Reblogged from Pro Hoops History:

A time for healing

For many Arkansas football fans, Michael Dyer is one of the most polarizing sports figures around. As a senior at Little Rock Christian High School, he was the top ranked running back in the nation. Dyer, of course, chose Auburn and it didn’t appear as if the Razorbacks finished a close second.

For a while, it appeared as if Dyer had made the correct decision. Two straight 1,000 yard seasons and a BCS National Championship Game MVP award will make it seem that way. But things weren’t going nearly as smoothly off the field. Dyer was smoking synthetic marijuana, and apparently running with the wrong crowd. The wheels started coming off in spring 2011 when his gun was used during an armed robbery, the vehicle started smoking in winter 2012 after he was indefinitely suspended from Auburn and then released from his scholarship and the whole thing went up in flames last summer when he was released from Arkansas State after more bad news involving marijuana and a gun.

Given these events, it’s little wonder Dyer has lately stayed out of the public eye.

Since fall 2012, he’s attended Arkansas Baptist College, the oldest historically black college west of the Mississippi River, and is on track to earn his associate’s degree this summer in general studies, college president Fitz Hill told me.

Dyer has only given two interviews with mainstream media this year. In one this spring, with THV’s Mark Edwards, he says he would like an opportunity to walk on at the University of Arkansas. “I was asked to sit out [of football for] a year,” Dyer said on the broadcast. “I was asked to do a lot of changing and maturing to become a better person and a better football player. I spent this whole year doing exactly what I was asked to so that I could reach some of the goals that I knew later that I wanted to do.”

Perhaps Dyer ends up at a major college football program next season, looking to swing for the fences instead of suffering a third strike. Maybe he finds no major college is willing to take the risk. Either way, that college’s decision doesn’t ultimately matter nearly as much as whether Dyer has truly sought to become a better person this past year or not.

We talk about Dyer because of what he has done on the football field, in front of a thousand cameras and million eyes. But it’s the small decisions he’s made over the last year, the temptations he’s said “yes” or “no” when hardly anybody was around, that will more determine whether he thrives as a person or not.

Society may see Dyer’s “success” as football-based, but I hope Dyer has matured enough to know that the sport is of greatest benefit to him as a tool. If he is better now, if he has truly come around like he says he has, he will also be mature enough to be able to let go off football one day (possibly soon) and find success in whatever field he turns his mind to.

Because, as polarizing as Dyer has been for many football fans in this state who don’t know him, there are still a lot of people who do love him.

If you want proof, look at these pictures below. These pictures were taken last fall at a youth crime prevention program called the OK Program. Dyer was invited to share his story – the good, the bad and the ugly – with the teenagers who made up the audience.

He did, and he did a great job of it:

These kids aren’t praying for Dyer because he ran for three touchdowns for their favorite football team. They probably wouldn’t care which college program he played for. All they know is that he was once so high, and in some ways has come so low. But with their prayers he can be lifted again.

And, if his words hit their hearts right, so can they.

If Dyer wants to succeed in life – on the field and off, he would do well to nourish his roots and remember to seek strength from those who choose to love him despite the helmet he wears.

A family comes in all forms.

This season’s Memphis squad has achieved plenty of franchise firsts – first to win 50 games, first to place three players on the all-defensive team and first to make a Sports Illustrated cover.

With one more win against Oklahoma City, the franchise also plays in the NBA’s Western Conference Finals for the first time.

Either possible opponent there – whether somewhat decrepit San Antonio or callow Golden State – looks very beatable. Which means it isn’t totally presumptuous for Memphis fans to fantasize about the Grizzlies’ first berth in the NBA Finals.

Its opponent there will likely be the juggernaut Miami Heat. These Heat, of course, use the all-around genius and physicality of LeBron James along with dead-eye three-point shooting to snap into most of their foes like they were mere Slim Jims.

The Grizzlies are anything but slim.

Indeed, you probably already know this Memphis team presents the most daunting obstacle to a Miami two-peat. The Griz are strongest – in the middle and on the boards – where Miami is weakest. And they play a grind-it-out style the Heat abhor.

Are there numbers to support this premise?

Hell yeah, there are.

The Grizzlies have played the Heat three times in the last two regular seasons. Memphis won two of the three contests. But in all three games Memphis gave Miami severe problems on offense and defense, in multiple areas.

