Lottery

Via TrueHoop:

Alok Pattani of ESPN Statistics and Information Research has done something fabulous: He has come up with basketball things that are about as likely as this or that team winning the lottery:

• The Kings are 25% likely to win the top spot, which is about as likely as Kevin Martin scoring more than 30 points in any given game.
• The Wizards have a 17.8% shot, which is about how often they lost a game by 20 or more points this season.
• The Clippers are 17.7% likely to win. That's roughly how often Eric Gordon scored 25+ points.
• The Thunder have an 11.9% chance at the top spot. That's about as likely as Kevin Durant shooting over 60% from the field for a whole game.
• The Timberwolves have a 7.6% chance of winning the lottery. That's about as common as this year's Timberwolves winning consecutive games.
• The Grizzlies have a 7.5% chance of winning, which is about as likely as the Grizzlies having a 50-win season.
• The Warriors, with a 4.3% chance, are about as likely to win the lottery as they are to hold an opponent below 90 points in a game.
• The Knicks likelihood of winning, 2.8%, is about the same as their likelihood of shooting fewer than 20 3-pointers in a game.
• The Raptors are as likely to win (1.7%) as Jose Calderon is to likely to miss a free throw.
• Michael Redd is as likely to make five straight 3-pointers as the Bucks, with a 1% chance, are likely to win the lottery.
• The Nets are as likely (0.9%) to see Devin Harris, as a Net, having a 40-point, 10-assist game as they are to win the lottery.
• The Bobcats chances of winning (0.7%) are roughly the same as their likelihood of going on a six-game winning streak.
• The Pacers have 0.6% chance at the top spot. Troy Murphy, as a Pacer, scores 25+ points about 0.6% of the time.
• Shaquille O'Neal is about as likely to make eight straight free throws as the Suns are to win the lottery, with a 0.5% likelihood.

Soulsearching in Laker Nation

Via TrueHoop:

On Silver Screen and Roll, a guest post from someone calling himself Frying Dutchman explains that his heart will always be high on these Lakers, but his mind is extraordinarily frustrated with what he sees as a lack of effort:

If the Lakers win the championship, part of me will be disappointed. The part of me that thinks that effort and hard work are important and should be rewarded. The part of me that gets angry at how unfair the world is. Because that's exactly what it will be. If the Lakers win it all this year, it will be unfair. Unfair to the game of basketball. Unfair to all the past champions. Unfair to the Houston Rockets, who lost their 2nd best player in the regular season, and got better. Who lost their best player for the playoffs, and came out and played harder. It was bad enough when Shaq would take half the regular season getting into shape, but this? Those teams never took entire playoff games off. The Lakers today were the Detroit Pistons, a team with much of the same talent that had them go to the EC finals 5 years straight, and yet this year saw them limp into the playoffs before getting swept as a mere formality. The Lakers today were the LA Clippers, a motley assortment of players who could care less about the team. The Lakers today weren't champions, and they don't deserve to be champions.

My heart doesn't work on logic, so I'll be there in front of my TV rooting the team on like I always do for Game 5. But in the back of my mind, I'll be hoping that one of these teams comes along and finally gives these Lakers the lesson they deserve, that some group of guys dedicated to each other and to playing the game as best they can ALL THE TIME drives the point home to my team and makes them suffer for it. We all thought it would have happened last year, but it didn't. Maybe it can't happen, maybe its a lesson the team will never learn. But my mind will be hoping for a hungrier team to come and ruin the Lakers season again, because my mind does work on logic. My mind seeks justice.

Even if it costs my heart the chance to celebrate a championship.

Clipper Darrell

My fellow brown writer Arash Markazi has a great feature on my main man Clipper Darrell. It is especially cool for me to be reading about these guys who I have had the opportunity to have multiple conversations with during my times wandering around Staples Center during Clipper games.

Playoff Buzzer Beaters

Some other great Playoff clutch buzzer beaters

Big Baby

I have loads of thoughts on what was another great classic weekend of NBA Playoff basketball, but I will leave it as just a few:

• The Los Angeles Lakers are not a championship team. The title teams of Jordan's Bulls and Duncan's Spurs would never take opposing teams so lightly like the Lakers did Sunday. The Lakers played with more laziness than I would on a Sunday matinee game, except that is their career that they get paid to perform on national television. My dislike for the Lakers and their many bandwagon fans is well documented, but now I have really turned against this particular team. Playing defense and showing effort seems like such a chore to this group of overly skilled yet sadly lackadaisical individuals.
  
• The Lakers winning the title would be an insult to basketball enthusiasts such as myself, and even more so to other playoff teams such as the Cavs, Celtics, and Rockets who leave it all on the floor every game.
  
