Three silly pieces

[Garson O'Toole]

Laurence Horn wrote
>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".

This may be an example of a parallel use of small(s):

Sonics Get Healthier at Wednesday’s Practice
Kevin Pelton, SUPERSONICS.COM
January 2, 2008

"It gives us a matchup against smaller, quicker teams. Some teams play
two smalls in general - these guys (Phoenix), for example, could have
Leandro (Barbosa) and Steve (Nash) in the game together."

http://www.nba.com/thunder/news/sonics080102.html

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