10 Reasons Why March Madness Destroys The NBA

Nothing Defines March Like A Bracket

I've heard all the reasons why NCAA hoops is inferior. The players suck. They are kids. The games are low scoring. It's a joke compared to the NBA. Everyone who's good is gone in a year or two. All very valid and I know these points all too well: I made them myself for years.


That is, till I finally filled out a bracket and sat down to watch "The MADNESS!" in all it's glory. Instead of just seeing the championship game or the final four, I learned that the beauty of March is in the first two rounds. I learned watching crappy teams beat the better ones is unmatched. Here are 10 realities you nay sayers should consider about March. ( In my house "March" implies the Madness, simply because there is nothing else in the month that truly matters. That's right, take it Easter!)

1. There are 'plenty' of good players in college. Great players even. Every year lots of them make it to the NBA as a result. In a good draft there can be 20 dudes who come in an contribute right away in all capacities on NBA teams. This year alone Blake Griffin and John Wall came in and ripped franchise player status from whoever was there before them as rookies.

This man = Amazing Player!

2. Being a good basketball player and making the NBA are not the same thing. Many amazing college guys are loaded with talent but merely lack the size or athletic ability to compete at the NBA. Pro hoops are dominated so much by those two things. Just because a 6 foot shooting guard is too small to defend 2's in the NBA doesn't mean he's a bad scorer/player.

I can guarantee this: Gerry McNamara is an AMAZING basketball player. He's 6'2" in shoes and no, not as good as Nash or athletic like Iverson, but he's amazing none the less. I watched him carry Melo for huge stretches on their way to an NCAA title. Fantastic. As was Stephen Curry. He's yet to accomplish anything in his NBA career that compares to the ass kicking he gave the entire NCAA in 2008.

3. Teams in the NCAA are not stacked like the NBA. Powerhouse teams will have a guy, maybe two, who will be an elite NBA player. They're better then everyone. But what's so amazing to see is when the 'sucky kids' use heart to overcome the super teams. If heart can't beat talent there's really no point to sports at all. Nothing exemplifies this more then March.

4. These guys who 'suck' are actually more like you and me. Watching someone who has no hopes of a pro career hit massive shot after massive shot to beat someone who is headed for stardom is infinitely more entertaining then watching a stacked juggernaut plow through an NBA season. Tony Skinn is one of my favourite players of all time. He might end up selling insurance.

George Mason Didn't Wear White Once
On Their Way To The Final Four. If You
Watch March, you Know Why This Is Amazing.

I watched him live the story he will be telling his grand children till the day he dies. It's like how Boston fans rooted for Brian Scalanbrine because he was the closest to them and they related. Except instead of rooting for him to finally be put into garbage time or actually hit a shot in a game, I was rooting for him to win a national title as a starter. Have I ever been emotionally invested in a team more then George Mason? Probably not. They were like me beating guys like them.

5. Players in college are not paid money, and the vast majority of them never expect to be paid big money. Hoop is everything to them. Half the NBA lumbers around all season talking about how 'it's a business' and frankly look bored most of the time. Everyone admits that the NBA season is much too long and would be better if it had half the games... you know, just like the NCAA season. Watching teams play their hearts out for nothing but the sport itself will always be better then watching ego driven dudes living in luxury play for their contracts.

6. Fans at college games are drunk.

Lets let Gus Johnson Tell You Why

Really drunk. And they're into it like Charlie Sheen is into Bree Olsen and another line of coke. I just watched a game where I swear the fans didn't stop jumping up and down for an entire half and were cheering at insane decibels entire game. March is like watching Dallas @ GSW in the 2007 playoffs for an entire month. I love the NBA, but I can hardly remember a game or crowd that matched that intensity.

7. Stars are stars, but they're not given star treatment in any similar way shape or form as they are in the NBA. There's still bad calls but there is so much less "well, that was close so we'll give it to the star" situations. I just watched Grant Hill foul out because Kobe gave him an elbow while going by him and looked at the ref. Not in college. It makes for a cleaner and more pure game that's not controlled by the refs, but by the players.

