I don’t mean it was out of whack for him, I mean what a great number

BITD:

First team:

Abdul-Jabbar — 117
Archibald — 111
Havlicek — 101
Haywood — 107
West — 107

FIRST TEAM AVERAGE: 108.6

Second Team:

Barry — 102
Cowens — 96
The Incomparable Walt Frazier — 107
Hayes — 96
Maravich — 101

OVERALL AVERAGE: 104.5

Modern:

Giannis — 108
SGA — 111
Joker — 115
Spida — 100 (**)
Tatum — 101

FIRST TEAM AVERAGE: 107

Second team:

Brunson — 105
Curry — 107
Ant — 103
LBJ — 105
Mobley — 110

OVERALL AVERAGE: 106.5

It was before my real time, but Cowens played for a 67-win Boston team and had a rep as a hustlebunny, and didn’t really score much, so it couldn’t have been pointzzz. Kind of the same with Hayes, who only averaged 21 a game but 14.5 rebounds. That said, if someone wants to make the case that their efficiency wasn’t looked at right, there’s at least a superficial one to be made. Flip side, both were second-teamers and the first team that year was more efficient than the 2025 first team.

BIg picture, no real fooling, nothing really missed, and the voters got to “efficiency” without it being overtly measured but merely conceptualized and inferred.

(**) Isn’t Spida being on there at least kinda, sorta a bit of a pointzzz illusion?

(*) TS% wasn’t a number in and of itself then, of course, but instead a concept gotten to through other numbers. No voter had the ability to just look at a guy’s TS% as they do now.

1972-73:

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar — 1
Nate Archibald — 19
John Havlicek — 9
Spencer Haywood — 30 (*)
Jerry West — 2
Rick Barry — 4
Dave Cowens — 4
The Incomparable Walt Frazier — 5
Elvin Hayes — 1
Pete Maravich — 3

AVERAGE: 7.8 (AVERAGE, ex. Haywood: 5.3)

2024-25:

Giannis — 15
SGA — 11
Jokic — 41
Spida — 13
Tatum — 3
Brunson — 33
Curry — 7
Ant — 1
LBJ — 1
Mobley — 3

AVERAGE: 12.8

Four of the five all-NBA players last year were drafted outside the top 10. The average all-NBA player last year was drafted outside the top 10. The average all-NBA player in 1973 was drafted within the top 10, and measured correctly ex-Haywood, seven full slots higher than his 2025 counterpart.

Not really seeing the fooling or the missing or the hidden magic of the modern analytical world.

(*) This one should be thrown out because the NBA didn’t want Haywood because he sued to get in early, as that ABA documentary explained, and so he wasn’t *really* “drafted 30th.” Doesn’t matter so we’ll keep him in.

One of Colin Cowherd’s 4 NBA playoff takes is that the Knicks are going to lose to the Celtics because they have no bench.

I mean can you do a minimal amount of homework before you make these asinine statements?

I really gotta stop watching these blowhards.

Makes slightly more sense if he means the Celtics have removed the physical benches in the guest locker room and will not be providing courtside chairs to Knicks players.

It’s amazing that everyone in NY’s primary worry is the starting unit and the talking headless think we don’t have a bench.

@tommybeernba.bsky.social‬
The Knicks submitted their injury report for Game 1 and OG Anunoby is not listed.

Confirmation he’s good to go for Saturday’s game vs. Atlanta.

Tyler Kolek, who missed the final 4 games of the regular season, has also been removed from the injury report.

NY at full strength.

As a result of these kinds of empiric advancements, there’s absolutely a class of players who have become very wealthy that would’ve been ignored in the ’70s, and conversely a different class of players now playing overseas that would’ve become very wealthy in the ’70s.

Still a bunch of misses, start with Jokic and Giannis and on the flip side, Anthony Bennett. Then all the low second-rounders doing great work in the league. Then move to G-League guys who come into the association and play really well. Daniss Jenkins would be one. Plenty of others.

Not really sure there are any fewer “misses” today than at any other time. It’s an inexact art-science. Always has been, always will be. That makes it fun.

He was a key cog on a bunch of extremely good teams

To be clear, those teams were not just extremely good, they were inarguably among the best basketball teams to ever play the game.

Their first championship (and 67 win regular season) was centered, not on great shooting, but a combination of that and having one of the best defenses of their era. It wasn’t all Draymond. Thompson was an extremely under-appreciated defender (as was Steph).