Big one on the way

It's been an interesting stretch in the NBA since last week. It started with Richard Jefferson's trade and the latest news today is a bad one with Yao's foot. OUCH! That could be a real big one not just for Yao and Houston, but to the entire league. Chinese superstars are not dime a dozen and Yao has been NBA's passport and visa to break through the great wall of China and sell the sport to the billion+ people in that country. It's been working so well for the NBA so far. NBA has gotten popular and Kobe and LeBron are big out there. But still they ain't no Yao Ming and the sport will definitely take a step back there without Yao. It's really interesting how the seven footers always seem to have foot problems. It's just too much to ask of those feet to carry 7 ft and 300 pounds of human body. Yao reminds me of Zydrunas Ilgauskas and all the problems he had with his feet. They are saying this could be career threatening for Yao and I just hope he comes back in some shape like Z did. Luckily for Z, he has been trouble free for the last few years.

Closer home, the NBA draft came and went. It was one of the more interesting drafts in recent years because of the many trades around that time. Many big names were moved. Spurs got Richard Jefferson. Great move for the Spurs as always. A young guy to play the 3 who gives them another talented wing scorer and a good shooter. His 3-point shooting has been improving the last few years and he is going to get his shots with Duncan, Parker and Ginobli causing havoc in the paint. Plus he is also an insurance against any more injuries to Ginobli. They will miss Bowen's defense, but they will be much better off with Jeff's youth and athleticism. On top of this, the Spurs added DeJuan Blair who is a great rebounder and thats exactly what they need with all these scorers around. Spurs just know what they are doing. An A-class organization that may again put a team on the court next year that, if healthy, will be very close to the Lakers if not better.

The Magic traded for Vince Carter. Another great addition. Just like the Spurs with Jefferson, they are taking on more salary. If you are willing to take on salary, there is a lot of talent available to be picked up in the NBA these days. The Magic bought Vinsanty back home to Orlando. But to me, they have taken a step back if they can't sign Hedo. Carter is nice, but I would rather have Hedo. That team went to the finals with him. So we know it works. Plus Hedo is unconventional and Vince makes them a lot more conventional. Of course if they also sign Hedo, then it's a whole another conversation, but I doubt if they have the money to do it. Hedo wants to get paid and I don't blame him. With him, Cleveland is in trouble. Without him, the Cavs might have a shot against them.

That brings us to my Suns. The Suns were VERY active in and around the draft. They traded away the Daddy to the Cavs. It was the variation of the same trade that fell through last season. We all know Shaq can't stop Dwight Howard, but he can definitely make him work on both sides of the court. Shaq is still 7 feet tall ad 300+ pounds and you gotta keep an eye on him. Given Howard's aggressiveness, if Shaq makes him pick up 2 fouls, that will be enough help for the Cavs even if Shaq can't sop him at the other end. Plus the Cavs are on the hook for just this year and they can always let Shaq walk if it doesn't work out. At least they would have shown the King that they tried to do something to deal with the Magic and Howard. As for the Suns, it was a salary dump. Fans never like cost-cutting, but what do you do if the team has high-paid veterans making a lot of money and the team can't even make the playoffs? You got to rebuild.

Shaq, Nash and even Amare are not going to get better. So the Suns had to gut this team and rebuild. And in this salary driven league, you got to dump salaries to give yourself a shot at rebuilding. So I am fine with the trade. My motivation as a fan might be different from the owner's, but both of us do agree we need to dump salaries and take a step back. Part of me wants to surround Nash and Amare with other pieces and give it another shot under Alvin Gentry. I always thought Shaq was not a great fit for the Suns and that turned out to be true. They did try the "seven seconds or Shaq" offense with Gentry and scored like 117 points a game or something. I wouldn't mind trying that with Nash, Amare and Tyson Chandler or someone else in the middle. There are rumors that they could trade Ben Wallace for Tyson Chandler as the Hornets are also looking to dump salary. Not sure if the Suns will agree to take on Chandler's pay-checks.

