Spirit time at Camp Molasses
I come to you today to test a hypothesis. In a magazine soon to be published, DLIC, the Recluse and myself exult over the myriad wonders of the off-season, maybe the real thang's equal in terms of plot and intrigue. But judging from a general wane in the NBA blogosphere, my other diversons, and that crazy little thing called football, we've hit the absolute dry patch of Association fallow wizardry.
My question then, is a simple one: are you thinking about the NBA at all, and if so, what's kept you going? I can safely respond "NO," and I wonder if that places me in the majority or colors me miscreant.
The fact that NFL trades are jumping off like nobody's hot sauce is part of the problems; isn't that league supposed to be ultra-conservative when it comes to any and all transactions? In any other year, we would still be spinning idle yarns on what ever happened to Big Bonz.
posted by Bethlehem Shoals @ 9/14/2006 09:11:00 AM
24 comments
24 Comments:
I'm thinking about the NBA all the time. My problem is that I'm currently living in Japan. The only court available to me is outdoors on the dirt. When it rains I can't play for a week. There is nothing on TV. My copy of NBA Live doesn't work on my Japanese computer and I don't know why because all of the error messages are written using the three Japanese alphabets, none of which I can read. I want the NBA to start so that I can watch games at 10 am, local time. I want the NBA to start so that I can sign up for fantasy ball. I want the NBA to start so I can see if Bryan Colangelo really has a horseshoe in his pants, or if the Raptors will be as bad as last year. I just want basketball. I've got the shakes.
I am definately thinking about the NBA, but that's only because my Lakers were one of a very few teams who seemed to have hit a whole new level right before and through the playoffs.
Will Kwame ever play on the floor with Mihm again? Will Luke Walton remain at power forward, or will Radmonovic relegate him to the 7th man pass specialist? Will Jordan Farmar (a player I'm on the fence about conferring FD adjective status upon) be an upgrade from (the already very obviously FD) Smush Parker?
I probably wouldn't be as interested in any of these questions if the summer media blackout would let ANYTHING through on my boys in purple and gold.
Of course I want the NBA to start. It's the only way any of you will realize that Ben Wallace leaving Detroit was the best thing to happen to the Pistons since the removal of the teel jerseys. And after this season, when another NBA crown is won by the Motor City Madmen, don't say I didn't tell you so.
I think about the NBA so much that sometimes I forget that other cities even have a football team. As though the Bears exist in some sort of football vacuum where other teams are created solely for the purpose of entertaining me on Sundays for the mere 3 hours a week that I don't think about basketball.
the worlds have kind of fucked up the rhythm of the off-season. they made it seem both longer and less like a lull in basketball; i'm not quite fiending like usual around this time, and i've been treated to an extra galling month of CHAMPIONSHIP BASKEBALL discourse
Beyond the seething anger towards Kevin McHale that resides permanently in my heart, no I haven't been thinking about basketball that much. This is only due to the distraction of the Twins. Viva la Twins!
The NBA still interests me the most. It's on my mind more than the NFL, and i'm thinking about the offseason and what's going to happen with all the new look teams. I'm reflecting a bit on the FIBAs, and just am very hungry for new NBA info.
Example: Whenever I visit espn.com(whenever i go to the address bar to type, i usually type espn.com subconcsiously out of habit), i always click the nba tab first, followed by the nfl tag, followed by the fantasy section. That's just how it is. I can't explain it. It may just be habit from following the nba more intently, or the fact that i've had a falling out with the nfl the past year. The falling out is a major contributor to why i'm still more interested in the nba, when 2 years ago, i would've been totally obsessed with the nfl at this moment. So i'm almost caring more about the nba just to spite the nfl. Go figure.
I still can't stop thinking about the tragic events of 11/19, the night my world changed in Auburn Hills. I can't forget S-Jax getting wild, Maine cold-cocking that chubby guy on the floor, Jamaal Tinsley wielding a dust-pan in the vomitorium. Never forget.
I think about the NBA all the time as well. And it's funny that aug mentioned the ESPN click hierarchy -- I do the same thing, though mine goes 1. NBA 2. Fantasy 3. NFL...
I'm mostly thinking about JR Smith as a Nugget and hoping that somehow K-Mart can co-exist with the team and that he, Nene, and (especially!) Camby can stay healthy for the year... There's so much potential on that team -- I just hope they can somehow pull it together and maybe even get a real shooter to bail them out.
