We are now less than a few hours from the NBA Finals and in the immortal words of Bart Scott: “I can’t wait” The NBA playoffs so far have been everything from entertaining, perplexing and distressing (see: Bulls, Chicago) for me. And now we are down to 7 games to decide who gets to hoist the Larry O’Brien trophy. I have decided to eschew a regular breakdown style of the NBA Finals and instead I will just offer a simple prediction for now.
At the start of the playoffs I picked the Heat to win the NBA finals and unfortunately I have seen nothing to change that opinion. I think Dallas will be the most complete team that the Heat have faced in the playoffs thus far especially on the offensive end of the floor. Dallas might be able to throw Miami for a loop with their zone and some funky lineup combinations that they can throw out on the floor. However, in the end the Heat just have too much talent and has the best player in the NBA playing at the top of his game. I will be rooting for the Mavs , but I think that will be a losing proposition.
I am always up a for good debate at the old saloon, so why not recreate that on the internet (I know how original) So, instead of flying solo and debating my own conscious I decided to recruit some help for tonight's post and so I reached out to noted haberdasher, part-time blogger and noted Tecmo NBA basketball enthusiast "Phat" Joe for some help. I was trying to get this done on Saturday, but my guest does not drive a car, does not handle money and sure as shit does not type on his computer on his day of rest. The following is a transcript of an email exchange we had over the course of yesterday and today regarding all things NBA. My questions/responses are from "Chuck Nevitt" and well "Phat" Joe's are from "Phat" Joe.
Enjoy...
On Sun, May 22, 2011 at 12:11 PM, "Chuck Nevitt" wrote:
Hello, PJ
We might as well start with one of my favorite subjects and probably your least… LeBron James. And by that I mean why is it I keep finding myself having to defend his game against basketball idiocy? “ He will never be as good as MJ” Look I know that, but last I checked MJ has not played a meaningful basketball game in 13 years. So, why is that the permanent stock answer that almost every half wit and Chicagoan keeps saying whenever the words LeBron James are mentioned in a sentence? I get that people are annoyed by the coverage by say an ESPN at times and on the TV side of it the ESPN NBA product is pretty miserable save for Hubie Brown. You can hate LeBron for “The Decision”, running off-tackle plays late in the game, etc, but I find it really hard to say that there is a much better player going in the current NBA or at least he is in the top 3 right now. So, I guess the question I have is can LeBron James be considered underrated and overrated at the same time?
I really look at something like the conversation a lot of people are having about say the greatness of Dirk Nowitzki is a far more interesting topic than this tired LBJ/MJ non-argument. The Dirk thing seems to be debating where he fits into the hierarchy of NBA forwards not so much is he better than say Larry Bird or Karl Malone, which I think is a better debate because it is really difficult to compare eras in the NBA.
From: "Phat Joe" Sent: Sunday, May 22, 2011 3:47 PM To: "Chuck Nevitt"
Sorry this took so long. You would think that having Die Hard on in the background for the 283rd time wouldn't be so distracting, but alas...I'm not sure I would call LBJ underrated or overrated, but I think I would call him historically overextended (as of now) and athletically under appreciated. Simmons ranked LBJ as the #20 basketball player of all time. I just can't wrap my head around that. Not yet at least. I can't rank a guy that has a substandard (for his talent) jump shot and no post game (for his size) ahead of a guy like Pippen who could do almost everything asked of him on a basketball court. That said, LeBron's overall package of tools is unlike anything sports has seen. He is basically a hybrid of Randy Moss and Urlacher, but 4 inches taller. The things he can do on the floor are legitimately scary. To have his athleticism and strength at his size isn't really fair to the majority of the rest of the league. He is 280 pounds with the body control of Kerri Strug. No player in the league now or maybe have has as many HOLY SHIT moments a night than LBJ. He is a treat to watch, but in the sense that a lot of guys are throwers and not pitchers, LeBron is still to me more of an athletic freak than an all time great basketball player. I do agree with you though that he is at least a top 3 player in the league if not the best. LBJ doesn't owe anyone an apology for being really good at what the current NBA allows his skillset to do.
