The Sports Rumors

March Madness, NBA Season Winding Down, MVP Race

It’s been a hell of a long time since I’ve written on my world renowned website… well, not really renowned. But it has been what, a month? There were so many times over the past few weeks where I felt like I had to put my two cents out there and ruffle some feathers but something kept coming up. You people with the angry text messages and emails forget that I have a job and a career! But regardless, that’s neither here nor there though because I’m back and I guarantee that I’ll have a good percentage of you foaming at the mouth, pissed off and wanting to strangle me. But that’s what I do and that’s why you read, so let’s get this thing going.

First order of business. As you all know, we’re in the center of March Madness. Every year, ESPN goes absolutely ape sh*t about this month and all the upsets and how crazy fun this time of year is. Let me be the one to say it as a former college student and now working professional:

MARCH MADNESS IS OVERRATED.

Wait, what? Did he just say that? Yeah, you’re damn right I said it and I’ll say it again. March Madness is the most overrated event that we have in sports. And please, spare me your financial figures. I know it grosses the most money in Vegas. Here’s why, genius… it’s a month long! There are 63 games (check my math on that one). 63 games present 63 opportunities at minimum to gamble. You think if the Super Bowl was a month long, it wouldn’t gross a higher dollar figure? Secondly, if you like watching school’s you have never heard of, with players you likely won’t ever see again, and free throw shooting percentages from the top seed Memphis that make Shaq look like Jeff Hornacek, then go for it. Watch all the March Madness you want. Me, personally… I like to watch players who can sink open jumpers. I like to watch teams score more than 50 points a game. I don’t like watching players who are incapable of beating a backcourt trap. I like quality, skilled basketball.

Now mind you, I wasn’t like this before. You go back to the days of UCLA and the O’bannon brothers, the Duke years, the Fab Five years, and so on and so forth; that was quality college basketball. Today? Not so much. For God’s sake, the best players in the college ranks are freshmen! The only reason they are even playing in college is because they are forced to. Kevin Love, Rose, OJ Mayo, Beasley… that is talent. Tyler Hansboro is a good college player, but in the NBA, he’s just a more skilled Mark Madsen. Yeah, I said it. He won’t amount to anything in the NBA other than a nice off the bench energy guy. Think I’m wrong? How’s the career of JJ Redick and Adam Morrison working out?

Now I won’t be a total scrooge, and there is no getting around the fact that filling out those brackets and joining office pools is fun. But seriously, I just care about if the teams I selected win; I don’t care how they did it and I certainly don’t care for watching the games. I can honestly say that I’d much rather watch the Warriors-Lakers or Suns-Celtics than Wisconsin-Davidson. That brings me to my next topic of conversation…

God the NBA is so great right now. I can’t remember a time where I was so into every single game and every single box score. Think of all the compelling stories. The Western Conference playoff seeding, the MVP race, Lebron vs The East, the injury bug hitting contenders, and even garbage teams like the Knicks publically preparing to make a run at Lebron and Wade. Since I haven’t written in a long time, it’s hard for me to cover every interesting story in depth, but I will touch on a few.

My ranking of the best teams? Not going to be one of the topics I hit on. Why? Because I don’t know. If I don’t know something enough, I won’t talk about it and hopefully, you can respect me for it. I can’t tell you if the Lakers are the best team in the NBA because I don’t know how healthy Gasol and Bynum will be. I don’t know what the state of the Spurs is because they have been so topsy turvy the past few weeks. I don’t know if the Suns are just hitting a little fluke or if they are actually adjusting to each other (which I doubt). I can’t tell you how good or bad the Mavs are. I can’t tell you with certainty if the Celtics have enough to beat a western conference team in a series, or even the Pistons for that matter. I just don’t know. I do know that ANYONE in the west can beat anyone. I do know that Boston and Detroit from the east are going to be a hell of a challenge in the finals for the Western Conf representative. I do know that Lebron won’t be in the finals this year, much to David Stern’s dismay.

What I do know is that the MVP race is between two, and only two players.

