THE TEN-POINT SHOOTOUT: Packet 6 (Finals)

For the Finals I, by and large, selected my favorite questions out of the set, or the ones I thought were particularly well-written. They were not intended to be any more difficult than the remainder of the set, nor any longer.

1. In 2010 this team traded draft pick Ryan Reid to the Thunder for a center named Magnum Rolle, who currently plays for the Nahkorn Phantom Mad Goat in Thailand. A trade that failed due to the deadline would have landed them OJ Mayo in exchange for Brandon Rush and Josh McRoberts, and in the first round of 2012 this team drafted Miles Plumlee. In 2013 this team acquired Leandro Barbosa from the Raptors and more notably, Luis Scola from the Phoenix Suns in exchange for Gerald Green. This team recently inked Al Jefferson to a three-year contract, and one fortuitous draft pick from them was guard Danny Granger. For 10 Points, name this Central Division Eastern Conference team, who recently hired Nate McMillan as coach to replace the non-retained Frank Vogel. ANSWER: The Indiana Pacers

This question is rote and by-the-numbers, although I enjoyed learning the name of Magnum Rolle’s current employers.

2. After this game, Ted Bernhardt privately said he “thought his partners sucked”. One team’s difficulties in this game resulted in playing time for infrequently-used reserve Lawrence Funderburke, whose team missed a three-pointer that would have tied the game with five seconds left. That team’s first half was buoyed by hot shooting from guard Bobby Jackson; on the other team, only three players scored in double figures - Rick Fox had 11. 82games.com did an extensive review of clips from this game, claiming that the game was managed honestly, but not very well. Scot Pollard fouled out in 11 minutes in this game, part of a trend that led Ralph Nader to call David Stern to request an investigation. On a last-second inbounds play, Mike Bibby was elbowed in the face by Kobe Bryant without a foul called. For 10 Points, identify this playoff game where the Lakers shot 27 free throws in the fourth quarter, perhaps the most controversially officiated game in league history. ANSWER: The 2002 Western Conference Finals, Game 6

In this question Ted Bernhardt is obviously one of the referees, a clue taken from the Grantland oral history of the series this game was in. If you know the names of Sacramento’s bench from this time periods, the points become a lot easier to get.

3. At the end of his career, this player was traded for Steve Patterson and Eric Fernsten, and in 1974 he was traded to the Bulls for Clifford Ray and $100,000. He had his #42 jersey retired by the Cleveland Cavaliers, although he only played a season and a half there at the end of his career. He played with Wilt Chamberlain during his rookie year, and averaged exactly 15 points and 15 rebounds for his career. He had the highest rebounds-per-game seasons of anyone not named Russell or Chamberlain, recorded from 1966-68, and was the starting center on teams that lost the 1964 and 1967 Finals. For 10 Points, name this bald, bearded All-Star center who passed away recently, a mainstay on the Warriors teams of the ‘60s and early ‘70s. ANSWER: Nate Thurmond

Another question that mostly rewards the most obvious knowledge about a classic Hall of Fame player. Not sure if there’s a more honest way to write these.

4. The first NBA player from this country was a 7’1” center who was a second-round pick of the Blazers in 1986 and played in 12 games, scoring one basket. Another player from this country played two seasons for the Hornets in the mid-2000s and had a name apparently inspired by Quo Vadis, Marcus Vinicius. One notable player from here who didn’t play in the NBA headlined the team that upset the US at the 1987 Pan Am Games and scored 42 per game at the 1988 Olympics. Short-term players from this country have included Hornets reserve Alex Garcia and execrable Boston centers Vitor Faverani and Fab Melo. Recent NBA additions from this nation include Utah’s Raul Neto and floppy-haired Lakers point guard Marcelo Huertas. No player from this country has become an All-Star, but one who should have was a dreadlocked center for the Nuggets and then the Wizards, and another won the 6th Man of the Year in 2007 as a speedy guard for the Phoenix Suns. For 10 Points, name this Latin American country, the home of Tiago Splitter, Leandro Barbosa, and Nene. ANSWER: Brazil

As I learned during this last Olympics, Latin-esque (and I mean “Rome” Latin, not Latin American) names are fairly popular in Brazil. The non-NBA player is Olympics legend Oscar Schmidt, who played well into his 40s and might have been considered the best shooter of all time if he’d played in the NBA. Really ratcheting up the jokes in this tossup.

