VeriHoops

Before all the bandwagoners jump on the Lakers freight train, I’d like to implore the Lakers to be afraid. To be very very afraid. The Magic are a team that no one respects. Even after they went 6-3 against the Lakers, Cavs, and Celtics during the regular season, no one gave them respect. Some people are even clinging onto the fact that it was the Cavs who lost, not the Magic who outplayed the Cavs. The fact is, we were witnesses of a human LeBron and a powerful Magic team.

People say the Magic live and die by the three. The fact is, they live and die by the three according to how many threes they jack up, not the percentage of threes they make. Hollinger summarizes this very nicely.

People say they don’t have a big 4 to help Dwight, especially against a lineup like Gasol and Bynum. The fact is, Gasol and Bynum can’t guard Dwight and Hedo/Rashard either. Not to mention, Dwight is so dominant in the paint he shut down the Cavs offense. Please don’t say the Cavs choked. Legitimate winners don’t choke for a whole series. Give credit where it is due: Dwight Howard.

I’m rooting for the Lakers, but it’s gonna be one hell of a series for them to win.

Just to keep emotions in check, I’ll say it, Jordan is the best there ever was.

Okay, now to my thoughts.

I find it bewildering that people can laud MJ for many things that when actually looked at don’t really make sense. One example is making teammates better. It is common knowledge that MJ trashed his teammates. I believe he punched Steve Kerr at practice one time. How can you call that making your teammates better? Was it MJ’s unrelenting drive for success that elevated the level of play in others? This is a point that many people would argue is a weakness on Kobe’s resume. They think he is a self centered player who knows how to elevate his game to the highest of levels, but leaves his teammates in the dust. People don’t think Kobe is a team player. But if you look at the evidence, it is pretty clear Jordan was not a team player either, not in the way Magic was and LeBron is. But people still insist he made his teammates better. On what basis do they make this claim? There is no doubt that MJ’s presence on the court offered his teammates the chance to shine. But if the individual player did not possess the innate ability to shine, then he would not have been able to take advantage of that opportunity. I think everyone agrees there are winners and there are losers. Losers find ways to lose even when given the opportunity to win. Chris Webber comes to mind. MJ’s teammates were not losers. The fact that they could stand up to MJ’s trashing only shows that they were a group of winners. I don’t understand people when they think MJ made a bunch of nothings into something and that he did it all by himself. I know many people would react to that last statement and retort by saying they make no such claims. But when you sit down and listen to people argue for why MJ was the best ever, this is definitely a point that they use. And they like to make it sound like MJ was some kind of god that instilled the power to win into each of his teammates.

Another example is that Jordan is the best ever because he won without a big man. Yes, Jordan won 6 rings without a dominant big man. But if you look at all his Finals match ups, he never had to play a dominant big man. Do Karl Malone or Shawn Kemp count as dominant big men? I don’t really think so. Dominant big men are of the ilk of Tim Duncan, Shaq, Hakeem, and Kareem. Malone and Kemp are far cries from such players. Jordan did play against Shaq, but it was during Shaq’s early years. And Jordan did have to beat Patrick Ewing in his prime. But Ewing isn’t a name that is usually included in the same group as the big men I mentioned above. Also Ewing didn’t have a star side kick. Duncan had Parker/Robinson/Manu. Shaq had Kobe. I’m not saying that Jordan would have lost to a Duncan team or a Hakeem team; all that is just speculation. But given the facts, Jordan never had to face teams with a dominant big man and a formidable side kick. So to say he won without a big man kind of shrouds the truth.

A tangent to what I discussed in the previous paragraphs is people argue that Jordan not only won without a big man, but that he won with a bunch of nobodies. I already addressed the idea that his team of nobodies were a group of winners. He also had a very formidable side kick in Pippen, who is a Top 50 Greatest Players of All Time member. I think that fact is underrated. And during his second three peat, MJ had Dennis Rodman as well. People also fail to recognize that the Bulls, without MJ, were a 55 win team that took the Knicks to 7 games in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. To me, that is NOT a bunch of nobodies.

Do these points take away from the idea that MJ is the greatest ever? I think so, because people like to think of MJ as some kind of god. But the fact is, he had many things in his favor. Greatness in life is about timing. MJ had the right set of skills, athleticism, and drive at the right time with the right team. So although he was the greatest ever, I’d like to point out that he wasn’t all that some people like to make him out to be.

