NBA 2010

[WayAbvPar]

I doubt it is racially motivated, at least for most people (there are always fuckheads and Southerners). I was indifferent to LeBron until this past summer. Now I loathe him. I used to love Brett Favre (4 or 5 years ago). Now I want to see him die in a car fire. Doesn't mean I hate black people or white people; it means I hate self-indulgent assholes.

[Margalis]

There is absolutely nothing likable about LeBron. Period. He has talent. He's also an ultra-douche. Keep in mind I like Iverson. It isn't a race thing, it's an asshole thing.

[ghost]

Isaiah likes his draft record, apparently.  Insanity is a wonderful, wonderful thing. 

"When I look at my GM/executive record, if I'm evaluated on that, then whoever's after Donnie, if you're not talking about some of the top people in the game, I'll put my draft evaluation record up against anyone's."

This nimrod actually thinks he's got a shot at being rehired by the Knicks.

[Ingmar]

To be fair, the Knicks are pretty stupid.

[FatuousTwat]

I'm glad the Blazers are doing so well, but I can already see them falling into their standard pattern;

Win a few games, get overconfident and start fucking up, over-extend while trying to fight their way back and suffer a ton of injuries.

[Paelos]

The Atlanta Hawks and the Atlanta Falcons are leading their conferences. I think this may be the end times.

[trias_e]

Did anyone watch the Utah-Miami game?  Un-fucking-believable.  Paul Millsap basically turned on God mode, Lebron did basically nothing near the end.  Life is good if you're a Jazz fan.

[ghost]

Milsap really is the second coming of the Mailman, isn't he?  Wow. 

[Paelos]

We'll see how Utah fares against Orlando tonight.

[trias_e]

2nd end of a back to back, on the road against a good team, after a crazy emotional OT game?

If it's not a loss, I'll be absolutely shocked.  Maybe if Milsap goes for 46 again though  

[ghost]

John Wall is going to be a fucking god once everything is said and done.  And Rajon Rondo is going to be just behind him in godliness. 

Wall's stat line-  19 ppg  10 apg  3.2 steals pg  4.3 rpg
Rondo's stat line-  11 ppg  15 apg  3 steals pg  5 rpg

I can't wait to see these guys play against each other.  It's going to be epic.

[Paelos]

Home team here v. the Jazz tonight. I'm not sure how it will go off the drubbing that the Bucks put on the Hawks. 

I'm probably taking the Jazz and the +4.5 unless something shifts.

[Cyrrex]

It's nice to see that whole experiment down in Miami working so nicely 

[ghost]

I've never been a huge fan of Bosh and Wade is injury prone and overrated from his title run his rookie year.  Overall Wade just isn't as good as people like to prop him up to be.  They greatly overpaid for him when they could have gotten two serviceable bigs to actually rebound and come out better off.  I think James and Wade will eventually pull it together, but it's going to take a while.  I suspect a #4-5 seed in the playoffs. 

[caladein]

I could watch this all day, and I pretty much hate the Cs.

E: Changed image link.

[Morfiend]

As a Lakers fan, it is pretty much required that I hate the Celtics, but I can appreciate them as a team and what they are able to do. Rondo can be amazing and Pierce has the potential to explode and is an all around great player.

As to Lebron, personally I feel he is overrated, it seems that he has a tendency to totally disappear in clutch moments.

[Azuredream]

I don't know how he's doing this year, but last year he was the best "clutch" performer in the NBA by a wide margin:

http://www.82games.com/0910/CSORT11.HTM

[Cyrrex]

I don't know how he's doing this year, but last year he was the best "clutch" performer in the NBA by a wide margin:

http://www.82games.com/0910/CSORT11.HTM

Talk about missing the point by the overuse of meaningless statistics.  The knock on Lebron is that he cannot pull his team (or arguably himself) through adversity during huge playoff games.  The only stat you need to support it can be measured by counting the number of rings on his fingers, or number of finals appearances.  Guys like MJ or Kobe (Bird, Magic, etc.)...they WILL their way through.  Lebron quits.

[Paelos]

Let's be fair. Kobe and Lebron can both put up 40 a game in the playoffs. They weren't the difference in why the Lakers won and the Cavs lost. The difference is that the Lakers could spread the ball around to other people if Kobe went cold early on. It wasn't all on him. They had the much better team.

[Azuredream]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1Px-jPm_TU

Those last few games against the Magic, I think he quit, but prior to that he always took the team as far as the team could go given who was on the roster. That Cavs finals team is possibly the worst finals team of the last few decades.

[ghost]

Let's be fair. Kobe and Lebron can both put up 40 a game in the playoffs. They weren't the difference in why the Lakers won and the Cavs lost. The difference is that the Lakers could spread the ball around to other people if Kobe went cold early on. It wasn't all on him. They had the much better team.

And Phil really is a hell of a coach. 

[Threash]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1Px-jPm_TU

Those last few games against the Magic, I think he quit,

Against Boston too, watching that last game it was just so blatant he was not interested i don't know how anyone could think he was going to stay in cleveland.

