Vinny's Last Stand

(Vinny Del Negro and the late Jimmy Valvano)

By in large a 1st round seven game playoff series usually has a way of sorting things out by the end of the series where the better team eventually wins out. Well, in the 2010 NBA playoffs that may not be the case.

Here are some rambling thoughts on the past few days of action and what’s in store for tonight…

- I think it’s safe to say that I underestimated the Spurs. They have pretty much dominated the Mavericks in the past three games outside of the quarter and half stretch on Sunday when the Mavs built up a 15 point lead then proceeded to choke it away. This series looks finished as well as the window on the Mavs championship hopes barring the addition of a superstar in the off-season (could happen). Congrats Dallas! You’re the late 90’s Indiana Pacers.

- If Dwight Howard plays on average less than 30 minutes each game in round 2 the Magic are done. Thank MJ’s boys for the sweep, but a weakness has been exposed

- Do we really need a TV show (Are we there yet?) based on an Ice Cube family movie? Ice Cube went from being the wrong person to f*ck with to becoming Sinbad (Come back Cube we miss you. Evidence below)



o Although I should say that TNT hasn’t killed any shows with non-stop promos yet like Frank TV. Not that I would watch Leverage, but I don’t immediately hate it

- Lebron James that is all.

- Maybe it was their flat performance or the wager I lost on them, but I think the Lakers can be beat in round 1. This Thunder team is gaining confidence by the second very similar to another young eigth seeded team...



- It will be interesting to see how this Lakers-Thunder game will be called tonight. The Thunder had a huge free throw shooting advantage in games 3 & 4. With the Lakers going home all I can say is paging Bennet Salvatore… You’re needed in LA on Tuesday night per request of David Stern.

- The Phoenix Suns have a great chance to reach the NBA finals, which I would not have thought was possible three months ago.

- “Fear the Deer” was alive and well in Milwaukee for games and 3 & 4. Great home crowd advantage

- Is there any team Johnny Salmons can’t turn around into an exciting 1st round loser?

- Deron Williams asks Chris Paul? Who? D-Will has turned in a great performance so far for the under manned Jazz squad and continues to lay his stake as one of the best PG’s in the game or perhaps the best?

- Q: Where do the Jazz find these foreign white guys? A: The Big 10 and Turkish bathhouses

- ESPN did a nice piece about George Karl watching the game with Rick Reilly (asshat) while he’s battling cancer, but too bad they didn’t get his uncensored thoughts on the job Adrian Dantley has done in his place

- Dwayne Wade needs to clone himself for the Heat to have any chance of coming back in this series.



- The Bulls were down 47-46 with 5 minutes left in the 2nd quarter on Sunday with a rocking UC and proceeded to lose 121-98. You do the math; it was not a good 2 and half quarters of basketball. Now, I know how Knicks and Jazz fans felt…

- Will it be Vinny’s last stand tonight in Cleveland? We know he’ll at least go down swinging

Enjoy the games and I'll be back later this week



The soundtrack for this post was provided by: PJ Harvey and Arcade Fire

See Red: Playoff thoughts and a small John Paxson apology

Some thoughts on the playoffs, the Bulls and why ESPN is ruining my NFL draft

The NBA playoffs have been downright strange so far. The only team up 3-0 is the Boston Celtics, who the majority of experts picked to lose to the Miami Heat in the 1st round (Not this guy). Every Celtic point is inching Dwayne Wade closer to leaving the Heat at this point or was it the Udonis Haslem fall away with 45 seconds left that has him contemplating an exit strategy. The Thunder have played solid the last two games and tonight is a pivotal game in the series. LA desperately needs contributions from anyone besides Kobe and Gasol. Kobe is a pulling a Scott Howard right now and Gasol looks like that red head #45, who had a ton of rebounds and blocks and a few lay-ups. Which means it’s a two man show and everybody else may as well be Stiles watching from the stands. I can only make so many Derek Fisher jokes, so I’ll refrain till later on in the playoffs. I should take back my comments about Kevin Durant’s defense because he played Kobe on Thursday night about as well as he could be defended. Now, that I have fulfilled my ESPN driven obligation to talk about the Lakers and Celtics first. Let’s watch Kevin Durant block Kobe's shot and talk about the rest of the playoffs

The Mavericks, who were a sexy pick to win the West have looked awful outside of Dirk Nowitzski and it now looks like the Spurs have control of that series. Caron Butler’s picture may as well be on the side of a milk carton because he’s missing in action. Because when you are starting JJ Barea in the 2nd half your team has problems. After Andrei Kirilenko went down before the playoffs and Mehemt Okur went down in game 1 many and myself included thought the Jazz were finished. Not only have they ripped off two straight, but they have looked as good as they have all season even being short handed. Which I think says a lot about Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, who I think is consistently one of the best coaches in the game (although public speaking isn’t one of his strong points, see his hall-of-fame speech from last summer). The others series’ seemingly have the Magic and Suns in control over a boring Bobcats team and a Brandon Roy less Blazers squad. So, all that’s left to talk about is the hometown Bulls taking on Lebron


