More Madness, but some NBA too!

I sit down and write this just after I've had time to digest Louisville's win over Duke, and damn.  Five minutes into that game I was blown away at how Louisville played.  I saw how tough they were defensively, how aggressively they were attacking the basket, and then this happened.

WARNING:  THIS IS GRAPHIC.  LIKE, REALLY, REALLY BAD.  BONES SHATTER.  NOT BREAK.  SHATTER.  IF YOU HAVE EVEN A SLIGHTLY QUEASY STOMACH, SKIP THE VIDEO.

For any of you that skipped the video, Kevin Ware on Louisville landed out of bounds, where his leg broke in two places and the bone punctured the skin.  I have seen video of other severe injuries in the past, but this is the first truly gruesome injury I've seen live.

Once Ware was off of the court and the game resumed, I knew Louisville would win, and I know now that they will be national champions.  The fact that they were clearly the best team on the court against Duke and the fact that they now get to rally for their downed team mate AND the fact that the ENTIRE ARENA was rooting for them practically guaranteed this win.  And don't tell me that there's now way everyone in Atlanta won't be rooting for them at the Final Four.  Look, Louisville is really, really good.  They play amazing defense, drive well, and are exceptionally fast.  They were terrible from beyond the arch, and their percentage from the charity stripe was poor, but they are too good.  Add in the fact that they are now no longer in this for themselves but for their team mate, and they have everything working towards them.

As I was watching this game, my wife awoke from her nap, and asked me why everyone was crying.  She told me not to rewind to the injury after I explained, but it got me to thinking the same thing.  Sure, I understand being upset, but why was everyone crying?  It took me all of .3 milliseconds to figure out why though.  College is such a different entity then professional sports.  In the pros, after a game, you go home to your family, to your own life.  In college you go back to your dorm room/apartment with your room mate who probably is also on the team, then the next day you see most of your team in your classes, around the quad, in line at the cafeteria.  These college kids are more then team mates because they are all peers with one another, whether they like it or not.  And seeing Rick Pitino cry also made sense, because unlike some other coaches (*cough* John Calipari *cough*) coaches like Pitino have a vested interest not in just their kids' ability to play basketball, but in helping turn them from kids into men.  Coaches in college sports, at least the good ones, are also mentors.  Seeing someone whose life you are helping to shape suffer a devastating injury like this would shatter me.

So yeah, Louisville will roll over Wichita State, then crush either Michigan or Syracuse (probably Michigan) and dedicate the whole thing to Kevin Ware, and no one will be shocked.  Like, if you're a gambler, take out a second mortgage on your home and bet that Louisville wins it all.  Easiest bet in the history of sports.

Now on to something that's been bugging me for a little while.  The past few weeks (I'm honestly not sure when it started or how long it lasts) the NBA has done it's whole "Noche Latina," which I believe is Latin Night.  Here's what I don't understand.  This is a celebration of Latin culture, which is huge in America, but I want you to do something else.

Nothing says Latin like a black guy from New York.

Name 5 Latin players.

I'll wait.

Did you get Manu Ginobli?  Good!  So did everyone else.  The Gasol brothers?  Bravo!  Good for you.

And that's it.

Sure, I know there are more out there, but I can't think of any.  This promotion makes no sense.  This is a league with very little Latin influence, and they celebrate it, and make a VERY big deal out of it.  The announcers call the game in Spanish, the players jerseys are in Spanish, even the ticker at the bottom of the screen is Spanish.  This would be like the NHL having a big celebration for Black History Month.  Yes, there are some black players in the NHL, but they are a very small part of the league make up as a whole, so they are not celebrated, and the same thing can be said about the Latin in the NBA.  Yes, the league is becoming more worldly, and players are coming from everywhere, but this just doesn't make sense to me.

And finally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention the end of the Heat's 27 game winning streak.  This is something I kept getting shocked by day in and day out.  Wait, they won again?  They're still going strong?  Wait, they beat who with an off night from everyone except Lebron?  How?