They are not winning the championship in 2010 anyways. So I am not too outraged by the Amare trade rumors either. An even more blatant salary dump from the Suns side, but the Warriors are still not taking the bait. I am hoping the Suns get some young pieces and catch lightning in the bottle with Gentry's up and down system much like what happened in 2004. My only concern is, what's in it for Nash? He may politely request to be traded to a contender too if the team is totally rebuilding and tanking it. If they can convince Nash to stay, I can see them being interesting even with kids like Biedrins, Brandon Wright and Earl Clark - their good pick from this draft. But overall, it's not the best time to be the Suns fan, especially if Nash is also gone. In any case, everybody is waiting for the "big one", the inevitable Amare trade. I expect it to go through in one form or the other. Looks like the Warriors are too attracted to Stephon Curry, but something will work out eventually.

Back to Baseball

Now that the NBA playoffs are over and even the stupid parade in LA is done, it's that dead-zone in the Sports calendar. All we have now is baseball until football and Brett Favre show up to entertain us. And of course fantasy football. Need I say more! But thats neither here nor there. What is here and now is baseball and MLB. I remember not long ago that I used to blog a lot about baseball. I just realized that I don't write a whole lot about baseball these days. I am a A's and Diamondbacks fans and both these teams have been mediocre the last few years - one playoffs each in the last 5 years (A's in 2006 and DBacks in 2007). But thats not the whole story. Baseball has more issues as far as I am concerned.

I am truly sick and tired of the steroid controversy. I am not one of those purists who is insanely outraged by roids. For a long time, I just didn't care a whole lot. It was an interesting side-bar to baseball and it didn't seem to affect my interest in the game one way or the other. But over time, it has clearly had a huge impact on my love for the game. Some of my friends have consciously moved away from baseball, but it has been more sub-conscious in my case and it's been a slow and steady erosion. While blogging about the NBA playoffs and LeBron and Kobe, I wrote about how the NBA is a star-driven league. We always say that, but really all of American sports is star-driven.

While we all like to see a good team with solid coaching and great chemistry, the reality is, we love seeing our superstars more than watching a team of decent and mediocre players winning as an unit. It kinda makes sense if you think about it. People want to see greatness and performances that we are not capable of. The further away the player is from our talent level, the more amazing it is to watch him or her. Thats exactly why we love watching the LeBrons and the Kobes and the Bonds in our sporting events. Thats more true for the NBA, but it's really true for all of sports. Stars like Bonds and Favre and A-Rod just make the games a lot more interesting to watch.

This is where the steroids come in. Aside from pretty much wiping out any and all integrity from the sport of baseball, it has also brought down every superstar over the last few years. During the initial roid years, if you remember, we always spoke about how this guy was the biggest name in the scandal and that guy was the biggest name and so on and so forth. Then Bonds showed up and he was THE biggest name. You look at the situation now, there are no names except big names involved. A-Rod, Manny, Roger Clemens, Tejada - you name them and they are involved. In fact, we don't even care if it's not a superstar any more. It probably won't even make the news if a middle reliever for the Kansas City Royals gets caught taking some horse tranquilizer or buffalo hormones or whatever the hell these dudes take these days.

This means there are no superstars in the game worth respecting or following anymore. Every time the ball leaves the yard and further the ball travels, the more you wonder if that guy is on something. Shorter home-runs are more credible than real long bombs in some sense. Roids have made the whole game weird! No name is sacred anymore. Nobody would be shocked to see any name associated with this scandal these days after seeing A-Rod and Manny go down back-to-back this year. I am not sure what MLB is going to do to cleanup it's act and it has shown no capacity to do anything until now. But it better do something soon. I think they are being very short-sighted by looking at the gate receipts and the TV ratings and assuming that life is normal. But the roids are like termites working on a huge redwood tree that is baseball. I think it is slowly but steadily eating away at it's essentials and it will bring down the tree sooner or later unless MLB really does something about PEDs - something drastic.

With all that said, another interesting day today around the league. Two games ended in extra-innings on a wild pitch. How strange is that? They say that you may see something new everyday in this game even after 100+ years of baseball and that can be so true at times. 2 home teams - the Cubs and the Giants walked off on a wild pitch. Good for them. The day also featured brothers pitching against each other in the freeway series. Surprisingly, the elder brother and the inferior pitcher Jeff Weaver won against the younger Jared Weaver and the Angels. The Dodgers are on a roll even without Manny. All the experts said they were done without him. Goes to show how much they know about the game. May be the experts should be given some performance enhancing drugs. I would vote for that.

