Archive for the ‘NBA’ Category
Monday, May 19th, 2008
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Tonight’s Game 7 battle between the Hornets and the visiting Spurs is setting up to be a memorable one. The Hornets have Chris Paul, who has arguably been the best player in this series (and maybe even the entire post-season). The Spurs have the experience and a trio of all star players in Duncan-Ginobili-Parker.
So why are most experts picking the Hornets tonight? The answer, of course, is home court advantage. If you’ve been paying any attention at all to the NBA playoffs this month - and frankly, even if you haven’t - you know that THE storyline thus far is the dominance of the home teams. Home teams have won 21 of 23 games in the current round of the playoffs, a success rate that has fueled a majority of the sports talk on radio this past week. “Why are these teams playing so much better at home? Is it the referees? Is it the confidence levels? Is it the home cooking?” But if you’ve watched more than just the highlights of these games, it’s pretty clear what’s making all the difference.
It’s the crowd. The way I see it, there are 3 reasons:
i. A basketball crowd is closer to the game than in any other sport. Those rich folk in the first row often step on the court on their way out to get nachos. That doesn’t happen in any other sport. Fans are RIGHT THERE.
ii. Basketball players don’t wear helmets, pads, or hats. They’re almost naked out there. We can see every grimace, smirk, and look of frustration on their faces.
iii. Basketball games feature something to cheer about on almost every play. Every basket, turnover, and rebound by the home team can get the fans excited. For your average NBA contest that’s over 125 moments per game.
“So the fans are closer, the athletes are more accessible, and the game is fan-friendly. What’s the point,” you say? Well, I’m glad you asked. Here’s the point: we can learn a lot from an NBA Home crowd. Stay with me here…
1. The Power of Encouragement. The next time you’re watching an NBA playoff game, watch what happens when the home team has the lead and they go on a little run. Their lead expands from 5 points to 12 in a minute and a half, and the crowd is going wild. As the lead is building, you can see the team feeding off of the crowd’s approval. Each made basket brings with it raucous applause. You think the player’s don’t love this? I’m telling you: they love it. Imagine if we were like this with our friends, our spouse, and/or our kids?. Imagine if we were looking for opportunities to applaud them whenever we could? The same encouragement that can propel an NBA team to victory can propel the people we love to be their best as well.
2. The Power of Support. Just because home teams have won a majority of the games, doesn’t mean they have led the whole way. In fact, in many these games the lead has changed hands multiple times. The thing about home court advantage is that even when the home team is losing, there are moments when the crowd can sense a comeback is brewing and they rise to the occasion. When a few defensive stops and quick baskets cut a 10-point lead in half, you can feel the home team’s confidence growing with the decibel level inside the arena. Knowing that there’s 20,000 people standing behind them, suddenly the task in front of them doesn’t seem so big. Imagine if we were that supportive of those in need around us? What if our friends rallied back against seemingly unbeatable circumstances because of the support they knew was behind them? What if we provided that support regardless of how we thought the situation would turn out?
3. The Power of Unity. Whether it’s everyone in the crowd wearing the same color shirt or thousands of people screaming their lungs out at once, there’s something inspiring about a group of people unified together. In some of these NBA games, it almost seems like the crowd is willing their team to victory. There is power in unity, whether the cause is athletic or spiritual. What if we spent more time thinking about, and fostering, communities that were unified? What if we elevated the idea of unity above the idea of self-satisfaction in our churches, our workplaces, and our homes? Are we dreaming up goals that can only be achieved if we are united with those around us?
Just some things to think about the next time you hear an announcer talking about home court advantage. We all love being told that we are respected. We love to hear we are doing a good job. We love to know someone has our back when things aren’t going well. We love to know we’re not doing this alone. And we all know the power there is in unity. With that in mind, let’s strive to be that person in someone else’s life today…and every day. Life can be hard enough on its own, never mind if every day feels like a road game in a hostile arena.
Let’s make the people we love feel as though they’re living every day with home court advantage.
(But let’s not all wear the same color shirts. That might be a little too much.)
ps…Go Hornets!
Posted in Christianity, NBA | 1 Comment »
Thursday, April 24th, 2008
Giving away up to 33% of what he makes to his church and other causes.
Starting a Bible Study with inner-city kids in Philly.
Pulling up his socks to cover his calves (for modesty’s sake)…ok just kidding about that one.
Hard not to like Kyle Korver after reading this Ross Siler column about him in the Salt Lake Tribune.
and free of charge, here’s 5 things about Korver you didn’t know.
Tags: Kyle Korver
Posted in Christianity, NBA | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
The flop has got to stop.
It just has to.
Flopping is an integral part of the game in soccer, and I’m ok with that. But basketball? No, It can’t be allowed.
