Don't know if folks remember or read this article from before the 2005-2006 season. Kobe wrote this in the 22nd issue of Dime Magazine. I thought I'd share as it's one of the rare instances where a player in the middle of his career writes on what fuels him through extensive thought as opposed to off the cuff answers which are equally revealing but not as in depth. I thought it could inform ways in which we may look at an up and comer like Bynum or the motivation of other players who joined this team with championship goals. I would normally link to such a thing, but Dime does not have the article online that I found. If you do find it, I'll make this into the appropriate fanshot.

Share your thoughts, concerns, congrats, libations, whatever in the comment section.

Without further ado, here's Kobe Bryant, in his own words...

Continue reading this post »

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In honor of the ridiculousness that is the Vick post published by ESPN earlier. Let's start a round of If the Shawfather were...

The rules of the game are simple. You just start your post with "If the Shawfather were...." and then add an ending and something funny afterward. I thought this would be a nice fun activity, since Stern is still on vacation so there's still no new lockout news. lol. I'll start it off

"If the Shawfather were The Rock...

He'd still mudstomp your candy ass with The Shawfather's Elbow jabroni."

I'll add them up here as we rec the better ones. Feel free to add pics as well

So, I think I may start up a weekly conversation piece in which I post a topic and everyone here can discuss how they feel about it. I'd love feedback for new topics or for a restructuring of questions. 

Couple things:

1. Rec only arguments that you feel really convince you of reasoning. At the end of the week, I will post which were the most convincing arguments based on recs. And in the new post, I will have a poll to gauge the feelings of people on the topic.

2. Don't result to name-calling or insults to make your points. It's only makes you look insecure in your own arguments. If someone makes a statement that is wrong, just show the evidence of why it is wrong. Do not respond with assumptions of the OP's intelligence

Without further ado, here's our first topic this week.

In a recent article on The Painted Area, Jay Ach compared the careers of different international players and whether they were worthy of the Hall of Fame (Here is the article: Hall of Fame Candidates: International NBA Standouts). Our very own Pau Gasol of this current Laker squad appears on this list. Interestingly, Ach attempts a comparison between Showtime Laker James Worthy and Pau Gasol to exhibit why Pau should be included in the Hall of Fame. Here is an excerpt of that portion:

James Worthy got rewarded for being the third-best player on three NBA title teams, so why shouldn't Pau get rewarded for being the second-best player on two NBA title teams.

This brings us to the debate of the week. Are the careers of James Worthy and Pau Gasol comparable? In what ways? Is there any merit to the notion that Pau Gasol is a better player than James Worthy? Is the picture of James Worthy painted in the article a fair portrayal of his career?

(Full disclosure: I'm a little on the young side and have few memories of Worthy as a player, so that is why this is even a debate for me and not clear cut in favor of either way.)

Have at it people.

(Sorry for the lame poll question. I couldn't figure out how to word the question into one)

This is what the Heat thought would burn through this season with title in hand, but the Mavs slowed them down and made them

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Despite media criticisms to the contrary, there have been players as scrutinized as Lebron James. As the media grows, the relative scrutiny must be taken into account, but Lebron is under no microscope that no striving-to-be-great player hasn't been under. And just like all of those guys, this is now time for a calm until Lebron gives us something else to criticize.

(disclaimer: If Lebron were under a greater microscope it would be no fault but his own. The typical talk is there, but his incessant speaking does not not help him. As someone whose trying to manage a brand, that's kinda what comes with the territory as you promote your image and that image takes hit in the public eye)

So I am here to say that anyone who rooted against the Heat or for the Mavs won on Sunday night. However, this victory may be brief as the impending lockout situation looks to make us all out to be losers. With Victory in our hands, we get to say we were right. We must be realists, though. We must look at the Heat as what they are and what they could become.

We have to?

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With all of this spoken about the victories of the "haters," Mavs fans, and basketball fans from that close Finals, I must say we're just piling it on just as badly as the Heat piled it upon themselves. The discourse of the post-finals media has made everyone who wants to clown the Heat into Skip Bayless-lite as they pile it on. I was posting a back and forth between Jevon O and myself where I said Lebron disappeared, but once I was done making my case I realized something, I'm done.

I'm done with the apologists of rude remarks, statements or over arrogant behavior (we get it people have a right to do what they want). I'm done with the haters who never let anything Lebron does go unnoticed, fully admitting that I was once among them. This is also where I am as far as Kobe debates as well, unless someone is just blatantly lying out of their ass. Nothing these players do in today's media will ever be enough. Even Jordan's ghosts are catching up to him with time with the constant stories coming out of his comments, actions, and hobbies. People who once saw Jordan as a saint have even started having to defend some parts of his legacy off the court because that's how intense scrutiny is on all of these guys, old and new. They all have haters. They all have detractors. They all have someone constantly trying to shoot down any myth that their any better than anyone else.

And then they come out stunting on all of them cuz they're the People's Choice

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And that's what bring us back to Lebron James. I honestly just don't get this guy. He says he doesn't care about the negative stuff said about him at the same time that he's tweeting about making lists of detractors. He forgets one thing, by and large every players in the NBA has detractors because of their profession, their ethnicity, and/or their wealth. This is where we all get it all wrong. Lebron is not the most arrogant player in the NBA, he's just the one who puts it on display the most. This is a good and bad thing. From a marketing standpoint it's great because Lebron is GREAT at basketball, even with footwork and dribbling deficiencies, and he attracts a lot of attention to his brand, not the disclaimer above. This is also terrible for Lebron because one of the things that comes with acts of arrogance is you attract a LOT of people who dislike you for daring to put out the perception that you are better than them. This is where a LOT of wealthy people fail. This is where people like Lebron and Steve Jobs fail because they attempt to show us how great they are, while at the same time failing to prove to us how great they are. (yay Apple iMessages, boo it's a rip-off of BBM). The only way to silence these critics is to do something that actually PROVES how great you are. Steve Jobs has his moments of great moments already marked in computer history through Apple, while Lebron AND Wade (for you Jevon) continue to just moan and whine and whine about how no one gives them any credit and want to see them fail. Newsflash guys, you play a sport on one team out of 30, people aren't going to like you if you're not on their team. People surely aren't going to like you if you declare that you aren't going to just beat their teams but dominate them to the tune of 7 championships. This is what we call fandom, it's only a step away from fanaticism and some don't even know the edge.

Despite all of this complaining and talk of playing the villain and proving folks wrong, Lebron James failed to provide us with a signature moment to tell us he was going to come through with what he said. When faced with addressing these same detractors this year and a "better" team with which he could prove them wrong, Lebron scored 8 points in a game in the FINALS. And that gave every hater in the world the ammunition they would need to take him down. (Almost the equivalent of Apple saying they have something big and announcing the MobileMe or the Mac Mini, just #collosalfail after building up such anticipation).

You see Lebron has this problem of speaking out of his ass  without thinking. When he makes statements like this:

"At the end of the day, all of the people that were rooting for me to fail, tomorrow they'll have to wake up and have the same life that [they had] before they woke up today.  They got the same personal problems they had today and I'm going to continue to live the way I want to live and continue to do the things I want to do."

you can't help but think to yourself, he can't possibly mean that in it's most literal sense. In it's most literal sense you could take it as he explained today that we, him and us, both live in the real world and they both have to wake up tomorrow morning to face their individual problems and he'll have to face his. Then that's when the hater in me has to just be like, you can't get away with statements like that unless you're writing them down on paper and laying them on a track to the beat. Even then because you're Lebron James and you speak about yourself in the third person, these things aren't just going to slide. THINK before you speak bruh (brah? bro? brosef? brodysseus? brosius?). You're trying to promote a brand, not isolate it among diehards (#AppleFail). And a part of me agrees with Lebron. Folks have been extremely hard on this guy; to the point where I, who am a proclaimed hater of all things good just for the sake of being a hater, had to step back and say well shit, can a brother catch a break.

This phrasing of his pushed me though. I don't like generalizations of any sort because generalizations are the seeds of stereotypes and stereotypes are the backdrop for prejudice. Even small prejudices, like someone who doesn't like Leborn is irrational, is potentially a danger because of the extrapolations these have. Pointing out individuals for their faults is a lot better than generically talking of faceless people who can be easily assigned a face based off of one description. This is the world we live in, where a comment meant for only the extremists has to be worded so carefully if you're in the public eye.

Just keep on skipping Lebron

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Something amazing happened today. I was done. I found an understanding. Especially after this video, there's nothing else to be said about this. Honestly, if people are still worried about Lebron's performance in the Finals in a week, then these are the people Lebron is addressing. After a SEASON of talking about Lebron. After a PLAYOFFS talking about Lebron. After 2 days of constant back and forth talk of Lebron this, Lebron that, aren't you just TIRED of talking about Lebron. For all the arrogance and all of the preening and the Decision, this Finals is his comeuppance. Think of how much this ruins the narrative of Lebron's career as most would want theirs if the Heat going forward do not win a title. Think of how DIFFERENT the narrative is even if they win 2+. He doesn't get some special narrative of doing it on his own terms. The Heat don't get that glory of coming out of the gates on fire. This doesn't completely diminish any future accomplishments, but it's already had a huge effect on these guys. If Lebron comes back next year with a post game and better footwork he will have improved as a player and that's exactly what we want from our superstars in this league, right?

