So Kobe gets mad…

If you for some reason have not turned on ESPN this week, or listened to any sports talk radio, here is the situation: Kobe Bryant, after receiving a technical foul early in Tuesday’s game against the San Antonio Spurs, was caught on TNT, broadcast to a national audience, calling a referee a “f*&$king f*&$got”.

Unfortunately I feel a lot of bloggers and tweeters have turned this incident into an excuse for being self-righteous, and acting like Kobe murdered their favorite puppy. I’ve seen a few writers demand an apology from Kobe, as if he owes them a damn thing. And, as usual, this seems to have fallen along the usual “Kobe Hater” and “Kobe Fan” lines – if you already dislike Kobe, you probably went bananas over this situation. If you are a fan of Kobe or the Lakers, you probably thought it was no big deal. I initially fell on the “not such a big deal” side, but after thinking about it for the last few days, I have come to understand why his behavior demanded such a negative response.

First, I suggest reading this post from Yago Colas, which is so far the best view of the situation I have read. http://yagoc.blogspot.com/2011/04/cultures-of-basketball-course-diary_15.html .

First things first: Kobe should not have said what he said. It is simply not acceptable, on multiple levels. I am going to list those, in no particular order:

1. As one human being to another. Ok, this is actually #1 in importance. I simply cannot imagine a situation in which it is acceptable for a grown man to refer to another grown man by that term. Notice I say “grown man”. I remember being in high school in the early 00’s. That term was thrown around left and right, and to be perfectly honest I used it more often then I like to admit. In high-school. Then I grew up.

We live in an era where people are supposed to be civilized. While I do not agree with everything the “Politically Correct” crowd loves to argue about – sometimes it feels like people just want to feel offended and self-righteous about things – the fact is all of us should have learned by now how to treat our fellow human beings with respect. If Kobe is guilty of anything, it is not having learned the Golden Rule. At 30+ years of age, having kids of his own, he should have by now.

2. The fact that this happened on national television, let’s be honest, is the driving force behind this being such a huge issue. If it was not shown on TV, and maybe some sideline reporter tweeted about it, chances are few would have paid attention beyond the basketball blogging community. TNT should have prevented the clip from being shown on television – however the blame ultimately lies with Kobe, as he has to control his own actions. At the time, Steve Kerr even told the camera crew to cut away, because those watching at home might not want to see what Kobe Bryant was about to say or do. TNT could have done this – all live events are held back on a 7-second delay, thanks to Janet Jackson and her “wardrobe malfunction” at the Super Bowl – but whether due to the fact that it was so sudden, or that they thought it would be good television, they left the cameras on long enough to catch the moment. Kobe did not help matters by slamming his fist into a defenseless folding chair. That was pretty riveting stuff as a fan, and watching it live I remember wanting to see what was going to happen next. As a Laker fan I dreaded another technical that would have kept Kobe out of the Lakers last game of the season, at Sacramento, which is turns out they needed him to win. On a human level I just find it hard to take my eyes away from somebody flipping out on live TV.

3. Which leads me to the next problem with this situation: Kobe has anger issues. Real, serious anger issues. To be fair, he is not the first pro athlete at the top of his game to be driven by anger (see Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods). Kobe’s anger is probably part of what has pushed him to be as good as he is, like it or not. Such anger, however, is not a good look on an adult, especially one who is respected as being at or near the best in his profession. To put it simply, we expect stars to act with dignity, to show composure in times of stress. Anger, especially the rage you could see in Kobe in those moments, often comes from a sense of feeling powerless or frustrated at one’s situation. We do not expect one of the NBA’s best players to be a victim to such feelings.

Perhaps Kobe’s age is making him so angry, the fact that he no longer makes the plays he used to make with ease. Or maybe it is the fact that the Lakers had fallen back into one of their slumps, those stretches they go through where Kobe seems to be the only player busting his ass on a consistent basis. If you were the only one of your coworkers who actually cared about getting your work done to the best of your abilities, every day, you might get a little frustrated too.

But while I rationalize Kobe’s anger, I am not trying to excuse it. A little anger is acceptable, even necessary, in sports, but strutting around like a petulant child is not.  It hurts Kobe’s image and reputation, and it hurts his play on-court as well – how many times have we seen Kobe force up multiple poor shots in an attempt to one-up some no-name player who dares to guard him too tough? Sadly it might be too late in his career for Kobe to really change his anger issues, but at the very least he can try not to be defined by them.

4. Last, but certainly not least, is the impact of Kobe’s homsexual slur on actual homosexuals. To be honest, I initially did not see this side of the argument. Why would a random person be offended by what one man says to another in a moment of anger? Benny (the ref in question) is not gay. Kobe was not trying to be seen saying such things on national TV. Nor was he going out of his way to denigrate any homosexual person or group. He was just really angry at someone, and was trying to insult them in some way, and “fa**ot” was the first thing he could think of.

Therein lies the problem with a mentality many, if not most, American males are afflicted with: the most insulting thing we can think of to refer to each other in a moment of anger is often to call the other person a homosexual. Instead of what Kobe really meant to say: “Benny, you suck at your job”, or “Benny, you’re an idiot”, or “Benny I hate you for not doing what I say!”, Kobe fell back on calling him gay.

I don’t think Kobe is truly homophobic, in the sense that he hates gay people and thinks they are the scum of the Earth. After all, he did put together this photoshoot. The unfortunate fact is that many American males are trained from a young age to view “fa**ot” as the ultimate insult. How can those who are actually homosexual even begin to feel accepted or safe in such a climate of disrespect?

