Basketball

"I think it’s really important for me to talk about it"

NBA player Ryan Anderson has revealed his struggle to come to terms with the suicide of his girlfriend, “Bachelor” contestant Gia Allemand, in a new interview with Sports Illustrated.

The New Orleans Pelicans forward found Allemand, 29, hanging from a vacuum-cleaner cord “so tight around her neck that at first he couldn’t loosen it” in August 2013. She died a short while later.

Anderson, 26, fell into despair after she was taken off life support. He returned to basketball in September.

Anderson took to Twitter after an outpouring of support from readers.

Read the article at SI.com.

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It's alleged that Griffin battered the victim, Daniel Schuman, by "squeezing his hand and shoulder and/or slapping him on the face".

Officials confirmed Wednesday that Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin has been charged with one count of misdemeanor battery stemming from an incident at a Las Vegas nightclub, according to Ben Bolch of the Los Angeles Times. TMZ first reportedthe news.

Las Vegas authorities were investigating Griffin last month for the alleged altercation but no arrests were made or charges filed at that time. The Clippers were in Las Vegas to play the Denver Nuggets in a preseason game at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.

According to Bolch, it’s alleged that Griffin battered the victim, Daniel Schuman, by “squeezing his hand and shoulder and/or slapping him on the face.”

Griffin’s first court date is scheduled for Dec. 8 at the Regional Justice Center in Las Vegas. The Clippers play a home game against the Phoenix Suns that day.

Griffin is averaging 24.3 points and 6.9 rebounds per game on 47.1 percent shooting this season.

This article originally appeared on SI.com

Bryant currently ranks fourth on the NBA's all-time scoring list

Kobe Bryant has missed more shots in the regular season than any other player in NBA history.

The Los Angeles Lakers star passed Celtics legend Jon Havlicek’s record (13,147) during Tuesday night’s game against the Grizzlies. Bryant eclipsed passed Havlicek’s mark in 18 fewer games.

The record-breaking miss came on a mid-range jump shot in the fourth quarter.

Bryant, 36, has hoisted at least 1,500 shots in 10 of his 19 seasons. His 2,173​ attempts in 2005-06 were a career high. Bryant has shot 45.3 percent from the field and averaged 25.5 points per game during his career.

Over six games this season entering Tuesday, Bryant has scored 26.5 points per game while posting a 39.4 field goal percentage — which would be a career-low if maintained over the entire season.

Bryant currently ranks fourth on the NBA’s all-time scoring list.

This article originally appeared on SI.com

David Berri is a professor of economics at Southern Utah University.

Bryant may be on his way to surpassing Jordan's career points this season, but other numbers tell the fuller story of who should go down in basketball history

The Los Angeles Lakers are off to one of their worst starts in franchise history. The early returns not only suggest that the Lakers will not contend for a title in 2015, they also suggest that the Lakers are unlikely to appear in the playoffs.

Although the Lakers as a team appear destined to struggle, one positive event seems quite likely. Entering the 2014-15 season, Kobe Bryant had scored 592 fewer points in his career than Michael Jordan in his entire career. And given how much Kobe is scoring in the first few games of the 2014-15 season, we can expect that Kobe — if he stays healthy and keeps his scoring pace — will pass Jordan before Christmas.

When this happens, people might be tempted to ask: Is Kobe “better” than Jordan?

Brandon Jennings, the starting point guard for the Detroit Pistons, already answered this question before the season started. According to Jennings, Jordan had more help winning titles. As Jennings noted, Jordan never won without Scottie Pippen, while Kobe won two titles without another “great” player. Therefore, Jennings argues that Kobe is the GOAT (Greatest of All Time).

I suspect that few people agree with Jennings. At least, I think most people will agree that Jordan did more in his career than Kobe. But I also suspect that Kobe is “like Mike.” In other words, I imagine many people think the gap between these two players isn’t that large. The data, though, seem to tell a different story. Jordan isn’t just better than Kobe; in fact, when we measure the difference, we see that no one should suggest these two players are similar.

