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May 2006
A.I. is not the answer
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Now that the entire world has weighed in on this Allen Iverson-to-the-Hawks discussion, it’s my turn.
And as much as I love his game, I can say without hesitation that I wouldn’t touch it. Make any case you want for the tickets he might sell or the attention that might come with his addition. But let me say this, and please understand it comes from the most sincere place I possess.
The only way the Hawks change their fate -– I’ve seen the comments that they’re irrelevant and a historic joke, etc. -– is to win games. If A.I. meant a guaranteed trip to the playoffs, then I say go for it. But Philly didn’t make the playoffs with him this past season, though he played at his usual elite level and alongside guys like Chris Webber, Andre Iguodala and Sam Dalembert.
I say chase someone like Sam Cassell rather than a much more expensive A.I. Sam-I-Am’s a proven difference maker in the win-loss column and a guy, even at his advanced age, who can help mentor the young point guard the Hawks need to draft or acquire in the coming weeks.
As for the rest of the playoffs, King James teased us and then returned back to earth Sunday. So we get the Pistons-Heat matchup we knew we’d get and we wait for the West to work itself out. I see the Pistons-Heat going seven games again, so get ready for another two weeks of drama.
Lottery is Tuesday night, so we’ll have a better idea of what the Hawks can and will do come draft time. It’s about time.
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Catching up with Sekou
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
You’ve got to love this blog. I went missing for four days (more on that later) and while I’m catching up, I see there has been more than just a sharing of opinion. Folks are swapping medical advice, goods and services and all manner of good will. It’s enough to warm a guy’s heart, if I had one. I have to admit, though, I was impressed the communal approach.
Sunday night was my catch-up day for all the weekend’s playoff action I missed. So LeBron is back to being the King (for a day at least)? And Rasheed is guaranteeing wins (do the Pistons even need him to do that anymore seeing as how we all know they are headed for that showdown with the Heat?).
Speaking of the Heat and our man Antoine, wasn’t it good to see him finally shake his haters off with a big game in their Game 4 win? I know some people knock Antoine’s game (mostly his shot selection), but I happen to like the guy. I don’t know that he’s the championship piece that the Heat needed. But it looks like he’s at least going to help them reach the point they need to get to in order to challenge for that title (it has to be a bit cruel to Hawks fans, having to watch another former Buzzard help deliver someone else to the Promised Land).
Vince Carter has replaced Kobe Bryant for me as the most maddening player in the playoffs. Kid goes 0-for-forever at the 3-point line and continues his incessant whining about non-calls when he’s allowed to do basically whatever he wants out there. I guess I’m still sick to death of this cat after he quit on the Raptors so he could get traded and then goes to the Nets and plays like the player we all thought he would be years ago, when he seemed like the true heir apparent to 23! Leave Tim Thomas alone man, VC is the real Fugazy. And I don’t care how many times he teases you with his otherworldly hops and limitless shooting range. He should dominate games from tip to buzzer and instead he prances around the floor like a brat. It’s unacceptable from a guy blessed with so much natural ability.
Watched the last few minutes of the Clippers-Suns and was amazed at how a playoff team could go scoreless as long as the Clips did in the fourth quarter before Elton Brand’s turnaround jumper and Sam I Am’s 3-point dagger. But there was a moment there when I thought the Clippers were done. When the Suns crawled to within a point, it seemed like everyone in Staples Center felt it too. Then Brand broke the Clips’ 25-minute scoring drought (I know it wasn’t that long on the game clock but that’s how long it seemed). Doug Collins set up Sam I Am’s shot, saying “Sam Cassell lives for moments like this,” just before dude stroked his trey from in front of the Suns bench (watch the replay and see how the air comes out of the Suns crew over there). Whatever the Clips are paying the old man, it’s not enough. They could very well go on to lose this series. But he’s given them more than enough to build on if he does flee in free agency this summer to work his miracles elsewhere (perhaps Atlanta?).
Enough about basketball. Let me confess now that I finally get it. I totally understand why parents go to little league game and scream for their kid like he’s a major leaguer when he’s barely making contact in tee-ball. Your kids are it man, there’s nothing like watching them do their thing.
My son had a Cub Scout camping trip this weekend, so after school last Friday we packed up our tent and all our other trappings (you can do the instant-outdoorsman thing for your soul and a few hundred bucks at any of your nearby Shopzillas – Wal-Mart, Target, etc.) and head for the woods. It was truly an experience, we did this and Mother’s Day in one shot. I haven’t been camping in about 15 years or so, and even then it was in cabins and within rock-tossing distance of Lake Michigan. And there were girls there, too. So it was less like camping and more like an invitation to become a raging, adolescent fool for a week …
Anywho, back to the camping trip. We set up shop (I only broke one of the plastic stakes and thank goodness for the metal backups) and ended up having the best weekend I’ve had in a long, long time. Sure, it was so cold in our tent at about 6 a.m. on Saturday that I took a breath, watched it float above my head and then freeze up and come crashing back down on my dome. But whatever the hygienic inconveniences might have been, and there were plenty, watching all these zany little first graders run around camp every night with flashlights playing capture the flag was worth it.