8. Teams play D. Those low scoring games? This is due to kids playing the way their coaches want them to. If an NBA coach told his players they'd be employing heavy pressing and pressure every minute of every game, what happens? He would lose his team of super stars in a month. They're stars and in a nut shell lazy. One of the reasons Rick Pitino failed in the NBA was because he didn't anticipate how players would know the right way to play, but wouldn't care enough to do it. I love hoop, and watching Kevin Love's UCLA teams break the backs of offensive juggernauts to me was just as entertaining as watching Memphis get to the title game with Derrick Rose.

Gus Johnson Is The Embodiment Of March

9. Better talent is not always a good thing. If a team is up 5 or 6 points with a minute left, that game is as good as over in the NBA. They will close them out, hit all their free throws, and it's done. Get on the plane. Next game. In the madness it happens, and happen often. There's always a shot.

With talent spread out it's just harder to put your boot on the throat of the other team. Someone could choke their free throws or turn the ball over to let them back in it. You get more close games and furious come backs. Every year so many massively epic games are won on buzzer beater shots and plays.In the NBA it's just not the same. In the last 10 seconds of a march game it's not uncommon for the lead to change 3 times and then the game be won at the buzzer with everyone freaking out like maniacs. It's hard for me to even picture NBA guys jumping up and down like that.

10. Simply, the Madness. When you watch March, you don't watch one game at a time. It's about the format. In the first weekend there are 40 or 50 games played alone. They're all overlapping each other. When that's combined with point 9 above following all the drama just gets insane.

You start jumping back and foruth between 4 games at once that all have leads of a basket or two at most cuz there are 8 games going on. There's no point in watching something that's not close. Then the finishes start to roll in and you watch one finish after another. It's nothing in March to watch 4 games finish in the span of 20 or 30 minutes, see 2 buzzer beaters, one buzzer beater attempt that fails, and another game go to OT in the final seconds by some underdog team no one ever gave a chance. After the first good game you say "wow, how can that be topped?" and then you see it get topped 4 or 5 times later that night. It's incredible.

Bonus point 11. Gambling. Filling out a bracket and rooting for all the teams you picked to upset the teams they shouldn't be beating just takes everything to another level. When the above happens and a team hits crazy shots to win you money and more importantly the traction to talk smack to your friend you just took money from, life is good.

Stephen Curry Was INCREDIBLE In College

Bonus point 12. I started watching March seriously in the 90's after years of thinking it sucked and was over rated. I got into the fab five thing and loved Grant Hill at Duke but I didn't 'really' start watching the whole thing till later. The first year I filled out a bracket was when Wade went deep in the toruny at Marquette and blew my mind with his play.

Every year for I dunno, 6 years?, I said "there's no way it can be better then last year" and every year I was convinced that's exactly what happened. The only time I didn't feel that way was the year after George Mason made the final four from the 13 seed. Understandable because that was one of the best runs in hoops history. Then the year after that Curry took over and it started again. There's just few things I've ever been into that delivers more then the Madness.

And that's what March is really all about. It's what the Louvre is to art, or what Jazz is to music. Just basketball in it's purest form. There is really no way to be a real basketball fan and not love March. It's what separates fans of basketball stars from fans of the game. If you are a real fan and disagree, don't worry, you'll eventually fall in love with it like the rest of us.

Lets sum this all up in a single sentence. March: the only way sex could be better then March Madness is if you were having sex while watching March Madness. QED.

Post Script: Just one more note. March Madness has Gus Johnson. I would watch him calling paint dry. "And here we go, rise and fire from the sun. Latex is drying hardening it's colourful compound." Gus once made me look up excitedly by calling the ball boys wiping sweat off the floor. I laughed at myself then. Just watch Gus Johnson describe the first game he called in the tourny.

