Not in New Orleans, apparently.

The NBA: I guess it wouldn't be the playoffs without a whole bunch of controversy surrounding the officiating, and just think, we're only in the first round! After Tuesday's debacles which had the whole internets all atwitter over the Dwight Howard elbow and Rajon Rondo slap/punch, and the way the refs blew both calls, potentially costing the underdogs in those series the games (and maybe the series); the NBA followed up the reffing snafu with a partial front office snafu. They correctly decided to suspend Dwight Howard for Game 6, sending the message that just cause you punch someone in the head with your elbow, it's still a punch, and still punishable with a suspension (if not an ejection). But then the league office followed that decision up by announcing that Rajon Rondo's foul was just a shooting foul and was not flagrant, sending the message that in crunch time be sure to knock a guy trying to hit a game winner in the head, because that's just smart basketball.

Now, I understand why the NBA felt it had to go this route with the Rondo play, because if they had upgraded it to a flagrant one, it essentially would have been like telling the Bulls "sorry, we blew that one, you probably should have ended up winning that game," and you know the NBA really didn't want to do that. On the other hand, if they'd upgraded the foul to a flagrant two then it would have been like saying "Sorry Bulls, you should have won that last game, but to make up for it, how bout we try to make up for it by unnecessarily suspending one of Boston's best players for the next game?" This is why nobody should be hoping and waiting for the NBA's league offices to clean up the messes a day after the refs make them. Just empower the refs to use instant replay at their discretion so we can avoid these kinds of costly errors.

OK, now on to why the NBA is up for last night's Worst Of. Clearly after this dog and pony show for the press and all us fans, you could tell that the NBA pulled the refs for tonight's game aside and told them to really bring the hammer down on any hard fouls. That's the only explanation for why some rather standard light pushing and staring down of players under the basket in the Heat-Hawks game resulted in four technical fouls, and why a rather innocuous block from Dwyane Wade resulted in a flagrant one foul. You can see the two plays for yourself below, the first one is at the 42-second mark and the second one is at the 59-second mark:


The Miami Heat: With the series tied 2-2 every game is huge, especially Game 5 which determines who is on the verge of advancing to the next round, and who is on the verge of elimination. With that as the backdrop, the Heat came out and got flat out embarrassed, allowing themselves to be outscored in the 2nd quarter 39-20 en route to a 23 point halftime lead that basically turned the second 24 minutes of the game into extended garbage time. The game was so out of hand in the second half that Josh Smith tried a between his legs dunk on a breakway fast break which missed so badly it barely drew iron. Michael Beasley and Dwayne Wade were the only Heat players which really came to play last night, and even they didn't play that great, as Beasley got his 18 points on 5-12 shooting and 23 of Wade's 29 points came in the second half when the game was already basically over.

Josh Smith: From Stotts Era: "Gotta, gotta, gotta give a WOTN to Josh Smith of the Atlanta Hawks...with the game well in hand for the Hawks, J-Smooth on a breakaway, does up for a dunk in which he passes the ball between his legs!! This is not the dunk contest, Josh. Anyways of course he bricks the dunk and Frattelo says "You wonder if he'll ever learn." Josh Smith, easily the most immature 5 year veteran ever." And here's the video. Go to the 1:30 mark.


Update! Hawks radio announcer Steve Holman of 790 The Zone: (From Larry Brown Sports Via Ball Don't Lie) Last night, Steve redefined homerism in a way that would make Bobby "The Brain" Heenan blush. Key quotes: "You can't foul me when I go to the basket, I have a hurt head. I'm Dwyane Wade. I do commercials." "Look, I'm Dwyane Wade, you can't call that!" and "Oh my goodness, the Heat have resorted to thuggery!"


The New Orleans Hornets: Doesn't it seem like it wasn't too long ago that the Hornets were considered one of the favorites to win the NBA title this year? How quickly things can change. Fresh off the worst playoff defeat in NBA playoffs history (at home, no less), the Hornets ended their season with their fourth defeat in the first round of 15 points or more, losing in Denver 107-86. New Orleans came out wanting to show the world that they hadn't quit, by playing the Nuggets to a tie through the first 30 minutes of the game. Of course, after that valiant effort, the Hornets then went ahead and quit anyway, letting Denver go on a 24-4 run which iced it. Including the playoffs the Hornets finished the year by losing 8 of their last 11 games. This is the first time Denver has advanced to the second round in 15 years and was the first 7-game series the Nuggets had won in almost a quarter of a century.

