alietr wrote:Can anyone help me parse the clue enough to tell me what information it was providing about Syracuse and the Lakers that would get you to a shot clock? Other than an innovation and 1954, I'm not seeing what anything in the clue would help the average person solve this one. Went with the 3-point line myself, thinking maybe there was an earlier implementation of it than when it became standard.
After a bit of research, I think it's kind of a bullshit "fact" proposed in this FJ, despite the fact that it includes the word "may". You wanna know why the Lakers didn't repeat as champions? George Mikan, who had been the standard-bearer as the league gained a foothold in the public consciousness, announced his retirement before the 1954-55 season. Here are some articles about the introduction of the shot clock and the reasoning behind it, nothing to give any indication that the Syracuse Nationals in particular may have benefited from the change.
floridagator wrote:I have a feeling our Canadian board members are experiencing aneurysms right now. The players blew all five of the Canadian cities clues.
Not an aneurysm, but I was kind of in shock that they were unable to deduce "Moose Jaw" from that waaaayyyyyy too obvious clue!
And I'm still a bit puzzled at Stratford's upgrade to "city" status - population of about 30,000 doesn't rank as a city in my book.
Oh, and if anyone ever tells you that the NBA has too many playoff teams, at 16/30, direct them to the standings from 1952-53, where 8 of the league's 10 teams made the playoffs, including the Baltimore Bullets with a record of 16-54!!!
It looks like the league reacted to this by reducing the number of playoff teams from 8 to 6 the following season, where it stayed until going back to 8 in 1966-67.
alietr wrote:Can anyone help me parse the clue enough to tell me what information it was providing about Syracuse and the Lakers that would get you to a shot clock? Other than an innovation and 1954, I'm not seeing what anything in the clue would help the average person solve this one. Went with the 3-point line myself, thinking maybe there was an earlier implementation of it than when it became standard.
It was something that wasn't intrinsic to the game but was big enough to be a significant game changer, and require a huge shift in strategy. That's what led me there, anyway.
Category 13 wrote:Just having a current NBA team name and the name of a university was enough to have me going down a time waisting mental path. Obviously (apparently) there was a Syracuse NBA team back then, but that just added a whole lot of confusion to the clue IMO.
*nod* I spent a few seconds trying to figure out why they were mentioning a college team beating a pro team.
I got all of the Canadian clues except Victoria. I guessed Vancouver. How they didn't get Moose Jaw, I don't know.
I went with Slam Dunks for FJ. The Lakers TOM led me to Wilt Chamberlain and I remember that he and Bill Russell were the first big slam dunk people. However,according to Wikipedia, it looks like it wasn't illegal before then to dunk, it was just an affront to the other team if you tried, and they would cut your feet out from underneath you. In any case, I was a few years off anyway.
alietr wrote:Can anyone help me parse the clue enough to tell me what information it was providing about Syracuse and the Lakers that would get you to a shot clock? Other than an innovation and 1954, I'm not seeing what anything in the clue would help the average person solve this one. Went with the 3-point line myself, thinking maybe there was an earlier implementation of it than when it became standard.
After a bit of research, I think it's kind of a bullshit "fact" proposed in this FJ, despite the fact that it includes the word "may". You wanna know why the Lakers didn't repeat as champions? George Mikan, who had been the standard-bearer as the league gained a foothold in the public consciousness, announced his retirement before the 1954-55 season. Here are some articles about the introduction of the shot clock and the reasoning behind it, nothing to give any indication that the Syracuse Nationals in particular may have benefited from the change.
I think the second half of the clue was probably included to
1) Make the clue a bit longer and more complex ("brevity is the soul of wit" is rarely the motto for FJ clues)
and
2) Make it clear that this was not Syracuse the college team (a clarification perhaps necessary because the shot clock came to college basketball much more recently - not until the 1980s).
econgator wrote:The clue asked for "these" and she says "need". How was that not reversed?
The slogan is often quoted with the singular word and we know grammatical agreement is not required on J! except for exact quotes.
I said "3-point rule" for FJ and was glad to think of it. I don't know from shot clocks...
Amazingly (or not...) all 3 of my precalls for Moore or Les didn't show up. (Roger Moore, Les Paul, Les Moonves)
BADuBois wrote:
grindcore wrote:Canadian cities: Holy shit! I must admit I was fooled by Victoria though. You can't drive to the island, how can the highway make it there???
My thought exactly! Which is why I picked Vancouver.
Clue said capital, I threw caution to the wind and picked the provincial capital on the west coast. Hooray for me for reading the clue for once!
(Went 4-5 in it with a guess of Windsor for Stratford)
A Wray wrote:
HostWithTheMost wrote:Regarding FJ, boo on anyone who thought 3-point shot, since that was an ABA innovation.
Actually, no. The American Basketball League, a little-known competitor to the NBA that lasted only one season (1961-62), was the first league to use a 3-point line.
I can forgive non-basketball fans for having no clue on this one, but the invention of the shot clock was easily the most important event in the history of basketball. It immediately transformed the game from a tedious affair filled with stalling and intentional fouling to the fast-paced game we know today.
I even read an article about the introduction of the shot clock, but it was years ago and I forgot all about it...until after the reveal; went with 3-point line since (today) it seems to be the game changer. (See: Curry, Stephen)
I talked myself out of guessing the 24-second shot clock since I did not know it went back that far. The 3-point shot was the only one I knew not to write. During think time I considered slam dunk and hook shot, but did not like those for a guess. My response has not been mentioned yet as I wrote Zone Defense.
My thinking was perhaps it made a difference back in the 1950s and that was why it was later made illegal (although legal now). Like on Sports J! it's the NBA clues that are often trouble for me. It's regular play, so I should know to keep a sports response to the most basic thing that any Joe off the street could guess.
My wish off the category for it to be baseball or football did not happen.
Dan took care of that 5-figure to 6-figure total situation in style. It's seems so obvious how Dan is going to lose at some point that I'm now expecting it to be some other kind of scenario. As long as he does not go to some casino and take the house for a fortune with big bet gambling offending the bosses, he has put in his RSVP for the TOC.
I guess his QF wager will not have much finesse to it. He'll either be John Ryan or John Pearson.
