Two Halves

By my count, every team in the league has played at least 22 home games, giving us 22 games' worth of attendance data to study. Interestingly, if you split those 22 games into two halves, you get some surprising numbers when comparing the results from this year to last year.

For example:

- The NBA averaged 8,642 fewer fans per night in the first 11 games of the season, when compared to last season.

- In the second 11 games, the league averaged 11,512 fewer fans per night, a 33 per cent drop off. Is that a trend, or just minor fluctuation in numbers?

- Attendance per night of the week:
Sunday: 1,420,325, 80 nights, 17,754 per night
Monday: 1,415,468, 84 nights, 16,850 per night
Tuesday: 1,635,538, 97 nights, 16,861 per night
Wednesday: 2,500,580, 154 nights, 16,237 per night
Thursday: 614,378, 32 nights, 19,199 per night
Friday: 2,538,808, 146 nights, 17,389 per night
Saturday: 2,069,891, 117 nights, 17,691 per night

- Largest crowd: 22,076, Detroit, five times this season

- Smallest crowd: 9,220, Clippers at New Jersey, Jan. 27, 2010

- Lowest median attendance: New Jersey, 12,131

- Largest standard deviation in attendance: Philadelphia, 3,237

Read the rest here!

Tender Juicy Fans Rejoice!

Supersonicsoul's new favorite basketball team, the Tender Juicy Giants, now have their own official Facebook page. Sign up to become a fan of the squad that Alton Lister calls "the deepest team in the league". Plus, they're named after processed meat!

Read the rest here!

A Cut Above

From the "What The ?" Files (courtesy of Hoopsvibe's 50 Fun NBA Facts):

12. Spencer Haywood, whose Supreme Court battled paved the way for early-entry NBA players, circumcised himself as a teenager.

In that context, I suppose, challenging a professional sports league all the way to the Supreme Court doesn't seem all that incredible of a feat, now does it?

Kind of reminds me of the scene in JAWS where Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw exchange stories about their scars (this isn't the whole scene, but it's the best part). I'm guessing if Spencer Haywood had been on that boat, Quint and Hooper would have just shut up and drank some more whiskey.

Bottom line: Xavier McDaniel has now been surpassed as the toughest man in Sonic history.

Read the rest here!

But what about the Luis Scola fans?

Was watching the Serena Williams-Li Na match last night (a great match, by the way, with some incredible toughness by Williams in the second set), and at one point Dick Enberg threw it down to Pam Shriver where she interviewed some random Chinese journalist.

Setting aside Shriver's nonsensical final question: "Hey, Mr. Reporter-man, can you say something in Chinese to Dick Enberg?" Chinese Man: "Unintelligible to all the listeners who don't speak my language." Dick Enberg: "Where's my son when I need him! He's fluent in Chinese! Oh, my!" Rest of world: "Dick knows Chinese is not a language, right?"

Wait, where was I? Right, back to Shriver. Anyhow, because of the presence of two Chinese women in the semifinals at the Australian Open, she thought it was a good time to ask the state of tennis' popularity in China.

And that's where it got interesting, at least from an NBA perspective. Now, granted, this is just one random Chinese man's opinion, but he told Shriver that the three most popular sports in China at the moment are table tennis, badminton, and diving, but that the fact Li Na and her compatriot have done so well at the open could mean that tennis will certainly come close, while also mentioning soccer as a rising popular sport.

But, interestingly, he didn't say a word about basketball. No Yao Ming, no Houston Rockets, no Tracy McGrady all-star votes, nothing. Hey, it doesn't mean that the NBA is floundering in China, but for all the chest-thumping we hear from the league about how popular it is in China, isn't that just a little bit surprising?

Read the rest here!

Nothing To Do With Anything ...

It's a stretch to tie this to a basketball blog, but, well, it's not as if we've got any Sonics news to report ...

Anyway, as you may or may not be aware, your narrator lives in the wilds of Vancouver, BC, which is home to a rather large sporting event in a month or so. As you also may or may not be aware, I am a cranky old man trapped in 30-something-year-old body, and, like all cranky old men, I like to whine about the people on the tv.

