A few weeks back, the popular sports blog Hugging Harold Reynolds hosted a sportsblogging conference called Blogs With Balls right here in NYC. While attending something like that understandably sounds like a colossal exercise in dorkdom, I went and had a blast. Aside from enjoying the free Guinness that was flowing like wine, it gave me the chance to meet a few of the cats who runs things in the sports blogosphere like AJ Daulerio of Deadspin, Matt Ufford of With Leather and Bethlehem Shoals of FreeDarko/The Baseline. Plus, I got to booze it up with a lot of the NBA dudes that some Both Teamsters might be familiar with, like Zach Harper of TalkHoops/Cowbell Kingdom, Matt Moore of Hardwood Paroxysm and Graydon Gordian of 48 Minutes of Hell.

All in all, good times.

One of the tangible things that came out of the weekend was the idea for a recurring podcast roundtable that would feature eight NBA bloggers, which for some reason had plans to include me. Well, against the odds, we actually made good on our beer-fueled plans to put this together and actually recorded the first episode the other day, which you can now listen to it in all its glory over at Project Spurs.

(A full archive of the podcasts will also gradually develop on a standalone site The8thSeed.com, so you can also bookmark that RSS for updates. Theoretically, there is an iTunes subscription as well.)

In addition to myself, The 8th Seed features Jeff Garcia and Mike De Leon of Project Spurs, John Karalis of Red’s Army, Rey Moralde from The No Look Pass, Adam Best of Fansided and Glenn Moore of the Dugout Sports Show. (Those of you who can count may recognize that that is only seven people. Zach Harper of Talk Hoops was supposed to be there but failed to show up, something that is explained/handled in a very NSFW fashion at the beginning of the podcast.)

Because a seven-person podcast doesn’t allow that much time for any individual to speak too too much and because, like Beanie, I’m not a talker, my airtime is somewhat limited. But I do manage to compare Tyler Hansbrough to a rich man’s Eduardo Najera, give a very articulate opinion on this year’s Draft class (”These guys all suck”), alienate some Bucks fans and drop the world “macroeconomic.” Ultimately, a pretty poor performance. I’ll probably get fired. Fortunately the other guys make up for my dim insight and bring a lot to the table.

Seriously, go check it out.

Aside from the line that became the title of this post and the line about Rubio, there’s not a lot here.

But, much like Godfather II did for Godfathers I & II, this one does at least remind you that you should go back and re-watch the originals. Another silver lining: No Sofia Coppola.

In other post-Draft news, this happened. You gotta love it when Joe Budden comes off as the articulate one. Now, normally, I would be the first one to kid around about this cause there are some pretty funny lines in there, but since most people are obviously going to be in an uproar about this and take it all seriously and talk about how this represents not only why Brandon Jennings himself is a failure at life but why this whole generation of NBA players has sullied the good name that the NBA had back in the days of Larry & Magic even though Larry Bird likely said stuff that was worse than this about other players every day and Magic cheated on his wife constantly, let’s all just pre-emptively calm down and realize that a throwaway conversation between Brandon Jennings and Joe Budden is really not that serious. He was speaking off the cuff in a laid-back setting and just talking junk as people are wont to do. Is it funny? Certainly. Is it major news? Certainly not.

Meanwhile, it looks like Brandon was incorrect in prognosticating that his new team would re-sign Charlie Villanueva, who was not given a qualifying offer by the Bucks today and has already said his goodbyes to his cheese- and beer-loving fans. Looks like Buddens was spot on that “that bum-a** n****” Luke Ridnour will not be backing up Brandon at the PG this year and, instead, the Bucks will be throwing all their available cash at Ramon Sessions to be the starter…further proving my theory that Joe Budden knows more about the NBA than Stuart Scott.

The Young King is sure to re-elicit the LeBron-to-Brooklyn/NJ scuttlebutt as he’s back hanging/saluting with Young Hov again, this time in Jay-Z’s just-released video for his much-needed and hopefully much-effective track “D.O.A. (Death of Auto-Tune).” Bonus points go to S. Dot for playing cards with Harvey Keitel in a restaurant kitchen back-room and dropping the line “I know we facing a recession but the music yall making gonna make it the Great Depression.” That right there pretty much sums up the past eighteen months of mainstream rap.

Obviously, people are going to take this comparison the wrong way, but this pairing is pretty much the 2009 cultural equivalent of the MJ/MJ collabo “Jam,” which we were just talking about the other day. Although, let’s hope Jay has a better jumper than Michael Jackson did. (Props to @HarleyBlock for the find.)

Also, remember the time Magic Johnson starred as Eddie Murphy’s man-servant in the video for “Remember the Time”? What was that all about?

]]> http://www.bothteamsplayedhard.net/2009/06/26/in-memorial-mj-mj-mj/feed/ 2 http://www.bothteamsplayedhard.net/2009/06/25/2009-nba-draft-preview/ http://www.bothteamsplayedhard.net/2009/06/25/2009-nba-draft-preview/#comments Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:11:49 +0000 Jared Wade http://www.bothteamsplayedhard.net/?p=4610 As previously mentioned, I don’t know shit about virtually any of these soon-to-be NBA rookies and, thus, can’t help you out with much insight.