I think as far as why Chicagoans immediately turn to the "LBJ is no MJ" argument is because most Chicago sports fans (a.k.a. irrational jagbags) are extremely territorial when it comes to their sporting heroes. Try telling someone that Ryne Sandberg isn't in your top 3 2B of all time or that you would trade Patrick Kane for a 2nd line center and a physical defenseman and watch the steam in his eyes rise. Just the threat of someone ascending to MJ's level is enough to get out their Great MJ Defender costumes. We see it with Kobe, we see it with LBJ. Just comes with the territory I guess.
I agree with you about Dirk being a much more interesting topic. He has always been historically undersold in my opinion, partly resulting from having the '06 championship stolen from him. Had the Mavs won that series, Dirk's career arc would have accelerated much faster. He is probably the toughest match up defensively of our lifetime with the exception of Shaq. Trying to find someone 6' 10'' that has the foot speed to keep up with Dirk is pretty much impossible. Anyone shorter than that and Dirk either posts them up or simply shoots over them. He is easily the best European of all time, and I think in a way that has effected his reception here as far as reputation goes. Part of me wishes Dirk was born in Ohio or Wisconsin to see how he would have been received here. Bird's legacy stemmed from being a farm boy from middle America, and I think that elevated his status on a historical level a lot more than most people will admit. If its not the Bulls that take home the O'Brien Trophy in a few weeks (or months), I hope it goes to Dirk and the Mavs. I think your trepidation about comparing eras is interesting to me. While I agree that it isn't the best way to go about looking at the hierarchy of players in a given sport, isn't there enough information and footage available to at least surmise to some degree how certain guys would perform in different eras? Don't we know to some degree that LBJ as he is currently constituted would struggle and have to adjust if he was playing in the early 90's when guys were actually allowed to defend?
From: "Chuck Nevitt" To: "Phat" Joe
Agree 100% that Dirk has been undersold. And that is part of the problem on how most people tend to not validate a player because they have not won a championship. We could get sidetracked in a whole other debate here, but I did want to bring up one point. And that I always find it fascinating watching Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley interact during the playoffs. It seems to me that sometimes Kenny feels like his points are more valid because he has a ring and he holds that over Barkley. I do not think anybody in their right mind thinks that Kenny Smith is better than Barkley, but people do to some degree discredit Barkley because he did not win a championship. Barkley only got one shot at a ring and it is not like he choked on the big stage he put up 27/13/5 averages against the Bulls. I just think he happened to play on some average to good teams that at most points in his career were never capable of winning a championship. I guess what I am saying is that for me I can more easily validate a great player in the NBA without a ring rather than say a QB in the NFL without a championship because it just seems like there a fewer opportunities in the NBA for players to win titles than say the NFL.
To answer your other point about my trepidation to compare eras I guess I should clarify my stance a little bit. This is weird to quantify it this way, but I see the NBA in two distinct eras since I have been alive and that is the Pre-Shaq (1980-1992) and Post-Shaq (1993-current) eras. The reason I say that is it seems like the league has just gotten more athletic since around the time Shaq came into the league. That is not to say there were not great athletes in the league before that, but some of the things that guys are doing now is just incredible. So, yes I would still have difficult time comparing a guy, who played say pre-1992 to a guy that is currently playing the league. However, you also brought up a great point of there being all this footage out there that we can use and maybe gauge a little to see how the game has changed or in some respects still stayed similar to what it was before and I really think that is a huge credit to the NBA marketing policy and more direct their YouTube policy. You can pretty much pull up any game from anytime and watch highlights if not the full game on YouTube, which is pretty awesome.
