SDSU has finally won their first NCAA game. I haven't come out to make many pics because really, who knows especially this year. But I've got big hopes for my Aztecs. Let's keep it up.
This season will be a huge success if we can get to the elite 8, which I feel is very possible.
I'll definitely take a shot tonight to honor this great and long overdue win. I only wish I was 18 again and would have been parting from University Blvd. to PB!!!!
Go SDSU!!!!
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Monday, March 7, 2011
What’s wrong with the heat, from a champion’s view.
Ok, I’m not a champion basketball player. I’ve never made it past high school in my illustrious career. I did spent a few years as a decent street baller when I got out of high school and was really working out. Keep in mind I was captain of my high school team, even thought we lost all but one game my final season. Never the less, I’d say I know a little about the game. I’ve studied it and maybe if the chips fell differently in my life I could have played at the collegiate level. The one thing that made up for in any lack of skill was that I knew the game. I’d spend off time sketching out plays and trying to figure out what match-ups where going to be most efficient. I still watch the game and can pick up an offense or defensive strategy fairly easily. Again, I’m not anywhere close to a coach or scout or anything that would make me official but I’m no just some schlub that say, Kobe should shot more and the Lakers would never loose.
Getting that out of the way is part of what baffles me about the Heat. People are coming down on the Heat like the world is coming to the end. The first thing I would say is that it hasn’t been a full season. These are superstars trying to fit together. Although you’d think it would be opposite, it’s much harder for Alpha dogs to get along and figure out there role as would it be if you got four talented 2nd or 3rd tier players that came in knowing what they needed to do. I do believe this is humbling for all three of these guys. First Bosh got the heat (maybe pun intended ) for not being a “star” like LeBron or Wade. Now it’s the big two that are really feeling it. Now Coach Spo is REALLY feeling it.
Put this in a vacuum. This is their first year playing together. You can see the egos on their faces being confused to why they aren’t winning. It’s not mad. It’s not disappointment. It’s confussion. They don’t know why this is happening. Which almost makes me feel sorry for them, except they asked for all of this.
I have a question. There 30 teams in the NBA now? Why only 3 – 5 teams really make it possible to even get two of these players to come to their city? Let’s face it, we saw Donnie Walsh clear what might have been the worst possible situation into something that would have allowed at least 2 max contracts. Why didn’t every team except the Lakers and Celtics do the same thing? If getting just two of these players would instantly mean championships, and there was also a very good chance that Bosh could be worked in, why didn’t more teams jump?
Because smart basketball people know that it’s not always the best “talent” that you put on the court the one who wins. In a book that Jordan wrote, he said he’d rather go out there with four guys that new the game and new their roles than ever to be joined with another superstar. Granted Jordan’s ego might have something to do with that statement but it’s never been more true. Look at all the championship teams they had. Jordan needed Pippen. But if Pippen didn’t have the personality or didn’t recognize Jordan’s greatness none of this would have worked. The where the first team without a real point guard and without a superstar center to win multiple championships. But that doesn’t mean that the players that they had where from the free agent scrap heap to at least fill up a 12 man roster. Cartwright, Armstrong, Grant, Paxson, Perdue, King just to name a few from the first run. Then by the end you had players like Harper, Kerr, Kukoc, Rodman, Wennington and Longley. I was a huge fan of the Jordan Bulls so I knew all these guys. None of them would jump off the page but they where all talented, all knew their roles and where all slapped on the ass by Jordan and pushed by Pippen and zen’d by Jackson.
All championship teams need their role players and need good ones. More importantly they needed their stars to know their roles. The great Celtic teams now and then know this. The Laker teams have known this. Do you think that Rambis ever aspired to be better than Magic? No. He would do what 100 other players wouldn’t and it was all for the betterment of the team. If not for the loss of Perkins last year would the Lakers have won the championship? If the Celts had ANYONE that could fill the void at center maybe they win game 7?
Why didn’t the bulls clear off more space to get all three of these guys? They had the pieces to trade and dump salaries. Even if you had to get rid of Rose, you’re getting 3 top 10 players in the league right? Why not give up on superstar for 3? Because 3 superstars don’t always make a good team. Why didn’t Portland blow up all the young talent they have to bring these guys over here to the west? Why didn’t San Antonio get rid of their aging superstars and replace them with this trifecta of talent? Why didn’t the Thunder take apart their team to bring in these superstars? Because they have a TEAM not just a few all stars that can run up and down the court and destroy the bottom dwellers of the league.
I’ve been hearing a lot of criticism about Bosh lately. I don’t think it’s his problem. He’s not the one that’s been causing these recent defeats. In fact if I where going to make the decision to get rid of one of the three it wouldn’t be Bosh. Bosh is their forward / center presence. The problem is LeBron and Wade. This isn’t an all star team league. Not every game is run and gun and whoever scores last wins. It was fine when they got their sea legs and where able to rattle off a few victories by playing good / fun street ball. But now you’re seeing the real season start. March and April where teams are locking down playoff positions and actually playing like they care, notice the Lakers (who where on the brink of collapsing) have run off 7 straight wins against all types of teams, most notably the Spurs last night.
