Category: Sports

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Suns beat Lakers

Last night and this morning I watched the Suns cream the Lakers. Nothing beats seeing one of your favorite teams beat one of your least favorite players. Here’s a few thoughts about the Suns I had during the game:

  • Kurt Thomas has turned into an excellent pick-and-roll man with Nash. He slips perfectly and has a decent mid-range jump shot for the pick and pop. Of course, nobody is better at pick-and-roll than Amare Stoudemire.
  • Even if Stoudemire doesn’t come back in time for the playoffs, I think they still have a decent shot of a deep run.
  • They hardly miss Joe Johnson. I wasn’t that impressed with him last year and didn’t understand all the hype. I thought Quentin Richardson and Jimmy Jackson were much more valuable for them.
  • The Suns made some excellent off-season moves this year. The aforementioned Kurt Thomas gives them a defensive presence in the paint that isn’t Stoudemire, but the bigger pickup has to have been Boris Diaw. I think he only took about 5 shots, but he was really huge in the game.
  • I don’t think James Jones has turned out to be the player they expected. In the games I have seen him play this season and last season (with the Pacers), he is not nearly the dead-eye shooter that a three point specialists needs to be.
  • Shawn Marion is a really great role player. And I don’t mean a one dimensional three-point shooter or defensive stopper. I mean he is great in many roles: rebounding, defending multiple positions, three point shooter, finishing, etc. He is a truly uncommon talent. I wonder why they don’t use him more on the pick and roll? Perhaps small forwards are better at defending against it. Marion’s NBA ranking in some major categories:
    • Scoring: ranked 19 (21.2 ppg)
    • Shooting: ranked 14 (51%)
    • Blocks: ranked 16 (1.89 per game)
    • Steals: ranked 7 (1.87 per game)
    • Rebounds: ranked 3 (12 per game)
    • Double-doubles: ranked 2 (29 in the season)

Update 2/2/2006: Kevin Pelton over at 82Games did an extensive analysis of the Suns’ defense during this game.

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NBA Players I Dislike

    Actively dislike: 

  • Antoine Walker: Shoot first, pass never. Shoots the three way too much for his proficiency.
  • Latrelle Sprewell: Choked his coach. Couldn’t support his family on millions.
  • Jerry Stackhouse: Once slugged John Stockton and slagged Michael Jordan. Shoots alot, never passes.
  • Rasheed Wallace: Once waited outside after a game to threaten a referee. Do you need to know anything else?
  • Ruben Patterson: Convicted sex offender and general purpose thug.
  • Ricky Davis: Once shot at an opponents hoop in order to get his 10th rebound for a triple double.
  • Tim Duncan: Boring!
  • Stephon Marbury: Totted as The Next Big Thing coming out of college, he’s a point guard who embodies everything a point guard shouldn’t be. Ten years and four teams later, Larry Brown is trying to reign him in with little or no success.
    Rehabilitated: 

  • Alonzo Mourning: The biggest whiner in the league before his kidneys went bad. Now he’s the epitomy of the “sports warrior” who just goes out and does what his team needs.
    Going backwards: 

  • Kobe Bryant: Had Shaq traded and Phil fired so he could have his own team and then found out it’s not as much fun as he thought. Seemed like he might be adopting the team concept this year, but his recent string of 40+ games says otherwise.
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Joe Dumars is an asshole

I don’t know how else to explain it. After examining the evidence, it can be the only conclusion. Sure, I know that he was so well-regarded by the NBA as a player that they named their Citizenship Award after him. I also know he was the only player during the Bad Boys era that was considered to be civil. But as an NBA executive, he:

  1. Was named President of Basketball Operations for the Pistons before the start of the season in 2000. Presumably, this means he is the boss there answerable only to the owner of the team.
  2. Hired Rick Carlisle as head coach prior to the 2001 season. Carlisle was named NBA Coach of the year for that season as he led the Pistons to a 50-32 record and the playoffs. The next year the Pistons posted the same record and made the playoffs again. Carlisle was inexplicably fired.
  3. Hired Larry Brown to replace Carlisle as head coach following the 2002-2003 season. Brown led the Pistons to the NBA Finals two years in a row, beating the Lakers in the first and losing to the Spurs in the second. Following the Finals loss to the Spurs, Brown was fired.
  4. Hired Flip Saunders to replace Larry Brown as head coach prior to the 2005 season.

So not only did he fire a coach who posted 50-wins in every season which he coached for Dumars, he also fired a coach who went to the Finals every single season in which he coached the Pistons. Evidently it’s not enough for Dumars to have a winning record or even to go to the Finals, but his team must win the championship every year! How insane is that?

This is precisely the kind of thing that is wrong with professional sports today. There will never be another “Dean Smith era” or “Red Auerbach era” because no team, organization or even fanbase has the patience for a losing season anymore. Did Dean Smith make the NCAA Tournament every year that he coached? Even Auerbach didn’t win the NBA Championship every year (although it seems like it). In fact, he didn’t win a championship until his 7th year as coach of the Celtics. Can you imagine a coach today keeping his job that long with no championship to show for it?

People blather on and on about the culture of selfishness that reigns among NBA players these days, but their attitude is no different than the owners and executives. Namely, “what can you do for me?” and “what have you done for me lately?” Winning in the short term has become so important that the NBA has lost sight of the possibility of winning in the long term.

And where is Dumars in all this? He is the worst possible offender. One could argue for the short-term advantages to firing a coach after a losing season, but firing your coaches after they perform exceptionally well? Inexcusable and an action that only be performed by an asshole.

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Hawkeyes got screwed

Although Iowa made some crucial mistakes in the Outback Bowl today (i.e. blocked punt and fake punt), the officials seemed to have it in for them. To wit:

  • On third down, the Gators’ drive stalls two yards short of a first down when an official calls them for “helmet to helmet contact.” Replays showed the call was wrong but they don’t review it. The drive is kept alive and eventually the Gators score a touchdown just before halftime.
  • During a Hawkeye drive in the second half, an Iowa receiver is called for a face mask. Offensive face mask? Replays showed the receiver getting pulled down to the ground by his face mask by the defender. Both of the receiver’s arms are stretched out perpendicular from his side.
  • On another drive during the second half, an Iowa receiver makes a great catch for a first down but is shoved out of bounds before his feet touch the ground. The play is ruled an incomplete pass and the drive dies.
  • With less than two minutes left, Iowa scores a field goal to get the game within 7. Everybody is set for an onside kick, which is delivered perfectly. Iowa recovers but officials rule that one Iowa player was offsides. Replays show no one offside.

It hasn’t been a good year for the Big 10 in bowl games. Aside from the bizarre ending, I seem to recall that Michigan had two crucial calls incorrectly go against them, too. Let the conspiracy theories begin!