bulls-knicks
And this was one of the Bulls' better moments last night.

The Chicago Bulls Defense: This ball-buster can be summed up by one simple stat:

16-for-24.

That's what the Bricks, er, Knicks shot from three-point range last night. For those of you who enjoy simple math, that's a 66 percent rate of accuracy.

Can you say "outlier"? No, really. Let's compare that to how well New York shot threes in their first three games: 7-for-24 (29 percent), 9-for-27 (33 percent) and 7-for-28 (25 percent). As a whole, that's 23-for-79 (29 percent).

So...yeah. Still, you'd think that, at some point, the Bulls would have come at them with some aggressive hand-to-the-face action, right?

Wrong.

Then there was the whole Danilo Gallinari situation. Check out the kid’s game log. Going into last night's game, he had scored a total of 18 points on the season while going 5-for-25 (20 percent) from the field and 2-for-11 (18 percent) from downtown. Against the Bulls, Gallinari scored 24 points -- 21 in the first half -- on 7-for-11 (63 percent) shooting, including 4-for-4 (100 f**king percent) from beyond the arc.

It doesn't stop there. It's just getting started.

In all fairness, Toney Douglas had been playing better than Gallinari. He'd scored a total of 32 points in New York's first three games while going 14-for-28 (50 percent) from the field...although only 3-for-12 (25 percent) from three-point range. Last night, Douglas wet 9-for-14 (64 percent) from the field and 5-for-9 (55 percent) on threes. He finished with a career-high 30 points.

Said Douglas: "I make sure that every time I shoot it that I have confidence that it’s going in. I can miss 10 in a row. I’m going to shoot the next one and make it."

Allen Iverson would be proud. But I can guarantee Tom Thibodeau isn't.

The crazy thing is, it's not like the Bulls weren't playing any D. They held New York to 42 percent shooting (24-for-56) inside the arc (thanks largely to Amar''''''e Stoudemire -- see below). Yes, they were slow to rotate on several three-point attempts. And some rotations were missed entirely. But several of those threes were contested. The Knicks were just unconscious. Raymond Felton -- a 32 percent career three-point shooter -- went 4-for-6. Bill Walker and Landry Fields each went 1-for-1.

It was demoralizing. Especially at the end of the first half, when everybody in a Bulls uniform looked shell-shocked. What can you do when your opponent is shooting beyond lights out? Every Chicago run was answered by another three-pointer or two or three or...they just kept coming. Next thing you know, the Bulls were leaving their feet, reaching in, and hacking their way to giving up 29 free throw attempts.

The Knicks were even on fire from the line, going 24-for-29 (82 percent) after shooting 18-for-27 (66 percent) and 14-for-25 (59 percent) in their previous two games.

The Bulls further hurt their cause with careless passing, giving up 26 points off 20 turnovers. The starters combined for 14 of those turnovers. Don't get me wrong. The extra passing was leading to offense -- Chicago had 27 assists on their 42 buckets -- but you don't want it leading to offense for the other team too.

Well, that's what happened last night. Especially during the final minutes of the second quarter. With the Knicks leading by 20-ish and closing in on a 70-point first half, the Bulls looked sluggish and confused, leading to one of the worst four-possession sequences I've ever seen: Possession 1: Noah was called for a three-second violation. Possession 2: Gibson traveled. Possession 3: Deng had the ball stolen by Gallinari. Possession 4: Deng committed an offensive foul.

The saddest part of the whole mess is that Thibs had to bench Deng, Noah and Rose to fire up his team. And Chicago's reserves very nearly made a game of it. A three-pointer by Korver cut New York's lead to 95-87 with 11:21 to go in the fourth. Of course, Douglas nailed a trey on the Knicks' next possession.

That's just the kind of night it was for the Bulls.

The New York Knicks defense: Let me be clear about this: The Knicks beat the Bulls because they drilled nearly 70 percent of their three-point attempts. They didn't win because of their defense.

The Bulls actually had a great offensive night themselves, shooting 52 percent from the field and nearly 50 on threes (9-for-19). Derrick Rose was great (24 points, 14 assists), Kyle Korver was on fire (18 points, 7-for-10), Taj Gibson was hitting on all cylinders (18 points, 10 rebounds) and Joakim Noah was Joakim Noah (12 points, 13 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks).

