For my Independent Reading book I have chosen The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons. This is a book that I have been meaning to read for about two years. Since I started getting overly interested in following sports, Bill Simmons has been my favorite writer, columnist and podcast host. I am very excited to read his 700 page history of everything basketball, a piece that will give me future context for everything else of his that I read.
The thesis that guides a lot of the analysis is the idea that success in basketball is not about basketball, more specifically it has much less to do with what goes on on the court than many observers realize. He sights things such as the era of cocaine and the development of social media as turning points in how the game of basketball was played and how the average players developed. Next, Simmons dives into many of the complicated basketball controversies and debates. He argues the Bill Russell is better than Wilt Chamberlain, he repicks the MVP trophies according to his opinions, and he comes up with a more elegant solution to the problem of the NBA Hall of Fame.
Clearly, I will write my expository essay about some basketball related topic. The research should not be much of a problem. I follow a lot of basketball blogs and have access to many of the statistics. I think that analyzing ideas in basketball is very interesting and relevant because it is always developing and we get new, totally accessible, data every single day. Even better, we are in the middle of the NBA playoffs right now.
There is clearly a lot of research to be done on the topic of basketball, and I have a few ideas in mind about topics that I could pursue. My first idea was researching some advanced analytics that experts are using these days to compare players. There are about six or seven analytics that have been designed by ESPN over the past decade to enhance our understanding of what makes a basketball player good. It accounts for the ideas that some parts of the game are very hard to measure. Traditional stats do not include important defensive mechanisms. Additionally, passes and spacing are heavily undervalued. These all encompassing stats avoid this problem by assessing the overall impact of a player while he is on the court.
Another idea I had was analyzing players that were playing today and trying to compare them. I could write a research paper on things such as my MVP or Defensive Player of the Year pictures. I am interested in using what I have learned from this book and translating it into making an argument for myself.
It will be tough for me to translate this into a fictional piece, but maybe I will write a story about basketball or something. More to come on that idea.
We talked yesterday, so I am confident you have a direction. I am intrigued by something here, though, what does the era of cocaine have to do with basketball? You blithely mention that he cites this as an influence, but I am left thinking, "say what?" I gotta know.
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ReplyDeleteI’m intrigued by the possibilities when it comes to the expository essay. Bill Simmons is certainly speaking to a wide variety of subjects. Over your blog post, I see two major suggestions for focus: a statistical perspective and a less basketball focused, more general essay about how something relates to basketball. I think the direction you take it should be dictated about what you want to focus more on the expository or creative pieces. Statistical analyses, whether you write about different, new statistics, compare them, or apply them, would work really well for an expository piece, however, I’m having a difficult time imagining the creative works you could do about it (short story on PER? Poetry on the beauty of a high OR%? I’m just spitballing). On the other hand, cocaine or social media would make for great creative pieces, but definitely not quite as cool to get into the nitty-gritty details of for the expository piece. Similarly to stats, the MVP/Defensive POY would be a bit rough in transforming this into a multi-genre project. My advice to you as you go forward would be to start thinking more and more about that creative stuff, because you’re going to have to do it sometime.
Beyond that, I did have a few questions (unlike Romano, the cocaine/basketball thing is not the only thing that caught my eye). First of all, you mentioned that the book, first and foremost, is a history of basketball. Are there any good ways to control statistics over time (as would aid into the whole MVP over time thing)? Are there issues that arise in doing that? Is there any statistic or position Simmons has that you want to refute in a major way? Just some thoughts.
-Ben Foutty
Easy on me, Ben Fouty, sheesh. It isn't the ONLY thing that caught my eye. I talked to him for almost half the period the day before.
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