THE TEN-POINT SHOOTOUT: Packet 5



THE TEN-POINT SHOOTOUT: Packet 5

(THE ODYSSEY OF OMER – ASIK NEW LANDS)

1. This event occurred soon after one player involved claimed to the media the other had reached “peak annoyingness”, and several games later the same players would crash to the floor after an attempted arm-lock. One player involved later stated “It happened before, mate. He’s pretty accurate”, and Max Valiquette later labeled this event the “Slam Junk Contest.” Similar follow-throughs in Game 5 involved Andre Roberson and Russell Westbrook nearly being struck in the face, and the previous day a similar event resulted in a Dahntay Jones suspension for a foul committed against Bismack Biyombo. Controversy ensued after this act received a mere Flagrant 1 foul. For 10 Points, identify this action taken in Game 3 of the 2016 Western Conference Finals, where a Golden State player committed an egregious intentional foul on an OKC center via an allegedly natural follow-through.

ANSWER: Draymond Green kicking Steven Adams in the Groin (accept equivalents, including the “Slam Junk Contest” before mention)

At the time, this answer was probably incredibly transparent, esp. inclusive of the word “mate” in the Stephen Adams quotation; if played in five years, it might be almost unanswerable. I treat the incident as an intentional foul, because, well, it was.

2. Along with Steve Hawes, this player was traded to the Atlanta Hawks for Maurice Lucas in 1976, but immediately suffered a career-ending knee injury. He played under coaches such as Stu Inman and Jack McCloskey, and alongside players such as LaRue Martin, Rick Adelman, and Sidney Wicks during his early career. After being the 8th overall pick in 1970, he shared the 1971 Rookie of the Year with Dave Cowens. A two-time All-Star, for 40 years he held the single-game scoring record for the Blazers, with 51 points. After his early retirement he worked as Portland’s VP of basketball operations before being hired by Sacramento. For 10 Points, name this player and executive, who won two Executive of the Year awards for building the entertaining 2000s-era Kings teams.

ANSWER: Geoff Petrie

This one’s pretty tough, so you better know your executives or the roster composition of the early ‘70s Blazers. I am only reliable for one of these categories.

3. One player with a nickname with this word in it had the last name Whitney and portions of two seasons with the Kansas City Kings from 1980-82. In addition, this word was a nickname of journeymen Tom Workman and Adrian Griffin, as well as Vernon Maxwell. Players with this four-letter word as part of their last name include a backup small forward for the Lakers and Royals in the ‘60s, but also a chippy shooting guard who played for the 76ers, Hornets, and Sonics in the ‘90s and was an All-Star in 1991. Perhaps the most notable player with this word in their last name was a 4-time All Star banned from the league for a college point-shaving scandal in 1961, won an ABA championship for the Pittsburgh Pipers, and played for the Suns before being reinstated in 1969. For 10 points, provide this avian word, part of the surname of NBA players Connie and Hersey.

ANSWER: Hawk (their last name is Hawkins; the nickname “Hawkeye” applies to the first player mentioned)

No sympathy for the player in the IRC shootout who answered “Bird” to this question.

4. Bubba Wells set an NBA record while using this sort of play, whose first modern use was in 1997 by Don Nelson to take advantage of Dennis Rodman. Gregg Popovich implemented this play in the first five seconds of the 2008-9 season as a joke, giving two thumbs up to the opposing player involved. Bruce Bowen was an occasional target of this strategy, despite being a fine three-point shooter. Commentator/court jester Jeff Van Gundy has gone on numerous rants against this strategy, which was used early on against Wilt Chamberlain, leading to new rules regarding the last two minutes of the game. This strategy was used to great effect by the Blazers against the Rockets in the 2014 First Round, and then by the Spurs vs. DeAndre Jordan in 2015. For 10 Points, name this strategy, used to reduce an opponent’s Points Per Possession by intentionally fouling weak free throw shooters.

ANSWER: Hack-a-Shaq (or the intentional foul before mention)

I swapped the first and second sentences of this question after gameplay, because that Popovich video is simply too famous. The question still has a transparency issue that I don’t know how to fix. Bubba Wells’ record is the quickest foul-out.

