During last night's Orlando Magic/New Jersey Nets affair, the first half was just about to conclude when Orlando's Gilbert Arenas hit a shot from 3/4 court.
Sadly though, the play didn't count since the ball hit the shot clock:
Baseball is in its final week and while a few teams have solidified their spot in the playoffs, others are in an all out battle for the last few.
Football is going at full blast into the 2010 season with the fourth week upcoming and surprises galore all around the league.
While both of the sports are currently active and playing meaningful games, they cannot compare to the anticipation of one sport that is almost ready to tip off: basketball.
This NBA off-season has been one of the most important and influential ever in the history of the NBA. Here are the top five reasons why the sport of basketball is at the forefront of everyone’s attention.
1) The Heat Is On
If there was a vote to determine the biggest sports moment of the year, the highest percentage of votes would go to the spectacle of the Lebron James’ decision. In a close second would be watching he, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh put on the Heat jerseys and getting on the court against the Boston Celtics on Tuesday, October 26th.
Heat tickets at home or on the road will be the hottest commodity anytime they are in town. Miami will have a giant target on its back and be hated by all crowds they face when going on the road. Despite that, checking in on them will be fun to watch all season long to see how the big three handle the heat.
2) Carmelo Anthony Will End Up…?
The James situation has had a reverberating effect on the NBA world. Other free agents waited anxiously like domino tiles to see where the first piece would fall. Despite training camp beginning and the free agency period come and gone, the James effect is still being felt.
The one person who has felt it lately has been Carmelo Anthony. The smooth-shooting small forward has been trying meticulously to get out of Denver.
Various articles have been published about possible locations where Melo may end up. With no deal set in stone and questions running rampant about a trade for the former Syracuse star, the team Anthony ends up with will be the second most intriguing squad to watch this season.
3) Lakers Lost In Translation
With all the hoopla over the new Heat team, Amar’e Stoudemire leaving Phoenix for the big apple and Anthony’s drama in Denver, there has been one team that remained steady and submarine-like by staying below the radar: the reigning back-to-back champs Los Angeles Lakers.
The team was stealthy in keeping the nucleus intact (only losing Jordan Farmar and Josh Powell) and upgrading with new acquisitions (signed Matt Barnes and Steve Blake). Although the NBA is topsy-turvy after the off-season, it is the Lakers that are the quiet and safe pick for a three-peat.
4) What’s Eating Gilbert’s Grape?
If there is one person who can hope to feed off the attention Michael Vick is now receiving after his miraculous comeback, that man is Gilbert Arenas. He returns back to the Washington Wizards after being suspended for most of the 2009-10 season after a gun altercation occurred in the locker room.
It will be interesting to see how Arenas will bounce back after a tumultuous year. The point guard witnessed his power over the squad become diminished with the addition of number one pick John Wall. The biggest question facing him: will he remain a Wizard and if he does, can he find a way to co-exist with the rookie from Kentucky?
5) New Changing Of The Guard In The NBA
This season more so than any will feature a new dynamic, teams that were on top dropping down and teams on the bottom moving up. While most sports feature a cyclical power change for teams year in and year out, basketball is one sport where teams remain on top for years.
Of course, there are teams that will remain at a high pedestal (such as the Lakers, Celtics and the Magic), but many top teams will drop this season. In the East, the Cavaliers were the top team last year but that was with James as the leader. They will most likely drop out of the playoff picture.
The West is where the change will be noticed the most. San Antonio is no longer the fearful team of years past with age creeping upon them. Denver is influx with front office and coaching turmoil to go with the Anthony issue. Phoenix lost a big piece of their puzzle when Stoudemire headed to New York.
Other teams will hopefully be able to move up the power ranking depth chart this season. The Bulls, Knicks, Heat and Wizards should be much improved in the East, while the Thunder, Blazers, Clippers and Kings appear to be contenders in the West.
