For the life of me I am still trying to figure out why LeBron thought that narrowing his choice down to five teams, then the free agency magical mystery tour coming through Akron and Cleveland, and then the one-hour televsion special on national tv to announce his decision, were all the right way to handle his free agency decision in the end.
I mean, the more people look into it, the more it is coming out that these three players actually made this decision two years ago if not more, starting when they all agreed apparently back in 2006 to make sure their current contracts all expired at the same time after the 2009-2010 season. Then in the Summer Olympics in 2008, each of Wade, Bosh and LBJ agreed to try to play together -- likely either in New York or Miami -- in 2010 when they had all designed their contracts such that they would be simultaneous free agents.
Then a few weeks ago came the report that the three met up recently in Miami to discuss the possibility of playing together on the Miami Heat. That report was denied, of course, but here we are. A few days ago then, Wade and Bosh announced that they would sign with the Heat.
Are you going to try to tell me that LeBron did not already know what team he was going to play for? I mean, I'm sure there are always contract contingencies to be worked out, but the biggest one of those is pretty much always the money, and in the NBA that is not likely to really be a big sticking point given the fairly lockstep salary structures for the top players.
So I ask again, if LeBron knew two years ago or more that he would be heading to the Knicks or the Heat to play with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, then why did he stage this whole magic mystery free agency tour and include teams like the Nets, the Clippers, and even the Knicks at this point once he knew that team wasn't rich enough to sign all three players?
Wouldn't this just have been easier if he had just announced a month or two ago like a normal person that he has decided to sign with the Miami Heat for next season?
While I don't have much to question in LBJ's ultimate decision to join those two players in South Beach, I just can't shake the feeling that LeBron handled this whole thing in just about the worst, least intelligent and least strategic ways imaginable. Now, although they love him in South Beach, suddenly LeBron James is a largely hated figure in Cleveland and basically all through his home state, an amazingly in the three largest media markets in the country in New York (Knicks and Nets), L.A. (Clippers) and Chicago (Bulls) as well. Why do that to yourself?
Who is advising this kid on the decisions he is making?
That's the new nickname for LeBron James btw -- LBJ. It's better than The King or whatever, and frankly anything we can do to take that moniker away from the clown president of the 1960s is a good thing in my book.
So the LBJ business in an absolutely full swing here, as anyone could have predicted once LeBron announced that he would reveal his future plans during the first ten minutes of a nationally-televised program on ESPN at 9pm ET on Thursday night. It's an unprecedented step, and one that will certainly be a fitting end to the spectacle that has been the 2010 LBJ Free Agency Tour. With five teams officially in the running according to the James camp -- the Bulls, Heat, Cavaliers, Nets and Knicks -- and with the money essentially pre-determined in each case given the salary restrictions in the NBA, tonight's decision is expected to be mostly about where LeBron feels he can best win a title. Or make that titles. The thing is, with so much uncertainty still going in the NBA right now, it can be very difficult to really figure out exactly where that means he is going.
One thing is for sure in my mind, and as far as I can tell, I may be the only person on the earth who sees this so clearly: LeBron is straight up making clowns out of the media right now, and he (or his camp) is doing it on purpose. Right now anybody can click over to espn.com and see the top story that LeBron is leaning towards the Heat. There is little doubt that the whispers all through Thursday will be about LeBron going to Miami, heading right up to shortly after 9pm when all will be made known. But I listen to a good three hours of sports radio every day given my commuting situation, both local New York shows as well as national shows like ESPN Radio, Mad Dog Radio and Fox Sports Radio, and I can tell you that without a doubt, three days ago, the Bulls were said to be the clear frontrunners in this thing. Word was leaked that LeBron was very impressed with the Bulls' moves this offseason, including the hiring of the Celtics' longtime defensive coordinator as the new head coach, and now they have added Carlos Boozer as well this morning, and LeBron was said to absolutely believe that his best chance to win many titles lied in Chicago.
Then move ahead to Tuesday, just two days ago. After all indications from LBJ's camp on Monday pointed to the Bulls, suddenly we woke up on Tuesday morning, LeBron announced that he would have this 9pm media special on Thursday to announce his decision, and LeBron's camp leaked whispers that he would be broadcasting from within his home town of Akron, Ohio. Suddenly, it was obvious to everyone -- including mostly all of those same people reporting that Chicago was the frontrunner just a day earlier -- that LeBron was staying with the Cavs.
Then there was Wednesday, again just one more day later. Early in the day it was leaked by a couple sources close to LBJ that he was leaning towards the Knicks. Then LBJ's people let it be known that espn had booked the Boys and Girls club in Greenwich, Connecticut from 7-10pm ET for the press conference. So suddenly not only was LeBron not broadcasting from his home town or from Ohio at all, but he was coming to the New York City suburbs to make his announcement. Anyone who listens to sports radio like I do knows that on Wednesday, LBJ's camp made it such that all the whispers, all the gossip, all the signs were that he would be coming to New York.