In the end, this incident might end up being a good thing. Kobe Bryant and the Lakers organization have committed to working with GLAAD to promote a message of non-bigotry. Whether this is for PR reasons or an actual desire to change, the message is getting out there.

On K-Blaze, and the Best Videos on the Internets:

There’s this guy named K-Blaze who does nothing but put together absolutely sick NBA clip videos set to the perfect song (usually rap). Any time I’m feeling tired or low-energy, like I just don’t have it in me to get work done or hit the basketball court, I watch K-Blaze videos. It’s like a cup of coffee. I once made the mistake of watching a K-Blaze video before going to bed – an hour later I looked up and realized I was obsessed. I watch one and I inevitably end up watching 3, 4, 5, etc. … like Lay’s potato chips, you can’t consume just one, and you will probably enjoy them even more at 3AM with a nice buzz going.

Here are two of my favorites.

90’s Lakers:

Set to Slaughterhouse’s “Sound Off”, this tribute to “Shaq, Kobe, Eddie, and Nick”, “the Fantastic Four” is all about one raw, disrespectful team. Each of the four gets their own “verse” during which their best plays are highlighted, and the verses fit perfectly. Shaq gets Royce Da 5’9″, “I am the General, Bow Now/ Fuck Salutin!”. Kobe, set to Joell Ortiz: “I pour sweat when I perform shows /What I record goes down as the best, but the vets won’t let that torch go /Y’all could keep it, they got flashlights now.” Perfect for Kobe, at that age when he was still #8, still new to the league, and angrily trying to make his mark as the Next Big Thing.

And Nick Van Exel gets this, as he’s shoving a ref in an incident that showcases some of his (in)famous swagger: “My one goal’s to astonish/Tell the President, VP, notify the Congress/They say I’m arrogant, pompous, but I’m honest.” Perfect. Watch this video, then watch it again. K-Blaze is a pure genius.

The next video that should be on your Go-To list is “Fuck Fundamentals vol. 4: Jamal Crawford Edition”. Basically a PSA on the dangers of getting your ankles broken, which as Kobe reminds us can “strike anywhere, at any time. It can happen to anyone.” Unlike his “90’s Lakers” video, K-Blaze makes no attempt to tell a story with this one. Like the title suggests, its just an endless highlight reel of one vicious ankle-breaker after another by some of the best in the NBA, ending with a couple minutes dedicated just to Jamal Crawford and his devious handles. And you need to watch every minute of it.

These videos do not represent the NBA as David Stern wants you to experience it. Rather, this is basketball at its rawest and most violent, the game I suspect many of us fell in love with from the beginning, before all the trade speculation and salary cap brainfreeze and “you can’t argue with refs” tech rule and arguments over whose the most clutch based on per-36 True Shooting Percentages became the dominant stories. Not that those things are inherently bad – today’s sports fan is interested in the nitty gritty truth of things, and advanced stats and salary cap articles help us get closer to the truth of how things really are. But sometimes, we just need to remember that the game is supposed to be something fun, and exciting, and dangerous. I like basketball because of its characters. I like basketball because it is a game where Russel Westbrook can change the tide of a playoff series with a single murderous dunk. The Laker fan in me cringes at that highlight. That dunk morphed the series from a potential Lakers sweep to to a hard-fought battle that was a Gasol tip-in at the buzzer from going to Game 7.

But the NBA fan in me? Loved that play, loved the swagger, loved that Westbrook beat his chest and screamed to the crowd afterward as if to say “Yes I did that, and I’ll do it again!”. That play is the reason Westbrook is easily one of my top 2 or 3 favorite players in the league right now, why the Thunder are my NBA2k11 team (I never use last year’s championship winner in NBA2k or Madden, its cheap – I’d rather beat you with an underdog). The “Arbiters of Amazement” chapter in Freedarko’s The Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball says “But there’s hope, a place where we find individualism – the “who” ignored by the league – rekindled, a place that reemphasizes the relationship between the great (and, occasionally not-so-great) athletes of the NBA and those who obsess over them, a place that puts the power back in the hands of the people: YouTube.” Yes, and yes. K-Blaze is not the only creator of basketball highlight videos on YouTube, but his mixes come the closest to capturing the snarl and grit of the NBA I love.

Last second bonus video addition edition:

I couldn’t let you go without seeing this one, a reminder that Charles Barkley is way more than the goofy fat boy he plays on Inside the NBA. Stick with this one, at 8:21 K-Blaze includes a little between-play shoving match between Charles and David Robertson. Just a few little shoves, not a big moment in itself, but those few seconds get right at the heart of Barkley: push me and I’ll push you back.

Are the Clippers for real, and wheres the love for VDN?

Blake Griffin is the Clippers “big story” this season, and is probably the biggest story in the NBA right now (neck and neck with the Heat and Carmelo Anthony premature trade e-speculation). With good reason. And as Mike Prada of SB Nation has pointed out, Eric Gordon is quietly turning in a super-star caliber scoring season. I know, surprised me too, but check the link for a good breakdown.

Then we have Vinny Del Negro, coach of this once-hapless team. Watching them almost come back against the Portland Trailblazers, a team depleted by injury but still tough enough to give just about anybody a run for their money, got me thinking: why aren’t we giving VDN a little more credit for the Clippers recent improvement?

