10 NBA Players Who Have Some Serious Soul Searching this Offseason

Since the Utah Jazz have been eliminated, MY participation in the rest of the postseason is about to come to and end. I have all summer to blog away about what's going to happen next season, and hash out questions in my head. Lets see who else has some questions to answer:

• 10. Chauncey Billups: Going into this off-season he was thought to be the number one free agent on the market. The Pistons are playing well enough to get through the eastern conference playoff scene with few hiccups (something that compares to getting to the bottom of a slide with your eyes closed or opening a new DVD case). However, Mr. Big Shot is off his game. He's struggling with traps, he's dribbling the ball off his foot. Come on man, this is MONEY TIME. I'm sorry man, it's way too late to get you in touch with Jerome James.
• 9. Mehmet Okur: What's going on Memo? Deron Williams all but named you when he accused un-named teammates of booking vacation trips for the week of the start of the NBA finals. You made the All-Star team this year, great, but your post season guaranteed you will not be headed back there anytime soon. Take this off-season and figure out how your game disappeared as fast as a Manu Ginobili flop.
• 8. Kobe Bryant: I'm sure that Luke Walton, Jordan Farmar, Andrew Bynam and Co. are really excited to see this guy again. Not sure what Kobe was thinking going on Stephen A. Smith's radio show to tell the world that you hated Jerry Buss and then going on Dan Patrick's show to tell him you changed your mind? Was it a slow news day and the ESPN pre-game team called in a favor (a team which oddly enough includes Dan Patrick and Stephen A. Smith)? Anyway, you are going to have to buy that whole crappy team of yours new cars or something or expect a long season of passes thrown at your feet.
• 7. Jermaine O'Neal: Indiana was fun for a while, wasn't it? This beast of the east is about to end up traded to a team where he will be exposed playing against Duncan, Boozer and Nowitzki night in and night out. Feuding with Larry Bird was a poor move and showing up Rick Carlisle really got you no where. Let's see if your game is going to continue to decline going into fall 2008
• 6. Tracy McGrady/Yao Ming: You guys are in the same boat. You got your coach fired for failing to close out the Jazz at HOME in game 7, something that never happens. T-Mac, in my mind your game is fatally flawed because you need the ball in your hands every possession in order to be effective. Yao, you looked really scared going up against a veteran, hard nosed defender in Okur...I mean... Get ready for Adelman-ball! I'm sure it will be a relief to rest on defense, but expect to continue losing in the playoffs in the coming years.
• 5. Vince Carter: Shown up by Lebron James badly, is for some reason choosing to opt out of a contract with $16 million on the table for 2008. After these playoffs, face it, Vince is not worth max money. The talent is there, but like cuz' T-mac, is going to jack up a lot of shots and run the one man show. No one wants a coaster, especially someone who is upfront about it.
• 4. Lebron James (Pending) : Nike is going to have to put the Eddie Murphy-style commercials on hold until Lebron decides that he wants to do more than just cash a paycheck.
• 3. Kevin Garnett: I almost forgot that Garnett was still around, other than the fact that he had the best statistical season of his career. I can't say enough good things about him. He deserves a better situation than what he's been dealt in Minnesota. Has a ton of karma points in reserve for the fun police commercials.
• 2. Paul Pierce: Reaching the end of his prime with no help in sight. I'm a BYU alum, so the honor code prohibits me from saying anything bad about Danny Ainge, but seriously man, I'm sorry.
• 1. Dwyane Wade: Congrats on the new baby boy! Definitely in a strange situation, if I were you, I would make sure that Shaq does a situp or two this offseason. Good luck with the surgery on both your shoulder and knee, don't let these be your "Grant Hill Ankle" or your "Fred Taylor Hamstring". You're surrounded by too many over-talented, underachieving guys like Antoine Walker and Posey and Jason Williams and not enough overachievers like Udonis Haslem. Think about it, you've got all summer.
  

The Blame Game (Reminiscing on Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals)

Where to start! I feel like I was on a roller coaster ride last night, a ride where the cars came overturned just as the ride was over and safety bar was released.

Game 4 of the Jazz-Spurs Series was playing right into the Jazz's hands and out of no where reality struck. How obvious it was that the Jazz are due for a nice pat on the head once Wednesday night's game is over. Deron Williams continued to produce well and without the interference of poor officiating, would have guided the Jazz on to their second win of the series, more on this in a minute. Duncan was playing like HE was the one with the stomach flu, and it looks like the Jazz are really starting to figure him out. How Timmah' recovers will be a key to the rest of the series.

