{"id":762,"date":"2005-12-13T07:17:52","date_gmt":"2005-12-13T12:17:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/cant-jump-etc\/"},"modified":"2005-12-13T14:02:23","modified_gmt":"2005-12-13T19:02:23","slug":"cant-jump-etc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/cant-jump-etc","title":{"rendered":"Can’t jump, etc."},"content":{"rendered":"

Nice article on Slate about the idiocy in comparing every white basketball player to Larry Bird<\/a>. Here’s a taste:<\/p>\n

Want proof that getting compared to Bird is a one-way ticket to the Caucasian basketball graveyard? A list of players who’ve been identified as Bird-like reads like the roster of a CBA team sponsored by the KKK. There are the Dukies: Danny Ferry, Mike Dunleavy Jr., and Christian Laettner (according to Charles Barkley, “the only thing Christian Laettner has in common with Larry Bird is they both pee standing up”). There are the guys whose main qualification was playing college ball in the Midwest: Troy Murphy and Wally Szczerbiak (“a Larry Bird game, a Tom Cruise smile,” one scribe said). There’s the inexplicable: Australian Andrew Gaze. And the monstrously, hilariously inexplicable: center Eric Montross, whom Celtics exec M.L. Carr said was cut from the same cloth as the Birdman.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nice article on Slate about the idiocy in comparing every white basketball player to Larry Bird. Here’s a taste: Want proof that getting compared to Bird is a one-way ticket to the Caucasian basketball graveyard? A list of players who’ve been identified as Bird-like reads like the roster of a CBA team sponsored by the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Can’t jump, etc.”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-basketball"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-ci","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":418,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm","url_meta":{"origin":762,"position":0},"title":"It's finally here!No, you ninnies,\u2026","author":"Gil","date":"November 2, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"It's finally here!No, you ninnies, not the election! 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(We might also get some guest-commentary from readers about their home-town teams.)Let's kick it off\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "basketball"","block_context":{"text":"basketball","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sports\/basketball"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":415,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm","url_meta":{"origin":762,"position":4},"title":"NBA Preview: Southwest Divisionby Tom\u2026","author":"Gil","date":"November 2, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"NBA Preview: Southwest Divisionby Tom SpurgeonDallas MavericksIn terms of roster \"building,\" the Mavericks are trying to put together a showpiece house by stacking the same three rooms on top of each other over and over and over again. A quick look at their roster indicates they have plenty of marginally\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":399,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/my-new-psychic-technique-is-unstoppablemy-new-psychic-technique-is-unstoppable","url_meta":{"origin":762,"position":5},"title":"My new psychic technique is unstoppable","author":"Gil","date":"November 23, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"To quote my own NBA preview:The Pacers believe they were one knee-tweak to Jermaine O'Neal away from getting to the Finals last year, which avoids the reality that Ron Artest is a freaking maniac whom David Stern would've given his left arm to keep out of the NBA's biggest stage.And\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "basketball"","block_context":{"text":"basketball","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sports\/basketball"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/762\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}