04/23/24
June 03, 2014
SportsFilter: The Tuesday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
Medium now has a sports site, The Cauldron. And here's a mobile-friendly guide to the World Cup for your phone's browser.
posted by yerfatma at 11:57 AM on June 03, 2014
Guys, I think we had enough interest to do a World Cup fantasy league. If okay, I can set one up at http://en.mcdonalds.fantasy.fifa.com/ unless someone knows of a better choice.
posted by billsaysthis at 01:00 PM on June 03, 2014
I'd be interested in World Cup fantasy.
posted by flannelenigma at 02:01 PM on June 03, 2014
More Jon Bois' EA Sports "journalism" goodness (via Metafilter), on the impending death of basketball .
posted by hincandenza at 04:04 PM on June 03, 2014
In on fantasy.
posted by holden at 11:10 PM on June 03, 2014
More Jon Bois' EA Sports "journalism" goodness (via Metafilter), on the impending death of basketball
Need to be in an altered state to digest that article .. Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard entering the Hall of Fame? Wade playing beyond 2015?
posted by cixelsyd at 12:01 AM on June 04, 2014
I'd be interested in World Cup fantasy.
Roger Bennett has a dream . . .
posted by yerfatma at 09:51 AM on June 04, 2014
Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard entering the Hall of Fame?
Really? Better take a quick glance at Gasol's Similarity Scores. 8 of the 10 are Hall of Famers and I think Shawn Marion has a good case when he finishes his career. Howard is more problematic because his flightiness suggests he might be one of those players who bounces from team to team but his numbers ain't bad either. Six Hall of Famers and shouldn't Mutombo be in there to make it seven?
posted by yerfatma at 09:56 AM on June 04, 2014
I think the surprise is probably because I don't think anyone has ever suggested Gasol's name for an MVP vote (never gotten even down-ballot consideration by anyone...even his brother has gotten some votes), or even first team NBA All-Star (never been one, 1 second team and 2 third team appearances). He's never gotten any major award except rookie of the year.
Howard at least has 3 defensive player of the year awards and 5 first team NBA All-Star appearances. He's also gotten consideration for MVP a few times:
- 2010/11 (finished second to Rose, with three 1st place votes)
- 2009/10 (finished fourth to James, with three 1st place votes)
- 2008/09 (finished fourth to James, with a 1st place vote)
- plus other votes in 2 other seasons
Howard in the Hall? I can see that (as a casual basketball observer).
Gasol in the Hall? That's might be a stretch. *
I think Gasol is a shoo-in for the HOVG (very good)*, just like Bobby Abreu for baseball, Dave Andreychuk for hockey, and Boomer Esiason for football.
* Assuming his career were to end today. He still might build up a better case for the HOF in the future.
posted by grum@work at 10:44 AM on June 04, 2014
Gasol doesn't get enough credit for his stretch from '08 - '11. His rank in Win Shares over that stretch: 4th in '08-09, 7th in '09-10 (65 games), 2nd in '10-11. He played with Kobe so he gets overlooked but his numbers definitely warranted some MVP attention.
There's also his Spanish National team accomplishments as the basketball hall of fame is not limited to NBA performance.
Even so I'm not sure if he's hall of fame or not. I really don't have a good handle for exactly how good you have to be for basketball hall of fame consideration.
On edit: Here is an ESPN the magazine article suggesting a re-do of the hall with an arbitrary Win Shares cutoff of 100 and Gasol is at 113.1
There's a giant ad blocking my link button
http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/8736873/nba-experts-rebuild-springfield-hall-fame-espn-magazine
posted by tron7 at 12:48 PM on June 04, 2014
Argh... linked before I completely read. Not Win Shares but is using Win Shares.
posted by tron7 at 01:06 PM on June 04, 2014
You've always been a Dave Andreychuk-hater, grum. My only complaint is that he was deathly slow in NHL '94.
posted by yerfatma at 01:18 PM on June 04, 2014
Annoyingly teams and leagues cannot be setup until Sunday on the FIFA fantasy site.
On the plus side your logins from four years ago (if you had one) are still in the system.
posted by billsaysthis at 03:45 PM on June 04, 2014
Sports world rallies around Bills legend Jim Kelly