THE TEN-POINT SHOOTOUT: Packet 3 (GRANNY DANGER …



THE TEN-POINT SHOOTOUT: Packet 3 (GRANNY DANGER DOES IT AGAIN)

1. One of these entities, #7 on an NBA TV top 10 list, was a rollicking full-court number vs. the Lakers which evoked no challenge from James Edwards. Another was a reverse double-pump around the Knicks’ Doug Christie, and five of these occurred in Game 4 of the 1996 Finals, including a springy reverse after which its maker landed on Dennis Rodman’s shoulders. A famous one occurred after Nate McMillan’s shot had been blocked and occurred over Chris Gatling. Perhaps the most notable one happened in the 1992 Playoffs, where its creator cradled the ball in one arm before toppling a Warriors player, after which he rapidly pointed at his victim with both hands. For 10 Points, name these plays which include “The Lister Blister”, scoring plays by a Seattle Sonics player nicknamed “Reign Man”.

ANSWER: Dunks by Shawn Kemp

This is another situation where the answerline, as well as the audience’s likely knowledge of the material, poses a problem.. I chose to deal with the former problem with a bit of humor before revealing it outright in the second clue. Only five dunks are referenced, and I doubted anyone would have a specific memory of any in power, but who knows.

2. This player was involved in a locker-room fistfight with Lance Stephenson during the 2014 playoffs before a win over the Hawks. During the 2014-15 season this player hit two game-winners: a running floater to win a game versus Atlanta and a corner three off a broken play to beat the Blazers. During the same season numerous media outlets described him statistically as the league’s “most average player”. In one interview he said his New Year’s Resolution was to maintain his “27 years without getting arrested streak” and described a clutch pass to Jae Crowder as bringing up memories of Jordan to Kerr. During the most recent trade season he signed with Portland for 4 years, 70 million. For 10 Points, name this quotable NBA journeyman swingman who played two years for Boston but spent his first five with Philadelphia.

ANSWER: Evan Turner

The inspiration for this mostly came from the Titter ramblings of the player, but I figured that would be pretty transparent immediately. So it became a grab bag of clues instead.

3. The third episode of this person’s namesake show focused on an interview with local musician Reverend Peyton. The Intro to his show features critical basketball preparation skills, including Recovery, Defend, H2O, Form, Pivot, Nutrition, Sharing, and Conditioning, and it apparently airs on Southern Indiana and Alamo Cable Access. In one episode he used the acronym “BEEF” to teach the fundamentals of shooting: Breakfast, Earplugs, Earn, and Free Your Mind. Two episodes of his show featured Lithuanian correspondent Lukas Bonneris, and in one episode Tim Duncan dubbed this person “the Medium Fundamental”. The eponymous host of “Fundamentals of the Game”, his show features low-quality wipes and cheap Photoshop-esque visual effects as he demonstrates pure basketball skills. For 10 Points, name this alter ego of Spurs roleplayer and sandwich enthusiast Matt Bonner.

ANSWER: Coach B (prompt on “Matt Bonner”)

If people have not watched these videos, they are comedy gold. This is probably the most niche pop culture answerline in the tournament (none of the videos topped a million views, last I recall)t, and I didn’t really care if it was rarely answered. The Spurs’ famous HEB commercials are referenced in packet six.

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4. In the game which featured this incident little-remembered forward Dave Gambee scored 25, including 13 free throws, before fouling out. On the other team, Satch Sanders scored 18. This play occurred after an inbounds pass struck a basket support, leading to a rare form of turnover. Before that, one team’s center had gone on a personal 10-0 run and scored on an uncontested dunk to make the score 110-109. The team that won the game would defeat the West/ Baylor Lakers 4-1 in their second Finals matchup. Although Wilt Chamberlain had scored 30 points, this play happened after Hal Greer inbounded the ball with the intended target being Chet Walker. Occurring in Game 7 of the 1965 Eastern Conference Finals, For 10 Points, identify this famous purloining by an All-Star Celtics forward, immortalized by the ecstatic exclamations of the Boston announcer.

