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But for a lazy Friday night, you get this instead.
Archive for the ‘Basketball’ Category
A Random Assortment of Crap
Friday, July 5th, 2013Meaningless Sports Headlines: A Continuing Series
Friday, June 14th, 2013So last night the Miami Heat beat the San Antonio Spurs 109-93 to even the NBA Finals series at 2-2. Here’s an actual headline for a sidebar story at Sports Illustrated: “Disappointed Spurs Refuse to Concede.”
Wow, how shocking! Because sports teams have such a long history of just conceding after reaching the championship for their sport. Remember Shaquille O’Neal, after the Orlando Magic were down 3-0 against the Houston Rockets in 1995, declaring “The Dream just schooled me, and there’s no point carrying on this pathetic charade any longer, so we concede the NBA Championship to the Rockets.” Or John Elway, his Denver Broncos down 27-3 to the San Francisco 49ers in Superbowl XXIV, declaring at halftime “We suck, so we quit.”
And who can forget legendary Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne’s immortal concession speech conveying the great words of the late George Gipp, “Some time, Rock, when the team is up against it, when things are wrong and the breaks are beating the boys, ask them to go in there, roll over and mewl like sick little kittens and concede one for the Gipper.”
Yet, bucking this long tradition, the Spurs have declared that they will actually continue to play a tied championship series in the top professional sports league in which they’re paid millions of dollars. Thanks for clarifying that shocking development for the rest of us, online Sports Illustrated headline writer!
Slamball, ChessBoxing, or Hockey?
Saturday, December 8th, 2012With the NHL lockout looking to drag on indefinitely, America finally has a chance to ditch hockey for another sport.
So below, find a poll on what should be America’s next great sport:
Let your voice be heard! Vote below!
The Rockets Are Out of the Playoffs, And It’s All My Fault
Monday, April 23rd, 2012I would like to apologize to Houston Rockets fans everywhere. Two weeks ago, I said that coach Kevin McHale was doing a good job and how the Rockets were going to make the playoffs.
Naturally the Rockets immediately go on a six game losing streak, and yesterday they were eliminated from the playoffs. This will teach me to open my big, er, blog. If I had just kept it zipped, they might have managed to sneak in…
What do you know? Kevin McHale can coach a little
Saturday, April 7th, 2012Last night the Rockets beat the Lakers to go 30-25. Barring an end-of-season meltdown (always a possibility), it looks like the Rockets will make the playoffs and be seeded somewhere between 6 and 8 in the stacked West. This is a mild surprise, given how shaky they looked early in the season and how two of what were their best three players going in (Kyle Lowery and Kevin Martin) have been out with health issues during the latest run.
Given the back-to-back defeat of the East-leading Bulls, and the still-tough Lakers, it’s time to consider that maybe, just maybe, Kevin McHale knows how to coach a little.
This is actually something of a surprise, since many people (myself included) were skeptical when Daryl Morey tapped McHale to be head coach after the departure of Rick Adelman (McHale’s Hall of Fame playing career notwithstanding). The fact that McHale was awful as the Timberwolves GM (drafting Kevin Garnett in 1995 was pretty much the only thing he did right as GM until the Kevin Love trade in 2008) and that he went 39-55 in two brief stints as their coach didn’t exactly inspire confidence.
But McHale has the superstar-deficient Rockets playing unselfish, team-oriented basketball. Though it’s hard to compare due to the strike-shortened season, McHale’s team is two games ahead of where Adelman’s was 11 games before the end of the season. Granted, having two legit centers in Marcus Camby and Samuel Dalembert (as opposed to the always-scrappy but height-challenged Chuck Hayes (whose stats in Sacramento are way down)) certainly doesn’t hurt, but no one going into this season would have thought that would remotely make up for all the time Lowery and Martin have missed.
Once again we’re faced with the possibility that Daryl Morey just might know what he’s doing.
Because “Screw the Lakers,” That’s Why
Friday, December 9th, 2011When the three-way trade between the Rockets, Lakers and Hornets was announced yesterday, I wasn’t a big fan of the trade. The Rockets would have gotten Lakers’ center Pau Gasol, arguably the second best center in the game. The Lakers, who do not need any help in getting better, would have gotten the league’s top point guard in Chris Paul, the Hornets would have gotten Lamar Odom from the Lakers and Luis Scola, Kevin Martin and Goran Dragic from the Houston Rockets, plus the Kinck’s 2012 first round pick.
