forum.sickos.net

i need the sport explained to me
i think i know a lot more about the relationships on and off the court (or rather, that they exist)
than i do about. basketball

i mean i vaguely know the rules it's not a particularly complicated game
but i think when i got into football it was through finding the game interesting with stats and videos of crazy manœuvres
and then eventually i got into the personal stories and then team stories etc etc
and here i'm doing it completely backwards

complex plays exist in basketball but move very quickly. you're swapping players in and out based on how you want to match with your understanding of who the opponent is fielding. this could even include fielding someone who just annoys an opponent into fouling themself out.

i love how players have to make split second decisions on a bunch of small things: go left, right? drive or shoot from perimeter? pass around horn or direct? there's no optimal way to play the game; it's all in the moment decisions that are impacted by thing like stats, emotions, fatigue.

once i really got used to the pace of the game it started delighting my brain to ride along on that kind of rapid decision making. it's like watching someone play a bullet hell game. basketball has only one bullet so i'm now hereby calling it Human Hell

the stats do play into stuff; if your players are historically better in the paint the team is just going to play differently. do you have one long range sniper? then you'll probably focus all energy into getting them the ball and defending them. one pair of players that gel perfectly? they'll be executing tight passes on most plays. you start to be able to predict those strategies as you learn the players and i find that gratifying.

like people talk about caitlin clark a lot as this 3 point genius but her real strength is mentally syncing with another player (historically aaliyah boston) and making mind blowing passes through defenders for AB to lay up. if CC and AB are both out you know to anticipate that and it is amazing to see every time.

what else. uh the worst part of the game is foul meta. a lot of fourth quarters in (w)nba are intense 4d chess over causing or drawing fouls to stop the clock and force a change in possession. it can reaaaaally drag on and on and on.

oh another stats thought: when i'm watching a game my brain is checking the clock and computing roughly how many possessions are left and what kind of score each one of those possessions has to yield to create a lead. it's very fun -- sometimes you realize "oh wow this quarter is lost unless team A gets X possessions and hits 3s on all of them..and to get those X possessions they have to generate steals within 3 seconds or less"

and when a team rises to a challenge like that it creates a lot of hype and excitement.

complex plays exist in basketball but move very quickly. you're swapping players in and out based on how you want to match with your understanding of who the opponent is fielding. this could even include fielding someone who just annoys an opponent into fouling themself out.

i love how players have to make split second decisions on a bunch of small things: go left, right? drive or shoot from perimeter? pass around horn or direct? there's no optimal way to play the game; it's all in the moment decisions that are impacted by thing like stats, emotions, fatigue.

i feel like i'd be able to grasp this more now that i know what sports are like. football was good at first because it's an RTS where every move is choreographed, but i think i could take on a game that requires majority quick thinking

oh another stats thought: when i'm watching a game my brain is checking the clock and computing roughly how many possessions are left and what kind of score each one of those possessions has to yield to create a lead. it's very fun -- sometimes you realize "oh wow this quarter is lost unless team A gets X possessions and hits 3s on all of them..and to get those X possessions they have to generate steals within 3 seconds or less"

and when a team rises to a challenge like that it creates a lot of hype and excitement.

vilmibm you are going to fall in love with the bears. you never turn off a bears game because last season there were so many occasions where they climbed out of a 20 point hole in the last ten minutes of regulation