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Flop To The Bench

Monday, May 5th, 2008

The somewhat recent influx of European players into the NBA has, by and large, been a very good thing for the sport. Interest in other countries has soared, and because the Europeans stress fundamentals rigorously, the level of play in the league has gone up as well.

But there is one other thing that Euro players brought to the NBA: the flop. For those not in the know, flopping is when a player tries to draw a foul and acts like heavy contact has been made when it really has not. Basically, it’s acting. And it’s one of the largest black marks in the league.

The European players brought flopping stateside because it is a common thing to do in European soccer. Watch a soccer game, and inevitably you will see a player fall to the ground, arms flailing, screaming and howling like a bullet sped through his knee. Then, stretchers will come out and haul the player away. Then, miraculously, they are ready to play minutes later. Turns out there was no sharpshooter in the stands, just a bullshitter on the field.

And now that flopping has become ingrained in the sport, it’s time for the NBA to do something about it. The best option is calling a technical foul, so two flops gets an ejection, and continuing to flop in other games gets the player a suspension through accumulation of technicals.

The problem with enacting that kind of rule, or any rule having to do with flopping, is the difficulty determining intent. How can officials truly know that a player is simply acting? Certainly, reputation will precede them, but for referees to make that call while players are going full speed is going to be tough.

Still, it won’t be impossible, and calls will be blown, but at this point something is better than nothing. Because if I want to see acting, I’ll go to a movie. Contact, sometimes hard contact, is part of basketball, and that’s just something the Europeans will have to get used to.

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Posted in Cincinnati Bengals, NBA | 1 Comment »

People Will See What They Want

Monday, April 28th, 2008

Apparently I’m one of the naive ones out there, because I simply do not understand the uproar over the Vogue cover shot of LeBron James and Gisele Bundchen.

What I see is a man dribbling a basketball in one arm and holding a woman in another arm. The critics say this is extraordinarily similar to King Kong holding a woman while scaling the Empire State Building. To that I say, “Huh?” Since when did King Kong learn how to dribble a basketball?

You know what I think is offensive? People comparing LeBron James to an oversized gorilla. Because seeing a black man, and thinking, “Hey, he looks like a gorilla in that photo,” seems, I don’t know, pretty damn racist to me. Obviously, to think like that, there must be an association there, or the thought would never come up.

Not to mention, I would think that most men would be looking not at James, but at Bundchen, who is wearing what looks like a silk bed sheet. My guess is that the prevailing thought upon seeing the cover (if for some reason a man were to look at a Vogue cover), would be, “lucky bastard.” But they probably wouldn’t be thinking about King Kong, which seems like an awful stretch and people seeing whatever they want to.

For his part, James had no issue with the cover, telling the Cleveland Plain Dealer, “Everything my name is on is going to be criticized in a good way or bad way. Who cares what anyone says?”

So the subject himself is ignoring the criticism, but an uproar has still been made because of it. But the fact is, people can interpret a piece of art or photograph any way they see fit. It’s basically the point, to find the meaning of the work. And people will see what they want. But that doesn’t mean they’re right.

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Posted in Cincinnati Bengals, Media, NBA | 1 Comment »

Seattle Blew It’s Chance

Friday, April 25th, 2008

There has been much hand-wringing over the NBA’s decision to allow the Seattle SuperSonics to move to Oklahoma City in the future. Most of that complaining has been done, predictably, by media and fans of the team. As a casual observer, I offer this: the city of Seattle cannot blame anybody but themselves for allowing the Sonics to leave.

As someone who is devoted to a professional team that relocated (St. Louis Rams) after seeing a team leave (St. Louis Cardinals to the Arizona Cardinals), I can offer a bit of perspective. This has nothing to do with the quality of Seattle as a basketball town or the quality of their fans. I’m certain they are very loyal and dedicated. This has to do with one thing: money.

When new Sonics owner Clay Bennett bough the team, there is no denying his preference was likely to move it to his home state of Oklahoma. But to say he didn’t attempt to keep it in Seattle is looking at the situation with your own biases.

The fact is, the team has a terrible arena and bad lease. Seattle built new stadiums with taxpayer money for both the Seahawks and Mariners after the Kingdome became obsolete, so naturally, the Sonics were next. But that didn’t happen. Bennett wanted a new stadium, and though he wanted more than $275 million in tax money, he also offered to put up $100 million of his own to get a new arena. The state of Washington said, “thanks, but no thanks, we’ll take our chances.”

So Bennett started the process of relocation. Which, as an owner, is his right. If the city of Seattle could not do for him what it had done for other owners of major area sports teams, why should he stick around and play in a dump for less profits when he could go to Oklahoma City and get taxpayer money and large profits to move the team?

