Steve Nash - Training Day

Steve Nash is awesome. I'm sure everyone has already seen this commercial and is asking, "whats so special about this?" Well, my friends, besides the fact that Nash is a really good soccer player and rides a skateboard he also directed the commercial himself. It sounds like Nash plans to make films when he retires from basketball. He has set up his own production company to make independent films. The Arizona Republic interviewed a few people in the film world about Nash's commercial.

"The spot is like Steve Nash himself - very spontaneous,"(Chris) Lamont(Phoenix film festival president) said. "Guerrilla-style filmmaking really lends itself to the type of work. There is an improv quality, which is like his play . . . I give it a thumbs up."

I can't wait to see what he does when basketball is no longer his main focus.

(via Kotte.org via truehoop with an assist from the Arizona republic)

Latrell's kids must be really hungry.

MILWAUKEE -- Former NBA star Latrell Sprewell's home is up for foreclosure and his yacht sold at auction to help pay off the $1.3 million he owes on the boat, according to court filings.

Sprewell, who once turned down a three-year, $21 million contract extension saying, "I've got my family to feed," has apparently fallen on tough times.

RBS Citizens NA, or Citizens Bank, filed a foreclosure suit last week in Milwaukee County for the $405,000 home Sprewell bought in the Milwaukee suburb of River Hills in 1994.

In court documents, the bank said Sprewell owed $295,138 in outstanding payments plus interest.

Sprewell failed to make his mortgage payments of $2,593 per month from September 2007 to January 2008, the documents said.

I guess the sub-prime mortgage problem is worse then we thought. For a guy who made millions playing in the NBA, times are tough. For a house that was only 400,000 you'd think he could have made some big payments with the money he was making and have it all payed off. I guess it shows the flaw at it's core.
I wonder which team needs his services the most for a playoff run. Labron always needs help, and as benny was saying, it's close to miluakee. Maybe even Houston, although the Wizards could use some help with Caron out and Gilbert on his way back in less then a month.

This NBA season is becoming quite fun. I would like to thank Steve Kerr, Mitch Kupchak, Chris Wallace, and Pat Riley for helping February not suck as bad as it usually does.

I never talked much about either of the big trades when they happened so I will take this opportunity to.

Shaq for the Matrix*
When I first heard about this I was dumbfounded, which was the case with many of the people I talked to. I first called my brother who lives in Phoenix to see what he thought of the deal. Just like me he had just heard about it but didn't know. Again, dumbfounded.
As I thought about it more, the more it made sense to me. As long as the guy can play 20-25 min a game, maybe a little less, in the playoffs he'll bring so much to this team. There really hasn't been a team, at least one I can remember that would be similar to this team. They can run, and when need be they'll be able to throw the ball down low. This will give Boris Diaw a chance to show what kind of player he really can be. He had a great year when Amare was out and now I think he'll get to play like that again. I'm guessing he'll play many of the minutes opposite to Shaq.
So after my knee jerk reaction of hating it, this trade has grown on me, and I really hope it works out. I'd love to cheer for the Suns this year in the playoffs.

Pau for player a,b,c,d,e,f &g.

I haven't thought about this one as much, but it's a great deal for the Lakers. I feel that it's accepted that they stole him. He's pretty young, and will help them make runs for years to come. When they get Bynum back, they're really going to be a tough team to beat.


*Marcus Banks sucks so we won't included him as being part of this trade.

I want to like the NBA

For the amount of NBA basketball that I watch, which is minimal, I really don't understand why I'm so interested in the off the court/off-season stuff. I follow the NBA news religiously. I rarely will sit down and watch a game. I read many NBA blogs, follow stats, and highlights. I get really into the politics of the league. I really don't know why I am like this or if I'm alone in these actions. Maybe it's due to fantasy, maybe the inter-working of the league is more interesting then the poor product they put on the floor. I believe that it has much more to do with the later.

I have played basketball since I can remember. I quit hockey after one year when I was a kid, because I had to make the decision to play one or the other, to be honest I don't try and have regrets, but I wish I would have kept with hockey, but I digress. I am going to try and write down my feelings about the NBA and how these thoughts have progressed into how I watch this league.

I am going to call this first viewing period the Bulls Dynasty, and I believe it is what initially drew me into the NBA; I was two years old when Jordan was drafted. This period started with my first memories of watching basketball (1989??-1998). When I was 8 the Bulls won their 1^st Championship, 5 more would follow over the next eight years. I remember watching many of the Bulls playoff games over the next eight years. As a kid it was easy to get into the Bulls, they were always winning, especially when the Wolves sucked as bad as they do now; imagine that, McHale wasn't even running them into the ground at this point. I also am a Hawkeye fan, so having B.J. Armstrong on the team didn't hurt.

I remember being at basketball camp in June right after school had got out and we would be on some college campus in the TV lounge watching the NBA Finals on the big screen. Those were the days, for me at least. Back then I watched a quite few games, more then I do now and really got into the playoffs, but rarely followed any news besides the Jordan stuff. I'm not sure how you would categorize that type of fan, it's much more than casual but, not fanatic. I didn't get into the off the court things like trades or drafts, even though they had very large impacts in the league, at that age, I guess I was being a kid.














This next viewing period (1999-2003) has to be called I hate the Spurs and Lakers Dynasty. At the beginning of this time period I really lost interest completely in the NBA. There are some telling reasons to this, one I lived in Australia for some of this, also I was a dumb high school kid and my world was only as big as the 15 people around me.
Also, in this period, I went to college and started to get involved in fantasy basketball. This started to get my interest back into the NBA. This interest was based on purely selfish reason, fantasy sports. The timing of this period is a little weird, because as you will notice the time frame is only 3 years, and the Lakers/Spurs have won Championships since the end of it. There is only one reason this is so short: the Wolves went to the Conference Finals in 2004. This had a very large impact in bringing me back to watching the NBA.

