SPORTS BALL!!! v2.0
- Thread starter Xprimentyl
- Start date
Somewhat fitting question now that the Sixers are out of the running, but could someone explain to me how you could get into the NBA and not be able to shoot free throws?
I don't know much about basketball, it's been sort of a pandemic interest of mine, but shooting free throws seems like a skill one could easily master through practice.
I don't know much about basketball, it's been sort of a pandemic interest of mine, but shooting free throws seems like a skill one could easily master through practice.
A lot of great players have been trash free throw shooters. Shaquille O'Neil, one of the most dominant players to ever play, was a notoriously terrible free throw shooter. Teams would intentionally foul him in the paint rather than let him drive because he missed free throws so often that giving up the foul was better than giving up two points against him. The thing is Shaq was so damn good at everything else it more than made up for his uselessness at the line. Ben Simmons on the other hand, is no where near good enough to be missing that many free throws (never mind how many field goals he missed). You are right, it's a fundamental skill of the game, but how important they are to an individuals game depends on how good you are at the game in general, or how often you are going to get fouled.
If you want someone who had the same treatment as Shaq, but was an excellent free throw shooter, check out Yao Ming's stats. Teams could have done the same thing to him as they did to Shaq but he shot 70%+ at the line most seasons. So he was dangerous both in play and at the line.
Man, I was gutted for our guy. You've got Red Bull biting your ass on fresher tyres, and you stay out on ancient tyres of the slowest compound? I think team strategy was trying to favor Hamilton even though Bottas was in strong contention. Ended up fucking them both, but costing Bottas a podium. He was literally hunted down by Perez, and the team just watched him limp to death.
The Carl Nassib coming out news is crazy. I genuinely thought there'd never be an active player who do it after what happened to Micheal Sam. There's obviously gonna be detractors but this is a huge step for the league imo. Hopefully one day it'll be a non-event when it happens.
It'll be interesting to see how this pans out. For some reason, I see this act almost like that infamous "Who's coming with me?" scene from Jerry Macguire. I'm certain the league harbors several closeted gay men (it's almost a statistical guarantee,) but I doubt Nassib's "Dorothy Boyd" will announce himself anytime soon. But happy for him that he felt comfortable enough to come out; very brave if risky. I just hope the jock jerks of the league don't give him a bunch of shit, and I hope sexual orientation doesn't become one of yet another oft-repeated statistics used by booth commentators to fill dead air between plays.
Fun fact: there are countless stories of the ruthless shit that goes on at the bottom of a dog pile when possession of the ball is in contention, i.e.: bending fingers, eye gouging, etc. One particularly disturbing thing I heard was a player trying to stick his finger in the ball carrier's butthole to get the carrier choose to literally save his ass over holding the ball. I'm not always proud to be an NFL fan...
Last edited:
Man, the F1 memes after France Sunday just keep rolling in, and I love it. It seems some are starting to see how Mercedes favors Hamilton much to Bottas’ detriment, and that perhaps the latter isn’t just an “average” driver in a high-performance car. So far, he’s already had 2 DNFs (neither his fault) and still has managed to outdo 75% of the field in Drivers’ Standings.
From the gates of despair back into the limelight. Every tournament has these, it seems. Denmark proving once again that Finns were extra lucky to win that first match. Now Belgium will end Portugal's run for double (which they had no chance of taking, tbh, other teams have improved too much).
An exciting F1 race in Styria yesterday!
During Friday's practice, Valtteri Bottas spun out leaving the pit box and received a 3-position grid penalty, meaning wherever he qualified on Saturday, he'd have to start 3 spots back. Fortunately, he managed to qualify at P2, but had to start from P5. He clawed his way up to P3 where again the battle was a Red Bull and Mercedes sandwich: Verstappen, Hamilton, Bottas and Perez. Bottas' P3 was fairly comfortable towards the end due to a slightly botched pit stop by Red Bull with Perez, but Perez, on fresher medium compound tyres went hunting, cutting the once 8-second gap between himself and Bottas to a half second within insanely few laps. Bottas finished P3 with Perez in his rearview mirror like the tyrannosaurus rex in Jurassic Park. If the track had been 200 yards longer, Perez would have overtaken him and taken another podium from Bottas.
I'm not sure what Mercedes' strategy is this year. Red Bull seem to have them in raw speed, yet they continue this "longevity" game: starting both drivers on the medium compound, then transition to the hard tyres (slower, but more durable) for a one-stop race. I mean, is the time they think they're saving pitting only once worth the pace they're losing? I think they're just playing the points game now, but when you've got Verstappen (Red Bull) 15 seconds out front racing by himself, Hamilton chasing hopelessly in 2nd, "hoping" Bottas can manage to hold 3rd and Perez a constant and very real threat to Bottas, you're not going to make any kind of gains. Unless they're accepting defeat this early and planning for next year?