Lakers win

Kobe got his fourth ring today and Phillip got his tenth. Major milestones for both of them. They have both been looking for this legacy defining championship. Kobe had to have one without Shaq and Phil has been looking for his 10-Th to one-up Red Auerbach and his 9. Both happened today. This establishes Kobe as a great champion though he is not overtaking MJ in terms of legendary status anytime soon. But the intriguing question is, what if he wins 2 more rings? What if he wins 3 more and surpasses MJ? Then where would he stand with respect to MJ? The conventional wisdom says Kobe's window is shrinking and he may not have 2 or 3 more championships in him. It's amazing we think about Kobe this way since he is just 30 years old! MJ won 3 more rings after 30. Of course the mileage on the two bodies when they were 31 or 35 years old is completely different.

Kobe came out of high-school and has played way too many games already. MJ started late and he took those 2 years off playing that stupid baseball and that kept some miles off of him too when he came for his second round. Kobe is at his peak, but I think he would start slowing down soon. But three things to keep in mind. First and foremost, he has been relatively injury free and is a very disciplined and committed professional who is obsessed with basketball. So if anybody can prove the standard model for high-school careers wrong, it's him. I wouldn't be shocked if he extends his window through hard work and conditioning. Steve Nash has shown us it can be done and I wouldn't put it past Kobe. Secondly, what if he slips a little? A 80% Kobe is still probably a top-5 talent in this league and if the team is built right, you should be able to win a ring or 2 with a top-5 talents. Plus, I can't see him walking away anytime soon. He will like to keep playing this game till he possibly can.

Thirdly, all his key side-kicks are actually younger than him - Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum. If they stay together and Bynum gets better, the Lakers should be good for a long time. Of course, they may have some money issues and this is where Kobe taking less money to stay with the Lakers might help his legacy in the long run. Lets see if that ever happens. So while I would hate for it to happen, I wouldn't be shocked if Kobe and the Lakers collect a few more rings over the next few years. Of course we all expect LeBron to take over the league in a year or two. That is the real difference between MJ and Kobe. MJ was way better than any of his contemporaries in the league. Kobe is better, but not by much and that will change in a year or two if LeBron keeps getting better. LeBron might be the bigger challenge for Kobe. In any case, I sure hope to see Kobe-LeBron contests in the Finals like we were expecting this year, but didn't get to see.

Competition is key. While we all talk about LeBron, it's actually KG and the Celtics who beat the Lakers last year. What would have happened if we had gotten another Celtics-Lakers finals with a healthy KG? This Lakers team was better than last years, but it might have been a great series that could have gone either way. So basically even with all the talent around him, Kobe might have a lot more competition in this day and age than MJ did in his hey-day and he has to deal with all this in addition to his advancing age. As for Phil, he will probably go down as the best coach in the history of the game. It's amazing he got to coach 2 of the greatest players in the history of this game during his career - MJ and Kobe. He now got the scoreboard and you got to respect those 10 rings. As for Magic and Van Gundy, they have some growing up to do. Young team that hopefully learnt something in this series. I like the Van Gundys, but I am not sure if they will ever win a ring. They seem to come close and fall short for some reason. Good guys and great coaches, but no rings yet.

Foul Play!

The Magic blew it. Flat out gave the finals away to the Lakers on a platter. They had a great opportunity to make a series out of these Finals on Thursday. They played well - just like they have been doing the previous 2 games, and they were ahead most of the game. They were as usual mistake-prone, but they still had the game and the talent to stay ahead. They kept missing foul shots. Dwight missed 2 at the end when even one of it would have sealed the game. Then leading by just 3 instead of 4 or 5, Jameer Nelson stood underneath the 3-point line and let D-Fish pull-up and take a fairly open, game tying 3. One too many stupid plays for the Magic. Not sure if all the millions are any help to Stan Van Gundy in dealing with this. He should be going nuts! It's one thing for Dwight Howard to miss free-throws - not that thats acceptable, but for Hedo Turkoglu to miss throw after throw in the fourth quarter? You have to say it was all between the ears for both these guys. One of Hedo's foul shot was so flat and so horrible, he looked more like a Turkish Shaq for a moment rather than the Turkish MJ. The guy did everything including hitting clutch threes and making great moves to the basket and led the scoring for Magic with 25, but couldn't hit his throws. He shot 8/13 both from the field and the line and the Magic as a team shot a lower percentage from the line in game 4 than they did from the field through the entire game 3. More statistical proof that the Magic just choked away the series. And choke is a tough word to use in any context.