From: "Phat" Joe To: "Chuck Nevitt"
The Barkley appearance on The BS Report last week dealt with the whole never winning a title argument and Charles' feelings about it. I highly recommend it for anyone who didn't catch it. I think Charles has always carried the burden of not winning a title, fair or unfair. I think judging individual players on titles is a slippery slope. Barkley always lost to a better team/player. Not all guys can say that, as some stars just didn't show up all the time (ahem, Patrick Ewing). Kenny does seem to try and keep Charles in his place on the set, especially during the playoffs. They should both just get out of the way for my guy C-Webb.
In regards to the question of eras, I didn't necessarily mean YOUR trepidation as much as basketball fans overall not wanting to compare eras. It is pretty hard to compare the 50's and 60's to today's game, but the latter eras are more similar. I do agree with your Pre-Shaq and Post-Shaq timelines. I also like to term those two as the Some-White-Guys Era and Few-White-Guys Era. I guess my point was just that in the 80's and more so the 90's didn't feature a red carpet to the rim like today's game does.
Getting back to the local flavor...what do you make of the Bulls? Its way early in the series to start pointing blame around, but its pretty evident that Thibs needs to dial a new number or two. Something needs to change with the rotation at the 2 spot. Also, my tweet last night about Simmons re-awarding the 2011 NBA MVP in the 2nd addition of The Book of Basketball was only half-tongue-in-cheek. Rose has four points on six shots during the 4th quarter of the two losses. If it was LBJ or Wade or Kobe that put up those numbers in back-to-back losses they would be getting killed for it. Rose seems to be getting a bit of a pass. What say you?
From: "Chuck Nevitt" To: "Phat" Joe
I think the Bulls are very frustrated at this point. And most of that has to do with the excellent defense being played by the Heat. Also, when you get 5 points between your starting SG and C you are going to lose pretty much all of the time. I think Thibs although he does not have a lot of buttons to push has really been I do not know if would say outcoached, but more so out-adjusted . What Spo has done as far as his rotation and making in game defensive adjustments has been really good. Although, it helps when you have three legitimate scoring options that can create their own shots. I think Rose tends to get a pass because not many basketball people really respect most of the Bulls roster especially from an offensive standpoint. I sort of wrote about this on Saturday about Westbrook being constantly scrutinized after every game and I think in large part of that has to do with him having Durant as a teammate, who is probably a better player. Whereas with Rose the conversation turns to: “well who else is going to take shots?” I was discussing this last night with some friends and I said I thought that was Rose’s worst game of the playoffs. I was afraid that Rose may break down at some point this year because of his excessive usage rate and I think we are seeing some of that now. Which means he will probably come out and score 40 points next game and make me look like an idiot, which I would gladly welcome.
I think this Bulls team is playing against not so much the Heat, but the history of the NBA. That pretty much tells us that no team has won a championship with the PG being the main scoring option. The closest example I can think of and a good comparison to this Bulls team, which they mentioned on the FreeDarko podcast the other day was the Bad Boy era Pistons. I think that is a very good comparison because this roster is comprised of a talented point with a bunch of athletic bigs and some wing scoring much like the Pistons were. The big difference being the Pistons had Joe Dumars at the 2 and some serious punch off the bench with Vinnie Johnson, Mark Aguirre or Adrian Dantley at certain points. The Bulls do not have that which makes it difficult for their chances at a championship. But there I go again breaking my own rules about comparing era's, but hey it fits my narrative...
From: "Phat" Joe To: "Chuck Nevitt"
Agree whole-heartedly with you on Spo. For the Bulls to win this series, their COY needed to be COY and their MVP needed to be the MVP. So far, neither of them have been very good. The Bulls haven't really adjusted much at all, at least from what I can see. A little bit rotation wise, but not a lot. You are obviously a better X and O guy than I, but why have the Bulls not switched away from the pick and roll to try and make it not so easy to double Rose? Wouldn't a 1-4 give him more room to operate? I understand that the Heat are a terrific defensive unit, but it looks to me that the Bulls offense has been brutal. If I may, I'd like to follow that with two personnel questions. 1) Is there no room in the current rotation for Big Sexy? With the Heat backing off Noah and covering the cutters, wouldn't it be ok to try and steal minutes with two big men that can knock down a 15 footer? I'd like to Thomas and Gibson play a little with Boozer. Its not like Noah has been any good anyways. 2) Is playing Bogans crunch time minutes really such a wild idea. He isn't as good of a defender as Brewer and he isn't as good of a shooter, but he is the best all-around 2 the Bulls have. Korver is killing them on both ends of the floor and Brewer just isn't spacing the floor at all. Why not let Bogans get some burn down the stretch?