LeBron and Wade play the same position and need the same things. What’s worse is neither seems to want to tell the other, no this is my shot!! They’re still playing as friends and don’t want to offend the other. James might be the greatest player right now. All around, I take him first no questions asked. He does everything, except make that last shot. Why do you think Kobe is the most feared player in the league. He’s not close to the athletic player he once was when he was winning dunk contests. He’s not even the best team player consistently and always need Phil to remind him what it takes to win. The reason no one wants to play the Lakers is because in the last few minutes of a game, Kobe will kill you. You know he’s getting the ball and you know you’ve got a very good chance of him finding a way to score (and possibly get a key assist). He’s a winner. Love him or hate him, he’s a winner. I hate to use that term today because Charlie Sheen has seemed to change the meaning of that, FYI great SNL weekend update this week.
Wade has that. We’ve seen it in the playoffs when they won their championship and the year before when he was a star on the rise. For all of LeBron’s greatness and eventually he’s hold all the records for scoring and wins and rebounds and assists or whatever he sets his mind to, what he may not be able to win is a championship. That’s not something you can just say, yeah I’m going to that this year.
My opinon is you trade Wade or LeBron and fill the rest of the team up with defensive stoppers a knock down shooter AND most importantly a point guard. You’re now in the East where you’re going to go up against Williams, Rondo, Billups and the MVP Rose. At the moment they have no one to stop or even slow down a #1 point guard.
Celtic and Laker length can kill them but it’s not something that their speed couldn’t offset. The Heat’s pure athleticism will offset the length in a well played game where they can keep the tempo up. But where they can’t hide their faults is in the point guard position. Even if the Lakers don’t have a true point guard, they haven’t in 5 championships seasons. They make due and with Phil coaching them they can seem to manage. But the Heat haven’t proven that they can do that. We give the Lakers the benefit of the doubt when they trot, even drag there asses around for the first two thirds of the season we’ve seen them turn it on. Shit, they’ve played 100 plus games for the past 4 years. Not even the Bulls did that because Jordan took those two years off. I dare say if the Lakers could three-peat that would be an even bigger monument to their ablity since they’ve had to endure a loosing finals experience at the beginning of their run (not to mention Kobe and Gasol being in the Olympics in 2008).
I don’t hate the Heat. I think it’s great to have a villainous team in the league and I wish they owned up to it more. Just be like yeah, we did what we did and we’re going kick your ass. That’s what takes a game to higher levels. But when I watch them play, I see LeBron and Wade getting in each other’s way more often than I see them knowing what is going on. Maybe it’s coach Spo. I have a feeling that it’s just hard to get kids that have been told all their life, they are the man; now differ to this other guy. What’s worse is that they like each other. So they’re each trying to be nice. If they hated each other they’d probably do better because they’d each want to prove why they want to take the last shot. At the moment they seem confused. LeBron, who’s never been the greatest last shot taker, is hoisting up 3’s while Wade is open on the wing?
The problem with the Heat is the same problem that a lot of failing corporations have. They have too many people that may be great but they’re all trying to do the same job. And because they both make a lot of money, there isn’t enough left to fill up the rest of the company with quality workers.
Getting that out of the way is part of what baffles me about the Heat. People are coming down on the Heat like the world is coming to the end. The first thing I would say is that it hasn’t been a full season. These are superstars trying to fit together. Although you’d think it would be opposite, it’s much harder for Alpha dogs to get along and figure out there role as would it be if you got four talented 2nd or 3rd tier players that came in knowing what they needed to do. I do believe this is humbling for all three of these guys. First Bosh got the heat (maybe pun intended ) for not being a “star” like LeBron or Wade. Now it’s the big two that are really feeling it. Now Coach Spo is REALLY feeling it.
Put this in a vacuum. This is their first year playing together. You can see the egos on their faces being confused to why they aren’t winning. It’s not mad. It’s not disappointment. It’s confussion. They don’t know why this is happening. Which almost makes me feel sorry for them, except they asked for all of this.
I have a question. There 30 teams in the NBA now? Why only 3 – 5 teams really make it possible to even get two of these players to come to their city? Let’s face it, we saw Donnie Walsh clear what might have been the worst possible situation into something that would have allowed at least 2 max contracts. Why didn’t every team except the Lakers and Celtics do the same thing? If getting just two of these players would instantly mean championships, and there was also a very good chance that Bosh could be worked in, why didn’t more teams jump?
Because smart basketball people know that it’s not always the best “talent” that you put on the court the one who wins. In a book that Jordan wrote, he said he’d rather go out there with four guys that new the game and new their roles than ever to be joined with another superstar. Granted Jordan’s ego might have something to do with that statement but it’s never been more true. Look at all the championship teams they had. Jordan needed Pippen. But if Pippen didn’t have the personality or didn’t recognize Jordan’s greatness none of this would have worked. The where the first team without a real point guard and without a superstar center to win multiple championships. But that doesn’t mean that the players that they had where from the free agent scrap heap to at least fill up a 12 man roster. Cartwright, Armstrong, Grant, Paxson, Perdue, King just to name a few from the first run. Then by the end you had players like Harper, Kerr, Kukoc, Rodman, Wennington and Longley. I was a huge fan of the Jordan Bulls so I knew all these guys. None of them would jump off the page but they where all talented, all knew their roles and where all slapped on the ass by Jordan and pushed by Pippen and zen’d by Jackson.
