8 Reasons Why the NBA NEEDS to Come Back Next Year

Now I know, Saturday night is a really strange time to publish a post, but believe me, I had my reasons. First off, although I am recovering quite nicely (thanks for all the good wishes), the surgery has crippled my ability to go out and keep myself busy on a night such as this. Second, my girlfriend is at a wedding so if I wanted to watch a movie or something I have nobody to do so with. And finally, chising (For the definition of 'chising' check out my post on Plaxico Burress and Randy Moss.) in MLB 2k11 can only occupy so much of my day. So, what better way to spend my Saturday night than to vent on some of the reasons I think the NBA NEEDS to come back next year? And by the way, I know 8 is an odd number to chose but I chose because I legitimately thought there were 8 great reasons, no more, no less. Sorry Ricky Rubio..

(Quick side note: I promise this will be my last NBA post for awhile.. Just needed a way of wrapping up this truly sensational season. Expect a heavy dose of baseball after this post.)

So! Without further interruption.. The long awaiting official STUDENT OF SPORTS list for why the NBA NEEDS to come back next year. (OK, I'll admit this post probably did not deserve the hyping I just gave it.. 'long awaited'? really? ...I wish)

8. Blake Griffin - This is an easy one. Who doesn't want to see how Blakey Blake will follow up his insane rookie season? This guy is an absolute athletic freak and if there is a season next year, he'll be fun to watch. By the way, he'd be higher on this list if the Clippers didn't suck. (Another interesting story will be if Blake can beat the rookie of the year curse. Very funny video)

7. Dirk Nowitzki - After his all-time great playoff performance it'll be fun to see how Dirk follows it up in year two. This isn't as high on the list as maybe it should be because I think age will finally overtake the Mavericks next year and they won't be able to repeat. You gotta figure the Grim Reaper has been just sitting on Jason Kidd's porch for a year or two now waiting for his game to answer the door.

6. The Oklahoma City Thunder - This is a great story and possibly underrated by me. It'll be a great test to see how this young team matures after a tough defeat in the western conference finals. I'll be looking for two major things, Russel Westbrook's development as a point guard and Kevin Durant's growth as a leader. 

5. The Lakers - How will Kobe and the gang respond to being bounced out early in this years playoffs? How huge will the loss of Phil Jackson be? Will new head coach Mike Brown be able to earn the respect of Kobe and other veterans on the team? Will they land Dwight Howard? All extremely relevant questions. Absolutely captivating story.

4. Basketball is Back in MSG - After acquiring Carmelo Anthony at the trade deadline last season the Knicks became a legit playoff team, not a title contender yet, but a playoff team. You cannot under value the impact of meaningful basketball in MSG on the NBA. It'll be cool to see if the Knicks can find some sort of defense (preferably in the form a legitimate big man) and take the next step as a team. Hopefully the loss of Donnie Walsh doesn't slow down the momentum they've gained.

3. Derrick Rose - Last season's regular season MVP got bounced out of the playoffs in the eastern conference finals but the good news is, he's still 22! Unfortunately the bad news is that Carlos Boozer's contract is going to make it tough for the Bulls to give Rose a better supporting cast but hopefully he can overcome that. After proving he is one of the best players in the NBA this past season, if we have a season next year he'll be out to prove he's even better. No other way of putting it, I cannot wait to see more of D-Rose.

2. Where Will Dwight Howard Go? - This one wins the award for "Most Likely to Get Annoying if Dragged out". That aside you can't underestimate how important Howard picking a new destination will be for the league. In an era where there is only one elite center, where that player goes is a HUGE deal for the league. Let's just hope this all goes smoother than last season's Melo Drama.

1. Ricky Rubio Coming to the NBA! - (just kidding.. but I got your attention didn't I?)

The real number 1..
The Miami Heat - Believe it or not the Heat losing in the NBA Finals this year was great for the NBA. This pretty much means Miami's version of Two and a Half Men got renewed for a second season and all the scrutiny, media, and craziness that surrounded this years squad will be back for year 2! Love'em or hate'em you can't deny the Heat made this year an awesomely entertaining season of professional baskatball. Should make for a great 2012

Hopefully..

This is pretty much me, an NBA fan, pleading with the league to solve the labor situation and come back! This past season was sick and it would be torture to go a year without it. The NBA is more popular right now than it has been at any time since Michael Jordan. Taking a year off and killing that momentum would be terrible, not to mention the negative impact it would have on the careers of some promising young players. I've said it once and I'll say it again, the NBA NEEDS to come back.

I hope you guys enjoyed the list and if you think there is something I missed, or if you don't like the order, feel free to let me know in the comments!

Class Dismissed,
The Sports Undergrad

SoS

P.S. For predicting that the Mavericks winning the NBA Finals in 6 games (Nostradamus has nothing on me!) SportShouting.com was kind enough to send me this awesome shirt. This picture will be up permanently in the bottom left corner of this page and will start a Student of Sports corner of Fame.

Cleveland Stop, Cleveland Stop!

