It seems as though Kobe must’ve been watching Sportscenter and came up with this shot to top King James:

Isn’t this just great? We got two of the greatest perimeter players of all-time outdoing each other every night. I know I wrote same thing yesterday, but I just can’t wait to see what those two are going to do when they play each other seven games in a row.

On a different note: The flagrant fouls in this league are getting way out of control. I mean there is absolutely no consistency to the rule, or how else could you explain Ron Artest getting ejected for his foul on Pau Gasol at the end of Game 3? It’s ridiculous and makes no sense at all, if the league doesn’t change the flagrant 2 that was called on that, I won’t know what to say. If they  wanted to call a flagrant 2 so bad, why didn’t they suspend Rajon Rondo for throwing Kirk Hinrich into the scorers table in Game 6 of the Boston-Chicago series; one game after he whacked Brad Miller right in the face? That was another call the league totally blew, and a big one at that, as the Bulls would’ve probably won Game 7 against a Rondo-less Celtics team.

Let’s see how the league handles the flagrant foul situation for the rest of the playoffs, all I can really hope for is some consistency in the way the fouls are called.

Anyways let’s get right back to writing about the everyday happenings of the NBA: The 2009 NBA playoffs are all around us and they have blessed us with some great, great games.
Now, before I talk about the possible Dream Finals we all might witness this year — thanks to Nike, I now have to think of LeBron everytime I hear or say the word witness – let me get one thing out of the way first:

The Boston-Chicago series was amazing. I don’t care if there were no major superstars involved or that the two teams were no serious contenders. What I saw over seven games in that series was just plain, good, competitive basketball. What I saw were two teams going at it leaving it all out on the court. I don’t care what nobody says; this series was entertaining and exciting, period. In 20 years when somebody asks me about the best playoff series of the past two decades, this will be one of the first ones that will come to my mind.

Alright, now that I mentioned that I wanna talk about what’s really on my mind: Does everybody realize that this year we might just have one of the greatest NBA Finals of all-time at our hands? I know that that is a big statement to make with all of the great Finals the NBA has had in its rich history, but, you know, these Finals just will be great. I’m just saying that when you get two of the greatest perimeter players of all-time battling each other on the biggest stage, it is going to epic and it is going to take its place in the ‘NBA Finals Hall of Fame’.

Two of the greatest perimeter players of all time, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant

But before I get ahead of myself talking about the finals and all that, I might first have to take look at the teams still standing in the way of a Cavaliers-Lakers matchup (well at least in the West, that is):

The Houston Rockets and the Denver Nuggets. After splitting the first two games at home, are the Lakers really a shoe-in for the NBA Finals or could the Rockets pull off the upset? My answer is: ‘Yes’ the Lakers are a lock for the Finals and ‘No’ the Rockets don’t have what it takes to upset them. I’ll even go out on a limb and say that the Rockets will not win another game in this series, unless of course the great Tracy McGrady, a seasoned second-round veteran, makes a surprising comeback and propels his team to victory. But since that is highly unlikely to happen, I see the Rockets’ playoff run being over rather soon.
Which brings me to the next series:
After the Nuggets finish the Mavericks off in five, maybe six games at most, they will be the ones attempting to take down the Lakers in what should be an exciting high-scoring series, that, by the way the Nuggets are playing ball right now, I can easily see going the distance.

While the Lakers will struggle with the Nuggets over seven games, the Cavaliers will have a cakewalk to the NBA Finals, where we will finally get to see the Lakers and the LeBrons going at it on the big stage for the first and hopefully not the last time.
So get ready to witness (damn you Nike) great basketball, only in the NBA Finals, where, as by now we all know, amazing happens.

” Hey, did you see Wade cross Mayo last night, it was sick, Mayo was tripping over everybody and almost landed out of bounds.”

To my shame, I had to admit that I hadn’t seen said move yet, although I did know that Mayo dropped 28 in a win over Miami.