All season long, I was convinced that Kobe Bryant was the most valuable player in the league. I had the following ranking in mind:

1. Kobe
2. Kevin Garnett
3. Lebron James
4. Chris Paul

That’s how I saw it for much of the season. But then I reevaluated things.

Lebron James has all but fallen out of the race in my opinion due to his team’s record in the east. You’re not the most valuable player in the league if you’re team is 40-31 in the east. I’m sorry, but you’re not. This is the conference where the Atlanta Hawks are nine games below .500 and have sole possession of the eighth and final playoff seed. Only three teams in the east have a winning percentage greater than .600, and Cleveland is not one of them. The “Lebron has no help” argument is getting old. Zyrdunas Illguaskas, Drew Gooden, Ben Wallace are three of the big men he has played with. That’s more than a lot of teams have had.

Kevin Garnett has, without a doubt, turned the Celtics from a bottom feeder to a title contender. However, it’s hard to give an MVP award to a guy who has Ray Allen and Paul Pierce playing alongside him. I’m not knocking KG in any way. He’s the pin that keeps that team intact. However, they would still be a playoff team without him.

That leaves us with two players. Kobe Bryant and Chris Paul. Ironically, both are tied for first place in the western conference, which makes this even harder.

If you are not impressed by Chris Paul at this point in the season, you never will be. I responded to friends who asked me about him after the first 30 games and I said, “Let’s wait and see if he can sustain it over a whole season.” Sustain it? He has surpassed EVERY expectation I could have set for him. He is a fierce competitor, makes his teammates better, finds ways to win and can do everything on the court. He can score 40 plus, he can dish 20 dimes, and he could be the first player in league history to average three steals a game. He has an average supporting cast that he has made look great. Basically, he has done everything that he could possibly have done to win the MVP award. Unfortunately for him, the next guy is also balling at a very high level.

Kobe Bryant. He’s been the best player in the game for the past three, maybe four years. No one compares with his tenaciousness and pursuit of perfection. No one. In the past, he did not make teammates better. Now, he does. Look at guys like Jordan Farmar, Ronny Turiaf, Sasha Vujacic, and Luke Walton. They are all playing the best ball of their careers and it’s because Kobe has finally learned how to involve and trust his teammates. Put your past perceptions about him aside and look at this single season alone. He has gotten his teammates involved, sensed when he has had to take over, and done so accordingly with a strikingly high success rate. Pau Gasol has been a great help, but keep in mind, he hasn’t even played 20 games yet with the Lakers. Just in the past ten days alone, Kobe has gone on the road and led the Lakers to victories over the Mavericks and Jazz, snapping their 19 game home win streak. There is nothing more that he can do to win the MVP award, just like Paul.

So who’s my MVP right now?

I’m an honest person and I’ll be real. My bias as a Lakers fan AND the fact that Kobe has been robbed of MVP awards in the past leads me slightly more on his side. I mean, he was ranked the second best shooting guard by ESPN and affiliates in NBA History, second only to the great Michael Jordan, yet he’s never been the most valuable player? That just doesn’t make sense. Now I said it was a slight edge to Kobe. How slight? I’ll give Kobe 50.5% of the vote and Chris Paul 49.5%. And believe me, for those of you who know me and my religious following of Kobe, that’s saying something.

Chris Paul does get love for being in the best damn commercial I’ve seen in a long time though, as seen below:

The NBA season is far from over. Actually, the real season is just about to begin. I cannot wait to see every single playoff matchup (Except the Celtics-Hawks…. I think I’ll pass on that, thanks). I was going to end this article with a mundane sentence, but maybe this will be better, or at least give you a chance to hate on me a little more. Here are some predictions for you to chew on:

Rookie of the Year: Luis Scola (Has intangibles that Durant doesn’t)

NBA Regular Season MVP: Kobe Bryant

Biggest Underachievers: Dallas Mavericks

Surprise Playoff Team: Washington Wizards

Best Playoff Series: Suns vs Spurs

Worst Trade: Shaq to Phoenix (Ruined what that team was based on)

Best Trade: Obviously, Pau to Lakers for dirt

Eastern Conference Champion: Boston Celtics

Western Conference Champion: LA Lakers

NBA Finals: Lakers over Celtics in 6

NBA Finals MVP: Kobe Bryant

And of course…

Ugliest MotherLover in the League: DJ Mbenga

Bold Men Take Bold Actions

Everyone has an opinion on how to fix the New York Knicks.  You ask the roughly 20 million New Yorkers out there and you’ll get 20 million different ways to do it.  But at the end of the day, everything I’m hearing is the same stuff just recycled and reworeded.