With all that said, I want to specifically talk to Cavs fans for a second because I think something I read on Cavs: The Blog that I very much agree with on how to currently view Lebron:

 the Finals weren’t a referendum on the LeBron that made "The Decision" and left Cleveland in a silly and tone-deaf fashion. They were a referendum on the best player in the history of the franchise, the one who brought Cleveland so much joy for his seven years with the team.

He goes on further to state that:

When I’ve talked to Scott Raab or a lot of other people about LeBron, they don’t just talk about the fiasco of a television show; they talk about how LeBron did nothing as the Cavs got blown out in Game 5, and seemed content to accept their fate at the bitter end of Game 6. Those performances were used as evidence that LeBron already had one foot out the door on the Cavs, and couldn’t wait to bolt to Miami with Wade and Bosh. Well, he did the same thing in the fourth quarter of Game 2 and all of Game 4. It wasn’t a Cleveland thing, it was a "LeBron doesn’t really know what to do when the game/series isn’t going his way" thing. And the Heat simply broke at the end of Game 6 against the Mavericks the way the Cavs did against the Celtics — you could see it in their body language after one last offensive rebound for Dallas.

And he goes on to draw a comparison for his hatred towards another player who left Cleveland:

When I see Carlos Boozer fail in the playoffs, I feel a sense of happiness. It’s not a happiness that comes from a quest for revenge, or a personal ill-will towards him. It’s a happiness that comes from relief. When I see Boozer fail, I feel relieved that the Cavs weren’t doomed by Boozer’s fiasco of a departure from Cleveland. I imagine the happiness at LeBron failing in the Finals comes from that same place of relief. The LeBron that showed up against Dallas would not have won the Cavs a championship — in fact, he probably would have caused them to leave the playoffs earlier after Boston or Chicago made him struggle and put the team in any sort of position where they had to fight for their lives.

So to reflect my personal feelings. I get it. I really do. This entire piece is extremely painful for me to even write I hate this guy's attitude so much. As someone who has been as big a critic of Lebron on AND off the court this is hard for me to write. As someone who is prolonging the inevitable typing of a phrase I never thought I'd utter in my more immature days this is hard. As someone who spends time meticulously comparing data to show statistical biases for Lebron and against others this is hard. Cavs fans who frequent this blog and Laker fans who sympathize with them, myself included of course, I think we can all move on.

I know he approached you with 90s swag, but that doesn't mean it was gonna end up great

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You see Lebron's performance in my eyes was always what led to the Decision special being a terrible idea. Lebron's 2 year parade of talking about free agency made me believe he already knew what was coming, and a part of me still thinks he had an idea. How do you talk about yourself as the best player and MVP, talk up your own free agency, pull up a complete dud in the playoffs, AND decide the best way to break it to the fans you promised a championship was through a one hour television special. It's just a terrible idea, unless you're coming back to Cleveland because everyone saw you in the playoffs just 2 months ago. 2 months. Playing like absolute and utter garbage. Playing like a 10th man role player passing through the offense afraid to do anything. I saw the changed number, I saw that, then I saw the Decision, and then I saw the parade. It's just not a good look and whoever his people are, they are the worst marketers ever. Lebron should be untouchable in the media, but they are just awful and he is good enough to make them look like geniuses.

How does a guy who puts himself out there like this just not equate with humility and laughter

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Fast forward a year later. Cavs beat the Heat. Cavs don't finish with the worst record in the league despite proclamations of such things. Even despite injuries to the second and third best players on the team in Mo and Varejao. Despite the initial start of a rebuilding process in the trade for Baron and the pick, the Cavs still showed that they are a dangerous team when they have an actual weapon they can depend on. The Heat on the other hand struggled out of the gate. Faced scrutiny at every level. They had their highlights, but I don't think I've ever laughed at the expense of another team as much as the Heat. People openly MOCKED them. And you could hear it in their quotes how they felt about that. And for them to face this comeuppance. For them to get so close and come up short, is actually a blessing because had they lost in earlier rounds to the two teams people thought they should lose to (Boston/Chicago) we would be getting excuse after excuse. Losing in the Finals is the ultimate comeuppance for them as a reaction to everything that led to this team's assembly. 

This isn't to say Lebron isn't an asshat. This isn't to say Lebron isn't a douchecanoe. The isn't to say that this Brah (bruh? bro? brosilicus? brophilon?) isn't a complete and utter tool most of the time we hear from him. This is to say that Lebron has finished the narrative of the scorned fans redemption. This is to say that if Lebron quit on the Cavs, Lebron just quit on the Heat. This is to say that Lebron is indeed what you thought he was for at least one year, a choker. This is to say to Cavs fans and other anti-Lebron folks we got what we wanted. This is to say that the parade to start the season only has one counter, not 2, not 3, not 4, not 5, not 6, not 7. And with that counter for at least one summer we can all move on*.

We should treat this story like women treat guys who stare at them like this

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And move on we can. Shmoes has a great piece up on the PGs that could come late in the draft for us that we could think about. You can debate on what exactly clutch is here. The death of Robert Horry's daughter should really add perspective on why so much hate for one person in this world isn't needed as much as kindness for others less fortunate. Please go here and donate to the cause. SSR has begun postseason grading of each player. You can read the latest ones about Minerals, Yessir, and MVP2016. Let the offseason begin and lets bring the focus back to our respective teams. In the words of J.E. Skeets, lets have a good offseason people.

*Should the Heat come back next year in similar fashion and end in the same result, that is a bonus and also yet another statement about the fact that you didn't want this guy on your Cavs team because you wouldn't have won with him playing like that anyway.

Feel free to flame, troll, refute, or just agree about my logic. Also feel free to use this as a Lebron frustration thread instead of filling up the side with fanposts all on the subject of Lebron's failure

I'm going to admit right off the bat that I didn't do much research, mostly because I was in the midst of a minor study break when this article caught my eye and I still have more stuff to write for class tomorrow. lol. Either way, I'm just proposing a genuine idea I had in response to a post by Buzz Bissinger on The Daily Beast and then the response to it on TBJ by Scott Carefoot.

So the basic premise of my argument is that since the break of the ban on U.S. professionals playing in the International field, the ratings have clearly shown favoritism in the U.S. of the sports they feel they have the most competitive advantage in. Basically, the U.S. watches sports that it knows it can kick ass in while shying away from really backing sports like "Soccer" or "Hockey" that the international community clearly has an advantage in, although in recent years the audiences of the U.S. have been paying more attention as teams have competed better. So here is my reply I left on TBJ. It is not researched, nor is it really a search for the causality of the drop in ratings in the NBA. I just posted a thought that I had and I thought it would be interesting discussion for us to discuss.

I think what’s more related is the U.S. ability to compete and dominate on the international level. The perception of the U.S. as an invincible force on the U.S. stage pushed NBA ratings through the roof in the 1990s. The lowest ratings in the NBA happened to come during the worst period of competition in U.S. history on the international stage, since the renaissance of the league in the 1980s behind the star power of Magic and Bird.

Perception of the MLB and NFL is that American-trained players are the best in the world, especially with the NFL since there is little interest in the sport in other parts of the world even with the recent growth of leagues in Europe. With the NBA, there is a higher international interest and greater competition for the U.S. and the difference in ratings seem to show that interest in American sports are there for those we are best at. I’m sure Olympic ratings would show that American viewership is highest in sports that the Americans supposedly have the competitive advantage. It seems to hold for the leagues which are the most popular.

NFL has no competition and is highest-rated in viewership. It took steroids to get the MLB out of the cellar with home-run chases. The NBA’s dominance on the international stage brought in a golden age of viewership and the dipping ratings seemed to coincide more with less dominant international play. Haven’t looked all of this up, but it’s just an interesting non-researched theory I thought of as I pondered the prevalence of “white” American athletes in sports. This seemed to be a greater correlation, although I will not try to point to this as causation.

Warning: There is clearly a tone of prejudice in the writings of Bissinger and Carefoot has already addressed many of them and debunked them. Let's please not make generalizations about ethnic groups. I also realize that I am making a generalization of the U.S. in my response, but it is only as it pertains to U.S. viewership. I do not think everyone in the U.S. hates "Soccer" because most American teams can't compete overseas I just think it causes them to watch U.S. soccer less and other sports more.

I think this could make for a good conversation piece. What do you guys think?? Does international dominance of U.S. athletes seem to make a difference in the viewing tastes of the general U.S. public??