His First Game Ever, And More Amazing Gus Johnson

Pennyroyal “T”

By Jeremy Graham

If Sheed Was Anything, He Was Great For
Basketball: Stern's New Rules Would Have
Robbed Us Of The Entire Sheed Experience

“Don’t go away mad, just go away!” Oh wait, don’t go away either. You just might get T’d up for it. I know, act like a robot. That seems to be the only way to not get a technical foul in today’s NBA. But what happens if the referee thinks that acting like a robot is disrespectful to the game? Well then you are screwed. Don’t you think that suppressing your emotions and acting like a robot is disrespecting the game? I think it is. These men have played basketball their entire lives. They have given their sweat, blood and tears for it and now have a corporate “fat cat” telling them they cant even express themselves in a time of frustration. How wack is that?

Human emotion is the driving force in human beings. It's simple: they have led to bloody confrontations that have taken many lives. Now in “the heat of the battle” you want these men to suppress human emotion with only a split second to think. It can't be done. I am not talking about allowing the players to complain and complain like they have previously but a player should be able to show frustration, anger and a little bit of passion without facing a technical foul and a fine.

How Exactly Is Hiring Strippers To Get Down To
Their Underwear "Respecting The Game" David?
Or Is It Really Just A Respect For The Coffers Rule?

Just the other night Nate Robinson got a tech for merely hanging his head... the worst I have ever seen. Worst tech call I should say. It is up there with Duncan in 07 getting ejected for laughing on the bench. Lets break it down: Nate had just checked into the game and on the first play he fouled a cold jump shooter in Eddie House sending him to the line. A terrible way to entrance and Nate knew it. He hung his head in "self" disappointment he was immediately called for a tech.

He didn't approach the referee. He didn't say anything. Just completely and utterly disappointed in himself because he let his team down. For that he receives a tech plus fine and gives the other team an additional point with the ball. This could have proven costly to the Celtics had the Heat not stunk it up. Not only was the call terrible, the referees swallowed their whistles in the same game when Lebron was much more vocal. Reggie and the booth did not seem too happy with the call and were themselves vocal on the broadcast.

Do I think players should be given free reign on complaining and crying to refs? Absolutely not! This league is full of primma donnas. The new rule could be great for the league if used properly. The respect for the game rule should only come into play when a player vocally challenges the ref about the call in question. I am all for open dialogue between zebras and players about calls as long as the talk is civil. If a player comes whining, actually showing disrespect, rather then asking why, then go ahead and T up the whiney baby.

Another Way To Respect The
Game: Steal The Team Of A
Dedicated Fan Base And Give
It To A Friend For His City

There is no disrespect in asking a ref why he called what he did, and there is no disrespect in being frustrated with a call or upset with yourself. I know the refs like to take over games and become the focal point but even they can’t be happy with handing out T’s like they were prophylactics in the armed services circa 1944.

The only person disrespecting the game right now is David Stern. Instituting these, for lack of a better term, wussy rules is ruining the game that everyone knew and
loved. Calling techs, slowing the game down, having players shoot even more free throws is no way to create more fans. It could even turn the die hard fans away from the game. There is a reason that people hate the end of close basketball games. No one wants to watch free throw after free throw, it can be a grind.

Animated players are rather entertaining however and anything is better than free throws. Could you imagine if these rules were around with Dennis Rodman? We would have probably missed the career of the greatest rebounder ever because he would be getting ejected from every game due to his antics. If David Stern truly loves this league and the game of basketball he will do away with this rule ASAP and instead of trying to squash players pointing out how much refs stink, maybe make some rules that actually improve their performance instead of merely hide reactions to it.

Fix NBA All Star In 10 Easy Steps

Jerry Vision turned off is still more exciting then
most of All Star Weekend

NBA All Star Weekend, bar none, was the best of it's kind in sports. Key word: was. Even with 108,713 fans in Dallas, the mid-season event was anything but classic. It seems wasted potential is now an NBA staple. The slam dunk contest was one of the most anticipated events of the year and it did deliver. It all delivered. Announcers last Sunday had so little to talk about Jerry Vision was often taking center stage. Watching a enormous screen on a little screen at home.

So what's wrong? Plenty. Can it be fixed? Absolutely! 10 sure fire (and simple) ways to instantly return all star to something meaningful, as follows.




