1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

And your best current sportswriter is ...

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by TheSportsPredictor, May 13, 2009.

  1. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

    ... Malcolm Gladwell?

    Anothere brilliant article from the bestselling author: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/05/11/090511fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=1

    Who else can mix in a 13-year-old girls basketball team, Lawrence of Arabia, a Rick Pitino-coached Kentucky basketball team, George Washington, and a computer-simulated war game and make it a must-read? I think this guy could endlessly string random words together and somehow make it compelling. Basically it's an article about the old David and Goliath tenat. Once Gladwell's done, it's a contender for BASW 2009.
     
  2. topsheep

    topsheep Member

    I read the first thrust that leads up to the "David's victory ... " and like it.

    I'll read the rest later.
     
  3. Ashy Larry

    Ashy Larry Active Member

    .......Bill Simmons?

    Who else can mix in a 3 years olds first poop, Beverly Hills 90210, Rocky III, 90's grunge music, Holy Cross basketball, a Rick Pitino coached BU team, Barack Obama and a tecmo football game and make it a must read?
     
  4. JackReacher

    JackReacher Well-Known Member

    Note the irony of this thread on espn.com.
     
  5. topsheep

    topsheep Member

    The Bill Simmons song is catchy ...

     
  6. Ashy Larry

    Ashy Larry Active Member

    hah...I didn't even see that.

    Malcom Gladwell is a weird looking dude eh?
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 1, 2015
  7. mustangj17

    mustangj17 Active Member

    I wanted to read about the basketball team, not Goliath. Quit after page one.
     
  8. Isn't this essentially continuing the trend that "Moneyball" began?

    "Read this week as Big-Time Writer turns everything you thought you knew about this aspect of sports on its head!"
     
  9. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

    Too bad, since there's much more about the team.
     
  10. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

    Is this a criticism?
     
  11. More of us sports writers for fostering the conditions for the genre to thrive.
     
  12. Bob Cook

    Bob Cook Active Member

    Malcolm Gladwell is full of shit on this one, and here's why.

    Mainly, it's this -- the press works if you have a team that relentlessly practices it and a team playing against that doesn't know it's coming or doesn't practice for it. I would guess that 100 percent of the teams Redwood City played never played anyone else with a press defense, and didn't have the college basketball-playing daughters of former NFL stars helping out in practice.

    Plus, the effectiveness of the press goes down the higher level you go. Yeah, a press can work great at the 12-year-old level because most kids' ballhandling skills aren't good enough to overcome it. But when Pitino tried that in the NBA, he got hammered. Even on the college level, for every Fordham-over-Dr.-J's UMass upset with the press, there are 100 teams that try it and watch the ball fly past them for easy layups.

    The rec leagues I've coached in (junior high/late elementary coed) limit the press to either a certain point of a game (elementary level) or when you're down (junior high). By doing so, it prevents a game that gets out of hand either way -- either a team never able to inbound the ball, or a pressing team getting blown out. Anyway, why don't I have them defend the whole court instead of the last 24 feet? Because no one is scoring from 50 feet out. I tell my kids to move out the big people, and except for kids we know can shoot from 16 feet out, give player on the outside a lot of space. Then get the rebound and leak out on the fast break -- that's where a commitment to playing the whole floor worked for the teams I've had.

    Gladwell misses the point when he fawns on the press defense. You coach based on how the strengths of your players match the weaknesses of others -- no argument there. But saying everyone should play a press is way too simplistic a point.
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page