Are you tired of watching Chuck chuck us out of games?? Are you interested in figuring out the age old question: how much would a chucker chuck if a chucker could chuck Chuck?? Do you care whether an old chucker is better than a newer chucker?? Do you think that the chucker with six titles is better than the chucker with five?? Do you think a chucker with no titles quit in the playoffs?? Do you think all chuckers are the same?? Are all chuckers treated equally?? Should we pass laws to stop the discrimination against chuckers versus the rest of the NBA?? Are you starting to wonder how many chuckers there actually are in the NBA or in history?? 

These are the questions and now you can provide the answers. Give us your thoughts here on any chucker in NBA history. Where current chuckers rank all time, how this chucker compares to that chucker, how much more one chucker chucks the rest of them. Have at all of it in the comments

Part 1: Fantasy Basketball

So this is being posted early as hell in the morning because it is thanksgiving break and I have nothing better to do. So I decided to take a glance back at some older articles on the year that was 2005-2006 in NBA basketball. I came across a quote from David Friedman, over at 20secondtimeout, as I reflected on that year:

Unless something off the wall happens in the playoffs like the Clippers winning the NBA title, 2006 will always be remembered as the year that Kobe was unstoppable, whether or not he wins the MVP.

So I took a little longer to think about what happened in that school year and what I most remember. The thing I remember most, for some strange reason, was I was so pissed at fantasy basketball over at Yahoo. One week in January, I was dominating this guy. I mean, I was destroying him in almost every category. I think I may have been losing turnovers, but otherwise sheer domination. It was Saturday, so I won that matchup pretty well. So I walk into school on Monday with a nice little feeling about myself because fantasy basketball victories are all I need to have high self-esteem. :) I turn on the Mac, sign in to my homepage, pull up my three stops: Yahoo Fantasy Basketball, Yahoo Sports, and Yahoo Mail. All at the same time because I hate having to constantly wait for loading and switching back and forth between pages. So I go to fantasy basketball and notice that the new guy I'm playing is kicking my ass. And I'm like what THE hell, I can't lose in fantasy basketball, uh uh, I'm bout to trade somebody right now (for Luther Head, who coincidentally happened to be on my other team lol). I look at the score and he's overtaken me in points by like 100 on the first day and I'm like WTF!!!! I look at the box score to find the culprit and all I read is Kobe Bryant and the number 81.

That is my biggest memory from the year that was 2005-2006. I probably made a couple friends, we won a state championship for soccer that year (first part of a repeat we had during my high school days), they pretty much finished building our new fieldhouse, and a lot of other stuff, but for some reason this memory always sticks out. The main reason is because I had decided not to watch the Lakers that Sunday night and boy, do I still regret that to this day. I had checked the box score at halftime and the Lakers were down by double digits at half, so I didn't feel like bothering because I knew it would just distract me from my work that was due the next day. So I see the numbers and I'm frantically searching for what the hell happened between halftime and the end of the game and the rest, as you say, is history because EVERYONE knows what that year in the NBA really was. It was the year in which Kobe Bryant indeed was unstoppable. (For haters who want to point it out, Kobe proceeded to follow his 81 point performance with a 7-22 night against Golden State, Lakers won in OT)

Part 2: How I Came To Discover Sports Blogging

So how does this relate to how I discovered blogging and online sports writing? Well I'll give you a link to the article I read that day by the lovely Steve Kerr from back when he was blogging and beat writing with Yahoo!. I was, of course, cheering on Kerr's opinion, but Kerr turned on me in the end with this piece. Thus began my relationship with Yahoo's Ball Don't Lie sports blog, which began shortly after Kerr's departure sadly the next year, and gave way to the pretentious and snobby writing of Kelly Dwyer after a couple months of Kenny Smith, who also wrote with Kerr, really holding down the fort by himself. I feel so silly looking back on it now. How I used to feverishly check the daily updates everyday for what was new. How I used to actually sit and write books worth of responses to people on why Kobe is not an epic failure in the finals and why Kobe was better than Lebron and how he didn't run Shaq out of town. Look at me now, I've found a place where I can do all of those things again. Oh, how good it feels to be young... again. lol. All of this is possible because I took a little time to read what Kerr wrote then and kept reading about Boom Tho and all of a sudden a link popped up for the lovely site I am posting this fanpost on now.

Anyway, the purpose of this story was to ask everyone: How were you introduced to the sports blogging world?

OT (Yes, I'm doing it in the middle of my own post): I still miss this guy's posts on BDL. I wish he would come back, but alas I do not think it likely that he shall return. Damn the NBA scouts and their inability to see the potential of this young man right in front of them. His last post seems so down and dejected that he hadn't "made it" yet.

So I was just thinking the other day about 2K11 and how they have the Jordan Challenges, and I thought to myself what would the Kobe challenges be if they were to ever create a game modeled after Kobe the same way this one was modeled after Jordan. I'm going to need some help with this guys because I don't have time to do a lot of research (sadly my Macbook :( was stolen this past Sunday). Anyway, here are a couple challenges I think we'd have on board:

3-pt Shootout

 - Make 12 3-pointers

 - Shoot above 60% from 3

 - Shoot above 55% from the field

 - Score at least 45 points

A MAVelous Evening

 - Score  at least 62 points

 - Grab at least 8 boards

 - Shoot 55% from the field

A RAPSody in Purple and Gold

 - Score at least 81 points

 - Shoot 60+% from the field

 - Shoot 50+% from 3

 - Shoot 90+% from the ft line

These are the 3 that I'm going to put out there. Now everyone lets try to think of some creative names and list the accomplishments that people would have to achieve. I figured this would be a fun exercise for everyone to begin the season. I'll add the best ones to the piece. Btw could someone photoshop a little picture to put in the post as well, thanks.

Additional Games:

The Birth of a Champion – 1998, vs Chicago Bulls
- Come off bench and score 33 points
- Shoot 60+% from the field
- Shoot 60+% from 3

Kobe Detaches Spurs 2001, Game 4, Conference Finals vs San Antonio Spurs
- Score 45+ points in the game
- Get 10+ rebounds in the game
- Win the game

Heir Apparent
-Score 42+ points in the first half
-Make 8+ 3-pointers in the first half
-Shoot at least 65% from the field in the first half
-Outscore Jordan
-Win the game

Sweep the 2000-2001 Twin Tower Spurs
-Average 33+ points for the series
-Average 7+ rebounds for the series
-Average 7+ assists for the series
-Sweep the series

48/16 vs 2001 Kings
-Score 48+ points
-Shoot at least 50% from the field
-Get 16+ rebounds
-Win the game

Kobe Burns Suns – 2006, Game 6, 1st Round vs Phoenix Suns
- Score 50+ in the game
- Get 8+ rebounds in the game
- Get 5+ assists in the game
- Shoot 57+% from the field
- Shoot 62+% from 3

4 straight 50 point games
-Score 50+ points in 4 straight games
-Score 60+ points in at least 2 of the games
-Shoot at least 50% from the field over the 4 games
-Win all 4 games

A Snake in the Garden
-Score 61+ points
-Shoot at least 55% from the field
-Win the game

Kobe Mellows Jazz – 2009, Game 4, 2nd Round vs Utah Jazz
- Score 38+ points
- Shoot 66+% from the field
- Make all of your free throws
- Shoot 50+% from 3 
- Get 6+ rebounds in the game
- Win the game

Kobe Sets the Tone – 2009, Game 1, NBA Finals vs Orlando Magic
- Score 40+ points 
- Make all of your free throws
- Get 8+ rebounds in the game
- Get 8+ assists in the game
- Win the game

Suns Dwarfed
-Average 33+ points for the series
-Average 7+ rebounds for the series
-Average 8+ assists for the series
-Shoot at least 50% from the field for the series
-Win the series

Since some of these aren't really games or series, I'm going to separate them into situationals.

Situationals:

27 point 4th quarter comeback vs Mavericks
Note: You only get to play the 4th quarter here, but since other challenges involve entire series, I think this is okay =P
-Score 21+ points in the 4th quarter
-Win the game

Kobe Sticks A Dagger in Phoenix – 2006, Game 4, 1st Round vs Phoenix Suns
(challenge will start with 7.1 seconds left in the 4th, with the suns inbounding, you are down by 2)
- Get a steal & tie the game before time runs out
(challange will then advance to overtime with 15.7 seconds left and you down by 3)
- Score a 2 with alteast 10 seconds remaining in overtime
(challenge will then advance to a jumpball at center court with 6.1 seconds left)
- Win the jump ball and make a buzzer beater to win the game

The Birth of A Leader – 2000, Game 4, NBA Finals vs Indiana Pacers
(challenge will start in overtime with 2:08 remaining with you having possesion, up by 1)
- With Shaq out of the game, lead your team to victory. the Pacers will score everytime down the court. you have to keep the lead.