From: "Chuck Nevitt" To: "Phat" Joe
Both personnel questions are legitimate questions that I have yet heard be asked of Thibs. I do not know if they win the series with your suggestions, but at this point it would not hurt to try. I would love to see Thomas get some run at some point during the series and as crazy as it sounds Bogans outside of the first 3 Indiana games has been their most productive 2 guard, so it would make sense to at least attempt to give him some 4th quarter minutes. It seems to me that Thibs is just sticking with his regular season rotation with very little adjustments and it has been pretty obvious that it is not working against Miami. And that to me has been part of the Bulls problem in the playoffs. It seems like for the most part the Bulls have not adjusted their game at all from the regular season to the playoffs. I am not talking about intensity or “playoff tough” I mean more of the X’s and O’s and exploiting certain matchups or using different lineup aspect. Look at Miami's offense and you can read how they are running more cuts in the playoffs than they did at any point of the season and those are they type of things I would like to see with the Bulls. The suggestion of a "1-4" look giving Rose more room to operate is interesting and might work better than what we saw last night. Which was pretty much pass to the wing/Rose dives to the baseline/ to set an upscreen to get Boozer in the post/ if a post touch is not open then Rose gets it back and runs PNR with the other big. Now all of these suggestions involve at some point players being able to spread the floor and hit some shots. However, it is some of those fine tune adjustments that coaches make from game-to-game that just seem to have been absent so far by Thibs in the playoffs on the offensive end. And I am willing to cut him some slack since this is his first time around as a head coach.
I wanted to finish up with a question about the OKC Thunder and this theory I have that they are pretty much the NBA’s equivalent of an indie rock blogosphere buzz band. And what I mean is that they kind of started getting some buzz last year; they are adored by kind of this stat/trendy segment of NBA writers; they had some underground success (pushing the Lakers to 6), garnered a little more hype (this regular season) and now are in the midst of putting together a more commercial/successfully 2nd outing (run through the playoffs) that is being recognized by a larger audience. And of course with that larger audience comes the inevitable backlash (Westbrook). So, where will they be in 3 years… We will see the band split and their two creative forces venture out into semi-successful solo projects or stay together to win mainstream recognition and some awards along the way (MVP’s, Championships, etc.)
From: "Phat" Joe To: "Chuck Nevitt"
I don't have any illusions that those things would change anything either, but it would be an interesting change from beating your head against the wall doing the same thing over and over like they have the last 2 games. If Korver isn't on (and if you aren't going to run a few plays for him or give him enough burn to get in a flow) he has no use on the court. Brewer is an ok guy, but he isn't stretching the floor. Bogans probably isn't the answer in the future, but I think he may be the answer now.
That is just an outstanding comparison for the Thunder (and a quick sidenote speaking of indie darlings gone mainstream, the 2 new Arcade Fire singles are really good including one with your guy David Byrne). I think the future of OKC has yet to be decided but will ultimately come down to how the Thunder lose. If they go down together and it turns into a scenario where its just getting beat by better teams and them growing together as a unit, then I think they can stay together and make beautiful music together. If every misstep continues to get put on Westbrook going 7/21, there may not be a choice but to move him. You never know, Westbrook may go out on his own and try a solo act somewhere else. I think he would end up being more David Lee Roth than Phil Collins (success-wise), but hopefully they can put the egos behind them and just be ok with being basketball's Radiohead (who thankfully didn't break up). _____________________________________________________________
I wanted to thank Joe for being a good sport and indulging me in this little project
Well we are two games into the conference finals and guess what?? “We ain’t found shit” Most of the questions and thoughts posed by the experts going into both the Mavs-Thunder series and the Bulls-Heat series are still out there in the open waiting to be answered, repackaged, re-wrote, second guessed,etc. I picked the Heat to meet the Thunder in the finals going wayyy back to the start of the playoffs; I think that will still happen, but what the hell do I know. As I type this the whole world could be coming to an end and we might not even see the NBA finals. However, that will not stop from posting some thoughts on what has transpired this week in the Association.
