The NBA Thread

[buffcoat]

A Cavs win AND a Wizards road win (although over the Cavs).  It's a holiday in Cambodia.

[Chloe inChicago]

If I were a Boston fan I probably wouldn't be laughing so hard. Sorry bout all those injuries, but I'm a magic fan through and through. I need a championship soon.

How're you feeling about the trades at this point? Arenas seems like a mistake.

Yeah, I know. At first, I was both excited and nervous. I'm kinda peeved about the super small line-up. Like, Anderson is at 4 now, right? And he's only like 6'9", so Dwight definitely has more of a presence.

Arenas, bleh. Don't even get me started. I was so stoked to get him, but now I'm not too thrilled with his performance. He's too complacent. Play hard, dude. 

Luckily Bass is stepping up. He's a top-notch player.

I don't think we're getting a championship this year, or really anytime soon. But I'm hoping our younger line-up will give us an edge in future seasons.

I'm hopeful. A little optimistic. But not unrealistic.

[Greggulator]

I know it's Miami and everything but this is unreal.

1) D Wade's pass is nuts.
2) How the hell did LeBron get down to the court that fast?
3) LOOK AT WHERE LEBRON JUMPS FROM TO CATCH THE PASS!
 
Dwyane Wade Full Court Alley-Oop Pass to Lebron James vs Pacers 2/15/2011

[dave from knoxville]

I know it's Miami and everything but this is unreal.

1) D Wade's pass is nuts.

      Yes, great pass.

2) How the hell did LeBron get down to the court that fast?

      It's written into LeBron's contract that he can run toward his own goal whenever the shot clock gets to 21; after all, there are padding points to be had.

3) LOOK AT WHERE LEBRON JUMPS FROM TO CATCH THE PASS!

      Meh. Ever crack a Dr J highlight reel much? It don't look like you do!

[Greggulator]

I know it's Miami and everything but this is unreal.

1) D Wade's pass is nuts.

      Yes, great pass.

2) How the hell did LeBron get down to the court that fast?

      It's written into LeBron's contract that he can run toward his own goal whenever the shot clock gets to 21; after all, there are padding points to be had.

3) LOOK AT WHERE LEBRON JUMPS FROM TO CATCH THE PASS!

      Meh. Ever crack a Dr J highlight reel much? It don't look like you do!

I know LBJ (and DWade) pad points but breaking out before the team has actually gotten a stop but it's still just insane for a guy that big to run down the court that fast. Also, he catches the pass on the fly.

Dr. J is probably my boyhood hero (along with "Nature Boy" Ric Flair) but I don't think I've ever seen him catch a ball and score in one motion while coming in from what looks like the low post.

I hate the Heat as much as any red-blooded American but if you substitute "Baron Davis" with Dwyane Wade and "Blake Griffin" with "LeBron James" the Internet would have exploded from this.

BTW, I think Blake's getting REALLY bad with releasing early and/or not getting back on defense. Starting to see that habit develop a bit.

[TheeChrisDee]

wasn't the full court alley-oop the rumored Blake Griffin dunk contest coup de gras?

Damn LBJ and D-Wade for taking the shine off of that apple.

[jbissell]

wasn't the full court alley-oop the rumored Blake Griffin dunk contest coup de gras?

Damn LBJ and D-Wade for taking the shine off of that apple.

Well, LeBron didn't actually dunk it...

[TheeChrisDee]

funny, i was so impressed with the set up, that it never occured to me that he just layed it in...and i watched that play numerous times.

Now I'm excited to see if Blake tries to one up them.

[jbissell]

funny, i was so impressed with the set up, that it never occured to me that he just layed it in...and i watched that play numerous times.

Now I'm excited to see if Blake tries to one up them.

Oh I know, I watched it on my phone the first few times and didn't realize he layed it in until I watched it on my computer.

[jbissell]

Buzz Bissinger with one of the laziest, piece of trash articles I've read in a while.

[TheeChrisDee]

I didn't realize, as a white basketball fan, that I was waiting for the great white hope of the NBA.  Thanks, Buzz...I guess I should watch hockey now or something.

That article just screams SOMEONE PAY ATTENTION TO ME!!!

[TheeChrisDee]

Can I nominate Buzz Bissinger for the Hate Pit?

[dave from knoxville]

OK, I just wrote a long thing about this, and then erased it, because I couldn't word it in a way that wouldn't reflect back poorly on me.

So I will just say it. This racist country is undeniably filled with ignorant white men who do not watch the NBA because there are "too many n*****s". Come to Knoxville, I could drive you to 10-20 homes where you could ask these morons yourself. And Knoxville's down-right progressive compared to the counties we are surrounded by.

Buzz Bissinger's writing may be lazy, and if he is tagging himself as one of the ignorant assholes in the distressingly large group that feel this way, throw him in the hate pit and drop an anvil on him. But if you don't think his thesis is at least to some extent true, you're fooling yourself. Don't shoot the messenger, unless he's also wearing a hood.

PS, I was going to say that I'm no racist, but it's one of those self-defeating statements why "Now I don't beat MY wife, BUT".

[TheeChrisDee]

To some extent his thesis is true.  I'm a huge hoops fan, living in the south and when I tell people that basketball is my favorite sport I usually get this response:

"The NBA is too thuggish for me."

Which I usually extrapolate to mean that it's too black for them and the person is probably somewhat racist.

Am I making a generalization, yes.  Is that wrong of me, probably.  Am I most likely right, yeah...because they usually say something soon afterwards which is less thinly veiled racism.

However, I don't agree with the main part of Buzz's thesis

"It boils down to this: Are whites losing interest in a game in which the number of white American players not only continues to dwindle, but no longer features a superstar?

Yes."

People have lost interest in basketball in certain areas because of one of two main reasons:

A) The economy stinks.
B) Their team stinks.

Overall, I think the NBA is  exceedingly popular.  The NHL All Star game drew a neilsen rating of 1.2 which was high enough to have the commissioner bragging about the 33% increase over 2009's game, meanwhile the Celtics / Lakers game it went up against drew a 5.0 rating.

Following Buzz's theory, wouldn't the hockey game have drawn bigger ratings since most of the players are white?

Buzz constantly bashes the NBA, I think he may be waiting for the great white hope...I'm not.

[jbissell]

OK, I just wrote a long thing about this, and then erased it, because I couldn't word it in a way that wouldn't reflect back poorly on me.

So I will just say it. This racist country is undeniably filled with ignorant white men who do not watch the NBA because there are "too many n*****s". Come to Knoxville, I could drive you to 10-20 homes where you could ask these morons yourself. And Knoxville's down-right progressive compared to the counties we are surrounded by.

Buzz Bissinger's writing may be lazy, and if he is tagging himself as one of the ignorant assholes in the distressingly large group that feel this way, throw him in the hate pit and drop an anvil on him. But if you don't think his thesis is at least to some extent true, you're fooling yourself. Don't shoot the messenger, unless he's also wearing a hood.

PS, I was going to say that I'm no racist, but it's one of those self-defeating statements why "Now I don't beat MY wife, BUT".

I'm sure that's true, I'm just not sure why it's any more relevant now than 10 or 20 years ago. Sure there's no Larry Bird, and most of the best white players are European (or Canadian), but there haven't been this many young stars who also seem to be pretty good guys in the 20 years I've been a fan. There's definitely plenty of race-based material to discuss re: the league but the whole article just smacks of someone who doesn't watch the NBA, dropping by to make a pronouncement on the state of the league, and moving on. Hell, he basically admits as much in the opening lines (and on twitter he freely admits it's probably a generational thing). That's my biggest problem with the article.