An Addendum to the Discussions
A brief note in the wake of what’s been discussed. First, on Friday, when the Durant article was published, Wayne Winston was fired by the Dallas Mavericks. “Not renewed,” you say?
Mark Cuban has like 18 assistant coaches in Dallas, along with what has to be a shockingly extensive staff of terrified personal assistants, ready to do his bidding at any time. He owns lavish sports cars, a movie studio, a television channel, everything you could imagine. In short, Mark Cuban spares no expense. If Wayne Winston was useful even a little bit, he would have been renewed. I say he was dismissed.
Read Article >Basketball Prospectus Adds Sanity to Durant Debate
Anytime statheads and traditionalists get into it, both sides tend to escalate the rhetoric in a take-no-prisoners approach (“I wouldn’t take Kevin Durant on my team if he was offered for free” or “Kevin Durant is a super-duper superstar who makes the rim melt with his grit and your stats suck if they can’t see that” ).
Ugh. While I would certainly jump at the chance to have Kevin Durant on my team (please, please, please come to Washington), Abbott’s piece, while hyperbolic at times, does hit on some uncomfortable realities. Maybe it’s just that I’m inherently suspicious of any argument that dismisses criticism with an appeal to the ineffable qualities of superstardom, but there has to be some way to square away what we see with our eyes and what the stats tell us. Luckily, Kevin Pelton over at Basketball Prospectus did just that, breaking down the numbers and adding some context, and much needed sanity, to this discussion. From Basketball Prospectus:
Read Article >True Hoop Responds to Durant, We Respond to True Hoop
In response to Kevin Durant’s comments, ESPN’s Henry Abbott issues a retort of his own, in an open letter to Mr. Durant, titled “Memo to a Young Baller.” And, I don’t know, I have great respect for Mr. Abbott, but this was incredibly condescending:
Gee, thanks Mr. Abbot! Not only did you expertly explain the origins of the plus-minus statistic to Kevin—which would have been well beyond his purview without your assistance—but you explained it to us, too! And while I appreciate much of the content that follows Abbot’s introduction, the tone of the piece was just so... paternalistic. More examples:
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