While not a huge NBA fan (Go f**k yourself Howard Schultz) I can't help but be impressed by what turned out to be the second longest winning streak in NBA history.  I have seen some good teams in my lifetime, some damn good teams (those 72 win Bulls spring to mind) but even they didn't have a streak like this during their season.

And it will all mean nothing if they don't win the title.

And since it's looking like a rematch of last years Championship series is in the cards, I find myself once again rooting for the lesser of two evils.

No Mr. Bennett, you are not allowed to win.  Ever.  Have fun in Oklahoma, I know that market sure is so much bigger then the one we have in Seattle.

Good lord I don't think I will ever get over this.

Hey, at least I got to see this for a little while.

That's right buddy, I remember getting that second pic.  I miss you too.

Oof, that just made me more mad. 

Let the Madness commence

Finally, my mostest favoritest time of the year (yes those are both words, shut up) is here!  NCAA tournament time bitches!  Bring on the field of 65!  (Editor's note:  I know it's 68 now.  I don't care.  It shouldn't be.  I have shirts that say 65, dammit.  I'm not calling it 68 now so the coach of Boise State can feel like a big shot.)

I do not follow college basketball closely.  I'll watch a game here and there, but I don't throw myself into the season like so many others do.  But now, it's basketball all the time.  Me and the wife have tickets for a minor league hockey game on Saturday, and I'm worried about missing the games during that time - and that is a substantial comment, as anyone who has ever been to a hockey game knows that it is, bar none, the best spectator sport on the planet.

So I put my bracket together like I always do, lamented that Eastern Washington didn't win the Big Sky (they weren't even in the Big Sky tournament... go Eagles!) and groaned loudly upon seeing Montana as the Big Sky represenative.

Montana.

The damn Grizzlies.

Damn Grizzlies...

My nemesis.

To further complicate things, my wife filled out her bracket and had Montana in the Final 4.  She says she didn't do that with me in mind and my general hatred for all things Montana, but I know better.  She wanted to rile me up.

Rile acheived.

And dammit, I can't really say anything since damn Gonzaga got a #1 seed.  Deservedly, I know, but dammit, that makes it worse.  Fortunately for me she is going to be very busy with trial during the first 4 rounds of the tournament, so I'm banking on when she asks for the first time how Gonzaga is doing, I can look at her and say "they're out."

Damn I'm bitter.

Doesn't he kinda look like Voldemort?

I think more of it relates to my personal opinion of Mark Few, which isn't very high.  He's... kind of a dick.  Gonzaga schedules poorly out of conference to puff up their win/loss record (they didn't always do this) and when they roll through the WCC, people act like it's an accomplishment.  The WCC is like many other smaller conferences in college basketball, in that it's exactly like the WNBA.  A single grossly talented player can dominate the league and carry the team on their shoulders all the way to the league title.

Don't believe me on that WNBA crack?  Look at Candace Parker, Dianna Taurasi and soon, Brittney Griner.  When they enter the league, they win rookie of the year, MVP, and the title.  That speaks EXTREMELY poorly on the talent pool in the rest of the league.  And small conferences like the WCC (and yes, Eastern's Big Sky falls into this as well) are no exception to this.  If I knew how to footnote in this blogger, I would have footnoted this paragraph.  Moving on.

Now don't get me wrong here.  I'm not a Gonzaga hater.  More like a Gonzaga indifferent.  Yes, their record is impressive, and they should have a #1 seed.  They didn't play anybody, so the record is puffed up (kinda like what a certain catholic football team does...) but they must have that #1 seed.  I compare them to that Saint Joe's team from a few years back that had 1 loss.  Not a very good team, but they had a great run and they deserved to be rewarded for that with a #1 seed, and unlike in college football, teams can get rewarded for regular season play.

"Hey man, I want to have an NBA career too."

