6.18.10 3:35 am by Alex
Ron Artest has had an almost inconceivably up-and-down NBA career. He’s dealt with circumstances – most notably the famous brawl in Michigan – that could have ended his career, but still supplied us with plenty of entertaining moments. After coming to Los Angeles via free agency during the off-season - a move some questioned – it all paid off for Ron tonight, as the Lakers clinched their second championship in as many years. Artest, who has struggled at times during the series, came to play tonight, with 20 points, 5 rebound, 5 steals and solid defense. He seems to have turned the corner in is life and is handling his previously out of control emotions better, but that doesn’t mean he’s not still a character. As an addendum to my previous post on Artest, here are the best moments from Ron Artest in the 2009-2010 season:
Ron Artest Says – Ron Artest says he used to drink Hennessy at halftime, Ron Artest says he suffered memory loss after concusion, Ron Artest says the media coverage of Tiger Woods is unfair, Ron Artest says Trevor Ariza’s a better player.
The Haircut – Not the first time he’s had unique hairdos, but this one was probably the most colorful. It’s supposedly “defense” in Hebrew.
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6.02.10 9:32 pm by Pat
LA vs Boston once again! Sorry LeBron, but we are about to witness, for the second time in three years, one of the best rivalries in all of sports. In 2008 the Celtics embarrassed the Lakers in a game six blowout and several Lakers admit that it still stings when they think about it. If you’ve read anything about the series so far, undoubtedly you’ve heard people compare and contrast the 2008 versions of these teams with the current version. A few differences in personnel here and there, but the core of both teams is still intact.
If you’ve read any of my prior NBA related article, it’s no secret that I am neither a Laker fan nor a Kobe Bryant fan. But, for this article I’m going to try my best to set aside my bias (did I mention I’m a lifetime KG fan?) and write my analysis from a neutral perspective, as much as possible. If you want bias, you can look to a known Celtics fan Bill Simmons and follow his tweets during the finals or you can read this article by Charley Rosen who wrote a very Laker friendly preview this week. Not to go on a tangent, but at least Bill Simmons doesn’t try to hide his bias. Charley Rosen called Derrick Fisher the “best position-defender at point” without adding a “…just kidding” afterwards. A quick peek at his Wikipedia page revealed that he was an assistant to Phil Jackson during his CBA days in the 1980′s and co-authored a book with him. We’re on to you Charley.
Anyway, instead of writing a match-up review or an elaborate prediction detailing how I came to my conclusion, I’m going to try something different. I’m going to do a brief write up on what I would do if I were coaching either team. I’ll provide my prediction after my team by team plan so I can go on record with my guess. I’ve been horribly wrong so far, so I can’t really lose at this point.
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7.26.09 10:02 am by Matt
NBA analysis seems to consist of relating every move to the Summer of 2010, dreaming of players for teams to get during the Summer of 2010, or just talking about the Summer of 2010 for no other reason. The Summer of 2010 probably has a player card on ESPN.com. “The Knicks are smart to pick up those contracts that will expire in the Summer of 2010 so they can make a run at LeBron James.” “That’s a great trade for the Pistons, clearing that cap space aimed at Dwyane Wade in the Summer of 2010.”
Well I say PHOOEY. Here’s why we’re in for a big, massive, giant, huge BUMMER of 2010:
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6.16.09 10:28 pm by Pat
Editor’s Note: We’re introducing another new writer with this post. This is Pat. Pat is not a Lakers fan.
As I sit here and watch as the Lakers and Magic come to the inevitable conclusion of the Lakers hoisting the trophy, I find myself getting angry and frustrated that Houston, Denver, and now Orlando have failed to take them out. Then ABC flashes to an up close of Kobe Bryant sticking his bottom teeth out like his jaw is dislocated and my Kobe-hating meter is now off the charts. I have never been a fan of Kobe or his frequent ball-hawking style of play. I respect his talents and believe he is a top ten all time player, and getting a ring this year without playing second fiddle to Shaq cements his place in history as one of the best to play the game. Similar to Bryant himself, Kobe fans are often smug and arrogant and for some reason insist that he is the best player ever despite there being little, if any, statistical evidence to back this up. That being said, I decided to write some reasons/facts that fellow Kobe-haters can use as ammunition against the LA fans who undoubtedly will be signing his praises even louder this offseason.
