I remember as a kid everyone talked about Jordan, Reggie Miller, Kobe and Shaq, I talked about Allen Iverson. He was my favorite player in the NBA until Carmelo came along. I remember in 2001 when I went to the Bulls/Sixers game at the United Center. You could watch Iverson on TV and say wow after every play, but watching him play in person was just incredible.

He’s listed at 6′0 but he isn’t taller than 5′10. He took implausible angles that couldnt be seen even as they unfolded, and drained an insane amount of lay ups and floaters in the lane. He had a knack for going 9-24 but always hit the biggest shots of the game. He always played with the ” Fuck You ” state of mind that only Garnett and Kobe could probably match. For 13 years, the most intimidating player in the league wasn’t even taller than me.

Iverson’s whole career has been negatively criticized by the media. They didn’t understand him and probably never wanted too. They always talked bout his appearance and his controversial interview known as ” Practice “. The media never got the thrill of watching him in person, only the negative parts about him. He was a coach killer, monopolized the basketball, never went to practice and couldn’t change his game to make his teammates better.

The case against Iverson was he’s a ball hog (averaged 23 + shots in 7 straight seasons) he’s a terrible 3 point shooter, (31% career). He turned the ball over too much (3.8 turnovers per game, 4 seasons with 4.4 or higher). He was a 2 guard in a point guards body, (Coaches had to match players with a tall point guard to keep Iverson from defending bigger 2 guards).

He’s one of the most fascinating athletes in the history of sports. A legendary partier, a devoted family man, a loyal teammate who shot too much, a featherweight who walked around like a heavyweight. Fifty years from now I hope people realize that Iverson had better balance than everyone else, he was faster and more coordinated. He was the best football player in Virginia history, but in reality he would’ve dominated in any sport he would’ve played.

Allen wrecked his body on the court every night, and he deserves a ton of credit for dragging a mediocre Sixers team to the finals in 2001, especially when so many other scoring machines failed to do so. He played with swagger, he believed they could win, he killed himself. He always played ferocious, he had a switch he could turn on at anytime and just completely destroy you.

At his peak he played with a hostile, blood thirsty state of mind that no one else had. He was relentless, like a Tornado and only stopped when he chose to. Could you win a title with Iverson was your best player and you didn’t have a big man? Probably not. Could you win a title with Iverson as your second best player and your crunch time scorer? Possibly. Would you pay to see him in his prime? Hell yes.

He’s retired now, but I don’t think he will stay that way for long. He still has a lot left in the tank and just needs to find the right team to take a chance. Til this day Iverson is the most hard ass player in NBA history. Don’t believe me? Go to YouTube and watch him pull the crossover, drain the jumper, and step over Tyronn Lue.

If only...

“And starting at wide receiver for your Cleveland Browns, number #23,  The King, Lebron James.”

That has quite the ring to it, doesn’t it. With the recent suggestion that Lebron James has the talent to join an elite group of athletes by starring in two sports, I ask that you to let me take you on a ride, a hypothetical ride, down the path that could have been.

Let’s go back to 2003 and instead of the buzz surrounding the NBA draft, the hype surrounds which college football team Lebron will choose to attend. After much internal debate, Lebron decides to stick with his hometown Buckeyes, forgoing a shot to start with the Gators. During his first year with the Buckeyes, Lebron gets his feet wet and turns some heads with his long reach and jaw dropping ability to pick up yards after the catch. On the NBA side of things, Darko Milicic ends up going first to the Cavs, followed by Carmelo to the Pistons, Bosh to Denver and Wade to Toronto.

With James at Ohio State for a second year, the Pistons continue their domination of the NBA with their second NBA Championship in a row to go along with Carmelo’s Rookie of the Year award. Cleveland’s downward spiral into oblivion is fast-tracked by the poor selection of Darko at number one. The team is surrounded by talks of contraction and movement. On the other side, James lights up the NCAA and ends up as a Heisman finalist.

Coming off his best season, Lebron declares that he will enter the 2005 NFL draft. With his ridiculous stats and abnormal height, Lebron is touted as the number one wide receiver. Ironically enough he is drafted third overall to the Cleveland Browns, pushing wide receiver Braylon Edwards to the number four spot overall.