Kobe Puts one if Rip’s Eye – 2004, NBA FInals vs Detroit Pistons
(challenge will start with you down by 3 with 10.9 seconds left)
- Hit a 3 pointer to send the game into overtime, with the defense all over you

Buzzer Beaters in Portland – 2007, vs Portland Trail Blazers
(challenge will start with 8 seconds left and you down by 3)
- Hit a 3 before time runs out
(challenge will then advance to overtime with 1 second left and you down by 2)
- Hit a 3 to win the game

A couple recent postings have happened here on SS&R that I would like to address. Two of my own and two of others. First, I will address my discretions and then i will go on to express my concern for the others, along with a little background to expose a trend that I have been noticing.

First, I would like to apologize for two posts I made in a thread on the Shannon Brown player preview page. In response to BigSkyCat explaining to Sarge about only noticing boobs in the fanshot section because of sight familiarization, I posted two pics of boobs on there with captions I thought fit what she was saying. I won't repost them because they have been removed and I already apologized to Dex and Chris for putting up the inappropriate content. After I posted them I regretted it, and wanted to get rid of them, goddamn edit button still isn't there. But seeing as how they have been removed problem solved, but I just wanted to apologize for that. It wasn't in good taste. I recognize that, and I apologize for it.

Second, the post that Sarge initiated the conversation with was referring to is photo in the fanshots section of a naked woman, covered in purple and gold paint that someone just PSed Lakers 3-peat onto the front of. Followed by a posting of the same pic only with the addition of Adam Morrison as the head instead of the woman who was on the first one. I did not find it funny, it wasn't exceptional PSing, and if anything all I was curious about was who it was in the photo, to me it still looks like Eva Longoria.

But I digress from my original point. The point being that we, the males of SS&R, do have a majority on this blog, but we also have a good following of women who come to this blog and contribute just as often, if not more than half of us men. With that, they see every little post we make on this blog. When I first came here, it was every now and then that we would see photos of women on this blog. Lately, its been happening more and more often. I was always amazed at the tolerance of the women here for some of the conversations that are struck up, considering not even I wanted to discuss half of these things considering few of them had anything to do with basketball. Maybe it was just because of the offseason.

From the photos of the reporter's butt that were constantly being posted around the time of the Jets incident, to the pictures of Ron with models that are half naked that are up, to the final step of posting a woman with no clothes on but with paint covering her body, I feel that things have begun to go too far. We do have males being shown with their shirts off including the Ron Artest pics I mentioned, but it is not nearly as often, and I think I could count on my hand how many different posts they've been in. Not to mention that there is a difference in the intent of the photos.

Personally, I could care less about who posts what because if it offends someone and there is a discussion about it, it creates understanding, or at the very least creates a venue of discourse for why a person finds these things offensive and hopefully everyone comes out the wiser about their post choices in the future. However, this *sports* blog is not the place to show off these images or have these discussions. If this was Huffington Post or a News blog or Yahoo!, we'd be all clear, but we do not want personal views on politics, gender, or race to cloud the discourse we regularly have on sports or the enjoyment of those on the site who only come here for sports information.

So with all of that being said, I would like to apologize for my 2 posts that may have offended any of the ladies here on the site. I am also asking for any of the mods to take down the 2 fanshots depicting the naked woman and the naked AMMO because others have expressed a feeling of distaste and lack of respect. I also ask that for the future that we, as the male majority, take a little bit more interest in how our female counterparts might react to certain comments or images before we post them because I feel that the first of the two fanshots was just in bad taste. So once again,

Sorry Ladies,

Marty Mart

P.S. Season Start NAOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So as I was reading through the credits for today, it was called upon to create a space to discuss all things NBA 2K11. So yeah, here we go.

via www.chicagonow.com

Boom, it begins.

There are a lot of major differences in this NBA 2K. The biggest being the interface focuses mainly on one central player instead of on a generic backdrop. From opening trailer to the menus, Jordan will be all over this game. So I'll get Jordan's stuff out of the way first.

- You know about the Micheal Jordan challenges already and 2K went out of their way to make it as authentic as possible with authentic jerseys, every single pair of Jordan shoes, and even every single lineup that Jordan faced in those days. No no. 99s on the floor. lol.

- Its quite in depth to the point that each individual star has their own style of play and the commentary is even centralized on that event and not just the generic commentary you find in every other normal game thats a part of the regular modes

- Jordan's skillset changes over time from high flyer to shot maker

- They even went so far as to add different attributes for each Jordan shoe when you create a player with them

- Upon completing all of the Jordan Challenges, you get MJ Create-a-Legend mode where you take rookie Jordan and place him on any team and then try to play through his career and try t o recreate or better the Jordan that he became. Think My Player mode, except you play as Jordan instead of creating yourself.

There are plenty of other changes aside from Jordan in this game though and a couple continuations.

First, there is a continuation of the little known Total Control Passing. For those who never used it in NBA 2K10. You can push the right bumper and it will toggle the symbols/letters of the player you want to pass to.

- If you just tap the button it passes to them

- If you hold the button down you can direct them where you want them to go and upon release you pass it to them where you want it

Secondly, they revamped animations to include a ton more breaks in movements. They even included the collision animations from FIFA that allow you to react to collisions instead of feeling helpless

- This gives freer range of moves without movie animations of certain moves they expect you're trying to do.

- Opposing players can interrupt your movements and you have more freedom to respond in-air or on the ground with your movements with a lot more variation.

Third, dribbling has been revamped back to the classic IsoMotion control. Instead of switching between the L/R trigger, most of the dribble combinations are done while holding the left trigger. Dex included a video of some of the moves that you can do. The moves aren't new, but its a now more simplified version of doing the moves.

- Each individual player has some of their specific moves now too, including personalized gather steps and size up moves, as well as signature moves such as the Kobe Bryant dribble spin move fadeaway.

Fourth, playcalling has been revamped to be more player specific. You just push down the left bumper and click on a player and it will bring up specific plays for that player. Pretty cool and puts a lot more plays at your fingertips.

Fifth, the usual updates in graphics accompany this one. Faces are more defined, player specific reactions are put in, and even the cheerleaders look better and less polygonal. The usual upgrades that take place really.

So yeah those are some of the key differences that I found in my short term research on the topic. Enjoy discussion and digesting information everyone. If you want to look into it some more, I recommend looking at IGN. Sure it links to the PS3 version, I have no bias at all. lol.

Sidenote: The PS3 version will have 3D capability and will be compatible with Move, although if you've ever played NBA 2K10 on the Wii I don't think that entices you at all, especially since its only compatible with the wand and not the joystick part. lol. 3D does seem interesting though. 

So I happen to think that YouTube is like the greatest thing ever on the internet. So I thought I'd bless this page with some of its hilarious comedy. Of course you have the classics that started the whole thing oh so long ago. In fact this makes me feel so old because most of the originals are from like my Sophomore and Junior year of high school. I'm a senior in college now. Man time flies.

Check out the big guy from Numa Numa

Chocolate Rain by Tay Zonday

Afro Ninja, not as popular, but still hilarious

My personal favorite from high school: The Star Wars Kid

And you can't forget Dramatic Hamster Look

These were like the original viral videos of youtube and in the case of some way before that. Star Wars Kid for example has been around for about a decade and the original posters have been sued and that case against one of the kids involved is actually still pending, at least it was the last time I checked. This was before the Soulja Boy and Lady Gaga videos attracted hundreds of millions of views.

Currently these are the things that I enjoy watching many times over.

Antoine Dodson - Bed Intruder Song. This just went on the internet 6 days ago and already has over 3.5 million views. Watch the original newsclip it came from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMtZfW2z9dw and it just adds to the humor

BED INTRUDER SONG!!! (via schmoyoho)

And Literal Trailers by Tobuscus always kill me. He goes through and reads off the action as it happens on the screen. Here's an example of the best one in my opinion.

Tron Legacy Literal Trailer Parody

And then of course you have the Old Spice Guy and all of his various commercials and responses to people, which was an example of great marketing that ultimately doesn't influence sales because many men are stuck in their ways and oftentimes do not just switch deodorants, body washes, or any thing dealing with hygiene very often. Because of that Old Spice sales have actually continued to go down the drain, but I'm glad they still have a good enough sense of humor to keep the ads running. lol, but this is not marketing class so I'm going to stop rambling now.

JEFF BRIDGES!!!!!

If you read the post you'll know what this means. If you don't know what it means, I'll know and I shall smite thee with my almighty posting powers. lol. jk, but for real watch the videos and contribute more of your favorites below.

Lets start with a little asian Nintendo beatboxing huh

Thats the sound that restarted the entire video game industry after Atari caused a massive fail with games like E.T. and all kinds of other bad, overly simplified, and terrible games. Along came an Italian plumber chasing after the love of the Princess. I think we all know what I'm talking about. Thats right, Super Mario Bros.

via upload.wikimedia.org

While many will note that Nintendo and Atari had been out prior to this game, this is the game that started Nintendo as a real player in the console market in the U.S. Now a brief history of video games and how they came to be as they are today. I'm not going to go into detail, but I will show the various games and benchmarks that have been set over the years culminating in a poll about what years of gaming you enjoyed most.