So to review, on Monday LBJ's camp clearly indicated a lean towards Chicago. Then on Tuesday his people manipulated the facts around his media announced to clearly suggest a lean towards Cleveland. Then on Wednesday, additional facts were made known along with a few reports in well-placed New York sports media sources from sources close to LBJ that James was leaning towards the Knicks.
And now I'm supposed to believe that LBJ is leaning towards Miami on Thursday? Are you kidding me?
All these idiot reporters are showing is what mega effing pawns they are for the people who control them. You ever hear that old saying "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me?" Well here it is in action. LeBron's people clearly have spent this entire week making a new city the alleged favorite for LBJ to go to every different day of the week. They're laughing about it, right now they are, I guarantee you. They're probably sitting around a table in a plane somewhere drinking a bottle of Dom Perrignon, reading the espn.com homepage and watching SportsCenter over and over and over again. This week has been media manipulation at its silliest, and somehow, some way, the morons in big positions in sports media in this country don't see how plainly they are being played.
LeBron is most definitely not "leaning towards" Miami right now, not any more than he was "leaning towards" Chicago on Monday, Cleveland on Tuesday, or New York on Wednesday. Miami is a major attraction for LBJ just as those other three cities are, and he will be making his final decision probably up until late this afternoon or early evening if I had to guess. Here's a quick rundown of each city's chances given what I think I know:
1. The Nets. There is absolutely no reason for LBJ to ever go to the Nets. They are playing in Newark or some shit for the next few seasons, they have no real strong NBA history or tradition, and they'll always be the also-ran to the Knicks in New York, and about 7th or 8th down the list in popularity of sports teams in NY metro. And worst of all, while teams like the Heat, Bulls and Knicks have all signed some big free agents over the past few weeks to help attract LBJ to play there, the Nets have somehow managed to just sit around and sign nobody, while most of the big prizes have by now been claimed by other teams. In fact, just about the only possible reason to think LBJ might ever consider going to the Nets is that his people who have so blatantly clowned on the media this week have deliberately avoided any mention whatsoever of the Nets. By this point the Nets are such a clear fifth wheel in this race, that the only chance they could realistically have is if LeBron was always going to go there and just wanted to shock everybody by deliberately ignoring them all week just to throw off the scent. Odds of LBJ to the Nets: 2%.
2. The New York Knicks. The big pro's for going to the Knicks in LeBron's eyes are first and foremost that he has always loved New York City, has secretly always dreamed of playing in Madison Square Garden on the country's biggest stage, and has even sort of told people over the years that he would love to play here someday. In addition, the team has been so bad for so long at this point, that even a modicum of success there would make LeBron the most loved athlete in a town that is getting close to losing its longtime sports icons in Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera. If LBJ can win even a couple of titles in New York, he will basically be an all-time basketball legend for centuries, hands down. No other city can necessarily make that kind of a promise. Also, LeBron wanted the Cavs to bring Amare Stoudamire to Cleveland to play with him two seasons ago, but the Cavs would not despite LBJ's repeated expressions of his desire to play with the guy from Phoenix with the surgically-repaired knee. And make no mistake, the Knicks' just having signed Stoudamire this week to a 5-year, $100 million contract is at least as much to get LBJ as it is to get Stoudamire, and I am sure LeBron has not lost his desire to play with one of the best big men in the game today. The big con's for LeBron to come to New York, however, are that the team is pretty damn bad right now, and they have been run ineptly for a long, long time. The owner has shown a penchant for making poor decisions with respect to team management, and has shown absolutely no competence whatsoever for bringing in successful teams to run his franchise over time. Current Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni certainly has not wowed anybody during his two years at the helm either, leading two sets of crappy players to give up around the midway point two years in a row for the biggest embarrassment in all of the NBA. Odds of LBJ to the Knicks: 28%.
3. The Chicago Bulls. The pro's of LBJ going to the Bulls are simple and obvious: Derrick Rose, more or less the best young point guard in the game today, plus now Carlos Boozer has been signed up for the next several years as well, meaning LeBron is guaranteed of a solid core of great NBA players for the foreseeable future. Throw in some of the young stars on this team as well and you have got arguably the best all-around team to give LBJ a shot to win a title right away. Some argue that the aura of Michael Jordan in Chicago might also be an attractive challenge for LeBron to try to return the title to the Windy City, but I think overall that has got to be seen as a negative by James if not by his camp in general. I mean, Chicago is pretty much the only city in America where Bron could go and average 33 points per game over the next two years and win back to back titles, and still not be considered the best player on that team in this generation. From one egomaniac to another, I say the recent success of Michael Jordan in Chicago is the big thing weighing against LBJ's decision to start the next phase of his NBA career there. Odds of LBJ to the Bulls: 18%.
