How Rusty Do You Get After Taking Some Time Off Basketball and What Can You Do About It?

This morning I made it to the court for the first time since I played ball with the guys at the Y on Sunday (I have cartilage degeneration in my left knee that acts up sometimes.) I was disappointed not only that I had to stop after 25 minutes because my knee started to hurt again, but also disappointed that in 5 short days my dribbling skills had rusted to revert to a point I was at probably 2 and 1/2 or 3 weeks ago ( I rust quickly but also tend to get back in the groove quickly, too.)

How rusty do you get after missing some time from basketball?

The answer to this question often depends on what sort of base you have. The longer you have played consistently, the less rust you are going to have and the quicker the rust will come off once you get to play again.


In the NBA, we have seen players that seem to bounce back from serious injuries immediately (Chris Paul) and players who may take even years to get back into form (Kevin Garnett.) This rebound has to do somewhat with age, but also with the type of injury {Paul had a tear, usually easier to come back from (though also more serious in that it is can more easily lead to another serious injury) than wear and tear injuries like Garnett's.)

How do you rebound from injuries and time off?

Top 8 NBA Players Who Could Have Played a Different Sport

8. Dirk Nowitzki- Nowitzki, like his buddy Nash, grew up playing soccer. While he would be a liability in speed, he would have such a strength advantage and height advantage he would be an excellent option for a header at the end of a cross.

Soccer Player Most Similar To: Dimitar Berbatov

Should We Forgive Ron Artest?

On November 19, 2004, Ron Artest was involved in a brawl known as "The Malice at The Palace." This brawl, especially because it involved fans, was one of, if not the worst, events in NBA history.


Artest is used to some rough behavior on the court, including one incident in high school where he witnessed his friend and teammate, Lloyd Newton, die from getting the leg of a table thrown at and lodged into his back.


When growing up in these circumstances, getting rowdy (even if it is not right) is understandable.


What makes it even more understandable is Artest's mental health issues and his willingness to address them.

The Fan Code: To Switching Teams

The acquisition of Lebron James and Chris Bosh are creating a lot of bandwagon fans for the Miami Heat.


Many die-hard basketball fans disdain fans who change sides or adopt a team, but there are many instances where switching teams is okay. Circumstances sometimes warrant a fan to follow a different team.


These circumstances include their teams moving to a different city, your favorite player switching teams, you are getting into basketball for the first time and have not yet chosen a team, and the owners of your team are too cheap to be willing to put together a team that can compete for a championship.

How Rondo has Improved and How Likely is He to Break 14 Assists Per Game

(This article was originally posted on a different URL. All statistical analysis is prior to Delonte's injury and the night before Rondo's first return from injury. I do think Rondo will end up with about the same amount of assists I predicted here.)


Rajon Rondo is now in position to pursue the single season assists per game record.

Rondo is Improving his Team with Better Decisionmaking and more Precise Passing

He marches toward the record book while improving his team's chances at winning. In his pursuit of the assists record (14.54 a game by John Stockton in 1989-90, Rondo is now at 14.3 a game). While in the past he was able to find open teammates on the floor with ease, he has gained a much better understanding of where to place the ball and which players can handle certain kinds of passes.

Top 10 Unbreakable NBA Records

NBA History is filled with records that one would believe impossible unless they knew the records themselves. Most of the following records are by individual players, but there is one team record in there. These players were once in a lifetime talents, ones that we are unlikely to see again. The records are the following:

10. Most Assists Career John Stockton 15,806


Stockton owns 5 of the top 6 single season assists per game records. He also has a long career where he maintained his level of play throughout it. Stockton and Malone ran the pick-and-roll better than any tandem in NBA history, and it is unlikely that another tandem will ever be better. Stockton has 4,704 assists more than the next person (Jason Kidd) and Kidd would have to play about 5 more seasons at 10 assists per game in order to catch him.

