2007 NBA Draft

Kobe. O'Neal. Garnett. Stoudemire. Marion. Carter. Jefferson. Many big names have been thrown out this week amidst the tirade of annual trade rumors that surround the NBA Draft, but no one envisioned this shocker:

Boston gets:
Ray Allen
Glen Davis (Drafted No.35)

Seattle gets:
Wally Szczerbiak
Delonte West
Jeff Green (Drafted No.5)
Celtics' 2008 2nd round pick

Note that Wally's contract expires in two years. That is, his contract is what made him attractive to new 30-year old general manager Sam Presti as opposed to talent. Speaking of Presti, he must have balls of steel to come into an already skeptical fan base and trade the best player within the same month of taking the job. Note that the likely Oklahoma bound Sonics are the only NBA team that went through the draft without a head coach.

The Rashard Lewis situation keeps on getting more interesting. With Kevin Durant and Jeff Green, that would make three very similar players on the same team. Throw in Ray's departure and the uncertainty surrounding the new ownership and arena situation, and Seattle is not an attractive team for a free agent. Unfortunately, Orlando is the only sensible option for Lewis, and they would have to give up Darko to do so. Chances are that Seattle low balls Rashard and forces him to stay as there are no better options, or signs and trades him, completely revamping the team.

Note that Boston fans are not too happy about the trade either, despite the dangerous combination of Allen, Paul Pierce, and Al Jefferson. After all, the big chips here were the No.5 pick for an aging 32-year old.

Portland and New York made some great moves, highlighted by a trade with each other:

Portland gets:

Channing Frye

Steve Francis

New York gets:

Zach Randolph

Big contracts in exchange here, but this frees up room in the middle for Greg Oden and LaMarcus Alridge to flourish. Francis and Frye join Brandom Frye to form a deep and promising young team that will be well guided by Nate McMillian.

Hey, Paul Allen, think you can move your team back home to Seattle? Just a wishful thought...

Oh yeah, a boatload of good players were taken in what is expected to be the deepest draft since the 2003 Lebron/Melo/Wade/Bosh combination, but ESPN and company have them covered well enough, and we have the next two decades to discuss top selections Greg Oden and Kevin Durant.

Low Ratings?

Sports Illustrated's Peter King writes in his popular Monday Morning Quarterback Column:

There are approximately 113 million television households in the United States, and the average rating for the NBA Championship Series showed that 6.9 million of them watched the series between Cleveland and San Antonio.

Remember the late-night Monday night opener on ESPN last year between Oakland and San Diego? Awful game. San Diego won, 27-0. It was pretty much over at the half, when the Chargers led 13-0 and the Raiders couldn't get out of their own way on offense. That game -- after a weekend that started with Thursday night football, went into Sunday afternoon football and Sunday night football, and had a Monday nighter before the second game on the West Coast -- started at 10:25 p.m. EST and ended at 1:14 a.m. Tuesday. And it was on cable TV, which gets a lower rating anyway because not every TV household in America is wired for cable.

The Raiders-Chargers debacle was seen by 7.9 million American TV households [one million more than those who watched the NBA Finals]

We all know football is king in this country, but if the best the NBA has to offer gets trounced by the worst the NFL has to offer ... well, the NBA is in more than a little trouble.

When I Grow Up, I Want to be Tony Parker

Coach/Commentator Jeff Van Gundy asked San Antonio Spurs point guard Tony Parker if he had to choose from winning the NBA championship, being a top-5 point guard in the world, or marrying Eva Longeria, which one would he take over the other two? Tony choose the beautiful girl. Duh.

In case you have been living on another planet, the 25 year old Frenchman is set to marry the 32 year old Desperate Housewife on 07/07/07 in Paris. Longoria joined the championship celebration in tears taking pictures as Parker was awarded the Finals Most Valuable Player trophy.