The NBA tracks a variety of box score statistics to measure player performance. When we look at these numbers for Jordan and Kobe, it is clear that the former has a significant edge. For example, when we compare what Jordan did for the Chicago Bulls to what Kobe did for the Lakers (before this season), although their scoring totals are similar, Jordan was the more efficient scorer. With the Bulls, MJ had an effective field goal percentage of 51.83%. In contrast, Kobe’s mark with the Lakers is only 48.72%. To put that in perspective, the average shooting guard in the NBA (since the 1979-80 season when the three-point shot was added to the NBA) has an effective field goal percentage of 48.56%. In sum, Kobe has not been much better than average with respect to shooting from the field.

Jordan’s advantages with respect to Kobe, though, are not confined to shooting from the field. On a per-minute basis, Jordan also did more than Kobe has with respect to rebounds, assists, steals and blocked shots. Jordan was also less likely to commit turnovers, less likely to draw a personal foul and more likely to draw a foul. In sum, with respect to everything in the box score, Jordan was simply better.

We can do more than just stare at the numbers. The NBA’s box score numbers can also be translated into how many wins each player produces. What this analysis reveals is that wins in the NBA are primarily about gaining and keeping possession of the ball (rebounds, turnovers and steals) and then turning that possession into points (shooting efficiently). We have already seen that Jordan did more than Kobe with respect to all the factors that matter most with respect to wins. And when we turn to wins produced, we can see how Jordan’s impact on outcomes was so much bigger than Kobe’s.

Let’s begin with each player at his best. In 1988-89, Jordan produced 26.5 wins as a 25-year old shooting guard. Kobe’s best season was in 2002-03. As a 24-year old shooting guard for the LA Lakers, Kobe produced 13.0 wins. So each player hit his peak in his mid-20s (that is actually fairly normal for a basketball player). And at each player’s peak, Jordan was nearly twice as productive.

Across each player’s entire career (up until this season), it’s the same story. Jordan finished his career with the Bulls in 1998 (we will ignore his ill-fated return to the Washington Wizards when he was 38 years old). Here is what MJ did for the Bulls:

• 35,887 minutes played
• 204.8 wins produced
• 0.274 wins produced per 48 minutes

Meanwhile, here are Kobe’s career numbers before this season:

• 45,225 minutes played
• 138.7 wins produced
• 0.147 wins produced per 48 minutes

Again, Jordan’s production of wins dwarfs Kobe’s. And contrary to what Jennings argued, Kobe actually had better teammates across his career. Entering this season, Kobe’s teammates averaged 0.117 wins produced per 48 minutes. In contrast, Jordan’s teammates with the Bulls produced only 0.106 wins per 48 minutes.

So Jennings appears to be quite wrong. Kobe has not come close to Jordan. And I want to take this a bit farther. Kobe has also not been as productive as a few other shooting guards. For example, Kobe has produced fewer wins in his career than the career production of Clyde Drexler, Reggie Miller and Ray Allen. And on a per-minute basis, Kobe has done less across his career than both Manu Ginobili and Dwyane Wade.

A key difference between Kobe and these players is shooting efficiency from the field. Each of these shooting guards were simply better than Kobe at getting shots to go in the basket. And that means each player had a larger impact on his respective team’s ability to win games.

Kobe’s inability to excel with respect shooting efficiently was noted recently in an article by Henry Abbott for ESPN The Magazine.

Bryant has fired away for nearly two decades. He’s fourth on the NBA’s all-time scoring list, trailing only Kareem, Karl Malone and Michael Jordan. He’s also just a few weeks’ play from setting an all-time league record for misses. “The problem is, he’s just not as good as he thinks he is,” says one source in the Lakers’ inner circle. “He’s just not as efficient as he thinks he is.

This passage essentially captures the weakness in Kobe’s game. Kobe will soon pass Jordan in scoring totals. But he will also soon pass everyone else in missed shots.

Those missed shots matter. The key to evaluating players is to make sure you measure accurately the positives and the negatives. In other words, accurate evaluation requires you get past the “scoring illusion” (i.e., placing too much emphasis on scoring totals in evaluating basketball players). When you take that step, it becomes clear that Jordan did much more than Kobe, and Kobe is nowhere close to being “like Mike.”