One thing I do know, however, is that Disciples of Clyde conducted the best mock draft you will ever see. Er, ever hear. Listen to Dan and Ken give their thoughts on who the first ten picks will be. (Even if you’re seeing this after the Draft, it’s still definitely worth you’re time. Trust me.)

If this isn’t the best thing you listen to all day, you can write me for a full refund. FreeDarko Presents the Disciples of Clyde NBA Podcast is also the co-best NBA podcast going (along with The Basketball Jones, who had their own humorous take on the draft as well), so do yourself a favor start subscribing on iTunes today.

Honestly, until all the trading went down, I wasn’t even all that excited for the NBA Draft for probably the first time in my entire life. I mean, it’s always a great event and watching it is one of my favorite things to do each year so I was looking forward to it in the same sense that it’s always cool when Christmas comes along, but I just really don’t have an informed enough opinion on most of the guys people are talking about as lottery picks to have gotten all that fired up.

To be completely truthful, I could barely pick any of Tyreke Evans, James Johnson and JRue Holiday (who might have the best draft-day name since D’Brickashaw Ferguson) out of a lineup. And if I haven’t actually watched you play in a basketball game five or six times, I really can’t pretend to know what the hell I’m talking about when I discuss your pro potential.

Eagerly trying to read up on all these guys can help, but it often just make things worse by bringing faux-knowledge into the equation. I try to check out as much info as possible and subsequently end up trying to sound intelligent when out drinking by saying things like “I like Johnny Flynn a lot but I think his size might mean he’s a bench player at best” or “I’m pretty concerned about Dejuan Blair’s MRI,” but all the scuttlebutt, innuendo and flat-out misinformed descriptions that are out there about how these kids actually play the game means that even doing your homework isn’t going to propel you into some new stratosphere of insight if you didn’t actually watch the games. (Wait, someone is seriously trying to get me to believe that Gerald Henderson is going to be the next Latrell Sprewell? Hmmm. Considering that I have actually watched Gerald play at Duke for three years and I have also seen this, you, sir, are either peddling misinformation or just lying to me.)

Essentially what I’m saying is that I have no clue which of the players in this year’s Draft will be any good. Partly, it’s because I really don’t watch much NCAA basketball anymore. It’s not that I don’t like it, it’s just that every time I go into an evening thinking “Nice, UNC/Duke is on tonight,” I later find out that the Jazz are playing Denver or the Heat are playing the Suns, and I end up watching that instead. The quality of play is just so much higher and Dwyane Wade literally does something in every game he plays that would be the ACC highlight of the year if he did it while playing for Clemson. Still, if college hoops were played during the NBA offseason, I would watch every game. But rarely does my desire to watch even a great match up like UConn vs. Syracuse supersede the feeling that I would be missing too much if I chose to watch that over Deron vs. Melo.

On top of my lack of first-hand knowledge about this year’s draft crop, I also know that I have been waaaay off about a lot of players even back when I did watch a ton of NCAA hoops. I thought Boozer would be mediocre at best, for example. I absolutely adored Ron Mercer. I thought John Wallace would be a beast. I saw Rashad McCants making a few All-Star teams. I was a huge Maurice Ager fan. I even sort of liked Hilton Armstrong quite a bit for some reason. (On the other hand, I have actually gotten a few things right: I couldn’t believe Vince Carter didn’t go #1, I’m still baffled as to why Josh Howard fell to #30, I loved Shane Battier and I was one of the few people who had any inkling that Dwyane Wade would be a superstar — although I admittedly had absolutely zero idea he would be this good).

Despite all this, there is one definite opinion I have about the 2009 Draft, however: I would take Ricky Rubio over Blake Griffin.

It’s impossible to dismiss Blake’s incredible numbers or look past how easily he dominated the college ranks last season. His ability to rebound will definitely translate to the pro level. He might even be an NBA All-Star some day. That is all true. I know all that.

I just think Rubio has the potential to be legendary.

Like everyone else, I haven’t seen him play all that much, of course. But who would you want if I told you that you could either have (a) a guy whose upside is a pre-alcoholic Vin Baker, or (b) a potentially beloved 6′4″ teenager with floppy hair who has the chance to be the next great white point guard?

From a purely on-the-court basketball standpoint, I can see why Griffin is so appealing — he’s a can’t-miss talent who has zero potential to not be very good. And generally, my belief on how a GM should approach a draft is to be risk-averse. The upside argument for taking guys like Tyrus Thomas who can’t necessarily do anything great on a basketball court over guys like LaMarcus Aldridge who have proven skills that apply to any level of basketball has always puzzled me. I would take LaMarcus over Tyrus thirteen times out of ten.

But if this Spanish kid can figure out how to pass the ball with as much flair, presence and effectiveness as he has done internationally, the Rubio phenomenon — both on the court and off the court — could reach giant heights. We’re talking about a taller, goofier-looking Steve Nash-type of fan-love. Something like that not only makes your team instantly relevant Leaguewide and featured nightly to casual Sportscenter viewers, but it gives you the franchise foundation point guard that it is becoming increasingly clear that the best teams in this League now all need. (Yes, I know that Orlando and Los Angeles both made the Finals without marquee PGs, but the Lakers are a special case because of the triangle and Orlando had a lot of other things working in its favor this post-season. The Cavs are obviously another team without a great PG, but (a) look what happened to them, and (b) any team with LeBron is always going to be an anomaly.)