4. The Miami Heat. The Heat of course were the subject of that rumored, then struck down, and then reconfirmed story from last weekend on espn.com that reportedly had LBJ meeting in Miami with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh to discuss the three players uniting for a run at a few titles down in the land of South Beach. Obviously, the huge plus in LBJ's eyes of this move is getting to play with two bona fide NBA stars in Wade and Bosh, both of whom have indicated this week that they will sign with the Heat and would even consider signing for slightly less than the maximum to get all three players down there. Miami is ultimately the only team in America that has the financial wherewithal to sign three players like Bosh, Wade and LBJ -- thanks mostly to getting the Larry Bird exemption for Wade's contract -- and that along with the very real possibility of Pat Riley coming out of the owners' box and back down to the sidelines to coach this team are without a doubt a huge attraction for James and his camp. There are not many negatives to making this decision, as Miami is without a doubt one of the handful of funnest cities in the country, and a great place for LeBron to see and be seen. The two possible con's that come to mind are first, that the Heat will literally have only four players signed to contracts once they bring in Bosh, Wade, LeBron and get rid of Beasley (point guard Michael Chalmers is under contract for this year already). The rest of that team would have to be stocked with basically a bunch of NBA minimum guys in order to afford paying what these three stars would require, and that maybe a source of frustration at some point against other deep teams in the playoffs. And the other negative -- although not one that I bet LeBron would be willing to put much stock in sitting here right now up in his plane dousing himself in champagne -- could be that it may be more difficult than it seems for LeBron, Wade and Bosh to play together. It's not just about sharing the ball, although that could be a problem since Wade and LeBron in particular are both used to getting so many touches in every single game they play -- but also sharing the spotlight. Right now, the Miami Heat are Dwayne Wade's team, and they have been for some time. There's no way of knowing if LBJ would ever be able to break through that tradition and take over leadership of the team in the way that Wade has. LeBron may not deal with being second fiddle to Wade all the time, and Wade might not deal well with it if LeBron comes in and takes over as the clear leader of the team either. Ask yourself this: what's going to be going through LeBron's mind in the middle of next season if Wade is averaging 31 points per game while LeBron is averaging just 22? It's definitely something for LBJ to think about at least in making the most important decision of his career so far. Odds of LBJ to the Heat: 31%.
5. The Cleveland Cavaliers. The argument to stay with the Cavs is as easy as any of those on this list: It's his hometown, and they are his team. They've always been his team, and LeBron is still at heart strongly an Ohio boy. Oh, and his team had the best record in thre regular season this past year in the East -- better than the Bulls, better than the Celtics, and better than the Magic. Better than everybody. With LeBron, the Cavaliers are already proven to be the best team in the East, it's his hometown team, and on top of all that they can pay him the most money under the Larry Bird salary cap exemption. So why leave? It is unclear if LeBron believes he can win under that ownership and management team anymore. LeBron clearly does not want to go through any more seasons like his last two in Cleveland, and I think it was clear to anybody who watched the 2010 NBA playoffs that by the end of the conference semis, LeBron had given up. You could see it on his face, and you could see it in the way he played in those last two games. LeBron has serious doubts about the Cavs as a franchise right now. On top of that, LBJ would not even return Tom Izzo's calls, even one time, when Izzo was considering taking over the team's "reins" (you assidiot) a few weeks ago, which in my eyes definitely signified a lean away from returning to his hometown team. Ultimately I think the Cavaliers are the easiest team to explain if LBJ decided to go that route, and it might also be the slight sentimental favorite among NBA fans who are not fans of the particular teams or cities involved. Odds of LBJ to the Cavs: 21%.
We will know the answer tonight around 9:05pm ET on ESPN.
And more than that, when you add in the way LeBron has spoken about "the team he goes to next", the Tom Izzo stuff when LeBron would not even return one phone call to his potential coach in Cleveland, and now this meeting of three young stars in the NBA in Miami on the weekend before free agency begins, it is just looking more and more clear that LeBron is not pining away to stay in Cleveland. He is definitely looking around at his options, and he is definitely interested, so this is not going to be the easy road for the Cavaliers that many supposed pundits were predicting just a few weeks ago, that much is clear at this point.
Anyways, when I first heard this story, my immediate reaction was basically "No way all three of those guys could play on one NBA team!" When Chris Bosh himself was asked about that possibility last week on ESPN Radio, he described it as a fantasy, as "PlayStation type stuff" to use his words. But then I started thinking about it, and I'll be damned if it does not make a whole lot of sense to me.
From a talent perspective, it does seem like it could be a little bit crowded on the floor with Bron, D-Wade and Bosh all in there. But then you think about the other great teams of the last several years, and when it comes right down to it, they've all got two if not three bona fide all-star type of players on their team. Whether it's been Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Nene, or Shaq, Kobe and Brian Shaw, or Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce, or Kobe, Gasol and Odom, there almost always seem to be three big players on each of the great teams of the past generation or so. The most recent Celtics team seems like the closest comparison, although even that threesome fails to capture the amount of talent and skill that would be the floor every night with LeBron, Wade and Bosh on the court, especially with Pat Riley at the helm. But despite what could sound like a lot of potential clogged lanes and ball hogging, the three players all do kinda play different positions, and in its own way I can almost see the three working together. D-Wade brings the ball down the court, LeBron steps out and takes that first pass, he dishes it off to Bosh on the inside. Bosh looks for the shot, finds D-Wade back out at the top of the key, who fakes the shot and instead throws the perfect alley-oop to LeBron who is streaking in from the opposite baseline from where he started the play. I really can see it, the more I think about it.
