The Sports Lounge

[Armoreska]

He still led the race well clear of anyone before team messed it up. I call it success.

Radio problem it was.

[Armoreska]

[Armoreska]

Anyone following the Australian Open debacle?

[outdoorcats]

You love to see it.

[GruesomeTwosome]

You love to see it.

Clap your hands, everybody
For Philadelphia...76ers!

Stomp your feet, everybody
For Philadelphia...76ers!


ALMOST blew that late 10-point lead, but thank you Tobias Harris. He really looks like a different, more consistent player this year. He’s stepped it up for sure.

[outdoorcats]

He's definitely a better player with Doc Rivers as a coach than without. But then again, you could say that about the whole team. Him and Morey worked a miracle with this team.

[sebby]

It is a sports felony what the NBA and Nike are doing with jerseys. Not only do home colors no longer exist, but team colors are almost out the window. Lakers, playing in Philly, wearing Sixers colors. What the fuck. May they lose 4 consecutive playoff games as karma.

[blocho]

Lakers, playing in Philly, wearing Sixers colors.

That was the first thing I noticed in that video. It looks so wrong.

[Armoreska]

You love to see it

maybe I do but not when it's country blocked

[outdoorcats]

On the subject of basketball, if you're voting for the All Stars, who are you picking? (or who would you pick)

For the East, I have Bradley Beal, Harden, Durant, Embiid, and Giannis. For the West, Damian Lillard, Luka, LeBron, Kawhi, and Jokic.

[GruesomeTwosome]

On the subject of basketball, if you're voting for the All Stars, who are you picking? (or who would you pick)

For the East, I have Bradley Beal, Harden, Durant, Embiid, and Giannis. For the West, Damian Lillard, Luka, LeBron, Kawhi, and Jokic.

Probably the only change I’d make from you is get Harden outta there and put Jaylen Brown in.

[blocho]

Haha -- I didn't realize that they're keeping the all-star game in February. The season will be less than two months old.

[outdoorcats]

@GruesomeTwosome - Well, that'd certainly be less turnovers for sure!

@blocho - As of right now, it's a big "if" whether the game will be played, or whether the nominations will just be symbolic. If it does happen, it'll apparently be in early March.

[funkybusiness]

https://imgflip.com/i/4w20yg

[outdoorcats]

"I don't care what anyone says. That's a bad meme." -Paul George, probably

[sebby]

https://imgflip.com/i/4w20yg

The jump ball that led to his gamewinner was one of those plays that make you wonder if the sport you're watching is rigged.

[Armoreska]

i figured out what ur talkin bout

Spoiler

[Armoreska]

COVID is affecting Novak's stats. 2 majors more to catch FeDal.
Roger returns in 2 weeks. Could've returned in Australia if it weren't for the virus.

[beasterne]

Over the past several years, a small but ardent cult of fans has developed around a writer/editor/producer named Jon Bois, who works for a web site called SB Nation. In that time, Bois has largely turned from writing to making youtube videos. At first these were pretty short and absurdist. And while they've never lost their touch of absurdity, the videos have grown longer and longer and more serious. They've also developed a very sui generis style based on rudimentary graphics, 80s-sounding synth music, a heavy reliance on statistical analysis, and a deep, thoroughgoing love for sports history. At his best, Bois manages to spin ordinary sports moments into deeply emotional experiences. It's not too much to say he makes some of the best sports documentaries in existence.

I'm not the only Bois fan around here. I know beasterne is also a great admirer. But I mention Bois on this occasion because over the past two months he has released his most ambitious project yet, a six-part series on the Seattle Mariners that runs a collective 220 minutes. That's a ludicrous amount of time to spend learning about any sports team you're not a fan of. Well, I'm no fan of the Mariners. I'm not really much of a baseball fan. But I loved watching this series. To see why, I suggest watching just the first four minutes of episode 6. This short segment helps to convey the overarching thesis of the series, which is that sports should be appreciated less as an arena for winning and losing and more as a vehicle of human experience, with all its comedy, screw-ups, triumphs, and tragedy.

If anyone's intrigued but not interested in baseball, this link will bring you to a collection of all of Bois' work, including videos on basketball, baseball, football, running, a five-part series on mixed martial arts, and some non-sports topics. My personal favorite is a video on the 1987 NFL players strike called Randall Cunningham Seizes the Means of Production.

I just now stumbled across this post while looking for something else. Great write-up!

And you're right, I love just about everything Bois is involved with. He has a knack for simultaneously unironically loving sports while seeing the innate absurdity of sports, and then pulling back to reflect on that same dichotomy with humanity as a whole. It's hard to choose a favorite entry from him, but one video that I come back to more than any other by him is "The Bob Emergency". I think it's a pure distilling of what I appreciate in his work, about the stories of some athletes that are only connected because their names are Bob, and about how fewer and fewer Bobs are competing in professional sports as the years go by--a Bob "Emergency". Really good stuff, and like blocho says you can jump in just about anywhere and find something to enjoy.

[blocho]

Yeah, the two Bob videos are great. Watching them made me a bit sadder when Bob Gibson died last year. But Bob Cousy still lives!