So lets start here with Nintendo, Atari, and the age of arcade video games. This time span of the 1980s brought about a collection of memorable and very addictive games unfortunately, it was filled with mostly garbage games that were designed so simply that you could beat them in one arcade sitting, and not the marathon sitting but just one quarter. Games like E.T., the most notorious of them, crashed the video game market as  Atari was the more popular system than Nintendo and they just kept letting so many games based on movies and crappy premises that they eventually went bankrupt, and the arcade business suffered immensely because of all of the crap that no one wanted to play.

Fast forward to the beginning of the golden age of video games. The 1990s, no offense to those who enjoyed the past decade, but the 1990s brought so many franchises and rivalries and fun and beginnings to what we have now that we have to call it the golden age. Kinda like how the 1980s were the golden age of bball, but now even if the play quality is higher, that will always be the start of it. Either way, I digress. I'm sure you all remember the first big rivalry of the 1990s:

via i.ytimg.com

This was the beginning of the famed rivalry between Mario and Sonic, who have now patched things up and enjoy competing against each other in friendly olympic spaces. lol. I have been playing video games so I was old enough to comprehend which button was jump and which button was spin. lol, hard to believe we've come so far from 2 and 3-button controllers. So I remember this one well. In this case, I never chose a side. I owned both consoles and loved both games. You also had games like Donkey Kong Country, Mario Kart, Mario RPG, Zelda, Metroid, Golden Axe, Streets of Rage, Street Fighter, Fatal Fury, Virtua Fighter, Prince Of Persia, (1989, but I'm lumping it in here), The original 4 Final Fantasies, Metal Gear, and etc. I could go on and on, but this was a great time for videogames because advancements continued to come out almost yearly in every genre, except FPS which was stuck Doom until the mid-90s.

Then we got to the Mid-90s. After a series of misguided attempts to release 4 consoles in 4 years, Sega greatly diminished their stock and declared bankruptcy, and shelved everything to liquidate their stocks. With Sega in shambles, another competitior to Nintendo arose, Sony. Now, I happen to know that Sony's entire format was a ripoff of Nintendo, except they had the media knowledge to know that cds would be better for the video game medium than cartridges. Unfortunately, Nintendo, whose always a day late on media trends, didn't think so. So then we had the cartridge versus cd wars. Unfortunately for Sony, Nintendo did not take their showboating lying down and released one of the best systems ever.

via i163.photobucket.com

Now to be fair, Sony will get their picture too.

via steve-parker.org

I am going to sit here in front of you all and call the setlist of games for Nintendo 64 as the funnest most enjoyable sets of games I have ever played. I know that PlayStation had Final Fantasy 7 for RPG buffs and had the better graphics by the end of its life cycle, but I'm just going to list off a bunch of games that I LOVED on the Nintendo 64.

Mario 64 (first 3D world platformer), Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros. (One of the first free action fighting games, meaning the players are not killed by losing life, but by throwing them off the stage), 1080 Snowboarding, GOLDENEYE 007 (The prelude to great multiplayer for FPS on consoles, supposed to be re-upped to have online capability now), Perfect Dark (Had better physics and gameplay than GoldenEye, but lesser multiplayer), Donkey Kong 64, Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Star Fox 64, Doom 64, Diddy Kong Racing, Pokemon Stadium, Wrestlemania 2000, The original Tony Hawk (albeit the Tony Hawk games played better on PlayStation), Mario Party, Cruisin' USA/World/Exotica, Wave Race 64, Banjo-Kazooie, Bomberman Hero, and more. Basketball games sucked then, but I played NBA Courtside nonstop and I was upset when Kobe's exclusives with Nintendo ended after the rape trial. I mean look at how horrible things were back then, even on the very best of them on these consoles, Live 2001:

via www.mondemul.net

We've come a LONG way since then, I won't even get into the gaming physics differences. Anyway, I loved the late 90s for all of these games. I know I'm biased because I haven't listed many great games off of PlayStation, but honestly I'm working from memory for the most part but I'll give it a go.

PS1 had Spyro, Twisted Metal, Final Fantasy 7/8/9, WWF Smackdown (Feat. The Rock of course. lol), Tony Hawk Pro Skater, Metal Gear Solid, Gran Turismo, Need For Speed, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and etc. I would name more, but I'm starting to realize about the length of this post.

Also during the 1990s, which it shouldn't be menitoned in passing but it will have to do is the Game Boy and its many iterations. Also the only game for Game Boy and Game Boy Color I'm going to say is Pokémon, every single one of them. I know if you didn't play it, you knew someone who did and if you didn't you knew someone who had the cards, and if you didn't well I'm sorry but you must've just been old at the time and didn't realize what all the hype was. Anyways, game boy, game gear, virtual boy, all of those things that were the precursor for teh DS and PSP and iPod games we have now. Yay!!! Oh and another thing to satisfy PC gamers, Quake begins the movement to greater FPS titles and improves greatly on multiplayer online schemes that will be important later.

Moving on to the 2000s, omg and the good only gets better. Except much like the early Jordan years of dominance, the early 2000s were all Sony, with a splash of Nintendo and Microsoft, and a sprinkling of Sega. First of all, to get this out of the way, Sega Dreamcast is one of the most underrated systems ever created and if it had had the knowledge to think of DVD capability in 2000 when it came out, thereby beating Sony to the punch, we'd be having a completely different conversation. Anyway, moving on.

via www.teamteabag.com

SEGA makes a last ditch effort to make their own nitch in the console market, but due to some much maligned marketing and extremely late pitch, they released the Sega DreamCast to minimal applause as everyone waited with bated breath for the rumors of the PS2 and Nintendo codename Dolphin. Needless to say, Dreamcast had superior graphics to both systems initially, except in the case of a couple early PS2 titles that were fully able to take advantage of the machine. Either way, 2KSports was born on dreamcast with their introduction of NFL 2K and NBA 2K1, graced by none other than A.I. and this was the dawn of the better gameplay experience over EA in basketball, and football although EA now has the monopoly license on the NFL. This is important because the basketball physics improved significantly on those games and looked so much better than NBA Live even back then. I mean I have to make this about basketbll at some point don't I. lol.

via 2.bp.blogspot.com

Sony released the groundbreaking PS2 with DVD/CD capability and much improved graphics because of it. Any game you can think of has probably been on a PS2 at some point, except for obvious exclusives. Probably the most pertinent of features on this console was the ability to connect it to the internet, even with the extremely slow dial-up of the time. My favorite games on PS2 were Final Fantasy 10, NBA Street lmao, God of Wars come later, umm feel free to help me guys I had a Gamecube and don't remember everything for this system because I played it and owned it by proxy with my friend. The only thing PS2 lacked was an infinite money stream to make sure it didn't fail, even though it was never close to, which is all the next system had going for it.

via www.w3.org

Microsoft realesed the Xbox to nothing but isses ranging from extreme clunkiness and back troubles from carrying it, to the infamous red rings of death as the system had extreme fan and power issues. While it had superior online play in games such as Halo 1 and 2, the overall buzz around this machine was quieter than the extremely loud fan that ran the machine. It was conveniently scrapped from all shelves by the release of the Xbox 360, getting rid of the evidence of a colossal failure on how to make a video game system.

via www.gaminggenerations.com

Nintendo's fourth console in America was a colossal fail on so many parts by Nintendo. They got faster load times and better graphics than the 64, but thats about all I can say about this console before going negative. 1, the controller made for awkward gameplay if one ever got used to any other system's controller. 2, the smaller discs still didn't allow for enough data to stream making even more third-party publishers leave because of the constraints of the medium. 3, while very small and quiet for the most part, the design was just like wtf. 4, this was where Nintendo lost all kinds of 3rd party support and most things other than Nintendo games were terrible on this system. But good things came in the form of some games. Metroid rebooted in 3D was great, Zelda, Mario, Smash Bros., a million Mario sports games, Mario Party like 4-8 lol, Pikmin and all kinds of other great nintendo takes on old classics but definitely a step back in terms of creativity and gameplay for the most part. I still enjoyed the system, but it failed to live up to expectation from 64.

And now we come to the present. I'll start with a small presentation on what the future of gaming looks like via iCarly and some random Microsoft creeper.

