Love: This Exchange Between Kevin Garnett and Bill Russell

Kevin Garnett: “Did I make you proud?”

Bill Russell: “Yes you did”

Got to be honest folks… there’s was a tear or two in my living room after that one.

Don’t Like (Yet Still Part of Me Likes): That I’m Already Seeing WAYYYY Less Laker Flags

For those unaware, whenever the Lakers start achieving a modicum of success in the playoffs (usually it has to be making it to the conference finals, or NBA finals) Angelinos start putting these dumb-ass flags all over their cars. The fact that these only come out when the Lakers are championship bound is the sure sign of a fair-weather fan base and all around crappiness.

I walked into work last Thursday wearing my Pierce jersey (totally awesome) and got not only the reactions of “Boston!? YOU LIKE BOSTON!??!” (to which I have to calmly tell them “I’m from Boston”) but better yet got a vast amount of scoffing at the very notion that Boston had a chance to win this series.

Whenever I pointed out that they did, I received the nicely ironic rebuttable of “then why are the Vegas odds so against them!?” Luckily that one’s easy, LA gamblers outnumber Boston ones in Vegas about 7:1. Boom. Easy. The line is meant to split the votes, hence, bigger odds.

Flashforward and here we are with the Celtics up 2-0. Needless to say no one is scoffing at me today, but ALREADY, there wasn’t a single Lakers flag on the way to work today. For the last week I’ve seen at least 30-40 no lie (there’s a lot of cars in LA). This morning, people have event taken down their Lakers memoriablia down from the front doors of their offices.

Are Lakers fans THAT fair-weather? I thought this is was a real rivalry and they’re jumping ship at the first signs of trouble? I like this cause it confirms their lameness. Yet, I want the intensity. I want the rivalry!

Of course, I fully expect these sullen ninnies to be back on the bandwagon, flying thier dumb flags, and saying “I told you so!” when the Lakers scratch together a couple of wins.

Or if they lose game 3… “Lakers? Nah. They suck. I Never liked em”

/PS. Big ups to Leon Powe.

Isn’t this supposed to

Like: Celtics. Lakers. NBA Finals. Game 1 Tip-Off Tonight

That is all.

Like: A Potential Lakers-Celtics Final

Game 6 with Detroit tonight… one win away.. can you feel it?

Don’t Like: Flopping

Flopping, for those who don’t know, is the act of falling to the ground and pretending like you were hurt and acting like a little bitch so you can disown your manhood and get a foul call.

Over-acting has always been a part of the game, as has “selling the foul” but throughout NBA history it’s pretty much been regulated to just happening in the moment. Not so much anymore. Flopping is happening so frequently and to such great effect that it started becoming a noticeable part of the game. Refs finally started to not call that shit, leaving said players to look like retards. Finally, the NBA is doing something about it for real and is going to implement fines for flopping.

The flopping development is partially just a natural evolution of the game (LeBron participates a little too much for my liking. Jordan didn’t do that. He would get fouled then stare at the ref like he was going to murder his family in their sleep), but most of it has to do with the influx of international players, who all seem to take part in this shenanigan.

First off, I love the influx of international players. They’re hyper-talented, bring a global interest to the game, and play great roles/fundamental basketball. It’s wonderful.

But they also flop. Maybe it’s the influence of soccer, I dunno. Maybe it’s just how they play games professionally around the world. I really don’t know. I just know Americans don’t like it. I don’t like it.

Finally, the owners want to do something about the wussification of the NBA. David Stern’s rules on “can’t talk back to the refs” is so bullshit that it’s turned the NBA into a bunch of guys who can’t show passion on the court. What the hell does he know about the game of basketball? He never played. He’s a lawyer. And people who don’t think that the “can’t talk back” rule/the dress code rule/and the “can’t step off the bench” rule aren’t all racially motivated are nuts. As soon as the NBA incorporated the Gangsta culture it was suddenly perceived they weren’t being gentlemen and turned into a bunch of thugs. That’s horseshit. The 80’s were all about thugging and it was great. Fan interest was at an all time high.

The greatest foul of that thug era was Dave Cowens. An “enraged Cowens, fed up with a second fake flop to draw an offensive foul in the same game”, ran the Houston guard down in front of the Celtics’ bench, leveled him with a “double forearm shiver”, which completely threw him into the stands. He then ran over to the referee and screamed “Now that’s a fucking foul!” (that’s often quoted without the “fucking” because papers can’t print that part). Today he would be ejected for 10+ games. Back then? just thrown out of the game and that’s it.

… I miss the 80s NBA so much

Also, Flopping in Soccer is like a whole different level too. My Favorite story (quoted from Wiki):

“In 1989, Rojas was in goal for Chile’s 1990 FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Brazil at Rio De Janeiro’s Maracanã stadium. Chile, down 1-0, would be eliminated from the upcoming World Cup with a loss. Around the 70-minute mark, Rojas fell to the pitch writhing and holding his forehead. A firework, thrown from the stands by a Brazilian fan named Rosemary de Mello, was smoldering about a yard away. Rojas, his head bloodied, was carried off the field by his teammates who then refused to return claiming conditions were unsafe. The match went unfinished.

