Oh, so that’s why that game was on NBA TV.
Two series began yesterday, while one ended without ever starting. The Pistons went up 3-0 on the Jameer Nelson (d’oh) led Magic while Yao McGrady lost to the Jazz and the Lakers are going to win it all, Baby!
I will move right off the Pistons/Magic series (all I would like to say is Dwight Howard has really let me down with his lack of progress this year- what happens if he gets a knee injury? Is he going to be Jerome James then?) and get right down to business with what happened in that Rockets/Jazz game yesterday. I know Jeff Van Gundy and Jerry Sloan coached games can look ugly- but HOLY SCHMIDT, I take back everything I said about moving Yao and T-Mac to NBA TV- it deserved to be on Versus. It was the first time in the history of the NBA Playoffs (which is almost 3,000 games) that only 4 players scored from one team (ESB). Yao had 26, T-Mac 24, Battier 11, and Skip 2 My Lou had 6. No bench points. Even more amazing was that only 3 other players shot the ball at all, missing all 12 shots they took- but looking at that again, maybe it’s not such a big deal when the Suns only play 8 guys total. Carlos Boozer, once again, showed that Yao can’t guard him- in fact, no one can really guard him, despite my thinking that PG’s could cover him when he was coming into the League. His 22, 12, and 4 led the way for the crazy Mormons.
Now onto the Los Angeles Lakers. This promo from the Lakers flagship station before Game 3 pretty much sums up what it’s like to live in LA and listen to these fans every day: PROMO. New York and LA fans are as fickle as anyone (chanting Kwame Brown’s name, now rooting for A-Rod), but it just seems to me that LA fans are just dumber. Straight up. They just say the stupidest things- and they don’t really know sports. Now, obviously there are exceptions, but 80% of the callers in LA wouldn’t even be allowed on the air on “Mike and the Mad Dog”. I guarantee the Lakers fans will just see the win and then not talk about the still much needed changes. Having Kobe on your team is like plugging a water leak by putting your finger in it and not actually fixing the problem (or the other popular analogy of building a fence against our border rather than fixing the problem before it comes to that (that’s right- go into Mexico and cut off all Mexicans’ legs)). Kobe hides so many problems with this team; like no bench play, the PG spot, and Luke Walton about to be demanding a big contract (I know he’s hurt, but he should definitely get less than Gooden and Wilcox). So it’s over 48 hours of overly positive Laker talk, followed by a Sunday night loss at Staples and a Monday morning “the world is ending” saga.
I could just change the channel or pop in a CD- but I’m sure you don’t want to hear all about how much I’ve been enjoying the 70’s style music of E.L.O. and Supertramp lately. It’s just really good music. I like Rap (Biggie, Tupac, Tribe, not Akon and Ne-Yo), the Standards (Sinatra, Deano), and then maybe this piano-rock 70’s music, in that order. It’s fantastic. I think it’s replaced 80’s Pop in my musical palate.
I’m with you. but I don’t know if the fans as a whole are actually stupidier. I tend to think that stupid fans are universal for every team and city. In LA, they just get on the air way too frequently here because the hosts are dumber/less informed then East Coast sports hosts on the whole and have to rely on callers to fill time on their shows.
Having such extreme myopia(your lamar example)gives the hosts something to take a strong view on that won’t actually allow them to be exposed for the frauds half of them are.