NBA: Denver Nuggets, Rising // WORLD SPORTS: World Baseball Classic; Formula One Grand Prix Racing.

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.  .  .   SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner.

NBA/Denver Nuggets   ---   ASK NBA fans outside Colorado to name a player with the 34-21 Denver Nuggets and most will think quite hard and come up zero. A gains + high stats/national recognition ratio would probably show the Nuggets starters + bench to be among the least known basketball players in the country, but ask the Oklahoma City Thunder, the San Antonio Spurs, the Boston Celtics, the Chicago Bulls and other high-end franchises that the Nuggets have defeated since the start of the 2012/13 season, praise will be offered then for Nuggets forwards Danilo Gallinari, Kenneth Faried, Corey Brewer, Andre Iguodala, Wilson Chandler, point guards Ty Lawson and Andre Miller, center JaVale McGee, and for Nuggets head coach, George Karl.

Why the Nuggets recognition gap between (a) what NBA athletes see, and (b) the fan charts? One way to answer is to say that whether or not narcissism is a player-trait within the Nuggets franchise, it doesn’t show, not as it had when forward Carmelo Anthony and guard J.R. Smith were starter + bench for the Nuggets (both now w/the N.Y. Knicks), and so magazine and newspaper stories + advertisements won’t be of any Nuggets players repeatedly.

Another way of characterizing the recognition gap is to say that no Nuggets player is consistently at that higher skill level where players become a brand that is known everywhere even between NBA seasons. In other words, there isn’t a Nuggets superstar, no Lebron, no Kobe, no K. Durant, instead a collective of athletes that together emphasize teamwork/teamwork/teamwork! This offsets the star absence admirably when it comes to purchasing playoff candidacy by late March.

Though no Nuggets player has a ppg average higher than 17 ppg, six have double digit ppg averages + high field goal percentages, and nearly all are above the margin re. assists and rebounds. It’s been talent spread = empowerment in 17 wins since January 1, evident from the Nuggets having put on the board a nine-game winning streak and a six-game winning streak, January 1 thru February 9.

The Nuggets beat the Boston Celtics on Monday, keeping Celtics superstars Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett to fewer points than Gallinari had put up in either of four periods. In the week before, against the Brooklyn Nets, the Nuggets scored 12 three-pointers, which was 70 percent of the team’s 3-pointer shots taken.

Tonight, the Nuggets will play the Washington Wizards, tomorrow the Charlotte Bobcats, two teams at the bottom of the NBA. And, nearly half of the Nuggets remaining 27 games for the season will be against teams below .500, but there will also be bouts with the Western Conference leading team, the Spurs, and Western Conference second place franchise, the Thunder.

In January, the Nuggets won 12 of 15 games. In February so far, the Nuggets have won five of eight. Not being up against a high ranking team until March 1 (the Thunder), the Nuggets could on that day be nine wins/three losses, which is more than post-season contention calls for. In March, the Nuggets will be displaying teamwork vs. the superstar-loaded Spurs (X2), Thunder (X2) and the Knicks. In light of what’s been happening for the quiet professionals that the Nuggets have been since the 2012/13 season began, they can prevail. As for national name recognition, no change, but why should anyone on the Denver team really care about that if it’s to be a post-season billet for each?

 

WORLD SPORTS.

WBC    ---   IT begins one week from now, the World Baseball Classic, which will consist of teams from 16 countries competing to be crowned best. Alphabetically and post-qualification, the teams for battle are from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Netherlands, Puerto Rico, Spain, Taiwan, USA, Venezuela.

The first round of WBC play will be round-robin, with games at Japan, Puerto Rico, Taiwan and the U.S. (Phoenix, Ariz.). The second round of play (double elimination) will occur at Japan and at the U.S. (Miami, Florida). The third and final round (single elimination, determining the championship team) will be at a U.S. park (San Francisco, Calif.). The last go-round championship team (2009) was from “Japan,” the U.S. club having been eliminated during the second round.

            Team USA/2013 will be managed by Joe Torre (former mgr, New York Yankees;  Los Angeles Dodgers). From 11 of the 30 MLB franchises, Team USA will comprise 15 pitchers, three catchers, six infielders and four outfielders. Pitching coach: Greg Maddux.

Here’s our guess re. players starting and/or receiving the most game time:

Pitchers: RHP R.A. Dickey (Toronto Blue Jays, 2012 Cy Young winner); RH Ryan Vogelsong (San Francisco Giants); LH Derek Holland (Texas Rangers); catcher: Joe Mauer (Minnesota Twins).

Infielders: 1B, Mark Teixera (NYY); 2B, Brandon Phillips (Cinc.  Reds); S/st, Jimmy Rollins (Phila. Phillies); 3B, David Wright (N.Y. Mets).

Outfielders: Ryan Braun (Milwaukee Brewers); Adam Jones (Baltimore Orioles); Giancarlo Stanton (Miami Marlins), Shane Victorino (Boston Red Sox).

Formula One:      Starting in March and ending in November, the 2013 Formula One Grand Prix Racing series will consist of 12 teams for 19 events, with approximately two weeks between each event, sequentially at Australia, Malaysia, China, Bahrain, Spain, Monaco, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Hungary, Belgium, Italy, Singapore, Korea, Japan, India, Abu Dhabi, USA, final race: Brazil.

The teams/car-constructors that are set to compete (one driver each for two cars per race) are Red Bull Racing (Renault); Scuderia Ferrari (Ferrari); Vodafone-McLaren (Mercedes); Lotus-F1 (Renault); Mercedes AMG-Petronas (Mercedes); Sauber F1 (Ferrari); Sahara-Force India (Mercedes); Williams F1 (Renault); Scuderia-Toro Rosso (Ferrari); Caterham F1 (Renault); Marussia F1 (Cosworth); HRT F1 (Cosworth).

Expect the sleekest and more powerful among modern racing cars along 3-5 mile tracks less oval than found in other major racing series, more like actual rural and urban roads, including steep turns + high angled straightaways.

The F1GP series is second to soccer as the world’s most popular and biggest revenue-earning sport, more than that earned by U.S. baseball and the NFL.

In the U.S., most F1GP races can be seen on TV’s Speed Channel. There will be a movie out this year about F1GP, diected by the award winning Ron Howard. 

Last year’s F1 champion driver was Sebastian Vettel, of Team Red Bull. Second best was Fernando Alonso, Team Ferrari; and. Third, Kimi Raikkonen, Team Lotus. Fourth, Lewis Hamilton, Team McLaren.

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