17 Hours


Blake Griffin: The Takeover

Blake Griffin is probably the best player in college basketball right now (Carolina and UConn fans, sit down — I know that you think Tyler Hansbrough and Hasheem Thabeet are more due, but don’t bother trying to convince me). The guy can get to the inside whenever he wants; he just muscles through other players to get there. His edgy offensive play allows him to be elusive and forces defenses to improvise a plan — that usually doesn’t work — to stop him.

Just wanted to say, I’m damn glad that college basketball is back and booming.



Jalen Rose: Chris Bosh and LeBron James BOTH Knicks in 2010

Upon the conclusion of the Rockets/Wizards game on ESPN, Matt Winer & Jalen Rose were discussing the free agent class of 2010 and Winer asked Rose’s thoughts on player movement.

Jalen said he has “extremely reliable sources” that say Chris Bosh and LeBron James will both be New York Knicks in the summer of 2010. He later followed that up by saying Bosh is definitely leaving, as he talked about the heartbreak the Raptors endured losing Tracy McGrady and subsequently Vince Carter, and with Cleveland and their sports history (no championships in Larry Bird knows how long, Jim Brown’s infamous fumble, etc.) and he said there is no chance Bosh and LeBron stay come 2010.

Great news for Raptors fans to top off a ‘great’ game against the New Jersey Nets



Gilbert Arenas – Lights Out

Not my kind of music, but it’s a flashy song. I remember watching this last February (‘07). The music accommodates the general emotion of the video, considering it features Gilbert Arenas’s woes from the first playoff series against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers, missing the free throws, then coming back the next season and playing his heart out. Just a damn good mix.



College Basketball Tips Off

I love college basketball. Always have. The sheer amount of emotion that’s put into play during games is intense. You have to love it. If you don’t, that’s your opinion, but I’m almost certain that your heart is black and your mind is in a tizzy.

Thanks to school being called off today due to snow, it’s been a day full of college basketball (what else is there to do? Can’t drive anywhere due to the peril of the weather, and there’s nothing else to do besides read, which is what I usually do when I watch sports anyhow).

At 10 AM, Pennsylvania and Drexel played, with Drexel squeaking out a 66-64 win. I’m not too familiar with either team’s players (though I won’t be forgetting Drexel’s tumble with Duke a few years ago, which was highly entertaining to watch), but a Drexel player missed a free throw with about 21 seconds left that gave Drexel a chance.

Freshman Zack Rosen drove the length of the court, took a few steps into the key with a left dribble, flipped the ball to his right and threw a pass to a cornering player that drilled a three, drawing the score 65-63.

Drexel came back down, hit one free throw, and missed the other. 66-63.

Zack Rosen jacked up a horrible shot with two seconds remaining, and was sent to the line. The freshman missed the first shot, drilled the second, intentionally missed the third, and a Pennsylvania player nearly (well, he missed by about a foot, but that’s besides the point) scored with a floater in the key.

That’s only a preview of what’s to come as the season unwraps now to ensue.



Why The 2008 Celtics Piss Me Off

It’s no secret that the 2008 Boston Celtics are having success. . . in terms of their 9-2 record.

The fact of the matter is that Doc Rivers is the head coach, and he doesn’t possess the most pixels on the television screen. In other words, he’s not the brightest coach in the carousel, even if he was essential in leading the Celtics to its first NBA championship in twenty-two years last season.

Turnovers, baby.

The Celtics are almost dead last in turnovers this year, and it’s driving me nuts. Last year they were more careful with the ball, and made smart moves. Now they’re expecting the defense to make mistakes and allow those mistakes to predicate on the Celtics’ success. It’s worked, a little.

Thanks to the multitude of scoring from eclectic of scorers ranging from Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Kevin Garnett, Eddie House, and the occasional Leon Powe hammering it in on the block, the Celtics have stayed on top.