At 2-2, this series would have been tantalizingly poised. Lakers would have been under pressure and given their lack of killer instinct and focus at times, they could have easily fallen down 3-2 going back to LA and who knows what would have happened. Apparently most teams leading the finals 3-2 end up winning. But now Lakers are the ones leading 3-1. Magic probably will win game 5 and the Lakers will finish them off in game 6 as most experts predicted. Of course Magic are a resilient team and I expect them to be competitive through the end of this series, but it is going to end with a 4-Th ring in Kobe's fingers. Speaking of Kobe, he had a horrible shooting night - just 11/31, but the good ones always make key plays. He has not done a whole lot since that great game 1, but he grabbed Dwight and pulled him down and prevented a dunk towards the end of this game. That foul put Dwight on the line and those were 2 more free throws he missed. Phil also spoke about another play where Kobe grabbed the rebound away from Dwight and got fouled in the process. He said that was one of the turning points in the game. It's sometimes interesting how the coaches look at the game. But the real story of the game was those 2 missed free throws by Dwight Howard. Sad, considering he had a 16-21 game with 9 blocks! Of course the only statistic that matters now are those 8 missed free-throws and 7 turnovers. How ironic is it that another Magic trip to the finals is punctuated by free throws. Nick Anderson's 4 straight misses in game 1 of the 1995 finals is already legendary. Rockets won that game 1 in OT and the Lakers won this game 4 in OT. May be it should be called the "curse of Shaq". He was Magic's first super-star and they have had enough drama with foul shots ever since.

Magic shoot their way in

The Magic shot their way back into the series today. They shot 75% in the first half and 63% for the entire game and won by 2 points. Thats crazier than some of the Suns stats during the Mike D'Antoni era. But the Magic got one back today. They shot the ball like crazy, but Kobe kept the Lakers close in the first half. The Magic slowed down just a bit in the second half, but Kobe slowed down significantly and the Magic won at the end. I see a huge difference between the two teams when it comes to experience and limiting mistakes. Talking heads on TV always talk about young teams laking experience and maturity, but it's usually not that obvious. You just see talented players ball on both sides. But in this series, you can clearly see that the Magic are inexperienced and a lot more mistake-prone. They play with a cavalier attitude at times and that shows when they don't closeout on a shooter or not secure a rebound. The Lakers seem a lot more thorough and on-point with those kinda things. Of course, today the Lakers couldn't stop the Magic shooting and Kobe was way off in the second half. If not, you wonder if the Magic would have lost this game despite the great shooting.

Some of this is coaching too. Stan Van Gundy is a great coach. His play-call at the end of game 2 when Courtney Lee missed a potential game-winner was genius. Unfortunately for Stan, it didn't work out. With all that said, Phil Jackson is a coach who operates at a whole different level. He has been there, done that and there is a lot of method to his madness. It's amazing how well the Lakers have shut down Dwight Howard in this series so far. So the inexperience extends to the coaches as well and sometimes you wonder what is Van Gundy doing. He went from splitting time between 2 point guards to playing none in game 2. While I love the fact that Van Gundy is not afraid to roll the dice - whether it's playing J.J.Reddick for long durations or drawing up a buzzer-beater for Courtney Lee, he doesn't seem to have a cohesive game-plan at times quite like Phillip. Of course Phillip has Kobe and he can make up a huge part of any game plan all by himself. If I am a Magic fan, that would be my concern. Do they have the experience, maturity and consistency to beat the Lakers 3 times out of the next 4 games?

