The Return of the Picks
For the highly anticipated return of the picks, I thought I would kick off the NBA prediction campaign by offering my personal, enlightened opinions about the NBA rookies this season. Remember, nobody, and I mean NOBODY watches more basketball than me that does not earn a paycheck to do so. I promise. Name one person, other than yours truly, that Tivo’ed every single summer league game and watched them in their entirety. You can’t. Maybe some tried, but once the lineups got down to Hans Jorgenflugen, and four other deadbeats, you turned away in horror. Not I. I stayed the course. It is what I do, and my wife sometimes hates me for it.
Sidebar 1: You may or may not have noticed that I am dropping the ‘wife’ reference a lot lately instead of referring to her in my preferred nomenclature, ‘lady friend.’ Well, I am still adjusting to this whole marriage concept, and I just think that if I drop that term enough times the hotties will back off, I mean, it will sink in that I’m actually growing up.
Anyway, back to more pressing matters. In my opinion, and the opinion of EVERYBODY else, Kevin Durant will be the Rookie of the Year. No doubt about it. He is going to get plenty of minutes and plenty of shots, so the numbers will certainly be there. Will there be nights where he goes 4-19? Probably, but I am willing to bet that they will be few and far between.
Sidebar 2: I am going to go out on a limb and demand that Kevin Durant get a great nickname, because I don’t want that stupid initial thing happening to him also. Kevin Garnett is still the Big Ticket in my book and not K.G. There are not enough quality nicknames anymore, which is a serious disappoinment. J.Kidd, T-Mac, D.Wade, and ‘Melo. That’s just lazy. At least the Spurs have stayed strong starting with The Ice Man, then The Admiral and The Little General, and finally The Big Fundamental, but other players deserve quality nicknames, like Agent Zero. That is good stuff. Durant needs a quality nickname, and I am calling for all takers to offer up nicknames for Durant.
Anyway, lets get back to the picks (home teams in bold, my picks are listed first):
Arizona +8.5 at Washington
New Orleans -8.0 v. Atlanta
Baltimore -3.0 at Buffalo
Dallas -8.5 v. Minnesota (yes, I have that little faith in Tarvaris Jackson and the Minnesota pass defense)
New England -17.0 at Miami
New York Giants -9.5 v. San Fran. (Dilfer is no good)
Tampa Bay +2.0 at Detroit
Tennessee -1.5 at Houston (if Vince Young plays, if not, go the other way)
Kansas City +1.5 at Oakland
New York Jets +6.5 at Cincy (the Bengals are awful right now)
Chicago +5.5 at Philadelphia (close game because neither team is playing very well)
Seattle -8.0 v. St. Louis
Pittsburgh -3.5 at Denver
Indianapolis -3.5 at Jacksonville
