DAY 91: The Heat is On

At halftime, Jay-Z sent one of his guys to trade seats with me.  Actually, he wanted to keep me in the coach's line of sight.  Everybody on the team was wearing fitbands, giving me heart rates and body temps.  My role on the statistics team was graphing performance trends based on physical condition - identifying "hot streaks".  After I delivered my second analysis to the coach, they had an 8-game win streak - all on the road.  The team bought me flowers the day they came home, and courtside seats.

Ashford saw me from the bench, and gave me the stinkeye.  When Anthony went on the injured list, Ashford got the call-up from Erie.  He wants to make the most of his moment out of the D-League, but he's been frustrated with some of the coach's calls.  In my report, I calculated that Ashford had 90 seconds from peak heartrate before dropoff from fatigue.  It appeared that Ashford found out.  Coach Mike, however, was a believer; he had me on the tablet, flagging which players were ready or done.  If someone was close, I'd text their jersey to his assistant, and he'd make the call.  

Later, on a Miami time-out, Coach got the team around him - and Ashford's sub, Number 14, over his shoulder.  I could see Ashford arguing for more time.  Coach gave me the look:  how many shots does he have?  I glanced at my numbers, and flashed him two fingers.  Coach nodded, and gave Ashford his two-shot warning.

30 seconds later, Ashford got his first shot.  He tried his second from in the paint, but missed; Miami took the ball.  Number 14 stood by the scorekeeper's table, waiting for the end of the play.  

But Ashford was not going to wait.  He managed a steal, and then the kind of cross-court shot usually reserved for beating the buzzer.  He didn't even watch it go in; he was walking back to the bench.

He didn't approach me after the game, but he saw me.  With his hand, he signaled, "You: two.  Me: three."



inspired by Discover Magazine article, "Climate Change May Lead to More Wars"