5. Overtime in Game 1 of this series featured six clutch points from Tyrus Thomas, and in Game 5 Brad Miller was whacked in the face as time expired but without a suspension being assessed. Miller would later score five straight at the end of regulation in Game 6. One team had little-used reserves Mikki Moore and Stephon Marbury, and one game was decided by a John Salmons block on a last-second three-pointer. The eventual game-winner in one game was a coast-to-coast dunk-plus-foul by Joakim Noah, and in its first game Derrick Rose set a rookie record for scoring, with 36. Ben Gordon hit a fallaway three to force double overtime in Game 4, but Game 6 included 51 points and nine threes from Ray Allen in a game that would go to triple overtime. Kevin Garnett sat out with injury, For 10 Points, what playoff series which set a record with 7 overtimes, perhaps the most entertaining opening series in recent memory.

ANSWER: Chicago Bulls – Boston Celtics, Eastern Conference First Round, 2009

There are simply too many great clues for this series. Power is perhaps a little stingy compared to the rest of the tournament. Asking for the year is harsh, but these teams have played each other many, many times. At the end of the question, it basically only asks for the year.

6. Bill Simmons related that this player’s attempt to mentor Ralph Sampson led to coach Bill Fitch telling Sampson “You stay away from that no-good fucking prick.” At one point he was traded for Jack Marin and cash, and in 1981 was traded to the Rockets for two second-round picks. Despite being frequently targeted by sportswriter Bob Ryan for being selfish and un-clutch, this player holds the record for most offensive rebounds in a Finals game with 11. In the second-to-last game of his career, in Houston, he played all 53 minutes of a meaningless overtime game, and finished his career with exactly 50,000 minutes played. He ranks 4th all-time in rebounds and was a prolific scorer and rebounder in three Finals series in the 1970s. For 10 Points, name this 12-Time All-Star power forward who played most of his career with the Bullets, known as the “Big E”.

ANSWER: Elvin Hayes (Accept “the Big E” before mention)

With this question I avoided too much mention of the accomplishments of the ‘70s Bullets, which had been remarked upon in at least two other questions. The TBOB clue at the start is probably too obvious considering how many people have read Simmons, but it’s too good a clue not to use.

7. On the Lowe Post, George Karl described a rivalry with this man over the arcade game Donkey Kong in a bar while this man was playing for the CBA’s Montana Golden Nuggets; this man would later work as an assistant under Karl in Seattle. As a head coach he held positions in Atlanta and Milwaukee before coordinating offense for the Mavericks’ 2011 championship. In his current position, he has inspired a subreddit dedicated to pictures of his expressive face, called “Rare [his name]s”. In 2014 he wore a checkered leisure suit combo to honor his team’s deceased former coach Jack Ramsay, and this year he unexpectedly coached a projected cellar-dweller in the West to the second round. For 10 Points, name this current coach of the Portland Trailblazers.

ANSWER: Terry Stotts

This is probably the question which was a/effected the most by my Blazers bias.

General or Non-Quantitative Answer Acceptable

8. NBA TV claims that the top play that happened during this achievement was a steal off Jason Terry that led to a double alley-oop. It included a game-winning isolation jumper against Boston and a game-winning drive around Orlando’s DaeQuan Jones, and started with a ho-hum victory over the Raptors on February 3rd. Its closest win was a victory on February 26 over the Kings in double overtime, where Chris Andersen scored in double figures 1 of 3 times that season. The team that accomplished this finished 66-16, and it ended with a 101-97 loss to the Chicago Bulls on March 27. The team that did this would win their second consecutive championship that year against the Spurs. Featuring 17 wins by double digits, For 10 Points, name this lengthy sequence of victories for Lebron James and co., the second-longest win streak in NBA history.

ANSWER: The Miami Heat 27-game winning streak in 2012-2013

Here’s an effort to avoid excessively tough answerlining by looking for an answer that doesn’t want year or number. Since this was an achievement that happened exactly once, I think it fits, but it’s not a model that necessarily can apply to other questions.

