As I covered the situation with the Kings at length in a recent post, this once mighty franchise has fallen on especially hard times.
On the surface, it seems like the Kings are not only in a tough spot in regards to their tenuous location and ownership situation, BUT...looking at their roster, I have to admit that they are not entirely without a future. Let's take a look at their payroll situation for the upcoming season:
Beno Udrih: 7.2 million
Francisco Garcia: 5.8 million
Tyreke Evans: 4.15 million
DeMarcus Cousins: 3.6 million
Jason Thompson: 3 million
Omri Casspi: 1.3 million
Donte Green: 1.67 million
Darnell Jackson: 1 million (qualifying offer)
Jermaine Taylor: 884,293 (team option)
Hassan Whiteside: 788,872
Pooh Jeter: 788,872
_____________________
Total: 27.62 million
Expiring:
Samuel Dalembert: 12.2 million
Marquis Daniels: 2.47 million
Antoine Wright: 992,680
Luther Head: 992,680
Marcus Thornton: 473,604
_______________________
Total: 17 million
There are a few things to keep in mind here: For starters, regardless of their cap space, this team is not spending any more money than they need to. They are a young, rebuilding squad, and I'm pretty sure no one is mistaking them for players in the Summer 2012 Dwight Howard/Chris Paul sweepstakes. Like New Orleans, this team has a very uncertain future, in addition to simply bleeding money by the year. Any moves they make are going to be to make this team simply watchable and to be slightly above the minimum cap threshold (wow, how many teams are saying that these days? I'll give you a hint, and it rhymes with "no one"), probably nothing more.
This team is terrible. I'm pretty sure no one is making that mistake. No matter what the result is of the draft, or a free agent signing, I have full confidence saying that this team is not making the playoffs next year.
1). Sign Marcus Thornton to a 4 year, $24 million dollar deal
I would even go as high as 27 million for young Marcus. He is a prodigious scorer and instant offense either in your starting lineup or off the bench. He seems to like playing in Sacto, which is something that cannot be valued with numbers or metrics.
2). Take the best available with the number 7 pick, except if that best available person is Kemba Walker
The Kings are a little SOL in this scenario - they really needed a true point. At his best, Tyreke does a somewhat unflattering, yet passable Allen Iverson impersonation. But I always felt that AI's best years were when he played off-guard with an unselfish point in Philly (Eric Snow) - I'd prescribe the same recipe for 'Reke. Unfortunately, at 7, the Kings probably aren't going to get that type of PG.
The gurus at nbadraft.net have the Kings taking Kemba Walker at the number 7 slot. I feel that on his best day, Kemba does a somewhat unflatting, yet passable Tyreke Evans impersonation. While the Kings don't really have the leeway to draft based on need at this point, Kemba Walker isn't the way to go. He has little defensive ability, limited passing skills and of course, his durability will always be in question considering his 5'10" stature. I think the Kings already have a guy like this on the team, except he's 6'5" and is better on all those fronts. At this point in the draft, I'd take the most talented player...as long as that player isn't Kemba Walker.
3). Try to get any free agent power forward to sign
Even with multiple draft picks and a potential 7 million dollar payday for Marcus Thornton, this team would still be about 8 million dollars under the MINIMUM salary requirements. Amazing.
From what I've seen, I feel that DeMarcus is at his best playing center and with some work and some intense therapy, could be the prodigal Jermaine O'Neal (not this guy - this guy). So I'd try to get a competent 4 to play with him. Kenyon Martin, Kris Humphries, Chuck Hayes, Jeff Green and Reggie Evans could all be had for less than 10 million. Just anyone that will get a rebound, run and not take too many shots.
4). Demand Paul Westphal to tell his squad to put up 120 a night
All the moves I'm prescribing are for the future and with the hopes that this team will play an entertaining enough game to get more fans to come. If I'm the GM, I'm telling coach Westphal to make this team run-and-gun. Defense be damned, at least they'll be exciting to watch on one end of the court! Westphal isn't a bad coach, he's just coaching a John Calipari team against a league of professionals.
5). Sign The Immortal Brian Cardinal, Tony Battie, Joe Smith, Shane battier - or all of them.