1. Change The CBA

The easiest fix of them all! With the Collective Bargaining Agreement about to be renegotiated it's time they addressed something besides money. If the CBA makes the game easier to promote there will be more money for all. Right?

Players are required to take part in NBA Cares and a platitude of other events so just get rid of 'invitations' and make participation in all star events mandatory. If the NBA is picking it's most electric stars to compete those guys are heading to all star anyway: time off is a non-factor.

Fans watch the NBA because they want to see the highest level of competition. No one tuned in to see Gerald Wallace make an uncontested ally oop dunk. I want to see the best shooters alive, not Daquan Cook. I want to see players with pride on the line in HORSE. Lebron vs Kobe vs Durant vs Wade would deliver entertainment Omri Caspi just can't bring to the table.


2. Jocks Are Pretty Stupid, Get Off The Mic

This is spontaneous and awesome. More!

Most players are in reality pretty dull people. If someone like Shaq or Dwight are entertaining, by all means highlight them and let them speak to the fans. Giving Shaq his own dance with the Jabberwokkeez in Phoenix is one of the best all star moments ever. But why spend time interviewing someone with softball questions about their 'strategy' before a shootout? No one wants to hear an athlete stammer through a few sentences trying to find a colorful way to say "I'm going to try and make more shots then the other guy."








Fans want action. We tune in to watch stars 'play

This is not spontaneous, or awesome. Less! NONE!
Just Spare Us!

sports'. That's why they are called 'players' not actors. If I wanted to hear someone speak I'll watch actors who are paid million to speak. Past contests with multiple rounds/competitors have been traded in for talking heads standing around mumbling players waiting for something to happen. Players get crazy, grab the mic or yell into a camera and that's cool because it's spontaneous. The NBA needs to ditch obligatory stadium speaker interviews. They suck. It's staged. No one cares. It drags everything down.






3. How To Fix Horse

If the NBA introduces competitions as a TNT
joke, how can it entice serious players to
compete?

Getting rid of the ultra-stupid G.E.I.C.O. format was a tiny first step, but this could easily be the crown jewel of all professional All Star events. For two years it's been more boring then 3 ball. The NBA got so much wrong I need a bullet list just to keep it organized.

• Step one means players we actually want to see compete. Lebron vs Kobe makes this a real competition and electric because they will NOT want to lose. They have pride. HORSE just became 500% better, instantly.
• Allow dunks already! Who cares if not everyone can dunk. This is the highest level of competition and if you can't dunk, you lose HORSE. NBA players do not need to be protected by no dunk rules.
• Open the competition up to allow one fan to participate. This guy can play. This guy can own. So why not let the fans root for him? How entertaining would it be for an Average Joe to make the NBA's biggest stars sweat before they shoot him out?
• DITCH THE REF! HORSE is not a game you need a ref for. It's a game you play with your friends in a drive way. If someone tries to cheat it can easily be judged by the group. A player stagnantly informing the ref of his shot is not natural or how it's played at all.
• Get rid of unnecessary replay. I just don't need to see a guy miss a lame attempt 4 times. HORSE is fun because it's quick and people try all kinds of crazy novelty shots. If there is any more then 20-30 seconds between attempts, it drags and gets totally dull. If something is crazy enough to warrant replay the crowd and player reactions will create enough time to show them.
• Get Chuck, Kenny and EJ off the floor. Those guys are great in a studio but they are destroying HORSE. They totally interrupt the flow with their irrelevant banter. The past two contests were more about them taking jabs then the athletes competing. They distract the players, they distract the fans, they delay the competition to make yet another fat joke about Barkley.
• Get rid of the mics entirely. Again, athletes are not talkers. They are totally comfortable playing in front of 1,000's but you can sense stiffness and stage fright when their words are booming out to 100,000 plus fans and on TV's across the world. With the mics off, they'll feel comfortable talking trash, laughing and reacting to player's crazy shots. I don't need to hear a stupid interview after every dunk.
• Host HORSE in the main stadium already. What's the point of outside or a separate stadium? A lame 'play ground' feel? Who cares? I want fans cheering like crazy and amping the players up to go for it the same way they used to in the dunk contests.