The “experts” were woefully and completely wrong again. Maybe LeBron can salvage the series and win in 7, but that now looks highly unlikely unless the Magic royally choke.

I’ve always thought the Cavs were very overrated and the Magic were underrated. I told several people before the playoffs began that the Cavs would not win it all and that the Magic were to be feared. I never wrote about it, so that claim may seem like a little revisionist history.

I always thought the Cavs were overrated because they are good at what they do, but they are not the best. Let me qualify that. The Cavs are very good at beating the teams they are supposed to beat, which means they are a consistently good team. And they are proof that the top few teams in the league are worlds apart from the rest. The Cavs routinely annihilated the opposing team, which had Hollinger jumping up and down in his seat because his favorite PER player (LeBron) would win the championship and legitimize both his PER statistics and his Power Rankings statistics at the same time. Talk about a savior. But, Hollinger was blinded by his own statistical ratings to the fact that the Cavs really don’t match up well against any of the top threats in the league. Under the pretty #1 seed, the Cavs don’t really have much going for them. They have LeBron, but their front line is dreadful. LeBron is amazing, but time and time again, the league has shown that this is a team game, not an individual game. Varejao is good when he plays against a mediocre front line. But he’s a liability on the offensive end and his defensive effort or rebounding does not make up for this liability, especially against the top teams in the league. And Zydrunas… he’s just too slow.

The Magic on the other hand, were highly underrated going into the playoffs. If they advance to the finals, they will probably be written off yet again. Hollinger already wrote them off against the Nuggets in what he said would be a nightmare matchup for the Magic. I don’t agree. There are two things the experts don’t like about the Magic. One, they don’t think Dwight Howard is a legitimate offensive threat. And two, the Magic live and die by the three. Both claims are somewhat true, but also somewhat false. Dwight Howard is not an on the ball offensive threat when he’s guarded by someone who can match his strength. We saw this in the Boston series with Perkins. But when the man guarding him is Varejao, Zydrunas, or Wallace, he can pretty much dominate with brute strength. We saw this in the first half and OT of Game 4. Also, it’s important to note that Howard is always a threat to get the offensive board and put back a slam. The second point, that the Magic live and die by the three, is not entirely true either. When I think of a team that lives and dies by the three, I think of the Warriors. The Magic do take a very high proportion of their shot from behind the arc, but it is the presence of an inside force that gives them good opportunities behind the arc and also gives them another avenue of attack. The Warriors just run and gun. They don’t have a legitimate alternate avenue for offense. Despite the huge percentage of shots that go up as three pointers, the experts don’t recognize that the Magic really have a balanced offensive arsenal. We saw this in OT of Game 4 where Howard scored 10 points or so.

Like I said, the Cavs can still win the series. But if anything, this series has just shown again how much the “experts” really know.

Disclaimer: I am definitely not presuming to be an expert. I happened to be right about this series, but I have also been wrong about other things, like how good the Nuggets would become with Billups. But I don’t spend my life researching these things. You’d think people who do this for a living would have a better clue. But they don’t. On the other hand, Sir Charles Barkley was absolutely correct when he pointed out the matchup problems for the Cavs. And it seems he is one person who usually knows what he is talking about.

Early in the season, I wrote the Nuggets and Billups off as overrated upstarts. Billups handedly threw that pile of b.s. into my face and is now rubbing it into my mouth as they battle the Lakers for the Western Conference crown.

I take it back. Billups is the man, and the way he has led his team is unbelievable. Only a season ago, they got their rears handed to them by the Lake Show. However, despite Billups leadership, which essentially replaced Iverson’s parasitic lack of leadership, I am even more impressed with Carmelo Anthony’s play. When Melo shaved his locks, he wasn’t joking around.

The fact that it is Melo and not Billups who has surprised me more led me to think about what motivated Melo to raise his game? I don’t think it’s that far of a stretch to say it was his involvement with Team USA. Arguably, every player on that roster minus Michael Redd (due to injury), Tashaun Prince (due to Iverson), and Carlos Boozer (due to injury and a thick head), has elevated his game to a whole new level. Actually, Kobe really hasn’t, but he’s been at his pinnacle for quiet some time and age is catching up. Jason Kidd as well, but he actually had a good season for an old geezer.

