Archive
It’s Here!!!
Yes! After watching that ridiculousness that was game 5 of the World Series, I am happy to say that the NBA season gets under way tonight. I have already alerted the peeps at work that I am out at 2p this afternoon, so I can go and get my spot all ready for the opening night double header. I can’t even concentrate here at work, because tonight starts my Lake show on the Road to Redemption from last season debacle at the hands of the Celts. So as I sit here at my desk, take a look at some stuff I found today on the boys and the League. As I find more I will share more… Can’t Wait for tip off!!!
Big Drew has some work to do …
Phil Jackson doesn’t know who is starting yet!?! WTF
Paul from the jump this season
Kobe’s marketing mojo is making a comeback
Who has a shot at the ‘chip, a study
Diana Taurasi FTW
Some lady wrote a piece about how she doesnt like the WNBA; D read it; D replied, lovely… heres a little:
Will many think the NBA is more entertaining? Of course. How that means the WNBA is NOT entertaining is beyond me. That’s what is disappointing, that when it comes to the WNBA, some people, even women such as Ms. Rohlin, (who can probably see Russia from her porch) still can only regard our league as the NBA’s kid sister. Where was the NBA in its 12th season? Furthermore, the idea that if it isn’t the MOST watched or MOST marketed that it isn’t worthy is unfairly applied to women’s sports. Such a rationale belies not only an ingrained sexism, but ignorance over the fact that NBA versus the WNBA doesn’t have to be an either/or conundrum: we have different seasons.
Linkstuff, and the Lakers are killin’ it right now!
The ‘Chip is definitely within reach these days… If you have watched the Lakers play, and seen the other contenders out there, the Purple and Gold have a really good shot at winning it all this year! They are currently in first place, they have a seven game winning streak going, and their starting center is about three weeks away from coming back, and they have a relatively easy schedule to finish out the year. This is looking better and better.
Great story in SI about dunkers and their first dunks. Lebron, ‘Nique, Baron Davis, and Henry Bekkering. If you don’t know who HB is, you are slippin’, PeeP:
This is really good news for all of us The Wire fans, basically David Simon the creator of the Wire has been working on a show about New Orleans, he actually started before Katrina and has been working on the pilot for a few years. This show will be awesome, I can already see it, plus in this interview with the Times, Dominic West says they are talking about a Wire movie. I’m excited.
For all of us BMW fans, here is something special: At the Geneva ’08 Car show, they unveiled full unrestricted in car Internet access, I like it.
This could be bad for Vegas and all of us who like to shoot out there for the weekend. IRS agents raided Pure Management Groups offices, Uh Oh!
Tiger Woods crushes another opponent in match play. This could be a really bad year for the players on tour. Financially they are all going to be fine, but they wont be winning too many tournaments that he is playing in. 8 and , jeez, that is over 36 holes but he was 4-up after the first 18.
Raul officially takes over for Fidel in Cuba.
Get Your Popcorn Ready
I haven’t posted anything else today because I cant think of anything else. Tonight is a big game, and a preview of something we will definitely see in the playoffs. The west is tight like gnat booty and I can’t wait to see them duke it out down the stretch and all throughout the postseason. This will be one year where no one will be complaining about first round series going 7 games. Here is a link to the espn.com preview of the game. If the Lakes win tonight they will be in a tie atop the pacific division. Its between these two teams and San Antone for who comes out of the west this year to take on Detroit. I say tonight will start out like most Laker games in Phoenix; the suns will get out to a large lead, the Lakers will crawl back into it toward half time, and then start out the third well. It’ll be a close game throughout the second half and it’ll come down to the last 4 or 5 minutes. But here is the thing, the Lakes are without their starting center, and this is Shaqs’ first game as a sun, this game is absolutely meaningless, but it’ll means so much. I can’t wait! Lets hope Shaq can still play, because that means we will be seeing a lot of Lakers and Suns games on ABC and TNT in the foreseeable future
Kobe is hurting too…
So Kobe has a torn ligament in his right hand suffered back on February 5th against the Nets. He took another examination from a hand specialist who recommended surgery. What! Dammit, not another Laker going down to injury, but Kobe sees the same thing that we all see, he is hoping the same thing I am hoping,
Said Bryant: “My current thinking is to give my finger some treatment and rest for a few days and hope I can still continue to compete at a high level after that rest. I would prefer to delay any surgical procedure until after our Lakers season, and this summer’s Olympic Games. But this is an injury that myself and the Lakers’ medical staff will just have to continue to monitor on a day-to-day basis.”
But the Association isn’t trying to give him the time off, they have replace him in the 3 point shoot out with the Diggler, but he still has to play in the game. They don’t give injury exceptions, especially when you play in the game leading up to the all star break and are planning on playing in the game right after the break. I think we will be good though, Kobe has played with a bum shoulder, a bum knee, he should be alright. Lets just hope that this doesn’t get any worse. Because even though with surgery he would only be out six weeks, we know that with the squad they have now, and with Shaq back in the west, with the Mavs trying to get something started, with the Hornets playing well, and the Spurs the Spurs, the west is going to be fun!
