Brian Windhorst of the Akron Beacon-Journal: "Let me ask you this, do you suppose the NBA kept moving those Warriors games later and later was because they didn't want any kids to be up to see how they play?"
Email I got today, in its entirety: "The NBA sucks!"
From the ESPN Research department: This year's Bulls join the 2003 Blazers (vs. Mavericks), the 2000 76ers (vs. Pacers), the 1996 Sonics (vs. Bulls) and the '94 Nuggets (vs. Jazz) as the only modern NBA teams to get to Game 6 after starting the series down 3-0. Half of those earlier cases moved on the Game 7 before losing.
Remember Ira Newble's campaign to get NBA players to sign a petition about Darfur? Scott Soshnick of Bloomberg News says: "Eleven Cavaliers put pen to paper. LeBron did not. Neither did Damon Jones, who has a marketing contract with Li-Ning Sports Goods Co. Ltd., a Chinese sneaker and apparel maker." I'll say this: not everyone has to believe in the same politics. It's not inherently wrong not to sign. But if you read the article, there's certainly at least the appearance of money trumping all, which is a little uncomfortable.
TrueHoop reader Bit wants bigger benches: "Tim Legler made a great point in the expert round-up about the recent suspensions on Diaw and Amare - there needs to be a way to provide some leeway for split-second reactions. I think a very simple way to do that would be to increase the distance of the bench from the court by a few feet. Something from two to four feet should be enough. Yeah, team and stadium owners might not like the idea of probably having to remove a row of high-value seating, but I think that's the only downside and it'd be easy enough to make up for it or work around it. Aside from the fact that most of the time these split-second reactions cause them to act right before better judgement steps in, you can't really rely on the asst. coaches or other players to be able to react to and to stop an enraged 6-foot-something, 200-300-pound athlete from crossing the line that's just a few steps away. It might also allow players diving for balls towards the sides of the court from colliding with anyone on the side-/end-lines and it'll also decrease the probability of a player crashing into an opposing bench (or any bench). It just seems to me that it'd fix more than a few more problems."
Mark Cuban defends the leaving the bench rule, and thinks officials should be able to use instant replay as support in making unsportsmanlike conduct calls -- which sounds smart to me, as those fouls already hold up the game for discussion.
Email from Janson: "You know what would be the worst case scenario for the Suns/Spurs series? Game 5: Bowen hits game winner (already happened). Game 6: Suns win. Game 7: Robert Horry returns and hits the game-winning three."
UPDATE: Now that the Jazz are in the Western Conference Finals they smell money.
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