Also, Christian Horner (team principle at Red Bull) looks like the guy in a movie the writer wants you to think is a good guy who ends up being the evil mastermind all along, but you could always tell from his first moment on screen. Look at that face; if he's not harboring some nefarious secrets, I'll eat my hat. I think the Red Bulls are powered by the blood of orphans. At the very least he's a got a sex dungeon.
During Friday's practice, Valtteri Bottas spun out leaving the pit box and received a 3-position grid penalty, meaning wherever he qualified on Saturday, he'd have to start 3 spots back. Fortunately, he managed to qualify at P2, but had to start from P5. He clawed his way up to P3 where again the battle was a Red Bull and Mercedes sandwich: Verstappen, Hamilton, Bottas and Perez. Bottas' P3 was fairly comfortable towards the end due to a slightly botched pit stop by Red Bull with Perez, but Perez, on fresher medium compound tyres went hunting, cutting the once 8-second gap between himself and Bottas to a half second within insanely few laps. Bottas finished P3 with Perez in his rearview mirror like the tyrannosaurus rex in Jurassic Park. If the track had been 200 yards longer, Perez would have overtaken him and taken another podium from Bottas.
I'm not sure what Mercedes' strategy is this year. Red Bull seem to have them in raw speed, yet they continue this "longevity" game: starting both drivers on the medium compound, then transition to the hard tyres (slower, but more durable) for a one-stop race. I mean, is the time they think they're saving pitting only once worth the pace they're losing? I think they're just playing the points game now, but when you've got Verstappen (Red Bull) 15 seconds out front racing by himself, Hamilton chasing hopelessly in 2nd, "hoping" Bottas can manage to hold 3rd and Perez a constant and very real threat to Bottas, you're not going to make any kind of gains. Unless they're accepting defeat this early and planning for next year?
Also, Christian Horner (team principle at Red Bull) looks like the guy in a movie the writer wants you to think is a good guy who ends up being the evil mastermind all along, but you could always tell from his first moment on screen. Look at that face; if he's not harboring some nefarious secrets, I'll eat my hat. I think the Red Bulls are powered by the blood of orphans. At the very least he's a got a sex dungeon.
4 teams and only 3 matches to go. Right now Italy looks like the clear favorite after beating FIFA No. 1 Belgium in an exciting game. England is not looking bad either, but more 4-0 wins are not expected to come (I'm no expert but Ukraine's defense tactics failed colossally).
England can be the best team in the world, but only for brief moments of any given match. This will probably not be enough to overcome Italy, and their semi final match against Denmark has a lot of potential to be very embarrassing for one of the teams.
I hope Denmark can pull a Greece 2004 and snatch the whole thing from the big boys. It would be worth it just to see the excuses and entitlement from England and Spain.
Lmao, true. Should be a tough match up no matter who wins really. Entertaining Euros all round though.
Sunday, I heard the most beautiful words in all of motorsports:
Mercedes' pit wall: "Valtteri, you're free to race Lewis."
That's right, Valtteri Bottas took a podium (P2 to be exact) while the golden child of Formula 1 was consigned to P4. First time I've seen Bottas on a podium without Lewis Hamilton a step or two higher in a LONG time.
Also, great racing by Lando Norris. Qualified his ass off on Saturday to take P2 on the grid, then held off BOTH Mercedes for quite a stint even knowing they had the faster car; was quite happy to see his cherubic face take P3.
And the internet didn't fail me; memes were out before the race even ended:
Mercedes' pit wall: "Valtteri, you're free to race Lewis."
That's right, Valtteri Bottas took a podium (P2 to be exact) while the golden child of Formula 1 was consigned to P4. First time I've seen Bottas on a podium without Lewis Hamilton a step or two higher in a LONG time.
Also, great racing by Lando Norris. Qualified his ass off on Saturday to take P2 on the grid, then held off BOTH Mercedes for quite a stint even knowing they had the faster car; was quite happy to see his cherubic face take P3.
And the internet didn't fail me; memes were out before the race even ended:
Entertaining race. Although I think we need to be careful what we wished for when we complained about Lewis dominating every race, now it just feels like Max has taken up that mantle. Still, long season to go. Also, the first year I wanna go to Melbourne for the GP it gets canceled. Its the right call, but two years in a row is heavy.
Also, Morata can't catch a break can he. Anytime he starts to build something up he fucks something else up to balance it up. Leveled it against Spain, missed a penalty, breaks a goal drought, gets injured or sold. Good match as a neutral though, looking forward to the final.
Yeah, Verstappen has to be the least interesting driver to watch; he's literally racing by himself, consistently out front by double-digit seconds. Notice how he was barely covered by television coverage? There was nothing to see until he hit lap traffic, and even then, he could have spun out, changed his own tyres, and STILL held a comfortable lead. I don't know what Red Bull has done to his car, but when he's lapping P5 with several laps to go, almost lapping himself every race, I think the FIA needs to investigate (<--hyperbole.) I didn't think it possible, but Verstappen's inexorable domination this year might be more tiresome than Hamilton's over the past several years; P2 feels like P1 because nobody can even remotely race Verstappen.