9. This play largely overshadowed the events of the actual game, which featured a 16-point comeback by the home team behind 11 unlikely points from Devin Brown; the opposing team’s second highest scorer was Devean George. “The Null Hypodermic” blog broke this play down frame-by-frame, concluding that it was technically impossible, and it resulted in a formal protest, as relayed by beat writer Dusty Garza, based on estimates of human reaction time. In reference to the previous play, a Tim Duncan fallaway over him that made the score 73-72, Shaquille O’Neal would afterwards say “one lucky shot deserves another”. Resulting from an inbound from Gary Payton after Kobe Bryant was double-teamed, For 10 Points, name this pivotal shot from Game 5 of the 2004 Western Conference Semifinals, often referred to by the miniscule amount of time Derek Fisher took to make it.

ANSWER: The .4 Play (accept equivalents which mention Derek Fisher beating the Spurs with a miraculous shot)

Devin Brown makes one of at least two appearances here. One of multiple questions that references last-second baskets in a fairly abstract way, with the Null Hypodermic clue. To this day I’m not sure either way whether this basket should have counted.

10. Wikipedia claims that originators of this move could have been Lithuanian star Pranas Talzunas or Globetrotter Goose Tatum. Tommy Heinsohn’s autobiography is titled Give ‘em the [this kind of shot]”, and one variety of this shot was named by Eddie Doucette, longtime announcer for the Milwaukee Bucks. Lebron James hit one to defeat the Nets in November 2015, and it was George Mikan’s favorite shot. One famous user of this shot was famously blocked twice by Wilt Chamberlain consecutively in the 1972 playoffs. A shot of this type won Game 6 of the 1974 Finals in double overtime, and Magic Johnson hit one over Kevin McHale to win Game 4 of the 1987 Finals. For 10 Points, name this basic basketball shot, whose “sky” variety was a weapon for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

ANSWER: the Hook (accept “Sky Hook” throughout)

This was originally “Sky Hook”, but opening it up allowed for a much wider range of clues.

Team AND City Name Required. Be cautious.

11. Coaches for this team included its first one, Carl Bennett, but also “Curly” Armstrong, Paul Birch, and Charles Eckman, who would continue on when they changed cities. Players for this franchise included future coaches Gene Shue and Alex Hannum, as well as shooting guard Max Zaslofsky and center Larry Foust. This team’s name originally included the word “Zollner”, named after the foundry corporation which owned them, as part of the National Basketball League and Basketball Association of America. Their best record was in 1954-5, where they went 43-29 and lost in the Finals to the Syracuse Nationals; they also lost Finals to the Philadelphia Warriors and George Mikan’s Minneapolis Lakers. For 10 Points, identify this founding NBA franchise, which moved to Detroit in 1957 after originally being located in a mid-sized city in Indiana

ANSWER: The Fort Wayne Pistons

This was a concession to the need to include “pioneers” content. Knowing that the Pistons originated in a mid-sized city in Indiana seems like a worthy piece of NBA history.

General Description Acceptable

12. After this incident, one player joked that he’d “been working on the guns a bit – might have landed some combos to the body” regarding a foul call. One coach quipped that his state had “ the most powerful microscopes and telescopes”, which couldn’t detect “a shred of fairness”. The actual game saw an 11-point fourth-quarter comeback by the road team, and afterwards the aggrieved party pointed to a similar but unpunished infraction during Game 4 after Francisco Elson landed on James Jones. In a less-remembered part of this incident, Raja Bell was elbowed in the throat, and the previous scoring play had been a pick-and-roll where one team’s power forward finished over Tim Duncan to take a three-point lead. It occurred with 20 seconds to go and the Suns up 100-97 in a Game 4. For 10 Points, identify this dust-up from the 2007 Western Conference Semifinals and the resultant controversial punishment, the ugliest moment in the mid-2000s Phoenix-San Antonio rivalry.

ANSWER: The Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw suspensions after the 4th game of the 2007 Western Conference Semifinals (accept any of the following: Horry fouling Nash, resulting in players leaving the bench, the Suns bench suspensions, and anything that shows clear knowledge that 1) Robert Horry fouled Steve Nash 2) Phoenix Suns players were suspended for leaving the bench)

I’m not super happy about how this question turned out, mostly because it’s uncomfortably trying to bridge the gap between two different but related answerlines: the Suns bench suspensions and Horry checking Nash into the scorer’s table.