5. This name technically refers to three location; the first iteration was a Richard Kletting-designed dance hall/theater destroyed by fire in 1910 in the same city. It played home to a minor league hockey team called the Golden Eagles and a basketball team which defeated the Kentucky Colonels in the 1971 ABA Championship, the Stars. This building hosted games in four Western Conference Semifinals, the last being a 4-1 loss to Portland in 1991, others being losses to Phoenix and the Nuggets in 1984 and 1985. It hosted its NBA team for its first 11 years, the first team residing there, in 1980, featuring Ron Boone, Bernard King, and Pete Maravich. It was replaced in 1991 by a building later renamed the Vivint Smart Home Arena, originally the Delta Center. For 10 Points, name this original home of the Utah Jazz, named after the city they play in. ANSWER: The Salt Palace

Here’s a question which eventually becomes a referendum on whether anyone knows anything about the pre-1990 NBA, which featured many unique and interesting arena names (the Cow Palace, anyone?) before corporate naming rights robbed us of that pleasure.

6. One reaction to this action featured opposing player Carl Landry clapping during its last part, the making of two free throws. One highlight of this action was a finished fast-break lob after a Derrick Williams miss, and it started with a made pull-up jumper over Rudy Gay with 9:45 on the clock. Before this event, the score was 56-54 in favor of the home team, and the presence of the three-point line during this event caused eight additional points to be scored. Its last basket was assisted by Shaun Livingston, and to date, this marks the involved player’s only 50-point performance. Only four points were scored by other teammates during, For 10 Points, what 2015 record-setting event recorded by a Golden State Warrior, which broke George Gervin’s record of 33? ANSWER: The Klay Thompson 37-point quarter

If I was perhaps unnecessarily pessimistic about what modern audience’s don’t know about classic basketball, the opposite applies to modern basketball.

7. Only one player on either team scored in double figures in this game, partially due to the slow- paced defensive style of Coach Henry Iba (EYE-BAH). Tom Henderson and Jim Brewer scored 9 each; future Indiana Pacer Kevin Joyce would lead a second-half comeback for one team. In the previous round, one team had defeated Cuba and the other had blown out Italy, which would wind up taking 4th. This game’s memory was marred by a sequence including a dispute over whether a timeout had been called, and a prematurely started clock, leading to one team having three attempts to make a last-second play, a made layup by Aleksandr Belov. His brother Sergey Belov had 20 to lead all scorers in this game, whose final score was 51-50. For 10 Points, identify this game which snapped the USA’s 63-game Olympic winning streak, after which the American team refused their silver medals. ANSWER: The 1972 Olympic Gold Medal Game (or 1972 Olympic Basketball Final, or the USSR- US/USA/America game at the 1972 Olympics – prompt on “Russia”)

If you’re wondering still, yes, I find it much more interesting when the USA team loses at the Olympics.

Note to Moderator: Feel free to deliver all-caps sections however you wish. 8. This text states that “Some people think they should go to heaven but NOT have to die to get there”; it disappeared from online archives in 2014, apparently having been available before as part of a cache mistake. Grammatical errors in this document include “DELIVERING YOU the championship you have long deserved and is [sic] long overdue” and a section that says “the ownership . . . have not betrayed you nor NEVER [sic] will betray you”. It attacks a “several day, narcissistic, self-promotional build-up”, and claims that “The self-declared former “King” will be taking the “curse” with him down south”. It notably used Comic Sans font, and makes an eventually unfulfilled guarantee that a certain player will not win a ring before a certain team does. For 10 Points, identify this document which begins with an address to “Cleveland [and] All of Northeast Ohio”, a Cavs owner’s reaction to “The Decision.” ANSWER: Dan Gilbert’s Bitter Letter to Lebron James

I don’t know how many “texts” are answerable in terms of the NBA answer space, or how many this might have conceivably been confused for even early on, but this had to make it into the set at some point.

