March Madness means almost none of you are interested in a coherent and interesting column on the National Basketball Association, even if you could find someone that can write one. In that spirit, I considered taking the week off, but the thought of disappointing my loyal fan base was too much to bear. She did give birth to me and all.
This week is basically a hodgepodge of NBA thoughts and questions I’ve had for some time, but will probably never turn into a thought-out column.
And because I realize that you have to get back to watching the NIT, finalizing your brackets, or drawing up rules for a Jim Nantz drinking game (DO NOT drink every time he ruins a cool moment – alcohol poisoning is no laughing matter), I’ve put together a table of contents. Feel free to skip to the part you’re interested in.
Paragraph 1 – The Heat’s streak
Paragraph 2 – Replay
Paragraph 3 – Kevin Garnett
Paragraphs 4/5 – The West
Paragraph 6 – The Grizzlies
Paragraph 7 – Betting on the NBA Title
Paragraph 8 – Andrew Bynum
Paragraph 9 – The Cavaliers
The Heat really care about this streak. Bugs me that they say differently. But Wade and LeBron could save me from a burning building and I’d probably take issue if they told anyone about it, so maybe I’m not the right person to comment.
Why are replay reviews so difficult for billion dollar sports industries to figure out? Basketball relies on a computer monitor being turned while 3 officials stare and talk. The NFL asks its official to jog over to a hooded camera and spend a few long minutes under there, then run back out and announce it to the fans, yet they have an official who is up in that replay booth. In most cases, we fans can ascertain the right call in about 25 seconds and 1 or 2 DVR rewinds, so why can’t the NFL replay official just watch the play and radio down to the on-field guy with the correct call? And why doesn’t the NBA have an official in a booth ready to make the call if the on-court guys ask?
Why do people talk about Kevin Garnett’s “fake tough guy” act as if it’s worthy of criticism? The guy will find any advantage he can during the course of the game, then leaves it right there. Isn’t that what we should be celebrating? Do we want wimps on the court? Do we want guys who will beef it up in the parking lot after the game? Do we really want to take Charlie Villanueva’s side on anything, except maybe if he’s across a negotiating table from Joe Dumars?
Does anyone outside of Texas know that even after 23 straight wins, the Heat are only 1.5 games up on San Antonio for the best record in the league? Or that the Denver Nuggets are a half game out of the 3 seed in the West?
Speaking of the 3 seed, I don’t think enough has been made of how huge that spot is. It’s the difference between playing one of Golden State, Houston, Lakers, or Jazz (toss Dallas and Portland in there if you’re either feeling very generous or pandering to that area of the country) and playing Memphis, Denver, or the Clippers. I know I’ve been talking about how great the Lakers are over the past few weeks, but I don’t think anyone would legitimately rather play the Grizzlies.
On those Griz – that’s quite a team without Rudy Gay. If you like old school, big man basketball, you could do much worse than Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph. Head over to a Vegas casino today and you would get +3500 odds on them winning the title ($10 wins you $350). You’d get +1800 on the Lakers and the Clippers. That’s absurd.
The other best bet right now is the Spurs +800. Well, let’s be real, the best bet right now is the Heat -120 ($10 wins you $8.33), but who wants to do that. Isn’t that like buying Google stock last year? I guess it’d be smart, but how boring.
How much is Andrew Bynum going to make this off-season? Is he a max contract guy? He’s immature, injury prone, and he isn’t a #1 guy on a good team. I say he gets the max.
Do you Cleveland Cavaliers fans want to see your team go out and sign players this off-season, or do you want to build around Irving, Thompson, Waiters, and this year’s pick? There will be plenty of space devoted to the 2013 draft in future columns, but right now I don’t think I see a better player / team fit than Nerlens Noel to Cleveland. Am I wrong? Do you want Muhammad, Len, Porter or someone else? Are Cavs fans fuming that they don’t have an additional first rounder in their pocket from dealing Anderson Varejeo (obviously taking into account that management didn’t know he was going to get hurt), or do they see him as part of the future?
Thanks for reading some or all of this week’s column. Feel free to disagree, rant, rave, name-call, or threaten me in the comments section below, and enjoy the tournament.
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