First some reservations: I am not 100% convinced that the Clippers are “fah real” yet. Signs of improvement: winning 11 of their last 16 (including tonight’s loss to the Blazers), including wins against the Thunder, Hornets, Spurs, Lakers, Nuggets, Bulls, and the Heat. Blake Griffin is making the defense of opposing PFs, Cs, not to mention entire teams look as defensively sound as the New Orleans Saints (my condolences, Saints fans, but just pop in that Championship DVD and wait for next year).

Countersigns: the Clippers have not played outside of California since December 18, including 11 of 13 games being played at home. That’s right, their only away games during this awesome stretch came against Sacramento on Dec. 27 (100-99 W) and Golden State (122-112 L). They are also hoping Baron Davis stays focused, Blake Griffin stays healthy, and Donald Sterling stays the heck out of their locker room.

However, let us assume this high level of play continues. The Clippers are 16-26 right now. What if they end up with a winning record, despite the terrible way they started the season? What if they make the playoffs (without running any numbers I am pretty sure that is impossible at this point, but for the sake of argument)? Could we be talking about Vinny Del Negro as a coach of the year candidate?

I was never entirely convinced VDN was the main problem for the Chicago Bulls. He took a team with a young PG with superstar potential to an epic 7 game series against the Boston Celtics (without Kevin Garnett) in the 2009 playoffs. In 2010 the Bulls were a quicker out, but making the playoffs despite losing Joakim Noah, Luol Deng, and Derrick Rose for significant stretches, as well as having the team’s top scorer (Ben Gordon) traded away before the season began, was certainly not easy.I understand why the Bulls had to get rid of Del Negro. It was time for a fresh start, his relationship with team management was extremely poor, and Tom Thibodeau has so far been a definite upgrade. But in my mind it is still too early to write Vinny Del Negro off as another coaching failure.

And now Vinny is leading another team with explosive young talent to an impressive winning stretch, and from what I can see from my Twitter feed and a quick Google search, nobody is talking about him. Last year the Oklahoma City Thunder improved from 23 wins in 2008-09 to 50 wins in 2009-10. This improvement was headlined by the league-leading scoring ability of Kevin Durant, as well as a massive defensive improvement by the team as a whole, much of which was attributed to the coaching of Scott Brooks, who ended up winning Coach of the Year honors. A turnaround that tire-squealing is probably not in the cards for this Clippers team. But if the Clippers can at least end with a .500 or better record why shouldn’t VDN be at least considered for CoY honors?

My ability to judge good coaching in the NBA is limited. Where is that fine line between the talent of the players and the wisdom and technical improvements provided by a good coach? So please, if you are reading this, help me out by providing your opinions in the comments below: Do you give Del Negro credit for any of the Los Angeles Clippers improvement? If the Clippers can finish .500 or better, should we start thinking highly of VDN? Am I getting way ahead of myself with the Clippers love? And whats the over/under until BG gets his own shoe-line?

There is a good chance this team falls back into another slump once they start playing more games outside the state of California. Count me as hoping the Clippers stay on the right track, so we can start considering VDN in a different light.

Getting back in the swing of things…

Hello folks, I haven’t posted on here in about six months which is an fail of magnificent proportions. But I’m back, I’ve decided to really put my focus on this thing, and I am going to start out with a “new” format. I am going to intersperse the longer, essay-ish posts with shorter, hopefully daily collections of the latest big sports news and my thoughts on the subject. Here goes:

1. I know I’m late on this, but I think its a damn shame Cam Newton’s father, Cecil Newton, felt it necessary to stay away from the Heisman ceremony at which his son won the award. Winning the Heisman is an impressive achievement for Cam and his father both (Cecil raised him after all, as Bomani Jones rightly points out on his Morning Jones radio show), and I know it would kill me if either of my parents was unable to make it to an event that important in my life. While Cam was emotional in his speech, the feeling seemed to be positive, his words unmarred by the allegations that have hung over his season. At least, that is, aside from one unfortunate line early in the speech: “My parents do a lot of things behind the scenes that go unnoticed.” Made me wince at the time but I say cut the kid some slack – the best public speakers are politicians and actors, and they get paid to lie.

2. Speaking of the Cam Newton controversy (which has its own controversy – check the link above to The Big Lead… when your controversy has controversy I think that means you’ve hit the big time), I am beginning to agree with the notion that these schools should be paying student athletes. These kids bring in millions to the NCAA and the universities they play for, at least the popular ones. While a college education is certainly neither cheap or useless (I will be paying mine off for the next 10 years, but I would not give back that experience for anything), the fact is these institutions benefit massively from the young people that play for them. Yet these student athletes are not allowed to profit from the work they put in on the football field (which can be as time-consuming as many full-time jobs), and are only allowed to work part-time to cover “‘incidental expenses’ for the academic year, which range from $1,200 to $2.500.” (http://diverseeducation.com/article/7463/). And as wonderful as the college experience is, the fact remains that many student-athletes do not graduate.

Now, it would take deeper research than I have time for now to weigh all the variables – as well as a great deal more time to break down all the socioeconomic and racial issues at stake. For example: how many of these student athletes really “deserve” to be in college (and what does it mean to “deserve” a college education?) vs. being there to serve a cynical money-making institution, having their grades “fudged” so they can remain in school; or how many leave school early to enter the professional league associated with their sport (I would think the percentage is tiny). How do NCAA student-athlete graduation rates compare to the graduation rate of the nation at large? Not to mention the elephant in the room: how many students get paid under the table, as Cecil Newton allegedly tried to arrange for his son? What do these student athletes get in hidden benefits? What do they gain in “extra-curricular” activities by being famous athletes on ESPN (I think you know what I am talking about)?