So as soon as I got home, I looked the play up on youtube and long story short, I decided to post the video on here, in case you haven’t seen it yet either, since it’s always nice to watch Dwyane Wade cross somebody over:

He should be on the All-Star team this year

I have something to rant about today, so here goes: How can it be, that Derrick Rose, Joe Johnson and Devin Harris are ranked 8th, 9th and 10th (scroll down to see the votes) in the Eastern Conference All-Star guard voting? How can it be that Jameer Nelson, Jose Calderon, TJ Ford and Luke Ridnour are all ranked ahead of them? I mean, Luke Ridnour! The Luke Ridnour…ahead of Rose, Joe Johnson…and Devin Harris!? Impossible, right? But it’s true.

Now let’s look at this seriously, and seriously, this is a joke. I know the All-Star starters are meant to be chosen by the fans, but there is still value in being selected as an All-Star, especially for the players. Why else would Chris Bosh go out of his way to publish videos in which he asks fans to vote for him, or Gilbert Arenas try to vote himself as an All-Star, by trading in a pair of shoes for a box of All-Star ballots? It’s because it means something to them, it gives them a certain status, and it might even help to determine their next pay-check. All-Star selections are what people talk about when comparing two players. Playing at the All-Star Game is something every NBA player, or rather every basketball player for that matter, has dreamt about ever since picking up that leather ball for the first time.

So now here we are, with Luke Ridnour ahead of Derrick Rose, Joe Johnson and Devin Harris in the all-star voting, and I haven’t even told you about the worst thing yet; guess who is ranked third in the Eastern Conference forward voting? Unless you knew about it already, or saw it in the link I posted above, you probably guessed wrong, because it’s no other than China’s own Yi Jianlian. Ain’t that something? But as much of an outrage as that is (and, boy, is it ever), I want to focus on the guard voting in this article, because the problem with China voting in the All-Star game is a different story.

Let’s take a look at why I think the three  guards I mentioned should be in the top 5 of the Eastern guard selection, or in Harris’ place, 2^nd only behind Dwyane Wade.

I will only briefly talk about Joe Johnson here, a guy who has been overlooked his entire career (until he finally got to the All-Star game in recent years), even though he consistently puts up good numbers, because JJ has been an All-Star before. Right now I want to focus my attention on the other two guards, who haven’t had the chance to play during the All-Star weekend yet:

Starting with Rose; Derrick Rose is putting up some really nice numbers as a Rookie: 19 points, 4 rebounds and 6 assists. Now 4 of the guys voted ahead of him, Jose Calderon, Jameer Nelson, TJ Ford and Luke Ridnour….every single one of them pales in comparison to the 20 year old Bulls rookie sensation. Not only has Rose turned around the Chicago franchise and has them competing for a playoff berth, he is also playing at a higher level than any of them ever have in their career, yet he is ranked 8th on the first voting return. Now, I’m not saying Rose should make the All-Star team in his Rookie year, although he would deserve it, I’m just saying that the guy should get way more credit than he does.

But my main grief isn’t with Rose or Johnson not being ranked higher up; it’s with Harris’ ranking. Devin Harris is having the best season of his career: He is 6^th in the league in points per game, 2^nd in free throw attempts per game, (only behind Dwight Howard, who doesn’t really count as number one, because where else would he be…just look at the guy) leads the league free throws made per game, while also putting up 7 assists a game and leading a New Jersey Nets team, who a lot of experts thought (me included, though I doubt I belong in that expert category), thought were going to end up at the bottom of the Eastern Conference. Devin is looking unstoppable on the court at times and plays with a speed and tenacity that Luke Ridnour only knows from watching old A.I. tapes, yet he is voted ahead of Harris (again: Luke Ridnour? Seriously?).

By looking at the vote returns, I get one picture: That the All-Star game has pretty much become nothing but a popularity contest and doesn’t mean anything in terms of real basketball skill. While I do realize that there have been weird All-Star selections before – a first year Yao Ming comes to mind – this year really caps it off.

If fans can’t realize that an All-Star selection should still be deserved, than I think the NBA should take the voting out of the fans hands, because I personally want to see the leagues best players compete at the All-Star game, the way it used to be and the way it is meant to be.

