Dirty Dancing with a Gangsta Lean

Last night I took a "Fire Isiah" sign to the Raps/Knicks game. Now, this was my first experience taking a sign to a game, which I must say is fairly nerveracking. Most people take a sign to a game in an attempt to get on TV or the JumboTron, my sign was to make a statement. As I've mentioned before, I grew up a New York Knick fan, and while I have since changed my allegiances, I'll always be a little bit of a Knick fan at heart. They're a basketball institution, characterized by a hardnosed passionate style, embodied by players like Starks and Ewing and Oak and Mason and all the rest. I think its a crying shame whats happened to the franchise and am completely flabbergasted by the continued stagnation facilitated by the infamous Isiah Thomas. Anyhow, from my relatively close seats on the Knick bench side, my intention was to be noticed by 1) Isiah and 2) the press. I'm Isiah gets lipped to a certain degree in every city, but I would expect that he, and most American basketball fans would not expect such commentary from north of the border. I wanted it to be noted that the cancer that is Isiah Thomas resonates far beyond the insatiable New York media markets, something must be done. It is so uncannily apparent. Watching the huddle during timeouts there almost always was a somebody loosing their cool throwing a towel, or scowling and barking. The funny thing is they've got some pretty serious talent, they just can't play together. Plain and simple, its coaching, and if its not that its the General Manager who built the team, who ironically is also Isiah Thomas.

My sign was confiscated in the early second quarter. Apparently it was against "NBA security". I don't know what that means but I will know better for next time. I'm pretty sure a couple of the Knick Assistant coaches saw it.

How about the new guy? Didn't expect that at all. Apparently he's a gangster. He started out his NBA career in Indiana, I believe with the crew infamous for the "Malice in the Palace" and Rasho was saying that a big part of how your language develops is dependant on who your surrounded by. Apparently he addresses Sam as "gangsta". Of note is Michael Grange's comment that an Eastern Conference scout who spent a lot of time covering the Charlotte in the past couple of years said in response to the excitement surrounding the Slovenian Gangsta after the game: "He can’t sustain it. He’s not that good, first of all; and he’ll break down physically.” Also check out Granges convo with Brezec.

Near the end of the game the ACC played the Thriller video on the bigscreen, but edited in Bosh's face on MJ's and the rest of the guys on the other dancing zombies. I don't know what the occasion was but the crowd loved it, as did the Raps bench, all of which were watching and laughing during the timeout.

Delusions of Grandeur

What and extra-ordinary opportunity last night! Yesterday afternoon it was reported that Jason Kidd was to be traded to the Mavs for Devean George, Jerry Stackhouse and a handful of other pieces. This kept Kidd out of the line up against the Raps which left the Nets looking gawd-awfully pathetic. Carter mopped around the court the entire game. You could see it during the pregame, and when the players were announced the Nets looked totally lifeless. Obviously the trade means the franchise is giving up on its current structure and going in another direction. One could make a strong case that the Kidd move could be followed by a swap of malcontents Vince Carter for Jermaine O'Neal. Great deal for everybody really, maybe not for Vince, but who cares about him or his legacy anyways?


Anyhow, so the opportunity for the Raps was to deliver a final and fatal blow to a sworn divisional rival. While this rivalry is relatively young, it has relatively deep and significant roots. Sports rivalries tend to go on for years and years, trading victories and claims of superiority. But last night, assuming things will play out as I described above (which they likely won't - see below) the Raptors were faced with the unique chance to annialate their rival, effectively signal an official changing of the guard and new direction for both franchises. You could see that Jose understood the significance; he was fired up even late into the game with a comfortable lead. I would expect he's also got something to prove after throwing away that pass to Bosh in waning moments of game 6 as well.

That being said, I tend to try to convince myself of they best-case-scenario, or most dramatic plot twists, like the unbeaten Pats vs. the all-American Packers in the super bowl, or Jose the All-Star... speaking of which, if the Kidd deal were to go down, it opens a spot on the Eastern all-stars, which could theoretically sneak Jose in the back door. This, by the way, is precisely how I expected it to happen.

Oh, and it looks like the Kidd deal is getting kyboshed anyways, so sorry for wasting your time with my delusions of grandeur...

Oh, also, Agent Zero doesnt think Jose deserves all-star consideration. I like Arenas, he's the Kanye West of basketball, he just better keep backing his mouth up, or he'll fall off real quick.


Other notes: As I mentioned, Carter slouched around the court in his familiar manner. I predicted early on that he'd get fired up, tech'd up and tossed at one point. He did get fired up, tech'd up but despite his best efforts, was unable to get tossed, which would have been so sweet. I hope he goes to the Pacers and stagnates into nothingness.

Kudos to Jay Triano as the first Canadian head coach in the NBA...

Raps need to go 22-10 in the second half to get to 50 wins.

All-star festivities should be fun.

That is all

Go Raps!

Dunk Contest Preview

If you haven't seen Jamario's dunk contest preview yet, you should definitely check it out. Sorry about the link, click the link in Jamario's area for the video. Kinda feels like that Cloverfield movie.

Sweet ain't as sweet

TJ's back!

Mid morning there was talk that TJ Ford may dress in Miami, and then shortly after the Raps built a comfortable lead against a lethargic Heat team we had our first TJ Ford court appearance of 2008! And he looked good. He had a baseline cram to end the game! From what you hear from TJ, the team and his workout coach and mentor John Lucas, is that while he's back on the court, he's been working on tweaking his game to a more controlled level. Maybe that takes away from his explosiveness but I'm just glad he's back... truth be told, I had a sneaking suspicion that he may hang em up for good. Two bonafide point guards will round this team quite nicely, which is firing on all cylinders in case you hadn’t noticed.

All-Star reserves announced last week. Gotta say I'm very disappointed that Jose didn't make it. There had been a lot of talk around as to his consideration, which made me think that he was in fact flying above the radar and would in fact get voted in. I'm won't cite statistics or mention Jose's long list of intangibles, but what I will say is that Jose Calderon has played the point guard position this season for the Toronto Raptors with top-level efficiency. He makes very good decisions, shoots a high percentage and commits very few turnovers. He's a team leader and plays the game with passion from tip to buzzer. What else could you want in a point guard? That being said, it’s hard to make a case against the players selected above him, except for Richard Hamilton, who I hate... stupid mask. Better luck next year.

Anyhow, in other news the team continues to come into form. One on the most glaring blemishes (Barney the dinosaur) is getting his feet beneath him, with 5 good games out of the past six. With the all star break, a healthy rested team, and a kooshy schedule in the weeks to come, we can expect them to string a couple together.

A quick note on the Super Bowl. Unbelievable. Not necessarily the game itself (which was good), but the ultimate result of the season. I watched the Bears vs. the Giants earlier in the season, and I'm no Chris Collingsworth, but I know a little bit, and I remember thinking to myself: "this is not only the ultimate display of god-awful football, but also a showcasing of two of the worst quarterbacks to ever lace em up". With Tiki talking smack, the Strahan hold out, a jerk of a coach, Eli-freakin-Manning... wow! they had it all. I bet against the G-men every single week. It just goes to show you that just when you think something is for sure, in life, in sports, and most notably in the modern NFL, that the exact opposite tends to occur. Good on them though, congrats New York Football Giants. I can only imagine as a fan the highs and lows of the past season. The sweet isn’t as sweet without the sour.


Oh, also, CB4's up to his usual geeky antics on his website.


Go Raps!