Maybe The TNT Guys Are Just Getting A Little Too Greedy?
Or Maybe I'm A Little Full On Corny Fat Jokes. They Have
Ruined HORSE for two straight years. STOP!




• Scratch the Shoot Out. As Barkley pointed out, it's hardly even fair, and it's not HORSE.

What do you know, you can have 5 or 6 players competing instead of just 3 when you remove the crap. They used an extra difficult shot to give everyone an H at the start and cut the end with a shootout to fit in boring interviews, banter and replays. It should not take 5 minutes to get through one round of HORSE. Let 6 players can go for it. They call their own shots, talk trash and stick their chests out. No filler. It's like the NBA just doesn't want this to work.



4. Get Some Cool Entertainment

Usher? Really? Look, I understand that teen aged girls drive the popular music market, and I'm sure some focus group may say he's a great choice, but common sense must at some point prevail.

The White Stripes should have been
asked to perform on the strength of
Meg's glorious bouncing rack alone

USHER SUCKS!!!

Some artists sell lots of records but indeed eternally suck. Why are the Pussycat Dolls introducing NBA games? How is it possible I can reference the Pussycat Dolls in a sports blog at all? Is it not possible to get an artist who is popular with more then one age demographic? Maybe they don't have a hit song in the last week, but everyone still loves them? And maybe they've got some stage presence?


How can someone realistically think that Usher would be a better choice then say, The White Stripes? The Red Hot Chilie Peppers? Or U2? (I even hate U2 but they aren't Usher) Are there not 1,000 better choices then a dumb ass chick wearing a bear suit in a cage? If you're going to have soft-core porn why not just hire Jenna Jamison to sit in a cage? Can't the NBA on ABC license Roundball Rock from NBC just for the good of sports in general? How is it possible John Tesh can be cooler then anyone? Yet... he is.




5. Tell Players To Stop Shooting


Not a rule, but a primer. A pep talk. Before the 4'th quarter, if a play you make is not going to be spectacular, pass the ball. It took a whole half before players started going for it. We don't want pull up jumpers. We want the Harlem Globetrotters. The rookie game was factually better then the allstar game. The Mcdonalds High School All American game was more entertaining. Why make safe plays in an all star game? Deron Williams, Wade, Lebron and Howard were the only guys to even try flashy moves.


Not that shooting a 3 is bad... if you're Dwight Howard, that's awesome. If it's from 35 feet, great! If you make a few and want to get people excited by hitting 10 in a row, uber cool. Just be special. I'd rather see 1 made ally oop off the glass out of 10 attempts then 20 made jumpers from the elbow.

Have point guards post up centers, have centers run the point. If your game is defense offensive players should try to dunk on your head every time while they try to get a monster block on every attempt. Just for the sake of drama. Make it fun! Only a handful of players even got the point on Sunday.


6. Select Stars Based On Projected All Star Results

This is what an application to play in the
All Star game should look like

Sorry Chris Kaman, you're a really good player, but you're not an All Star. Shaq, Vince Carter... you're all stars and I want to watch you. Every year you can drag your sorry aging asses through the game. Why is David Lee playing? Big Daddy's personality was engineered in a lab for this. Vince Carter, while a questionable teammate, is nearly the greatest All Star player in history. He created the big moments that made past games memorable. Why is he not making dunks off the backboard and tea-bagging French dudes every single year?


The NBA talks up it's product and entertainment constantly yet is obsessed with rewarding players based on team performance and merit? If David Lee is great on a 19 or 60 win team, Shaq will provide about 50 more superior moments then Lee so he should be there. He's a star among stars and David Lee is not. It's that simple.

So let fans vote in the starters. Lee out. Shaq in. Entertainment WAY UP!

