Mark Stein Snubs Eric Gordon: Are You Kidding Me?
by citizen zhiv on Dec 4, 2010 4:49 PM PST
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Steve Perrin will get mad at me for not mastering a simple link yet, and I was going to just do a fan post. But I started to lose my mind there for a second when I went over to ESPN, and I thought we might as well move on from the Denver game frustration, maybe find a new target for our spilkas.
So if you go to ESPN NBA you will see something about Team USA and a trio of photos, Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love, and Lamar Odom, Rudy Gay or Tyson Chandler. It's Mark Stein on Weekend Dime writing in a fair amount of depth about the impact of playing on Team USA on the performance of its members in the NBA this year.
To tell you the truth, I couldn't even read the thing.
I looked at the photos and was bummed that Eric Gordon wasn't there. So I clicked to the article, expecting to read about his analysis of Gordon and his amazing but quiet and futile run. Umm, no.
That's right. A cruel snub. Westbrook and Love. Odom, Gay, and Chandler. No Granger. And no Eric Gordon.
I wrote over at Clipperblog about how the 08 Rookie Race seems to be playing itself out again in some ways, as a number of the same guys are playing at All-Star level now. Of course, it takes some extra effort (of following the best players in the league, but you know, why would anyone be interested in doing that?) to know that Derrick Rose wasn't the only candidate in 08, despite being a wire-to-wire winner.
I'm not going to get into all of it all over again. Stein leaves out Rose because you don't need to talk about Rose. Westbrook is obviously a fine player to discuss. Odom's good play is a nice story I guess, though Bynum being out might have a lot to do with his production increase. And Odom made a significant contribution to Team USA. Unlike, say, Rudy Gay, Kevin Love, Danny Granger, and arguably Tyson Chandler. Love is rebounding like a demon, and Gay and Chandler are playing well enough I guess.
But does no one know what Eric Gordon has been doing lately? Really? They don't know at all?
This article by Stein isn't going to help. I'm going to go read it very angrily right now.
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I had the same thoughts..Oh, EJ isn't pictured, but he will have a nice paragraph or two...NOT!
TOTAL BS! Eric Gordon’s points per game are up more than any player in the league. He is in the top 10 in scoring and top 5 in free throw attempts. He has been attacking the rim and he has been one of the most consistent scorers in the league scoring 20+ points in 15 of his 18 games played this year.
Just for the record NBAFAN8 had this first in a fanshot...
There are 30 comments down there already.
My bad
Yeah, I saw that and commented down there. Better to get it up top though I think, so that Mike Smith and the others can make a point of it as they work up todays game.
by citizen zhiv on Dec 5, 2010 12:50 PM PST up reply actions
His late game scoring alone is worth mention
The fact that Eric Gordon is becoming the Clippers go to scorer is the single most important aspect here. We knew he was good because we watched him, and we bothered to understand his efficiency, especially compared to his backcourt draft mates. But it was almost understandable that others outside of Clips Nation didn’t know how good he was. Which makes this all the more bizarre.
There are a lot of good stories of Team USA players stepping up this season. Westbrook is number one, hands down. Love might be number two, except if you look at his PER last season, you realize that more than anything else, he’s just getting the minutes now that he always deserved. Gordon is a reasonable contender to Love for second on the list, and hand’s down the third. Gay/Odom/Chandler? Are you kidding, Stein? I’d actually put Steph Curry ahead of those guys also. But how anyone can miss EJ on that list is beyond me.
In this world, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant. Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. - Elwood P. Dowd
Realizing
As I was reading this over again, checking these excellent responses, that I managed to get this up in a place where it can be spoonfed to Mike Smith as a test to give a shoutout to SP and ClipsNation, by using his own actual catchphrase: “are you kidding me?” Going to adjust the title of the post for greater accuracy, in fact, right now.
I can hear him making this point in my head.
ESPN sucks...
I check power ratings, and Awards Watch, and that’s it. If you read anything else regarding the Clippers you’ll be pissed off.
At least the Awards Watch has EG for #2 Most Improved Player.
Zhiv
I posted on here after a game recap maybe a few weeks ago. EJ had just come off another 25+ game and I needed to vent about his lack of street cred. NO ONE OUTSIDE OF LOS ANGELES KNOWS WHO ERIC GORDON IS OR WHAT HE IS DOING. He was top 5 in scoring at that point (and essentially still is at 24.1). At the end of every game this season, he has carried the team on his back. Every close game, Eric has been there making the tough shots, keeping this team alive.
