Fred Bowen's "The Score" column,
January 31, 2003, Washington Post

Thinking Outside The Box Score

February is the worst month for sports fans. The Super Bowl is over. Opening day of the baseball season is still two months away. Fall soccer is a memory and spring soccer is just a hope.

The sports section is nothing but a long parade of hockey games and basketball box scores. But even those long lists of names and numbers in National Basketball Association box scores can be fun if you know what you're looking for. Here are some ways to enjoy the box scores and maybe add sports fun to the cold, dull month of February.

"Billions." A regular NBA box score has numbers next to every player's name for minutes played (Min), field goals attempted and made (FG), free throws attempted and made (FT), offensive rebounds and total rebounds (O-T), assists (A), personal fouls (PF) and points (Pts).

That means that there are nine possible numbers after the player's minutes played. Let's say a player gets in for one minute and does nothing of note during that time. That player's line in the box score would be 1 (for minutes played) followed by nine zeros. To hoops fans, that's called a billion (1,000,000,000)!

Billions don't happen often in the NBA. Pro players usually do something when they are in the game, even if it is just to miss a shot or commit a foul. Last Sunday, there were box scores for seven games in The Post sports section, and only Jamal Sampson of the Milwaukee Bucks got a billion. But Michael Curry of the Detroit Pistons played 15 minutes and did nothing statistically except commit a single foul. That was almost a 15 billion!

Favorites. I like to keep track of certain players. You can too. Just check their lines every time their teams play.

Richard Jefferson of the New Jersey Nets is a favorite. I saw him play for Arizona in the NCAA tournament a couple years ago and I thought the kid was a future star. He's super-exciting and is averaging about 15 points a game this season.

I saw Caron Butler of the Miami Heat in the NCAAs last year. Like most rookies, he's adjusting to the pros. Still, my man Caron is putting in 14 points per game.

I love Matt Harpring of the Utah Jazz. He's big, rugged and he can shoot. Some games he even outscores legendary teammate Karl "The Mailman" Malone. Oh, and I can't forget Phoenix Suns rookie sensation Amare Stoudemire. He's doing amazing things. A couple weeks ago he grabbed 21 rebounds in a single game.

Old Wizards. Call me crazy, but I always check the box scores for players that the Wizards traded or just gave away. My ex-Wizards would start Chris Webber, Rasheed Wallace and rebounding machine Ben Wallace in the frontcourt. Richard "Rip" Hamilton and Chris Whitney could start at guards. That starting five averages more than 75 points a game. Not bad. And with solid pros including Juwan Howard, Calbert Cheaney and Tom Gugliotta coming off the bench, I'll bet the old Wizards could give the new Wizards a run for their money.

"Your" line. Two players I always check are Bruce Bowen of the San Antonio Spurs and Ryan Bowen of the Denver Nuggets. Maybe it's silly, but I get a thrill out of seeing my last name in an NBA box score.

Maybe there's someone with your last name in the league. If your last name is Williams, you're really in luck. According to NBA.com, there are 11 players on NBA rosters with the last name Williams. Johnson (6), Davis (6), Jones (5) and Jackson (5) are popular NBA names too. But the best name may be Miller: Andre, Brad, Mike and Reggie are all good players.

So take a closer look at the basketball box scores. If you do, your sports February may start looking up.