December 7, 2009 at 2:16 pm · by bteitelbaum · Filed under Uncategorized
It’s been a crazy 10 days in the wide world of sports. Tiger evidently has even better game with the ladies than he does on the links. Ron Artest obviously didn’t get the memo that Hennessy is low in electrolytes. And hopefully I can finally turn on Sportscenter without being forced to look at the exceedingly unappealing figure of Charlie Weis.
Here are some of my random thoughts on the current basketball scene:
- Nowadays the Lakers always blow out the Suns. Since the Pau Gasol trade, Los Angeles is 6-1 against Phoenix, with four wins coming by double digits. The Suns are to the Lakers as Mr. Potato Head is to a small child; the Lakers can seemingly do whatever they want to the Suns. Sometimes they play nice and allow Phoenix to look good for a bit, but then they decide to rip off the arms and shove them in the eye sockets.
- The US Senate has shown significant interest in preventing sports injuries, most recently looking into concussions in football. Perhaps a committee should investigate the Portland Trail Blazers’ drafting of bigtime centers because they can’t avoid terrible injuries either. Greg Oden, who just suffered a season-ending patella fracture, is following down the unfortunate path laid by Bill Walton and Sam Bowie. You’ve heard of the SI cover jinx, the Madden curse, but it’s time to acknowledge the Blazer Bigman Hex. (I tried to think of a catchier name but drew a blank.) Maybe Portland should adopt a run-and-gun system a la Phoenix, for if I were a center, I’d do my utmost to stay out of Oregon. On a serious note, though, I really do sympathize with Oden. He was starting to look like a legitimate NBA center, to feel comfortable on the court, and now he has to shut it down yet again. It’s sad.
- I’m still trying to figure out why the 76ers signed Iverson. I understand both the arguments circulating right now. The monetary – he’ll put more fans in the seats. The basketball – he’ll actually make them more competitive this season. However, a move like this sets any rebuilding team back several seasons, in team chemistry, young player development, and a chance at a higher draft pick, which also implies future years of financial futility. As great a player as Iverson is (was), I think it’s been proven that you cannot win a title with him. And isn’t that the goal. It’s kind of like signing Terrell Owens. At some point, you just have to stop believing that he’ll act differently for your team.
- This has nothing to do with basketball, but I’m also a general sports fan, and I need to talk about the BCS for a minute. Pitting TCU and Boise St. against each other in the Fiesta Bowl again marginalizes both teams. They’ve still been denied the chance to beat up on the big boys. Like almost everyone else, I would love to see a playoff, but here’s another interesting idea for you: What if the top 10 teams (after the bowl games) were required to play each other at the beginning of the following season. This wouldn’t add any games during finals time, it wouldn’t take away any of the magic from the bowls, and it would make the start of the college football season much more exciting. Imagine if TCU opened at Alabama next year. Right now, the best teams are wary of scheduling such teams because they only provide a chance to slip up. The only problem I see is that schedules are set a couple years in advance. Still, this is intriguing, no?
- Yay Nets! But you’re still gonna have the worst record ever.
- Gerald Wallace, a small forward, is leading the league in rebounds. In the history of the league, only power forwards and centers have led the NBA in boards/game. Should Wallace keep it up, it would really be incredible.
October 26, 2009 at 9:23 pm · by bteitelbaum · Filed under Uncategorized
Been around the world and I… I can’t find my baby.
For better or worse, 80s one-hit wonders can usually express my feelings better than my own words can. Here I must give credit to Lisa Stansfield. As my faithful readership hopefully knows, I’ve done quite a lot of traveling in the last ten months. I lived in Barcelona, toured around Israel, and roadtripped across America. While I have undeniably had the most incredible times of my life, replete with profound spiritual experiences as well as admittedly more earthly pleasures, I felt there was something missing. I just couldn’t find a way to have the connection to the basketball world that I have always had. Maybe some of the blame lies with my ankle injury, which kept me out of action for the better part of my journeys. But assigning blame is insignificant. Now that I’ve finally arrived home, one of the few bright spots aside from the queen size bed and free food is basketball. The NBA and NCAA seasons are right around the corner, and I’m starting to get healthy again. Luckily for the literate sports fans out there, ballershorts is back too! Tomorrow I will be coming out with an NBA preview, so stay tuned.
May 2, 2009 at 3:15 am · by bteitelbaum · Filed under Playoffs, Uncategorized
Sportswriters have recently been asking a lot of questions about these NBA playoffs, such as here, here, and here. These have been good questions, pressing questions, usually followed by detailed and informative answers. To loosely paraphrase my wise Uncle Stanley, though, it may be more important to ask a good question than to receive a good answer. And there are a lot of questions yet unasked. Here are the things I keep wondering as I follow these alternately riveting and soporific playoffs.
