Playing Telephone with Malcolm Gladwell
Vince Carter is the most formidable one-on-one opponent in the NBA?
I was zipping around the internet yesterday afternoon when I saw this post by Malcolm Gladwell, linked to from The Big Lead. Gladwell’s post is a long rambling thing connecting disparate ideas (surprise!) that is designed to say, in short: people who criticize others shouldn’t criticize because they don’t understand how hard it can be to do what that person does. I think.
Anyway, the thing that got me was the first paragraph. Gladwell writes…
I remember once having a discussion with a guy who knew a lot about professional basketball. He said he had asked a big sample of NBA players who they felt would be the most formidable one-on-one opponent in the league. The answer was fairly unanimous: Vince Carter. Now that’s surprising. Why Carter and not Kobe Bryant or LeBron James or any number of other, far more accomplished, offensive players? The answer, this guy told me, was the same in nearly every case: “you have no idea how hard it is to do the things that Carter does.”
Why was this interesting?
In March of last year, I went (with Russ and Ben) to the Kings/Nets game out in New Jersey. After the game I got into a discussion with several Kings players. I wrote the following on March 7, 2006, on the old The Links…
In another corner of the locker room, a bunch of Kings players are deep in discussion. (I’m going to keep them anonymous so no beef arises.) I get called over and the following question is asked to me: If you were playing pick-up basketball and had to pick one of these guys to be on your team, which would you take: Vince, Richard Jefferson or LeBron?
I didn’t understand it at first — “Wait,” I asked, “Are you playing two-on-two?” — but after it was eventually explained to me — “Just pick the guy you’d want” — I picked LeBron. No question.
And all the players went nuts. “LeBron?” they asked.
“Who would you guys pick?” I said.
Unanimously and loudly, their answer was clear: “Vince.”
I couldn’t figure this out. I know Vince used to be an amazing player, but now he’s just a guy who mainly stands around outside and takes fadeaway threes.
“Would you want Vince because he’d be calling fouls throughout the game?” I wondered.
“No, we’d play with refs,” one player said.
Eventually, I got their ringleader to admit that he’d take LeBron if he was starting a franchise, but for one game, he’d want Vince.
Now, fast forward to SLAM editor-in-chief Ryan Jones’s post in the comments section here, where he wrote…
It’s through Chuck that I also (briefly) met Malcolm Gladwell, another well-known, populist-appealing culture critic who also happens to be a huge and knowledgable hoop fan.
So where does all this lead us?
Well, I know I told Ryan the previous story, and I’m betting he passed it on to Gladwell, because I know Ryan told me about meeting Gladwell at a party once at Chuck Klosterman’s.
Which means somehow we went from four Kings players (only one a starter, by the way) telling me they’d want Vince Carter on their team in a pickup game to Malcolm Gladwell saying a “big sample” of NBA players say Vince is the most formidable one-on-one opponent in the NBA. It’s like a game of “telephone,” where a phrase gets whispered in one ear and and by the time it makes its way around the room it has morphed into something completely different. Only here the wrong phrase is used as the basis for a long, heartfelt post.
Should we tell him he’s way off? Ah, isn’t the internet great?
27 Responses to “Playing Telephone with Malcolm Gladwell”
Oct.4 at 11:52 am
Garreth says:
I love when anonymous scouts/players/coaches give the dirt on the players in the league. Lang, do some undercover research! Disguise the voices in your interviews! Film them with back-lighting! I want the inside scoop on all the trash talkers, babies, sleepers, gamblers, cheaters!
Oct.4 at 11:52 am
Bryant Reeves says:
I read that article and in the comments section guessed that it was a Slam employee who was the “source” I also remembered it being two-on-two. Gladwell has been taking a lot of heat lately - things like this sure won’t help.
Bryant Reeves - aka Sam Craven
Oct.4 at 11:55 am
Sam Rubenstein says:
I read that gladwell post yesterday and I remember thinking to myself that the Vince thing must be a huge coincidence. Maybe not.
By the way I use lessons learned from “Blink” to get a seat on the subway every morning.
Oct.4 at 11:59 am
Ryan Jones says:
I actually met Malcolm Gladwell at a bar, not at Chuck Klosterman’s, although the event was in fact a birthday party for Chuck. Why is this interesting? Well, I’m not sure if this is the essential definition of irony, but Lang just slightly misquoted me in a post in which he basically slags off someone else for slightly misquoting me. Not to be pedantic (word to The Fiver!) but this seems unnecessary… The story is that Gladwell and I talked for 10 or 15 or 20 minutes in a very noisy bar, and that I had a slight buzz at the time, so who knows what he clearly heard or thought he heard or even what I actually said. Everybody mishears or misremembers things from time to time, but I think Gladwell’s basic point in that blog entry is valid regardless. I am supremely offended that he mentions David Foster Wallace and Bill Simmons in the same breath in his previous blog, but that’s just me. Also, as I just reminded our online editor, Lang didn’t seem offended a few years ago when another New Yorker writer quoted me word-for-word and attributed my quote to either Lang or Russ, implying I wasn’t in the room (or the car, actually, if I remember right) when whatever forgettable statement I made was made. Which was either incredibly lazy or inentionally misleading, and that seems somehow worse to me. Anway, I hope I’ve got better things to do than crack on a writer who’s better known and makes more money than everyone on the SLAM edit staff put together (and who, in the brief time I spent with him, seemed like a pretty nice guy). So I’m gonna go edit stories now.
