nba musings

NBA Musings gets around
* Nat from Heels on Hardwood was nice enough to ask me to write up a Celtics preview for her blog. It was fun to actually start thinking about basketball again. This off-season has been crazy long. You can scope that out @ Heels on Hardwood – Match Ups – Toronto Raptors v/s Boston Celtics

Update 9/19: Zoe has been found! Yayyyy!
Help find Zoe! * John from Red’s Army has an adorable boston terrier named Zoe who is lost. If you live in the Foxboro, MA area or surrounding area, please visit this special blog and see how you can help: http://missingzoe.wordpress.com/. Today’s tip: If you see her, please call Foxboro Animal Control at 508-384-2523 BEFORE trying to approach her.  She’s a timid little dog.  She might be more likely to run off than walk over.

There’s actual new Celtics news? What hell you say?
* The Boston Globe recently posted a couple of Celtics tidbits. The first is about KG and his progress recovering from knee surgery. Sigh. I know it’s unrealistic, but I had kind of hoped his health wouldn’t be an issue once the season started. The second update has to do with Rondo and his contract extension. Actually, there isn’t much actual news on that. Just a confirmation that Danny Ainge plans to talk to Rondo’s agent and they may or may not be on the same page. Read the full articles @ The Boston Globe – Garnett making progress | Ainge to Rondo: We’ll talk

Kerry Rhodes is writing checks with his mouth
* So… apparently Kerry Rhodes is running his mouth about embarrassing the New England Patriots and rattling Tom Brady. Now, there was a time in the not-so-distant past when I would have called out Rhodes for being a yap-yap poodle better at flapping his gums than playing football. But, I’ve evolved. Like a veteran, I just grin and shake my head. I am content to pat him on the head like he’s a sassy toddler and say, “Awww, you’re so cute.” *wink* The quotables can be perused @ The Boston Globe – Rhodes wants to embarrass Patriots

This just in: Michael Jordan is a vindictive bitch
* While I was away, trying to resolve my domain relocation drama, Michael Jordan was inducted into the basketball hall of fame. I watched his speech while yacking it up with the peeps on Twitter and I thought he sounded like an ungracious ass. Other people didn’t have a problem with it. Actually, I didn’t have a problem with it either. I just thought he was being himself. One time, my mom and I were watching a Lakers game and she turned to me and said, “I don’t like Kobe. He’s not nice like Michael Jordan.” Wow. So, not only can my mom not pronounced Yao Ming’s name correctly to save her life, she actually thinks Michael Jordan is “nicer” than Kobe Bryant. Only someone who knows nothing about MJ would say that. He was, is and will always be – a dick. But, you know that line in Heathers when Veronica asks Heather Duke why she’s such a megabitch? Well her response is exactly what MJ would probably say, “Because I can be.” Mike Wilbon has a similar take. Read it @ The Washington Post – The Speech: That’s MJ

Kanye to NBAMusings.com: You ain’t no Beyonce (via Kanyelicio.us)

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before
* You know that time in high school when your ivy league bound boyfriend broke up with you and ignored you until you started dating the captain of the football team? Then he called you at the eleventh hour and asked you to prom? Evans Clinchy of NESN.com breaks it down in: Powe’s Departure Not About Years or Money

Some of my best friends are… dancers
* Brendan Haywood’s recent homophobic comments about Stephon Marbury bring to mind the semi-recent caveman squawkings of Shavlik Randolph. You know, the whole “Don’t drop the soap around this guy” kind of nonsense. I will tell Haywood what I told Randolph… Don’t flatter yourself. Anyway, Bethlehem Shoals discusses new media’s double-edged sword for The Baseline in: Is Brendan Haywood Really Worried About Starbury’s Sexuality or Something Else?. UPDATE: Kelly Dwyer also adds his insightful two cents for Ball Don’t Lie in: Brendan Haywood isn’t fully informed

Brett Favre is like a fart in church. You want to ignore him, but you can’t
What’s more old and tired than Brett Favre? Bitching about Brett Favre every time he faux retires and then makes a triumphant comeback. Yet still, every single time, I cannot help but throw my hands up in disgust when he un-retires again. If returning to football was a sick child, I would accuse Favre of suffering from Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome. He’s addicted to the attention (now primarily negative) and nothing short of a full body cast is going to keep him from returning to football. Again. (And again, and again, and again…) Mike Florio reports for Pro Football Talk that: Favre is on a plane to Minnesota