9. Two very short-term members of this group, benchwarmers Ha Seung-Jun and Nedzad Sinanovic, once got into a slugging match during free throw practice. One player from this group was traded to the Grizzlies for nonentity Wes Person, and another member of this group hid for days at Dale Davis’ house after an altercation with a player nicknamed “The Kobe Stopper”. Ingrida Mikeliontye (GOOD LUCK), a wife of one of these players, was charged with a DUI before the 2000 Western Conference Semifinals, and her husband, Arvydas Sabonis, was hit in the face by a towel thrown by a member of this group. One member of this group attempted to bring pot and rolling papers through airport security in 2003, and another, Qyntel Woods, was waived after being convicted for dogfighting in 2005. Including Ruben Patterson, Bonzi Wells, and Damon Stoudamire, For 10 Points, identify this group of lovable malcontents who made the early 2000s interesting for a Northwestern NBA team. ANSWER: The Jail Blazers (accept answers along the lines of “Early 2000s Portland Trailblazers”)

I’m pretty sure this question could be answered from context alone fairly early on, which is a fault it shares with the “Bad Boys” TU; this is not, unfortunately, the sort of problem this answerline might encounter were it played in a regular set or at a trash tournament.

10. In April 2010 Andray Blatche threw an on-court tantrum after teammate Cartier Martin prevented him from carrying out this activity. Washington’s Javale McGee once received a technical foul after multiple outlandish attempts at this activity in a blowout loss to the Bulls. One example of this activity was performed by Portland’s Nicolas Batum versus the Spurs in 2013 via a halfcourt shot, and he would immediately apologize. Orlando coach Brian Hill ceded his clipboard to Anthony Bowie in Bowie’s attempt to perform this activity in March 1996, and in outrage opposing coach Doug Collins kept his entire team off the court. Hawks guard Bobby Sura notably failed to accomplish this activity after intentionally missing a layup, leading to the league rescinding an officially credited rebound. In March 2003, Ricky Davis was viciously fouled by Utah’s DeShawn Stevenson after Davis took a shot at the wrong basket in an attempt to accomplish this activity. For 10 Points, name this fairly infrequent statistical occurrence that often instills a disregard for ethics into basketball players. ANSWER: completing a triple-double (accept any phrasing that indicates that the shot/rebound was meant to achieve the triple-double)

While I though this question might go fairly deep, it was answered early both times I read this set. Perhaps at this point in the set, the well of “answerable NBA statistical achievements” ran quite dry. If I were to write this question again, I would probably completely re-arrange the clues.

11. This series spawned a popular video on the NBA subreddit, of Larry Bird barely reacting to a game-winning shot in this series. Much of one team in this series sported hideous shaven heads in a show of solidarity, and its seven games played out exactly in line with home-court advantage. Game 7 included 78 free throws combined, with the winning team shooting 38% from the field compared to their opponent’s 48%. Antonio Davis fouled out of three games in this series, and Rik Smits saved his team’s season in Game 6 by going 11-12 from the field for 25 points. The deciding play in Game 7 was an awkward running hook from Scottie Pippen plus a foul, and in Game 4 of this series, Reggie Miller blatantly knocked Michael Jordan off a screen before draining a game-winning three with .4 seconds remaining. For 10 Points, name this series, the Bulls’ toughest test on their last championship run. ANSWER: The 1998 Eastern Conference Finals

Tough but fair.

Description Acceptable 12. Before this game one player said “They might as well forget it, they’ve got no chance”. Randy Wittman shot 11 for 13 this game, while Doc Rivers had a forgotten 16 points and 18 assists, and the game itself was decided by a missed tip-in off a last-second free throw. Perhaps the most unlikely basket during its most memorable sequence was a rainbow lefty banked hook shot after a foul for a three-point play. That sequence started with a floating jumper off a fast break which was countered by a pull-up jumper over Kevin McHale, and both men involved hit double-teamed shots in the lane, which inspired the Brent Musburger call that “You are watching what greatness is all about”. For 10 Points, name this playoff game where legends from the Celtics and Hawks scored 20 and 16 points in the fourth quarter, including a lengthy run of consecutive made baskets. ANSWER: The Larry Bird-Dominique Wilkins Duel (or “back-and-forth”, anything that indicates that Bird and Wilkins were scoring consecutive baskets, or the 1988 Eastern Conference Semifinals, Boston Celtics vs. Atlanta Hawks, Game 7)

In an IRC match, Tejas (who had been annihilating the set) answered “the game where Bird and Wilkins each scored lots of points”. I deliberated for a bit (and prompted) but wound up negging him. I did do not because it was absolutely wrong, but because 1) there were plenty of games which fit that description and 2) it missed the critical component of what made the game memorable, which was that Bird and Dominique scored all those points in a row. Alternating. Not sure how I would have handled it in person, but it also fell under a category of behavior which bothers me, which is answering vaguely and hoping to get points or a prompt out of it.