Chris Paul: It wasn't nearly as bad as the 4 points, 6 assists and 6 turnovers he had in Game 4, but with the hopes of his whole team riding on his back he needed to come up bigger last night than 12 points on 16 shots. He did chip in 10 assists and 6 boards in 46 minutes of play though, and honestly it's tough to fault Paul too much considering the amount of physical abuse he suffered this whole series. It's too bad Paul's team didn't have his back more with all the hits he took at the hands of the Nuggets.

Lacktion report: Even with only two games, Chris was wallowing in lacktivity.
Heat-Hawks: Jamaal Magloire racked up a brick and rejection for a +2 in 5:01, his second straight game with a suck differential!

Atlanta brought out multiple human victory cigars with varying results: Mario West ruined a potential eleven trillion with an assist, but Acie Law laid down a brick from downtown and a giveaway for a +2 in 4:59, while Randolph Morris took a foul and brick for his own +2 in 3:21 (that also notched a 1:0 Madsen-level Voskuhl). And Thomas Gardner raked in a payday of 1.35 trillion!

Hornets-Nuggets: Lacktivity was in abundance in yet another thwacking by Denver, the conclusion to their first playoff series victory in 15 years. First off was Byron Scott's duo of dubiousness, as Julian Wright flew into the ledger with a brick-and-foul +2 in 3:57, while Ryan "Absolutely Not Bruce" Bowen saw his teammate's unproductivity and upped the ante by adding a rejection to his own identical stats for a +3 in 1:38.

Not to be outdone, George Karl sent out several walking embodiments of nicotine to celebrate his first series conquest as Nuggets coach. Jason Hart took one foul for a +1 in 1:37, while Renaldo Balkman scored a Mario 64 (not a true Mario, but a 64 second stint!) with one brick from the steps of the Denver Mint for +1.
The ESPN Playoff Ticker: Several of you loyal 'bawfulites pointed out a little problem with The Network's ability to track series standings. Unless, of course, the first round just got a whole lot longer and nobody told us about it.

Playoff ticker west

Playoff ticker east

Associated Press, unintentionally dirty headline machine: Basketbawful reader Joel P. drew my attention to perhaps the greatest headline in the history of Western Civilization: Girl beats off muggers with marching band baton. Said Joel: "I'm no editor, but unless the editor was living with Borat for the past 20 years, they should have caught this one...plus pondering exactly how one 'beats off' a mugger with a baton is going to occupy my brain for much longer than it should."

About the author: Wild Yams is a frequent reader of Basketbawful and many other basketball blogs, and is just as much a pain in the ass here as he is on those other sites. Like LeBron James, he likes to refer to himself in the third person, but unlike LeBron James, he has not mastered the crab dribble.

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50 Comments:
Blogger Nick Flynt said...
The feelings of the Heat-Hawk and Hornet-Nuggets series(es) contained the most non-playoff tone of any series I've seen since......ever.

The sloppy, thrown together, Cavs without Lebron like play of the Heat and Hawks was gag worthy.

The turnovers and general non-defense of both the Hornets and Nuggets in last night's game was embarrassing, until the Hornets got their mercy killing in the second half.

I'm glad basketball is being played with real passion by Boston and Chicago, am I right?

Blogger John said...
"Just empower the refs to use instant replay at their discretion so we can avoid these kinds of costly errors."

The refs DID watch the replay of Rondo's foul and didn't do anything. Guessing this had a large part to do with why the League didn't do anything extra, even upgrading it to a flagrant 1 (which in reality would have done nothing but make Rondo's pockets slightly lighter) which it deserved. It's the same as in football (soccer) in the UK. If a ref sees an incident and gives someone a yellow card, the Premier League can't upgrade it to a red card or suspension afterwards as the referee's yellow card acknowledged the fact he saw it. They can only add suspensions later for something the ref DIDN'T see as the game was being played. Not the same for Howard though I guess as the ref's T'd him up in game and it was still upgraded. Where Amazing Happens.