This sounds silly. I am aware that I just recommended the signing of The Immortal Brian Cardinal. It is painfully obvious to me that this young Sacramento team is out of control, led by its ringleader, Mr. DeMarcus Cousins. There is nothing in DeMarcus' pre-draft scouting report that left anyone down - great hands, big body, tough rebounder, nice shooting touch and is absolutely batshit crazy. It might be the most accurate scouting report in the last 20 years.
With a bunch of other 20-something like Tyreke, Garcia, Jeter and Jason Thompson running shotgun in DeMarcus' clown car, the Kings need a couple of veterans to help mold DeMarcus into the destructive force he should be. The Immortal Brian Cardinal, Battie and Smith could all be had for the veterans minimum (and will be happy to have jobs, at that), with only Battier would be less apt to play there (with his still remaining talent and certain market demand after a great playoff run with the Grizz). This team needs leadership BADLY, and I think those four are the best available to give it.
Overall, this offseason needs to be about bringing in some vets to help develop the kids and getting to the level where, at the very least, the team is competitive. While I'm never a proponent of all-offense, no-defense teams, this Sacto squad has to be competitive AND exciting enough to deserve the level of community support it has garnered in the past few months. I'd love it if this team resembled the Warriors of the past few seasons - never winning more than 36 games, but playing hard and being entertaining as hell. Do it Sacto - the league needs you.
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Monday, June 6, 2011
Somehow, Shaq's presence was bigger than his game
The end of Shaquille's career came much faster and sooner than I expected it. Not because I didn't see the signs coming - the guy only played half the 2011 season and had been battling injuries for years. I had heard so often that this man was the oldest player in the league. But how could the biggest personality in the league be its oldest? Maybe I didn't believe it because his still gregarious demeanor belied everything I saw in his declining game. His interviews had not waned from the time when his nightly 30 point, 12 rebound human blitzkrieg seemed like nothing more than a precursor to his plug for the new Shaq-Fu video game. Usually legends fade quietly into the background. It is like their slow decline in skill serve as a ballast of humility for their bravado and ego that once, and perhaps rightly, floated so high above everyone's head. Most times, the swagger fades in concert with the vertical leap - so no matter who you are, I suppose that age is the greatest equalizer of them all. But Shaquille, even on his last day as a professional basketball player, still loomed larger and more important in the sport than that night's game between the last remaining 30 men of the 2011 season.
To get a little perspective on the Diesel leaving the league, let's look at his accomplishments. He went to 6 NBA Finals, 15 NBA All-Star games and was named 1st Team All-NBA 8 times. He unjustly won the regular season MVP only once, but won the Finals MVP thrice - three Finals MVPs out of his 4 championships. He finishes his career with averages of 23.7 points per game, 10.9 rebounds per game, 2.7 blocks per game, all while shooting 58%. He ranks 17th in NBA history in minutes played, 12th in rebounds, 7th in blocks and 5th in points. He is a surefire Hall of Famer, and one of the 15 greatest players EVER. But maybe even more impressive than his resume could be the teammates he played with.
Out of all of his teammates he played with, 2 are already a Hall of Famers (Karl Malone and Dennis Rodman, a forgotten member of the '99 Lakers), and 9 will be at some point in the future. The list (in chronological order) is Kobe Bryant, Dennis Rodman, Gary Payton, Karl Malone, Dwyane Wade, Steve Nash, Grant Hill, LeBron James, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce. Those guys are almost all unmistakable Hall of Famers (Hill for his contributions both in college and in the pros), and that's not counting teammates Alonzo Mourning, Rajon Rondo and Amar'e Stoudemire and Hall of Fame coaches Phil Jackson, Tex Winter and Pat Riley. That's 11 Hall of Fame teammates, with potentially 3 more, and 3 Hall of Fame coaches. Only one other guy played with a similar amount of talent - 11 Hall of Famers in Bob Cousy, John Havlicek, Tommy Heinsohn, Bailey Howell, Ed McCauley, KC Jones, Sam Jones, Frank Ramsey, Clyde Lovellette, Andy Phillip and Arnie Risen. This man is Bill Russell. Great stat.
