A Press Democrat Blog

Overtime

Ted Sillanpaa looks at the San Francisco Giants, other Bay Area sports and gives a dad's-eye view of Empire prep and youth sports trends

Pivot play has changed with players in NBA, rest of basketball

Tuesday, at 6:06 by

Readers have discussed the importance of quality pivot play, the need for an offensive threat at the center position in the NBA. When one asked me what I thought about the state of pivot play and how it got to where it is today … my response seemed like something worth sharing. — TED By TED SILLANPAA Pivot play has changed as has the game of basketball. The game doesn’t revolve around a dominant center … hasn’t for years. The… Read More »

NBA: When an acrobatic dunk was awesome

Saturday, at 12:39 by

By TED SILLANPAA Readers who mistook my determining that LeBron James is achieving other-worldly heights as a basketball player for knocking all the generations who came before him have to understand that I remember seeing my first slam dunk on television. That’s how old I am. I remember never having seen anyone dunk a basketball. The time when a dunk, let alone anything the least bit acrobatic was a novelty, is very clear to me. I was sitting on the… Read More »

Nobody wants NBA officials taking spotlight

Wednesday, at 5:42 by

By TED SILLANPAA NBA officials are under the mistaken impression that their presence adds to the entertainment value of a contest. They couldn’t be more wrong, but … take Joey Crawford for example.The show he put on in a Lakers’ game the other night was an unfathomable piece of showboating. (Click and watch.) The showboating, mostly the gyrating they do while they make time-consuming foul calls, slow the pace of a game beyond belief. I’m old enough to have watched… Read More »