For the 1259th time in the last year or two it has become painfully obvious that national journalists do not watch the Hornets.  They do not know the Hornets.  And they simply don’t take the time to research the Hornets.  In yesterday’s ESPN Dime, Jalen Rose said the following:

I’m a big Chris Paul fan, and he should definitely be in the argument when talking about best point guards in the game, but to me, [Tony] Parker is the best point guard playing. He plays in a situation where it’s all about the pot of gold at the end. It’s all about the title for him. His statistics might not be 20 and 10 on a nightly basis, but that is because he plays with two other superstars. One thing about being a good teammate is the unselfishness to let others make plays. You have to do that in order for your team to be a championship contender. I’ve always respected that about his game. Paul is the most talented point guard in the game, but Parker is the best point guard.

Is Rose actually implying Paul gets his 20/10 selfishly?  What an idiot.  Anyone who has watched the Hornets more than once (read not Bill Simmons) knows that Paul is the most selfless player on the floor.  What apparently people don’t realize is how often Paul has 2/7 at halftime.  Then he puts up 16 the next quarter, while picking up 1 assist, and then goes 2/2 in the final stanza.  He is a uniquely talented man, who can score at will.  If he was selfish, he’d have 30/10 every night, punctuated by 40 and 50 point games now and then.  (As we wondered at atthehive the other week, what would happen if CP just decided to try to score every play?  Could he put up 60?  80?  100?  Could anyone stop him?)  If Paul was going for statistics only, he’d probably have more rebounds and steals too.  But as Paul himself said, “Some guys look to score.  I look to win.”

Moreover, Jalen Rose claims Tony Parker’s numbers are lower because there are two superstars on his team.  Timmy and Manu?  Fine.  How about those guys called West and Peja in Nola?  Besides, did Rose miss the fact that the assist leader is typically the man presumed to be the least selfish and most engaged in getting his teammates going?  Not to mention the fact that Paul had more 15+ assist games than anyone last year.  Listen, I love Tony Parker.  He’s clearly one of the point guards in the game.  But CP’s one of the best players in the game.  Honestly, if CP had played on the Spurs teams that Tony did, he’d have rings too.  Give him a few years to compare to Parker’s.  We’ll see what happens.

You could have just said how good Tony was, Jalen.  You didn’t have to bring CP into it.  Idiot.

Like every other sports pundit in the world, it seems, the TNT crew was talking last week about the Summer of 2010 (say it twenty-ten and hear Bryan Adams). Barkley, speaking his mind, as always, called out LeBron. He said he was disrespecting his teammates by even entertaining talk about his free agency two years away. He wondered aloud what his current teammates must be thinking. Barkley reiterated this stance last Wednesday on the radio, saying:

“If I was LeBron James, I would shut the hell up. I’m a big LeBron fan. He’s a stud. You gotta give him his props. I’m getting so annoyed he’s talking about what he’s going to do in two years. I think it’s disrespectful to the game. I think it’s disrespectful to the Cavaliers.

LeBron, clearly, could care less. Instead of saying anything about his teammates or the next two years he is under contract, instead responded: “[Barkley]’s stupid. That’s all I’ve got to say about that.” Wow. Inspiring. But who knows, maybe Bill Simmons is right, when he posited his pet conspiracy theory:

Team LeBron is making everyone think they have a chance at LeBron in 2010 so multiple teams clear cap space and weaken themselves competitively in the short-term (like Detroit did) … which inadvertently gives Bron a better chance to win a title over these next two years!

Maybe. Who knows? But that’s the point, no one knows. It is the future. Why aren’t we focused on the great basketball being played now? The moves that might be made now? In the same vein, why hasn’t Stern stepped in? Is he just so happy that people are constantly talking NBA that he doesn’t even care about the game itself? Is he that invested in global marketing and bottom line concerns that he doesn’t even care about the game? Is that crazy or is that possible? One thing’s for sure, it’s something the media just can’t let go of.

Case in point, today’s NBA Home Page on ESPN is “The Cap Deals,” focusing on the contracts of Bibby, Odom, and Kidd. I get that financial realities are things GMs are concerned with; and because that’s real, the media has a legitimate concern with it. And at least these are all contracts that expires this year. But it doesn’t take long for the article to get to 2010. Sure, this is just one day, but now a days, it’s hard to go to an NBA web page and not find a reference to the summer of 2010. It’s lame.

