A. KISSER: ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith always sides with superstars auch as Camelo Anthony over players like Jeremy Lin, even if Smith has to make up issues to side with. (
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Not that Stephen A. Smith has to worry about his credibility — too late for that — but his recent, recidivist put-down spews against Jeremy Lin on 1050 ESPN Radio sounded designed to encourage us to believe what Smith says, rather than what we’ve seen. And I’m not quite ready for that. You?
Smith has tried to over-simplify and reduce the Knicks’ latest Greek Tragedy as a mandate: Who should get the most shots, Lin or Carmelo Anthony?
That’s the yardstick? Who gets the most shots?
Lin, when allowed — and with Anthony out — made the Knicks a better team. And, not coincidentally, a winning team.
Sure, it purely was accidental, but it became a matter of indisputable self-evidence that Lin kept everyone — except opponents — moving without the ball, alert, energetic, achieving, a gas. More times than not, the Knick with the easiest shot scored. Imagine that!
It’s also a matter of self-evidence that when Anthony returned, the energy dimmed, then drained. Minimalist, isolation ball and offensive loitering returned. The goal no longer was for the Knicks to be the best team it could be, but to feed the highest-paid individual talents on the team, stay out their way and hope for the best.
Smith, although always eager to ID himself as a basketball Erasmus (Royal Order of the Self-Appointed), has tried to reduce a five-man team game to a single stars pecking-order game — a quick return to the flaw plan that has for years made James Dolan’s Knicks a square-dance squad, a drag.
Not that we’re surprised. Smith’s stock-in-trade — what makes him attractive to Motherland ESPN — are his kiss-fanny, slick-talk interview access to point-totals NBA’s stars.
Of course, he would make it a Lin vs. Anthony thing. And once he creates such a baseless, disingenuous issue, he would obligatorily back Anthony, superstar. Team game? Basketball? Since when?
And now back to our originally scheduled programming, One-On-One Clear-Out Ball. “Shot clock down to two! …”
Knowledge isn’t required when discussing rules
It’s One of the early chapters in the Big Book of TV Tricks: Just because they don’t know the rules never should dissuade game commentators from ripping the refs. Remember: Officials rarely are able to defend themselves or return fire.
Heck, for 25 years John Madden wrongly knocked NFL officials without knowing the rules. Yet, he was applauded widely for his “hard-hitting” analysis by media guys who also didn’t know the rules, few, if any, bothering to learn if Madden was right.
The refs in Thursday’s Syracuse-UNC Asheville NCAA Tournament clash have had better games. They missed a goaltending call against Syracuse and an out-of-bounds call that also gave Syracuse an unearned break.
But they did not miss a big, close-game call with 1:20 left, a lane violation against Asheville that gave Syracuse’s Scoop Jardine a second try to hit the first of a one-on-one. That call led to two extra points; a four-point lead became six. Game over.
That was the call that set the CBS/Turner trio of Kevin Harlan, Len Elmore and Reggie Miller into a “They wuz robbed!” mode.
The announcers and the replays, leaning on a ref’s hand gestures, correctly focused on whether an Asheville player, who was at the rear of the foul shooter, crashed the boards from the left side before the ball left the shooter’s hands. To that end, the Asheville player did not jump the gun.
“That’s a bad call,” a mystified Miller or Elmore declared. And that was repeated and repeated. But that wasn’t the issue!
This was: Players not in marked lane spots must wait until the ball hits the rim to make such a move. And that rule stands to reason, a matter of simple, applicable logic. Otherwise, players could take running starts toward the basket from midcourt, from here, there and everywhere.
It was, and indisputably, the correct call.
But among TV play-by-players and analysts, rules aren’t made to broken as much as they are to be unlearned.
* In the last weeks we’ve lost Harry Keough and John “Clarkie” Souza, members of the 1950 U.S. National Soccer Team — essentially a pick-up team — that impossibly beat England in the 1950 World Cup.
Only two are known to survive. Defender Walt Bahr, father of the NFL placekicking Bahrs, Matt and Chris, and the former forever Penn State soccer coach, is 85. Goalkeeper Frank Borghi is 86.
Bahr set up the goal, scored by Joe Gaetjens, a Haitian immigrant who had been a dishwasher in NYC. Gaetjens returned to Haiti, then vanished, believed to be a murder victim of the “Papa Doc”
Duvalier regime.
Albert call for archives
Perfect: Marv Albert called Norfolk State over Missouri on Friday. “And that’s it!” he said, allowing the rest to speak for itself. Good for him. Good for us. Good for the archives.
* CBS’s Kevin Harlan is going to run out of evasive, pandering terms about Syracuse’s “myriad of problems.” Thus far he has gone with “distractions” — used that one a lot — and “speed bumps in the road.”
* Give Orange coach Jim Boeheim points for consistency. He’s a bad loser, and a bad winner. … Charles Barkley, NCAAs studio analyst, still has two weeks to get one thing right and to say one thing useful. Now back to the Tweets.
* St. Bonaventure’s 14-man roster includes three recruits from Canada, one from Surinam, one from Senegal. Think 36 percent of the student body is imported? … Nice to see Bobby Knight in those All State ads, still cashing in on being a wild-eyed bully.
* Though all its “Insider” positions are filled, ESPN does have openings for “Outsiders.” Reporters? Sorry, ESPN doesn’t hire reporters, only Insiders and Outsiders. Insiders who lose their positions may re-apply from the inside out, while those on the outside looking in, should apply within.
* First, CBS’s Clark Kellogg, now Turner studio man Steve Smith. When did “score,” as in trying to score, become “score the basketball”? What else are they scoring, Cheez Doodles? … Vermont, school colors green and gold, Friday played UNC in black uniforms.
* Must be a reason Jeremy Shockey — a first-round, can’t-miss pick — can’t keep an NFL job, no.
* A two-hour special on YES saluting YES on its 10th anniversary as YES? While a bit much, reader David Distefano reminds us that it was that or the Carl Pavano “Yankeeography.”