What is a lay-up, anyway?
I’m watching Mike Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser pontificate, again, on things they know very little about, and they are, as usual, reiterating the conventional wisdom while pretending to be outrageous or iconoclastic or hard-hitting or something. They keep referring to the last-second shot Courtney Lee missed last night as a “lay-up,” and Wilbon, in particular, says that Lee deserves to be considered the “goat” for this miss. But there’s two things to be said about this: First, it wasn’t a lay-up, it was an alley-oop. And, second, while Turkoglu’s pass was pretty good, it wasn’t, pace Stan Van, great. (Don’t get me wrong, Stan Van, it was a great call. Still the timing needed to be perfect, which it wasn’t.) Lee caught the ball while jumping toward the baseline, and he caught it at basically his waist, and, more important, it was already under or maybe even behind the backboard when he got to it. So he had to scoop it back under the board, away from his own momentum. His big mistake was to try to bank it when that was physically almost impossible, given the angle, but if he had tried a finger-roll over the side rim – his only real option – well, that really would have been something, an act of touch and body control you might expect from very few players in the history of the game. Michael Jordan comes to mind. Sure, it looked easy, because player and ball were close to the basket, but it wasn’t easy, because backboards, when they’re in the way, tend to make stubborn barriers. This is the sort of practical wisdom that I’m guessing both Wilbon and Kornheiser have straightforward excuses for being innocent of.
I appreciate speaking truth to power as much as the next guy, but the chance that Michael Wilbon “know[s] very little about” the NBA in general or what a layup is specifically — given that he’s been a sports journalist for nearly 30 years and covered the NBA finals for the Post for 20 — is less than 0.
A more accurate criticism is that they know a lot about it, but they prefer to cling to sensationalist narratives (particularly those that hype conflict).
— sidereal · Jun 9, 12:26 AM · #
Matt, you’re right; this is a particularly silly line of criticism against Lee (though the missed layup with 9 seconds left was bad). As Bill Simmons wrote today:
“But anyone who says that was an easy layup has obviously never played basketball. Ever.
“Do me a favor: Go to a playground with a buddy, bring a 7-foot guy with you, stand at midcourt, then sprint toward the basket, have a buddy throw a lob pass that you’ll catch as you’re passing under the backboard, then have the 7-foot guy jump at you and grab the rim for good measure. Try this 100 times and see how many you make. Put it this way: If Lee made that shot, it’s one of the great plays in the history of the Finals. So you can’t give him a crap. You just can’t.”
— Sonny Bunch · Jun 9, 12:41 AM · #
“But there’s two things to be said about this: First, it wasn’t a lay-up, it was an alley-oop.”
These aren’t mutually exclusive. An alley-oop can end in a dunk or a layup or any other kind of shot that doesn’t involve first touching the ground after receiving a pass in the air. The use of “layup” to mean something that is easy to do is connotation, not denotation.
— Criminally Bulgur · Jun 9, 01:18 AM · #
Sidereal, I didn’t say Wilbon knows very little about the NBA. I’m sure he knows a lot about David Robinson’s and Clyde Drexler’s biographies and assorted bits of the trivia and generalities he specializes in on PTI (his regular appearances between Jon Barry and Magic Johnson, though, show an almost total lack of insight into the workings of an actual game). My point is exactly the one from Bill Simmons in Sonny’s comment.
— Matt Feeney · Jun 9, 01:27 AM · #
It was a hard shot but if he had made it the magic would have had a chance. No they have very little chance. It was very painful. Remember when (what’s his name) Anderson missed three free throws and doomed a previous Magic team (do I have the details right?)? He was never the same.
— cw · Jun 9, 01:49 AM · #
Sorry Matt, while I think your comment above clarifies somewhat, the phrasing in the original post comes off pretty catty.
— Andrew · Jun 9, 02:04 AM · #
Don’t be sorry, Andrew. I meant it to be catty.
— Matt Feeney · Jun 9, 02:15 AM · #
Well then, I gently rescind my apology.
— Andrew · Jun 9, 02:43 AM · #
No need to clarify, Matt. Anybody who plays hoops got it. And they’re the only ones who count.
— b1231 · Jun 9, 02:55 AM · #
CW that would be Nick Anderson.
— pc · Jun 9, 04:24 AM · #
Here’s the wikipedia summary on Anderson:
Post-1995 Career
Two seasons after the 1995 finals, Anderson’s career took an abrupt downward spiral, largely due to a sudden inability to shoot free throws, and he even suffered an injury in Game 3 of the conference finals in a rematch against the Bulls and was out for the season. During the 1996-97 season, Anderson free throw shooting percentage tumbled to a career-low 40.4% and his scoring average to 12.0 points per game. Anderson had to be removed from the closing minutes of several close games due to his undependability at the charity stripe.
His struggles worsened through the first half of the 1997-98 season. Through January 27 of that season, Anderson was averaging only 6.5 points per game, and shooting a paltry 36.3% from the free throw line.
I had no idea it was that bad; shades of RIck Ankiel.
— pc · Jun 9, 04:28 AM · #
Thanks, b1231. Bulgur, I will grant your first point as a matter of occasional usage, but there’s a better term for short non-dunks off a high touch – e.g. put-backs, alley-oops, etc. – and that’s “lay-in.” “Lay-in” is used to make precisely this distinction from “lay-up” (i.e. “lay-up” is sometimes lazily used in place of “lay-in,” but the reverse is not the case). If you want to get technical, “lay-up” denotes Bob Cousy picking up his exclusively right-hand dribble, planting his left Chuck Taylor and spinning one off the diamond into the twines with some nifty english.
— Matt Feeney · Jun 9, 05:01 AM · #