Friday, June 29, 2012

The 25 best ever players in the NBA not named Michael Jordan (#15-11)

The top 15, oooohhhh...exciting:
15. John Havlicek- I could just say 8 championships and leave it, but here's a guy that was one of the best perimeter defenders in the league and also dropped 25 a game. That's the kind of stuff 'You Know Who' did but of course 'You Know Who' did it at a higher level. He was clutch and he continued winning AFTER he played with Russell, Cousy and Sam Jones, now that's getting it in.

Why He's Not Higher: When researching Hondo, I can't help but think about what Sport Illustrated said about him in the 60's 'He was 6'5 and was too strong for guards and too quick for big guys' ... um that's how a lot of point guards are built today, and that to me says that he played in a different era. Now with that being said, I think that Hondo could have easily played and excelled in todays game but maybe not to the same level in his era. Lastly, his 1st seven years, he was the 6th man and even though he played big minutes he didn't really start to dominate until he moved into the starting line up and out of the eight championships he won, he was the MVP in the finals only once, never was a regular season MVP and I couldn't see him ever carrying a team like this next guy did ...

14. Moses Malone single-handedly made his team a championship contender. He played with sub-par talent and still dominated. He was easily the best offensive rebounder in the history of the NBA. In his prime he was good for 27 pts and 15 boards while averaging an insane 7 offensive rebounds a game. He took a 40-42 Houston Rocket team to the NBA finals which is more impressive than Lebron James taking the Cleveland Cavaliers to the finals in '07, cause the Cavs were swept by the Spurs that year and the Rockets took the Celtics to 6 games. When he went to the Sixers it was HIS team not Dr. J's, and he dismantled Kareem Abdul Jabbar in sweeping the Lakers for their only championship. Plain and simple Moses dominated the paint like few others.

Why he's not higher: I get why he didn't win with the Rockets. Playing with Robert Reid, Calvin Murphy and Mike Dunleavy will not get you a championship but that '83 Sixers team was talked about as being possibly the greatest of all time and yet the following year they were bounced in the 1st round and never even returned back to the finals. Moses still put up quality numbers but 18 years in the league and only 2 NBA finals appearances is unacceptable.

13. I really go back and forth between 13 and 12. In Bill Simmons 'The Book of Basketball', he has them flip flopped but it's all about how you choose to nitpick and I say Jerry West is my 13th best NBA baller ever. He lit Mofo's up. He averaged more points in the playoffs than the regular season and that's hard to do. He was 1st team NBA 10 times and all defensive 4 times. The only player to be the MVP of the finals on a losing team, he shot at a really good percentage .475 from the field and .81 from the FT. If you are #13 on any list you better bring it and he Mr. Clutch was un-guard-able.

Why he's not higher: There really is not much bad to say about West except that he only won one championship, sadly he played those juggernaut Celtics team and until he teamed up with Wilt he couldn't get it done. That and for some odd reason he was never a regular season MVP. However after reading about his f**ked up childhood I came really close to moving him ahead of Mr. Triple double himself...

12. In his 1st 3 years Oscar robertson averaged roughly 30 points, 11 rebs and 10 ast... yep that's a triple double. While we go ape shit over someone getting a triple double in this day and age, The Big O averaged one for his 1st 3 years in the league. Just from a statistical perspective The Big O could make a case for being the best player ever. He played with less talent than West and it's been well documented that the Big O had to deal with extreme racism and that gives him the slight edge over Mr. Clutch. Yes Racism trumps an abusive father when rating the best players ever.

Why he's not higher: He only had mediocre success in the playoffs and his only championship came was when he played second fiddle to Lew Alcindor. (Notice how I referred to Kareem as both Kareem and Lew, that's called being historically accurate). If you want to be in my top 10 you gotta have more than one ring which is exactly why this next guy stands at...

11. When the playoffs started I had Lebron James at number #20, before the finals I had moved him up to number 16 and after the finals he slid safely into the 11th spot. A lot of people think Lebron is some kinda Magic-Jordan hybrid. I personally think that he's #17 squared. He does everything but close out games and after this year you can now start to argue that point. His playoff performance this year was one for the ages. He's a 3 time MVP and in a few years I expect him to be higher on this list. He's already one of the five best regular season players ever, taking mediocre teams to 60 win seasons. How he feels out his playoff resume will ultimately define where his legacy will stand but this year was a great start.