Anonymous hellshocked said...
I can understand the league not wanting to have the refs interfere too much at the end of games so that players can determine the outcome, but if a slap with intent to clench to the side of the face from behind would be a flagrant in the first 2 minutes of the game it should be a flagrant in the last two. This inconsistent playcalling tends to affect underdog (and smaller market or superstar lacking) teams much more so than the favorites, which I imagine is the point. Good teams don't need the advantage though and bad teams won't with a series that way, so why bother?

I'm all for a return to physical Miami-Knicks style defense. Hell, I can even abide by the no hand-checking breathe-on-a-guard-and-it-is-a-foul dogma that predominates right now. I just want them to call games one way, consistently from tipoff to the final buzzer for all teams and players. Would Lebron James' numbers really be less impressive if he got called for a foul once in a while? Or travelling? Or palming? He would adjust and continue to dominate. Refs are human and will always be intimidated by superstar players and racuous home crowds but the NBA doesn't have a leg to stand on when it says there's no such thing as superstar calls and that refs are truly instructed to call all games the same way.

Miami's perimeter defense was so putrid that Mike Bibby was able to get to the rim a bunch of times. This is Mike Bibby, the same guy who in his prime would only get to the rim on a breakwaway situation and who now plays with the mobility of a forty year old.

On the other end of the court, The Mario did a pretty decent job on the banged up Wade the few times they matched up. I think our boy could have a future as a pint sized defensive specialist.

Blogger Mintz... said...
Despite the loss it seems like Erik Spoelstra looks back on the game in a warm longing way...

"Spoelstra said '[They] pretty much pounded us in every way you can... so we can say what we want, but they did a number on us.'"

Anonymous Anonymous said...
bawfulites...i love it

Anonymous Czernobog said...
Should a miss and a rejection really count for +2? It's just one play, after all.

Anonymous AK Dave said...
I talked about it in yesterday's comments, now here it is! Anyone who missed the TNT post-game last night will LOVE this (video from ClutchFans):

Ron Artest is fucking crazyIt might even be worthy of its own post- this video is THAT GOOOD. After looking at how shifty his eyes are, it's no wonder he bricks all those 3's.

Blogger AnacondaHL said...
Czernobog: As the inventor of the suck differential, I give my stamp of approval to the +2 suck. Seriously, think about it for a second.

"Sweetie why did you hide your marching band baton in your sock drawer?"

Anonymous Czernobog said...
OK, I thought about. Still don't see why having your shot blocked should be twice as bad as simply bricking it.
As a matter of fact, since most blocks happen at the rim, I'd rather see my players take it to hole and get stuffed then brick fallaway jumpers. But I'm a craptors fan, so my view might be a little skewed here.

Blogger chris said...
AnacondaHL: If I recall, that one Super Mario Galaxy we had this year from The Team Who Is Who We Thought They Were counted for a +1, so yeah, it's not a matter of time, but space.

Which then makes me wonder, what is the theoretical highest single-play SD? A miss, rejection and foul gets you +3, and then a turnover after all that would make it +4 in the matter of a Mario-like duration.

Blogger Unknown said...
WOTN being Josh Smith's brick? Well allow me to retort.

Smith has easily supplanted himself as this games most ferocious dunker since Amarknee Stoudemeyeball microfractured himself into normalcy. Atlanta hasn't had much in the past decade and a half to be happy about and if a game is well in hand, you may as well give the fans something to remember.

The real WOTN is the fans in Atlanta not erupting into laughter with great vengance and fuuurious anger when Wade hit the ground hard. The only thing that could have made that moment better would have been if Dwane's head exploded like "this is your brain on drugs".

Honestly, anything bad that happens to Wade is always a positive for real basketball fans. After he got handed his ring by the officials in 06, the amount of bad karma he is due is phenominal. No? Lest I remind you of how terrible the calls were?

Eddie Rush (blows whistle): Personal foul, number 41, Nowitzki, roughing the passer. 10 yard penalty. FIRST DOWN!

Dan Crawford (runs up to Eddie): That's... not even a call for this sport. Anyway, Nowitzki is on the bench.

*Nowitzki gives Rush jagged toothed European smile and an awkward Hasslehof thumbs up*

Anonymous AK Dave said...
chris-

If the player in question's team is over the foul limit, the other team makes the throws, gives him a -2 +/-, does that add anything? Or does +/- not matter at all in SD calculation?

