11/21/24
March 16, 2003
Sportsmanship 101: The Cavaliers Ricky Davis was close to his first triple double, needing just one rebound. Then, the whole brain fart thing comes into play...
posted by bcb2k2 to basketball at 06:51 PM - 26 comments
Also, this reminds me of another incident involving a player near his first triple double.
posted by bcb2k2 at 07:01 PM on March 16, 2003
So I'm confused. Does he get credit for the triple-double? Would there have been any reason for him to expect that it would have counted?
posted by grum@work at 07:21 PM on March 16, 2003
He was fouled before he got the rebound, so no triple-double for him. This was wrong, but the Jazz are no angels either, so these people deserve each other. Not defending Davis in any way, shape or form by the way. He is pretty young and stupid.
posted by silent4lie at 12:25 AM on March 17, 2003
Yea, that pretty damn stupid. They should come up with a fine for shooting at the wrong basket, whether intentional or unintentional because it is so damn stupid.
posted by jasonspaceman at 06:40 AM on March 17, 2003
Actually, the funny thing is, perhaps we should credit Davis for knowing that if he HAD gotten the rebound, it would have given him the triple-double. Pretty bright, if misguided. This just points out how absolutely meaningless triple-doubles are. If you are a great basketball player, these things are relatively natural. If you aren't, they just happen occasionally. Maybe to make them more reachable, we should have half-triple-half-doubles, or three-quarter-double-four-fifths-triples. Man ... now I just need a fifth.
posted by wfrazerjr at 10:45 AM on March 17, 2003
Davis has made the win irrelevant. Frankly, it would have been a pretty big deal for Cleveland to beat Utah (or anyone), but all we're talking about is Davis.
A high-numbers player on a horrifically bad team doesn't mean much. He touts himself as the best dunker in the league, but Harold Minor used to be the best dunker in the league, and where is he now?
posted by jmevius at 11:22 AM on March 17, 2003
Actually, the funny thing is, perhaps we should credit Davis for knowing that if he HAD gotten the rebound, it would have given him the triple-double. Pretty bright, if misguided. Some article I read, (sorry don't remember which, this was about 3 hours ago) stated that Davis's teammates were yelling at him about how he only needed one more rebound. I don't know if they encouraged him to shoot at the opponents basket or not. Oop, it was the Yahoo recap: Davis said his teammates yelled out that he needed one more rebound. The funny thing is, Davis seems to chalk up Utah's anger due primarily to the fact that they got whupped by the worst team in the league. I think if Utah had been up by 20 they still would've been mad. At the same time, anything that pisses Jerry Sloan off can't be 100% bad, right? Since this happened towards the end of the season, it'll be remembered as one of the low-lights for the NBA for the year. Which is the way it should be. At least Davis says that if he had to do it all over again, he wouldn't. I've learned a lot from my dumb-shit mistakes. Glad he claims to have learned too. This is pretty disgraceful for a "professional" athlete though.
posted by Ufez Jones at 11:39 AM on March 17, 2003
I think a triple-double is a great indication of a well-rounded player, but the problem is that Ricky Davis played for the statistic rather than the outcome of the game. It happens all the time: Kobe almost sacrificed a game to get 40 for the ninth time. The best part had to be Utah coach Jerry Sloan's comments after the game. The words "I would have knocked him on his ass" were replayed at least three times on ESPN. It's so fun to hear ghetto smack coming from a 60 year old white guy coaching in Utah!
posted by dusted at 11:39 AM on March 17, 2003
ugh, sorry about not closing the tag properly. Oh, and "He touts himself as the best dunker in the league, but Harold Minor used to be the best dunker in the league, and where is he now?" <-- that was great.
posted by Ufez Jones at 11:41 AM on March 17, 2003
They put the replay on ESPN Motion, and he did get the rebound. He was fouled after, but the refs didn't give him the board anyway.
posted by swank6 at 11:42 AM on March 17, 2003
Yeah, swank, I was thinking the same thing! He was fouled at about the 3-point line, at least a few seconds after he shot the ball off the rim and rebounded it. Who makes the decision to award rebounds, assists, etc? Is there an official scorer like in baseball?
posted by dusted at 11:52 AM on March 17, 2003
I am *so* confused. What on earth is a "triple-double"? It sounds like a burger or something. And was he shooting at his own team's net to score this burger-like thing? He'd be lynched for that in England.
posted by squealy at 11:57 AM on March 17, 2003
squealy: at least ten points, ten rebounds and ten assists. And I expect a full explanation of cricket in return.
posted by dusted at 12:04 PM on March 17, 2003
If you are a great basketball player, these things are relatively natural.