This is Really Good News…
The Lakers have gotten rid of the expiring contract of Kwame Brown and traded him for Pau Gasol formerly of the Memphis Grizzlies. Wow, the D might not be at the level that it was but the O is about to be craaaaazy! If we can get him playing the 4 when Andrew gets back, oh my gawd. Think about that. When healthy this is the starting five: DFish, Kobe, Lamar,Pau, Andrew and then you have Ronny,Luke,Trevor Ariza and Sasha and Jordan coming off the bench. Claude have mercy. We can now officially start talking about ‘chips again!
Ummm OK, Wow!
Wow, so this is a marijuana vending machine. Its inventor and owner Vincent Mehdizadeh spent seven months to develop and patent the black, armored box, which he calls the “PVM,” or prescription vending machine. This is outstanding, if i was him i would find a way to attach an ATM cash machine too. Read up on it here, he has put a lot of work and thought into this and their are already two that have been functioning for months. These are for medical purposes though, so its not like there will be one installed at 7-11 because you would need a prescription, and i.d., and go through some fingerprint verification against the database. The Feds obviously aren’t happy about this, but the people have a strong voice, especially for the next eight years. Even still… 70’s, partly cloudy, and marijuana vending machines.. you gotta love California!
Big Siiiiiiigh … of relief
Ok, being a celebrity doesn’t suck. I don’t care what anyone tells me. Those are some Playstation Air Force 1’s right there that KB got last year when NB07 came out. I don’t know how I am just getting hip to them because they are hella fresh. Anyways, apparently Kobesta is saying how happy he is that he wasn’t traded, and I like it! I am sure he realized how much of a baller Andrew Byrum is becoming. The kid is dropping just about a double double in about 25m a game. Once he can figure out how to stay out of foul trouble, he is going to be a real beast. Honestly, if Timmy and Lord Knows are considered forward, AB can easily be considered the second best center in the western conference… and to me he might be number one next year if he is giving me 18 and 10. Yao can ball, but he is all O. Anyways a couple of quot-ables from the interview are:
“I’m happy to be here,” Bryant said. “My guys and I — we have such a tight bond. Business and basketball sometimes can cloud things, but when you get here in your element and you’re around your teammates and just having a good time with them and thinking about them and not about the business of the game, that’s when it becomes fun.”
and
“Sometimes you have to kind of put a fire to them a little bit so that they understand that we’re playing for higher stakes,” Bryant said of his teammates. “Once they understood that and saw me come into training camp saying ‘Look, I’m tired of playing for the playoffs. I’m not playing for that. I don’t know what you guys are playing for, but I’m not playing for that.’ Once they understood that ‘Hey, this guy’s head is on a championship level, this is where we need to get,’ then it kind of ignited another side of them and they started looking at this thing a little differently.
umm ok, so he lit the fire under their asses. I still think it could’ve been done a better way. Anyways let see what they do tonight against a depleted Spurs team… this is just the kind of game that the Lake Show takes a bad L in. Games starting. Late`
Linkage
What the hell is Omarion thinking right there? Damn!
Jay Z is going to be running Las Vegas for a weekend … link right here… and he speak on his tenure at def jam here
Some funny shit here on youtube, Kenny Smith has his jersey retired on Inside the NBA Overtime, linked here
Peter Vesczey writes an interesting piece on Jamal Tinsley here at NY Post
I used to be mad at AI for causing the whole bad hair trend in the NBA.Don’t get me wrong his were fly at first, but then everyone started wearing them. Just like me with the dreads, but then i cut them off. anyways, you can’t help but love his take on the “athletes as targets” trend right now. Some great perspective from the Answer here
Jose Calderon from the Toronto Raptors has a blog and its pretty good take a look here
Los Angeles is considering limiting the size of houses being built. Just trust me this is a good thing. Where I live its getting out of hand. I guess its fine if these houses are in Bel Air and Brentwood, areas that have the space, but when they are in Sherman Oaks and Studio City… its not good!
A nice piece on the George Mitchell Barry Bonds witch-hunt steroids investigation. Check it out here
A great take on the biggest issue in hollywood, the writers strike. Read on here. I have wondered out loud why someone with deep pockets like Mark Cuban hasn’t been snapping up these guys by the boatload with production deals.
2 More Years
Phil Jackson has signed on for 2 more years. Reportedly he will be making somewhere in the neighborhood of$11 or 12m to sit in a high chair and babysit grown men. I like Phil Jackson, and I think that coaches do have some effect on the players they coach but jeez he has gotten about $50m bucks basically just to keep Kobe in Los Angeles. One thing we do know, is that he is no Steve Swindal. Word around the campfire (Stephen A.) by the way is that Kobe isn’t going anywhere. LA is where his ass needs to stay. Yes the East is pretty weak still, but any team he goes to he goes to is going to have to give up too much, so he is screwed either way. The more and more I think about it Bron-Bron isn’t complaining and his squad is a lot worse that the Lakes supporting cast. It’s going to be interesting to see how Kobe handles the next month or so because it appears that Bron is just going to keep putting up heeyuuuge numbers. I don’t think people are making enough of this, he is averaging 31/8/8 right now. If he suddenly becomes a lock down type of defender I will have to let him get the belt and the title of Best In the Game
Phil’s career coaching record as of 11.29.2007 is: 927W and 399L with 9 titles , ummm okay maybe he should be getting that kind of skrilla
Basketball Saved My Life 