NBA Players

Since Kevin Durant and Chris Bosh are my favorite players, it seems fitting that they share some qualities. They have similar heights and weights, not afraid to cry in public over a loss, and they’re both eloquent and candid when talking to the media. 

This week Durant talked about whether it bothers him to see Lebron James during Olympic Team practices after having lost to him in the NBA finals not even a month ago. Durant was honest:

“It does. It does, but what can I do?” Durant said Tuesday. “He’s my teammate now. I’m a team player. I can’t let that affect this. This is bigger than that. It’s tough to lose in the finals and play the guy you’ve been going up against for five games who beat you. So me, I’m just going to get over it, still be a great teammate, come out and play hard.”

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You don’t have to be a basketball analysis to note that Miami Heat PG Mario “Chalmy” Chalmers gets yelled at a lot. You also don’t have to be an analyst to know that 1. In the midst of being a very good player he really does have some astounding brain farts 2. sometimes he gets yelled at when it doesn’t appear to be his fault 3. it seems the yelling doesn’t really phase him at all.

And now that he has a championship it probably will phase him even less.

According to The Wall Street Journal Chalmy has been yelled at all his life starting with his father who was a Sergeant in the Airforce. For the article, they talked to Grant Long and got his opinion on the possible team dynamic. Long had this to say:

Grant Long, a former NBA player who now does analysis for Thunder TV broadcasts, said he finds the vitriol surprising because Chalmers is a fourth-year player. Veterans typically reserve that sort of treatment for rookies. “But when you look at this team’s makeup, who else are they going to go after?” Long said. “Dwyane’s not going to chew out LeBron. LeBron’s not going to chew out Dwyane. Bosh isn’t going to chew out either one. So it all falls on Chalmers. ‘Why did Dwyane miss that shot?’ ‘Dammit, Chalmers—it was your fault!’”

Long said it actually can be useful to have a player in that role, especially when a team is laden with stars. If James doesn’t feel he can be brutally honest with Wade (and vice versa), he can use Chalmers to broadcast the message. “It’s one of those deals where, ‘I’m yelling at you, but I’m hoping this other guy hears it,’” Long said. “When s— hits the fan, he’s the guy who gets blamed.”

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Listen…I love Chris Bosh. He and Kevin Durant are my favorite two players. So of course I’m living for this NBA finals where both Bosh and Durant have been outstanding (sans Game 4 for Kevvy Kev). I have supported Bosh though corn rows, kinky twists, dreadlocks, caesar cut, crazy faces, tears and all his general zest and awesomeness. And I’m not stopping now.

True to form, when Bosh returned from his abdominal strain he immediately began to contribute. The thing I like most about Bosh is that he’s the most consistent from quarter to quarter on that team. I never question whether or not he’s doing the best he can whether he has a good game or not. This finals I am rooting for the Thunder but I was hoping Bosh would have a spate of good games and he has. Did you see that cut to the rim last night??? OH HELLO BOSH.

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If there’s anything sports fans love it’s a narrative. Remember: Kevin Durant is humble. Gregg Popovich is cool. Phil Jackson is zen. The San Antonio Spurs are boring. Russell Westbrook is selfish. Lebron isn’t clutch.

A real sports fan would never let the truth get in the way of what they already think. Though I must admit that last night Lebron did an awful lot (for the 100th time) to prove he’s not the loser losers think he is. But why let that get in the way? I have a few arguments you can use to make sure no one changes your mind about Lebron James no matter how many times he gives the best performance in a playoff game in 48 years.

1. Lebron still isn’t clutch. Sure he was great the first 4 quarters but where was he the last 4 minutes of the game? Shameful! A clutch player should never sit out the end of the game when his teammates are relying on him to keep them up by 30.

2. Lebron has no heart. Did you see the totally ridiculous way he handled that fan that threw a drink on him after the game? He just kept walking. He shrugged it off like it didn’t matter. It was as if he doesn’t care. Where’s the passion? Where’s the emotion? Typical Lebron. Soft.

