Quick Update: All Star Saturday Night

Hey guys…I know its pretty embarassing when you’re man in the blog world is having a comp problem but that’s life right?  Anyway, I am just going to throw out some things about this Saturday night and hope it works out.  Just so you all know, I lost EVERY call I made for winners of the events (suckers, no one even bet me!)

Shooting Stars – Detroit Pistons – They took the title after Phoenix had a HUGE lead but could not hit the half court shot.  They literally had 35 seconds to pot one from half and could not capitalize!!!

NBA Skills Challenge – Derrick Rose- Rose beat out Devin Harris (my call) by 3 seconds in the final but he finsihed with a huge reverse two hander that had the judges wondering why he wasn’t in the Dunk Contest?

3 Point Shootout – Daequan Cook- Who?  Exactly!  This rookie came out of nowhere to replace Jason Kapono the two time champion as the 3 point king in the NBA.  All the judges said it would be the biggest upset in history if he won but he did.  Beating Rashard Lewis in a 1 minute OT to take the crown. For the record, Kapono finished 1 POINT out of the final round

Slam Dunk – Nate Robinson – Lil’ Nate (5′2 from what I hear) beat out Superman (Dwight Howard) in the finals to claim his second dunk off championship. Although, he owes a HUGE debt of gratitude to his competitor for allowing himself to be a prop in the final round that no doubt sent Nate over the edge to be the winner.  Dwight was killing the crowd with his unreal athleticism but I think the dunk from the free throw line at the end, killed all his momentum.  A big piece of news from this contest came when LeBron James announced he WOULD COMPETE in 2010 in Dallas in the dunk contest.

All in all it was another great night of entertainment but again I lost all my bets.  Oh well better luck next year (when the game SHOULD have been in Toronto, until Dallas decided to put up a billion dollar stadium, DAMN!)

Peace!

NBA All Star Saturday Night

By FAR the best All Star Weekend of any major sport.  NBA’s All Star Saturday Night is probably my favourite night of the sports year and has been since I was a little kid.  It basically wraps all the best parts of the game into one night of awesomeness, I even like the Shooting Stars competition (Yeah I said IT!).  Along with the main staples, 3 point Shoot out (Go JK), Skills competition and OF COURSE the Slam dunk, this year they have added H-O-R-S-E to the slate of Saturday Night magic.  I have heard a lot of people say this could be crap but I also know a lot of people are excited about this and I am one of the latter.  Ever since the Jordan and Bird commercials back in the late 80’s or early 90s, I have dreamt of watching NBA All Stars playing horse.  Sure they won’t be throwing the ball off the score clock from the 300 level of and arena but I expect to see some crazy things this to go down.

Last night was the annual Rookie vs. Sophomore game (which I usually miss) but this year I HAPPENED to actually be in a bar (what a fluke) and much to the chagrin of my girlfriend, ended up catching the whole game and was very surprised about how good it was.  Sure there was NO defence and Kevin Durant took 25 shots but it was actually competitive.  The rooks were leading pretty much the whole game and then the Durant show started!  He was on fire, finishing the game 17 for 25 from the field for 46 points, the all time record for most points and the MVP.  I think this game tends to be more sloughed off because its only the rookie and sophomores and for the most part is filled with guys that aren’t that well known yet but I think it tends to be more competitive for that reason and because NO sophomore wants to be beaten by a rookie, especially if you’re on their team.  Just for a piece of history, the rookies have only won twice in 10 years of this format.

All the action starts tonight (on TV anyway) at 8pm ET. I will break down who I think will win the events and why don’t you let me know who you think is going to win and then we can have a friendly bet of bragging rights (maybe a beer too if we ever meet) for the winner.  OK here it goes:  Shooting Stars challenge – LA Lakers - I’m taking them because they seem to have the best shooters through the whole team.  Skills Challenge - Devin Harris - I chose Harris because he is flat out the fastest guy here and he can shoot.  3 Point Shootout – Jason Kapono – Do I even have to say why? Raptors, 3 time champ, Raptors. Now for the BIG SHOW – Slam Dunk Contest – Dwight Howard – First off, let ME let YOU know, this guy is my favourite player and has been since I saw one of his high school games.  He is not only the most dominant big man since Shaq but he is a real cool guy and loves playing the game.  He also practiced for over a YEAR on the dunks he did last year and I have to imagine he wants to re-live that glory again and will do so tonight.

If I am around tonight (might have to make up for last night with the girlfriend) I will be live blogging all of tonight’s events so come around 8pm and see whats up.  Well have a good night and a good weekend!

Peace!

An Open Letter To Chris Bosh….

First off, before I go on this rant that will likely only be stopped by either my fingers or keyboard breaking, let me explain myself.  I am a super loyal Toronto Raptors fan and when I say loyal, I mean, when Mike James was our best option I was still making bets for the Eastern Conference finals. This past year, as I mentioned in a past post, I finally realized my dream of buying Raptors season tickets.  What is about to transpire is a result of sitting through more home loses than wins, while watching a team that was “built to go deep in the playoffs”.  That accompanied with listening to a “franchise” player repeatedly complain about the people who pay his salary, the fans.

