Beat Beats, Bad Calls and Bad Selections…

In the days before the all-star selection (or at least for the reserves), I found myself noticeably preoccupied with two teams other than the Raptors: the Lackers and the Nets. Now being unsteadily positioned at the top of low-lying Atlantic Division makes anybody competing with the Raptors ‘of interest’. And barring a run by the Knicks (hey, stranger things, son…), it looks like a two cripple race to the top of this division, with the Nets’ roster being suitably injury-ravaged for the analogy.

NJ was floating around .500 when they left for a five game West Coast swang, and unbelievably lost their first three games by a point, each. That’s one…point. And each opponent scored their winning basket with, at most, ten seconds left each time.. One was at the buzzer. One, may as well have been. So the chi-chi-less squad had to stare down a muddled Nuggets team at high altitude, followed by a Boozer-less, fine-tuned Jazz machine in Mormon country. Not a good look. And what happens?
Vince dropped a combined 73 points on 27 free throws (yup, started going to the basket again…) in the two games including one, loooong game winner. Two wins. Go figure. Now the only question for this franchise left is who to trade (you can check the last post on why the Nets need to give up and rebuild). And the two sides are very clear. Kidd could put up the best offensive numbers of his career but, sadly (or not so sadly), this team will still lose. He’ll also give up points when matched up with anybody but Steve Blake. Don’t forget to throw in one potentially-publicly messy and embarrassing divorce to boot. But clearly, because of his offensive renaissance, (because as a minority Nets owner did say, “Men and women lie, numbers don’t.” That is, unless they associated with padded first week sales…), his trade value is pretty much as high as they could hope it to be...
Or you can just keep him. But does the NJ powers-that-be really think riding Kidd to barely-there mediocrity will be of any relevance three or even two years down the road for the franchise? A series of first, maybe second round losses in the playoffs? At best. Welcome to life with Vince as your featured offensive piece.
Speaking of oxymoronic devils, VC has a hard contract to trade plus a hard-to-trade reputation. I mean, we all know his deficiencies. However, with Vince being able to opt out of said contract at the end of this year, management can not let him go for nothing ( I mean they could…but RJ isn’t that guy neither). Apparently, off-the-record VC pandering did not warrant Pau, AK-47 or Jesus (who I think would be a great fit). We seen this before, but from the other side. Hey Thorn: what goes around, comes around...(I feel like I must add this for punctuation)…bitch. Oh, we haven’t heard the last of this…

And now to the anti-Vince: Kobe and the Lackers. They were rolling along impressively; nipping at the heels of the Jazz and SA. And then, out the blue, suffered a really bad beat in overtime against Charlotte…at home?! (Still think they’re getting past the second round LA-lovers?) Granted, it featured the dumbest play of the season, made by Nique’s nephew to give Kobe a wide-open look to send the game into overtime. Cool, OT then…only to get run out of their own yard by Emeka and co. in the extra period? Huh?P.J....uh, no words of Zen-like wisdom for this one? How bout a book assignment?
So what’s next? The Lackers followed that up with an another terrible home OT loss to the Spurs. As embarassing as that Charlotte loss was, this was just as bad for two reasons: 1) SA shot under 30% for three quarters and more importantly 2) the incident…

Yes, Kobe’s flailing limb, somehow overshadowing what was an absolutely spectacular defensive play by GINOBILI! It was such a good block, Kobe didn’t even see him and couldn’t time his flop, hence he ‘flopped’ his elbow right into GINOBILI!'s face. So you think having old ass Michael Finley finish you off in overtime...on your home court, is embarrassing enough, right? How could it get worse? Now paging…Mr. Stern…

Hold the outrage for a minute (One regular season game…ooooo, the injustice. Y'all acting like its a Playoff game...). Now for once, I really think Stern got it right. And here’s why: this was not meant to be a literal assertion of the rules for suspension purposes. So you can get off that whole "opening of Pandora’s Box for suspendable contact". There’s not going to suspensions handed out every other night.
Alright, so now this is Kobe-profiling, huh? Well, yes and no. Let’s face it, Kobe himself has gone on record to saying he applies the dirty tricks of the trade common amongst Lig veterans. Hell, he even has a track record of being caught crossing the line on said trickery (ask Mike Miller…). This was just a case of Kobe trying to do a Reggie Miller-esque flop at best, attempting to use star status to unjustly draw referee attention towards getting the win at home: something approaching par for the course in this day and age. And really, this is why Stern needs to step in. Because if Kobe hadn’t smashed GINOBILI! in the face, and instead crumpled like an Italian in the 18 yard box, who’s to say Phil wouldn’t have been placating Pop in the post game press conference with his best fake-ass humble routine (in addition to avoiding being shown up by Isiah’s crew the next game).

