I Can Admit When I'm Wrong

While I was sitting here today thinking how awesome it would be if the NBA actually did raise the rim to 12 feet for tonight's Slam Dunk Contest for Dwight Howard, I was remembering back to something I said at the beginning of the season about Darko Milicic. It was a post I wrote as sort of a offseason recap/season preview. Anyway, here's a excerpt:

Darko will surprise many people with his play alongside Howard this season, and might even muster up some All-Star votes. That's right, you heard it here first, Darko Milicic will compete for an All-Star spot.

Oops, maybe I was wrong. Or maybe I was right. About the first part at least, or the middle part. I mean, he had to get at least a couple of votes right? His parents had to have voted for him right? His teammates? Perhaps a significant other? Either way, I was way off.

On The First Night

I was all ready to have a post done after the Rookie-Sophomore game finished last night. Then I got distracted for a moment and all of a sudden I was on my shift on-air at the radio station and I forgot all about doing the post. So I'm going to go ahead and do it first thing in the morning instead.

The sophomores beat the rookies in the Rookie-Sophomore game (just like I predicted!). David Lee won the MVP (not like I predicted!). Lee was 14 of 14 from the field in the game for 30 points, with all of them dunks or layups, and he had 11 rebounds and four assists.

As you could probably tell, defense was not at a premium in this game. I think it went on vacation for the weekend with all the players who didn't make it to All-Star.

As for my MVP pick Danny Granger? 17 points and four rebounds. A pretty good line, but when you consider the sophomores scored 155 points, it kind of diminishes it a bit.

The Rookie-Sophomore game is never really the highlight of All-Star weekend, but it's a good way to kick it off. Saturday is really the meat and potatoes of the weekend, with the Slam Dunk, Three Point, and Skills contests.

One last thing, it made me very happy that the only thing from All-Star weekend that ESPN got the rights to cover was the celebrity game. If you really think about it, it's pretty fitting that that's what ESPN gets to show.

Anyway, good stuff on tonight. I'll try to have another post late tonight or early tomorrow. Peace.

What Happens at All-Star Weekend...

All-Star Weekend is finally here. Unfortunately I'm not in Vegas this weekend covering everything. In due time though. So instead I'll be covering everything from the comfort of the recliner in my living room. Which is much better after all than dealing with all the raging parties, free giveaways from shoe companies, and seeing pretty much every currently relevant celebrity known to man. Isn't it? Oh, and I think there's a basketball game in there somewhere.

Irregardless, I will be breaking my vow to never do too much work on the weekend and will be covering everything I see and posting recaps and opinions on everything after it goes down. So make sure you check back throughout the weekend.

One last note, here are my predictions for everything during the weekend:

• Rookie-Sophomore Game Winner: Sophomores with Danny Granger as MVP
• Slam Dunk Contest Winner: Gerald Green, Boston Celtics
• Skills Challenge Winner: Chris Paul, New Orleans Hornets
• Three Point Shootout Winner: Mike Miller, Memphis Grizzlies
• Shooting Stars Contest Winners: No one cares.
• NBA All-Star Game Winner: West with Carmelo Anthony as MVP (Don't say I didn't warn you)

So those are my predictions and I look forward to being completely wrong on every single one of them. Enjoy the festivities.

Mid-Week Funk

Don't really have much motivation to write anything tonight. Well, not so much motivation as I just plain don't know what to write about. But I feel it's my duty to write something for the legions of fans logging on everyday to read this site. And by legions I mean my mom and dad. So today I'm just going to go through my random thoughts, mostly about the NBA:

• The All-Star break is coming up, and it's in America's playground, Las Vegas. I'm really curious as to who is going to be the first player to be arrested. Bets should not be taken though the second Stephen Jackson's flight lands in Vegas.
• This seems like the first year I can remember that by the time the game starts, nobody is going to be complaining about anybody being snubbed from either team. It might have something to do with about half of each original roster being injured and sitting out the game though, but I'm not sure.
• Today is day 7,533 of my life without NBA League Pass. Just thought you should know.
• The Celtics goal of tanking their season and winning the lottery is great and all, but it's really screwing with my fantasy season. Didn't they think that some people might be counting on Paul Pierce to help carry their team?
• Tim Hardaway? Dead to me. His Warriors teams of the early 90's will now be referred to as Run-BMC. The B standing for bigot.
• If I can't find a job as a sportswriter here in the States after I finish college, I might just go to Spain become a sportswriter there. Why you ask? Because I own the Spanish language, as the 93 I got on my Spanish 1 quiz would attest to.
• Is there an anti-steroid? Because if there is, Jerome James took the whole batch:
• Despite losing to the Spurs tonight, the Pistons are my pick to come out of the East.
• Pat Riley, you're a snake. And from now on, you will be referred to as Nagaina, the cobra from Rikki-Tikki-Tavi.

