If you only take one positive from the NBA playoffs this year it should be that advertising works. I don’t have the ratings from the latest airing of TBS’ “House of Payne”, but episode 1 did incredibly well and the 2nd episode was basic cable’s #1 sitcom telecast of all time. OF ALL TIME. In fairness, I have never seen the show, and I have nothing against anybody that has anything to do with the program BUT.. Are you serious? “House of Payne”?!? Did all of those spots during TNT’s NBA broadcast drive the nation to watch that show? Was there a drawing for $500 million bucks during the middle of the broadcast?
I won’t judge a book by it’s cover but I’ll judge a tv show by it’s commercials. To put it nicely, the commercials sucked. I thought they were supposed to highlight the good parts of a show with commercials. HOP ads made me cringe. The commercials made me set a tivo reminder not to watch TBS the entire day that the show airs… And I don’t care what the hell the rest of you are watching, I won’t be tuning in for “House of Payne”.. I’ll stop short of saying I’ll never watch because the show’s creator Tyler Perry got TBS to sign up for 100 episodes… There is a God. And he loves him some Tyler Perry.
If HOP is pulling numbers for TBS, what’s a show produced by Kenny Smith and Jamie Foxx gonna do? You can listen to Kenny talking about the new show here.
The Spurs rolled to their 4th championship in 9 years a little easier than I thought they would. I thought Cleveland had the chance to win at least one game in the series, I predicted two, but San Antonio was too much. The Spurs are a well oiled playoff machine. Even when they don’t win the title they’re in the mix. The Cavaliers are a franchise with a Superstar and a subpar supporting cast. They could be title contenders for years to come but they’re gonna have to shake up the roster.
The Spurs deserve their congratulations.. Tony Parker earned the Finals MVP award. Parker’s penetration, steady jumper, and clutch shots made him the hands down winner. Robert Horry picked up his 7th ring. That’s nuts. Guys are happy to play 7 seasons, Horry has 7 RINGS. Barkley, Stockton, Malone, KG, and Elgin Baylor 0 rings between ’em. Robert Horry 7. Wow.
Props to the San Antonio Spurs, the NBA Champions.
Remember when these “Trophy Love” commercials were all the rage? The thing that always bothered me is that the name of the NBA trophy is the “Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy”… It seemed weird to me that all of those cats were in love with someone named Larry. Anyways…
The San Antonio Spurs are on the verge of capturing their 4th LOCT, and LeBron James is about to have a long summer. In a game that was viewed by many as Cleveland’s best chance to take one from San Antonio, both teams put the scoring on hold and locked down on coughcough defense. Tim Duncan played only 33 minutes and Cleveland still couldn’t capitalize meaning my predicition of Spurs in 6 is gonna need a miracle in order to see the light of day.
Here’s a few other things I was wrong about:
“Tim Duncan is the Finals MVP”. I’m not completely wrong on this but Parker is probably the leader for the award right now. If the Spurs wrap up the series in game 4 and TD has a big game, Duncan could still be the MVP.
“Cleveland wins their first game at home”. It was all there for the Cavs to take but they couldn’t hit an open shot to save their lives… Or their series. Tim Duncan had the foul trouble that I thought he would, but Cleveland’s scoring trouble was the bigger factor.
“We are all entertained”. The ratings suggest that very few of us are entertained but let’s not rush to make this an NBA issue. People just aren’t watching sports the same anymore. You can look at the World Series declining ratings here or flashback to 2006 when game 1 of the World Series flopped. Everyday can’t be Superbowl Sunday.
As for LeBron handing off to Anderson down the stretch of game 3, I honestly believe he expected to get the ball back. Unfortunately for LBJ, Floppy Jao took matters in to his own hands and frankly, he’s gotta make that basket… And LeBron was fouled by Bruce Bowen at the end of the game. There’s no question about it. The continuation call could have gone either way but James should have gone to the line for at least two free throws.
The biggest thing I’m taking away from this series is that if Cleveland’s front office can get LeBron a Scottie Pippen, the Cavs will rule the East for years. All of the players on the Cavalier roster are role players. There’s no Scottie Pippen, there’s no Dennis Rodman. There’s nobody else on the roster that the other team has to truly worry about. Michael Jordan was surrounded by the right mix of players to highlight his talents. Danny Ferry and company need to do the same for LeBron.
It was set up as a great night to watch television if you’re a fan of mob shows and the NBA. I had to decide what I wanted to record and what I wanted to watch live. I ended up watching The Sopranos, and when the show was over I flipped over to the basketball game just in time to catch San Antonio putting the finishing touches on a first half beatdown. Needless to say, I didn’t go back and watch the first 21 minutes of the game that I missed.
Before I go on and talk about Tony Soprano and the rest of the gang, I’m saying loud and clear, **SPOILER**.
