Exposing ESPN's Chris Palmer and His NBA Coverage On Twitter

Over the last few months, ESPN NBA Chris Palmer has tweeted some controversial things, to say the least. Because this is the Internet, I feel like I have to say this before I start this post: I do not hate Chris Palmer. I don’t know him, he doesn’t know me. This is strictly me evaluating his tweets about basketball.

Best NBA Players Ever

We’ve all made a list of who we think the top NBA players of all time are (my list will be coming after the NBA Finals), and as usual with these things, some are more likely to agree with the list then others.

Chris Palmer’s first list of his top players (5 in total) was on Dec. 20, 2012, and the second was made on Tuesday.

Here's the December one:

And the latest one:

In that time-span, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (previously ranked fifth) and Magic Johnson (not on the first list) jump up to third and fourth, respectively. Interesting. How this is possible without them playing an NBA game? I’m not sure.

Additionally, LeBron James, despite gaining a fourth MVP award, moves down the list from fourth to fifth (due to Magic and Kareem moving up).  Hakeem Olajuwon also moves from the third best player on the first list, to not even making the top 7 on the second list as numbers 6 and 7 on the second list are (Bill) Russell and Tim Duncan, respectively.

Duncan is currently active in the NBA and therefore it is at least logical that he can move up a place. What doesn’t seem logical, though, is that Hakeem would slide down a minimum of five players (assuming he’s at No. 8) and that Russell would jump up to sixth. Again, despite the fact that in that time he hasn’t played any games.

Do people change their mind on these things? Yes, but to show such a level of inconsistency is another thing.

Weaker Defenses

Another one of Chris Palmer’s tweets is about the defenses that Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant faced.

I’ve already written an article about the rules changes in the NBA and how they’ve affected the game (which you can read here) but I’ll briefly summarise two of the rules changes that affect defence for the purposes of this article.

Hand checking has been removed. There is less resistance in the game today for both perimeter and post players due to the curtailing of hand checking. This means that defensive players are no longer allowed to exert a physical force with their hands on an opposing offensive player.

The three-second rule. The introduction of the three-second rule now means that players are not allowed to stay for more than three seconds in the painted area under the basket known as the key (with some exceptions). As a result, the players of today are now able to drive to the basket (with less resistance due to the removal of hand-checking) and finish at the rim with less (not total) chance of the shot being disrupted due to the fact that the opposing defensive player many not be standing in the paint waiting for him to attempt a shot at the rim!

Now, does it seem that Kobe faced “weaker” defenses than Michael Jordan? On a side note, Chris Palmer also later tweeted this:

I’m not going to take a picture of my television and show you guys that I do own one, however I will say that I do watch a large number of NBA games and can confidently say that hand checking is not present in today’s game.

Do you know why? Because the NBA removed it, and if a player does try to hand check today, they are called for a foul!  Below are exact quotations from the rules section of the NBA website which cover the rules changes I’ve talked about.

2004-05 rules changes state: "New rules were introduced to curtail hand checking, clarify blocking fouls and call defensive three seconds to open up the game."

2001-02 rules changes state: "Illegal defense guidelines will be eliminated in their entirety. A new defensive three-second rule will prohibit a defensive player from remaining in the lane for more than three consecutive seconds without closely guarding an offensive player."

Here’s a quote from Joe Johnson, who currently plays for the Brooklyn Nets, when he was asked about the hand-checking rule.

“It benefits me, It definitely changes the game because it gives every guy that extra step. If we could hand check now, the game would be totally different. If they couldn’t hand check back in the day, there are some guys that would have been even better than they were. It would have been nuts for some of the big-time scorers and perimeter players from the 1980s and 1990s. Can you imagine what (Michael) Jordan would have done in a league where you couldn’t hand check.” 

Interesting. And it comes from Joe Johnson, who currently plays in the NBA,  says that they’re not allowed to hand-check. Chris Palmer says that players do hand-check. Who do you believe?

Carmelo Anthony

Carmelo Anthony recently won his first scoring title 10 years into his career.  Shortly after Chris Palmer tweeted what is said above.

Carmelo is currently 12th on the all-time NBA points per game list and has one scoring title. As an example, I’ll take Michael Jordan and Kevin Durant, who both rank higher on the all-time points per game list while shooting a higher percentage for their career and  have racked up more scoring titles than Carmelo has in his career. Is Melo still the best pure scorer in the game’s history?

Chris Palmer also goes on to tweet the following:



While most will severely disagree with him placing Carmelo above Charles Barkley, John Stockton and Allen Iverson, the inconsistency in his argument comes where he states that in his opinion Melo is not a Hall-of-Famer.

Barkley and Stockton are already in the Naismith Hall of Fame, and therefore to rank Carmelo as better than them would surely indicate that he is a Hall of Fame caliber player right? Apparently not.

Larry Bird

Chris Palmer has also tweeted about Larry Bird. You can see what he had to say above. He later went on to tweet the following:

For those of you who don’t know, Bird played in the NBA from 1979-1992. The NBA introduced the three-point line in the 1979-1980 season.

Unlike today, taking a three-point shot was frowned upon, and as a result, Bird was asked to slow down with the number of three-pointers he took by his coach. Consequently, he went on to only shoot a total of 276 three pointers in the following  four years after his rookie season (from 1981-84).

It’s interesting to note that Chris Palmer doesn’t mention that Bird is part of the 50-40-90 club. In fact he’s not only a member of it, but has twice recorded a season where he’s shot over 50-percent from the field, 40-percent from behind-the-arc and 90-percent from the free throw line.

Only six players in NBA history have accomplished this feat, while Bird (two) and Steve Nash (four) are the only ones in NBA history to accomplish it more than once. Furthermore, there have only been three seasons in NBA history where a player has shot 50-40-90 while averaging over 28 points per game, and Bird is responsible for two out of those three seasons.

Bird the most overrated shooter in NBA history? Doesn’t seem accurate does it?

Rings and Dream Team

When comparing the 1992 Dream Team to the 2012 Olympic Team, Chris Palmer decided to add Kevin Garnett and Tim Duncan to the 2012 Olympic Team and tweeted:

Do I even have to break this down for you? Why would you evaluate a player’s skill or ability based on the number of rings that they win throughout their career?

The last time I checked, winning a ring was a team achievement and therefore evaluating a player based on the number of rings they’ve won doesn’t seem to make sense. I guess a starting five of Derek Fisher, Bob Cousy, John Havlicek, Robert Horry and Sam Jones would destroy everyone, huh?

Furthermore, at the time of their respective tournaments, the players of the 1992 Dream Team had total 12 rings: (three from Bird, two from Scottie Pippen, two from Jordan and five from Magic). Guess how many the 2012 Olympic Team had accomplished at the time of the Summer Olympics? Half as many is the answer (six; five from Kobe Bryant and one from LeBron James)

So even using Chris Palmer’s own logic his statement doesn’t make sense.

Conclusion

Why did I take the time to point all of these things out?  Because I find it pretty amazing that these types of things are tweeted/spoken via Twitter and TV by employees of ESPN (and other companies, might I add).

ESPN is a recognzsed establishment and one that holds much power in the world of sports.  The employees therefore have a responsibility to educate both young and old in a responsible and accurate manner, and frankly it doesn’t seem like they are doing so.

As I said in the introduction, the purpose of this article was strictly to critique Chris Palmer's tweets about basketball, nothing more, nothing less.