Christmas Gifts for the NBA

Christmas has come and passed but now that all the teams in the NBA have unwrapped their presents and have seen what they have, let's check in on the ones I watched yesterday:

Knicks: My Knickerbockers kicked off christmas with an all around dominant second half showing off a gritty defense to go along with great nights from Landry Fields, Raymond Nickname Felton, Amare, and Wilson Chandler. Overall, great second halves are something the Knicks can get used to when the team plays this in sync.

Bulls: Tough loss for the Noah-less Bulls, but fear not Chicago faithful. Carlos Boozer is here and he seems like he is seamlessly fitting into the roster. Ignore D-Rose's turnovers last night and the Bulls dynamic duo put up great numbers and seem to be getting used to each other. Give it a couple months and Noah will be back and this will be a team to be reckoned with.

Magic: The trade was all that the Magic could ask for this holiday season. Instead of dragging the same tired lineup into another shellacking from Boston, the Magic brought a new team to play. Gone are the Magic of old and here are reinforcements. They got the Turk back and brought in J-Rich and Gilbert. And just to show that this isn't some panic trade along the lines of Antwan Jamison to the Cavs last year, they snapped the Celtics win streak.

Celtics: Ok, ok so you got a little bit of a coal in your stocking in that Magic game but you have to look at the long term Celtics. You have KG back in a major way. You have Paul Pierce playing great. And you even have Shaq showing some effort and conditioning in the regular season. Stop acting like a spoiled child Boston.

Heat: You got everything you wanted for Christmas. All 400 of your fans were overjoyed to watch LeBron and Wade dominate Kobe and Pau and even got to see a strong game by their power forward Christine Bosh. Things are starting to fit together down in South Beach.

Lakers: What do you give the team that supposedly has everything? Easy, a wake up call. To quote an old Eminem lyric"Whatever happened to catchin' a good-ol' fashioned passionate ass whooping?" The Lakers came in jittery and seemed to be overthinking the implications of the game. They need to calm down and refocus and maybe after two straight years of winning needed to be knocked down a peg to be able to regroup and motivate themselves to take down the Heat and whoever else stands in their way.

Not So Great A Weekend New York

Ok, so the Heat walloped on us. That sucked. Worst of all, Bosh and LeBron were the focal point of that. I could deal with that. Then the Cavs messed us up in OT. Yes, they lost 10 in a row. No, we weren't expecting a fight. Yes, we got hit in the mouth. But this? This?

That was a legitimate stomach punch. I felt like I just took the Mickey Ward rib crusher (more on that this week by the way, fantastic movie). And this was coming off the week where the Yankees where spurned by Cliff Lee. Just not my week man.

F*ck the Heat

Growing up I hated the Heat. They were the Knicks biggest rivals. Sure it was an ugly rivalry that was marked by dirty basketball, "Thugball" tactics, and abominably low scoring. I get it. But I was under the age of 10. All I knew was that they were the rivals and that we needed to beat them. Then the Knicks disappeared from relevancy. Then Dwayne Wade showed up and became one of the most likable stars in the league. I stopped being revolted by the Heat. Hell, I even got caught up in their 2006 Finals Run and rooted for Wade as he blasted the Mavs Jordan-style. But then this summer I was reminded I hate Pat Riley, that LeBron was still the arrogant brat everyone was afraid he'd be when he was rolling in his Hummer, that I absolutely DESPISED Alonzo Mourning back when I was in the single digits. So the fact that the Knicks are relevant right in time to match up against the Evil Empire that is the Miami Heat. That and the fact that the least likable "star" in the league not named LeBron is going to be getting his head slammed in by Amar'e (I'm looking at you Chris Bosh). This is a must win for the Knicks. This legitimizes them. This gets us the rung in the East we deserve. There biggest weakness is defending big men and matching point guards and we got Amar'e and Raymond Felton (goddamnit we need a f*cking nickname for him already!) Time for a statement win.




