Misc

[random axe]

Ball Don't Lie on the new Russian owner of the Nets possibly renaming the team.

I realize not everybody has followed this incrediblish story, but a Russian billionaire up and bought the New Jersey Nets NBA team.  The team has . . . been bad . . . lately, and it may move to Brooklyn.  They're also hoping to land LeBron James (as many teams are), which isn't totally unrealistic since they'll have money to burn, they'll no longer be in New Jersey, and Jay-Z, a personal friend of LeBron's, is also a part-owner of the team.  We'll see.

When I heard the Russian might rename the team, my first thought was the Brooklyn Dynamos, because 'Dynamo' (pronounced DEE-nah-moh) is a popular name for Russian sports teams.  Hey, it's better than some of the other traditional ones.  Not that many people can get too excited about the Brooklyn Players' Collective and their mascot, the Faceless Contributor.

But the BDL suggested names are funnier.  I particularly like the "Brooklyn New Jerseys" and the bit about dinosaurs.

[random axe]

The C's cuh-cuh-cuh-CRUSHED Orlando tonight.  Holy Weightlifting Christ, that wasn't even close.  94-71, and the entire fourth quarter was garbage time.  At one point Boston was up by 35, and even in the fourth, with all the Celtic starters out, Orlando only scored 24 points in the whole quarter.  Two of the Celtic starters played less than half the game.  Boston's up three games in a best-of-seven series.  Ridiculous.

And Orlando swept their first two playoff series without a loss.  They hadn't lost two games in a row since Xmas, or something absurd like that.  I felt bad for Cleveland, but it sucks to be in the Magic Kingdom tonight.

[random axe]

LA and Boston have split the first two games, and despite being a serious Boston fan I find it hard to care much, but there have been interesting moments.  There's been an almost astonishingly low level of animosity between the teams, with measured play, polite comments back and forth in the press, and a Lakers player telling reporters he was offended after something he said was construed as a dig at one of the Celtics. 

Nevertheless, the league has said they're worried about a brawl breaking out, and consequently the refs have been touchy.  Unpredictable, in fact, to the point that both teams have been a bit gunshy.  Even so, in two games there have been something like 140 fouls called.  The average number of fouls called in an NBA game is 45, so that's more than 50% above average.  Last night, the Lakers hit more free throws than regular baskets, which is either funny or sad.

Even Sports Illustrated complained to the league that there are too many fouls being called.  One thing the league is doing right, though, is that most people seem to agree that both teams are getting screwed. 

[flipper]

The fans are being screwed because Bost0n and LA are in there again.

[random axe]

Yeah, I've been a Celtics fan since the mid-80s, but I would rather have seen Orlando/Phoenix, Boston/Phoenix, or Orlando/LA.

Still, they've been getting their best TV ratings in six or seven years.

[flipper]

Which is why those teams made it.

[random axe]

The C's definitely beat Cleveland, which imploded, and Orlando was just too lazy the first couple of games and then too discombobulated.  The LA/Phoenix series should've at least gone another game, and I'm still not sure how they got past Denver so easily, but I didn't see any of that series.

I don't believe any sport that makes a lot of money is completely clean, and the NBA is certainly no exception -- basketball is so fast and complicated and has such high scores that tampering with it is comparatively easy -- but it's still usually fun to watch.  I enjoy the regular season more than the playoffs because the games are less important, so there's less to get bent out of shape over.  The things they do and don't call, though, can be maddening.

Kobe guards Rondo not because he's particularly suited to it but because the refs will give Kobe star treatment that Rondo is at least a season away from, so Kobe can get away with a lot.  Garnett never gets called for holding or pushing.  Bynum can practically set up a tent in the paint without getting called for a three-second violation, and he and Gasol never get called for offensive goaltending.  Perkins will get called for an illegal screen at least once per game, which is especially awkward because the rule is so vague that no commentator can explain it.  (Ditto for the ridiculous Restricted Zone rule, which even the NBA can't explain.)  Pierce and Kobe can usually draw fouls just by grimacing while making an awkward shot. 

In this series, they're trying to make it even out.  They call a lot of ticky-tack fouls but skip major calls.  In the last game, the two teams got called for the exact same number of fouls, which isn't equitable (it makes a big difference what kinds of fouls are called, and on whom, and at what point in the game) but at least looks good on paper.

Davis and Perkins, on the C's, both had great defensive moments where they got called for fouls that didn't occur.  Davis had a perfect, clean block, and Perkins did a hilarious I'm Not Touching You! job on a shot by Kobe where he still got called for a foul.    And they wonder why he gets so many technical fouls. 

[Lindsey Buckinghmof]

Man, that was brutal. Brutal. That was more rugby than basketball. Only guys actually playing out there were Rondo and Fisher.

[random axe]

I didn't even follow it, or the last game.  They've got to get the officiating settled down.  I always like the regular season better than the playoffs because you don't get so upset if the refs are terrible in a game here or there, but this year's playoffs have been ridiculous.

Well, them's the breaks.  Weirdly, this series made me like Kobe a little better, mostly because of how he was less of a dick in post-game interviews.  It was like he was on a stabilizer or something.

[random axe]

I'm not sure whether I ever heard it referred to by the now-common name, but who the hell had not seen a vuvuzela before this year?  Why is the media so hyper about this?  Just because it's easier than learning anything about international soccer?

They always sold those things at fairs and parades when I was a kid -- in fact, they were often called 'parade horns' -- and always had them at pep rallies, along with 'ratchets' (also called 'graggers' if you're from a Jewish area), and, later, those damned boat horns.  Or air horns, I guess, if you're not in a boating area. 

I just read an AP article that claimed that the vuvuzela was unknown in the US until 2009 World Cup action brought it to our attention.  WTF?  A vuvuzela shows up in a Simpsons episode -- yeah, at a parade, in fact, on St Patrick's Day, and Bart accidentally drinks a bunch of beer because of it -- that Wikipedia says originally aired in 1997.  The episode doesn't bother to explain what it is; they assume you know (or can figure it out).

I'm sure I'm not the first person to complain about this, but c'mon.  What's next, articles explaining what shin guards are?

[mybabysmomma]

Shin guards? 

[Lindsey Buckinghmof]

I had a red vuvuzela for a Stanford football game in 1969. They actually didn't call it vuvuzela.

[eldiem]

Yeah I was wondering if it wasn't all media-hyped because someone found out this name for the thing. I'd never heard the name before, but surely I'd heard the sound.

[First Post]

Right, we hated these things already in MLS for years.

They're trying to say it's some sort of an Ancient African Tradition as well, which is also amusing.

[feffer]

Somebody was blowing on something at the last Sounders game we were at.  It sounded like a very sad fart.  fffffrt