I have watched the Kevin Love replay about a dozen times and I just don't see it as a "stomping" incident. (I also can't believe he wasn't called for a foul for basically throwing Scola to the ground). To me, it looks like Love is trying to turn and run up court and Scola is trying to protect his head. Love's leg hit Scola's hands and it stopped his momentum. Your natural reaction is to try and get your foot back down on the ground as fast as possible. I definitely would not equate it to the Suh incident in the NFL! Granted, the 2 have some history, but I think the throwing him to the floor was the retaliation, not the 'stomping'. I also do not support the people that say "Well he wouldn't have apologized if he didn't do it on purpose!" Bullshit. People apologize for accidents all the time. If you bump into somebody at the grocery store, you apologize.
I like Kevin Love, I watched 2 different angles on that, thank god for the NBA's YouTube policy. He threw him to the ground and stomped on him. Didn't hit his face, but that is definitely a stomp. Watch the top two videos, he slowed and stomped. He could hop knowing there is someone under him. 2 games is far suspension. I'm not calling Kevin Love any names, but he should get 2 games for that. It could have been prevented. Wow, the Bulls are better than I hoped or the Nets are fucking terrible. Avery Johnson couldn't find shit to work against the Bulls. That poor bastard, I like him as a guy.
I take back what I said yesterday. I only watched the replay from the back/side angle. They showed she front angle before the Heat game last night and what I thought was Love tripping was actually him measuring where to hit Scola. And I still can't believe no foul was called for Love slamming him to the floor. The should suspend the ref for 2 games. The officiating has been horrendous in the NBA this year. Somebody on the radio explained that the refs are overtired because of the compacted schedule.
Who is more tired, the players or the refs? Come on now, that's sillyness. The refs don't have practices. Officiating has been officiating. I love the way more obvious make-up calls.
On a happier note, you owe it to youself to watch highlights of the Thunder and Warriors last night. Also, he's been out for a while, but have y'all seen Manu Ginobili's numbers this year? I mean, he's good and all, but 59.2% from the field, 51.9% from three, 93.8% from FT? That's filthy. Hollinger has his True Shooting % (takes into account threes and FTs) at 77.6%. All this will fall somewhat when he comes back from injury, but that's frighteningly good shooting.
The players are elite athletes and some of the refs are in their 60's. And the players don't really practice. They have walk throughs before games, but you cant practice when you're playing 4 games a week & traveling. I didn't much like the excuse either, but I thought it was an interesting concept.
By the end of the year, I want a book of simply Kobe Bryant interviews, with facial expressions. His facial expression when asked about Jeremy Lin was priceless.
His reaction at the 55 second mark in this video is hilarious and priceless. I'm always amazed how patient some of these guys are with absolute moron media members... <a class="postlink" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPAYzNH4xXY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPAYzNH4xXY</a>
Sorry for my retardation, but what are some high quality sites that stream NBA games in real time? Despite shitting the bed last night, my Minnesota Timberwolves are playing the Knicks tonight and for some stupid fucking reason the game isn't on TV locally. After dismantling the Lakers for 38 points last night, the Jeremy Lin show continues and I need to see how he matches up against Ricky Rubio. Thanks.
No idea why, but I want this Lin-sanity thing to blow up and hurt Carmelo Anthony. I have no idea why I don't like him, but somewhere I decided I don't. NYC/K has jumped on the JL bandwagon hard, because he's won games. I wonder if Melo fucks it up when he comes back.
For once we agree on something. Watch, because Amare will be able to work with Lin, but Melo won't. Lin will tame down his game and the Knicks will go back top standing around waiting on Anthony to make his move and then run back and play no defense. That's the biggest thing people aren't talking about. With Amare and Melo out, the Knicks are actually playing defense.
I realize Lin has had a good week or so, but fuck, can the media get off this kid's sack until he's put together a decent month or two at least? I've seen about 30 articles about him in the past week. The expectations for him are getting more and more ridiculous.
If the Derek Roseless Bulls lose tonight at home vs. Sacramento, and the Heat win the last game of their back-to-back-to-back road games at Indiana, Coach Spo is the coach for the Eastern All-Stars.
Isn't that the team he coaches every night? He also turns over the ball at a league-leading rate since taking the reins.
What team was this? The Raptors? Oh so they were tied in the last seconds? Where was the Knicks defense? Why didn't they score more points earlier? Why the fuck was there even a buzzer beater to even be shot? Then again, I saw that last play...the kid has some balls on him. Huge balls.
Jeremy Lin is a good player. Don't get me wrong. He's especially good in a D'Antoni system, where he can play at a high pace w/o worrying too much about turnovers (since they're his Achilles heel). The NYK may not be a good team for D'Antoni otherwise, but that's another issue. However, I want to add a qualifier: he has played six meaningful games, and in those games, he's been guarded by the following players: Deron Williams Devin Harris John Wall Ricky Rubio Derrick Fisher Jose Calderon That's not a particularly good group, defensively. In fact, it's very bad. Going by Defensive Rating (which measures points per 100 posessions), that group is four below average players (Wall, Fisher, Calderon, Harris) and one terrible one (Deron Williams is among the worst in the NBA). Rubio is the only above average one in the group. The average of all six players would be ranked as the 321st best defensive player in the NBA, out of 441 eligible players.
I'm a big fan of irrational exuberance. Underdog stories are fun to watch in the sea of entitled athletes. I have no delusions that Jeremy Lin is the next coming, I just think it's fun to watch people get all irate about what should be a fun storyline.
WOOOOOO!!!! It's great that Seattle probably gets an NBA team. It's awful that Sacramento or New Orleans is going to lose theirs. All things being equal, I'd love for an expansion team. As someone who saw a bunch of assholes in Oklahoma cheering for the Sonics to move, I will be damned if I do it to anybody else.