7. Fix The Dunk Contest

Fixing the CBA will do the heavy lifting here again. Nate Robinson, who has dunked 3 times all year in games, has won 3 dunk titles. Not to take it away from him, but it's obvious this is not a contest if no one worthy competes. The fixes for HORSE also apply. The dunk contest has gone from guys in jersey's creating excitement to people in suits pretending to be excited. Once the boring filler is removed and the best athletes in the game are in the contest we have more room for things we actually find entertaining.

Robbed! How Can You Not Advance That Grin?

Return to 3 rounds so it's harder to win. The judges jobbed Dwight Howard's underrated sticker dunk because only two could advance. A middle round ensures that only a true failure/mistake will bump you. Let contestants dunk 3 times taking the best two. I also prefer the old school rule of 2 attempts preventing embarrassments like Birdman and Nate Robinson's 100 attempts each on dunks they can't really complete. The fact that Nate beat Igudola after his million attempts is a failure of the system, not the players.


Lastly any foul line dunk attempts inside the foul line gets an automatic 25. It's the most overdone dunk in history. It has to go. Does anyone truly get excited anymore when they go to the back corner? Yet another imitator to jump inside the line coming up. Every time: FAIL!


8. Fix The 3 Point Contest


This should have been the field this year.


Ray Allen
Stephen Curry (the only one who should have been there)
Jason Kappano
Anthony Morrow
Danial Gibson
Arron Affallo
Gilbert Arenas (best shot in the league! snicker!)


Make room for a star or two who wants to prove they can shoot like James or Kobe. The best shooters showcasing the league's talent. People who don't watch hoop watch this contest and when they see someone clang over half their shots what's going to make them watch more? A Craig Sager interview with the guy to miss the least? Sorry, won't work.

Hmm... on that note:


9. Fire Craig Sager

How Can This Man Be Hired To
Do Anything Dressed Like That??

This man has got to go. Or fire his mom as head of wardrobe. It's must end. My girlfriend is chinese and while she speaks great English she sometimes will say something like "Were you disappointing with that All Star game?"


Sager asked if Kobe was "disappointing" being hurt for the ASG. But he's a native english speaker! The man has a little Forest Gump in him. Look NBA, ABC kicked NBC's ass and used it's Survivor money to outbid them for NBA rights. We know. At some point you have to realize NBC did a kick ass job of promoting hoop. Sometimes it's good to ignore the bottom line. Highlights were better. Intros amped us up. They covered better and more games and they didn't hire people who can't speak English or make a fool out of themselves every night with their clothing.


Craig Sager has become a personification of all that is the NBA on ABC. A lot of non-memorable cliches dressed up in a cheap suit. Fire Craig Sager, fix the NBA.



10. Fix The Voting Process


Mark Stein writes a yearly column justifying the all-star ballot committee's failures and justifying why deserving players don't make it. He actually writes it before the season starts as that's when the ballot is made. Why? Because they make the ballot before a single game is played. One year Marbury was on the ballot without playing a single game for the Knicks because he 'might' have been all-star worthy in February.

Question: Sound stupid? Maybe not in 1970 when it took time and money to print, distribute, collect and count votes... but that was 40 years ago. I don't use a telegram when I have a cellphone in my pocket. Conclusion: it is stupid.

Message to NBA: save a tree! In 2010 (as in 2000 for that matter) voting should be done online and fans should be able to select any player. What is the point of paper ballots in an arena when fans are txting which 4 year old they think did the best silly dance in the half time show? The impetus for ballots has vanished like your season ticket revenues. Use technology, open the ballot to all the players, save money, improve all-star weekend. It makes my brain bleed.

Even With A Stadium Like This, With The Largest
Crowd In History, This Was The Worst All Star
Weekend I May Have Ever Seen

This past weekend, if anything, is a textbook example of trying too hard. From the attendance record, to Jerry Vision to Sager's suit. The NBA, and ABC, just has to realize that their main product is not in their studios but is on the court. That's why players make millions of dollars: we want to see 'them'. Step back. Let the game market itself. Let it be what it is without the bear suits and glam. Give us what we want. Give us basketball. Not tivo fodder.





