it is as the french say, that certain "i don't know what"
totally abstract and somewhat nebulous... it's impossible to imagine clutch in terms of numbers or figures... but we know it when we see it, don't we?
it was just so prevalent this past weekend, particularly sunday... the whole idea of coming up the biggest when it matters most... if you can do it, whether it's circumstantial or a habit, you'll be remembered as such... if you can't, you're a choker...
first it was the u.s. open... retief goosen, one of the five best players in the world, goes into the final round up three... he's already won the thing twice so we know he isn't easily betrayed by his nerves... plus, given the fact that the opens are played on the hardest courses, we know that no one is going to move up that much... all he has to do is shoot even par, maybe +1 and he wins again... it was a "what more do you want" type situation... a no-brainer...
so what happens? he makes nine bogeys and a double, doesn't make a single birdie and shoots 81, just good enough to finish in a tie for 11th... it was a choke of epic proportions, one of the biggest gag jobs ever in the history of championship golf by a great player (greg norman at the 1995 masters will always be no. 1 on that list)...
it was stunning, not just because of the huge numbers but also because of the type of guy goosen is... he was so good up to sunday and so good when he won the previous two times, that he was breathlessly described by writers, tv guys and ahem... me, as bloodless, without a pulse, unflappable, what have you... the guy's expression never changes no matter what... to me, going into sunday, he was the ultimate clutch player... but now what? will what happened haunt him? will he shit the bed every time he has a lead in the final round of a major for the rest of his career? and perhaps more pertinent to my point, how does what he did relate to what clutch is and what it isn't?
you could even say that tiger woods choked too... he had two huge chances to get close enough to put pressure on the eventual winner, michael campbell, that probably would have done him in... but even the greatest - tiger - blew it, missing a semi-easy putt badly on 16 then three-putting from 10 feet on 17... campbell, who dropped a couple of bombs on the back side, made every shot he needed to make, and steadily shot par with no flash at all, had never been in such a situation... does that make him more clutch than tiger? or even goosen? sunday, it did...
then there's robert horry, or big shot rob, his perfectly assigned nickname... horry had no points with one second left in the third quarter of game 5 of the nba finals... but he buried a three-pointer at that very instant, cutting the detroit lead to 1, and taking back a bit of momentum for his spurs that they'd squandered earlier in the quarter - always a bad thing, especially on the road... horry then went on to score 18 more points in the fourth quarter and in overtime, including the game-winning three with 5 seconds left... he single-handedly took the game over, drilling three's, getting putbacks on offensive rebounds, driving to the rim and playing stifling defense...
horry does this all the time - it's kind of his thing... here's a guy without a single nerve in his body, especially in the most important games and situations... he's been hitting ENORMOUS shots in the playoffs and finals for years... he has 5 rings, 2 with the rockets and 3 with the lakers and will have his first with the spurs tonight after they win game 6, entirely because of what he did on sunday... this guy is so clutch that a) his own coach said after the game that they kind of save him during the year so he'll be tip-top in the playoffs and b) various people who write and talk better than i (and make a shitload more money too) were today engaging in debates over whether he belongs in the hall of fame...
it's a good question... all he does is ensure huge wins... when he misses, it's stunning... he's the definition of clutch - coming up biggest when it matters most... a no-brainer...
his teammate, tim duncan, arguably the best player in the league and armed with two rings, scored 26 points and had 19 rebounds... he also missed something like 7 foul shots in a row in the fourth quarter and totally gagged on a wide-open putback that would have won the game in regulation... does that make him a choker? what about rasheed wallace, an important guy for detroit aho's been known to come up large in big games... he left horry open for then winning 3 in ghastly fashion... does he join goosen, tiger and duncan on the gag reel? in general, of course not... on sunday, yep...
and here's where the murkiness lies... some people like horry, michael jordan, david ortiz, tom brady, etc. just know when the stakes is high and subsequently what to do, period... some people like duncan, tiger and goosen have given clutch performances, are unquestionably great, and just could have had better days... some people like campbell may have been just good enough... the bottom line is that there's no across-the-board answer... you either have clutch or you don't... you can't teach it or measure it... it just is... lates.
it was just so prevalent this past weekend, particularly sunday... the whole idea of coming up the biggest when it matters most... if you can do it, whether it's circumstantial or a habit, you'll be remembered as such... if you can't, you're a choker...
