NBA Blog

I’m trying to read during the Oscars.  Doesn’t look too good for Con Law II tomorrow. 

There are always a few things during the Oscars that catch my eye, so I thought I would create a pseudo-running monologue for the event.   

A couple of points from the start:  How the heck did Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure make the final cut of clips to show in the intro?  Couldn’t they find anything better than that?  What a clip from Shawshank Redemption hit the cutting room floor to be replaced by Keanu’s “Whoa.”  Someone might want to correct this next year.

Chris Rock shouldn’t be hosting anything unless it’s on HBO.  Great intro, but I can’t help but feel like the FCC is holding him back.

A Pepsi commercial just ruined Spartacus.  Then again, Pepsi seems to ruin everything it touches.  Remember Pepsi Clear?

Robin Williams wasn’t nearly as annoying as possible.  Although, didn’t he do this bit last year, and every single year before that?

They just showed Adam Sandler.  How did he get a ticket to this?  Better yet, who’s his guest?  Shouldn’t he have thrown Tim Meadows a bone and invited him?  All I’m saying is that former SNL castmembers should bow to Meadows Guinness Hall of Fame run as a castmember.

Okay, it’s barely 9:26 and The Aviator has already won three Oscars.  I’m guessing we can go ahead and give the Oscar to every nominee from The Aviator, and cut out about 2 hours.  Call it a hunch.

Tribute to Carson.  I know I was young, and cannot really appreciate the man’s greatness.  But what I did get to see of Carson, in the twilight of his career, thoroughly amazed me.  He was the best.

Reason #37 why I’m glad that I’m not watching this with my girlfriend:  I’m only guessing here, but right now she’s saying something along the lines of “Orlando Bloom was much hotter as that elf-thingy in that one movie.”

Aviator won again.  Seriously, catching the pattern yet?

This just in:  memo to the lead singer of Counting Crows; Jerry Rice called and wants his hairline back.  But seriously, still a huge fan of Counting Crows.  And while we’re doing songs here, Eugene Levy was hosed last year.  The song from A Mighty Wind deserved the Oscar.  But I digress.

When more than two people win an award, how do they choose who gets to speak?  Do people draw straws or what?

Empty seats!  Where’s Kramer?  Where are the seat fillers?

Let’s play ”You know it’s a winning show when…”
You know it’s a winning show when Jeremy Irons is dropping one-liners to keep the audience in stitches, and an Oscar winner refers to it as “the dog’s bollucks.”

We’re twelve awards in and God hasn’t won yet.  I think He’s overdue. 
Whoops, The Aviator won again.  Scorcese could be in trouble with the Big Guy. 

Wow.  Saaaaaaaaaaaaalllllllllllllllllllllllllma Hayek. 

The Aviator lost something?  Did the Committee not see the name on the list of nominees.  Somehow this one slipped through the cracks. 

Carlos Santana, are you kidding me?  Santana is amazing, no matter where he’s playing.  Antonio Banderas is a bad man.  He looks pretty good to-…I mean…umm…(act quickly)…man Salma Hayek is hot.  Did you see how hot Salma looked?  (Good save).

P. Diddy as a presenter?  Much less for the song for Polar Express?  Well, it’s certainly not type-casting.  Did anyone notice the other guy singing with Beyonce?  Didn’t think so.  Sorry, Groban.

I lived in San Antonio for over 14 years, and couldn’t tell you what the winner for the song from The Motorcycle Diaries just sang.  However, I can order every type of breakfast taco in any of the Mexican restaurants in good ol’ S.A.  Simply pathetic. 

Sean Penn: How can such a brilliant actor have absolutely no personality whatsoever? 

Remember when I said Salma Hayek was hot.  Same response for Hillary Swank.  She played a boxer, and just gave the point out to someone from the film.  Good times all the way around.

Sam Jackson appearance!  Sam Jackson appearance!  It’s officially an award show.

There are two Jim Carrey movies that have been nominated for multiple awards.  I never saw that coming.  When did the Academy Awards turn into the MTV Movie Awards?  Maybe it is worth mentioning that it took me nearly two and a half hours to realize the above sentence.  Wow, they’ll let anyone into lawschool these days.  Yep, I’m the future of America.  Isn’t that comforting?

Which one of these names does not belong: Don Cheadle, Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx, and Clint Eastwood?  Yet, I’m glad he won.  And he gave a pretty darn good acceptance speech.  I guess you could say that Jamie has come a long way from In Living Color, The Jamie Foxx Show, and Booty Call.   

I thought for sure that The Aviator would have cleaned house at the end, but I guess it really didn’t pay to take all of God’s awards earlier in the show. 

One final note worth mentioning:  Clint Eastwood is really cool.  I mean, there’s cool, and then there’s Clint Eastwood cool.  And nobody else is THAT cool.

In honor of the trading deadline coming with a flurry of teams moving players, I thought my favorite line from Three Amigos was the perfect description of the scenarios.

“Hefe, would you say that we have a plethora of (trades)?”

