The Moonball Blog

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Extra! Extra! Zach Has Game! (aka a screed of my own)

Damn tired old story lines.

What a shame that the coverage of the Knicks’ acquisition Zach Randolph is focused primarily on Zach the bad boy. Zach can really play. I know he has his trouble at the defensive end, but he is an unreal scorer-banger on the blocks, has the sweetest of jumpers, is a tenacious rebounder and he works as hard as anyone to get better. He is a grinder, game in and game out. Zach is going to make a lot of baskets in the bright lights of MSG.

The real story here is how he will co-exist with big Eddy Curry. Both like to get busy in the painted area, and thus would seem to be at odds. I think that will be less of a problem than folks think. Zach likes the ball on the wing, about 20 feet from the hoop, where he can either drive into a spin move (get ready NYC!) or drop his J is some suckers eye. Curry rarely sets up shop that far away. Though Zach has his struggles as a passer, he is adept at finding his fellow bigs in traffic if the big has good hands—he and LaMarcus had some nice hook-ups last year, and he and Curry should find a similar connection.

Another consideration is that the Knicks often opted to sit the sucky foul-shooting, no-rebounding, hardly-defending Curry down the stretch. Again, Zach is not good defender, but he has become a great foul shooter and he is big time rebounder. Zach will do big things when Curry in on the pine. Me and Monkeyshoes have talked of similarities with Zebo and the immortal Bernard King: The mid-range game, the ability to drive into the heart of a defense and squeeze a shot off, the impecical touch after taking (and often initiating) contact. You heard the comparison here first. NYC is gonna love Zebo.

But back to the to the dumb, uninventive media coverage. Part of the problem is a shift in sports journalism that has been creeping up on us for well over a decade. Part of the problem is the reliance on local sports writers for national story lines. To the first point, seems like every since those up close and personal athlete crapomercials started in Olympic coverage, sports journalism has strayed further and further from the field of play. We see it writ large in the Finals half time specials but how often do you log on to sports website and over half the headline stories are about off-court issues, be it contract squabbles, human tragedy or personal scandal, the majority of sports news is unrelated to sports. I cannot recall the last Oregonian game recap I read that actually focused more on the game than a post-game comment or some other story line.

Which brings us to the plague of local sports writers feeding the national sports desk. The quest to get up close and personal now runs so deep that most every hack sports journalist fancies himself (oh, it’s a him 9-10 times) part crime investigator, part psychologist, part moral clarion and all pulitzer. Like most cities, our columnist John Clownzano gets up in the morning and sucks all day. More enthralled than most about the ‘drawing out the human story’, Clownzano hardly writes about sports. And Zach the bad boy was a Clowny special. He wrote Sheed out of town with the same basic article, labeling him as a loser, and claiming that Shareef Abdur Rahim was better anyway. Even with Zach gone, he can’t stop writing this same column, insert Francis and a special goodbye jab for Zebo. Misery.

Meanwhile on ESPN the national talking heads start parroting the local nonsense, and as a rush of air through a fire, the flames are fanned higher and higher that the hot story lead is 'Will Zach the bad boy screw up off the court'. I sure hope not. But that sorta drama has never been what I liked about the game.

Speaking of dumb story lines drummed to death by the media, how about the myth that Chinese people are paying rapt attention to their countrymen in the League? The amount press asserting that Yao gets bundles All-Star votes because China is flooding the ballot box is silly. That story is bunk. On their local coverage link page, ESPN posted an excerpt from The Milwaukee Journal entitled Yi Spins Web Worldwide, talking up the excitement in China the day after Yi was drafted: ‘ The traffic from China was four times what it was the previous day. On Friday, there were 1,270 visitors from China, No. 3 behind the United States and Canada’. In a nation of 1.319 billion, that ain’t many web hits.

Of course, all this minor league journalism has opened the door to great new sources for b-ball info, like Truehoop. I picked this up from the bullets earlier this week.
“And, in the strangest of ways, the global warming conversation comes to the NBA. Memo to rookies looking to be in the league's good graces: David Stern has said he is passionate about finding solutions to global warming, which may be a focus of his life if/when he ever retires from the NBA.”
Well, before he retires, perhaps he should enlist the help his players to spread the word—most especially players looking to purchase islands like our dear Gilbert.


p.s. Spencer Hawes is Grade USA #1 fool par excellance.

p.p.s. F ESPN and Mike Tirico for saying God Bless George Bush in the up close and personal on the carne cabesa Hawes.

Happy Fourth! Go blow somepin up

5 Comments:

  • Fuck all this Two Hoop adoration...I get everything I need to know from the Moonball Blog!

    By Blogger Peter Cassel, at 9:58 AM  

  • This Knick fan loves the trade and agree that Zach and Curry on offense together is not a problem. We needed a beast on the boards and Zach is clearly that. Defense was never going to be the Knicks strong point with or without a trade... not with a starting 5 that includes Steph, Jamal, Q, and Curry. I only hope Zeke continues to find major minutes for David Lee.

    The King comparison is big talk. Maybe in the low post, but not the Bernard who filled the wings on the break. He was a high flyer and an unstoppable force getting to the rim.

    By Blogger Knick33, at 2:09 PM  

  • Agreed that any comparison to BK should be carefully made, and that I am only talking half-court. . . but to be clear, my prediction is that we will hear the NYC media talking Zebo-King by All-Star break.

    By Blogger The Green, at 3:48 PM  

  • Can the WB wag the dog,
    NY media read this blog!

    By Blogger TVDave, at 11:07 PM  

  • The WB is back, with the usual awesome posts. Maybe he should start his own blog: TwoHoop.com.

    But comparing Zebo to Bernard? Whoah, dude, I know he's from the Izzone, has great skills, and that you even met him once in Portland, but Bernard King at his height was an all-timer. The only reason he isn't discussed with the greatest of the greats is the damn knees cut his career short. No dis to Zach, but I'm with Knick33, you are overstepping with that one.

    All of that said, you're right on about how Zach is going to eat the east for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Aside from the defense concerns, he and Curry should play together just fine. And I hate the fact that he now plays the Pistons four times a year, twice in Detroit, where he always gets his fill. Great move for the Knicks.

    I don't really like the Artest for Lee rumored deal. I love David Lee's game, I think Zeke would be nuts to roll those dice with that bet. But then again, he's a little nuts. It'll be interesting to see what other moves he makes, you have to give him that at least. Never a dull moment in Zeke-land. Maybe if he kept his attention off the choreographers and onto hoops, he would have had a better track record.

    By Blogger Ironwood Flash, at 10:31 AM  

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