MYSM: Quit Pushing

I can't even fake like I've had time to watch sports these past few weeks. My apologies! Hopefully, I will be able to catch up soon, and have something to say about anything. Today is not that day.

NBA fights are usually pretty weak given that none of them a) are used to throwing punches much less taking them, at least not since they were the close to the same height as the rest of the general population (age 2), and b) nobody's trying to lose that much money being suspended.

This fight took place during the Houston Rockets - Phoenix Suns game last Wednesday, and a bunch of folks got suspended (Rafer Alston, Matt Barnes, Steve Nash) and fined (Shaquille O'Neal, Tracy McGrady). Although no real punches were thrown, this warranted MYSM status based solely on how Shaq singlehandedly ended the fight with a few monster shoves. Although T Mac's "stomp that almost was" on Steve Nash's chest is a close second. Nash almost died, but Sheriff Shaq's shove saved his life. And for that he should be forever grateful.

Happy Monday!

I'm Baaaaaack

So I thought I might blog last week but I was having too much fun to pull out the laptop. Plus the Internet access at the hotel was only in the lobby or in the "business center" - it's hard to get inspiration in the business center.

But I am back - for the next week, at least - and I hear I missed a few things, like:

1. Brett Favre decided to pack it in. I knew when the website "accidentally" posted that he was retiring that something had to be up. I and everyone else (especially the NFL and its sponsors) will certainly miss him, but I am all for leaving while you're on top. It's all about primacy and recency - people remember what they saw first, and they remember what they saw last. Some people can get away with playing longer than they really should (i.e., Michael Jordan) but it's certainly not recommended. So enjoy the rest of your life, Mr. Fah-vruh. You seemed like a pretty good guy, on and off the field. All the best.


2. What is going on with the Chicago Bulls? First Tyrus Thomas misses practice for no explicable reason, and gets suspended for two games, then Chris Duhon is seen on national TV at the Duke-UNC game in Durham on Saturday night, a game which he did not receive permission to attend. And then he gets suspended a game for missing the morning shootaround because of some alleged issues with his wake-up call. Remember, it's "fall back, spring forward," Chris. Add that to the issues with Joakim Noah chewing out an assistant coach earlier in the season, and you have the personification of man vs. the establishment. This is the NBA, folks, not college. Let's try to do a little better.

3. The Houston Rockets are riding an 18-game winning streak, taking their 6th in a row since Yao Ming went down for the year. In the process, they've gone from 10th place in the Western Conference to 3rd. In a word, impressive. This was a team that was just barely keeping its head about the .500 mark and now they're gunning for the top spot in the conference. Let's try to do a little better. On Monday night the Rockets take on the New Jersey Nets. Yeah, I'm going to go ahead and chalk up #19 for them. I feel that I can say that without much hesitation at all. The Nets are borderline terrible but they still have a shot of making the playoffs. Yes, that does say a lot for the conference. A whole lot.

4. I watched this feature on SportsCenter about this sugar cane plantation of sorts in Florida where at least 48 NFL players have been bred. There are three high schools near this plantation, all of which won high school state football championships in their class. Part of this training involves chasing rabbits, which sounds like a great idea to develop quickness and agility. This feature was going well for me until they profiled one player who had finally caught a cotton tail rabbit - the first man in his family to do so. He seemed to be grabbing the rabbit rather roughly, but I didn't think much of it until ESPN cut to an aerial view of the frying pan where the player was cooking up the fruits of his labor. If I said that this was not how I expected this to end, that would be an understatement. Ugh.

5. If you didn't watch the game, hopefully you caught the clip of Shaquille O'Neal in the San Antonio Spurs/Phoenix Suns game on Sunday. In a solid effort to chase down a ball that was exiting the court, Shaq nearly killed everyone in the 3rd row of the not-so-cheap seats when he literally leapt into the crowd after (I can only assume) he lost his balance. That or he really was trying to kill someone. The fan who was to have died somehow managed to get out of the way (that split second in which Shaq bent his knees and looked at his target probably helped). Shaq weighs entirely too much to leap into a pool much less into other human beings who probably had no idea how close they came to losing their life for some courtside seats. It's just not as fun when you get killed and can't tell your cool story.

