Thoughts On The NBA Season So Far

* Not surprised at all with the Celtics start, given A) the absurd amount of minutes the big 3 are playing, and B) the easy schedule they've had to start the season. Rondo's done a great job for them, which they desperately needed him to do, and the guys I were hoping would play well off the bench (Davis, Posey, Allen) have done so. Eddie House has played a lot better than I expected.

Long term, though, Doc Rivers MUST start limiting PP and Allen's minutes--ESPECIALLY Ray Allens. I think KG's okay where he's at; he's averaging 35 minutes a game, and I think that's about right for him. I think PP needs to get down to 34-35 a game, and Ray Allen needs to be down to 32. Remember, these guys haven't played more than 82 games in a long time; to make a deep playoff run, they'll need to be fresh, and they'll need a bench that has gotten better over the season so they can contribute something.

* I really find the Bulls amusing. I wasn't expecting much from them, but obviously not even I envisioned they'd fall this far. I've said for years though that Ben Gordon was a top five most overrated player in the league, and I've never understood the big deal made over Deng (with you could trade Deng for Bryant now, John Paxson?). Once Heinrich lost it--and boy has he lost it completely--they were D-U-N done.

* Still not sold on this Orlando team. It could be a magical season and continue all season long, but they just seem to--once again for them--be hot to start the season. Don't get me wrong, they'll make the playoffs easily. But they're just shooting too well right now, and too many guys are having career years. I think eventually they'll come back to Earth. Hey, Keith Bogans is still their starting shooting guard. End of story.

BTW...I apologize to Dwight Howard for questioning him. I'll shut up now.

* The Lakers are like the monster in a monster movie. Just when you think they're dead--just when you think there's no possible way they could go on--they get up, and there they go again. I don't know if I can take them being in the playoffs another year. I just don't think I can.

* I don't know if I've ever seen a team as talented as Houston look so clueless on the court. It all comes down to your point guard--compare them to the Hornets. The Rockets are twice as talented, yet N.O. has a fantastic point and is leading them to 6th place in the West, whereas Houston is in 10th because they have no point and all of the Rockets look lost playing together. What a shame that the Hornet's great season is being wasted in New Orleans.

* Man Utah sucks on the road (5-10).

* Usually I end with my comments on my beloved Mavs, but they'll go second to last this time. This team is in serious trouble. Dirk is done. I'm seriously starting to wonder if he had a very slight nervous breakdown in the summer. I worry that the playoffs will start, and the pressure will turn on, and he'll call timeout suddenly, sit on the bench, put his face in his hands, and start sobbing. I love Dirk, and I don't say this out of spite; I just think he's lost his edge. It's really sad.

I also think the Mavs need a point guard. Yes, Harris is putting up great stats. But I don't think he knows how to run the team, and I'm really starting to believe that he never will. I think he's one of those deceptive players that puts up really good stats and is always impressive to watch because he's so fast...but his teams will always underachieve a little. I'd deal him because I think everyone overrates him. And no, I don't think Jason Kidd is the answer. His stats are the fakest almost triple-double in the history of almost triple-doubles. Okay, there is no history of almost triple-doubles, and the fact that he's so close to averaging one should be ridiculously impressive, but it's just not to me. I feel like a lot of those are empty stats. Bottom line is, look at his teams record, and ask yourself if they should be better than that. I know that isn't all or even mostly his fault, but in the words of the great Winston Wolf, "Lets' not go sucking each others' dicks just yet, gentlemen."

This team needs to shake things up, but I don't think it will happen this season. I think it will happen this summer.

* Finally, a farewell to someone. Farewell to a man who is one of the best ever to play the game. Farewell to one of the greatest entertainers of all time. Farewell to someone it is hard to imagine the NBA without.

Farewell to Shaq. He's done. I'm sorry, but it's true. We'll miss you big guy.

This Week's Top 5, and RIP

Tomorrow or early next week, I'm going to write a big post about college athletics. It's something I believe strongly in, and have wanted to write for a while, and just haven't had the time to devote to it. In the meantime, I wanted to expound on this week's list, and give a shout out.

