "Phone a friend, call a game: what's okay and what's not?"

Here in Chicago, independent rooftop seating surrounds picturesque Wrigley Field. What's to prevent someone from sitting there and calling the game on their own? Maybe less than we thought....

What about live-blogging a game? 'Cause if that's okay, I'll totally make a sacrifice to live-blog Dodger games if anybody wants to subsidize. ;)

NBA championship just ending. World Cup in full effect. NHL Draft today with some great youthful direction by the new LA Kings leadership between picks and trades. Very soon, the Tour de France takes over the month of July. And all the while, the Dodgers are plugging away amid an optimistic struggle. And I hear tell there's an American football league starting training camps.

My brain may well explode. :)

Although poorly constructed -- and undoubtedly falling on deaf ears considering the audience -- an article by Gregg Doyel over at CBS SportsLine makes a good case for equating the frustratingly (to American eyes) histrionic diving rampant among some soccer players, and the "advantages" taken by American players in baseball, football, and basketball (scuffed balls, uncalled holds, flopping, etc.).

When I say poor construction, it mostly has to do with the seemingly schizoid relationship between the two halves of the article. Actually, I think there are two good articles hiding inside a bad article -- honesty vs cheating, and gamesmanship vs pushing the boundaries. Doyel should have picked amongst the four sides to the argument -- usually one is sufficient. ;)

Golf, tennis should prosper from other sports' cheating

Sneaky vs lying

I'm of the opinion that being sneaky is okay, but blatantly "lying" sucks. Or better yet, play the game, not the referees.

Catcher "selling" a strike by pausing with his glove in place, or pitchers dusting batters back from the plate? Part of the game.

Trying to draw a penalty by falling on the field or court or pitch and writhing like you got bitten on the leg by a king cobra? Cowardly and unsportsmanlike. Any points scored as a result are undeserved. Again, play the game, not the referees.

Taking drugs or other unnatural enhancements? First circle of Hell, asshole, buried in the ice next to Lucifer and Judas.

Only human

Pushing the boundaries is only human, however. Comes natural to us, as anyone who has raised a child can attest. We want to see what we can get away with, and what we can do to gain advantages.

But those same kids testing their parents can show the most amazing moments of selfless kindness, of sportsmanship. All of us -- unless we're completely sociopathic -- contain both sides of the coin: lying and truth, sneaky and honest, cheating and being a good sport.

It is a soccer tradition that if one of the other team's players is injured badly enough to be taken off, and your team has possession, you will purposefully give the ball back by kicking it out of bounds or to your opponents. This is sportsmanship.

So the Beautiful Game contains both of our sides, both our bad and good. Like baseball. Or hockey. Or golf. Sports are nothing but reflections of us, of humanity.

Reflections of how we play the game.

There was a television advert airing a while back for the Nestle Crunch candy bar featuring Shaquille O'Neal. He is causing, through the mighty combined power of himself and the Crunch bar, the separation of California from the rest of the North American landmass. "Nothing crunches like a Nestle Crunch!" says the commercial. Indeed.

Actually, scientists have discovered that thanks to plate tectonics, the western part of a Shaqless California will be whacking into Alaska in a million years or so.

What's ironic about all this is that mapmakers were convinced for a long time that this wasn't just a funny idea:

"One of the most notable of all cartographic errors, and one of the most identifiable, is seen on those maps which show the North American west coast with California as an island. Numerous maps exist which demonstrate this theory which was seriously held by many mapmakers for approximately one hundred years after 1622."

Interestingly, the name of California existed before the Europeans stumbled across what would become California the place:

"The first known mention of the legend of the 'Island of California' was in the 1510 romance novel Las Sergas de Esplandian by Garcia Ordonez de Montalvo, who described the island in the passage: 'Know, that on the right hand of the Indies there is an island called California very close to the side of the Terrestrial Paradise; and it is peopled by black women, without any man among them, for they live in the manner of Amazons.'" It took a royal decree to declare California part of the mainland in 1747. No word on what happened to the women.

Now there are probably some people back east who would prefer it very much if California were in fact an island, separate from the rest of America. There are also plenty of Californians who would prefer being at a safe distance from the freaky folks back east. But no matter what, the metaphor of California as a unique place goes back to its very beginnings.

(Originally published on blogging.la.)