There are plenty of things I am looking forward to in this tournament though.  What will Butler do this year?  Will North Carolina lose in the first round?  How many tie/highliter combinations will Digger Phelps go through?  How badly will CBS botch coverage on a regional game? (they didn't show the second half of Eastern's only NCAA tournament game in school history 10 years ago, and I'm still a bit bitter about that.)  Will Big East refs screw up again?  Will players keep slipping and hurting themselves on that gigantic NCAA logo on mid court?  You know, fun things to watch for.

So line up your brackets folks, pick your teams, and watch the best basketball played in this country.  It's gonna be a hell of a ride.

Kansas over Michigan State for the title.

Free Agency and Rodman

So I know I haven't posted in a while, but that's what happens when you go home on vacation for a week.  Needless to say, a lot of things have happened in the time I was gone.

I'll start with what is forefront in my mind, and that is the Seattle trade for Percy Harvin.

I really, really like this move.

But it also scares the shit out of me.

Harvin is acting like a diva, and an undeserving one at that.  Yes, he is good, but not good enough to be acting the way he has been in Minnesota the last few years.  He's a game changer, a legitimate deep threat, and an explosive kick returner, but all of those things are also true of Devin Hester, and yes, even good ol' Dante Hall.  I really hope he was just unhappy in Minnesota and that all he needed was a change of scenery to liven up his attitude.

Harvin also has a history of migraines.  This is what scares me the most.  Terrell Davis was forced to retire early because of migraine problems, and he was in the middle of a stellar, possibly hall of fame career.  If Harvin can avoid further migraine problems, then obviously this is a moot point, but right now that is what scares me the most.

I'm a hair concerned that Seattle may have given up too much to get him too.  Their first round pick (25) and seventh round pick I think is a fair price, but the additional unspecified middle round pick in 2014 I think was too much.  Given the track record that John Schneider has with these middle round picks, like some schmoe named Russell Wilson, I worry that losing that particular pick will hurt more then anything else.

When I first heard of this move, I was wondering to myself how Seattle was going to use Leon Washington in the return game with Harvin.  Were we going to see dual packages with both on kick offs, maybe some trick stuff on punts?  But then I thought about Washington's role on the team beyond kick returns. 

...and there wasn't really one.  So I wasn't shocked when Seattle released him.  It bummed me out, because I like him a lot and he has added a dynamic level to this team as a whole that we simply haven't had in ages.  The constant threat of any kick becoming 6 points was great.  Yes, we still have that with Harvin, but Leon Washington is the reason that Seattle has one of the best special team units in football over the last few years.

I was also curious as to how this would affect the rest of free agency.  Harvin was clearly disgruntled and wanted out of Minnesota, and the entire league knew this.  He's a very very good WR, maybe not a true #1 option, but he could easily go damn near anywhere and be at worst their #2.  So with Harvin off of the table for teams who wanted a WR, what did we see?  We saw San Francisco trade for Anquan Boldin, giving a mere 6th rounder in this year's draft for him.  Damn.  I don't know how much of a steal that is, but given how reliable he is, both physically and catching the ball, he will greatly improve San Fran's pass game.  Mike Wallace signed immediatly in free agency with the Dolphins, and Wes Welker is out there to see what he is worth.  If nothing else, this Harvin deal has made free agency very very interesting to follow.

And this last thing is just... confusing.

As many people now know, Dennis Rodman has made a very public plea to Barack Obama to call Kim Jong Un to, of all things, talk about basketball.

This hurt my brain.  A lot.

Why Dennis Rodman is being a mouthpiece for North Korea is beyond me, but the most important question that I realized has yet to be asked is simply this:

What the hell is Dennis Rodman doing in North Korea?

Seriously, did he get a wild hair up his ass and think to himself "Huh, I need a vacation.  Let's go to North Korea."

The part that kills me the most, is how highly he speaks of Kim Jong Un.  In the interviews he has given about his trip, whenever the reporters mention oh, say, North Korea's lovely history of oppression that is being perpetuated by Un, Rodman would say something along the lines of "Well, I don't approve of that.  But I like him."