The next period is also short 2004-2005. This period is called the Wolves trip to the conference finals and following season. I had some transition in my life during this period. I started to gain some more interest in the league due to the fact that a roommate that I was living with was a huge NBA fan. Actually he's a huge fan of any sport no matter what it is (he may write here sometimes). So he helped fuel the passion for it, I watched a lot of regular season games and many of the playoff games the year the Wolves were in the finals and games into the next season.

The period I'm in now 2006-present, I will call the blog period. There is so much information out there on what is going on in the NBA, much of it may be speculation, but there is so much of it, it is hard not to be interested in it. Like I said earlier, I read a lot of blogs and pay attention to stats, but watch very little. I will watch the occasional game, I went to a couple, and actually I went to two Wolves wins, one over the Jazz and the other over the Suns, stopping them on an 18 game winning streak.

In my lifetime I have gone from a fan interested in purely entertainment in my first period of NBA fanfare to complete indifference due to the hate of the Spurs/Lakers and lack of interest in the league into a fan that pays a little attention for fantasy. To someone who cares little about what goes-on on the court and more about what happens around the court.

I can have a conversation with almost any NBA fan and keep up with stats, standings, news and anything really but I seldom will sit down and watch an NBA game. I have watched about 2 total playoff games and one of them I watch the whole game (the suns-spurs game after the suspensions). I guess what I'm trying to say is, I really don't get what my infatuation is with the NBA. I don't really enjoy watching the game, besides a few teams (Suns, Wizards) that can play with some energy, not many of them can. I want to like the NBA, that's it, I really want to like the NBA, but I need some more entertainment value out of the league. Can anyone help me????

If I were to advise a GM into how to get me back into actually watching the game these are a few things I would suggest be done or at least tried.

First quit hiring coaches from the damn coaching cesspool. People don’t want to see re-treads, go out to Europe, ala Mike D'antoni and hire some guy who plays a different style from the NBA. Fans are sick of the NBA style; we want to see 4 energetic quarters.

Next, encourage more personalities in the game, ala Gilbert Arenas, by drafting guys who truly love playing basketball. It must be their passion to play basketball for them to be personable. If they’re in it just for the money get rid of them.

I could keep going but this is damn long so I will stop for now, although I will keep hoping the NBA can get me to care to actually watch the games.

Mr. Belding sends Nu-Ball to detention

Last night the Warriors were booted out of the playoffs by the Jazz. Tonight the Suns will most likely lose home court advantage that they gained in the previous game because David Stern has no balls. True to form, the second I make a statement and/or observation about a sport I am slapped in the face with reality. Honestly… go look at the wild live blogs, we lost every single game I wrote about and then lost the playoff series when I started calling the guy from The Battle of California a dick.

The Warriors game me hope for an exciting second season. Baron Davis’ beard could cross you over all by itself, Steven Jackson needed only his pointer and thumb to send shivers down the spines of his opponents, and in my book Matt Barnes gave himself a name. Its not something I would wish upon the man, but I wonder what would have happened if the Jazzy Warrior’s child had had more complications and Mr. Fisher had to stay behind. I wonder what would have been had the Warriors been able to take one of the very winnable first two games in the series. The Jazz proved that they belong in the playoffs by doing something that “the best team in the NBA” couldn’t, but do they belong in the NBA finals?

Now for the second series I’m going to throw a bit of a strange analogy at you. I present Zack Morris (the Spurs) and Mr. Belding (David Stern). Mr. Belding is Zack’s bitch. He can get away with anything and anyone who gets in his way will eventually be sent to detention. I state my case chronologically. First Joey Crawford’s officiating duties are revoked for the remainder of the year. Maybe the man was wrong in T-ing Duncan up twice while on the bench, but if had to deal with that preppy Virgin (islander) and his backhanded comments and sideways glances all the time I’d probably get fed up too. Why wasn’t Crawford just relegated to the eastern conference playoffs and kept from the finals?

Next is Tony Parker’s “accidental” head butt of Steve Nash in the first game that kept him off of the court for the final minutes of game one. Remember how Zack Morris managed to get the teachers to strike once and how he got a history test postponed so the Football team could learn some new plays for the big game? Well in game one Parker had Nash seeing red and in game one and Bruce Bowen took his baby making abilities away from him in game three. Two players physically harmed the rightful MVP without any repercussions other than what amounts to a couple of bucks to a pro basketball player.

When Belding finally does punish Zack it is the most laughable punishment ever. Robert Horry basically cross checks Nash in a losing effort and must pay with two games. Amare Stoudamire and Boris Diaw must sit what looks to be their final home game of the season (barring some act of god) for stepping onto the court. They were herded back to the bench far before coming close to a member of the Spurs and dammit, you try watching your team leader (and smallest guy) get battered and beaten all series long. Those steps onto the court were simply a reaction and I don't even have to show you the stats of these players to show how lopsided the suspensions are. I watched Torii Hunter take a few steps towards the mound after taking a ball in the face and not get suspended by Bud Selig. I heard you could kill an opposing soccer player in Europe and only have to sit out the remainder of the game.

Everybody hates the Spurs; they aren’t fun to watch, they play dirty, they bitch when things aren’t going their way and they have Stern in their back pocket. I guarantee that the kids walking around the halls of Bayside High hated Zack Morris, his big ass cell phone, his friends (I’m sure they had crushes on the girls though) and his ability to get away with anything he pleased. We are now destined for an NBA finals featuring Zack and A.C. Slater (The Pistons).

P.S. Looks like somebody else left the bench in that game.