The Madhouse: On Cam, Book and Chuck

Greetings.

What I’m reading: More potty-training stuff. The adventure starts today. Wish me luck.

What I’m listening to: Lyn Inaizumi

What I’m watching: A little hockey, a little basketball, but mostly locked into my Chicago White Sox chasing their first postseason appearance since 2008.

What I’m playing: Haven’t fooled around with the Raspberry Pi yet. Put a couple hours into Persona 5 on the PS4, and California Speed and GT 64: Championship Edition on the Nintendo 64.

What I’m thinking

Cam Johnson deserved more than 3 votes for All-Rookie Team

Now, look. This is more of an indictment on the process, which I don’t respect, by which players garnered All-Rookie honors.

Voting was based solely on games played prior to the shutdown in March. Orlando is not included. But you cannot tell the story of the 2019-20 NBA season without including the Suns tear through Florida’s bubble.

Technically, all the Suns’ games in Orlando were regular season games. But the team treated them like playoff games, as they should have. When you’re six games back with eight to play, there’s no room for a loss.

Phoenix ran off eight straight. And Cam Johnson is a big reason for that. If you put any stock into the ‘game scores’ provided by basketball-reference.com, half of Cam’s top performances came in Orlando. His best effort was in the Suns’ closest game, a two-point victory over the Mavs on August 2nd. Cam put up 19 points, 12 rebounds, four assists, and didn’t turn the ball over in a game where Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis combined for 70 points.

I’m going to stop short of saying that Cam should actually be on the All-Rookie Team, but just barely. If the formula says that RJ Barrett should get 20x the voting ‘points’ as Cam Johnson, then the formula is wrong. And don’t tell me that’s just how it is this season. We’re making this thing up as we go. We could have easily included Orlando performances.

Devin Booker deserved more than 3 votes for All-NBA Team

More of the same. Pre-bubble Book lines up very favorably with most of the other players receiving third-team votes.

But bubble Book was next level. If I’m to be wowed by the 30+ a game averages of Bradley Beal and Trae Young, then I’ll have to consider that both the Hawks and Wizards had won fewer games before the bubble. So that scoring is just empty calories, and I know I’ve heard that somewhere before.

The rational side of me, which hardly exists, knows that Book will take this as motivation. I needed the BSOTS thread to remind me of that. Before we jumped into the restart, I found myself wondering, ‘how are these guys spending their time away from basketball?’ Well we clearly know what was Booker was doing.

Working.

BTW - nba.com did not feel it necessary to include Book’s name on the ‘Other Players Receiving Votes’ list, but we assure you, he received three.

Charles Barkley deserves more opportunities to educate kids

Wu-Tang is for the children. But after Wu-Tang is done educating, the Round Mound of Rebound is for the children.

Recently Nick of Nick’s Trick Shots, a YouTube channel that features the pre-teen ‘making crazy dunks in his bedroom,’ and chronicles his Madden exploits, asked Charles Barkley why his likeness does not appear in the NBA2K series.

And Chuck responded in typical fashion.

“Give the old retired players one million dollars and I’ll be in the video game,” Barkley said. “They piss me off every year, they call me every year and say, ‘Have you changed your mind?’”

“Why in the world you think I’m gonna change my mind? Give the retired players a million dollars a year.”

“I’m not talking about old retired players like me. There’s this misconception that everybody’s been making a gazillion dollars our whole life. There’s players older than me who didn’t make any money. Those are the guys, they’re older and probably need the money, so that’s why I’m not in the video game.”

Nick participated in the interview with his buddy Jonah. Check out his page here.

NBA fans and gamers alike know that Chuck has held this stance for years.

“Unless they give the retired players X amount of money, they cannot use my likeness,” Barkley said on the Scoop B Radio Podcast in 2018. “And I think I’m not even going to think about that anymore. They’re gonna give some money to the retired players, or they’ll never be able to use my likeness, period... My job is to take care of the older players.”

He’s looking out for the young people. He’s looking out for the old people. We don’t deserve Sir Charles.