For some reason, people still don’t understand that sports is a multi-billion dollar business. It is for the fans, but it’s also not. They are somewhat of a pawn to the people who own these franchises, just as a boss may use his employees as a pawn when threatening to move a major corporation out of a town and taking jobs with him.

This was not a difficult decision for Bennett, nor would it be for much of anyone. Not when hundreds of millions of dollars are at stake.

It may not be the right thing to do to the Sonics fans who have loved the team for more than 40 years, but it is Bennett’s right to do it.

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Posted in Cincinnati Bengals, NBA, Seattle SuperSonics | 1 Comment »

James Is NBA MVP

Friday, April 11th, 2008

If you just looked at the standings, the race for NBA MVP would go to either the Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant, the New Orleans Hornets’ Chris Paul, or the Boston Celtics’ Kevin Garnett. But the award should go to LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Paul’s Hornets and Bryant’s Lakers currently have the two best records in the Western Conference, while Garnett’s Celtics have the best record in the Eastern Conference. But that doesn’t tell the whole story. Each player has a more talented core of players around them than James does, especially Garnett.

For comparison’s sake, let’s look at the scoring on the three teams. Garnett isn’t even the leading scorer on the Celtics. Paul Pierce is. In L.A., Kobe scores 9.9 more points per game than the second leading scorer, Pau Gasol. And in New Orleans, Paul is the leading scorer on the Hornets by less than a point. But in Cleveland, James averages a 16.2 more points per game than the Cavs’ second leading scorer, center Zydrunas Ilgauskas

Without James, the Cavaliers wouldn’t be in the playoff hunt, they’d be in the hunt for a top 5 pick in the NBA Draft.

Besides carrying the load for his teammates, another check mark for LeBron are the numbers he puts up in every statistical category. While there is no better pure scorer in the NBA than Kobe Bryant (and probably hasn’t been since Michael Jordan), James does more overall. Here is a look at each of their numbers through April 11 (the numbers are per game averages).

    Points

LeBron James: 30.2
Kobe Bryant: 28.5
Chris Paul: 21.2
Kevin Garnett: 19.0

    Rebounds

KG: 9.4
LB: 7.9
KB: 6.3
CP: 4.0

    Assists

CP: 11.5
LB: 7.3
KB: 5.4
KG: 3.5

    Steals

CP: 2.67
KB: 1.85
LB: 1.83
KG: 1.43

    Blocks

KG: 1.25
LB: 1.08
KB: 0.49
CP: 0.04

As you can see, James rates competitively in each of these categories, while the others have lapses. He simply does it all: score, pass, rebound and play defense.

Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul and Kevin Garnett are each fine choices for MVP. Strong arguments can be made for all, and some might vote for Bryant simply because he has never won the award. That’s all fine and well, but the real MVP is suiting up in Cleveland, ready to do a little bit of everything to help his team win.

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Posted in Boston Celtics, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Cavaliers, Los Angeles Lakers, NBA, New Orleans Hornets | 3 Comments »

Acquiring Shaq … Wrong Move?

Friday, March 14th, 2008

Upon further review, maybe it wasn’t such a good idea for the Phoenix Suns to acquire center Shaquille O’Neal from the Miami Heat in a mid-season trade.

As of the middle of March, the Suns have compiled just a 6-6 record since making the move. Their winning percentage stands at .662, when it had been nearly .700 before acquiring O’Neal.

Shaq has not been the offensive presence the team might have hoped for, averaging just over 10 points since coming to Phoenix. O’Neal has scored in double digits in just half of his games and his highest total has been 20 points. On the other hand, he has rebounded well, snaring more than 10 boards per night.

But perhaps the biggest indictment against Shaq was the thought that he would slow the run and gun Suns down. And that has proven to be true, as Phoenix has actually played better without him in the lineup.

In the team’s last two games, O’Neal has played a combined 31 minutes and taken just six shots. Phoenix won both games and scored more than 120 points in both of them. In the six contests where Shaq has played more than 30 minutes, the Suns are 2-4.

The move to acquire Shaquille O’Neal was a radical one by Suns G.M. Steve Kerr. He took a chance that the big man would not mess up the chemistry on the team and their style of play. Unfortunately for Suns fans, the gamble has not paid off so far.

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Posted in Cincinnati Bengals, NBA, Phoenix Suns | 1 Comment »

Southwest Division Best In NBA

Wednesday, March 12th, 2008

The NBA’s Southwest Division was the best in the league last year, and it’s even better this year. Last season, the division had three of the seven teams in the NBA with winning percentages over .600. This year, four of the five teams in the division are winning over 60% of their games – the San Antonio Spurs, Houston Rockets, Dallas Mavericks and New Orleans Hornets. Only the Memphis Grizzlies have a losing record.