In soccer, your average penalty has little effect on the game. Players do not get penalized when the whistle blows, unless it’s for something flagrant demanding a yellow or red card. The team who gets possession of the ball will rarely score on the kick that results from the penalty because, well, teams in soccer rarely score.
But in basketball, fouls are extremely important. Because you’re limited to 6 per game, a couple of cheap ones early can mean the difference between your star player being on the floor and riding the pine. Though hockey comes close with its penalty box, no other sport is like this. No other sport puts a limit on minor rule violations that results in taking minutes away from players. Whether or not that should be changed is a whole other discussion, but for now, let’s get back to flopping.
If you saw the end of last night’s Rockets-Jazz game, you know why I am bringing this up today. Houston’s Bobby Jackson hit a game-tying 3 pointer in the waning moments of the game, only to have the points taken off the board because Luis Scola was called for a foul on Andrei Kirilenko. At first glance, it looked like Scola did commit the foul (because you are watching Jackson shoot, you only see the play out of the corner of your eye). Upon another glance, however, it is clear that Scola barely touches Kirilenko…and then Andrei flails about as if he’s been punched in the chest by Ed Hochuli and the Incredible Hulk at the same time.
Is flopping just a part of the game that fans, refs, and players are going to have to adjust to? I don’t think so. The NBA needs to put a stop to it, and I think they can. I don’t have a problem with a guy exaggerating a bit when he is taking a charge. What I’m talking about is the away-from-the-ball antics that sneaky players employ. They know the refs have their focus elsewhere, so they put on a huge show to force the ref to blow the whistle. I don’t care how corny it sounds…it’s just not in the spirit of the game.
If I was David Stern, I would put something in place to allow the league to penalize players for flopping. Take a stand to keep it from becoming a permanent part of the game. Let them know that all games will be reviewed for “flagrant flopping” and that it will be up to the league’s discretion to penalize players for it. First offense will result in a warning, second offense will result in a 1-game suspension, and so on. Define Flagrant Flopping as “a deliberate attempt by a player to deceive the referee into thinking a foul was committed when overwhelming evidence exists little or no contact was made”.
The only other good suggestion I’ve heard of is to charge the flopping player with a foul. In theory I like this notion, but I don’t think it would work well at the speed of an NBA game. You’d be forcing referees to make split-second decisions on whether or not Manu Ginobili just took an elbow to the chin, or if it missed him by 3 inches and he pretended to get clocked. That would be a tough call for a ref to make.
There needs to be some penalty to discourage players from flopping or it is going to continue happening, and if I’m David Stern, I would be very concerned about it. For a sport like the NBA, which is a distant third in popularity in this country, the little things that can be done to improve the game SHOULD be done. Players should be winning games with their basketball talent, like Manu Ginobili did in Game 1 of their series on Saturday, not with their acting talent, like Andrei Kirilenko did last night against the Houston Rockets.
MEMO TO DAVID STERN: Fans don’t tune in to playoff basketball to see sneaky players affect the outcome of games by pretending to be fouled away from the ball. And if you’re not careful, they will tune out because of it.
Tags: basketball, Flopping
Posted in NBA | 8 Comments »
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
As you probably don’t recall, before this NBA Season started we paid 4 experts an exorbitant amount of money to offer their predictions for the season. Those 4 experts were myself, the Burnside Writers Collective’s Jon Adams, Chad Gibbs (of Two Majors fame), and my then 4-year old son, Parker.
Now that the playoff teams have been set, I thought this would be a good time to look back at our predictions to see who’s in the best shape.
Here’s your Playoff Teams, followed by our predictions:
The East: BOS, DET, ORL, CLE, WAS, TOR, PHI, ATL
Bryan - [6 of 8] CHI, DET, BOS, WAS, ORL, CLE, NJ, TOR
Jon - [5 of 8] CHI, TOR, BOS, CLE, WAS, MIA, DET, NJ
Chad - [3 of 8] BOS, DET, MIA, CHI, NJ, IND, CHA, ATL
Parker - [2 of 8] NJ, NYK, MIL, MIA, IND, DET, CHI, BOS
The West: LAL, NO, SA, UTA, HOU, PHX, DAL, DEN
Bryan - [7 of 8] HOU, SA, DAL, DEN, UTA, PHX, POR, N.O.
Jon - [7 of 8] SA, DAL, PHX, HOU, DEN, UTA, GS, LAL
Chad - [7 of 8] PHX, UTA, NO, DAL, DEN, LAC, HOU, SA
Parker - [4 of 8] POR, HOU, PHX, DEN, MEM, MIN, SA, SAC
I’ve got the edge right now with 13 of 16 playoff teams chosen correctly. Jon had 12, Chad had 10, and Parker only 6 of 16 correctly. He will be grounded for a week.