Ah, the future doesn't it look exactly like four years ago. lol. Anyway, moving on. The latest crops of consoles have all been great at their own various tasks.

via www.toptechreviews.net

This is by far one of the most talked about things in gaming comparing these two systems. I'll break it down for you to make it easier. Graphics capability goes to PS3 because the best graphically constructed games on the PS3 are brighter, with better depth than 360, but the 360 has better shadow and lighting on its graphics. I'm honestly not that into the difference in graphics, I just have seen both systems and think the PS3 offers sharper images while Xbox offers better contrasts. To break it down even further, Xbox great at everything online especially with online gaming and friends and things of that nature. PS3s entire interface could use a little work, but they have greater multimedia capability over the Xbox and ultimately, its just a matter of preference of the exclusive games. I've never been one to buy a system exclusively for FPS', but Xbox is the system for those if you love to play them. PS3 is good at pretty much everything else and better than the Xbox for Action Adventure games. So pick your poison when it comes to these two. Recommendations for the present. If Xbox, Halo 3, Gears Of War series, and any FPS with online capability to play with friends and maximize fun. If PS3, Uncharted series, God Of War 1/2/3, Little Big Planet, and then just test the waters with different games. And of course NBA 2K10 over NBA Live 10, although it will be interesting to see if NBA 2K11 can live up to their greatest of all time moniker they have across the top of their cover, while Live is completely revamping to NBA Elite. Guess we'll see who wins basketball wars this time around come later this year.

via bplteensofwa.files.wordpress.com

The most dominant current system in terms of sales is the Nintendo Wii for the exact reason in the picture above. Nearly every game on it is multiplayer functional and it gives games more than just people who like to sit and play for hours at a time. The average owner of a Wii fires it up for at most an hour at a time, enough to get a nice workout from Wii Fit or break a sweat from Wii Sports. Its not a lot of time, but it is definitely significant to note that as much as people talk about this machine being shelfed after a few months, four years later other companies are mimicking their gimmick and hoping for the same results. The Wii is the least powerful with the least capabilities and the least amount of good diversified games. There are few games not made by Nintendo that are good on this system, but it does deliver fun unequated for families as I'm sure anyone who has older parents or generations know, they sometimes get up and take a stab at beating their son in Wii Tennis. I mean my mom and sister hate video games, but they put that hate aside enough to play tennis and bowling and other free time games. Don't hate the console, hate the game makers when it comes to this gimmicky piece of hardware, but the fact that everyone is now copying Nintendo has shown that they were right when they codenamed it Revolution.

via www.a1technology.com

I'm not real big on playing games on small devices like phones and such, but it has to be recognized that Apple has found their way in making a platform that caters to developers well. I mean people have become so rich off of this platform. iPods, iPhones, iPads, you name it and they have games on them that are playable and some of them are quite extensive. Big name publishers down to small name publishers use it, and they are actually pretty good games and many times you can get cheaper knockoffs of established brands on there. I enjoyed the games I played on them, but I also would rather not stare at that small of a screen for very long again. The Google phones and Android marketplace are coming along as well, but Apple currently commands the most share of this space, especially because of the iPad now. 300,000 games and counting for Apple on their touch Pod/Phone line.

Obviously, some of my Nintendo bias has shown through in this piece because most systems covered here are not as extensively covered as Nintendo products. If you would like more information on any aspects, just ask in the comments below and I can elaborate as needed about any systems drawbacks and greatness. For PC gamers, you will hate this post because I literally don't play PC games and I couldn't begin to start speaking of them. For you all let me say that recently Quake has continued its dominance of the online FPS. Final Fantasy is releasing number 14 as an MMORPG, and World of Warcraft is one of the most popular games ever. Also, The Sims rule the world of PC gaming in terms of sales, and it is incredibly addicting to play that freaking game for me. I don't know why.

Anyway, tell me down below what video games you like that may or may not have been covered in this list. Also, feel free to comment on how PS3 and Xbox 360 compare graphically in your eyes or how the Wii sucks or any array of nostalgia for the old school video games. If you have any topic you want me to cover specifically, such as genres or platforms, or innovations, or even just history (I know must of us are not a geek like me to be interested in this stuff) then let me know and I'll make it happen at some point. Enjoy the nostalgia of the past, comment on the present, and feel free to speculate on the future.

So I just had a pointed debate on whether basketball is a game of runs.  It started because I said the Lakers terrible 3rd quarter almost set them up to fail and that offensively they weren't playing smart. He countered that I'm getting on them for one quarter out of a game, and then corrected it to a quarter and a half of a game. My point was that a run doesn't have to happen. Its not inevitable that a team is going to go on a run in any given game. The Lakers didn't have to play impatient poor offense to let the Celtics get that close. The Celtics defense made few adjustments, to my eyes that couldn't have been overcome by continuing to show patience instead of rushing shots and passes around the perimeter running out the shot clock.

So then we started arguing about the entire concept of the game of basketball as a game of runs. He says that its true for basketball more than any other sport that momentum can shift greater in bball than any other sport, citing football, fútbol, and baseball as his examples. Firstly, ignoring hockey which is a much faster game that has rules that actually help it more to create runs. Secondly, mentioning soccer when soccer games switch momentum on a dime and its not about the score, but the way the opportunities are created. Finally, the adjustments made in basketball create runs, but there is no inevitable force that creates these runs. Runs don't just occur because no matter how well you're playing its going to happen. Runs occur because you break down and start making mistakes, unless the team is better than you and they start playing exponentially better. I don't think anything that is sustained for more than a quarter is a run. If it sustains through a timeout, its not a run its sustainable play. I don't call it a run. I call it great play. Runs happen when teams make adjustments and come back at you and score on you without an answer even when your doing what has worked. These type of runs happen throughout the game, but they are not the defining part of games except for close ones. I didn't think yesterday's game could've been described as a game of runs. Too many quarters of sustained poor play from the Celtics and too much impatience from the Lakers to sustain any lead.

What do you all think?

So reports are now coming out that Danny Ferry is resigning instead of looking for an extension of his contract as GM of the Cavaliers. I find this very weird considering the fact that it comes only a month before the biggest free agency period for Cleveland to try and maintain or get a superstar. It just seems really weird with the timing of the decision.

Here's the link. Anything more you guys know in Cleveland?

So I just read Andrew Sharp's latest article to see if he is always as dense as he was with his Kobe Bryant article, and I'm wondering how everyone else feels about the NBA Draft Combine. I personally feel that if I was a GM I'd like to watch it and see the physical attributes of each individual player before I draft. I also think it shows where someone is in their maturity and how they practice and workout in the offseason. Someone who comes in clowning and out of shape I would think twice about even if they were one my first prospects. I feel that for as many busts you may draft from it, you may have just as many gems come out of it. I think it to be a good thing and if they even put them into scrimmages to see how they play with each other. Of course, it opens up the risk of injury, but really unless you were already frail boned to begin with, which would then expose them as being easily injured, then its not much of a risk unless someone else is dogging it and playing sloppy and lazy. So let me know what you guys think.

So I was just thinking on it earlier today and I wanted to see what you guys think. Pau has consistently been our best big man on the floor and has actually been the best player on the floor for a couple games, although he was a little timid against OKC and it infuriated me. Kobe has struggled mightily through one series before exacting nuclear fusion to kickstart his jumper at the end of it. Since then, he's been dominating everyone against him and proving again that he is the premier shooting guard in the league, the head honcho on the court, and that he is the best player right now in the game of basketball. (For all those who would like to argue this point. We can have at it on the all-Lebron post made on the main page. This is not about that argument and besides this is solely my opinion.)

So who is the MVP of the postseason thus far. My vote for the first round is Pau, for the second round is Kobe, and right now I'm having trouble deciphering whose having the bigger impact. This third round has Kobe and Pau feeding off of each other so well that you can't even really give it to one or the other without serious thought. I want to say Kobe with his 40 pts, followed by 20 and 13 has greater impacted the offense, but Pau anchors our defense on Stoudamire while also being intricate in the movement of the offense. So I've just created my first poll post.

 

KDonhoops:  The Bulls didn't really have a second option. It's not as if Scottie was breaking down defenders one on one when Jordan had to give it up.  This is how top-heavy teams are. And I don't put Kobe in there, because as great as he was, he was never in Jordan or LeBron's league. His attitude was way better than LeBron's, but he wasn't as productive or talented.

 

This was in response to a question in the BDL Hump Day Chat. Firstly, there are so many things wrong with this statement. Number one, Kobe has never been in Jordan or Lebron's league? I think two years of damn-near unstoppable play in the western conference with one of the worst assembled teams in the league proved that wrong.

Number two, Pippen wasn't exactly sitting there waiting for the ball to come to him on offense either. When he played by himself he was legitly in the conversation of the best players in the game. Its like even the most ardent Bulls' fans are delusional about Scottie's impact on that team especially when Jordan had one of his 10-26 1 ast nights nights just like every player has.

Number 3, what has Lebron done that Kobe didn't besides start and be the main option on his team from day 1, automatically speeding up growth of one's game. Beat the Pistons, except the Pistons in 06 played like shit and the Pistons in 04 played inspired.

