Writing Project 2
Part 1 (Learning):
“2000-2001 Season: Lakers Repeat, Award-Winning Sixers, New Rules, Air Jordan Is Back.” World Almanac and Book of Facts, Facts On File, 2002.
This is a brief article that talks about the 2001 rule change. This change brought in the three second rule and allowed zone defense. This rule changed the game of basketball completely. The paper does not refer to any other papers or books. The strengths of this text is its knowledge on an important rule change. The weakness is that it doesn't go into deep detail on how the rule change affected players.
Dawson, Matt. “The Iron Cage of Efficiency: Analytics, Basketball and the Logic of Modernity.” Sport in Society, vol. 26, no. 11, 2023, pp. 1785–801, https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2023.2208040.
This paper focuses on efficiency within basketball. It talks about Demar Derozan who is an efficient mid range shooter. The point of the text is to show the discrepancy between what people think about Demar versus what the analytics say about him. The paper refers heavily to a book called the mid-range theory. The strength of this text is its deep analysis on a single player to put the statistics into perspective. The weakness is that it only focuses on one player instead of the whole NBA.
Denison, Jim, et al. “Sports’ Disciplinary Legacy and the Challenge of ‘Coaching Differently.’” Sport, Education and Society, vol. 22, no. 6, 2017, pp. 772–83, https://doi.org/10.1080/13573322.2015.1061986.
This source talks about the differences within coaching. It talks about how coaching players with unique athletic gifts requires coaches to be less disciplinary. It helps show the importance of the difference in coaching in the older NBA versus now. The paper refers heavily to many sports psychology papers. The strengths of this paper are its deep understanding of coaching. The weaknesses include not focusing specifically enough on basketball itself.
Dickey, Glenn. The History of Professional Basketball since 1896. Stein and Day, 1982.
FOX Sports. “Nick Wright: Lebron James Has Already Passed Michael Jordan as Greatest Player | Undisputed.” 26 May 2017, YouTube,, www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0-ChZ5oEng.
ESPN. “Closer to Goat?! Stephen A. & Shannon Animated over Mahomes-Brady & Lebron-MJ | First Take.” 12 Feb. 2024, YouTube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4ato-6E3OI.
FOX Sports. “Has Lebron James Endured More ‘Slander & Abuse’ than Michael Jordan? | NBA | Undisputed.”20 June 2022, YouTube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWTSyaoyNAg.
Hollander, Zander. The Modern Encyclopedia of Basketball. 2d rev. ed., Dolphin Books, 1979.
Hollinger, John. Pro Basketball Forecast. Potomac Books, 2005.
Sarlis, Vangelis, and Christos Tjortjis. “Sports Analytics — Evaluation of Basketball Players and Team Performance.” Information Systems (Oxford), vol. 93, 2020, pp. 101562-, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.is.2020.101562.
This paper dives deep into basketball metrics. One such statistic is plus minus, which measures the impact of a player during a game. Another statistic that is studied within this paper is WAR, which indicates a player's projected productivity. The paper refers to other data mining and advanced basketball analytical papers. The strength of this text is its deep understanding of statistics.However, the weakness is that it didn’t talk about how the statistics may be skewed towards certain players.
Jordan, Michael. “The Last Dance.” Netflix, 19 July 2020, www.netflix.com/title/80203144.
This is a documentary made on the journey of Michael Jordan throughout his career. It reflects on a few of his greatest achievements. The documentary brings in a multitude of special guests to talk about their perspectives of the career defining moments. The sources they refer to are the countless number of nba superstars in the show and Michael Jordan himself. The strengths of the documentary come from how detailed the documentary is. The weakness is that it may come with some bias due to Michael Jordan producing the documentary about himself.
Kirchberg, Connie. Hoop Lore: A History of the National Basketball Association. McFarland, 2007.