But this can’t happen in the playoffs. Doc shouldn’t allow it, but we know how that goes. It’s like a conventional thing to do — give a coach a horde of money and a couple of years to a new contract extension if his team wins a champion, besides how they won the championship (a collective group of players playing as a cohesive unit, undauntedly determined to win a championship), but Rivers is the head coach of the Celtics nonetheless, thanks to Danny Ainge. (Thanks, Danny!)

Let me reiterate: the Celtics are 29th in the league in turnovers. That’s almost dead last.

While I was watching the Nuggets/Celtics game Friday evening, I noticed a load of mistakes that hurt them in the beginning AND in the end. The Celtics busted open the game with an 8-0 lead. What happened shortly thereafter was an onslaught of turnovers that kept popping out like the 1950s baby-boom era. Bouncing off players’ legs, Ray Allen letting a ball or two slip from his hands and out of bounds; erratic passes rolling off finger tips. It was crazier than a crackhead.

When Eddie House was chucking up shots at the end of the game, and Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett were almost single handedly keeping the Celtics in the game, House’s incompetent defense proved to be the big weakness, which, in my opinion, is a turnover itself when it seems like your team is playing four guys against five (I’m not acknowledging Eddie brickHouse at this point).

They may be 9-2, but they sure as hell aren’t playing as their record indicates. Where is this supposed reigning championship power? On offense I see it in spouts, but when Rajon Rondo isn’t even in the game during crunch time, and Eddie House is in there for his offensive abilities, despite the fact that Rondo can play much better defense than House, there is trouble.

If you turn the ball over, the other team will score.



Tim Duncan Hits a 3 — Captioned

Tim Duncan hitting a three against the Suns that sent Phoenix into their yearly ‘We hate San Antonio’ mode.

*To view the picture in its entirety, right click it and click “view image.” That is if you have Firefox. If you have Internet Explorer, then screw you! Download Firefox then view the picture.)

Tim Duncan nails a 3 against the Phoenix Suns in game one in the first round of the 2008 Western Conference playoffs

Tim Duncan nails a 3 against the Phoenix Suns in game one in the first round of the 2008 Western Conference playoffs



Troy’s Musings (11/12/08)

Madonna apparently says of New York Yankees third-basemen Alex Rodriguez that he has “the heart of a poet trapped inside an insanely gorgeous body.”
People tell me that all the time, so I don’t see what the big deal is. I’m still baffled, as I assume all of you are, by this whole A-Rod/Madonna freak fest. My only guess is that Madonna is using Rodriguez for his skin.

New York Jets and New England Patriots go toe-to-toe tomorrow night.
Who cares? Well, many people care, but what I mean is why is there so much hype on this game? A rivalry is there, the two teams hate each other, and the AFC East lead is in tact. However, why can’t the Patriots/Jets-Favre hype die down?

Chauncey Billups’ effects on the Denver Nuggets
This should be in the headlines instead of what’s in the bold above. Though, that’s not happening. Billups has been his usual self in Denver in a couple of games so far, and the offense has been running more smooth than ever. Perhaps this is what Carmelo Anthony truly needed — true point guard who can also hit big shots when they matter.

Greg Oden returns tonight
Cool. Time to see if he can produce any more than he did in his first game. He had a few rebounds and a pair of blocks in his first game against the Lakers in which he only played thirteen minutes of, scoring no points. Hopefully he can put on a show against Dwyane Wade, Michael Beasley, Shawn Marion and the Heat tonight.

Tony Romo ready to play against Washington
In the sole word of Drew Rosenhaus, “NEXT!” I didn’t know it took so long to come back from a broken pinkie. In other news, has there ever been more news surround an injured player before? Not since 1990-1991 when the Boston Celtics’ Larry Bird’s career met its demise.



