Lakers' Kobe Bryant passes Shaquille O'Neal; Celtics' Paul Pierce passes Larry Bird; and Linsanity
They've already swept up the confetti in New York but pitchers and catchers haven't even reported yet, which means it's the time when casual sports fans realize that, hey, there's some basketball going on. So, it's good timing that after a few weeks of often uninspiring play, the NBA is shaking off that preseason feel and showcasing a more professional product (offer not valid in Charlotte or Toronto). In case you need to quickly catch up what's gone on this last week, well, we've had All-Star selections, huge milestones, key injuries and a few surprising individual performances.
Players made big milestones in Los Angeles and Boston
On Monday, Kobe Bryant passed Shaquille O'Neal for fifth place on the All-Time Points Scored List, a statistical milestone that carries with it a soap opera's worth of backstory. Kobe and Shaq, two of the greatest players of any era were the nucleus of the highly successful Los Angeles Lakers teams of the late '90s and early '00s, punctuated by the 1999-2002 run when the team won three straight championships. Their partnership was, however, a fundamentally unstable union of two players with personalities that were anything but complementary.
Shaq was an older, gregarious entertainer and Kobe was a younger, ruthless assassin. The league changing divorce between the two superstars was practically inevitable, although certainly nobody could have predicted the ugliness of its surrounding circumstances. Bryant claims that he was upset that O'Neal publicly said that he couldn't win a championship without him, and relations were further strained when Bryant was accused of sexual assault. In the end, ownership was faced with an ultimatum: either Shaquille O'Neal or Kobe Bryant had to go. The team erred on the side of youth and traded O'Neal to a Miami Heat team boasting a young Dwyane Wade.
At first, it looked like Shaq was proving his point, winning a championship with the Miami Heat in 2006 while Bryant's Lakers struggled in the playoffs without him. When the Boston Celtics beat a Bryant-lead Lakers team in 2008, he memorably dissed Kobe's inability to score a ring without him with a, ahem, "tasteful" NSFW rap. The narrative, however, shifted dramatically the next two years as the Bryant-lead Lakers won two championships in a row while Shaquille O'Neal became a team-hopping supporting player. The mighty Shaq ended his career with stints on the LeBron James-era Cleveland Cavaliers and his injury-plagued final season with the Boston Celtics, transparent bids to match Kobe's ring total.
Now, Kobe Bryant has surpassed his embittered former teammate in career points, re-raising the discussion of where he fits in the Greatest Lakers Of All Time discussion. Keep in mind, Bryant still has a few more years left and the Lakers' championship window is not closed yet. O'Neal, in his distinct brand of oddly defensive boasting, claims to be fine with Kobe's achievement, saying "I never wanted to be the best Laker. I wanted to be the most dominant. I was that". Maybe this is true, but is there any doubt that O'Neal has a Kobe Bryant voodoo doll prepared every time the Lakers make it to the playoffs?
Meanwhile in Boston, Paul Pierce passed Larry Bird to become the second most prolific scorer in Boston Celtics history, behind only John Havlicek, after banking a three-pointer on Monday against the Charlotte LOLcats? er, Bobcats. Pierce is maybe the most underrated great athlete in Boston history, even this great feat lead to Celtics fans calling into sports talk radio not to praise Pierce but to defend Larry Bird's legacy, something which will never, ever be in question in Boston.
Pierce lead the Celtics through disappointing, occasionally terrible, seasons. Although he was the MVP of the 2008 NBA Finals, he has been overshadowed at various times during the "New Big 3" era by Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Rajon Rond. Pierce had a rough start to his Boston career, most notably suffering a life-threatening stabbing in 2000 (while remarkably starting all 82 games the subsequent season). Hopefully Celtics fans will remember Pierce for being one of the best scorers in franchise history, a player who changed his game to become more unselfish when surrounded by great players and for angering every single Lakers fan in America with nothing more than dramatic flair and a wheelchair. And that's the Truth.
.
The latest Injury Report
The NBA is slowly morphing into a medical drama occasionally interrupted by actual basketball. It's becoming increasingly clear that the teams with the healthiest roster of talented players will be the team that will make it deep into the playoffs. With that in mind here is the most recent injury report. Warning: it's not for the squeamish.
The most significant injury this week happened to the Los Angeles Clippers as they lost Chauncey Billups for the season with an Achilles injury. Although the team's early season decision to run the offense through Billups nearly as much as point guard Chris Paul was questionable, Billups had become a valuable part of the offense, even hitting the game winning three in the team's biggest win. More than that he provided a veteran leadership role on a newly assembled team still finding an identity. Now, 35 years old and dealing with a major injury, Billups is facing not just a long rehabilitation but the specter of retirement.