Are NCAA programs a farm system for the pro leagues, or a way to enhance the growth and maturity of their student athletes? Or is it a “plantation” setup, as FoxSports Jason Whitlock describes, in which the administrators and coaches (I paraphrase, read the article for Whitlock’s words) perpetuate a system that makes them millions despite its effect on the kids?

One possible solution: let student athletes earn a percentage of their jersey sales. Let them earn a portion of the money the NCAA earns from EA Sports for its NCAA Football video game series, for which a lawsuit is ongoing because EA uses athletes likeness (but not their names) but does not pay students a single cent. And when ESPN uses the faces of players like Cam Newton in their game promotions, let them earn something for it! That student athlete is bringing cameras to the stadium and eyeballs to the TV. My idea is far from perfect – a Cam Newton would be far better compensated than one of the many faceless offensive linemen who block for him and make his achievements possible – but maybe its a jump-off point.

3. I’m not even a real college football fan and I just wrote about 700 words on the NCAA. I wanted to get into the Simmons-Pierce feud from earlier today, and some of the controversy Phil Jackson’s comments have caused recently. I am a fan of both Simmons and Jackson and think they are being taken too seriously/misrepresented by bloggers already pre-disposed against them… but right now I don’t have the time or the energy to delve into those messes, and defending millionaires is honestly not a huge motivator for me. Plus I just got Inception on Blu-Ray and I’d like to watch it tonight. Final thoughts: watched parts of the Bulls-Pacers game tonight and Carlos Boozer is a much needed addition for the Bulls offense, which had a tendency to get stagnant in late-game situations before he got back from injury. Great as Rose is, he alone was not enough to be the teams lone, reliable scorer late in games (I watched Kobe try and fail to carry a team this way in the mid ’00’s, and Rose is no Kobe). Deng, Korver, Noah, Brewer – these guys are perfectly capable contributors but all too often they were not enough to keep things going in the 4th quarter, when points are harder to come by. Boozer brings a reliable, veteran scorer, a guy who can face up or put his back to the basket and get those easy points at the rim, or work a Pick-n-Roll with a PG like Rose. All that said, Boozer needs to improve his off-ball defense. At one point he had 2 possessions in a row where he gave up points by not paying enough attention to his man. Boozer’s on-ball D looked decent enough, and I’m sure Thibodeau will help improve his awareness and fit him into a system that is currently tied for 5th in defensive efficiency rating, but there is work to be done.

Movie-time. BRAAAAAAAAAHHHHHMMMMM son. Braaaaahm indeed.

In a Western frame of mind…

Oh Tuco, you so funny!

Why are Westerns so depressing? It’s as if somewhere along the line it was decided that stories set in the American West need to depress the hell out of us. I’ve been on a Western kick lately, thanks to Red Dead Redemption. I started Netflixing Westerns I had not watched in years, starting with the Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwood classics. “Fistful of Dollars”, “For a Few Dollars More”, and “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”. “High Plains Drifter” was next. “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”. Also more recent ones – “Dead Man”, “3:10 to Yuma”, “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”, the “Deadwood” series. The list goes on and on, and I know I am leaving off many classics, but at some point you realize something. There are some amazing stories in the Western genre – and they are also some of the darkest, bleakest tales imaginable. Nobody survives a good Western without scars, and most of the time they just don’t. For being a nation which places such pride in our ability to rise from nothing to greatness and succeed no matter the odds, we have allowed ourselves to be showcased by an incredibly depressing genre in which all the honor and principles in the world mean nothing without a quick gun hand and accurate aim. What is it we see in these flicks?

The Western might be the most “American” genre of film, even when it is being directed and scored by foreigners, for the simple reason that it is the only type of film that must take place in the United States. Our fathers grew up playing Cowboys and Indians, each wanting to be the next John Wayne. We are Cowboys to most foreigners – this designation took special significance during the second Bush administration. We are cowboys who insist on owning their guns and protecting their sovereignty at all costs, even if it has meant going in boot first and guns blazing. Some of the greatest Westerns of all time were created by Sergio Leone, an Italian – at the time they were released his movies were not taken seriously and called “Spaghetti Westerns” in a derogatory sense. Now “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” is the #1 Western on IMDB, and the #5 movie on IMDB’s top 250 http://www.imdb.com/chart/top. The Western has left its mark with some of the most recognizable themes in American cinema, to the point of cliche. It is taken for granted that Westerns are part of American culture. Yet the bleakness of these films, and what this says about “American values”, is completely ignored.

The high mark of the genre, in my opinion, are the Sergio Leone films, especially the series in which Clint Eastwood starred as The Man With No Name, aka Blondie. The pinnacle of that series is the epic “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”. The cinematography in this movie ranges from wide shots of Civil War battlefields and endless desert, to close-ups that capture the intensity in a man’s eyes as he prepares for a gunfight. There is something nostalgic in the countryside captured in this film, and in other Westerns – we see America as it once was, even if it is only shaped that way in our own minds (and conveniently forgetting that it was filmed in Italy and Spain). We are reminded that our desire for industry and advancement have largely stripped our land of much of its beauty. In many of these great Westerns there is a wink and a nod, a little foreshadowing of what is to come – telephone lines and railroad tracks are just beginning to create a network of veins across the country, which will one day develop into the network of freeways and wireless internet we know today. This is an essential, although usually unstated, theme of great Western, as the camera pans slowly across an image of a vast frontier painted in sunset pastels: don’t you wish everywhere still looked this picturesque? Long gone are the days when this was the norm, and as much as Americans love our creature comforts and air-conditioned theaters, there is a small part of us all that wishes we were still surrounded by the beauty of nature, romanticized though it may be.