With more stories and scenarios to go along with the ones described above, this season will prove to be the beginning of a brand new road never traveled in the NBA.
Good thing for them, the season hasn’t even started and they have everyone’s utmost attention.
All this buzz about Antawn Jamison going to Cleveland, but Sebastian Telfair is really the key in this deal. I'm pretty sure Danny Ainge paid off Telfair to jack up the chemistry in the Cleveland locker room. We all know Sebass packs the heat. Hey, ya never know maybe he'll go Gilbert on them and bring a 9 milli into the locker room to show off to Lebron, Lebron gets caught with it, charged with illegal possession of firearms, suspended indefinitely by D-Sterny, sentenced directly to the slammer bypassing the court system, just in time for the Celtics to make a run in the NBA playoffs...ANYTHINGS POSSIBLEEEEEEE (making KG face while yelling).
As if the Wiz weren't already lubed and tubed enough for the season, Arenas & Crittenton suspended by David Stern for remainder of season.
"The Washington Post first reported the length of the Arenas suspension, and a source with knowledge of the meeting told ESPN.com that Arenas told Stern that he expected and deserved to be suspended for the rest of the season. It was unclear whether Crittenton also would decline to file an appeal.
"The NBA has conducted a thorough investigation of events relating to this matter," Stern said. "It is not disputed that, following an argument on the team's flight home from a game in Phoenix, both Mr. Arenas and Mr. Crittenton brought guns to the Verizon Center locker room and -- with other players and team personnel present or nearby -- displayed them to one another in a continuation of their dispute. The players engaged in this conduct despite a specific rule set forth in the collective bargaining agreement between the NBA and the Players Association prohibiting players from possessing a weapon at an NBA facility, and reminders of this prohibition given annually by the NBA to players both in writing and in person."
After meeting with Washington Wizards teammates Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton, NBA Commissioner David Stern has finally handed out their punishment.
Stern suspended both players for the remainder of the season without pay today for their role in an incident involving guns in the team locker room. Arenas was already serving an indefinite suspension issued by the league.
Both players have admitted to bringing guns into the locker room last month, a violation of the collective bargaining agreement. The incident stems from an argument the two players had while on a Dec. 19 flight from Phoenix.
"The issue here is not about the legal ownership and possession of guns, either in one's home or elsewhere," Stern said in a statement. "It is about possession of guns in the NBA workplace, which will not be tolerated."
Arenas has pleaded guilty to felony gun charge and Crittenton plans to plea guilty to one of two misdemeanor gun charges he is facing. Arenas, who is in the second year of a six-year, $111-million contract, is scheduled to be sentenced March 26.
At this point, NBA Comissioner David Stern had little choice to suspend both of them for the season.
It will be interesting in the coming weeks and months based on the decision made by the courts, whether or not if Arenas and 111 million dollar contract could be voided by the Wizards.
At least now, the Wizards can get back to playing basketball instead of worrying about Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton.
OtB is counting down the days 'til the NBA 2009-10 season tips off by ranking the top 50 players in the league. On Monday there are 36 days left.
If Caron Butler doesn't have any angles left to explore, team mate Gilbert Arenas hasn't left any new angles for sports writers to explore 'til he sees some real action this season. Hibachi has been on the virtual shelf for two seasons, playing 13 games on 07-08 and two last season. The few glimpses we've been afforded have indicated Arenas may have a few tricks up his sleeve, but all opinions are being held until he can stay on the floor for more than a handful of games. In two spins 'round the old hard wood last season, Arenas dished out 20 assists, a significant jump from his average output of 5.5 dimes per prior to all the knee troubles.
Stories coming from the Arenas camp have him much more solid physically this time around, as he's been training with the legendary Tim Grover. With Gil coming back, the Wiz could be a dark horse contender this season, or they could be just at the cusp one more time, or riddled with injuries one more time. No one's betting on this team right now, the masses aren't exactly brimming over with faith that Gil will be the dynamic force he has been in the past. At the same time, no one's exactly betting against him either. The point is, Agent Zero is one of the big question marks heading into this season.
