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Hoops! There it is...
A back door cut. An ankle-breaking crossover. An outlet pass. Three-point line. Trash talk. An alley-oop slam. From rural Indiana to Shanghai to Slovenia, these phrases comprise an ad hoc lingua franca for basketball players and fans around the world. The Fédération International de Basketball Amateur (FIBA) (http://www.fiba.com/), basketball's international governing body, counts 450 million basketball players worldwide, and boasts that basketball will soon surpass soccer as the world's most popular sport (http://www.fiba.com/pages/en/aboutfiba/quick_facts_world.asp).
Home to many of the best basketball players on the planet, the National Basketball Association (NBA) started play on Nov. 1. The NBA's official Web site (http://www.nba.com/) offers player biographies, statistics, video highlights, basketball history and ticket information. This season, the world champion San Antonio Spurs (http://www.nba.com/spurs/) seek to defend their title against the other 29 teams in the league. Only a short drive away from the Buffalo-Niagara Region, local hoops aficionados can enjoy NBA games in Toronto (http://www.nba.com/raptors/) and Cleveland (http://www.nba.com/cavaliers/).
Though football and hockey dictate most sports conversations in Buffalo, basketball history in Western New York runs deep. One of five teams enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame (http://www.hoophall.com/), the Buffalo Germans (http://www.hoophall.com/halloffamers/BuffaloGermans.htm) dominated the professional and amateur ranks in the early part of the 20th century, compiling a 792-86 record. More recently, memories of the legendary Bob McAdoo and Randy Smith, the raucous Aud crowd and the Columbia Blue uniforms of the Buffalo Braves still resonate. Though the NBA has not fielded a team in Buffalo since the 1978-79 season, the Los Angeles Clippers maintain the official Web site of the Buffalo Braves. (http://www.nba.com/clippers/history/braves). Recently, pro basketball has been resurrected in the form of the newly assembled Buffalo Rapids (http://www.buffalorapids.com/), giving professional basketball fans a local team to support. Playing at the Burt Flickinger Athletic Center in downtown Buffalo (http://www.ecc.edu/alook/look_flickinger_map.php3), the Rapids seek to provide a new and entertaining style of basketball replete with new rules, such as four-point shots and quick throw-ins.
For the statistically minded or history buffs, several resources exist to quench your "basketball jones." The comprehensive databaseBasketball (http://www.databasebasketball.com/) provides individual and team statistics dating back to the NBA's inception. This free resource also features league awards, statistical leaders, draft results and a statistical search engine. 82games.com (http://www.82games.com) caters to the obsessive basketball fanatic by providing unorthodox statistics and statistical analyses, such as plus/minus ratings, player shot charts, field-goal percentages adjusted for 3-pointers, defensive effectiveness and crunch-time effectiveness. Remember the ABA (http://www.remembertheaba.com/) serves as a portal to the now defunct American Basketball Association. A great resource for images, the Web site hosts such nostalgic items as the ABA All-Star Pictorial Tribute, ABA team histories and the ABA Fashion Guide.
Interestingly, several scholars research issues involving professional basketball, from issues of race and prejudice to sports medicine to economic globalization. Scholarly databases, such as Web of Science (http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/e-resources/webofscience.html), EconLit (http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/e-resources/econlit.html) and Ethnic Newswatch (http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/e-resources/ethnic.html), can assist you in basketball-related academic research. Please see a reference librarian to get you started. If all of this piques your interest, consider joining the Association of Professional Basketball Research (http://hometown.aol.com/bradleyrd/apbr.html).
Enjoy the season and I'll see you on the hardwood.
—Dean Hendrix, University Libraries