Oct.4 at 12:01 pm
Lang Whitaker says:
Actually, Ryan’s wrong about us being misquoted (it was on the sideline with the Clippers). And Sam, didn’t you read Blink? There’s no such thing as coincidence.
Oct.4 at 12:15 pm
SkyDubai says:
the only truth to the whole VC is the best 1 on 1 player is during his time on the Olymics team, VC absolutely killed every single other player on the roster during their 1 on 1 matchups.. but then again, that was the old, half man - half not yet graduated, can jump over 7 foot men in a single leap VC…
Oct.4 at 12:34 pm
t dot j. says:
i’ll admit “wince” carter can do some great stuff but he’s soft and got no heart, if you body him too much it throws him off his game, but if he has backup (oakley when he played for the raps) then he’ll all of a sudden turn gangsta and throw down on menz. other than that maybe……. tdot…………..
Oct.4 at 12:38 pm
t dot j. says:
still cheesed at how he dogged out my team just to get traded. looseball.
Oct.4 at 12:56 pm
Jake Appleman says:
Telephone is incredible.
Oct.4 at 1:06 pm
Cheryl says:
Wow, do I sense dissension in the Slam writers’ ranks?? Is the offseason and preseason so boring that we’ve started to bicker over inane stuff? C’mon regular season!
Oct.4 at 1:25 pm
Lang Whitaker says:
No dissension, Ryan and I just like to argue about stuff. In fact, we just spent three minutes talking about how much Ryan likes Master P.
Oct.4 at 1:33 pm
Ryan Jones says:
F*ck you Lang. You too, Cheryl. Nah, I’m just playing. Lang knows he’s wrong so it’s all good. In truth, Master P and Romeo are in the SLAM Dome as we speak. Silkk the Shocker is even waiting for them in the lobby. I swear I’m not making this up.
Oct.4 at 2:03 pm
ATrain says:
Ryan, in all the chaos that seems to be going down today in the SLAM dome (P, Romeo, Silkk)the question remains - Where does C-Murder fit in all of this?
Oct.4 at 2:15 pm
Cheryl says:
Kobe and Lil Wayne can’t be far behind…
Oct.4 at 2:41 pm
Allen says:
Lang, maybe you meant the new age crap book The Celestine Prophecy - Blink doesn’t say there are no such thing as coincidences.
Oct.4 at 3:13 pm
Rome says:
You folks must be soooooo bored today. Why dont you just make up a trade rumor, then spread it around to see if ESPN quotes it without checking sources. That should hype up your day.
Oct.4 at 3:13 pm
Rome says:
By the way is it true that GOAT (Michael Jordan) is coming out with a hip hop album?
Oct.4 at 3:33 pm
Nads says:
How does one “zip” through the internet Lang? make em say uuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhh
Oct.4 at 4:27 pm
Ryan Jones says:
Lang’s misquoting books AND people today. Awesome. And Rome, the Lakers just traded Kobe for Romeo Miller. Seriously. Tell a friend.
Oct.4 at 4:28 pm
Ryan Jones says:
Oh, and ATrain — isn’t CMurder dead? I’m not asking to be a smart-ass, I’m asking ’cause I can’t remember…
Oct.4 at 5:18 pm
ATrain says:
Last I heard he beat the murder rap he was facing and in all likelyhood will be assistant coach to P in the League in 2016
Oct.4 at 11:18 pm
Sam Rubenstein says:
Ryan, your first comment was pretty long. You should have a blog and maybe call it “Sideways.”
CMurder was in a New Orleans jail when Katrina struck. A flood destroyed the jail and he hasn’t been seen since. I’m making some of that up but it’s based on a tru story.
There’s a chapter in Blink that links the Amadou Diallo shooting to Larry Bird’s ability to see the game in slow motion in crunch time.
Oct.5 at 3:13 am
Boing Dynasty says:
While Silkk The Shocker is nice and all, i still prefer Gerald Green the Shocker.
Also has anyone else noticed Barnganri has an unstopable 20 footer in 2K7
Oct.5 at 1:19 pm
Asmith says:
i dont see how some of you guys can think that vc is still a soft player… he has missed 8 games the last two seasons Tmac Kobe Iverson have all missed more games during that span… and vc is still the best 1 on 1 guy… i mean he can do a 360 layup and get fouled?? name me one person who has the creativity in the league that would do that… let alone executing the play… another example is the new commercial for NBA League Pass where Lebron and Brand are talking about how sweet the dunk on zo was last year
Oct.6 at 7:08 pm
Mikey C. says:
Hey you guys are saying stuff about VC but if im not mistaken, isnt he going to be on the cover pretty soon?? I read on the Nets blog that he is doing a cover shoot for your magazine this week.
Oct.6 at 11:07 pm
Yo Mama says:
VC 4 MVP! Hez gonna bust everyonez asses this season!
Sep.5 at 7:53 pm
da.... says:
VC iz THE most talented, offensively oriented NBA player ever…