Number 4, what does Kobe have to do to get respect from people like this clown? 6th man of the year off the bench as a sophomore? Nope. Be the ELITE guard and option 1b on a threepeat championship team? Nope. 81 points against triple and quadruple teams? Not enough. A championship as the focal point? Not enough. Better footwork, jumpshot, skill, and use of athleticism? Not enough. Poor shot selection and a diva attitude can only drag you down so far. How is MJ on Lebron's level because of statistics without Kobe on his level because of skill and his use of it? I just don't get it. He wasn't as productive and talented? By what standards? fg%? highlight reel dunks? Kobe was never as big, but he was just as talented and athletic as Lebron he just didn't have the same opportunity  to prove it. He had to break the offense to even get a chance to do so. I've seen Kobe jump from one side of the rim and up-and-under dunk on Tim Duncan and David Robinson. I've seen him actually break defenders down instead of just driving past them with sheer strength. Oooh, this just pisses me off.

Our freaking statistics tell you that Kobe is an average shooter with average everything. Yet, the last-second wins, the freakish attention to detail, the working actually within an offense, the cutthroat defense, the ridiculous fade-aways, the footwork and all of those things that no one else can pull off tell us Kobe is one of the top players in the league. Hell, even KD has him as one of the top players in the league even with all the "analysis" he brings to the table. So what is it? We can't have it both ways.

We can't keep saying Kobe is top-3 as a player and then statistically break him down to be an average star. Average stars don't have defenses designed to stop them, not just a defensive specialist but an entire defense. Average stars don't have entire gameplans designed to make sure that the score is of a wide margin so that the player doesn't smell blood, obviously it doesn't always work but moral victories are won when a game-winner is hit instead of anxious feelings of disappointment. Average stars don't win a championship with Finals MVP put on their shoulders. Average stars don't add to their game at the ripe old age of 31. Average stars get great supporting casts and then flame out in the playoffs in their prime (Joe Johnson). Average stars disappear for entire games. Average stars fail to rise to the occasion and sometimes don't even try. Average stars don't hit fade-away jumpers with 1 seconds left to win or tie it up. Average stars show up big one game and disappear the next. Average stars don't get to the line less than most other superstars yet still only be one fg/game away from being the leading scorer in the league.

Nothing about Kobe screams average or even just above average. Everything about his game screams top caliber, except maybe his 3-pt shooting and athleticism at this point in his career. I just cannot stand comments like these, at the same time I love it cuz while the Lakers and Kobe (32pts, 6asts 53fg%) have taken care of business, someone on the opposite side of the country just had the biggest hate-fest since Phx Game 7.

This isn't a Kobe or Lebron. This isn't a Kobe vs. MJ. This is a what the hell post. A post destined to say one quote for my favorite player made famous by one Rodney Dangerfield, "I get no respect."

I'm not reading Behind the Box Score today. All it wll say is this loss is on Kobe and if anyone else gets the blame on the Lakers side I will be surprised. Funnily enough I will agree that kobe does deserve a lot of blame for why this game was so poor down the stretch offensively and therefore translated to fast break points for them and made it harder on our defense which was stifling them. It was the first time pretty much all series for the Thunder to get to their style of play and everyone be involved, not just Westbrook. but what led to that point before we even get there.

1. The Lakers inability to keep getting it inside. Some put all of this blame on Kobe, but you can't do that. Establishing yourself inside is really important. There's no reason Bynum or Pau should be getting pushed around inside. I can count on one hand the number of inside shots from the low post that Pau has made. The majority of them have been pnr or the 15-ft jump shot and a couple putbacks. Bynum on the other hand completely stops posting if he doesn't get the ball. And I agree with him, but the solution isn't to come to the top of the key for a handoff because he doesn't have the handles to drive into the lane, a la Gasol or Odom. Even the best C's can be pushed off the block if they don't continue to fight to establish the post. There are times when I watch Kobe or Fish sit there for literally 6 seconds trying to pass it in which given it takes a couple seconds to get up the floor we spend over half of the time on offense at times trying to get it in. Problem is that they're not establishing themselves or getting their footing. So they swing it and they can either lob, which is a bad play I don't care how many times it works cuz as in game 2 it essentially stops working once we do it a couple times, or swing it again to wait for a repost on the other side. This isn't the triangle, just trying to get it inside, so Triangle nuts I'm not talking about the triangle. Where the triangle comes into play is that the next play after getting it inside doesn't work as we see all the time is pnr on the wing. This leads to our penetration into the paint and then the kick out for the open shot. This is why we shoot so many 3s. I've said it once and I will say it again, the Thunder are playing the best undersized D the Lakers have faced all season. They're doing what we do to other teams. Dare them to beat us from 3, which usually leads to lower 3-pt % cuz they shoot more but now its not exactly in our favor. Unfortunately, our best 3-pt shootes are not hitting. By no means am I condoning the fast 3s that we put up, I'm making a case for the 3s that come after we try to pass it in and then we penetrate and pass it out, which are usually mostly wide open.

2. Lakers rebounding. There is no excuse that the Thunder should EVER outrebound us by double figures. EVER. If you think differently then you're a Pau and Bynum homer. See what I did there, I just insulted you for having the opinion to know that it wasn't all our bigs fault we got outrebounded by so much. Much of this yesterday had to do with the lack of o. rebs due to the number of threes we were shooting, which led to more long rebs and basically eliminating our advantage down low. We were outrebounded offensively and defensively. Kevin Durant had the same number of rebs than Odom, Bynum, and Artest combined. I believe he had like 10 at the end of the first half. These rebs led to them having so many more fast breaks and putting the speed on that we know can give us trouble. It wasn't cuz durant had a monster game, by all means 8-24 is just as bad as kobe's night, only difference being where the shots started falling for the two. Durant shouldn't outrebound our 2,3,and 4 best forwards/C. It shouldn't happen. EVER. This picked up the speed and that is what we feared the thunder would do most of all.

3. Shot selection. I'm not mad when we shoot 3s after one inside-out because the way the Thunder have packed it in we need to start hitting something. We have to make them guard other players. In the first half, Kobe answered every run the Thunder took with a 3. Not good 3s, but he made them just the same. All I saw in the comments board was KOBEEEEEE, YES!!!!!, and everyone praised him for taking these shots to stifle their runs and silence the crowd. Everyone was getting in on it. Fish was hitting, Ron was hitting. And then the well ran dry. Kobe took the same shots he did in the first half but this time they missed, artest ran dry, fish made his only second half 3 and odom made one. This is more or less the same problem  with getting it inside. The Lakers not getting any calls inside as we try to fight for position and as we penetrate and drive causes them to stop doing them. Kobe did the same thing last game, with lower numbers of shots. The shot selection was the same, except there was higher volume as to the lack of fts. But when we do get it inside, I am soooooooooo tired of watching gasol or bynum go so slow with their decision. Pau at one point in the fourth had a clear cut advantage with a smaller defender on him and, instead of making the quick fake and turn in the direction he wanted to go which would have been baseline to pull an up and under, he held it until they started to double tried to make the move and then turned it over. By the way, shot selection isn't on Phil as he's repeatedly said the lakers shoot too many 3s. The players are taking it upon themselves to shoot them we know the 3-bal isn't a huge part of the PHIL-osophy

4. Dependence. We are so dependent on Kobe's game at this point in the fourth that it is ridiculous. If Kobe is off in the fourth we are screwed just as was the case earlier this year when we got in close game situations and we had no idea what we were going to run. It only makes common sense to move out of the way if Kobe's on fire. When he's off as was the case yday, keep posting. Run the pnr. Do not clear out for him unless its clear he's taking it instead of just chucking at the last second of the shot clock. I echo C.A. hear in that we live by the Kobe and we die by the Kobe. As our only real perimeter threat people literally only guard him and then pack it inside and they've been doing it all year. So the whole give your body up for fouls thing, is literally what Kobe would have to do. I for one would love to see him play for another year instead of rehab all summer just to play half the season great again before it all starts taking a toll. Its called being smart with your body and throwing it into the lane only calls for a shorter career not an extended one, especially after we're paying him 80+ million over the next couple years.

5. The Thunder are a great defensive team. They really are. I shouldn't have to explain that to people. Offensive execution meeting great defensive execution can cause stalemates, and victories if the defensive effort is greater than the offensive execution. The Thunder have executed their gameplan to perfection. They're bodying up our bigs down low, borderline foul rough, and our bigs are responding by fighting them, but lobs to them are not the answer when they can't get in front. Not to mention that their athleticism around the rim has all but mitigated our guards from penetration. Until we start making them guard us on the wing they will continue to pack it in and push our bigs off the block and making pau catch it 15 ft from the basket and drive in instead of actually playing in the post.

Overall, we lost this game by 4. Even with ft disparity. Even with kobe having a horrible 4th quarter, shooting wise. Even after being outrebounded by double digits. Even after they got to play their style of play. We hit even a fraction of our open shots and we don't even have this conversation. 