The world just added two more people to my "People I Want to Throw Carmex At" so far my list includes:

Dick Bavetta. Before you knew him for his distance running, he was ruining the Jazz's best shot at a title with a six point swing that should have gone the Jazz's way. I could write a whole blog on this push off that somehow the NBA's then number one ref missed.

New additions:

Manu Ginobili. Vlade Divac brought the flop to the USA, but Ginobili has given it the charm of a blaring car alarm. Following the non traditional route of entering the NBA straight off the roster of "Days of Our Lives", this argentine import has endeared himself to all five of the San Antonio fans. Comissioner Stern, feel confident that those five will have their televisions tuned to every minute of the NBA finals (and they are faithfully driving their Mercury's to go pick up some Bacardi while their favorite Pussycat Dolls CD is playing). Stern, I think you're losing us...

Steve Javie. I'm pretty sure that my wish was already granted last night with this guy. I imagine that any actual carmax that actually smeared on his head went unnoticed on his perfectly coifed 'do. An inspiration to cripples everywhere (Stevie was born with a condition that kept his arms stuck in a "T" shape). Apparently Javie wasn't enjoying the altitude, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Music or the fact that the Delta Center had been renamed the Energy Solutions Arena. That short fuse was on display by singlehandedly turning a winnable game for the Jazz into a "T" party. (ha ha, get it, like a tea party...)

...but I digress.

Game 4 Jazz and Spurs

So what happened in Game 3? Wow, from the third quarter on the Jazz laced up the gold colored shoes and ran the figurative last 100 meters right past the Spurs like Michael Johnson in Atlanta in '96. I mean the Jazz really smoked the Spurs; if the Jazz's run would have started a quarter earlier I have every reason to believe that they would have beat the Spurs by 50. Duncan clearly wasn't too worried...in foul trouble early and often throughout the game, Duncan's exasperation was at about a 1 out of 10. He was lazy with the ball as he was even stuffed by Okur. Okur is having a terrible post season and he is just not the player he was before the all-star break.

Ginobili was ice cold and Parqueax was to worried about the ESA fans running his girlfriend out of town to put up a real fight.

Tonight is going to be a different story. The Spurs understood early in game 3 that the best they could do was to keep it close through the fourth where their horrible free throw shooting and the ESA home crowd would be huge factors. Pops and co. knew that they would at best steal a game in UT and Saturday it was not to be, so they wisely rested starters hoping to re-tool for game 4.


The key for the game remains in the hands of Deron Williams, currently listed as a game time decision. A game like this has legend making potential, just like Jordan's flu game and Willis Reed's finals appearance. If D Will plays, the Jazz win, if he doesn't, it will be interesting. Look for the Spurs to work the ball inside more and kill the Jazz from outside.

How true it is...

I'm tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money. I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok.

Shaquille O'Neal

Jazz vs. Spurs Game 3

For my first entry into this blog I jump into this series right in the middle of the 2007 Western Conference finals. For all intents and purposes, this is the pivotal game of the series. No NBA team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a best of seven game series. This year the Bulls actually won the next two games after going down 3-0 to the Pistons while the rest of the country rolled their collective eyes. Seriously Bulls, was there a single person on either team that thought that you were going to pull this off? or was Stern yet again pulling the strings on another capitalist conspiracy? I mean come on, would a profit minded commissioner like Stern leave all of the Bacardi and Mercury advertising dollars from the extra two games on the table? All but one of the NBA Eastern Conference first round series ended in a sweep while Stern was asleep at the wheel.

So that's my first point on why the Jazz will win tonight. Hopefully Stern realizes how uninteresting it is to watch lame duck teams like the Bulls down 3-0 and can cook up an officiating game plan to ensure that the balls bounce the Jazz way tonight. I can add to that point that in the end no one wants to see three of the most unlikeable players in the entire NBA in the finals AGAIN. Timmah' has his sparkling rep but the charisma of a librarian, Ginobili with his soccer style flopper's charm and Tony Par-queaux who stole Eva Longoria from red blooded America. The French are SO not hot right now.

But besides the calls that are going to go all Utah tonight (sure to leave Duncan and Ginobili with sore jaws from non stop aghast expressions) the Jazz have a lot that they haven't shown the Spurs yet. AK, Okur, Harpring and Fisher have all been MIA, and note that Boozer and Williams cannot be stopped, both presenting matchup problems for the Spurs. The Spurs have been too hot and the Jazz have been too cold. No team can win a series based on 54% shooting to start the series, it will clearly catch up. Look for a lot of missed layups and Timmah's free throw percentage to hit some more realistic levels.

Go Jazz