After last year’s run to the chip by the Miami Stripped Zebras, I’m sure Mr. Stern has enough perspective to see the ongoing trend towards the NBA Playoffs becoming a yearly PR nightmare for the Lig office. Consider this a pre-emptive strike from Stern: even superstars cannot expect to get away with the sort of antics that play on the fragile ref mind states, directly affecting wins and losses, and ultimately tarnishing the Lig rep. Besides, Stern has his own marketing agendas that play upon those same refs anyways. To recap: how many times did D Wade get to the free throw line in his marquee match up against LeBron the other night? Yes folks, a perfect Jack Bauer. Makes you wonder if the Lig can afford not to have Miami in the playoffs this year? We’ll see how things go down the stretch but I hate the chance of any team trying to take that 8^th seed away from Dwyane and (when he’s actually on the court) Shaq. And how long before they put a ref calling a shooting foul on the NBA logo? Let’s just hope Stern can practice restraint for himself and not just impose it on the players…

Speaking of imposing, it’s amazing how Carmelo was kept off the All-Star squad: it’s maddeningly curious how such a decision can be made if, theoretically, one was prioritizing performance related issues. As the Lig’s scoring leader, Carmelo will certainly get inserted as an alternate, but is this how you really want to treat one of the emerging stars of the contemporary game (having to get bailed out by Stern time and time agai…never mind)? It’s hard to believe Josh Howard won’t get the other extra spot (with Boozer and Yao out), but it seems like these Western Conference Coaches want to insert a chip on these guys’ shoulders. How can you really justify Dallas having only 1 All-Star…I guess that’s an indirect vote of confidence for Dirk as MVP.
That automatic spot that typically Jesus or Elton would get disappeared with the presence of Iverson in the West. Boozer was an absolute no-brainer this year, but with SA struggling (relatively, of course) and Phoenix players no longer possessing those gaudy numbers (other than Nash) it was kinda surprising le francis Parker, Amare and Marion all made it. Personally, I was expecting two Suns, not three.

In the East, it seemed destined that Joe Johnson was gonna get screwed. And predictably, he did. But there are no alternate places on this roster, so Double J’s will have to pull a Gilbert and target his detractors for ‘get-back’ on the court. Same will Michael Redd, although for one, players like this don’t really make for exciting All-Stars and he was also out for a good period during the season (he might have been a scratch for the game itself, anyways). I thought some USA Basketball canvassing might have taken place on the low, so he would be inclined to help that squad out in the future. But with both Piston starters in, that effectively killed both these players prospects, pegging them as victims of the ‘star on a bad team’ syndrome.
Ben Gordon also got jobbed, as Chicago deserved at least one player on the squad by virtue of their position in the conference standings. Too bad rank was pulled, and Vince got invited to dance in Vegas instead. With his comme-ci comme-ca attitude towards winning and tendency to jack from distance aside, Vince is clearly built for All-Star type contests. His skill and physical ability alone has made him a fan favourite, although he was rightfully displaced by Gilbert in the starting five. He will surely do something on the court that will make you forget about those other guys. And, yes, Emeka probably deserves to be there too, but shot-blocking wins games. It doesn’t get you in an All-Star game tho...The coaches got it all the way right in one pick: good to see Caron get acknowledged for his work this season. Sure that Phoenix-lite style offense will allow him to put up numbers, but as it stands now, Washington will provide the coach for the East team. Butler has played a big role in the surprising Wiz emergence in the standings.

Speaking of the Ex-Bullets, if there’s any doubt who the livest player in the Lig is now, check out this link. Makes one kinda glad that he copped that jersey on a whim last year…