ANSWER: “Havlicek stole the ball!” (equivalents, such as “steal by Havlicek”, are fine – but name and theft must be included)

An instance where the actual play in question provided insufficient detail to sustain the entire tossup, so it’s bracketed with context clues. I recall one player being excited over the used of the verb “purloining”, so that’s a thing.

5. Among the competitors for the first of these moments was steals maestro Larry Kenon. Both of these moments happened in Denver’s McNichols Arena; the first lost the player involved $1500 to coach Doug Moe because he stepped on a line. The first of these moments, in 1976, was the second of five attempts allotted to each player; in the second the player involved replicated his effort at the age of 33, although he would lose the overall competition to Larry Nance. Artis Gilmore, then of the Kentucky Colonels, later recalled this moment by saying “Even before he took off he was really rolling, his afro blowing”. In 1984 this move received a 47, and then a 50 on its second instance, and in both contests this player conspicuously measured out his steps beforehand. For 10 Points, name these highlights of the 1976 ABA and 1984 NBA Dunk Contests, long-distance efforts from a longtime 76ers star.

ANSWER: Dr. J (or Julius Erving) Dunks from the Free Throw Line

Another fairly minimal action, at least in complexity, meriting a tossup. The dunk contest footage is among one of the few scraps of ABA material you can find out there.

6. It’s not Boston, but one team from this city called the Original Celtics started as a barnstorming club, and along with a team called the Hakoahs, represented this city in the American Basketball League. One team located in this city was created by Edward Irish as part of the Basketball Association of America, and a future NBA star won three high school championships here for Power Memorial Academy. This city was the site of the 2015 All-Star Game, which it hadn’t hosted since 1968. The scoring record of 60 points at an arena in this city was surpassed by Kobe Bryant in 2009; it had previously belonged to Bernard King. This city was the site of the famous call “and here comes Willis” in Game 7 of the 1970 Finals, and this city is home to the street-game Mecca of Rucker Park. For 10 Points, name this city home to the WNBA’s Liberty.

ANSWER: New York City

I thought it would be interesting to have a tossup on a city rather than a team, but that leaves a fairly restricted set of answerlines which really only encompasses the pre-NBA cities.

7. At the time, this Finals game set the all-time record for three-pointers attempted by both teams, with 62; 23 connected. In this game fifteen bench minutes came from Charles Jones, one of the few players ever with more fouls than points; one team’s bench only scored six points, those coming from Chucky Brown and Sam Cassell. In this game’s overtime period, one team’s only two points were scored by Horace Grant. After this game, its central player experienced a career downfall, including having his free-throw percentage cut in half. The most famous sequence from this game was followed by Kenny Smith draining a three with five seconds left to tie the game. It led to one player involved being nicknamed “Nick the Brick”. For ten points, identify this Finals game whose lead scorers were Hakeem Olajuwon and Shaquille O’Neal, famous for Nick Anderson missing four straight free throws with 10 seconds remaining .

ANSWER: 1995 NBA Finals, Game 1 (or Game 1, Houston Rockets – Orlando Magic Finals)

In order to provide enough clues, the tossup addresses the game instead of the incident at the end (how much detail can you give on missed free throws?). The Charles Jones clue I remembered from watching the Rockets’ Finals series some years before.

8. One player blocked blogger Ethan Sherwood Strauss’ Twitter for suggesting that he perform this action. One episode of Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History podcast focused on performing this action, which resulted in much George Johnson of the ‘70s Golden State Warriors doubling his percentage in a certain category. An article by Discover Magazine that analyzed the mechanics of shooting called this shot the most accurate shot physically possible, and this technique has been adopted by college player Chinanu Onuaku. Wilt Chamberlain attempted this technique during the early ‘60s, including during his 100-point game, but quit because he “felt…like a sissy.” For 10 points, name this shooting method most associated with Rick Barry, which many poor shooters are too macho or stupid (or both) to use from the charity stripe.

ANSWER: Shooting free throws underhanded (I suppose the “granny shot” is also an acceptable term for this practice)

This tossup suffers from a transparency problem that I didn’t really know how to fix. It works well enough with the opening clues, I thought.