OK – true confession time. I did have my PSP and iPod with me, but only watched half the Bourne Identity on Friday night and then packed the gadgets away for the rest of the weekend.
By virtue of the NBA schedule (it’s almost June and they’re still playing games and training camp started in October), let’s just say I don’t make it to many den meetings or events. So the lady of the house has to handle this business. You’d have thought I’d been released from prison the way the other parents reacted when I showed up (“Who are you? Oh, you’re Gabe’s dad. It’s so nice to finally meet you). Let’s just say there have been quite a few other activities in the past nine months that I was unable to attend.
It’s all good, though. Because my kid is the flagman for his crew. So when they marched out for the cross over ceremony Saturday night, he was leading the way. I was on my way out of my chair to start hollering like a European soccer hooligan when I realized that everyone else was sitting quietly. (sorry, I wasn’t ever in scouts. I was strictly a football, soccer, baseball, basketball and tennis player at that age. I didn’t even know the scout’s salute dealie until my kid got involved). So I sat back down and let the moment marinate a bit.
I’m still on the young side of this parenting thing, but if the milestones your child goes through are like this all the time, this could be fun. And why didn’t any of you more seasoned parents warn me about what I was missing?
Playoffs and a movie
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Just when you thought the NBA playoffs would usher in a new era of unpredictability and excitement, reality struck.
It turns out the lower seeds weren’t going to shock the world and move on. The Pistons and Spurs are on a march to an NBA Finals rematch (welcome to the real playoffs LeBron, where someone on the other team might actually play a shred of defense) and no amount of wishful thinking could keep Steve Nash from his second straight MVP. (I’m not a Nash hater — quite the contrary. I just struggle with the historic significance of a guy who’s not an all-around great player winning back-to-back MVPs.)
A few other revelations after what seems like a month of NBA playoffs:
*Kobe and the Miracles turned out to be the same Los Angeles Lakers we saw most of the season, a flawed bunch with the league’s most explosive and best individual player (but a guy who’s still learning the hard way how to be the game’s greatest player).
All KB8 (as Sam Cassell referred to him last week) had to do was play the way he played in the Lakers’ three wins. But instead, he reverted back to November Kobe and the Lakers folded up like a cheap suit. They let Leandro Barbosa run through them in the final three games, a dude who did a grand total of nothing in the three games the Suns lost in the series. How does that happen?
*Gilbert Arenas is human.
I knew his one-man scoring assault would come to and end. But for it to fizzle at such an important time – botched free throws with the game on the line in front of the home crowd… are you serious? This from a guy who had been nothing but money for his team since the All-Star break. It was a tough way for it to end. But with his track record for using his lumps as motivation for bigger things down the road, teams should fear Arenas going into next season. I imagine he’ll be on a mission to redeem himself.
*Back to the Suns and this wonderfully fertile debate about Boris Diaw (and the like) being “system” players or not.
Isn’t it too early right now to judge? Based on his first two years nobody would have assumed Boris was capable of the monster numbers he’s put up this season. So why now, after one magical season, are people ready to anoint him an MVP candidate ( the Most Improved honor was well-deserved and yet another dagger aimed directly at the heart of Hawks fans). My motto on guys like Boris (situation players, more on that in a minute) is that they’re never even close to as bad as people assume they are and never as fantastic as they seem when they’re in the ideal situation. And that’s my explanation for players in the Suns’ system that put up great numbers there but have done little else in other locations.
The fact is, other than Steve Nash and Shawn Marion (Amare’s hurt but he fits here, too), most of the Suns were pedestrians elsewhere. To suggest that Boris, Raja Bell, James Jones, Tim Thomas or any of these guys would be this productive elsewhere is pure conjecture, because the facts insist something totally different.
I know we’re arguing semantics here, but calling these guys “system” players insults their talent and hard work. But assuming that their current production is anything beyond a marriage of “right player-right situation” is foolishness. In my estimation there are about two dozen players in the NBA that could go to any team and post impressive numbers regardless of the situation (hence the huge amount of players who flourish in one place and crash and burn in another). It’s not a knock on anyone’s ability or work ethic, it’s just the nature of the beast.
*I don’t care how many times I see him live, I still can’t get over how good Shaun Livingston can be.
The Clippers’ backup point guard isn’t exactly a household name among casual NBA fans, but his development has reaffirmed my faith in the NBA’s talent evaluation/cultivation process. When I saw Livingston play as a high school junior (at a tournament in St. Louis) I leaned over and told my dad that “this boy is a pro.” Saw him again the next year in the same tournament (serving LaMarcus Aldridge and his high school team from Texas) and I was even more convinced.