Why is no one talking about the absence of Eddie House? As much coverage as this series has been receiving, I would have thought that someone would mention the fact that Eddie has not been a spark in even one of the games thus far. People have been delving into the implications of the Celtics’ short bench, their lack of frontcourt depth due to the Garnett and Powe injuries, and Stephon Marbury’s ineffectiveness/fear to shoot, but there has not been one word concerning the former Arizona State gunner. I know he’s not a huge name and rarely a key player, but throughout the season he has randomly erupted for big games that have actually propelled the Celtics to victories. In fact, he’s exactly the bench production that the Celtics need and should expect. This series, he is shooting 9-30 (30%) and 5-18 (28%) from behind the arc, from a guy who hit 151 threes this season on 44% shooting! You’re telling me this isn’t somewhat of a big deal? Of course he’s streaky: his last 6 regular season games he had point totals of 7, 15, 4, 7, 1, 20. But those two high-scoring games (for a reserve) both came in close Celtics’ wins. In the playoffs he hasn’t gone for more than 8. There have been 7 overtimes in 6 games. Don’t you think that a couple of made Eddie House jumpers could already have Boston in Round 2?
How could the Heat-Hawks series possibly have this many blowouts? Not one game decided by single digits? Blowouts on the road? If one team consistently thrashes another, then ok – see Cleveland vs Detroit and Denver vs New Orleans. But both teams taking turns doing it? The obvious answer is inconsistency: you have to be inconsistent to win by 30 one night and then lose to the same team by 20 the next. But what is causing this inconsistency? Is it youth? You can’t make that claim for Atlanta after last year’s series with Boston, and though much of the Heat is doing this for the first time, how can Dwyane Wade let his team keep losing like that? Is it coaching? Maybe, but do the coaching performances differ that much from game to game? Teams may make slight adjustments, but those don’t usually lead to blowouts. And players shouldn’t need a coach to get hyped for the playoffs. As I mentioned earlier, it hasn’t just been a case of home court advantage. I just don’t know, and I’m left thinking that these teams aren’t very good.
Could the Lakers have made me any more nervous? LA won in 5, with each victory coming in double digits, yet they have seemingly raised more questions than they have solved. First and foremost, of course, is what happened to Andrew Bynum? Yes, I know he’s still coming back from his injury, but he looked pretty darn good the last couple games of the regular season. And I also understand that Utah might have caused some defensive matchup problems for Bynum, but couldn’t the Lakers have made some use of his huge size advantage on the offensive end? Sasha Vujacic looked like he was finding his shot the last week of the regular season, but it’s decided to play hide and seek again. (Sasha went 6-29 in Round 1.) Where can we track it down this time? Who knows, but it might be somewhere with Jordan Farmar’s playing time and my friend Randall’s patented lefty jump hook. Now that Luke Walton’s injured, the bench mob is starting to look more like the bench slob. Furthermore, though Pau Gasol was solid, he didn’t dominate like I expected, not even one game. I guess I’m holding out hope that Kobe and the resurgent Lamar Odom can lead the purple-and-gold to the promised land.
Is Marcin Gortat better than Dwight Howard? Just kidding. But seriously, this guy can ball. Orlando should find a way to get him more minutes. I’m thinking there may be a way to do that, especially with the injury to Courtney Lee. How about going big, with Turkoglu at the 2, Lewis at the 3, and Gortat at the 4? Turk and Rashard have played those positions before, and that would cause matchup problems all over the court. We just saw that Lewis still has a post game, and perhaps a size difference will motivate him to go to it more often. It would also be very hard to score on the Magic in the paint, and the rebounding advantage would be enormous.
Should the Spurs trade Tim Duncan? I know that would be blasphemy in San Antonio, but I think it is a valid question. Everyone is asking what the Spurs need to do in the offseason, but I haven’t many people propose this idea. Timmy is clearly on the decline, but he has enough left in the tank to fetch a very nice package from a team looking to get over the hump. What do we think about Duncan for Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, and Tyrus Thomas? I don’t know if the Bulls would even do that, but isn’t it an interesting proposition? Duncan for LaMarcus Aldridge, Rudy Fernandez, and Travis Outlaw? Just ideas. Ultimately, I still believe in loyalty and I think San Antonio does too, but it doesn’t mean the question shouldn’t be asked.
Ponder these questions, formulate opinions, and I would love to hear your answers.