The other side of things is the finances, but strangely Miami is basically the one place where the money could actually work. Wade can be re-signed by the Heat and he can get a Larry Bird exception so his money does not fully count against the team's salary cap. The Heat could then sign Bosh and LeBron to multi-year contracts at or near the max, and the three players could unite in Miami -- one of the top few funnest cities in America by most counts -- and make a sick run for the NBA title. And don't even act like Pat Riley would not be out of retirement and coaching that team within how many seconds of the signings? 5? 1? 0.1? Lord knows that slick, pompous Riley must be fuming as he sees Phil Jackson -- who took the reins from Riley's Lakers team in the early '90s and has never looked back, winning 11 of 20 NBA titles while Riley has toiled in the Heat front office for the past several years -- winning year after year after year, all while assembling teams with clearly more talent than anybody else in the league.
Obviously nothing is set in stone yet by a long shot, and LeBron hasn't even begun fielding the offers he's going to be seeing in spades starting on Thursday at midnight. But the fact that LeBron has shown absolutely zero interest in helping his former team in Cleveland secure LeBron's services in the future, while at the same time making plans for a three-way powwow with two fellow NBA stars halfway across the country is to me very telling. LeBron isn't not interested in dealing with his free agency yet at all. He just doesn't want to deal with the Cavs.
I have a hunch that the next few weeks are going to change the NBA more than any few weeks in the sport's history.
The NBA has a serious problem. I know they are just coming off of what should be the best possible ending for any NBA season -- Game 7 of Celtics - Lakers in the NBA Finals -- but damn that sport has just become so totally unwatchable.
I tuned in to watch maybe three or four minutes of actual game time in the fourth quarter on Thursday night, and goddam if the referees did not "Joyce" it up and totally try to determine the outcome of the game. I mean, I barely watched any of the game, and yet just in the few short minutes I was tuned in, I saw no fewer than three plays -- each of which on their own surely seem like a small, insignificant play -- which not only could arguably have gone the other way, but probably should have gone the other way. I saw Kobe Bryant lower his right shoulder and plow right into someone stationary in the middle of the lane on his way to the hoop, it was an obvious charge, and yet there go the ref's hands to his hips to indicate a blocking foul. I watched the Lakers defender clearly tip the ball out of bounce under his own hoop, and the referee immediately award the ball to the Lakers. I saw Rasheed Wallace get called in the crucial final minutes of the game as the Celtics gave up the lead for an over-the-back foul on Pau Gasol that wasn't even close to callable contact.
It's becoming more and more of a problem in sports today. Now more than at any other time in sports history, the referees are slowly but surely asserting their influence over the outcome of the games they are there to call, not participate in. That's what upset me so much about this idiot umpire with the Tigers' perfect game a couple of weeks ago on my first day in Las Vegas. Yes he said all the right things and gave all the appropriate apologies after the fact, but the bottom line is this: any professionally-trained umpire -- especially one in perfect position to see and make a call like Joyce was -- simply should never, ever miss that call, unless he is already predisposed towards missing it. Period. I mean Joyce was right there, staring right at the play. And it wasn't even remotely close, as the replay has clearly shown over and over and over again. How does he miss that call? Yes, everybody makes mistakes, but as an objective viewer of the world around me I can't help but notice the disturbing trend that seems to get worse almost every single year. These officials are exerting more and more influence over the outcomes of sporting events.
You see it in the NFL all the time of course, too. When was the last game you watched where the referees couldn't totally change the outcome by calling a crucial holding penalty on a big play, or that damn pass interference flag being thrown at seemingly the least deserving time (or not thrown at the most deserving time). But the NBA has got to be the worst of all. There is simply zero clarity to the rules of the game, to what is kosher and what consitutes a foul. And then the referees are not held to a uniform standard of how they enforce those rules. They aren't even consistent with themselves quarter to quarter. I've heard about 15 different people say since last night how great the first three quarters of Game 7 were last night. The refs were letting the teams play, it was up and down the court, defensive-minded, tough-as-nails basketball, and the crowd and the viewers really got their money's worth. Then suddenly in the 4th quarter it's like it was different refs. Suddenly there was a whistle every time up and down the court. The Lakers ended up at the line 21 times just in the 4th quarter, of a game they basically won by a couple of baskets. Suddenly, it's a blown out-of-bounds call to give the Lakers a second shot and a new 24 seconds here, it's don't call that obvious foul on Kobe so he doesn't get his fifth early in the fourth quarter there, and it's let's make sure the Celtics don't get that rebound over there by calling a bogus off-the-ball foul.
And before you clowns say it, no I am no kind of a Boston Celtics fan. My lord you people, I am from Philadelphia and grew up hating on the Celtics more than any other team in the sport, bar none. So don't go there. This has nothing to do with me being bitter about the outcome of the series, which I felt was very obvious from day one and from which I never wavered until Kobe and Phil walked off with their billionth titles late in the evening. I have absolutely no personal stake in either team winning this series, I haven't watched the NBA this year and trust me when I say, I don't really care who wins one iota.