The music is often just as haunting and bleak as the imagery. Some of the most notable Western scores found in are “Dead Man”, which was scored by Neil Young, and “The Assassination of Jesse James”, which was scored by Nick Cave. Red Dead Redemption features some incredible original music as well. “TGTBTU” is the hallmark of the genre, Ennio Morricone. “Ecstasy of Gold” is probably his best known track, having been covered by Metallica and remixed for a Nike commercial, its one of those themes you have heard but probably did not know where it was from. It is a beautiful piece of music, which always makes me feel like I should be doing something epic. If you haven’t watched it, this is the original scene the music was created for – Tuco (Eli Wallach) has just betrayed Blondie (Eastwood) and is racing to reach the grave of Arch Stanton, in which he believes $200,000 in gold pieces is buried. “The Ecstasy of Gold” captures the joy of Tuco as he is finally within reach of the thing he has suffered torture and braved death to reach, the thing he has betrayed friend and family for – money. What a capitalist!

Betrayal is a common theme in stories set in the American West. Tuco and Blondie have been through a lot together – first they are working together in a criminal enterprise, then trying to kill each other. Then they are forced to work together to locate the gold as each man holds a piece of the treasure’s location that is worthless without the other. Then they are trying to kill each other again.  They are the closest thing each has to a friend, yet at various parts of the movie one has betrayed the other, with Tuco’s last act being the most recent. And so it is not a surprise that Tuco decides to betray Blondie. In fact it has been expected all along, by both the audience and Eastwood’s character. This is a theme of Westerns so common that we take it for granted – the West of the late 1800’s, early 1900’s was a time and place in which mistrust was the norm, and everyone was looking to pull one over on everybody else. Brad Pitt’s Jesse James in “The Assassination of Jesse James” is a paranoid man, always looking over his shoulder for the next betrayer, and he ends up shooting almost everybody in his gang but the one man who really has bad intent. The townspeople in “High Plains Drifter” always seem to be hiding something, which turns out to be the knowledge that they allowed their previous sheriff to be literally whipped to death as they looked on. Paranoia and betrayal are the norm in most Westerns. True or not, this is how we imagine the American past to be, and we romanticize it even as we thank heavens we are no longer so uncivilized.

"It's not a joke, it's a rope, Tuco. Now I want you to get up there and put your head in that noose."

There is a counterpoint to the selfishness and cut-throat element found in Westerns – this is the sacrifice that is so often demanded of the protagonist in the story. In “TGTBTU” this is seen in the seemingly endless battle over a random bridge between the Union and Confederate forces; in the fact that Tuco turned to a life of crime because he saw it as the only way to survive a rough neighborhood; and in the torture Blondie is put through as Tuco drags him through the desert for 70-plus miles, with no food or water, nearly bringing him to death. In “3:10 to Yuma”, Dan Evans sacrifices himself not just to bring a criminal to justice. He learns that Ben Wade will most likely escape soon after he puts him on that train. Dan sacrifices himself because it is the only way his wife and children can stay on their farm, and because he hopes to provide a moral example to his cynical eldest son. And in “A Fistful of Dollars”, The Man With No Name is asked why he is helping a family escape from the local criminals, despite knowing it will mean trouble for himself. “Why? Because I knew someone like you once. There was no one there to help. Now get moving.” Perhaps this is what brings us back to the Western, despite all the violence and betrayal: the sense that good can be truly appreciated only when surrounded by evil.

Every nation has its own version of the Western, in which national origins are the background on which to tell a story. The Japanese tell of their Samurai past, the Argentinians have their gauchos, and the English have given us the tales of King Arthur and his Knights. The American past is recent enough that we can almost imagine ourselves there. So what does the Western film say about the American citizen? That we like to imagine we were formed in violence and blood. That our forefathers (I use this loosely as my forefathers were nowhere near this land when any of this was going on) lusted for gold, fame, and whiskey, and were one excuse away from stabbing each other in the back. It also says that our national character survived this chaotic, immoral time and forged it into something else. Maybe it is meant to remind us to get off our collective moral high horse and remember that this was a nation built largely on the backs of African slaves, on land stolen from a well-established native people who just could not match our firepower. Our early years were desperate because we were trying to form something out of the harshness of a land still in control of itself, and bring it under our control. Or maybe it’s like Tuco tells Blondie: “You want to know who you are? Huh? You want to know who’s son you are? …you’re the son of a thousand fathers, all bastards like you.”

There are no words…

Read Ron-Ron’s Interview: http://www.insidehoops.com/artest-finals-interview-061710.shtml

Lakers…

I call this a poster. Roomate says its not cause KG came from behind but I say he's thinking of a facial. A poster is when you get the other guy in the frame so he literally shows up on the "poster", right? Tell me if I'm wrong or right in the comments!

LAKERZZZZZZZ!!!!!!

But seriously, great to see that win. That was exactly what the team/fans needed after a depressing two games in Boston.

But lets not get carried away just yet. The Lakers looked pretty dominant after Game 1 as well. Not this dominant, but they looked good, and still lost in Game 2, even if it did take a record breaking game from Ray Allen to do so.