Sure, the Knicks had 12 steals, but a lot of those were the results of really sloppy passes by the Bulls.

Amar''''''e Stoudemire: Before the game, the TNT crew (Ernie, Kenny and Charles) were discussing STAT's season-to-date. I don't remember the exact quotes, but I believe Ernie asked whether Stoudemire misses Steve Nash on offense, and Kenny replied that Nash was missing Amar''''''e more.

Really?

Sure, Stoudemire came into the game averaging over 20 PPG. But he was also shooting 45 percent...down from almost 56 percent last season and 54+ percent for his career. Against the Bulls -- and on a night when seemingly every other Knicks player had it going -- STAT went 5-for-21 (23 percent). All that three-point shooting should have opened up the inside for Amar''''''e to g to work, right?

In theory. And if Stoudemire had actual inside moves and stuff. His entire post-up menu seems to be composed of 1) beat defender off the dribble or layup or dunk, and 2) fumble around the paint until I can force up an awkward jumper/scoop/chuck/etc.

But hey, at least he had 8 turnovers and 6 personal fouls.

Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith, quote machine: While discussing Amar''''''e:

Chuck: "What do you call a power forward averaging 7 rebounds a game?"

Kenny: "A small forward."
C.J. Watson: 1-for-7 and rapidly losing confidence in his jumper. As well he sould be.

Derrick Rose's respect for human life: Out of the Bulls many lowlights against the Knicks comes this one highlight: D-Rose trying to destroy anyone within a five-foot radius of the rim. Thanks to AnacondaHL for providing linkage.


And now again in HD...with replays:


Eddy Curry sighting: Did you know: Eddy Curry's $60 million contract was simply a clever ruse by Isiah Thomas to sign LeBron James? I'm dead serious. More on this below.

eddy curry
Admit it. You just squeed.

Ozzie Guillen: With no regard for human life fashion.

ozzie

The Portland Trail Blazers: I can't bust on the Frail Blazers too much.

Typical of this team's luck, they were already minus two centers (Greg Oden and Joel Przybilla) before Fabricio Oberto retired on them (see below). Portland also announced on Thursday that rookie Elliot Williams is likely out for the season because of surgery to repair a dislocated right patella. Oh, and then Rudy Fernandez missed the game because of back pain.

So it's not too surprising they were outlasted by the Thunder.

Still, Portland coach Nate McMillan thought his team wimped out a little bit: "I just think we settled. I thought there were lanes to drive and get to the basket against this team. There were a few times where we settled for the jump shot. We shot the ball well in the first half. In the second half, we continued to rely on the jump shot as opposed to attacking, being aggressive, playing from the inside out. We played on the perimeter tonight."

Reality check: The Blazers outscored the Thunder 50-34 in the paint. According to the shot chart, they attempted 28 layups. According to Hoopdata, NBA teams average 22.3 shots at the rim per game...and Portland averages 22.6. Of course, Oklahoma City currently leads the league in giving up shot attempts at the rim (31.0) and their opponents shoot the ninth-highest percentage from that range...so maybe Nate has a point.

Seattle Super Sonics fans: I appreciate their pain. I do. But at this point, it's kind of like Mike Tyson asking for another shot at Buster Douglas.

chewie
Poor Chewbacca still hasn't gotten over the
Imperial blockade of his home planet Kashyyyk.

Isiah Thomas: Has the man lost his mind? The answer is "yes" of course, but I'll let you be the judge. From ESPNNewYork:

Isiah Thomas thought he would be dead by age 20, so at 49 he offers no apologies for betting on himself. Exiled in Miami, haunted by his proximity to LeBron James, Thomas embraces his articles of blind faith like one would a baby in a storm.

Isiah believes James (and perhaps Dwyane Wade) would be starting for the New York Knicks if Isiah had remained president of the team.

Isiah believes he can recruit James out of Miami and into Madison Square Garden in 2014.

Isiah believes that, with or without James, he will someday help the Knicks win their first NBA title since 1973.

"I want to be on the float and I want to get my ring," Thomas said.
Whaaaaaa...? But wait. There's more.