Video evidence later showed that Rojas had not been hit by the firework. His head injury was discovered to have been self-inflicted with a razor blade hidden in his glove. FIFA awarded Brazil a 2-0 win, effectively eliminating Chile from the 1990 World Cup. As a consequence, Chile was banned from the 1994 FIFA World Cup and Rojas was banned for life.

In 2001, following a request for pardon, Rojas’ ban was lifted by FIFA.”

Like: Chris Paul, CP3

Why is this guy and the Hornets continually underrated? He’s had one of the best point guard seasons ever and if they keep his core intact I don’t see a single reason why he can’t get even better in the years to come. He’s even better than Nash ever was at his height (Nash had too many turnovers). Next year they can actually attract some free agents who will want to play with him too. Paul is redefining the position in the modern era and what’s better is that Deron Williams is starting to play nearly as good too. This is so exciting. All season long people were like “eh I don’t think they’re for real” then they got 2nd seed and people still called a crappy Mavs team to beat them. Why??? Have they not been watching this team? I never got it. Then the got to the Spurs and people were like “I don’t know, they’re good and all but the Spurs are great! The Spurs just beat up an ancient Suns team with chemistry problems. I don’t know how the Hornets will beat them!”

Finally, they go up 2-0 on the Spurs and people are like “damn, I guess they’re for real!” It’s what they’ve been doing all year. There’s no surprise there.

Double Don’t Like: Spraining/Breaking/Busting Up My Thumb Playing Pickup Basketball

Waited an hour to get into a game.

First play.

This sucks.

Expect lots of entries with just me making fun of pictures and not much writing.

Don’t Like: Jay Mariotti

Hilarious picture.

Jay Mariotti is a columnist of the Chicago Sun-Times and a daily guest on ESPN’s Around The Horn. He’s also an insufferable know it all who knows nothing about the nuance of sports. He is a wholly reactionary figure who will swing whichever way the way wind is blowing around. He’s not stupid or anything, he’s just makes completely blatant assumptions based ONLY on final results. It’s part of the growing trends of sports writers where they’ll be contrarian just for the sake of it or completely fair-weather and call for completely asinine moves from front offices. You’re a journalist and that is a sometimes-privilege of your job. You’re supposed to give insight we don’t know about you blowhard.

Perfect example: Today he said that the Suns have to fire exceptional coach Mike DiAntoni and actually tried to give an example. He mentioned that Steve Kerr gave a suggestion on how to use Shaq in a certain situation and DiAntoni disagreed and this is obvious sign of dysfunction.

Luckily Jackie Mac was there to completely beat his ass down and point out that this is part of the DAILY EXCHANGE of every single GM and coach in the league. This happens every single day between GMs and coaches and a lot of times it gets testy. But see Mariotti wouldn’t know that cause he doesn’t spend any time with actual teams. You know, the stuff actual sports journalists do. He sits in his Chicago office and appears on Around The Horn spouting off whatever dumb, reactionary opinion he gets from trolling the internet. It’s disgusting. DiAntoni is fantastic coach and apparent Mariotti thinks catching bad breaks and losing to arguably the best team in the league means that he should be fired.

Gah, it’s infuriating. What a complete idiot. And at least Woody Paige knows he’s an idiot.

Don’t Like: The San Antonio Spurs

I just can’t. Not after they beat the Suns that way. I mean I certainly a great team with a great skill set. They’re professional in their offense. Their game works like clockwork. I really respect that part of their game and it’s hard not to if you really love basketball.

The part of their game that sucks? The flopping. The whining. The Tim Duncans tripping over their own legs and then rubbing their knees like their hurt only after Shaq “tripped him”. The Manu brand flops. The fact that now the entire team does it. They’re turned into a French soccer team (minus zidane I guess). It’s insane horseshit frankly. This is a sport that used to pride itself on its more bruiser-type elements has become the sport of ninnies. And the Spurs have bought into that mentality wholesale. Worse, they have a guy defensive annoyer in Bowen who’s a total throwback but now just seems sneaky and out of place. He’d be great as a piston I still maintain. I really don’t mind Bowen it’s just his role on THAT team that reeks of hypocrisy. I love POP and yet the Hack-A-Shaq thing has me even hating HIM now.

Gah.

Boo Spurs.

Don’t Like: Stephen A. Smith

IT’S PLAYOFFS TIME!

Some one doesn’t like Stephen A. Smith?????? WHAT?????!?!?! Believe or not, I actually don’t mind him that much. He speaks with conviction and coherence and seems to be self-aware enough (when compared to sayyyyy Dickie V).

BUT… I just always feel like he’s upset with me: the viewer. Like I’m disagreeing with him. Strangely a lot of the time time I’m not. That might be the fact that basketball is reasonably easy to dissect on a structural level and surprisingly hard to dissect on the nuance level.

But. Whatever. Just calm down dude.