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Friday, February 1, 2008

Kobe Bryant (over)Reacts to Pau Gasol Trade

Forget the comments, the sound bites, and the good copy that Kobe Bryant was laying down when asked about the trade that would not only bring Pau Gasol to the Lakers but free the team of the yoke that is Kwame Brown.

You really want to know how he feels watch what he did after the ball was tipped up. Kobe has always been a player who responded well on the court to the things that were going on off of it. Think back to those games where he was in a Colorado court house all day and then on the court in LA hours later. He was nothing but dominant in almost every one of those games. That was with bad news weighing on him.

Tonight when he faced off against the Raptors in Toronto's Air Canada center. He took the court with possibly the best news he has heard in his time as a Laker on his mind and it showed. Kobe Bryant went for 46 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists. Those 46 were worth a little more than normal though. Quite a few of them were high flying acrobatic displays of just how far Kobe has come from the guy who was demanding a trade on the cell phone video of some kid in Orange County.

Just a small prediction but I caught Jomario Moon taking notes on a few of those moves by Kobe we might see Moon trying to duplicate 'em at the Dunk Contest in New Orleans this year.

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Superbowl Arrests Begin

We have our first Eugene Robinson and Barrett Robbins Superbowl moment for 2008.

According to AZcentrals website Adrian Awasom, a back up defensive end for the Giants, was cited by local officials.

Blood test results aren't yet available, Sgt. Tim Mason said, but Awasom was cited on suspicion of driving under the influence and extreme DUI and was released. The threshold for extreme DUI — a blood-alcohol content of 0.15 or above — is more than twice the legal of limit .08

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Pau Gasol to Lakers For Kwame Brown

I am so happy I could shout. First off I would like to apologize for all of the bad things I said about Mitch Kupchak. Between the move to get Ariza and now this deal, I am starting to forget the deal that brought us Brown (see: worst trades ever)

Mark Stein of ESPN is reporting that the deal would include Pau Gasol and a future second-round pick to the Lakers for Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton, the unofficially retired Aaron McKie , the draft rights to Pau Gasol's brother Marc and future first-round picks in 2008 and 2010

I am already some what of a Gasol fan, this however will put it through the roof. I think an active center will be a big benefit to the triangle offense. Gasol hasn't really performed up to expectations this season, after a strong finish last year. Hopefully Phil's presence will help that. Another aspect that I think will allow Gasol to flourish is the fact that he doesn't seem to be the leader he was asked to be in Memphis. With veterans like Fisher and Bryant around Gasol can focus on playing basketball.

One interestng dynamic will be how this plays out when Andrew Bynum returns from injury in another month. Will they split time on the court? Is Gasol athletic enough to play the power forward?


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JJ Redick Wants Out, But Who Wants Redick

JJ Redick and his agent are looking into the possibilty of the Magic trading him. He obviously wants to see more time on the court. While Magic GM Otis Smith and Head Coach Stan Van Gundy have both said they love Redick and want to keep him, they are sending that along with a slightly mixed signal of never putting the guy on the floor.

Van Gundy has made it very clear that he needs defense and rebounding from that position and that is why Redick doesn't play. Really!?, you traded away Trevor Ariza and got Mo Evans in return explain to me how that is an upgrade in defense and rebounding.

My feeling is that they probably aren't as enamored with him as they say. I am going to assume that this is some level of gamesmanship. I mean if your guy says he wants out and you come out and say you want to move him (Cough::Jason Kidd::Cough) all of a sudden his value plummets. So that leaves us with where to go.

If they really wanted upgraded defense and rebounding then I would love to see him go to the Lakers for Ariza but somehow I don't see that deal working. (Side note: Thanks James) . Since they just gave him up recently I doubt they are looking to him as a missing piece of thier puzzle. So I am not sure what it would take on the Lakers but I imagine Phil would love to have a Steve Kerr/John Paxson type. Since Vladamir Radmonovich and Sasha Vujacic don't seem to be filling those roles.

Edit:This just got a lot less likely now that the Lakers have already made a huge trade

Another interesting prospect would be the San Antonio Spurs who play an offense that could fit Redick in nicely, and since we are still living the lie that this is about defense. The Spurs might be willing to part ways with Bowen, though I think it would take a bit more than Redick to get him.

Those are just some completely unfounded conjecture. In any case, the Magic can stop living this Lie and might as well get something for him. I honestly think that the only reason they are hanging on to him is because if when Peja goes down they can plug him in for his offense.