“Fire Isiah Thomas.  That’s the problem!”

“Get rid of Isiah and trade Stephon Marbury.”

“Trade Jared Jefferies and Marbury for solid young guys… and get rid of Isiah.”

If this were a video game in which you could package a $20 million dollar bust of a player along with an overpaid Jared Jefferies, and trade them for Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum, then yes, these ideas would work.  If firing Isiah Thomas would suddenly make the Knicks play at an elite level like they were with their last coach, Larry Brown, then yes, you have solved the problem.  (Note to readers:  I was being sarcastic about Larry Brown).  Fixing a team that is in utter disarray is not as simple as it seems.  You can’t trade your junk for someone else’s goods with the click of a button.  This is real life, with real people and real issues.

Common consensus among those who are familiar with the NBA, the salary cap, and how things really work is to move the priciest and most disappointing players piece by piece.  You start by getting rid of Marbury and his large salary.  You move Zach Randolph, who you just acquired this past year by the way, and clear up some space.  You go down the list of overpriced players and move them, piece by piece, until you have cleared some cap room.  You bring in a new coach who will breathe new life into the city and the team.  Take care of all that and make a run at Lebron, Wade, or Melo in two years.  If we lived in a clean world without politics and hidden agendas, then this would work. 

However, things aren’t that simple.  Do you think Knicks owner James Dolan is really that dumb when it comes to Isiah Thomas?  Do you really think that he doesn’t see the fact that Isiah Thomas is not a good coach?  Of course he does!  But what we don’t know is the exact reasons for Dolan choosing not to fire, or anger, Isiah Thomas.  Much like Marbury had “dirt” on Isiah, it seems through rumors and people who know what’s what, that Isiah has a lot on Dolan.  This team is so dysfunctional, from the ballboys to the owner, that common logic and common sense don’t apply.  You can talk about moving this player and that player until your blue in the face. Your ideas are probably great, definitely better than what the Knicks have done up to this point, but those ideas and scenarios don’t matter because there is more than what meets the eye with the New York Knicks.  We simply don’t know the dirt that’s been swept under the rug for years, the same dirt that is keeping franchise benefiting moves from being made. 

Here’s where my idea or suggestion comes in.  It’s time for David Stern to get involved.  He is the commissioner of the league and he is the one who oversees everything.  We’re not talking about the struggling Seattle Sonics or the Milwaukee Bucks organization.  We’re talking about a marquee franchise in the most marketable city in the country, if not the world.  New York is not Memphis.  New York is New York.  You cannot have this kind of a bottom feeding franchise in your most marketable segment. 

Take any sport.  Let’s look at the NFL.  The NFL draws the most interest when its marquee teams have success.  Hate them or love them, but the Dallas Cowboys draw interest from everyone.  The New York Giants draw interest from everyone.  The Chicago Bears, New England Patriots, Philadelphia Eagles, Skins and so forth all draw a lot of interest because their markets are so enormous.  They are nationally relevant.  San Diego Chargers barely sold out their playoff games!  Ditto with Tampa Bay.  Big teams in big markets make leagues successful.  Look at the MLB.  Baseball is at its peak when the Chicago Cubs, New York Yankees, and Boston Red Sox are involved.  Your opinion, good or bad for either team, is irrelevant.  You are interested either way; better for the league.  The success of failure of the Kansas City Royals doesn’t mean jack.  The failure of the Yankees or Sox means something.  And more directly, look at the NBA.  Come playoff time this year, I guarantee you the ratings will be higher than they have been in recent years.  I guarantee it.  You know why?  Because the Boston Celtics are good.  Because the Los Angeles Lakers are good.  People watch because they want to cheer them or hate them.  Either way, they’re watching.  The Detroit Pistons and San Antonio Spurs of recent years have both been better basketball teams than the current Lakers and current Celtics.    No one cared.  People crave Boston.  People crave LA.  People want to see New York!