If you’ve already seen the show or don’t mind having some of it ruined for you then go ahead and proceed. Read the rest of this entry »
LeBron James isn’t joining the long list of athletes that thought their ballin’ prowess meant they could rhyme… At least not yet.. And I hope never because 99% of the time the athlete sets Hip Hop back 3-5 years. It’s been covered before here at YBB (E-Dubbs, what up bruh?) when Desmond Mason did a decent job of spittin but it has to be said again.. Athletes, just play ball and rappers, just make music. Please.
Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way.. The folks over at Sprite had a contest to make a LeBron James theme song.. Like that cat needed anything else.. And they got Paul Wall and Al Fatz to drop a bar or two on it. You can listen to the track here. I believe that’s Al Fatz rapping in LeBron persona, not actually LeBron rapping. Thank you Jeeezus.
That song (^^) is 100% better than this song/video which was given to me by the fella Icon from around the way at NahRight.com.
Lebron James answered nearly 4 years worth of criticism in one legendary 16 minute span. What’s he ever done?, He can’t win big games, he misses free throws in the clutch, he doesn’t want the ball in crunch time, are just a few of the barbs thrown James’ way. While he did miss a pair of freebies down the stretch last night, the King scored Cleveland’s last 25 points, 29 of the final 30, and shot 18-33 from the field while his teammates shot 19-49. The King finished with 48pts, 9reb, and 7ast. He was walking Detroit defenders to the rim at will.. So much so that I would do the “no no no, holy shit good shot” thing everytime Lebron pulled up for a jumper.
Lebron’s outburst is what everybody has been waiting for. Now just Bron’s haters/fans, but basketball fans. In a playoffs that have featured Jason Kidd averaging a triple double, the Chicago Bulls growing up, the Heat growing old, Dallas choking, the Warriors exciting, Derek Fisher’s pain, the Suns whining, the Spurs getting dirty, and Kobe’s demanding, Lebron has taken center stage.
I’m still in a state of shock because A) I believe I’ve just witnessed one of the top ten all time playoff performances, and B) I didn’t dvr the game even as I knew what I was watching. I think all of the phone calls, IMs, text messages, and emails I was trading with various people about the events of 5-31-07-23 had me out of my right mind. It’s possible that I’ll have more to say about Lebron a little later, but for now I’m gonna watch the ‘nets go nuts with it and soak in the knowledge of Wise Lebron.
We all have a buddy or know somebody that has to one-up you no matter the occasion. You can mention something great, “hey I got a new job today” and they’ll come back with “I got a promotion and a 50k raise”. You could be discussing a tragedy, “I was just watching the news about that plane crash” and he’ll hit you with “I’ve seen two plane crashes live and I survived a shipwreck”.. Whether you call ’em Parade Pissers, Spotlight Stealers, or Attention Whores, you get the point. These people hate to see others shine.
I wasn’t gonna write anything else about Kobe until something real happened… A trade, a free agent signing, Kobe storming the Laker offices, anything. His wishy-washy, “trade me, don’t trade me” media circuit has worn me out, even if I enjoyed it briefly. When the interview carousel stopped my thoughts turned toward Kobe being a classic One-Upper. If there’s an event that Kobe can outshine, you better believe he’s gonna try.
December 20, 2005: Scores 62 points the day that the Yankees signed Johnny Damon away from the Red Sox.
January 22, 2006: Kobe scores 81 points against Toronto on the same day that the Steelers defeated the Broncos and the Seahawks defeated the Panthers in the NFL Conference Championships.
December 29, 2006 and December 31, 2006: Kobe scores 58 and 35 (only 2 free throw attempts)..The final weekend of the NFL season.
March 16, 2007 through April 3, 2007: Kobe scores 65, 50, 60, 50, 43, 23(7-26), 53, 19(6-14), and 39. The NCAA tournament started on March 15 and ended April 2nd, and MLB had it’s opening days April 1-3.
April 6, 2007 and April 8, 2007: 24 drops 46 and 34 on The Masters which took place April 5-8. Kobe didn’t break 40 on the 8th for lack of trying. He was 14-25 from the field, but 1-5 from 3 and only got to the line 5 times.
May 26, 2007-May 30, 2007: Kobe starts the trade demands and calls them off. Then starts them again then calls them off all while the NBA Conference Finals, Indy 500, and Stanley Cup Finals are taking place.
It could be something, it’s probably nothing, but if any of you are planning to get married, graduate from college, or just have a birthday party, don’t let Kobe find out.. He’ll do anything in his power to make sure his day is better than yours.