Blogger Trino said...
Is it possible to be surprised by the things that Ron Artest says anymore? Hell, in the alternate dimension he inhabits, King Crab is simply Ron Artest version 2.0.

Also, which fate do you guys consider to be more bawful: The Hornets losing without putting up much resistance while also incurring a historic beatdown, or the Mavericks of '07 getting shocked by the Warriors after having the best record in the league?

Blogger AnacondaHL said...
Fastest I can think of is getting a 3ptr blocked, getting fouled during the loose ball scramble, then bricking both free throws followed by an intentional foul to stop the clock. +6. I would lacktate manly jizz if that happened.

Also, walking around on the streets of Lignano Sabbiadoro looking for NBA stuff, I found a crappy kids toy (one of those door hang hoop and rubber ball) at a crappy toy store called "American Basket Game: Professional Basketball". There is a 100% chance I will be using that term in my next Bawful writeup.

Anonymous Free J.R. Smiff Moustache Rides said...
Ron Artest has long been a resident of "The Tyson Zone"....and that's why there's a special place in my heart for him.

Keep popping those crazy pills Ron Ron!

And I think the Mavs getting railroaded by the Baron of Davis and Co. in '07 ranks higher than the Hornets sucking...the Hornets have sucked all year IMNSHO.

Blogger chris said...
AK Dave: +/- isn't counted, but used rather as a sometimes mentioned complementary stat of how negative (or unimportant) one's lacktion is to his own team...

AnacondaHL: I want a photo of ABG: PB. NOW. Would've been even better if it was randomly endorsed by Toni Kukoc.

Damnit, I still remember how Kukoc was supposed to be "Jordan's replacement" after the '93 retirement.

Blogger Wild Yams said...
flohtingPoint - I did want to point out something about that Wade collision last night that had him writing around on the floor while the game went on for a full two minutes or so, but it was too late and would have taken hours for me to transfer the video of the game from my Tivo to my computer so I skipped it; but Wade is the only player I've ever seen do that, and it isn't the first time. I may have a video somewhere at home of Wade doing something similar in the playoffs a couple years ago, where he got hit and writhed around on the floor in the middle of the game action for a number of minutes until play was stopped. He was then taken to the locker room before returning shortly thereafter and "heroically" putting together a magical finish.

Over on PeachTreeHoops they're calling Wade a "faker" after last night's play, and I have to say that the moment I saw the whole ordeal last night that was my initial reaction as well, just because I'd seen it before. Of course he had to be helped to the locker room, and of course he returned shortly thereafter, with no apparent lingering problems afterward (other than a desire to wear Inspector Gadget's trenchcoat to the postgame press conference - as John Hollinger pointed out in today's Daily Dime, it was 80 degrees in Atlanta yesterday), and went on to score 23 second half points. I couldn't help but think that it was a classic Wade performance (in the theatrical meaning of that word, not the sports meaning), and ranked right up there with Paul Pierce's wheelchair routine in Game 1 of The Finals last year, and Rondo being carried off the floor a couple games ago by Bill Walker because the soles of his feet were sore.

Blogger chris said...
Wild Yams: Makes me wonder how much Paul Pierce's wheelchair skillz helped get him selected as Finals MVP...

Anonymous AK Dave said...
Yams-

The TNT boys were falling all over themselves laughing at Inspector Gadget's jacket as well. They were saying "Go-go gadget (insert body part here)!!!" and mimicking the Inspector Gadget theme music (da-da-da-da-DA, In-SPEC-tor GA-dget!).

Between that and Chris Webber mocking Ron Artest, it was one of the better shows I've seen this year :D I'm surprised we didn't see a pic of that jacket on here today. I mean Ron Artest, Wade, the "flagrant fouls"... the jokes are literally writing themselves here!

Anonymous Gengar said...
I was hoping to see a mention of the Atlanta Hawks fans in today's WotPN. As I'm sure many of you well know, the Hawks crowd began severely booing Dwyane Wade after he - get this - smashed his head off the floor as the result of a collision. There is no need to boo an injured player, even if he is on the opposing team. Also, it's not like the minor injury stopped a Hawks fast break or anything of the like; instead, the Heat played shorthanded with Wade lying motionless on the floor until they were able to call a timeout.