Why he's not higher: This year doesn't totally erase his last year finals performance. He was the main reason they lost. I said it once and I'll say it again, the only player on both teams that didn't play like they played all season in that Mavs-Heat Finals was King James, that and his uneven performances in the playoffs the previous 2 years means he 's still got work to do before he cracks the top 10.

Coming Monday the most difficult to rate #10-6

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

The 25 best players to ever play in the NBA not named Michael Jordan (20-16)


As I make this list out, the differences between who's better between players 20 and 16 are minute, so you really have to nitpick their games and even though I may say some negative things about them, they are all great players and being in the top 25 in anything is amazing, now let's get it on:

20. Oh he was a ground breaker for sure, no one could fill up a stat sheet like Elgin Baylor, 27+ ppg, 13+ rpg. he scored 61 points in a championship game. Those numbers in essence are much like Karl malone, you can't really justify that he's not 1 of the top 25 to ever lace 'em up. From reading books and looking him up on the internet, I found he was the 1 guy every one feared the most in the league, much like Barry sanders, much like Allen Iverson...

Why he's not higher:
This is just my philosophy, if I could see anyone play in the NBA, Allen Iverson without question, would undoubtedly be in my top 5, but if I wanted to win a championship, no way Iverson evens sniff my list. I see Baylor as a better version of Iverson. If you are gonna score 30 points a game and shoot less than 43% from the field, I have a hard time believing that's an ingredient to winning a championship. Maybe you had the misfortune of going against an awesome Celtics Dynasty so did Malone, Barkley and Ewing when they went against Jordan and Pippen. Plus you had Jerry West who is top 15 all time AND when you retired your team won an NBA record 35 straight games. I can't except that Elgin Baylor couldn't get at least 1 championship. Yes I think 8 championship appearances is amazing and no i do not hold your GM duties with the Clippers against you.

19. And here's another reference to Allen Iverson; no he's not the 19th best player ever but he could have been, his agents, his homies, his momma, Steven A. Smith,  somebody should have sat that man down and made him watch every game Isaiah thomas played. Zeke could have easily been A. I. if he so chose. He could score in bunches, nobody could stay in front of him and he went to the rack with reckless abandon, but Thomas was different, he embraced being a point guard if someone else had the hot hand he fed them and fed them, his own  points be damned. He made everybody on his team better,led the Bad Boys to 2 'Chips and gave Magic and Bird fits while toughening up the Bulls so much that MJ refused to play with him on the Dream team (allegedly). Besides Magic is there any point guard you would rather have than Isaiah? Nope

Reason why he's not higher: Isaiah was really the beneficiary of having being assembled a great team and a great coach. Isaiah would have been great under any team or coach but i'm not sure he would have been championship great. That team was built on defense and they were nine deep, Isaiah was the catalyst no doubt, but he really had a great 4 year run and then kinda disappeared after his last championship, swept by the Bulls, robbed off the Olympic Team, ruptured achilles and then done. Let's not forget lastly how I feel about little guards, they really need to be strong at the other 4 positions to maximize their effectiveness, shooter at the wings to open up penetration lanes, solid big men to have a post presence and the ability to protect the lanes with bigger guards constantly posting the little fellas up. In essence if you are going to build your team around a small point guard you have to have a more complete  team unlike this next dude....

18. There were 4 times I went back and forth about where I rank players Elgin and Doc was one Isaiah, Kevin Garnett and #17 were 2, KG could arguably be higher if he weren't locked in a basement for most of his career (meaning being stuck playing for the Minnesota Timberwolves) consider this, whenever KG had good to great talent around him they played at a championship level. As soon as he got Sam Cassell and Latrell Sprewell (who are by no means hall of famers) they made it to the Western conference championship and gave a Shaq and Kobe led Laker team all it could handle until Cassell got hurt. When paired with Ray Allen and Paul Pierce he led his team to a ring, got hurt the next year and the Celtics lost in the second round, he returned the following year and they went back to the finals before losing in 7 games, two years later at the age of 37 he was pushing Lebron James to a game 7 in the Eastern Conference Finals. Defensively he's one of the 10 best to ever play and if KG had this kinda team in his prime he would've been sitting on 3 championships.

Why he's not higher: cause well he's number 18 and that's pretty high and the fact remains he only won one championship and that's a lot less than 6...

17. I love, love, love, this next guy. This is my man crush of all sport man crushes. I'm not gonna mention his name and I know a lot of peeps are gonna laugh that this pick as waayyy too high. Well here's my case:
Imagine if you played in some futuristic league where you were an assistant GM and the GM told you, 'hey we are putting together a championship team and we can have any player we want from the NBA, 17 players are already gone we need to take someone who should we take

Asst: What if I told you there's a guy out there that won 6 championships scored about 20 pts a game grabbed a grip of rebs, led his team in dimes and routinely guarded the best player on the other team?