13. This player sported the nicknames “Big Blue” or “The Bombardier from Baton Rouge”, and played six games as player-coach in 1961-2, going 4-2. Tom Heinsohn called him the “Master of the Half-inch” for his cagey offensive game, and after being drafted in 1954, he won the 1955 Rookie of the Year. Major teammates of his included Cliff Hagan, Clyde Lovellette, and Slater Martin. He won a record four All-Star Game MVPs, and put up a 50-25, including 18 of the last 21, in the deciding Game 6 of the 1958 Finals, as part of the last all-white team to capture a title. In all, he and his team won one and lost three Finals appearances, always versus Bill Russell’s Celtics. For 10 Points, name this dominant power forward, who played all 11 of his seasons with the Milwaukee/St. Louis Hawks. ANSWER: Bob Pettit

Of the non-Russell players who predate Wilt, Pettit is probably the most important.

14. The theme song to this basketball-related film features an unexpected cameo from Stephen Stills, since it samples “For What It’s Worth”. One character moment in this film is a monologue about Earl “the Pearl” Monroe’s time with the Bullets, in Winston-Salem, and on the Philadelphia playground, as well as his original nickname, as the central figures walk along a pier. The climactic basketball scene in this film features one participant taking the lead by scoring four early baskets, only to have the other win by scoring ten in a row. Bill Simmon’s take on this film predictably focused on a scene featuring porn stars Jill Kelly and Chasey Lain, and it also stars Milla Jovovich as a distressed prostitute under the thumb of a pimp named Sweetness. It focuses on the relationship between a convict father and his son, Jesus Shuttlesworth. For 10 Points, name this 1998 film starring Ray Allen as a top college prospect, directed by Spike Lee. ANSWER: He Got Game

It might shock the faint of heart that I’ve never actually watched this film, but only the pier sequence and the final basketball match. I did read the Wikipedia summary. Also, I turn against Simmons a bit, whose book would be 20% shorter and 50% better without all the lame jokes and references.

Description Acceptable 15. The central player in this event had as fellow starters Ryan Bowen, Bobby Sura, and Juwan Howard, in addition to his team’s All-Star center. A turning point in this event was when Devin Brown slipped to the floor and turned the ball over, leading to a transition opportunity. This event was aided by a turnover from Tony Parker and a generous foul against Tim Duncan which set up a four-point play. The central player in this event hit all five of his team’s three-point attempts, most of which were ably defended by Bruce Bowen. Immediately preceding this event was a putback by Yao Ming which made the deficit eight with 52 seconds to go. For 10 Points, identify this sequence which occurred on December 9, 2004, a scoring barrage by an All-Star small forward which led to an unlikely victory for the Houston Rockets. ANSWER: “13 in 35/33 seconds” (accept the Tracy McGrady 13-point explosion and be generous in the timing; Rockets scoring 13 in (short amount of time) to beat the Spurs also acceptable)

More moments in the sun for Devin Brown. This sequence is fairly tough to describe in exciting fashion, as it’s simply “McGrady pulls up for 3” about six times.

16. This announcer released a guttural, wordless exclamation while reacting to Allen Iverson’s game winner vs. Germany in an exhibition match before the 2004 Olympics. While commenting on Shaquille O’Neal’s move to Phoenix, this analyst launched into a digression about the geological history of Arizona, next to a baffled Stephen A. Smith. This figure once commented that the piano works of Liszt, as well as Beethoven’s Symphony #3 in E Flat, escorting in the Age of Romanticism, reminded him of Suns player Boris Diaw. This announcer brutally criticized Karl Malone’s play in one Finals series, and had a penchant for calling individual plays either the best or the worst “in the history of Western Civilization”. For 10 Points, name this one-time NBA on NBC announcer, a former star for the Portland Trailblazers and the best announcer in basketball history. ANSWER: Bill Walton (his son, Luke, did some NBA stuff, all pointless and mediocre compared to his father)

Like all enlightened folk, I love Bill Walton.