• Remember how Kevin Garnett shouted at Glen "Big Baby" Davis with such intensity that he cried on the bench earlier this season? You could not have written the end of that story better than with Big Baby hitting an unlikely game winner filling in for Garnett during the playoffs.
  
• If defense breeds championships, what to the Lakers deserve? I vote for a fishing trip.
• Each series has been led by the team with more former Seattle Sonics. Just saying.
  

Ron Witnesses Murder

Ron Artest on the madness during last night's physical Lakers Rockets game, which featured two ejections:

"I understand it's the playoffs. I remember when I used to play back home in the neighborhood. There was always games like that. I remember one time, there was um, one of my friends, you know, was playing basketball and they was winning the game. It was so competitive they broke a piece of leg from a table and they threw it. It went right through his heart and he died right on the court. So I'm accustomed to playing basketball really rough."

Oh Yao, you so funny

Yao to teammate Ron Artest as he left the podium after a win:
"See you in the club"

Yao on whether he viewed the Rockets as underdogs against the Lakers:
"Well I just learned that word a few days ago. Like NBA says...where amazing happens."

Boston-Chicago: Amazing

Boston-Chicago Top 10

The Top Ten Moments of the Boston-Chicago Series.

Ron Artest Interview on TNT (4.29.09)

Chicago Boston

I don't know where to begin.

Highlights of each of the first six games of the series.

Laker Bandwagon

My Facebook profile picture, shown above, has gotten a lot of attention as the Lakers begin their playoff run. In response to all the Laker fans commenting on the accompanying status update, here is what my main man Ali G had to say:

V, the funny thing is, I lived in L.A. during the Suns murdering the Lakers years and these "diehards" were nowhere to be found.

The true diehard Louisiana sports fan hit the nail on the head, and I responded with this rant that turned out so good, I had to post it:

So glad you said that as I could not agree with you more. I am not so much a Laker Hater as I am in disgust with their fans. I understand winning breeds the bandwagon, but I cannot stand how all these people who know nothing about basketball, never watch full games, or even follow the Lakers during the season are suddenly talking trash, displaying flags, and cheering on the local team only when they happen to be the best in the league.

A large number of supposed fans still do not even know who Tex Winter or Shannon Brown is. And the next girl who exclaims "I love Ariza!" and cannot even tell me his first name deserves to be Rihanna-ed by Chris Brown.

I am not saying that knowing about certain people is the absolute qualifier to determine if you are a fan or not. In fact, we all love the nature of sports and how a team's success can bring groups of people and an entire city together. I encourage everyone to enjoy this quality that is the brilliance of sports, but please stop pretending like you have been there for it all. It is an insult to those who truly have.

Ali G, you are absolutely right. When the Lakers are mediocre, these "die-hards" are nowhere to be found. But that is the nature of Los Angeles. As great as this place is, we are just a sorry sports town. Like I admire and respect you sticking with your Saints and Hornets despite 3-13 and 58...oops, sorry.

Latika!

Perhaps this is why men are reluctant to share with their mom. Turns out Slumdog Millionaire's Dev Patel, 19, is really somehow dating Freida Pinto. Go figure.

Excuse me, while I go listen to Latika's Theme before dreaming/sleeping...

Ouch

Got up too early in over excitement for this wonderful Saturday featuring a quadruple header of NBA Playoff games and the NFL Draft, so I decided to play around with the NBA's new video library. I immediately sorted their "amazing" clicks by team, only to find out in horror that the Seattle Sonics are not one of the franchises listed, and consequently might as well have had all their memorable highlights wiped away. Ouch.

Updated: However, upon further examination, there are clips of the Suns, Nuggets, and Bulls beating the Sonics in the playoffs. Great. Just great.

Madden 10 Cover

Homes of the Rich and Famous

I have a hard time resisting stealing off SI's Hot Clicks, so check out photos of the homes of the rich and famous.

New Stuff

Much thanks goes to all the visitors who made yesterday the most popular day in this blog's three year (!) history. I encourage new readers to check out some of the older stuff and skimming through the archives on the right sidebar. For the regulars, note the new addition of my Twitter feed on the top right as well as a cool NBA widget way down at the bottom that I find quite helpful viewing the schedule by clicking on the 'Upcoming Games' tab.

My Team Revisited

My main man Ajay Patel and I have developed the habit of swapping e-mails that tend to have more insight than our respective blogs. I have been meaning to translate this to you guys for a while now, until our most recent exchange brought upon a rant that just had to be shared.

AP: Would you rather be in your situation with the Sonics, having gone through all the glories and success (not being measured in championships here), but having it taken away from you, or would you rather be more in my boat, a [die hard Clippers fan] who is on a perennial loser at this point until we get rid of our owner?