In other news, there were supposedly four basketball games played in this series sweep, although the San Antonio Spurs seemed fully in control against the helpless Cleveland Cavaliers. The imbalance of power in the NBA between the western and eastern conferences has never been more clear, and the true Finals may have taken place back in the second round between the Spurs and Phoenix Suns. It is a pity that series was so severely altered by the infamous suspensions of bench clearers Boris Diaw and Amare Stoudamire.

While this Finals was never going to live up to last years series of amazing Dwayne Wade comebacks, the 2007 playoffs certainly had some great moments. The Warriors upset of the Mavs, the amazing Phoenix-San Antonio series, Lebron's LeLeap, and finally the brilliance of the amazingly balanced Spurs.

Rescue Me

The fourth season of the critically acclaimed comedy-drama starring Denis Leary kicks off tomorrow night on FX. EntertainmentWeekly.com agrees with my assessment that Rescue Me is the most moving comedy on television, and is right up there with 24 and Friday Night Lights in terms of best overall series. Warning though, this cable show is not for the faint at heart as it includes just about every disgusting and immoral act you can imagine. Check it out Wednesday nights on FX at 10pm.

Ducks

The Anaheim Ducks won the 2007 Stanley Cup tonight, ironically just one year after dropping the "Mighty" from their team name and changing their logo and team colors from the familiar Disney era. Hockey has yet to recover from the 2004-05 cancelled lockout season as most sports fans, including myself, cannot even name one of the champions in Anaheim, but at least America's distant fourth favorite sport made an important step in getting some games on NBC the past few months.

Now, the real Finals series begins tomorrow night in San Antonio...

Lebron's LeLeap

Lebron followed up his 48-point performance including 29 of his team's last 30 through double overtime in Detroit with another superb game in Cleveland on Saturday as the Cavs stunned the Pistons in six, advancing to the NBA Finals. Perhaps just as importantly, James has finally found his worthy sidekick in Daniel "Booby" Gibson. Let the Jordan and Pippen comparisons rain.

Speaking of MJ, even he marveled at James' performance.

It is a pity that, during this same week, Kobe has made a fool out of himself.

The Detroit Pistons are getting a lot of heat as the media speculates on the potential breakup of the team. After all, the East may be owned by James for years to come. And let us not forget about some fellows named Wade, Howard, and Bosh. But the big difference that no one is talking about between this series and last year's was Ben Wallace, or rather the lack thereof. Chris Webber was simply not as much of an inside force as Big Ben was in allowing Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Drew Gooden, and Anderson Varejao to make plays in the inside. More significantly, Booby and Lebron were constantly penetrating and having their way in the paint.

ESPN's Bill Simmons writes:

When he passed up the game-tying dunk in Game 1 for an ill-fated pass to Donyell Marshall, in retrospect that turned out to be the most important lesson of his career. He needed to take the abuse, needed to hear the questions, needed to hear everyone call him out. Both Detroit losses hardened him, leading to his transcendent Game 3 and another focused performance in Game 4.

You could see him harnessing his considerable gifts. Every fledgling superduperstar needs one of these moments -- Jordan had the series-winning shot in Cleveland, Tiger had the '97 Masters, Magic had Game 6 of the 1980 Finals, Bird had the banker in Game 7 of the '81 Philly series -- when they can say to themselves, "I came through when it mattered, I can do it again." LeBron was one crowd-killing game in Detroit from pushing himself to another level, almost like someone completing a mission in "Grand Theft Auto.

If you care about basketball, this game immediately joined the Bird-Dominique Duel, The Flu Game, MJ's Last Shot, Magic's Sky Hook, McHale's Clothesline, the Sleepy Floyd Game, MJ's 63-Point Game, the Bernard-Isiah Duel, the '87 All-Star Game, the Suns-Celts Game, Bird's Steal, Havlicek's Steal, West's Half-Court Shot, the Miller/Spike Lee Game and every other classic over the years that can be described/remembered/rehashed in three or four words. We'll call this "LeBron's 48-Point Game" someday. 'Nuff said.