Congrats to the Utah Jazz for moving on to the Western conference finals. The Jazz closed their series against Golden State with a 100-87 game five victory. Utah already defeated my Secret team, and now they’ve taken down Cinderella. These are my Utah Jazz highlights from the series:
Derek Fisher showing incredible fortitude and heart after everything he’s been through.
Carlos Boozer opening the eyes of the people that didn’t know about him. He was serving people for the second straight series.
Jerry Sloan getting Utah to the Conference finals again. He’s never been coach of the year?!?!
Deron Williams playing like a vet. Game 5 notwithstanding.
Mehmet Okur, Paul Millsap, Matt Harpring, and Gordon Giricek playing their roles well.
Andrei Kirilenko leaving his tears in the first round and causing havoc for Golden State’s offense.
I don’t know anybody that’s not impressed with Utah. When the Jazz got out to the hot start at the beginning of the season, a lot of people didn’t believe they were for real. I was one of those people. The lack of playoff experience from key players had me thinking Utah would flame out in the playoffs regardless of their record. I admit it… I was wrong. Another thing I was wrong about is Utah’s style of play. I didn’t get to see them too much this season so I assumed they were a slow it down, grind it out type of team. They can play that way, but they just proved in the G. State series that they can run up and down the court too.
As far as Golden State is concerned, what can I say? They pulled off the great upset in round 1, but seemed to be out of gas and definitely over matched in round 2. Baron Davis put the league on notice for next season, and Stephen Jackson proved that the Kings have to trade Artest just to put some miles between Jackson and Ron-Ron. The unfortunate thing is, G. State was in game 5 until they started acting like the 3 point line was an alligator infested moat protected by a 12 foot, 100,000 watt electric fence. I couldn’t believe how the Warriors would stop at the line and jack a three whether they were on a fast break or 1 second into the shot clock. The Warriors need to grow up too. All of the complaining, technical fouls, and cheap shots really put G. State’s nice postseason story in an ugly light.
So again, congrats to the Utah Jazz. The winner of the Suns/Spurs series is going to have it’s hands full in the conference finals.
Game 4 between the Phoenix Suns and the San Antonio Spurs was a classic. Great plays, comebacks, and a tussle… All of the things that make sports fun to watch. It’s really great to take in the action without being attached to either team. I don’t care who wins the series I just want great action and I haven’t been disappointed yet.. Well, that’s not exactly true.
I know this is a tired take, but the NBA officiating is not fantastic. Basketball is one of the hardest sports to ref, especially since the rules are pretty easy to comprehend by anyone watching, leading to people arguing over what is a foul and what isn’t. With that said, I found myself saying the league must have made “the call” to the refs at the start of the 4th quarter. San Antonio, the home team, couldn’t get a call. I’m not big into conspiracy theories but if the Spurs had went up 3-1, the Suns could have gone ahead and cancelled Christmas. With the league’s best story (the Warriors) already on the ropes, the NBA needs it’s favorite team the Phoenix Suns around for as long as possible. I thought I was alone in seeing the referee bias but True Hoop and the story Henry linked to felt the same way.
Another thing I’m disappointed with is all the whining that the Phoenix Suns’ fans are doing. I hate to say this but SHUT THE HELL UP. Jeezus. First, you want the NBA to change the rules so Steve Nash can have 4 hours to fix his bleeding nose. Thank God he didn’t break his leg because Suns fan would be asking the NBA to suspend the playoffs until Steve healed. Second, Amare and the Suns’ fans calling the Spurs dirty while Raja Bell still suits up for Phoenix is beyond funny. Yes, you can slow down some tape and show Bruce Bowen intentionally/unintentionally stepping on Amare’s heel. Yes, you can argue that Bowen kneed Nash in the nads on purpose, but you don’t need to slow down anything to see Bell’s clothesline of Kobe Bryant last year, a play dirtier than ANY violation in this year’s playoffs. Including Baron Davis’ Horry-like take-down of Derek Fisher.
Speaking of the Horry take-down.. I was pretty sure that the league would suspend Big Shot Rob for two games to balance out the fact that two Suns were getting suspended for game 5. I’m not glad that I was right, but I am somewhat familiar with how the league thinks. I would have been cool if Horry got a game and Amare got a game but Diaw was allowed to play. Boris did leave the bench but not with the same intensity as S.T.A.T. If Stoudemire had made his way to the melee, something bad might have happened. Boris probably would have done the baseball square dance. The NBA “leaving the bench” rule needs to be, and probably will be, examined at the end of the playoffs. As the rule stands, the NBA made the right decision. And before you say what about The Big Fundamental, I’ve seen the footage of Duncan stepping away from the bench but that’s not nearly the same thing. As a matter of fact, that happens all of the time. When you see a big play down the stretch in a tight game, watch the bench. Guys are jumping up and down and celebrating..Some of them spill onto the floor. Check out the bench when a team knows it’s about to call a timeout.. You’ll see a player or two wander out onto the floor. It’s not malicious. It doesn’t carry the same intent.
