New Album & The Beginning of Basketball Season
- Thread starter Ron Party
- Start date
This will be an intriguing season. OKC and the Heat have two players with serious question marks... LBJ and Westbrooks... LBJ has shown a tendency to disappear when most needed and Westbrook tend to shoot too much and create too many turnovers ... These are liabilities in playoff time ... While the East doesn't have really strong contenders beside Chicago and with Rose seemingly more doubtful than they are letting on, the West seem to have a plethora of dangerous party crashers .. Lakers, SA, Memphis to name those few... Interesting
steve williams
Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
Lakers blow an 11 point lead and lose to the Rockets. How can a Laker fan maintain any equanimity. If I were the Lakers I would be concerned about facing the Grizzlies in the first round
And what about Bynum. He is becoming a loose cannon with all of his game ejections for ticky tack BS
And what about Bynum. He is becoming a loose cannon with all of his game ejections for ticky tack BS
Ya also gotta luv Artest's comments defending Bynum. Poor baby. Everybody picks on him. What happened to Artest in the intervening years between being a nice kid at SJU and the pros?
Artest certainly is an enigma. Think back over the course of the past 20 years in the NBA and think of other players who've been as difficult to figure out. Even Rodman was easier to grasp. Me, I'd like to spend a weekend or so with Artest, excuse me, World Peace, to find out even a small glimpse of what really makes him tick. (After all, who wouldn't want at least one week end of world peace? 
)
I'll say this about World Peace: he has the best left (non-dominant) hand in the league. He steals and blocks shots almost exclusively with his left hand (to say nothing of strength). Utterly uncanny the degree of effectiveness he displays.
)I'll say this about World Peace: he has the best left (non-dominant) hand in the league. He steals and blocks shots almost exclusively with his left hand (to say nothing of strength). Utterly uncanny the degree of effectiveness he displays.
steve williams
Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
Artest certainly is an enigma. Think back over the course of the past 20 years in the NBA and think of other players who've been as difficult to figure out. Even Rodman was easier to grasp. Me, I'd like to spend a weekend or so with Artest, excuse me, World Peace, to find out even a small glimpse of what really makes him tick. (After all, who wouldn't want at least one week end of world peace?
I'll say this about World Peace: he has the best left (non-dominant) hand in the league. He steals and blocks shots almost exclusively with his left hand (to say nothing of strength). Utterly uncanny the degree of effectiveness he displays.
I would go so far as saying that Artest is the strongest player in the league
I also believe he has made bold attempts at behavioral modification. Nonetheless you can see that if a player gets physical with him, his button can be pushed but at least he has learned restraint (IMO). The player that concerns me most is Matt Barnes. His defense is all hard tough blocks, some of which IMO border on flagrant fouls.
Bynum IMO is the enigma. Sort of has a chip on his shoulder since a strong year with all star status. Almost as if he is doing to Mike Brown what Howard is doing to SVG. Interesting if Orlando and Lakers were to trade their big men because after Howard's tirade and JVG's press conference everyone is predicting that they will both be gone by season end
Steve, I see you've finally come around to my side of the table re Matt Barnes. He is a cheap shot, hard foul just waiting to happen.
True that about Bynum. Another enigma, although in his case it's in significant part a case of immaturity. World Peace, OTOH, well... a psychiatrist's dream patient.
True that about Bynum. Another enigma, although in his case it's in significant part a case of immaturity. World Peace, OTOH, well... a psychiatrist's dream patient.
Someone took note of that about 10 years ago, Michael Jordan. Artest broke TWO of his ribs the first time they met in a summer game, and IIRC, that was when Jordan was on a comeback after one of his retirements.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1141436/index.htm
"That passion has turned the third-year player into one of the league's most promising young talents. "I love Ron Artest," says Michael Jordan, who developed an appreciation for his physical style when Artest broke two of Jordan's ribs the first day the two played together last summer in Chicago. "He's got so much intensity and such drive. I wish I could have played against him six years ago."
steve williams
Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
just saw the video recap as it was a wee hour morning game here. what a thrilling game down to the wire. and to see the madison sq garden fans jump up was some sight. this, without amare and lin even. for bulls fans, good to see rose back in action again to dispel all the worries. i always believed melo could be a great player if he plays consistent and set his heart in it. thing is, he can have this kind of a game, explosive and hitting game winners, but there could be games when he suddenly is way off and disappears. it would be a shame if ny miss the playoffs this season with their talents, they are only 1 game up MIL for the final spot.
Knicks now 7th seed with 76ers loss tonight. Sixers definitely headed wrong direction.