Here are some of Devin Harris’ higlights (the video is about 5 minutes long, I should also mention that there is some profanity in the music that is being used for the video) :

Mayo finished the game with 14 points, 3 assists and 2 rebounds, while Rose came up with 12 points and 11 assists, the second time he got 10 assists or more and his 3rd double-double of the season.

Although the two didn’t deliver huge performances, there were still a couple of things to notice in this game:

• Even though he tried, Mayo really struggled on defense against Ben Gordon. He wasn’t able to keep up with Ben running through screens off the ball at all, and Gordon lit him up for 18 points in the first quarter before getting into foul trouble.

• Mayo still has to work on his shot selection. We all know the guy has a beautiful stroke and he can get any shot he wants, but that doesn’t mean he should take just any shot. He is often taking some ill advised, heavily contested jumpers and he’s missed the most of his jump-shots, with the majority of his points coming off drives and at the free throw line.

• Rose on the other hand should look to shoot the ball more than he does, while he did take as many shots as O.J. Mayo, he was still playing too unselfish. He passed up a lot of good shots by kicking the ball out on drives or simply deciding no to take the jumper. What’s so bad about this is the fact that whenever Rose does actually want to score nothing can keep him from getting to the basket, as he often shows late in games.

As far as the Rookie of the Year race is concerned, I would give this contest to Derrick Rose, hands down, even though his unselfish play might have hurt the team, he still put up satisfying numbers, while Mayo didn’t deliver much besides his 14 points.

Now, this is not me hating on O.J. (man, that name is tainted) it’s just me simply stating the facts, and for tonight, between him and Rose, the latter simply one the battle, even if it wasn’t the epic one I was hoping for.

As for the other players and the game itself, it was a closely contested game, until the Grizzlies pulled away late. The top-performers for the winning game were Rudy Gay and Hakeem Warrick who finished with 29 and 21 points respectively.  As for the rest of the players, see the box-score here.

With this game the Bulls now fall to 10-12 while the Grizzlies had their first three game win streak of the season and improved to 8-15.

The Chicago Bulls will go up against the Memphis Grizzlies.

Chicago-Memphis? Why, you ask?  I’ll tell you why:

The two rookies of the month, and front-runners for the Rookie of the year award, Derrick Rose and O.J. Mayo, will meet for the second time this season, after playing each other earlier in the year on November 1st.

On said day, Derrick Rose won the personal match-up, besting Mayo’s 16 points with 26, while his team also came away with the W.

Ever since that game, Mayo and Rose have both wet their feet in the league after playing and starting in over 20 games this season and they’ve both proven to be more than capable on the offensive end, averaging 20 and 18 points a game respectively.

Rose and Mayo are the two most likely candidates for the ROY award, and this is a game that might help people with their decision on who is the better player.

Tonight also marks Derrick Rose’s first return to Memphis, the city which he almost lead to a national championship in his single college year. Adding to that, the Bulls and the Grizllies are both trying to win their 3rd straight game for the first time this season with the Bulls hoping to get back to the .500 mark with that win.

This game, though not propagated by the media, definitely shapes up to be an interesting one and I will make sure not to miss the rookies rumble tonight in Memphis.

In the video Wade talks about playing with a chip on his shoulder this year, how his injury made him feel, the free agency in 2010, and about his team the Miami Heat.

It’ s definitely worth watching and you can find the link here.

Dwyane Wade is leading the league in scoring this season, after being doubted in recent years. The 6’4” guard is averaging close to 30 points a game, along with 7.5 assists and 5 rebounds. He is shooting about 50% from the field, and has lead the Miami Heat to a 12-9 record through the first 21 games of the season.

The Phoenix Suns completed a trade that will get them Jason Richardson for Boris Diaw and Raja Bell. In addition to Richardson, the Suns will receive Jared Dudley and a second-round pick, and give up Sean Singletary.

Jason Richardson is an explosive scorer, who has just played in 14 games for the Bobcats this season, due to a knee-injury. He is mostly known for winning the Slam Dunk Competition and upsetting the Mavericks in the 2007 playoffs with his former team, the Golden State Warriors.
Raja Bell is a three-point and defensive specialist, while Boris Diaw is an all-around versatile player, who won the Most Improved Player award in ’06.

