Archive for December, 2009

Required reading material:

Who Are the “Inner-Circle” Hall of Famers? (Part I – Intro to Method)
Inner-Circle Hall of Famers: 1950s/1960s
Inner-Circle Hall of Famers: 1970s
Inner-Circle Hall of Famers: 1980s

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Required reading material:

Who Are the “Inner-Circle” Hall of Famers? (Part I – Intro to Method)
Inner-Circle Hall of Famers: 1950s/1960s
Inner-Circle Hall of Famers: 1970s

Read the rest of this entry »

Enjoy...

I hope everyone is having a safe and happy holiday, and I really hope you're all ready for the games today, including the two marquee matchups -- #2 Orlando hosting #3 Boston, and the #1 Lakers vs. the #4 Cavs at Staples -- as well as #9 Denver @ #10 Portland at 10:30 PM ET. So sit back, relax, enjoy the coverage, and we'll be back on Monday to bring you the 1980s Inner-Circle HoFers... Until then, peace.

(Want to know how the BBR Rankings are calculated? Read this first.)

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Required reading material:

Who Are the “Inner-Circle” Hall of Famers? (Part I – Intro to Method)
Inner-Circle Hall of Famers: 1950s/1960s

Read the rest of this entry »

Apropos of the Inner-Circle HoFers mentioned today, here's a mix featuring Pettit and Baylor at first, then John Havlicek, Rick Barry, Dan Issel, Bobby Jones, and Dennis Johnson:

Kblaze Forgotten Legends
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Per the methodology outlined here, I now present your Inner-Circle Hall of Famers from the 1950s and 1960s... But first, remember the rules: the player had to play 10 years combined in the NBA or ABA (with 1 exception, which I'll explain below) and had to rank as one of the 4 best players of their decade in terms of both "media" and "stats" points. By popular demand, I dropped the requirement that a player had to win a championship to be included in the "Inner Circle", instead requiring them to be the best player on an NBA Finalist. This small change allows for the inclusion of players like Elgin Baylor, a legitimate legend who did not technically win a title despite coming extraordinarily close on a number of occasions. Also, be forewarned that I gerrymandered the "decades" slightly to include the highest possible % of the top 20 overall players by 10-year percentage scores, so in this edition Bill Russell is listed in the 1950s even though the majority of his years came in the 60s, in order to include Baylor in the 1960s. This happened two times in the process: once in the 80s/90s, and once here, with Russell/Baylor.

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I have the day off today and we have the Inner-Circle players from the 50s and 60s coming up this afternoon, so these rankings are a little later than usual and without the usual write-up... Another administrative note: I will be publishing these rankings next week as well, on Christmas morning -- I wasn't kidding when I said every Friday from late November until the end of the season!

(Want to know how the BBR Rankings are calculated? Read this first. Also, mouse over column headers for descriptions.)

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With the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games right around the corner, I have been spending some time working on SR's Olympics site. That said, today I would like to announce the launch of SR's Olympic Medal Finder. Try it out and let us know what you think. (To make this post basketball-related, here is a list of the most-decorated basketball players in Olympic history.)

Whenever Hall of Fame arguments come up, especially in baseball, I have a tendency to tune out from the sheer tediousness of the typical debate. On one side, there's always an arrogant guy who saw many of Player X's games and "knows" he's a Hall of Famer, so he cites other, lesser players who are already in the Hall (as though that were somehow evidence Player X should be in), brings up a couple of memorable career moments, and generally fudges on borderline issues to make the player seem better than he actually was. On the opposing side, another equally narcissistic guy splits hairs about the "magic numbers" Player X failed to reach, denigrates his career because A) if he won titles, he didn't have enough individual honors; or B) if he had a lot of individual honors, he didn't win enough titles. Throw in a few unsubstantiated jabs at Player X's character and/or manhood, and then start the whole process over again -- how fun.

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