How 'bout dem Spurs? Red hot, ten in a row and pulling away in the West! Don't ever count Pop out
Saw the 4th quarter and OT of the Knicks game vs Bulls. Wow! Knicks trailing all the way closing minutes and sneaked out an incredible win. Melo moment. But can he sustain that kind of a performance and be a Kobe come playoffs? I'd really like to see him do that. In fact, I had been waiting a long time to see him do that. Step up, Melo.
And yes, Spurs are a serious bunch. They are pacing their older core players and having younger players blend in and now have a pretty decent bench. And with Coach Pop running the show, any team has to take them seriously in the playoffs. But looks like they won't have to face Memphis in the first round this time.
And yes, Spurs are a serious bunch. They are pacing their older core players and having younger players blend in and now have a pretty decent bench. And with Coach Pop running the show, any team has to take them seriously in the playoffs. But looks like they won't have to face Memphis in the first round this time.
steve williams
Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
Looks like Lakers will get the Grizz (beware of the Grizz as they are peaking at the right time)
Why is it I can't see SAS as a serious contender
Why is it I can't see SAS as a serious contender
Bulls missed 4 free throws any of which would have made it a two possession game and put it away. Ouch.
Amazing shots by Melo, but I think part of his problem is he defines winning almost entirely by 'give me the ball at the end'. Don't think he fully gets it, yet anyway.
steve williams
Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
steve williams
Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
So is Odom coming back to the Lakers?????
AP source: Odom done playing for Mavericks
DALLAS (AP) — The forced marriage of Lamar Odom and the Dallas Mavericks didn't last even one lockout-shortened season.
The NBA's reigning Sixth Man of the Year, who was shipped to Dallas after the Los Angeles Lakers tried to send him to New Orleans in the Chris Paul deal that was nixed by the league, will not play the rest of the season for the Mavericks, according to a person familiar with the decision who spoke Monday on condition of anonymity because an official announcement had not been made.
Odom told ESPN.com that he and the defending champions decided it was ``in the best interest of both parties for me to step away from the team.''
The Lakers felt compelled to move the 6-10 forward after he was included in the Paul trade, and the Mavericks considered it a low-risk move to use a trade exception from the deal that sent Tyson Chandler to the New York Knicks.
Odom never seemed happy or comfortable in Dallas, not even when wife and reality TV co-star Khloe Kardashian was in the stands just a few feet from the Mavericks bench. His averages of 6.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 20.5 minutes were career lows, and he was booed by the home crowd as the sluggish performances multiplied.
The low point appeared to come Saturday night, when he played just four minutes in a 94-89 loss at Memphis. Asked after the game about the situation, Odom simply shrugged his shoulders. Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki, who defended Odom all season, simply said ``I'm done talking about that,'' after the Memphis game.
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban hoped Odom could fill a void after the team decided against re-signing Chandler, considered a key piece of the championship team because of his leadership skills and strong defensive presence.
The decision on Chandler was widely viewed as something that would give the Mavericks flexibility to pursue free agents this summer - notably Dwight Howard and Deron Williams - but Cuban maintained the addition of Odom's ability to shoot, pass and defend gave the Mavs a strong chance to defend their crown.
Without Odom, the Mavericks lose their best backup to Nowitzki. The team said Monday it was recalling guard-forward Kelenna Azubuike from the NBA Development League. He hasn't played in the NBA since injuring a knee two seasons ago and averaged 6.4 points and 3.4 rebounds in seven games with the Texas Legends.
AP source: Odom done playing for Mavericks
DALLAS (AP) — The forced marriage of Lamar Odom and the Dallas Mavericks didn't last even one lockout-shortened season.
The NBA's reigning Sixth Man of the Year, who was shipped to Dallas after the Los Angeles Lakers tried to send him to New Orleans in the Chris Paul deal that was nixed by the league, will not play the rest of the season for the Mavericks, according to a person familiar with the decision who spoke Monday on condition of anonymity because an official announcement had not been made.
Odom told ESPN.com that he and the defending champions decided it was ``in the best interest of both parties for me to step away from the team.''
The Lakers felt compelled to move the 6-10 forward after he was included in the Paul trade, and the Mavericks considered it a low-risk move to use a trade exception from the deal that sent Tyson Chandler to the New York Knicks.
Odom never seemed happy or comfortable in Dallas, not even when wife and reality TV co-star Khloe Kardashian was in the stands just a few feet from the Mavericks bench. His averages of 6.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 20.5 minutes were career lows, and he was booed by the home crowd as the sluggish performances multiplied.
