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| "...we decided to approach the Chicago Bulls...." |
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| I can only quote David, my Biblical namesake, from Psalm 60: Thou hast shewed thy people hard things. And we could not help but note that the letterhead on the communication from Mr. Walsh displayed that bend sinister stripe that so often adorns commerce. How vulgar! And by then the bend dexter was gone from the Pacers uniform as well. But persistence, we thought, usually pays off. So in 2003/04 we tried again with another article about team play. As mentioned, the Pacers had not been doing well in proceeding seasons. But that year they had hired a new coach, Mr. Rick Carlisle, and were off to a very good start before our article was even published. Perhaps we were deceived by our unbounded vanity. (By now the astute reader has no doubt detected that quality in this essay), But after our article was published and distributed in Indianapolis, it seemed the team began to gain additional momentum. As the 2003/04 season progressed, they attained the best percentage standing in the Eastern Conference. But, since we needed to try to make a living, we decided to approach the Chicago Bulls that year--to see if they might be interested in the Gauss-Jordan method. We spoke with Mr. Matt Lloyd of the Bulls and did a few sample analyses that we transmitted to them via the Internet. Mr. Lloyd inquired as to where our numbers came from. That illustrates why the Gauss-Jordan method can be a hard sell even though it does work. The culture of a basketball team and the culture of a college or university mathematics department are quite different. That's true even though virtually every American college or university has BOTH a basketball team and a math department. I mean no disrespect here to Mr. Lloyd, who seemed quite intelligent and articulate, when I say that a mathematician would not have needed to ask where those numbers came from. That's because procedures for analyzing statistical data are fairly straightforward, providing one has studied them. CONTINUE |
| Sadly, the Pacers continued to give me the brush-off. I'm not sure of the reason. Perhaps basketball players and coaches tend to feel that the mathematics involved in team-play analysis is precisely the sort of thing that didn't interest them when they were in school. Also: the Indiana team is owned by the Simon family of Indianapolis. Mr. Herb Simon or Mr. Mel Simon (I forget which it was) once criticized the late Mrs. Marge Schott for not being willing to do business with them. I gathered from that that the Simons may be Jewish. I have no desire to make excuses for Mrs. Schott's business practices--if what Mr. Simon said about her was true. And I've certainly no desire to make excuses for the various things Mrs. Schott said on sensitive ethnic subjects that were reported in the press. However, like her, I have a last name that some people might think of as German. (Gaus could also be considered Slavic.) And, at any rate, perhaps the Simons did not feel that I was the sort of person that they liked doing business with because of MY ethnic origin. I do not know that that is actually so, but it has occurred to me. Or it may be something else, I suppose, or perhaps a mixture of things. But if we are to have in our country the secular society that the founding fathers wanted, business dealings need to be on an objective basis. And the Pacers exist with the aid of tax funding, and so it's doubly reasonable to expect fair hiring practices. So, while Simon brothers are certainly respected busines leaders, the reproach of Marge Schott by a Simon raises a boomerang question of consistency. Indeed, it raises a question of descrimination--against a somewhat unlikely racial minority. I refer to yours truly and the to the long-suffering Tartar-American community. Do I imagine it, or is everyone in Indianpolis aware of my paternal ethnicity? I do know that when I go into a grocery, female clerks will often say things like, "I can help you in aisle 3, Hun." Sometimes I wish I'd been born Jewish, Scoth, or Tasmanian. (Tasmanians, with their cheerful, can-do attitude are rarely discriminated against.) Chapter III: At any rate, the Pacers enjoyed a few good years. They built a new stadium. But then they began to go into a decline. And after a while, plus-minus statistics were no longer published in the Indianapolis News. Indeed, the News itself went out of business. In 1997, we tried again and received a letter from Pacers Manager, Mr. Donnie Walsh. He wrote us that: we currently do not have any positions available in our organization. Rejected again! At left is Mr. Walsh's letter. |