drewhousman

Improving the NBA Viewing Experience

Here are two things I think the NBA can do better:

1. Let fast breaks play out from the natural TV camera angle. This is a major pet peeve of mine. There is nothing worse than when you are about to watch Blake Griffin uncork a vicious slam from the nice, familiar, side camera angle, when out of nowhere the producer switches cameras on you. All of a sudden you are thinking “Why I am I watching this great dunk unfold as if I am sitting in the lap of a sweaty baseline cameraman?” or “Hold on, why would I ever want to look through the backboard?*” Continue reading “Improving the NBA Viewing Experience”

Thoughts on Assists

Being a point guard who literally makes his living off of assists, I was irritated at the end of one of my midseason games. We had won, which I was thrilled about, but the official score sheet had me down for 3 assists. I could count 5 off the top of my head. I might have had 7 if the stat people were feeling generous. I know that people make mistakes, but this kind of thing happened enough in Israel that it really started to get on my nerves. I talked to my coaches about it and they said there was nothing they could do.

Thankfully, there was something that I could do. I took to getting chummy with the people at the scorers table during home games. I figured even a little something, like a smile, couldn’t hurt. I even went so far as to point over to them after a pass to make certain that they credited me. I would laugh as I did this in order to keep it lighthearted, but it’s one of those “haha this is funny right? But also you better give me that g#*@%& assist.”

I have always bristled when people throw their hand in the air after they tip in a missed shot. They do this to notify the scorers table that they were deserving of the points. The worst is when someone sticks their hand up after a no brainer type of sequence, like when they were clearly the only ones in the vicinity of the basket. Everyone saw you buddy, waving your hand and getting all excited makes you look like the fat kid from soccer who is allowed to score a pity goal at the end of the year. Continue reading “Thoughts on Assists”

Philly Airport

I had a layover in the Philadelphia airport on my flight back home. My terminal featured no fewer than 8 strategically placed TV’s that played a Philadelphia infomercial every 3 minutes or so. It’s volume was offensively loud. I imagine someone high up in the airports marketing department pitching this: “Sitting down and zoning out out in front of the terminal is going the way of the dodo. My research shows we will get people to waste money at our dumpy little shops if we bombard them with an obnoxious advertisement. The key is that the we play it at decibels that pierce even the best headphone technology. People will never resent us for the shameless self promotion. It’s a no brainer!”

Make a corny, over produced, questionably factual, transparent cry for attention if you must, but don’t replay it every 3 minutes. There needs to be some sort of Geneva Convention type thing to establish protocols for the humanitarian treatment of airport travelers. If that came to be then this commercial would certainly be found in violation of everything that is decent and the creators would be punished appropriately.

Keep in mind that there were TV’s placed all throughout the terminal, so there was no way to escape the audio-visual bludgeoning other than to hide in the bathroom. Here’s my breakdown: Continue reading “Philly Airport”

The bad, the good, and the peacock

We lost the opening game of the finals in dramatic fashion. We were up big in the 4th and blew it at the end. I was invisible offensively and had a costly turnover with under a minute left. Then to top it off I broke my glass water bottle in the locker room. This is the same locker room where I broke the screen of my phone earlier in the year. I need to be very careful of what I bring to that cursed place next game.

I was thinking that night, “I wish there was something I could take to rid myself of this horrible, sinking, aching gloominess.” It gave me a better understanding of how people get hooked on pain killers. Thankfully I didn’t have any narcotics handy. I had to deal with the hurt the old-fashioned way, which for me involves staying on the internet until I literally can’t keep my eyes open and then falling asleep before the negative thoughts can overwhelm me. Continue reading “The bad, the good, and the peacock”

Going to the Chip!

We successfully fended off Yavne and punched our ticket to the best of 5 championship series. I was a little worried before the game because I saw that this man was in attendance.

Does he not look like a movie villain? I consider this guy to be my Israeli arch nemesis. 2 years ago he was on the team that swept me out of the final four, last year he was on the team that handed me my only 2nd Division loss, and this year he was on the only team in the league to sweep us. Nothing good has ever come from being in the same gym as the one and only Guy Cohen. Continue reading “Going to the Chip!”

Playoff Update/ Book Reviews

We advanced to the final four. I played the second game of the first round series with a mask on. It was terrible. I was happy that the team gave me anything, but trust me that this mask was not meant to be worn during basketball games. It has these pads all over it that kill my peripheral vision. I felt like I was playing with glaucoma. Surprisingly, the most noticeable affect was on my ball handling. I never realized how much I actually rely on my peripheral vision when dribbling. Probably something I should work on.

I was so ineffective that game that I decided to chuck the mask for our first game against Yavne. My nose is still sore, and if I caught an elbow I would be down for the count, but I figured the chances of that happening twice in 4 games was slim. Not the best logic, but I’m trying to win a championship here, ya feel me.

I got a little nervous during the pre game introductions. I saw one of their players whispering to their assistant coach, and they both started staring at me. This team is notorious for hard fouls and tough defense, and I was praying they weren’t concocting a plot to “accidentally” hit me in the face. Continue reading “Playoff Update/ Book Reviews”