This week HoopsAvenue has been called upon to host the 60th edition of the Carnival of the NBA maintained by Bulls Blogger! If this is your first carnival, don’t be confused, just remember the links tell the story.
Let me introduce you to The Brotherhood of the Traveling Blogs…
While in DC, we hear from another leader, the worldwide leader thinks we should investigate the continent across the Pond, but is it a good idea? We decide to head overseas to check it out.
Our first stop is Italy where Andrea Bargnani is all the rage. We’re told why he struggled last season. Hmm, could he be ready for a breakout season? He could be the X factor.
Wait, we’ve just received an urgent message…”The world might be ending.”
Eeek. We hear that we need to go to Switzerland to investigate. Luckily, we’ve learned how to scale mountains so the Alps are no problem.
We arrive in Geneva where we learn the Large Hadron Collider has been tested and worked fine. That’s a relief. It did suck up the Timberwolves though.
Looking for some positive news, we head back to the States and arrive in Miami where we catch up with Michael Beasley. He’s in a particularly good mood and tells us he’s on his own now. He’s obviously in a very jubilant Starbury-esque mood and tells us he knows how to travel through time.
If bloggers reading want to get involved with theCarnivaloftheNBA, join the group at Ballhype. You can also get information on upcoming (and past) editions ofthecarnival at blogcarnival.com.
It’s not a good week to have money invested in the stock market and it hasn’t been a good week or two for some NBA people either. Here’s a look at 3 NBA stocks that have taken a hit this week…
Washington Wizards – What a brilliant move by Agent Zero to sign a $111million deal and then just 2 months later announcing you’ll be having yet another knee surgery and will miss at least the first month of the season. The Wizards are just praying this doesn’t turn into another Allan Houston or Grant Hill situation. Washington fans are already too familiar with overpaying for guys that don’t pan out (See: Juwan Howard). Once again it’s up to Caron and Antawn to keep this stock out of freefall.
Josh Howard – Howard’s now infamous comments: “The Star-Spangled Banner is going on. I don’t celebrate this [expletive]. I’m black.” Add that to his “NBA players do smoke marijuana” comment just before a playoff game last season and his brilliant idea of throwing a birthday party after losing a playoff game last season. Yeah, time to sell this stock. Here’s the Star-Spangled Banner video:
Rookies – Michael Beasley‘s now the latest rookie to be fined. He got hit $50,000 for the marijuana-smoking incident at the Rookie Transition Program. Mario Chalmers and Darrell Arthur were disciplined a few days ago. Who’s teaching the Rookie Transition Program? Josh Howard?!? These guys are rookies so they’ve got plenty of time to bounce back, but their stocks are dropping right now.
Today is NBA Stadiums Blog Day! If you have not heard of it, do not be alarmed as we wouldn’t expect you to, but some of us NBA bloggers led by Jones On the NBA have organized today to blog about our experiences being at a stadium during a big game or moment in NBA history. I’ve witnessed a few big moments at the “Phone Booth” here in Washington, DC where the Wizards play and ultimately I narrowed it down to 2 choices.
First, the runner-up is this play where Michael Jordan shows us he can still get up…
As impressive as that block looks on video, it was 10x better in person as it just came out of nowhere. Think him getting his shot blocked on the previous play had anything to do with it?
Now, onto my choice for most memorable moment at an NBA game…
To set the stage, it’s 2005, the city of Washington, DC is hyped up as the Wizards are back in the playoffs for the first time since 1997 when they were the 8 seed and known as the Bullets. After years of losing, this Wizards team is exciting and really has a shot to get out of the first round as the 5 seed. But, we haven’t been to the post-season in forever and the city is panicking as the Bulls take games 1 and 2 on their home floor. The Wizards respond in Game 3 though, winning 117-99 setting up a do-or-die Game 4. You’re not coming back down 3-1 and going to Chicago. I was lucky enough to score tickets (albeit in the upper level) to Game 4.