Prior to entering the NFL, Lebron signs a record-breaking deal with Adidas, bringing the brand to the forefront of the NFL for the first time in history. With Lebron starting at wide receiver for the Cleveland Browns, the 2005-2006 season turns out to be the first winning season in quite a while for the team. In the NBA, Detroit reaches the finals once again after beating the Toronto Raptors who reach the NBA Conference Finals as Vince Carter and Dwayne Wade have formed one of the top backcourts in the history of the NBA.  A Toronto fan can only dream…

Fast-forward to the present day. Lebron is still a member of the Cleveland Browns, who have had four straight winning seasons and are coming off of a SuperBowl appearance on the backs on James and QB Brady Quinn. In the NBA, Toronto is the team to beat in the East as Vince Carter has decided to stay and play with Dwayne Wade. In other news, Nike hooks on to Darko Milicic and over the course of the 5 years subsequent to his draft, they endured the 5 least profitable years in their history. Oh how different history could have been.

While it is fun to hypothesize and speculate, the reality is that Lebron is a phenom on the NBA court and as sports’ fans we should not wish or even suggest anything more. He is the bar that everyone is going to be measured against for years and years to come in the NBA. With that being said, the only thing we can hope for is that James doesn’t make the same mistake as another famous 23 did. Stick to basketball Lebron, if only for your sake.

Deron is not only the best point guard right now, he’s been the best point guard in the league for the past two seasons. The fact that he has yet to make an All-Star team doesn’t make any sense to me, and makes me wonder just exactly the coaches are looking at. He starred on the 2008 Olympic Team that brought home the gold medal last season.

He was a star at the University of Illinois where he led the Fighting Illini to the NCAA Championship where they eventually lost to the North Carolina Tar Heels. As soon as Deron stepped into the league he immediately became one of my favorite players, right behind Carmelo Anthony. Deron is the true definition of a Point Guard. When you watch the Jazz play, everyone is involved, and it starts with Williams leading the show. He has the freedom to call his own plays, yet everyone on offense touches the ball, which is very much taken for granted. There’s no doubt in my mind that he could play in a faster system, such as Phoenix, Denver, or even Dallas.

His handles are top notch, yet underrated. He’ll cross you up in a second, pull up on the drop of a dime for a jumper (he arguably has the best mid-ranger jumper of any point guard in the league), and every once in a while throw down a huge dunk. He can also score in just about any kind of way, sort of like Carmelo, and it starts with his ball handling. He doesn’t use to many flashy trick passes, but he’s deceptively quick, so you may never see it coming, until there are two or three more points on the board. He’s got such a big uppper body for a Point Guard that it makes him very difficult to guard. His size always plays a factor on the defensive side making it easier for him to body up against big opponents.

His vision on the basketball court is out of this year. Once again, it isn’t so much flashy as it is purely efficient. He sees the whole court as if everything was moving in slow motion except himself. He may have one the highest basketball IQ’s in the NBA. If it’s time to pass, he’ll do so, and he’ll get it to someone where they are in perfect position to do nothing else except score. It’s impossible for him not to make you a better player, because he’ll make the game that much easier for you. Watch the last two Jazz runs in the playoffs and see how no one player,  or scheme could slow him down. They lost to the Lakers in the first round of the playoffs last season but Deron put the team on his back and made a game winning shot to to win one game at home and to keep from getting swept. I can’t put it any simpler, Deron Williams is a grown man.

Like I said at the beginning, there is sure to be disagreement among the people who think Chris Paul is better, Nash is better, Tony Parker, and Chauncey Billups, and that’s perfectly fine. In my opinion though, the best point guard in the league resides in Salt Lake City.

by Colin Donohue

Ahhhh, to be a D.C. sports fan. How easy it is for the fans and the general public to poke fun at the futility of our franchises. The Wizards have one NBA championship and several painful seasons in their history. The Caps have never won a Stanley Cup but are now legitimate championship contenders. The Redskins enjoyed some glory days in the ’70s and ’80s, but for the last 15 years have been a poorly run mess of an organization. So it’s easy to take potshots at D.C. teams. I can’t say I blame the folks who do level some amount of criticism at the Skins, Caps or Wizards. Hey, it’s well earned. Sometimes people are spiteful. But sometimes folks are creative and funny, and that’s when the “hate” becomes easy to take and makes the struggles of any of the aforementioned teams more bearable. Tough times lend themselves to outpourings of inventiveness and ingenuity. So for the next couple of days, I’m going to present some fantastically funny videos that get a charge out of the overall crappiness of D.C. sports teams. And today we’ll start with the Wizards.