Ultimately, the NBA is an increasingly perimeter-based League, so I’m taking the potentially transcendent PG over the certainly sound big guy.

Take Rubio over Griffin. I’m certain that this is how it should be. Write it down. Take a picture. Book it. Ricky Rubio will have a better career than Blake Griffin. It’s a certainty.

Just remember that this is merely the opinion of a guy who would have taken John Wallace over Ray Allen in 1996 — and remember that all the other “expert analysis” out there is coming from people whose perspectives have been equally flawed in the past.

They just won’t tell you about it.

John Wallace: Future NBA All-Star

The first thing I ever wrote here was about how much I enjoyed watching Dwyane Wade even though, at the time, him and Shaq were facing an 0-2 deficit in the Finals against the Dallas Mavericks. Needless to say, I was one of the few people outside of Miami who actually was happy to see the Heat come back an win about a week later, even if that title will always be tarnished by the outcry over the officiating in the series. (Some of the rationale is explained in #14 here.)

As I recall, I wrote maybe two or three other pieces for the site that following summer and eventually ramped it up to a around one column per week during the 2006-2007 season. Then right in the midst of the Playoffs when I was starting to figure out how to do actually do this stuff a little bit, the server hosting my site crashed and I essentially lost everything I had ever done. Fortunately, most of it was centered around either poorly written jibberish, horrible predictions or boldly stated claims that were clearly wrong. So in some ways, that server crash has rid allowed me to forgo walking around with the scarlet letter of shame that a searchable archive of garbage represents. Unfortunately, however, there were a few things from that era that I wish I still had.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, through the wonders of the “Wayback Machine,” I was just able to find a few of my old posts. And by some stroke of random luck, all three of posts I actually recall being fond of were recoverable. Thus, I figured I may as well put these “Lost Tapes” up over the next few days to (a) get them back into my archives, and (b) give those of you who have had enough NBA Draft speculation something else to read amid your never-ending endeavor to pilfer a paycheck from your employer.

Here’s the first recovered piece in it’s entirety below under it’s original title: “The 50 Greatest NBA Nicknames.”

Essentially, compiling all these and deciding on my favorites as I went along was the genesis of the ongoing Both Teams Played Hard “Every NBA Nickname Project,” which, even if still woefully incomplete, has been somewhat of a fan favorite around these parts. This list was originally posted on March 10, 2007, and I’m just going to leave it as it was originally put together, so forgive the exclusion of any newer, more amazing nicknames like Bad Porn and The Rooster that would clearly make the 2009 version.

Without any extra ado, let’s take it back to the future.

The 50 Greatest NBA Nicknames (circa 3/10/07)

50. Grandmama – Larry Johnson
Best cross-dresser in League history.

49. The Mailman – Karl Malone
Rain, sleet or snow, this guy will be really good until the fourth quarter.

48. Reignman – Shawn Kemp
Good to see that there will plenty of heirs to continue the Kemp Reign.

47. Big Game James – James Worthy
Fun with rhyming.

46. Junk Yard Dog – Jerome Williams
Wrestler turned NBA journey-man turned terrible sideline reporter.

45. The Matrix – Shawn Marion
And if you’ve heard him talk, he’s also about as well-spoken as Keanu.

44. Dunkin Dutchman – Rik Smits
Unequivocally the best nickname ever given to a 7′4″ player from The Netherlands.

43. Wife Beater – Jason Kidd
Okay, maybe this one only caught on in Boston. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Massholes break it out at again for his Hall of Fame induction in Springfield though.

* 2009 UPDATE: Hard to believe I included this one. I don’t recall being so vitriolic was I at 26. I’ve always really liked Jason the player, too.

42. Thunder Dan – Dan Marjele
I’m convinced that the only shots this guy ever made were vicious dunks or dagger threes.

41. The Glove – Gary Payton
He’s become more of a “Wet Mitten” at this point, but GP was about as good as defenders come back in Seattle.

40. White Chocolate – Jason Williams
The WHIT EBOY, not the limo-driver murderer or the motorcycle-crasher.

39. Kenny The Jet – Kenny Smith
Not sure I ever knew about this one until after Ernie Johnson said it 20 times a night for 10 years.

38. Half Man, Half A Season – Vince Carter
This pretty much ties a neat little bow on the over-hyped turd-sandwich of disappointment that has been Vince Carter’s career.

37. The Big Chamberneezy – Shaquille O’Neal
Frankly, I’ll call you what ever you want, Mr. Shaq Fu De La Diesel von Aristotle.

36. The Truth – Paul Pierce
Insert your preferred Jack Nicholson reference here.

35. The Logo – Jerry West
All-time silhouette of the League. Current terrible GM of the Grizzlies.

34. Kobe Stopper – Ruben Patterson
How’s that working out for you, Ruben?

33. Flash – Dwyane Wade
Another Shaq creation.

32. The Dream – Hakeem Olajuwon
More fun with rhyming.

31. The Mayor – Fred Hoiberg
Best three-point specialist to ever run a city.

30. Birdman – Chris Anderson
Fly in any weather.

29. Irk – Dirk Nowitzki
As we all know, there’s no D in Dirk.

28. Round Mound of Rebound – Charles Barkley
He’s round. He’s a mound. He rebounds. Get it?

27. Skywalker – David Thompson
This was good even without factoring in the double entendre of him being high all the damn time.