Most of the other recent injuries are more of the lingering variety than the long-term. Knicks All-Star Carmelo Anthony will be out 1-2 weeks with a strained groin, perhaps the most cringe-inducing sports ailment that doesn't include the phrase "ruptured". Bulls point guard Derrick Rose is playing with limited minutes due to still lingering back issues. The Knicks are being so unhelpful about the status of Baron Davis's back that their releases about the still inactive point guard's health might as well be from a Magic Eight-Ball: "Answer Hazy. Try Again Later". Denver Nuggets forward Danilo Gallinari will be out with an ankle sprain, perhaps an ill-advised tribute to Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski.
Oh, and Greg "Out Indefinitely" Oden of the Portland Trail Blazers will have yet another knee surgery, although at this point that announcement only barely qualifies as news.
"Linsanity"
When we last left the New York Knicks, they were in a desperate search for a point guard and placing their hopes with the above mentioned Baron Davis. Since then, out of nowhere, a new savior has emerged in the form of Jeremy Lin. On Saturday the 23 year old Harvard graduate scored 25 points against the New Jersey Nets, earning his first career start the next game against the Utah Jazz. All he did to follow up his impressive debut was score 28 points, pick up eight assists and launch one new phenomenon: Linsanity.
.
Can this Chinese-American Ivy School point guard single-handedly bring together a dysfunctional Knicks team and save embattled coach Mike D'Antoni's job? Well, probably not. Lin is turnover prone and there's a reason that the Golden State Warriors waived him before the season just to free cap space. Still, it will be a fun story to follow for as long as it lasts. If we've learned anything from Tim Tebow, the nation enjoys an improbably overachieving underdog. Plus, it's heartening to see fans start to look past Lin's ethnicity and appreciate him as an actual basketball player, not merely a curiosity.
The NBA All-Star starters
Never in the history of the NBA has All-Star Game fan voting gone as disastrously wrong as it did this year. The purpose of fan voting is to produce several questionable voting decisions a year. Arguing about ridiculous All-Star selections and snubs is probably the most entertaining part about the whole All-Star process (it certainly isn't the game itself). Instead, the fans have produced these two teams of starters:
Western Conference All-Stars:
Guards: Chris Paul (Los Angeles Clippers), Kobe Bryant (Los Angeles Lakers)
Forwards: Kevin Durant (Oklahoma City Thunder), Blake Griffin (Los Angeles Clippers)
Center: Andrew Bynum (Los Angeles Lakers)
Eastern Conference All-Stars:
Guards: Derrick Rose (Chicago Bulls), Dwyane Wade (Miami Heat)
Forwards: LeBron James (Miami Heat), Carmelo Anthony (New York Knicks)
Center: Dwight Howard (Orlando Magic)
What the heck? Those are profoundly reasonable results! This never would have happened if Yao Ming were still in the league. The only controversy here was the pick of Carmelo Anthony, and even that was more because of how disappointing the Knicks season has been so far and not a referendum of Anthony's worthiness. As the parody Twitter account @NotBillWalton pointed out: "People are upset that Carmelo Anthony was chosen as an All-Star. I'm not. He will fit in perfectly by continuing to play atrocious defense."
The good news is that the All-Star Reserves will be announced later today, and hopefully that will generate sufficient amounts of controversy. Maybe they could vote in Cleveland Cavalier forward Luke Harangody for some unfathomable reason, or snub sensational Timberwolves rookie Ricky Rubio.
Note: If the NBA has any sense of humor, at halftime of the All-Star Game the Lakers should trade Andrew Bynum to the Magic for Dwight Howard, forcing the teams to switch centers in the middle of the game.
Other Things We Learned This Week
? Even I'm getting sick of talking about Los Angeles, Boston and New York. Hopefully next week most of the news will revolve around the Pacers, Nuggets and Spurs.
? Monta Ellis scored a career high 48 points for the Golden State Warriors in what ended up being a loss for the Golden State Warriors in what can only be described as the most Golden State Warriors game of all time.
? Related Story: Kevin Durant is pretty good at basketball.
.
? LeBron James and Thunder center Kendrick Perkins are apparently engaged in a feud because of LeBron's Tweets about Blake Griffin's notorious dunk on him: I love the 21st century.
? Kris Humphries wants his divorce proceedings with Kim Kardashian televised. I'm torn. One part of me weeps for the moral conscience of my country, but the other part of me is pumped at the joke opportunities that are sure to spring up.
? In other officiating news, the league has determined that a goaltending call against the Portland Trail Blazers that forced overtime in a game that the Oklahoma Thunder ended up winning should not have been called. You know, I'm sure this makes the Trail Blazers feel a lot better.
? Phoenix Suns point guard Steve Nash turned 38 on Tuesday. Eric Koreen of the National Post suggests he should have asked for a trade on his birthday. I fully agree. FREE STEVE NASH.
? In sad news, Amar'e Stoudemire missed several games for the Knicks after his brother Hazell died in a car accident Monday morning. Our thoughts go out to the Stoudemire family.
NBA standings
NBA schedule and scores
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2012/feb/09/kobe-shaquille-pierce-bird-record-linsanity
No comments:
Post a Comment