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Carnival Of The NBA #65

Screw The Suits, Little Man From Another Place, I've Found My Excuse To Put You In My Blog, You're A Star, That Gum You Like Is Going To Come Back Into Style, It IS!!!

Is that organ music I hear and cotton candy I smell in the land of Full Court Pest? I think so... or it could be the elephants. One thing I do know; I like David Lynch. Thus, I like things that are Lynchian. Starting off a sports blog post with a reference to Lynchianism may seem odd at first, until you realize that all things Lynch start off nonsensical eventually arriving at some point of clarity if only to make an obscure reference to something that should be less obscure. I guess what I'm trying to say is that TV suits sucked in 1992 when they ruined and canceled an unresolved Twin Peaks just as much as they sucked in 2005 when they canceled the kick ass show it influenced, Carnivale, which was also left unresolved. In reality, it just gives me context to make my obscure reference in the picture on the right. Umm.........



Welcome to Carnival(e) Of The NBA #65!

My favorite contribution is this diddy from Both Teams Played Hard comparing the NBA's progression to Chex Mix and other chips. There be wisdom in dem dere fried potatoes.

The NBA Chex Mix Rennisance

Side Note: I threw BTPH on my twitter account since I liked his article so much and saw the following two posts one after the other.

BothTeamsPlayedRT @sportsguy33 Did you ever notice that the Zoltar machine in Big looks like Hedu Turkoglu?
sportsguy33Did you ever notice that the Zoltar machine in "Big" looks like Hedu Turkoglu?
No! Don't Do It Young Tom Hanks... Sure, You'll Be Big And Still Score Like A Guard, But You'll Play D Like, Uh, An Unpluggd Zoltor Machine, AKA Hedo Turkaloo

Low class Sports Guy. Boo Hiss! Am I to believe your columns are just a culmination of fan mail with added quotation marks??? If Simmons is not going to give credit (or at least traffic) for ripping Both Teams Played Hard off for his hilarious insight, Full Court Pest will with it's second carnival(e) themed picture.

Time to pick up the pace.

NBA Database has a decent evaluation of Joe Johnson: The Most Under Rated NBA Player.
It still makes me wonder how you let Joe Johnson leave your 62 win team, or trade him for the worst NBA team's bench players. We all hate Sarver for his NBA ownership evil, yes? Its difficult for me to tell who I'd punch first or enjoy punching more: him or Clay Bennet.

Sports Agent Blog has a piece explaining Why Did Jason Thompson Pick Andre Buck. Interesting Blog with an insider feel that's just leaking out highly relevant information no one ever talks about. I checked out their First Round Break Down Of The Draft and was fascinated to get a view of the sports agent world. Just seeing who's repping who is eye opening when you consider David Falk had just as big an impact on Jordan's career as David Stern and Nike did. Great blog.

Basketball Fiend brings us The Fraternity Of Clutch comparing frat life with the best closers in the game. His ideas seem based on free thinking thoughts. ;)

A Stern Warning wrote an interesting piece on Joe Ingles, the NBA Draft And Exposure

explaining why playing in Europe may be why no-one knows who Joe Ingles is. The more coverage of Europe the better IMHO. Theres something real happening in Euroleague and I love it.

Binary Basketball feels The Role of the Point Guard in Today's NBA Era has changed over the years and makes some very strong points.

I really dug With Malice's article highlighting a bank teller guy Shaq's going to play HORSE with... the dude's oops are totally off the charts! If you have not seen the vid I advise it. Behind the back full length court perfect oop bounce passes are just that rare.

If You Don't Like This, Here Is Something You Might Like WNBA.COM

Retro Sports Talk has two great submissions showing how 2009 NBA CLASS REMINDS OF DRAFTS OF THE PAST. If you like Pete Maravich, as anyone who's a basketball fan absolutely should, then you'll also enjoy RICKY RUBIO BRINGS BACK MEMORIES OF THE PISTOL if only to watch the clips of the two and see how remarkably similar their games are. Its not just the white skin and big hair!

