Daily Archives: November 9, 2005

Catching up with the NBA

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mcgrady_ming_rockets_d.jpgAs noted in earlier posts here and here, I find it difficult to generate much enthusiasm for the local professional basketball team, the Houston Rockets. This year’s club is mildly interesting, with one of the best perimeter players in the league — Tracy McGrady — teamed with one of the best big men — Yao Ming. They are both in the prime of their respective careers, so you would think that the team would be a title contender. However, as has been often the case for the Rockets throughout their existence, the team has not found the point guard who can push all the right buttons (remember Matt Maloney?) and propel the team into the NBA’s elite teams. This year, the Rockets are trying Rafer Alston at the point, but it remains to be seen whether he is the answer.
Despite my lack of enthusiasm for the Rockets, I did notice during the last NBA season that the games were much more interesting than in the previous three seasons or so. A number of really special young players had arrived on the scene — notably Cleveland’s LeBron James and Miami’s Dwayne Wade — and the pace and intensity of the play made NBA games enjoyable to watch again. Along those lines, Patrick Hruby of ESPN.com notes in this article that many of the complaints that one commonly hears about the NBA are myths. One of the more interesting observations is what really distracts players while they are shooting free throws:

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The anti-obesity industry

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obesity.jpgComing off his Texas barbeque excursion, Marginal Revolution’s Tyler Cowen notes that J. Eric Oliver, a political science professor at the University of Chicago, has entered the debate a new book called Fat Politics (Oxford 2005), in which Professor Oliver argues that a handful of doctors, government bureaucrats and health researchers — funded by the drug and weight-loss industry — have campaigned to classify more than sixty million Americans as “overweight,” to inflate the health risks of being fat, and to promote the idea that obesity is a killer disease. The Publishers Weekly review of the book notes the following:

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Beating a dead Andersen

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Mr Ed.jpgThe Chronicle’s Mary Flood, back from a well-deserved vacation, is again writing on Enron matters and, in this article, notes that the Fifth Circuit has asked the attorneys involved in the Arthur Andersen criminal case to advise the Court on whether the case should be remanded to District Court for re-trial or simply dismissed altogether after the Supreme Court’s decisive opinion overturning the firm’s conviction. Using prediction skills that have become well-honed from dealing with the Enron Task Force over the past several years, Ms. Flood speculates that the Task Force will request that the Fifth Circuit remand the case to the District Court for a new trial.
Other than providing an annuity for Andersen defense attorney Rusty Hardin, what possible benefit could be derived from a re-trial of a dead accounting firm? The fact that such a re-trial is even being considered reflects that the misguided criminal investigation into Enron has officially gone from being merely abusive and desperate to truly absurd.