Sundays with Hubie

I am grievously interested in finding out just how Valentine ends, so don't expect too much concentration on this one. Plus I think that the utter lack of commentary on the Saunders dismissal—to me, the story of the year so far—casts a shroud of silence over this here blog, and I don't quite feel good about writing until someone steps up and says something.

I did want to share with all of you the intense fondness I've developed for Hubie Brown over the last few weeks. It's not his way with language—the Big Redhead remains the once and future king—and his insight really isn't much to anyone past junior high level of hoops know-how. But few people can coat the game in as much amber enthusiasm as the one-time Papa Griz (the Logo runs the forest!). who at the buoyant age of seventy-something still dances his way through a broadcast with non-stop like's, love's, and other general indicators of thumbs-uppery. He may practically own the patent for the by-now meaingless term "upside," and he is occasionally prone to weirdness like today's "LeBron's ranks fourth in the league in creativity" (did I hear that right?). Still, I'll take his absent-minded glee any day over Walton's snide buffonery, and blurting out nonsense in the heat of pure basketball affirmation is diffferent than Walton's desire to turn the whole game into his rhetorical petting zoo.

I don't want Hubie calling the playoffs, but for meaningless games that serve mostly as a soundtrack for my attempts at Sunday homework, he's the perfect, glowing ambient ingredient. He rarely wows me with his competence, but he pays attention and tries to make sure you're as rapt as he is. Whether or not you think he pulls it off is a personal thing, but for me, the effort comes across, and makes the Hubie Brown Experience an altogether rewarding one.

Other thoughts:

1. LeBron played like nothing the first half today. The second half, he never took over the game (putting Kobe, who happened to have a pretty good day in the unselfishness dept., to shame), and had only a handful of King-caliber PLAYS. Still, he nearly got a triple-double. Absolutely unbelievable. Is he better than we could possibly imagine, or is he so beyond stats that he can pile them up in his sleep? BTW, I had this thought before Hubie semi-articulated it, so I'm taking what's mine!

2. Re: a post from last night: the new look Kings are, dare I say, interesting. I agree 100% with THC. Mobley is making things happen. Real thangz. He's proving himself to be a real leader of men, exactly what that team needs. And he's trained Maurice Evans and Matt Barnes in his image—that's the emotional core of this team. It was always B-Jax and the rarely seen raw Bibby before that; now these guys outnumber the impassive professionals that have kept the team spinning its wheels for so long.

3. Is there a more enigmatic—and utterly fascinating—player in the league than Lamar Odom? If LeBron is strength, grace, length, and balance in perfect harmony, Odom is all four fighting a nail-and-tooth battle to the death. He can be three or four different guys at once, sometimes over the course of a single drive.