By the way, does anybody else think Dwight Howard's elbows should be shown on John Walsh's "America's Most Wanted"? His left elbow crippled teammate Courtney Lee, and his right elbow nearly beheaded Samuel Dalembert. His suspension for tonight was definitely warranted, which nearly ensures a seventh game. However, I was disappointed that Rondo wasn't also suspended, because it would nearly guarantee a Chicago victory tonight and thus an exciting game seven.

Finally, I would like to make a rather late mention of the Rockets' Aaron Brooks. How does Rick Adelman allow him to shoot more than Yao Ming in four of the five games thus far in the series? And it's not like the guy is hitting them, either. It was painful to see Yao and even Artest be ignored as Brooks decided he was going to take more shots than De La Hoya did in his bout with Pacquiao. Why, again, did the Rockets trade Alston?

Blogger Unknown said...
Wild Yams: Fully agree with the Wade is a faker and also the "classic Wade performance". Wade's "gutsy" show was the direct opposite of Kellen Winslow SR's 13/166 + a block of a game winning field goal all while having two busted up shoulders and suffering from severe dehydration or Barkley's triple overtime 24/19 game with a bashed up elbow, wearing a pad on it as big as my head.

Blogger Wild Yams said...
Gengar - The crowd was booing Wade because they could tell he was being way overly dramatic about it. He bumped his head, but he wasn't knocked out or anything, and didn't have a concussion. Instead he was just experiencing pain on the back of his head, and decided to writhe and roll around in the middle of the floor while the game was going on, making a spectacle out of it. He really couldn't have stood up and wandered over to the sideline?

I really hope I've still got the video of him doing the same thing from a couple years back from when he got smacked in the face (I think that's what happened), and he rolled around on the floor while play continued for a good minute or two. Watching that side by side with last night's performance shows why some people thought he was exaggerating his injury.

Blogger AnacondaHL said...
Yay for phone with camera. Yay for phone with media card. Yay for phone with international Internet. Yay for phone enabling JavaScript. Yay for phone disabling long running scripts. Yay for phone with copy paste.

yes it was a complete pain in the ASS to do this. Bro love, chris.

Blogger Basketbawful said...
Re: Dwyane Wade. Okay, look, I know I probably bring up Larry Bird way too much. But that guy once fractured his eye socket in a game -- he played through, of course -- to the point that, when he blew his nose in the shower afterward, his eye fucking popped out. I am not kidding.

Anyway, back in 1991, Bird -- whose back was in such bad shape he was spending nights in traction between playoff games -- dove for a ball and and faceplants on the court. Literally knocks himself out. When he comes to, he just slowly rose to his feet and walked off the court.

See, basketball players used to be tough guys. I remember reading somewhere that Wilt Chamberlain never got knocked down during a game. Not once in his entire career. Ballers used to revel in being (and, more importantly, looking) tougher than normal peeps. Now guys play it up because the sideshow will earn them sympathy and extra whistles from the refs. I'm telling you, if Brad Miller (who's more of a classic tough guy) had hit the deck with arms and legs flailing and rolled around in faux agony, he probably would have gotten that flagrant.

Blogger chris said...
AnacondaHL: From one lacktion reporter to another...

SWEET.

With a ball and hoop that size, I suspect that Shaqovich and Dwight Howard could hold a competitive, non-sloppy charity stripe contest! Charity Stripe HORSE. LOLZ.

Blogger Basketbawful said...
AnacondaHL -- I don't want to know how long it took you to do that. (But seriously, how long?)

Blogger AnacondaHL said...
With 3G courtesy of vodafone.IT, uploading a 3.2 megapixel photo, and typing out html on a touchscreen with little room for error, 10 minutes. I call big spoon for like the next week.

Blogger Basketbawful said...
Big spoon rights are the least I can offer for that kind of effort.

Blogger chris said...
AnacondaHL:

YOU TYPED OUT HTML ON A TOUCH SCREEN.

I applaud you, good sir.

Blogger Nick Flynt said...
Nice one AHL, that's your Jean-Claude Van Damme nickname. JCVD only slightly > AHL. We can even just start pronouncing it 'all'.
Anyway, that translation was worthy of the worst Engrish you can find. And that was in Italy? Wow.

Apparently D-Wade wasn't fooling anyone, over at Hardwood Paroxysm (as Wild Yams knows, he comments everywhere!). My initial reaction was that he was BS'ing, along with everyone else here, and the blogger on HWP.