Living in Vancouver, I was able to take in this recent ad from the folks at Tourism BC. I'll let you take it in, then jump back here ...

Finished? Okay, granted the "celebrities" they trotted out aren't exactly A-listers, and the ad so blantantly copies from the recent California ads with the Governator and Rob Lowe it's a bit embarassing, but, hey, that's Canada for you. But here's what kills me: At one point in the ad, Eric McCormack (remember him? yeah, me neither) tells us:

"Some people call it Vancouver, British Columbia. But we call it ..."

----cut to a cuddly Michael J Fox-----

"home."

Cue violins.

Why is this hilarious? Because here's the list of celebrities:

Eric McCormack
Michael J Fox
Kim Cattrell
Ryan Reynolds
Sarah McLaughlin
Steve Nash (see, the basketball angle?)

And here's how many of them live in Vancouver:

1 (McLaughlin)

Nash, who could spend the summers anywhere in the world, opts to live in New York rather than Van City. Fox could spend his years anywhere, but he chooses NY/LA. Ditto Cattrell. Reynolds might be shacking up with Scarlett Johannson, but that shack ain't in Vancouver, or even Canada for that matter. McCormack sure as heck hasn't spent his sweet Will & Grace money on plunking down roots anywhere in the 604 (or, 778, if you've got a cell).

It's a joke, honestly. You know why the celebrities are posing in front of blue screens for the majority of the film? It's probably because the damn thing was filmed in Studio City.

Hey, I'm not saying they have to live here. Lord knows I want out of this rain-infested moss-fest more than anyone, but then I'm not up on TV telling everyone how wonderful it is, either.

Yeah, Vancouver's your home allright, you lying bastards.

Read the rest here!

1979: Good year for Sonics, bad year for robot-related deaths

For most of us here at Supersonicsoul, 1979 will always be remembered for one thing: the year the greatest basketball team of all-time won Seattle's first championship.

For those with robot-phobia, however, this date back in 1979 marks a far different kind of anniversary:

January 25, 1979: A 25-year-old Ford Motor assembly line worker is killed on the job in a Flint, Michigan, casting plant. It’s the first recorded human death by robot.

Robert Williams’ death came on the 58th anniversary of the premiere of Karel Capek’s play about Rossum’s Universal Robots. R.U.R gave the world the first use of the word robot to describe an artificial person. Capek invented the term, basing it on the Czech word for “forced labor.” (Robot entered the English language in 1923.)

Williams died instantly in 1979 when the robot’s arm slammed him as he was gathering parts in a storage facility, where the robot also retrieved parts. Williams’ family was later awarded $10 million in damages. The jury agreed the robot struck him in the head because of a lack of safety measures, including one that would sound an alarm if the robot was near.

Read More http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2010/01/0125robot-kills-worker#ixzz0dfe3y6P3

So the next time you're watching those '79 highlight reels, be sure to raise a glass to the first victim of the Robot Apocalypse.

Read the rest here!

The Voice of the Sonics

R.I.P Bob.

Read the rest here!

Memorials for Former Sonics' Broadcaster This Weekend

Per the Seattle PI, you'll have two opportunities to pay your respects to the late (and great) former Sonic broadcaster Bob Blackburn, who passed away earlier this month.

Up first is a wake, to be held tonight (Friday) at 7 o'clock in Issaquah at the Gaslamp Bar & Grill. You'll have the opportunity to hear the replay of Blackburn's call of the 1979 Championship Game, as well as other highlights from his career.

Then, on Sunday, comes a formal public memorial service at First United Methodist Church in Bellevue. The service is slated to begin at 3 p.m.

Read the rest here!

Alton Lister's Analysis of the Philippine Cup

Seriously, with that headline, how do you possibly avoid reading the story? Three stoned sophomores at the University of Oregon playing mad-libs couldn't imagine stringing together seven more bizarre words than that.

Well, unless they included one of the clubs Lister expects to contend for the title: the Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants.

Yes, the Purefoods Tender Juicy Giants.

