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Reader question:
In this sentence from an AP story on the NBA (James' Triple-Double Leads
Cavs Over Raptors, November 24, 2007) – "If he continues with this scoring and
stats, I would hate to see the numbers at the end," Cleveland teammate Damon
Jones said. "They will be off the charts" – what's "off the charts".
My comments:
"Off the charts" means exceptional. "The charts" is a standard list of
achievements people make, such as the pop music charts. People whose records
make the charts are obviously very good, i.e. his latest song has stayed in the
Top 10 charts for seven consecutive weeks. When something or somebody is "off
the charts", they"re said to be extra-standard, exceptionally great.
In the case of our discussion, Jones was simply marveling at teammate
LeBron James and his extraordinary numbers (stats) early in the NBA season.
James had just scored 37 points to go with 12 rebounds and 12 assists (a triple
double, a rarity these days) in the Cavaliers' 111-108 win over the Raptors.
What Jones meant by "they'll be off the charts" is if James kept on having these
high numbers till the end of season, those numbers would be phenomenal,
unprecedented, uncharted, unbelievable, unheard of, beyond compare.
James is not new to getting "off-the-charts" numbers, of course. In fact,
in his NBA debut four years ago, he scored 25 points prompting Marc Stein to
write in ESPN.com, "James' Start Goes off the Charts". In that game, James
scored 25 points. In comparison, Kevin Garnett, another superstar, had 9 points
in his first game as a starter. Kobe Bryant had 12 and Tracy McGrady had 13.
Even Michael Jordan, star of all stars, had just 16 points in his debut (back in
1984). Hence, Stein's off-the-charts assessment.
"Off the charts", in theory, can mean exceptionally poor too. This from
another NBA story (Uncharted Territory, November 14, 2007, NJ.com):
There is a very popular phrase... that goes like this: "He's off the
charts." The phrase is being used on RJ (Richard Jefferson) a lot lately – by
the coach, by the captain, and mostly by the media who kill every spare minute
mimicking the coach and the captain.
But now RJ has a question about it:
"What charts are they talking about?" Jefferson demanded to know. "Because
you know, I can be off the charts the wrong way. As in, 'He's so awful, he's off
the charts.' I wish I knew where that chart was. Who has it? And who charts
it?"
...
"Show me those charts if you ever see them," he pleaded. "I must see if
they're good charts or bad charts, because I want to find out how you get back
on them."
Speaking of off-the-charts numbers, I'll toss up a few just for kicks. Wilt
Chamberlain (1936-99), arguably the most dominant basketball player to have ever
run up and down the court, once scored 100 points in a game. In another game, he
grabbed 55 rebounds.
To put those numbers in perspective, the most points scored in a game by
Yao Ming, who plays the same center position as Wilt, is 41. Yao's most rebounds
in a game is 22.
Yao, 27, will have many good years ahead of him but statistically speaking,
he'll never reach Wilt's heights because Wilt, if Yao lovers don't mind, is
literally off the charts. |
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发表于 2016-7-9 23:43:33