Basketball Changes

 

If I was commissioner of basketball and could make whatever changes I wanted, here is what I would do. I have a list of a few of the changes I would make.

1. First of all, most of it would be left alone. Its doing ok.

But,

2. The time outs are out of control. When refs make too many foul calls, announcers like to say, "Let 'em play." Hey, how about coaches and greedy television networks with commercials that interupt the flow of the game dozens of times. At least with fouls, the game is still going on. If I watch basketball, I record it so I can skip the commercials, defeating the point of the commercials. If there were a reasonable number, I might watch them.

3. No flopping, i.e., pretending to get fouled when you're not. How about a committee of three reviewing each game and voting on anyone play-acting. They could be trained refs, or just everyday fans would do. Then, three flops and you miss a game - something like that.

4. Cut down on the three point shots. My plan would be to just extend the arc. No more of the shorter shots in the corner. Also, there wouldn't be enough room of everyone to come down, just stand outside the arc, and wait for the ball. Steph and Damian can hang out there, but not the whole team.

5. Get rid of the portal and NIL money in college basketball. Now, college basketball is just a different professional league from the NBA.

6. Have the best teams in the post season. Which of the top 68 teams will be the colllege champion? Answer: One of the top 10, or so, you other 58 teams really don't stand a chance. NBA - Having 20 out of 30 teams make it the post season pretty much guarantees that you'll have some teams that couldn't even win half their games. 

Postscript - I'm just ranting. I read some people's comments recently about some of these items and people really don't seem to care. They say they like the commercials. It gives them a chance to relax and use the restroom. Lots of teams in the postseason - the more the merrier. Untold riches to the college kids. They deserve it for their hard work. So I got my proposed changes out there, but there doesn't seem to be a groudswell of support for any changes.

I Hate Protests

I really dislike protests. They don't accomplish anything. The people doing the protesting get to raise their self esteem by thinking they are doing something awesome. They're not. I'll tell you why I feel that way. 

1. First of all, they don't accomplish anything. The one case where I think they did was the Martin Luther King/Rosa Parks, etc, social protests in the South in the 50's and 60's. I think people in other parts of the country didn't know how bad things were. It brought attention to it and that led to changes. For the Vietnam War, cuts in spending going on today, etc, pretty much everyone knows the issues already. You aren't bringing attention to it. Everyone knows already. You're saying that you are upset about it. Everyone knows that, too.

2. The powers that be aren't listening. During a war, the people that declared the war knew there would be protests. The fact that there are protests, then is no surprise to them. In fact, the powers that be don't want to appear weak by changing their policy because of protests. They figure that would just encourage more protests, so they dig in even harder. The Vietnam War didn't end early because of marches. In fact, it might have ended earlier. North Vietnam figured if they could just hang on long enough they could ultimately win. And Donald Trump doesn't seem like the sort to back down because people don't like what he did. In fact, he seems to kind of like making people mad.

3. You turn off the people in the middle. A famous baseball manager, Casey Stengel, said the secret of being a great manager is keeping the people that hate you away from the undecideds. On most issues I think the majority of people are somewhere in the middle. Protesters, especially violent ones, upset them and they move away from what you want. 

4. You bring out the other side. People that would have stayed home are now taking to the streets because you did. That happens for groups like Neo Nazis. In fact, they are all for you coming out. Their goal is to be visible and have others have a counterprotest and attract media attention. The more yelling and anger, the more they like it.

5. There are better ways to respond. Samuel Johnson said, "You raise your voice when you should reinforce your argument". A senator once said that a well written letter from a constituent saying how he feels about an issues did a lot more for him than a petition with a thousand names on it. 

You have the right to protest, but it would be better if you did things that actually made the world better.

 

Rene Descartes

If you don't have a favorite mathematician, and I'm guessing most people don't, I would suggest Rene

Descartes (Renay Daycart). He looked like a musketeer and, in fact, was a soldier for a time. He was sickly as a child and allowed to stay in bed for hours after everyone else had gotten up. He liked that idea so much, he just stuck with that routine pretty much the rest of his life. In math, he came up with the graphing on the x and y-axis thing that anyone that ever makes it through algebra knows about. It combined algebra and geometry. Pretty impressive. 

He was also a philosopher But, he is probably most famous for one particular line. and maybe most famous line was "I think, therefore, I am". Seems pretty obvious, but it made him famous. Seems pretty obvious, but it made him famous. What can I really be sure of in life? Maybe everything I think I experience is fake. But the fact that I am thinking right now means that at least I myself must exist. 

. . . I noticed that whilst I thus wished to think all things false, it was absolutely essential that the "I" who thought this should be somewhat, and remarking that this truth "I think, therefore I am" was so certian and so assured that all the most extravagant suppositions brought forward by the sceptics were incapable of shaking it, I came to the conclusion that I could receive it without scruple as the first principle of the Philoslophy for which I was seeking.