Top 10 Current NBA Player Rivalries

NBA Player Rivalries have Cooled Down over the Past Two Decades, but Intriguing Match Ups still Exist


When most players match up against each other, they are more concerned about their team winning the game than upstaging the other player. There are the rare cases, however, where NBA players still do hate each other and will do anything to get the better of the other in a match-up.


NBA player rivalries have cooled down considerably since their heyday in the 1980’s and early 1990’s, where players like Isiah Thomas, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Bill Laimbeer and Kurt Rambis truly hated each other. Punches were thrown and brawls were had, especially when the Bad Boy Pistons were involved.


For the most part, that is not the case nowadays because fluid movement between teams and growing camaraderie among players is created due to greater contact playing in A.A.U. as youngsters, lots of cross-over in summer training sessions and contact during international ball play in both the Olympics and FIBA.


The following list is not a debate of who is the best in the NBA or who is the best at certain positions, as these “rivalries” have been increasingly fabricated by the media over the past decade and a half due to the lack of personal rivalries.


Many players in these “rivalries” could care less about what the other player does, particularly evident in the “Lebron James versus Kobe Bryant rivalry.”

NBA Players: Are They Now Position-less because of Move and Replace Offenses?

The following comments were about how you determine what players are playing what positions at what time during their time on the court. These comments were part of an article at http://www.basketball-reference.com/, which you can read in its entirety at http://www.basketball-reference.com/blog/?p=8359.


I could not have done a better job explaining this situation/problem then basketball-reference.com reader Eric. His comments (reformatted to make it easier for you to read) are as follows:


1. Eric:Thanks! I wanted to clarify one thing:


"You comment on them showing Kobe at the PG and SF positions as a evidence of that the statistics are misleading. What you failed to notice was they they only show him in those match-ups for 1% of the time. Certainly Kobe could have been cross-matched for a few plays during the season."


My point was not so much that Kobe being at PG/SF is questionable - I have no doubt that Kobe spent significantly more than 1% of the time defending the opposing PG or SF depending on who they were. My point was that I'm not sure that's what the 82games statistics even mean.

ESPN WITH A GREAT HEADLINE!

"Winning knack: Amare Stoudemire's 3-pointer? Too good to be true. That's why The Truth hurt Wednesday at MSG." Just genius! I want to shake the hand of whoever wrote that headline.

Where Amazing Meets Extraordinary: Yi Li

Have you ever met somebody who worked so long and so hard at a sport with very little immediate return to their game only to one day wake-up to discover that this person had become a very solid player?



Did that person approach the game with the meticulousness and thought that rivaled a med student studying how to save lives? Did that person make the perfect leader and coach? Could he surprise and inspire you with his dedication and love for the game?



Meet Yi Li: Yi wrestled in high school to very little success until his senior year, when his technical skills and knowledge of the sport got him elected captain at Milton Academy. When Yi entered college, he also meticulously studied boxing, getting a punching bag and working on it daily over the span of months to greatly expand his hand speed and accuracy. During his sophomore year of college at Tufts University, Yi brought this same attention to basketball.

The Fan Code: Bragging (Franchise Edition)

Fans of different teams love to brag after a recent win, a lead in the standings or recent signings of soft players who ARE going to win 5 championships. As a Celtics fan, I am no stranger to bragging or to being harassed by braggarts. The following guide serves to illuminate the proper times to open your trap and the proper times to keep your big mouth shut. So who has the right to brag?

Accuracy of Hollinger Ratings, Simple Ratings System and Win-Loss in Playoff Series

Totals from 2004-2005 through 2009-2010

Higher Playoff Seed: 56-19

Simple Ratings System(http://www.basketball-reference.com/) : 57-18

Hollinger Rankings Total: 51-24

Hollinger's Formula =  Rating= (((Sos-0.5)/0.037) *0.67)+(((Sos L10-0.5)/0.037)*.33) + 100 + (0.67*(Marg+ (((Road-Home)*3.5) / (games))))+ (.33(Margin L10+(((Road 10- Home 10)*3.5)/10))))

Why is Hollinger's Ratings Flawed?