They're Not Really Free If It Costs To Miss Them

One of my pet peeves is missing free throws. It's one thing to miss one here or there, but missing all the time is just atrocious, and I don't think there is any excuse for it. If you play in a professional basketball league and you can't shoot free throws, then you are either a) not practicing or b) in need of a coach to teach you how to shoot properly. There is no reason why the average man or woman, much less an NBA (or WNBA) player should miss free throws if they practice them.

I understand that sometimes nerves come into play, but seriously, if your free throw motion is automatic, you should only miss every once in a while. And if you are a paid professional, I'm going to need you to suck up the nerves.

What brought this on, you ask? Wednesday night's game between the Houston Rockets and the Detroit Pistons. In this game, the Rockets nearly set an NBA record for missed free throw shots. In fact, let's play a game. How many free throw shots did the Rockets miss? Was it:

a) 8 out of their first 9
b) 10 out of their first 11
c) 14 out of their first 15

If you guessed "c," you are correct! The Rockets ended up making 6 of 22 free throws and winning the game by 3. The only thing that saved them was even more atrocious shooting from the Pistons.

The Rockets worse offenders? No, not Yao Ming, who made half of his free throws. The worst free throw shooter of the night is a tie between Tracy McGrady, who went 0-5, and Bonzi Wells, who was 2-9. I can't tell if Bonzi should get points just for making 2 of his, or if the fact that McGrady shot less should spare him from the title.

Seriously, that kind of performance may get you the occasional win during the regular season but it will not get you very far in anyone's playoffs. Do they need to start incentivizing free throws in player contracts? They ought to be ashamed.

Westside Story

I was excited to see that basketball returned tonight. I've missed Ernie, Chuck, and Kenny - and Cheryl (the TNT Inside the NBA team).

Tonight, we visit the land of the Western Conference, where temperatures are only exceeded by the scores in their games, and defense can't be found even on the back of a milk carton (unless you won the championship last year).

The first game up featured the San Antonio Spurs vs. the Portland Trailblazers. The Spurs received their rings (zzzzz) and this game was just "eh" in my book. Of course, it was intended to be the debut of Greg Oden, but alas, no Oden all season, so this was just the rather boring game that I expected it to be. Actually, with players like Lamarcus Aldridge, the Blazers look like they'll be a good team, and when Oden comes back next year, they could definitely be one to watch.

Then the second game. I almost went to bed, but I'm glad I stayed up. On the marquee: Los Angeles Lakers vs. Houston Rockets. Yes, Kobe Bryant's long awaited debut . . . and he got booed by the fans! Not a total surprise, but for a second I thought this was Philadelphia. I think Kobe has the distinction of being booed by his hometown (Philly) and by his home crowd (L.A.).

Just when it looked like the Lakers were out of it, Kobe (and friends) made a run, down by two with under 15 seconds to go. On the next play, Kobe passes it to Derek Fisher for two . . . it's good, and we're tied. The same boo-birds suddenly loved him again.

And then in an instant, the homecoming was spoiled At the other end, with 4.5 seconds left on the clock, former Naismith Player of the Year and Duke alum Shane Battier hit a three-pointer to put the Rockets up by 3. The silence was deafening. 2.5 seconds to go. The Lakers had one good play left, and Battier fouled Kobe, apparently right before the act of shooting, but they were still in the penalty. Kobe went to the line and made the first, purposely missed the second, came up with the ball, and had it knocked away as time expired. Of course he screamed and cursed that he was fouled, but the game ended nonetheless. Life did not, despite his ranting.

Kobe had 45 points, as usual, but it's apparent that he and this team are not going to be making a deep run in the playoffs. I still don't see him going anywhere in a trade, and I was happy to see Chuck and Magic (Johnson) agree with what I said about him earlier.

East coast is up tonight . . . which should mean more interesting games, if you ask me!