And yeah, I'm still fiending for basketball despite the Worlds -- those just got me hungry for some incredible Melo heroics throughout the season. I'm happy to be a Denver fan -- we have a very interesting situation developing this year. I think we can go deep in the playoffs if the core stays healthy and JR pans out (which I think he will)...
I too am thinking about the NBA, especially because I randomly shared a table with Frank Layden at a benefit for the Hogle Zoo in SLC. We ate thai curry while he professed his love for snow leopards.
(And he was very nice. The more NBA-types I meet, the more I'm starting to resent the middle-aged-white-sportswriter jaded point of view that seems to have conditioned me to expect NBA players and coaches to be aloof and unapproachable. Everybody I've met over the last few months has treated me like I was the only person in the room and as if they were genuinely happy to meet me. I say we need new writers.)
I'm excited for the Dee Brown era in Utah. I want to see Kirilenko, Boozer, and Okur play a whole season together and accomplish more than simply making the All-Face team. I'm excited to see if Deron Williams has used any of his money to fix his orange tat.
And let's face it: It's the Post-Ostertag Era. Get used to it.
I cant quit thinking about the NBA either, and I too have a ESPN.com hierarchy- NBA, Page 2, NCAA, MLB, then NFL. It can't come soon enough. If week 1 of the NFL is any indication, it's going to be downright ugly how outpicked Simba gets by his own wife.
Why am I thinking about the Association? It's certainly not because I've got high hopes for my 'Kettes, for whom last year was cursed with such buzzard luck that the phrase "spinning their wheels" wasn't even possible since both big wheels went flat to bookend the season. Tmac's back staying serviceable seems about as sketchy a proposition as Mighty Mouse's fingernails not eventually smelling like burnt rope. Yao might could get it done one day with the right cast of role players, but I don't see them here, and it's not like Battier, V-Span, or a healthy Bob Sura's going to make the Rockets that much better.
No, my interest is heliocentric. I want to see Nash conduct the firebird suite with the risen Amare, to find out who their newest reclamation job will be, and I guess to see if Toronto can pull off the East Coast version with Bosh, T.J. and a grand total of one (1) bonafide outside threat (Mo Pete).
I live in Japan, too, Anon 10:35. It's hell. Not a minute of WBC (except the mighty, mighty Japanese team, which may, or may not, have a complete grasp of the rules). On the other hand, if you live in or near Chiba, I know a free out door pick up court, two baskets, on asphalt. Nice guys there too. If only I hadn't torn up my ankle at the beginning of the summer...
I've been here so long, football is becoming a distant memory (you really can't watch an NFL game if you already know the score. I'd say you can watch basketball, though). My internet pattern is something along the lines of FD, Deadspin, Truehoop, MJD, then, if something on those sites catches my eye, I'll check the "news" version on ESPN. When the league starts up again, I'll be checking box scores and recaps, watching the gamecast, and endangering my job security.
Hell, I'm even checking out Hoopshype a couple times a week, and there's nothing happening.
This is the point for me where excitement over the NBA's off-season maneuvers has waned and excitement over the pre-season hasn't begun yet. I'm glad for that, not because of the NFL, but because this is the time of year when baseball really matters. And I've always been a baseball fan before a basketball fan. Heck, I'm a Jewish kid from New York. Of course I'm a baseball fan first.
torgo--on the subject of internet usage endangering job security, at some point i'm going to put out something official on the new breed of office productivity. at a desk, or working at home, i work best when i go like crazy on a task for 10-15 minutes, then take a break and screw around for two or three. then repeat, rinse later. it's easier for me to get going if i feel pressured or scared into making immediate progress, and if i stick with once my brain slows down i run the risk of getting alieanted.
i would make this a post, but my boss looks at this site sometimes and i can't risk this going public before my theory is certified.
this has been a pretty vanilla offseason. if iverson was traded, we could have heard shrieks of grief from all quarters (my own shabby corridors included) and read countless articles about how his unshackled electricity is inevitably going to cause the hair on his new teammates' scalps to collectively stand on end, blanch leukocyte white and fall the fuck out. there was a brief spike in hoops interest when swarthy, musty men defeated our valient hoopsters (and the attendent hand-wringing made for sneering chuckles). othewise, it's really all about ryan howard.
Shoals, I think your theory has some solid underpinnings, but be wary of the whole "new economy" syndrome. The productivity you speak of might be closely aligned with wasting time on the internet, but honestly, it's not all that different from cleaning your dorm, watching (depending on your mood) Trainspotting, Braveheart, or Heat again for the umpteenth time, and heading to Taco Bell before *starting* on your term paper that's due in the morning. I, and a lot of people I know (and presumably you) work better under last minute deadlines.
