Do you think this whole Obama thing has a lot of NBA players psyched?  Looking at stat sheets from around the league last night, I'd say so.  Carmelo Anthony said he'd score 44 for Barack Obama (who will be the 44th president of our country), and while he didn't crack 30 in a loss to Golden State, I think it's safe to say that his excitement was a sentiment shared by many throughout the league.

Let's put it this way, Dwyane Wade missed a rare five-by-five by two blocks (FYI: a five-by-five is when a player tallies at least five points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks) and LeBron James posted 41/9/6 on a bum ankle that he rolled in the first half, and neither one of these guys even came close to posting the SECOND BEST individual performance of the evening.  That's right, 41 by LeBron or a box score busting all around game from Wade didn't even crack the top two.

Continue reading "Trickle Down"

Dear Antonio,

Greetings!  I thought i'd write you to congratulate you on your successful separation from the Denver Nuggets, and to offer some advice to you about how to spend your next thirty days of unemployment before resuming the endless grind that is the NBA season.  As a sportswriter and a liberal arts college graduate, I am an expert in not having a job, so you should read carefully and really consider what I have to say.  Normally, I wouldn't give away my secrets to jobless success for free, but for you, I'm willing to make an exception.

I'm going to violate my normal protocol and get right to the point here: watch TV.  That's my own personal secret to successfully combatting boredom in the many hours of the day when I should be working.  Oh yeah, and I read a lot of sports pages, thanks in no small part to the miracles of the interwebs.  There's a whole lot of content out there for the basketball crazed mind to devour, and thanks to cable and god knows how many different channels of ESPN, there always seems to be a basketball game on TV.  My advice to you, Antonio McDyess, is to watch as much basketball as you possibly can in the next 30 days, mostly because, in my humble opinion, watching is the next best thing to playing.  

Continue reading "For Your Consideration: An Open Letter to Antonio McDyess"

Don’t let the 9-2 record or the constant late game heroics of Paul Pierce fool you, something is very wrong with the 2008-2009 Boston Celtics.  Actually, “something” isn’t even the right word, because there are multiple things wrong with this year’s Celtics team that if uncorrected, will spell disaster for the defending champs come springtime.  If you don’t already believe me, then I would respectfully refer you to the tape of last Friday’s pathetisad home loss to the Denver Nuggets as evidence supporting my forthcoming claims. 

Sure, it was only one game, and sure, it’s only November, but that game was like the antithesis of a youtube highlight reel of the Boston Celtics, showcasing everything wrong with the previously invincible Boston Celtics in one concise, well-edited 48 minute clip.  Last Friday’s game was so bad (how bad was it?), it’s taken me nearly a half dozen drafts of this post to decide which flaws to focus on and how to describe them without making myself violently ill.  

Continue reading "Alarm Bells are Ringing"

Rajon Rondo should bake a nice cake with the words "thank you for trading Chauncey Billups" written in icing on the top and send it to Detroit Pistons GM Joe Dumars.  It wouldn't hurt if all of the Celtics helped (even Scalabrine), but Rondo in particular should take the lead on this one.  Stop scratching your heads and looking confused and don't ask why, you should know very well by now that some rambling, tangential diatribe of an explanation is forthcoming...

Does anyone remember the head to head match ups between the Celtics and the Pistons last season?  I certainly do, and do you know what the number one issue always was for the Boston Celtics against the Pistons?  It was the point guard match up, which at the time was the 6'3" 202 pound Chauncey Billups against the 6'1" 170 pound Rajon Rondo.  Does anyone remember the first Celtics home loss from last season, because I sure do (I was a history major, you know).  To refresh your memory, Chauncey Billups dropped 28 points and 8 assists on the Celtics that night, including two free throws that decided the game in the final second and propelled Detroit to an 87-85 win.  Although Rajon Rondo did not foul Billups on the decisive play (it was, of course, Tony Allen), Rondo was over matched for the entire game in what was to be a foreshadowing of future match ups with the big point guard.  

Continue reading "Raving About Rondo Part Deux: A Pat on the Back For Joe Dumars"

(cue the Biggie...)  I'm going out of town for the long holiday weekend, so all of you out there (if there are any of you) are going to have to survive for a few days without my wonderful and insightful analysis about all things basketball for a few days.  (I'll pause for a moment to let you scream in anguish and control your sobbing...)  But fear not, I will be back with even more opinions and prognostications about the realm of professional sports on Tuesday, and by then I should have plenty to write about.

Also, I'm going to try and score some seats to the Blazers/Heat game going down tonight in Portland, which would be my first live NBA game of this young season.  I've never seen D-Wade or Oden (obviously) in person, so it will definitely be interesting to see those guys in action.  It may sound silly, but I firmly believe that television cameras distort the size and quickness of these guys.  You don't really get a feel for the speed of the game unless you're actually there to see it live.  It sounds odd, but I can tell you from personal experience that it's true.

Continue reading "Thanksgiving Send Off Spectacular"