And everyone knows how much I love these types of quirky remarks:

"I love the NBA. Can you think of any other avenue in life in which a 22-year-old black kid from Akron, Ohio, would excitedly jump in the air and lovingly embrace for a good 20 seconds a 7-foot-3, 31-year-old from Lithuania?"

Twenty five years from now, every man will still remember where they were when they were a WITNESS to Lebron making his LeLeap.

LeBron

We are all witnesses.

Kobe

In case you were living under a rock yesterday, Wilt Chamberlain and Chick Hearn began rolling over in their graves due to wanna-be Jack Bauer's nonstop drama. Kobe Bryant opened the morning on ESPN Radio asking for a trade from the Lakers. He came back on the radio twice, each time further backing off his comments after speaking with Phil Jackson and Magic Johnson. A lot of analysis can and has been done on this subject, but let us make it clear that Kobe is NOT going to be traded.

Kobe simply is trying to orchestrate a Jerry West return to run the "mess" of an organization that is the Lakers, or force the current front office of Mitch Kupchak and Jim Buss to make some type of trade to bring the team back to a contending status. Ironically enough, the great Seattle Sonic Ray Allen predicted this three years ago:

"He's going to be very selfish," Allen said of Bryant. "And he feels like he needs to show this league and the people in this country that he is better without Shaq. He can win championships without Shaq. So offensively, he's going to jump out and say, 'I can average 30 points. I can still carry the load on this team.'

"I think the point production is not going to be so much what people are going to look at because (Tracy) McGrady did it in Orlando, Allen (Iverson) did it in Philly. Can you win a championship? I think that's the question. Carrying guys on your back and making everybody better."

Allen was right about that, as it turns out, but get a load of Allen's crystal ball on this one.

"If Kobe doesn't see he needs two and a half good players to be a legitimate playoff contender or win a championship, in about a year or two he'll be calling out to Jerry Buss that 'We need some help in here,' or 'Trade me,' " Allen said. "And we'll all be saying, 'I told you so,' when he says that."

Man alive, that is some good stuff. He was almost exactly right. It took three seasons instead of two, but Kobe finally did exactly what Ray said he was going to do. Unbelievable.

- Frank Hughes, The News Tribune

Furthermore, Kobe is now claiming that he was not responsible for the departure of Shaq. While he may have never verbally asked the Lakers to rid of Shaq, let us not forget what Kobe has said before, leaving owner Jerry Buss no choice but to choose the younger attraction over the aging winner. The Big Fella has agreed, but this is after legends such as Bill Russell have adviced him to put the whole dramatic situation behind him.

Finally, another blog points out how it seems that Kobe is the type of person that strives to outshine everything else and be the main headline:

• 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.

The End of the World

Good thing we have Jack Bauer, otherwise this may really happen someday...