I just don't give two craps about the NBA and I cannot imagine when I will again. Ever since they officially caught the referee throwing games to shave points and fix lines -- which was just a couple of years ago, for crying out loud -- with the way the refs in that sport impact the outcome of every single game nowadays, I just don't see how anybody out there can really take those games seriously. I know I sure don't.
Oh, and by the way. Phil Jackson has now won 11 of the last 20 NBA championships. With two different teams, and really that's with three different teams when you take into account how different Kobe's Lakers team is from Shaq's Lakers team some years ago. And the two Bulls teams were distinct as well, though with Michael and Scottie on both along with Phil, I guess we can still count them as the same team. 11 out of 20 NBA championships. What must these other coaches think of themselves?
So I was listening to some guys on Fox Sports Radio on my satellite on the way into work today talking about Allen Iverson, who announced late on Tuesday that he will not be returning to the Philadelphia 76ers this season, and who it seems increasingly likely has seen the last he will play in the NBA. After what was clearly an exhillarating career for the barely 6-foot guy from Hampton, Virginia, I find myself asking the same question as I've done a couple of times in the past here at the blog: Is this guy a hall of famer?
It was a pretty stellar career by the numbers no matter how you slice it. If Iverson is done here, he will retire with 24,368 career points in just 914 games played, good for 16th on the NBA's all-time scoring list, along with 5,624 assists and 1983 steals. Over his career AI averaged a lofty 27.0 ppg (good for 6th all-time among NBA players), 6.2 assists and 2.2 steals per game. Iverson also knew how to step is up in the playoff as you can see from the above, including a career playoff scoring average of 29.7 ppg which is second all time behind only the great Michael Jordan, while also placing third in career minutes per game (45.1, trailing only Wilt and Bill Russell) and seventh in steals per game at 2.07, also just behind Michael Jordan).
AI was the 1996 Rookie of the year in arguably the best draft class ever, and won the MVP of the 1997 Rookie-Sophmore game during All-Star weekend. AI led the NBA in steals 3 times, was an 11 time NBA All-Star (including 10 straight years from 2000-2009), 2 time All-Star game MVP, and he won four NBA scoring titles which people often forget amidst the hype of Jordan, Kobe and LeBron. Among all-time NBA players, 4 scoring titles puts Iverson behind only Wilt (7) and Jordan (10), and tied with George Gervin. And AI was also named the 2001 NBA MVP (one of the best individual seasons in NBA history), and he received at least one MVP vote in eight of his 13 full seasons as an NBA player. Iverson was also named all-NBA seven times, with three First-Team selections.
Allen Iverson will retire as one of only three players in NBA history who averaged at least 25 points, five assists and two steals per game, with the others being Michael Jordan and Jerry West. So, among all the great players in the NBA over the past 35 years, only Jordan and Iverson managed to average 25-5-2 during their full pro basketball careers.
For his career, Iverson currently sits fourth in career minutes per game with 41.4, sixth in career scoring average (27.0 ppg), sixth in career steals per game (2.2), 11th in career free throws made (6277) and 16th in career points (24,368)
Looking at the fact that AI is a little guy, at barely 6 feet tall, his career numbers are that much more amazing. The closest guy at 6"0' or under in career scoring totals is Calvin Murphy, nearly 6500 points behind. The only other "short" guy above Iverson on the NBA's career scoring list is Jerry West, and he is a legitimate 3 inches taller than Iverson, who only even reaches 6 feet when he is really stretched out to the max. The next guy up above Iverson in career scoring is 6"6'. Basically, nobody anywhere near as short as AI who ever played this game played it as well as AI did, period. For Allen Iverson, just making it to the NBA is am amazing feat; to have survived as long and to have taken as much of a beating as he did and still finish where he's at on the all-time scoring list is simply incredible.
And let's not forget some of the amazing, incredible plays:
(Pay special attention to what AI does to Jordan around 2:15 in the above video. I have it on good authority that Jordan went home and cried that night because he knew his dominance over the NBA was finally and officially over).
And of course, who could forget the crossover dribble, which AI did better than anyone in the NBA has ever done (or probably ever will do):
But, on the flip side, AI played on a lot of terrible teams and was only able to will his team to one NBA finals -- a 4 games to 1 loss to Shaq's great Lakers team, in a sport widely recognized as the one where it is easiest for one player to rise up and carry his team to victory. Despite having him out there pouring in the buckets night in and night out, AI's team lost a lot of games, and that has got to be a big knock against him when you try to compare him to the Magic Johnsons, Michael Jordans, Wilt Chamberlains, Jerry Wests, Bill Russells, Larry Birds, etc. of the world.