13. This number was proudly worn by Vern Mikkelsen and Beno Udrih, although its most famous wearer is probably Willis Reed. Patrick Ewing hit exactly this number of three-pointers during his career, and the immortal Donyell Marshall tied a record by hitting 12 3-pointers in a game on this many attempts. The Clippers set a modern record by scoring this many points in a half vs. the Lakers in 1999, and Bob Cousy holds a record for dispensing this many assists in a half. The winning score in the lowest-scoring NBA game was this number, in a pre-shot clock 1950 win by the Pistons over the Minneapolis Lakers, through the tactic of “not doing anything for minutes at a time.” For 10 Points, identify this number, the amount of seasons played by John Stockton, Karl Malone, and the recently retired Tim Duncan.

ANSWER: 19

A unique sort of answerline for the set. I wouldn’t have been against writing more questions of this type on principle, but none of them occurred to me. The first clues lay down verifiable facts before moving on to context-based clues (the Ewing and Marshall clues are unlikely to be known exactly, but are good ballpark clues).

14. This basketball writer apparently started a copywriting business called Gekko Productions, whose domain name is for sale if anyone’s interested. He wrote a controversial article for ESPN in 2014 which posited that Kobe Bryant’s abrasive personality was hindering the Lakers’ ability to secure big-name free agents. He created a blog whose eponymous “TV” section features short interviews between reporters who cover various NBA teams. Originally gaining fame for a basketball blog, he expanded that to an ESPN-run network with franchises covering nearly every NBA team, and which includes people like Kevin Arnovitz, Marc Stein, and Brian Windhorst. For 10 Points, name this bald, bespectacled founder of Truehoop.

ANSWER: Henry Abbott

Tough to find good clues for this one. Since every ESPN personality writes an article every week or so, singling out individual pieces was an unhelpful idea.

15. This team’s first coach was Al “Blinky” Bianchi, who only lasted two years before bolting to the ABA; his squad featured fellow Als Al Tucker and Al Hairston, as well as Walt Hazzard. Spencer Haywood went to the All-Star Game four times for this team, and their first playoff trip came under coach Bill Russell (the Bill Russell). “Downtown” Freddie Brown played his entire NBA career for this team, which started as an expansion squad in 1967. In the late ‘70s they built a core featuring former Celtic Paul Silas and won their lone Finals in revenge against the Washington Bullets, who had beaten them in the previous year. For 10 Points, name this team that won the 1979 NBA Championship behind Finals MVP Dennis Johnson, who were in the Northwest Division before being shamefully moved in 2008.

ANSWER: The Seattle Supersonics

Here’s some content about the early days of the Supersonics. I wonder how many championships are represented outright in the set, especially from 1970-present; I’m willing to bet that at least 2/3 wind up being directly or indirectly mentioned. Hopefully someone will gain some educational value from reading the set.

16. This player, while moonlighting in baseball, became the only MLB player ever ejected without appearing in a pro game. He led the league in free throw shooting seven times, and still holds the playoff record for consecutive free throws with 56. This shooting guard once took a swing at Jerry West for making eight straight shots against him. After playing he coached championship teams for the ABL’s Cleveland Pipers and the ABA’s Utah Stars, as well as with the NBA’s Lakers; Bill Simmons relates that he mollified Wilt Chamberlain by constantly seeking his opinions on the bench. A sharpshooter who never shot less than 40% for the field after his second season, he won four championships as a player. For 10 Points, name this Boston guard who was the backcourt mate of Bob Cousy for the Celtics dynasty.

ANSWER: Bill Sharman

Another question that would have been insultingly easy in 1965.

17. Willie Green has appeared in this game at least three times to date; other repeat players have included Aaron Gray. A head-to-head version of this event was played in 2011, although it was undone by overt cheating by one participant. One special edition of this game was a career retrospective with three contestants and a focus on Chucky Brown. The all-time high score in this game is 2, recorded in the initial incarnation of the game in 2003, in 2009, and one year where the correct answers were Hilton Armstrong and Mike Muscala. The only correct answer during the 2012 incarnation of this event was Jarrett Jack, who had just been signed by the Golden State Warriors. Occurring on the opening night of the season, For 10 Points, name this recurring segment from Inside the NBA, were Charles Barkley attempts, poorly, to match benchwarmers who moved during the offseason with their new teams.