GM: Intriguing, what position did he guard?

Asst: That's just it, these are the players that he guarded at one point or another, Grant Hill, Magic johnson, Dominique Wilkins, Charles Barkley, James Worthy, Mark Jackson, Karl Malone, Penny Hardaway, Greg Anthony and John Stockton, that's 4 different positions and he locked them all up. If defense win championships why not take the best perimeter defender the game has ever seen?

GM: I know who you're referring to but he never won anything without 'you know who'.

Asst: Well 'you know who' didn't win without him either. However I would like you to consider that the year 'you know who' retired the 1st time, they replaced him with Pete Myers arguably the worst starting 2 guard in the NBA at that time, their second best player Horace Grant sat out games in droves cause he didn't want to get hurt and ruin his chances to get a fat contract the next year, and our guy still led his team to a 55-27 team which is just 2 games worse than the previous year of 57-25 when they had 'you know who'. Also consider that If referee Hue Hollins didn't call one of the single worse calls in the the history of the NBA playoffs he very well could have one won without him.

GM: What else you got?

AssT: that 1st dream team, everyone knew that 'you know who" was the best player but after the games and practice he was generally consider the best or second best player along with Charles Barkley

GM: I'm starting to warm up to him, but I know he couldn't take games over late when his team needed baskets.

Asst: True, but if the guy took over during crunch time then we would be talking about one of the top 5 to ever play. That's the only real significant hole in his game and he wasn't awful at it he just wasn't a prime time scorer. You have to keep in mind that the team he took over was built for You Know Who, he maybe the only superstar who never had a team built around his specific skill set.

GM: What about that Portland Trail Blazer team he was on?

Asst: Once again true, but at the time he was 33 years old and played in more games than anyone had during the last 8 years and was also coming off of major ankle and major back surgery, that team was super talented but highly dysfunctional and lacked the kinda coach to reign them in and they still almost beat a team that had 2 of the 10 best players to ever play.

GM: OK, OK why isn't he ranked higher

Asst: Well you already pointed them out, he couldn't take over games very well offensively, so a really good defensive team would give him problems, especially in the 4th quarter where you generally like your superstars to shine, I think the biggest reason why is that he was a below average free throw shooter hovering around 70% and he lacked a go to move so those 2 things going along with being a second banana most of his career keeps him out of the top 15

GM: I'm sold, a couple of quality scorers on his team and guys willing to play defense should make us a very good team.

Asst: No, No,... Make us a great team!!!

16. "Elvis was a hero to most but he never meant shit to me, he was straight out racist, the sucka was simple and plain, mutha fuck him and Bob Pettit"... ? It may very well be true that Pettit did not want any black teammates but I'm not picking an all social team here, I gotta pick the best of the best, and he averaged 26 and 16, won a 'chip, twice voted MVP over players like Chamberlain, Cousy, Baylor, and Russell. Played 11 years, 1st team all NBA 10 years, 2nd team once. I don't care what era you play in those are impressive numbers.

Why he's not higher: Well maybe I care a little bit, back then the league was to small and clearly it didn't have enough diversity. Plus he only played 11 years that's not a lot and like I said earlier you gotta nitpick these cats and he was just nitpicked!

Coming up soon, #'s 15-11



Monday, June 25, 2012

The Best 25 players to ever play in the NBA not named Micheal Jordan (25-21)


It had to be done, I couldn't let it go by any longer. Any basketball junkie has a list, mostly with prejudice that has all sort of emotional baggage to justify the players they like. We all do it, whether it be ranking a player to high, cause we had some emotional attachment to the way they played(ie Scottie Pippen) or not quite giving it up to a player that has rubbed you the wrong way for some reason or another (ie Kobe Bryant). So why would I, a writer of the most underrated sports blog around and a true hoops philosopher not have a top 25 list of the best players to ever lace them up? I agree it dosen't make sense.

1st of all MJ is the best player to ever play there is no need to argue it, it's just the way it is.There is no reason to explain his greatness it's wasted words.  If you disagree with MJ being number 1, stop reading this right now because you also think that Brett Farve is the best QB of all time, Babe Ruth would have sucked if they allowed black players in the league and you can't understand why Soccer is not bigger than the NFL.

