The Washington Post's Mike Wise with an insightful look at Don Nelson: "He's an aged Han Solo, forever trying to fix the Millennium Falcon. But it's hard to completely square the lovable carouser everybody is gloating over now with the NBA survivalist, the man who has done everything imaginable to stay employed in this league for almost a half-century. Beneath the Uncle Nellie veneer, there is an old, aloof Celtic who believes you cannot possibly know more about the game than him."
A couple of days ago, I linked to a post in which Michael Bloom poked some holes in that referee bias story. After some more thought and study, Bloom has revised his post. He stills poking some holes, but not the same exact holes, and not quite as big.
In the Cleveland vs. New Jersey game last night, Doug Collins did a great job of pointing out that New Jersey needed to put a body on Anderson Varejao, who seemed to get a hand on practically every missed Cleveland shot. The Nets were not getting the memo. They just kept on leaving him more or less alone, apparently trying to get the rebound themselves. It was really weird, sitting at home, knowing something really important about the game that the players on the court appeared not to know. Varejao ended up with nine boards in seventeen minutes. Cleveland outscored New Jersey by nine during that period, which was almost the final margin.
Agent Arn Tellem's solution to reform basketball development is to funnel good high-school players to, essentially, private schools that are magnet programs for hoops. He is opposed to the basketball academy ideas currently being floated, writing in an L.A. Times Op-Ed: "A well-rounded education involves more than just getting kids ready to do well on standardized tests; the purpose should be what one prominent educator has called the 'cultivation of human powers.' To that end, students must learn something substantial about science, history and contemporary civilizations so they can apply that knowledge to the challenges of the future. A well-rounded life involves more than just perfection in sport. Instead of training these prodigies to be great floor leaders and make vast sums of money, we should encourage them to be great leaders of their communities and make a positive impact on society. In trying to develop the next Michael Jordan, we should also be trying to nurture the next Barack Obama. The Illinois senator and presidential hopeful played forward at the Punahou School in his home state, Hawaii."
Tiago Splitter is considered a decent NBA prospect, but teams have been scared that it may be nearly impossible to get him out of his European contract. ESPN Insider Chad Ford has word from Splitter's agent, Herb Rudoy, that in fact Splitter has an escape clause in the summer of 2008, when he can be bought out for $1 million. Not bad for a worst-case scenario.
Brian Windhorst of Akron Beacon-Journal: "A few years back Buster Olney, now with ESPN but then of the New York Times, kept track of how many bats Yankees closer Mariano Rivera broke during a season. I thought that was super cool (in a nerdy beat writer sort of way), so every year I've been on the Cavs beat I tried to keep my own obscure stat. This year I tracked Anderson Varejao's charges taken (78 in the regular season, two so far in the playoffs) because it's not an official stat. If I were to cover the Nets, though, I think I would keep track of the amount of games when Carter goes to a limp. So far in this series it's two."
Big shoes that don't fit: Would you, Dallas, trade Dirk Nowitzki for Kevin Garnett? What about you, Minnesota?
The Washington Post's Michael Wilbon with Charles Barkely: "As Barkley noted: 'The Pistons and Bulls, Suns and Spurs are the four best teams left in the playoffs. They shouldn't be playing each other in the second round.' Of course, it's absurd. And it was fixable last year, but the NBA blew it. Suns vs. Warriors would probably produce a 300-point game and it would be must-see TV. This isn't hindsight, it's easy to anticipate. That's why the other leagues already re-seed. You want to avoid, at all costs, a rigid structure forcing the two best remaining teams in a conference to go against each other before it's time. So now, the NBA has its best teams playing each other a round too early (which it could have avoided) and without big stars (which it could not)." Or they could just cancel the whole playoffs and replace it with Golden State vs. Phoenix, 100 times in a row.
ESPN's Chris Sheridan (Insider) expects the Rockets and Jeff Van Gundy to reach an amicable agreement to part ways, then he adds a really bizarro piece of insight into Van Gundy's culinary life. The source is a guy who looks a little like Flip Saunders, runs a hot dog cart near the Knicks' old practice facility, and is sometimes called The Duke of Dogs: "The Duke said Jeff used to order his hot dogs 'sliced up like baloney' and served sandwich style with ketchup and tomato slices."
Another person makes the case that NBA contracts might not be too rich, but are often too long.
Andrew Kamenetzky of the L.A. Times Lakers Blog: "... does it feel like the NBA is hoping that if they put if off long enough, fans will forget there's supposed to be an MVP and they'll escape the awkwardness of having to present it to expected (and currently humiliated) winner Dirk Nowitzki?" UPDATE in an email from SI.com's Kelly Dwyer: "I did a little Googling and found that Steve Nash got his award on May 7th of 2006, and his first MVP on May 8th, 2005. Kevin Garnett took his on May 4th, 2004. Going in the other direction, Tim Duncan's ceremonies went down on May 19th, 2003; and May 9th, 2002. Allen Iverson's happened on May 15th, 2001; which I don't remember well because I turned 21 that day. Maybe there is a little rhyme or reason toward why the league hands out the awards when they do. Nash's presentations seem awfully early, which could be because the league thought little of his team's playoff chances, or it could just be a random thing that I'm thinking way too much about and already blew too much time on when I could have been You Tubing." Kids in the Hall sketches."
Great photoshop of Vince Carter getting late-game treatment on that cramped calf.
UPDATE: I think I may be the last sports blog on the planet to link to this homemade video, but I finally watched it, and it certainly qualifies as entertainment. Better if I don't explain. Just watch.
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