Nate Tharp Archive
Nate Tharp, Writer, The Drubbing, was born a Royals and Chiefs fan and raised a Celtics, Red Sox and Patriots fan. He writes about website design and development on natetharp.com. You can email him at nate[at]thedrubbing[dot]com.
A weak excuse from the New York Knicks
, Wednesday, January 13, 2010 at 8:49 PM Comments (0)
Life on the road for NBA players is hard. You spend days or weeks away from your home and your families. You spend night after night in hotel beds. Each day is spent mostly in transit from plane to bus to hotel to bus to stadium to bus to plane and so on. But every team has to do it. Some teams even have notoriously tough annual pilgrimages like the Chicago Bulls and their “Circus Road Trip” that they endure each year while The Ringling Brothers Circus takes over the United Center.We know it’s not all rainbows and unicorns, so most teams just play through it. But the New York Knicks aren’t most teams.
Continue reading “A weak excuse from the New York Knicks” →
The biggest sports story of 2009 that no one is talking about
, Tuesday, January 12, 2010 at 9:30 AM Comments (0)
American Needle is a small sports hat manufacturing company that you may have never heard of unless you’re a hat aficionado. But they are at the center of a Supreme Court case, pitted against the NFL, that has been building during 2009 and is set to kick off tomorrow. At the core of the argument is whether or not the NFL, a collection of individual teams, can act as a single entity. That is how the NFL signed their exclusive equipment and apparel deal with Reebok and that is how the NFL and Reebok have attempted to edge out American Needle from the lucrative apparel market.
Continue reading “The biggest sports story of 2009 that no one is talking about” →
What happened to the Detroit Pistons?
, Wednesday, January 6, 2010 at 4:26 AM Comments (0)
Oh how far the mighty have fallen. Are the Pistons not the saddest team in the NBA right now? I know they’re not the worst at 11-22. All the teams with worse records like New Jersey, Minnesota and Philadelphia have been wrecked by injuries. And even the Pistons have had their own fair share of health problems, with Rip Hamilton only playing in six games so far this season.
But consider this. In 2004 the Pistons were NBA Champions. And in 2005 they were runners up to San Antonio. And they still won division titles in 2005-2008. That wasn’t that long ago. That was then, this is now (I feel like I’m channelling Denny Green).
Continue reading “What happened to the Detroit Pistons?” →
The Basketball Jesus Rankings: Week 7
, Wednesday, December 16, 2009 at 1:10 AM Comments (0)
Week seven is complete and naturally LeBron retains his top spot and has a healthy lead over the early season surprise, Chris Bosh, in second. There weren’t any exceptionally huge games last week. Just big-time players continuing to put up big numbers. Now here’s how they stack up.
Continue reading “The Basketball Jesus Rankings: Week 7″ →
The Yankees sure know how to spend
, Monday, November 9, 2009 at 7:49 PM Comments (1)
No doubt in response to the “They bought the championship” cries that have been ringing throughout Philadelphia, Red Sox Nation, and every other part of the country not named New York, Connecticut or Northern New Jersey, renowned designer Khoi Vinh has done some research on the business of Major League Baseball.
Vinh did some great work digging into teams finances and comparing the money each team brings in each year as compared to their payroll, resulting in what he’s dubbed their “Investment Rate”. According to his findings, on average MLB teams put 45% of their 2008 revenue towards their 2009 payroll. Vinh’s New York Yankees by comparison tied for the 4th-highest investment rate at 54%.
Continue reading “The Yankees sure know how to spend” →
Free at last, free at last
, Monday, November 2, 2009 at 7:32 PM Comments (0)
Today is a great day for NBA fans around the world. On a slow news day where one of the biggest developments is that Michael Redd is injured, again, there is one fantastic piece of news that has come out today. Our ears will be spared from further damage. Bill Walton will no longer be commentating on NBA broadcasts.
On behalf of NBA fans everywhere, I would like to thank Bill Walton for sparing our hearing for the foreseeable future. We wish him well on his continued recovery from the recent back problems he’s been suffering from and sincerely hope he can remain healthy enough to dedicate his time to the life of “service” he has intended to.
Thank you Bill, and best of luck to you.
Take the sticker off your hat, you look like a tool
, Monday, November 2, 2009 at 12:18 PM Comments (0)
For whatever reason, kids these days have some sort of apathy when it comes to taking the stickers off of their baseball hats. I don’t know if they just want to leave the door open to potentially returning the hats, or if they think the New Era sticker designers do better work than the New Era hat designers. At any rate, Craig Robinson at Flip Flop Fly Ball has stepped up to the plate to help them out with a set of step-by-step, illustrated instructions.
Hurrah! Now your ballcap is ready to wear without advertising to everyone on the bus that you’ve got a size 7 5/8 head.
Continue reading “Take the sticker off your hat, you look like a tool” →
Basketball Jesus is back
, Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 8:56 PM Comments (0)
The NBA season completely crept up on me. I think I was still baffled by the Red Sox quick exit from the playoffs and nervously wondering if Tom Brady would regain his Pro Bowl form. By the way, he has, even though he still can’t throw the long balls to Randy Moss, but those will come, and I digress.
So year two of the Basketball Jesus Rankings are upon us and what better way to kick off the NBA season that to get right to the pre-season rankings. But first, a little refresher. The criteria is simple, each player must do their best to impersonate the most well-rounded player in NBA history, none other than Basketball Jesus himself, The Hick from French Lick, Larry Joe Bird. To do so, the top-ranked players will be the ones that can amass the most points, rebounds and assists. Any combination will do.
The magic number is 45. Any combination of points, rebounds and assists that adds up to 45 per game lands you in an elite club. LeBron came close last season, averaging 43.3 in the 81 games that he played. He always has a chance. So here are the pre-season Basketball Jesus Rankings for the 2009-2010 season with the players totals from last year next to them.
Continue reading “Basketball Jesus is back” →
What American football can learn from European football
, Monday, October 12, 2009 at 4:21 PM Comments (3)
The NFL has some bad teams. I mean really bad. St. Louis Rams, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Oakland Raiders and the Detroit Lions to name a few. Teams so bad even their home-town fans don’t want to watch them. Watching the Atlanta Falcons stomp the San Francisco 49ers 45-10 is fun in the first half, if your a Falcons fan. But after that it gets boring, pathetic and embarrassing to watch.
Fortunately we can look to the European football leagues for a solution. Split the league up into two divisions by level of competition. [Note: NCAA football has a similar configuration, but until they get a playoff system in their premier league, they're not worthy of being a model for anyone else.] This can easily be accomplished and here’s how we do it.
Continue reading “What American football can learn from European football” →
The NBA hates scoring, that’s why they’re ruining the game with offensive fouls
, Tuesday, September 22, 2009 at 1:25 PM Comments (0)
Officiating in the NBA has gone through an intentional, systematic, year-by-year shift. The advantage tipping further and further in favor of the defensive side of the ball. The amount of offensive foul calls, all over the court, with or without the assistance of a defensive “flop” is officially outrageous. But his is nothing new.
Then there is the “clearing” foul, when an offensive player going up for a layup is whistled for a foul when they push away the arm of a defensive player that is trying to block their shot. However if an offensive player is dribbling the ball outside of the arc, they’re allowed to “block” an attacking defender’s advancing arms with their arm. This inconsistency came to light over and over again in the Orlando vs. Celtics series.
Continue reading “The NBA hates scoring, that’s why they’re ruining the game with offensive fouls” →
Loading ...