26. Tractor Traylor – Robert Traylor
Fat guys are hilarious.

25. Air Jordan – Michael Jordan
Not sure who this guy is, but it’s still a cool name.

24. The Custodian – Brian Cardinal
Funny part is that he looks even less like an NBA player than my actual high school janitor.

23. Iceman – George Gervin
One thing he could do was finger roll.

22. Hick From French Lick – Larry Bird
The only thing better than that wispy blond mustache was that blond mullet perm.

21. Pistol – Pete Maravich
This alliteration is approved by the cold, dead hands of the NRA.

20. The Answer – Allen Iverson
If he’s the answer, what was the question? What is how can we as Reebok marketing execs steal $100 from children in exchange for some poorly made shoes, Alex?

19. Earl the Pearl – Earl Washington
How many times a month do you think Walt Clyde Frazier sits in his hotel room at night quietly weeping because he wasn’t the one to get the rhyming nickname? I say four.

18. Mamba – Kobe Bryant
Generally, people are not allowed to give themselves nicknames. But that all goes out the window when a guy tries to convince people to call him something so ridiculous that everyone’s response is “You want us to call you what? Seriously? Ummm…..okay.”

17. The Mustache – Adam Morrison
Better than “The Sobbing Crybaby,” I suppose.

16. Vin & Tonic – Vin Baker
Don’t think ill of me…I didn’t make it up. I just happen to think it’s fantastic.

15. Groundhog Day – Tim Duncan
You ever watch Timmy and get the feeling you’ve seen this happen before? You ever watch Timmy and get the feeling you’ve seen this happen before? You ever watch Timmy and get the feeling you’ve seen this happen before?

14. Chocolate Thunder – Darryl Dawkins
Anyone that names one of his dunks “The Chocolate-Thunder-Flying, Glass-Flying, Robinzine-Crying, Babies-Crying, Glass-Still-Flying, Cats-Crying, Rump-Roasting, Bun-Toasting, Thank You-Wham-Bam-I-Am-Jam” is a-okay in my book.

13. AK-47 – Andrei Kirilenko
When A) these are your initials, B) you choose to wear the number 47, and C) you look like the love child of Ivan Drago and Brigitte Nielson, you’re basically begging to be named after a Kalashnikov assault rifle.

12. Dr. J – Julius Erving
I wish my doctor was all about dunking and afro growing. But, nope, just turning and coughing.

11. Clyde – Walt Frazier
This guy was such a pimp that they had to go all the way back to Clyde Barrow to find an equivalent.

10. Hibachi and/or Agent Zero – Gilbert Arenas
Take your pick. Honestly, I’d probably put just about anything he called himself on this list.

*2009 UPDATE: The demise of Hibachi has been maybe the saddest story of the past couple years. Come back, dude.

9. Dr. Dunkenstein – Darrell Griffith
I really don’t know much about this guy. With a name like that, you really don’t have to though.

8. The Alaskan Assassin – Trajan Langdon
He was in the NBA for a couple of weeks. I’m counting it.

7. The Chief – Robert Parish
Good nickname for anyone. Great nickname for a guy that smoked weed at halftime.

6. The Rifleman – Chuck Person
When you’re one of the best three-point marksmen of all time and you’re named after a fictional Civil War veteran who’s known for keeping the peace in a small Texas town in the 1880s with a self-modified, rapid-trigger Winchester rifle, you pretty much redefine gangster.

5. Plastic Man – Stacey Augman
Is he a super hero? Is he an evil villain? Why was he made out of plastic? What super powers does this give him? I have so many questions.

4. The Boston Strangler – Andrew Toney
Either this is the guy that used to eat up the Celtics in the Playoffs, or this is the guy that raped and asphyxiated 11 women in the Sixties.

3. The Microwave – Vinnie Johnson
Instant offense off the bench, Vinnie was liable to heat up and stick twelve straight shots if he made the first one. He could also reportedly cook popcorn in two and a half minutes.

* 2009 UPDATE: Is there a form I can fill out to apologize for this “joke” retroactively?

2. Human Highlight Film – Dominique Wilkins
More windmills than Don Quixote.

1. The Enormous Mormon – Shawn Bradley
Perfectly descriptive. Partially rhyming. Probably offensive. But seriously, what more could you ask for from the all-time NBA leader in “times dunked on while flailing arms like octopi”?

Much like my opinion on this video right here — not to mention B.o.B.’s parody and the Slap Chop Remix — it’s nice to see that the rap debacle of 2008 hasn’t gone to complete waste. (from KSK via Ball Don’t Lie)

But some things are afoot — top secret special new things have come to light things — and between that and a few long-form, still-simmering-on-the-stove things that I need the weekend to finish up, time restraints round this way have precluded me from helping provide the nation with what it desperately needs. (Luckily, Sports Guy was here for that. This was predictable, but, c’mon, Bill, we don’t need you wasting your time rebutting foolishness. I guess he won’t be buying this.)

