I’m a big NBA fan, but had mostly given up on the League when I went to college. It was tough to simultaneously care about the intricacies of Duke’s bball squad, the ACC, Dick Vitale’s aphorisms and at the same time manage to understand the big league movement. My college idealism and amateur appreciation for the sport coincided with big money work stoppages and a lack of star power in the NBA. Times have changed.

Now? I love the NBA.

A large part of that has to do with the quality of coverage coming from a site called FreeDarko. The dudes over there somehow manage to weave grand narratives out of nightly contests while discussing the intersections of race, history, philosophy, and art in basketball. It is a website where style is revered and effective style is canonized.

In a recent guest post by Kelly Dwyer from TrueHoop, a conversation began about Nike’s new advertising campaign. I was hooked by the Just Blaze beat and ended up watching it a few times and then analyzing it like the Zapruder film.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KLc9NeHq6o[/video]

The result? A Brief and Inaccurate Statistical Analysis of Air Force 25 Commercial:

Kobe: 1 assist
Dwight Howard (?): 2 points
Chris Paul: 3 points, 1 assist, 1 steal
Paul Pierce: 2 points (self pass? assist)
Jermaine O’Neal: 2 points
Tony Parker: 1 assist
Shawn Marion: 2 points
Amare: 1 TO, 1 FG attempt (unknown outcome)
LBJ: 4 points, 1 assist
Sheed: 2 points
Steve Nash: 1 TO (kicking ball)

I later amended the analysis after learning that Dwight D. Howard isn’t even in this campaign. Furthermore, I assessed a technical foul to Sheed for excessive celebration that is out of line with the League’s new (racist?) behavior policy.

KD at TrueHoop made a post to encourage me to step away from the computer and go buy some shoes. Good call. I’ll be buzzing the door at Alife Rivington if you need me.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpg7q9u8VCk[/video]
Actually… I’ll be getting nostalgic for the days when I could still dunk on a Nerf hoop and hold onto the dream that the world needed another Moses in the NBA.