The Wrong in LeBron

I want to start off by saying that this NBA season is going to the best since Jordan left the Bulls (the second time). It has all the necessary pieces; superstars, rivalries, young and upcoming talent, big name players in big time markets. Last season was a perfect set up to this year with Boston living up to their pre-season hype and Kobe, the leagues most popular international player, lead his team to the finals. Now with one of the best draft classes being inserted to the league, the sky’s the limit for the 08-09 NBA season. However, I do have one fight to pick. Two nights ago I was watching the Bulls play the Cavs and the game was going good, a little sloppy, but good. Then I see Lebron James come down on someone’s foot at the end of the first quarter and limp halfway down the court and then come out of the game for about 10 minutes. He comes back in the game and is fine. If this were a first time occurrence I would let it slide but Lebron has continuously shown signs of vaginitis before. I remember countless times where he overreacts to a minute injury and sends Cleveland fans into a frenzy. Watching Lebron is like watching a punter after he gets hit by a guy trying to block a punt. (side note: the next time Troy Aikman says, “give that guy an Emmy for that acting job” when a punter fakes like he got hit I’m going to turn off my TV). Anyways, the thing about Lebron is that he has all the talent in the world, but if he has any reason not to play in a game or go out for 10 minutes in a game he will take it. Remember when Jordan had the flu and could barely run and still dropped 30 something points against the Jazz in the finals? Yea everyone does. Jordan, Bird, and Magic would play through anything… well almost anything in Magic’s case. I would bet my life that Lebron will never have his Willis Reed moment. But, Lebron isn’t the only one to fault. What about Paul Pierce getting carried off the floor and coming back in that game 7 minutes later? I can’t even get mad about that, that’s just embarrassing for Paul’s sake. No matter who it is this generation of players need to brake the stereotype of being a “whossy” generation if it wants to gain the respect of more demographics and it needs to start with superstars. Whether you love him or hate him, one player that comes to mind is Kobe Bryant. You might ask didn’t he have a broken finger or a sprained wrist last year? You probably don’t remember because he didn’t make a big deal about it, he knew his team had a legitimate shot at winning a title and he played through the pain and ended up winning an MVP along the way. Even if players like Lebron and Pierce don’t toughen up, the NBA is still on the rise with some of the best talent the league has seen in years. I just hope that these guys figure it out and have their Willis Reed moment so they can shut up their critics like me.

Longhorn Safetys Drop BCS Championship

If I walked up to any safety in FBS and asked "I will toss this ball into the air very gently with little rotation, if you catch it you will have that shot at a BCS Championship" 99.99% would jump on that opportunity. All you have to do is catch the precious pig skin like you have done a million times. But this time we will just lob it to you....underhand...with no wobble or distorted spin. Unfortunately Blake Gideon was not up to that challenge. With the ever so powerful Tech offense once again on the move, Gideon had a chance of a lifetime. Harrell’s pass was deflected and its direction was changed in route to Gideon. "Game over, Cinderella done, Crabtree and Harrell’s Heisman’s are shot, storming the field out of the question." All of this fluttered through my mind as the ball proceeded to glide right into the hands...wait, I mean right through the hands of Gideon. The ball falls to the turf, and Gideons heart sinks with it. True freshmen, a stud in the secondary. How big are you if you start as a freshmen at the number one ranked school, and make the interception against a Heisman candidate to win the game? Or should I say, how quickly do you become hated after you drop the rock, and your chances at BCS glory.

