Today the NBA looks better than it ever did in the post-Jordan era. The talent level is great and looks to get even better. And unlike many of the stars of the previous generation (stars for which Vince Carter is a poster-child), these generation’s stars have the heart and leadership abilities of a champion and they are proving it already. Dwyane Wade led the Heat to a title, Lebron James carried the carcases of his horrible teammates to the finals, Chris Paul took the Hornets from the lottery to the Western Conference Semifinals and was this close to taking them to the Western Conference Finals.

But there is one thing that taints the game: the flop. The never ending theatrics of some otherwise great players (Manu, I’m looking at you) make most fans sick, sometimes too sick to watch the game. And because the refs keep rewarding their acting skills by whistling offensive fouls on the opponents, players are doing it more and more. These days above the rim defense was replaced by laying on your back defense. There are few defenders left who go for the block. Most prefer to go for the flop, and it’s disgusting.

Fans have been asking the league to take measures and stop the insanity and David Stern seems to have finally gotten the message. According to ESPN, fines will be imposed on “clear cases of flopping”.

This will have the benefit of allowing those who are judging to use replays (which wouldn’t be possible during a game). On the down side, “clear cases of flopping” might mean that only a few of the flops will be punished. Furthermore, with the calls not coming during the games, it will take a little more time for the effects of the rule to be noticed. It would be better if refs would have to pay attention and do their job and whistle flops during games. I’d assign a personal foul on a flop, as it is basically trying to illegally stop the offensive player from scoring. Faced with the choice of a sure foul on a flop or a possible foul on a real defensive play, the players will either go for the ball or get the fuck out of the way. But at least this is a start.

I really don’t why suddenly everyone is surprised that the owners of the Sonics want to move the team to Oklahoma City. Is it so hard to put 2 and 2 together ? Was it so hard to see a few years ago what the goal of the (Oklahoma City based) new ownership group was ? Here are the facts:

• Hurricane Katrina forces the Hornets to play a bunch of games in Oklahoma City
• despite not actually being a local team, just a “rental”, the Hornets bring people to the arena
• David Stern makes it clear that the Hornets will return in New Orleans
• the Sonics are losing money and local authorities don’t want to finance a new arena for them
• people in Seattle overwhelmingly voted against public funding for a new arena for the Sonics

So we have a city that is able to support an NBA team, and a team who’s no longer supported by its current city and looks to be on its way out. The team is bought by a group of business man from the first city. What did you expect it would happen ? Anyone claiming he/she didn’t see this move coming is either retarded or full of shit.

If the NBA didn’t want the team to move, it wouldn’t have allowed it to be sold to Clay Bennett and his gang. But I think David Stern wanted to punish the city of Seattle and send a message to other cities that might think of playing hardball.

And if (former Sonics owner) Howard Schultz was concerned about the team living the city, he wouldn’t have sold it, or, at least, he would have sold it to a local group. Dude is a billionaire and could have afforded to wait a couple of seasons till the lease of Key Arena was over (2010), but my guess is he tried to have his cake and eat it at the same time: he probably hopes that by stirring controversy and playing innocent he can get his the team back AND force the local authorities to fund a new arena.

Once the dust settles, I expect the Grizzlies to be sold and moved to Las Vegas. And by having Darko, Kwame and Jason Collins on their roster, the Grizzlies may well be on their way to the dwindling attendances that would justify such a move.

Lost on Garnett

Lost on Gasol

Lost on Kobe

Lost on D’Antoni

Making it worse, the last 2 named the Bulls as their prefered destination.

Nuff said.

The Pistons caught a HUGE break in game 2 when the shot-clock malfunctioned and the refs, unable to use existing technology in order to make the right call (thank you, David Stern), thought Billups got off the shot in time. This screwed the Magic pretty bad, most likely costing them a game.

The reason the refs could not check the clock is that under current rules officials are allowed to use replay only if a shot went in and the clock expires. But here are my questions:

1. since the clock stopped, the refs could have considered that it should have reached 0 and bent the rule a little bit in order to review the play. Wouldn’t a little bit of rule-bending be more desirable than costing a team a game in the playoffs ?
2. if the refs couldn’t use the replay, why not ask TNT’s courtside reporter ? You expect TNT to have already synchronized a stopwatch with the replay in their studios, so they should have the right answer. Just call Craig Sager or whoever it was and tell him to ask the studio how much time was left on the clock. The refs are supposed to make a call, but I doubt there’s anywhere in the rule book a rule saying “You’re not allowed to ask TNT’s studio”. If there’s technology that’s available, why not use it ?
3. if none of the above scenarios were deemed feasible by the refs, why not make the teams replay the sequence ? Give them 30 seconds or so to draw a play and just replay the whole thing. Let them win or lose the game on the court.

Just like I predicted here and here, Kobe won the MVP award. Now, until he gets another title and has a MONSTER regular season, he’s not gonna win another. Book it.

Starting with next season, the voters will finally be able to focus on the new generation of players when voting the MVP. Lebron, Chris Paul, Wade (if he comes back at 100% and the Heat rebuild quickly), Amare and Dwight Howard will fight for it. Kobe will probably get 3rd place at best, just like Garnett got now.