I’ve come to this conclusion: He’s the most valuable boring basketball player in the NBA. He looks boring, he talks boring, and he plays boring (straight to the rim basketball, drive and dumps, boring pick and rolls, boring perimeter defense, lack of emotion). He’s like the Tim Duncan of Shooting Guards. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if he pulls out a Steinbeck or Austen novel before he goes to bed.
It kills me that a lot of his success goes unreported, but that’s to come with the territory of being LA’s sister team. In the era of dwight’s youtube vids, blakes posterphobia, and KG’s trash talk snagging the headlines, good, old fashioned basketball seems to have taken a back seat. While unfortunate, and as much as I want to everyone to see what kind of guy we got here, I think EJ doesn’t mind being under the radar.
But it still kills me
Blame Blake Griffin
Posterphobia is a factor. Griffin has been so spectacular and exciting, and even scary, that Gordon has gotten lost. I think Milph was saying that it’s a good thing, that it’s great to be under the radar, but I’m not so sure. You want to start getting respect and calls, and if people don’t really know the way that you’re tearing it up, things happen like going to the rim 7 straight times and never getting a single call.
hey man don't knock Steinbeck!
he’s awesome :)
Steinbeck in the most endearing way possible. Give me Cormac McCarthy or John Irving any day of the week though. Or a SLAM magazine. With EJ on the cover.
by MarekTheBrave on Dec 4, 2010 8:25 PM PST up reply actions
Gordon going to bed with Pride and Prejudice
lol. Let’s make Griffin a Blood Meridian fan.
As Clipper fans we have to occasionally remember that the outside world, the real world, believes that we’re all insane. They don’t understand us at all. What we do doesn’t make any rational sense to them. - citizen zhiv
I have the SLAM with Gordon on the cover
Energy * Focus * No Excuses
by Takebb909 on Dec 4, 2010 10:26 PM PST via mobile up reply actions
slam is pretty good and predicting future stars
but they constantly show the clips absolutely no love in their mag. the clips are just a punchline to them. won’t be renewin.
Steinbeck
I had the same reaction… I love Steinbeck… and I love John Irving. Though I do find Irving to be a little up and down. Garp was amazing. Hotel New Hampshire was trying to be Garp, and didn’t get there. About the time I thought he’d lost it I read Owen Meany and he had me again.
In this world, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant. Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. - Elwood P. Dowd
by Steve Perrin on Dec 5, 2010 12:20 AM PST up reply actions
I'm reading Grapes of Wrath tomorrow
during my excruciating 14 hour flight back. I enjoyed East of Eden and Of Mice and Men thoroughly.
Help us Altered Beast you're our only hope.
Try some of the lighter stuff also
Cannery Row and Sweet Thursday… great characters, wonderful imagery… not at all oppressive as Grapes and others can be.
In this world, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant. Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. - Elwood P. Dowd
by Steve Perrin on Dec 5, 2010 12:22 PM PST up reply actions
Gotta Say It
I’m not really a Steinbeck guy. I mean, he’s okay and all, but he’s kind of a second rate dude. And Irving is too. Good, entertaining writers though, nothing wrong with them.
I’m more of a Dickens, George Eliot, Flaubert, Tolstoy, etc., guy, for starters, then Fitzgerald and Hemingway for the Steinbeck era. And I think I like Jack London better, as far as California goes. Not really a Mark Twain fan either, for what it’s worth. But what about Proust and Robert Musil for instance. Not huge on Faulkner. Steinbeck and Faulkner might be a tossup for me, and I suppose I’d happily go with Steinbeck there.
Irving? Garp okay, Hampshire and Owen Meany, Cider House… pretty entertaining, good pace. But I wouldn’t go nuts over them. Trying to think of what I like better, comtemporary stuff. I’m a Richard Yates nut, of course. But let me think about that one, come up with some good Irving comps. Saul Bellow and Philip Roth don’t quite fit, but wouldn’t you rather read Portnoy’s Complaint and Goodbye Columbus along with Garp, and then the later Roth (American Pastoral, Human Stain, etc.) instead. Lots of people reading Franzen right now.
Love Steinbeck and Grapes in particular
"[Fans are] not technically a lot of times savvy. They don't understand and they don't weigh issues the way that [I] weigh them."