My biggest worries are that either A.)The Lakers come out too confident in the next game, and don’t play with the same fire and energy and yes HUSTLE they played with today. B.) Phil played the starters a bit longer than I would have liked. I mean seriously, by about the fourth quarter I think the point was made – they have to leave something for the still very much in the air Game 7.

Some other thoughts: great comment by Jeff Van Gundy towards the end of the game – this was not about the offense (although the flow, passing, and fact that everybody got involved in scoring was huge) as much as it was about defense and rebounding.The Lakers only scored 87 tonight, shooting 41.8%. The key was keeping the Celtics to 67 on 33.3% shooting… remember how in game 5 they shot nearly 70% for much of the game? I had a hunch that wasn’t the real Lakers defense, and they proved it tonight. As for rebounding, Lakers won that battle (which has decided every other game in the series) 52-39.

Fisher forces Garnett into a jump ball. Celtics would take back possession but this type of play set the tone.

And more than that even were the hustle plays. Doc Rivers said in his press conference that at half-time the “50-50 game” (who gets the loose balls, generally a sign of which team is playing harder) was 18-3 in favor of the Lakers. This is exactly what they did not have in game 5. I said it earlier in the series: when the Lakers are mentally focused and playing hard they are the best team in the league. Bar none. The problem is that every once in a while they forget just how important that mental focus is, and come out soft and lazy. It is said often, but Lamar Odom is a great indicator of whether or not the Lakers as a whole are going to come out playing smart and hustling. He had a good game tonight.

Now here’s hoping they keep that focus for Game 7.

Will the Lakers come out with as much intensity for Game 7?

Why the Lakers are pissing me off… and how the Celtics have hacked the system.

So, the original plan was for me to write an article or two about the Lakers’ starting five – Kobe, Fisher, Artest, Gasol, and Bynum – and how this series was the culmination of the road for redemption for these guys. I was feeling all heady and optimistic after they won game 3 in Boston (feels like a month ago at this point) and I was absolutely sure the Lakes were wrapping this series up in an easy six games. Seven? Pshaw! No way Jose!

I had dreams of back-to-back rings, and maybe even a dynasty (word is they might get Bosh next season! OMG GUYZ!). That means three!

Damn I was wrong, and the Lakers are facing elimination tomorrow night after poor outings the last two games. If you are reading this post then you probably watched games 4 and 5 of the NBA Finals. Oh you didn’t? Then let me refresh you.

Game 4 (Celtics win, 96-89):

The Celtic’s bench was the key in this one. Their starters were just treading water for most of the game – Pierce was 7 of 12 for 19 points, but KG was 5 of 13, Ray Allen 4 of 11, and Rondo a whopping 5 of 15, although he was instrumental in a few key plays and came up with some beautiful steals that helped turn things around – but when that bench came in the whole game turned. Nate Robinson provided a burst of scoring, nailing 2 big threes, harassing Farmar into turning the ball over when the Lakers needed a basket, and generally lighting a fire under his fellow bench player’s behinds. A key moment is when NateRob stepped up to Lamar Odom after Odom knocked him down coming around a screen. Was it boneheaded for Nate to get that technical at such a key moment? Yes, but the aggression he showed was part of a serious momentum shift led by the bench. Fisher missed the resulting technical free throw. Kobe had missed a technical earlier. These two rocks, the most veteran guys on the team, are not supposed to miss gimme free throws like that.

But they did.

Of course we have to mention Glen “Big Baby” Davis here. He basically stole the show and created the momentum shift in the first place with his big-time rebound and put back on a third-chance opportunity. As he is known to do he completely overreacted to what was probably his second or third basket of the night. He was so high on his own play he started drooling all over himself. Remember the scene in 12 Monkeys where Bruce Willis wakes up in the mental hospital and he’s just leaking spit on the ground? Yeah, it was like that. It was a disgusting display of sheer emotion by a guy finally doing something worthwhile for his team. I’ve never seen somebody get so amped after their first big play of the game but it worked for him. He went off that night. It was exactly what the Celtics needed.  Big Baby finished with 18 points on 7 of 10 (70%!) shooting, with 5 rebounds, all in 22 minutes. The Lakers would not recover that night, and were still reeling from it in Game 5.

And what’s worse, the Lakers let it happen. Gasol and Lamar Odom had plenty of opportunities to stop Big Baby. Put a body on him. Block his shot. Get between your man and the basket and create a wall. Foul if you have to. Gasol has the height, even if he doesn’t have the weight. Lamar has the strength and the size. But neither one of them decided to draw a line in the sand, kick that Big Baby down the well and shout “This… is… SPARTA!” In that moment, the Lakers went back to being soft.

I think that term has been overused on the Lakers in the last few years. I always want to say, “You’re calling Fisher soft? Remember this play?”

(Love this clip by the way… stay with it to the end and see a Kobe/Ron-Ron dustup… at the time I would never have thought Ron would ever play for the Lakers.)

You’re calling Ron Artest soft? Remember this?