Thus, I propose the Barkley Corollary: if LeBron should shut the hell up about 2010, so should everyone else. Only the GMs know their long term strategies, and they don’t like to talk about those things. Ask Jeff Bower. The man never gives a straight answer on personnel moves. Nor should he. So the rest of us, who can supply absolutely no facts, should shut the hell up about it.

The present is full of good basketball. That’s what I’ll concern myself with.

Okay. So TT6 and I have been off and on tossing around this whole “Are the Hornets Falling Apart?” storyline since yesterday evening. I think I finally figured out what the problem is. Universally, the NOLA-bound response has been critical of Simmons and ESPN. Are we being overly defensivee? I don’t think so. This isn’t just the blind, rabid homerism endemic of Jazz fans. It’s something else. It’s about representation. Funny word. Representation. It implies a filter. An author is not simply “presenting” the facts to a reader, but “re-presenting” it through his or her ideological or moral view. That’s fine. We all do it. But what ticks me off, is that for the last several years, when it comes to New Orleans and the Hornets, the representation has been wrong.

The Hornets? You mean that team in Charlotte? No, sorry, they’re in New Orleans now. Oh, but Katrina hit, they’re staying in Oklahoma, right? No again. They’re coming back. But New Orleans was destroyed and it’s as safe as a civil war-torn African nation, right? No, that’s blown out of proportion. It’s fine. But Tracy McGrady said he wouldn’t feel safe going there for the All-Star game. That’s because he’d be scared to compete at that level. It didn’t stop the Arena Bowl or the Sugar Bowl or the New Orleans Bowl, or any of the hundreds of conventions and thousands of tourists that flock still to the city every week. It didn’t stop the French Quarter Fest, Jazz Fest, or Mardi Gras. Okay, but basketball? This team is going to end up in Seattle right? No. They were dumb enough to sell their team to a guy from Oklahoma. But New Orleans is really a football town, right? There’s not enough people to keep the seats full for both the Saints and the Hornets, and those people aren’t giving up the Saints, right? Um, actually we’re among the League leaders in season ticket sales. Yeah, but people still don’t go to the games right? Hey, ass, were you listening to me? Yes, the lower bowl is about sold out and the upper bowl usually sells out or it’s close. Sure, sure, but it doesn’t matter since God ordained your city full of sin and will keep sending Hurricanes your way until it’s destroyed. Funny, I hear a lot less Iowans saying that now. Oh, but Louisiana is all corrupt, come on, some one’s gonna sell you out eventually or get caught in some gambling scandal. Leave the complaining about Harrah’s to Phil Jackson; it’s stupid. Oh. Hey, anyone sense the sarcasm?

Point is, the Hornets have had to deal with a lot more MISrepresentation than pretty much any other professional sport and the prayers Shinn sanctions before the games don’t seem to be helping. Sure, this city has been affected, but New Orleanians are hardy. At the same time, people think Katrina was just a storm. It destroyed this city, man, that doesn’t go away overnight. Homes that were just fine that day still stand wrecked and unlivable. Life is forever changed in this great American city. But that doesn’t mean we should abandon our lives or what we love. And one of those things has become the Hornets. New Orleans have a zest for life in all its facets, and basketball is now one of those things. So when it comes to the media, I don’t think it’s too much to ask for writers to have the common courtesy to get their facts straight before writing crap that they don’t know about.

Byron Scott, CP, and all the rest should be a model for the league. They’re not getting caught with drugs. They’re not beating their wives/girlfriends. They’re not talking bad about each other in the press. As Gerry V recently commented, as he traveled with the team, these guys are tight, they have fun together, they hang out on non-Hornets days; their families know each other. They’re a family. The media should love these guys. But then they wouldn’t be the Real World. They wouldn’t be The Hills. They wouldn’t be Survivor or the Rock of Love. So just like all of those “reality” shows use editing, plot prompts, and overacting to manufacture drama, the media is in on it at times. Here, it’s not even just Simmons, who apparently makes sweeping statements all the time, but ESPN, who was dumb enough to run this on their front page. But some people would rather a bunch of bullshit instead of honest work.