So David Stern needs to get involved NOW before it gets too late and the Knicks miss the boat on having a chance to nab one of the young anchors of the league (Lebron in particular). 

What exactly should he do? 

David Stern is a very, very bright man.  Though I don’t always agree with his decisions (dress code for example), I have always had the utmost respect for how he handles his matters and keeps the league relevant, despite the fact that it has to compete with the NFL when football season is at its peak interest.  If I were in Stern’s shoes, I would take this bold, unprecedented action. 

Have a meeting with James Dolan.  Tell him he has three months to make some drastic changes that will show that he is on track to getting the team better.  That starts with firing Isiah Thomas, followed by moving some of the enormous, wasted contracts and freeing up cap space.  I’m not giving him half a year; I’m giving him three months.  If I don’t see him making moves, taking action, then that’s it.  He’s out.  I don’t know the legal course of action that would need to take place but there are ways of forcing someone to sell their stakes if you really want to them to.  Sometimes, as the big boss, you have to be a bully for the sake of the future success. 

The new owner, whoever it may be, would have a daunting and difficult task but he could go down as a New York legend if he pulls it off.  Here are the immediate moves, in order of necessity. 

Trade Stephon Marbury to whoever is willing to give you the highest draft choice in return.  I don’t care if it is the second round pick number 20; take it.   

Same thing goes for Jared Jefferies.  He may not even be worth a draft choice, so take the cheapest bum off of the other team who is willing to take his contract on and leave it at that. 

Inside, you have Zach Randolph, Eddy Curry and David Lee.  You want to keep David Lee because he’s a good teammate and a good character guy you want to have.  You need to move either Curry or Randolph.  I’ll move Randolph because he has a history of having attitude issues and his contract is significantly bigger.  I don’t care about how he’s acting right now; I’m going by reputations and history, and his isn’t very good.  I’d trade him for the best young player (low salary) or draft choice that I can get in return.  You know you’re not going to get a player as skilled as Randolph, but I’ll take 40 cents to a dollar at this point. 

That leaves you with Nate Robinson, Jamal Crawford, David Lee and Eddy Curry as your nucleus.  You are still stuck with heavy salaries with Malik Rose ($7 mil), Quentin Richardson ($8 mil), and Jerome James ($5 mil).  Trade them to whoever wants them for future draft picks or expiring contracts if you can get them.  Even if you trade Richardson to the freaking Heat for a 2011 second round pick, do it.  You are getting all of these disgusting rosters off your books.  You have to come to grips with the fact that you will not be competitive for the next two years, but you are building for the future. 

Your roster, if you move all those salaries off your books in the next 12 months or so will look like this by the start of the 2009 season; Jamal Crawford and Nate Robinson at point, Mardy Collins at shooting guard, Renaldo Balkman at small forward, David Lee at power forward, and Eddy Curry at center.  If you win 20 games, congrats-a-freakin-lations.  We’re not worried about 2009.  You have now freed up money to throw at Bron Bron, who seems to have a fondness for New York (much to the dismay of his hometown, Cleveland).  You also have accumulated some draft picks, which may or may not be worth anything.  You also have money to chase down some other free agents and if you have a solid young coach, someone like Eddie Jordan, then you are set.  You will be a playoff team the instant Lebron signs with you and big time players will want to come play in New York and be a part of turning around one of the greatest franchises in all of sports.

If they follow this path, bite the bullet and be terrible for the next two years but clear the salaries and the current administration, the years 2010 through the day Lebron James retires will be oh so nice. 

Make it happen David Stern.  We want New York to be New York again.