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Of all the awards given out in pro sports, the NBA’s Most Improved Player is perhaps the most arbitrary. (We won’t include hockey’s Lady Byng Trophy for sportsmanship.)
There’s no single stat that indicates how much a player has improved from one season to the next. And why has that player improved? Is it just from increased playing time, or are there other factors involved? There’s just a whole mess of gray area involved.
Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate this festive holiday.
To those who don’t: “Happy Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, or NBA Day.”
One of the best things about Christmas Day (December 25th) is that the NBA is the only major sport on television in the US.
Christmas day is a basketball fan’s refuge, with five games featuring marquee teams.
This Christmas, while the first game was a blowout (with Boston Celtics prevailing over the Brooklyn Nets), the following two games (Los Angeles Lakers/New York Knicks and Miami Heat/Oklahoma City Thunder) have both been exciting and entertaining.
For as enthralling as the games have been, two commercials have taken stolen some of the attention away from the feature presentation.
By now, if you’ve been watching NBA games on Christmas, you’ve seen the Chris Paul commercial for State Farm. If now, watch below.
Yet another clever use of an alter ego (of sorts) in an advertising campaign. [As you'll recall, Pepsi Max came out with Uncle Drew (Kyrie Irving) earlier in 2012.]
The Twitter interplay is also comical.
Although, probably the funniest of Cliff Paul’s tweets is this one:
It’s funny to think that either Cliff doesn’t realize that Chris now plays for the Los Angeles Clippers, not the Hornets/Pelicans (although he maintains that achievement), or that he truly is enamored with the choice to change the name to the Pelicans.
The other commercial featured Kevin Durant in a plug for Sprint.
We come to you today to praise the memory of the Swamp Dragons, who are part of NBA lore but not part of NBA history. They were so close to being real – at least as real as a nickname and mascot could be.
But they were extinguished at the last minute, and the only part of them that lives is a logo.
College.
These days, for most of us with average (at best) athleticism and hopes of attaining the “American Dream,” college is imperative, not optional.
For professional athletes, that is completely arbitrary. It is, however, encouraging to see athletes go back to school to complete their degrees…especially, seeing as it sets an example for the many young fans who follow them and their careers.
New Orleans Pelicans Hornets star rookie Anthony Davis and his former Kentucky teammate Michael Kidd-Gilchrist (currently with the Charlotte Bobcats) are planning to embark on that path.