Here’s a season-by-season breakdown:

2011-12

Source: NBA.com

2012-13

Source: NBA.com

Granted, the team personnel in each of these games was slightly different. There was a Rudy Gay still playing for Memphis here, a Dwayne Wade recovering from injury there.

But these graphs still give you a big picture idea of how  Memphis could easily add another furrow or 40 to LeBron’s brow. In an increasingly data-driven industry like the NBA, the numbers speak for themselves.

Turns out, Arkansas is pretty middling in all the rankings, including win percentage (8th highest among the 14 current SEC members).

It stands out in one category, though: the degree to which it’s self sufficient. That is, how much money its athletic program nets when subsidies - money transferred from other parts of the university, student fees or state funds – aren’t considered.

In this category (labeled “Difference” below)  Arkansas ranks #2 for the 2011-12 year, only behind Texas A&M.

Category: 2012 Generated Revenue

What is Means: All the money the athletic program brings in, minus the amount given to the program in the form of
subsidies.

Category: 2012 Total Expenses

What is means: Everything it takes to keep all sports within an athletic program running, from the salaries of swimming coaches  to the Wendy’s receipts on those football recruiting trips through Houston.

Category: 2012 Difference

What it means: The difference between a program’s generated revenue and total expenses. This is a strong signal of whether a program is self-sufficient or not. Put another way, in the chart below, Ayn Rand would be proud of those programs in the black and would frown on those in the red.

Category: 2012 Subsidy

What is means: Money allocated to the athletic program from other parts of the university, student fees or state funds.

*Vanderbilt isn’t included in the charts above because, as a private university, its financial information isn’t mandated to be disclosed to the public. 

Without a doubt, Mike Trout is the  poster boy for this kind of star in the 21st century. Big boy starred with the Arkansas Travelers in 2011 before breaking out as an All-Star rookie outfielder with the Los Angeles Angels last season.

A hundred years before Trout, the 5’7″, 150-pound pitcher Dickey Kerr was tearing it up in Paragould in the ol’ Northeast Arkansas League. His ascent into major league stardom wasn’t as fast as Trout’s, but at one point in the 1919 World Series Kerr was the most celebrated athlete in the United States. His unstained hands during the biggest scandal in baseball history would make him an even more revered figure.

Who, though, were the best non-Arkies* to play with an Arkansas team besides Kerr and Trout?

After conferring with sportswriters Jim Harris and Jeff Reed, as well as the Arkansas Baseball Encyclopedia‘s Caleb Hardwick, here are some top candidates, in no particular order:

*Although Bill Dickey was born in Louisiana, I consider him an Arkie.

Ferg Nation

1. Ferguson Jenkins – pitcher

Played in Arkansas 1963, 64, 65 before heading to Philadelphia, Chicago, Texas and Boston. A three-time All-Star and the 1971 Cy Young Award winner. In 1991, Jenkins became the first Canadian to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

2. Ray Lankford – centerfielder

Played in Arkansas in 1989 before heading to St. Louis for a 14-year career with the Cardinals. A one-time All-Star, Lankford posted five seasons of 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases with the Cardinals (1992, 1995-1998) - the only player in franchise history to accomplish the feat more than once, according to Wikipedia.

Allen smoked some comp, too.

3. Richie Allen – third baseman

Played in Arkansas in 1963 before absolutely blowing the ceiling off what rookies were thought to be able to accomplish in Philadelphia. Led the league  in runs (125), triples (13), extra base hits (80) and total bases (352); he finished in the top five in batting average (.318), slugging average (.557), hits (201), and doubles (38), says Wikipedia.  A seven-time All-Star, winner of the 1972 AL MVP.

4. Tris Speaker

Played in Arkansas in 1908 a year after making his major league debut for the Red Sox.

“Compiled a career batting average of .345 (sixth all-time), and still holds the record of 792 career doubles. Defensively, his career records for assists, double plays, and unassisted double plays by an outfielder still stand,” says Wikipedia. Was a three-time World Series champion with Boston (as a player) and Cleveland (as a manager). 

5. Jim Bunning

What, you’ve never been elected to the U.S. Senate?! Strike – you’re out, indeed.

