Tuesday, November 21, 2006

The Lenovo Stat?

There was a point in my life when Moneyball was my favorite book. It's no longer tops but I still love it. This is important because I'm no Joe Morgan in the sense that I don't hate the infiltration of professional sports by stat geeks. I'm also not in the Baseball Hall of Fame in case you were wondering. In a related story I recently caught a great ESPN show on Kirk Gibson and his famous World Series homerun off Dennis Ekersley. Gibson and numerous others praised the Dodgers' scouts for identifying the fact that the Eck always threw sliders on 3-2 counts to left handed hitters. Gibson knew this, ended up in such a count and hit a slider out of the yard. Of course Peter Gammons tells us that prior to that encounter Eckersley had not thrown a 3-2 slider against a lefty all year. This is the kind of story that drives stat people up walls. Personally I think there is a place for stats and gut feelings in any professional sports. Which brings me to basketball and The Lenovo Stat. At first glance I was thrown off and wondering if McMenamin was arguing that the Celtics have the best starting 5 in the NBA. However, after further review, I realized he was analyzing week 3, which happened to be a great week for the C's. I think there is some value in this stat as long as you keep things in perspective. Just don't compare Yao Ming to Gheorghe Muresan.

1. Is John Hollinger pissed that McMenamin is stealing his thunder?
2. Does McMenamin know that Hollinger called dibs on the Chuck Hayes man crush?
3. Am I just mad at Hollinger for his honest look at Rondo?

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