He said, she said
* Out of the corner of my ear last night while I was playing another rousing round of Cake Mania 2 on the computer, I heard the following coming out of my television set: “Rick Pitino has admitted to having sex with the woman in a restaurant and paying for her abortion.” Wow. Now that my friends, is class. Before you come down too hard on poor Rick, just remember that, “All the negativity that’s in this town sucks!” More on this sordid tale can be gleaned here: Boston Globe: Pitino had liaison and paid for abortion

Sounds like an episode of The Hills…
* This story has been baking a few days, but apparently Reggie Miller and Diana Von Furstenberg’s son, Alex are having some sort of public tiff over a babe. News and gossip sites report that Von Furstenberg hired a sky writer to call out Miller for texting his fiance. The banner read, “Reggie Miller stop pursuing married women.” A sky writer? Really? That’s so archaic. Everyone knows the only modern way to get back at someone flirting with your girl is to open a faux Twitter account impersonating them and then write things like, “I flrt w/other ppls chix cuz im a d-bag. Whuts gud?” So come on Alex, crawl out of the 16th century and get with the times. More on this soap opera: TMZ: Reggie Miller — I’m No Homewrecker, Just a Flirt

The ghost of old man Zimmer
* I didn’t watch last night’s Red Sox/Tigers game, but I knew something happened when I briefly perused my Twitter stream and people were squawking about Youk getting ejected. Then this morning, the radio honks were making fun of him, so I had to check it out for myself on YouTube. Upon watching it, I immediately had flashbacks of Pedro “gently guiding” Don Zimmer to the turf back in the good ole days. Aw, now those were some seriously good times. In this case though, come on now Youk… you’re three times that kid’s size, you look like the Incredible Hulk and you’ll be getting suspended anyway, you couldn’t have just laid him out? Tsk tsk tsk.

ps. It’s official. Leon has joined the Cavs. I will not belabor this any longer with yet another whiny post. Farewell, my love…

Playoffs Game 6
Magic v. Cavs 103-90

By now, I don’t know what there is left to say about LeBron James and his lack of sportsmanship. He’s been picked clean really and is now just a pile of bones laying by the roadside. I feel like talking about it though, so lets just pretend we haven’t already heard everything there is to say on the matter. What did LeBron do that was so bad exactly? Let’s start a list…

1. Walked off the court without shaking hands with any of the opposing team’s players, including his team USA teammate, Dwight Howard.
2. Left the building without attending the mandatory post-game press conference to talk to the media.
3. Broke his silence the next day by making excuses for his poor sportsmanship by calling himself a winner and denying that his actions make him a poor sport.
4. Wore a Yankees hat to next day non-mea culpa.

I don’t get it. He had to know he was going to get ripped by ESPN, Internet blogs, Twitter, smoke signals and just about any and all modes of communication. Why open yourself up to that? I actually can almost understand #1 and #2. When you’re inconsolable, sometimes you just don’t care about the reprecussions of your actions. So if he was devastated and just couldn’t bring himself to talk about it while it was still an open wound, so be it. What I can’t understand though, is showing up the next day in a Yankees hat refusing to take responsibility for anything. I don’t care how big a Yankees fan he is, that hat was a message and the message was, ”F–k you, Cleveland… and the horse you rode in on too.”

Related news:

• Orlando Sentinel: LeBron defends actions: I’m a winner – not a poor sport
• Fox Sports: How Cavs went from unbeatable to beaten
• CBS Sports: LeBron’s premature celebration haunts him | Will someone smash the guitar over LeBron’s head?
• Red’s Army: Definition of a Sore Loser
• Yahoo! Sports: King James left the playoffs as a loser

I really love this column. I’m not being facetious, I really love it. In fact, I’m surprised someone out in la la land didn’t write it sooner. I’ve been waiting for someone in LA to articulate what I knew they’ve been thinking about the Manny situation:

When Manny Ramirez reported for Dodgers duty he tried to explain to us why he was so happy to be out of there.

He said he was “suffocating” in Boston, the city and everyone in it relentless in their over-the-top devotion to things that really don’t matter. I’d rather read a Dwyre tennis column than anything written by Boston’s ponderous and self-important sports columnists.

And just imagine living in a place where everyone talks funny and all they want to do is talk, talk, talk about what they think.

Around L.A. we didn’t much care what happened in Boston, but while Manny began to fit in here, the bitter no-lifers back there handled the divorce the way they do most everything else.

They obsessed. And they continue to obsess.

