To kick-off the NBA season, seven members of the team participated in SB Nation’s 2018-19 NBA Predictions Game. We guessed the first time different events would occur on a basketball court this season — like the first player to record a triple double, get into a fight or score 50 points — and the first person to guess correctly was awarded anywhere from 2 to 10 points depending on the question.
Does this Nikola Jokic basket count as a true coast-to-coast move?
The Internet is torn.
One of the questions was correctly guessing which big man would be the first to go coast-to-coast in a game this season. This was one of just two 8-point questions, and there’s only one 10-point question, so there’s a lot riding on getting this one right, and the staff cannot seem to agree.
Here’s how we voted:
Ricky O’Donnell: Joel Embiid
Zito Madu: Blake Griffin
Matt Ellentuck: Jaren Jackson Jr.
Seerat Sohi: Al Horford
Kristian Winfield: Nikola Jokic
Mike Prada: Andre Drummond
Whitney Medworth: Anthony Davis
Here’s the play in question
Nikola Jokic grabbed a defensive rebound and dribbled the full length of the court before scoring in the Nuggets’ win over the Suns on Saturday. But some are torn as to whether his basket should be considered a coast-to-coast. That’s because he posted up for a fraction of a second before scoring.
The generally accepted definition of a coast-to-coast is a player grabbing a rebound and darting up court to finish at the rim before the defense has a chance to fully set itself. Isaiah Canaan met Jokic at around the foul line extended area, and Jokic turned his back as if to post up.
Should Jokic be penalized for the Suns’ poor defense? If this is a coast-to-coast flight analogy, is it a flight with turbulence in the middle, or was there a legitimate layover in Chicago?
Half of the Internet doesn’t believe this is a coast-to-coast
Using a flight analogy, if this is a coast-to-coast flight from New York City to Los Angeles, some say there’s a “layover” in a city in the midwest.
The other half thinks it’s a coast-to-coast regardless of how it gets done.
What’s the verdict?
This is one that’s torn our SB Nation NBA Slack channel in half, but it seems like the good majority of folks on Twitter agree: Jokic had some turbulence, maybe even had to take a slight detour; but he traveled coast-to-coast on this bucket.
And it looks like SB Nation’s NBA team has come around to the truth, too.
Here are the updated standings for the entire game.
- Kristian Winfield: 8 points
- Mike Prada: 2 points
- Seerat Sohi: 2 points
- Matt Ellentuck: 2 points
- Everyone else: 0 points
Be sure to follow along with our predictions game!
[Fun fact: We’ve guessed almost nothing right so far!]
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