17. According to NBA TV, the second-best highlight from this series was one team’s point guard diving out of bounds to toss the ball off Kareem Rush. This series featured 10 total minutes from the unforgettable Darvin Ham, 21 from Brian Cook, and 52 from Corliss Williamson. Game 2 in this series featured a 6-point collapse in the final minute, capped by a deep Kobe Bryant three to tie the game and the Lakers subsequently running away in overtime. Despite the later myth that the opposing team’s center shut him down, Shaquille O’Neal shot 63% for the series and put up 27-10 a game,. Other than Game 2, the games featured margins of victory averaging over 10 for the supposed underdog. For 10 Points, name this solitary Finals win for coach Larry Brown, where a scrappy, athletic Pistons squad snuffed out the Lakers dynasty. ANSWER: The “Five-Game Sweep” (or the 2004 NBA Finals)

This was actually one of the first tossups I wrote for the set. Specifics sort of have to fall by the wayside in order to describe the key aspects of the series (Game 2, O’Neal’s performance). A series that featured a shortage of memorable plays, while still being very memorable.

Colloquial Description Acceptable 18. Before this event, Referee Richie Powers engaged in a fistfight with a fan as the crowd mistakenly charged the floor. One sequence preceding this event was a made basket by Curtis Perry off a stolen inbounds pass, right after a clutch jumper by Dick Van Arsdale. Perry was also the inbounder for this event, which followed a running banked jumper by John Havlicek with two seconds on the clock. Jo Jo White sank a free throw after, in a stroke of genius, Suns coach John MacLeod (“McCloud”) took a technical for calling a timeout his team didn’t have, to set up this shot. The subsequent overtime, the third, would end in victory for the Celtics. For 10 Points, identify this basket from the 1976 NBA Finals where Phoenix reserve Garfield Heard hit a turnaround jumper with a second remaining to send the game to triple overtime. ANSWER: The Shot Heard Round the World (accept “the Gar(field) Heard shot” before his name is mentioned, or the “shot to force triple overtime in Game 5 of the 1976 Finals”) Surprisingly went dead in a room full of excellent players. Watch the ending of the second overtime on Youtube – it’s insane.

19. One photograph of this player shows him dressed as Popeye the Sailor for Halloween, along teammates dressed as Buzz Lightyear, the Mad Hatter, and Mario. One meme of this player shows a Microsoft Paint version of his coach’s head telling him to “hit them wit teh indubitably”. One commercial starring this player has him carrying an impossibly large amount of laundry, and another has him saying “Opa!” after claiming that his mother made his toga. Recent rumor about this player claims that he drives a car called the Gas Guzzler, a rehabbed 1997 Chevrolet Tahoe. At one press conference after a playoff victory, he reacted to a reporter’s question by saying “I don’t feel no certain way about it. Tim chose me to come up here.” After a notable victory his teammates all publicly put one hand around their wrist and made a C shape with the other hand. For 10 Points, name this largely stoic and indifferent San Antonio Spur. ANSWER: Kawhi Leonard

This question was created mostly as a vehicle to include the meme clue. The rest is simply gravy. Probably my favorite tossup of the set.

20. This book contains an anecdote about a coach instructing his team to run a mile, where the star center waited until just before the cutoff to cross the finish line. This book also covers the saga of illiterate, undisciplined guard Billy Ray Bates, who would wash out of the league from drug problems. Among the players chronicled on its central team are Kermit Washington, dealing with the fallout of punching Rudy Tomjanovich, and a player nicknamed “the Enforcer”, Maurice Lucas, upset about salary differences between players. Its most central figure was frustrated enough that he demanded a trade away from the team due to chronic foot injuries. Its author wrote a later, inferior basketball book Playing for Keeps, as well as a baseball book titled Summer of ’49. For 10 Points, name this book about the post-championship Portland Trailblazers, written by David Halberstam in 1981. ANSWER: The Breaks of the Game

I read The Breaks of the Game some years ago, and it’s certainly the best basketball book I’ve ever read. It’s also exceptionally long for sports journalism, which tends to congregate around 250 pages and a fifth- grade reading level. Read it – it’s not just about the Blazers, but a portrait of the pre-Jordan/Bird/Magic NBA, which was a completely different beast. The center in the first clue is Bill Walton, making a second appearance in the packet.