Oscar Robinson is the only NBA player to average a triple-double over an entire season.
posted by kirkaracha at 12:07 PM on March 17, 2003
Thanks dusted. OK here's the full take on cricket - Yawn, zzzzzz, tea, zzzzzzzzzz, 5-days later - draw (tie).
posted by squealy at 12:07 PM on March 17, 2003
those aren't the only categories. For example 10 assists or 10 steals would also count if one of the others wasn't met.
posted by gyc at 12:07 PM on March 17, 2003
This story somewhat reminds me of Michael Jordan's attempts to complete triple doubles in games in which he was close to doing so. From what I remember, Phil Jackson had to ask the scorer's table to not respond to Jordan's in-game requests for his current stats.
posted by pfuller at 12:14 PM on March 17, 2003
Shoot I remember a game where Akeem Olajuwan missed a QUADRUPLE double by one assist, and he didn't even go out his way to try for it. I think he still ended up getting one or two in his career.
posted by vito90 at 12:28 PM on March 17, 2003
hahaha. That Jordan-Jackson story is classic, pfuller. Classic. As for the Utah-Cavs game, the article did point out two bright spots:
"This is not schoolyard basketball," the Utah coach said. "Let him try to get it when the game means something. I was proud of DeShawn and I would have knocked him down harder. They can put me in jail for saying that, but that's the way it is."and
Mark Jackson of the Jazz overtook Magic Johnson for second place on the NBA's career assists list ... Jackson received a standing ovation when he was replaced 11 seconds later by all-time leader John Stockton, who finished with nine assists and raised his career total to 15,671. "I want to thank the Cleveland fans," Jackson said. "It is something I won't forget. They showed class and I'm fortunate to have done it here."
posted by worldcup2002 at 12:29 PM on March 17, 2003
He couldn't be awarded a rebound on that shot in any case. Quoting from the rulebook: Section I-Scoring ... e. It is a violation for a player to attempt a field goal at an opponent's basket. The opposing team will be awarded the bal at the free throw line extended.
posted by Bryant at 03:56 PM on March 17, 2003
Aha! Thank you, Bryant, for ferreting out the truth I was too sluggardly to seek out myself! This proves, then, that Ricky Davis is either an idiot or a full-on jackass. A triple-double CAN be an indication of a great player, i.e. Oscar Robertson (I assume that's who you meant, kirkaracha). It can also be the indication of a player far above the talents of a bad team, in a situation where he is the only scorer or rebounder, or where he's just a greedy bastard. A hand for Mark Jackson, also. A class act in an less-than-classy league.
posted by wfrazerjr at 04:25 PM on March 17, 2003
Ricky Davis is on course to be a triple-idiot. 1: Tries to score in the wrong basket, just to make a damn stat. 2: Doesn't know that the rules make it a useless act. 3: _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ (you fill in the blanks)
posted by worldcup2002 at 05:17 PM on March 17, 2003
Just to clear up the triple double explanation, it just means reaching double digits in any 3 stat categories, so it could be any combination of points, assists, rebounds, blocks, steals. Triple doubles are relatively rare, double doubles are pretty common (most often with points/rebounds).
posted by swank6 at 05:29 PM on March 17, 2003
I stand corrected about triple-doubles... I do think Squealy had it right about the hamburgers, but I could only find a Double-Double. ESPN's David Alridge rips Ricky pretty hard.
posted by dusted at 05:43 PM on March 17, 2003
If I remember correctly, there have even been a few rare cases of "quadruple-doubles", or players coming VERY close to them. Oh wait, here is an explanation of the "-double" and the last recorded "quadruple-double". It's nice that the NBA has an area to explain the game terminology to us Canadians.
posted by grum@work at 06:23 PM on March 17, 2003
Shooting at the wrong basket to try and get a rebound? Man, didn't this guy ever watch Moses Malone? At least shoot at your own basket to get a rebound.