There’s nothing Michigan specific in here, but I thought given the subject, there would be interest in his interview in The New Yorker. I don’t exactly agree with him (nor do I exactly disagree with him), but I think he does rather well with an interviewer - Isaac Chotiner - who routinely makes academics, journalists, and politicians look like drooling idiots.
5 Likes
That was a really great interview. Thanks for sharing here!
1 Like
Yes, thanks for passing this along. Great stuff.
Agree. I found a lot to chew on there. Beyond’s Jalen’s remarks about analytics and who performs them–what status they acquire through them–it got me to thinking about the huge apparatus that surrounds sports. Obviously, you can look at this in a political way and find lots to point to as wrong. But it also helps to see all these things for what they are, to understand how the thing is structured. . . Who’s performing real service and who’s living off of people? Jalen is interestingly positioned; I’m glad he’s out there.
P.S. I thought his comments DID illuminate one thing about M and the coaching search. He completely rejected the idea that players should somehow be seen as “inexperienced” when they start to coach their own games. Why are we always looking for some wizened little dude to be in charge? I had never looked at it that way.
5 Likes
I loved his “experience” comments as well. I do get tired of people talking in that fashion about players. They literally are the most experienced people on earth. They are part of game planning and then they do it on the court, field, etc. They have plenty of experience. Yes, they do have to learn the day to day operational side, but they have plenty of experience when it comes to the game itself.
One example I can think of, would you take Tom Brady as your OC the day he decides to retire? I sure as hell would. Dude knows everything there is to know about running an offense and changing up the gameplan week to week to take advantage of the matchup.
2 Likes
My thought exactly, mgl. He made his points and some of them landed quite well. I don’t get the sense that there’s GMs fudging the numbers to tell them what they want to hear, if that’s what he means, though. I thought that point was unchallenged and unexplained.
I wish they would post the raw audio of Chotiner interviews though. Would be interesting to hear it instead of reading it.
He’s always interesting to hear from but I don’t know if I’m too sold on his arguments. All you have to do to beat a team like Houston is shut down the three and protect the rim? Well yeah, but that’s not that easy to do.
Also, his point about salary caps is a little dated, as the NHL and MLS have them too. Only MLB is a holdout (though it does have a luxury tax).
Yeah true on the tax.
I think his statement on Houston is not that they are structurally unsound in terms of their approach but their inability to tweak or play outside that approach means that when it doesn’t work, they die. Contrast that, for instance, with how wildly the Raptors have varied their scheme in this series (or the Warriors do)
1 Like
I have no doubt about Tom Brady’s ability to game plan, except that he needs to adjust to QBs below his caliber depending on where he goes. He could be up to speed from Day 1 at Green Bay, but there will be some learning curve at the college level.
1 Like