Here are a couple of more things to consider: If you have a best of basketball list and you have not read Bill Simmon's The Book of Basketball you are cheating yourself. This in my opinion is the most knowledgeable and insightful sports book ever written and though I can't argue the logic of the Sports Guy's best ever list I do disagree with his order. When compiling the list I only considered 1 factor, if i wanted to win an NBA title which player would give me the best chance to do it, period. So with that rule in place and the fact that in the last 30 years except for the 2004 Detroit Pistons who played a highly dysfunctional Shaq/Kobe/Malone/Payton squad no team has won an NBA championship without being led by at least 1 superstar, 1st team, no brainer, Hall of Famer. Which prompted me to install rule #2 if you have not won an NBA championship that automatically disqualified you from being in my top 15 (Think Lebron James)

So without further Adieu here's number 25-21:
25. Dirk Nowitzki just squeaked past Bob Cousy mostly because other than Isaiah Thomas no little guard has led his team to win a championship in the last 30+ years. I just believe that a little man can't be the best player on the team and win a championship and I will give you Chris Paul as an example of a guy who will year in and year out prove my point, cause no one runs a better point guard than Mr. Paul, but his size will keep him from a title, so sorry Couz, Dirk's 2011 playoff run was one for the ages. It justified a career that up until then he came up  up small when his team really needed him. Not until Dirk started putting the ball down and taking it to the hole, did I ever consider Dirk a legit crunch time player. I don't care that his jump shot is one of the sweetest that these lovely brown eyes has ever seen(seriously in 8th grade I was voted prettiest eyes that kinda thing doesn't just leave you) Teams can live with a jump shot at the end of the game rather than penetrating the lane with the chance of drawing a foul or getting double teamed and kicking it to an open shooter, Dirk starting doing that and with his 7'0 frame and incredible skill set, Miami found out that is a hard thing to stop.

The reason he's not higher:
Dirk's 2011 performance doesn't completely eliminate his 2006 choke job in the NBA finals against Miami, followed by his best record in basketball only to be taken out in the 1st round by an 8th seeded Golden State team composed of 6'5 guys guarding him and lots of other playoff disappearing acts to go along with his subpar defensive skills and one of the worse encore performances to a championship run in quite some time. I better stop before i switch Cousy back in here.

24. Charles Barkley had an incredible 5 year run where he averaged about 26 points and 12 boards a game all the while carrying a pretty mediocre team, and the term mediocre is probably a stretch, no way those teams were even close to the playoffs without Barkley and this is not factoring in his 1st year in Phoenix where he had a monster season and showed how tough he could be when he had talent. The fact that he was only 6'4 made him a match up nightmare, in a reverse Dirk kind of way. If you put someone smaller on him he was too powerful, someone shorter than him he was quicker and still probably too powerful.  No doubt, during his peak he was a top 15 kinda player...

The reason he's not higher: his peak wasn't long enough. Not that he was ever a bad player but in my opinion Barkley never made anyone better. he wasn't a great defender and his being 6'4 and absorbing the punishment he took I'm sure wore him down quicker than other star players. If I had those 6 years from Barkley and had paired him with another star I would have felt good about my chances with him but ultimately thats not enough to move him in front of this guy...

23.If I had Charles Barkley at his absolute best or Karl Malone at his absolute best I would take Barkley in a heartbeat. But that's not how I rank them. When you talk about consistency Karl Malone was a 27-11 guy year in and year out. The greatness in Karl Malone lies in the fact that when all of his peers got old and their played suffered, Malone still played at a high level. He was an above average defender who had a dominant mid-range game and maxed out on his strengths, you woulda thunk he would have had deeper playoff runs...

Why he's not higher: It's like I said earlier Karl Malone's greatness lied in the fact that he played at a high level when his peers, Barkley, a fat Shawn Kemp, Olajuwon, Ewing, Drexler all got old. He didn't start consistently having deep playoff runs until year 11 in his career. How many times did Karl Malone in his playoff career pull off an upset cause he was like I will not be denied? I can't remember any. Jordan's last run with the Bulls, who missed clutched free throws, Malone! Whose name did Bill Walton keep yelling at after he was in the process of going 7-17 from the field 5-9 from the free throw line with only 7 rebs as his team was tied 2-2 in the finals against the Bulls in '97, with the game... IN UTAH, Malone! Who did MJ steal the ball from before he hit his series winning shot in against in the 98 finals...MALONE!!! I can't deny his numbers, but I can deny that Malone would give me a better chance at winning an NBA title than these other 22 players