What is so amazing is that even with the enormity of all these accomplishments, when I think of him, I remember how entertaining he was. Will you remember his place on the all-time scoring list - or "Can you dig it?". Will you remember how him and Kobe were the two best players in the league on the same team - or will you remember everything else about their off-court relationship. Incredibly, I think it's the latter; Shaquille bouncing out of a limo with super-soakers to an adoring Miami crowd in July, 2004, or doing a 2009 All-Star intro dance with the Jabowockeez. It would take a presence of something massive to overshadow the accomplishments of a career like Shaquille's - and in saying that, it's not at all surprising that we'll most remember him more for being the most enduring personality in the history of the NBA.
To get a little perspective on the Diesel leaving the league, let's look at his accomplishments. He went to 6 NBA Finals, 15 NBA All-Star games and was named 1st Team All-NBA 8 times. He unjustly won the regular season MVP only once, but won the Finals MVP thrice - three Finals MVPs out of his 4 championships. He finishes his career with averages of 23.7 points per game, 10.9 rebounds per game, 2.7 blocks per game, all while shooting 58%. He ranks 17th in NBA history in minutes played, 12th in rebounds, 7th in blocks and 5th in points. He is a surefire Hall of Famer, and one of the 15 greatest players EVER. But maybe even more impressive than his resume could be the teammates he played with.
Out of all of his teammates he played with, 2 are already a Hall of Famers (Karl Malone and Dennis Rodman, a forgotten member of the '99 Lakers), and 9 will be at some point in the future. The list (in chronological order) is Kobe Bryant, Dennis Rodman, Gary Payton, Karl Malone, Dwyane Wade, Steve Nash, Grant Hill, LeBron James, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce. Those guys are almost all unmistakable Hall of Famers (Hill for his contributions both in college and in the pros), and that's not counting teammates Alonzo Mourning, Rajon Rondo and Amar'e Stoudemire and Hall of Fame coaches Phil Jackson, Tex Winter and Pat Riley. That's 11 Hall of Fame teammates, with potentially 3 more, and 3 Hall of Fame coaches. Only one other guy played with a similar amount of talent - 11 Hall of Famers in Bob Cousy, John Havlicek, Tommy Heinsohn, Bailey Howell, Ed McCauley, KC Jones, Sam Jones, Frank Ramsey, Clyde Lovellette, Andy Phillip and Arnie Risen. This man is Bill Russell. Great stat.
What is so amazing is that even with the enormity of all these accomplishments, when I think of him, I remember how entertaining he was. Will you remember his place on the all-time scoring list - or "Can you dig it?". Will you remember how him and Kobe were the two best players in the league on the same team - or will you remember everything else about their off-court relationship. Incredibly, I think it's the latter; Shaquille bouncing out of a limo with super-soakers to an adoring Miami crowd in July, 2004, or doing a 2009 All-Star intro dance with the Jabowockeez. It would take a presence of something massive to overshadow the accomplishments of a career like Shaquille's - and in saying that, it's not at all surprising that we'll most remember him more for being the most enduring personality in the history of the NBA.
If I were GM of...the Memphis Grizzlies
Even with their 2010-2011 season coming to a halt as an 8-seed in the second round of the playoffs, I still am not positive that the Memphis Grizzlies are the team they appear to be. Zach Randolph looked like the best forward in the league for a month, Pau's brother almost was good enough for me to learn his first name and Mike Conley seemingly tried to throw it in every critics face every night. They dismantled the number one seed San Antonio Spurs and took the Thunder to a game 7. But this team only won 46 games in the regular season - record-wise, they weren't much better than the Orlando Magic or Atlanta Hawks. Was their run because their players got hot at the right time, like what happens in MLB playoffs? Or was it because the Spurs and Thunder weren't prepared for all the trouble an 8-seed could give them? I'm still not sure how good they were.
But going forward, you have to ride the wave of positivity and hope that what we saw over the past month wasn't a fluke or a hot streak - we have to assume that this is who the Grizzlies really are.
Zach Randolph:
Rudy Gay: 15 million
Mike Conley: 6.5 million
OJ Mayo: 5.6 million
Tony Allen: 3.1 million
Xavier Henry: 2.17 million
Hamed Haddadi: 2 million (qualifying offer)
Darrell Arthur: 2 million
Greivis Vasquez: 1.11 million
Sam Young: 947,800 (team option)
Ishamel Smith: 788,872
_____________________
Total: 50 million
Expiring:
Marko Jaric (seriously): 6.5 million
Shane Battier: 7.3 million
Pau's brother: 3.48 million
A bunch of deadbeats: 1 million
_____________________________
Total: 18.3 million
The Grizzlies' first priority would have been extending Z-Bo, but oddly enough, they might have already done that. At 4-years and 70 million, I am shocked to write that that might have even been at a small discount for Memphis. After way he played in the playoffs, he could have gotten 5 years, 100 million. Crazytown.
