(B)logging, One Sentence at a Time

While browsing the jungle of the World Wi(l)d(e) Web, I stumbled upon a blog which calls out Basketball Daily World. This blogger labels BDW as “public, negative and critical“. He likely read only one article in BDW; if he took some time before he took the pen, he would have found tens of articles which are neither negative nor critical, and I have yet to hear of private blogs as opposed to public ones.  The blogger, who calls himself a sports editor, disregarded the well-established etiquette of online publishing which says that you should provide a link if you mention another online publication. Maybe he will mention it in their PDF version, which he likely refers to as newspapers. You can find this artifact in barber shops in Belmont or, if you are a local zealot, you can even subscribe to it.

This blogger from the Belmont Citizen-Herald seems to have skipped classes where they teach the basic structure of composition:  His Majesty the Paragraph. In his classic booklet, The Elements of Style, William Strunk Jr. says: “As a rule, single sentences should not be written or printed as paragraphs. An exception may be made of sentences of transition, indicating the relation between the parts of an exposition or argument.” Going by this, this whole blog is a transition of sorts and it takes a great effort to understand where it is transitioning to. After reading it three times, I think this is what the blogger wanted to say:

• The Marauders finished their season 18 – 4, at some point they were 15 – 0, and they won the Middlesex League, therefore WINNING is most important in high school basketball.
• No, wait, this is high school basketball – FUN is the most important thing.
• No, wait again, this is high school basketball – LEARNING is important too.
• The Belmont Marauders are not the Boston Celtics or the Duke Blue Devils and they shouldn’t be confused with any of these two basketball teams.
• This is a free country and people are free to write anything they want; preferably they will write about the Celtics or the Blue Devils.
• It is legal to publicly express opinions in this country, including criticizing the coach.
• By some unknown standards (moral? ethical?), it is not OK to express opinion about high school basketball team if it’s critical of the coach; if the opinion is positive it is OK to express it.
• We are at a dawn of a new age, technology has changed so much, and blogging rules the world.
• Basketball Daily World writers should find new hobbies; Belmont Citizen-Herald bloggers will continue pursuing their hobby of writing – it is unknown if they will master the basics of composition along the way.

My favorite sentence of all is: “This… is… high… school… basketball.” This blogger could really benefit from reading another book, Eats, Shoots & Leaves, by Lynne Truss. Both books may help him understand that shooting sentences in clusters is more effective than sniping them one at a time. Clustering your thoughts, though, requires knowing where you are going. Is it winning, fun, or learning? Maybe all three, but in what order? Judging from the BC-H blog, the priorities are clear: 1) Winning, 2) Fun, 3) Learning. If the team can’t get to all three they must make sure they get to the first one at least – that’s how priorities work. It is justified not playing team basketball and disrespecting the coach as long as the team is somehow winning. All the writers who disagree with these priorities and publish online should be convinced to find new hobbies. Then, we won’t have to be worried about the “dawn of a new age” any more.

What’s Wrong with the NBA All-Star Concept

I’ve been reading Bill Simmons’ Book of Basketball in recent days, and he’s been rambling against the NBA All-Star Teams and the way they are picked. It’s become similar to the regular season MVP selection – a popularity concept. Simmons is stretching a lot of things in his book to make them sound funny or to keep your attention through a 700-page behemoth. Among other things he is recommending that NBA selects two best players, one from the East another from the West, and that they pick the teams for themselves to compete in the All-Star Game.

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