(For those of you who do not understand the title, it's a play on this song by The Presidents of the United States of America.  Great song!)

And also before I start, I wanna apologize for not getting this post up sooner. On Monday I had surgery and it's been hard to function. Let's hope I can get through this without it becoming too apparent that there is Vicodin currently running through my system.

So by now me talking about how the Dallas Mavericks won the NBA title in game six (called it!) over the Heat last Sunday is not exactly breaking news. (And in the process won me a t-shirt from Sportshouting.com! It's great sports social networking site you should all check it out.) But, putting my spot on prediction and brand new t-shirt aside there was something about the aftermath of these finals that really ticked me off. Now, as someone who was rooting against Miami and for Dallas I get the excitement, believe me I do. But if I have to here about the city of Cleveland and psycho ex-girlfriend owner Dan Gilbert, and how happy we should all be for them one more time I might just throw up. (Actually that might be the meds making me regurgitate my breakfast, but who's keeping track?)  Like we get it Cleveland, last off season sucked, but will you get over it already?

Did you see Dan Gilbert's tweet after the Mavs won Sunday night? Saying something about no shortcuts? In my personal opinion that was a no class move. What Dan Gilbert should be doing is calling Mark Cuban to PRIVATELY congratulate him. Not posting a cute cliche on twitter like some 13 year old girl hoping to create drama to be talked about the next day at school. How about instead of taking a nice long bath in self-pity, Gilbert focuses on nothing but the next NBA draft.. WHERE HE HAS TWO TOP 4 PICKS! Come on Gilbert, get over it.

I did a little research and saw that the 5 stages of grief were;

1. Denial and Isolation - This should have been the initial reaction to "I'm taking my talents to South Beach"
2. Anger - This is probably the stage where you start burning jerseys.
3. Bargaining - So I'm thinking this was the moment right before the regular season started where most Cavs fans thought to themselves "S**t, my team sucks... Can we have LeBron back?"
4. Depression - OK this is probably when the Cavaliers up just one of the worst regular seasons in NBA history. I even feel bad that Cleveland fans had to suffer through that but last time I checked that season did end, so let's hope this stage does. 
5. Acceptance - (cricket... cricket...) Yeah I'm still waiting on this one too..

Why does it feel like Cleveland is back at anger when they should be accepting this and moving on? I guess that's what really gets me mad. As much as I hate how they were screwed over last summer, I hate more that they are content wallowing in their own self pity and not moving on. This should make Cleveland fans stronger, not turn them into middle school girls. And let me just throw out a disclaimer that I'm not talking about all Cleveland fans, just the way their owner and a lot of the fans are responding. So what would really make me happy, and allow sports fans in Cleveland to grow, is if they could move on from this and look forward to the future. I know they most likely won't be where the were a year or two ago anytime soon but they WILL get better and I would hope the climb would be fun for them. All I'm saying is this; Forget about LBJ, don't follow his every move, look forward to the future, and for God's sake put this behind you! Let's get through this 5th and final step of acceptance, Cleveland. What do you say?

I'm sure this post was a little more disorganized and loopy than most but you know what, it was damn fun to write! But look forward to more posts without the influence of pain killers in the coming days.

Class Dismissed,
The Sports Undergrad

SoS

If Wade is Batman than it Feels Like Lebron is 'Robin' us of our Lunch Money!

(BA DUUUM CHHHHHHHHHHHH) ....This is the part of the post where you're either saying to yourself "Wow, what a funny title! (hahahahahahahah) I can't wait to read the rest!" or... "Really? That's how you are going to start this? Let's hope that's your last attempt at humor for the day."

Regardless of how impressed you are with the comedic value of the title, you cannot deny there is some truth to it. Through four games I can safely say that I've learned three things from these Hollywood script like finals;

1. Dirk Nowitzki is straight up the man.
2. The Miami Heat continue to be property of a Mr. Dwyane Tyrone Wade Jr.
3. LeBron James is perfectly content with point number 2.

It's easy for me to talk about point number 1, I mean these entire finals have been pretty much a Dirk love fest. (I'm really starting to think that if Dallas pulls out this series there are several people in the media who will be waiting for Dirk at his locker after the game with their pants off.) I'll quickly say that it's amazing how every game as soon as you think he's just being bullied by somebody like Udonis Haslem, he flips the switch and just straight up takes over. His performance has been simply put, sensational. Let's just hope guys like Jason Terry, J.J. Barrea, and especially Tyson Chandler continue to show up for the rest of the series because God knows Dirk can't do it all on his own. (At this point I'm considering a helpful Jason Kidd performance a given, he can help Dirk without scoring.)