The low point appeared to come Saturday night, when he played just four minutes in a 94-89 loss at Memphis. Asked after the game about the situation, Odom simply shrugged his shoulders. Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki, who defended Odom all season, simply said ``I'm done talking about that,'' after the Memphis game.
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban hoped Odom could fill a void after the team decided against re-signing Chandler, considered a key piece of the championship team because of his leadership skills and strong defensive presence.
The decision on Chandler was widely viewed as something that would give the Mavericks flexibility to pursue free agents this summer - notably Dwight Howard and Deron Williams - but Cuban maintained the addition of Odom's ability to shoot, pass and defend gave the Mavs a strong chance to defend their crown.
Without Odom, the Mavericks lose their best backup to Nowitzki. The team said Monday it was recalling guard-forward Kelenna Azubuike from the NBA Development League. He hasn't played in the NBA since injuring a knee two seasons ago and averaged 6.4 points and 3.4 rebounds in seven games with the Texas Legends.
steve williams
Site Founder, Site Owner, Administrator
Can Howard learn from LeBron's turnaround?
Interesting read
Bill Reiter, FOX Sports
This is what Dwight Howard should expect because this is what Dwight Howard deserves:
Ridicule.
Anger.
Doubt.
Angst.
And he deserves an organization, no matter which one he eventually chooses to play for, that once its members come to know him, will doubt him at the most basic of levels – as a teammate, as a winner, as a man with the ability to fulfill his incredible potential.
This is what you deserve when you play games with your coach and his career and then that coach publicly calls you on your crap. This is what you deserve when you play a man’s game with your immense power and talent — a big-time star’s big-time power play — with the maturity of a 13-year-old and the sensitivity of the emotionally tone deaf.
This is what you deserve when you hold teams captive to your ego, when you say stupid things such as your most recent decision to stick around was in part based on the Magic supplying you your “favorite candies,” when you flash to the world all the insolence and damage unique to a clueless man of power and means — and when, to date, you’re more a stat machine than a closer in a league in which winning championships should be the only way to earn the right to dictate your terms.
Last Thursday, when Orlando head coach Stan Van Gundy told an astonished scrum of sports writers that he knew for a fact from the highest level of his organization that Howard had indeed asked that he be fired, the head coach did more than unburden himself from living the lie.
He unburdened us, too. There’s no more reason to pretend. Dwight Howard is the new LeBron James just as surely as LeBron James has taken steps away from his status as a world-wide sports villain this season.
A quick recap: LeBron’s self-imposed move into villain-hood — “I’m taking my talents to South Beach” — had almost nothing to do with the world’s jealousy, elitism and or hatred against a great player. It was simple: In an America with gulfs of inequity — in a country with so many doing so well and yet so many more struggling so mightily — it is hard for the zeitgeist to take such galling arrogance, cluelessness and self-absorption from someone so successful and blessed without turning it into poison. It’s as simple as that, and the fact that in a culture where winning cures all things, LeBron kept on not winning.
So LeBron walked into a public-relations prison of his own making, paid his dues and seems to have gotten out. There’s still no telling if he’ll win it all (though it’s looking good), but he’s mostly won off the court this season.
He did a truly courageous act that has nothing to do with building his brand by donning a hoodie for Trayvon Martin. He’s dialed down his tendency to flash his shortcomings, whether it was Karmagate, Bumpgate, the cartoon show “The LeBrons” or a host of other signs from last season he just didn’t get it. Even the olive branches he’s extended at times this year, including saying he could see himself playing in Cleveland, have shown a LeBron somewhere between a guy who at least understands what he did and a guy who’s actually grown.
Either way, he’s no longer telegraphing to everyone in the world that the guy from The Decision hasn’t changed a lick.
Howard might want to pay attention to all of this, because what LeBron’s been through — and how it parallels Howard’s world — could be a big part of what is transferred from the Chosen One to Superman beyond the simple mantle of the NBA’s new, highly-petulant villain.
In being exposed for who he was, LeBron’s tendency to, at times, play poorly under pressure during his Cleveland years intensified, ending in a Finals collapse that the less forgiving among us might attribute to karma.
And Dwight has certainly shown the same tendency for closing late, even if those focused only on stats point out, correctly, that he’s a really good basketball player.
LeBron, too, in the lead up to that public failure was mostly miserable his first year in Miami. He could not handle the criticism, or the angst, and neither he nor his team seemed able to carry that particularly heavy load of intense criticism or meet those even more intense expectations. His off-court problems — the ones that come with being a self-righteous, unlikable blowhard — impacted his play and that of his teams.