Those records are consistent with the dominance of the NBA’s Western Conference relative to the Eastern Conference, which as of the middle of March had just five teams over .500.

So the question remains, who is going to win the Southwest Division? In November, I predicted the Mavericks would take it in a close race. Well, it is very close, but the Mavs are currently fourth in the race, although just 3.5 games back.

What I should have done was gone with the old predictable, the San Antonio Spurs. They are not flashy or fast break, and don’t have personalities that the media gravitate to, unless you count point guard Tony Parker’s wife, Eva Longoria.

But there they are at the top, grinding it out as usual. Behind them in second are the Houston Rockets, who are riding the wave of a ridiculous 19-game winning streak, even though center Yao Ming is out for the season.

After that comes New Orleans and Dallas. The Hornets are the surprise team of the bunch, having finished four games under .500 last season. But behind dynamic point guard Chris Paul, the team is thriving, and are 22 games over .500

Dallas has had a few ups and downs this season, but their main problem is road games. While they are a fantastic 27-4 at home, the team is just 14-19 on the road. They tried to beef up their squad by adding point guard Jason Kidd at the trading deadline, so we’ll see how that ultimately winds up going.

Whichever way you look at it, once again, the Southwest Division is the best in the NBA. And it’s going to be a proverbial dogfight to the end.

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Posted in Cincinnati Bengals, Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets, Memphis Grizzlies, NBA, New Orleans Hornets, San Antonio Spurs | 1 Comment »

LeBron Is NBA MVP

Monday, March 10th, 2008

If you just looked at the standings, the race for NBA MVP would go to either the Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant or the Boston Celtics’ Kevin Garnett. But the award should go to LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Bryant’s Lakers currently have the best record in the Western Conference, while Garnett’s Celtics have the best record in the Eastern Conference. But that doesn’t tell the whole story. Both players have a much more talented core of players around them than James does, especially Garnett.

For comparison’s sake, let’s look at the scoring on the three teams. Garnett isn’t even the leading scorer on the Celtics. Paul Pierce is. In L.A., Kobe scores 7.7 more points per game than the second leading scorer, Pau Gasol. But in Cleveland, James averages a whopping 17.4 more points per game than the Cavs’ second leading scorer, center Zydrunas Ilgauskas

Without James, the Cavaliers wouldn’t be in the playoff hunt, they’d be in the hunt for a top 5 pick in the NBA Draft.

Besides carrying the load for his teammates, another check mark for LeBron are the numbers he puts up in every statistical category. While there is no better pure scorer in the NBA than Kobe Bryant (and probably hasn’t been since Michael Jordan), James does more overall. Here is a look at each of their numbers (the numbers are per game averages).

    Points

LeBron James: 30.9
Kobe Bryant: 28.1
Kevin Garnett: 18.6

    Rebounds

KG: 9.7
LB: 8.0
KB: 6.1

    Assists

LB: 7.4
KB: 5.3
KG: 3.6

    Steals

KB: 1.97
LB: 1.96
KG: 1.42

    Blocks

KG: 1.29
LB: 1.04
KB: 0.52

As you can see, James is either first or second in each of these categories among the three major contenders. He simply does it all: score, pass, rebound and play defense.

Both Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett are fine choices for MVP. Strong arguments can be made for either, and some might vote for Bryant simply because he has never won the award. That’s all fine and well, but the real MVP is suiting up in Cleveland, ready to do a little bit of everything to help his team win.

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Posted in Awards, Boston Celtics, Cincinnati Bengals, Cleveland Cavaliers, Los Angeles Lakers, NBA | 3 Comments »

How Is Isiah Thomas Still Around?

Friday, March 7th, 2008

For the love of all things basketball, the New York Knicks must fire head coach Isiah Thomas. For that matter, team owner James Dolan should have done it months ago.

One quick Google search of Thomas’ name, and the bad feelings towards him are evident. There is a Fire Isiah Thomas petition up online, which reads:

We, the fans of the New York Knicks, will no longer stand by and allow our franchise to be ruined by Isiah Thomas. The job Isiah Thomas has done thus far is completely unacceptable. We must unite and help bring greatness back to New York. I encourage all New York Knicks fans in favor of the firing of Isiah Thomas to sign here.

Not only that, but there is a FireIsiahThomas.com website dedicated to his ouster. I usually don’t waste much time feeling badly for New York area fans, but Thomas is bringing down a legendary franchise singlehandedly. And Dolan doesn’t seem to care, or isn’t willing to do anything about it. Dolan had previously given Thomas an ultimatum to fix things or he’d be gone. That was in 2006. He was given a contract extension months later.

