Internet Site Dunks Competition
Looking for an independent voice about the NBA that has a tad more edge than NBA.com yet is more fan-based than the big-media sites?
One good alternative is Alleyoop.Com (www.alleyoop.com), which bills itself as “the basketball page for thinking fans.”
Alleyoop.Com’s goal is to create an alternate point of view to the “drivel spoon-fed by network TV announcers and newspaper reporters,” site creator John Hollinger said.
The site was inspired by baseball writer Bill James, “who challenged the baseball aristocracy with ideas that have changed the way fans look at the game,” Hollinger said.
“If I can do one-one-hundredth of what he did for the sport of basketball with this site, then it will have achieved its mission.”
Hollinger’s Alleyoop.Com accomplishes this with a commentary section called “From the Baseline” in which he takes on NBA issues in three- to fourparagraph chunks. Hollinger’s editorials from the past two years can be accessed at the site’s archive section.
Hollinger also presents player ratings, team ratings, fantasy rankings and a readers poll, which correctly predicted Mavericks coach Jim Cleamons would be the first coach fired this season. Hollinger also has an interesting look at who the league leaders would be if they played all 48 minutes each game.
The site, which has been online since March 1996, also posts standings and scores to complement the supplemental features.
It’s a site that would make Bill James proud.
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Fans can vote for their favorite sports performances of the year in ESPN SportsZone’s ESPY Fan’s Choice Awards balloting. The voting is in conjunction with the sixth annual ESPY Awards Show, scheduled for Feb. 9 on ESPN. The ESPY Awards are given for excellence in sports performance in more than 30 categories. Fans can vote in 10 categories, each of which will be posted for three- or four-day periods… . Random opinions from the ESPN SportsZone online surveys: 63.8 percent of 33,588 respondents say the Philadelphia 76ers gave up too soon on Jerry Stackhouse; 56.8 percent of 28,191 select Patrick Roy as the best NHL goalie of the 1990s.
xxxx NEW ONLINE The NFL, NBC and IBM Corp. are partners in this season’s Web site for Super Bowl XXXII (www.superbowl.com). The site became active Dec. 20 and developers plan a cybercast of the Jan. 25 game… . MLBBat (www.majorleaguebaseball.com) has put together a multimedia tribute to Roberto Clemente to mark the 25th anniversary of the Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder’s death. … “All-Stater Sports”, a magazine that tracks high school sports from a national perspective, has a Web site (www.all-statersports.com)… . More fantasy football league sites are popping up. The Bumbling Idiots Football League (www.tst-medhat.com/ozzy/bifl.html) and the Ruptured Spleen Football League (members.bellatlantic.net/ grachel) are two recent examples.