Coming into this game, we knew we’d have to play like we did in Game 3 when our Big 3 of Gilbert Arenas, Antawn Jamison, and Larry Hughes each scored 20+ with a little help from Etan Thomas off the bench. We needed our Big 3 to come through and to get some bench help.
Unfortunately, the one guy off the bench who could score in a hurry, Juan Dixon, was slumping. Wrong time to be slumping. Being a Duke fan, I still wasn’t a fan of this guy.
The game is about to begin and, like you do at all Wizards games, the PA announcer welcomes everyone to “the most POWERFUL city in the world” and does the player introductions. I’m looking around, looking down at our play-by-play and analyst team of Steve Buckhantz and Phil Chenier. I’m wondering what mistakes Buck has already made for the fans watching at home, and I’m hoping he’ll be excited when he’s talking about “daggers” and “backbreakers” late in the game. In Buck-ology, a “dagger” or “backbreaker” is a big shot at a key moment in the game sort of like Mike Breen’s “bang,” but not quite as frequent.
I can’t remember who was at this particular game, but DC is, of course, the politician’s Hollywood and the legendary Tim Russert would often sit courtside as would other political types.
Onto the game…
Late in the first quarter, Dixon entered the game. To be honest, it was a bit surprising as it was somewhat a question mark if he would even play given his slump, but Eddie Jordan wanted to roll the dice.
In his first six minutes, he scored 14 points. Impressive, but would it last? I was still skeptical. The arena was electric, though as the whole team was playing with energy, sparked by Dixon. Nobody was sitting down.
By halftime, the Wizards were up 61-37 and Dixon had 16 points. This would not be a nailbiter.
When it was all said and done, Juan Dixon scored a career-high 35 points and led the Wizards to a 106-99 win.
I had never heard the “Phone Booth” so loud as that game. From tip to buzzer, no matter what the margin, everyone was on their feet. I don’t think I sat down the whole game.
I have to admit, though, being at Game 5 in Chicago would have been nice…
If you have any memories of special NBA moments you have attended, feel free to e-mail me an article and I’ll try to publish it.
Today, Tom Brady went down with a serious knee injury and it looks like he is done for the season. Brady is undoubtedly one of the NFL’s top quarterbacks and has been practically injury-free throughout his career. In fact, he’s so injury free that his name appears on the team injury report every single week as a joke because everybody knows he will be out there. So, if Brady can get hurt, anybody can get hurt. Think about that. Any NBA player could go down in the 1st quarter of the 1st game this season…just like Brady. Brady is obviously one player no team could afford to lose, but who are the NBA’s most indispensable players?
Remember when David Robinson was injured (allegedly) in the ’96 – ’97 season to propel the Spurs to the bottom of the standings and top of the draft board? We’re looking for guys that would have that kind of effect on a season. In order, the top 5:
5. Joe Johnson – It’s hard to convince some people that anybody on a 37-win team could possibly be considered indispensable, but after JJ’s playoff performance against the Celtics last season, it’s hard not to be convinced. The Hawks could win 45+ this season, but if JJ goes down you’ll hear more about the Hawks in Letterman’s punch lines than you will in SportsCenter highlights.
4. Steve Nash – Nash was never the best player. He won back-to-back MVP awards for the sole reason that he is indispensable. It’s not hard to figure out why Amare Stoudemire is so well known for his power dunking.
3. Dwight Howard – Just looking at Orlando’s roster you’ve got to wonder how they managed to win 52 games last season. Howard, like Shaq in his prime, is a classic example of a guy who makes his teammates that much better just by drawing so much defensive attention.
2. Lebron James – Lebron does it all and the Cavs would certainly have fallen flat on their face in the past without the King, but things might finally be a little different this season. With Mo Williams in town, a little bit of the burden is lifted off Lebron. Just a little. He’s still indispensable.