Can this happen again ? Probably not but the Bulls have a bright future thanks in part to some of John Paxson's work

I made mention last post about how I would love to see John Paxson be fired and while part of me still thinks Pax should be shown the door and made some huge mistakes during his tenure as GM (I’ll give Gar Foreman a pass for now) I think I need to give Pax some credit for Joakim Noah and the selection of Derek Rose. I was vehemently against the Bulls drafting Noah in 2007. I supported the Bulls drafting anybody but Noah included in that list was Spencer Hawes (bad), Acie Law (current Bull and he’s awful, yeah that’s right you probably didn’t even know he played for the Bulls) and Julian Wright (who has a nice retired jersey plaque at Homewood- Flossmoor, but has not done much in the NBA). Noah arrived on draft night with a clown suit and wild hair and I thought clown would be a perfect word to describe his impending NBA career, but I was wrong. All that energy he played with in college, all of the locker room stuff about him being the leader of Florida was right on point. I became sold on Noah when the Bulls were making their playoff limp down the stretch last year. He is a great rebounder, a very skilled passer for a big guy and can knock down free throws a decent clip. Plus, he plays hard, very hard, which in the NBA can be a rarity. I think Noah could be a solid contributor on a contender in this league, which hopefully with a few smart FA moves the Bulls will be next year. It’s obvious the Bulls lucked into winning the lottery giving them a chance to select Derek Rose, but remember they still had to pick him. I was in the camp of I didn’t care if the Bulls drafted Rose or Beasley I figured they would be getting a blue chip player either way. Thank whoever, John Paxson decided to go with the hometown Rose otherwise the Bulls would have been late lottery bound the past two seasons and missed out on one of the best PG’s in the game and would have probably been little to no factor in this year free agent chase. Because at the time the Bulls selected Rose they had decent set of guards in Heinrich and Gordon and were in desperate need of a low post scoring option (they still are) some thought they would select Beasley thankful the Bulls did not. Since that draft night (2008) Michael Beasley had a Rick James like meltdown on Twitter, got caught smoking pot at the NBA rookie symposium and is in the process of wasting away his career in Miami, where Rose has been nothing short of spectacular thus far. His playoff performance last year allowed the Bulls to save some cap space and not foolishly re-sign Ben Gordon. Rose along with Noah and a possibly rejuvenated Luol Deng (Deng has looked a lot more aggressive in the playoffs and actually looks like a starter in this league again, although I still need to see more) makes the Bulls an attractive landing spot for any free agent in this 2010 class, which is considered the best in the leagues history. With all that I still think the Cavs get past the Bulls despite great efforts by the Bulls in games 2 & 3, but if this team plays it’s cards right they can be contenders in the East next year. So, enjoy the games and I’ll probably have something of a short post up tomorrow after this weekend’s action, but before I go...



A quick Side bar on the NFL draft and more specifically ESPN’s coverage. Unfortunately, I don’t have the NFL network because I could have avoided typing this, but I have to comment of ESPN’s draft coverage. I don’t think brutal is the right word perhaps nauseating would better describe it. Between the fights of Mel Kiper and Todd McShay, Jon Gruden’s QB camp, and Chris Berman being drunk or just moronic (perhaps both) on set their coverage was just painful to watch. I’m tired of their draft coverage being focused on the players falling down the draft board rather than the players that are being selected. Last night was 4 hour Jimmy Clausen and Colt McCoy love fest that just plain sucked. Literally two hours of their coverage was devoted to Colt McCoy, who probably won’t even take a snap next year. Look I love the NFL draft; in fact I used to host a party with people coming over to watch the draft, but it’s getting to the point where I can’t watch it at least not on ESPN anymore.



The soundtrack for this post was provided by Interpol, Surfer Blood and LCD Soundsystem

We are all witnesses, only James Johnson just has a better view

This blog has had about as much activity as Richard Jefferson shows on the court. Oh, wait Jefferson actually had a 17 point 1st half last night. Here are my thoughts on the games I’ve watched so far.


West First Round


(1) L.A. Lakers vs. (8) Oklahoma City

- Kobe Bryant is still the best closer on the floor in the NBA
(maybe not off the court, see Colorado). His numbers have not been prolific so far, but the 2nd half he turned in on Tuesday was outstanding. He was hitting from everywhere on the floor. However, even with Kobe putting up 39 the Lakers still struggled to beat a young Thunder team. Kobe, Gasol and Lamar Odom are the only players on this Lakers team. The rest of that roster is bad besides Artest’s efforts on defense. To me Pau Gasol is one of the most underrated players in the NBA and if he continues to command double teams in the post then the Lakers may have a shot to make it back to the finals

- Kevin Durant is Larry Bird in the making without the defensive instincts.