1. First off it was with a heavy heart that I said goodbye to the 2010-2011 Memphis Grizzlies last Sunday after a valiant effort against the Thunder and an enjoyable run through the Western conference playoffs. I will miss Zach Randolph’s snarl, Tony Allen’s fast break hijinx and most of all the misadventures of Greivis Vasquez and Hamed Haddadi off the bench. Come back next year, Grizz you made these playoffs a lot of fun.
2. It seems like these playoffs have been either a personal crusade in support of or a vendetta against Russell Westbrook’s game for almost every NBA writer. I find myself falling somewhere in the middle and bored of this narrative. There are times when Westbrook has gone haywire in fact he has gone a lot haywire at certain points. However, it is not all Westbrook’s fault. I would say the Thunder have been plagued at points by poor coaching from Scott Brooks, who has been just abysmal with some of the Thunder’s play calling late in games and often puts Westbrook in a no win situation with the ball. Also, at times most notably in the 4th quarters against the Grizz, Kevin Durant was not doing him any favors by failing to shake Tony Allen or Shane Battier, which often left Westbrook holding the bag with very few seconds left on the shot clock.
(- Russell Westbrook, NBA Hipster )
Now, do I think that there are some hero complex/issues at play between Durant and Westbrook that have affected Russ West’s game quite possibly? I do not think we are talking about Marbury/KG like issues that occurred in Minnesota, but I do feel that Westbrook is an emerging player in this league and wants to be treated as such and from my recliner it looks like he feels that he can takeover games much the way D-Rose is capable of doing. And for the majority of the playoffs it seems like that style has benefited the Thunder at times and hurt them in other instances. So, like I said I am firmly entrenched in the middle on this Russell Westbrook thing. He maybe a hipster, but I do not think Russell Westbrook is a heel that would turn on Durant; but it will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next few years not the next few games. Therefore, can I please stop reading or seeing this Russell Westbrook tragic hero/anti-christ narrative every day after a Thunder game.
3. The defense being played has been pretty good so far by both the Bulls and the Heat in fact it has been damn good. So, I expect to see a lot of these games scoring in the 80’s maybe low 90’s. To me this series comes down to two obvious, but crucial things rebounding and bench play. The Bulls won in game 1 because of it, but lost in game 2 because the Heat did it better. I know I sound like a recycled version of sideline reporter getting a coach’s thoughts, but if the Bulls can not dominate the Heat in those areas then essentially that puts these teams on an even playing level and their two superstars are capable of making more plays than the Bulls one superstar.
4. After my last point I think I am obligated to state that the Bulls need somebody to step up besides Derrick Rose if they want to beat the Heat. Carlos Boozer and so on and so on…
5. I would watch a channel called Dirk vs. Durant, which could be just non-stop programming of both of these guys just practicing shooting jump shots, playi9ng games of H-O-R-S-E between the two of them and maybe the occasional NBA game or jam session with Wayne Coyne
I was planning on doing a long Mark Jackson style outro for this post, but something about father time catching up with me and such prevented me from doing so
Till next time… Enjoy the Rapture... RIP “Macho Man” Randy Savage
I injured my left hand slicing a bagel and so I am writing this post with only one hand…
Here are some random thoughts I had from the weekend.