The next two points we can kinda cover at the same time. There was never any doubt going into this season that this would be D-Wade's team and LeBron would have to work at making it rightfully his. The thing we didn't know going in was that LeBron had no problem whatsoever with this being Wade's team. It honestly seems like he is perfectly happy being the Robin to Wade's Batman, being the Pippen to Wade's Jordan, damn it he's even content with being the Rob Schneider to Wade's Adam Sandler! Going into this series I though that was fine, I even told one of my friends after watching a 1st and 10 debate, "If I'm the Heat I don't care who's finishing, LeBron or Wade, as long as Dwayne Wade is the guy making that decision." Truth be told I believed that until I sat there watching game 4, honestly forgetting that there was a guy named LeBron on this Miami Heat team. Believe it or not I for a brief moment in time though to myself "If Dwyane Wade can't get open they need to give the ball to Bosh!" Please tell me you guys see what's wrong with that statement? How had LBJ actually fallen that far out of the picture in that game that the first thing I thought down the stretch was that if Wade was in trouble they'd need to get the ball to Bosh? I've spent the last few months making fun of Bosh for just about everything (insert Chris Bosh is ugly and/or Two and a Half Men joke) and there was actually a moment in time where I thought of him over LeBron, possibly the most talented basketball player on the planet! Unbelievable.

That's what, in a truly breathtaking NBA Finals thus-far, is heartbreaking about this series. We have one of the greatest athletes in the world on the court and instead if living up to his potential, he's OK with hiding out in the corner watching Wade try and win him a ring. I feel as if, up to this point, I had been fair with LeBron James. I wasn't going to compare him to MJ, I wasn't going to blame him for having no supporting cast in Cleveland, and I wasn't even going to blame him for leaving. But you know what? I will blame him if he doesn't bring it in the next few games of this series. I will blame him if he fails to play to what his potential is. I will blame him if he robs me of witnessing what should be an awe inspiring performance in crucial moments of big games. And the biggest thing is, I will blame him for appearing not to care.

Deep down part of me hopes that tonight, in game 5, LeBron's stats look like 35-12-10 and he just goes Cee Lo Green, F You, all over the Dallas Mavericks. Not because I want the Heat to win, I don't. Not because I'm even a huge LBJ fan as a player, I'm not. But because I want to witness something special. As an NBA fan I want to see the performance I thought I would see. I don't want to walk away feeling like I've been robbed of something, even if it's something as juvenile as my lunch money.

Class Dismissed,
The Sports Undergrad

SoS

Creating a Lasting Legacy

Right off the bat I need to start by saying that this has been an incredible NBA post season thus-far. Every round has offered its own flavor of off the walls excitement and corny soap opera type drama. And after all the scuffling and chaos finally two teams have emerged above the rest as title contenders. In on corner we have the Dallas Mavericks, a veteran bunch whose offense runs through post-season MVP, Dirk Nowitzki. Then in the other corner we have the villains, the front-runners, the NBA's version of Two and a Half Men, or as you might know them the Miami Heat. This is a team created last off-season that will wow you with their mix of athleticism and determination. One team is young, one team is old. One team is deep, one team is shallow. One team came together last off-season, one team has been years in the making. Which team will win? And maybe more importantly; how will this series shape the legacies of two superstars, LeBron James and Dirk Nowitzki.

The impact on the career this series will have of these two athletes might be bigger than the series itself because of the rare historical significance of these future Hall of Famers. For Dirk it would be the cherry on top of what has been a sensational, all time great, career. Say what you want about him being 'soft' (complete bs) or his funky ways of scoring (the man is a magician out there) his 23 and 8 career average make him potentially one of the greatest scoring big men of all time.  He's come so close and been snake bitten so many times before that this series would put an end to any doubt that he can get it done when it matters most. This is a make or break series for Dirk.

Oh yes, then we have LeBron. Can you here the haters now? "LeBron doesn't have the clutch gene!" "LeBum can't win it all!" "LeB**ch will never be Jordan!" (By the way, is this really a fair criticism? I mean, who ever will be Jordan?) "DELONTE WEST SLEPT WITH LEBRON'S MOM!" (Once again, probably not a fair criticism and extremely inappropriate but wildly funny and will never get old.) The point is that if LeBron doesn't win a title this year people will continue to question if he ever will, if he ever can.. Fair or not the criticism WILL come. And eventually, perception can become reality. If LeBron wins he potentially becomes a top 5 all time player (and according to Scottie Pippen maybe better) and the rest of the NBA is in a buttload of trouble for the next 5 to 10 years. (remember, the Heat WILL get better) No way of denying it, this is a big time opportunity for LeBron.

The best part of this series is that in 20 years when me and my son are sitting watching some sports and he asks me about LeBron or Dirk, I'll tell him about this series. No matter the outcome, this will be a series we talk about when defining the legacies of all time greats. And by the way, I haven't even mentioned Jason Kidd or Dwyane Wade until this point, both guys who will be in the Hall and will have their respective legacies impacted by this series. (Ok fine, and alien/dinosaur love baby Chris Bosh too.) So if you're a true NBA fan, sit down, grab some snacks, and watch this series because I promise you this; you'll be talking about this series for the rest of your lives. Enjoy the series and good luck to both squads because God knows, there is a hell of a lot at stake. And by the way, I'm taking the Mavs in 6. (Dirk will continue to be Dirk and the Heat won't be able to keep up with the performances of role players like Barrea and Chandler.)

Class Dismissed,
The Sports Undergrad

SoS