Talking About Practice

Lang Whitaker of SLAM joins me to talk about the Hawks, Allen Iverson, Chicago, Sacramento, New York and life at the SLAM Dome. As far as a breakdown goes, it’s probably 1/3 ATL, 1/3 SLAM and 1/3 everything else.

Plan your listening accordingly. Then check out some of his work over at SLAM Online and Hawks.com and be sure to tune into NBA TV every Tuesday night at 6:00 pm to see Lang on the network’s new show The Beat.

Additionally, drop me an email or leave a note in the comments of any other teams or subjects you would like to hear more about. I have some guests and topics in mind for the next month or so, but will try to accommodate any requests as much as possible. We talk about practice for the people, after all.

And as always, be sure to subscribe to Talking About Practice on iTunes, where ratings and reviews are encouraged.

Kevin Arnovitz of ESPN’s TrueHoop and ClipperBlog talks Western Conference NBA with us today for the long-awaited Talking About Practice: Episode 4.

Kevin just saw his Clippers get smacked around by the Rockets on Wednesday night, so we start with Houston and that inevitably leads into some talk about efficiency and advanced stats. But we get back to talking about more general Western Conference stuff before long, focusing on the Lakers, Nuggets, Mavs and, of course, the Clippers. The stylistic reconstruction that has revived Al Thornton’s career is discussed and we analyze this as something that may fit into the ad-hoc termed “Josh Smith Corollary” that centers around a player forgoing the things on the court that he doesn’t do well and, instead, increasing his utility and efficiency to the team by concentrating on the things he does do well. Josh Smith has famously sworn off of three-point shots this season, and Kevin has seen a similar change in Thornton. We speculate as to whether other guys like Carlos Boozer are or can benefit from such self-realization.

We also chat about ESPN’s TrueHoop Network. Given my involvement in that whole thing via Eight Points, Nine Seconds, I’m admittedly not the best person to be asking Kevin about this stuff. But it is a big topic and an intriguing development in not just NBA circles but in the evolution of the sports blogosphere at large, as anyone who attended either of the Blogs With Balls sports blogging conferences this year can attest to.

And for all you 80s sitcom fans, we also talk for a solid 10 minutes about Benson. Not sure how that happened, but we were able to come to at least one thrilling revelation. I’m not going to spoil the amazing payoff that will surely be sweeping the collective mind of America come this afternoon, but let’s just say that one of the world’s great mysteries has been solved.

I would also be remiss if I failed to give a shout out to our boy AI. (That’s what it’s called in “radio,” right? A “shout out”?) There would be no Talking About Practice without you, Mr. Answer, and, frankly, I wasn’t ready for an NBA without you either.

Welcome back.

And as always, you can subscribe to Talking About Practice on iTunes, where rankings and reviews are appreciated.

Chris Ballard, Sports Illustrated columnist and author of The Art of a Beautiful Game, was gracious enough to give me an hour of his time the other day for an interview. And since I’m such a smart guy, I decided to record the conversation.

Thus, below, for your listening pleasure, is “Episode 3: The One Where Chris Ballard’s Publicist Doesn’t Probably Vet the Person Requesting an Interview.”

In all seriousness, it was a rather good discussion, if I do say so myself. And if you’re a person who is reading about the NBA on the internet, you will probably enjoy all the talk about Shane Battier, Daryl Morey and the Rockets’ use of advanced statistics/rigorous game-charting. We spend about 20 minutes on that stuff and also recount Ballard’s three-point shootout with Steve Kerr, talk about his D-3 glory days at Pomona College and go back and forth on the Dreaded 10 Questions of Stupidity.

Enjoy. Subscribe through iTunes. Rank/review us there. And tell your friends.

John Karalis of Reds Army stops by to talk Celtics.

We get pretty in depth about Rajon Rondo (and reference this lenghty Boston Globe article on him that, in part, details his love for Connect Four), discuss Sheldon Williams vs. Big Baby, chat about the defense and mention some of the more typical Big Three/Sheed stuff as well. John also shares his thoughts on the other Eastern Conference contenders and faces the dreaded Ten Questions, which is an obvious gimmick that I am hoping your company would one day like to sponsor. (Call me.)

We did this before the Celtics beat Golden State last night, which was nice because John was willing to humor me and evaluate some of Boston’s few flaws rather than focusing on how dominant they are and likely will stay all season. Still, good times and there is a nice little Easter egg in there towards the end for you Boston fans.

That’s about all.

And, oh yeah, please subscribe via iTunes so you can download the MP3 version that way. If it’s not too much trouble, it would be great it you could leave a review over there as well.

Enjoy.

This is my NBA podcast. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

Yeah, I know everyone and their mom has a podcast these days, but I’ve been wanting to do one for a while, so here it is. Honestly, between keeping up with BTPH, covering the Pacers at 8p9s and chiming in on occasion over at Hardwood Paroxysm, I don’t have the time for this. But make time I shall, all for the listening pleasures of ye’ loyal Both Teamsters. Think of it as the same consistent mediocrity you’ve come to expect — only now in audio form. Hopefully, it doesn’t suck too bad. Let me know your thoughts and whether or not this is worth your time.

The plan, as far as there is one, is to just call up some NBA heads I know and any others that will answer my emails to talk hoops. So who else could I choose to join me for Episode 1 than Talkhoops own Zach Harper, who also runs Cowbell Kingdom for the ESPN TrueHoop Network. We chat away for some 50 minutes on everything from last night’s news, which teams you should be watching on League Pass, the rookies to take note of and, predictably, My Cousin Vinny.

Listen to the Episode 1 in full below and stay tuned for the iTunes subscription to begin.

Enjoy.