Look at NBATV. I mean I love their extensive coverage, but sometimes, it’s just a bunch of jackasses sitting around talking shit. Gary Payton and Chris Webber? Tip to J. E. Skeets over at Ball Don’t Lie: they’re horrible. How about some analysis? (P.S. Simmons liked these guys. Is he mental?)

Listen, the Hornets haven’t had the season they were hoping for. They have played some bad games. No problem. Let’s talk about that. Ryan at 247 wants to talk about free throw rates and turnovers. Fine. Rohan’s called out bad shooting and pace over at the Hive. Stellar. Let’s do it. But to just shoot your mouth and pretend it has any weight whatsoever just because it’s posted on ESPN.com is stupid. Of course, maybe we all need to accept some of the blame. We like talk shows and talk radio, and forget that in this country these people can say just about anything and it doesn’t make it true or right. Yet people accept these media-celebrities as sources. They’re no different than you or I, they just get paid to do it. So don’t assume something anyone says is true just because they say it.

So yes, the Hornets have been slightly disappointing this year. We all hoped they’d look like the Lakers do now. They don’t. But it’s November. I believe May will look different. Maybe not. But I hope that with a few more nationally televised games, at least the national media will present the facts about this team. Not just half-assed psycho-babble and creative ignorance.

Oh yeah, someone please tell Hubie Brown to stop saying “New Orleeeeens”. It’s an “i” sound. Like “New Orlins.” We say everything our own way down here. Get over it.

Okay.  Seriously.  We’re 10 or so games into the 2008 basketball season, and the most significant headlines are still on the summer of 2010.  Would I like to see Bosh and Wade join CP, sure?  Do I really care now?  No.  That’s Jeff Bower’s job.  And trust me folks, he has his eyes on the situation.  So, you know, I’m just sick of it.  There is a lot of good basketball out there being played now, and maybe we should all focus on that.

Which brings me to my second point about this whole situation.  I got DeShawn Stevenson’s back: Lebron is overrated.  (Author waves his hand in front of his face.)  To tank your next two seasons, as apparently the Knicks are willing to do, is retarded.  So Lebron can explode to the hole and dunk so hard that he almost breaks his wrist.  Woo.  Let me give him $30 mil a year for that.  So he’s freakishly big and fast.   Woo.  You know what James really reminds me of?  Anyone ever see that stupid pseudo-basketball game they play on trampolines, and the dudes just bounce around and jam it hard by coming down to the rim?  Yup.  That’s “_____ James.”  He can score at will.  He can pull his team through the Leastern Conference to the Playoffs.  Let me fall out of my seat.  Just one thing, this is a team sport.  You need to make your teammates better to win.  Lebron doesn’t do that. Instead of focusing on winning in Cleveland, how many of his teammates are thinking who cares what we do now, or how well we gel, or learn our schemes, because this guy is gone after 2010.  And he allows that distraction to go on to the detriment of his team because he likes the media glory.  He likes being called “_______.”

Now, you may be asking yourself, why does this guy keep putting blanks in his post.  It’s this, why the hell do people call him King James?  What does he rule other than marketing revenue? Which, when you think of it, is a self-perpetuating delusion: he’s them most marketable because everyone thinks he’s the best because he’s marketed as the best so we say he’s the best, etc.  But what does he really rule?  The NBA?  Right.  Show me a ring.  College?  Nope, didn’t go.  Oh, right, he was great in high school.  Yeah, so was Shaq, and everyone laughed at him when he said he’d won at every level other than college or pros.  Of course, Shaq shut them all up and got a ring or four.  But “King James”?  Please.

I’ve done a little poking around at titles of nobility.  And I don’t think he measures up to a King.  I considered Duke, but that brings up memories of Hunter S. Thompson, and so that’s way too good for him.  There are already guys in the League with names of Earl, Baron, and Marquis, and that would just be confusing . So I guess we should go with Viscount (pronounced vye-count).  You heard it here first, “Viscount James.”

You want to drool over him in 2010?  Go for it.  But after watching the Olympic games this past summer I honestly wasn’t impressed with James.  He always slowed down ball movement and made us more predictable.  Honestly, it was the CP, Wade, Bosh-driven second unit that impressed me most.  So if you want to put people in seats, feel free to chase VJ.  But if you want a championship, I’d look elsewhere.  Like New Orleans.  And Chris Paul.  You go for the crown, Viscount.  We’ll go for the rings.

