nba musings: no more yanky my wanky, the donger need food!

Posted on | May 30, 2009 | Comments

Playoffs Game 6
Lakers @ Nuggets 119-92

birdmanfishing

Yeah. That blog title has nothing to do with last night’s game. It’s a quote from Sixteen Candles. But, who cares. If the Nuggets weren’t going to show up, I’m not sure why I bothered to. Why should I take the time to think of appropriate blog title if Carmelo Anthony thinks he did absolutely everything he could have done in last night’s game? Or if George Karl says that this season was a big success — right after his team got their asses handed to them on their home floor? (See post-game presser.) Why do I even care? I’m a Celtics fan. I guess I care because I was starting to really like the Nuggets. What’s not to like? They’re entertaining, they’re talented, they’re exciting… Well, unfortunately they’re also classic underachievers with a losers mentality. It’s like watching a kid in high school who just settles for C grades most of the time because it’s easy to get them. Once in awhile they study hard and get a B or an A, and exceed your expectations, but the good grades just don’t last when the going gets tough. The one lone shining star last night was the last guy you might expect. Smitty. Yes, you heard me. JR freaking Smith was the only guy out there who deserved an A. If it wasn’t for him, they’d have lost by 40.

I’m most disappointed in Carmelo Anthony. His post-game comments really say it all. Someone asked him about his own performance or lack thereof during the game and he’s like, “What did I do? I did all I could.” He just doesn’t take responsibility for his team’s lack of success. Leaders do that, whether they’re at fault or not. Hell, even Tracy McGrady gets up there and says if they don’t advance, it’s on him. Sure, they didn’t advance… but at least he was willing to take the responsibility on himself publicly. I’ve been watching Melo since Syracuse and I’ve wanted to like hell to rank him as one of my favorite players, but I just can’t. He just keeps letting me down. I know they advanced further than they usually do, but that shouldn’t be good enough. Nothing short of a ring should ever be good enough. If your players are healthy and you have the talent, you should be in the finals. Now I will give you that it would’ve been almost impossible to beat the Lakers at Staples considering the Lakers are healthy and talented themselves — but the point is that they should’ve at least gotten to Staples. But, they gave up. You don’t lose by 27 without giving up. Again, I’m a Celtics fan, so they didn’t owe me anything… but all those fans that showed up in the fauxhawks and Chris Andersen jerseys? They deserved better.