Played in Arkansas in 1953 and 1954 before a 16-year career in the majors, most notably with Detroit and Philadelphia. A nine-time All-Star, he pitched one of only 23 perfect games in major league history.

Bunning was twice the AL’s strikeout champ. He entered politics after retiring.

You BET there’s a story behind this.

Over the last three years, I’ve had the pleasure of communicating with China’s No. 1 Joe Johnson fan, Yonsan Johnson. We’ve long discussed how his life and his Joe Johnson Fan Club would make a good subject for an article. Today, that story published here.

Below are some of his most recent e-mails to me. In them, you’ll see despair over the fact that Joe hasn’t replied to Tweets in a couple of years, but later you’ll also see hope – hope that Joe will help lift the Nets past the Bulls in the first round of the NBA Playoffs.

Tonight is Game 6. Brooklyn’s in Chicago, down 3-2. If Joe finally turns it on and helps the Nets topple the Bulls, expect the Chinese Joe Johnson Fan Club’s numbers to swell.

Feb 11
Hi, Evin.
how u doing?
I’m now at home with my family for the Chinese new year.

today i am writing to you just wanna talk about my recent feeling about “be a fan of Joe Johnson”.

how time flies, since that gift(Great progress on it) sent to Johnson… lost, dissappointment…
on may 18th, 2011… I found his twitter, gave him some tweets… he replyed…
after that, I would like to tweet to him… supports, greetings, just liked a friend… an ordinary friend…
I showed him the video mix links as well…
I aslo sent him some tweets on SPRING FESTIVAL’S EVE and today…. but, he never gave me the reply…
I don’t know what I was doing wrong, or why he ignored me…

at least… how can you treat your fans like that?

everytime I told myself:”Just do your best, he will know that one day…”
but… everytime you got dissappointment… even… the despair…

I’m now thinking about to give up… maybe… I’ve been doing the useless things…

OK, I can’t say to much now, it is to late…

Evin…
If one day you got the chance to meet Joe Johnson, please tell him…
he used to have a big supporter in China… really loyalty supporter…

March 6

Actually, Joe Johnson is not famous in China.
even if he went to the Nets…
people like talking about Deron Williams more than Joe Johnson…
and, you need to know, it is hard for me to do this…
I still keep on doing my things…
the video, the article, the pics to share with fans in Joe Johnson Chinese Baidu Tiebar as can be the new Joe Johnson fan club…
well, that’s it.

April 27
Hmm, Nets is in danger. I made Joe Johnson video mix Vol.3 to fans in China. Theme of it is The Clutch.

April 29
Evin…
I don’t know why…
I love this guy so badly…
He’s great…
He did a lot of jobs for the Hawks and Nets…
See…
He got some Clutch time.
Hmm… Really wanna his reply… like friend…
years passed…
Don’t know his feeling on that SPECIAL GIFT…
question was he recived it or not…
Really want to have one of his Nets game worn jersey…
memories on it.

Not exactly, mister.

Ten years ago, on May 1st, President George W. Bush stood on board of the USS Abraham Lincoln 30 miles off the coast of San Diego and declared “major combat operations in Iraq have ended” and that “in the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.” It was a bold, impressive claim, given the war had officially begun only 43 days before. But, at the time, G.W. seemed like a pretty impressive man. Before the speech, he’d reportedly become the first sitting president to make an arrested landing on an aircraft carrier.

Bush’s Top Gun moment turned out to be astoundingly premature, of course. U.S. combat involvement in Iraq went on, and on; thousands more Americans died there. The speech, meanwhile, quickly became a cornerstone moment of the Bush era. Images from its broadcast – the nearby “Mission Accomplished” sign, Bush’s olive flight jacket and the ejection harness between his legs – in time accrued a farcical touch and made Bush’s words seem boastful.

Where does he rank against Sidney, Joe, Derek, Alvin et al? Courtesy Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Ever wondered how NBA Arkansans stack up against each other in terms of career statistics? Wonder no more: below is the first and only comprehensive list including both native Arkansans and non-natives who played college ball in Arkansas.

You’ll notice Scottie Pippen is the only player in each Top 8 list, followed by Alvin Robertson – who ranks in all categories except rebounds and blocks per game.