Portland & Seattle win Oden & Durant

• The Pacific Northwest hit the jackpot Tuesday evening, as the Portland Trail Blazers and Seattle Sonics surprisingly won the draft lottery for the top two picks.
• Ohio State 7-foot 280-pound beast Greg Oden will go first to Portland while Texas phenom (6'9" 220) Kevin Durant is coming to Seattle baby!
• Portland last had the No.2 pick in 1984, selecting center Sam Bowie, a bust in comparison to the fellow who Chicago took next by the name of Michael Jordan. Deja vu anyone?
• Seattle last had the No.2 pick in 1990, selecting living legend Gary Payton. A decade of winning seasons and playoff runs followed.
Oden was bothered with a broken wrist last year, but still managed to be an effective force in the Buckeye's run to the Final Four. Scouts compare Oden to Shaq, Duncan, and Dwight Howard, all number one picks who have completely turned around NBA franchises.
Durant just won the John Wooden Award after averaging 26 points and 11 rebounds. Durant has often been compared to Carmelo Anthony, while some believe he has the marketability of a Jordan or Lebron. Look for Durant to make more of an immediate impact than the more raw Oden.
The I-5 rivalry between the Blazers and Sonics will certainly heat up next year on a national scale. Portland's Nate McMillian is the former Sonic guard and coach and Blazers owner Paul Allen has strong ties to Seattle as the co-founder of Microsoft and owner of the NFL's Seattle Seahawks.
Both Portland and Seattle are currently in the midst of arena problems. The Blazers are locked into a financially draining lease at the Rose Garden while the Sonics were recently sold to Clay Bennett, a businessman who is expected to move the team to Oklahoma City if the Washington government does not pay up for a new arena. Hopefully this new excitement and publicity will generate enough attention and revenue to keep basketball in these two great hotbed cities.
• Look for Seattle's Rashard Lewis to leave as a free agent this summer. The franchise's uncertainty was already going to be the driving force, but with Durant coming in with a similar game at the same position, Lewis may be better off going to, say, Orlando with Dwight Howard and company.
• Sonics President Lenny Wilkens will now turn his attention to hiring a general manager and head coach, even though he may have been the best candidate for either job. But seriously, all the GM has to do is sign Lewis and the coach just has to say, "Kevin, screen for Ray" every timeout.
• Any sudden climate changes that occurred Tuesday can be attributed to the loud cheers from the caffeinated Northwest and collective groans in Boston, where after a season of tanking, the Celtics ended up with their worst possible scenario, the fifth pick in the draft. Remember that Boston was favored to get Tim Duncan in 1997 before being similarly screwed by the ping pong balls.
• Thanks to the bounce of those balls though, the Northwest Division may suddenly be a strong one next year as the already superior Western Conference continues to add firepower. The Utah Jazz are still playing and have a bright future with Williams and Boozer while Denver has yet to play a full season with the Iverson/Carmelo combination. A nod goes to Kevin Garnett and a No.7 pick in Minnesota as Portland fans are dreaming of championships with Oden and rookie of the year Brandon Roy while Seattle's potential Ray Allen, Kevin Durant, Rashard Lewis can easily form the league's highest scoring trio...

This is why Sonics Fans are hot...

Stars

Michael Wilbon checks in with yet another brilliant article, this time calling on David Stern and the NBA to reseed the playoffs after every round, forcing the best teams to play each other later on in the tournament. Wilbon also points out that basketball, more so than any other sport, is driven by its stars, most of whom have already been eliminated. With a likely San Antonio-Detroit Finals rematch looming, the most attractive star may be found on the sidelines...

UPDATE: Speaking of Tony Parker and Eva Longoria...

UPDATE TWO: Go Tony, Go!

Warriors

• The Golden State Warriors shocked the Dallas Mavericks in six games becoming the first 8 seed to upset a number 1 seed in a best of seven first round series.
• With Chicago's sweep of Miami, this means that both Finals participants were eliminated in the first round. And they say the NBA is too predictable.
• Baron Davis was the man for the Warriors, constantly penetrating and knocking down shots. Looks like Bruins finally found their NBA star to follow after the Reggie Miller era.
• Stephen Jackson stepped up big time this series, shedding his thug image in favor of a smart hard worker. We knew about the Warriors' big three of Davis, Jackson, and Jason Richardson, but who in the world saw Andris Biedris, Monte Ellis, and Mikael Pietrus turning into such ballers?
• There are several more reasons why the Warriors won this series. Don Nelson will get a lot of credit for his unique coaching style, motivating his team at the right time, promoting organized chaos on offense, throwing a variety of defenders at Dirk, and switching all screens and using zone defenses to throw the Mavs off. As the former coach of the Mavs, Nellie definitely had an advantage.
• Dallas, having clinched the top seed, were resting up and taking it easy going into April. On the flip side, Golden State caught fire and made a playoff push. Sports are all about confidence and momentum.
• But none of this would not have mattered if it were not for those crazy lunatic fans up in Oakland...
• The last time the Warriors won a series was 1991, with Avery Johnson, Tim Hardaway, Chris Mullin and Tom Tolbert. Oh, and they were coached by Don Nelson.
• The Warriors were simply a team that had the Mavericks' number. They swept Dallas 3-0 during the season, including the final meeting in which Avery Johnson rested his starters instead of taking advantage of the opportunity to knock Golden State out of the playoff race.
• I said it at the end of last year and I will say it again. Avery Johnson is not the great coach that we all think he is. A great coach does not blow a 2-0 lead in the Finals. A great coach does not fall to a lowly eight seed after such a great regular season.
• The NBA should be ashamed to have Dirk Nowitzki as its MVP. The award should be decided and voted upon at a time much deeper into the playoffs, instead of at the end of the regular season as it is now. Dirk was criticized with choking during last year's Finals, and after this miserable disappearing act, he will be under further scrutiny.
• With Dallas gone, only Phoenix and Detroit stand a chance against the San Antonio Spurs, my pick to win it all.