22. No one talks bout how incredibly skillful Rick Barry was, because one, he dominated in the 70's and the 70's was not exactly the NBA's heyday and secondly he was a dick. I remember 1 time calling when he was on NBA radio and I had him backed into a corner as he was trying to explain why Pete Maravich wasn't a one trick pony but Dennis Rodman was, you can always tell when someone's a dick when you have them backed into a corner and he hangs up on you, or that time when he was complaining that no team wanted to give him a chance to coach, or the time when he was not speaking to his kids blah, blah, blah. The dude averaged 23 pts 6.5 boards and 5 dimes that's impressive stuff and he was an all time great free throw shooter who played decent defense all the while leading his team to a championship and a runner-up did Barkley and Malone ever do that? Plus you gotta give it up for a guy that gizzed out 3 NBA kids

Why he's not higher:
The 70's in the NBA is arguably the worst decade for any of the 3 major sports. His attitude would have been hard to win with consistently and he left the NBA for the ABA, not the other way around. Who does that? Plus he gizzed out 3 mediocre kids in the NBA. Joe Bryant played in the NBA and had 1 kid that turned out better than all 3 of them combined.

21.Iconically speaking Dr. J is one of the top 5 players to ever play the game. He was the man before Magic and bird came along. Those massive hands and freakish athleticism made Dr. J a phenomenon. In a way, The Doc was unlucky, his best years were probably in the ABA where he was unstoppable but the league was too gimmicky and clearly the second tier in basketball. Dr. J being the considered the best player in basketball at that time was like considering Herschel walker of the USFL the best running back in football, plausible but not likely. Then even though he played with some very underrated 76er teams he had to go up against Bird AND Magic every year. it's one thing to beat one of them but to have to win beating both of them in the same season was a tall order.

Why he's not higher: Look I love me some Dr. J, but his jump shot was mediocre at best, he wasn't a great defender or ball handler. His team choked a 3-1 series lead to Boston and almost choked up another before winning 4-3. At home against the Lakers when the Lakers were without Kareem, down 3 games to 2 you would have thought that Doc would have been like I'm about drop 40 on these Mofo's but nope he got dropped off for 42 by a rookie named Magic Johnson. His only championship happened cause Moses Malone came alongand Doc got to be second fiddle which is exactly the kind of role he probably should have been in his whole career. Doc was always good for 25 points but when your whole game is built around your ability to score he didn't have enough I'm about to drop 40 on these Mofo's to move into my top 20!

All Hail King James

Not only did Lebron James win his 1st NBA title but he won it exactly the way he needed to win to silence most of his critics. A dominating playoff run, clearly outplaying the second best player in the league and culminating it with a championship ending triple double that showcased his tremendous skill set. I admit even though I picked the heat to win, I was a Lebron critic, it was hard not to be after his mental collapse against the Mavericks last year. Did he silence me? No cause I gotta blog to write and my blogs speak volumes son! I could have released a blog with a title "Lebron wins his 1st championship" and then left the blog completely blank, but then everyone would have said 'hey man I couldn't pull up your blog'.

Straight kudos homie!!! You could argue that his playoff performance was just as good if not better than Dirk's performance last year, any of MJ's (I know this is borderline blasphemy), Bird's, Magic's or anyone else's name you want to stick in there during the modern era. Game 3 on the road they are down 2-1 against Indiana he drops 40 and 18, game 6 on the road, down 3-2 against the Celtics he drops a highly efficient 45 (ok, I just thought about MJ's 56 he put on the Knicks in game 4 of the '93 eastern Conference finals, so maybe not quite MJ, sorry Mike) and finally, he dominated 4 straight games and held the best scorer in the league in check with some borderline Scottie Pippen defense, leaving absolutely no doubt about who the best player in the league is. 30 points, 10 boards and 7 ast a game in the finals is legendary stuff boo!

If you're a conspiracy theorist, I would argue that it didn't make sense for the NBA to officiate the finals so 1-sided against the Thunder. The NBA like any big business is all about dollars, so why ensure that the Heat would win in 5 games, when the ideal setting is to allow the series to prolong itself into 6 or 7 games creating a rating bonanza and making themselves a ton of loot? You could argue that the NBA wanted the heat to win but not in 5 games. However, the problem remains that too many times the officiating in the NBA has tainted the playoffs. I recently watched the Bulls 2nd championship series clincher over the Trail Blazers and now that i watched it unbiasedly, it was clear that it was one of the worst officiated games I have ever seen, as well as the Lakers-Sacramento from 2002, Mavericks-Heat '06 and now Heat-Thunder '12 can be added to the list. The only way to combat this is to hire an independent group outside of the NBA to grade the referees and make those grades public. If you truly want the NBA to mot be viewed as some scripted WWF bush league you gotta make the referees more accountable and that's on da fo real boo.

