SOUND OFF.Byline: The Register-Guard NBA NBA abbr. 1. National Basketball Association 2. National Boxing Association NBA (US) n abbr (= National Basketball Association) → Basketball-Dachverband (= , Lakers-style I played and coached basketball - and have watched it off and on for about 55 years. I've been wondering lately about the Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Lakers and what their mixture of one-on-one playground ball, rugby, pro wrestling, football and sumo wrestling, their constant pushing, pulling, holding, shoving, hacking, elbowing, bull-rushing, lane-camping and karate-chopping, and their arrogant posturing and incessant whining about practically every call against them have to do with a game once characterized by sportsmanship, speed, grace, shooting skill, strategy and teamwork. Almost surely the Lakers soon will be crowned NBA champs for the 10th time. Now I know that the `N' stands for National and the `A' for Association, but that `B' surely can't stand for the game of basketball according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. either its current rules or its past traditions. Tactics and attitudes such as those perfected by the Lakers are tolerated and even rewarded by referees and league officials. The problem is that they negatively influence all levels of the game. I'm tempted to draw specific parallels between the eager promotion of brute force (programming) brute force - A primitive programming style in which the programmer relies on the computer's processing power instead of using his own intelligence to simplify the problem, often ignoring problems of scale and applying naive methods suited to small problems directly by television-dominated pro basketball and other pro sports franchises with both the foreign and the domestic policies of the current (one-term) Bush administration. But that, I fear, might be a bit too brutal for Sunday sports-page reading. JEROME GARGER Yachats Biased coverage Wednesday's local sports news was exciting: two state semifinal ball games, two area high school teams, both teams advancing to the semis at least two years in a row, two sports section Noun 1. sports section - the section of a newspaper that reports on sports sports page - any page in the sports section of a newspaper newspaper, paper - a daily or weekly publication on folded sheets; contains news and articles and advertisements; "he read page one headlines. One of these teams got its picture in the front-page masthead mast·head n. 1. Nautical The top of a mast. 2. The listing in a newspaper or periodical of information about its staff, operation, and circulation. 3. , the other didn't. One of these teams got 56 1/2 column inches of space, the other only 30. One of these teams got two large color photographs in the sports section, the other none. Yet one of these teams won to advance to the state finals for the third straight year. One of these teams took state last year and is favored to repeat. This same team is being carried through the playoffs by their underclassmen's bats. And this team's JV squad walked through their league games almost as easily as the varsity did. All this suggesting that this team may be a power to contend with for many years to come. But which team got the banner headline banner headline n → Schlagzeile f , the masthead photo and nearly twice as much space in your paper? Not the team that won to advance to the finals for the third year in a row. Not the team expected to repeat as state champions. Not the Falcons girls softball softball, variant of baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Invented (1888) in Chicago as an indoor game, it was at various times called indoor baseball, mush ball, playground ball, kitten ball, and, because it was also played by women, ladies' team. C'mon fellas, your biases are showing. RODNEY SCHAFFER Veneta |
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