Asked if he hopes to replace Donnie Walsh whenever the 69-year-old Knicks president retires, Thomas said, "Every single day of the week.

"When I look at my GM/executive record, if I'm evaluated on that, then whoever's after Donnie, if you're not talking about some of the top people in the game, I'll put my draft evaluation record up against anyone's."
Not done yet.

Vin Baker, Jerome James, Jared Jeffries.

There's no defending that, and Thomas knows it.

"But there were 24 All-Stars last year," he said, "and I left New York with two of them, David Lee and Zach Randolph. Jamal Crawford became a sixth man of the year."

Thomas believes injuries cost the Knicks a playoff appearance in 2007, the year he replaced Brown on the bench. "Before the trial," he said, "people weren't saying bad things about the Knicks. They were saying, 'Watch out for the Knicks.'"
Yeah, as in: "Watch out, whatever nasty shit they have all over them might get on you."

Here's the best part though.

Thomas said he needed to make the trade for Stephon Marbury to resuscitate a dead franchise. He blamed Brown for moving Trevor Ariza in the deal to acquire Steve Francis. Surrendering the draft picks that became LaMarcus Aldridge and Joakim Noah for Curry?

Curry played at a high level for Thomas for a bit, but soon enough devolved into a symbol of everything that went wrong between Seventh and Eighth avenues.

"There was a method behind the madness," Thomas said. He was confident Curry would opt out in 2010 to clear the necessary space for a fellow client of Leon Rose, name of LeBron James.

"My instincts always told me LeBron would be great in New York," Thomas said. "I remember talking to Jerry West about when he was going after Shaq and how he mortgaged the team and what he went through. I kept saying to Jerry, 'I think if I position this right, I'll have a shot at LeBron.'"
So let me get this straight. Wildly overpaying for Eddy Curry was all part of Isiah's master plan to bring King Crab to New York. He can't be serious. He just can't. It's not medically possible to be that retarded...is it?

Okay, I might have been wrong. This is probably the best part.

"In Toronto, Indiana and New York," Thomas said, "I've never actually gotten fired for a basketball reason."
Fun fact: During Isiah's reign of terror as the New York's President of Basketball Operations, the Knicks went 151-259 -- including 56-108 during his two-year stint as head coach -- and had zero playoff appearances. But he's never been fired for "a basketball reason."

Heart problems: They've robbed us of the Fabulous Oberto, who has officially retired because of a cardiac condition that caused heart palpitations and, presumably, totally awesome hair.

In a statement, Oberto said: "I made this decision to put my health and my family in front of basketball. It was a tough decision to make after playing for so many years, but it was the right one."

We at Basketbawful wish Oberto -- and especially his hair -- well.

Lacktion report: Chris had one brief entry from the Thunder-Blazers game: "Cole Aldrich combined currency for a 4.1 trillion (4:08) celebratory collection!"

Labels: , , , , ,

32 Comments:
Blogger 49er16 said...
I love Isiah. And I'm sure other NBA GM's miss him. Oh well, at least they have Chris Wallace and David Kahn to fill that void.

Blogger stephanie g said...
You know every once in awhile there's some nurse or doctor in the news who makes their patients sicker or even kills them? Well, I think there's one of those on the Portland medical staff. Instead of protein shakes they give out some sort of exotic bone dissolving gatorade. Get out why you still can, Oden!

Blogger AnacondaHL said...
More fun with Twitter, or rather, fun with Ted Leonsis:
"Ted Leonsis will do the "Dougie" just like @jimmywa11 did http://bit.ly/cfbd2u after first sold out game (no Miami, Boston or L.A. though)"
about 16 hours ago via web

Blogger Basketbawful said...
Although I suppose this should be a dead issue, I was reading through the FreeDarko post about Kevin Garnett that Wild Yams linked to in yesterday's BAD comments. It ends thusly:

"Why can't we just call an asshole an asshole every time he acts like an asshole? What the fuck do we owe Kevin Garnett?"

What strikes me interesting about the Kevin Garnett situation is how it compares to Michael Jordan's. No doubt, MJ was subtle where KG is obvious. But Jordan used to emasculate his opponents in with words that were demeaning, hurtful and even nefarious. He ripped people to shreds, and I can guarantee you he said worse things than "you look like a cancer patient."

