Jay Kang:
After this year of scolding and moral posturing, we have arrived at a final scene: Dirk Nowitzki — a simple man from vague origins — walks alone into battle against three mercenaries whose heedless and reckless pursuit of personal gain has unhinged the American Way. Everyone our hero has trusted and loved has either betrayed him (Jason Terry) or has died (Jason Kidd, Peja Stojakovic). And although the journey has long since lost its direction, the people’s hero pushes on, not because there is value in pushing on for pushing on’s sake, but because the audience demands its fill of blood and vengeance.
Bill Barnwell:
[A]s I mentioned in the introduction, Nowitzki isn’t shooting appreciably better during the postseason. That is admittedly hard to believe considering Nowitzki’s freakish performance from the 3-point line, where he’s hit a full 50 percent of his 42 attempts. And freakish doesn’t do his performance from the free throw line justice. Nowitzki has converted 163 of his 174 freebies (93.7 percent) this postseason. If we assume that his 89.2 percent success rate from the charity stripe during the regular season is the best measure of his actual ability to shoot free throws, the odds of Nowitzki going 163-of-174 are about 66 to 1. So where is he lacking offensively? As you might expect, it’s on his 2-point attempts, which make up the vast majority of his attempts from the field.
Those two takes are from a single piece over at Grantland, the Bill Simmons-helmed new “sports and culture” site. The narrative is contradicted by a lot of analysis: Taking out each team’s top three players, the Mavs are better than the Heat and have thus far performed that way — even with Peja Stojakovic’s disappearing act. Tyson Chandler had an underappreciated Game 4, grabbing nine offensive rebounds.
What can be infuriating is that the narrative can and possibly will turn on a dime. Part of the sports media’s job is to over-analyze and craft ever-changing narratives. If Dirk has a bad game and the Mavs win, it’ll consist of the cavalry showing up to help the lone gunner. If LeBron dominates Game 5 it’ll be about how he’s (again) “learned” to be clutch. Narrative can and should enhance a fan’s appreciation of everything you’re watching. Just don’t believe everything you read.
On, erm, hugs and high fives . . . that’s numbers and narrative that anyone can appreciate.