Quick Analysis:
Who got the better end of the deal?
Definitely Phoenix. They get an athletic swingman, who is a great finisher on fastbreaks and will be able to knock down open shots created by Nash, Amare and Shaq. He is definitely a great complement to the Suns and will be able to help instantly
The Bobcats got an aging Raja Bell, whose career seems to be going downhill, and Boris Diaw, who has not played on a high level since he got the MIP trophy in 2006.

Here’s one of the things Richardson will bring to the Suns:

The King is having fun with everybody guessing about the future

Now, the Knicks will be able to sign even two big-time players to max-contracts in 2010. Obviously the speculations are running wild right now, for the media, LeBron wearing blue and orange in 2010 seems to be set in stone already, while James himself doesn’t seem like he has his mind made up yet:

“It’s not just New York and Brooklyn, it’s not just a two-team race.”
“You have to stay open-minded if you are a Knicks fan.”
“I am focused on the team that I am on right now and winning a championship. So it gets funny at times, but I don’t think about making a change at this point. I am focusing on the team I have here and the relationship I have with the Cavs.”
And also:
“If you guys want to go to sleep right now and not wake up until July 1, 2010, then go ahead because it’s going to be a big day.”…“July 1, 2010 is going to be a very, very big day.”

While I must admit that King James dressing up for the Knick in a couple of years seems possible, I wanna talk about something else I have on my mind: Why is it that whenever somebody talks about the 2010 free agency, the talk immediately revolves around LeBron James? I know that Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh get mentioned every now and then, but shouldn’t a former Finals MVP get a little more attention than that, and what about Chris Bosh? This is a guy putting up monstrous numbers this year, while playing for a Raptors team that’s performing at a low level right now? He might want out in 2010 to be able to sing with a team that can contend. Then there’s Amare Stoudemire who’s not too happy in Phoenix and a former MVP, Dirk Nowitzki, whose team is rapidly declining. Also we have Joe Johnson, a capable wing player, playing at his best right now. He might want to go sing with a different team so that he can play alongside another Superstar. For a overview of all the players that are hitting free agency in 2010, click here.

I understand that ‘The Chosen One’ righteously leads the list of free agents, but I want to make sure that people don’t forget that in the summer of 2010 there is more to get than a LeBron James.

Don’t forget about this guy:

I first took notice of OJ Mayo tearing up the league, when he posted back to back 30-point games, and I have to admit, I jumped off the Beasley bandwagon and took a spin on Mayo’s. But watching the Grizzlies, it didn’t take long to notice that, while Mayo played good, the Grizzlies were a horrible team and considering that, Mayo’s numbers just didn’t seem that great anymore…so I decided to start watching some Bulls games, and I was blown away! The first thing that came to my mind was: He’s 20 years old? And he’s already that good?

I mean this guy, Derrick Rose, is unbelievable. His numbers of 19/6/4 are nice, but they don’t tell the whole story, Rose just brings so much to the game and is truly a superstar in the making. He’s 20 years old, and yet he’s already unguardable: if defenders try to play him up-close, he just blows by them and if they try to get some space between him and themselves, he says ‘thank you very much,’ and scores with a mid-range jumper.
With his incredible speed, athleticism and a solid jumpshot (notice that I said ‘solid,’ he can still improve on his jumper and develop more range), defenses already have to pay a lot of attention to him.

Now after all the praise, I have to address one negative thing about his game: He is too unselfish. Some people think of unselfishness as a good thing, but in his case, it’s not. The thing is, most of the time he doesn’t realize that defenses can’t contain him. Rose will try to get everybody involved instead of looking for his own shot, until the Bulls go down by double-digits and he decides to take over when it’s too late. He has to realize that defenses can not keep him from scoring and start the game aggressively, once they have to completely key in on him, he can look to distribute the ball.
But Rose’s unselfishness comes with his character, with him being a laid-back and open guy, who’s trying to fit in with the team and get everybody to like him.

Once he gets settled in and realizes that the Bulls are his team though, I think we’ll see an even better Derrick Rose.

Don’t forget, the guy’s only 20 years old and he’s already that good.