Just some random thoughts for today. I'll be back tomorrow with something a little more coherent. Hopefully.

I Love Thi$ Game

Some fuss has been made this week over the comments that Chicago Bulls rookie forward Tyrus Thomas made about participating in the Slam Dunk Contest. Thomas told reporters that he was "Just going to go out there, get my check and call it a day.'' He was also quoted as saying "I'm just into the free money. That's it. I'll just do whatever when I get out there.''

Thomas was fined $10,000 by the Bulls for his comments and he issued a statement apologizing for his comments saying that they came out the wrong way. But my question is this: Why are we so angry at someone for telling the truth?

Don't get me wrong, I don't agree with the philosophy that comes across in his comments one bit. But in a day where athletes and people never give straight answers to questions, why should we vilify someone for speaking the truth? Maybe that's the reason no one gives truthful answers to questions anymore, we don't want to hear the truth. They just tell us what we want to hear.

Tackling Thomas' argument that he's only in it for the money, what's so wrong with that? There are plenty of players in the NBA right now whose only motivation for playing is a paycheck (word to Tim Thomas). What's so wrong with a player admitting that the only reason they're doing something is for the money?

I'm not really sure. I'll be honest, I don't want the NBA to be full of players only playing for dollars. I want players to play because they love the game and they want to win. It makes the game better for everyone. But I do want the truth. I can handle it.

Back In the Swing of Things

The updates were kind of slow last week and over the weekend because I was fighting off a cold. And let me tell you, when I have a cold I have just the motivation required to do absolutely nothing. So in the words of Talib Kweli I was doing enough "just to get by."

And it's a shame that I didn't get some posts in last week that I wanted to. I watched the Cavs-Heat game and kept a close eye on a player who I played against in high school, Daniel Gibson, who has taken on a bigger role for the Cavs in the past couple weeks after Cavs coach Mike Brown decided to move Gibson into the starting lineup in favor of Eric Snow.

It happened to be Gibson's best game as a pro so far as he scored 19 points while shooting 4 of 6 from three-point range. The Cavs lost by three though.

Some big things are in the works for this blog in the coming months. I don't want to reveal much, but there are some huge things being planned. I'm very excited.

Change of Pace

It's not very often that I get to talk about social issues on this blog because this site primarily deals with basketball. But some big news (in my opinion) dropped this week because former NBA player John Amaechi is apparently announcing in his upcoming book Man In The Middle that he is gay.

ESPN is publishing the book, so they had the first story about Amaechi and his book. But also check out former SLAM Magazine editor Ryan Jones' take on it on SLAMonline.com. Jones went to college with Amaechi at Penn State and has his background info on Amaechi.

To me, this is one of those huge news stories in sports. I have a feeling it's going to get overshadowed in a few days by something of less importance, I'm not sure what, but something. And that's very unfortunate. This is big news.

But what the NBA, pro sports, and the America needs is for a current player in the NBA or one of the major sports to come out of the closet. Our country still has a problem with homosexuality and that is something that would help go a long way to making it more socially acceptable.

Why is that so? I'm not really sure, but sometimes sports has a way of doing that in our society. It goes back to the integration of sports a few decades ago. Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball. Over the years, people became more tolerant of other races. No, it wasn't solely because of sports and yes, there is still racism today, but it is far less prevalent and sports definitely helped.

Someone can do that for homosexuality. Of course players back in the day couldn't hide their skin color like players today can hide their sexual preference. There have been homosexuals in the four major sports already, but all of them came out of the closet after their playing careers were finished.

I know it would be very, very difficult for someone to come out of the closet during their playing career. Players get heckled enough by fans on the road for other things, they get trash talked enough by other players, and hear tons of negative things from the media in sports radio, television and print media that it would practically be career suicide to come out.

But one of these days someone has got to make that sacrifice and help out the average homosexual citizens by coming out of the closet and making the country acknowledge that fact and say it's okay. Until then, nothing in this country is going to change people's attitudes and opinions.