3. He doesn’t get his teammates involved. Any player that ends a game with more points, more rebounds, and more assists than the other top three players on the other team combined clearly can’t manage to get his teammates going. By dominating the game from one end to the floor to another he totally took his teammates out of their rhythm. How can anyone get going when one player keeps going and going? Bueller??

4. Where was this Lebron the other 78 games? If Lebron can play like this why doesn’t he do it EVERY NIGHT. How hard is it to take almost all the shots, grab most of the rebounds and play point forward for almost 48 minutes. Hello, it’s called earning your paycheck. What a bum.

Let me know if these work.

For those who don’t remember the story of why Oklahoma Thunder star Kevin Durant chose #35, here’s the explanation he gave to ESPN. 35 is the age his former coach was when he was tragically killed trying to break up a street fight. In the video, Durant describes what his coach meant to him and how he encouraged him over the years even when he didn’t believe himself.

I normally don’t post too much news but NY Knicks Amar’e Stoudemire’s engagement stuck out to me for two reasons.

1. People magazine says the ring cost one million dollars

Stoudemire designed the 8.5-carat radiant-cut ring, worth more than $1 million, with Los Angeles-based celebrity jeweler Shayan Afshar. The setting has 3.50 carats of flawless diamonds set in 18-carat white gold.

Can you imagine how cool it would be to be able to spend 1 million on something like that? That’s a level of ballingness I can’t even fathom to be honest.

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By now you know that MettaWorldRonRon is suspended for a vicious elbow that gave James Harden a concussion. But what you may not know is that he has a cameo in the #1 movie in the country: Act Like A Lady, Think Like A Man. The movie is a romantic comedy but there’s a few scenes where the guys in the film are playing basketball and they run into MWRR and his crew. MWRR, in his scenes, is wearing purple from head to toe including little purple short shorts.

In an interview with the LA Times, MWRR says that he really wanted to show his ass during the film but they said no. I wish I could embed the video but the site won’t let me, you have to click to watch. If you’re too lazy to click, as I sometimes am, MWRR says that the only way he can be funny is to be himself and do something outrageous. He said he didn’t want to be in regular basketball shorts…if he’s going to be in a movie he wanted a good outfit.

“I had another outfit but they didn’t want me to wear it. The other outfit was crazy. The other outfit was pretty crazy like…I had my buttcheeks out. It was very exposing. Butt cheeks. The shirt was cut around the nipple….but it was like funny you know. Who cares?”

This might not be verbatim cause I had trouble understanding him.

After seeing this,  I’m assuming that since they wouldn’t let him show his ass in the movie he decided to do it on the court by foolishly knocking another player down.

I long for the days when we all understood (or at least didn’t pretend not to understand) the fact that shit happens in sports and wins and losses aren’t always involve circumstances that aren’t ideal. What am I getting at? I’m getting at the crowd, crop, people, folks whatever who are already saying that if the Heat win a championship this year it will have an asterisk cause Derrick Rose was knocked out in the first round.

The whole asterisk thing isn’t necessarily new. There are always people seeking to diminish a team or person’s accomplishments because they didn’t “beat the best” or because “the competition fell apart” or “the star got injured” or “so and so was out coached.”  The problem with that is that almost every circumstance that contributes to the outcome of a game or season involves one of those scenarios. So I’m ready to stop the qualifying. I totally understand explaining the dynamics or contributing factors in wins and losses but dismissing champions? I can’t do it.

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Whenever there are Allen Iverson photos floating around I refuse to click because all the stories of him having hard times and sitting in bars alone make me afraid to take a look. Apparently Iverson has a new twitter account (not sure what was wrong with the old verified one or what exactly is going on here) but photos were tweeted out from it of him and Dennis Rodman and Stephon Marbury (with Iverson in the 3rd photo down) playing ball in China. The photos show only slight evidence of Iverson’s aging. I think it’s amazing that he mostly still looks like a skinny kid. Not like a hard partying father of 5 whose going through a strange divorce.

More photos here.

Speaking of the strange divorce…drama looks good on Iverson…he doesn’t exactly look like someone whose wife just asked for a restraining order against him according to TMZ. I was about to type out a whole recap of their relationship drama for those who may be behind but I just don’t see the point. Anyway, it appears that Iverson’s wife says he’s been harassing her.