1. Chris Paul – Paul showed how indispensable he was last season surprising the basketball world by taking the Hornets to 56 wins and a #2 seed in the West. David West is nice. So is Tyson Chandler. But, this team is lottery material without Paul.
Who do you think has that Tom Brady-esque quality of indispensability?
With the Olympics ending and the major free agent signing period over with, it’s a boring time of year for NBA fans as we await training camp, but there were a few stories that caught my eye this week:
Ginobili To Have Surgery – The Spurs did not want Manu to play in the Olympics. He played. He hurt himself. He’s going to be out six weeks after getting surgery done. So should Manu have sat? I don’t think so. If you consider he got hurt on such minimal contact, he was bound to get hurt in the pre-season or early in the regular season so the timing actually works in the Spurs favor. Manu’s not going to miss much game action and the Spurs don’t seem to mind that Tim Duncan doesn’t wake up until March anyways so Manu should be no different. Don’t be surprised to see the Spurs hovering around .500 for a while though.
Monta Ellis Out 3 Months – Sorry, Warriors, fans. Not a good summer for you. First, Baron Davis bolts for the Clippers of all teams and now your most exciting player is out. At least you got Corey Maggette, though. If he can carry the load for a while and you get some guys to step up, you could still be in playoff contention when Ellis returns.
Grizzlies Sign Hamed Haddadi – Haddadi will be the first Iranian player in the NBA. He did well in Beijing, but some scouts don’t think he’s ready. The competition in the Iranian league is, well, softer than a marshmallow so we’ll take a wait-and-see approach on this guy. Just don’t expect the next Yao Ming.
Don’t hold your breath, September won’t be much more exciting.
Yes, this is happening. I swear I’m not making this up. ESPN just flashed the news and it is official. Shawn Kemp is going to play in Italy. I don’t even know where to begin. Here, we’ve got an overweight 40-year old “former” crackhead and he’s going to be playing professional basketball. Is Italy that desperate for talent? Well, they are probably just marketing the league with this crazy move. Will Kemp even be able to get up and down the floor? Maybe we’ll have the first halfcourt player in Italian basketball history.
What are your thoughts on the Reign Man’s return to pro basketball?
Pretty soon Barack Obama will be announcing his running mate and, from what we hear, he hasn’t made up his mind yet so HoopsAvenue wanted to toss a few NBA names in Obama’s direction. Ball Don’t Lie ran down Obama’s ‘NBA Dream Team’ cabinet 2 months ago and suggested Tim Duncan as Vice President, but we’ve got some other names to throw in the hat:
Dikembe Mutombo – Mutombo brings a boatload of experience to Obama, which would be a big boost for the senator. Additionally, Mutombo is known to be strong on defense which would appeal to a lot of voters, but his connection with President Bush could be a detriment to the campaign.
Bruce Bowen – Bowen’s reputation for strong defense makes him a natural choice to be Obama’s VP, but he’s also a very polarizing figure, unpopular in LA, Phoenix, and many other cities around the country, which could cost Obama votes.
Antawn Jamison – Jamison is experienced, professional, and well-liked. He looks like a perfect choice to be VP, but Obama’s message of change might not resonate if he chooses a Washington-insider like Jamison.
Dwight Howard – He’s from the southeast, a region where Obama struggles, and is now very popular in the swing-state of Florida, but does Dwight Howard have the experience to be VP? Howard would be a risky pick so maybe he should wait until 2012.
Players Not to Consider
Gilbert Arenas – His recent blog post where he said, “There’s another reason I don’t vote – I don’t want jury duty. If you’re not registered to vote, you can’t get jury duty. I know that campaign Diddy had a couple years ago, “Vote or Die,” yeah if the alternative is jury duty, I’m going to die. I’m not going to get in one of these cases where they blow the jury members’ houses up to get out of the trial, I’m cool. I’ve seen too many movies,” kinda makes it difficult for him to enter into politics. Plus, he’s busy building a really cool pool.