ANSWER: Who He Play For?

An annual Inside the NBA tradition that you can play along with at home.

18. Chris Gatling played his first five years with this team before being traded to Miami in 1996, along with a more popular player, for Kevin Willis and Bimbo Coles. One owner of this team, Jim Fitzgerald, had previously owned the Milwaukee Bucks. This team acquired power forward Billy Owens in exchange for a popular point guard and selected Joe Smith as the first overall pick in 1995. A player from this team set the playoff record for points in a quarter with 29 vs. the Lakers in 1987, that being Eric “Sleepy” Floyd. They defeated the Denver Nuggets in the NBA’s highest-scoring game ever, due to their coach’s eponymous fast-paced strategy, and in the ‘90s featured a popular trio of Mitch Richmond, Tim Hardaway, and Chris Mullin. For 10 Points, name this home of Run-TMC, whose worst mid-90s luck happened when Latrell Sprewell throttled coach PJ Carlesimo.

ANSWER: The Golden State Warriors

Chris Gatling’s back, and I believe if one was paying attention earlier in the set, this question could be potentially first-lined. Whoops. I think that in the IRC shootout Naveed destroyed this question, so it didn’t matter much.

19. To this day this player holds the single-season record for Free Throw percentage by a center, with 92.2% in 1987-8. Since retirement, this player has worked off-and on as an assistant for Rick Adelman in Houston and Minnesota, and he earned seven straight All-Stars from 1979-85. This perimeter center became a prototypical “Stretch 5”, hitting close to 200 three-pointers his last three seasons. He anchored the middle on teams starring Terry Cummings and Sidney Moncrief that advanced deep into the Eastern playoffs but were frequently crushed by the Celtics. He was also known for a hideous curly blond perm in the mid-‘80s. A key part of the 1979 NBA Championship team, For 10 Points, name this smooth-shooting center for Seattle and Milwaukee.

ANSWER: Jack Sikma

A moderately obscure player for a modern audience, but one of the most memorable of his day. Seattle’s 1979 championship, mentioned earlier, comes home to roost. The quip that they were “frequently crushed by the Celtics” is a bit cruel, as they beat the Celtics in 1982 or 3.

20. One of these claims that a teammate told Robert Parish that he was “going to kick your ass”, which earned the response “No, you really aren’t. Another one of these claims that a former president was chided for playing golf “from the little girls’ tees”, and another, created by Bill Simmons, involved pistol-whipping Brad Sellers in a shower. One of these involved airport workers being paid to put someone’s bags first on a luggage carousel, and another concerned rapper Chamillionaire, who was instructed to buy an expensive jersey before being allowed to take a photograph. One of these involved cheating in a card game with Buzz Peterson’s mother, and another was a response to LaBradford Smith scoring 37 points in a game in 1993. One of these involved six months of ping-pong practice in order to defeat a teammate, and another involved Rodney McCray being told “You’ve always been a loser.” These include an episode where Allan Houston was held scoreless for two hours in a scrimmage after the Olympic team lost to college players. One of these narratives includes Charles Barkley being bought a diamond earring, and then the explanation “He thinks we’re great friends. I hate that fat fuck.” A famous story of this type comes from the 1995 playoffs, where Muggsy Bogues was instructed to “shoot it, you fucking midget”. One of the most famous of these is that the player involved was cut from his high school team, when really he merely played junior varsity. For 10 Points, name this category of NBA anecdotes, which are meant to illuminate the cutthroat nature of a particular player.

ANSWER: Probably-apocryphal Michael Jordan stories which imply in a congratulatory manner that he’s an overly competitive sociopath (synonyms for “stories” are fine)

The longest tossup in the set, in a nod to the proliferation of these stories. As mentioned earlier, the “Jordan Rules” tossup contains a few possible clues for this tossup. The underlining is less strict than it could be, because I imagined a plethora of ways this might be answered. I don’t actually have anything versus Michael Jordan. By the way, if it hasn’t been mentioned already, I tried to pick interesting tossups for the first and last questions of every packet.

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