I think most of America new that giving Harrell that second chance was the nail in the coffin. I expected them and Harrell to score. But before we can let Tech score, another Texas safety needs to hand over the #1 seeding to somebody else. Earl Thomas, a RS Freshan makes two critical mistakes. First off, on Techs 2nd play of the drive, Thomas misses a tackle on a bubble screen to give WR Lewis and Tech a first down. If Thomas makes this tackle, time continues to run, and there would be no time for Crabtree to make that catch. Thomas' second fault comes on the final play of the game. He has help over the top on Crabtree. He sees the ball in flight and reacts over to the sideline. Now, what he should be thinking is two things, either lay some serious hat on Crabtree to try to make him drop it, or two, hold him in bounds until it is blown dead...game over. Instead he see's that his CB has a weak attempt at holding Crabtree by the sideline, and just jogs by. If he bumps Crabtree out, or holds him in bounds, he does not score. So I would just like to thank Thomas for taking the last play of the game off so Heisman hopeful Crabtree can dance into the end zone.

It hurts to see two young players in Gideon and Thomas make such huge blunders to blow their lead. But it just speaks volumes about Harrell and Crabtree. If you give them that inch, they will take a mile. And if you give them that second chance, they will strip you of your #1 seed, and take tops of the Big 12.

The Start of Tradition

Last night, November 2nd will go down in history for 5 young men. On November 2nd, 4members of house @ john 3:16, and one true player disguised in a 12 year olds body participated in the 2008-2009 White's only basketball fantasy league. Now let me first get this out in plain view, this has no intention to be degrading to any race, or nationality. There are no racists here, just simply five dudes that wanted a challenging league with such few members in the league.

Everyone that knows fantasy sports knows that five people is just too few to have a league with. If this was true, it would simply be one all-star team vs another team. Kobe Bryant, Deron Williams, Tracy McGrady, and Dwight Howard would all be on the same team. There is no fun in this. There isn't that sleeper pick, or intense free agent signings when there are so few many teams in the league. That is why we decided to make a whites only league. Whites only was loosely regarded as the only rule, however Europeans, Argentineans, and Brazilians were all drafted as well. This easily cuts available picks to about 1/6th of the players in the NBA. Once again there is no racial thoughts behind this, but it simply makes for a very difficult draft class, and completely throws out all power rankings provided by ESPN, FoxSports, and countless other analysts.

These simple rules made for one hell of a tough draft session. With no LeBron, Kobe, Chris Paul to be taken in the first round, we were forced to think hard and out of the box on how to fill out 5 positions as effectively as possible. While most 9th overall picks might have consisted of Tracy McGrady or Dwight Howard, our was the Russian sensation Andre Kirilinko who gets his annual booty call out of generosity from his wife. Many in a "typical" drafting scheme might think it is hard to pick between a Baron Davis and a Deron Williams or Jason Kid. But i think choosing between Steve Blake, Luke Riddnhour, and Beno Udruch is much more difficult. Also, while your last pick might be a Brandon Stucky, or possibly even Lamar Odom, we name drop Walter Hermann. I bet many people playing Fantasy Basketball have no idea in hell who the heck Walter Hermann is. I don't think Rasheed Wallace knows who Walter Hermann is. Truth is however that he plays on the Pistons and is averaging about 8pts a game and 3 boards. That is key player stats in our league. Hurt players were drafted (Manu Ginobli in 3rd round), suspended players (Brad Miller) and rookies that have not even squeaked there new shoes on the NBA court (Joe Alexander).

We are way stoked on ourselves and our league right now. Season starts tonight. While most of you are but hurt Greg Oden went down early this season, I just feel truly privileged to have stolen Jason Kapono and his 3pt percentage in the last round. Here is my team and the round they were drafted in.

Yao Ming
Turkoglu
Manu Ginobli
David Lee
Steve Blake
Kevin Love
Beno Udrich
Jason Kapono

My prediction for the league championship will be between Andrew and Travis. Andrew jumped on Jose Calderon in the first round and has great big men in Bogut, Okur, and Dunleavey. Travis has great guards in Kidd and Hinrich. If Paul Gasol and Kaman can hold down up front, he just may be the champion.

Once again, this has nothing to do with race, nationality, or ethnicity. But strictly limiting the leagues available players to make it one hell of a tough draft for five people.