I do not really know what glory and winning is, because I've tasted it once, but it was too short; it's like giving a hungry man one bite of delicious food, it just leaves him hungrier than he was before.

I know this is a biased question, in the sense that I expect an answer along the lines of 'of course I'd want the Sonics, I am a Sonics fan through and through,' so I don't really know what I'm trying to get out of this question. I guess I'm asking you to take a step back from your current state and try and look at this in an unbiased frame of reference.


VM: In regards to the Sonics/Clippers dilemma, I have mixed feelings. Allow me to explain…

Working at the Clippers, you get this new feeling of indifference that everyone else has in the front office. Aside from the occasional Steve Novak game winner, Mike Taylor dunk, Eric Gordon getting hot, and the sheer shock and joy during an upset of the Celtics, the people who work for the Clippers really do not care about the outcome anymore. You know how you are rooting for teams to win or lose every series? I cannot do that anymore. I simply do not care if say, the Spurs or Mavs win their series. But I certainly enjoyed the show that Tony Parker put on last night. Apply this feeling to every series. I am enjoying them, but I cannot heavily invest myself or find a rooting interest. I am not sure why this has happened. Perhaps it is the Sonics demise. Perhaps it is the fact that I am getting older and have pretty much seen it all in basketball having watched closely for nearly two decades already.

It is an odd feeling. It is sort of like watching '24' this season and not caring about Jack Bauer's health because you know he is going to survive somehow. But we still enjoy the dramatic and thrilling twists and turns along the way. Or like in 'Friday Night Lights,' you have to know that Coach Taylor, Tim Riggins, and Lyla Garrity are not going anywhere. So instead of getting wrapped up in the emotion of the story and the "will they really leave the show?" subplots, you start to overanalyze the writing and appreciate the brilliance of it all even more.

So this indifference does lead to a better perspective. Having seen every team courtside this year, having talked about basketball nonstop with fellow sports geeks, having sucked the knowledge and insight out of the top journalists, commentators, executives, and coaches, the perspective that I have on basketball is at an all time high this year for me. You and I are pretty smart basketball players and observers, but this year I find myself noticing things that I never noticed before. The guys who I watch and chat with during playoff games have been making fun of me because I will often make an observation only to have the color commentator say the same exact thing moments later. This has been happening repeatedly every game. I no longer watch basketball as a fan, I am watching games as someone who is…well, very close to the game.

Now, as a fan. In the season finale of the Clippers, ironically a 41 point loss to the Thunder, there was a whole mess of green in the stands. That is, there were more Sonics colors in the crowd than Thunder colors. I made friends with a group of them. There is a certain nostalgia factor that comes with having your team completely gone. We appreciate our history now that we do not have a present.

One thing that I will forever miss is that nervousness that comes with great games that your team is involved in. I distinctly remember running around my living room not being able to sit still on Sunday afternoons whenever the Sonics were in a close game on NBC. Some of the most enjoyable days of my life was when the Sonics beat the Lakers. I recall the year the Sonics swept Shaq’s Lakers. Just imagine the pride I had at that point. The Celtics and Bulls have just opened their series with two of the best games ever to open a playoffs. I loved seeing Ray Allen redeem himself and take over Game 2, but I felt bad that, well, I did not FEEL the emotion that should come with a game like that. You have seen me when I watch the Seahawks play some of their ridiculous games, often against the Rams. The emotion that comes with those ups and downs, hopes and fears, joys and despairs…simply cannot be replaced by anything else.

Sure, I understand, appreciate, and learn about the game more, and a lot of it can only come with indifference. But perhaps it is better to be ignorant to these things, and enjoy the bliss that comes with being a passionate fan.

Note that for the final several years of the Sonics’ existence (wow that is painful to say), they might as well have been the Clippers. The front office was a mess, owner was useless, our star players were gone, and we only made the second round once. But the Sonics run in the 1990s are the main motivating factor for whatever passion I have for basketball today, so I would not trade that away for anything. Even during the last few years, there was always hope that we would return to the glory of winning. And that hope was rightfully justified. I do not recall a team with such a bad record that everyone thinks has such a bright future like the Thunder do right now. Problem with the Clippers is that the hope there is NOT justified. Even with a couple young promising stars, this same core that won 19 measly games is pretty much going to be the same for the next couple years. And you can say that for most seasons they have. Of course I would rather have a team, even if it meant a losing one, but only if they were in fact MY SEATTLE SUPERSONICS. But the Clippers? It is just so demoralizing, that if I had to do it again for another year, I fear that I would die even more inside.

X-Ray

Cavaliers Playoff Proposal