More than that, the points AI scored over his career are amazing, yes, but you would be remiss if you did not mention the shooting percentage that went into achieving all those point totals. Basically, AI never met a shot he didn't like for over a decade of dominance in the NBA. Iverson's career 42.5% shoot percentage is not good, and those of you who followed him with any interest are well aware of how many 9-for-29 performances from the field that AI came up with over the years. The guy shot a bunch, and a huge number of his total points scored have also come from the free throw line as AI took it to the hole and got pounded worse than any player probably in NBA history. Even the free throws he only finished his career at just over 70%, which is also testament to the fact that AI was never the most accurate shooter out there. Don't get me wrong -- being able to generate 20 to 30 shots a game is itself quite a feat and very much indicative of just how skilled, and how quick, Allen Iverson was. But 9 for 30 doesn't impress me much, and I doubt it will impress the Hall of Fame voters out there much either.
And that brings me to perhaps AI's greatest legacy of all -- what he did to the culture in the NBA. Allen Iverson was the first of the real "hip hop" thugs in the NBA, a trend that nowadays is copied by probably over 100 NBA players but who nobody ever had done before Iverson came to Philly. It was Iverson who started the cornrows, the excessive tattoos, the baggy clothing, the crooked baseball cap and the famous sleeve. No joke, the NBA dress code that David Stern came out with some years ago was made because of Allen Iverson, make no mistake about it. Although AI was hugely popular among NBA fans in particular in inner cities -- he has the second longest-running shoe line next to Michael Jordan and AI's jersey was one of the highest selling of all time among NBA apparel -- it is highly questionable whether his long-standing legacy was actually good at all for the league as a whole. There was the 2000 rap video Iverson recorded where he openly slammed on homosexuals. On February 24, 2004, Iverson urinated in a trash can at Bally's Atlantic City casino in full view of staff and patrons, which got him kicked out for life from the property (guess he won't be playing any nlh tournaments with me at Billy's poker room anytime soon). On December 9, 2005 after the Sixers defeated the Charlotte Bobcats, Iverson paid a late-night visit to the Trump Taj Mahal. After winning a hand at a three-card-stud poker table, Iverson was overpaid $10,000 in chips by a dealer. When the dealer quickly realized the mistake and requested the chips back, Iverson refused and a heated head-turning argument between him and casino staff began.
Also in 2005, Iverson's bodyguard Jason Kane was accused of assaulting a man at a Washington DC nightclub after the man, Marlin Godfrey, refused to leave the club's VIP section so Iverson's entourage could enter. Godfrey suffered a concussion, a ruptured eardrum, a burst blood vessel in his eye, a torn rotator cuff, cuts and bruises, and emotional injuries. Although Iverson did not touch Godfrey himself, Godfrey sued Iverson for the injuries caused by his bodyguard. In 2007 a jury awarded Godfrey $260,000. The U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the verdict in 2009.
On April 18, 2006, Iverson and Chris Webber arrived late to the Sixers' fan appreciation night and home game finale. Players are expected to report 90 minutes before game time, but both Iverson and Webber arrived around tipoff. Coach Maurice Cheeks notified the media that neither would be playing and general manager Billy King announced that Iverson and Webber would be fined. During the 2006 off-season, trade rumors had Iverson going to Denver, Atlanta, or Boston. None of the deals were completed. Iverson had made it clear that he would like to stay a Sixer.
On November 29, 2006, following a conflict at practice, Iverson stormed out of the gymnasium. That same evening, Iverson missed a corporate sponsor night at Lucky Strike Lanes in Philadelphia. All the 76ers besides Iverson attended this mandatory event. Iverson was fined an undisclosed amount by the 76ers. Iverson claimed he overslept after taking medication for pain related to having two abscessed teeth pulled but it was reported that Iverson told teammates earlier in the day he planned to blow off the event and was simply going to take the fine.
On December 8, 2006, Iverson reportedly demanded a trade from the Sixers (although he would deny that). As a result of the demand and missing practice prior to a matchup against the Washington Wizards, Iverson was told not to play nor attend any further games.
Ultimately, I weigh all the positives about Allen Iverson's skill heavily, but I tend to lean on the side of no, he is not quite going to make it to the HOF. Sadly I think it is the off-the-court stuff and the selfish shooting that will stick in voters' minds far longer than all of the amazing highlights like in the videos above. And really, how can you ultimately send someone to the Hall of Fame when what everyone in the world will most remember them for is not their work ethic, their play on the field, or the charity work, but rather this speech:
Watch the whole thing, really. It's downright comical how long and how fervently AI goes on down the road he should never even have touched.
So I say no Hall of Fame for The Answer. Anybody agree / disagree?
I'm serious. I just can't help it. It's like the proverbial car wreck when you drive past it on the highway -- I just can't help but pay attention to the biggest bunch of bums I've seen in New York sports in some time. And the Knicks play in this city, so you know I am really saying something there.
