2006 / 2007 NBA Thread

[Cowboy22]

Did you catch any of the All-Star Saturday night stuff? I watched the 3 Point Contest and Dunk Contest, both were pretty good. Kapono won the 3 point contest, which was cool by me, I've loved him ever since he remarked before the draft "You know, if I changed my name to Kaponovich and told everyone I was from Serbia, I'd probably be a top 5 pick." Nate Robinson continues to unfairly advance in the dunk contest because he's 5 feet tall. Gearld Green wound up winning, which is fine because he was awesome, but Nate Rob in the finals over Dwight Howard was a crime. Howard had by far the best dunk of the night when he caught the ball off the bounce from Jameer Nelson, stuck a sticker on the backboard at 12 feet 6 inches (they measured it with a tape measure), and then dunked (he orginally said he wanted to raise the hoop the 12 feet and do a between the legs dunks, but the league hates fun and wouldn't let him do it). It it was insane, but someone the judges only gave him a 42. Second year in a row where the best dunk in the whole contest didn't get fairly rewarded.

Saw the Barkley and Bavetta race too, and it was hilarious. My favorite part might be the kiss at the end, I like to think that it was a "**** you" directed at Tim Hardaway. If you missed it you can find it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j_XIYsPMc0&eurl=

Edit for thoughts on the Game itself: What a shitty game that was. Blowout in favor of the west, and it was sloppy even by All-Star standards. This is what happens when there are no real point guards involved. They should have brought John Stockton out of retirement just for the All-Star game. Best part of the game was Gilbert dunking off a tampoline during a break (http://deadspin.com/sports/nba/gilbe...acl-237790.php). I love him, he's hilarious.

[svosen]

Thanks for the recap, Cowboy. I kept thinking the whole way through, "Man, I feel bad I can't spare him the bother of typing all this." (I watched the whole Saturday night show and the whole game on Sunday).

For what it's worth, I agree with you on all points except the general nature of the game itself. I didn't think it was any worse than any other all-star game I can remember (which is exactly none, even though I've watched a lot of them). The point is, they're not really games at all. Sort of like Kenny Smith's Hurricane Katrina game: just an exhibition.

I did like Gilbert's tramp-dunk, though.

Oh, and I especially liked Howard's written note on the sticker.

Lastly - I never considered your take on the Barkley-Bavetta smooch. You may well be right. Interesting. Still creepy, but interesting.

[Cowboy22]

Eh, I think I did a big recap of it last year too (and if I recall it was about five times as long). I just really love All-Star weekend, and writing about it gives me a way to kill time and pretend that I'm a real writer when I should be working on homework.

I dunno, this game seemed sloppier to me, but it might be because I was expecting it after every true point guard in the game went out with injury (I'm still kinda miffed that they didn't bring Deron Williams in).

I figured you'd like Howard's little message. The Bible verse combined with that goofy picture of him was pretty funny.

I doubt my take on the Bavetta-Barkley thing is the actual reasoning, but it's the first thing I thought of when I saw it and it'd be funny if it were true, so I'm just going to pretend that's the case. Otherwise it's just plain disturbing.

[Cowboy22]

So, rumor around the league is that the Lakers were in serious talks with the Nets about trading for Jason Kidd, but the Nets want Bynum in return and the Lakers seem unwilling to part with him, so the negotionations have kinda stalled. I know you really like Bynum, so I assume you're okay with this?

[svosen]

Absolutely. I was actually getting a little nervous that they would do something stupid like trade Bynum for Kidd. I love Kidd, don't get me wrong, but that's just a bad trade. The addition of Kidd wouldn't win them the title this year, and it'd put a serious hurt on their chances one or two years from now to lose Bynum.

I'm much more anticipatory over the possibility of signing Scottie Pippen to a 10-day contract (and perhaps a subsequent rest-of-the-year contract). From what I gather, though, nobody's willing to look at Pippen until after the deadline (about three minutes from now). His resume is obviously stellar, but he's an old fogey...

[svosen]

Oh, and how 'bout those Jazz, huh? Some people have them ranked 2nd overall in the league right now. Never would've thunk it three months ago. Live it up, man!