Books That Will Never Be Written
November 7, 2008, 8:16 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Here are books that will never be published in the history of civilization, or at least for as long as we — or these potential writers listed below — will live:

How I’ve Never Driven Drunk by Leonard Little
How to Keep Your Cool by Bob Knight
How I Converted the Chargers to Become an NFL Dynasty by Ryan Leaf
How to Follow the Rules by Kelvin Sampson
Staying Clean: My 20 Years in Baseball by Barry Bonds
We Hate the Yankees and Red Sox by ESPN
Being a Woman by Hillary Clinton
19-0: The Perfect Season by the Proud Members of the New England Patriots
How to Treat a Woman by O.J. Simpson
How to Become Charismatic by Bill Belichick
Drinking Water, Eating Vegetables and Absolving Alcohol by John Daly
How to Commit to One Woman for the rest of your Life by Wilt Chamberlain (Foreword by Michael Jordan)
How to lead an NFL team to a Super Bowl by Dan Marino
My Life as an NBA Champion by Reggie Miller
Becoming a Role Model: Leading a Invigorating Role for Kids by Charles Barkley
Balancing Your Professional and Private Life by Tony Romo (Foreword by Matt Leinart)
Mr. Halloween: How I became an October Legend by Alex Rodriguez
How to Stay Healthy by Kerry Wood
Quarterbacks I Love by Terrell Owens
The Dummy Guide: How to Build a Franchise by Matt Millen (foreword by Isaiah Thomas)



Sportswriting and why I want to do it

I want a job where I can be wrong almost all the time. A job where I can take pot shots at people who are actually doing what I can only dream about, and cut them down. I want to berate them, make jokes about them, and all else poke fun at them until I drive the general consensus of society nuts. I want to say one thing one day, and then when I am proven wrong, be able to sidestep my original opinion for a more popular one. I want to make bold predictions, and then disown them the moment they don’t happen. I want to hold someone up, put them on a pedestal and worship them. Then, I want to knock them down, spit on them and turn my back when they “fail” me. In short, I want to be a sports writer.

All I want is the chance to pontificate about how absolutely essential it is for a certain athlete to do something, and then when it happens, move the goal post back another 50 yards and start again. And, when I can’t find fault with an athlete’s performance, I will find fault with his/her so called character. For writers, this usually means picking apart their comments, TV ads or shoe color. Anything to bring him or her back down to earth. So, I can feel superior. And, if you offend someone, well, just get them to yell at you, and you’ll have column fodder for the rest of your career.

And I’m on my way to be doing just that. If you haven’t noticed yet, then believe me, I am an overly opinionated, sarcastic, dark/sexual humored, randomly pissed off person. Let me at these overpaid, overblown, overhyped jerks that I want to spend my life writing about on newspaper/magazine print.

When kids are playing basketball in the driveway they try to emulate Michael Jordan or Larry Bird. When I’m writing I try to emulate Hunter S. Thompson, Bob Ryan and Bill Simmons, then turn it up a notch to my own style.



Phoenix Suns. . . Bullies?

In an article written by Paul Coro of The Arizona Republic, he states that a few of the Portland Trailblazers players said the Phoenix Suns ‘bullied’ them and their play was physical.

What?

Are we talking about the Suns? I’m delighted to say we are. For the greater part of 20 years, the Suns have been labeled as soft. The closest they got to being tough was during the Charles Barkley years and that was basically only because of Sir Charles.

To have teams/players say (and to the media) that the Suns bullied them, frankly, makes me very enthralled! The NBA can be so physical, you have to be tough if you want to advance. The Celtics are tough, the Spurs are tough, the Rockets are tough, the Jazz have always been physical, and the Lakers are (I guess) tough.

But the fact is they do have a tough, gritty team. Shaquille O’Neal, Amare Stoudemire is playing more man-like, Steve Nash has always been tough, Matt Barnes is a scrapper, Raja Bell, Robin Lopez etc.

Personally, I’m not ready to label them as being a ‘physical’ team, but to have other players/teams think they are is definitely a good sign.