Mike Dunleavy, Sr.
im picking up more on good authors
…but i must say i love Grapes of Wrath
Energy * Focus * No Excuses
It was Eric Gordon before he was a Clip…lol.
One of the last Clip player articles I remember them having was off Tim Thomas…what a joke.
Energy * Focus * No Excuses
by Takebb909 on Dec 4, 2010 10:40 PM PST via mobile reply actions
Marc Stein is from Cal State Fullerton
therefore, he cannot be wrong.
http://fullyclips.com/ - FullyClips!
True
it’s arguably a top 10 University (in the Los Angeles area).
Help us Altered Beast you're our only hope.
It would help if the Clips won a few more games
It’s not fair—the T-Wolves are maybe just as bad—but the Clippers’ record is the biggest obstacle. That and, as has been mentioned, Griffin’s highlight dunks. It’s tough for the four-letter network to notice TWO players on The Clippers. If we were remotely close to 500, then it’d be a different story.
Win games
and everybody will take notice.
4-16 record make a team disappear. Sad to say that we are still the worst NBA team with this record. ergo….in the eyes of those sports writer…we have the worst players in the NBA.
Losses do not elevate players only wins.
Per Marc stein's Twiiter
RT @its_me_kevin: @STEIN_LINE_HQ No Eric Gordon in Team USA section? (SHOULDA MADE IT CLEARER: STRUGGLES w/3s LEFT GORDON 6TH ON 5-MAN LIST)
I don’t fully agree, since Eric Gordon’s scoring has increased dramatically, while shooting at almost the same percentange. Nonetheless, his 3pt shooting% is a Baron-like 24%. Stein does make a good point. Could his 3 pt % be less due to his increased offensive production? It could be the case…tired legs don’t aim well. With Baron and Kaman back to strength, it will be interesting to see if EJ maintains this high scoring avg.
This is going to be my team, and we're going to rise together.
-Clipper Darrell
Possible that more aggressive play has temporarily affected EJ's outside shot... But Stein is still wrong
The guy just messed up, but instead of owning up to it, now he’s trying covering his tracks with a blazingly lame explanation. Anyone who’s actually watching can see the “bump” in EJ’s game. Besides, ESPN’s All Holy PER rating overwhelmingly concurs (nearly at 21 now, up from last year’s 14.15).
So with this latest Tweet, Stein is either lying or else he’s an idiot. I don’t believe that he was actually thinking that one aspect of EJ’s game should disqualify him. That’s so ridiculous that I HOPE he’s lying. Carelessness is better than vacuity, Marc.
"i know huh........freakin clippers man.....its like a wild ride rooting for this team....gotta love em....(sometimes) lol" In GrIfFin We TrUsT
It shows Stein isn't aware of EJ's game.
The EJ from Team USA is very different from the EJ we have now. Stein saw EJ do 2 things well in Turkey. Shooting 3’s and D’ing up. He sees EJ’s decline in 3 % from reading stats, not acknowledging his jump In overall play (like becoming a closer).
Clipper bias won’t end until we MAKE it end. By winning.
"Buckle your seat belts, folks. This one's going down to the wire." -The inimitable Ralph Lawler.
by Gordon for President on Dec 5, 2010 12:05 PM PST up reply actions
lame
As I ranted on the fan shot, he says he shoulda made it clearer… but he ignored EJ completely, not a single mention, so ‘clearer’ is not the question. He made no attempt to clarify originally. Moreover, why is he limited to man arbitrary five? His main point (Team USA players are getting a bump) is supported by more cases. Pretending that EJ was the final cut, that there was a fixed limit beyond his control, is ludicrous.
In this world, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant. Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. - Elwood P. Dowd
by Steve Perrin on Dec 5, 2010 12:26 PM PST up reply actions
As a T'Wolves fan, I know what Eric Gordon is doing, and I covet him for our team.
I call him D’Wade Lite.
I love the way he splits the defense on his drives. He’s a complete package w/o
the overweening ego. If I had a fantasy team, he’d be on it. If he’s flying under the
radar because he’s a Clipper, don’t worry about it. Those who know, know.
"Fighting contraction since 1989"
P.S. You guys have the kernel of a very good team. You just need some depth.
You are better than your record indicates (just like the Wolves).
I try to catch every Clippers game I can on TV or on LP.
I wish you were out of Staples and carved out your own area of influence.
The Pond (Honda Center), in Anaheim, maybe?
"Fighting contraction since 1989"
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