Mambo, Gabe. “Championship Misconceptions: Why Rings Don’t Define a Player’s Greatness.” Bleacher Report, 2 Oct. 2017, bleacherreport.com/articles/736488-champio nship-misconce ptio ns- why-rings-dont-define-a-players-greatness.
This article disputes the argument of how rings define someone’s legacy. It talks about how a player’s legacy being tainted due to just rings is not fair. Many great players don’t have rings but that doesn't mean they weren’t great. This article does not specifically refer to any sources. The strengths is that it refers to many examples while explaining the misconception. The weakness is that it doesn't reflect on how a ring may also improve a player’s greatness.
Marsden, Sam, and Moises Llorens. “Lionel Messi’s World Cup Win Won’t Settle Goat Debate - Spain Legend Andres Iniesta.” ESPN, 20 Dec. 2022, www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/376349 61/lionel-messi-world-cup-win-wont-settle-goat-debate-spain-legend-andres-iniesta. Accessed 15 Feb. 2024.
“Michael Jordan vs. Lebron James: Everything You Need to Know about the NBA Goat Debate.” ESPN, 15 Oct. 2020, www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/30108804/michael-jo rdan-vs-lebron-james-everything-need-know-nba-goat-debate. Accessed 9 Feb. 2024.
This brief article which also includes a video gives a historical recap of the long lasting debate about who is the greatest player ever. This debate has lasted since the moment Lebron entered the NBA so it details all of the important historical events. This source was very informative in filling knowledge gaps of the nba before 2002. The strengths of this source is that it doesn't have bias because it doesn't give a definitive answer. It provides information and allows the audience to make their own decision. No weakness could be found in this source.
Pelton, Kevin. “How Lebron James’ Unprecedented Longevity Factors into the Goat Debate.” ESPN, 30 Dec. 2020, www.espn.com/nba/insider/story/_/id/30 619606/how-lebron-james-u nprecedented-longevity-fa ctors-goat-debate.
This article talks about how longevity is something important to consider while debating about the goat. The article touches on the fact that Lebron is almost forty years old with no sign of any statistical dropoff. It compares other players in their eighteen professional basketball year with Lebron. The source does not explicitly refer to any sources. The strengths of this article is that it paints a clear picture of the concept of longevity through the use of comparison. The weakness in the article is that it doesn't credit growing medical technology for the longevity of players in recent times.
Simmons, Bill. “God Loves Cleveland.” Grantland, 11 July. 2014, ”grantland.com/features/god-loves-cleveland/. Accessed 21 Feb. 2024.
This is an article that talks in depth about the legacy of Lebron James. It refers to Lebron’s biggest disaster, the 2011 NBA finals. However it transitions into intertwining and comparing Jordan’s legacy to Lebrons. The paper does not refer to any sources explicitly. The strengths of this paper is that it's written by Bill Simmons who is considered one of the most knowledgeable basketball experts. The weakness is that it could have branched into other all time great players.
Simmons, Bill. “How Lebron Can Finish His Fairy Tale Better than MJ.” The Ringer, 23 Feb. 2018,www.theringer.com/2018/2/23/17043258/lebron-james-lakers-sixers-michael-jordan-free-agency-narrative.
This article talks about how a decision of which team Lebron went to in 2018 could affect his legacy. It talks about Jordan’s free agency decisions and how it affected his legacy to compare it with Lebrons. There were no sources that were explicitly stated in this article. The strength of this article is that it clearly was written by a basketball historian due to the amount of miniscule details. The weakness is that a team that a superstar goes to can come down to a various amount of factors outside of just legacy.
Terner, Zachary, and Alexander Franks. “Modeling Player and Team Performance in Basketball.” Annual Review of Statistics and Its Application, vol. 8, no. 1, 2021, pp. 1–23, https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-statistics-040720-015536.
This paper talks about how analytics have started a basketball revolution. It talks about the shift in team strategy from previous years. The paper also dives into player metrics. This paper refers to many analytical basketball reports and basketball history papers. The strengths of this texts are its analysis of player metrics. The weakness is the lack of focus on player details.