I enthused because I think Houston gave up too much for a 31-year old center. Scola is good for 18 points and eight boards a night, while Kevin Martin scores and extremely efficient 23 points a night (though he’s definitely a defensive liability). If Gasol had been 26 rather than 31, I would be more favorably inclined to the deal. (If Rockets GM Daryl Morey had a deal for the Nuggets Nene at hand with the freed-up cap space, as many suggested, then the deal becomes a lot more palatable for Rockets fans.)
But New Orleans clearly made out like bandits, receiving three extremely solid starters and a first round pick for a guy who was going to walk in eight months anyhow. Which is why they’re the ones most screwed by NBA Commissioner nixing the deal for vague “basketball reasons.”
As many commentators pointed out, this was a solid deal with risks and rewards for all concerned. Both Paul and Kobe Bryant have experienced knee problems. If they stay healthy and the Lakers land Dwight Howard next year, yeah, that’s going to suck for everyone else in the Western Conference. But if Paul and/or Bryant go down, and they don’t land Howard, then they’re in a world of hurt from having gutted their front court.
I’m all behind screwing the Lakers, but having Stern do it in this fashion, with so little justification, screws all three teams.
Miami Heat on Track for Perfect Season
Wednesday, October 27th, 2010A perfect 0-82 season, that is.
I’m sure the Las Vegas odds against that are astronomical (after all, they do get to play the Nets), but it does go to show that maybe all this presumptive talk of an inevitable Heat dynasty was perhaps a wee tad premature.
(The Rockets also lost as well, but a 2-point loss to the defending World Champions on their own court the same night they raise their championship banner to the rafters is nothing to worry overmuch about.)
Three Bold Predictions About the NBA Season
Tuesday, October 26th, 2010You might not have noticed, but the NBA Regular Season starts tonight. And what’s the use of having a blog if you can’t post foolhardy bold predictions?
So here are three bold predictions for the coming season:
- The Rockets will reach the playoffs.
- If Yao Ming stays healthy, the Rockets will reach the Western Conference Finals.
- Either way, the Lakers will not repeat as Western Conference Champions. I think this is the year when Kobe Bryant finally starts to show too much wear on the tires. Even if the Rockets fall short, I expect Oklahoma City or Portland to edge the Lakers.
Anyone else care to chime in with their own predictions?
We Have a Winner for Most Delusional Sports Headline of 2010
Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010Leave it to Bleacher Report to ask the one question no one else dares:
“Is Tracy McGrady the Savior of the NBA?”
As a follower of the Houston Rockets, and thus having some passing familiarity with TMac’s career, I’m happy to provide an answer:
No.
Next up: Is Pauley Shore the salvation of American cinema?
LeBron to Miami: Impact on the Houston Rockets
Friday, July 9th, 2010LeBron James is joining the Miami Heat. (Perhaps you have heard this already. The media does seem to have covered the issue.) Although James will not be joining the Rockets, this is still good news for the Rockets for two reasons:
- James stays in the East.
- He doesn’t go to New York, which means those draft picks Daryl Morey stole from the Knicks for the ghost of TMac (semi-protected rights to switch next year, and their semi-protected 2012 pick outright) look to remain mid-level lottery picks.
The consensus out there is that, once again, the Knicks screwed up, and, once again, Daryl Morey made out like a bandit.
(As I was finishing up this post, I noticed that Tom Martin over at SB Nation made many of the same points.)
As far as James himself is concerned, I won’t say that the outraged vitriol is surprising (it is, after all, American professional sports in the 21st century, but I do think it’s misplaced. James made a professional business decision of where he could best win championships, and Cleveland lost out on entirely understandable and indeed totally rational criteria. Of course, if sports fans were rational, they wouldn’t develop an emotional attachment to athletically talented millionaires who just happen to be plying their trade in their city of choice in any particular year. (Cue Jerry Seinfeld’s rooting for laundry bit.) Some may think my attitude on James hypocritical given my loathing of Bud Adams, but there’s one key difference: to the best of my knowledge, James never received tens of millions of dollars in direct taxpayer subsidies before leaving town.