But he didn't stop with opponents. He tormented teammates too. Basketball historians like to say MJ was "testing" them, trying to determine whether they were "winners." But Jordan's behavior was, at times, monstrous. He punched out Will Perdue and Steve Kerr in practice. He used to relentlessly trash talk and even physically abuse Scott Burrell -- who was, by all accounts, a really nice guy -- just because Burrell smiled a lot. I'm not making this up. Go read The Perfect Team: The Best Players, Coach, and GM-Let the Debate Begin! Jordan actually talks about how he treated Burrell, how he didn't feel Burrell deserved to show up to practice with a smile on his face because he hadn't accomplished anything as a player. And he, Jordan, felt like it was his job to wipe that smile of Burrell's face.

Remember: Jordan was deified. Still is, as a matter of fact. Yet his behavior was just as unpleasant as KG's, or even Bill Laimbeer's. Maybe more so because of the double standard. Remember his fight with Reggie Miller? Jordan wouldn't even go toe-to-toe with Reggie, who was like a sorry sack of bones. He tried to gouge out Miller's eyes. People forget that. KG jammed a taunting hand in Jose Calderon's mug and people still can't stop talking about it. What Jordan did to a peer...imagine if Garnett had tried to claw Tim Duncan's eyes out. That's roughly parallel to what MJ did.

But KG is going to go down as one of the great NBA assholes.

See, the FreeDarko guys got it wrong. They asked "Why can't we just call an asshole an asshole every time he acts like an asshole?" Uhm, that's exactly what happens. Every time KG has an episode, people call him an asshole. It happens here and everywhere else across the Internet. A better question is why do some players get the business while other players get the pass?

Blogger Caleb Smith said...
Not relevant to this particular WotN post, but hey Bawful... any reconsideration yet on the Hornets squad this year? 4-0 (2 of those on the road) against the Spurs, Nuggets and the arguably better than their record Bucks and Rockets.

Not saying they are a title contending team yet or anything, but they are playing great basketball right now. The defensive turnaround from last season to this season looks light night and day thus far. I really think Monty Williams has gotten the team to "buy in," so to speak.... and Ariza and Belineli are huge upgrades over a washed up James Posey and Julian Wright. Even Jason Smith seems to be an upgrade over Darius Songalia. I really like him.

Unfortunately they have to play Miami tonight, but hey they've got a shot.

Blogger Unknown said...
Had Isiah not been GM/coach and ruined the franchise, here is your 2010/2011 Knicks starting line-up: Felton, Ariza, Gallinari, Aldridge, Noah, with Randoph, Mozgov, Turiaf, Douglas, and Fields off the bench.

That team could be the four- or five-seed in the East today. Good, and with plenty of cap space after the 2009/10 season ended. You think Lebron would have joined that team...here's the alternate line-up:

Felton, Ariza, Lebron, Aldridge, Noah, with Gallinari, Randolph, Mozgov off the bench.

That would have been a scary good team, possibly better than Miami as currently constructed.

Blogger Caleb Smith said...
The realization that Jordan is a huge a-hole seems to be one that more and more people are making these days. It's just coming a bit late.

The difference I think IS the internet, stuff like twitter... the massive amount of blogs, etc. If Jordan was playing these days he probably would have the "great NBA asshole" rep.

Anonymous Hellshocked said...
If you count last night's game, Amare is actually averaging 19.5 points on a godawful 39% field goal percentage. That would make this his lowest rebounding season (4 games in) and his lowest field goal percentage (again, 4 games in) since those 3 games he played for Phoenix in 05-06. His field goal attempts are higher, his conversion rate is lower and he's also taking more jumpers than ever and fouling at a much higher rate. Yeah, I'd say he misses the hell out of Steve Nash.

But hey, he's shooting 40% from 3. That should end well.

Does Isiah think an owner out there somewhere is reading that interview and thinking "this is the guy I want to run things here"? There's no question Thomas has a pretty decent draft record but he has no business being in charge of a team. He signs players like he's playing fantasy basketball and paying them with monopoly money. Besides, anyone who willingly offers both Eddy Curry and Jerome James a contract should have their GM card revoked permanently.

