In the first day of journalism 101, a crotchety old teacher will be wheeled out in front of your class, and one of the first things he or she will tell you is that, in reporting: Two is a coincidence and three's a trend. In other words: Three examples makes a story.
But new-school journalism is about rewriting the rules, so we are here to tell you there is a way of thinking: One is a coincidence and two is a trend.
Coincidentally, there is a new trend that we -- and others -- have noticed, which @WorldWideWob aptly calls the ballbonic plague, which we’ll call stat-dumping, which we have seen twice already during this young season.
Stat-dumping, defined: In the closing seconds of a blowout game, the teammate dribbling the ball will toss to another teammate, thus dumping a negative stat on the victim. It happened on back-to-back nights this past weekend.
First, on Saturday in Boston, a cross-court heave from a rookie to a third-year player:
The offender: Carsen Edwards
The victim: Semi Ojeleye
Time of pass: 1.9 left on the shot clock
Second, on Sunday in Los Angeles, in what Kyle Kuzma called “the craziest friendly fire grenade I’ve ever seen:”
The offender: Miles Bridges The victim: Cody Martin, in his third career game Time of pass: .4 left on the shot clock
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