Sorry bout that. But really, what’s left to say? Matt Moore of Hardwood Paroxysm pretty much summed it up. (Although Shaq did it even better.) If Odom are Ariza played well, the Lakers weren’t going to lose. And that’s what happened. Maybe the Magic can turn it around in Game 6? We’ll see.

So where does Kobe rank on the All-Time list now? Slam just “remixed” the Top 50 Players of All Time and has him at #12 (although they did it prior to the Finals).

And, yeah, it’s 6:00 on a Friday so I’m gonna go ahead and consider this collection of nothing an actual post. Meanwhile, look, a photo from @lowposts with the caption: “Well now you’re just bein’ an asshole, Michael.”

Yes, I know, digging all this up proves that I’m quite the investigative journalist. Bring on the Pulitzer.

UPDATE: Can’t believe I forgot these three photos of the Waltons. And just for fun, here’s Kobe vs. MJ in the 1998 All-Star Game.

Yet another NBA season is complete and the Los Angeles Lakers proved kings of the mountain. Congratulations and coronations are certainly in order for the team and its King of Kings Kobe Bryant, but, to me, the best part of the 2008-09 season was watching how immense the actual mountain itself has become. The depth of talent across the League and the new generation’s approach to the game is as refreshing as it is impressive, and a new Golden Age of the NBA now seems imminent.

Depending on your individual outlook, the Association’s renaissance began anywhere from two to six years ago, but after yet another great season, there is no denying the fact that the NBA is in a better place now than it has been since MJ stuck that iconic pull-back jumper over Bryon Russell in 1998. Kobe is unquestionably among the all-time elite. LeBron is Haley’s Comet. Chris Paul is the best point guard since Magic. Dwyane is a combination of relentless and universally appealing that we haven’t seen since Jordan. Dwight is an athlete rivaled only by cartoon characters. Duncan is a sage old man. KG is a warrior hoping for one last battle. And dozens of other All-Star caliber players are putting on spectacular shows across the League every night of the season.

Much larger than any individual’s effect on the NBA, however, is that the fact that, not only do these future legends play the game the right way, but the concept that the only style of basketball that can win is team basketball is again paramount. The Jordan Era mythos that great individual players can will their teams to victory has evaporated. Whether that revelation came before LeBron’s highly favored Cavs lost in the Eastern Conference Finals a few weeks ago or back when Kobe’s 35 ppg average earned him little more than awe and a first-round Playoff exit is irrelevant; all that matters now is that every competent GM and, more importantly, every competent fan now knows that no team can contend for a title without a solid four- or five-player nucleus that knows how to play together — and is willing to do so. The days of getting excited when a franchise pairs a few mercurial mercenaries and just rolls the ball out on the court hoping for the best are over. If your team is serious about competing for a title you need a core of talented players who complement each other like Kobe, Pau, Lamar and Ariza just did for the past two months. You need KG, Pierce and Ray Allen. You need Dwight, Hedo and Rashard. You need Carmelo, Chauncey, Nene and KMart. And you need them all on the same page with a focused agenda on winning.

The successful teams in 2009 were built around depth, defense and details. There are very few players remaining on the elite teams in the League who ever seem to put their personal play above the team’s mission. The players who now matter in the League — almost to a man — have learned from the Ghosts of Failure’s past like Stephon Marbury, Steve Francis and Antoine Walker. The other teams and other players in the NBA have gotten too good to beat any of them by going two on five. An indifferent, lethargic tandem of Baron Davis and Zach Randolph can’t even get you 20 wins in this League anymore. And after a decade of watching half the teams in the NBA flounder directly after making high-profile acquisitions — as the 2009 Clippers just did — we now have a League where the Los Angeles junior varsity club is the exception as opposed to the rule.

In many ways, the current Clipper incarnation is like Frito Lay’s failed attempt at putting together a party mix. (Bear with me; I’m not even high.)

I still remember the first time I saw a bag of Frito’s new product “Munchies” when it first came out a few years back. Four of the company’s flagship chips were together in a single bag: Doritos, Cheetos, Rold Gold pretzels and Sun Chips. As a college student who adored three of the four (does anyone really like Cheetos?), this seemed like the best idea in culinary history. (Yes, I considered this cuisine.) Why hadn’t they thought of this sooner?

I eagerly opened the bag and dug in, pulling out a Dorito. Since it was a Dorito, the best chip in the history of chip-makingkind, it was excellent. Next, I grabbed a handful that included a few of the others. Even though each one is a little too big to allow you to shovel multiple pieces into your mouth at once, it’s hard to be disappointed when you can follow up a Sun Chip with a Rold Gold pretzel. It wasn’t long before the whole bag was gone. A handful here and then a handful there gets you through an 8-ounce bag pretty quickly. But the more I ate, the less impressed I became. Ultimately, these chips didn’t go together. It was just two really cheesy chips and two really bland chips. So between everything having the same tongue-numbing, fake cheese flavor and the fact that they’re all too big to pop three or four pieces into your mouth at once anyway, it was just like eating four different things in an arbitrary order. It wasn’t a party “mix,” but merely a collection of pretty good chips.