Anonymous Marc d. said...
MJ got a pass because he played in a time without the 24/hr newscycle. KG even got a pass for a large portion of his career for the same reason.

Now, everything everybody says is immediately and thoroughly dissected and ripped apart to the point where nothing has any meaning anymore because EVERYONE has a contrasting opinion about it.

Not saying you are to blame, Bawful, since you do a pretty good job of remaining as unbiased (and by unbaised I mean completely biased against sucktitude, wherever it may be found), but really, the internet is ruining sports.

I just wish broadcasters/journalists/bloggers would get the F out of these people's personal lives and focus on the game. I think that's why I like this site so much, as it often makes fun of the overly-intrusive media through irony and sarcasm.

ESPN, esp, has really been pissing me off lately. I want analysis, not conjecture.

Blogger Onandonymous said...
Statistically, has anyone ever gotten 20 and 8 (or, hell, 20 and 5) less effectively than STAT did last night? It seems like a historically bad line. He's not that far from Voskuhl territory.

Anonymous Matt said...
I think there were a few different reasons that Jordan is treated differently. Firstly, the 24-hour news cycle wasn't in effect when he was playing, so we didn't have 283,000 TV commentators arguing about whether Jordan was a terrible human being or the worst human being of all time (non-Hitler/Stalin division).

Secondly, Jordan won. A lot. For a lot of people, that was a conversation ender. They didn't care how Jordan treated people because he was a winner and his behavior could be justified as being (potentially) an example of what he needed to do to keep on winning.

Anonymous Anonymous said...
"See, the FreeDarko guys got it wrong. They asked "Why can't we just call an asshole an asshole every time he acts like an asshole?" Uhm, that's exactly what happens. Every time KG has an episode, people call him an asshole. It happens here and everywhere else across the Internet. A better question is why do some players get the business while other players get the pass?"

In their own circuitous way, I'm pretty sure that is what they were saying through the use of the Michael Jordan example.

Anonymous Anonymous said...
"Does Isiah think an owner out there somewhere is reading that interview and thinking 'this is the guy I want to run things here'?"

I'm pretty sure there's an owner dumb enough to hire Isiah again. This is a league that provides gainful employment to people like Chris Wallace and David Kahn.

Anonymous Heretic said...
I can't believe I missed Kevin Love's handshake fail:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGFDF96hwTE&feature=player_embedded

Anonymous Toby said...
I think it's a matter of time and place. People either don't remember Jordan was (and probably still is) a jerk or they simply don't want to. Casual fans probably have no idea who Bill Laimbeer is or that he was such a dirty player. I do because my dad's mentioned it more than once. But Kevin Garnett is the league's current asshole. What he does matters more simply because he's still playing. And his antics have been compiled on YouTube for millions to view, over and over again. He also keeps adding fuel to the fire, which probably doesn't help his reputation.

Personally, I had no idea Jordan acted like he did but I was just a little kid at the time. And besides my favorite player was Dale Ellis, not MJ.

Anonymous Patrick said...
"My instincts always told me LeBron would be great in New York," Thomas said.

Ha! Great instincts! Not many other GMs would ingeniously intuit bringing the best player in the league to their team.

Blogger Basketbawful said...
I can't believe I missed Kevin Love's handshake fail:

I added that to yesterday's WotN post. Always check back, because I add various things throughout the day. Plug, plug, plug...

Blogger Paul said...
Mr. Baful said
Jordan stop with opponents. He tormented teammates too. But Jordan's behavior was, at times, monstrous. He punched out Will Perdue and Steve Kerr in practice. He used to relentlessly trash talk and even physically abuse Scott Burrell just because Burrell smiled a lot. Jordan actually talks about how he treated Burrell, how he didn't feel Burrell deserved to show up to practice with a smile on his face because he hadn't accomplished anything as a player. And he, Jordan, felt like it was his job to wipe that smile of Burrell's face.

Remember: Jordan was deified. Still is, as a matter of fact. Yet his behavior was just as unpleasant as KG's, or even Bill Laimbeer's. Maybe more so because of the double standard. Remember his fight with Reggie Miller? Jordan wouldn't even go toe-to-toe with Reggie, who was like a sorry sack of bones. He tried to gouge out Miller's eyes. People forget that. KG jammed a taunting hand in Jose Calderon's mug and people still can't stop talking about it. What Jordan did to a peer...imagine if Garnett had tried to claw Tim Duncan's eyes out. That's roughly parallel to what MJ did.