“Si, El Guapo.”

“Hefe, do you even know what a plethora is?”

“I am not as wise and good looking as you El Guapo.”

Not only does this describe the activity of the trade deadline, it also perfectly describes the New York Knicks.  You could remove the term trade, and implement the words “long-term salaries.”  Isiah moved four players, two of whom are finally in the last years of their deals, and added two undersized power forwards with 3+ years remaining on their contracts.  Eh?  Also, Isiah dealt their only legitimate center.  Eh?  Now the Knicks roster has Michael Sweetney, Kurt Thomas, Malik Rose, and Maurice Taylor.  They all play the same position and have no size.  Eh?  I could run a franchise better than that. 

Sacto seems to be giving up on EVER winning a title.  But you could easily argue that it was never going to happen with Webber on the roster.  Maybe this will be the chance for Bibby to make the leap to superstardom and completely take over the team.  We all know Kenny Thomas and Peja won’t get it done in the postseason.

Boston made a reactionary move to the Webber deal and brought back ‘Toine Walker to hoist up 300 more threes for them.  I don’t know if the Walker-Pierce combo will be able to beat out A.I. and C-Webb, but this may actually help Paul Pierce out.  He hasn’t been the same player since Walker was dealt a couple of years ago.  Having Walker out there to take the majority of the fan angst, Paul Pierce may return to his previous form, and enjoy the game a little bit.

The Clippers whiffed on the chance to land Baron Davis and save their season.  Sure Shaun Livingston is the future, but he’s too frail for the next two seasons, and they have no other players to play the point guard for them.  There was still a chance that they could have gone on a run and fought for the final playoff spot. 

Golden State seems to have made the only good trade in their franchise’s history.  Hopefully Baron will get healthy, because he is so much fun to watch play when he can actually move.

The Glove is probably going to call it a career after this final trade.  He’s been shipped around so much in the last three years, it’s getting rediculous.  It’s a shame that he is going to go out like this.  The 90’s Sonics were one of the most exciting teams to watch play in their prime.  Kemp and Payton ran the floor so well together.  Much like every other quality team of that time, without Jordan, the Sonics might have made a run at two titles.  You never know what happens if they could have won that first title.  Payton, Kemp, and Karl probably would have gotten along much better with management, and may have been able to stay together longer.  After all, the New England Patriots have shown that winning is the ultimate “kool-aid.”

On a sad note, my cousin, Malik, is no longer a Spur.  I hope this doesn’t mean that he will be closing Philly’s Phamous Cheesesteak restaurant in the Quarry.  That place is fandamtastic.  Really, if you are in good ol’ San Antonio and are craving a good sandwich, you should hit that place up.  It will be sad to watch Spurs games from now on and not see Malik come in to scrap for some boards and loose balls. 
My first and favorite memory of Malik:  Before my father could convince my mom to purchase the mini-packs, which of course led to season tickets, I would only get to go to a few games a year.  Well, one season I went to a preseason game against the Philadelphia 76ers, which is fitting since Lik was from Philly.  At the time, Malik had just come from Charlotte where he struggled, and he was fighting to make the Spurs roster.  My affection for Malik started immediately when he first checked into the game and had my name on the back of his jersey.  It was your typical preseason game, with the starters playing few minutes and the backups were vying for roster spots.  However, with a Rose in the game, my attention level skyrocketed.  Everytime Malik came in he fought for loose balls, dove to the ground, took charges, I mean he was a ball of energy.  It was so cool.  The game was extremely close at the end, and the Sixers were ahead by one point.  Well, Pop drew up some last second play which looked atrocious, and the jumper rimmed in and out, and bounced straight up into the air.  The few people in the Alamodome could feel the loss coming, but weren’t concerned, after all it was a preseason game.  But out of nowhere, Malik and his 6′5” frame rose up from around the rest of the players and tipped the ball into the hoop as the final seconds ticked off the clock.  After that, I was sold, as was the rest of the arena, that this Rose kid who shared my name was a lock for the Spurs roster.  After two championships, many pumpfakes, offensive rebounds, several cameos on news segments for laughs, a set of braces, a couple of knee injuries, one outrageous contract that was well deserved for his hustle and love for the game, and one hell of a cheesesteak sandwich, Malik’s run is done in San Antonio.  I’m going to miss him, but for the first time EVER there will be someone on the Knicks roster I can root for.

The Spurs v. Heat game yesterday was fantastic, and was probably a preview to this summer’s NBA Finals matchup.  Both teams played well through the first 3 and ½ quarters.  However, for the first time this season, the Spurs faltered in the final minutes of the game.  Parker could not hit his floaters in the lane, Duncan missed a jumper from the top of the key, Bowen missed a 3 from his corner spot, and there were several key turnovers.  The Spurs defense also faltered in the closing minutes.  They held the Heat on some chances, but in the end Dwyane Wade and Shaq capitalized when the Spurs could not. 