Bynum may make his share of mental errors, but the guy is playing on a bad tear in his knee that has to be killing him. And he’s had his tough moments in the past too:

Gasol is up and down when it comes to toughness. I saw him make great strides after the 2008 Finals loss, and he really came out swinging the last couple seasons. He hit the weight room and got much better at absorbing contact, and mentally he has been on his game throughout the playoffs. But at heart I think the European mentality, along with his thin frame, means he will always be more of a finesse player than a straight-up banger in the post. This makes him incredibly versatile but means it is possible to rattle him if you beat him up long enough. And Rasheed, Perkins, and KG are masters of introducing even the most talented big guys (Dwight Howard for example) to their long-forgotten enemy: Self Doubt. (But first, Pau dunking on the player he once idolized: KG)

As for Kobe, I would never go so far as to confuse him with a brawler. He has always seemed like somewhat of a “wannabe thug” vibe, like the guy who doesn’t really want to get into any fights but he’ll talk trash and maybe give you a cheap elbow or two. But one thing you have to give the guy is he is focused, and when it comes to winning basketball games he will stop at nothing – broken fingers, sprained ankles, messed-up knees, won’t flinch at a Matt Barnes fake to his face, won’t shy away from taking the big shots nobody else wants to take – Kobe may not be street tough, but on the basketball court there is nothing soft about him. I have no highlights, because chances are you’ve seen them all. Oh wait yeah I do:

So when I say that in that moment the Lakers were soft I do not mean it in the sense that they are cowardly and afraid. What I mean is that they lost the mental toughness which veterans are supposed to have. This is not indicative of a larger problem with the Lakers only. You could see the same thing happening to the Magic before them, and the Cavaliers before them. I told a friend before the series that the Lakers could win this thing if they stay mentally tough and keep on their game, but that it was easier said than done against the Celtics. What the Celtics do is frustrate. They hound. They play solid, fundamental defense. They do not give up anything easy. They pack the paint and dare their opponent to make contested shot after contested shot after contested shot. They push the big guys around (be it Dwight Howard or Shaq or Pau Gasol), forcing them to post up nearly at the three point line and expend all their energy just to get in scoring range. They push the limits of what the referee will allow them to do – punching your back when you try to post up, holding you, swiping at the ball, slapping at your arms as you go up, pulling the chair, and in general making you pay for everything you try to do against them. And the entire time they are talking trash, riling you up, taking you out of your game mentally and physically. This is how they limped into the regular season looking like dogs and ended up taking out the #1 and #2 ranked regular season teams in the Cavaliers and Magic, and are one win from being able to finish off the #3-ranked team in the Lakers.

Yes KG, we get it. You are a tough guy. Even if it did take you till game 3 to have any sort of presence in this series.

(pic courtesy of @docfunk, check the site for more: http://docfunk.blogspot.com/)

And I am not blaming the Celtics for doing this. They just found another way to hack the system. Fisher flops, Bryant flails (Pierce, Ray, and Rondo flop too, its not just the Lakers) and complains after every call he doesn’t get – the Celtics set dirty screens and use every legal or illegal trick in the book to piss you off and make you forget that you really are talented enough to beat them. They angered and irritated Pau to the point that he has just about lost his will to score. They drove Kobe to completely forget the measured pace and sharing mentality which carried him and the team through three series, and turned him into the shot-jacking, score-at-any-costs lone wolf we thought disappeared back in 2008.

In a sense the Celtics are the Velociraptor brewed in the vats in Jurassic Park, the caveman thawed out in modern times. They are a throwback to an era when toughness meant really kicking ass and taking names and that old axiom, which is not always true but is still believed by everybody, has come roaring back to life: Defense Wins Championships. The Celtics truly believe that YES the other team deserves to die, and hopes they burn in hell! David Stern sought to do away with this mentality. He beefed up the rulebook to make it so tough to play defense, so guys like Carmelo, Lebron, Dwayne Wade, Kevin Durant, and Kobe could do what the average paying fan wants to see: pump out ridiculous shot after gravity-defying dunk, fill up those highlight reels, “score that basketball”, and make offense a right, not a privilege. The League also took away all fighting, all swearing, anything offensive that might scare away the “casual” fan. Blame it on Ron Artest all you want, but Stern was dying for a reason to crack down on the game. Which is why we have double-technicals where a guy can get shoved and not doing anything back and still get a technical just for being part of it. And if something does break out and your teammates step off the bench to have your back they get an automatic suspension (ask Nash and the Suns how they feel about that rule). And it was not just on-court antics Stern sought to curb. He made everybody start wearing their Sunday best before and after games, because guys like Allen Iverson wanted to look thugged-out. He mandated all the charity work they rep so hard during every downtime “The NBA cares… and here is Steve Nash reading to children to show you how much!” He carefully crafted this image of the league as one of gentle giants who just want to entertain. They’re all just friends now, clean-cut professionals who play hard but still like to hang out after the game.

All this is not necessarily bad. Charity work is good. The league was becoming too defensive minded and slow-paced. It is simply a lot more fun to watch players make great offensive plays than defensive ones (sometimes). The league was becoming too thugged out. When half the players have a rap CD, and fifty tattoos, and when millionaires are walking around in posses and carrying loaded weapons, it really is bad for business (see Arenas, Gilbert or Burress, Plaxico). And honestly, as interesting as the Malice at the Palace Fight is to watch on Youtube six years later, if you had been there you probably would have been terrified. What Ron Artest did (with help from Stephen Jackson and instigated by Ben Wallace, to be fair) was wrong, and quite insane, and probably fueled by alcohol, and again it was bad for business no matter how much we all love a good fight.

But the end result is a League that is extremely civilized. Players want their endorsements. They whine and complain after every call. They hug and backslap guys they secretly hate and despise before the game starts so everyone can see how cool they are. They spend more time developing secret handshakes and talking about how much chemistry they have and not enough time developing real chemistry, the kind that tells you who has your back not just when things are going smooth but when the shit hits the fan, too. I’m looking at you Cavaliers.