1). Sign Pau's brother on your terms rather than allow another team to sign him to an offer sheet
Well, one good thing had to happen to a Gasol family member this summer. Pau's brother is going to get PAID whenever the free agency period begins, and paid big. Somehow, Pau's brother went from a throw-in in a monster trade to one of the key pieces to a team that nearly made it to the Western Conference Finals.
(By the way, I'm not sure how Pau's brother got so completely overlooked in the Pau Gasol to the Lakers deal. If you have a guy like Pau - former all-star, extremely skilled, high basketball IQ - wouldn't you think that his brother would be pretty good? Another guy with the same GENETIC MAKEUP, except with 40 more pounds? How did we not see this coming? Either Chris Wallace is much smarter than we all knew, or he's just extremely lucky. I'd side with the latter. See no. 5 please)
His career averages lie at 12.7 ppg, 7.8 rebounds, 71.5% FT, 54.5 FG%, 1.4 bpg, 2.2 apg. He's 26 years old. He's in just his third professional season and he's durable. Someone is going to offer him 5 years, 55 million - or more. Memphis, I'd throw that money at this man, before someone signs him to an offer sheet and makes that contract more expensive for you.
2). Get someone that can make a long range jumper
The Grizz have to get a guy that can reliably make a 3 point shot. A team that is cannot spread the floor usually won't find success of any type, but I suppose that's just a testament to how good Randolph was during this playoff run - no one could effectively slow him down inside, so the need for spacing didn't seem as great. However, I just don't think that type of adrenaline-fueled play can be counted on over 82 games.
Jamal Crawford, Jason Richardson and JR Smith are the cream of the crop in regards to shooting guards this summer. I'm not sure that type of investment is going to be in the cards for the Grizz, especially considering that they only have 7 million in cap space. Leandro Barbosa, Peja Stojakovic and Mike Dunleavy are all more feasible options, while not the best. The Grizz do have a nice little chest of assets they could use to trade for a shooter - Darrell Arthur, Xavier Henry, Sam Young, Greivis Vasquez, Hamed Haddaddi - to bolster the team in case an investment in Barbosa, Peja or Dunleavy doesn't work out.
Another option is to extend Shane Battier. I get the feeling he likes playing in Memphis and especially likes being the elder statesman around a lot of these young players. If he'd take something like the mid-level for 3 years, his shooting combined with his veteran leadership would be worth the price of that contract.
3). Don't trade OJ Mayo - you idiots
Don't trade him. He is 23. His first two years in the league he averaged 18 points and played 82 games both times. He's a career 38% shooter from the arc. He's got a ridiculous pedigree and is skilled on nearly every front. He was your number 3 pick. You traded Kevin Love for this man.
He is going to be a very good player. Please don't trade him for something like Josh McRoberts and an old Reggie Miller jersey. Be smart. Keep him around. Give him a summer to work on skills, get his head right and blossom into the player he will be. Don't be ridiculous Memphis.
4). Extend Sam Young
I like Sam Young. Like his name, he's largely non-descript. But he does everything pretty well and nothing terribly. For a guy like that, I'd throw 3 years, $12 million at him - pretty much a good bench player's type of money. But that's what he should be. A bench player. I'm looking for OJ Mayo to reclaim this role during training camp.
5). Sign a veteran PG for the minimum
Towards the end of last year, the Grizz had Greivis Vasquez running the point. I don't really have a problem with this - yes, at times he made some bonehead plays with the ball, but it was the playoffs and he was a rookie. I'll cut him a little slack for that one.
Seeing as the Grizz do NOT have a first rounder (courtesy of this trade, where they had to give up a FIRST ROUND DRAFT PICK in order to unload their former number 2 pick, Hasheem Thabeet. That is ridiculous. Not only could the Grizz have Tyreke Evans, Stephen Curry, Brandon Jennings, James Harden, Tyler Hansbrough or DeMar Derozan instead of Thabeet, but they also used him to trade for Shane Battier. Yes, GM Chris Wallace traded two first round picks for Shane Battier. And this is after a trade involving a OJ Mayo for Josh McRoberts fell through in February. Absolutely mind-blowing. It's like you can't write more than 5 paragraphs after complimenting Chris Wallace without criticizing him)
The Grizz can use OJ and Greivis at the point position for short spells and expect them to make the right decisions with the ball when Conley is off the court. But as a backup, Carlos Arroyo, Earl Boykins or Sebastian Telfair could be options with a bit of upside.