- 4 (Durant, Westbrook, Green and Ibaka) out of the top 7 players for the Thunder are under the age of 23. If this team adds a legit low post scorer then watch out Western Conference

- I love when TNT does the inside the sounds of the game and shows a team huddle with the coach wired for sound. Scott Brooks, coach of the Thunder was imploring his guys to play with more effort the other night. That message is great, but too bad nobody is listening. I mean not one player could have cared what Brooks was saying and he just won coach of the year. Imagine a huddle for Vinny Del Negro…

(2) Dallas vs. (7) San Antonio

- I was ready to declare the Spurs dead after game 1, but after last night I think they have chance to push this to 7 games or perhaps win this series. The Spurs controlled the entire game last night and in fact Dallas never once held a lead. The Mavs made a late push and cut it 6, but then Timmy Duncan circa 2003 game out and shut down any chance the Mavs had to take game 2.

- Caron Butler needs to have an impact if the Mavs want to make some noise in the West. Butler has been a non-factor so far in the series.

- Until Ivan Drago takes over the Nets Mark Cuban is still the coolest owner in the NBA

(3) Phoenix vs. (6) Portland

- I was shocked watching game 1. I thought with the injury to Brandon Roy was going to be a huge blow to the Blazers and the Suns would cruise through this series, which is still possible. Then Andre Miller showed up. By far the most impressive 1st round performance by someone not named Lebron or Kobe. Miller was doing everything and was all over the court

- Steve Nash is just awesome to watch, especially at the age of 36. Say what you want about his back-to-back MVP’s this guy is no joke or some great white hope of the media. He can play and is still showing everybody why he is still one the best PG’s in the game.

- This seems like a good spot to rag on Reggie Miller. I don’t know what is, but I can’t stand watching a game he announces. I just find something very off putting about his broadcasting style and he really adds no information to the game.

(4) Denver vs. (5) Utah

- Utah has been decimated by injuries and Denver is without George Karl. That’s about it… I really have not seen much of this series so far. I know Illinois’ own Deron Williams turned in a one of hell a performance the other night to even up the series and that Carmelo was awesome in game 1.

- If I am going to write about the NBA Playoffs then maybe I should watch more games. Well, I was side tracked on Saturday because of heading up to a Cubs game. After Saturdays game I can honestly say it could be my last game of the year. This Cubs is bad and is not even worth me investing any time in watching. I mean with the NHL playoffs, NBA playoffs and the World Cup (Yes, the World Cup)kicking off in 50 days I really don’t need baseball outside of fantasy league purposes (which I’ve done a pretty bad job of paying attention to in the early going)

East First Round

(1) Cleveland vs. (8) Chicago

- I agree with Joakim Noah. Cleveland sucks and is desolate place that you only wish upon your worst enemy (The Rock-n-Roll hall of fame is cool).

- Hopefully, this series ends the Vinny Del Negro era. I can’t take much more of “Hey, I’m Italian, I have temper and I can’t coach basketball” I hope someone knocks him and John Paxson (GM years of Pax) on their ass somewhere outside the Berto Center.

- I’ll break down the Cavs a little more in-depth as the playoffs move along

(2) Orlando vs. (7) Charlotte

- Wake me up when this series is over. The only storyline I am interested in is the escapades of Bobcats owner Michael Jordan and runnin buddy Charles Oakley. Those two are like Diggler and Rothchild

(3) Atlanta vs. (6) Milwaukee

- This would have been a great series if Andrew Bogut didn’t pull a Tom Browning a week before the playoffs

- I love The Buck slogan of “Fear the Deer”.

- At the midway point of the season I thought the Hawks could challenge anybody in the East, but after watching Mike Bibby play I don’t think so

(4) Boston vs. (5) Miami

- Boston is old and Kevin Garnett is being exposed as a bitch. Bring back the old Minnesota KG, I miss you

- Keep your on eye on Dwayne Wade’s comments this series. He already stated after game 2 in no certain terms that his teammates suck. Wade is thought to re-sign with the Heat, but after another quick exit in rounf 1 he might be re-thinking his options
(Chicago, eh?)

The soundtrack for this blog entry was provided by Neon Indian, Wale and Echo and the Bunnymen

The Predictions Post

(Journeyman Center, Paul Mokeski)

Due to the Blackhawks and some unforeseen issues I can’t give a full breakdown till Sunday… However, I would like to get my predictions on the record before the action starts tomorrow. I stole the season series stats and odds from espn.com, but the predictions are all mine.

