Documentary Analysis (TOW 30)

Nothing in sports beats a good rivalry. When athletes face off with competitors from their division or battle with players they dislike, the level of play skyrockets, sometimes to a point where suspensions and fines are the only way to prevent violent confrontation. In this documentary directed by Dan Klores, ESPN delves into one of the most notable and memorable playoff battles in the history of professional basketball. The New York Knicks were forced to deal with the Indiana Pacers and more specifically Reggie Miller, a guard out of UCLA who was known for using his trash-talking skills to rile up the opponents. In the 1994 and 1995 seasons, the Pacers and Knicks would have heated confrontations during both the regular season and the playoffs. Whether it was headbutting, chanting, or arguments with die-hard Knicks fan Spike Lee, the two teams always found a way to launch war on the other.

Klores does a phenomenal job of keeping the interest of the audience in the organization of the film. Instead of lazily throwing the information in chronological order, Klores sets aside his supporting information for the right opportunity in the video. Right when the audience begins to ask questions about Reggie or the Knicks, Klores carefully inserts a small portion on a topic that answers those questions. For example, after presenting various instances where Reggie shows extreme grit and determination, Klores places the information relating Reggie's drive to his sister's own basketball achievement and the consequent competition. 

Another important piece of the documentary was choice in music. When the film began to detail the hate that existed between the Pacers and the Knicks and explained how Reggie got in the minds of his opponents, the music is not serious; actually, the music is similar to what would be played at a circus! Why? The music helped to emphasize the idea that Reggie was playing with his competition, stirring their anger to make his success much easier. Without this music choice, the documentary ultimately loses the interpretation it works toward creating the environment where Reggie Miller was most successful in enraging his New York opponents. This, added with a clip of Michael Jordan, arguably the best player in NBA history, losing his cool and attacking Reggie, was effective in keeping the audience's attention throughout the whole documentary.

Bibliography:

Winning Time: Reggie Miller vs the New York Knicks. Dir. Dan Klores. ESPN Films, 2010. DVD.

TOW Reflection (TOW 29)

After rereading three of my TOWs from this year (Drew Brees, Michael Jordan at 50, & Chris Pronger) and noting the differences in my writing tendencies and strengths, I have began to understand further places where my writing has improved and what facets of my writing technique I find most effective. The first, most  noticeable pattern that I found in my writing was my change in introduction length. In the first post, there really was no intro, as I simply jumped right into explaining the article. In my second and third posts, I provided more context and background to support the following information, with the third's explanation being a bit more expansive. What I noticed is that, as the introduction grew, my creativity in hooking the audience grew. This observation has shown me the value in carefully constructing one's introduction, while still remembering to keep intros concise and the focus on the content of a piece. Along with my improvement of introductions, I feel that I have become a much stronger journalist through this process. Before, my writing would be full summarization and little analysis or consequence. However, this course has made my summaries shorter, but not lacking in important information, an crucial skill that helps keep hold of the audience's interest. One habit that must change for my writing is preventing myself from writing formulaically, which happens so often to me with other assignments. When teachers give checklists and certain required pieces of information, I usually do not stray far from the checklist and write in the same order as the list. After reading all three of my TOWs, I think that a bit more creativity here could really aid in the perception of my writing. As I have now noticed from this new TOW assignment, TOWs are more than making sure we are keeping up with modern styles of writing: they are to apply the new skills from class to everyday writing. These assignments ultimately benefitted me as an author, as I am able to look at pieces from the perspective of the reader and learn from my past mistakes. These assignments have become a very useful reflection process for seeing the development and future solutions for my writing in its entirety.

The Book of Basketball (IRB TOW 7, TOW 28)

LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, and other active NBA players constantly flirt with one season-long statistic: 30 points per game. These players, representing the most talented and valuable players in the world's most competitive and professional basketball league, are known to be the best in today's field of hoops. Despite how incredible these achievements are, though, would you believe that Wilt Chamberlain averaged over 50 points in the 1961-62 season? How about the fact that his 76ers team could not win the championship that year despite this outburst? Bill Simmons, an eternal Celtics fan, puts statistics from the 60s and 70s into perspective and compares Wilt Chamberlain to Celtics great Bill Russell. Simmons uses understatement in this chapter in order to achieve two goals: establish a relationship between him and his readers, as well as show how Wilt Chamberlain's minor mistakes ended up costing him on a major stage. For example, Simmons praises Chamberlain for his treatment of fans, professionalism with journalists, intelligence with basketball matters, and other factors. However, his one criticism was directed at his on court performance, which led to selfishness and blaming of teammates for losses. Simmons understates the multitude of issues Wilt encountered, but contrasts this by explaining the extent of these faults and why they created such a problem for his career. Simmons's highly basketball-interested audience takes two rivals in the 60s and 70s and compares and contrasts them in a unique manner to describe just how dominant Russell's career was over Chamberlain.