Mardi Gracias

The Hornets announced today that they will play all 41 of their home games next season in New Orleans. For the past two season, the Hornets have played the majority of their home games in Oklahoma City.

Oklahoma City did a great job hosting the Hornets for two seasons, and the NBA owes them big. They'd better start making a huge thank you card right now for the city. That, or they can just let the Sonics move there. Which ever is easiest.

Kobe Suspended

ESPN.com just "broke" news that Kobe Bryant is going to be suspended for tonight's game against the New York Knicks for popping Manu Ginobili in the face on Sunday.

I watched this game live and remember that play and I've got to be honest with you, I can't believe he's getting suspended. What happened was Kobe took a jumper as time was running out in the fourth quarter against the Spurs and the game was tied. Manu came from the side and blocked the shot.

In an effort to get a foul called, Kobe does what he always does and flailed his arms to draw attention and incidentally, at least in my opinion, hit Ginobili in the face. Ginobili stayed on the ground for a couple of minutes and missed the first few minutes of the overtime, but not much was said about it after ABC went to a commercial break.

This probably won't be too big a deal for the Lakers who take on the Knicks tonight, but it still raises some questions. Most notably this one, why does Kobe Bryant get suspended for the same number of games for accidentally hitting another player in the face as Kevin Garnett did for throwing a punch at Antonio McDyess in Minnesota's January 19th game against Detroit?

I imagine we'll be hearing more about this situation for the next couple of days.

Kevin Garnett Wants to Win, And You Should Want Him to Win Too

A few nights ago, my buddy Carter and I had an argument about Kevin Garnett. The All-Star starters had just been announced and once again, Garnett was named. Though both of us are die-hard Spurs fans, we were discussing how Tim Duncan probably should not have been named a starter, when Garnett's name came up.

Carter said that in his opinion Garnett was overrated. He thought that Garnett was only getting the stats that he was getting because he was the only good player on that team. I saw his point, but I disagreed.

I am a huge fan of Kevin Garnett for many of the same reasons I am a huge fan of Allen Iverson. Garnett has the same passion, competitiveness, and hunger that Iverson has on the court. I was very excited during the brief moment when it was fathomable that the two players could be playing together earlier this season, until Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor said that the team couldn't afford to pursue Iverson.

Truth is, I don't believe Garnett is overrated at all. He's got career averages of 20.5 points per game, 11.3 rebounds per game, and 4.5 assists per game. Those are Hall of Fame numbers for a kid who was the first since Moses Malone to jump to the league straight out of high school. He has an MVP award, three first team All-NBA selections, and been first team All-Defensive seven times.

Beyond statistics and awards, Garnett has changed the power forward position and carried an entire franchise for almost a decade.

Before Garnett, the power forward position was played almost entirely around the league like a smaller, more athletic center which meant they were down-low, with their back to the basket. But Garnett revolutionized the position when he came into the league and inspired a generation of big men to play the game more like a guard.

Garnett has spent his entire twelve year NBA career with the Minnesota Timberwolves, the longest tenure in the league for a player with one team. He led them to the playoffs for eight straight seasons, peaking in 2004 when the Wolves made it to the Western Conference Finals, the only year Garnett has really had any help around him.

And that's part of the reason I don't think Garnett is overrated. Despite all the success he's had, he's never had much talent around him thanks to the questionable (at best) moves made by the front office in Minnesota. Even in a Western Conference that has been dominant since the Bulls' dynasty ended, Garnett has always had the T-Wolves in contention.

Even this year, when the Wolves fired their coach and his second best player has been a rookie, Garnett has the Wolves playing .500 and currently holding the eighth playoff position in the west. Tonight the Phoenix Suns' 17 game winning streak (fifth longest in league-history) was snapped almost single-handedly by Garnett when he put up 44 points and 11 rebounds.

But despite all the talent and physical gifts Garnett is often viewed as an underdog. That may be part of the appeal of Kevin Garnett. He's such a likable guy and the outlook of his team is so dismal that you can't help but pull for him.

Many think that the Timberwolves should trade Kevin Garnett to a contender so that he can have a better shot at a ring. They say the Wolves owe it to him. I'm not saying they're wrong, but I think most people would rather see Garnett on top of the world in a T-Wolves jersey than anything else.