It says something when the Talk 'n Text Tropang Texters aren't the most ridiculous-sounding team in your league, or that I haven't even mentioned that there's another team called Alaska (does this count towards Sarah Palin's international experience?), but, c'mon, that's one fantastic team name there, no? Let's have a look-see at their logo ...





Yep, that's just about the perfect Philippine Basketball Association logo you've got there, my friend. Crazy, nonsensical name? Check. Excessive adjectification? check. Appropriation of popular American team name? Check. Blatant rip-off of said team's logo and/or colors and/or both? Check, double-check, and triple-check.

Kind of makes one wonder, though, what would happen if NBA owners decided to use the same mentality with their clubs. You know, if we weren't so hung up on looking and sounding tough in our pro sports world, maybe the Lakers would become, oh, I don't know, the Los Angeles Tender Juicy Teenage Girl Lovers? Would the Knicks become the Mighty Strong Cable Layers? Would the Sonix become ...

Well, I'll let you finish that last one.

Read the rest here!

Bennett Settles With Sonic Fans

It's not the case Sonic fans wanted to win against Clay Bennett (that one fell by the wayside almost two years ago), but it's a win nonetheless.

According to Chris Daniels of KING-5 in Seattle, the owner of the Sonix has agreed to pay $1.6 million to settle a class-action suit brought against the team by a group of season-ticket holders. The suit, which alleged that Bennett & Co. failed to allow them to renew their tickets, means Bennett won't have to testify in Seattle, which is, I'm sure, a relief to him.

Funny, though, how the team was able to come up with $1.6 million when it needed to, even though it was completely incapable of contributing even one cent towards the $500 million cost of the new arena they half-assedly proposed to build in Renton three years ago.

Read the rest here!

Great White Dopes?

Ladies and Gentlemen, your 2010 Seattle Super Honkies!

Please let this be a joke.

According to the Augusta Chronicle, someone is starting an all-white basketball league:

Don "Moose" Lewis, the commissioner of the AABA, said the reasoning behind the league's roster restrictions is not racism.

"There's nothing hatred about what we're doing," he said. "I don't hate anyone of color. But people of white, American-born citizens are in the minority now. Here's a league for white players to play fundamental basketball, which they like."

Lewis said he wants to emphasize fundamental basketball instead of "street-ball" played by "people of color." He pointed out recent incidents in the NBA, including Gilbert Arenas' indefinite suspension after bringing guns into the Washington Wizards locker room, as examples of fans' dissatisfaction with the way current professional sports are run.

"Would you want to go to the game and worry about a player flipping you off or attacking you in the stands or grabbing their crotch?" he said. "That's the culture today, and in a free country we should have the right to move ourselves in a better direction."

(found via Huff Post).

White, American-born citizens are in the minority now? Really? I had no idea 75 percent was a minority. Then again, math was never my best subject.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to strap on my Chuck's and get down to the gym for my tryout with the Albuquerque All-Whites.

Read the rest here!

MLK Holiday Games, A Comparison

One nice aspect of the MLK Holiday is that it provides a pretty good isolated case of how attendance has changed on a year-over-year basis. Very quickly, then, here are the numbers from the past three seasons:

2010: 197,709
2009: 211,432
2008: 223,508

The last two seasons, the NBA has opted for 12 games, while in 2008 they played 13, so it’s better to look at those numbers on a per-game basis, obviously:

2010: 16,475
2009: 17,619
2008: 17,192

As we all know, not all teams are created equal, so it’s lucky for us that the league usually includes the same group of host teams for these games. There are a total of eight clubs who have played host to a MLK Day game in each of the past three seasons. Here is how their cumulative attendance looks, on a per team basis:

2010: 19,029
2009: 19,715
2008: 19,224

And, if you’re interested, here’s how those eight teams did the past three years:

Team	2008	2009	2010
Atlanta	17400	17199	14666
Charlotte	17124	16160	13678
Golden State	19144	19244	19208
Houston	15264	18199	17187
Clippers	16318	14399	14533
Lakers	18997	18997	18997
Memphis	18119	17483	18119
New Orleans	11663	17237	16459
New York	19763	18807	19302

Read the rest here!