Even Spike Lee Would Laugh At This...Kobe Better Than M.J.?

The front page on espn.com reads "Like Mike, Only Better." You have to be kidding me! I understand if you make your comparisons of Michael Jordan to Wilt Chamberlin, Larry Bird to Irvin Magic Johnson, or even Clyde Drexler to Dominique Wilkins...but Kobe Bryant being better than Michael Jordan? Wait, is that a statue of Michael Jordan? Don't they go around making statues in honor of any mediocre player? Oh wait they don't! In the midst of all the hoopla and hype of Nash and The Dirk for MVP, Kobe has four high scoring games in a row, and suddenly he's being compared to the Royal Airness? That article says Kobe is just as good of a defender???? I remember, back in the day when Michael graced our presence for the World Champion Chicago Bulls. His battles against the Supersonics, Jazz, Cleveland Cavs, the list goes on throughout the playoffs all had one thing that's absent now a days. Something that has been lost in the translation many many years ago in the NBA . . . oh yeah I remember what it is. . . actual defense. In Kobe's high scoring games, from most recent to the first, here are the final game scores: 115/113, 111/105, 121/119, 109/102. I don't see any sort of defense in any of those games. EVERY SINGLE OPPONENT scored 100+. These weren't just any single opponent these were the Grizzlies and Hornets, nothing to brag about.
Being a long time Bulls fan I am outraged by this. I understand that Kobe is a good shooter and player, but after four good games in a row everyone is ready to kick someone out of the Greatest 50 NBA Players ever and slap Kobe in there. Just for another reminder of why Jordan is great, showing his supreme dunk skills. I could go on and on and bitch about this. If my opinion mattered, I'd take Lebron over Kobe ANY DAY. Lebron gets points, assists, steals, and blocks. When Kobe stops slapping people in the face after shooting, then he might be capable of making maybe an All Star team. Here's something for Kobe to dream about tonight:

Naismith Awared: 1984
Wooden Award: 1984
Adolph Rupp Award: 1984
ACC Player of the Year: 83-84
NBA Rookie of the Year: 84-85
NBA MVP: 87-88, 90-91, 91-92, 95-96, 97-98
NBA Finals MVP: 90-91, 91-92, 92-93, 95-96, 96-97, 97-98
NBA All Star MVP: 88, 96, 98
NBA Defensive Player: 87-88
Slam Dunk Champ: 87, 88

Maybe Kobe should have went to college?

The Come Back Kid

Dywane Wade announced Monday that he will return to the Miami Heat's lineup at some point towards the end of this season. Wade has not played since he dislocated his left shoulder on February 21 after attempting to steal the ball from Houston Rockets player Shane Battier.

Dywane will not have surgery, but will partake in an intensive rehabilitation program that should allow him to have his shoulder ready for the final games of the regular season. Wade is very important to the Heat's success and is definitely the most valuable player to the team. He is averaging 28.8 points per game, 4.8 rebounds per game and 7.9 assists per game. In addition Dywane plays 38 minutes a game and is the go to guy down the stretch.

Miami Heat Coach Pat Riley is happy with Wade's decision and feels he should be admired for his love for the game of basketball and desire to come back and help the Miami Heat win another championship.

Wade is one of the most exciting players to watch in the NBA and makes major contributions towards the Heat. It is great for the NBA that he is coming back. I feel he is making the right decision as long as his shoulder feels good and he is medically cleared before he returns. The idea of Dywane Wade returning is very exciting, but what do you think?

Boston Bids Adieu to its Glory Days

Remember Larry Bird? How 'bout Kevin McHale? OK, now try Robert Parish. Put those three players together and you'll get a pretty good picture of what the Boston Celtics used to be. It's called the 'Glory Days', folks - and unfortunately for Boston Celtics fans, those days are loooong gone.

With their recent loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves - which marked their 18th straight - the Celtics are in jeopardy of breaking the NBA's all-time record for consecutive losses of 24. Star Paul Pierce, who recently returned to the team from an injury, summed up the Celtics' emotion right now fairly well.

"You can feel it in the locker room, each loss definitely hurts," Pierce said. "These guys are going to keep playing hard. We just need to get it out of our head."

The saddest part about this Boston team though is that they have talent. It may be wasted talent and it may be overrated, but its talent nonetheless. And in professional sports nowadays, there is little to no excuse for a team with even the tiniest amount of talent to lose 18 straight games...especially in the NBA. Blame the star player (Paul Pierce), or the coach (Doc Rivers), or whoever else you want (I picked Sebastian Telfair, only because I hated his ESPN documentary). In the end, it comes down to chemistry. This Celtics team simply doesn't have any.

Back in the day, the Celtics exemplified team chemistry. Bird was a star, yes, but was McHale? Not really. Was Parish? No, but he was tall. These guys simply worked well together, they played as a team. Hell, they even had Bill Walton at one point. Toss in guys like Danny Ainge, Dennis Johnson and Dee Brown and its still a wonder how this team played so well together throughout the 80s and into the early 90s. To put it simply, Pierce is going to have to play the hand he's been dealt and do his best impersonation of Larry Bird.