Screw Chris Bosh

KG VS TD

First off, let me say that it gives me nothing but happiness that these two vets are still able to perform at a high level, even if it's not as consistently as it once was and the fact that i kinda hate Garnett. Both of them are providing their teams with the extra veteran presence that they need to currently be running their respective conferences. Sure, their not putting up 25-12 every night but they always need to be accounted for because when they need to they can spring back to life, as Timmy did last night with a 28-16-4 with 4 blocks. I'm a huge Duncan fan and react like a younger brother desperately trying to protect his older brother's legacy when people question him. Garnett, is another story. I respect his game and his will but despite all his swagger and intensity, there's something passive about his game. Yeah, he's a monster on defense and a warrior all around but I grew up with loving Patrick Ewing's Knicks and as much as I loved them unconditionally, I now realize that when your best player is a big man who doesn't want to get down in the low post rather than take 18-footers your in trouble. Duncan's legacy will be as a consummate winner and the best power forward ever. Garnett's will be more about '08 title and his statistically freakish stretch from 02-03 to 04-05 when he averaged 23.1 - 13.6 - 5.6. Just know that there was never a time when you could swap the two and it would be even. Duncan simply is a better basketball player. I know this all comes down to impossible to prove "intangibles" and stuff but Duncan's hardware is pretty amazing when you think about his various supporting casts and Garnett would have come in 3rd for Finals MVP in his one finals (people forget now how amazing Ray Allen was during that series and how much Garnett struggled). In the end Duncan gave you a better shot to win.

An email regarding Knicks vs. Celtics I sent to my Dad

Make it known to all that we just need to flip curry's expiring contract (btw how nice is it that it's finally expiring? it's like paying $400k on annual car payments for a a f*cking Ford Pinto), Danilo & Anthony Randolph (love his potential, always have, but if he can't make it here, he can't make it anywhere and he won't) for Carmello! Yeah it would lead to Amar'e and 'Mello making the least defensive forward tandem in the league but we're not exactly tossing out a defensive stud in Gallinari and Mello has a higher ceiling as far as turning on the defense in the playoffs. This move takes a ton of scoring pressure off of Felton (btw, he needs a nickname, something endearing to show him the appreciation for being the first engaging Knick Point Guard of my life, not counting how engaging the whole Starbury/Truck Party story was) and gives us 3 all stars and a guy to allow Amar'e more freedom to work down low. The main thing about that deal that saves us is the fact that we don't let go of Landry Fields (aka the David Lee of wing players, great instincts, plays hard, and gives us the token awesome white guy that this city secretly craves) or Wilson Chandler who is secretly better than Danilo, not quite as good a shooter but very useful in that department but also the most underrated in game dunker in the league and can thrive either starting or coming off the bench. Final thoughts on the night: We hung up 116 on the best team in our conference, a team that has climbed the mountain and we were decimals on a second off from Amar'e hitting the biggest clutch shot of his career and no one other than our rookie guard underachieved in the biggest game we've had this season. Spike is happy, Woody is happy, Clyde is happy, at least for one night the Garden was totally the way it's supposed to be. We're back. Now let's f*ck up Miami and enjoy watching Chris Bosh get dunked on over and over by a pissed off Amar'e

So are you gonna get into the Truck or what?

Welcome to my personal truck party. For the rest of eternity I plan to offer up my humble opinion on what I see going on in the life of my greatest love: the National Basketball Association. You can expect a few things from me here. I will mainly be talking about the sport of basketball though occasionally will touch on football, baseball and soccer. There will be an extreme New York bias, get ready for Knicks talk. I will constantly be jumping back and forth from totally positive to borderline suicidal based on how things are going from the Knicks, I'm an all or nothing type of guy. Finally, I hope that I can bring you a unique take on basketball, sports, and media in general. As Stephon Marbury once said in his greatest contribution to New York Basketball Lore "So are you gonna get in the Truck or what?"