If we’re going to compare players to chips (and don’t worry, folks, we are about to) Baron Davis is the Dorito. Both are universally beloved and both have inimitable flavor, but, deep down, you know neither is good for you. Marcus Camby is the pretzel: simple, reliable and underrated. Zach Randolph is the Cheeto; like the chip’s cheese, Zebo’s 20/10 is clearly artificial. Still, like the fond memories we all have of the Chester Cheetah cartoon, Zach’s steady post moves create a ruse that makes you think he’s a throwback low-post scorer who will exceed your initial aversion. Al Thornton is the Sun Chip: solid, yet ultimately nondescript and bland.

Just like Frito’s failed attempt at a party mix (I hope the irony of the name “Munchies” isn’t lost on anyone), these guys do not fit together. They’re just a mismatched group of guys with individual strengths.

The 2009 Magic and the 2004 Pistons, on the other hand, were built like Chex Mix.

Neither team had a flashy superstar whose job it is to “take over” a game. Individually, none of Rasheed, Chauncey, Rip, Tayshaun or Ben Wallace stand out as superstars. The fact that they could not only upset the 2004 Lakers but get to another Finals and make it to six straight Eastern Conference Finals without an alpha-dog seemed preposterous when compared with any other NBA champion since the 1979 Supersonics. Who did these guys think they were? You needed at least one Hall of Famer to run the show or, better still, a dynamic duo.

Much like surprising, enduring appeal of Chex Mix, it turns out that putting together five or six reliable, if unspectacular, players who complement each other’s contributions perfectly might be all you need to do to create a winning combination.

Everyone has always liked Chex, just like they always liked Rasheed Wallace, but no one really thought you could make a great snack out of it, just like no one thought you could win a championship if Sheed was your best player. Rip is as solid as a mini-bread stick, but no one is really getting too excited about either one. And like a rye chip, no one even knew they liked Chauncey Billups or Ben Wallace — but it turns out all three were great. Throw in a few well-considered spices (Larry Brown, Tay, Memo Okur) and you have the making of one of the more underrated yet universally appealing and highly successful combinations the world has ever seen.

For years, most teams spent all their energy looking for Doritos. Like Michael and Scottie, it was presumed that any team could contend for a title if it just added some Rold Golds to a bag of Doritos and tossed in whatever other filler it could find. But that paradigm has shifted. No longer does anyone expect a single world-class contributor and one complementary piece to seamlessly mesh together into a winning mix.

The Post-Jordan Era, during which the landscape was dominated by temperamental “stars” whose varying commitment to playing basketball properly left even supposedly good teams running rudderless, is over. With a team focused on two highly paid players, all it took was one sensitive ego or one guy with a limited understanding of how to execute consistently and the whole thing became mediocre at best — or a five-year train wreck at worst. Of course, similar situations still arose this season (see the “Munchies” Clippers) and this will always go on to some degree, but, for the most part, even struggling teams like the Knicks, Wolves and Kings were derailed more so by their talent deficiencies than anything else. And a team like Miami showed that banding together behind an unselfish leader and sticking to a unified concept can allow even a very flawed team to overachieve.

Sure, expansion has led to a more watered-down NBA than the one that existed in the 1980s. We may never see powerhouse teams with as potent starting lineups as the Celtics had with DJ, Danny Ainge, Bird, McHale and Parish or the Lakers rolled out with Magic, Byron Scott, Big Game James, AC Green and Kareem. But teams today, even the middling ones, are mostly back to at least trying to build their foundations around the right combination of players playing good basketball again. The Pacers and the Nets aren’t setting any worlds on fire, but they also haven’t been hijacked by players who take the court just trying to look good first and win second. And Portland, through some astute talent recognition and acquisition, has set itself up to follow the Orlando and Detroit models.

Ultimately, it is unlikely that any of Brandon Roy, Danny Granger or Devin Harris will win an NBA MVP. None of them are Doritos. But their GMs and coaches seem to be fine with that. They seem content to build around these guys and bring in other complementary contributors, who while maybe unable to generate a ton of excitement on paper, will come together well enough to get the job done.

Can it work as well for these middling teams of today as it did for the 2004 Pistons and the 2009 Magic? Who knows. It’s difficult to see any team that doesn’t have LeBron, Kobe, Dwyane, Dwight, KG, Duncan or Melo winning a title in the next several year; ultimately, Doritos will always be the best chip.

But last season, we saw Brandon Roy drop 50 in a game and hit a miraculous walk-off three. We saw Danny Granger make nearly as many game-winning shots as his former teammate who donned number #31. We saw Devin Harris become unstoppable with a full head of steam and learn to pump ice through his veins in the clutch.

Sure, it seems unlikely that teams built around guys like this could make a run at the title. Then again, it will certainly be more enjoyable to see teams try a new strategy. And, who knows, I never thought an unmemorable cereal could be the foundation of one of the best snack foods of all time either.

(Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

Print it out and play along at home while you watch tonight’s game. Winners will receive a game-worn Gheorghe Muresan knee brace.

(Top video with Dwyane via Ball Don’t Lie. Second video with Mamba via NESW Sports)

I encourage you to read her story in full. Here’s an excerpt.

