Wednesday Night Madness

All my loyal bloggers out there (all 3 of you) know I am huge NBA fan, but I gotta tell you, I can not get enough of this College basketball game on the deuce right now, Texas vs. Texas A&M. Taking you live, there is 1:15 left in the 2nd OT. Kevin Durant just put Texas up by two with a pair of free throws and its one of those games I hope never ends.

(I love those rare games you wish would never end. The last game I remember like this was the Bulls vs. the Suns this year. It was an up and down, back and forth, great basketball. I think each team had an astonishing 4 turnovers apiece, or close. Only I really do wish it never ended because Leandro Barbosa hit a game winning three with 2 seconds left.)

Anyways, back to the game...

There is currently 40 seconds left on the clock. In the last 30 seconds that passed, Texas A&M launched a wild 3, got the rebound, stepped out of bounds, and then forced a turnover to get the ball back. Now Texas A&M again has a chance for the win or the tie. Amazing. I can't believe this game has gone 2 OT's. I thought for sure it was over in regulation, but Acie Law tied it up after hitting an incredible three from the elbow with Durant in his face. Acie Law and Durant have been unstoppable. Law has hit every big shot. Again, I can't get enough of this.

We pick it back up with 11.9 left, Texas up by 2. Acie Law takes it to the hole, gets blocked and Durant grabs the rebound. After getting fouled, Durant hits 1 of 2 free throws. Can Acie do it again? Fast forwarding a bit, Acie rushes the court down by 3 with 5 seconds left. Texas puts him to the line. He makes the first and throws the second off the rim missing on purpose. The way this game is going, I'm thinking for sure A&M will tie it up after they grab the board, but the put back goes wide right. Texas wins by 2.

Law ended up with 33, Durant with an even 30. Both those guys are really good. Law reminds me of Damon Stoudemire in his prime. As for Durant, I can't compare him to anyone. (More on Durant to come in the Oden vs. Durant / BBlog vs.Blippy post - coming soon).

There isn't much I like about the college game vs. the NBA. On any given night, I would rather watch the Atlanta Hawks vs. the Milwaukee Bucks then watch a college game, but occassionally there is that college basketball game that I get really excited for...and this was one of them.

Criteria for the games I usually get excited for are the ones that showcase definite future NBA players. This was one of those games. Kevin Durant vs. Acie Law. #6 A&M at #15 Texas. Another great thing about college was that this felt like a HUGE game while watching it on TV. It was a HUGE game, but the atmosphere, the crowd, the band, everything about watching the game made it feel like it was March. This feeling and atmosphere isn't equaled in the NBA. Not even the NBA Finals can compete with the energy of a big time college game. This isn't news to anyone, but I feel it is worth reiterating.

I was pretty pumped about this game, enough that I stopped watching the Bulls, which doesn't happen often. (I have only missed two games all year.) The game absolutely lived up to its billing, as they say. You can be sure that I'll be watching both these teams very closely once the real madness begins in March.

Around THE LEAGUE:

The Bulls beat the Warriors easily, 113-83. Random thoughts: the Warriors have to be poorly coached because they have some pretty good talent. The Bulls rookies played well. Thabo Sefolosha and Tyrus Thomas need to get more minutes because the Bulls badly need some help with Nocioni out.

In the battle of who is worse, the Celts beat the Knicks by 8. No thoughts other than this game had to be awful to watch.

The Sixers beat the Suns? What is up with the Suns lately? Marion was out, but come on, the Sixers? The Mavs would never lose to the Sixers.

Denver beat the Magic to go 4-7 with Iverson and Melo both in the line-up. That trade seems to be working out well.

-BBlog

Summer Lovin'

So much for Kidd to the Lakers, Gasol to the Bulls, Carter to the Clipps, Bibby to the Cavs, and a BIG so much for KG to the Bulls (which had about a 7% chance of happening anyways.) The trade deadline came and went last Thursday with no big deals and a light flurry of small deals.