By the way, these were our Finals picks:
Bryan - Phoenix over Boston
Jon - Boston over Dallas
Chad - Phoenix over Boston
Parker - Chicago over Phoenix
I’d say Jon is in the best shape right now. If I had a redo, I’d probably take Boston over San Antonio in the Finals (or maybe Detroit over the Lakers). I do think the East will win, unless LeBron somehow gets the Cavs back to the Finals. (FYI…Boston went 25-5 against the “mighty” West this year.)
We’ll revisit this again when the NBA Finals are over. So…see you again in a few months.
Tags: NBA, predictions
Posted in NBA, reviews | 4 Comments »
Monday, February 18th, 2008
In case you missed it, and you probably did, Dwight Howard won the Slam Dunk Contest on Saturday night in New Orleans. If you haven’t seen the highlights yet, you should check them out. Howard had a few amazing dunks, and Gerald Green blew out a candle on a cupcake sitting on the back of the rim as he dunked.
Unlike last year, when he wrote “Phil 4:16″ on a sticker he slapped on the backboard, Howard’s props did not involve any Bible references. Considering his dunks this year, I think that’s probably a good thing. With all due respect to Willie Aames, I’m not sure that a BibleMan costume would have gone over as well as the Man of Steel’s cape did.
(Is there any doubt that Howard will be referred to as ‘Superman’ from now on? You gotta wonder how Shaquille O’ Neal feels about that.)
Congrats to Dwight Howard. Somewhere, A.C. Green is spooning with his wife and applauding you.
Tags: Dwight Howard
Posted in NBA | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, December 18th, 2007
ESPN.com senior writer Bill Simmons posted his annual NBA Trade Value Column today, and in the section on Dwight Howard (who he posits is the second-most untradeable player in the league to LeBron) he writes:
One other bonus with Howard that nobody mentions: Because he’s a devout Christian, even when he turns 35 in 2020, those will be Christian years — he won’t have any of that smoking-drinking-partying mileage on him, which means he could play at a high level until his early-40s (much like how Kurt Warner keeps chugging along at age 36). In other words, Howard could and should shatter nearly every rebounding record if he stays healthy, and even if he averages a 23-13 for the next 12 years (a conservative guess), when you throw in his previous three seasons, Howard would suddenly be in striking distance of two-thirds of the conceivable NBA records that ever meant anything. And to think, just seven months ago, I wasn’t sure if he was better than Al Jefferson.
It’s funny, and I think there might be some validity to it as well. Someone needs to do a study on athletes who didn’t drink, smoke, or party like rock stars during their playing years to see if they lasted longer than those who liked to imbibe in multiple vices. I mean, A.C. Green played forever, didn’t he?
Tags: A.C. Green, Christian Years, Dwight Howard
Posted in Christianity, NBA | 6 Comments »
Saturday, December 8th, 2007
In an article published in the December 3rd edition of ESPN the Magazine, Chris Broussard writes of the physical transformation that Michael Redd underwent this summer after spending time with the Olympic qualifying team.
The piece, which begins with Redd making fun of himself for the “flabby arms” and “neck rolls” that he was sporting before getting serious about his physical conditioning this past year, includes this amusing anecdote:
Who is going to question an NBA star who, because of his religious beliefs, was celibate for three-and-a-half years before he tied the knot in August 2006?
Honeys knocked on his door at 2 a.m., followed him to his car after games and left seductive messages on his phone, but through it all he was faithful, to his Lord and to his future wife, Achea. His teammates thought he was crazy.
“You gay, man?” they asked. “Scared?”
Once they realized he was neither, they got behind his decision.
Redd, who scored a season-high 41 points last night in a Bucks loss to the Sonics, is the son of a Columbus, Ohio preacher. As is noted in Sports Spectrum this month, Redd viewed his opportunity to play with Team USA this past summer as more than just an opportunity to show off his game.
“I think that [was] my purpose, other than just to shoot the basketball,” Redd says. “It gives me the chance to let others know about Christ and help them through situations they may be going through. I thank God for the opportunity and the privilege to share the gospel in no matter what setting–whether it be in Vegas, in a casino, in a hotel–just somewhere I can let these brothers know that they need Christ. It’s a privilege, man. It really [was] an honor to come out here and do that.”
I’m not sure how much impact Redd’s faith had on his teammates, but his skills certainly left an impression. Redd finished the tournament as the fourth leading scorer on the gold medal winning Team USA, including a team best 29 3-pointers.
Now teamed up with rookie Yi Jianlian, Redd hopes his new lean body and improved focus can help propel the Bucks into the playoffs, “I got spoiled this summer…I got used to winning, so now I have a low tolerance for losing. I’m tired of settling for mediocrity — in the playoffs one year, out the next. I’m ready to win, and it starts with me.”
