Friday, April 10th, 2020

H O R S E — Gervin vs. Thompson — Final Tankathon

April 10, 2020

Friday, April 10th, 2020

  The Opening Tip

  • The history of H O R S E in the NBA

  • George Gervin and David Thompson’s scoring dual happened 42 years (and one day ago) today

  • The lottery standings are now official, we guess

1. The Lead: H O R S E is the gimmick we finally need 

(Pete Maravich in a H O R S E competition against George Gervin during the 1977-78 season.)

The NBA is going to televise a H O R S E competition this Sunday at 7 p.m.

There will be four matchups, with the winners moving on to the semifinals on April 16.

The quarterfinals on Sunday will feature:

  • Trae Young vs. Chauncey Billups

  • Tamika Catchings vs. Mike Conley 

  • Zach LaVine vs. Paul Pierce

  • Chris Paul vs. WNBA player Allie Quigley

How it’ll work: Each player will be filmed in real-time on an isolated court, which the opponent will be able to see from their own respective isolated court. Regular H O R S E rules will proceed from there.Regardless of how it plays out, tons of people will watch, because, at this point, tons of people would watch a game of Go Fish between Chris Paul and Mike Conley.The NBA has always been interested in the idea of H O R S E, though, even if the results have often been anticlimactic.Most recently, in 2009 and 2010: 

  • The league worked the competition into All-Star Weekend for two years and, basically, it sucked. 

  • In the 2010 final -- the one that drove the stake into the idea -- Kevin Durant and Rajon Rondo couldn’t make a shot and started to run out of time, so the producers made the snap decision to turn it instead into a 3-point matching competition, at which junction the two started making 3s back-and-forth, thus prolonging the event even more. 

  • Charles Barkley was the “host,” and he tried to spice it up by yelling Chuck things, but the entire idea felt stale. 

  • It … didn’t return for the 2011 All-Star Weekend.  

It was first tried throughout the 1977-78 season:

  • Dreamed up by the NBA and CBS, then the league’s skeptical partner, it featured a 32-player bracket. 

  • The preliminary rounds were shot early in 1977 and televised over the course of the year.

  • There was some real star power: Pete Maravich, George Gervin, David Thompson, Rick Barry, Maurice Lucas, and so on. 

  • The finals were supposed to be Maravich vs. Paul Westphal, but Maravich had an injury and Rick Barry stepped in instead, eventually losing to Westphal. 

  • YouTube clips:Maravich vs. Gervin in round three; Maravich vs. Bob McAdoo in round two; Doug Collins vs. Bingo Smith in round one. 

The bottom line: We’ve all made fun of H O R S E competitions in the past. Now it’s here when we need it most.(H/t to this guy for the 1977-78 info.)

2. 04/09/1978: The greatest scoring day in NBA history 

(From ESPN's Do or Die)

Yesterday marked the 42-year anniversary

of one of the best single-day things to ever happen in the NBA.

On the final day of the regular season, Denver’s David Thompson trailed San Antonio’s George Gervin for the scoring title by 14 points.

Thompson’s Nuggets played that day

in the early afternoon, and Thompson went off:

  • He scored 32 points in the first quarter, breaking Wilt Chamberlain’s 16-year-old record for points in a quarter. 

  • He finished 28 of 38 for 73 points -- the fourth-highest single-game output ever -- which meant he now had a 59-point lead on Gervin for the scoring title. 

Gervin’s Spurs played that night against the New Orleans Jazz. Before the game, someone called Gervin on the phone and told him what Thompson had done a few hours earlier.So, it was Gervin’s turn to go off:

  • He scored 33 points in the second quarter, breaking Thompson’s hours-old record for points in a quarter. 

  • He finished 23 of 49 for 63 points, stealing back what was his to begin the day. 

The worst part: Neither game was televised.The best part: ESPN immortalized this day in its Basketball: A love story series, which you can watch here. (Seriously, do it. It’s a legit work of art.)

3. The final Tankathon standings   

(Via our friends at Tankathon.com)

We have some bad news:

The regular season is 1,000,000,000 percent over.

BUT!

With that reality comes the crystallization of the NBA lottery standings.

A few observations:

  • Golden State, Cleveland and Minnesota (which started the season 10-8) have the best shot at the No. 1 pick. 

  • New York’s flurry of wins at the end screwed itself into a nine percent chance. 

  • This will be San Aontonio’s first lottery since 1997, when the Spurs drafted Tim Duncan. 

Key lottery/draft dates, assuming they aren’t call off or pushed back: 

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READ:

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 4. Here is Phil Jackson’s elegant rendering of Michael Jordan’s “Last shot”  

This sketch, along with several other of Phil Jackson’s original diagrammed plays, were Instagrammed yesterday by @thisisfranchise. Check the rest out

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5.  Off the press

  • What is Kyrie Irving’s peak, and will the Nets ever see it? [SB Nation]

  • Inside Kemba Walker’s decision to sign with the Celtics [The Boston Globe]