first it was the u.s. open... retief goosen, one of the five best players in the world, goes into the final round up three... he's already won the thing twice so we know he isn't easily betrayed by his nerves... plus, given the fact that the opens are played on the hardest courses, we know that no one is going to move up that much... all he has to do is shoot even par, maybe +1 and he wins again... it was a "what more do you want" type situation... a no-brainer...
so what happens? he makes nine bogeys and a double, doesn't make a single birdie and shoots 81, just good enough to finish in a tie for 11th... it was a choke of epic proportions, one of the biggest gag jobs ever in the history of championship golf by a great player (greg norman at the 1995 masters will always be no. 1 on that list)...
it was stunning, not just because of the huge numbers but also because of the type of guy goosen is... he was so good up to sunday and so good when he won the previous two times, that he was breathlessly described by writers, tv guys and ahem... me, as bloodless, without a pulse, unflappable, what have you... the guy's expression never changes no matter what... to me, going into sunday, he was the ultimate clutch player... but now what? will what happened haunt him? will he shit the bed every time he has a lead in the final round of a major for the rest of his career? and perhaps more pertinent to my point, how does what he did relate to what clutch is and what it isn't?
you could even say that tiger woods choked too... he had two huge chances to get close enough to put pressure on the eventual winner, michael campbell, that probably would have done him in... but even the greatest - tiger - blew it, missing a semi-easy putt badly on 16 then three-putting from 10 feet on 17... campbell, who dropped a couple of bombs on the back side, made every shot he needed to make, and steadily shot par with no flash at all, had never been in such a situation... does that make him more clutch than tiger? or even goosen? sunday, it did...
then there's robert horry, or big shot rob, his perfectly assigned nickname... horry had no points with one second left in the third quarter of game 5 of the nba finals... but he buried a three-pointer at that very instant, cutting the detroit lead to 1, and taking back a bit of momentum for his spurs that they'd squandered earlier in the quarter - always a bad thing, especially on the road... horry then went on to score 18 more points in the fourth quarter and in overtime, including the game-winning three with 5 seconds left... he single-handedly took the game over, drilling three's, getting putbacks on offensive rebounds, driving to the rim and playing stifling defense...
horry does this all the time - it's kind of his thing... here's a guy without a single nerve in his body, especially in the most important games and situations... he's been hitting ENORMOUS shots in the playoffs and finals for years... he has 5 rings, 2 with the rockets and 3 with the lakers and will have his first with the spurs tonight after they win game 6, entirely because of what he did on sunday... this guy is so clutch that a) his own coach said after the game that they kind of save him during the year so he'll be tip-top in the playoffs and b) various people who write and talk better than i (and make a shitload more money too) were today engaging in debates over whether he belongs in the hall of fame...
it's a good question... all he does is ensure huge wins... when he misses, it's stunning... he's the definition of clutch - coming up biggest when it matters most... a no-brainer...
his teammate, tim duncan, arguably the best player in the league and armed with two rings, scored 26 points and had 19 rebounds... he also missed something like 7 foul shots in a row in the fourth quarter and totally gagged on a wide-open putback that would have won the game in regulation... does that make him a choker? what about rasheed wallace, an important guy for detroit aho's been known to come up large in big games... he left horry open for then winning 3 in ghastly fashion... does he join goosen, tiger and duncan on the gag reel? in general, of course not... on sunday, yep...
and here's where the murkiness lies... some people like horry, michael jordan, david ortiz, tom brady, etc. just know when the stakes is high and subsequently what to do, period... some people like duncan, tiger and goosen have given clutch performances, are unquestionably great, and just could have had better days... some people like campbell may have been just good enough... the bottom line is that there's no across-the-board answer... you either have clutch or you don't... you can't teach it or measure it... it just is... lates.
posted by jmg at 12:07 AM
2 Comments:
Yo Blood, this is Big Shot Rob calling in from Down Town--that means beyond the arc for all you plebes.
My favorite good bad movies are these, yo.
Powder, Butterfly Effect, Save the Last Dance, and that movie where I pretended to be Ice-T and ran away from those sick-ass manhunters.
my favorite bad movies are anything starring big shot rob.
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