Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Mundane Basketball Terms Redefined

In the second part of this continuing crusade to rejuvenate the common basketball phrasebook, we rename several court locations with especially boring names.

  • The "lane" (current nickname: "the paint") is now referred to as Hot Lava or simply The Lava. Example: "The Clippers are dominating the lava this evening, grabbing a season-high 20 offensive boards."

  • The "free throw line" (current nickname: "charity stripe") will, from here on out, be known as the Freedom Parallel (and "free throw percentage" naturally becomes the Freedom Index.) Example: "Despite a league-low 68% freedom index, The Bucks iced their victory last night down the stretch shooting a perfect 8 for 8 from the freedom parallel in the final 3 minutes."

  • The "three point line" (current nicknames: "long distance," "the arc") is henceforth called The Rooftop. Example: "Though not considered a shooter, Chris Paul made 6 of 8 from the rooftop last night on the way to a game-high 31 points."


  • We'll stick to only three terms today - we'll have more next week. Don't think the "sideline" and the "key" aren't prime candidates for new monikers.

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