Sure, we all say that when we see an ultra-talented teenager for the first time in person. But his court vision, even then, was otherworldly. The fact that he was 6-8 and had ridiculous bounce only sweetened the package. He was a string bean then, still is really, but I figured once he got into the weight room everyday and had someone to detail a diet and nutritional program that he’d be off to the races.
Then he got drafted by the Clippers and I figured he’d be the next in a long line of players that didn’t reach their full potential simply because he had the bad luck of being drafted by the Clips. But Livingston is on target for stardom, even if it will take a bit longer.
Everybody raves about Chris Paul when they talk about young point guards, and rightfully so. But I’m telling you now, Livingston is going to be a terror when he’s given the keys to the castle in L.A.
*If you’re like most people, you’ve already seen enough of Tim Duncan to know that he’s one of the greatest players to ever play the game. But do you really appreciate what he can do?
I watched dude go to the basket twice with the left hand with the Game 1 momentum up for grabs Sunday afternoon. I mean, he did it like it was nothing, like he knows its nearly impossible for the rest of the 6-11, basketball playing big men on the planet. Watching these games day in and day out, it’s easy to become desensitized to what’s really going on. But Duncan is so unbelievably good that it’s freaky.
I feel bad because whenever the conversation starts about the league’s very best players, you almost have to remember to include him because he’s such an unassuming guy. And to think people used to knock this guy because he had his early success playing alongside David Robinson. More foolishness.
*Now for my one (sort of) non-basketball related item of the week. While in L.A. last week I saw Andy Garcia at the Lakers game. Stood right next to him as everyone filed off the court at halftime. He was shorter than I imagined.
After years of seeing him on the big screen, I didn’t realize how much older he is now than when he was starring in one of my favorite movies of all time, “Internal Affairs” with Richard Gere, a flick I saw with a honey during my senior year of high school.
So of course, what’s on TV while I’m venting here? That’s right, “Internal Affairs.” Freaked me out a bit, too.
The reason I bring this up is that I spent money to see “Mission Impossible III” on Friday and almost fell asleep. It had all the explosions and nonsense anyone could ask for. But it had that been-there, done-that feel to it. I don’t want to sound like some nostalgic piece of junk here, but why don’t they make movies like “Internal Affairs” anymore? Seriously. Now a days it seems like a movie is either an Oscar winner or a colossal flop.
I don’t care what Andy Garcia and Richard Gere have done in other movies, in this one they were sick. They did some serious acting. TiVo it or rent it and tell me if it’s not crazy good.
All over the playoffs
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It’s too late for you to retract that MVP vote. So Steve Nash will win it again, never mind the protests of many (myself included). Now before you assume that this is going to be some pro-Kobe Bryant/anti-Nash rant from your favorite blog, slow down.
I’m sticking by my choice (Detroit’s Chauncey Billups) for the reasons made in the paper two weeks ago. What I am willing to concede after watching Bryant and Nash on the same playoff floor the past two games is this; there’s a monumental difference between guys who knock down big shots and make the biggest plays in the biggest moments (Bryant and certainly Billups — remember his assassin’s work in the playoffs the past two years) and guys like Nash, who are truly elite players but simply not on the same level. In short, when Nash is handed that MVP trophy he needs to walk across the floor and pass it to Bryant to legitimize the thing. Otherwise, it becomes as useless as the Heisman Trophy was when Gino Toretta or Eric Crouch got the thing over much more deserving candidates.
Nash wasn’t a crunch time player in Dallas (last I remember it was Nick Van Exel that carried them in their deepest run in the Western Conference playoffs a couple years back). And the history of the MVP award is what bothers me about Nash winning the thing back-to-back. Consider that Jason Kidd did what Nash has done the past two seasons while taking his team to back-to-back trips to the NBA Finals and didn’t win the thing once. That really bothers me. How do you value what Nash did more than what Kidd did with the Nets? It just doesn’t make sense to me.
Now, people will come up with all sorts of theories as to why Nash won the MVP and Kidd did not. But none of those theories can ease my mind. And it is a wrap on the Lakers-Suns series, the Suns are done. It’s over.
Fine, now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, let me ramble on here for a few minutes about the playoffs (and other things that come to mind from the hotel here in LA):
*I’m going to try and make it to the Clippers-Nuggets game tonight. But if the rumblings about the immigration reform boycott out here are accurate, I imagine some logistical difficulties getting downtown to the Staples Center in time. They’re expecting more than a million demonstrators in the streets, which is something I’m more excited about witnessing than any basketball game. I plan on doing both.