Any Wizards fan (or NBA fan) should be checking www.wizznutzz.com and reading any and all of their material. It’s hilarious and oftentimes right on the money. Well, they put together a couple of parodies of those NBA Where Amazing Happens commercials from 2008. Remember them?

They were well done ads. Pretty creative and unique. I enjoyed them for what they were … until LeBron James was featured. Wizznutzz built on the NBA’s theme and prepared two Where Amazing Happens: Washington Bullets videos. See if you can name all of the Bullets players of yore.

And then there’s this guy, who also wanted to riff on the Amazing Happens theme.

The above three videos were all created by Bullets/Wizards fans, so they can attack a project with good perspective and a requisite amount of frustration and pent-up rage, which allows them to produce some super funny, pointed commentary.

The NBA. Where amazing happens, huh? David Stern has globalized the game of basketball to a level no one ever thought possible.  I mean look back at last season.  Houston Rockets Center Yao Ming and New Jersey Nets Power Forward Yi Jianlian provided the world with the most televised regular season game of all-time! I mean…the channel CCTV-5 in China is available in 210 million households!

One of the biggest names in the NBA Draft came from a country where people run away from bulls for fun, and that’s Ricky Rubio. Dirk Nowitzki, all the way from Germany, is one of the biggest household names in the NBA. Tony Parker, one of the best point guards in the league, comes from France. Not many people know this, but 4 time NBA Champion and arguably the greatest basketball player in the world today, KB24 Kobe Bryant, spent most of his life growing up in Italy.

Now, this season it looks very likely that the NBA will have its first ever non-North American owner in Mikhail Prokhorov.  Provhorov is a 44 year old Russian billionaire who is a former amateur basketball player. Provhorov was ruled as the richest man in Russia by Forbes and has an estimated net worth of $9.5 billion.  With Provhorov’s ‘dough’, the New Jersey Nets will be able to move forward with their plans to move the team to Brooklyn. 

The franchise started in the ABA in 1967 as the Americans.  They later became what we know them today as the Nets, where they bounced around to different arenas in New Jersey and New York before settling in the swamps of East Rutherford in 1981-82.

So a team that was once called the Americans may have a Russian man hangin out courtside with Jay-Z and Beyonce calling the shots and watching Yi Jianlian and the Nets. There is only one Russian player in the NBA, Andrei Kirilenko and David Stern is thrilled to possibly have another Russian presence in the league. “Interest in basketball and the NBA is growing rapidly on a global basis, and we are especially encouraged by Mr. Prokhorov’s commitment to the Nets and the opportunity it presents to continue the growth of basketball in Russia,” Stern said in a statement.

Oh yeah, then there’s 2010. There’s that guy Lebron James who will become a free agent. The Nets have spent the last three seasons dumping cap space in order to sign Mr. James.  Bron Bron said in an interview in New York City last summer that Brooklyn was his favorite borough. Ok…. Oh yeah, and Jay-Z’s got his new album out, “The Blueprint 3″ and in his latest video, Lebron James can be found shooting around with HOV rapping.

Reporters have asked LBJ basically every question there is regarding his decision coming up in one season, but they haven’t asked one and if you see him, make sure to ask: ‘Lebron, how do you feel about caviar?’

-Tommy T

by Matt Shanley

For twenty-five years, everyone wanted to be like Mike.

For twenty-five years, young males have been shaving their heads, adolescent women have been sagging their basketball shorts, and the tiniest of toddlers have been wagging their tongues when a ball is released from their diminutive finger tips.

On Friday night, Michael Jordan, one of the greatest athletes of all time, was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, and on Friday night, everyone forgot what made him so great.