When Gina was about 2 years old she was diagnosed with PDD NOS (an autistic spectrum disorder).  The pervasive development disorder diagnosis was a result of evaluations sought because Gina could not speak at age 2.  In fact, Gina did not really start speaking words until after age 3.

Fortunately, she was able to find some good doctors and start getting some therapy to help her adjust. And, in time, she was able to figure out her own way to operate as someone whose brain operates differently than most other people in society.

Gina has worked very hard over the past few years to reach every goal set for her.  Now, this beautiful child that once could not speak, has established herself as an up and coming vocal star. … She still works hard every day to function in a world which she perceives much differently than most.  But, she gives every day her best efforts.  She never gives up and she is a shining example of what children with disabilities are capable of when they are given the tools they need to succeed.

This little girl has come so far in such a short period of time. When people meet Gina today they focus on her abilities, not her disabilities. She is an amazing individual.  She has surpassed everyone’s expectations for her.  Many families that receive a similar diagnosis are struck with fear and react with denial.  They are overwhelmed with the feeling that their child will never achieve the same goals as other children.  Well, Gina is an example that these children are capable of wonderful things.

Wonderful things indeed. Until last night, the Magic were 7-0 during this year’s Playoffs when Gina Marie sang the National Anthem before a game. Unfortunately, that streak was broken last night. But while that’s a cool little factoid that helped give her story additional exposure, actually getting to hear her sing is what makes this such a good story. And, even greater than that, is getting to watch the happiness on this seven-year-old’s face while she patriotically takes everyone in the arena to church.

(Photo by Noah Graham/NBAE via Getty Images)

Unfathomably, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar has become the most underrated player of all time. Among people born before 1975, he often tops the list of best players to ever lace em up. But as they do with Dr. J, many people under the age of 35 tend to see Kareem as an after-thought in the greatest of all time discussion and even stretch reality far enough to consider guys like Hakeem and Shaq yo be his superiors. Some people even regard him as the NBA version of Nolan Ryan — a guy who was really, really good at one thing and broke a bunch of records because he played forever.

Hopefully, most everyone reading this regards such opinions as the utter nonsense that they are. Kareem is at worst one notch behind Michael and Wilt along with other second-tier guys like Larry, Magic and Russell. The videos at the end of this post help show two of the reasons why. And kudos to both ESPN and JA Adande for putting together “Secrets of the Skyhook,” a must-view multimedia feature that includes a fantastic article, two great videos and several historical photos.

As a sports blogger, I guess I am for some reason not supposed to like ESPN all that much. Well, I certainly take issue with the direction that some programs on the Worldwide Leader have opted to take in the past few years, but, obviously, ESPN provides more amazing sports coverage in any given six months than the whole sports blogosphere has in its entire history. The collection of knowledge the network has amassed is staggering. To think that a Top 10 player of all-time like Magic Johnson qualifies as a throwaway talking head for the network is astounding. Every week, a truly great segment, article, production or creative endeavor of some other sort emerges from Bristol.

Maybe it’s just that the world has gotten accustomed to the great coverage ESPN (often) provides? Those of us who write about sports on the internet tend to be around the age where we don’t even know a world without ESPN. Hell, I read the NBA Daily Dime and TrueHoop almost every day but rarely even link to them because I figure you’ve already seen everything that they’re talking about. And while I enjoy Yahoo! Sports, SI.com, Deadspin and a few other “mainstream” sports sites, the idea that any of them have ever even come close to providing the same depth or breadth of coverage that the Mickey Mouse sports empire does is laughable.

Which, in a way, brings us back to Kareem.

In the videos below, Murdock from Airplane! and Jermaine O’Neal both suggest that one of the reasons the skyhook has gone the way of the telegraph is because it’s just not viewed as cool. It’s not “sexy” to emulate the skinny, bald dude with the goggles, they say. As a fan, it’s really not even cool to like Kareem. Not only did he gain a reputation as unlikable, but if you’re a Laker fan or just a hoopss head discussing the best players ever, it’s a lot more fun to talk about Magic. He has an unprecendented personal story, not only for an NBA player but for a human being. On the court, he was unique. He was dynamic. He was peerless. He threw fancy passes. peerless. He forced basketball to evolve. And, maybe most relevantly, his highlights don’t all look exactly the same.

What are you supposed to say about Kareem? He had the most unguardable move of all time. He was the maybe the most dependable offensive weapon we’ve ever seen. He was a great passer. He was a good rebounder. And he was a much better defender than he is ever credited as being because they didn’t always record blocks during his first five years in the League and because most of his regularly televised highlights were recorded after he turned 32 years old.

All true. All boring.

Because of that, Kareem’s legacy, while impeccable, loses some luster. Similarly, even if for different reasons, the fact that today’s ESPN has fallen below what everyone wants it to be has hampered its reputation. It is cooler to poke fun and discuss the network’s bygone glory days than it is to give ESPN credit for a great piece it puts out — let alone for being the unrivaled mass creator of great sports coverage.

With enough time, such perceptions start to infect reality. If repeated enough times, things like “ESPN sucks” and “Kareem wasn’t as good as Hakeem” permeate popular opinion. Then they start to became acceptable. As the views of those who actually saw Kareem in Milwaukee become less visible in public, that reality starts to fade.

