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In Long Form
Kevin Durant: A Star Is Born
It clicked for Kevin Durant on Wednesday night. With 3:31 left in the game, his Thunder were down 91-82 to the Denver Nuggets. Their other main scorers, James Harden and Russell...
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In NBA
Dallas, San Antonio and the Power of the Narrative
The seasons of the Dallas Mavericks and the San Antonio Spurs hung in the balance last night. After blowing a 23-point lead in the second half of...
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In College Basketball
College Basketball: Why An Inferior Product Is So Popular
Millions of fans around the country tuned in Monday to watch Butler-UConn play what ESPN's Jay Bilas called: "the worst championship game of my...
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In NBA
How The Thunder Built A Title Team In Five Years
With Carmelo and Deron Williams now playing in the NY metropolitan area, a new narrative about the NBA has steadily gained steam: How can small...
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In Long Form
Explaining Tim Duncan
Growing up in the Virgin Islands, Tim Duncan didn't dream of NBA stardom. He didn't start playing basketball competitively until ninth grade, after a hurricane destroyed the islands'...
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In NBA
Dirk Nowitzki and LeBron James: Black Swans?
The European sailors who "discovered" Australia were stunned by the island continent's black swans. All European swans were white. In their...
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In Long Form
The Limits of Possibility: The Story of Vince Carter
On the morning of December 18, Orlando Magic GM Otis Smith had to make one last phone call. His team had been scuffling along, watching the...
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In NBA
LeBron James, Cleveland And The Green Lantern Theory
Matt Yglesias, a liberal pundit, coined the phrase "The Green Lantern Theory of Geopolitics" to describe a common fallacy in people's interpretation...
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In College Basketball
Cecil Newton: More Hero Than Villain
Since when did a pastor looking out for his wayward son become the biggest villain in college sports? After admitting to soliciting money from...
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In College Basketball
Scouting 101: The Five-Tool Basketball Player
Basketball can be thought of as live-action chess. Each side has five pieces (ideally) moving in unity with the goal of shooting a ball into a...
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In Long Form
Kobe vs. LeBron: How The Lion King Explains The NBA’s New Season
The best player on the defending champions is usually seen as the best player in basketball – from Bird and Magic in the 80’s to Jordan in the...
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In Long Form
Defending “The Decision”
For LeBron James, the Summer of 2010 was supposed to be a coronation. A front-page celebration of his unique talents and a chance to relive the excitement of the college recruiting...
Latest Articles
Fun With Bill Reiter …
Posted by tjarks on October 19th, 2011 under NBA
In the process of avoiding doing work tonight, I ran across this lovely article over at Fox Sports. It’s a fairly concise summation of every lazy bit of basketball analysis on the internet. In other words, this is Bill Reiter’s way of applying for a job at ESPN:
Someone might
Where To Find Me
Posted by tjarks on August 9th, 2011 under Uncategorized
I haven’t been able to post much on “Get Buckets” lately, but my writing about basketball and all that it implies is sprinkled throughout the internet. I’ve got links to all of my stuff at: jonathantjarks.blogspot.com. Because who wouldn’t want to read 4-5 articles a week about a locked-out
Dallas Mavericks: 2011 NBA Champions!
Posted by tjarks on June 13th, 2011 under NBA
Over at RealGM, I’ve got a look at what the Mavericks long-overdue championship means for the fans, the players and the city of Dallas itself:
Dallas is celebrating: a group of giants from all over the world paid vast amounts of money to represent the city in a league of
Chicago/Miami: The Center Gap
Posted by tjarks on May 18th, 2011 under NBA
I have an article over at RealGM about the Heat/Bulls series:
Chicago’s big men dominated the offensive glass, grabbing 19 offensive rebounds, which led to 31 second-chance points for the Bulls. Miami’s stingy halfcourt defense normally leads to fastbreak points, but it’s impossible to get into transition when you can’t
Dallas/Oklahoma City: The Age Gap
Posted by tjarks on May 16th, 2011 under NBA
I’ve got a preview of the Mavericks/Thunder series up over at Barking Carnival. It should be an entertaining series.
Dwyane Wade’s Legacy and the ’06 Finals
Posted by tjarks on May 12th, 2011 under Long Form
I was watching a Heat/Celtics game at a Dallas bar recently, and the consensus was that Dwyane Wade is a “cheater” who “stole” the 2006 Finals from the Mavericks. At the very least, the majority of sports fans in the Metroplex are dubious about the circumstances surrounding Dallas’ loss
Early Entrants: Looking for the Next Landry Fields
Posted by tjarks on May 11th, 2011 under College Basketball
Stanford’s Landry Fields was one of the most surprising selections of the 2010 Draft. A 6’7 210 perimeter player, he was taken #39 by the New York Knicks despite not even being in ESPN Insider Chad Ford’s Top 100 prospects.
A role player for three years on some mediocre Cardinal
Kobe, Bynum and The Changing of The Guard
Posted by tjarks on May 8th, 2011 under NBA
One minute they all love you. And the next thing you know … you’re in front of that courthouse, dancing on top of a car, just trying to figure out what the f*** happened to you.
– Dave Chappelle on the fickle nature of celebrity
While Dallas was one of the
Oklahoma City/Memphis: Strength on Strength
Posted by tjarks on May 8th, 2011 under NBA
When the third quarter of Game 3 ended, Oklahoma City seemed in total control of their second-round series with Memphis.
The Grizzlies thrive when they can create turnovers and get the ball in the open-court, and the Thunder played right into their hands in Game 1, going at a break-neck speed
What Now: The San Antonio Spurs
Posted by tjarks on May 5th, 2011 under NBA
On one hand, the San Antonio Spurs haven’t won a second-round playoff in three seasons. On the other, they had the second most regular-season wins in the NBA this year.
In a strange role reversal, they’ve turned into their old arch-rivals in Dallas: a phenomenally successful regular-season team that struggles
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