He stood at the podium for at least seven minutes before a word was spoken. Tears flowed from his eyes, his hands were on his hips, and for if only a moment, the god who brought six NBA Championships to a title-starved city, was human. Then he spoke.

He started off by saying that he had no words prepared. He simply wanted to say “Thank you,” and walk off the stage. Clearly the people in charge of the Hall wouldn’t have stood for that. They raised the ticket prices just because he was there; and Jordan made sure everyone knew it.

He then thanked his high school coach, Fred Lynch for cutting him from the varsity team at Laney Memorial during his freshman season. He followed that up by thanking his college coach, Dean Smith, for not featuring him on Sports Illustrated’s NCAA Basketball Preview in 1982. He thanked Isaiah Thomas for “freezing him out” of the 1986 NBA All-Star Game, and he thanked Bryon Russell for challenging him after his first retirement. He then thanked the former Utah Jazz small forward again, reminding him of the outcome in the 1998 NBA Finals. Game Six of that series, of course, ended with Jordan’s shot over Russell to clinch his sixth Larry O’Brien Trophy.

Most notably, though, Jordan thanked former Chicago Bulls General Manager Jerry Krause. Krause was once quoted as saying, “Organizations win championships.” Jordan went on to say that “Organizations don’t play on broken ankles and organizations don’t play with the flu (in reference to his sophomore season, in which he played injured, and the 1997 NBA Finals, in which he played while suffering from food poisoning).”

To some, Jordan came off as ungrateful. To others, he came off as bitter. To most, however, it seemed as though Jordan just couldn’t past his competitive nature. That, though, is what we loved about Jordan in the first place, isn’t it?
Jordan had this “Never-Say-Die” attitude that simply appealed to everyone. He was well-spoken, clean-cut, and driven to succeed. He was the American dream. His induction speech wasn’t payback against all those who had wronged him in the past. It was simply the greatest basketball player of our era reminding everyone why he was there in the first place.

So, with all the articles being written over the past week about how Michael Jordan is a heartless pig, and with all the stories to come about how the man known simply as “Air,” is as self-centered as they come, everyone needs to sit back and remember that he deserves to be that way. He earned the right, in the world of professional sports, to be as cocky as he’d like to be.

For now, though, I’ll be here with my collector’s edition Gatorade, wearing my gray and yellow Air Jordan III’s, and listening to Ahmad Rashad sing out of tune, because I, unlike most, still want to be like Mike.

I am proud to see that Michael Jordan…the best basketball player of all time, will be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame……The former Chicago Bull #23 (13 seasons) and University of  North Carolina  player, was a fierce competitor who loved to win……an icon that is instantly recognizable any place on the planet…….he is humble and thankful to have had such a great career ……leading his team to six NBA championships with his drive and great jump shot……here, here!

The Cleveland Cavaliers signed Leon Powe today to a contract for 2 years worth $1.77M. That is the NBA league minimum for players with three years of service (he will make $855,189 & $915,852 in Year 1 & 2).

As long as the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee heals properly (he tore it in the 2009 NBA Playoffs), he will be a great addition to a Cavs team in need of young bigs. They made huge news earlier this off-season with the signing of Shaquille O’Neal and already have Zydrunas Ilgauskas, but they are 37 and 34-years old, respectively. Powe is only 25 years old.

Powe has shown toughness his entire life rising up through poverty, homelessness, and foster care to make it to the NBA. A Bay-area native, Powe chose to play in college for the California Golden Bears. At Berkeley, he dominated from the beginning winning Pac-10 Freshman of the Year honors and leading the Pac-10 in rebounds. He injured his knee his sophomore season, but bounced back his junior year to lead the Pac-10 with 20.5 points and 10.1 rebounds per game in the 2005-06 season.

The 6-foot-8 power forward averaged 7.7 points and 4.9 rebounds in 70 games last season for the Boston Celtics, while only playing 17.5 minutes per game. He also brings an NBA Championship ring to the Cavs (he won with the Celtics in 2008), which I am sure LeBron James might take a jealous glance at.

Read the debate intro and Sports Geek’s argument that LeBron James should stay in Cleveland.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have kicked off this auspicious celebration by offering LeBron a contract extension. While the particulars of the offer are unclear (it is believed that the offer was for an additional three years), we can all rest assured that we will be hearing about this – and EVERY – offer LeBron will receive for the foreseeable future!