You're preaching to the choir Mr. Bawful. As a Chicago native I have up to this point remained impressed with Jordan's ability to engrave the minds of basketball fans with nothing but "Airness".

As a Laker fan, this isn't the first time this debate comes up.
I've never condoned Kobe's behavior towards team mates or the way he's handled his marital relationship.
But the same people that were quick to condemn Bryant for cheating fail to remember that MJ was a wife beater and possibly have more mistresses than Tiger Woods would ever dream. Which led to an ugly divorce that rid him of about $100 mill at the time.

So yeah, KG is an asshole but history shouldn't be kind to those that came before him.

Anonymous kazam92 said...
Fellas, I go to FIU and Isiah is our head coach. I actually saw him yesterday advertising the B-ball teams upcoming season. I regret not approaching him.

Blogger Siddarth Sharma said...

Anonymous JJ said...
Bawful,

Regarding Garnett/Jordan comparison, it might be because of the championships though it sounds cliche. Fans really do forgive (and forget) a lot for winning. And the more rings you get, the more they forget (the bad parts). Relatedly, championships cause the good parts to be exaggerated and immortalized.

For example, no one mentions the rapist past of Kobe anymore. All I ever hear now is how he's one of the greatest players ever, just because he got a few more rings since then. I didn't really look into it, but I'm assuming he probably got his endorsements back too.

Like the saying "the end justifies the means", winning justifies everything else. If Garnett gets a few more rings, people will forget his a-holeness and remember him as a passionate player who let his emotions get the better of him once in a while...all for a good cause, winning.

Anonymous Anonymous said...
For anybody interested in the real MJ as well as truly great sport books I can't recommend "The Jordan Rules" by Sam Smith and "When Nothing Else Matters" by Michael Leahy highly enough.

They are also great if you hate Doug Collins.

Blogger Paul said...
What should I do?
The people of Cleveland have answered.

That was some good shit, I'm still rolling.

Blogger Paul said...
BTW, I clicked on "public your comment" a little too early.
At any rate, about that answer to Lebron video.

This is one asshole that some people is just sweating a little too much. As a casual observer to me this back and forth is just entertaining.

Blogger Solieyu said...
Heh, I had a nice long post written up about revisionist history when it comes to star players like MJ, Kobe, Paul Pierce, et. al here on my Droid and how no matter how big an asshole you are, if you're winning people will forget about it. Its the sports version of Wag the Dog's war with Albania.

People are giving James a ton of flak right now. If the Heat win a championship or five everyone will forget about it. Just like everyone seems to have forgotten Kobe's whining of a few years ago immediately after Shaq and Phil left.

Its glaringly obvious why James is so defensive right now. The Decision was flipping retarded, but he carried a team of complete scrubs for seven years to compete with the league's elite with a team of nobodies (see current Cavs squad) and a kowtowing head coach. Unlike Jordan and Kobe, he's not a complete asshat to his teammates and opponents.

James' supporting cast was arguably worse than Kobe's post-Shaq, and he was a monumental douche bag the entire time. He certainly didn't put them on his back and carry them to two league-best regular season records, a couple conference finals and an NBA finals.

Then he gets Phil back. Gets Odom, gets Fisher back, gets Gasol gift wrapped and gets back to winning championships and no one remembers his colossal asshattery.

Same with Paul Pierce. No one liked the guy, and he'd basically been forgotten until he got KG and Ray Allen left on his doorstep for a box of girl scout cookies and admission into the tree house club (No Girls Allowed!).

KG is an asshole. I doubt this is a new development. It was just mitigated in Minnesota because its freaking Minnesota.

LeBron, D-Wade, Bosh, and CP3 don't act like douchebags to everyone around them. If this is the new breed of athlete I welcome it. The old guard can whine and moan all they want. I'd rather have the friendly competition.

Doc Rivers' comments on C. Bougainvillea are nonsense. Unwritten code about not complaining about trash talk? What the hell ever, Doc.

Blogger DC said...
Ozzie Guillen looks like an artistic Freddie Krueger in that picture.

