Spraying to all fields,
I'm really excited about this Lakers team. Kobe Bryant is no longer the best player in NBA history to never win an MVP award. That crown goes back to my idol, Jerry West.
Wednesday night, when NBA commissioner David Stern handed Kobe Bryant his first MVP trophy, Kobe looked like he thought it was the greatest moment of his life. Perhaps it was.
I wondered what Shaq would think of the award, then I found this quote:
When asked for his thoughts on the MVP race, Phoenix Suns center Shaquille O'Neal didn't hesitate. "The Kobester," he said, referencing his old teammate and occasional foil, Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers. "He's an assassin, with LeBron [James] coming in right behind. After that, I really haven't been paying attention."
I think the idea that Dwayne Wade was actually better than Kobe has been proven false. This might be the first time in their four seasons apart that Kobe went deeper into the playoffs than Shaq did, but it looks like a trend that will continue. I no longer miss Shaq.
I think it's safe to say Larry Bird approved of the MVP voting. A week ago, he had this to say about Kobe: "I think he's been the best player for a long time. Not to take anything away from anyone else. Somebody told me the other day that he hasn't won an MVP trophy, that sorta made me feel like I wanted to throw mine away. That's how much respect I have for the guy."
With apologies to Joel Meyer and Stu Lantz, who aren't that bad, I really wish I could listen to Chick Hearn calling some of these Laker games. They are playing basketball like it is an art, not just a sport, and Chick had a way of describing that art better than any announcer before or since.
Since they went to 16 team playoffs, the Lakers have started the playoffs 6-0 four times. They won four conference titles in those four playoffs, and three championships. The one they missed was the 1989 finals series, where they came in unbeaten in the postseason (11-0) but got swept by Detroit after losing Magic Johnson and Byron Scott to injury (which makes we wonder how much trouble Detroit is in with Chauncey Billups going down). The Lakers also won NBA titles the other three times they started 6-0, dating back to the George Mikan days in Minneapolis.
Only thirteen teams that fell behind 0-2 in a seven game series have come back to win. The success ratio works out to about six percent. So for now, I'm not worrying much about the Lakers, even with last night's loss in Utah. If they could have grabbed a decent rebound here and there, or hit their free throws, the Lakers would be up 3-0.
As I was watching the game last night, I was struck by the similarities between several of the players and various actors. The lookalikes included:
Matt Harpring & Dick York.
Sasha Vujacic & Jason Schwartzman.
Andrei Kirilenko & Dolph Lundgren.
Kyle Korver & Ashton Kutcher.
Mehmet Okur & Tom Green.
Referee Ken Mauer & Peter Greene (Zed from Pulp Fiction).
Congratulations to former USC running back and current TV and radio announcer Petros Papadakis, who is engaged. To a woman. I wouldn't have guessed.
Papadakis is a strange fellow. I've always wondered why, for four or five years at USC, he let the P.A. announcers pronounce his last name incorrectly, like "papa dock us", when it should have been "papa day kiss". Stand up for yourself, man. And not just to Joe McDonald.
This season of Survivor is one of the most interesting yet. Last week, Amanda played tribal council as well as anyone in the history of the game. This week, Erik played it as poorly as any idiot has ever blown it.
Just found out Scarlett Johansson is engaged to Ryan Reynolds. That's a great looking match. (P.S., Ryan: Nice upgrade from Alanis Morisette.)
Natalie Portman is dating Devendra Banhart. That is not a great looking match. I don't get it. She's hot. He looks like a cult leader. And not just any cult leader, either. He looks like one of the ones who claims to be the Messiah, then has group sex with his followers' kids before organizing a series of murders leading up to a mass suicide.
Since Natalie Portman is much sweeter looking than Julia Roberts, this makes the Portman-Banhart match much uglier than Roberts's marriage to Lyle Lovett.
But it is not even remotely as creepy as picturing Amber Tamblyn and David Cross alone together.
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