When Perception Clouds Reality
When Perception Clouds Reality.
Every so often, someone will grossly misstate a quality of a player. It’s why I’ve grown to loathe general sports columnists so much. Many of them do great features. Some of them do okay with covering specific events. But often times you have a columnist who has an interest in a sport that tries to examine it as if he spends all his time on this one game.
Today Josh Coleman over at 3 Shades of Blue dissects Simmons’ analysis of OJ Mayo. It’s stunning becaust this is the second time inside of a week where I’ve been absolutely flabbergasted by a comment made by a general sportswriter who clearly has not seen the subject more than once this season. If Simmons wants to drop knowledge about Leon Powe’s pivot moves, great! He probably watches the Celtics even more than I do. But to analyze a player who has no blue marks on his hotspots chart for having poor shot selection? Probably not on target. Again, there are plenty of things I don’t know about in the NBA. It’s really hard to track each and every thing. I can’t tell you much about the Thunder bench. Ask me about the Kings and I’m going to tell you “I don’t know.” There are always gaps. But you try not to speak as if you do when you don’t.
In other gross exaggerations:
Tyus Thomas turns the ball over all the time. I saw it last night.
Shawn Marion is a key part of the Heat’s offense. I saw it last night.
Paul Pierce is totally healthy and on his way to being an MVP candidate.
Golden State is full of talented players that can field a winning team.