West First Round


(1) L.A. Lakers vs. (8) Oklahoma CitySeason series: 3-1 Lakers.

Odds say: Lakers 56.4%; Thunder 43.6%


My Pick: Lakers in seven

(2) Dallas vs. (7) San AntonioSeason series: 3-1 Mavs.

Odds say: Spurs 74.5%; Mavs 24.5%


Pick: Mavs in six

(3) Phoenix vs. (6) PortlandSeason series: 2-1 Blazers.

Odds say: Suns 64.9%; Blazers 35.1%


Pick: Suns in five

(4) Denver vs. (5) UtahSeason series: 3-1 Nuggets.

Odds say: Jazz 61.2%; Nuggets 38.8%


Pick: Denver in seven




East First Round


(1) Cleveland vs. (8) ChicagoSeason series: 2-2 split.

Odds say: Cavs 97.0%; Bulls 3.0%


Pick: Cavs in five

(2) Orlando vs. (7) CharlotteSeason series: 3-1 Orlando.

Odds say: Magic 91.9%; Bobcats 8.1%


Pick: Magic in six

(3) Atlanta vs. (6) MilwaukeeSeason series: 2-1 Atlanta.

Odds say: Hawks 74.8%; Bucks 25.2%


Pick: Hawks in five

(4) Boston vs. (5) MiamiSeason series: 3-0 Boston.

Odds say: Celtics 54.2%; Heat 45.8%


Pick: Celtics in six

Finals Prediction


Cavs over the Mavericks in six games

I love this game!! (Well that maybe a little extreme)

And so it begins...

(Bernard King)

I kind of always wanted to start a blog. I always envisioned it as little place for me to talk about sports, music, movies and Canadian Parliament. I would throw up a couple links to articles, post some music videos, do a few movie reviews or countdown lists and have the 7 of my friends, who read the blog make comments and we could banter back and forth. So, I guess my idea for a blog was essentially Facebook minus the invitations to find a pair of brass knuckles or help build a farm. Anyways last summer when I had some time off and was job searching I decided it was the time to start a blog. Well other than what I perceive to be a clever title and giving myself a pen name I didn’t get very far until today…

This blog will be about the 2010 NBA playoffs possibly the NBA draft and perhaps there will be some reminiscing along the way. Now that I have about two readers left after that last sentence I can tell you a little about what the format of the blog will be. I was hoping to sync this little venture with the start of Basketball Wives on Vh1, but unfortunately I am a few days late. Most posts will be about the games I watched the previous night or perhaps right after the games that night. I will probably parallel some of the playoff action to some of the great playoff series of the past or have a special post devoted to a forgotten series of that round. Some of the posts maybe lengthy and perhaps even somewhat informative, where other posts will pack about as much punch as the White Sox offense (hey-ho!). All that’s great, but some people may ask who still gives a crap about the NBA…

"The Bible"

(My scan picture of the book would not work so here is MJ anyways)

It was over 500 pages, it contained the stats of every NBA season since 1946 and I held it more sacred than the bible. It was the 1988-89 NBA guide from Sporting News. I started watching basketball around 1986, watching M Jeff drop 63 in the Garden was a good way to hook a young fan. With that said my real basketball education and fandom started with the above book, which I received as Christmas gift in 1988. It also didn’t hurt that the greatest player to ever play the game was located about an hours drive from my house and was on TV every night. Although, here is where I think I diverge from most people that followed the NBA or more specifically the Bulls is that I have always was just as interested in the rest of the NBA as I was the Bulls. After Michael’s second retirement even though the Bulls sucked (just look at this roster) I still loved the NBA when most people stopped watching. Even though people thought the NBA stands for Nothing But Assholes (Thanks, Doc) I still loved the NBA, assholes or not. Although, I must say the stretch from about 2001-2003 is a little hazy perhaps due to malted hops and bong resin (although Iverson’s game 1 against the Lakers is still a keeper) I realize I sound like a complete jackass right now, but I have a lot of fond memories of this sport and this league and that’s what I want to preserve with this blog. Because right now even if many of us or should I say the few of us that still follow the Association don’t want to admit it or don’t acknowledge it the talent level in this league is the best it has ever been or at least right there on par with the heyday of the league from about 1986-1992. So, you can once again say that indeed NBA action is fantastic... (Video proof from 1986)

Tomorrow I will have a post up with a full breakdown of the playoffs and my predictions about all things NBA playoffs. So, to my four readers you can look forward to that and much more of my thoughts on the Association. I apologize for the many crimes I committed on the written word and with that said I leave you with John Tesh performing the NBA on NBC theme song… Enjoy!