Quick Thoughts 5/15

- Pau Gasol did not push off on Okur. I actually thought he did push off, and exclaimed as much over at Fanhouse's live blog, and was relieved the foul wasn't called, but this excellent post by the venerous Henry Abbot has caused me to change my mind.

- Destiny. This word gets thrown around a lot around this time. One proper use of it might have been yesterday, when Utah had about 10 chances to take the lead, but fell short each time. If the Jazz lose this series, this loss will be fairly haunting over the summer.

-Things the Cavaliers need to practice.
1. Spacing
2. Point of origin for plays run for LeBron

- I am not a Cavalier fan, but I empathize with Cavalier fans who are subject to Mike Brown's "offense." Mr. Brown, please do not call for plays where the lanes are clogged such that there are three players who are in LeBron path to the basket. It's called spacing. It's what worked during the first part of the game. Maybe even give the ball to LeBron on he low post such that he can utilize his strength and passing. Having him dribble the ball up is such a waste. Finally, LeBron, please do not settle for lazy jumpers.

- I feel bad for Bill Simmons. You could see this coming, especially after ESPN nixed his interview with Barack Obama. 2010, the year his contract ends seems so far away. Perhaps he can write a book he's always wanted to write, on a high school basketball team he used to cover. A sample is present at his new blog.

- Thank you to the one person that has me on RSS.

South Park Makes Arlen Spector's Point

Senator Arlen Spector claims that spygate is essentially like performance enhancing drugs, in that it will infiltrate into colleges and high school sports. Some fail to see how this relates as spy gate is so specific. Well, South Park is here to tell you how.

Steve Nash Shares Tips To Slow Global Warming

I dislike the Phoenix Suns. However, Steve Nash has always been a cool guy, and has been active in helping the fight against global warming. The garbage shoes are just one of those things that have to be liked. Nash is a passionate guy on the floor, and it is heartening to see superstars passionate about issues that are relevant to all of humanity.

Global Warming is cause that everyone on earth should be passionate about, and as such, I am proud to share this video of Steve Nash giving small tips on how to slow global warming.

Quick Thoughts 5/12-5/13

-Congrats to Kobe on getting his 8th All NBA Defensive team nod. Other first teamers include Timmy!, KG, Marcus Camby, as well as Bruce Bowen. A notable exception from the first team is Shane Battier, who for whatever reason was I left off of some ballots.

-An open request to Mike Brown. Please, do not start each set with LeBron on the elbow extended or dribbling the ball up. Thank you.

-Any playoff matchup have a more underwhelming coaching matchup than Celtics - Cavs? I thought not.

-I would name my kid Kobe.

On Home Court Advantage And Refereeing

Warning: This post may have been influenced by a bitter Laker loss.

14-1. 14-1. That is a great, almost incredible record, in most sports and in most situations.

14-1

Let that sink in. Now, that is the record of home teams in the Conference Semi-Finals of the NBA Playoffs. Considering the intensity of playoff games, simply pay attention to the magnitude of such a record. It serves as an exemplar of the gargantuan power that home-court advantage has in the NBA.

But what causes such an advantage?

Is it as conventional wisdom says, due to the impact that sleeping in one's own bed has? Or is it due to the home team simply played with more passion and energy and the associated energy of the crowd?

Maybe?

I however, would like to suggest an additional reason for such a disparity.

Referees.

Coming off the Tim Donahey scandal, refs had been under much scrutiny until the incredible race out West took away much of that scrutiny and attention. It would be silly to deny that home teams get the "breaks" from the referees. Look no further than today's Lakers-Jazz game for some proof. With Utah up 2 in Utah, with the ball, Carlos Boozer decked Derek Fisher with an elbow, taking out Fisher and Gasol, who was help up by Fisher's body (on the floor), and thus created a 5-3 for the Jazz. Needless to say, the situation was compounded when a touch foul was called on Lamar Odom to set up a 3 point play. On the opposite end of the floor, even with the Laker player missing the field goal attempt, such a "foul" was not called.

Furthermore, another practice in NBA officiating that concerns me regards how flagrant fouls are assessed. Such fouls are assessed based on the player-floor contact rather than the player-player contact. Such an act is completely against the spirit of the call, which is based on intent and original player-player contact. Why must a team be put at a disadvantage when a big fouls a more fragile or smaller player who the falls in an awkward manner? Or when, a player takes off without proper balance gets contact and falls awkwardly?

Please do not misconstrue this post as having no solid points. I, like many, would like to see games being decided due to ability, rather than some referees.

Karl Malone, Buzz Bissinger, Blogs

Fanhouse superblogger Michael David Smith has done an excellent job following the story regarding Karl Malone and the [non existent and cold] relationship with his son Demetrius Bell, a young man who has recently been drafted into the NFL. My personal thoughts mirror that presented by many a writers in the photosphere. I think it is right to criticize Karl Malone.

Honestly, think about it. Dude made over a 100 million over an illustrious, although incomplete, (no wonder why karma wasn’t on his side) career in which he accomplished everything short of winning an NBA title. However, to refuse to pay 200 dollars a week to support a woman whom you impregnated when she was only 13? I am simply dumbfounded as why he would contest his legal obligation to someone HE placed in a very precarious position. Such statutory rape, if it happened today, would make Roger Clemens look like a Saint.

How does this relate to Buzz Bissinger going off on blogs? Well, I would like to reply to that by posing a question to Mr. Bissinger. Where was your main stream media covering this story? All but the LA Times simply did not even acknowledge the Karl Malone story. Don’t get me wrong, the story about the Army safety was great, but after seeing the obsession with the Roger Clemens sage, would this not have been a better story? A famous dead beat dad who is rolling in hypocrisy, after attempting to champion family values, after his own dad committed suicide when he was young, had to be a better story. Yet, main stream media shies away from such controversy. Even ESPN, “the world wide leader in sports,” did not recognize this until Jemelle Hill finally become the first , today. I hope her column sets off main stream media into revealing this sickening story. However, had it not been for blogs and bloggers like Michael David Smith, I do not know if people would even know this story. Now that, Mr. Bissinger, would be quite a shame. [On a side note, a food for thought is whether it is the anonymity that enables bloggers to present possibly controversial items such as this whereas the MSM does not.]

Just like there are columns like Woody Paige’s Hakuna Matata column, there are some poorly written materials in the photosphere as well. However, if you take Woody’s column to be fully representative of all print media, then why would anyone respect such medium. That column showed about as much sense as anything written by any idiot anywhere. Yet, I still read print media. Why? Because there are some very good columnists out there. The same is true in the realm of blogs. It is unavoidable that there are bad blogs, but there are also many enlightening ones. Try reading Kelly Dwyers’s game recaps, Buzz. Those recaps are better than any league wide recaps presented by any print media. Now, if you look at the comments for his posts, you will see some idiotic items.

However, it is extremely ludicrous to group posts and comments. That would be if one were to hold the columnist responsible for everything audible uttered in response to a column in a print media. See how silly it is? Hopefully you can. In the end, it just seems like Bissinger is threatened. Even though, the threat maybe real, please, do not, accelerate and magnify the ‘threat’ with your off base statements.

Baron Davis Still Having Fun

Even though Golden State missed out on the playoffs, and even though Baron Davis may be looking at an interesting summer with regards to his long term status with the Warriors, it is good to see him having fun. Here's his new commercial spot with Adam Sandler promoting Sandler's new movie using the NBA's there can only be one theme.