Exams have kept me from writing about basketball for a little while, but, sadly for my grades, I still watched it endlessly during these last two weeks. So much stuff has happened, I don't know what to comment on and what to ignore. Really, I'm tempted to ignore everything except today's HUGE trade, but I promised an all-star reaction last time, so here it is:
The All-Star Selection
Allow me to point out the obvious: When it comes to the All-Star game, China votes for Chinese players, regardless of anything they bring to the court. Yao, who I do believe deserves to be a starting All-Star, received 1,709,180 votes. That's a lot, but with over 20 points and 10 rebounds per game this season, he deserved his spot on the team. Then there's Yi Jianlian. Yi, who averages less than 10 points and 6 rebounds a game, received 450,515 votes. Maybe that doesn't seem like too much, but let's put it in perspective. Those votes made Yi the fifth leading vote getter for a forward in the Eastern conference, behind Paul Pierce's 574,159. Caron Butler, who is having a career season, and is keeping the Wizards afloat during the absence of league-douchebag Gilbert Arenas, is in 6th. I'm sorry, but Yi sucks when you compare him to Butler. Worth noting? Yes. Astonishing? Well, only when you consider that YI WAS NOT ON THE FREAKING ALL-STAR BALLOT! That's right... Yi Jianlian received more votes than Caron Butler as a write-in candidate. Imagine when he ends up on the actual ballot...
So, are we just going to leave Yi off the ballot for good? That wouldn't really be fair to him, since he does play a lot better than many other candidates. This isn't a big deal just because of Yi after all. Think about what will happen when there are more Chinese players in the NBA (COMIC). We need a better solution and here it is: we just have to make a rule that people outside the US (and...uhh...Canada) don't get to vote for All-Star selection. DONE. I mean, why should anyone else get to vote for our NATIONAL Basketball Association's All-Star game. Plus, China is a communist society. Those people have no idea how to vote for an All-Star game. They don't know how to vote in general. It's simply a lack of experience. I bet that half of them think that if they vote for anyone but Yao, they'll be arrested. Let's just eliminate this problem before Yi beats out LeBron.
Moving on to other news...
College Basketball
Bob Knight gave up yesterday. I got so angry when I found out, that I threw my computer across a basketball court. Knight left Texas Tech pretty much without warning, but he dumped off his stupid-looking son before leaving. Now Pat Knight is going to coach Texas Tech, which means absolutely nothing to me... I don't even know why I feel that I have to write about this.
In other college news, it's rivalry week, which means that I forgot to watch a lot of interesting games.
Pau Gasol
Well, the most evil team in the league has aquired the most grizzly Grizzly Memphis had to offer. What does this mean? It means that the Lakers have the potential to quickly become scarier than a healthy Boston. This also means that Kobe Bryant can receive more undeserved praise for not taking shots and still winning games ("Wow! He is kinda/sorta being a team-player! Amazing! MVP! MVP!..." *spits on Bynum*). No matter how you look at it though, the Lakers made a fantastic trade. Even if Gasol isn't ultimately able to produce the way he did in Memphis, at least the Lakers got rid of Kwame "The Brick" Brown. Speaking of which, why the hell would Memphis agree to this crap!? Are they actually trying to get as bad as possible? Hey Memphis, perhaps Cleveland will let you have Larry Hughes for Mike Conley? Might as well go for that one...
Shaq
So, Shaquille O'Neal was traded to the Phoenix Suns for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks... WHAAAAAAAAAAA? I've been watching ESPN all day trying to make sense of it, but I can't. Not only does the trade confuse me, but the idea of having Steve Nash and Shaq on the same team literally makes my brain melt. All day, this has been on my mind, but I still don't know what to write about it. Honestly, I'm gonna need time to process this. Since the Suns are my favorite team, and Shaq is one of my favorite all-time players, I will not react until I've discussed this with everyone I know who knows anything about the NBA. For me, this is as big as basketball news gets.
Super Bowl
It had nothing to do with basketball, but it rocked. I just want to let my however many few readers I have know that I predicted a New York victory. That's right. I was one of maybe ten people outside of New York who actually thought Eli was man(ning) enough to follow in his brother's footsteps, and kick Boston in the nuts along the way. The only thing upsetting about that game was that it left the 72 Dolphins happy. I really hope that somehow, someway another team has a run and finally knocks that record out, so the good ol' Dolphins can finally understand just how empty their lives really are.
One thing I must point out: If the Boston Celtics win, the Patriots will probably be executed by Boston sports fans. Just think about it. Boston could have swept major league sports for the year (with the Red Sox already winning, the Celtics playing better than any other team in the NBA, and the Patriots who... well, you know). That would have been incredible, but I guess even 18-0 can be overrated sometimes.
Check back soon for whatever my thoughts on the Shaq trade end up being. Send questions or comments to contact@slamdumb.com.