Yeah, yeah, the Hornets won tonight.  They looked great, etc., etc.  Whatever, they played the Boomers.  And if they don’t win by 20 again tomorrow night I’ll hurl.  Let’s talk about basketball in general.  Ryan Bowen.  A great man.  Works his ass off, even though he hasn’t even dressed for several games this year.  He finally got some time tonight and looked stellar.  Point?  He makes a little over a million a year.  Quite a bargain, relatively speaking.  But, now, imagine if at practice he told Byron he didn’t feel like playing that night.  Nope.  He would rather sit out.  Coach Scott would punch him in the face and tell Bower to trade him the next day.  For a million a year.

Stephon Marbury, of the New York Knickerbockers, makes over TWENTY million a year.  Dude, I don’t even know what that means. It’s a lot.  If you really do the math, any one of us could live on that much money alone ($20 mil) for the rest of our life, and just live off the interest, forgetting the principal.  So this bastard, who just happened to make this much in ONE YEAR, told his coach he didn’t feel like playing tonight.  If I was D’Antoni, I would tell him that’s “Conduct Detrimental to the Team” and suspend his ass without pay.  Who gets paid for not working?  Also, just to clarify, I grew up in New York, so this isn’t just hateration.  To the contrary, I really, really, want to root for the Knicks. But shit like this makes me ill.

Marbury refuses to take a buy out because he claims he’s “earned” his money. Whatever, I’ve yet to see anything in his career remotely worth $20 mil a year, but fine.  Then EARN it.  How the hell can he CHOOSE not to play.  Can anyone reading this imagine telling their boss, “you know what, I don’t feel like working today.  I’m just going to hang around the office and chill.”  We all KNOW we’d be fired instantly.  Must be nice to have guaranteed money.  Shit, I need to get in a union like that.

Oh yeah, the Knicks got blown out tonight.  And the Hornets, led by a coach who doesn’t put up with that shit, rocked.  You do the math.

Okay, the world is full of Survivor fans, and with all the discontent rumbling around the Hornets boards and blogs this seems to be the perfect time to ask the same questions here: who will be voted off the team? Should Posey replace Mo in the starting line-up? Should Peja be traded? Has Hilton progressed enough, and it seems like Mike James must be headed off the island right? What does the tribal council say?

Trick question. No one gets voted off. The starting line-up doesn’t change. This isn’t some anti-progressive Darwinian experiment where we encourage individuals to scratch and claw their way to the top no matter who they have to go through to get it. This isn’t some pseudo-free market rampage where top dollar rules all and you’d sell your mother to get your green. Those values are drama-driven and artificial cultural constructs, no matter how much we represent them as “natural.” Humans are creatures of collaboration. Our success is tied to our ability to work together efficiently. As the nineties’ Bulls. Ask the Spurs teams of the last ten years.

The Hornets are a team. When asked this year what the Celtics’ greatest asset was last year, Paul Pierce answered immediately: chemistry. Ask me why the Hornets were so great last year and will be this year? Chemistry. These guys know each other, work together well, and actually like each other. Do you really think CP starts yelling at Peja in practice for not hitting his shots in the game and then goes and yells at Jeff Bower for not trading him? No way. You think TC is telling Hilton he should stop trying to implement a spin and shoot move into his offensive arsenal, and calling George Shinn to figure out why his fourth year option was picked up, or is helping him work on that shot?

Too much of our culture is pessimistic, celebrating the demise of others. Misery loves company and all that. Or more accurately, they’re more miserable than me so I must be happy. Sorry not here. We’re all about the Hype. Basketball is a long season. We can’t just decry every missed shot and badly played game. Should we be disappointed? Sure. Despair? No way. Peja can miss every shot all game and I still have no problem with him taking a fadeway hand-in-your-face three at the buzzer. Our backups are progressing, and have done some things well some games, and other things well in other games. Give it all time to gel. The Bees could be ten games back from the 8th seed with ten games to go and I’d believe they could make it. So should you.

More importantly, despite their slow start, I believe they will win the division and be a top 3 seed. So should you.