This team really found its groove towards the end of the season by being a nearly strictly inside-offense team that stayed true to their defensive principles and rotations. I don't think that the Grizz is far off from even contending for a title - yeah, I said it - but the team I'm referring to is the team that played in 13 tough playoff games, not the mediocre team that was barely over .500 during the season. I need to be able to watch them for 82 games to make a judgment of how close they are. In the meantime, the Grizz HAVE to find some shooters to make their offense and inside-outside game. A returning Rudy Gay and perhaps a re-signed Shane Battier would help, but they really do need a dead-eye marksmen to keep the opposing defenses honest.
But going forward, you have to ride the wave of positivity and hope that what we saw over the past month wasn't a fluke or a hot streak - we have to assume that this is who the Grizzlies really are.
Zach Randolph:
Rudy Gay: 15 million
Mike Conley: 6.5 million
OJ Mayo: 5.6 million
Tony Allen: 3.1 million
Xavier Henry: 2.17 million
Hamed Haddadi: 2 million (qualifying offer)
Darrell Arthur: 2 million
Greivis Vasquez: 1.11 million
Sam Young: 947,800 (team option)
Ishamel Smith: 788,872
_____________________
Total: 50 million
Expiring:
Marko Jaric (seriously): 6.5 million
Shane Battier: 7.3 million
Pau's brother: 3.48 million
A bunch of deadbeats: 1 million
_____________________________
Total: 18.3 million
The Grizzlies' first priority would have been extending Z-Bo, but oddly enough, they might have already done that. At 4-years and 70 million, I am shocked to write that that might have even been at a small discount for Memphis. After way he played in the playoffs, he could have gotten 5 years, 100 million. Crazytown.
1). Sign Pau's brother on your terms rather than allow another team to sign him to an offer sheet
Well, one good thing had to happen to a Gasol family member this summer. Pau's brother is going to get PAID whenever the free agency period begins, and paid big. Somehow, Pau's brother went from a throw-in in a monster trade to one of the key pieces to a team that nearly made it to the Western Conference Finals.
(By the way, I'm not sure how Pau's brother got so completely overlooked in the Pau Gasol to the Lakers deal. If you have a guy like Pau - former all-star, extremely skilled, high basketball IQ - wouldn't you think that his brother would be pretty good? Another guy with the same GENETIC MAKEUP, except with 40 more pounds? How did we not see this coming? Either Chris Wallace is much smarter than we all knew, or he's just extremely lucky. I'd side with the latter. See no. 5 please)
His career averages lie at 12.7 ppg, 7.8 rebounds, 71.5% FT, 54.5 FG%, 1.4 bpg, 2.2 apg. He's 26 years old. He's in just his third professional season and he's durable. Someone is going to offer him 5 years, 55 million - or more. Memphis, I'd throw that money at this man, before someone signs him to an offer sheet and makes that contract more expensive for you.
2). Get someone that can make a long range jumper
The Grizz have to get a guy that can reliably make a 3 point shot. A team that is cannot spread the floor usually won't find success of any type, but I suppose that's just a testament to how good Randolph was during this playoff run - no one could effectively slow him down inside, so the need for spacing didn't seem as great. However, I just don't think that type of adrenaline-fueled play can be counted on over 82 games.
Jamal Crawford, Jason Richardson and JR Smith are the cream of the crop in regards to shooting guards this summer. I'm not sure that type of investment is going to be in the cards for the Grizz, especially considering that they only have 7 million in cap space. Leandro Barbosa, Peja Stojakovic and Mike Dunleavy are all more feasible options, while not the best. The Grizz do have a nice little chest of assets they could use to trade for a shooter - Darrell Arthur, Xavier Henry, Sam Young, Greivis Vasquez, Hamed Haddaddi - to bolster the team in case an investment in Barbosa, Peja or Dunleavy doesn't work out.