More random thoughts:
Only Dale Earnhardt Jr. can get 1 win in over 3 years and people talk about him being a legit contender for winning a championship. In the Finals, James Harden came up smaller than George Constanza in a swimming pool. The White Sox trading for Kevin Youklis and paying him only 2 million is way better than Detroit signing Prince fielder for $214 million, at least for this year anyway. I'm not as sold on Anthony Davis as everyone else is, every time I close my eyes I see Marcus Camby. Holy shit football season is right around the corner!!! Dueces 

Monday, June 11, 2012

What is a perfect father's day gift, NBA finals predictions and the quickest of takes on boxing

At the beginning of the season, I predicted the Heat would win the NBA championship over the Thunder 4-2. At the beginning of the playoffs I predicted that the Spurs would beat the Thunder in the Western Conference Finals only to lose to the Heat in the Finals 4-2. Logic being, the Thunder shoot way too many jump shots to consistently beat a championship caliber team. Well the Thunder do shoot a lot of jumpers but clearly not too many as they have proven to have the most potent offense in the NBA. Now its 2 teams with arguably the 2 best players in the league, winner takes all... you wanna get a good fathers day gift ladies?... leave, pack your shit up, take the kids and head to the in-laws for about a week and half, randomly showing up every other day for 20 minutes just to have sex and then leave again without saying a word(that part is very important) and once the finals buzzer sounds, return home with the kids and have business as usual.  That's the ultimate gift to a man, but sadly men, we know the results would be tragic if we asked for that, so when father's day does roll around make sure you smile at the new Grill Brush 2000 and the shitty sweater you're most likely to receive.

As I've watched the Heat this playoffs the biggest problem hasn't been the play of Lebron or Wade it's been the absence of Chris Bosh and sadly the coaching of Erik Spoelstra. For example if someone told me that Lebron James would score 31 points and Dwayne Wade would add 27 points, scoring 14 of them in the 4th quarter, I would say that's the perfect recipe for success for the Heat. Lebron takes over early and wade closes but nope they lost that game, why cause Celtic coach Doc Rivers coached circles around Spoelstra, constantly running a fast break clinic on Miami... ON MADE BASKETS. That should never happen, especially in a game 5 of a conference finals. Even without Chris Bosh the Heat shouldn't have to had gone 7 games with the Celtics, if Spoelstra dosen't make necessary in game adjustments the Heat are done in 5, cause yes i do question their mental toughness.

The Thunder was able to beat the Spurs cause they took away the one true advantage the Spurs had over everyone else, depth. The Spurs played 10 deep thru the entire season and into the playoffs, running teams ragged, but credit to Thunder coach Scott Brooks who made adjustments after being down 2 games and exposed the Spurs bench players. The Spurs then shortened their bench into a 7 or 8 man rotation and trust me boo you can't hang with the Thunder, and the 23 year old thoroughbreds they possess. If I was to have any team to take over as an owner in the NBA it would be hands down the Thunder. They have the best nucleus of players and they are all young. Which is for that reason I still take the Heat

The Heat has a greater sense of urgency and although we saw the Chosen One do this last year, play great in the Eastern Conference Finals only to completely disappear in the Finals, i believe he has turned the corner this year. I believe that as long as Lebron James and Dwayne Wade play the way they are capable of playing they win, period. I also believe that if the Heat does not win this year they will never win, turning into a version of the Buffalo Bills, mentally defeating themselves before the finals even begin. So once again I put all of my chips into Lebron's basket and his legacy, in which should be the 1st of at least 3 meetings between these 2 teams in the finals, trust me boo, barring injury it's going down. Heat 4-3

More random thoughts:
We on some level have to accept that as long as there's pay per view, boxing will always be somewhat like wrestling, an enterprise that is more focused on dollars than legitimacy. I truly believe that Ryan Braun used some kind of sport enhancing drug last year, however if I was him and wanted to prove that I wasn't, I would be having the season that he's having right now. Djokovic vs. Nadal is always must see TV. Can we stop referring to Dale Jr. as being in a slump and refer to him as a scrub. Tim Lincecum whenever you're ready to stop fucking my fantasy baseball team over let me know...personally!! Dueces