The good news for Cleveland fans? Although I find it HIGHLY unlikely that James accepts this offer, Cleveland general manager Danny Ferry and the Cavaliers will not go down without a fight. This is merely the first of what will be many attempts to convince the reigning MVP to stay in Cleveland. Cavs fans can at least sleep at night knowing that Ferry and team owner Dan Gilbert’s highest priority is to keep King James among his hometown fans for many years to come.

The bad news? It will still not be enough. The Cavaliers will be able to match any kind of offer that LeBron receives EXCEPT the one that matters most. The REAL reason why LeBron should skip town and head to greener pastures is because Danny Ferry will NEVER be able to build a championship team in Cleveland.

James is already an international superstar. He is already the highest paid athlete (including endorsements) in the NBA, has been named MVP, has played in multiple All-Star Games, and has represented his country in multiple Olympic Games. He doesn’t need to leave Cleveland to get any of those things, because he has already accomplished them WITH Cleveland. The one thing that he is not, though, is a champion.

Since joining Cleveland five years ago, Ferry has been criticized for an inability to lock-up “major” deals. In fact, it took him three seasons to make any kind of a serious move towards improving his organization, and that came in the form of a three-team trade which brought in center Ben Wallace, forward Wally Szczerbiak, guard Delonte West, and forward Joe Smith to the Cavs. In the season-and-a-half since those four joined the team the Cavs failed to reach the NBA Finals, Wallace was traded away, Szczerbiak’s contract is not being renewed, and the only reason Joe Smith (who was traded away last year) ended up in a Cleveland uniform at the end of last season was because the Cavs had a serious injury problem and needed fresh meat on the court. So much for improving the quality of the team with that transaction!

The other “big” trade Ferry put together was to bring Shaquille O’Neal to Cleveland, but it appears that deal was a couple of months too late. If he had been able to make this deal happen at the trade deadline during the season – when it first came up – it may have been enough to put the Cavs back in the Finals. However, Ferry could not get the deal done when it mattered most, and this comes off as too little too late.

With age and injury concerns, I have to question whether this deal was more about bringing a high-profile player to Cleveland than it was about bringing viable talent to the team. Sure, Shaq WAS a championship-caliber player. But, if he stays healthy (and that’s a big ‘IF’), his age still only gives him two more years at best where he will provide any kind of real impact at all.

Then you have the Anderson Varejao deal. At arguably the most critical time for the Cavaliers organization, the time when they need to prove to LeBron that they CAN put a championship team together, Ferry signs foward Anderson Varejao to one of the most absurd and laughable contracts I have ever heard of. I still cannot figure out what Ferry was thinking when he offered a six-year deal – worth as much as $50M – to a bench player with a reputation as a ‘flopper’ and only averages 8.6 points and less than one block per game. I guess that after failing to land Ron Artest, Trevor Ariza, Charlie Villanueva and Ben Gordon, Ferry panicked and wanted to make it look like he was doing SOMETHING for the team.

Now, compare those moves to Ferry’s counterpart in Boston, Danny Ainge, who brought Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett into the Celtics in support of Paul Pierce. The result – Boston wins the NBA Championship. Or you can look at Mitch Kupchak, who managed to bring Pau Gasol to the Lakers. What happened next? The Lakers reach the NBA Finals that year (only to lose to Ainge’s Celtics), and they WIN the Finals the following year. THOSE are examples of REAL championship transactions.

Danny Ferry has proven time and again that he cannot pull the right strings to make Cleveland a championship team. If LeBron really wants to be called a champion one day, then he should get as far away from Danny Ferry as possible, and fast!

There is something to being wanted.  The fact that someone steps to you first and expresses an interest is extremely flattering and can intensify the relationship.  To be loved and feel wanted is a basic emotion that we all feel.  To Trevor Ariza, that was his biggest desire.

At some point, it’s a business.  You are hired to preform to your capabilities.  But, you have to care about winning.  While getting the most money has to be a consideration, winning has to matter as well.  Trevor, I know that the Rockets told you they wanted you.  They really do want you, because they lost Ron Artest.  BUT, it only happened AFTER YOU REJECTED the Lakers offer.