Another option is to extend Shane Battier. I get the feeling he likes playing in Memphis and especially likes being the elder statesman around a lot of these young players. If he'd take something like the mid-level for 3 years, his shooting combined with his veteran leadership would be worth the price of that contract.
3). Don't trade OJ Mayo - you idiots
Don't trade him. He is 23. His first two years in the league he averaged 18 points and played 82 games both times. He's a career 38% shooter from the arc. He's got a ridiculous pedigree and is skilled on nearly every front. He was your number 3 pick. You traded Kevin Love for this man.
He is going to be a very good player. Please don't trade him for something like Josh McRoberts and an old Reggie Miller jersey. Be smart. Keep him around. Give him a summer to work on skills, get his head right and blossom into the player he will be. Don't be ridiculous Memphis.
4). Extend Sam Young
I like Sam Young. Like his name, he's largely non-descript. But he does everything pretty well and nothing terribly. For a guy like that, I'd throw 3 years, $12 million at him - pretty much a good bench player's type of money. But that's what he should be. A bench player. I'm looking for OJ Mayo to reclaim this role during training camp.
5). Sign a veteran PG for the minimum
Towards the end of last year, the Grizz had Greivis Vasquez running the point. I don't really have a problem with this - yes, at times he made some bonehead plays with the ball, but it was the playoffs and he was a rookie. I'll cut him a little slack for that one.
Seeing as the Grizz do NOT have a first rounder (courtesy of this trade, where they had to give up a FIRST ROUND DRAFT PICK in order to unload their former number 2 pick, Hasheem Thabeet. That is ridiculous. Not only could the Grizz have Tyreke Evans, Stephen Curry, Brandon Jennings, James Harden, Tyler Hansbrough or DeMar Derozan instead of Thabeet, but they also used him to trade for Shane Battier. Yes, GM Chris Wallace traded two first round picks for Shane Battier. And this is after a trade involving a OJ Mayo for Josh McRoberts fell through in February. Absolutely mind-blowing. It's like you can't write more than 5 paragraphs after complimenting Chris Wallace without criticizing him)
The Grizz can use OJ and Greivis at the point position for short spells and expect them to make the right decisions with the ball when Conley is off the court. But as a backup, Carlos Arroyo, Earl Boykins or Sebastian Telfair could be options with a bit of upside.
This team really found its groove towards the end of the season by being a nearly strictly inside-offense team that stayed true to their defensive principles and rotations. I don't think that the Grizz is far off from even contending for a title - yeah, I said it - but the team I'm referring to is the team that played in 13 tough playoff games, not the mediocre team that was barely over .500 during the season. I need to be able to watch them for 82 games to make a judgment of how close they are. In the meantime, the Grizz HAVE to find some shooters to make their offense and inside-outside game. A returning Rudy Gay and perhaps a re-signed Shane Battier would help, but they really do need a dead-eye marksmen to keep the opposing defenses honest.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
See you around, Wheelchair
Let's pretend I have an old piece of crap car and I want to fix it up real nice. Because my collar isn't blue enough to do it myself, I hire people to do it for me. But I buy the parts and do the best I can as the brains of the operation. Maybe not all parts fit with my pet project, and maybe the first couple test runs don't go so well. At the end of the year, there's a big race I wanna enter with the local hoodlums around my block.
Come race time, I pull my car up against the likes of The Blur (bonus points if you feel me on that one). But The Blur "sweeps" the floor with me and my team.
My car rolls up and I take a couple minutes to analyze the situation. Sure, we didn't win this year, but maybe, just mayyyybe...with some extra luck, we can impress the field next year. My crew is downtrodden yet somehow optimistic. My driver, in particular, did a hell of a job, considering the unenviable task of running my once-sunk ship.
So I fire him.
Ok, not a perfect analogy, but hopefully you get the hint. Donnie Walsh is no longer the General Manager of YOUR New York Knickerbockers after a quite stellar 3 years at the helm. And as much as I throw jabs at Wheelchair, he put STAT and Melo in the Garden, front and center. Not quite LBJ and D-Wade, but hey, at least the Bocks are bar conversation-worthy again.
I wasn't overly upset with being eliminated from the playoffs, even in such embarrassing fashion, because NYC was playing with house money. I was legit stoked to see what Wheelchair would do at this month's Draft and for the next couple of years. But Jimmy D decided that just the Draft was good enough, as Walsh's contract will expire without renewal at month's end.