And Jordan got away from his perception of being an asshole for several reasons.

(a) Winning titles
(b) Having David Falk and a bunch of other handlers keep his 'MJ acting like an asshole' episodes under wraps
(c) His endorsements, which showed him smiling and calmly shilling the merits of hot dogs, flavored sports drinks, and crappy batteries.
(d) Ditto for his press conferences (minus the shilling, at least overtly).

The last one is big, since his public personality was so different from his actual personality, and because many in the public have the perception of the public personality from his ads. I've compared Jordan/endorsement Jordan with Batman/Bruce Wayne before - one is the smiling businessman and philanthropist, and it was really the facade that hid the deep, tormented, do-whatever-is-necessary-at-any-cost soul within from the public.

Garnett doesn't help his case because his endorsements still show him as a screaming maniac. The 24/7 media doesn't help either.

Anonymous Anonymous said...
JJ:

Well a big part of the reason that Kobe's rape trial is forgotten is the fact that he was probably innocent and that as more time went by, the accuser started getting more and more sketchy. The Duke Lacrosse trial happening in short proximity also hugely helped his cause even though the two stories were completely unrelated.

I believe that if Kobe had appeared guiltier or if he had settled with the accuser before the information about her lying ( not to mention her well-used underwear, and the fact that she tried the same scam before) had come out, then history would have treated him considerably worse.


Regardless, applying the original point to Kobe, he does apply. He's done probably about 1/3rd as many of the teammate-killing superdickery as Jordan has, but because Kobe's career came at a more tuned in time, we have the image of Kobe as the ultimate team killer and ultimate villain of the league simply because we heard more about what Kobe did (and the fact that Shaq played the media way better than Kobe did).

Anonymous laddder said...
Solieyu said...
If this is the new breed of athlete I welcome it. The old guard can whine and moan all they want. I'd rather have the friendly competition.



friendly competition is weak, i agree there are boundaries, but if sports ever become the brady bunch or 7th heaven then were all doomed.

I miss the golden era of the NBA and boxing...

And I agree with most, winning will cover any bad image. It is after all why we follow these figures.

Blogger Michael Hsu said...
Hey knick fans take a picture because they will never be that hot again for the rest of the season.

What do you call a Forward/Center that plays for 7.5 minutes and has this line
2 points and 2 fouls with nothing else?

Brian Scalabrine. Tom Thibs mortgaged his whole career bring this guy in. Will win coach of the year and then get fired next year.

Anonymous Heretic said...
@Solieyu

I'm ok with guys being assholes. Its the douches I can't stand and Lebron is a major douche.

Anonymous SWaN said...
More on the power of winning from S.I.


• "Why does every [expletive] guy ask me about my [expletive] knee? Stop worrying about my [expletive] knee. I don't give a [expletive] what Phil Jackson says, leave me alone about my [expletive] knee."
-- K.B., Los Angeles

Have you ever noticed how often Kobe Bryant curses in public these days? He never used to swear during interviews, but now he does so routinely. Ever since he won the first championship without Shaquille O'Neal, Bryant has been more willing to let people see him for who he really is, and it hasn't always been pretty. He says some crass things at times, but if you don't like it, that's your problem. The freedom of not caring what people think appears to have liberated him.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/ian_thomsen/11/05/chris.paul/1.html

Anonymous Silvio said...
Not that I like Amar'''''e ... but in his defense:

1) Tom Thibodeau’s strategy was to stop Stoudemire:
http://nbaplaybook.com/2010/11/05/the-bulls-strategy-for-amare/

2) From Game 1 D'Antoni's concept is to get ball to Stoudemire outside paint:
http://knickerblogger.net/2010-2011-game-recap-ny-98-tor-93/
Hence, as Amar'''''e is not much of a ballhandler, too many turnovers, above average 3 pointers attempts and bad shooting percentage:
http://knickerblogger.net/a-look-after-3-games/
As both Mozgov and Turiaf are useless from anywhere but very close range, I kind of understand D'Antoni's idea ... but so far it's ... not epic fail ... but fail.

3) Felton's pick&roll game can not be compared with Steve Nash's. In fact, it is insult for Nash I mentioned two of them in same sentence.