*Anyone complaining about Atlanta’s wicked traffic should thank their lucky stars they don’t have to navigate LA’s freeways on a daily basis. Lord knows I love this place, but 10 lanes of bumper to bumper traffic on the 405 at 11 p.m. is a little much, even for an adventure junkie like myself.
Still, I love LA! And if you’re coming to the area anytime soon and looking for an offbeat place to stay, try Manhattan Beach or the areas immediately south of LAX. I stay down here because it’s around the block from the Lakers’ practice facility and near the beaches and Marina Del Rey, plus there’s easy access to the freeways that take you downtown for games. But it’s a totally different slice of LA compared to the Hollywood area, the Beverly Hills scene, the San Fernando Valley or the real OC.
*Atlanta needs some NBA playoff action as soon possible. The atmosphere at Staples Center was electric both games. Since it’s nearly impossible to recreate that without a dude named Bryant playing on one of the teams, we’d have to settle for something a little less. But if you could have seen the way people reacted after Kobe’s game-tying shot and then his game-winner, you’d have been floored. It was stunned silence for a nanosecond after the game-winner and then pandemonium. Mike Warren (former UCLA star guard and veteran actor) was sitting behind me. When the shot went down I turned around to see his reaction and he looked at me and we both said the same thing everyone else around as was saying, “Unbelievable.” People lingered for at least 10 minutes after that, just buzzing about Bryant’s shot.
I just kept thinking about how wild the atmosphere was and how the fans in every town, particularly Atlanta, deserve to experience those moments.
*I believe it was mentioned somewhere around here a while back that the Cleveland-Washington series would be fantastic. But I had no idea LeBron James and Gilbert Arenas would raise their games to this level. Both those guys are playing like maniacs right now and you can’t ask for anything more from the guys who do it week-in and week-out from the start of training camp until now. You’re talking about two 30-point scorers maintaining that pace from October to now (not even Kobe has maintained his scoring pace during these playoffs).
Seriously, how crazy is that?
*This isn’t supposed to be an NFL forum, but I have to throw my left hook at the Houston Texans for botching the draft in a way that left my stomach turning. How in the world could you pass on Reggie Bush, Vince Young and Matt Leinart (three cats who, like I mentioned above, performed at the highest level on the biggest stage) for Mario Williams? I don’t know what Mario Williams will do at the NFL level. But this idea that just because he’s roughly the same size as Julius Peppers he’ll play like Peppers is preposterous. Peppers was not only a terror for North Carolina’s football team, he also started on the basketball team and did work. He’s one of the handful of elite athletes on the planet that could excel at a high level in two different sports.
I read where Mario Williams didn’t even record a sack against N.C. State’s three Division I-AA opponents last season. Peaking at the fallout from the NFL draft only reinforces my belief that aside from folks in the political world, there is no other group more willing to overanalyze things to a point that they distort what should be a fairly obvious situation than these NFL decision makers.
*Football tidbit No. 2: I saw where the Falcons drafted Jerious Norwood from Mississippi State. He’s a great kid who I’ve known since he was in junior high school. I wrote the story when he committed to the Bulldogs (he called me on a cell phone 20 minutes before deadline while he was on a fishing trip). He’s as hard working as any player I’ve ever covered and he’s one of my favorite kids from all my years in this business. I’ll enjoy watching him run around for the Dirty Birds (do people still call them that?) along with my other favorite Falcons (T.J. Duckett is family and Justin Griffith is another good cat I know from my Mississippi days).
*Back to hoops. Anyone ready to indict Pat Riley for making what appears to be a mess of a team that was seven seconds and two key injuries away from the NBA Finals last season? The feisty Baby Bulls are making a mess of a Heat team people yapped about making the NBA Finals. At this point, that looks like nonsense. I’m not ready to predict a Bulls upset just yet. But it looks as possible as anything else right now.
*Boris Diaw wasn’t the only player with Hawks ties in the house for Sunday’s Lakers-Suns game. I stopped and hollered at Salim Stoudamire, who was sitting near courtside in some seats Tyronn Lue (former Laker) snagged for him. And Al Harrington was in the house, too, taking in some of the action.
*And anyone wondering why I’m always complaining about a team not having enough quality big men on the roster should ask Mike D’Antoni what he thinks. His Suns are about to get bounced because Amare Stoudemire and Kurt Thomas aren’t available. They’ve got absolutely nothing inside. Nothing (hence Kwame Brown and Luke Walton’s breakout performances in the series).
*Since 24 is my new favorite non-sport show on TV, I can’t tell you how hilarious it was to see Curtis (you know, the smooth CTU agent who rolls with Jack Bauer sometimes) at this Hollywood club Saturday night. I’m not one for the star-struck thing. But seeing Curtis (his real name is Roger C. Ross) made my trip.
*And hey K.T., I didn’t forget about you.
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