It's amazing how one game (and a few baskets) can change the perception of a series. I am sure some experts may say the Magic were a few centimeters away in game 2 from being up 2-1 in this series. Of course you can also say the Lakers could have won today's game and gone up 3-0 and shut the door on everything. Game 4 will tell us which of the two argument is more believable. Based on game 2 and 3, it's obvious the Magic have the talent, but it's the rest of the intangibles that would be the concern. Of course Kobe is the other major concern. He looked mediocre in the second half of today's game and that only means he is going to be extra motivated on Thursday. He has also been consistent in getting his teammates involved - 8 assists in all 3 games so far. Pau and Lamar have played well too whenever they have had an opportunity. The Magic better be focussed. Or just shoot 75% like they did today. Today was also their first ever win in the Finals. They were swept the last time they were in the Finals against the Houston Rockets back in 1995. Speaking of that series, it was supposed to be Shaq and the Magic against Barkley and the Suns that year. Of course Magic made it, but Hakeem and the Rockets bounced my Suns off in the playoffs.

Paul Westphal, who was the coach of that Suns team that year made it back to the NBA today after a loooong break. He was hired as the head coach of the Sacramento Kings today. Good hire.

Kobe's series?

This NBA finals is more than just another finals series. Especially for one Mr. Kobe Bryant. Anybody who follows this game closely knows that Kobe is in that select list of players who have a shot at being considered for best-ever. I don't think he'll surpass MJ, but he has a shot at being mentioned in the same conversation when it's all said and done. We are a culture obsessed with winning and Kobe already has won 3 rings. But he has also lost 2 finals. Part of the greatness of the all-time legends like MJ and Joe Montana is that not only do they have multiple championships, but they also never lost a championship game or series. There is something about "winning the big game" that our culture loves and idolizes. Of course it's not like these guys won a ring every year they were in the league. But they won many rings and never lost in the Finals.

In some sense that means you are better off losing in the first round of the playoffs rather than losing in the Finals. History will probably look at 2009 LeBron - who didn't make it to the finals, more favorably than the 2007 LeBron, who lost to the Spurs in the Finals. Doesn't make sense, but thats how we evaluate our sports heroes. MJ of course is the best ever because in addition to winning 6 rings and not losing in the finals, he also won a ring every year after he reached his personal peak in 1991. The exception being 1995 when he came back half-way through the season and that stupid comeback tour with the Wizards at the very end. He never let up or took a step back. Also the set of teammates surrounding him didn't seem to matter all that much. They kept changing except for Pippen and Jordan still kept winning.

This brings us to Kobe. He ain't MJ, but this current series will determine how close he gets to his airness. He has to share all his 3 existing rings with Shaq and he has 2 finals losses - one of which was with Shaq as well. If he loses this year, he would have lost 3 finals with 2 of them back-to-back. Thats not airness territory, but Buffalo Bills territory. It's in fact just half as good as MJ. Too many losses with much more talent around him. If he wins this year, then he gets a ring of his own. Yes, he got Pau and Odom, but this is Kobe's team and hence his ring. He is option 1 and not option 1-A like he was as part of those Shaq teams. He would also win his 4-Th ring and that puts him on par with Shaq and who knows, he might even have a shot at MJ's 6. Kobe is not that old, but has a lot of mileage on his body. Kobe will start to decline soon.

I was shocked when somebody on Sportscenter slipped in a "father-time" reference on Kobe last week. Of course, those morons on ESPN will say anything for a catch-phrase, but Kobe is definitely an "old" 30. Kobe understands all this and he showed us how seriously he takes his legacy in game 1 of the finals. He came to play and he did not let his teammates fool around either. He was committed to doing whatever it takes to win that game and eventually this series. He had a 40-8-8 game and was on edge and on top the entire game. Mikael Pietrus tried but it was going to take way more than him to slow him down on Thursday. The Lakers crushed the Magic 100-75 and has put some serious fear in everybody - the Magic for obvious reasons and ABC and the fans because we want a competitive series. I am very curious to see how Kobe, Lakers and the Magic come out tomorrow. I think Lakers win again, but the Magic better keep it close. Otherwise the home court is not going to do much to help them the next 3 games.

The "Lakers in 6" syndrome

Everybody including our President seems to be suffering from the "Lakers in 6" syndrome. It just feels like it makes perfect sense to pick the Lakers in this series. But didn't most people feel the same way last year around this time? Nobody thought the Celtics really had a shot until they went up 3-1. The Lakers definitely have the most talent of any team in the league. But they are missing something and thats why they are so inconsistent and they couldn't cash it in last year. And that thing they are missing is called toughness. Some guys and teams are tough and the Lakers showed us last year they are not. The usual suspects on that front are Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom, though I think Pau gets a little bit of bad rap. If Lamar Odom shows up consistently, the President (and others) might be proven right. But if he doesn't, this series will become more interesting. ESPN would have us believe that it depends on what candy he eats on game day. By the way, can somebody give me a legitimate competition for ESPN on TV? These guys are getting out of control, but thats a topic for another day.