The Celtics are a throwback, a dinosaur that saw how everybody else was evolving and went into hibernation for 1,000 years, then stepped out into a world that did not quite know what to make of them. They don’t give a damn about your endorsements and neat-o handshakes. They are too damn old for this shit and really, they just want you to get off their damn lawn. They play tough defense. They have limitless self-confidence. They have multiple scoring options who have been through fire and know what it takes to make plays in the clutch. They believe, truly and absolutely, that they can beat any basketball team on the planet, and that is a scary thing. True or not, when a team believes, and carries themselves with that swagger, they become more than the sum of their parts. I think most team-based sports fans will admit that they wish their team had that swagger, that faith. I know that after watching the Lakers give up a lead to a guy nicknamed “Big Baby” in game 4, and be unable to come from behind in game 5 because of sloppy mental errors in the fourth quarter, I was wishing they could get a booster shot of some of that confidence.

Believe it or not, despite all that I have written, I am not giving up on the Lakers just yet. I still believe that they have the capacity to play better than the Celtics, and if it wasn’t for Ray Allen breaking records in game 2, and the Celtic’s bench going off in game 4, and the Lakers coming out sloppy and tentative in game 5, this series would have been much different (I know that is a lot of ifs). The Lakers were a top-5 defensive team for most of the season, yet they forgot how to play D last night and allowed 70% shooting from the Celtics for much of the game. Their offense has been on fire throughout these playoffs, but they keep letting themselves get bogged down into one-on-one dribbling that eats up time and leads to terrible shots. The Celtics defense is a big part of that but I believe the Lakers can do better if they stay mentally focused and play the style that got them here.

One way or another, the Lakers backs are against the wall. It is time for them to play like it.

Oh, and for the heck of it:

Why I root for the Lakers

Hi there, this is my first blog post, coming after an emotional win for the Lakers over the Celtics in Boston. Right after the game I tweeted (@thedeuceisloose, follow me!) a little bit about some of the reasons why I consider the Lakers, contrary to popular belief, make for as good a story as any other team in these playoffs.

Fisher, the southpaw, the cagy vet, left for dead in the regular season by seemingly everyone (including me), yet he rose like a zombie in these playoffs just to make plays in the clutch.

Ron Artest, the batshit crazy-man of the league, a throwback to a time when defense mattered (um yeah that’s a loaded statement but I’m on a roll here), a guy who watched someone stab someone else with a table leg, has finally reigned in all his emotions and committed himself to one goal: helping these champions repeat, and maybe find a little redemption for his own legacy.

Andrew Bynum, the big fella, who has been kept down by injury in the past when his team needed him the most, finally deciding enough is enough and fighting through the pain and discomfort of a torn meniscus (I’m not a doctor but it sounds painful) to give his team some much needed ferocity on offense and defense.

Pau Gasol, the “soft Spaniard”, who has shown himself to be one of the most versatile and talented big-men in the L, using every move in his arsenal to shake off that soft tag for good. Beating Kevin Garnett, his former idol who beat him down in the ’08 Finals, could cement Pau’s legacy and finally lay those doubts to rest.

And Kobe, well… too much has been said about him already. He is the main reason there are Laker haters (that and all the rings this past decade I guess). After tonight’s game I wanted to strangle him myself. He singlehandedly almost shot the team out of this. These are not the Suns, Kobe: you cannot just shoot over these guys at will! But honestly, would the Lakers be here without him? Hell no. I’m not going to compare him to Jordan, I don’t think such comparisons are useful so I won’t even go there. But the man has done his best Jordan impression in these playoffs, with 12 30 pt. games out of 13 before tonight, and that one he didn’t score 30 came with 13 assists instead. Before tonight he was adapting his game endlessly, taking what the opposition gave him. Go ahead and hate him – for his past indiscretions, his silly ogre-face when he wants to look serious, the fact that he’s probably a big A-hole you would never want to hang out with – but admit that the man wants nothing more than to be the best at what he does, and realize everybody could use a little of that drive in their lives. Only a little though… or else we’d have a lot of assholes around.

Anyway like I said I was a little emotional after the game tonight, and had a little bit to say to what I call the “bandwagon C’s fans”. Those who became Celtic’s fans just because they did not want to see the Lakers win another title, those who dislike the Lakers for whichever reason: the “soft” title which I think is way overblown (you call Ron Artest soft and see what happens), dislike for Kobe (fair enough), or worst of all “they’ve won it too many times before”. To which I say, DO YOU KNOW HOW FREAKIN’ HARD IT IS TO WIN ONE??? Would you tell a man who is trying to climb Mount Everest for the tenth time you hope he falls off this time, because he’s hogging all the glory? Hell no.

In future posts I will try and go a little deeper into each player. I’d like to start including images and links to clips on youtube to show some important moments for each guy. This blog won’t just be about the Lakers by the way – I try to stay unbiased for the most part and I like other teams/players/subjects,  but with the Lakers in the NBA Finals right now they seem to be foremost on my mind.

I apologize for the rambling nature of this post – this is my first blog so I’m learning, and right now I’m using the free version of wordpress and they make you type into this tiny window… I’m probably doing it wrong. But I’ll figure it out… oh yes world, I’ll figure it out. And one day soon, you will see POST NUMBER TWO. Get ready.

And leave comments.