I had him ranked as the 20th most valuable player last offseason, when he was more of a relevant factor in most people's memories, and when I was less knowledgeable. He could end up being a much more important player than even that 20 ranking this season. He's ranked this low, however, because the ineffables have just been riding hard against him for so long. This list is meant to be a gauge of how a player comes to this season, not a predictor of how he'll play. In that sense, Gil comes to 09-10 from a series of low points in his career. Why, then, does he get the nod over Caron Butler? Because there has been no Ewing Theory in effect here. The Wiz have simply not been upper echelon material since he (and Brendan Haywood) went out. Here's hoping a healthy Wizard team can make some noise in the East. Not because the East needs it, just because Gil makes watching worth our while.
In bi-weekly installments, OtB brings you a long-form joint re: NBA and its ontological extension unto all of sport. Epochrypha: writings or statements of questionable authorship or authenticity, but always impassioned and always with an eye on the times we're spectating in. Enjoy.
William Strauss and Neil Howe divide Anglo-American history into saecula, or seasonal cycles of history. I will attempt to do the same for several epochs of NBA teleology.
I don't care how old we get, how far away we go, 80s night will always trump any other decade themed party. Hands down, kiddies. Why? Because the 80s is the right decade to celebrate. Look at what surrounds. 70s was hippies and drugs and vietnam, social awareness turned "serious," and rock bands making shit that actually mattered. 60s, as all decades do, opened the door to this with civil rights movements and the naivette of early flower power. The 60s was when we learned to celebrate even through the hard times. in the 70s our celebration of life became more (self-)important, but in the 80s we finally let loose. We were aware enough of social consequence that we could party unabashedly, knowing we knew what really mattered when the sun came up on our hang-overs. And then it did. Magic got HIV. Kurt Cobain hit, and big. And the socio-political heads of KRS-One, Grandmaster Flash, and the rest of the gang turned to the snarls of NWA and N.o.t.o.r.i.e.t.y. (Which is fine, by the way. I'd take 90s substance over 80s surface any day. But nights flavored with fruity drinks? That's another story. Give me 80s night even if I have to wake up to the 90s all over again in the morning. Just wake me with a goodly dose of Vicodin, please.) The 90s saw us turn inwards, critique ourselves in and of ourselves, rather than a war thousands of miles away. Of course, we had a war thousands of miles away then too, but it reflected more on us than on our elected admin. At least that's how we took it. Don't worry, I'm going to talk more sports than just the fleeting Magic reference. Let me just get to the 00s first.
If the 90s were Vicodin, the aughts are Ritalin. (The 70s are obviously LSD and pot. The 80s have to be cocaine and sex. Heroin probably goes 90s, and ecstasy is 00s, but this is all metaphorical, y'understand) We're the reality tv, blog generation, the one that makes you both the audience and the star. We're gen-Napster. What you see you like, and then you take it. But you don't necessarily tell anyone. You clean shit up and make it marektable. You take the identity politics of the 90s and you turn it into queer eye. You take the honest, earnest navel gazing and grunge and turn it into pop-punk, emo-ironicism. Fuck contact(s), now we wear Buddy Holly glasses for show and get a shot at love with a audition tape. The NBA perimeter becomes a zero-tolerance bad-touch zone and the Jordan era tongue-wagging becomes James era product.
Think about it. The three phases of basketball popularity I've lived through can be summed up by their J-surnamed iconic superstars. Johnson leads the phallically head-strong charge of the 80s. Jordan is the dogged, self-immolating epic hero with epitragic flaws of the 90s (it's also not unsymbolic that Jordan is an obviously Middle Eastern derived surname). James is the ultimate posterboy for the new generation, the change-is-come generation, the preening slickness of a 007 flick. Let's just hope this Daniel Craig paradigm is an harbinger for seismic activity to come.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for an NBA revival. The redemptive golden age we’ve summoned up from the broken systems of United States developmental ball and insidious, quietly humming systems overseas. I’m all for it. I’ll take in any day over the impoverished, hooverville post-Jordan “era” (but God help me, I enjoyed those days of true fans and lumbering, lovable, fallible big men who weren’t easily marketed). But what kind of golden age are we talking about here? In these times of economic hardship, I don’t need to remind you that yellow brick roads lead to translucent cities of green. Me? I’m not seeing it as a golden age in any terms but talent. There are still way too many questions left to be answered about this era. We still need to see what Stern pulls out from behind that curtain.
The first issue that needs rectification? Bad guys. Okay, this is sports we’re talking about. Guys who actually do detestable things (Michael Vick and Stephon Marbury come to mind) are not entertaining, they are the crusty underside we try to ignore. No, what I’m talking about is Hulk Hogan, Clubber Lang style bad guys. Larger than life “villains” who incite vitriol in the hearts of fans. This is what creates real rivalries, not these trumped up standings fights that see players patting each other’s tuckuses. See, bad guys have no shortage of their own following. That’s the whole point of a sports “bad guy.” To be polarizing. They’re not the face of evil. They’re just the face of that which you most strive to overcome. And it helps to see that they’re sometimes human. Ivan Drago goes down as one of the best sports movie villains (check that?) of all time because of one line. Drago says, “He is not human.” And in that moment, Drago reveals himself as human and allows the hero to transcend.
Look at the Jordan era. There were so many “bad guys.” I mean, if you were an objective fan, you’d be hard pressed to pick out a “good” guy to root for. But that’s the point. There’s no such thing (or, there should be no such thing) as an objective fan. You want sports to stir you up. And it’s much easier to pick out something to root against than it is to pick something to fight for.
I think it was healthy for the NBA too. Players couldn’t move around so much, because the fan bases were too rabid. Man, in those days, dudes were going to war. Jordan was of course the ultimate, dictatorian bad guy (Only after the fact do you realize glory despite its painful ramifications for your home team). Look at the following list of players and answer this question: you want any of them coming over for a nice dinner with the fam? Unless they play for your home team, I’m guessing the answer is “no.” Shawn Kemp (and Gary Payton, to a lesser extent. All these Ahabs have a Ishmael to their credit), Patrick Ewing/Charles Oakley/John Starks, Reggie Miller, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone. I mean, these guys were out there, tearing dudes’ heads off. They were vicious! Who we got leading the league now? Dwight Howard. Dwayne Wade. Chris Bosh. James ‘Bron. The new and improved Mamba. (a Tarantino appropriated nick name? c’mon! Guys is straight suburbs in the aughts.)
Y’know what, this whole fucking media culture is so diluting. Shit like the jabbawockeez is such played out, fluffed up “street slang” posited to move products. Larry Johnson ain’t changing to move products. NBA players used to be heady, street critics. At least that’s what I used to believe. Maybe Iverson was the last scion. Lebron would’ve been a terror if he’d come into the league with Jordan era “sensibilities.” Michael Jordan created a brand that was highly marketable. But he did it without losing his viciousness. Is it any wonder Lebron has problems moving units? Sure his jersey sells. But nobody buys his shit because street kids ain’t wanna be Posh ‘Bron. They don’t want to be any of those Lebrons on the commercial. All they want is to be that wicked, my face is more unbreakable than the pyramids and I’m bringing hell fire on your rim ‘Bron. I want to see that guy marketed. I need to see that guy marketed.
Stats say the league is more popular than it ever has been. Okay, some stats. But I bring them up so I can refute them. They’re obviously trumped up by new means of deriving such numbers. Fuck that. People were glued in the 90s. People were glued in the 80s too. You think you wanted to bring McHale or Laimbeer home with you? Not based on their court demeanor, my friends.
There’s a glimmer of hope. I think we’re lost for this season. But I want to see something happen. I want to see a change. Forget getting all roots revival on this, I want to amp up the geekiness of NBA players. If we’re not going to see a rebirth of the NBA villain, let’s see the opposite. Guys that are so squeaky clean that they actually become the antithesis of “cool” and make heretofore aspects of NBA characters the new marketable. Homoeroticism is always good (see: Dwight Howard & the recent dunk contest lollapaloozas), but it’s never going to be enough. Here are my torch bearers. I want Kevin Durant on a different team. Does his rookie contract end in 2010? He should go to the Knicks. I don’t care. He needs to be killing teams. He needs to go off for 50 like every single night. And he needs to be the Duncan ineffable but slightly less affable so that we can really start to hate him. I don’t know. He’s the old fashioned hope. The new hope is that we get the uberdorks out. Let’s play up Krypto-Nate’s halo obsession. And bring out Andrew Bynum’s. Brook Lopez at comics conventions. These are guys who can and will pwn you, so let ‘em. Please. Don’t talk to me about Bosh as hyper-techno-savvy unless he’s going uber, supernova savvy complete with Slate rss feed and WoW avatar.
To beat a dead horse: Agent Zero was really the savior savant. He put athlete blogging on the map. Okay, I don’t need to recant the caricature that became his personality. Or was it a personality that became a caricature? But look at it this way. If we’re waiting to see what marketing guru Stern pulls out from behind that curtain, we’ve already lost the war. Because what does it mean? It means that Tin ‘Bron, Straw Dwayne, and the “lions” Dwight and Chris don’t get a heart, a head, courage. No. They’re just what they seem to be. Prima donnas who are afraid to be the bad guy the NBA so desperately needs. And the man at the end of the yellow brick road? Well, if it’s Stern, then that means there is no Wizard to solve all our problems, to drop a 61 point house on our workaday witches. No, just a smaller than average man pulling all the strings.
Here’s hoping for next season. I hear Hibachi’s on the mend.
In bi-weekly installments, OtB brings you a long-form joint re: NBA and its ontological extension unto all of sport. Epochrypha: writings or statements of questionable authorship or authenticity, but always impassioned and always with an eye on the times we're spectating in. Enjoy.
Y’know what, this whole fucking media culture is so diluting. Shit like the jabbawockeez is such played out, fluffed up “street slang” posited to move products. Larry Johnson ain’t changing to move products. NBA players used to be heady, street critics. At least that’s what I used to believe. Maybe Iverson was the last scion. Lebron would’ve been a terror if he’d come into the league with Jordan era “sensibilities.” Michael Jordan created a brand that was highly marketable. But he did it without losing his viciousness. Is it any wonder Lebron has problems moving units? Sure his jersey sells. But nobody buys his shit because street kids ain’t wanna be Posh ‘Bron. They don’t want to be any of those Lebrons on the commercial. All they want is to be that wicked, my face is more unbreakable than the pyramids and I’m bringing hell fire on your rim ‘Bron. I want to see that guy marketed. I need to see that guy marketed.
To beat a dead horse: Agent Zero was really the savior savant. He put athlete blogging on the map. Okay, I don’t need to recant the caricature that became his personality. Or was it a personality that became a caricature? But look at it this way. If we’re waiting to see what marketing guru Stern pulls out from behind that curtain, we’ve already lost the war. Because what does it mean? It means that Tin ‘Bron, Straw Dwayne, and the “lions” Dwight and Chris don’t get a heart, a head, courage. No. They’re just what they seem to be. Prima donnas who are afraid to be the bad guy the NBA so desperately needs. And the man at the end of the yellow brick road? Well, if it’s Stern, then that means there is no Wizard to solve all our problems, to drop a 61 point house on our workaday witches. No, just a smaller than average man pulling all the strings.