1. Rajon Rondo is tough, but that’s not the reason why the Celtics won game 3
I’ll be the first to admit that it was pretty incredible that Rondo came back after that brutal fall that I thought for sure would have put him out of the series, but by that point the Celtics were already pulling away from the Heat. The play of Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett is the reason the C’s dominated game 3. Pierce and Garnett played like superstars, which was missing in games 1 and 2.
It also helps that Chris Bosh openly admitted that he was nervous playing on the road at Boston. Proving once again that Chris Bosh is an overrated softie, who should never be called a superstar. I also found it funny that Rondo scored more points with one arm than when he was healthy. It will be interesting to see tonight if these Boston guys will be able to pull out another big performance like game 3 with only 48 hours between games and not what seemed the three weeks between games 2 and 3.
2. Is 32 shots too many by a point guard?
It seems like this debate has been happening a lot these playoffs and flared up again last night after Derrick Rose’s game 4 performance. Look, I think there are a number of different ways to look at this, but I tend to fall in the line of its great if he is making shots, but when you shoot in the 30% range you are going to get critiqued. I would like to see Rose get more people involved, but you can argue with the shots he was taking considering most of them were lay-ups or in the lane.
There is no question the Bulls offense collapsed in 4th quarter as detailed here by Royce Young, of CBS Sports, but I think there defense killed them as well. Thibs needs to go back to the drawing board and start running those PNR’s back on the wing rather than up top where Rose has a chance to get trapped and have Noah set the screens because he at least he can make a pass from the top of the key. Plus, it was a little disheartening to see Carlos Boozer play a solid game, but get no 4th quarter touches. I have roundly criticized Boozer throughout the playoffs, but if he gets it going during the game then you can’t just go away from him cold turkey.
3. Josh Smith has to be one of the most exciting/frustrating player’s in the league
Josh Smith has a ton of talent and a lot of it was on display last night in Atlanta, but still let’s not forget about Smith’s glaring deficiencies that still seem to be rearing their ugly head. Smith still settles way too much for his jumper rather than attack the rim much to the groan of the Atlanta faithful. I mean Smith managed to have a worse shooting night than Derrick Rose, which is saying something. As a Bulls fan I would love to see Smith continue to settle for his jump shot, but I am scared if decides to start attacking the rim like he did in spurts during game 4.
4. The Lakers showed their true colors going out like a bunch of punks...
After game 1 I had a feeling that the Mavs maybe were the better team in this series, but never did I expect them to sweep the Lakers. Gone is the soft play and “DeerHunter” beard of Pau Gasol, who was a no show on the offensive end and light up like a Christmas tree by Dirk on the defensive end. I think time has finally caught up to Derek Fisher and Ron Artest, who looked a step slow all playoffs. Kobe did not seem like Kobe at any point during the playoffs quite often settling for jumpers rather than attacking the rim save for game 2 of the Hornets series. And what can you say about that debacle yesterday in Dallas… The end of the Lakers dynasty has to be the most classless ending of a run since the ’91 Pistons walked off the court after being swept out by the Bulls. Good riddance, Lakers.
5. Walking in Memphis…
I love watching the Grizz play. The way they scrapped and clawed to come back in game 3 and then dominate OKC down the stretch was impressive. Zach Randolph might be the MVP of the playoffs at this point and the Grizz are getting contributions from Sam Young all the way down to Grevais Vazquez. I am not going to count OKC out of this series by any means, but they are having some serious issues with their 4th quarter offense. They have no movement, continue to run the same PNP play with Westbrook and Durant and have inexplicable been sitting James Harden during key offensive possessions in favor Thabo, who is a non-threat on offense. Sebastian Pruiti over at NBA Playbook provides some nice visual evidence of what I am saying. Until the Thunder figure this out and make adjustments they will be in trouble against the Grizz.
Originally I planned to write a really dark and trippy piece on the death of the Lakers and Celtics then I woke up from watching “American Psycho”, decided to return some videotapes, lost my train of thought and here we are it is Mothers Day.