Draft time is always tough for Celtics fans. They missed KD and TD, but nothing is worse then Remembering Len Bias like they have to do at Celtics Green every year. Dude had sick talent and would have won multiple rings with Bird in Beantown. Cocaine is, indeed, a hell of a drug. Great clips of Bias's I'm Ready For The Pros game. If you're too young to remember Len Bias in college you should check it out. They've also got a Summer League Update.

On a more positive Celtic note, Red's Army is trying to make lemonade out of the Rondo situation. He contends that Dannys Not Trying To Trade Rondo Hes Trying To Keep Him. Red's soldier might have a pretty good point there. I love Rondo's game too and hope it works out.

In the fantasy hibernation period of the year Give Me The Rock is creating a Fantasy HOF that you can vote on. On the ballots right now are class of 2008 players: Chris Webber and Shareef Abdur-Rahim. Remember that the best pros are not the best fantasy plyaers... I like this idea lots. Yet another way to rank my guys. Your host is coming off a fantasy championship... thanks Dwight!!!

Life of a Knicks Fan submitted a post quadfecta. To Shoot or not to Shoot? deals with the perils of building your team around career chuckers and what you DO need to win. Follows it with the Knicks 2009 Draft Preview (not so easy when Stern isn't fixing the draft for you, is it knicks fans? j/k :) ). Next, The many faces of Kobe Bryant. This may or may not be due to bitterness due to the defection of ex-knicks fan, present 'Kobe Superfan', Spike Lee. (again, a joke :) ) Lastly he completes the quadfecta with Amare Vs. Bosh: The Battle Of The Not-Quite Super Stars. Lets add in Zach Randolph. Why does every forward in the league compare themselves to Bosh if they're all better then him, and then say 'go ask Chris Bosh, he'll say the same thing'? I'd like to know this as well. E for effort and good posts Knicks Fan.



A few things that are a litle dated, but I'll throw in anyway.

Not That There's Anything Wrong With That, Terrence, But Barbie And Much More So Ken, Are Gay On Many Levels
Da Bears And Bulls did a Bulls Mock Draft 2009. It has a vid of NBA clip ready, Terrence Williams which is worth the price of admission alone. I have no idea whats going on in his head, but I like it (if only for selfish reasons), and look forward to being entertained by this guy for years to come.

Jojo adds his two cents to say Thank you Vinnie DelNegro for the Bulls run. Myself, I'll say thank you Derick Rose for being Derick Rose. :) Love the split pic of the Noah dunk on Pierce. Dunk of the playoffs. Best since Davis/Kirelenko especially given the context. Massive.

Nick Knows Best also adds his Reaction to Game 3 of the NBA Finals. Nick is beating his friends by one point. Go Nick! :)

Like 'what ifs' 'what ands' or 'what buts'? GeekMBA360 asks What if you have five 17-year old Kobe Bryants on your team? but I get the feeling this is a business guy promoting his blog, not a hoop fan, so he'll go to the end of the post with the rest of his ilk. Thats why its down here. Some other business blog posted Business Skills Of A Basketball Coach.html. Both are actually talking about hoop so yea, they can have a backlink but this is for NBA blogs not people masquerading as them to make money.

Last, and hopefully not least, if you are interested in reading articles of your gracious host (and still reading this one at all) I'd reccomend 12 Ways To Fake Being A Pro Basketball Expert for laughs, NBA Fan Evolution Part One: Fan Eras and Part Two: The Fan Evolves if you're into history of the game (with lots of clips), and Scoring Assist Differential - Breaking Down The Kobe Laker Era, but only if you're not a Kobe fan, as most of the cool cats of LA probably won't like it anyway. Or check out the sidebar for anything else.

And that's edition #65 of Carnival(e) of the NBA! Lots of great writing and information and links. Till the next one. Cheers!

And PS: If you've never watched Twin Peaks, you should!

If Spud Web Could Make It In The NBA You Could Be A Second Round Sleeper, Little Man. Especially In This Draft! ;) Now Dance Us Home!!!