AJC > Sports > Hawks > Blog > Archives > 2007 > March > 23
Friday, March 23, 2007
I come in peace
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
In an effort to avoid a nasty fight, I decided against making any comments here Thursday. It’ll probably cost me a day of blog pay (you’d be stunned to know what they’re giving us for these daily ramblings), but I was taught a long time ago that if you don’t have anything but fighting words in you, keep your big yapper shut. And I wanted to battle everybody Thursday (it started with death-dodging commute, which was 98 minutes long thanks to traffic snarls everywhere and snowballed from there. But I’ll spare you the idiotic details).
Thursday night gave way to the one thing that soothes me (not spring football at Michigan, though it is in full swing). I’m talking about hoops and more and more hoops.
Kobe went bonkers again (more in a minute), the NCAA Tourney games were sick, and a late night call from Tyronn Lue has forced me to rethink my MVP stance.
So I’m going to address a couple things here and let you fire back all weekend:
I was working on a little Sunday stuff that’s draft related and had to study up on the 2004 draft - http://thedraftreview.com/history/drafted2004/index.htm - and the number of misses compared to the number of hits is downright frightening, especially where the international crop of players is concerned. I don’t know if it’s miscommunication between scouts who watch these guys all the time and the GMs and team presidents that make the final decisions, but now I see why so many of them were in favor of age limit rule. They need the help. Don’t forget to check Sunday’s paper and ajc.com for my Sunday package and feature on Josh Smith, it’s interesting.
Greg Oden plays 18 minutes, thanks to some of the most ridiculous foul calls I’ve seen since I last watched a game officiated by Sean Corbin. I’d want my cash back if I was buying ads during the NCAA Tournament coverage. Shouldn’t someone be responsible for making sure we the fans get what we want. No offense to rest of the kids out there last night, but the tournament is a time for the stars to shine. As much as it pains me to say this, I need the Buckeyes to survive and advance one more time so I can peep Oden’s game here next weekend in the Final Four. Maybe then they’ll let the guy play a little bit. But I can’t argue with anyone about the excitement of the tourney. All these close games make it impossible to channel surf. You could miss the best parts of the game.
Whoever suggested I take a look at those Kansas guards, you were right. They’ve got a loaded squad. There isn’t a player they stuck in the game against Southern Illinois that I didn’t like. Julian Wright and Brandon Rush are the sure-fire pros. But the rest of those kids have a chance, too. Both the starting guards, Mario Chalmers and Russell Robinson, are nice, too. And that Darrell Arthur has a chance to be a nice power forward in the Al Horford mode. I’d love to see them get here for next weekend as well.
If you ever get into a philosophical debate about basketball, don’t do battle Hawks guard Tyronn Lue. We started a pre-game locker room debate about Kobe Bryant two years ago and he’s still killing me about to this day. Last night after Kobe dropped 60 funky ones on Memphis, my phone rings and it’s T. Lue clowning about his boy “Jigga” going off for the third straight game (for those of you counting Kobe has now scored roughly 436 points in his last three games). I made the mistake of questioning Kobe’s legitimacy as candidate a candidate for MVP when Steve Nash won his first award. And T. Lue has been arguing me down ever since. And while it’s taken me a while, I’ve come around to his side of this debate. He argues that since the MVP criterion has always been subjective, how could anyone deny the unquestioned best player in the league a trophy? And need we argue anymore about who the best player in the league is? I didn’t think so. I’ve never spoken to anyone, coach, GM, fellow player, who has argued against Kobe. It’s about the only thing everyone seems to agree on. Yet Kobe’s lucky to finish in the top three. It doesn’t make sense.
Someone suggested here a while back that one or two players would kick off the avalanche of underclassmen declaring for the June draft. And here it comes. Big Baby Davis and Josh McRoberts are the latest two “name” players to take the plunge. Both should have entered last year’s draft, they might have saved a few teams from reaching for seniors with much less talent. Unfortunately, they’ll both be picked later than they would have been a year ago. I’ve next to both of these guys (at the Dome last year when LSU bounced Duke from the tournament) and they’ve got the size and talent needed to play. I’m just not sure the opportunity they might have had last year will be there this time around. Too bad. (That said, I disagree with this idea that either of them would benefit from another year in college if that’s not what they want). You’ll hear that a lot between now and the draft about guys like this. But what good is another year in school if the player won’t surrender himself to the process, the entire process, of honing his skills via college?)
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