We are now three games into each series of the 2nd round and every conclusion I tried to draw from some of these games has either been tested or totally proven incorrect. Due to the power of the reverse jinx this will be the only sentence that mentions the Dallas Mavericks and Los Angeles Lakers series.
I don’t need to go into a punch-by-punch breakdown of each series or point out key matchups or things to watch for because at this point it would be pointless and has been covered ad nauseam by every basketball “expert” under the sun.
The reason I mentioned “American Psycho” is because I find it interesting in that it is the one movie/book where not only I am a fan of the main character, Patrick Bateman, who “seemingly” (a discussion for another time…) does all of these terrible things, but I am openly hoping for him to continue to do all of these terrible things. Because it not only makes it more exciting entertainment, but it also has this depraved comedic I won’t say charm, but something I find to be incredibly fascinating throughout the movie/book.
And in some strange universe this relates to me as I watch the 2011 NBA playoffs most notably the Miami Heat. Now let me clarify that I am not rooting for the Miami Heat, but I am not exactly rooting for the Boston Celtics either. I guess what I mean is that if the Heat keep on winning I think it makes for a more interesting narrative despite all of these “terrible things” they may have done coming into this season.
“I killed Paul Allen. And I liked it…”
In some respects if the Heat win the championship it will eradicate some of my notions of what it takes to win an NBA championship and how the game should be played. Yet, I am still fascinated to watch these guys play. They have no Point Guard, no post scoring to speak of and at times do a very poor job of moving the basketball, but they also have two of the best basketball players on the planet to defer to at any point during the game and play very good defense. I hate the trend that “The Decision” may have set in motion for how teams will be built in the future, but I must say that it makes for very compelling story lines. And much like when Patrick Bateman throws a chainsaw down 7 flights of stairs to kill a woman I am intrigued to see how it all plays out.
“There is an idea of a Patrick Bateman; some kind of abstraction. But there is no real me.,,”
I feel very similar to LeBron James. Going into this season LeBron finally came to the realization that “The Decision” pissed people off and that he would no longer be seen as the fun loving player he once was thought of in Cleveland, but rather a pariah in search of a championship and some sort of basketball utopia in South Beach. So, LeBron decided to embrace this “villain” persona, he made commercials, gave interviews, etc about how he was going to use this backlash as motivation to lead the Heat to a championship and prove everybody wrong. LeBron can say and do all of those things publicly, but you know what I don’t believe him. He still wants people to like him, buy his jersey and shoes and keep growing the brand of LeBron. Because if he really wanted to shut people up and silence the “haters” he would have spent his summer developing a post game as a big eff you to everybody because that would have made him practically un-guardable. Rather he decided to focus on other things besides basketball and as Patrick Bateman be the side of Phil Collins that “…works best within the confines of the group, than as a solo artist, and I stress the word artist”.
“Harold, its Bateman, Patrick Bateman. You’re my lawyer so I think you should know: I’ve killed a lot of people.”
Spoiler Alert…
As you can gather from that last quote Pat Bateman murders a lot of people, but the problem is that no matter what Bateman does he cannot seem to be caught nor stop himself. So, as the story closes Bateman is a free man, who does not pay for his crimes. As an ending of a book/movie that works for me. In terms of sports that type of ending does not work for me. And so as much as it might sound like I am advocating how exciting it would be to watch the Heat in the finals, that it is great to watch the best players on the biggest stage. I do not want to see the Heat win. I do not want them to get away with hijacking the free agent process and winning a championship on their first try out of the gate. It is kind of like Patrick Bateman having all of these material things, but the one thing he can’t get is a reservation at Dorsia (sp?) and that’s the Heat. They can win all of these awards, have all of these commercials and endorsement money, but I do not want them to get that championship.