During the final hour of the deadline, I kept checking ESPN.com and other websites to see if any deals had been made. I kept having to dodge managers and co-workers walking by my desk at work. When the clock stroke 3:00 EST, the deal of the day showed Juan Dixon of the Portland Trailblazers heading to the Toronto Raptors for Fred Jones. After reading the headlines and details of this deal, I thought to myself, "Is there someone out there giving the Jordan fist pump to this trade? Clenching their fist, looking to the crowd, nodding their head in confidence that their team just picked up Juan Dixon or Fred Jones?"

I blame this boring Thursday on ESPN, NBA.com, and everyone else who wet their pants writing about the trade deadline. I guess I should include myself in that list as well. I just had a feeling something was going to happen this year and I wanted to talk about it, even though I had no legitimate reason to believe this or source to base it on (a la Sam Smith).

In honor of the trade deadline being completely disappointing, here's a look at 5 random, much more exciting events from the week leading up to the trade deadline:

1.) Britney Spears shaved her head, which was completely bizarre, but completely normal at the same time. Which is weird, I know. Yet again, so is she. The Sports Guy put it best when he said she entered the "Tyson Zone." (Btw, if you haven't read the SG's latest on NBA weekend, do yourself a favor and read it.)

All I can think about when I look at this picture is Sam Cassell, which is really weird for me because when Britney first "bust" out onto the scene years back I thought she was amazingly hot and now she reminds me of Sam Cassell. Downgrade. It should also be noted that it's also weird that anyone in the world can conjure up images of Sam Cassell, possibly the ugliest NBA player of all time.

2.) A colossal squid was caught in the Ross Sea, somewhere off Antarctica(http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070222-squid-pictures.html). I dont really have anything to say about this. I just thought it was pretty cool. Could you imagine catching this thing? Incredible.

3.) Jennifer Aniston sued blogger Perez Hilton for showing nude pictures of her while shooting a scene for"The Break-Up." Unfortunately, I viewed this picture when it was on the site and wrote it off as being fake. Big mistake.

4.) John Amaechi comes out of the closet in a new book, becoming the first NBA player to come out. Which was then followed by Tim Hardaway stating he "hates gays." I would have loved to hear Hardaway do analysis on gays on ESPN. "Aaah, well, ya, you know I definitely hate gays and ya, you know, I definitely wouldn't want to be around a gay man." I am always disappointed when ESPN cans a solid analyst, like a Harold Reynolds, but I was elated when Hardaway got dropped after a short stint. I couldn't stand to hear "Ya, you know" and "definitely" 65 times in a half hour show.

5.) The Bulls beat the Atlanta Hawks by 25! (Who needs Gasol?) What can I say? It was a boring week. That's in part why I was really hoping for that blockbuster deal. It would have been fun to see Jason Kidd get stuck in the triangle in L.A., hate every second of it, and have most of his statistical categories take a hit. It would have been even more fun to see Bibby go to the Cavs. I would love for the Cavs to finally have a decent point guard and another clutch shooter. That would have been wonderful, thus making one of the Bulls biggest rivals even better. That would have been great!!!

The more that I think about it...and talk myself into it, I guess I am glad no huge moves were made. Any move would have just made a team stronger and as Bulls fan, I don't want any team getting better, especially East teams. Just look at what Webber did for the Pistons. As for the Bulls not making a move, I'm just relieved the trade talks are over and we can get on with the rest of the season. Besides, there is always the summer to acquire KG.

-BBlog

Trade Deadline: NBA Live '04

With the trade deadline just 2 days away, my stomach is churning at my beloved Bulls making a move...making a move for anyone BUT Kevin Garnett that is. It's obvious the Bulls need a big man, a low post scorer, someone taller than 6 foot 9. Someone better than 6 foot 7 Michael Sweetney (sorry Sweets). I know all this, I also know that Pau Gasol is the man everyone is looking to. I know that Pau is a 7 foot beast who can pretty much do it all. He can score, defend, rebound, etc. He also shoots with one hand, which gives me a weird feeling by the way. Even still, when I look at this Bulls team I only see one big man running the show, and that's my boy...KG. I never saw this more clearly than back in '05, my Senior year of college.

