Basketball metaphors

Let’s step into the wayback machine and travel back in time, about three or four weeks. I really wanted to get this up, but with all the action, sad news, tough news, traveling etc. it got lost in the shuffle.

My friend and Slam colleague Lang Whitaker wrote:

You said about Jacob: “I want to raise a little Jason Kidd of life, not a Stephon Marbury.”

I’m hoping you wrote that tongue in cheek because he hit the girl and Jason Kidd famously got angry with his wife and…you know.

Or does that mean you don’t want Jacob to be able to make outside jumpers?

You have no idea how happy I was to receive this email, because I wrote that line specifically as bait for Lang, not even knowing how often he looked at the blog. It turns out he, as he would say, a Blogs-tigator. He took the bait and wrote back.

This goes back a few years, to the time when the Nets and suns swapped Jason Kidd and Stephon Marbury. Lang and I disagreed about this one. I said it was sheer brilliance on the Nets’ behalf. Lang thought they had been robbed blind. It is worth noting that virtually every other Slam staff member was on his side of the discussion, as I recall, but Lang is the last Steph loyalist, probably in the planet. I’m pretty sure he still thinks the Suns robbed the Nets blind. (of course, the most brilliant part of the suns’ deal was they were eventually able to pawn Steph off on the Knicks so it was actually dumping him that made them a great team, but that’s another discussion.

By the way, I find something about Jason Kidd as a person to be really annoying and I hated the way he allowed his kid to be a prop a few years ago. Also, the Nets have been far less fun to be around since he arrived. But his turnaround of the Nets is inarguable.

And what I meant is that I wanted Jacob to be a well-liked teammate who improves everyone he’s around rather than a selfish ballhog of life.

Anyhow, I wrote all this back to Lang in condensed form and he replied:

It’s been a tough year for us Steph fans, not only because the Knicks are a disaster but because every newspaper is siding with LBrown, despite numerous coaching errors and substitution gaffes (he’s still starting guys based on playing in or near their hometowns!).

Larry Brown is a complete moron and this year has exposed him as selfish fraud. But that in now way lets Steph off the hook – and I’d be interested in finding more Steph fans since you use first-person plural.

Lang named his dog Starbury, so I guess he can’t change course and I actually find his loyalty honorable and to be respected. But it still must be mocked. And remember Lang, you can always change the pooch’s name, just call him “Star” or tell people the name was ironic.

By the way, the Knicks are 40-95 since Starbury proclaimed himself the best point guard in the league.