Hasta La Gadget!

Every year, thousands of words are spilled trying to figure out the best and worst contracts in the NBA. Is “Player X” living up the hype? How about in comparison to “Player Y”? If we’re being honest, arguing about such things is one of the best things about the sport.

So it’s with great sadness that we distill the entire entertaining debate down to a single, soulless interactive graphic.

Created for The Huffington Post by FindTheBest, a data visualization company, the graphic charts nearly every NBA player’s 2014-2015 salary against his 2014-2015 player efficiency rating (PER).

For the unexposed, PER is an all-encompassing aggregate statistic that boils down a player’s per-minute value into a single number, regardless of his height or how he plays. It’s not perfect, but it works pretty well.

NBA Salary vs. PER (2014-15) | FindTheBest!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^https:/.test(d.location)?’https’:’http’;if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+”://cdn1.findthebest.com/rx/widgets.js”;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,”script”,”ftb-widgetjs”);

The graphic updates nightly using statistics provided by the site Sports Data LLC. If you’re checking this on the day of publication, you might notice some of the players with high PERs — e.g. the Miami Heat’s Hassan Whiteside and the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Kevin Durant — are not on there. That’s because FindTheBest filtered out players who have played fewer than 30 games this season.

If you’re struggling with that chart, FindTheBest also created a breakdown of the top five best- and worst-value contracts in the league. As you might guess, Anthony Davis, who has the best PER in the league but is still on his rookie contract, comes in as the best value in the NBA.

5 Best Players For Their Value | FindTheBest!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^https:/.test(d.location)?’https’:’http’;if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+”://cdn1.findthebest.com/rx/widgets.js”;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,”script”,”ftb-widgetjs”);

And if you want to know the least valuable contract in the league, well, we’re sorry Kendrick Perkins.

5 Worst Players For Their Value | FindTheBest!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^https:/.test(d.location)?’https’:’http’;if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+”://cdn1.findthebest.com/rx/widgets.js”;fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,”script”,”ftb-widgetjs”);

While Detroit’s systemic problems often seem too large to tackle — like an ongoing foreclosure crisis and a broken transportation system — others have simpler solutions. One such solution has made a huge difference for the city’s children, who now have a couple hundred more safe neighborhood parks than they did a year ago.

It’s thanks in part to church leaders who, along with other local groups, agreed to take responsibility for over 70 public parks and urged Duggan to make them a priority.

“We were able to [open the parks] in part because of the ministers in this community,” Duggan said earlier this month at his State of the City address. “I said, ‘What is one thing we can do for the young people?’ and they said, ‘You’ve got to get these parks open.’”

When he told the group that the city could reopen some parks, but not all, “the ministers in this town took the lead,” he said. “With the help of some in our business community, they adopted 70 of these parks.”

Duggan’s administration also allocated funds so the formerly bankrupt city could reopen over 200 parks last year, a spokesman said.

Here are the parks that have been adopted; some were closed, and others were looked after with varying degrees of commitment:

Duggan also revamped the Adopt-A-Park program last year, and church congregations, block clubs, community organizations, companies and individuals signed up to help. Groups that adopted parks pledged to do three things during spring, summer and fall: cut the grass every two weeks or less, trim weeds, and remove trash.

While the park adoption program existed under Duggan’s predecessor, it didn’t appear to be an administration priority and lacked strong oversight. Now, each adopted park is surveyed by the city biweekly and given scores on each of the three responsibilities that are made public. Adopters were also honored at a celebration in the fall.

Community leaders Mushin Muhammad, Lorenzo Blount, Jomo King and Richard Berlin. Courtesy Grandmont Community Association.

Duggan’s program is new, but many parks have been informally maintained by community groups for years. In Grandmont, residents have long taken care of Ramsay Park; one man who lives by the park has been nicknamed “Mr. Ramsay” because of how much he looks after it.

The Grandmont Community Association actually formally adopted Ramsay from the city several years ago, but Jomo King, who serves on the GCA board of directors, thinks the new program is a vast improvement.

“We’re held accountable, which I like,” said King, who has lived in the neighborhood since 2008 and also runs the GCA’s arts and crafts fair at Ramsay. “It’s not just not a matter of filling out paperwork and then utilizing the park for your own benefit.”

Spring cleanup at Ramsay Park. Courtesy Grandmont Community Association.

Apart from regular maintenance, the group hosts a large spring cleanup and does additional work when events are held at the park.