Till next time… when I compare Kevin Durant & Russell Westbrook to Clay Easton and Julian Wells of “Less than Zero”
Sorry for the no posts lately, but I just wrapped up my stay at Jon Gruden’s QB camp. And let me tell you something THAT GUY!!!! I must say it is no bueno for me to sit here on the last Saturday in April and have no NBA action on for the day. However, the 1st round was quite spectacular so at least we got that going for us.
This post was interrupted yesterday by my attendance of a matinee of Fast Five, which I must say was quite spectacular.
And with the end of the 1st round we bid adieu to several quality and not so quality teams. So, let’s move on to some random thoughts as we head into the 2nd round of the NBA playoffs.
- Hopefully we have seen the last of Dick Stockton calling games. Look, Dick was once a great NBA announcer, but that was like in 1989. Now he is just a confused old soul that somehow gets stuck with games past his bedtime.
- For as great as Brandon Roy was in the 4th quarter of game 4 for the Blazers I think that somehow while saving that game for Portland ended up losing them the series. The Blazers seemed to rely on Roy being the go-to-guy from that point on instead of LaMarcus Aldridge. I felt that the Blazers played away from their strengths and the fact that Dallas struggled to guard Aldridge virtually all series. To me it just made no sense for the Blazers and I ultimately think it hurt them in the last two games, which were Mavs wins.
- I think it is perfect that the Orlando Magic play in the state of Florida because much like the state of Florida the Magic are very overrated. Sure you have your great big attraction in Dwight Howard (Disney World) and also you have a pretty solid go to option in Jameer Nelson (Miami), but when you surround that with mediocre or past their prime guys (locations) you are going to have problems and that’s no fun for anybody. Sure you can get quality time out of Hedo ( Ft. Myers), Gil Arenas (Ft. Lauderdale), JJ Redick (Key West) and Jason Richardson (Tampa), but overall those pieces (places) only bring so much to the table and do not offer much in the way of excitement. Not to mention any state that has Jacksonville as its most populated city is overrated by default.
- I think a bigger deal could have been made for the Grizzlies beating the Spurs, but after watching that series to me it seems the better team won. The Grizz took away the Spurs biggest weapon by limiting their good looks from beyond the arc and caused a number of uncharacteristic turnovers by the Spurs throughout the series. For the record I now think Lionel Hollins, Grizz coach, is a genius for tanking the last 2 games to draw the Spurs. Plus, Hollins sounds like a mix of Norman Dale and Pete Bell during timeouts, so it is hard not to like him or get up to play for him.
- I own an iPhone (we’re happy for you!!), but I wish Apple would stop airing those damn “Do you own an iPhone” commercials.
- It seems like forever since the Bulls have played, but that is a good thing. It gave them some time to rest and recover. I would say prepare for the Hawks, but that is impossible since Atlanta does not run anything and loves to hoist up 30 foot jumpers at the drop of a hat.
- So, I guess Kobe Bryant’s ankle is ok??
- Heat-Celtics has the potential to be the best 2nd round match-up we have seen in the last 10 years of the playoffs, but it will feel like watching Donald Trump vs. Jay Leno. In that I wish both could lose, but ultimately they will be all over our TV and unfortunately one of these teams will not be going away anytime soon.
- 2nd round predictions:
o Thunder over Grizzlies in 6 games o Lakers over Mavs in 5 games o Bulls over Hawks in 5 games o Heat over Celtics in 7 games
This was real short and I hope I carve out a block of time for some extended thoughts in the upcoming week. As fun as it was to have on 3 games a night I am actually glad that the playoff schedule will be back to normal and all four of these series’ should be pretty entertaining.
We are now less than a few hours from the NBA Finals and in the immortal words of Bart Scott: “I can’t wait” The NBA playoffs so far have been everything from entertaining, perplexing and distressing (see: Bulls, Chicago) for me. And now we are down to 7 games to decide who gets to hoist the Larry O’Brien trophy. I have decided to eschew a regular breakdown style of the NBA Finals and instead I will just offer a simple prediction for now.
(- Russell Westbrook, NBA Hipster )