For those who didn't see the action this weekend, the Mets really came up strong to try to outdo their losing 2 of 3 to the Your World Champion Philadelphia Phillies last week, which included the Phils smacking four home runs in the deep confines of Citi field off of Mets ace Johan Santana in a one-run loss in game 1, the Phils' first win of the series where Carlos Beltran lost it for the Mets when he dropped an easily-catchable fly ball near the center field wall that was basically right inside his glove, and then another loss in the rubber match when Phillies' free-agent signing Raul Ibanez slugged a 3-run blast in the top of the 10th to take that one down in extras. Well, the next team in the path of the Mets was the Yankees, as Subway Series 2009 began with three games in the new Yankee Stadium.
And that's when this happened:
I mean, what do you say at this point with this effing team? It's not like it hasn't been highly obvious that the team is poorly coached, makes no effort and is just generally an embarrassment to the sport in almost every facet of the game. The Mets have lost what, four or five different games this year just on errors in the field? And another three on baserunning mistakes? They've lost a game recently after missing third base in the top half of extra innings and then making two errors in the bottom half of that inning. They've lost a game this year when Carlos Beltran wouldn't slide into home plate and got called out trying to score what would have been the go-ahead run as a result. And now that beautiful play above, to which the Mets responded by crushing Andy Pettitte and the Yankees in game 2 of the subway series, only to return on Sunday for the rubber game and getting smushed 15-0 as their ace Santana once again took a beating, recording the worst outing of his career as the Yankees smacked 8 runs and 9 hits off Santana in just three innings of work.
Well, this weekend was it. I am officially starting the Jerry Manuel watch here. After what went down this weekend, I just don't see how Omar Minaya continues to retain any relevance at all if he does not dump the Mets coach on his scrawny, unintelligible ass. I heard on sports radio this morning that, even after Castillo's embarrassing drop on the pop-up from A-Rod to lose the game on Friday, all the Mets were out in the field on Saturday, all still catching flies with one hand. Good coaching, Manuel. You are an absolute dog.
This was a large weekend in sports in general, come to think of it. The Penguins won their first Stanley Cup since the Mario Lemieux years in 1992, beating the Red Wings on the road in a Game 7 of the Finals. And the Lake-show completed their run to and through the NBA Finals as well over the weekend, dispatching the Orlando Magic in five games as Kobe Bryant finally earned his place among the elite NBA players of all time in winning his fourth NBA title, and more importantly, his first as the leader of the team after his first three championships all as Shaquille O'Neal's sidekick. Kobe now with four titles, that really puts him up there indisputably in my view, dickhead though he may be. Just like Phil Jackson, who won his all-time record tenth NBA championship with the Lakers' victory on Sunday. Ten NBA titles. It's one thing when Red Auerbach won nine titles with the Celtics a couple of generations ago. But it's an entirely other thing to have done that totally within the time of free agency, when keeping teams and star players together -- and happy -- for more than one or two good years has become an immense challenge in and of itself. Red did his thing with Bill Russell there the entire time, either as a player or a player-coach near the end there. Now Phil has done it with Michael Jordan, with Shaq, and now in 2009 with Kobe.
And for those of you who discount with the Zen Master has done on the basis that he always had star players on his team, I ask you two questions: First, what NBA championship team did not have at least one star player on it over the past 25 years or so? Name one. The most recent Detroit Pistons championship teams is as close as you're gonna get, and even that team had the player formerly known as Ben Wallace, to go along with Chauncy Billups in the backcourt. So these winning teams always have talent, that's not debatable. And my second question to those Phil Jackson haters is what do you say about this year's team? This is, in my view, far and away the worst team of all of Phil's title-winners. It basically comes down to Kobe, and who else? Pau Gasol? Lamar Odom? Shawn Bynum? Let's face it -- this team was Kobe's and Kobe's alone, and the way I see it, this is probably Phil Jackson's greatest individual season accomplishment, maybe behind the 72-10 season in Chicago, but maybe not. I'm still trying to figure out how this particular Lakers team was able to get past the Dallases, the San Antones, the Nuggets, the Blazers, the Rockets and all the other teams like Utah, Phoenix, etc. that have normally been hanging around lately at the end of the playoffs on the Western side of the bracket. To Kobe and to Phil, this one is huge in my view, and frankly I would be very surprised to see Phil Jackson spend any more of his years coaching in the NBA. I could be wrong about that, but personally I believe the whole recent comeback to the Lakers for Phil was all about one thing: getting his tenth championship, and getting his name alone in the recordbooks for all time with ten titles won. More than Auerbach's nine, more than Scotty Bowman's nine in the NHL, and far more championships than anyone else has ever coached in baseball or football. I think Phil has accomplished what he set out to do -- probably much sooner than he expected, looking at his roster at the beginning of the season this year -- and I don't expect to see him sweating it out one the sidelines and screaming at millionaires for much longer.
Just a week and a half until I roll into Vegas with my peeps and a walletful of cash, destined for the donation pile in World Series of Poker Event #51 on June 27. Who else is gonna be man enough to plunk down for that?