His last job was to teach philosophy to the queen of Sweden. It was early in the morning so he couldn't stay in bed on those mornings, but still, a pretty good job. 

Holidays That Have Lost Their Meaning

Ranker.com is a fun website. It's just the general public voting on various topics. I just took what I saw first, "What Holidays Have Lost Their Original Meaning?" I personally would get rid of most holidays. Either they have morphed from what they were (see below) or they are just an advertisement for something else (e.g., Asparagus week, brought to you by the Asparagus Growers of America).

1. St Patrick's Day. Trying to celebrate the Irish has evolved into characterizing them into the worst of the Irish.

2. Labor Day. I'm pretty sure it was created by labor unions to gain popularity for their people. "See, we got you another day off."

3. President's Day. Used to be about Lincoln and Washington whose birthdays at that time. Now celebrating more than 40 people make it meaningless. The only ones it might matter to are kids who could learn about presidents in school. Never mind, no school that day.

4. Easter - Religious holiday is now the day to hunt eggs, for some reason.

5. Memorial Day - I think this still has some of its original meaning.

6. Christmas - Still the original meaning to a dregree, but trees, mistletoe, etc are all extras now.

7. Veteran's Day - I think this got voted too high. This doesn't seem to have replacement traditions like many other holidays. Many just ignore it.

8. Columbus Day - Many have hijacked it to Indigineous People's Day. It would be better to just get rid of it entirely then.

9. Halloween - Another originally religious holiday that has now made a pivot to the satanic.

10. Cinco de Mayo - I'm really not sure what this was supposed to be originally or presently.

 

NFL Designs

I thought I would do an NFL wrap up blog and then leave it alone for months. But I've changed my mind. Let's look at NFL logos and judge them. But first, speaking of wrapping up the season, sports shows never tire of talking about football. I don't listen to sports radio much, but I have found that there is no time of year in which they are not talking about football for a pretty good amount of the show. You would think now they wouldn't be. It's a month after the Super Bowl. The next season couldn't be farther away. Yet, they're talking football. What coaches are fired? Who will new coaches be? Who'll get drafted? Who'll get traded? Who should go into the hall of fame? What latest player did something illegal? Who's unhappy? There is no loss of topics.

But, hey. What about logos? Who's got the best. Its hard not to be biased. At first, I would say the Jets' logo is bad. But am I biased by the fact that the Jets football team is always bad? I'll try to look past a team's on-field performance. NFL is a tough sport. You should have a non-pretty color on your design - Seattle, Carolina are too cute. GB, Jets, Philadelphia's green is off-putting. I'm not even sure why. I just don't think that is a good football color. Some, if you weren't familiar with the team, you might not understand what is pictured, like those with animals - Broncos (who I just noticed are on there twice, neither one looking like a horse), Buffalo, Houston, Detroit, Falcons, are tough to identify at first glance. Some are out just because their logo is dumb - The Cardinal's bird head, the dolphin wearing a football helmet.

Trying to be objective, I think these are the best of these pictured - Giants, 49ers, Cowboys, KC, Chargers, Vikings. I think I like the Vikings. The design is a little complicated, but you can definitely tell what it is. And I like the purple they have going.

NFLSuper Bowl Love

The NFL, including last week's Super Bowl, preached a message of love. I'm pro-love, but I don't know that its working. "Choose Love", "Fight Racism", etc. The slogans and ads are fine, but do they accomplish what they're going for? Or cynically, do they do it to make themselves look good? There was an ad with Snoop and Tom Brady. Not necessarily my favorite people, but they're ok. I usually don't like those kind of preachy messages, but actually I liked they're ad.

Again, do they do any good? Lets divide the world into racists, non-racists, and those somewhere in between. First, for someone that is truly a racist, I'm not sure those slogans really make any difference in their thinking. By the way, I think that group is by far the smallest of the three. I know there are neo-Nazis out there and police that have shot people wrongly, but I doubt its a big percentage out of the three hundred million of us. 

Moving on the the non-racists, I think this is by far the largest group. They don't need any slogans. It maybe gives them the chance to feel good about themselves, but that's it.

Those in the middle. Casey Stengel was a famous baseball manager. He once said (paraphrasing) that the secret to being a good manager is keeping the people that hate you away from the undecideds. Social media people that like to get attention by being hateful use things like "Black Lives Matter" to stir things up. "Black lives matter? What about white lives? Black history month? Where do they get off with their own month?" The non-racists aren't moved by that, but some of the undecides could be. NFL and others, even if slogans are meant to be positive, they aren't necessarily helping and may be giving ammunition to the other side.

Here is a final thought regarding the Super Bowl. You have all the right slogans and ads, yet the theme of the halftime show seemed to be one person rapping about how much he hates another person. So where do we land on this, NFL? I assume the NFL has some input into every aspect of the day, including halftime. I'm confused.
 

Super Bowl Preview

What is great and what is not so great about the Super Bowl, in fact, all of Super Sunday.