[ghost]

Everyone needs to read this article about King James  the Bully. 

What a turd.  Some of the shit he does sounds like Randy Moss type tomfoolery. 

[ghost]

So the Bobcats fired Larry Brown and replaced him with Paul Silas.  When would you ever, ever think that Paul Fucking Silas is a good choice, even as an interim coach? 

[Paelos]

So the Bobcats fired Larry Brown and replaced him with Paul Silas.  When would you ever, ever think that Paul Fucking Silas is a good choice, even as an interim coach?  

It shows how ridiculously uneven the NBA is right now. You have 8 teams that are functional, have legitimate shots at a conference title, and have the winning mentality not to check out during the regular season. Then, you have 22 other teams.

Just look at the standings. Boston has lost 4 games and has a 7 game lead. That division is done in December. The Lakers are the same, 7 games up, and nobody else has a chance.

Right now unless you are either Boston, Atlanta, Miami, Orlando, Lakers, Spurs, Mavs, or Chicago, or you have zero shot at making it to the Finals. Eight more teams will get in, but I don't think anybody believe they are functional, and the Bobcats won't even make the playoffs.

[ghost]

All the pro leagues are devolving into this same top heavy bullshit.  The talent pool is now so watered down due to the massive over expansion of the leagues that the "small market" will very rarely have a chance to compete.  We haven't really seen it in the NBA too much but with the Lakers, Miami, Celtics and Knicks looking to horde talent it's starting to become baseball. 

[Malakili]

All the pro leagues are devolving into this same top heavy bullshit.  The talent pool is now so watered down due to the massive over expansion of the leagues that the "small market" will very rarely have a chance to compete.  We haven't really seen it in the NBA too much but with the Lakers, Miami, Celtics and Knicks looking to horde talent it's starting to become baseball. 

Yeah, I'd much prefer smaller leagues across the board with fewer but higher quality games.  There just aren't enough good players to fill these leagues.

[Paelos]

Turns out I agree with Lebron about contraction. 

[ghost]

If the Buttnuggets can end up pulling off this Carmelo Anthony trade it will be huge for the Nets.  They might even be able to make the playoffs. 

[Hoax]

All the pro leagues are devolving into this same top heavy bullshit.

The nfl would like a word with you, actually the nhl would too it has a host of problems but top heavy bullshit isn't exactly one of them. So that leaves you with half instead of all but yes we can all agree with Lebron that the nba regular season would be less boring if there were fewer bad teams.

[Ingmar]

All the pro leagues are devolving into this same top heavy bullshit.  The talent pool is now so watered down due to the massive over expansion of the leagues that the "small market" will very rarely have a chance to compete.  We haven't really seen it in the NBA too much but with the Lakers, Miami, Celtics and Knicks looking to horde talent it's starting to become baseball.  

Baseball? The sport that has had 9 different teams win championships in the last 10 years? That baseball? Even in the 90s when the Yankees were really going, the NBA was more dynasty-ridden than baseball.

[ghost]

All the pro leagues are devolving into this same top heavy bullshit.

The nfl would like a word with you, actually the nhl would too it has a host of problems but top heavy bullshit isn't exactly one of them. So that leaves you with half instead of all but yes we can all agree with Lebron that the nba regular season would be less boring if there were fewer bad teams.

I disagree about the NFL.  The number of terrible teams in the NFL is simply staggering.  Hell, a team with a losing record made the playoffs in football.  I really can't speak to the NHL, but if you say it's balanced then I guess it is.  

And let's talk about the absolutely shitty teams in baseball, many of which have no place being in MLB-  Baltimore, Kansas City, Seattle, Washington, Pittsburgh, Florida.......heck, take out three of those teams and you've improved the overall quality of play immensely. 

[Ingmar]

Well if we want to do that we should probably do it in the baseball thread, but seriously, go look at Wikipedia's list of champions for the various sports. The NBA is *by far* the worst offender in the 'same teams win every year' category, and that's despite the fact that they let a huge number of teams into the playoffs. Competitive balance has always been terrible in the NBA, always.

[ghost]

If I were in charge I would axe every expansion team since 1980 in all sports.  I understand that there have been different teams win the title in baseball, but the same teams seem to be sucking ass every single year.  Some of those teams just need to go.

[Paelos]

All the pro leagues are devolving into this same top heavy bullshit.  The talent pool is now so watered down due to the massive over expansion of the leagues that the "small market" will very rarely have a chance to compete.  We haven't really seen it in the NBA too much but with the Lakers, Miami, Celtics and Knicks looking to horde talent it's starting to become baseball.  

Here's the last 30 years of championships for each league, and how many different teams have won, going back to 1980.

NBA - 8 teams
NHL - 14 teams
NFL - 15 teams
MLB - 19 teams

It's pretty much just basketball. The rest of the leagues have sent half if not more of their teams to a championship in that span of time.

EDIT: Oh, and of those 8 teams that won in the NBA, only the Lakers, Celtics, Spurs, Heat, and Bulls are currently relevant.