All championship teams need their role players and need good ones. More importantly they needed their stars to know their roles. The great Celtic teams now and then know this. The Laker teams have known this. Do you think that Rambis ever aspired to be better than Magic? No. He would do what 100 other players wouldn’t and it was all for the betterment of the team. If not for the loss of Perkins last year would the Lakers have won the championship? If the Celts had ANYONE that could fill the void at center maybe they win game 7?
Why didn’t the bulls clear off more space to get all three of these guys? They had the pieces to trade and dump salaries. Even if you had to get rid of Rose, you’re getting 3 top 10 players in the league right? Why not give up on superstar for 3? Because 3 superstars don’t always make a good team. Why didn’t Portland blow up all the young talent they have to bring these guys over here to the west? Why didn’t San Antonio get rid of their aging superstars and replace them with this trifecta of talent? Why didn’t the Thunder take apart their team to bring in these superstars? Because they have a TEAM not just a few all stars that can run up and down the court and destroy the bottom dwellers of the league.
I’ve been hearing a lot of criticism about Bosh lately. I don’t think it’s his problem. He’s not the one that’s been causing these recent defeats. In fact if I where going to make the decision to get rid of one of the three it wouldn’t be Bosh. Bosh is their forward / center presence. The problem is LeBron and Wade. This isn’t an all star team league. Not every game is run and gun and whoever scores last wins. It was fine when they got their sea legs and where able to rattle off a few victories by playing good / fun street ball. But now you’re seeing the real season start. March and April where teams are locking down playoff positions and actually playing like they care, notice the Lakers (who where on the brink of collapsing) have run off 7 straight wins against all types of teams, most notably the Spurs last night.
LeBron and Wade play the same position and need the same things. What’s worse is neither seems to want to tell the other, no this is my shot!! They’re still playing as friends and don’t want to offend the other. James might be the greatest player right now. All around, I take him first no questions asked. He does everything, except make that last shot. Why do you think Kobe is the most feared player in the league. He’s not close to the athletic player he once was when he was winning dunk contests. He’s not even the best team player consistently and always need Phil to remind him what it takes to win. The reason no one wants to play the Lakers is because in the last few minutes of a game, Kobe will kill you. You know he’s getting the ball and you know you’ve got a very good chance of him finding a way to score (and possibly get a key assist). He’s a winner. Love him or hate him, he’s a winner. I hate to use that term today because Charlie Sheen has seemed to change the meaning of that, FYI great SNL weekend update this week.
Wade has that. We’ve seen it in the playoffs when they won their championship and the year before when he was a star on the rise. For all of LeBron’s greatness and eventually he’s hold all the records for scoring and wins and rebounds and assists or whatever he sets his mind to, what he may not be able to win is a championship. That’s not something you can just say, yeah I’m going to that this year.
My opinon is you trade Wade or LeBron and fill the rest of the team up with defensive stoppers a knock down shooter AND most importantly a point guard. You’re now in the East where you’re going to go up against Williams, Rondo, Billups and the MVP Rose. At the moment they have no one to stop or even slow down a #1 point guard.
Celtic and Laker length can kill them but it’s not something that their speed couldn’t offset. The Heat’s pure athleticism will offset the length in a well played game where they can keep the tempo up. But where they can’t hide their faults is in the point guard position. Even if the Lakers don’t have a true point guard, they haven’t in 5 championships seasons. They make due and with Phil coaching them they can seem to manage. But the Heat haven’t proven that they can do that. We give the Lakers the benefit of the doubt when they trot, even drag there asses around for the first two thirds of the season we’ve seen them turn it on. Shit, they’ve played 100 plus games for the past 4 years. Not even the Bulls did that because Jordan took those two years off. I dare say if the Lakers could three-peat that would be an even bigger monument to their ablity since they’ve had to endure a loosing finals experience at the beginning of their run (not to mention Kobe and Gasol being in the Olympics in 2008).
I don’t hate the Heat. I think it’s great to have a villainous team in the league and I wish they owned up to it more. Just be like yeah, we did what we did and we’re going kick your ass. That’s what takes a game to higher levels. But when I watch them play, I see LeBron and Wade getting in each other’s way more often than I see them knowing what is going on. Maybe it’s coach Spo. I have a feeling that it’s just hard to get kids that have been told all their life, they are the man; now differ to this other guy. What’s worse is that they like each other. So they’re each trying to be nice. If they hated each other they’d probably do better because they’d each want to prove why they want to take the last shot. At the moment they seem confused. LeBron, who’s never been the greatest last shot taker, is hoisting up 3’s while Wade is open on the wing?
The problem with the Heat is the same problem that a lot of failing corporations have. They have too many people that may be great but they’re all trying to do the same job. And because they both make a lot of money, there isn’t enough left to fill up the rest of the company with quality workers.
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