Indian Pride

Indians invented numbers. Irrigation. Navigation. Medicine. Hotmail. The Pentium Chip. Mahatma Gandhi. Aishwarya Rai. But this takes the cake.

2007 NFL Draft

As the amazingly entertaining NBA Playoffs rages on, the completely overhyped NFL Draft finally took place last weekend. Despite all the coverage, the draft is hard to judge until multiple seasons afterwards when the players have had adequate time to adapt and develop. Nevertheless, here are some of the main storylines:

• The Oakland Raiders took LSU quarterback JaMarcus Russell with the first overall pick, and is expected to sign a contract well over $50 million for the next six years. Good luck behind that poor offensive line.
• The Raiders traded Randy Moss to the New England Patriots for a fourth round pick. The Patriots are the unofficial offseason winners as Bill Belichick prepares for one last push for a Super Bowl run.
• The Detroit Lions could not get a satisfactory trade proposal so took freak athelete Calvin Johnson, wide receiver out of Georgia Tech.
• Notre Dame's Brady Quinn free fall was well documented, as the Cleveland Browns passed on him at No.3 for dominant left tackle Joe Thomas. The Browns later traded back into the first round for Dallas' No.22 to nab the hometown boy.
• In the biggest shock of the draft, the Miami Dolphins passed on Quinn taking the injured Ohio State receiver and returner Ted Ginn Jr. New head coach Cam Cameron, the genious behind the San Diego Chargers' powerhouse offense the last few years, was met with heavy boos at a press conference.
• NFL.com: The 10th pick was 19-year-old defensive tackle Amobi Okoye of Louisville, by Houston. He's the youngest player drafted in the first round since the merger and will join last year's No. 1 overall pick, defensive end Mario Williams, on the line.
• Teams were not afraid to draft running backs early, starting with the Minnesota Vikings selecting Adrian Peterson at No.9 and Buffalo Bills selecting Marshawn Lynch at No.12.
• Ohio State Heisman winning quarterback Troy Smith was finally selected by the Baltimore Ravens with the final pick of the fifth round. Look for Smith, who is nothing but a winner, to flourish behind Steve McNair and a scary defense.
• Sports Illustrated on the champs: Indy has lost defenders Cato June, Jason David, Nick Harper, Mike Doss and Montae Reagor this offseason. So they need to draft defenders, right? The Colts first two picks were receiver Anthony Gonzalez and offensive tackle Tony Ugoh.
• The Seattle Seahawks, without a first-round pick because of the Deion Branch trade, went with a corner and defensive tackle for their first two picks. Their big splash was trading away Darrell Jackson to divison rival San Francisco for a fourth round pick. This puts Branch as the undisputed No.1 option, with D.J. Hackett the favorite to start alongside him, and Nate Burleson and Bobby Engram rounding out the still deep receiving corps.
• Early Super Bowl pick, and note this has nothing to do with who they drafted: Seattle Seahawks, New England Patriots.