Now that that is out of the way, we must address Mr. Bryant's decision to chuck away in the fourth. I won't say much else about it cuz C.A. said it all. Some nights we win from the exact same thing Kobe is doing. Last night he realized that he didn't have it and switched it up. After he changed we still weren't rebounding or defending well and letting them get in the lane at will. Kobe had his first 8 ast game of the series and that wouldn't be the case if we hit even more open jumpers the other two games. There was 5 min left after the timeout after kobe and bynum came up empty on 4 different possessions and we got down 8. We've come back and won games after that with less time left. Lets not act like this is anything new. We've done it with Pau being inefficient down the stretch. Without Bynum on the floor. With everyone absent but Kobe. With everyone there but Kobe. There was too much time left to effectively blame the loss on that series of possessions, especially since prior to that we had proceeded to lose the lead and fall behind by 2 with the bench on the floor, so kobe was effectively doing what he did in the first half. Only this time the results reversed. I can't get mad at it. It frustrates me, but I celebrated the threes when he made them and they were bad shots, so I can't fault him for trying to do it again. The biggest part of this is that he realized it wasn't going and switched. Lord knows it could've been worse and we've seen it as such. We've seen him chuck long jumper after long jumper with much less time left and completely shoot us out of the game. Fact of the matter is we were never out of the game after that. We still could've won and if you don't think we could've I'd like to ask you how much time do you need to come back from down 8 cuz 5 min of good defense, rebounding, and effort can erase that lead and extend your own. Unfortunately we got little of those three things on the defensive side and our offense had to try to make up for our defense for the first time this series. That stretch of bad D and missed shots bridging the 3rd and 4th killed us, but I expect another great and exciting and heart-wrenching game tomorrow. 

Also, for those talking about lack of execution and that Kobe stalls the offense when he does it and thats why he's not as good as other players in this league. Look at their late game shots and plays. No one except maybe the Suns doesn't do iso down the stretch. Even the Spurs iso and pnr with ginobili. Everyone stalls their offense for a period of time to see if their superstar is going to carry them down the stretch. The Mavs do it for Dirk. Lebron calls his plays. Wade does it. Melo does it. Pierce does it. The results are no different for those guys. If they don't have it they go back to playing team ball. A lot of them still try to force it and cost a game or so. Lebron just last night had an offensive foul and a to in the last minute of last night's game trying to finish the comeback on the bulls. Missed fts as well. Nobody's calling for him to stop driving or dribbling cuz just the game before he stepped on the bulls' throats with jumper after jumper and 3s. Same with Melo, some Nuggets fans hate Melo for the isos and things but most realize that he's executed well down the stretch more often then not. Same with Pierce and Allen. Same with Ginobili. Same with Nash. Everyone has that bad stretch at the end of a game that costs a game or so. I'm not about to just be like you know what Kobe don't do what was just working for you earlier this game. Sometimes you have to try, this time it didn't work but considering the early part of the game, he was just as likely to continue making some 3s instead of missing all of his 6 second half threes. It was bad execution but so are all isos lets not act like we don't see this from every other team and the results aren't that much more different.

Ok, so right now I'm pissed. I go to the little profound explanation of the season and I see complaining about players, coaches, ticket prices, all of this stuff. We are acting as if we're rooting for the freaking Knicks. Do we realize how lucky we are as a fanbase to have a team that willingly spends and goes over the luxury tax to put one of the best teams in the league together? Would you rather go to New Orleans and watch them penny-pinch great players out of the organization? Or the Clippers or Warriors and watch them just FUCK UP year after year? WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU COMPLAINING ABOUT?

Kobe needs to watch the game on the sidelines. Bullshit, sit in treatment and watch the game in the locker room so you can be back asap cuz we need you in the clutch. I could care less what you have to say in the huddle because if they're not getting it by now, you repeating it in a suit will not help.

Pau needs to be better in the clutch. True but also bullshit cuz if we gave it to him in the first place we wouldn't need him in the clutch even half as often as we have.

Fisher needs to sit. wah wah, we know Phil isn't sitting him anytime soon. We've griped and moaned about it for the past 4 months, its not gonna change, stop worrying about it.

Phil you've got crazy rotations. You know Bulls fans used to complain about his rotations too. Guess we all forgot that once he won 6 F***ING RINGS and two other playoff teams that were good as well just happened to run into a couple better teams. 

I pay too much to see the Lakers play terrible. Big F***ING deal. Go pay for a D-League game and watch them play. Phil could care less if you paid to watch Kobe play. We're truly spoiled a a fanbase when we have a 50+ win team on its way to the playoffs for the third straight year and we consider this underachieving because our team has Artest, Kobe, Gasol, and Odom. Newsflash, Artest is a streaky shooter, he's not going to be on every night. Kobe is a jump shooter not a post player he's not going to take it in for every shot. Gasol is a wonderfully overrated PF, whose profile expanded when he went to the Lakers. I'm not saying he's not good because he's excellent but #1 PF hell no. There are other players who can shoot and post up just like him but stronger and can hold their own against bigger players. His biggest asset to us is his passing out of the post because we can get practically any PF we want to that can score. Odom is and has always been a streak player. I love to see Odom when he's driving and posting and asserting himself but I've long given up on trying to see him do it every game. He doesn't and he won't. For a series of games maybe he will, but lets not kid ourselves into thinking that he'll be that Lebron type player who does what he does every game. You pick your poison with tickets. You either buy them to watch those precious moments of the game that you'll relive over and over or you may get a dud game that you wouldn't have even watched on tv. 

The Lakers don't beat up enough on teams. Goddamn it. I suppose you probably punched Kentucky in the mouth for losing in March Madness. Or Kansas. Or any of the other 1 seeds that have bad games and lose. Its never all rosy pictures with hot girls running nude over the beach. You're not always gonna get what you want just because on paper we have one of the best teams in the league. Is this really even a complaint? Would we really rather watch the opposite and see our teams try so hard only to barely get beat by the Lakers?

What I'm getting to is the fact that so many other teams do not have anywhere near this long of a list of complaints asides from the Knicks, I mean Isaiah did draft Reynaldo Balkman. We are fans of one of the great franchises of the NBA. There will be good years. There will be bad years. This is one of the betweener years where it has been both good and bad. These are the growing pains of a champion. Hell, I'm sure Cleveland was pissed the year after they made it to the finals to not even get there again. Same with San Antonio. Same with the Celtics last year. Can you imagine how Spurs fans felt all those years they had to be tortured with the fact that they had to watch on the sidelines. Can you imagine how Dallas fans felt when they got beat by the freaking Warriors in the first round after like their best season ever? We haven't even felt the real pains of being die hards in the past decade. We've missed the playoffs once. We've had two first-round exits. Two finals losses, as much as they hurt. But as a fanbase we've cheered on a three-peat. We've cheered for Kobe hitting 81. We've cheered for us to be up 3-1, and then lose 4-3. We've cheered for the Machine to be on fire through the playoffs. We've cheered for Kobe to win his first MVP after being robbed so many other times. We've cheered for our first post-Shaq championship. We've cheered for more buzzer-beaters than any other team. We have one of the most hated players in all of sports just because he's a winner and he knows it. We have one of the most hated teams in all of sports because they're winners and we know it. Charlotte hates us for giving them Divac. New York loves us for their newest guard acquisition. Boston loves to hate us and we love to hate them. THE LAKERS ARE THE MEASURING STICK OF THE NBA. No other team can say that and haven't been able to for the past three years. How good are the teams in the NBA this year? Well, most would STILL say it starts at the top with the LAKERS. Not the Cavs. Not the Magic. Not the Celtics. Not the Blazers. Not the Nuggets. Not the Spurs. Not the Bobcats. Not the Bucks. Not any other team in the league. It is the Lakers. The measuring stick for every team is what are their advantages and disadvantages against the Lakers. KOBE IS STILL THE MEASURING STICK FOR THE BEST PLAYERS. Lebron does his thing, but who do they compare him to? Kobe/Jordan/Magic. Who do they compare Durant to? Kobe. Who do they compare Wade to? Kobe/Jordan. Who do they compare Roy to? Kobe. There is not an article you will find that does not reference Kobe as a way to compare skill levels. Find me one and I'll show you one whose trying to look at stats and not substance, i.e. Kelly Dwyer types who ignore the skill and what they see but love the advanced statistics.

Look, I'm not saying that we have no right to complain about the way the season has turned out, but we've gone past that. We're talking about ticket prices. We're talking about underachievement. We''re talking about a lack of blowouts. Do you know how many teams would love to just have a blowout? Just one blowout that wasn't against them instead of for them. Pessimism is good to acknowledge where the faults in a system are. But the tone around here lately has been all pessimism from some, not our lovely blog managers thankfully. I just don't want us to have to resort to stupid things like Weekly Optimism to make ourselves feel better.

*Deep sigh... I feel so much better after writing this. Its like all anxiety has been let go. Don't care how you respond to this. Call me an idiot. Call me crazy. I don't care, but this pessimistic tone to these fanposts are ridiculous. HCA is not something champions shoot for. We don't aspire to have HCA to make it easier on ourselves. We aspire to have the best team possible to beat someone on their homecourt so we can dance and party after we beat them there and watch them helplessly look on the sideline. 

This is what I want to see...

via media.hamiltonspectator.topscms.com

I could care less about anything else.