I could go on and on about why this is not the right move, but it's a Saturday afternoon as I write this, and I won't whore this post out til Monday morning, when you idiots need something to read to pass the time at your job. By then, our "now" obsessed culture will have moved on to bigger and better things. (Hardly. But whatever.) I'm certainly sad, but not even this can shake my hopes and dreams for next season.
Unless of course, this guy comes back. Measure your neck size and get your noose ready, just in case.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Remembering Shaq
Remember how Wedding Crashers went from a hilarious movie full of one-liners to a romantic comedy? Or when How I Met Your Mother went from bro-tastic to sappy storylines about people dying and people having kids? Even though those two things got weird on me, I continued to watch. It wasn't the same kind of entertainment, but it still had value.
Shaquille O'Neal's NBA career went through stages:
-the unbelievably imposing genetic freak, ferocious but unpolished
-the slightly more refined genetic freak, smarter and more Hollywood
-the vengeful yet more cunning veteran
-the lazy veteran who could only play one-half of back-to-backs
-LeBron's Uncle
-the jolly bouncer on the Celtic bench
Yet no matter what, Shaq always retained his entertainment value. As a young fan, he scared the living daylights out of me. The guy smirked at Patrick Ewing like he was staring at prey. These days, he still scares the living daylights out of me, but only when he attempts to partake in that activity we healthy people call "walking." But bottom line: Shaq was a superstar personality that even the most sports-deprived girl still knew about...before reality TV and the social media explosion.
As for his NBA legacy, every Shaq tribute you'll read will contain the word "dominant." He was scarier than Dwight. It's not even close. Put it this way, you won't see Penny or Kobe telling Mike and Mike that their former teammate isn't as good as his current version. Dwight never brought down two BACKBOARDS...but I guess he had an excuse. In the '90s, the NBA reinforced all hoops with extra support because some dude decided to break them. That guy was Shaq. Seriously, he brought down the entire basket. Twice. Years went by, and he started getting old. And fat. His suits became his jersey. Then he left.
My favorite Shaq moment didn't involve anything related to the NBA. When I was a kid, I found out that Shaq was visiting sick kids at a hospital near my hometown. My doctor-mother gave me the VIP treatment, and I met the guy. I was legitimately scared at the sight of size 20-something feet, and that's before I knew what big feet translated into. Anyway, Shaq stayed there for hours. I tried to stay as long as he did, but I got hungry. Shaq stayed. Cool dude.
Shaquille O'Neal's NBA career went through stages:
-the unbelievably imposing genetic freak, ferocious but unpolished
-the slightly more refined genetic freak, smarter and more Hollywood
-the vengeful yet more cunning veteran
-the lazy veteran who could only play one-half of back-to-backs
-LeBron's Uncle
-the jolly bouncer on the Celtic bench
Yet no matter what, Shaq always retained his entertainment value. As a young fan, he scared the living daylights out of me. The guy smirked at Patrick Ewing like he was staring at prey. These days, he still scares the living daylights out of me, but only when he attempts to partake in that activity we healthy people call "walking." But bottom line: Shaq was a superstar personality that even the most sports-deprived girl still knew about...before reality TV and the social media explosion.
As for his NBA legacy, every Shaq tribute you'll read will contain the word "dominant." He was scarier than Dwight. It's not even close. Put it this way, you won't see Penny or Kobe telling Mike and Mike that their former teammate isn't as good as his current version. Dwight never brought down two BACKBOARDS...but I guess he had an excuse. In the '90s, the NBA reinforced all hoops with extra support because some dude decided to break them. That guy was Shaq. Seriously, he brought down the entire basket. Twice. Years went by, and he started getting old. And fat. His suits became his jersey. Then he left.
My favorite Shaq moment didn't involve anything related to the NBA. When I was a kid, I found out that Shaq was visiting sick kids at a hospital near my hometown. My doctor-mother gave me the VIP treatment, and I met the guy. I was legitimately scared at the sight of size 20-something feet, and that's before I knew what big feet translated into. Anyway, Shaq stayed there for hours. I tried to stay as long as he did, but I got hungry. Shaq stayed. Cool dude.
The previous paragraph is where this post went Wedding Crashers on you. So I'll stop.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)