[From: Boston won't give up its obsession with Manny Ramirez, by T.J. Simers, Los Angeles Times]

He’s right. I am obsessed. I often wonder why I can’t let go of Manny. He was never my favorite player. Why should I act like we were married for ten years and he left me for a younger woman? The simple answer is, he was a huge douchebag. He didn’t care about the team, didn’t care about the fans and didn’t care about the city. He only cared about making the maximum amount of money he could get because he thought he was owed that. Like a spoiled celebrity, he eventually got to the point where he felt entitled to act any way he wanted. I don’t know about the Dodgers or their fans, but in Boston, we expect our players to play with passion and care about winning. I don’t know any professional athlete who thinks it’s ok to dog it.

Do Simers and his ilk really think it should be so easy for Boston fans to forgive and forget?

Never. Until my dying breath, I will hope and pray that Manny fails. I hope he never hits another home run, never collects another $45 million dollar paycheck, never gets another autograph request and is never given the opportunity to give another cutesy oddball quote to the press. Yeah, it’s like that. And do you know who you are Manny-loving Dodgers fans? You’re the 2nd wife that thinks it’s going to be different with her. You think he’s going to appreciate you and love you, but he’s really just biding his time with you until a better situation comes along. Right around the end of this season in fact.

That’s when I’ll say, I told you so.

Manny wants to be a Yankee and mark my words, someday, that’s exactly what he’ll be. Another good reason to hate him. Come to think of it.

Wow. So much to bitch about, so little time.

Jazz game – I completely missed that Jazz game that we lost (Yes. I’m one of those people that says, “We” when referring to my favorite team. Deal with it.) I had a massive headache and fell asleep long before it started. The Jazz have our number a little bit sometimes. I’m getting used to being burned by Paul Millsap. Thankfully they don’t get far enough in the West during the playoffs to scare me.

Suns game – Rajon Rondo is breaking out again. He had a run like this earlier in the year that had everyone fitting him for an all-star jersey. Then he dipped again and everyone forgot about him again. I bet Steve Nash won’t forget about him again any time soon. He blew by Nash so many times, his head must’ve been spinning. Incidentally, you know that heart-warming, feel good story about the power of Twitter and Shaq hooking up w/a couple of fans in a Phx diner? Am I the only one who found the whole thing completely contrived? It’s not a bad thing. The Phoenix Suns are admirably prolific on Twitter. But, I’m not naive.

Nuggets game – When did the Denver Nuggets turn into a bunch of PABs (punk ass bitches)? Hard fouls are one thing, but they were committing cheap fouls all night. Kenyon Martin’s out of bounds foul on Ray Allen reminded me of the incident last year where Lamar Odom TACKLED Ray out of bounds like they were on a friggin football field. Ridiculous. Unprofessional. Bush league.

Finally, welcome Mikki Moore. I liked him when he played for the Nets. I think he’s a good pickup. And um, Stephon… if you even fart the wrong way, you’re gone. Don’t poison my locker room or we’ll have beef.

I wish I had more time to expound, but I’m at work and busy, busy, busy per the usual. I think that’s why I like Twitter so much. I can update quickly from my phone. Hit me up there if you want to hear from me more than once every 4 days or so. Lol.

http://www.twitter.com/nbamusings

In this horrible economy mind you — Manny Ramirez has rejected the Los Angeles Dodgers’ one-year, $25 million offer.

In what completely bizarro world is $25 million dollars not enough? What. a. friggin. tool. I spit on his grave.

From Boston.com:
Former Celtic Gary Payton disputed Garnett’s All-Star selection during a TNT telecast Thursday. “Garnett shouldn’t be starting,” Payton said. “Some guys out there are playing better than him and [Allen Iverson]. [Chris] Bosh would take [Garnett's] spot; he’s playing way better than him. We are talking about a guy consistently performing every night; [Garnett is not performing] the way he was.” Payton has also criticized the play of Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo, who finished out of the top 11 in voting but is considered a candidate to be named to the team by the coaches.

I watched that telecast and it was beyond annoying. First of all, nobody can replace Charles Barkley. They need to bring him back. I’m sure he’s learned his lesson and next time he gets hammered and an opportunity for a great bj comes up, he’ll call a car service or something. I’ll fk-ing drive him myself if I have to. Secondly, I was already at a place where I was just barely tolerating Chris Webber and then they bring on the absolute worst panelist they could find… Gary Payton. No. No, no, no, no, no! Dear TNT – Do NOT ruin one of my favorite shows with your horrible decision-making. There has to be someone – anyone – who can fill in for Charles who isn’t as much of an asshole.

What a loser, er sore loser… 

Seriously though, dude needs to take his loss like a man. Congratulate the other side, accept responsibility for your shortcomings, say better luck next year, and be on your merry little way. Ok? Ok, then.

Patriots 13 – Dolphins 38