Waddington, Ivan, and Christophe Brissonneau. “The ‘physician-Athlete’ and the Development of Sports Medicine as a ‘Very Peculiar Practice.’” Sport in Society, vol. 26, no. 5, 2023, pp. 820–36, https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2022.2069012.
This paper talks about the integration of sports medicine and sports during the recent age. It shows the development of sports medicine and how its helped change athletic performance for the better. It refers to medicine now as a very peculiar practice. This paper refers to many sports medicine papers that were published recently. The strengths of this paper are its deep understanding of the current direction of sports medicine. The weakness is that it doesn't refer enough to the understanding of sports medicine during previous decades.
Part 2 (Analysis of my Learning):
The concept of legacy within the NBA is very interesting but confusing at the same instance. Ever since I was a kid, sports debates were a daily ritual. Sitting around with friends while eating lunch and debating player stats and performances was one of my favorite activities. Everyone’s criteria of legacy is different. Naturally, people conclude that different things make their favorite players great. This led to hours of debates everyday which seemed never ending. I wanted to focus on the concept of legacy and the fashion in which players are compared from different basketball eras.
I first began my research by trying to find a clear definition for legacy. This was a lot harder than expected. I went into the research expecting to find a perfect answer. However, during my research I learned from a multitude of videos and articles that legacy is something that is not defined. The focus of my research honed in on LeBron James who has had the spotlight on him during the social media age. Many of these papers talked about how different achievements and career defining moments shaped what his legacy was. The sources I used specifically focused on his 2011 meltdown where he lost in the finals and his free agency decision in 2018. It was interesting to see that free agency decisions make a difference in what a player’s legacy is. Especially because moving to a different team during free agency may include various factors such as money, family, and personal goals.
In the next part of my research I wanted to shift my focus to someone from a different basketball era to see what the narrative was around them at the time. To do this, I focused on learning more about Michael Jordan. Jordan came before I started watching basketball. It was important that I go back in history to fill in my gaps of knowledge. The source that struck out to me most was a documentary called “The Last Dance”. This was very informative for my understanding of a previous era because it gave me a clear understanding of Jordan’s legacy. The documentary clearly went through his most iconic and career defining moments. A pattern that I saw in the documentary was a constant reference to championships. It seemed to me that Jordan’s legacy came about through his championships and winning.
After watching the Last Dance, I wanted to see what the ring argument was about when discussing someone’s legacy. Many people believe that the amount of rings a player has defines their legacy. However, this doesn’t make sense due to the fact that Bill Russell has eleven rings but isn't considered one of the greats. An article I read mentioned many great players that didn't have rings. It disputed the argument about rings which was really interesting to hear. Growing up, ring debate was the go-to argument for everyone.
Next I wanted to learn what the criteria was to have a “great” legacy. A lot of my research focused on statistics.This led me to wanting to dive deeper into analyzing statistics. Some important stats that I learned about were War and plus minus. War was an important statistic to display a player's productivity on the court. On the other hand, plus minus focused on the impact a player had during the game.
The last part of my research focused on sports science. From my research I learned that longevity is an important factor when considering legacy. However this idea may be a little skewed from my findings. Due to recent medical advancements players are now able to play through more previously career-ending injuries and possess an increased knowledge of the human body. Previously, injuries such as an acl tear or an achilles tear were career ending. However, with current technologies players can return to the court within six months and not see a discrepancy within their game.
I plan on writing an op-ed. This will best serve my communicative needs because a basketball related debate requires some form of opinions. Like I mentioned earlier, legacy is not something that is defined. There is no one answer. Using an op-ed will allow me to present information to the reader and use arguments and counter arguments in order to make my point. I plan on making the point that it is unfair to compare the legacy of players across generations because there are different rules, skill sets, and technlogy. Overall, finding twenty sources and annotating twelve of them has significantly improved my understanding of this topic.