They say history is an agreed upon fable. This is as true of sports as it is of political events. Today, however, we have video, analysis and countless written accounts of every sporting event, so our future understanding of the current era should be, at least somewhat, more aligned with what actually happened. Unfortunately, the footage and the first-hand accounts and essentially everything about Kareem’s prime is much less accessible to mass audiences. So we are left with the option of either believing or not believing what others say about it anecdotally for the most part. As a larger percentage of our cynical youth chooses the latter, popular opinion is reshaped. The truth is lost. History is re-written.

The solution to ensure accuracy and maintain a truer understanding of the Association’s past is accumulating more information and providing better access to it. That’s why we need more video of young Kareem playing basketball. That’s why we need aggregated written accounts of the past. That’s why we need the game’s legends to share first-hand accounts from their careers. That’s why we need the NBA to unearth all of its old footage and make it avaiable.

And, yes, despite what may be popular to say, that’s why we need ESPN distribute it to us.

Part I – The Skyhook

Part II – Unbreakable Record

And, more importantly, posting this video allows me to mention that I was only able to discover the footage of Sasha hanging out with these kids after a friend informed me about Sasha’s new-ish personal website SashaVujacic18.com, which was designed by the guy who runs LABallTalk.com, which is the website where I first saw a link to The Machine Videos, which in its latest episode attached the crybaby-label to Jerry Sloan, who I once compared to Tommy Lee Jones, who, in 1991, starred in the Oliver Stone film JFK with…Kevin Bacon.

Some guys in sports, of course, are legitimately funny. Bill and Johnny toss around names like Peyton Manning and Charles Barkley as potential candidates.* I’m not sure about those guys, but I’m fairly certain that Steve Nash is hilarious. I always prefer a dry wit with some self-deprecation to a class-clown persona anyway, but Steve’s understated subtlety has always been great. (Particularly during all these spectacular commercials.) Tim Duncan supposedly has a similar sense of humor. And Yao has definitely killed me with this brand of funny in both The Year of Yao and during the epic press conference he shared with Ron Artest last month. (The truncated 1:42 in this clip really doesn’t do this press conference justice. It was like 15 minutes long in actuality and both Yao and Tru Warier were dropping comedy nuggets throughout. I’ve made several requests to my NBA press contact to get a link to the entire thing with no luck. Some day it happen, however. I’ll letcha know.)

The reason I bring this all up is because the following video where Steve serves as NBA Finals roving reporter for the Late Show with David Letterman is pretty comical. You should watch it.

* (Jacko easily has the best line of the podcast when, after Simmons asks him who might possibly be the least funny athlete of all time, he drops a “Ty Cobb?”) (video via Ball Don’t Lie)

Sure he made some boneheaded decisions, forced a few things and seemed to follow up ever great play with an equally quixotic one, but as you can see here in this “All-Access Game 3″ video, the Magic probably don’t win unless Rafer is able to keep the Lakers interior defense honest by continually driving the ball to the rim.

(Sidenote: Van Gundy’s post-game press conference comments about how he was able to help shake Rafer out of his Game 1 and Game 2 funks were super. “I’m a motivational genius, that’s what I am,” said SVG. “I thought for two days about what to say to him and I said ‘Play your game.’”)

I’ve always been a big Skip to My Lou fan so it was nice to see him earn at least some form of redemption after his early series troubles. But what’s even nicer is to see archival footage of him rocking the And 1 Mixtape back before it turned into a really lame show on ESPN. For the uninitiated, these videos were the hottest thing in the underground basketball world back when they were little more than VHS highlight tapes of streetball. And Rafer was the undisputed star — to the point that Skip is pretty much solely to blame for the horrible “And 1 Guy” tattoos on the arms of his teammate Rashard Lewis, Phoenix Sun Matt Barnes, Chicago Bull Brad Miller and thousands of other misguided, impressionable ballers who came of age in the 1990s. I’m sure those seemed like a good idea at the time, fellas, but now you may as well have the adidas logo on your bicep. Hell, Rafer was so hot back then that he even parlayed his And 1 buzz into a Slam cover story despite the fact that he was an otherwise unheralded point guard playing college ball in the WAC.

Thus, here’s video of Rafer breaking ankles and earning his nickname. Bonus: It’s set to the best YouTube highlight video song sung by a kid-peer. (via NBA Playoffs 2009 Tumblr, which has easily captured the Postseason MVP of the NBA blogosphere. I mean, you can’t look at this and tell me that amazing is happening more often anywhere else.)

Relatedly, if you don’t enjoy Kayvon, you’re probably a douchebag.

Here is footage of him talking to members of the Laker and Magic organizations. Hedo’s jacket is probably the best part, but the Tex Winter line finishes second in a photo finish. (Lakers video first. Magic video second and via Talk Hoops)

That’s a simple way to look at it, I know, but there isn’t a lot left to break down after we’ve already seen each of these teams play 20 Playoff games over the past six weeks.

Thus, this is officially going to be an all-video day at Both Teams Played Hard. And we may as well kick it off with this gem featuring an introspective Bad Porn, which is a phrase that sounds a lot more NSFW than it actually is. (via NESW Sports)