I like the fact that he came out and "almost" stood up like a man....but the " i only use it in practice" line was an insult.....That's been used numerous times....what if a pitcher had a nail file or sandpaper in his pocket and said" I only use it in practice".
optional is the guy always downloading pics. and he says sosa has a corked body. ----- and since baseball players wear hats, shirts with sleeves and sometimes longsleeves underthat and long pants............... i think optional has been downloading nude pics of sammy ! :eek:
They started late, and I don't think either team is going to mentioned among the all-time greats, though maybe if the Spurs continue to improve over the years, people will look back at this as the start of something. Both teams play good defense, both teams have a tendency to stall on offense anyway, you don't get the sense that the teams are playing with a lot of emotion, for whatever reasons, and you have to work to make yourself believe that the Nets have much of a chance overall (nothing's impossible...): So a lot of people don't care much for the product either. Oh, the coverage isn't that great either. I like Tolbert and Walton individually, but they don't play off each other very well. Each is better with a straight man. On my TV anyway, they don't even sound properly miked a lot of the time. Otherwise, it's great.
Both teams stalled out for extended periods, as is their habit, but the game was still compelling, I thought. Facing annihilation seemed to spark some fire in NJ. Now it's back to thinking they have a chance. Helped to have Jefferson rejoin the living.
In Burns' latest article, he points out that without Shaq, the west really isn't that different than the east when it comes to the playoffs. The reason... everything becomes half-court and the fast break game, traditionally a characteristic of west coast b-ball, is largely abandoned. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/inside_game/marty_burns/news/2003/06/12/burns_finals/ I think this is a very good point (save my referee rant in another thread). I wonder if Kobe will say anything about this in his interview tonight during the game.
Interesting contrarian argument, since by now it's virtually gospel that the East is least and West is best. On the other hand, I think that a healthy Sacramento team might have simply overwhelmed the Nets, and we already know what Scott thinks about having to face the (presumably healthy) Lakers. I wouldn't, however, expect much basketball from the Kobe interview. Supposedly the main subject is human interest - how things are going in the Bryant family reconciliation process. All America will be on the edge of its collective seat desperate for the latest details on whether dad's gotten over Kobe's decision to marry Vanessa. I'm not surprised at all that the rules changes of recent years haven't arrested the scoring slide, especially the main change. Why would any rational person think that giving the defense more flexibility (zone and double-teaming off the ball) would help the offense? It has somewhat improved game flow, but that usually means better flow to rebounding missed shots and to deflecting passes...
Watching the debacle that was game 5 of a World Championship series in Basketball (no wonder we lost in the Olympics) I saw Kenyon Martin on the bench with a towel over his head. Kenyon Martin is a good player, not a great player. He was coming off the flu, and was less than 100%. Kenyon Martin played 38 minutes. He shot 2 for 8 from the field. Was 0 for 1 from the 3 point line. He shot no free throws. He had 9 rebounds, 1 offensive rebound. 3 assists, 1 steal, 3 blocks, 8 turnovers, and 5 fouls. Not a bad performance under the circumstances. They I thought about game 5 of an NBA finals between the Bulls and the Jazz. The game was in Utah, and was pivotal. A Chicago loss would have been very hard to recover from. Michael Jordan was sick as a dog. He could barely stand up. He stood on the court, nearly lifeless in warm-ups, eyes red and glossy. He didn't know how long he could go. Michael went out and single handedly won that game for the Bulls. Scored something like 37 points. Pippen had to help him off the court. That is the difference between a good player like K-Mart, and a champion, the greatest basketball player ever, Michael Jordan. Those who were lucky enough to see that performance by MJ, and watched the game last night, are naturally nostalgic for the good old days.