Hole Punch Sports

There’s been some interesting NBA news lately. This post is more like news and personal reminiscence. I’d like to start with Kobe Bryant’s vanishing trade demand to get it out of the way. Bryant asked for a trade from the Lakers, but changed his mind after speaking with Phil Jackson. End of story, I guess, but I have two thoughts. One, where would Kobe have gone? He obviously doesn’t want to play for a middle-of-the-road team anymore, but if he’d gone to an already-great squad, he’d have to share the spotlight. I seem to remember his having a problem with that before once. If he went to, say, the Dallas Mavericks or Phoenix Suns, he’d end up taking a backseat to Dirk or Steve Nash in some ways. Don’t get me wrong. Kobe’s substantially better at basketball than either of those guys. But think how Carmelo is still presented as the face of the Nuggets franchise, even after Allen Iverson joined the team. It’s not even necessarily that Bryant wouldn’t get the ball in crunch time-both of th...

I don't care. About what? I don't care that the Boston Celtics didn't get the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft. It's the top story on ESPN.com right now-no, not that Portland did get the draft pick, and that its team and fanbase could be set for a decade. No, the big story is that the Celtics didn't win. Not to turn into that guy, but how is that news? The whole front-page billing is just an intro to Bill Simmons' article about the Celtics not winning the draft lottery. (At least I think that's what it's about. Haven't read it.) Hey, that's fine. That's the sort of thing the Sports Guy writes about, and he's more interesting than the straight news most of the time. And I understand that ESPN.com's top story section has to link to something . But there's really no reason to feel sorry for the Celtics. According to ESPN.com itself , the Celtics only had a 19.9% chance of winning the top pick anyway. What were their chances of grabbing on...

By now, you've surely seen Robert Horry's knockdown of Steve Nash the other night. If not, you can watch it next to this ESPN article about the suspensions. Yesterday the NBA announced that Horry has been suspended for Games 5 and 6 of the Spurs' series with the Suns. Amare Stoudemire and Boris Diaw of the Suns were both suspended for one game (Game 5) for leaving the bench area during the scuffle that followed Horry's hit. I don't like this. First, suspensions during the playoffs just suck. I don't want the Suns to win at all, but I definitely don't want them to win because of an Horry suspension. I do want the Spurs to win, but not because Amare Stoudemire wasn't allowed to play. Second, the suspensions affect the Suns a lot worse than they affect the Spurs, especially considering the seriousness of the offenses. Now, I do think Stoudemire and Diaw should have been suspended. Even I know you can't leave the bench when something like that is going ...

Oh, yeah, I have a blog. What's happened in the last week and a half? (Aside from the obvious .) 1. When I said the Spurs were the best team in the West, I used some statistics, but one expression would have summed it up more quickly: Tim Duncan > Steve Nash > Dirk Nowinzki Duncan's a proven winner and probably the best player ever at his position. He's got two MVPs and won three Finals MVPs as the key to three championship teams. Basically, to me, he's beyond reproach. Nash has never played in the Finals, but he has won two MVP awards. He didn't deserve either one, but it's an honor just to be nominated. Nash puzzles me because he's so wildly overrated (no defense and no rebounding, and before you say he's a point guard just remember that Jason Kidd, the best NBA point before Nash, routinely notched impressive numbers in the category), yet it's obvious he makes a huge difference to his current team. He's MVP-like in the sense that losing h...