In the midst of an embarrassing, sweep-culminating, Jason Terry-three-pointer-fueled, blow-out loss that ended with “You stay classy, San Diego” ejections for both Lamar Odom and Andrew Bynum, it started to feel like there was no way that Phil Jackson would return to coach this Lakers roster next season. I suspect that the Zen master is going fishing. Literally — fly fishing in Montana, his favorite hobby and the only sporting endeavor I suspect he ever wants to do again at this point.
And if we can read anything into Kobe’s casual look at the scoreboard in the third quarter, I’m guessing he wouldn’t be mad at Phil if this was his last game ever. This franchise just ended it’s three-straight-NBA-Finals run about as poorly as any team could and these Lakers, as we knew them, are likely never to be heard from again.
Shame, too, because Bynum’s elbow turned this into a game that in no way belongs on Jackson’s resume.
By contrast, here’s Mark Cuban a few minutes later.
Mikhail Prokhorov, the $13-billion man who is now officially the new owner of the Nets and a guy Bill Simmons has dubbed the Russian Mark Cuban, has good news for Nets fans. Your favorite team will be in the Playoffs next season and will also soon win a title. This, too, will probably happen next year, but you can never be sure what the future will hold so it’s possible it might take up to five years. He explains it all in the video below. Sorry for the wait.
My holidays have stood out loud: a lot of work over closing the deal on buying the club NBA and managed to tear a few days in the Maldives is mainly for the sports part – for 7-8 hours a day (although, of course, and not only).
During this time they were ever big waves, up to 5 meters, So that could take on a full ride, surfing on the jets.
Unfortunately the best moments of skiing “nailed” the rain, but still something on the film and pics can be seen. Feelings were very sharp, especially when you get into a ridge and turns you 15-20 seconds. Actually, sometimes it was very frightening. ” But there were no injuries, and pleasant physical fatigue from sports fees is only a plus.
Oh, I love him. He’s a party beast. He’s got a big personality. I even took Russian in high school so I’ll be able to work on it some. I think he’s going to be great. Anytime you introduce personality into the league, anytime you introduce someone with passion, anytime you introduce someone that really wants to win then that’s a huge positive — especially in and around New York. Because the Knicks have struggled, and when New York struggles it makes it harder for the NBA to sell sponsorships. So it’s a win/win situation.
The one thing about him being extremely wealthy — and I don’t think people really focus on this — you can have cheaper tickets. You don’t have to squeeze every last nickel to try to balance the budget and put that into players. The Mavs have $2 seats, we have $5 seats, we have $20 ten-pack season tickets. We’ve lowered prices five years in a row because I don’t need to squeeze every penny out of it. And I think he’ll be in the same position.
Last week, I decided that yall needed to see the great work Doc Funk is doing with his NBA captions. Now, you shall see it again. Here are my favorite five from the past seven days, but be sure to head over to Brain on Funk where you can see all of his many, many other hilarious and insightful photos.
(Yes, I know it’s not Friday anymore, but (a) it still is for two more minutes on the West Coast, and (b) Doc Funk Saturday doesn’t sound as good.)
One of my favorite lines in movie history occurs in Fight Club after Tyler Durden asks [spoiler alert] Tyler Durden what historical figure he would most like to fight. “I’d fight Gandhi,” says Tyler Durden to which Tyler Durden responds “Good answer.”
If there was one guy on the planet you could dunk on, who would it be?
If it doesn’t have to be a basketball player, George W. Bush. I would dunk on his ass, break the rim, and shatter the glass.
The next logical step is for The Decider to show up at All-Star Weekend this year to not only be the sole judge scoring the Dunk Contest, but to also participate by trying to swat LeBron’s attempt to dunk on a 12-foot rim. We can even give Dubya a trampoline if need be. I mean, I know the brush in Midland isn’t gonna clear itself, but All-Star Weekend is right down the road in Dallas this year and I think the ranch will be ok unattended for one weekend.
The most depressing part about this story from my perspective is that I’m posting it while watching the end of the 2006 WCF game between the Spurs and Mavericks where Dirk dropped that dunk plus the harm to propel Dallas to the victory. During the game, the Mavs blew a huge lead and looked poised to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory throughout the 4th quarter, only to mount a ferocious effort and out-will the at-the-time World Champs. (NBA TV was showing the game this afternoon to hype us up for the Spurs/Mavs game tonight.)
Since that’s clearly irrelevent to you, however, the actual story is that Mav owner and Both Teams Played Hard spokesman Mark Cuban was none too happy about his players’ effort of late, particularly in Monday’s loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Since I never once changed the channel away from the Flash vs. LeBron Gala of Unrelenting Brilliance that was occurring on another channel that night, I have no idea whether Cubes’ displeasure is entirely warranted. But based upon the fact that Nenad Krstic had 26 points on 10/14 shooting, I doubt I would be all smiles and butterfly kisses either.
“If each player can’t take the personal initiative to make every game important and play like it, I don’t see them being here next season. The ball won’t always bounce the way we want it to, but every player can control their level of effort. If it’s not important enough to them to lay it out every game the rest of the season, they won’t be back.”
“I don’t care what their contract is. I would rather turn over the roster 100 percent than subject fans to another game like last night. This team has the talent to win in the playoffs. But that’s only going to happen if all 15 guys know and execute their assignments and play every possession like it’s important.”
Even though Cuban was undoubtedly the lever man behind the horrible, horrible Jason Kidd-for-Devin Harris deal that set back this franchise about five years (and I still like JKidd), you gotta feel for this team. They made a great run to the Finals in a year when Dirk had one of the better non-LeBron/Kobe individual seasons in recent memory and immediately fell into a tailspin from which they’ve been completely unable to recover.
In fact, watching Dallas play is so “meh” that I haven’t even bothered to spend all that much time monitoring my man Brandon Bass. If anyone has any thoughts on Senor Brolic’s play of late, leave em in the comments.
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