[Cowboy22]

Oh, trust me, I'm definitely pumped about how the Jazz have been doing. As of right now, with Nash banged up, I think calling them the second best team in the league is fair. I love this team, they play a fun type of basketball to watch and they get a ton of guys involved. I wish I got to see them more. And the best part is, most of the key guys (Boozer, Okur, Williams, Millsap) are young and should be around for a long time. We could be headed for another long stretch of great play out of Utah reminiscient of the late 90s glory days with Stockton, Malone, and Hornacek. I just hope Sloan sticks around for awhile to coach 'em up, I'd love to seem them eventually get him that ring he deserves so badly (and I probably just jinxed it )

[svosen]

I think the Heat have the corner on that market (being Jinxed).

Read an article (I think it was Page 2 on ESPN, though I can't recall the auther - I may have been Simmons) with a commentary on Wade getting hurt during the first game he, Shaq and Riley were all back together. He made a comment about Karma, saying that Stan Van Gundy was "laughing his mustache off somewhere."

Read another commentary on Riley today, stating the main reason the Heat didn't do a trade before the deadline was that Riley couldn't dial his phone as it's still covered in Van Gundy's dried blood.

I hate to see anyone get hurt (especially serious like this), but those two comments are hilarious to me.

Read another article today about the frailty of championship runs. The author talked about how he interviewed members of the 1977 Portland team (when Bill Walton was there). Apparently all the guys he talked to thought that team would be a dynasty, only to see it all fall apart in the next year or two. This author thought the same thing will happen to Wade and the Heat - no more rings for them. I could easily see that happening.

Going out on top is the best way to do it. When I was in high school, our team won our district tournament my freshman, sophomore, and junior years. Then we came in dead last my senior year. That sucked. Felt pretty good for the seniors when I was a junior, though. I'm sure Kobe feels sort of the same way; not too likely that he'll be back in that spotlight again...

[Cowboy22]

Yeah that sucks about Wade, but I can't say I'm too disappointed to see the Heat fall off like they have. Riley letting Van Gundy put the mess he had created back together and then taking over again as soon as they were a contender was bullshit. That should have been Stan's ring.

You're definitely right about how teams that look like dynasties call fall apart in an instant too. That Walton led Blazers team is a great example. With Walton there they were crushing people, but when his feet fell apart (which really is one of the great disappointments in the history of the league, because he should have had about 10 times the career he wound up having. When he was healthy he might have been the most complete center ever) so did the team. If you can ever find it, I highly recommend reading The Breaks of the Game by David Halberstam. It's a great look at that Blazers' team the year after they won the title and things were falling apart, as well as at the league as a whole right before Magic and Bird showed up and things really started to take off. Incredible book, probably the best I've ever read about basketball. Unfortunately it's out of print and hard to find, I was lucky to find a copy at a used bookstore.

[Cowboy22]

In perhaps the least surprising news development in the history of the league, Ron Artest was arrested yesterday on domestic violence charges, and has been suspsended by the Kings (with pay) until further notice. Obviously he's innocent until proven guilty and all that, but there's a chance that this is the end of him in the NBA.

Also, looks like Wade is going to forgo shoulder surgery for now and try to just rehab and come back this season. Nothing definite yet but I think it would be a bad move on his part. With the way he plays there's a real chance that he causes serious further damage. I think the reason he's trying this is that he knowns Shaq (or should I say the suddenly rejuvinated Shaq, he's been a monster lately) doesn't have much time left, and doesn't want to miss such a big chunk of his time with him.

On a happier note, how about my boy LeBron lately? I haven't talked about him much this year because Utah has been awesome and he seemed to coast a bit in the first part of the year (although he wasn't nearly as bad as some writers made him out to be. Even at 3/4 speed he's still one of the ten best players in the league), but he's been on fire since the All-Star break. I think with all the basketball he played over the summer with Team USA and the sad state of the Eastern Conference, he decided to rest up a bit in the first half so he could turn it on down the stretch when it really counts. Can't say I fault him there.