1) Kobe is 4 for 6 in NBA Finals appearances, and he was the second best man on the team for three of his four rings. Kobe had the luxury of playing for arguably the best coach ever during the majority of his career and he played with the most dominant physical force to ever play the game in Shaquille O’Neal. During the 2003-2004 season, Kobe was playing with three other future Hall of Famers (Shaq, Karl Malone, and Gary Payton) and was regarded at that point as the best player on the team and rightfully so. Shaq’s numbers had dipped and Malone and Payton were nowhere near their prime, but the team was undoubtedly stacked and Kobe failed to deliver in the finals. In his second run as the top man on the team, he lost once again to the Celtics. This year by defeating Orlando, Kobe earned his first ring as the go-to man for his team. You need to give him his props for that, but he doesn’t have the other three without Shaq.
2) Kobe’s supposed legendary ability to hit the game winning shot is more hype than truth. If you look at this site, you can see that Kobe, despite taking the most game winning shot attempts out of an extensive list of NBA players, did not hit the most game winners and shot just .250%. Those statistics include the 2003-2004 season up to February 4th of this season. ESPN and ABC want to make Kobe out to be the next Jordan in terms of clutch shots and have done all they can to promote this idea. The fact of the matter is the more attempts you take, the more you will eventually hit. You don’t see the misses replayed over and over, but the makes are made into some sort of iconic shots.
Kobe fans may point to his better record in terms of game winning shots in the playoffs, as can be seen on the same page. However, after watching his performance in this year’s playoffs, including his game 2 game winning attempt that was blocked by Hedo Turkoglu (as Kobe was triple teamed and failed to pass to a number of wide open teammates…but that’s another story), I am confident that his shooting percentage will drop once this year’s playoffs are factored in. Anyone who tries to deny that Kobe takes to many shots, and even more so at the end of the games, just needs to look at the numbers.
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5.17.09 9:06 am by Alex
Spike Lee’s new documentary “Kobe Doin’ Work”, premiered tonight on ESPN. If you missed it, they’ll be replaying it at least 5 times in the next week. I had to DVR it and was going to tweet my way through it, but I know its annoying when one person’s constant twittering consumes your feed, so I wrote them down here as I watched. Its Simmons-esque, except shorter and with links.
0:00 - Spike Lee stands on the Lakers’ court and tells us some background info. Basically, they filmed Kobe for about 3 hours, and thats it. I was hoping it was more of a day in the life of Kobe. This could be boring.
0:03 - Kobe and company run out on the court. I’m disappointed by the lack of pregame hijinks a la Lebron and Shaq.
0:05 - The camera on the ceiling is cool. They should utilize this more often during games for highlights and such.
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5.11.09 1:32 am by Alex
We had some pretty exciting basketball this weekend; 2 games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday:
Friday
- Celtics 96, Magic 117 – Even without the services of Rafer Alston, Dwight Howard(14 pts, 17 reb) and company took care of business against Boston. No head slapping to report.
- Lakers 108, Rockets 94 – Close game at the half, but the Lakers took control in the 3rd quarter and never looked back. Yao Ming broke his foot and it was later announced he would miss the rest of the playoffs.
Saturday
- Nuggets 106, Mavericks 105 - Definitely the most controversial game of the weekend. Things were neck and neck for a majority of the game and Carmello Anthony hit a 3-pointer with a second left. The NBA officials blew another one, and later admitted that a foul should have been called prior to the shot. With Denver up 3-0 in the series, it looks like the outcome of this one is all but determined.
- Cavaliers 97, Hawks 82 – Atlanta gave the Cavs some trouble early, but LeBron scored 47 points and would not allow them to lose.
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