It was a year of figuring out, the hard way, that he was not the chosen one he thought — he was not unconditionally beloved by strangers; he was not as infallible as his entourage would have him believe; and he was not as destined for greatness as he’d been told by the world since he was a teenager.
Reality crashed in, and it made life on the basketball court harder than he’d thought it could be. Reality crashed in, and it made life on the basketball court harder than he’d thought it could be.
That was then. LeBron, it seems, has learned and grown from that year of turmoil and struggle.
Dwight Howard, if he gets what he deserves — and it should be noted that doesn’t always happen — should get the same treatment as LeBron did going forward.
Already, New York tabloids have warned the New Jersey Nets against going after Howard, quite the suggestion given the fact he’s the finest center on earth. National media have already taken turns outlining, in excruciating and pinpoint detail, his shortcomings as a teammate and player and his propensity to be a coach killer.
And the coach who he’s surely killed off already, the walking dead who is Van Gundy, seemed to give Howard a taste of life as the new LeBron when he rolled out the candor to the cameras Thursday and then walked away when his two-faced star sauntered over and tried to do the old it’s-us-against-them trick.
It was beautiful, Van Gundy just walking, leaving Howard to face the fact it was about to be Howard against the world and forcing him to insult all of our intelligences as he tried to shove the lie down our throats.
That’s the other piece of the puzzle that links who LeBron was and who Howard has become: unintentional and accidental candor captured on television, the medium that when done right makes it hard to lie even to ourselves.
Most stars hide their intentions and egos and lapses from the public. Not LeBron. He unmasked it fully on live television. And not Howard, who unmasked it in a trade-me-trade-me-not-trade-me-trade-me-not farce that set up all of this. Van Gundy’s move, forced on him by his star player, simply gave us the TV moment to realize it.
Most people didn’t root against LeBron because he left Cleveland. They rooted against him because, when he left, he showed who he really was, and an unlikeable figure who had clothed himself in Nike gear, worship-me ads and marketing campaigns that made us all a little complicit for buying the lie.
LeBron got what he got despite the fact he was a free agent because he left the place that loved him and drafted him. Howard will almost certainly leave the place that loves him and drafted him, but while he’s still there, he’s ripping it apart from the inside.
That part of LeBron’s time, I hope, is over. That part of Dwight Howard’s time it seems is just beginning.
Howard has revealed himself — beyond the nickname, beyond the stats and promise, beyond the fake smiles and dishonest attempts to blame the media — as a clueless, petulant, immature and spoiled star who needs a season or two of the mockery he deserves before he can have a shot at finally growing up and being the player, person and teammate his talents deserve.
Courtesy of FOXSports.com
Interesting read
Bill Reiter, FOX Sports
This is what Dwight Howard should expect because this is what Dwight Howard deserves:
Ridicule.
Anger.
Doubt.
Angst.
And he deserves an organization, no matter which one he eventually chooses to play for, that once its members come to know him, will doubt him at the most basic of levels – as a teammate, as a winner, as a man with the ability to fulfill his incredible potential.
This is what you deserve when you play games with your coach and his career and then that coach publicly calls you on your crap. This is what you deserve when you play a man’s game with your immense power and talent — a big-time star’s big-time power play — with the maturity of a 13-year-old and the sensitivity of the emotionally tone deaf.
This is what you deserve when you hold teams captive to your ego, when you say stupid things such as your most recent decision to stick around was in part based on the Magic supplying you your “favorite candies,” when you flash to the world all the insolence and damage unique to a clueless man of power and means — and when, to date, you’re more a stat machine than a closer in a league in which winning championships should be the only way to earn the right to dictate your terms.
Last Thursday, when Orlando head coach Stan Van Gundy told an astonished scrum of sports writers that he knew for a fact from the highest level of his organization that Howard had indeed asked that he be fired, the head coach did more than unburden himself from living the lie.
He unburdened us, too. There’s no more reason to pretend. Dwight Howard is the new LeBron James just as surely as LeBron James has taken steps away from his status as a world-wide sports villain this season.
A quick recap: LeBron’s self-imposed move into villain-hood — “I’m taking my talents to South Beach” — had almost nothing to do with the world’s jealousy, elitism and or hatred against a great player. It was simple: In an America with gulfs of inequity — in a country with so many doing so well and yet so many more struggling so mightily — it is hard for the zeitgeist to take such galling arrogance, cluelessness and self-absorption from someone so successful and blessed without turning it into poison. It’s as simple as that, and the fact that in a culture where winning cures all things, LeBron kept on not winning.
So LeBron walked into a public-relations prison of his own making, paid his dues and seems to have gotten out. There’s still no telling if he’ll win it all (though it’s looking good), but he’s mostly won off the court this season.