The Los Angeles Times details the deals

“I am happy with my decision,” Ariza told The Times. “I’m glad this all worked out. The Rockets are going to give me a chance to improve my game and that’s all you can ask for.”

Ariza played in all 82 regular-season games and stepped up his game in the playoffs, averaging 11.3 points while shooting a stellar 47.6% from three-point range. He also had memorable steals of two inbounds passes late in Games 1 and 3 of the Western Conference finals against Denver.

Ariza’s agent, David Lee, said the 24-year-old forward passed up a more lucrative contract offer from another team to go to Houston. That team was believed to be Toronto.

“It was never about the money,” Lee said. “It was about going someplace where you felt appreciated.”

UPDATE It looks like Ariza got caught up playing two sides against the other.  That didn’t seem to work out for him.  The people at Hoopshype.com explain…

A source tells HOOPSWORLD that Kupchak was prepared to give Ariza an offer equivalent to the full MLE but at 10.5% raises, totaling at approximately $33.8 million over five years. LA’s ceiling might have been a $6 million starting salary for $36 million over five but before negotiations progressed after 9:00pm Pacific on Tuesday night, the source says that Ariza’s agent, David Lee, took a confrontational approach with Kupchak. Lee wanted a deal in the $50 million range and took offense to the team’s stance that Trevor should test the market first for that level of compensation. By the next morning, the Lakers were going after Artest in full force with Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom and even Magic Johnson reaching out to the Houston forward. HoopsWorld

ESPN.com reports terms of the deal

ESPN.com’s Chris Sheridan reports that Ariza, according to sources, will receive the Rockets’ full mid-level exception, which is being projected to come in at $5.8 million for next season. If the exception for the 2009-10 season is indeed set at $5.8 million Wednesday when the league announces next season’s salary cap and luxury tax, Ariza’s deal would be worth $33.5 million.

But here is the rub.  Trevor Ariza signed for exactly what the Lakers offered.  He turned down staying at home in Los Angeles.  He claims in the above statement that he wanted to improve his game and that Houston gave him the best opportunity to do so.  So, it wasn’t the money, it was respect?  It’s disrespectful to offer the mid-level exception?

SI.com details that he was unhappy with the deal.

Ariza unhappy with Lakers’ offer The Lakers remained far apart on negotiations Wednesday with their two main free-agent pieces, forwards Lamar Odom and Trevor Ariza. In particular, Ariza and his agent weren’t thrilled by the Lakers’ annual offer of $5.6 million over an unspecified number of years. Ariza, 24, was hoping for $7 million to $8 million a year. Odom, 29, is believed to be seeking $10 million a year, though it was unclear what the Lakers offered him. Ariza is drawing interest from Portland, Houston, Cleveland, Toronto and the Clippers. Of those teams, only Portland and Toronto have enough salary-cap room to offer more than the Lakers’ current offer.
(Los Angeles Times

Someone offered more than the midlevel, if his agent is to be believed. (At this point, there is no reason to doubt the agent)  So, if it wasn’t money, why did he go to a team that has LESS of a chance to win this?

Well, enjoy Houston.  You go from this…

and this…

to this

and this…

You traded for this guy as your teammate

instead of this guy, who might be on the greatest EVER!

Like the ending of Indiana Jones…

you chose poorly…

(cross-posted at wclbasketball)

By: Chandler Fraser – Pauls (NBA Staff Writer)

Shaquille O’Neil is and has been one of the most dominant players in the long and great history of basketball.  His combination of his size, skill, swagger, and drive has caused him to become one of the best players in the history of the NBA.  While at LSU people knew Shaq was a special player but no one realized just how good he would be.   He started his career with the Magic and made his name as one of the premier young stars of the game but the place he really made his name was with the Los Angeles Lakers.  He teamed with Kobe Bryant to make one of the most dangerous duos ever in the game.  They won three championships together but then had a falling out.  Shaq was then sent to Miami where he teamed with Dwayne Wade to win another NBA championship in 2006.  After that season it has been up and downs for the Diesel because of injuries after he was shipped to the Phoenix Suns.  Shaq never found his groove for the Suns because of their up tempo style of play and so many thought it was tine for a change in scenery for the Diesel and it finally happened a few weeks back.  Shaq got traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers and now is going to team with, in my opinion, the best player in the game in LeBron James.  Is the Diesel the missing piece for the Cavs?  Will the 2009-10 season give Shaq a fifth NBA championship?  

