- Paraphrasing three NBA insider types upon hearing about Donnie Walsh: And we thought this was a serious business, where working hard, knowing basketball and making good decisions would help you get ahead. Feels more like a billionaire's plaything.
- Steve Nash says Game 2 was the first NBA game he has attended as a spectator since turning pro. I get why players don't go to playoff games after elimination. It's like visiting the office after getting fired. And this is rare downtime before summer workouts (adding skills!) and marketing deals and all that. However ... it's awesome. If I had a team, I'd want my players at the Finals for all kinds of reasons. In part, to get jealous. But also to know what to expect.
- Stealing a line I wrote for 5-on-5: "As the players and league negotiate a new CBA next week, they'll be doing so against a backdrop of sky-high TV ratings in a fired-up Dallas."
- Take a look at the Maverick lineups that have had the best results in the playoffs. Not a lot of Shawn Marion or DeShawn Stevenson. Dirk Nowitzki and a big (preferably Tyson Chandler), plus three shooters (J.J. Barea, Jason Kidd, Jason Terry, Peja Stojakovic) are just killing everybody in the playoffs. You can also substitute Corey Brewer for one of those shooters and it works too. But those lineups have not played all that much, which is especially interesting as they're the team that popularized this kind of lineup data, through their long and ongoing relationship with Wayne Winston.
- Just learning now that Eric Maynor apparently leads a cult.
- Great national anthem.
- Zach Lowe of Sports Illustrated: "As Wade dribbled around the screen, his defender, Jason Terry, switched onto James. Shawn Marion, who had been defending James, wasn’t expecting this, and so he drifted back toward LeBron after taking a token jump out toward Wade. And there was Wade, perhaps the league’s second-best player, totally unguarded with a clear driving lane into the paint and Dirk Nowitzki the only man ready to block his path to the rim. Instead, Wade pulled up for a three-pointer. It was an off-the-dribble bomb, an awful shot, a wasted chance for someone of Wade’s skill. It seemed like nothing at the time, save perhaps an arrogant attempt at a needless home run, but it presaged Miami’s total offensive collapse over the next six minutes."
- Kyle Weidie of Truth About It: "And all of a sudden, Dallas went from the sloppy blood bath of trying to gut and clean a chicken with a plastic knife to the precision of patient butchers with the finest Honyaki knives. Their 22-5 run to close game two 95-93 in South Beach could go down as one of the epic NBA Finals memories in my lifetime (Dallas has to win first, of course.) If there’s a patience switch, the Dallas Mavericks players and coaches have it on their chest. And the basketball beasts of the Miami Heat? Those who like for every little thing they do to be seen on the scene and the big screen at levels equal to their talent? (You know, LeBron-a-Thon stuntin’ on the jumbo-tron…) Well, they were reduced to animals on the chopping block. The calculated German butcher won. And I think Dwyane Wade cut his eye, at least that’s what he wants you to think. Maybe he should put a cold slab of meat on that."
- Root for Dallas! Root for Miami!
- Marc Stein on the Mavericks: "As more than one Mavs official has privately noted since this ride gathered steam with their second-round sweep of the Lakers, winning a championship often demands that you win a playoff game that you probably shouldn't have won. Now they've got three of those."
- And John Hollinger: "I suspect it's going to get more difficult for Dallas, not less. The Mavs may be down to a seven-man rotation, factoring in Brendan Haywood's strained hip flexor and the expiration of Peja Stojakovic's pact with the devil."
- Cinderella, at the party.
- TrueHoop reader Andrew with one my favorite e-mails of the year, in response to this video interview with Kevin Arnovitz. He's dead right. My only defense: Long work hours, living on the road, you eat what you find: "I've been a reader since the early days, and never found reason to hate on your takes on basketball, however controversial, but a red delicious apple? That's a bridge too far. Mealiest, most disappointing fruit this side of a damn papaya. And given that you're in Miami, I might even have forgiven a papaya. Red freakin' delicious. I'm speechless."
- A case for the hard cap. The problem is stupidity. No one's going to stop Gilbert Arenas wanting all that money. But how can you stop people paying it to him? Punishing them mightily for handing out those dumb deals does not seem to be quite enough. So a hard cap, in essence, legislates against stupidity. Which is unlikely to make owners smarter. No easy solutions here. Because in theory we could be headed for a world where someone like Arenas still gets a huge deal, but now when he's injured you can't bring in anybody else to replace him. It's more punishment for mistakes. Most important thing owners could win to save themselves -- maybe better than a hard cap -- would be shorter contracts.
Henry Abbott | email
TrueHoop, NBA- Senior writer for ESPN.com
- Founder of TrueHoop blog and network
- Began writing about NBA for magazines in 1999
TRUEHOOP CONTRIBUTORS
Henry AbbottTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
J.A. AdandeTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
Kevin ArnovitzTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
Chris BroussardTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
Chad FordTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
Israel GutierrezTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
John HollingerTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
Beckley MasonTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
Marc SteinTrueHoop ESPN Archive |
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