David Berri is a professor of economics at Southern Utah University. He is the lead author of The Wages of Winsand Stumbling on Wins and continues to serve on the editorial board of bothJournal of Sports Economics and theInternational Journal of Sport Finance.

Spoiler alert: He was good.

Fortunately the injury was minor

U.S. basketball player Brittney Griner was lightly injured in Shenyang, China on Monday after a knife-wielding man attacked her and two teammates as they were boarding a team bus.

“The guy was clearly either mentally ill or very drunk,” she told Associated Press. “It was pretty clear he had no idea who we were.”

Luckily, the injury was minor as Griner was able to go on to post 19 points in her Beijing team’s victory over Liaoning, China’s Xinhua News reported.

The star, who won this year’s WNBA title with the Phoenix Mercury, and is on the U.S. national team, is playing in China during off-season.

Griner assured everyone she was okay via her Instagram account after the incident, and called the cut on her elbow a “little scratch.”

CLEVELAND — After all the breathless commercials and East 4th St. beer bashes, after all the white confetti tosses and red glow-stick shows, came a reminder to rollicking Quicken Loans Arena on Thursday night. Despite his size and strength, athleticism and intelligence, nothing goes precisely as planned for LeBron James. Even in the past four-and-a-half years, a glorious span that saw him reach four Finals and capture two championships, there was the decision, the bump, 9-8, Dallas, the clutch gene, good job good effort, the cramps, Game 6, the cramps again and San Antonio. Then he returned to Northeast Ohio this summer, and judging by the TV spots, he was home free.

James commands more attention than anyone in sports not simply because he is the world’s best basketball player. It’s also because the storylines around him never stay the same. One day, he can’t win the big one and the next he can’t lose. One day, he can’t hit the last shot and the next he can’t miss. The narratives — a modern catchphrase that seemed to be coined with him in mind — constantly shift under his Nikes. All summer, James was cast as the spotless homecoming king who could do no wrong, a role he filled with aplomb. But, realistically, it would only last until the first bad loss.

“It was fun,” James said, “while it lasted.”

• SI’s predictions for LeBron James’ first season back in Cleveland

In sports, unlike advertising, there is no script, and the Knicks ruined a great party with a shocking 95-90 win. James did not play a good game or even an average one. He made 5 of 15 shots, committed eight turnovers, and only found easy baskets when he was cherry picking Kevin Love outlets. He threw a pass into the seats when Kyrie Irving cut inside. He fouled Carmelo Anthony taking a three. He scrapped with Jason Smith of all people. Selecting a James highlight is hard, besides the lay-up he sank over Anthony, while being dragging down by the jersey.

“Emotions are going to run,” James said. “The crowd was excited, we were excited, everyone was excited. I tried to focus.” He acknowledged no nerves, but in the tunnel before warm-ups, he hopped up and down like a frenzied prizefighter. He let out an impromptu roar in the pre-game layup line. He tilted his head to the rafters before introductions. If he wasn’t overwhelmed, he was at least moved.

“I think we spiked at a certain point,” Blatt said. “We’ve been excited about this game for a long time. We used that emotion in a positive way and then … we kind of dropped off the map.”

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Blatt acknowledged that Cleveland must do a better job putting James in motion, which could mean more pick-and-rolls, particularly potent when run with Love. The Cavaliers don’t have time to regroup. They now embark on a challenging four-game road trip, with a date Friday in Chicago, followed by a test Tuesday in Portland. Perhaps they will find a bit of normalcy on the road, without Justin Bieber roaming the corridor outside their locker room, singing quietly to himself.

“It’s crazy,” said Cavs forward Tristan Thompson. “And it’s just beginning.”

The coronation did not go at all as planned, and in a way, that was appropriate. James traditionally does his best work in the crosshairs, when he is being doubted, not exalted. That’s part of the reason he appealed to this region in the first place. “Hard times are what we do,” said Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson, watching the game from a suite. “Challenges are part of life. It’s how you deal with it. He deals with it every time. That’s why he’s the best.”

The homecoming game will forever be part of the James oeuvre, another event that produced another storyline, significant until in a few hours the next one comes along.

This article originally appeared on SI.com