Tuesday Morning Thoughts: "Fake" NBA Basketball

Completely and totally a non-random streak of non-coincidental occurrences.

1. More likely than not, it’s just me. But doesn’t it seem like the NBA is getting more fake, coerced and manipulated? First, it was the crazy deal by Kevin McHale sending Garnett for a pair of old skates to Boston. Then, the Lakers somehow get Pau Gasol for his younger brother; another lopsided trade. I hate conspiracies but, Boston vs. Lakers in the finals? How do you make that happen? Let’s see send Garnett to Boston for nothing and put Pau Gasol on the Lakers. The Bulls couldn’t pry Garnet for Luol Deng and half their team, but yet Boston got him for a still overrated Al Jefferson. And besides Pau’s little brother, I still don’t’ know that Memphis got out of the trade for Pau. Is it a coincidence that the most storied franchises in the sport got the better end of two deals in the same year? Probably, but it still makes it feel cheap.

2. As Bill Simmons noted on a recent podcast, the NBA All-Star weekend was about as scripted as a WWC wrestling match. Dwight Howard miraculously obtained a back up basketball rim and increased its height to 12 feet (more like 11ft if you ask me). Even more dramatic, there just so happened to be a phone booth sitting on the sideline so that he could change into his Superman costume. That wasn’t pre-planned at all. I wonder what Nate Robinson was thinking when the NBA hand delivered the set of Superman to Dwight Howard for his show? “Wow… thanks I’m 5ft nothing and you gave Howard enough toys and tools to build a basketball hoop. Seriously, thanks assholes. ”

3. Oh and I am not sure if you know this but, TNT really, really likes Lebron James. So much so that when little Nate Robinson had to dunk over a small skyscraper to win the dunk contest, Reggie Miller’s brother (and yes I said brother) asked him if he would be able to beat Lebron James next year because “LEBRON JAMES SAID IT HERE ON TNT, HE IS GOING TO DO THE SLAM DUNK CONTEST (POSSIBLY, MAYBE) NEXT YEAR!”. Robinson, rightfully uttered something like, “I’ve done this (stupid ass) thing 3 years in a row now and think it’s time to stop, unless (being the nice guy) the NBA really wants me (give me more money) to do it again.” The guy wins the dunk contest and somehow he gets overshadowed by a sunglass wearing in an indoor stadium Lebron James. Again, a little too manipulated and scripted for my taste.

4. You had to think TNT got upset that Kobe and Shaq stole the thunder from the East’s Lebron James All-Stars. Deep down TNT was disappointed. They keep trying to raise Lebron to King status (and for the most part, he is as a player), but he still isn’t a champion nor the best player in the game (Kobe still wears that crown in my opinion). I know a lot of people love Lebron. I appreciate his great talents. But, I just don’t like all the hype. By now I wouldn’t be surprised if they called the NBA regular season MVP trophy the “Lebron James” trophy even though he’s never won it.

5. Speaking of unreal and fake, the NBA All-Star games get more and more annoying every year. No defense and everyone trying to show boat except it never really works. I would just rather see them play all-out on both ends. Wouldn’t that be much more enjoyable than watching the players fake playing defense? Wow great dunk Amare Stoudemire! Moses just parted the East's defense for you. You get the sense that people like Duncan just hate playing in these exhibition games.

6. Why is Reggie Miller commenting on anything? He’s more annoying than a pack of teenage girls at a Justin Timberlake concert. Worse, his brother, Cheryl Miller makes Bill Walton look good.

7. I miss Charles Barkley he would have called out all the stupid stuff during All-Star weekend.

8. Was it me or were the players in the Skills Challenge (including Rose) deliberately not trying.

9. I can’t stand this whole 2010 free agency thing when half of the great players will switch to the Knicks. It almost seems like everything that happens between now and 2010 doesn’t matter. We are all just waiting for the Wade, Lebron, and Bosh Knicks.

10. Back to Lebron. I admit the guy is great; a freak of an athlete. But, I still can’t understand why the NBA is willing to rest its entire sport on one player. I understand it worked when MJ was playing. But, MJ was MJ. No one told him he had to be great, he was just great. There was nothing ever fake about MJ. But with Lebron and others, you get the sense that they have to be told to be great. Again, it smells of manipulation. Almost like Stern’s telling Kobe that he needs to tone it down so that Lebron can take the mantle.

11. This gets me to my last point. Michael Jordan was the both the best thing and worst thing to ever happen to the NBA. The best for obvious reasons because everyone wanted to be like Mike and there was never any question that he was the greatest. But, the worst thing in the sense that the NBA is always trying to re-create MJ. First it was Grant Hill, then Penny Hardaway, we then went through the whole Allen Iverson thing, Vince Carter, T-Mac, then to Kobe and now to Lebron (and when his luster fades, some other phenom). The entire NBA’s success rests on one person, yet we see that the best teams (San Antonio and Celtics and even the Pistons for one year) win because they have great teams. It makes more sense to me to highlight the great teams than one guy. At least if Garnet plays poorly you can hype up Pierce or Allen. If Lebron doesn’t play well, what are you going to do? In this sense, the NBA just keeps doubling down on its bet knowing that Lebron will win the championship one day; whether it’s manipulated or not.


More random thoughts.

1. A player shouldn’t be allowed 2 minutes to complete a dunk. If it takes you 10 attempts to finally hit your dunk, then it should never, ever be considered a success. When Rudy Fernandez took 20 attempts to pull off a dunk, the resulting scores shouldn’t have been 9s and 10s. They should have been 0s. 1/20 is not a successful percentage. Although, that was a nice dunk.

2. If the Lakers get some big man for nothing before the All-Star break I am going to be really, really pissed off.

3. I don’t understand all this John Paxson will resign stuff. It’s not a good sign when your GM wants to bail during the middle of the season.

4. I really hope the Bulls continue to play better during the second half of the season. This city could really use a playoff push. If only Del Negro would play Derrick “the Bermuda Rose” when the game is on the line. (How ridiculous is it that I even have to utter that statement).

5. I got stuck watching American Chopper last night. If you didn’t watch it, here is a recap: Senior gets upset and yells at Jr; Mikey goofs around; they worry they won’t have enough time to finish the bike; but, miraculously, they somehow finish the bike in time.