From one finals to another

The last few posts I had, I was looking forward to the regular season ending and the playoffs starting. Then, I would have some interesting stuff to post about. Then finals happened. The couple weeks I spent wrapping up classes and working on finals took up most of my time and completely threw me off my rhythm.

Now that finals are over and I'm sitting in front of a computer for eight hours a day, I think it's time I try to get back into that rhythm. And you know what? It's a shame that I haven't posted for the last couple of weeks, because I missed out on some good stuff. Here are some things off the top of my head that I missed:

• Tim Duncan vs Joey Crawford -- I will be campaigning for this to be on the undercard of the inevitable De La Hoya-Mayweather Jr. II fight.
• Golden State Warriors vs Dallas Mavericks -- The series paved the way for the Spurs to have possibly their easiest route to the finals ever. And it gave me something to harass 50% of my friends about until November.
• San Antonio Spurs vs Phoenix Suns (or more specifically, Robert Horry vs the city of Phoenix) -- The most controversy the Spurs have ever been involved in. Before that, it was Phil Jackson campaigning for the Spurs to have an asterisk next to their 1999 title. For what it's worth, the rulings against Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw were unfair considering the circumstances, but they clearly violated a rule. As much as it sucks for the fans of the Suns and that series, the right ruling was made. The rule definitely needs to be addressed in the offseason.
• LeBron James vs Expectations -- LeBron knows what he's doing. He didn't care when people criticized the way he was playing in the regular season, when he was saving a lot of energy for the playoffs. Now he's four games away from reaching the NBA Finals against a team that he almost single-handedly beat in last year's playoffs. The Eastern Conference playoffs might finally get interesting.

Hopefully I'll be able to keep on track now that I have the time. We'll see. Enjoy the conference finals.

Greg Oden > You

The more I think about it, the more convinced I get. Greg Oden is going to be one of the top-5 centers of all-time.

I can't really put my finger exactly on why, but nonetheless the feeling is there. The last player we saw in the college level with his combination of skill, potential, and mentality was Tim Duncan.

He turned out to be a little more than a bust right?

But here comes the scary part about that analogy. Greg Oden is taller than Tim Duncan. Greg Oden is better at a younger age than Tim Duncan was. Greg Oden is more athletic than Tim Duncan was. And last but not least, Greg Oden is meaner than Tim Duncan.

I think that last part says it all right there. Sam Rubenstein from SLAM summed it up best last week when he said, "He is a throwback to when the big man was mean and intimidating."

Tim Duncan isn't mean and intimidating and he turned out alright. Why does Oden need to be then to succeed? Well, he doesn't. He'd be just fine if he didn't.

But can you imagine seeing Tim Duncan with a mean streak? Can you see him going down four or five times in a row and punishing the other team, physically and otherwise?

You never will, because it's not in his game; it's not in his personality. But it's in Oden's. I can see it. And with that, I can see almost unlimited potential.

I am a little biased towards the big man. I myself played in the post when I played. I grew up idolizing Hakeem Olajuwan, David Robinson, and Tim Duncan. The player I respect the most in NBA history (well, second to David Robinson that is) is Bill Russell.

Because of those things I want to see Oden succeed. I want Ohio State to win the national title on Monday and Oden to get the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. I hope that he leaves after this year and enters the NBA.

Call me boring, but I want to see him get drafted by the Boston Celtics. In my opinion the Celtics have the best jerseys in all of sports and seeing Oden in a Celtics uniform will conjure up classic images of Bill Russell.

Will the titles Russell won come with those images? Probably not. But Oden is a surefire franchise player and multiple titles are not out of the question. New rules aside, winning titles begins and ends with a dominant big man and Greg Oden is the next great one.

Now that I think about it, I wouldn't mind seeing him jump ship to play for the Spurs when his rookie deal expires.