Me and the NBA

I have very little to say about the NBA at this point. I was already slightly turned off by the season when my Sacramento Kings went 5-10 in the month of December. I was still holding out hope then that perhaps it was just going to take some time to adjust to Mussleman's leadership. If I still had the DIRECTV league pass, maybe I would have seen his inability to connect with his team, his team's lack of energy, the poor communication on defense, and the inefficiency on offense. It's a rare occasion when a King's game is televised in Los Angeles. The box scores really don't tell you the plot behind the story.

Anyway, I'm rambling. The playoffs were mildly intriguing to me for a few reasons:
1) My girlfriend's favorite team is the Rockets, so I had some rooting interest.
2) I'm from northern California, so I felt some hometown pride for the Warriors finally making it back to the playoffs.
3) Chris Webber may have a chance to win a ring.
4) The Phoenix Suns play exciting basketball.

Well, here's what happened so far...

- The Rockets were bounced by the Jazz, whom I begrudgingly respect. The series was defined by it's defense and plodding offense. Not exactly thrilling.

- As everyone has written, the Bruins North were exciting to watch and a great story to follow. Nellie capitalized on his knowledge of the Mavs weaknesses and the team's lack of a pure scorer. I was pulling for the boys from Oakland in every game. But the achille's heel of Nellie-ball, rebounds, was their undoing in the second round.

- Chris Webber...what should I say? He made Sacramento basketball fun again. He wasn't the only one, he had help from Vlade and White Chocolate. But it all centered around his ability to score and his ability to create for his teammates. Kings basketball was some of the most exciting stuff you were going to see on the court at the time. He was the heart and soul of our team. Maybe he didn't hit the big shots, but Kings fans loved him anyway.

When he got traded, I knew Geoff Petrie was doing the right thing...he always does. His knees would never again let him be the explosive yet smooth post player he'd been known for. It was still hard to let him go. Anyway, I hope he wins a championship ring this year. It just eluded him in college and so far in the pros. He deserves it.

- After the Kings decided to go fishing early this year I latched onto the Suns for the playoff run (the Warriors never had a strong chance to get to the conference championship). Steve Nash is a helluva competitor and his team makes watching basketball fun. It's also no secret that I have loathed the Spurs for some time. The way things turned out isn't really their fault though.

The NBA has let San Antonio get away with a lot of questionable play for the last few years. For some reason, the league degenerates into a grabbing/shoving/bumping mess every year in the playoffs. Why does the league let the refs call the games differently in the postseason? Inconsistent enforcement makes no sense. I'm not saying that the suspensions were wrong. But the way the league and the officials handled the events in the games prior to the game 4 where Horry shoved Nash into the scorer's table WAS wrong.

To use the cliché of this postseason, the play got too "chippy" and no one tried to stop it. The boiling point was the end of game 4. If San Antonio goes on to win the title again, like I expect them to do, it's only fair that Peter Holt (owner of the Spurs) buys Stu Jackson some championship bling too.

I could go on for quite a while, but I already said I didn't have much to say about the NBA. I guess that was a lie. Even though it's a slow time of year for sports aside from the NBA playoffs (I don't acknowledge hockey), I will only be paying cursory attention to how the remaining basketball games unfold.

...but the NBA lotto is tomorrow, and the Kings have a 1.8% chance of getting the number 1 pick. There is still hope!