Luckily for Boston, their next game is against the Milwaukee Bucks, not exactly a perennial powerhouse in the NBA. However, if the Celtics can't pick up a win there, they'll have to pull out a miracle in one of their five...count 'em five...West Coast matchups against either the Kings, Suns, Lakers, Jazz or Rockets.

These guys just can't catch a break, can they?

Setting the agenda in sport journalism

By now, anyone with even a passing viewership interest in ESPN programming has seen the latest news regarding former Penn State star and NBA player John Amaechi's decision to announce that he is gay. Amaechi, a native of England and a television personality in that country, has written a book about his playing career in American professional basketball, detailing his thoughts and experiences from his time with several NBA franchises, including several pointed comments about members of the Utah Jazz.

Commentary and conversation regarding this incident have been predictably positive, with most commentators applauding Amaechi's decision to announce his sexual preference (One notable exception was ESPN Page 2's LZ Granderson).

What I find most interesting, however, is the manner in which this story has found its way into the sport news cycle. The story broke on ESPN's "bottom line" on Wednesday morning, and was followed up immediately by an article (linked above) written by ESPN's Chris Sheridan. Amaechi's book, titled "Man in the Middle", is being published by ESPN Books. Amaechi is scheduled to discuss the book and the reaction to it this Sunday --- on ESPN's Outside the Lines. ESPN's flagship programs, including SportsCenter, Pardon the Interruption, Around the Horn, and the Sports Reporters, either have devoted significant time to the story or are planning to. And ESPN's coverage has expanded to include comments from several players, with the attention focusing on comments that could be construed as controversial. For instance, one of the first quotes relayed in the updated ESPN.com story on the topic, from Philadelphia 76ers forward Shavlik Randolph, read:

"As long as you don't bring your gayness on me I'm fine," Randolph said. "As far as business-wise, I'm sure I could play with him. But I think it would create a little awkwardness in the locker room."

One can be assured that, at some point, there will be an even more controversial comment made regarding the issue --- and I would be shocked if that comment did not engender a fresh cycle of stories and commentary from the various facets of ESPN.

There's no question in my mind that Amaechi's announcement is indeed newsworthy, particularly since he is the first NBA player, past or present, to acknowledge his homosexuality. But one has to wonder whether the attention being paid to this story is solely attributable to its relative newsworthiness. It's fascinating to me that ESPN is not only the source of the story (with the book being published by its sister enterprise), but is also the main source for commentary and opinion --- AND the main source for sparking continued interest in the story.

Is this merely an effort by ESPN to give this story its due in terms of coverage? Or does ESPN have a vested financial interest in keeping this story afloat?

Ultimately, this is an issue that companies like ESPN, which have expanded their business operations beyond the realm of sports journalism, are going to face. Whether or not ESPN's journalistic intent in covering this story is pure, the question of whether they are setting the agenda to attempt to promote a product is one that begs to be asked.

8 Player Deal

The AP reported Wednesday that the Golden State Warriors and the Indiana Pacers engaged in an eight-player deal.

The Pacers sent Al Harrington, Stephen Jackson, Sarunas Jasikevicius, and Josh Powell to the Warriors in exchange for Troy Murphy, Mike Dunleavy, Ike Diogu, and Keith McLeod.

This could be a hit-or-miss trade for both teams. Each side gets players who are underachieving (i.e. everyone listed above). However, all of the players aside from Jasikevicius are in their 20s and could play at a higher level after changing coaches and systems. Murphy's been good before - he averaged a double-double for a season three times - but he and Dunleavy hardly seem worth their ridiculous contracts. Diogu's the best acquisition of this deal for the Pacers.

The Warriors were the runner ups in the Harrington sweepstakes during the off season, and Don Nelson wanted to get rid of Dunleavy and Murphy. This trade seems to be good for them, though I'm not sure why anyone would voluntarily take Stephen Jackson. If he can manage to get into trouble in Indianapolis, I'm interested to see how long it will be before he has an incident in Oakland. Harrington's easily the best player involved in this trade right now, but he really never seems to get significantly better from year to year. Furthermore, the new Pacers - Diogu especially - could turn things around and become good players again.

I am a Pacers fan, and I like this trade. I'm not too disappointed to see Harrington go because I didn't think it was that big of a move to bring him back in the first place. He's really not that good. I love that the deal sends Stephen Jackson to the other side of the country. Murphy and Dunleavy could work - Dunleavy seems to have nowhere to go but up and that's not a compliment - but the most notable player for the Pacers is Diogu. Remember what happened when they traded a former All-Star in Dale Davis to Portland for Jermaine O'neal when Jermaine was in a situation comparable to Diogu's in Golden State. O'neal started getting playing time and started making an impact.