The Magic had all kinds of match-up edge over the Cavs. The Cavs had no answer for Hedo, Lewis or Howard. But thats not all on the Cavs. It's part Cavs and part Magic. The Magic are a unconventional team and they can pose problems for a lot of teams. They shoot a lot of threes and almost prefer playing outside-in on most days. Most of their match-up edge comes from 2 of their best players - Hedo and Lewis, playing like guards and being so versatile at 6-10. It's not easy for any team to defend one such 6-10 guy, let alone two. Plus Dwight Howard showed us what kind of a beast he can be in the paint. Of course the fact that the Cavs were completely conventional in the way they are put together didn't help them against the Magic whatsoever. All of Cavs versatility and athleticism is bottled up in one guy wearing number 23. The rest of the team is very typical. The guards are short and can shoot the three. The big guys are slow and old. If a Cavs big guy can score, he can't defend. If he can defend and rebound, he can't score. A predictable team with an exceptional superstar and the Magic were the worst team for them to match-up against.

The Lakers are a VERY different team from the Cavs and hence the match-up equations will be VERY different. The Lakers are loaded and thats because they are big, they are deep and they are versatile. Which means they should be able to deal with the Superman a lot better than the Cavs. They got big, talented dudes in Bynum and Gasol. Of course, they can't stop Howard, but they have the size to bother him, plus, Gasol can make him work at the other end. Given Howard's aggressiveness and tendency to pick up fouls, that is huge. Between defending Gasol and protecting the basket against Kobe, this guy might foul out every other game. He fouled out of quite a few games even against the Cavs. It's very important for the Magic that he stays on the floor. As for Hedo and Lewis, Lakers are one of the few teams in the league with a versatile 6-10 guy of their own in Odom. Again, I am not sure if Odom can stop either of those guys, but can definitely make them work at the other end and defend one of them better than the Cavs could ever defend either of those guys. Lakers also have Trevor Ariza, an athletic 6-8 guy who can defend.

That brings us to Kobe. Mickael Pietrus is going to bother him and make him work. He is not quite in the Shane Battier category of defenders, but it won't be a walk in the park for Kobe. Kobe will have to work harder than he did against the Nuggets and carry his team for stretches. This is a very interesting series for Kobe. His legacy is at stake here. He is one of the few generational guys who has a shot at being considered the GOAT - greatest of all time. But he has already lost 2 finals after winning 3 in his career. He has also not won without Shaq. He is surrounded by a lot of talent and it's hard to explain why he lost last year. Given all this, he just cannot afford to lose again this year. That would make him a goat instead of a GOAT. You cannot lose back-to-back finals without entering the Buffalo Bills territory. A loss in this Finals can take him further away from MJ and closer to Karl Malone. Plus he may have to listen to another offensive rap from Shaq, who ironically has played for both teams in this Finals.

Actually the Magic are one of the few lucky teams who have managed to land 2 other-worldly centers in a short span of 15 years. Amazing, considering the Suns have been looking for one the last 45 years. Shaq also casts his shadow over the Cavs. They are now left to wonder if they would have been better off if they had pulled the trigger on that Shaq trade with the Suns. Could he have helped neutralize Howard just a little bit? It's hard to believe now that the Cavs refused to give up Wally Szczerbiak (and his expiring contract) for him. That trade may come back this off-season, though the Suns might as well hold onto Shaq's expiring contract. The Cavs should also take a close look at Tyson Chandler. Not a great addition, but he would at least be a little athletic and can get there in time to foul DHoward. The Cavs bigs couldn't even grab him or foul him before he dunked. The Lakers are well-equipped to do some of these things better. But the Magic won't be overwhelmed by them and they swept the Lakers in the regular season. So Lakers better be ready for them - at least for 7 games, which is what I think it's going to take them to win this thing. Of course, as always, I want the Lakers to lose in 4, but I see them winning in 7.