Seriously?

Shit man, I'm sure Hitler was a fun guy as long as you ignored the whole Holocaust thing.  Castro too was probably a great guy to share a cigar with when he wasn't shooting people in the head.  His logic is just... I mean, I know it's Dennis Rodman, he's the guy that thought marrying himself was a good idea, and I'm sure his brain operates a little differently, but damn man, where's the common sense?

Well, if nothing else, at least he feels the love.

The death of the dunk contest

I can remember growing up and watching the SuperSonics as much as I possibly could.  When I was little, there were members on that team like Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp, Benjamin Benoit, Sam Perkins, Detlef Schrempf, the list goes on and on and on.

The greatest thing about these superstars that I watched was when the All Star break rolled around.  Unlike today, I could see my favorite players compete in the skills challenges and the amazingness that was the slam dunk contest

Oh, the dunk contest.  I remember watching Kemp compete in that.  I remember a skinny Vince Carter blowing everybodys minds, and most of all, I remember Jordan.  Michael freakin' Jordan man.  At the prime of his career.  During those 2 3-peat runs with the Bulls.  When he was winning MVPs.  Defensive Player of the Year awards.  Scoring titles.  You get the point.

Flash forward to the post-Jordan NBA.  In the 10 years since his retirement, the best player in the league has not participated in the dunk contest.  Jordan was clearly the best player in the league while he was competing, and since he left, I think that title comes down to 2 people, both of whom I am not a personal fan of, and they are Kobe Bryant and Lebron James.  Yes, I know Bryant has competed in the dunk contest, but not when he was in his prime.  Sure, he was young and still extremely good, but he wasn't the run away superstar that he is now.

So why am I railing on James and Bryant now?  Because they haven't carried the dunk torch like they should.  At this point now, the torch is Lebron's to carry, and he's never competed in the dunk contest.  Which brings me to why I'm writing this.

Magic Johnson offers Lebron $1 million dollars

Seriously?  That's the state of the contest now?  This isn't a million bucks to win, this is a million bucks to just show up.  And don't give me crap about the injury risk that these guys claim when they don't compete in this.  They have an infinitely greater risk dunking during pre-game warm ups, at least in the dunk contest there isn't anybody else on the court or loose basketballs rolling around.

I do understand when they are nursing an injury.  I remember a couple of years ago when James had an ankle injury, and 2 years ago when Kobe didn't want to play in the all star game itself because of a hand injury.  Kobe, ok, I'll give you a pass there, that's fine.  But Lebron played in that all star game.  And looked great.  Kobe played in his injury game too, started, played for maybe 5 minutes, and rode the bench the rest of the game.  Because - shocker - he was actually hurt.

What we need here is these stars to realize that this is an exhibition event that is designed to pump millions of dollars into both the league and themselves.  Shit, Blake Griffin dunked over a Kia, and guess what?  Sponsorship deal.  Dwight Howard is probably one of the biggest douches in sports, but he competed in this once upon a time as well.


These premiere players need to follow the example that Jordan set.  If you are a superstar in this league and a prolific dunker, do this damn contest!  Lebron, dunking is the only reason your FG% isn't 12, enter the damn contest.  Stop making it so that the dunk  contest story is about Nate Robinson, who's arrogance caused the league to change the dunk contest rules.  His 14 attempts to make his winning dunk in 2006 caused the league to put a time cap on how long players had to successfully complete their dunks.

Now, when we hear about the participants, I find myself going "Who?" half the time.  I'm hoping Blake Griffin comes back, he's been the biggest star at this thing the last... 5 years?  Something like that.

And I hope Lebron competes too.  And I hope he wows us.  And I hope he comes back year after year.  Because he's capable of that.  He's our greatest player right now.

But I hope that when he does compete, Magic doesn't pay him.  If Lebron says anything about that, he'll just look like the greedy prick he is.  As stupid as I think he is, I honestly don't think he's that stupid.

Good Lord, I had no idea how much I disliked Lebron James.