Dorothy Ashby
Lee Konitz
Yosuke Yamashita
Andrew Hill

I realized I forgot about Paterson, because I was on a bus, and that's the kind of movie that permanently colors certain experiences, not least: riding a city bus. Anyway I'd put it roughly 6th on this list.

That sequence (especially the Louis Armstrong, imo) and the ending (including the closing credits) are genuinely sublime. Oddly inspiring to hear that your kid sees something in it, too!

One cool thing about the SB is that it's completely uncorrelated with the total score of the game. Jalen Brunson had a Sufficient Bucket to get to 91 against Boston with 12 seconds left. SGA had one to get to 127 against Minnesota with 6 seconds left. Lots of ways to play to the wire!

The latest sufficient bucket of these playoffs was Haliburton's layup with 1 second left in overtime of game 5 against the Bucks.

So, when CLE got the SB with 9:15 left in the third, fans only got about 56% of a meaningful game. IND gave them 110% of a meaningful game in that Bucks performance.

When the SB happens, you're basically saying that the leading team could refuse to shoot for the rest of the game and still win (assuming they keep burning clock on offense). When it happens, the rest of the game is arguably completely meaningless basketball.

The Sufficient Bucket is fun to look for when you're watching a blowout ("I wonder if they're there yet?"), and a nice simple way to think about competitiveness overall.

The most exciting 2025 SB series was NYK-DET: 5 games decided in the last minute, and the average SB came at the 47 minute mark.

Thanks for coming! This was a very fun talk to give!