Last night I was fuming mad at the calls in the Hornets-Lakers game. I thought the refs blew not just particular calls, but that their entire method to calling the game was flawed. Now before we go any further, I want to make it clear that the Lakers beat us. End of story. I’m not blaming the refs for the loss. But it occurred to me that it’s something I’ve seen before and just never knew how to describe it. Now I think I can.

There’s something called the Coase Theorem. It’s a theory that describes the efficiency of an economic allocation or outcome in the presence of externalities. This 1937 theory finally won the Nobel prize in 1991, and has a variety of applications, such as when Judge Learned Hand now-famously applied it to American tort law (e.g., negligence, personal injury, etc.). Basic tort law says that when someone is harmed, someone is the cause of that harm, and whosoever caused that harm must then make restitution for the aforementioned harm. Judge hand resolved this theory to the formula of B < PL, where B = the burden of adequate protection against foreseeable damages, P = the probability of damage occurring and L = the gravity of the resulting loss. The practical application of this formula, then, was to suggest to a company that if the cost of taking certain precautions was less than result of probability times the loss that might be incurred, the company was better off to settle out of court or pay the cost of lawsuits rather than to incur the cost of taking the precaution (think of the Edward Norton's auto recall example from Fight Club). The problem with this application to tort law came when certain scholars, like Richard Posner, believed that if a company made the “right” economic choice of not taking the precaution, then they were not even negligent for the harm that ensued. Yet the flaw in this interpretation was that the formula took into account the fact that the company would be held negligent. Thus, to not find that company negligent was rewarding them unjustly for making their products more dangerous to reap greater profits. You can see the controversy this caused.

Okay, you’re asking me. How the hell does this relate to basketball, let alone the call scheme of referees? Simple. Teams like the Lakers last night, like the Celtics last year, and the Spurs or Pistons since, well, ever employ stifling, in-your-face defense. They gameplan on trying to frustrate opposing players by getting in their grill, playing press defense, and making as much physical contact as the rules allow. Defense wins championships, right? Only there’s one problem, this maxim, as well as the maxim that basketball is a “contact sport,” equate physical contact as the norm, and the very reputation of being “tough” defensively means that refs expect that team to give the other team fits. As a consequence, the refs have little sympathy for the harshly defended player, because they believe that they can’t “take the game into their hands” and bail out that player when the other team is just defending well. Okay, you’re still saying, what’s the problem, right?

Well here’s the thing, when you play that kind of defense, when you are pressing, when you are swiping at the ball, when you are pressing bodies tight all night, you’re playing in a defensive gray zone: you’re trying to make as much contact possible without fouling. But by the very philosophy of such play, by the very proximity, you are bound to commit fouls. Just like CP gets burnt every now and then going for steals, so will any uber-physical defender eventually, and inevitably, commit a foul. This isn’t a game of perfection, but of percentages; you just can’t play that close and never foul. So s the problem is that the refs are afraid to make the call against these types of defenders, because they just assume they’re playing tough defense. It’s as if they are agreeing with Coase or Posner and saying that just because such teams figured out that the potential burden imposed by increased fouls is less than the probability of enough fouls to cost your team, THEY SHOULDN’T BE WHISTLED FOR FOULS THAT ARE FOULS, because they made the correct strategic choice.

I call bullshit. A foul is a foul. Whether’s it’s CP, Kobe, Chris Mihm, or Ryan Bowen. A hack is a hack. Whether you’re Bruce Bowen, Chauncey Billups, Allen Iverson, or Ricky Davis. A block is a block. Your superstar status shouldn’t matter. Your efficacy as a defensive unit shouldn’t matter. The best teams don’t foul because they don’t commit fouls, not because they play tough and are expected not to foul.

What really creates problems with execution of this Coase Corollary in NBA refereeing is the disparity it creates when one team is renowned for their defense and the other is not. So far this year, the Lakers’ defense had been lauded. The Hornets, not so much. So you get the problem where you get the Hornets getting signaled for regular fouls, which they, like any team, commit. But then, on the other end, you get a team getting away with fouls because B < PL, that is, they are a good defensive team, so we won’t reward the other team with fouls for not beating that defense themselves. Yet this creates an unbalanced game, where the referees are calling fouls on one team that they’re not calling on the other. The problem is compounded even more if one of the teams is known to pick up offensive fouls, which the Hornets are, and then you get the “defensive” team receiving the benefit of “offensive fouls” that aren’t there because their reputation as defenders says that otherwise the offensive player just couldn’t have made that move against such a tough defense without fouling.

