A brief apology to the NBA

Dear NBA,

I recently made some dismissive comments about the 2009 playoffs on my blog, essentially describing this year’s playoffs as boring, predictable, and uncompetitive.

The playoffs are still predictable: we all know it’s going to come down to a LeBron-Kobe showdown in the end…and we all know that it would be the best thing for this league since Bird and Magic were center stage. It’s ok to admit it so we can dispense with the rest of these superficial storylines.

However, the other night I was in a bar watching Game 6 of the Chicago-Boston series and someone yelled, “THIS IS THE BEST BASKETBALL GAME EVER!”

At first, this man’s statement seemed like little more than alcohol-induced hyperbole rather than an informed observation. But this was before it got to the third overtime. Then I started to see his point.

This was one of those games where amazing meets fan-tastic and makes me wanna holler, “I LOVE THIS GAME!”

The game had everything you would want to see from a spectator sport: brilliant individual performances, game-changing plays, last second drama(s), an underdog taking it to the reigning champion, the emergence of young stars, and the solidification of a Hall of Famer who some refer to as “Jesus”.

Tell me how you could possibly outdo that…short of the Kobe-LeBron series (you’re planning).

So as a long-time NBA fan -- who has irrationally rooted for your Golden State Warriors for years -- I just want to apologize for my previous statements about the playoffs. I eagerly await Game 7 of the Bulls-Celtics series and am once again spellbound by your Kobe-LeBron showcase.

Thank you for your understanding,

Q.


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Here's hoping for a Sparks-Liberty Finals

Unfortunately, life has gotten in the way of me writing and I've been unable to pay attention to the WNBA playoffs as much as I'd like.

But I have to just stop for a moment and say that I'm hoping for a Liberty-Sparks finals. The reason is simple: I've really enjoyed their two matchups this season.

This is not to disregard the chances of the Silver Stars or Shock, both very good teams and deserving of a trip to the finals by virtue of outstanding regular season performances. But thinking about the Sparks trying to contain Leilani Mitchell in the open court again and the Liberty trying to contain Candace Parker is exciting to me. I could see it being a tight series with each team fighting to establish their style.

Speaking of the rookies, how about the play of rookies this post-season? Obviously Parker, but Essence Carson and Crystal Kelly in the first round. Rookies are not just "stepping up" but they're leading their teams to victory. Putting the future of the league on center stage is yet another reason to hope for a Liberty-Sparks final...

Yeah, I know I'm getting ahead of myself a bit, but hopefully by Finals time things will have settled down a bit in my life and I'll be able to actually pay closer attention.

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Any Ideas On What Happened to the Sun?

I actually missed the Sun-Liberty game yesterday...but apparently I didn't miss much.

This description from Mike DiMauro of The Day makes the game seem horrific...

The Sun's loss to New York inside The Big Room on 33rd and 7th was well deserved. No team that treats the ball like a live explosive, especially 35 games into a season, should be leading a playoff series.

Their offense was disheveled. They did not honor basketball's No. 1 rule: treasure possession of the ball. There was enough one-on-one offense to qualify for the schoolyard. Terrible shots. Worse shots than that. Forced shots with the shot clock in single digits. Passes to nowhere. Not nearly enough ball movement.

You wonder how. How does a team that looked so good two weeks ago, a team Seattle coach Brian's Agler and San Antonio coach Dan Hughes raved about recently, look so putrid?

Ouch.

The thing is, this seems reminiscent of their losing streak earlier in the season when they just didn't seem to have it together.

For the sake of a competitive opening round series, I hope they get it together. For the sake of the Liberty's chances, I'm kinda hoping they remain stuck in first gear...

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The Playoffs Are Here!

Finally...the playoffs.

I was thinking of doing some sort of playoff preview, but then I decided that I would just take in the games and enjoy the best time of any sports season. Because of that, and the fact that life is starting to get in the way of writing, I'm probably going to write less during the playoffs, unless something happens that I just have to write down.

So no playoff preview analysis from me... but Kevin Pelton had a really nice analysis comparing this year's playoff teams to teams of the past. It's an interesting way to look at the playoffs and the results definitely pass the laugh test.

Here's his description:

Obviously, this analysis can't take into account midseason trades or injuries which tend to skew a team's performance when we look at the entire season. Still, I think there's some benefit to seeing which styles have historically been successful in the WNBA Playoffs. For each team, I've reported the average playoff score of their 10 most similar teams, the number of finalists and championships amongst this group and the most comparable team and its playoff outcome.

Check it out...and then enjoy the playoffs!

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