MATH Recap, MTT Bender, the Main Event, and Cheating NBA
17 runners came out for Mondays at the Hoy this week, creating a $408 prize pool for our second-ever MATH Shootout. 17 entrants got us three starting tables of 6, 6 and 5 players each, a nice round starting setup with almost all full shorthanded tables to begin with. Unfortunately the full tilt shootout payout continued to pay only the top two finishers, even though we had three starting tables and therefore three starting table winners to come to the final table. I played one of my best MATH's in quite a while, but got sucked out on four times, lost a race and eventually lost when my full stack was called allin by A4o preflop to corron10 who eventually eliminated jeciimd to win my starting table. The three table winners on the night were corron10, scottc25 and ElSnarfGrande with scottc25 winning$265.20 for first, and corron10 finishing second for $142.80. Once again the shootout format seemed to work out very well, and a good time was had by all. Thanks to everyone who came out, in addition to at least one first-timer and potentially yet another blogger playing on a second account on full tilt. Good times.
So, I thought I would take stock here of my mtt bender last week in retrospect. First things first -- profits. In the end, I made about $4500 over the six days of my bachelority, an awesome week by any standards I have set here over the past few years, and of course at the end of the day, my longtime readers know that following the cashish is the only real way to keep score in this game. Although I won a number of small sngs, finished second in a 90-person knockout sng, and cashed multiple times in multiple tournaments during the week, the bulk of the $4500 net over the week of course comes from my 4th place finish in the 5050 last Sunday night, followed by my 5th place finish in "the" 32k on Tuesday night, both on full tilt. Both of these scores are in my top 10 cashes for the year so far in tournament poker, and in that sense busting out with two of those in three nights of poker was definitely a great time. I really do wish I could isolate what it is about my poker play when I am home alone as compared to when I'm home with the rest of my family asleep nearby. It's not like I had any loud outside stimulus going last week that I don't usually have, and it's not like I got more hammered than usual or anything -- it would not be possible for me to more hammered than I usually am, at least for the big blonkaments every week -- and there's really nothing else tangible I can think of. But obviously something must be different, as now over two 5-day periods during the week after July 4 in two consecutive years, I have won around 5k in tournaments in two separate scores in both of those weeks. Now I'm no mathematician, but that has got to be statistically significant.
Changing topics a bit, at some point on Monday I finally looked into the WSOP Main Event. Sadly, I am not familiar in the least with anyone who made the final table. It's sad, but I guess it is not really at all surprising, given that we're looking at what, 6800-some-odd donks who entered this thing? The odds of anyone in the final 9 out of 6000-some will be anyone I know -- especially given how few poker players I really know in my life -- have got to be quite astronomically low, and yet perhaps I've been spoiled by guys like Alan Cunningham last year, Dan Harrington a few years back and a few others. But it sucks, I won't give two craps about who actually wins the Main Event, and I don't care how long they delay playing out that final table. I just don't know these guys and I won't be buying in to any of the hype that will doubtless just be building day after day, week after week over the next four months. To think that it will be cold and quite possibly snowing outside here in New York City when they finally get together to decide on the 2008 WSOP ME winner, it is just so surreal to me.
And wow, Tiffany Michelle! Final two tables. That is sweet. I don't know her, I've never met her and have no real interest in her, but I have watched her doing the interviews for pokernews in the past and thought she did a fine job. More than that, she seemed like a good person from the very brief exposure I had to her from those videos. So great for her. Tiffany goes down as the last person in the field of 6800+ that I actually "knew", in that I recognized her and am familiar with her as a personality. Woulda been an awesome story if a fairly hot chick like her could last all the way to the final table and be part of the recockulous money-driven cycle of greed that will be the next four months while the Main Event final table is delayed. God how I am not looking forward to that.
Oh right, before I go here is one story I absolutely loved from the sports world. The Tim Donaghy story just won't go away, will it? For some reason that I will never understand, the NBA continues to roll on with seemingly no real hit to its popularity following what to me is the megascandal in the world of sports of my generation, that there was actually an actual NBA ref who was actually fixing games vs. the point spreads over a year or so of NBA action. How sick. Well today's story essentially is that it turns out Donaghy called one particular NBA referee over the 2006-2007 season more than 100 times according to phone records, a span during which he only called his bookie more times, and during which he called no other referee more than a handful of times. Wonder what ole' Timmy Boy and this other ref were talking about, huh? Just unreal. But don't worry, the NBA has repeatedly stated, and reiterated this position again this week after the Donaghy phone records were made public, that Donaghy acted alone in fixing these games. Uh huh. Wtg NBA. These guys cheat worse than I do at the blonkaments!
And yet somehow people continue to go to the games and participate in the whole NBA marketing machine. Some of the very same people bitching endlessly about how anyone could ever play or keep any money at Ultimate Bet or Absolute Poker with all the cheating scandals going on there, will then turn around and continue to place bets on NBA games, which is just about the silliest hypocrisy you will find out there. My approach is that I won't be paying any real attention to the NBA again for a long, long time. How can I? Might as well be watching the WWF on a Saturday morning. Or is it called the WWE nowadays?
OK that's all for today. Skillz is tonight at 9:30pm ET on full tilt, password as always is "skillz". And the game tonight for the Skillz Series is...limit razz. Grrrrroooooooaaaaaannnnnn.