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Goodell Called Before Congress To Discuss Spygate

I despise the fact that congress got involved in steroids. I mean they have plenty to worry about. Even if they didn't it still isn't really in the scope of congress' job to oversee baseball.

While I have constantly held that position I have over the last few months been somewhat swayed by the argument that it's all about the kids. You can't deny that the example professional athletes set affect the youth of our country. It goes beyond that though, forget the example set for youth. The fact is one guy does it to make the league now the next guy has to do it to make the league.

So I am starting to come around to Congress' involvement. Then what do I see crawling across ESPN's Bottom line. Congress has called Roger Goodell before them to investigate the destruction of the tapes and the Spygate issues in general. I'm sorry, what!? Explain this one to me someone, who is this protecting. Are they going to look into the widespread allegations that every team does it. This is just the most blatant attempt to get around history. Look the Superbowl winners go to the White House every year. Congress, if you want to get around the NFL and it's players then invite them, they would probably show up. But abusing your position in Congress is just phenomenally weak to me.

NBA All-Star Game Is All Wrong

I could rant on and on about the injustices of who is on the all star teams and who isn't. I am not going to. In reading up about this topic today I realized where the problems lie with this whole set up. The problems do exist and they are present both on the player side as well as the coaching side and yes some of it is even on us the fans.



As for the problems well lets start with the players. Upon finding out that his team mate Al Thornton hadn't been selected to the Rookie Sophmore game. Casell magnified the players slightly biased opinion with the following "There's a conspiracy going on. We must be in the state of Florida now. Did they watch that game, Jersey against the Clippers? Did they see Al Thornton that night?" Really, Sam. Do you want a second to pull that back. ONEGAME!? you want to know if they looked at one game. The simple fact that you pointed to one high performance as a signature game and all he really did was manage to lead for that one game. Well Sam, thats a sign the rest of his work really isn't that impressive.


As for the coaches, I don't know if they are right or if they are wrong but the perspective of the coaches became clear when Stan Van Gundy said "Shaq sort of is the All-Star game, sort of what the All-Star game is all about,'' Van Gundy, who coached O'Neal in Miami added. "It's celebrity and the people the fans want to see and everything else..." When you look at that it pretty much clears a lot of the decisions that they make as far as I am concerned.



As far as the fans culpability in all this. That is the white elephant in the room. The All-Star game is not about talent. It is clearly a popularity contest. So when the balloting comes out and we all start to debate why one guys play is better than the next guy and who got snubbed. We really need to settle down. Yeah it isn't always (or ever) a true representation of the best talent in the NBA but it is usually fun (less and less lately but I think this year we'll see a turn around). So let's just enjoy it for what it is.

Here is a great article on who made it and who got snubbed from True Hoop



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Is Adam "Pac-Man" Jones As Bad As You Think.

I know you don't think Pac-Man Jones is a good guy. I don't even think he's a good guy. In fact I would guess his mom is about the only person that does think so. I am certainly not going to talk you into the fact he is a good guy. The thing worth considering though is the fact that he probably isn't as bad as he has been made out to be.





He has made plenty of dumb choices; smoking marijuana, getting into fights, and publicly whining that he had to wait for Valet to get his car. I know none of these are good things, hell they are even stupid things. But some of the other instances like the shooting in Las Vegas. That happened, no one claims it didn't, but Jones didn't shoot anyone, he didn't even fire a gun. He was in the building when it happened. Should he choose better friends, sure he should. But his friends and their actions aren't really his problem or his employers business.





I think that he should be criminally liable for the things he did, not the things he witnessed. My real beef though is with emperor Goodell. So far what has he been convicted of that merits him being suspended for a full year. I just don't agree, he pays his debt to society for the things he is CONVICTED of. Not the things that the media reports. Goodell suspended him before he received his first conviction. I agree the league needs to be cleaned up but not with extremist measures.



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Linking up with RonDean

Since my 4 year old isn't quite ready for snowboarding yet, this seems like a great introduction for him. Kinda of like how I bought me him a Wii for Christmas.

Shawn over at thattalldude.com has a post up covering things he thinks bug only him. He's right on some of them that I can't even identify with, You know like being 6'7" (and the metric system for that matter) Let him know which ones bug you too.

Everybody loves a freakshow, right. Check out Wireds list of the best extinct animals

Warning: this contains spoiler type info for a Superbowl commercial. This is one of my favorite companies and I am happier everytime they expand into a new arena.

GIZMODO put out a list of the most blatantly sexist gadgets ever. I get that they are geared towards men, but I find most of these disturbing.

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