A common refrain among those in my twitter feed, for anyone watching, has been that this season makes no sense whatsoever. I have to agree. The season has been unfathomably odd so far. I was going to do a freeform piece on the subject, but quickly realized there was a simpler way to go. Given that All-Star voting has begun, why not give you my first-quarter All-Stars? After all, we’re already voting. And the game is in about a month. It’s closer than you think, in other words. I’m not really doing statistical rankings here — these are based on a combination of their stats (mostly documented here so we can look back later), what I’ve seen from watching them, and where the conference stands. It’s a long look, so let’s get to it. Keep in mind we’ll be going with the infuriating All-Star positional designations; that is, guards, forwards, and centers. Four guards, four forwards, two centers, and two wildcard slots. Go.  Continue reading →

For an explanation of what this is about and a full listing of the Pantheon thus far, go here.

We’re updating The Pantheon today with eleven links. Fun times for all. An important note that we’d like to emphasize is that we are really, really open to suggestions (discovery-wise, the list is about 40% Aaron-40% Alex-20% later suggestions at the moment), even to your own pieces. Really, we don’t mean to be biased or terribly exclusive: I mean, it *is* meant to be a textual highlight reel, yes, but as we’re trying to exhaust the list of the very bets, we’re realizing that it’s essentially inexhaustible. When we want to include something on the basis of supreme quality, we can usually find room for it. Because of this, The Pantheon is becoming more and more of a library for great pieces than anything else. We’re keeping the name, and the attitude of timelessness (because all the pieces are truly timeless, and the additions are no exceptions), but we recognize the subtle Borgesian shift from pantheon to great library. And we’re cool with that.

I say this because we are quite aware that the additions are mostly Spurs pieces. We’re called “The Gothic Ginobili” and this is what we’re familiar with. Now, we’re pretty confident that other fan bases are producing content every day as hilarious and brilliant as Popovich giving Vampire Beno Udrih a withering stare that causes Udrih to impale his own heart in shame while “Luke Walton’s smile supernovas into escalating sobs”. We just haven’t seen it. Sorry. Tell us if you do see something great (especially one that speaks to you personally as a fan of one of the teams/players), preferably in the comments of The Pantheon. This is best because it saves us the trouble of adding it directly/filtering them/until an update while still allowing readers to check it out. If you’d prefer more privacy or a longer explanation than a post or a link dump? Then try droping us a line through our staff email. We’ll read it, and probably even respond!

I realize there’s something inherently normative about making a freaking Pantheon (and naming it that), and every time we update it I feel a certain (kind of obsessive) pressure against the normative, the biases, and the urge to promote based only on preference in subject matter. Why? Well, because sometimes that normative part is the ugly stuff of exclusion in selection of material and a cheap delineation of what is high art and what is not, and it’s kind of endemic to the human mind to compartmentalize these sorts of things. But it’s not our purpose, and we’re aware of the problem. Note it. Thanks. New links after the jump. Continue reading →