I’m glad all our young superstars decided to represent for the USA. We won gold and the NBA’s future never looked brighter.

As a fan of basketball, LeBron James’ game winning three in Game 2 was bitter sweet. I am delighted at the level of play and competition this year’s playoffs, and the Conference Finals in particular, have produced. To have Hedo drop a bucket with 1s left after coming back from a 23 point deficit was good enough. But to have LeBron top that was simply amazing. After Hedo’s shot, I was jumping up and down. After LeBron’s shot, I frozen in disbelief.

The reason the moment left a bitter aftertaste is that I wanted the Magic to win. The Magic were able to claw their way back by playing their game; spreading the court with their shooters and playing the pick and roll. On the other hand, the Cavs again had to rely on LeBron to make anything happen. He almost failed miserably until that last shot. The Magic were a joy to watch. The Cavs were not. For Bill Simmons who says he would rather watch a 40-10-10 game from LeBron than a 50-5-5 game from Kobe, I don’t know if this would qualify as a game he would enjoy watching. LeBron had 35-5-4 with 6 turnovers. If Bill claims otherwise, I will have lost all respect for that guy’s opinions.

But another reason the moment was bitter is because it revealed how, many times, my respect for the game collides with my loyalty to the Lakers. Simply put, if I followed my respect for the game, I wouldn’t be cheering for the Lakers night in and night out. But because of my loyalty, I find that even when the opposing team has all the traits I would love to root for, I end up rooting for the Lakers, who, a lot of the time, have opposing traits.

Anyways, good win for the Cavs. This just made the NBA even more compelling to watch.

I think there should be a committee that watches NBA games on screen who have the ability to make referee calls. For example, as soon as J.R. Smith committed the jump ball violation, Jeff Van Gundy on ESPN pointed it out. The refs obviously had no clue because they are an incompetent group of officials.

This committee’s influence would be limited to making calls on non contact issues such as players stepping out of bounds (Billups stepped out before he drained a three at the waning moments of Game 1) or violating jump ball rules. I think this would make refereeing much simpler and possibly more consistent.

It might also be a good idea for them to have the power to review flagrant calls. Officials have become whistle happy recently in an attempts to squash any potential fights. And their whistles on this matter are having a very detrimental effect on the NBA.

This excerpt is from ESPN’s OTL on Chauncey Billups.

Suddenly, he notices the defender guarding the inbounds pass has turned his back to him. So 18-year-old Chauncey throws the ball off the defender’s rear end, catches it, drop-steps and dunks with two hands. Chauncey has himself a bucket and an assist. The crowd snickers … except for his grandmother sitting in the 10th row.

As a schoolboy star at George Washington High School in Denver, Chauncey had his choice of colleges.
Her name is Florence Gresham, and she always has told her grandson to tone it down, to respect his opponent, to play the game “the right way.” It’s a conversation they have a lot. She lives just blocks from the Skyland Rec Center in Park Hill, where Chauncey plays ball after school, so every day he walks to her house for a soda, and every day she tells Chauncey to behave himself on the court.

So that’s why, after his dunk sends the Metro State College arena into a tizzy, Chauncey looks over to his grandmother and mouths: Sorry.

Game 2’s baseline play when Billups threw the ball off Kobe’s back for the easy layup had me thinking about this story. For all the hoopla Billups is getting about his leadership, charisma, and no bullshit attitude, I wonder where grandma’s lessons on integrity went? Out the other ear? Haha.

I’m not quite sure why Phil Jackson keeps insisting on playing Derek Fisher and benching Andrew Bynum. I missed the first half of the 3rd quarter last night, so maybe I missed some heinous error by Bynum. But, from what I’ve observed, more good things than not happen on the court when Bynum and Brown/Farmar are on the floor.

Fisher has lost his shot while Brown and Farmar are playing with a lot of confidence. Bynum is a bit awkward, but if he was playing down the stretch, I don’t think ‘Melo would have gotten that second chance point under the basket near the end of the game because Ariza just wasn’t strong enough. That sequence was a crucial defensive stop, but the Lakers couldn’t grab the rebound. How many times have we seen this happen when Bynum is not on the floor? ‘Melo has had so many offensive rebounds and put easy put-backs under the rim it sickens me. Those kinds of plays kill a team.