Great

Everyone gets on board. Fans and non-fans. Everyone seems to be into it. Its like the only thing that unites the country. People will root for different teams, but everyone seems to agree its a great day. I have a bit of a problem with the people that never watch football the entire year except for this day and decide who to root for by the prettiest uniform, but we'll let that slide. 

The commercials are good. I don't see them as incredibly awsome like some do, but they are really good.

That I'm at home. I've been to a few football games. That is fun, but there are drawbacks. 

- Finding a place to park,

- Traffic coming and going. 

- Fans screaming, yes screaming, to make it too loud for the opposing team to hear their qb.

- Some of the color commentators are tough to listen to, but the good ones are great. 

- Sometimes at an in-person game you aren't quite sure what is going on or the reason for a ref's call. 

- At home, you're at the 50 yard line. At a game your seats are in the endzone or really expensive.

Super Bowl snacks.

        

Not So Great

All the hype. They take two weeks to play the game. Sports radio is non-stop Super Bowl. Let's just watch the game, ok.

Rooting for a team. I have found its really more enjoyable to not root for someone. Just relax and watch the game. Hard to do if you just bet a ton of money. So, don't do that.

The heartbreak of losing. Better to not make the playoffs or lose in an earlier round. Otherwise, the losing will be said to have choked and can't win the big one, even though they had to win crucial games leading up to this one.

That my predictions are usually wrong. But here we go. I swear this is before the game happens. 

Eagles 27 - Chiefs 20

 

Fireflies

Sam and the Firefly is a book I remember from my childood. It was written by P.D. Eastman. He wrote other cloassics - Go Dog Go and Are You My Mother. As kids books go, I think they're really good. Interestingly, P.D. (Philip Dey) served in World War II under Theodor Geisel (a.k.a. Dr. Seuss). P.D. worked at Disney before writing books. I recall reading the book or having it read to me many times. I thought Sam was the firefly. I just watched a video of someone reading the book. Apparently Sam was an owl. Gus is the firefly. 

So I was driving through, I think, Missouri once. I saw weird lights flitting about as I drove. What? I had no idea there even was such a thing as a firefly. I would have been no less amazed had there been a herd of unicorns at the side of the road. Why not dragons? I later saw fireflies in Kentucky and also outside the capital building in D.C. It is amazing to me that animals can light up like that. Its also kind of amazing to me that I went a good portion of my life not knowing fireflies actually existed. Go figure. What other things have I been completely misled about? We'll see.

 

Revised Odds

Pretty sure nobody would care about this, but I think I should adjust my playoff probabilites from last week. I wanted the chance that Buffalo could play Minnesota in the Super Bowl. Both have lost four Super Bowl games in the past. At least one team would get a Super Bowl win. One team would go to 0-5, but at some point it isn't that much more of a disappointment. I don't think it would be called a point of diminishing returns. I'm not sure there is even a name for it. Maybe the point of "whatever".

Assuming all the teams have the same chance of winning (not true), I thought since there are seven teams in each conference you have a 1/7 chance of getting to the Super Bowl. But that isn't how it works. They don't all play each other. One team has a bye and the other 6 teams play in the first round. So I need to take one game at a time. Buffalo and Minnesota each had to win three games to get to the Super Bowl. So a 1/2 chance of winning each of those games - 1/2 x 1/2 x 1/2 = 1/8. 

So there isn't a 1/7 chance It is 1/8. And for both teams to make it is 1/8 x 1/8 = 1/64. Its not the 1/7 x 1/7 chance I thought last week. 

It doesn't matter, because the chance is now zero since Minnesota lost last week. Hopefully in the next 64 years it happens? That's assuming both make the playoffs each year. Unlikely.

Minnesota vs Buffalo

All I'm rooting for in the NFL playoffs is to see the Minnesota Vikings play the Buffalo Bills in the Super Bowl. They're both in the playoffs, so there is a chance. Fourteen teams qualified for the playoffs, so there isn't a great chance, but it could happen. It would be a great story line. Both teams have been to the Super Bowl four times. They've never won. And only recently has a team gone to 0-3 (the Bengals). No one else matches their futility. Someone would win and get the monkey of their backs and someone would lose, only adding to the heartache. The coin flip would be held between the honorary coaches - Jim Kelly and Fran Tarkenton, who were part of seven of those losses. It would be dramatic and the final would be both awesome and heartbreaking. Buffalo has come the closest. In their first Super Bowl they had a final field goal attempt that barely missed. No other games have really been very close. 

I figure with seven playoff teams in each conference, there is a one in seven chance of getting there. For both teams to get there would be a one in forty-nine chance. It's not likely, especially with teams like the Taylor Swift led Chiefs lurking, but I'm holding out hope. 

This just in, two teams have lost and Buffalo won their first game, so they have a one in four chance. So now the chances have moved from one in forty-nine to one in twenty-eight. Still quite unlikely, but maybe.