            There were two specific instances where the Heat’s two stars shone brightly.  With the score tied, Dwyane Wade took Bowen off the dribble and hit a jumper from the free throw line extended while falling to his left.  It was an incredible shot, especially in the final minutes of the game against the best on-the-ball defender in the league.  Not to be outdone, Shaq ran the court on one of the Spurs turnovers, caught the outlet at the free-throw line.  And with two Spurs defenders on him, Shaq kicked the ball out to a streaking Damon Jones for a money ball three from the right angle.  The Spurs called a timeout after that shot, and despite Manu’s attempts to bring S.A. back, the Heat’s team defense was tenacious and held on for the W.

            Overall, it was an excellent game, even if my boys lost.  It is good to have games on Sunday afternoons now that the NFL is done.  It would be nice if there were more NBA games on Saturday afternoons, so I would have something to do instead of reading for class.

Around the league:

            Flip is gone from Minnesota.  It is sad that he had to take the full brunt of the punishment for the pitiful performances the team has gotten from Sam Cassell, Latrell Sprewell, and Michael Olowakandi.  Sam Cassell is showing that last year was the exception to his career, where the shoot first mentality has cost many of his teams and led to his wandering through league teams like David Carradine.  Latrell Sprewell has reached Reggie Miller status.  Just because he looks exactly like he did 10 years ago does not mean he still plays like it.  And Michael Olowakandi makes Rasho’s averages over the past two years look Olajuwan-esque.  Rasho is the same person, whose play last year led my sister-in-law to say that it looked like he invested in the Shawn Bradley (aka the Praying Mantice) starter kit.  Flip is a great coach who gets his teams to play excellent team basketball.  It will be interesting to see where he ends up next season. 

            LeBron got the better of Kobe yesterday, who looked pretty good for his first game back.  However, the Lakers still lost, and Kobe took too many forced shots.  I am extremely interested to see what happens to Caron Butler and Lamar Odom now that the Kobster is back.

            The Steve Nash MVP tour took a slight hit last night when he was outplayed by Speedy Claxton in the second half (and overtime) of the Suns’ win over Golden State.  If the Suns were playing any other team in the league (New York Knicks excepted) they would have lost.  Golden State knows how to lose better than any team in the league.  Mike Montgomery looked like he was staring down the barrel of a shotgun at the end of the game.  The hands on top of the head for most of overtime also added to this unique approach for a coach. 

In honor of the upcoming All Star Game and All Star Weekend, I thought I would add a photo of Texarkana’s finest, Desmond Mason when he won the Slam Dunk Contest a few years ago.   The site wouldn’t let me add the picture to the post, so you can check it out in the photo album on the scroll bar to the right. 

Wow!  I’m watching the Suns/Grizzlies game and Shawn Marion just hit the top of the backboard on a jumper from the corner.  He hit the top of the backboard.  Seriously.  How does an NBA player do that?  I can understand hoisting something up as the shot clock is winding down and barely touching the backboard, but Marion was set up in the corner, caught the pass, and t-rexed it off the top of the glass.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a shot that bad.  I wonder what Steve Nash said to him during the next timeout?

I had a long post typed up earlier, and when I tried to upload it, it disappeared.  Unfortunately, I don’t feel like typing the whole thing over again, I will compile the bootleg version of the original.

After last night’s Spurs’ domination, I figured out that Vlad Radmanovich won’t ever reach the level that Peja did with the Kings two years ago if he continues to work on his acting career.  He has to decide if he wants to continue his run as Dr. Kovach on ER, or try to reach another level with his abilities.

Other notes from the Spurs game: 
Flip Murray is terrible.  His run as the lovable, undersized, ex-NBDL gunner is over.  Last night he was atrocious.  He forced too many shots when the Sonics needed to work Lewis and Radmanovich.  It culminated when the Sonics fans started booing him in the third and fourth quarter.  The Sonics need to see the writing on the wall and try to move him to a team that needs some backcourt help.  There are plenty of teams like that out there. 

Also, Malik is done as a Spur.  His run has come to an end in S.A.  He’s losing his minutes to Sean Marks now.  Yes, I said Sean Marks.  Exactly.  It’s a shame, because Malik is one of my all-time favorite Spurs.  His energy when he first made the team was incredible.  He would come in the game and grab offensive rebounds, especially on missed free throws where no one tries to get boards anymore.  He would also end up on the floor within two minutes of checking in.  It was contagious.  The rest of the team would pick up their hustle to match Malik’s energy.  Sure he would probably end with 6 points and 5 or 6 rebounds.  But he was so much fun to root for.  It was sad when Antonio Daniels was traded, and it will be rough when Malik goes.

However, if the Spurs can acquire Donyell Marshall in a deal, things would be looking up.  Marshall reminds me a lot of Robert Horry a few years ago.  Marshall can hit the three, block some shots, grab some rebounds, and play up to three different positions on the court.  The main differences are that Marshall has never acted in summer blockbusters like Horry, and he’s never hit huge jumpers to win games.  Of course, Marshall has NEVER played for a winning team.