Category: Sports

I was out celebrating my birthday last night, and so missed the NBA All-Star game, but the statistics point out exactly what’s wrong with the game today. 44 dunks and 16 missed free throws (out of 32). The truth is that players are no longer shooting the ball all that accurately. Free throws are just the most glaring example. Sports Illustrated had an article this week about why most NBA games are so low-scoring. Sure, there’s some better defence being played. But on the whole, I think there are far too many shots clanging off the rim these days. If I were a coach, I’d have my players shooting hours of free throws.

UPDATE: 12-time All-Star Oscar Robertson just published a scathing piece in the Sunday New York Times slamming the NBA’s deterioration into a shoe-selling organization and decrying the lack of fundamental skills among many of today’s players. Choice quotes:

• “Many players can’t dribble or defend. It’s dunks and 3-pointers, with nothing in between.”
• “When people tell me that scores are lower because defenses are better, I have to laugh.”
• “The NBA has made a conscious decision to function as a marketing and entertainment organization, and seems much more concerned with selling sneakers, jerseys, hats and highlight videos than with the product it puts on the floor.”

(Link – free NYT registration required)

P.S. Paul, if you’re reading this, I promise one day to blog about “What’s Wrong With Our Political System” but, contrary to Mr. Chomsky’s views, I don’t see that as quite as simple. We could start by getting our politicians to shoot more free throws, though.

I’ve always been a huge fan of the Olympics. The first Olympic games I remember were those in Munich in 1972. I was seven. I’ve always been drawn by the idealism and innocence of the Olympic Movement, and the Opening and Closing ceremonies more often than not find me in tears. I watched the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid on my tiny black and white TV, and I remember my shock at witnessing the US hockey team beat our Canadian boys. “Miracle on Ice” indeed! In 1984, I even developed an unhealthy and inexplicable crush on the dwarfish and overtoothed American gymnast Mary Lou Retton. My name is James, and I’m an Olympics junkie.

All this is fresh again this year as I eagerly anticipate the Summer Games in Athens. For my birthday, I asked for (and received!) the excellent Criterion DVD of Kon Ichikawa’s amazing document of the 1964 games, Tokyo Olympiad. I could watch the segment on Ethiopian marathoner Abebe Bikila over and over. The film also features the surprising victory in the men’s 10,000 metre race of previously unknown American Billy Mills, whose life was featured in the film Running Brave.

If you’re interested in some of the amazing stories behind the Summer Olympics, a great book is David Wallechinsky’s The Complete Book of the Summer Olympics, which he updates every four years.

There are also some very cool web sites if you’re interested in doing a little Olympic surfing:

• Official Site of the International Olympic Committee – there’s also a good section on the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, whose existence was previously unknown to me.
• Official Site of the Athens 2004 Summer Games
• Official Site of the Beijing 2008 Summer Games
• Olympicanadiana
• Canadian Olympic Commitee
• United States Olympic Committee

I also found some sites for cities that are bidding for the 2012 games. It might seem very early, but the decision will actually be made next July.

• New York 2012 Olympic Bid – this bid has been endorsed by the USOC, but San Francisco, Pittsburgh and Houston were also under consideration at one time.
• London 2012 Olympic Bid

See, the title of this entry is pretty accurate, huh?

Congratulations to new running fanatic Meg, who completed her race in a respectable time, while raising more than $1200 for charity. Now “ga ga for running,” she’s tackling a, gulp, 15K run in less than two weeks. (Actually that sounds like a good goal time: 15K in less than two weeks. I might be able to make that!).

Just as she’s going “ga ga,” though, I’m slacking (you can actually see how badly by checking out my always fascinating running blog). The combination of darkness, cold, and wet weather (or even the threat of wet weather) has me cowering indoors reverting to the doughy and slovenly mess I was until about 8 months ago. I’m determined to slow or halt the process by joining the University of Toronto’s Athletic Centre, which has a nifty 200m indoor track, as well as treadmills, weights, and stationary bikes. Now, I don’t see this as “joining a gym,” exactly. You see, I’ve always hated the idea of joining a gym. And I visited one literally right next to my office, thinking it would be impossible to shirk my responsibilities with exercise so close to work, but you know what? I hate the smell of profit, especially when it’s at the expense of other people’s insecurities. I find the majority of these places seedy in the extreme. The Athletic Centre is a bit different. They are primarily there for the students of the university, whose tuition fees include free membership. I like them because they offer memberships to the community at fair prices, and run lots of inexpensive athletic programmes for children. Plus, well, they have an actual track, which I prefer to running on a treadmill.

My plan is to sign up for three or four months, until it is warm, bright, and dry enough to run outside again. If I pick up a wicked weightlifting habit in the meantime, all the better.

Lots of folks running these days. Ever since Brooke and I started back in the spring, I’ve noticed a lot of people are either taking up running for the first time, or returning to it. This past week, the NYC Marathon boasted, in addition to many thousands of other runners, the fabulous P.Diddy/Puffy/Puff Daddy/Sean Combs running his first marathon. Hmm…the name of his site makes me wonder if one day he’s going to seek political office.

Now, I see that another world-famous New Yorker (of decidedly more recent residence, to be fair) is running for charity. I found her exhortation “don’t be scared off by the ‘God’ in the organization’s name” sort of funny, though. Why are people scared of God? 🙂

On a related note, I wish I could somehow incorporate my boring (but more frequently updated) running blog into this one without making Consolation Champs even less interesting.

UPDATE: I just saw that Jason Kottke was blogging the marathon in real time, tracking Diddy against blogger Maciej Ceglowski. Sadly, rapper beat blogger, proving again that nice guys finish last.

UPDATE 2: Maciej has posted a fabulously long and interesting account of his marathon experience!

Intrepid explorer and cousin of film stars Ralph and Joseph Fiennes, 59-year old Ranulph Fiennes is planning to run 7 marathons in 7 days, even though he’s recently suffered a heart attack.

This is almost crazier than that loon who went over Niagara Falls.