Does Charlie McAvoy's wife have a vote for the Norris?; Wemby isn't nearly as good as everyone says; Red Sox getting after it after the games

Thursday 6/4/26

What joker gave Charlie McAvoy a third-place vote for the Norris trophy? Does his wife have a vote? That's just professional negligence. Can someone be that ignorant as to what's happening on the ice and what they're seeing? I suppose. But I find it almost impossible to believe that someone honestly thought that Charlie McAvoy was the third-best defenseman in the NHL this past season.

Then again, I know how brain dead people can be. And I know that the worst thing about our world--the single worst thing--is that people can't tell what things are anymore and things then become what they want them to be or what they want to say that the are. I ask if his wife had a vote because even she would have known how ridiculous it was to put him third and wouldn't have dared go any higher. Charlie McAvoy, third-best defenseman in the NHL in the 2025-26. Right.

An amazing lack of integrity or a clue, whichever the case may be. But here, have this job and have this money to keep yourself comfy in a nice house.

The Knicks won Game 1 of the NBA Finals last night. San Antonio is a hard place to win. The Spurs may win the next four games, but I'll be the first person to say this and later, people can be like, oh, he had that right all along: Wemby isn't that good. (Remember how we talked about the difference between "He isn't that good" and "He isn't that good"? Very different meanings just by italicizing a word. Viz.: Wemby isn't that good; McAvoy isn't that good.) He isn't this generational superstar--not that sports fans have a clue what the word "generational" means.

He isn't this all-time great, which people already speak of him as being in this matter-of-fact fashion. He isn't going to be one of the top ten NBA players ever, or twenty, or thirty. Even if he never has so much as a hangnail and is healthy all the livelong days of his NBA career.

He isn't an elite scorer. He isn't an elite rebounder. He's very tall. Because he's very tall, he blocks a lot of shots. And also because he tries to. He wants to. He can shoot from distance, but he's no ace marksman out there. What is? He's novel. He has "measurables." Stuff for the dashboard that we were talking about yesterday. He stands out in an age where people need things to stand out in a way that also tells them what they're supposed to think, so they can add their voice to the echoing din.

He's good, but most of that is a product of his height. Hell, all of it. If he was 6'5", he's basically what? Guy coming off the bench. Or bottom of the roster guy. He may win the NBA Finals MVP. He may win a couple regular season MVPs. God knows people are horny to give him awards. They can't wait to unleash that spunk in his name and favor. "He it comes, Wemby!"

If he was an elite scorer, you'd already know it. I see a lot of pedestrian games from this guy. Last night among them. Okay, 26 points. That is impressive in today's NBA? He shot 6-for-21. He had 12 rebounds. With that height. Where are the rest of the boards, man? 2 assists, because he's not a good passer. 3 blocks. People like that. 6 turnovers.

I see many games from this guy where he's in the low 20s and has 10 or 11 boards. Which is fine, but I got people telling me he's up there with Chamberlain, Russell, Jordan, Jabbar. He's never going to get anywhere close to those players. It isn't going to happen.

I could be wrong. You can always be wrong with sports. And there would be people reading this later, if they were made aware of it, who'd love to do the "Fuck you! Die!" thing and say "That take aged like milk," because such people can only think in terms of "takes," which is to say, not in terms of actually, you know, thinking, and can only speak via the pre-made verbal modules ("aged like milk") that we've been talking about, but note what I'm saying: he isn't going to be in conversation as the best of the all-time best, which is how he's being hyped now.

I'm just not impressed with this player, and I think his dominance is minimal, and what there is of it is a combo of him having a good night, which is then hyped up on "socials" and the like, and his height. Basketball is the easiest of the four major North American sports. A lot of it has to do with height. Baseball and hockey are by far the two hardest sports. They're in a whole different degree-of-difficulty league compared to football and basketball.

Speaking of baseball: the Red Sox beat the Orioles 8-1 last night at Fenway to boost their awe-inspiring home record on the season to 10-20, a mere 10 games under .500. They won how they mostly have to win--by being ahead. That is, if you go up on these Sox by 3, you got them beat. Doesn't matter how early you go up on them by 3, but if you do, everyone might as well go home. The three-run mercy rule. No mas!

I had mentioned a couple times here that there's something else going on with the Red Sox--likely off-the-field stuff--insofar as their dismal showing at home goes. You can't be this bad otherwise. Not if you're also above .500 on the road. Not with Fenway being your home park.

Nightlife. These aren't professionals. There aren't leaders on this team. There aren't veterans to respect who say--and show--"This is how it goes, this is how we go about our business." You think you're getting that from Brayan Bellow and Jarren Duran?

Isiah Kiner-Falefa--thirty-one-year-old journeyman infield utility player and apparently the leader by default of your 2026 Boston Red Sox--had some comments at the start of this homestand that stood out to me. He was asked what the deal was with the team's performance at home, and he said something about there being a lot of people around that they don't know, whereas on the road, those people aren't there.

You could read this to think he meant nebbish front office types pushing their analytics printouts, and I'm sure there's some of that, but I think he mostly meant, "These guys are out at night trying to bang everything and they're not ready to go, they don't know how this works, and we're losing these ballgames as a result."

You gotta be ready to go. In whatever you do if you want to do it well.