And finally I’m disappointed in everybody sweating Dirk Nowitzki for winning the NBA MVP award. Like I’ve said before, it’s a regular season award. Dirk was the man in the regular season. It’s strange that when Shaq (or Shaque Cousteau) said the NBA MVP award has been tainted lately, everybody jumped down his throat.. Claiming he said Steve Nash’s MVP’s are tainted when he clearly said the last 4 or 5 years. Some people even went as far as to call Shaq a racist. Now that Nash didn’t win, people are saying the award is meaningless, the voting is a joke, the voting should take place after the playoffs, blah blah blah… Enough already. Do people realize that if the MVP voting came after the playoffs, Steve Nash would have ZERO MVPs? Dwayne Wade would have won the MVP last year and Tim Duncan would have won the year before. Dirk was the best player on the best team in the regular season. The exact reason that Nash won the MVP his first year. I don’t care if Nash had a better statistical season this year than last year. The players aren’t competing against themselves for the award. Follow this example.. A man wins salesman of the year two consecutive years at his company. In the third year, he sells more than he did the first two years, but another employee sells more than him. Who’s gonna win salesman of the year? The other employee. It’s the exact same thing. Steve Nash not winning the MVP doesn’t take away from his status. There were years when Michael Jordan could/should have won the MVP and didn’t. It happens. Nash is a great player.. better than Nowitzki.. And I guarantee you, if Phoenix wins the championship Steve Nash won’t give a damn about his two MVPs or “the one that got away”.
Game two between Utah and Golden State was more exciting than game one. Deron Williams picked up 2 fouls right before the game tipped off. Dee Brown, Williams’ back-up, was lost in the first quarter to a neck injury when Mehmet Okur fell on him. The Warriors played their uptempo style, led by the increasingly impressive Baron Davis with help from Richardson, Barnes, Harrington, and Jackson (what the hell is up with Monta Ellis?!?). Carlos Boozer continuesto clown Cleveland with his play, and Andrei Kirilenko looks like a completely different player from round 1. It took overtime to decide the game.. Utah came out on top 127-117.
The Jazz fans are doing their best to be a factor in the series, but who’s idea were those powder blue t-shirts? I kept expecting Roy Williams and the Tarheels to take the floor at some point. I don’t know how it goes down in Utah but pastels are not intimidating. I do know Golden St. can’t wait to get home, back to Oakland, back to the bright yellow tees and the craziness of the Oracle.
The game was great, but that’s not the story. The story is Derek Fisher. D-Fish missed game one and arrived at game two late in the 3rd quarter because he was dealing with a family issue. His 10 month old daughter Tatum was suffering from retinoblastoma, a form of eye cancer that required a combination of surgery and chemotherapy. Tatum had several hours of surgery in New York on Wednesday, and I’m happy to be able to say that the surgery was a success by all accounts. Things went so well that the family travelled back to Utah with baby Tatum Wednesday night.
Derek’s flight landed in Salt Lake City and he was whisked to the game, led by a police escort. He didn’t get a chance to warm-up or anything.. He entered the arena to a standing ovation and went directly to the scorers’ table to check in.
Fisher played great defense down the stretch of the game, and scored all 5 of his points in the extra session. He didn’t have the statistical game of his career but his presence was bigger than anything that happened on the court. Derek couldn’t put the experience into words after the game:
“I don’t know how I got through this tonight. I really don’t. My daughter’s doing very well. We had a successful operation in New York and I flew back, got off the plane, came to the game. I’m speechless.”
I don’t know how he got through it either. If you didn’t feel for Fish watching his post game interview then you’re a robot or completely heartless. It was a tremendous and special moment.
I hope this puts to rest all of the speculation about why Fisher missed game one. I can check a number of things through my blog stats. I can see how many views an individual post gets, I can see what sites link to my blog. I can also check what search engine terms people use to find my site. I was disappointed by these:
Derek Fisher suspended
Derek Fisher marriages problems
Derek Fisher arrest
I hope the people that were expecting the worst of a genuinely good guy feel like jackasses now. The truth is out, the verdict is in, Derek Fisher is a MAN.
We all have a buddy or know somebody that has to one-up you no matter the occasion. You can mention something great, “hey I got a new job today” and they’ll come back with “I got a promotion and a 50k raise”. You could be discussing a tragedy, “I was just watching the news about that plane crash” and he’ll hit you with “I’ve seen two plane crashes live and I survived a shipwreck”.. Whether you call ’em Parade Pissers, Spotlight Stealers, or Attention Whores, you get the point. These people hate to see others shine.
YOU BEEN BLINDED 