First, let me say that these results are not statistically significant. While I have proven statistical significance that determines SRS is a better statistical model than win-loss (albeit slightly, but any formula that can outperform win-loss is impressive) by going back to the 1950 playoffs, I have only done Hollinger ratings from 2004-2005 until now, and this sample is not large enough to be statistically significant.

That said, there is a trend emerging...

Where Amazing Meets Extraordinary: Jon DeMello

Have you ever Met Someone with an Incredible Ability to Pick up a Sport?


Did that person continue to improve at a rate you never thought possible? Did he combine his natural athletic ability with a natural sense of where to be and what to do in this sport? Did he pick and choose his spots to talk shit in order to subtly throw you off your game?

Jon Picked Up Sports at the Drop of a Hat

Meet Jon DeMello: a former professional wrestler (the real kind) and club rugby player for the city of Edinburgh in Scotland. Jon switched to wrestling from playing and coaching hockey (including an athlete with down's syndrome) his freshman year of high school, and in three short years he built his skills to take fourth place in his weight class at the Kelsey-Graves tournament. He was part of a powerhouse Brooks School Wrestling team.


His senior year of high school, he transfered to Nashoba Regional High School, where his coach encouraged him to join a club team and start wrestling for money.

The Sale of the New Orleans Hornets (and Subsequent Effects on the Possibility of a Lock Out)

The Historic Sale of the Hornets to the NBA

The sale of the New Orleans Hornets to minority owner Gary Choust has recently fallen apart.


In order to keep the team in New Orleans, the current owner George Shinn has reached out to the NBA to buy the team.

If the NBA were to buy the Hornets, this would represent an unprecedented move in league history.


The current value of the New Orleans Hornets is $267 million, according to Forbes. The NBA will be responsible to personally finance 30% of this cost ($80.1 million, although this figure is, of course, not exact, as a team’s value is truly only the value that can be agreed upon by the seller and the buyer) because of league rules regarding financing.

NBA Lock Out, Expansion or Contraction?

The NBA Is Not Likely to Have a Lock Out or Contraction, but Expansion Should Happen within the Next Ten Years.

The lock out most likely will not happen because David Stern has overstated (i.e. lied) about the fact that the NBA has lost money (do not let the title fool you, read the whole article for details), the NBA's main domestic rival, the NFL, may go into a lock out itself, and the league will be worried about losing second-tier  players to European teams who have an advantage because their salaries are tax-free.


Add to that the fact that David Stern has not lost an NBA team to contraction in his 26 years as the commissioner, a fact on which he prides himself, as well as the fact he has increased the NBA from 23 teams to 30 teams in that time.


Expansion of the NBA into Europe within the next decade is much more likely, as the international game has increased in popularity, the European teams offer the forementioned advantage in offering competitive salaries and those "lower" salaries which would be significantly higher than an equal contract in the U.S. would greatly diminish the costs of owning a team, thereby increasing those teams' chances at profitibility.

Out on the Court

I have a 5 a.m. date with the hardwood,

where the ball pounds the floor

like the intensity of jilted lovers
after a fight.

I cannot tell whether the clatter

originates from my feet

or the echo of my handle.

One lover does not end

where another begins,

like the palm that’s part of the ball.

(You can see my other poetry selections at aroseintheconcrete.blogspot.com.)

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Rule Changes in the NBA History

BLOGGER ERASED THIS WHOLE ARTICLE FOR NO RAISEN! I WILL DO MY BEST TO GET IT BACK FROM BLOGGER OR RECREATE IT WHEN I HAVE THE CHANCE TO. I AM SORRY BLOGGER SUCKS SO MUCH, I WILL PROBABLY BE SWITCHING TO WORDPRESS AT THE END OF THE SEASON.

The Harlem Globetrotters are making a basketball innovation by instituting a four point shot line in their games. For purists who believe that a change in the rules would hurt basketball, consider the 3 point shot line did not become popular until the ABA instituted it in 1968 to compete with the NBA. The NBA would follow suit in 1979-1980, shortly after adopting ABA teams.

Early Basketball and its Rule Changes