The Day They Kicked God out of the Schools

Spurs, Heat to meet in NBA Finals

Amidst all the Nowitski or Nash for MVP hype as the Phoenix Suns and Dallas Mavericks both rolled through the NBA with over 60 wins each, the San Antonio Spurs quietly completed their eighth consecutive winning season. In fact, since Tim Duncan was drafted No.1 by San Antonio ten years ago, the Spurs have the best winning percentage of all four major sports. The Spurs three world championships came in spurts during that span, largely in part to the short lived Laker dynasty and numerous injuries to the big three of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginobili, who are usually banged up by the time the playoffs roll around. However, for the first time in five years, Tim Duncan has not missed a game the entire season. The remaining core of the team, Parker, Ginobili, Michael Finley, and Bruce Bowen all have been healthy all season long, each keeping their games missed to a single digit number.

The first round matchup against the Denver Nuggets promises to be entertaining, with two amazingly quick guards in Tony Parker and Allen Iverson going up against each other. While Denver’s improving frontline of Carmelo Anthony, Nene, and Marcus Camby may be able to slow down Duncan, look for Ginobili to have a huge series against a poor perimeter defensive team. Throw in veterans Robert Horry, Michael Finley, and Brent Barry, all of whom will step up their games come playoff time, and San Antonio will advance to the second round.

The Spurs have continuously shown that they are the only team in the NBA who can slow down the Phoenix Suns. Whether it be the ability of Tony Parker to keep pace with the quickness Steven Nash and Leandro Barbosa, Ginobili coming off the bench for an energy boost, or Tim Duncan’s post presence, the Spurs have consistently had the Suns’ number, with a 12-3 advantage in meetings over the past three years including the 4-1 western conference finals playoff series two years ago. Perhaps the only potential stumbling block for San Antonio is a motivated Amare Stoudemire, but look for the Suns, who only play seven players, coming off another brutal first round series against the Lakers, to be burned out.

The Dallas Mavericks are the toughest hurdle for the San Antonio Spurs. In what is quickly becoming a great Texas rivalry, the most important match up is to be found on the sidelines as Avery Johnson going up against his former coach Greg Popovich, both of whom have known nothing but success as head coaches. At first glace, San Antonio appears to have the tougher route to the western finals with Denver and Phoenix. However, Dallas cannot sleep on Don Nelson’s Golden State Warriors and the Utah Jazz or Houston Rockets, which may turn out to be the best first round series by the way. The regular season records and games are thrown out the window here. Remember, last year these two teams came down to the final minute in overtime of Game 7 in a classic series. As basketball fans, we can only hope for a similar showdown.

The Eastern Conference will actually be decided in the second round when the Detroit Pistons and the Miami Heat face off. No one in the east has yet to come up with answers for Dwayne Wade and Shaq. The Detroit Pistons could not beat the Heat last year with Ben Wallace, so without him they are even worse off. The aging Big Ben has never been able to contain Shaq and scare Wade away from the paint, so the Chicago Bulls, as great as they are defensively as a team, will fall to Miami again. The Toronto Raptors have been a great story, but they simply lack the experience for a deep playoff run. The Cleveland Cavaliers’ Zydrunas Igauskas wants no part of The Big Fella. Miami has been plagued by physical injuries and mental disinterest throughout the season. The players have openly admitted that they were simply playing for a playoff spot, rather than a good record and higher seed. As shown by last year’s championship run, this deep group of veterans can simply turn up the heat when it matters. Gary Payton, Antoine Walker, Jason Williams, Eddie Jones, and Alonzo Mourning are all former all-stars who can make big plays when called upon. James Posey, Udonis Haslem, and Jason Kapono round up a deep supporting cast. As TNT’s Kenny Smith would say, the Miami Heat are built for the playoffs, not all that unlike the San Antonio Spurs.

Playoffs!?

NBA Playoff Memories 2006

NBA on NBC Memories