Rasheed Wallace – Wallace would definitely resonate with Obama’s message of change, but he’s a bit too outspoken. When his Pistons won the 2004 NBA championship and had to meet President Bush the next year, he said, “”I’m not going to say (expletive) to him. I didn’t vote for him. This is just something we have to do.”
A lot of people didn’t pay much attention to Mo Williams last season and that’s understandable since he was playing in Milwaukee and in the shadow of Michael Redd and even Andrew Bogut, but that is all going to change this season now that he’s in Cleveland. This trade is huge for Cleveland. It’s just what the doctor ordered if that doctor is Lebron James. Mo Williams, in case you had forgotten, brings an average of 17 points and 6 dimes to the Cavs, taking a whole lot of pressure off The King. No more Sasha Pavlovic at point guard, no more Damon Jones pouting on the bench. Larry Hughes couldn’t deliver as Lebron’s sidekick a few years ago, but Mo Williams will.
This puts the Cavs right in the mix in the East. They are serious contenders to the Celtics and Pistons. Given that the Celtics will be a year older and less motivated, the door is wide open for Lebron James. For the first time in his career, he’ll be able to trust that his teammates can get it done when he needs a breather. I’m not ready to call the Cavs the East champions, but I’m getting close.
October 28th – The defending champion Celtics begin their title defense against Lebron James and the Cavs.
October 29th – Not the most exciting way to start a franchise, but Oklahoma City starts their season hosting the Milwaukee Bucks.
November 5th – Mark your calendars. Gilbert Arenas, who recently blogged, “Because every player hates Milwaukee. Nobody wants to live in Milwaukee. I’m sorry, Milwaukee, to come down hard on you, but no one in the NBA wants to play in Milwaukee,” takes his Wizards to Milwaukee to hear the boos.
December 25th – The NBA is amping it up this season with five games on Christmas Day, highlighted by a Finals rematch between the Lakers and Celtics. The Wizards and Cavs will renew their rivalry as well.
When I first heard the rumors that the Greek team Olympiakos was going to make a run at Lebron in 2010, I didn’t take it seriously at all. I figured they had no chance at luring James away who makes enough money to feed even Latrell Sprewell’s family here in the USA, but now I’m having second thoughts. ESPN is reporting Lebron would seriously consider leaving if he were offered $50 million per year! He couldn’t even make $20 million a year here (poor soul) given the NBA salary cap so maybe Lebron is thinking about it? I have to admit it’s hard to turn down $50 million…and the opportunity to make history.
According to “sources close to Lebron,” he’d view it as an opportunity to popularize himself overseas and become rich enough to build a statue of himself so large that it can be seen from anywhere on the planet, or even from space. Lebron also would like to see David Stern down on his knees begging him to come back while Jay-Z raps his new hit “The League is Mine.” Ok, I’m getting carried away…
But, seriously, can the Greek team pay that much and would Lebron accept? I don’t know if we have the answer right now (any Euro basketball experts out there?). The fact that this is even a possibility should be a bit troubling to the NBA. We’ve already seen numerous players leave for foreign leagues this year so its clear the NBA is no longer the only business in town. The NBA sees these players as replaceable, and they are right now, but you can only lose so many players before your product begins to decline. A lot of people would claim the league is already watered down and it’s not going to get any better if you’re losing players to other leagues on a regular basis.
The only problem for the NBA here is there ain’t much they can do about it. You either let the free market rule and scrap the salary cap, letting Lebron make $50 million here. But, that’d turn the NBA into MLB and the Knicks would actually be good, meeting the Lakers in the Finals every year. Or, you work with the foreign leagues and add some of their teams to the NBA, creating a logistical nightmare. Neither of those options are any good so the NBA needs to find a middle ground and at least do something. Either that or they can sit on their hands like they did with the referee crisis and risk going the way of the ABA.
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