2007 Playoffs: unedited reactions

First...I got some news for ya. My freelance work is picking up. You can catch me ion next month's issue of SLAM. SLAM is like Vibe, or better yet, XXL (which is our sister publication and housed on the same floor with us, KING, Scratch some of other pubs under the same media umbrella) for all basketball (NBA, NCAA, Streetball and high schools). I'd say its most popular with fans 10-35, specifically 10-25 and urban kids...they read SLAM way before they read Sports Illustrated. I also edit for SLAM, as well, so I guess you can call them my employer, but not in the full sense. Also, you all see that link to allmusic.com on the side of my blog...that's been my No. 1 source for music info (reviews/bios/discographies/release dates) for the past 6 or 7 years. Well, based on the stuff I've been doing for ThisIsRealMusic (which, by the way, our new issue just hit the web May 1st, go check it out, we got stuff on Sa-Ra, Eric ROberson, Anthony Hamilton, OC, Parliament-Funkadelic...) they asked me to be a part-time music critic.

Anyways...back to SLAM...I've been covering the Toronto-New Jersey series for them this past week. You can catch my stuff at slamonline.com. Meanwhile, I got an email from my friend Jemele (the Sojourner Truth of black women sports columnist, better known as that black girl who writes for ESPN and said that Kobe is better than MJ)...she mandated that I provide some thoughts on the first round of the playoffs...I told her I'd blog about it. So here it is...

First of all, J has this habit of calling athletes sexuality into the question. Not in a "I think Carlos Boozer gave Kirilenko a reacharound in the shower after Game 6 as a thank you for finally showing up and helping out the squad"...it's usually much deeper and absolute, like "Dirk is a b***h a$% p8$&y!" More accurately, i guess, she calls their gender into question.

Within weeks of meeting this women a few years ago, we were all sitting over my boy Kyles crib watching the ACC tourney and conversation turned to Steve Francis (who was the star of the Orlando Magic at the time) and she was calling him, "a vaginal ho".

I'm taking this opportunity, to cosign her emasculation of Dirk Nowitzki. One of the aspects of the Nets-Raptors series I've harped on was how soft Bosh was playing. I've always considered him to be too finesse and girly in the paint to ever be considered elite in my book, but I'm totally baffled at how unassuming he's been in this series when he should be stepping up. I remarked to some Toronto fans that, if Bosh played for a team that mattered on the national scene, he'd be a pariah by now and all you need to do is look at Dirk for evidence. He's getting deservedly trashed. And he should. Barkley said it best on last nights postgame show (and echoed comments I wrote about Bosh), when he said its not that Dirk is having an off nioght, its that he doesnt seem to be trying.

Mark Cuban likened Dirk's performance to Michael Finley going 1-18 against the Spurs in 2005...but Dirk's performance is entirely different. First, Finley was one of three stars (him, Nash and Dirk) so it wasnt absolutely incumbent upon him to carry the Mavs that year, whereas Dirk is the unidisputed alpha dog on this Mavs squad and a poor performance from him can spell doom. But second, and most important, Finley was aggressive in that game. He shot 18 times. Dirk took 1 shot during the Warriors decisive third quarter when they scored 18 unanswered points. ONE F'N SHOT!!!! HE SHOULD BE SHOT FOR TAKIN ONE F'N SHOT!!! Its inexcusable. More than anything, the Mavs needed to see some agression and confidence from Dirk during that quarter, not some cowering douche-bag, willing to let the game carry one without trying to will an outcome more favorable for his team.

I thought Bosh had been the worse performer of the Playoffs, but it's clearly been Dirk. And even though Avery was probably outcoached by Nellie, I'm placing 80% of the blame on Dirk, much like I think people calling for Mitchell's head in Toronto is faulty, since Bosh is acting like a slit.

As far as the Warriors go, other than the Lakers and the Wizards, I'm riding with G State. My father always says that its hot to see a team full of "brothers" and when he says "brothers" he means our darker shade negros. One of the reason's why Duke still seemed elitist and almost sinister was that they only seemed to recruit lighter skin players for a while, save the few exceptions (Brian Davis, Tommy Ameker)...it was like they were saying: "If we gotta bring in Negros, lets not get to negroish". But when G State trots out Richardson and Baron and Pietrus and Jackson and what not, its an ill look, seriously, just the look of the team is hot, especially since theyre a body of interchangeable parts -- all 6-4 to 6-9 -- and they're running, leaping all over the place. Teams are gonna have problems with them for the remainder of the playoffs. However, Utah and Houston will both manage better, I think, because they have big men that present the same offensive problems for GState and GState's smaller lineup does for its opponent.

Everyone went hysterical when Avery went small, but I think it was a good idea in theory (minue the psychological drawback). The thing about Dallas big men is that none of them (not Dirk, not Diop, not Dampier) were gonna be killin the GState small guys in the post and as you can see, everyone on GState was flying in the air grabbin boards, too. For instance, when its said an done, Jackson and Harrington and Richardson can jump as high, if not higher than all of Dallas' big men. Diop and Dampier arent the most savvy dudes, so its not like they clearin out mad space and bullying the lil guys and Dirk is a softy...so the Mavs didnt even have a clear advantage inside using big men. Houston will, so will Utah. Either Yao or Boozer will give GState fits. And Deron is more apt to slow Baron down than the Mavs shrimp-PGs...we all know what Tracy can do...even Juwan could give them problems. Fact is, I don't think GState is gonna be running Houston or Utah off the floor next round. we shall see.

I would spit on my Lakers, but I'm just frustrated.

However, I would like to remind everyone that Miami payed Shaq 20 million this year and will be doing so for 2 more years.