9. During a game vs. Seattle in 1989, this player uncharacteristically got into a pushing match with Xavier McDaniel after giving a hard foul to Sedale Threatt (THREET). His highest PPG was 14.7 in 1993-4, right after he signed with the Suns as a free agent, and he temporarily wore a mask in 1996 after JR Reid elbowed him in the face, knocking out two teeth. He apparently suffered from chronic hiccoughs and proudly and publicly remained a virgin until marriage in 2002, after he had retired. The 23rd overall pick in 1985, the two initials of his first name actually stand for nothing, and are his legal name. During his career he missed only three games, during his second season, and set a record by playing 1,192 consecutive games. For 10 Points, name this role-player power forward, who won three championships as part of the Showtime and Shaq/Kobe Lakers.

ANSWER: A.C. Green (both names required)

One of the difficulty-restricting choices I made was to focus answers on star players, with only a few exceptions. This is one of them. Lots of interesting facts out there about A.C. Green.

10. This blog produces a longform journalism feature called the Big Summer Read, and in 2014 split from its ESPN overlords and created its own network with the help of Sports Illustrated and FanSided. Features on this blog include a podcast series named Over and Back which discusses deep cuts from the NBA past, such as the 50 Greatest list and a series which covered every game 7 in playoff history, in addition to the Red Rock fantasy cast. Written material includes and interview section called “Quo Vadimus”, short previews of upcoming games called “The 15-Footer”, and recaps of good and bad performances called “Lion Face/Lemon Face”. With the tagline “Unbiased opinions from extremely biased people”, For 10 Points, identify this all-NBA blog founded in 2007 by Matt Moore.

ANSWER: Hardwood Paroxysm

One of two representatives of “online basketball writing”, a subject you could write an entire packet about. I have no way of estimating the comparative popularity of different sites, so I picked the one which seemed the best and most professional out of the ones I frequented. This uncertainly influenced the unusually long power marking. Jerry V. later asked me online about why I didn’t write on the now long-defunct Basketbawful site, which was a brilliant location during its heyday. Saving that, I guess, for when I write that basketball journalism tourney.

11. The first NBA player hailing from this country played bits of two seasons with the Bullets and Spurs in the ‘90s as a three-point specialist, winning a championship, and led his national team to 4th at the 1996 Olympics. Center Chris Anstey, who logged backup minutes for Dallas and Chicago in the late ‘90s, was born in this country, and one player from this country started out in Minnesota but was traded for Stacey King in 1994. One player from this country buried the Miami Heat dynasty under a rain of three-pointers in Game 5 of the 2014 Finals. A poor-shooting second-year guard for the Jazz, Dante Exum, is from this country, and one player from this country was drafted first overall by the Bucks in 2005 before suffering a horrific elbow injury and being shipped to the Warriors for Ekpe Udoh and Monta Ellis. For 10 Points, name this Southern Hemisphere country home to Andrew Gaze, Patty Mills, Luc Longley, and Andrew Bogut.

ANSWER: Australia

Most every country starts its NBA life, it seems, by supplying the league with bulky, unathletic backup centers. Australia is no exception.

12. Otto Porter won this award in 2015, beating out finalists Brandon Knight and Dion Waiters. Voting for this award resulted in a tie in 2014, which was broken by a fan vote discarding Nick Young in favor of OKC center Kendrick Perkins. One player who won this award was disparaged for attempting an off-the-backboard pass to himself for a dunk while down 6, and for blowing numerous wide-open dunk attempts. The most recent recipient of this award, James Harden, was the first All-Star to do so, and was selected based on frequent defensive lapses and absences of effort. The only player to win this award multiple times was Nuggets and Wizards center Javale McGee, doing so from 2011-13. For 10 Points, name this “award” given out on NBA TV and TNT’s Inside the NBA, which a namesake former player awards for bloopers and low-basketball-IQ plays.

ANSWER: Shaqtin’ a Fool MVP

Is Inside the NBA important enough that it deserves two tossups? I’d say so, although both are on frivolous segments within the show. This segment has been partially spoiled by an inferior product that is put out by NBA TV, however.