And there are plenty of reasons to dismiss Thomas besides his terrible coaching. He has a long history as a failure after his legendary playing career ended.

Thomas bought the Continental Basketball Association, which was essentially the NBA’s minor leagues, in 1999. The league had been around more than 50 years before he bought it. It went bankrupt two years later, as Thomas abandoned the league to take an NBA coaching job, and the teams folded.

After being fired from the Pacers, Thomas took over the Knicks and promptly did everything wrong. He spent huge money on free agents that weren’t any good, traded away lottery picks in the draft, and traded for players like Steve Francis and Stephon Marbury, who already had enormous contracts that they weren’t living up to on their previous teams.

Then, to cap off the atrocities, a lawsuit was filed by a former female employee of the Knicks for sexual harassment. Anucha Browne Sanders alleged that Thomas insulted her and made advances toward her, and she was soon fired. The jury found in favor of Sanders, and awarded her $11.6 million dollars.

So, basically, there is every reason in the world to fire Thomas, and not any good ones to keep him around. Knicks fans break into chants of “Fire Isiah,” the team isn’t any good, and Thomas cost the franchise millions with inappropriate behavior. Yet he is still on the sidelines, leading his team into another last place finish in the Atlantic Division.

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Posted in Cincinnati Bengals, NBA, New York Knicks | 1 Comment »

Go Ahead and Boo

Friday, February 22nd, 2008

Is it appropriate to boo the home team? Of course, if the inclination hits you. Fans today pay a nice chunk of change for a decent seat to sporting events, so if they’re unhappy with the effort or performance by an individual or team, booing should be accepted, and probably encouraged.

Still, there are times when it’s more appropriate than others. Team lost five games in a row? Boo them off the field/court/ice. Does the slugging first baseman hit a long fly ball and showboat down to first instead of hustling, only to realize it hit the wall and he only gets a single? Then boo him.

On the other hand, we have booing that is remarkably out of place. A few years ago, Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter was in a prolonged slump. The captain of the team who had helped lead New York to four World Series titles, and people start booing him. Not for lack of effort or other egregious matters, but simply for grounding out. The same can be said of Alex Rodriguez, who may one day be called the greatest player ever to wear a uniform. He still gets booed at Yankee Stadium.

Of course, the same thing takes place in Philadelphia. Don’t perform, and you get booed. But this seems to be a by-product of their reputation. One I’m sure they cherish with all their hearts. So if someone who gets paid a lot hits into an inning ending double play, he gets it, no matter what.

But basically, sports fans are fairly easy to please. Give a little effort, show the fans you give a crap about their business and, if at all possible, string together some wins. And booing won’t be much of a problem.

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Posted in Cincinnati Bengals, MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL | 2 Comments »

Suns Had To Take A Chance With O’Neal

Wednesday, February 13th, 2008

Steve Nash came to the Phoenix Suns as a free agent before the 2004-2005 season. In more than three seasons since then, including the current one, the Suns have a regular season record of 213-84, for a .717 winning percentage.

Problem is, all that regular season success has not translated into an NBA championship. In fact, it hasn’t even translated into an appearance at the NBA Finals. In 2005, they lost in the Western Conference finals to the San Antonio Spurs. In 2006, they bowed out to the Dallas Mavericks, also in the conference finals. Finally, in last year’s tournament, they once again fell victim to the Spurs, this time in the conference semifinals.

The one common denominator for Phoenix in each of the last three years was their run and gun style of play. They eschewed traditional half court play in favor of a quick tempo and undersized lineup that played to the strengths of their more athletic players.

Clearly, that style has not been effective enough in the playoffs, which are a bit more physical than the regular season. So, they took a calculated risk by acquiring Shaquille O’Neal for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks. Shaq is the polar opposite of the Suns’ usual style, which makes the move a gamble.

However, it is a good gamble to take. Phoenix had numerous chances to advance to the NBA finals and never seized the opportunity. Why would this season be any different? Adding O’Neal gives them a dimension they have never had before – a true center.

Though Shaq is basically a shell of his former self, he is still capable of dominating the middle with his sheer size. His production is down, but maybe getting out of the doldrums of Miami, where the Heat were the worst team in the NBA, and going to Phoenix will energize O’Neal. The Suns realize that with former MVP Steve Nash getting older, their window of opportunity is closing. They had to take a chance, and if they’re right, their gamble may pay off with an NBA championship.

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Posted in Cincinnati Bengals, Dallas Mavericks, NBA, Phoenix Suns, San Antonio Spurs | 1 Comment »

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