Blogger David said...
Uh, guys, you are aware that the back of Wade's head slammed into the hardwood last night, right?

Look, we all know Wade (like most elite scorers) flops to get extra calls. But that was a potentially dangerous injury last night and it's perfectly understandable that he'd go to the locker room to get checked out.

Ditto for the other occurence you're discussing (when he took a particularly nasty fall in the 2006 Heat bulls 1st round matchup) and Paul Pierce's injury.

flohtingPoint : Time to get over the 2006 finals, dude. Were some of those calls bad? Hell yes. But anyone who took the ball to the rack as much as he did that series was going to get a ton of free throws.

Blogger Wild Yams said...
Mr. Bawful - Is there any way you and Bill Simmons can get together and do a podcast in which you just share Larry Bird stories? You could even make it a contest, almost an endurance test. You each tell a Bird story, alternating back and forth, never allowed to repeat a story that either one of you has told, until one of you runs out of stories to tell. The person left at the end with more remaining untold Bird stories would be the winner and Grand Champion of Larry Bird Lore. Even though I realize the podcast would probably be a couple days long, I would be glued to my iPod the whole time. Please make this happen :)

Buck Nasty - Believe it or not I haven't been over to Hardwood Paroxysm today yet, but I'm about to remedy that oversight. Thanks for the reminder :)

Blogger chris said...
Wild Yams: THAT podcast would cause this site to crash as everyone would listen to it at the instant it is uploaded!

Which is why I'm looking forward to it very much, along with the "Damon Jones Award selection night" edition.

Blogger Basketbawful said...
David -- Dude, I know, but still...I don't know. It really looked to me like he was milking it. I mean, I've seen milking. I've -- and I'm ashamed to admit this -- been guilty of a little milking now and again. Fuck, I have to go all "old Larry Bird memory" again, but remember when McHale clotheslines Kurt Rambis? Poor Kurt got bent over backwards and had his head driven into the court, and that dude just jumped up ready to fight. I just, you know, have a hard time believing that a wet noodle like Kurt Rambis is physically more durable than an athletic freak of nature like Pookie.

Yams -- That's actually an awesome idea. You might be joking, but I'm going to make that my summer mission. DO NOT LET ME FORGET.

Blogger David said...
Bawful - Wade might have been milking it a bit when he was on the floor. He probably could have gotten up a little sooner.

The part that I don't doubt the legitimacy of was him going to the locker room for a moment. That was a hard hit to the back of the head.

I don't think Wade (or any other NBA star) would take himself out of the game as long as Wade did for the sake of creating extra drama.

Wade may be a drama queen at times, but he wants to win first and foremost.

Blogger AnacondaHL said...
Buck Nasty: AHL is good. It's why I don't use this name in videogames anymore, its too hard to nickname (often it became 'Anac' or 'Ana', which of course confuses the lonely game nerds.)

I have a ton more pics of unlicensed crappy crap, my favorite is "Super Ninja".

Anyways, a podcast with BS and Bawful talking Bird would be like the best thing and worst thing ever. He's already had guest bloggers (club trillion guy), but wow I'd probably have to double-bag it for extra protection against Celtics chlamydia.

Blogger Unknown said...
@Bawful: Or in recent memory, when Nash and Tony Parker collided. Prime example of vigilance vs vagina. Steve picked himself up, eye socket pouring blood while Parker laid on the court doing his best impersonation of Adam Morrison after UCLA beat Zag.

Blogger Wild Yams said...
AHL - "Celtics chlamydia" needs to be a Word of the Day. Mr. Bawful, get on that, stat :)

I was only half-joking about the podcast idea with Simmons, simply because I wonder if it would be in any way possible (both guys sorta work for ESPN so you never know); but I would absolutely listen to all of that, even if it did go for hours and hours. Larry Bird for you guys is like that Chuck Norris meme.

Blogger Nick Flynt said...
Well F me, I lost that article on D-Wade. I could have sworn it was on Hardwood, but it isn't there. Whatever, I'm sure I didn't just make it up.

Blogger Basketbawful said...
David -- I don't question Wade's will to win, nor his greatness (which I've admired lovingly from time to time on this here blog), but there are times when he (like 90 percent of the rest of the league) tends to overact on fouls...which I thought he did last night. I realize I could be wrong. Maybe his trip to the locker room was gamesmanship, or maybe the team docs were really worried about him. It's impossible to say without some insider knowledge.