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This week's Top Five is My Top Five Eccentricities: Feat of SkyNet, Overpopulation Concerns, Geekiness, Germaphobia, and Being A Die Hard Fan of the NBA. Allow me to explain each in turn, started with the least eccentric:

* Being A Die Hard Fan of the NBA: I mean seriously, who likes NBA basketball? And I love it. LOVE it. Bill Simmons is right: there's only about 20 true NBA fans left, and I'm one of them.

* Germaphobia: Now I'm not a "true" germaphobe, where it impedes my ability to live a normal life. However, it would be accurate (this is probably Kyle's big ticket item on the list) to say I have "germaphobistic tendancies". For example, I refuse to eat or share raw cookie dough or brownie batter, as I am afraid of salmonella poisoning (this has been a bone of contention with many girlfriends over the years). It is not unusual for me to wash my hands 5-10 while cooking--especially when handling raw meat or chicken. So I've got some germaphobe in me.

* Geekiness: My nerdiness is well known to any who know me, even casually. This includes, but is not limited too: toy collections, love of cartoons, love of video games, choices of reading genres, movie selections, and the fact that I actually write a blog.

* Overpopulation Concerns: Yes, I really do worry about this. It's not a major concern yet, and no, I don't agree with those crazy bitches who have been documented by the media lately who think that having any children is an ecological and moral travesty, but I do think that we have reached the point where we need to start looking to the future and considering how large our planet is, how many resources we have, and how many people are going to be there at our current population growth. China already has a population control program in place--I'm not saying I know (because I don't) what it is, and of course don't agree or disagree with something I'm ignorant about, but the fact that a superpower in the world is already thinking about this issue is proof that it's not as eccentric as some people would think.
When our grandkids are surviving on Soylent Green, you'll wish you hadn't called me crazy! I mean, eccentric!

* Fear of SkyNet: SkyNet is (of course) the supercomputer in the Terminator movie series who takes over the planet and attempts to wipe out humanity. And yes, I do worry that this will happen someday. Crazy talk? Perhaps. But the myriad of sci-fi material on the subject is so popular partly because the idea is not totally farfetched. The Animatrix, the anime films released to provide additional stories to The Matrix movies, sucked. But watch the one good story--The Second Renaissance--which describes how the war between mankind and the machines began. Tell me that's not completely out of the question. You can't.

Am I advocating the getting rid of all computers? Of course not. I'm just saying, this is something we should be aware of, and why we should always have a "Manual Override" button.

I know, I know...I'm crazy. ;-P


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Finally, a eulogy.

I started listening to rap my freshman year of high school, in 1993. This was right after the emergence of West Coast rap, and right about the time the East Coast/West Coast War was beginning. I started listening because of basketball: when you're one of the few (or only) white boys on the team, then the "When in Rome" truth kicks in, and you listen to rap. I grew to love it, and not just the mainstream rap that most of white America listened to--to this day, I hate Puff Daddy and consider him the man who ended the Golden Age of Rap Music--but the artists who didn't get a lot of air play, the guys who didn't tour like premier artists did, the guys who were part of the "Underground". Well, one of the greatest underground duo's of all time was aptly named UGK; the Underground Kingz. This duo was Bun B and Pimp C, and they eventually rose to such popularity that you almost couldn't consider them underground anymore.

Sadly, Pimp C was found dead in his hotel this week. While the death of an artist that I admired is sad enough, what makes it even more depressing is that rap itself is dying. Say what you will about rap and the messages it conveys, in the past you could count on one--if not both--of the following traits: 1) it presented America with a starc picture of life in the black community, and 2) provided outstanding poetry from the exceptional lyricists performing the songs.

Rap today isn't that. Rap today is club music designed to get girls to shake their asses. That's it. There's nothing more to it than that. There's no unique beats--it's all the same bass beats repeated over and over again. The lyrics are the sadest thing; they are truly dead and gone. Most of the "rappers" today are kids who just repeat the same phrase, sometime even the same word, over and over and over and over and over again. The lyrics, the poetry that made rap music so exceptional is gone, replaced with mainstream club music. Rap is dead; hip-hop has taken its place.

So that makes Pimp C's young death even sadder; he was one of the last great practicioners of a dying art. So RIP Pimp C; you'll be missed, and the rap game has sadly lost yet another star. Unfortunately, there aren't many left who can properly mourn you.