The trade for Shaq by the Cavs has had mixed reviews by many analysts and people around the world.  Shaq in the end will get the Cavs to the finals though, and potentially bring Cleveland home an NBA championship.  The Cavs have had always had a weakness at the center position.  Zydrunas IIgauskas, the starting center for the past several year for the Cavs, is a solid center but is not a dominant or game-changing center like O’Neil is.  Shaq also brings even more confidence to an already confident squad in the Cavs.  The only issue is can the Cavs not become over confident and play with a chip on their shoulder for the whole season.  LeBron James will not let that happen so that should not be an issue.  The other problem is Shaq’s defensive mobility.  Mike Brown must find a way to help Shaq defend the pick and roll because in past seasons the pick and roll has killed the Cavs, for example the Magic this year with Hedo Turkoglu.  While this could end up being an issue come playoff time,  LeBron and the Cavs will find a way to make for Shaq defensive liabilities.

The combination of LeBron and Shaq will only bring good things to the Cavs.  Shaq is itching for another NBA championship and we all know LeBron James NEEDS an NBA championship to cement himself as one of the top players in the history of the game.  The returning cast for the Cavs mixed in with the introduction of Shaq and any others that the Cavs sign or trade for will only lead to more success for this team.  Any team with LeBron James is a championship contender and coupled with the dominance and leadership of the great Shaquille O’Neil I see an NBA championship in my crystal ball for the Cleveland Cavaliers next year.

Much Love,

C-$ick

Friday Funnies from THE ONION

ORLANDO, FL—With the Lakers’ 99-86 victory over the Magic in Game 5 of the NBA Finals, Kobe Bryant silenced critics by achieving what most had thought impossible: winning an NBA title with Luke Walton on his team.
“I was so sick of hearing people say how I couldn’t do it with Luke out there,” said Bryant, acknowledging that his teammate’s deficiencies have overshadowed the Lakers since Walton was drafted in 2003. “It gets annoying to hear that question over and over, but you can’t argue it. You can’t deny it. You have to show that you can prevail alongside one of the worst small forwards in the game.” “Now I just want to kick back and savor the moment,” Bryant added. “I feel like a huge 6-foot-8, 235-pound burden has been lifted from my back.”
CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE

YESSIR!!  THE LAKE SHOW HAVE WON THE NBA CHAMPIONSHIP ONCE AGAIN!!  I’m thinkin’ there is about to be a run of about 3 titles in a row!!

 The Magic can’t touch us, Boston is too old, and the Cav’s can’t handle us, and won’t, so Mr. James if you want a title in the next 3 years you better come to L.A.  Cause I smell the return of a DYNASTY!!  Congrats KOBE, D-FISH, Ariza, Odom, Gasol, and the rest of the New LAKE SHOW!!  My Boys Are BACK On TOP!!  SoOoOoOoOo AMAZIN!!  btw Shaq… Tell Me How Kobe’s Ass Taste?!

Scenes from the Laker’s parade celebrating the franchise’s 15th NBA Championship

I was watching the NBA championship game Sunday night between the L.A. Lakers and the Orlando Magic. The Lakers easily won their 15th championship as a franchise and the 10th for head coach Phil Jackson. That’s a new NBA record.

After the game Lakers guard Derek Fisher was asked what made Jackson such a great coach. Without hesitation he said that that Jackson didn’t coach them as much as he “empowered” them to succeed.

Jackson made the team believe in his system and in their ability to execute it successfully. Then he allowed them the freedom to express themselves within that system.

What a wonderful thing to say and what a wonderful way to play. A coach who empowers his or her players gives up a certain amount of control, but in the long run builds a team that believes in itself.

One of Phil Jackson’s favorite sayings is, “The strength of the wolf is the pack, and the strength of the pack is the wolf.”

Empower you players, don’t rule them.