For fun, I’ve boldfaced the non-natives who played college ball in Arkansas. They are all Razorbacks.

STEALS

This, by far, is the category in which NBA Arkansans excel the most. Three of the top 12 ball thieves in NBA history rep Arkansas by birthplace (Lever), college (Robertson) or both (Pippen).

POINTS

REBOUNDS

N.B. Oliver Miller averaged 5.9 rebounds and Alvin Robertson averaged 5.2 in his NBA career. 

*** The Jones brothers’ stats include their seasons in the American Basketball Association, which merged with the NBA in 1976. I list the total of the NBA and ABA statistics. 

ASSISTS

BLOCKS

	Total		Per Game
Caldwell Jones	2297	Caldwell Jones	1.8
Charles Jones	1134	Joe Barry Carroll	1.59
Joe Barry Carroll	1121	Charles Jones	1.77
Andrew Lang	1099	Oliver Miller	1.54
Scottie Pippen	947	Andrew Lang	1.49
Oliver Miller	758	Scottie Pippen	0.80
Michael Cage	725	Bryant Reeves	0.76
Alvin Robertson	323	Michael Cage	0.64

Yep, “Big Country” Bryant Reeves was born in Ft. Smith.

Win Shares Per 48 Minutes (regular season)

This high-falutin’ stat is one of the best ways to determine how much a player actually helps his team win games, as opposed to just filling up the box score. It’s an estimate of the number of wins contributed by that player per 48 minutes, which is one game’s duration. The average NBA player contributes 1/10th of a win per 48 minutes. (Only those who have played in at least three NBA seasons are ranked in this particular list.)

Semi-obscure Arkansas connections -

Lafayette “Fat” Lever – Born in 1960 in Pine Bluff, his family moved to Tuscon, Arizona when he was in the fourth grade. After starring at Arizona State, he became one of the best guards in the NBA in the late 1980s. Lever made  two NBA All-Star teams and became one of only three players in NBA history to record 15 plus points, rebounds, and assists in a single playoff game (the others being Jason Kidd and Wilt Chamberlain), according to Hoopedia.

Here’s a nice feature on Lever via ProHoopsHistory.com.

Archie Clark: Born in 1941 in Conway, then moved to Ecorse, Michigan – a suburb of Detroit. After starring at Minnesota, he played 10 seasons in the NBA and made two All-Star teams. One of the early practitioners of the crossover dribble.

Joe Barry Carroll: Born in 1958 in Pine Bluff and one of 13 children. His mother moved the family to Denver in 1971 to train to become a nurse’s aide. Carroll, a seven-footer, was a devastating post presence at Purdue and was the first overall pick in the 1980 draft. He never did live up to that status but put in a solid 11-year career.

Mike Conley, Jr: The Memphis Grizzlies’ point guard grew up in Fayetteville. The son of the Razorback All-American track star Mike Conley, he played in the same AAU basketball circles as Ronnie Brewer. As children, they often spent the night at each others’ house, Ronnie told me. Young Mike also practiced often at Bud Walton Arena with Mike Anderson, Jr., said Pat Bradley, who recalled seeing him shoot around during Hog practices in the late 1990s. In middle school, Conley, Jr. and his family moved to Indianapolis.

The playoffs began this weekend with defending champion Miami Heat as the most overwhelming favorite to win it all since the early 2000s Lakers. Back then, Arkansans played pivotal roles on a few title contenders. Little Rock native Derek Fisher, of course, manned the point for Los Angeles, which had to push through powerful Portland teams featuring Scottie Pippen.

A few years later, Corliss Williamson aided the Detroit Pistons’ push to a championship and an injury to Little Rock native Joe Johnson might have been the biggest reason Steve Nash’s run-and-gun Phoenix Suns never made the NBA Finals.

Eight years later, Johnson again finds himself in a supporting role. This time, though, instead of sprinting beside Nash and Amare Stoudemire, he’s jogging with Deron Williams and Brook Lopez on the No. 4 seed Brooklyn Nets. These days, production from Johnson, age 31, is trending downward. This season Johnson averaged 16.3 points on 42.3% shooting – the lowest averages since his second season.

