Three silly pieces

[Victor Steinbok]

  Sorry to disappoint you, Larry! My point, obviously, is that it was
new to /me/. I can say that I've heard someone playing "big" (and
"small") or "bigs" but never "a big". Perhaps you follow basketball--and
basketball lingo--much closer than I do. I have not watched the NCAA
tournament since 1995--in fact, I never watch college basketball and
rarely watch NBA games, except playoffs. And this is the first time I've
seen the expression in a newspaper report. I have not played a pick-up
game since about 1995 as well. I watch far more soccer, hence some of my
recent posts.

The standard reference that I am familiar with is "playing big" and
"playing small", referring to a standard lineup vs. a lineup with three
or four guards (or small forwards), the latter being faster, but is more
of a defensive liability against taller players. But, in neither case is
this a conversion to a noun.

     VS-)

On 7/8/2010 9:44 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
> At 7:08 PM -0400 7/8/10, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>>   Very quick response from the reporter. I've heard "bigs" before, but,
>> in this case, it was "a big", which is not in my memory banks.
> It should be!  There's been talk for years about playing a big (or
> two bigs) against a given player.  "A big" for "a big guy" has been
> standard in the NBA (and NCAA men's basketball) for quite a while,
> I'd say.  I haven't heard any parallel use of "a small".
>
> LH

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