I'm really not a video game junky. But it was the summer after the "baby" Bulls lost to the Wizards in the playoffs and I was having withdrawals. It was an amazing season for the Bulls, who were the worst team in the NBA for the 5 previous seasons. So, to satisfy my fix, I decided to dust off my NBA Live '04 and take the Bulls to the Finals on my PS2. It was the '03 rosters, so I had to create Gordon, Deng, Duhon and Nocioni. I also had to do some house cleaning by dumping Jamal Crawford, Kendall Gill, Scottie Pippen, Marcus Fizer, etc. (By the way, how awful were those 4 names I just mentioned? Those weren't it either. I had to dump Jerome Williams, Rick Brunson, and Eddie Robinson. Wow. How did that team win more than 5 games?)

Creating the rookies took forever - I'd say a good hour and a half. At first, the season started off rough. The rookies were struggling at times on the hardest difficulty level, Superstar. Heading into All Star break and the pending Trade Deadline, I was a couple of games below .500. The young guys were playing well for the most part, but I just wasn't getting it done. I had to make a move. It was tough to make a move, because I liked almost all my players. Gordon was money from downtown and could dunk like MJ for some reason. (Side note: how great would it be if Gordon could dunk? If he could dunk with regularity, I guarantee they would never trade him.) Deng could shoot from the outside, dribble drive, and throw it down over pretty much anyone. Hinrich wasn't anything special, but definitely serviceable. Nocioni was an absolute beast for some reason. He could shoot 3's, dunk like Dwight Howard, cross over like Tim Hardaway, but most importantly he could block like Manute Bol and was a total thief, leading the league in steals. Eddy Curry was pretty good too. He could back guys in and throw it down for an easy bucket when I needed it. He couldn't pass, shoot or dribble, but backing guys in down low was automatic. Chandler was the weak link. When he came out for the high screen and roll, he couldn't shoot, drive, or pass. He threw a block party on D, but that was about it. The consensus was in, I needed a power forward. I flirted with a couple of different ideas. I hated Duncan. Shaq and Amare were too similar to Curry and Chandler (could score, but couldn't shoot). Dirk Nowitzki was the only guy I really considered, because he could shoot well from the outside, but my whole team was jump shooters. Besides, Dirk was tortois-like slow in the '04 edition. I always knew who I really wanted.

So, with trade restrictions on, I packaged Chandler, Duhon, and Antonio Davis for Garnett and Fred Hoiberg. I ended up only losing 4-5 games the rest of the year. KG got season MVP averaging 24 ppg, 15 rpg, and 7 assists. Gordon averaged 23 ppg, while Hinrich averaged double digit assists...mostly due to the high screen and roll. Garnett got his assists with Deng cutting to the basket and hitting Gordon for 3's out of the double team. And actually, Hoiberg was a good addition coming off the bench. He shot like %50 from 3 land. I ended up beating the Spurs in 6 in the Finals with Gordon getting Finals MVP. It was amazing.

Garnett was made to play on this Bulls team. Before Garnett, I was always trying to go one on one. Once I got KG, everyone would touch the ball. I would actually run an offense - a video game offense. It consisted mostly of Garnett in the block or having him set a high pick for Hinrich. I would ride him for 3 quarters and then Gordon would take over in the 4th. A typical game had Garnett with a trip dub by the 3rd quarter and Gordon with somewhere around 10 points. By the 4th though, Gordon would end up with 25-30.

It's worth mentioning that this was a video game and I took it slightly overboard serious, but could you not see this happening in real life? Ever since I made the move to bring in KG to the Bulls in NBA Live '04, I've been obsessed with this move. And now that Curry is gone, Wallace is an even better guy to have with him down low. We also have better trade pieces now than Chandler, Duhon and AD.

How has this move not happened yet? And more importantly, how am I not an NBA GM? I mean come on, I lead the '04-'05 Bulls to a Championship.

-BBlog