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13. One player from this group was referred to as “Lord Fauntleroy” by one team’s announcer, who sarcastically called another member “a goody good boy”. Charles Barkley poked one member of this group in the eye during a dispute, and Robert Parish once sucker-punched a member of this group from behind in 1987. One member of this group was hit with an elbow from Karl Malone in 1990, requiring 40 stitches to fix. One player from this group nicknamed “The Microwave” hit a championship-winning shot against the Blazers; his name is Vinnie Johnson. Kevin McHale’s broken foot was repeatedly stepped on during the 1987 playoffs by a member of this group, Rick Mahorn, and another player was the namesake of a video game titled “Combat Basketball”. For 10 Points, name this group known for aggressive, physical play whose team captured the 1989 and 1990 championships.

ANSWER: The “Bad Boys” (or the “Detroit 1988/89/90 Championship Teams”, “Pistons in the Late ‘80s”, needs an additional descriptor beyond “Detroit Pistons”)

There’s a fair bit of overlap between this question and the Johnny Most tossup, because his vitriolic vituperation of the Pistons is in itself a sterling basketball moment. I didn’t really feel like disguising the fact that this group enmeshed themselves in numerous displays of violence, which probably led to it being pretty transparent. That’s probably an issue with any tossup on a “this group” – unlike football or baseball, teams and lineups in basketball haven’t garnered a large number of memorable nicknames.

14. This nickname was attached to Dominic Waters, who played with the Jazz summer league team in 2010 but went undrafted. Another player with this nickname also had the sobriquet “Garbage Man” and was a high-flying swingman for the Suns and the pre-Shaw Lakers, that being Cedric Ceballos. One player with this nickname was another swingman for Milwaukee and Orlando in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, named Jerry Reynolds. The most famous player with this word as part of their nickname, combined with “-Man”, was a star for the Spurs, who earned his nickname from Virginia’s Fatty Taylor because he never seemed to sweat during games. For 10 Points, identify this word that was part of George Gervin’s nickname, reflecting his cool demeanor.

ANSWER: “Ice”

George Gervin popped up several times, and I tried not to replicate clues between questions that mentioned him. The Jerry Reynolds clue has its genesis in Simmons, although I excise TBOB’s typically crass anecdote about him.

15. Wikipedia attributes the invention of this shot to University of Missouri player John Miller Cooper, who never played in the pros. Bill Simmons’ Book of Basketball mistakenly credits Paul Arizin, the star player of the 1950s Warriors, as the first player to employ this kind of shot. The NCAA acknowledges University of Wyoming player Kenny Sailors, who led the Cowboys to the 1943 NCAA title and played for seven pro teams, as its creator. This shot is the subject of a book by John Christgau about “Eight Men who Shook the World of Basketball”, including Joe Fulks, a star forward for the Warriors in the ‘40s and ‘50s. For 10 Points, identify this fundamental basketball skill, wherein a player hops upward in order to shoot from a higher position.

ANSWER: The Jump Shot (or Jumper)

This could probably be frauded fairly early on based purely on the dating. There aren’t a huge number of distinct basketball shots to begin with. Most of this information comes from Wikipedia’s accounts of the jump shot’s creation, which I figured was not a popular topic among the audience.

16. In 1994 this player was the basketball advisor for Kevin Bacon’s stellar film The Air Up There. He was traded by the Nets in 1981 for a 2nd round draft pick that would become the incomparable Kevin Williams, and Boston once traded him to the Pistons for two 1980 1st round picks. For two years this player battled over team leadership with Spencer Haywood on a team coached by Red Holzman. After his NBA career ended, he spent six years in Italy, winning two FIBA Champions Cups for Olimpia Milano. He spent four years with the Lakers, winning two titles backing up Kareem Abdul-Jabbar during the Showtime years. He also won the 1973 Rookie of the Year award and the 1975 NBA MVP. For 10 Points, name this jump-shooting center taken with the 1st overall pick by the Buffalo Braves in 1972

ANSWER: Bob McAdoo

I assumed this one would probably go until near the end, if only because I knew very little about the career movements of McAdoo.