First off, HOW DARE YOU!!! Last year I let you get away with it because we were winning and I admit, the fans in the ACC could have definitely been louder on occasion but not this year!  This season was supposed to be different. You got your help down low so you don’t bitch about being tired.  For crying out loud they turned their #1 pick from one of the best SFs in the league (Andrea) into a centre, just so you would have help.  And still you have the audacity to call out the fans for booing when you were only down 3?  Did you fall asleep for the first 3 quarters of that game?  You WERE up by 17, we weren’t booing you because you were down 3 it was because you were blowing your 4th double digit lead of the season, AT HOME!!!
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Don’t Let The Door Hit Yeah….

Sam Mitchell in his classic 4th quarter pose.

Salutations,

I apologize if I cannot hide my glee as I type these words but ITS ABOUT TIME. For those of you living under a rock or just not interested in Toronto sports, Toronto’s “other” team has finally severed ties with what felt like a 20 pound anvil tied to the ankles of the players and organization for the past two seasons.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not a Sam Mitchell hater. I really think he was a great motivator, player developer (if you’re not in his doghouse, see: Joey Graham) and team guy. But when it came to X’s and O’s, I don’t think there was a worse coach employed in the NBA. I only have some mid-level basketball experience and A LOT of basketball watching experience but I can say with complete confidence that I could out coach Sam in the last 5 seconds of any game. And let’s be serious, would you ever let a player score 81 on you? Sam just sat there with his usual “Oh well, here’s another loss” look with his hand rubbing his brow. I have an idea, don’t let Kobe isolate his defender, double team him or even FOUL him hard enough to make him think pass on his next wide open drive to the tin. But I digress, the past is the past, so let’s move on.

If you haven’t guessed by now I am a maple syrup drinking, beer chugging Torontonian. So it brings me great pleasure that we not only have a new coach but one of my favourite coaches, Jay Triano. I will never forget when he took team Canada to a 5 and 2 record at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. Of course you can say this team had the services of back to back MVP Steve Nash but unless you’re Canadian or lived in Dallas in 2000, you probably hadn’t seen Nash much. And unless you went to highschool with anyone else on this squad you had never heard of these guys before or after. It came down to coaching. Triano had these guys believing they COULD win and he gave them the right system to do it. For Triano to turn this Titanic away from the iceberg I think he only has to tweak a few things.

First off, play your $5M dollar man (Kapono) A LOT more and when he does play, MAKE SURE HE ONLY SHOOTS. Show him some tapes of Dell Curry rocking that fade and jacking J’s in his purple dino jersey. He had no problem collecting cheques by shooting and pretending to play defence, why do you? You’re the greatest shooter in the world (sorry Damon Jones), dont try to be a slasher or a distributer…SHOOT!!!

Which brings me to Jamario Moon, talk about playing to your contract? Maybe he has a fear of 7 digits? Or the rim? It was only 12 months ago, Moon was slapping gravity in the face with his fuzzy walnuts on the way to the rim.  He had people believing he could take off from a solid foot behind the chairty stripe. Now, he settles for his awkward J not even near the key, he doesn’t rebound well, he take DUMB fouls and it doesnt look like he cares. He needs to start attacking the rim or take over Joey’s spot on the pine because Kapono can at least shoot.

And last but not least, BALL MOVEMENT!!! I am lucky enough to have season tickets to the Raps, so I get to see first hand what ball movement can do. I say this because on TV it’s hard to get a grasp of how confused other teams are without hearing them yelling at each other when the Raps get into one of their ball movement grooves. There have been SOME glimpses that this year, 4 or 5 nice passes around the perimeter for an open J or to the open man inside for an easy deuce. Don’t get me wrong, Chris Bosh is and ANIMAL this year and derserves all the accolades and hype he is FINALLY receiving. He also deserves to not to settle for that 18 footer he is forced to take so often. Of course we can’t blame Mitchell for that totally but with more focus on ball movement and hustling it,will be a lot harder for Bosh to settle for that jumper when he’s trying to whizz the ball around to Parker or Kapono for a wide open trey.

At the beginning of the season I was thinking 45+ wins for this team, when J.O went down I was thinking 41 MAX. A lot of this just had to do with Smitch’s inability to utilize players properly and to put his pride aside when it came down to making the right decision. Now that he is gone with some tweaking to the system and maybe a minor trade, we can be top 5 in the East.

In closing I would like to say “So long Sam, thanks for memories”! (well most of them) and congratulations Jay make us proud. Now hopefully I won’t have to spend my days defending how a team can get blown out by 39 points, blowing a 13+ point lead late in the game or watching VC dunk my Friday night down the crapper.

Peace!