So to sum up, what I’m saying is that tough defensive teams are allowed to get away with too many fouls based solely on their strategic choice to engage in aggressive defense and the perception of them as being good at doing so. As a result, their opponents face an unfair bias in how the games are called. Ever wonder why all the run and gun teams have trouble winning close games? It’s because all those “defense wins championship” teams foul them and never get called on it. Well, I’m calling you on it. Here. Now.

Not content to convince America that Chris Paul and the rest of Hornets are the greatest thing since electricity, we’re trying to spread the Hype across the world. Or at least linking to those that do. You’ll notice we added an “All Hornets International” blogroll to our sidebar. So far, we’ve found German and Chinese sites dedicated to the Hornets and/or its players. So if anyone else knows any other great international sites dedicated to the same, let us know! We’ll add them to our links.

Also, if any of you can translate any of the languages on these sites for us non-speakers, we’ll be glad to re-post cool excerpts from those sites here, link to the original post, and credit you for the translation! Maybe this will help open an international dialogue about the greatness of our team.

¡Vivan los Hornets!

Something I’ve been tossing about with TT6, and also discussed the other day at another great Hornets’ blog, At The Hive, is what I’ll call the Chaos Effect.  I think it’s what makes the Hornets offense great, not just good.  Normally, they are this San Antonio-type mold offense, who just methodically chunks points away like a banker counting his money.  A jumper here, an alley-oop here, a three here, oops, you’re up by twelve!  Sweet!  But part of what makes them uber-effective is Chris Paul.  No surprise, right?  But there are two questions that this specifically begs: (1) specifically why, and (2) how does this translate to the second unit?

1.  Specifically why (admittedly, only in part…)?  Chris is at his most effective when he is swimming through  the lane the offensive zone.  I’m not sure what the right word is other than swimming.  He’s so fluid cutting through defenders and I’m not sure I’ve ever seen someone do it like he does, his head on a swivel with 360 awareness, juking and jiving, and all at full speed.  That’s what’s the craziest.  CP doesn’t even slow down.  He just tears through everyone.  How can teams react, rotate, or defend when they don’t even know where he is?  It’s pure chaos.  And while teams are scrambling to cut him off, he dishes to the open shooter or someone streaking to the rim.  2 points.  It’s this Chaos Effect that makes him unstoppable and can utterly confound defenses.

2. The Second Unit.  Now for the tough question.  What does the second unit do to replicate this kind of chaotic energy?  So far in the regular season, they haven’t.  Three point howitzers fired by Posey and Butler have been the key to our second unit.  They misfired last game, though, and we lost.  Mike James has seemed utterly unable to get the offense to run like it does with CP.  Of course it’s because he’s not CP.  But it’s also because he can’t create the Chaos Effect.  But Julian Wright can.  Remember the first few games of the preseason, when we started to think that MJ really was going to be a great back-up?  He had Ju-Ju.  With MJ able to drive or shoot, Butler and Posey on the wings, and Hilton underneath, it was Julian who was able to terrorize the opposing team’s defense with his chaotic style of play.  Ju-Ju might spot up for three, he might take a midrange jumper, he might drive to the hole; or he might just pass it off to an open shooter; but moreso, he did it with freakish celerity and balance, and always seems keenly aware of his floor spacing.  It’s chaotic.  He’s frenetic energy.  And I’m not even getting to his defense here.  Julian was the one who created the Chaos Effect on the second unit, and he who made MJ look good.  So for once, I’m not sure why Byron is so insistent on returning him to 110% conditioning.  The man only needs to play 10-20 minutes.  Let him go out there and go nuts on other teams.

I’d like to see it tonight.  Please, Byron.  I believe.  In Chaos.

Just think about it. This could be the President shaking the NBA Finals’ MVP’s and Champion’s hand next June. Hornets. The only team in the NBA to have not lost a game since last May. Only 79 more games and 16 wins thereafter away.