I also do not understand why Sasha gets playing time. He is absolute garbage. He can’t make a shot if his life depended on it. And his defense reminds me of an overeager dog. He hounds his man and either fouls (he begs to differ on every call) or gets blown by because he was too eager. Maybe there’s something there I don’t see because I’m not a coach. But as a fan, I absolutely abhor the minutes when Sasha is on the floor. I wish he would get back some of his 2008 shooting touch. Then he’d be somewhat useful.

Hollinger from ESPN made a point about Phil Jackson becoming a little senile when Ric Adelman pulled out all the right moves and Phil seemed disinterested by not making any shrewd counter moves during the Conference Semifinals. In the end the Lakers prevailed, but I think a lot of heart ache and stress could have been saved if Jackson just went to what works NOW, not what worked last year.

If the Lakers have a little bit of Jekyll and Hyde, I’d say it’s because Phil Jackson wants it that way. My hopeful theory was that Phil wanted the Lakers to face some adversity against the Rockets to prepare them for a tough series against the Nuggets and Cavs/Orlando. Last year they breezed through the Western Conference only to get shell shocked by the toughness of Boston. So maybe, just maybe, Phil was trying to battle test them. But now that I see Phil is still pulling out the same dim witted moves, I’m beginning to wonder if he needs to go.

Dwight Howard is the scariest man in the NBA. He is single handedly keeping LeBron James from setting foot in the paint. You have to wonder how this is going to play out for the rest of the series. James is yet to prove he’s a dependable shooter; he does most of his damage close range. Last year, the Celtics collectively rendered him less effective by taking away the paint. But Dwight Howard is doing that by himself. If LeBron doesn’t keep up his torrid shooting, the Cavs will be in big trouble.

It’s also scary how easily Howard is getting his points. Howard is by no means a refined scorer. If it wasn’t for his sheer athleticism, he would have no shot at making All NBA First Team. But the way he’s dominating the paint on the offensive end makes me shudder at how insanely dominating he can be if he works on his game and not just his muscles.

Like Jerry West said, LeBron is the best player in the NBA. But does the title of “best” win titles? Or does the title of “most dominating” win titles? The two are not always synonymous and the future of the NBA seems to point to a difference where LeBron will be the best, but Howard will be the most dominating. If there’s a lesson to be learned from history, it’s that the most dominating players win championships; not always, but most of the time. Think Russell, Abdul Jabbar, Hakeem, Shaq, and Duncan. Jordan was the best and probably the most dominating as well, so he bucks the trend. However, note that he never won a championship against a most dominating big man. Anyways, I’m going out on a limb here, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Dwight Howard ends up with more titles than LeBron James.

Okay, back to the 4th quarter of Game 1, Eastern Conference Finals.

I had a chance to catch the 9:30pm showing of “Kobe Doin’ Work” at the Tribeca Film Festival this past Thursday. Didn’t know what to expect but was definitely excited to watch this documentary. This movie replayed the Lakers/Spurs matchup from last year late in the regular season. However, Spike Lee had Kobe talk about this game almost a year later following his game against the Knicks this season where he dropped 50+ points. The cameras followed Kobe exclusively and he had a mic on him to catch everything he said.

I have to say although the movie was entertaining, I was a bit disappointed with the film. I think it struggled with finding it’s audience. It isn’t for the regular person with very little to no basketball knowledge (my girlfriend didn’t understand more than half of what Kobe was talking about). And it doesn’t really target the basketball fan with a high basketball IQ (I honestly didn’t learn anything new). I was hoping to gain new insight into both Kobe’s mindset on a deeper level and the game of basketball at the NBA level but gained neither. He talks about a lot of basic things that are pretty simple that I and other NBA enthusiasts already knew like how the Spurs like to shoot 3’s from the corners and how Kobe roams around on defense depending on who he’s guarding.

One of the more interesting bits that Kobe mentioned is how his teammates now give him the support he needs. I have told people on occasion over the past few years that although I didn’t like Kobe’s shot selection, I understood why he took those bad shots. In previous seasons he had such poor role players that he didn’t trust and being arguably the best basketball player in the world he thought he had a better chance of making a shot over a double-team (or even triple-team) than an open teammate. Kobe confirmed this theory in his commentary.

Any Kobe or Laker fan will probably watch this film anyway. And a lot of basketball fans too. I’m not trying to persuade you not to watch it but don’t go in with really high expectations.