AnacondaHL -- Super Ninja. Now. (Or, more like 10 minutes from now...)

flohtingPoint -- PERFECT RECENT EXAMPLE. By the way, good to see you (and your humor) back around these parts. Now if Starang would leave one of his zany comments it would be like a reunion.

Wild Yams -- I'm officially trying to figure out the best use of Celtics chlamydia.

Buck Nasty -- Come on now, dude. I expect a guy who's all about correcting my typos to be up on these things. ;)

Blogger AnacondaHL said...
Oh, actually I chose chlamydia specifically due to it's high incident rate among high school girls, so I figured the podcast would instead degenerate to them talking about the boy they like (unbeknownst they're talking about the same dreamy 80s hunk!) while doing each other's hair, maybe a pillow fight and experimenting with the "marching band baton".

Blogger chris said...
Bawful: You know, you still need to interview the Inventor of the Trillion someday...to see what he thinks of the terms we've coined for lacktion statistics, as well as the state of lacktion in today's Association!

Blogger Basketbawful said...
AnacondaHL -- Bill will have to wrest Big Spoon rights from you before that can happen.

chris -- I KNOW! I'm still working on that one, trust me. Hopefully this summer...

Blogger AnacondaHL said...
Let me just answer these questions first.
1. No, there's nothing on the back as stated by the TRY ME sticker.
2. Look at the weapons.
3. Yes, those are wings.
4. And shoulder claws.

Super Ninjas.

Blogger stephanie g said...
Today's current NBA fan can't decide what he wants. He wants the league to be less "soft" but he still complains about Dwight's elbows, Rondo hitting Miller upside the chops, and ... Josh Smith trying to do a fancy dunk? Oh no, he may "show up the opponent." The HORROR. Is this little league baseball forum for concerned mothers? No one complains when LeBron does his windmill in a blow out in the regular season (why is he still in the game up 30 with 4 mins left in the 4th? I want to see Mike Brown's press conference after LeBron blows out his knee) or Kobe does the slowest 360 on earth.

Blogger Nick Flynt said...
@McHale I know, I've totally disappointed myself.

On the issue of soft players, I'm finishing up Breaks of the Game.

It was Dave Cowens who knocked this guy from the corner of the court, and clear out of bounds......

(where the three would be today, or close)

after getting called for a foul on this guy that flopped, and after knocking the guy several feet out of bounds he yells to the ref, "Now that's an f***ing foul! That other thing you called, that was fake.....etc."

If you did that today, they'd suspend you for half the season, and fine you for yelling at the refs.

This was in the 70's and they didn't even have the word 'flopper.'

Blogger Basketbawful said...
AnadcondaHL -- ...

Stephanie G -- I know from my standpoint, there's congruency in my feelings. To wit, I'm okay with hard fouls, but intentionally elbowing somebody in the head/face (particularly when you have arms that can fell small mountains) is wrong. It wasn't mad that Rondo hit Miller in the face so much as I expect the refs and the NBA to enforce their rules with some consistency. I mean, if they're going to try to outlaw "mayhem" in general and head blows in particular by calling flagrant fouls, why would they let one go in a critical end-of-game situation.

As for Smith's dunk, I could care less about him showing up an opponent...that's just some funny stuff (and all missed dunks are Basketbawful fodder).

Buck Nasty -- You know, I have to say, Dave Cowens was Ron Artest before Ron Artest was Ron Artest. People just had more tolerance for crazy in the 70s.

Blogger Nick Flynt said...
Quite right McHale. They said (still coming from the book, a wealth of basketball knowledge) that he was a total gentleman off the court, remind you of anybody? Artest. Other than that crazy stuff he says in interviews every now and then. Remember when he though snake eggs were all over his lawn? *whistles high note, then quickly drops to drown out low note........and end. That's how crazy he is.*

Blogger Unknown said...
I hope Brad Miller lays 6 closed fist beatdowns on Rondo everytime he tries a layup tonight.

Blogger Lu said...
can't we say now that rondo is a dirty player? after that flagrant on miller, in game 6 he threw hinrich into the scorer's table and he also goaltended on hinrich's layup. how can the league let him get away with so much?