Tags: baseketball, Michael Redd
Posted in Christianity, NBA | 3 Comments »
Saturday, November 17th, 2007
Other than the undefeated run that the Celtics have been on to start the season, one could argue that the most impressive team out of the gate this year has been the Orlando Magic. Ranked #6 at the moment in John Hollinger’s Daily Power Rankings, the Magic won on Friday night to improve their record to 8-2. Only the Celtics at 9-0 have a better record.
The biggest reason for their early season success is the play of Dwight Howard, who in his fourth year in the league has been tearing up Magic opponents to the tune of 21.8 points, 15.0 rebounds, and 2.4 blocks per game.
On Friday Howard scored 21 points and grabbed 19 rebounds to become the fastest ever player to grab 3000 rebounds in his career, at the age of 21 years and 343 days.
He destroyed the previous mark set by Shaquille O’Neal, who reached the milestone while he was a miserly 23 years old.
Howard, who is an outspoken Christian, is probably most famous for his dunk in the 2007 Slam Dunk contest when he placed a sticker at the top of the backboard with his left hand while dunking with his right. The sticker was a picture of his face with the words “All things through Christ - Phil 4:13″ on it. The dunk was amazing.
Ever since he was in high school, Howard has been focused on being a force in the NBA, both as a dominant big man and as an ambassador for Christ. As this Darren Rovell article from 3.5 years ago states, Howard’s goals going into the NBA were just as much spiritual as they were to become a superstar:
“I want to be able to speak to non-Christians so that I can get them saved or change their lives around,” [Howard said back in early 2004]…”I think I can make as much money or even more than LeBron. But it will be up to God for that to happen. If he wants me to market myself, then I’ll do it. I’m not trying to give glory for myself. I’m trying to give glory for Him.”
Just how much impact his life will have off the court remains to be seen, though he has already set up a foundation and helped out on ABC’s Extreme Makeover in his first few years as a pro. On the court, he’s already off to a great start.
A record-breaking start, actually.
Tags: Dwight Howard
Posted in Christianity, NBA | 3 Comments »
Monday, November 5th, 2007
So, professional basketball is back. Some of you care. Many of you don’t.
Here at Prayers for Blowouts we see this as one more opportunity for us (and you) to show the world just how smart we are. We’ve compiled an elite panel of NBA experts that will offer their predictions on which teams will make the playoffs, and which team will win it all.
First let’s meet our panel:
Bryan Allain - As a 4th-grader, he celebrated the 1986 Boston Celtics Championship by marching around his block with a makeshift drum, screaming “We are the Champions!” These days he watches about 15 NBA regular season games and maybe the first round of the playoffs. Yes, he is an expert.
Jon Adams - The sports editor of the Burnside Writers Collective, Jon is a Toronto Raptors fan who loves hockey and gambling on American Gladiator reruns. You bet, he is an expert.
Chad Gibbs - A former janitor and frequent contributor to the Burnside Writer’s Collective, Chad claims to have shot a 73 this summer on the golf course, though he was not able to produce a signed and notarized scorecard when asked. He loves Auburn, but don’t hold that against him. Has he ever been called an NBA expert? Not until today.
Parker Allain - He’ll be 5 years old in December, and up until last week had never watched a minute of an NBA game in his life. He has a teddy bear named Freddy and he can say his ABCs (though he sometimes forgets T-U-V). He made his predictions based on which logos he liked better. Is he an expert? Sure, why not?
Let’s get to the predictions:
Eastern Conference Playoff Teams
Bryan - CHI, DET, BOS, WAS, ORL, CLE, NJ, TOR
Jon - CHI, TOR, BOS, CLE, WAS, MIA, DET, NJ
Chad - BOS, DET, MIA, CHI, NJ, IND, CHA, ATL
Parker - NJ, NYK, MIL, MIA, IND, DET, CHI, BOS
Western Conference Playoff Teams
Bryan - HOU, SA, DAL, DEN, UTA, PHX, POR, N.O.
Jon - SA, DAL, PHX, HOU, DEN, UTA, GS, LAL
Chad - PHX, UTA, NO, DAL, DEN, LAC, HOU, SA
Parker - POR, HOU, PHX, DEN, MEM, MIN, SA, SAC
NBA Finals
Bryan - Phoenix over Boston
Jon - Boston over Dallas
Chad - Phoenix over Boston
Parker - Chicago over Phoenix
We know you don’t care about the NBA, but we want your predictions anyway. Include them as a comment and at the end of the season we promise we’ll give props to whomever was the most psychic, whether it’s a panel expert or commenter.
Tags: basketball, predictions
Posted in NBA, previews | 2 Comments »