On a summer day at Ramsay, King said, you might see people walking dogs, kids frolicking on the playscape or playing a Little League baseball game. You might see King and his 12-year-old daughter practicing her overhand volleyball serve or riding together on the bike trail. Those typical outdoor activities might not sound remarkable, but they’re only possible because of people invested in keeping their neighborhood safe and vibrant. With the assistance of a municipal program, their passion and volunteer work has led to the significant improvement of an essential city amenity.

“If we want people to choose Detroit to live in with their families, [our] neighborhoods need to be family friendly,” Duggan spokesman John Roach said in an email to HuffPost.

Dancing at the Grandmont Community Arts & Crafts Fair. Courtesy Grandmont Community Association.

The city shuttered more and more of its 300-plus city parks and cut other services leading up to Detroit’s bankruptcy, which was formally initiated in 2013. Concerns have since been raised about the extent of the city’s reliance on foundation and corporate support and the privatization of civic functions, but involving the people who care most about the quality of neighborhood parks has so far been an overall win for the city and residents.

It’s also aligned with other Duggan initiatives that support the efforts of people already working to improve their communities, like a program that makes it easy for residents to buy vacant lots next to their homes for cheap.

“I’d rather have the city reach out to community associations, as opposed to [leaving parks] in distressed conditions where they become unsafe for children,” King said. “There used to be a time where you drove past a neighborhood park with the weeds being extremely high — we’re talking five, six feet — so I welcome it. I think it’s a good thing, and it helps bring the residents and the community together.”

Face painting at the Grandmont Community Arts & Crafts Fair. Courtesy Grandmont Community Association.

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In late December, in the shadow of the hospital where my daughter was born, we buried my oldest brother.

He was nine years older than I, and he led a troubled life. But as I said at his graveside, mustering the few words I could before breaking down, “You made me laugh. You were my brother. I love you.”

I’m not a believer that we go to a “better place” when we pass away. I think we get this one shot, and then … we’re gone.

But if anyone deserves a better place, it is this brother who struggled mightily during his mortal term on Earth.

We didn’t know each other well. By the time I was figuring out a bit about the world around me, he was off at college. And by the time I was off at college, he was in the throes of what would be a lifelong ordeal.

Beyond that, we were wildly different people. He, like my father and other brother, was a science guy. I, in ways that my father certainly never understood or particularly appreciated, was a words guy and — as my middle brother would often point out — a bit of a schmoozer. Certainly there are scientists who are schmoozers, and words guys who are not, but that was the roster in my house growing up — three scientists and a bullshit artist.

Among the three brothers there were six Ivy League degrees. Big deal? I don’t know. Useful? Not as much as you might think.

For my oldest brother, he was in touch enough to realize he had not carved out much for himself with that education. The failure to capitalize on his schooling was the least of his worries. Day-to-day functioning in the world was much more daunting.

Our interactions over the years were few, brief, and not especially pleasant. My middle brother and I went off to lead somewhat traditional lives, his more than mine, with wives (me, for awhile) and kids (always the highest priority) and careers.

Our oldest brother had none of those, and while people can certainly be happy and productive and involved without spouses or children or careers, he wasn’t one of them.

He drifted in and out of our lives over the years, appearing from out of nowhere, then disappearing again. He finally settled back in the northeast for a period, taking care of our mother as best he could for some time before she passed on.

At his best, he was insightful, funny, worldly and had a memory so sharp is was scary. At his worst, which was frequently, he was just … sad.

The day after he died, a letter for him came to my address. It was an invitation to his high school reunion. I have no idea why it came to me — I’d never gotten mail for him in 30 years, and I moved recently, so my new address wouldn’t have been available to anyone who knew my brother, as far as I know. It was one of those odd occurrences that I don’t need explained.

And now, he rests. Peacefully, I hope, next to our mother and father who showed him unwavering love and patience that could set an example for parents everywhere.

Though I don’t know if I acknowledged it, when I was fighting for the right to raise my kids by myself, and then when I was raising them, the complete selflessness my parents showed toward my brother seemed to be a guiding force, a presence that kept my focus on what really mattered.

Years fly by. Conversations that seemed so recent about plans and dreams and things yet to do have become conversations about dreams and plans for our children and grandchildren, and the hope we can still do that which we still must do.

And occasionally, at this age, we must deal with the passing of others.

If you are in better place, brother of mine, I am happy for you. And if you are not, I am sorry for what you had to endure.

You made me laugh. You were my brother. I love you.

Earlier on Huff/Post50: