| 05 May 2009
Forget Christmas, this is the most wonderful time of the year.
Flowers are blooming, baseball season is underway and that pesky swine flu, which has been all the rage the past week, is finally in check (I can’t wait to re-read this article some time in 2011 and get nostalgic about the swine flu. It sure was a crazy week).
But with all that, there’s another reason to be excited: the NBA playoffs.
Gone are the has been’s (Pistons) and never were’s (Philadelphia). The same with the soon-to-be’s (Bulls) and maybe someday’s (Portland).
And with it, we have eight super-exciting, supremely fun basketball teams left, vying for the 2009 NBA Championship. And seven great reasons to watch.
1. These Teams Are Inherently Fun To Watch:
Look around. Besides the clearly entertaining Celtics, Lakers and Cavaliers, you’ve got the Nuggets, Hawks, Mavs, Rockets and Magic left. Name me one boring team among those eight!
There’s teams that play fast (Denver, Boston, L.A.), others that prefer the half court (Houston, Orlando) and others that are in between (Cleveland, Dallas).
There are bona-fide superstars both new (LeBron, Carmelo, Dwight Howard) and old (Dirk, Kobe, Jason Kidd, Paul Pierce), evil foreigners (Pau Gasol) and a few guys you’d be afraid to see on a dark street corner (sorry we’re talking to you J.R. Smith and Chris Anderson).
If you’re a fan of basketball, there is nothing you would want to see that you couldn’t find in these final eight teams.
And while we’re on the subject who is there, let’s also mention who’s not: San Antonio and Detroit.
The first is selfish superstars like Tracy McGrady, Vince Carter and Stephon Marbury, who seemed to care more about what was at the post-game spread than actually winning basketball games. During the early part of this decade, it seemed like the league was filled with guys like this, ones whose sole interests were cashing their paychecks and ending up on MTV’s Cribs, rather than actually winning an NBA Championship.
The next, and just as important, is that the teams that actually did have players who cared about winning, were borrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrring to watch.
I know, I know I’m going to take heat from fans in San Antonio and Detroit, but it’s true. While these two teams played basketball the way it was supposed to be played- top-flight defense, efficient, yet unspectacular offense- nobody cared.
Look around now. You have LeBron making no look passes all over the place. Dwight Howard blocking shots six rows into the stands, and Ray Allen making shots with guys on him so tight, they should probably buy him dinner after the game.
This is fun. This is exciting. And it is bringing the casual fan back to basketball.
So regardless of who you’re rooting for, just enjoy the basketball that’s being played. There won’t be a boring second from here on out.
2. The Return of the Mohawk, or the Fo-Hawk, or Whatever The Kids Are Calling It These Days:
It used to be only soccer players, skateboarders, and the occasional odd-ball European tennis player sporting these things.
But a funny thing happened last fall. Joe Maddon and the Tampa Bay Rays brought them back to style, on their magically goofy run to the World Series.
And since then they’ve been popping up everywhere. They’re cooler than a trip to the strip club with Pac-Man Jones.
Just these playoffs alone I’ve seen Glen Davis of the Celtics Von Wafer from Houston and Boobie Gibson of Cleveland each sport very stylish fo-hawks.
I think Ron Artest has one too, but it’s hard to tell, with all the hieroglyphics he has shaved in his head (The detail and design on Artest’s head is so complex, I feel like I’m watching that Nic Cage movie, where if I can make sense of his haircut, I might be able to solve a 100-year-old murder mystery or something).
Regardless, it’s an exciting for the NBA and the accompanying hairdos. I just hope that somehow, they’re not breaking the league’s dress code.
Ron Artest's haircut was key to the Rockets Game 1 victory
over the Lakers
3. Yao Ming, the Quote Machine:
Speaking of Artest and the Rockets, did you hear Yao Ming after the Game 1 win?
While not quite Charles Barkley or Don Imus, Ming showed a sense of humor and more importantly, a pulse when addressing the media.
In response to a reporters question about the Rockets being an underdog in this series, Ming responded: “Well that’s a word I just learned a couple days ago.”
After a nice chuckle from the assembled media, Ming had the foresight to pause for dramatic effect, before adding in his deep, practically in-audible voice, “It’s just like the NBA says: Where Amazing Happens!”
It was arguably the funniest thing ever spouted from the mouth of someone 7’6 or taller.
And if the NBA really can get Yao to loosen up and joke a little, then it really is the place where “Amazing Happens.”
4. The Atlanta Hawks:
They’re zany. They’re crazy. Like a puppy off a leash, you never know what they’re going to do and what they’re capable of.
Joe Johnson taking-and making- a 30-foot three, why not? Josh Smith trying to put the ball between his legs on a dunk during a game, sure. Playing a seven game series with the Heat in which no game was decided by less than 10 points. It’s like Jermaine Dupri once said, “Welcome to Atlanta.”
They’re so exciting and mysterious I’m currently working on an article just about them (check back at www.aarontorres-sports.com) that I’ll be publishing Thursday.
And although they won’t beat the Cavaliers, they’ll make every second of every game interesting.
5. The Denver Nuggets Setting a DiMaggio-esque record For Combined Team Tattoos:
I haven’t seen a collection of individuals with this much body art since the second season of Oz. If you took a count, this one would have been as one-sided as LeBron’s MVP vote.
Look at the Nuggets roster: J.R. Smith. Chris Anderson. Kenyon Martin. Carmelo Anthony. That’s 4/5 of the All-Star team right there.
(Chris Anderson's tattoos are reason enough
to tune into Denver's games)
And while Martin’s overall performance might be topped by Anderson and Smith, the red pair of lips he’s got on his neck will certainly make him a first ballot Hall of Famer. You know if there was a Hall of Fame for such things.
And while all the hype is in Denver, there is one guy who is putting on his own incredible one man performance back East.
That’s right, we didn’t forget about you Mr. Stephon Marbury. Your company emblem in ink on the side of your head is nothing short of marketing genius. I don't know how no one else thought of this first.
6. Aaron Brooks:
Brooks looks as much like an NBA player as I do (and he’s got the same snazzy first name to match).
Listed at 6’0 and 161 lbs., Brooks may be even smaller than that. And when the Rockets traded away previous starter Rafter Alston at the deadline and inserted Brooks into the starting line-up, many- myself included- assumed they had little chance at doing much damage in this year’s playoffs.
But after playing good but not great basketball over the last part of the season, Brooks emerged as a bona-fide threat, saving his best for the playoffs.
In the Rockets first round win against the much ballyhooed Portland Trailblazers, there was Brooks, slicing and dicing, scoring double-digits in five of the six games. Not to mention playing over 30 minutes in all but one contest, after only getting that much burn in three of Houston’s last 12 regular season games.
And in Game 1 Monday night against the Lakers, Brooks was a blur, going from end-to-end, getting to the basket whenever he needed, and finishing in the lane against L.A.’s huge frontline of Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom.
Brooks finished with 19 points on 7-14 shooting, and his team went into the Staples Center and stole Game 1.
It remains to be seen whether the Rockets can keep up with the Lakers over seven games. Should they win this series however, it will be in large part due to the smallest guy on the court.
7. The Crowning of the King:
As I mentioned in the first paragraph, NBA stars in the early part of this decade were about as fun to root for as Shooter McGavin in the movie Happy Gilmore.
You had the classic guys who didn’t care about winning, McGrady (who has still yet to win a playoff series), Carter and Marbury. Other players that we have grown to like, but at one point in their careers were vilified. Remember the Kobe rape trial? How about Jason Kidd’s domestic abuse charges? And the guy who won the most during that era, Tim Duncan, was a great, if not boring player.
So there you have the NBA. Disinterested, delinquent and dull. It’s like Yao said, “The NBA: Where Amazing Happens!!!”
Luckily for everyone affiliated with the NBA, LeBron stepped into the league in 2003 and there hasn’t been a dull moment since.
For one LeBron is beyond a superstar, and absolutely nothing short of otherworldly. He has the handle of a point guard, athleticism of an Olympian and the build of a linebacker. He is one of the top two or three passers in the game, and his jumpshot is ever improving. But you’ve already read about all of that.
Most importantly though, LeBron “gets it.”
He’s a great teammate on the court, but understands the big picture off of it as well.
When was the last time you saw LeBron in trouble with the law, or sneaking through the backdoor of a club with a girl that isn’t his wife? The worst thing we can honestly pin on LeBron is a speeding ticket he got about a year or so ago. No he wasn’t drunk, didn’t have drugs in his car and didn’t have his kids in the front seat. Just going a little too fast in the wrong place, at the wrong time. The way LeBron’s career arc is going, he was probably on his way to a church picnic when he got pulled over.
And with LeBron, a new era of super likeable superstars has been ushered in, with James being the face of all of them. Just since LeBron has come into the league, we’ve added Chris Paul, Dwight Howard, Dwyane Wade, Deron Williams, Kevin Durant and Brandon Roy.
There isn’t a bad a bad apple among those guys, and not a single E! True Hollywood Story that will ever be produced on the group either.
On Monday, James was named the MVP of the league, in a race that wasn’t even close. And quite honestly he deserved it.
We all knew he had transcendent talent, when he was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2003 draft. This was the first year he finally put it all together, and a major reason why the Cavaliers are one of the favorites to win the NBA title.
If you tune into these playoffs for one reason, and one reason only do it to watch LeBron. He’s got every personality you’d ever want from a superstar, with the talent to match.
Photo credit: http://dimemag.com/2009/05/the-power-of-ron-artests-haircuts/ http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0atP5Bh5bjdY1/340x.jpg