The biggest reason for the drop has been nagging injuries – plantar fasciitis and a quad contusion – since February. Johnson, a six-time All-Star, needs a big playoff series against the No. 5 seed Bulls to give the Nets’ legitimate hope of dethroning Miami. If he’s looking for inspiration, he need look no farther than a series preview which ran in the Chicago Sun-Times.

In it is a position-by-position matchup analysis that pits Johnson, a six-time All-Star who has plenty big-time playoff experience, with Jimmy Butler, a 23-year-old who had played four playoff minutes in his career. The advantage went to Chicago.

By far, the most Arky-fied matchup is in the West, where Junction City native James Anderson and former Razorback Patrick Beverley helped Houston finish the season strong to lock up the eighth seed. Beverley, though, projects to play a much larger role than Anderson against No. 1 Oklahoma City. The 6-1 guard with a 6-7 wingspan joined Houston in January and has proven to be every bit the disruptive defender in the NBA that he was at Arkansas and in Europe. Beverley’s defense of Russell Westbrook is critical to Houston’s upset bid. [The task won’t be easy]

It should be no surprise to Hog fans that P-Bev is the NBA’s second best guard in offensive rebounding rate. In 2007-08, he was Arkansas’ shortest starter yet led the team with 6.6 rebounds a game.

Guards Derek Fisher and Ronnie Brewer are Oklahoma City substitutes. Fisher keeps ticking at age 38 but as his overall numbers continue to dwindle year-by-year it’s apparent he won’t be able to postpone his career’s end much longer. Still, it should not be taken for granted that dude is still playing point guard in the NBA at 38. That in itself is amazing, 33.3% FG shooting be damned.

Brewer, a former Razorback All-American, is a conundrum. He looked like a long-term NBA starter early in his career for the Jazz but in the last three years has bounced between four other teams. These playoffs could determine whether future teams are willing to invest millions more dollars into the 6-7 28-year-old or not.

Brewer’s long-term pro future hinges on his ability to improve his shooting, which has nosedived in the last two seasons. But, realistically, the Thunder don’t need Brewer to shoot even once to prove valuable in these playoffs. His true calling will likely come in a potential Finals rematch with Miami, when he would be summoned from the depths for the most grave task of climbing Mt. Defense. At the summit, above him, will glow LeBron James. Nothing short of a full-fledged living sacrifice will be expected.

“Human pinata” is not the sort of future Hog fans envisioned for Brewer when his career seemed so promising in Utah. Still, there’s no shame in being an NBA Arkansan who is expected to do not-so-big things in the playoffs. Everybody, it appears, is in the same boat.

But just because these guys don’t project to take center court on a national level, they still grab  the spotlight right on this blog.

If Fisher wins a sixth NBA title, he joins Pippen as the NBA Arkansan with the most rings. Where does Fisher rank, though, in other statistical categories?

Stay tuned for Part 2 for a breakdown of the Top 5 NBA Arkansans in each statistical category.

This piece is slated to publish in SYNC magazine.

Everybody knows Arkansas didn’t qualify for the NCAA Tournament, but – to make matters worse – it turns out that the “Natural State” didn’t even make it into “Big Tree Madness.” The state, well known for its trees, didn’t qualify as one of the 16 contestants in an annual national tournament pitting the biggest trees of each state against each other in a Facebook fan vote-based contest.

Making matters worst, Missouri won it all.

Arkansans should taken some solace, though, in the fact that their state is home to two national “champion trees” as determined by a register kept by American Forests, the self-declared oldest national nonprofit conservation organization in the country. Arkansas has two species representatives which are bigger (in terms of width, height and trunk circumference) than any other state’s:

1. Common PERSIMMON, measured by Lynn Warren in Yell County. Ninety-four feet high!

2. Shortleaf PINE, measured by Don Bragg in Ashley County. This 136-footer is located three miles south of Hamburg, the birthplace of Hall of Fame basketball player Scottie Pippen. Two other NBA players – Jeremy Evans and Myron Jackson – also hail from Ashley County, which seems to do “tall” pretty well.

So there you have ‘em, Arkansas. The trees that make ya proud on a national scale (even if you do want to consider that more than 780 such national champions exist and there are nearly 50 different kinds of registered Pine trees).

For more information, keep an eye out for AETN’s upcoming documentary on the largest trees of each type within Arkansas itself. Mark Wilcken is producing the film.