He did a truly courageous act that has nothing to do with building his brand by donning a hoodie for Trayvon Martin. He’s dialed down his tendency to flash his shortcomings, whether it was Karmagate, Bumpgate, the cartoon show “The LeBrons” or a host of other signs from last season he just didn’t get it. Even the olive branches he’s extended at times this year, including saying he could see himself playing in Cleveland, have shown a LeBron somewhere between a guy who at least understands what he did and a guy who’s actually grown.
Either way, he’s no longer telegraphing to everyone in the world that the guy from The Decision hasn’t changed a lick.
Howard might want to pay attention to all of this, because what LeBron’s been through — and how it parallels Howard’s world — could be a big part of what is transferred from the Chosen One to Superman beyond the simple mantle of the NBA’s new, highly-petulant villain.
In being exposed for who he was, LeBron’s tendency to, at times, play poorly under pressure during his Cleveland years intensified, ending in a Finals collapse that the less forgiving among us might attribute to karma.
And Dwight has certainly shown the same tendency for closing late, even if those focused only on stats point out, correctly, that he’s a really good basketball player.
LeBron, too, in the lead up to that public failure was mostly miserable his first year in Miami. He could not handle the criticism, or the angst, and neither he nor his team seemed able to carry that particularly heavy load of intense criticism or meet those even more intense expectations. His off-court problems — the ones that come with being a self-righteous, unlikable blowhard — impacted his play and that of his teams.
It was a year of figuring out, the hard way, that he was not the chosen one he thought — he was not unconditionally beloved by strangers; he was not as infallible as his entourage would have him believe; and he was not as destined for greatness as he’d been told by the world since he was a teenager.
Reality crashed in, and it made life on the basketball court harder than he’d thought it could be. Reality crashed in, and it made life on the basketball court harder than he’d thought it could be.
That was then. LeBron, it seems, has learned and grown from that year of turmoil and struggle.
Dwight Howard, if he gets what he deserves — and it should be noted that doesn’t always happen — should get the same treatment as LeBron did going forward.
Already, New York tabloids have warned the New Jersey Nets against going after Howard, quite the suggestion given the fact he’s the finest center on earth. National media have already taken turns outlining, in excruciating and pinpoint detail, his shortcomings as a teammate and player and his propensity to be a coach killer.
And the coach who he’s surely killed off already, the walking dead who is Van Gundy, seemed to give Howard a taste of life as the new LeBron when he rolled out the candor to the cameras Thursday and then walked away when his two-faced star sauntered over and tried to do the old it’s-us-against-them trick.
It was beautiful, Van Gundy just walking, leaving Howard to face the fact it was about to be Howard against the world and forcing him to insult all of our intelligences as he tried to shove the lie down our throats.
That’s the other piece of the puzzle that links who LeBron was and who Howard has become: unintentional and accidental candor captured on television, the medium that when done right makes it hard to lie even to ourselves.
Most stars hide their intentions and egos and lapses from the public. Not LeBron. He unmasked it fully on live television. And not Howard, who unmasked it in a trade-me-trade-me-not-trade-me-trade-me-not farce that set up all of this. Van Gundy’s move, forced on him by his star player, simply gave us the TV moment to realize it.
Most people didn’t root against LeBron because he left Cleveland. They rooted against him because, when he left, he showed who he really was, and an unlikeable figure who had clothed himself in Nike gear, worship-me ads and marketing campaigns that made us all a little complicit for buying the lie.
LeBron got what he got despite the fact he was a free agent because he left the place that loved him and drafted him. Howard will almost certainly leave the place that loves him and drafted him, but while he’s still there, he’s ripping it apart from the inside.
That part of LeBron’s time, I hope, is over. That part of Dwight Howard’s time it seems is just beginning.
Howard has revealed himself — beyond the nickname, beyond the stats and promise, beyond the fake smiles and dishonest attempts to blame the media — as a clueless, petulant, immature and spoiled star who needs a season or two of the mockery he deserves before he can have a shot at finally growing up and being the player, person and teammate his talents deserve.
Courtesy of FOXSports.com
Really strange ending to Odom's career in Dallas. A blotched trade made him demand a trade, which Kupchak readily obliged. What was unexpected was he suddenly seemed to have lost his old touch in playing basketball. Now, he will sit out for the duration of the season without being waived or traded, yet. Dallas can trade him come draft time as they maintain Odom's rights. Odom still has a contract worth $8.2m due him till the end of the 2012-2013 season. Call him lucky to be getting so much even after forgetting to play basketball. I doubt if Mitch wants him back.
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