Or maybe video games really have destroyed our attention spans...
And I can't wait to see the effect of the Wallace defection on my teams. Will he sink the Bulls? Will the Pistons carry on? I feel like my favorite show just had a massive cliffhanger, and I'm waiting with baited breath.
I have been thinking about the NBA on a daily basis too. Not just because FreeDarko is one of my first 4 internet stops - but unlike Suomi, I do think there is something to look forward to for the Screwston faithful this year, but I won't go into too much detail, but I think the difference between 36 wins and 55 wins IS a healthy Yao/TMac combo.
Also, I really really really hope that Leon Powe comes out and has a Ryan Gomes like year for the Celtics.
Finally - related to nothing, Simba on Colbert? A little awkward for our Sports Guy, but not a bad performance.
pm--now that former fd fave liriano seems to have flamed out too young, i am all in favor of the r. howard endorsement. in fact, i'd like to suggest that pre-juice, naturally gargantuan, slightly awkward, circus strongman-y sluggers are pretty fd, provided they're either
1) from before 1945
2) african-american
3) BOTH!!!!
example:
1) hank greeberg, jimmie foxx, hack wilson (NOT BABE RUTH, he's like the shaq of baseball)
2) stargell, mccovey
3) JOSH GIBSON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lovin' the Ryan Howard respect. Don't forget Prince Fielder as part of that idea.
In college, I went to a frat party where they hired a strongman just to roam around amongst the kids and do strongman stuff. Pick people up with one hand, rip phone books in half, etc. Amazingly entertaining.
I have to say that I'm pretty consumed with football right now, especially college. I usually just drown myself in it every year and don't come out again until the bowls are done. As a big college sports fan, I'm probably in the minority among this site's commenters. The long narrative of pro sports just lends itself to a different way of following along. Actually, if it didn't, this site would be very different. I'll be keeping a third of an eye on my Bullies, though, especially the tell-all OppFG%.
As far as news, I'm surprised there wasn't a peep here about Kukoc's retirement. You can consider him a predecessor of sorts, and his path is interesting: semi-secret prelude, stylish emergence, shackling of style during the anti-style era, a twilight that sees the value of his game confirmed, but without him.
Lastly, On Quite Frankly last night, Stephen A. railroaded Ron-Ron into guaranteeing a Finals appearance for the Kings this year. Interesting interview, not for the content (which was paper-thin), but for the dynamic. Ron wasn't sure whether he was an interviewee, a combatant, or a spectator at some sort of performance art. Every time Stephen upped the volume to all-out-yell, Ron would have a slightly fearful squirm. I couldn't watch the whole thing; I switched to Animal Planet just in time to catch a hippo fight, which was a great segue to sleep.
sb--not quite understanding how i'm posting before you, but such is the marvel of blogspot.
for some reason i'm not feeling football. have i mentioned that already?
didn't see this ron-ron/SAS encounter, though the one when QF first started was a real eye-opener for me. my one great post about football was based on it.
Hank Greenberg is the Dolph Schayes of baseball.
why i have jewish sports cred for days: hank greenberg once attended a seder at my great uncle's home.
This week, I've been watching playoff games saved on Tivo that I didn't have time to watch this spring.*
And that's just more fodder for already existing imaginings about the coming season: LBJ with another year and playoff experience, plus some time spent in the Worlds being the all-around player that some hope he'll turn into;** what's Miami gonna do; Hellboy reborn; KB24 and his crew; can Denver make some real noise; will the Clips progress or regress; will Philly and Minny be utter travesties ... I could go on.
Now is the wonderful time when anything that can be imagined could be possible.
* Including part of the Inside NBA with Kobe as guest. I had watched it at the time, but dude was really interesting. TNT needs to have him on again.
** I don't get the criticism of LBJ in the worlds. So he didn't score a lot. His all-around game was phenomenal and arguably held the team together. His defense even visibly improved. I'm I just imagining this, or do people really not see it?
Comparatively, he was the weakest of the three captains and his clutch foul shooting was not so clutch.
Besides, that demeanor is getting old.
Wade and to a lesser degree Anthony exude joy on the court. James...all stoney and cool. Mechanical. Robotic. Bionic.
Besides, he does play in CLEVELAND, OHIO.
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