17. This team’s first coach was former Pistons and Pacers assistant Dick Harter, who was replaced by Gene Little. In 1988 in an effort to monopolize both whiteness and baldness they drafted Tom Tolbert and Rex Chapman, and would learn from their mistake by drafting J.R. Reid the next year. This team upset the Boston Celtics in the first round in 1993 off a game-winning jump shot by their star center in Game 4, and relied for five years on a star forward whose costume in a Converse commercial led to his nickname “Grandmama”. The main employer of diminutive point guard Muggsy Bogues, in 1996 they acquired Vlade Divac in exchange for the draft rights to Kobe Bryant. For 10 Points, name this expansion team that started in 1988, led in the early years by the trio of Larry Johnson, Glen Rice, and Alonzo Mourning.

ANSWER: The Charlotte Hornets (or the New Orleans Hornets or the New Orleans Pelicans)

Tom Tolbert is a mediocre announcer whose gooberiffic approach to the sport is superior only to Tim Legler’s belligerent meatheadism among mediocre white three-point specialists who later moved into broadcasting.

18. One player with this last name, first name Drew, played three seasons total in the late ‘90s for Atlanta, Seattle, and Golden State; we should have seen more of him. One player with this last name scored 12 points in 3 minutes as a Piston to help defeat the Raptors in a first-round series in 2002. One player with this last name sat out an entire season to change leagues to the ABA’s Oakland Oaks to play under his father-in-law; another, nicknamed “Bones”, shot .476 from 3 in 2000-1 as a member of the Sonics. One player with this surname was the centerpiece of a 1967 Finals team and the 1975 Championship team, both for the Warriors, and another was the only Caucasian player to win a Slam Dunk Contest, in 1996. For 10 Points, give the common name of these players, all sharpshooters from the same family, Drew, Jon, Brent, and father Rick.

ANSWER: Barry

There are, if I recall correctly, no Barrys in NBA history who weren’t related, at least among players of any note. The first sentence of the tossup contains a stealthy joke.

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19. SB Nation’s Mark Hinog created a mash-up of this basketball-related tune with Kanye West’s “I Love Kanye”. At least one episode of “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” played this song over a clip from It’s a Wonderful Life where Jimmy Stewart rescues Clarence from the river. In 2016 it was sampled by still-alive rapper Nelly for a song entitled “Heart of a Champion”, and it inspired a piss-poor SNL sketch in 2013 where its performers pitch it to television executives. In live performances this song’s creator often tells the anecdote of originally coming up with it on an answering-machine message to himself, and this song was revived for coverage of 2008 Olympic basketball. Used from 1990-2002, For 10 Points, what keyboard-heavy theme was created for hoops broadcasts by Mr. John Tesh?

ANSWER: Roundball Rock (also accept the NBA on NBC theme, or if the player displays exceptional skill at humming it)

Probably the most transparent tossup in the set, despite my efforts to find sufficiently deep clues for it. Even score clues wouldn’t have helped much, as there are very few notable basketball songs, and I imagine the other ones would be negged with this answer very quickly. “Sweet Georgia Brown” is the only alternative except for gimmicky stuff such as “Like Mike”, and the NBA on CBS theme would be memorable only to geriatrics.

20. The only bench points for one team in this game were six from Glen Davis, whose team only played 28 bench minutes total. The other team in this game entered the penalty with 6:49 left and doubled up their opponent’s free throws but missed 12 of them; they also collected a whopping 23 offensive rebounds, including a deciding one with 28 seconds left. Rasheed Wallace hit a key three-pointer with 1:23 remaining, and was forced to play 36 minutes before fouling out, as his team’s starting center had been injured the previous game. This game was put out of reach by a memorable if unexpected Ron Artest three-pointer with a minute on the clock, and his team’s star only scored one basket in the fourth quarter on four attempts. For 10 points, identify this last game in the Big Three era of the Celtics, which resulted in a Finals MVP for Kobe Bryant despite shooting a poor 6-24 from the field.

ANSWER: 2010 NBA Finals, Game 7

One of the last tossups I wrote for the set. What an ugly game and series. Early in the writing process I did my best to avoid a Celtics/Lakers bias, but that proved tough, as many of the shining basketball moments of my NBA-watching life have involved one or the other of them.

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