More NBA thoughts.

For my playoof predictions and some team insights, go to the post below this one...in the meantime...here are just some random thoughts on the new season.

-- I'm ecstatic. Around late August I get a modest NFL bug that usually involved some palpable anticipation for Week 1 and some big blowout viewing day where I sit around with either fam or friends and watch football and football-related programming from 10 am until midnight. But by mid-September, with the NFL sheen having worn-off and my pennant attention just rounding into form, I'm overcome with sports depression, longing for MY season to start up. By October, with meaningless training camps and empty trade talks only stoking that frustration, I'm going bonkers. So that first week of NBA action is always like Christmas for me. Extreme anticipation and rarely any disappointment. Yesterday's Houston-LA game ended up being kinda special. My favorite moment? On Houston's last possession, the one where Oreo-cookie Battier hit that 26-foot prayer, Mac had the ball approaching the top of key. Of course, Kobe was guarding him. It looked like it was gonna be mano-mano and Kobe was crouched mad low to the floor and then pounded his palms on the hardwood, like "BRING IT NIGGA!" That's why Kobe is my nigga. NOBODY else in the league, other than KG would have been relishing that chance to stop a peer on that stage so much. It's that kind of mentality that makes Kobe at least a head above his peers. He wanted Mac to try to win the game on him so bad. As un-hip-hop as Kobe is, that was so hip-hop, right there.

-- I'm kinda tight on the new string of NBA commercials. What's with all the melodrama? Other than the RV joints with the ESPN personalities and the players, every other commercial is like some mini-drama. Wade's commercial; Bron's commercial; those NBA is amazing commercials. Everything is so serious. And it brings me to an issue I have with the NBA. On one hand, I hate how they pander to casual fans with ish like dress codes and what not, but it's in trivial stuff like commercials where they could do stuff to attract causal fans and I'd think that -- in cynical America -- the casual fan would be more interested in commercials that generate superficial excitement than some commercials that are trying to tug heart-strings or exhibit the "weight" of the league. For me, being an NBA fan on the maniacal level that I am, it's a weird position, because fans like me always feel like the league is under attack, because it is. MLB super-fans have it good. Even with steroids, their game will ALWAYS have storied traditions to fall back on and, when all else fails, MLB will always have the advantage of trotting out nonathletic, very ordinary looking white dudes for American fans to identify with. Aside from the beauty of the game, you cannot tell me that history and the identity-connection fans have with the ordinary-joe lookin players doesn't weigh heavily into fans love of the game. Mike Lowell looks like a friend or relative of 75% of the fans that come to Fenway Park. Paul Pierce does not look like their friend. (I think this is why UFC is overtaking boxing in popularity as well. Plumber-Crack Joe loves to root for Chuck Liddell, but not a Mexican that looks like one of the essays taking one of his pal's construction gigs). The NFL is the NFL because games are events and games are events because games don't happen often. And the NFL is the NFL because it is still a league where the most important and identifiable position is predominantly manned by Americana white dudes. Yes its fast and ferocious -- but make the games twice/wk and make the QBs all look like Randy Moss and let's see how popular it stays. The NBA has a litany of issues, all exacerbated by short-history, length of season and the way the players look and behave (and when I say behave, I don't necessarily mean bad-behavior). Real fans notice this and real fans hate the way the NBA is generally treated by media and other sports fans, so real fans are consistently concerned with the NBA getting things right and getting the wolves off our backs. With that said, these commercials -- a way to advertise the league and the stars -- seem to be counter=productive or, at the very least, ineffective...unless you're a real fan.

-- I'm not a Utah fan -- by any means. But I am a Boozer and Deron fan. And they both represent (in different ways) two recent trends in the league. Remember when point guard was a dying position? No one knew how to run a team...it was a bunch of wannabe Zeke's pounding the ball into the arena's basement. Well, the position is still far from where it used to be, but there are more quality, natural points today than at any point during the past 10-15 years. While the point guard position was dying a slow death, big men, particularly power forwards started proliferating at ridiculous rates and all these dudes were ultra-skilled, thanks to Magic and the door he opened for versatilty coming from dudes taller than 6-7. In fact, the two trends could be linked. The slow-death of point guards was actually partly a product of the new versatile big men that could get their OWN shots, hence rendering playmaking less of an essential for modern point guards. Point guards started becoming lead guards, with Gilbert Arenas being today's best example.

These days? You have point guards like Mike Conley coming in the league and dudes like Chris Paul and TJ Ford already here and yes Deron Williams. I think Deron, in fact, may be the best and most complete of them all. He shoots well, is a ridiculously strong perpetrator and finisher, knows how to run an offense and plays sticky D. I clowned Deron coming into the league. I was all about Chris Paul, who was more prototypical at the time (Deron could showcase everything at Illinois because he played with Dee Brown and Head and they all sort of shared PG responsibilities in many ways). And although Lil Chrissy is still my dude, I think Deron is iller. They both, ultimately, are the two best examples that young niggas coming in the league these days are actually taking the PG responsibilities seriously. This is incredible news for fans.

On the flip side, Boozer is an aberration amongst his generation of big men. He may not be as versatile as the big men that came in the league between 93-00, but all those dudes really knew how to play basketball. Whether it was Webber, KG, Duncan, Brand, Coleman, LJ, whoever...these dudes could handle the rock, pass out of double teams, shoot 18 footers, rotate on defense, conduct successful drop steps, shoot little bankers off the glass. I feel like that generation produced the most skilled (although not most accomplished) set of big men in the history of the game. Fast forward to today and the only dude I see playing seriously heady ball from the recent 5 or 6 drafts is Boozer. Boozer aint the most skilled or athletic, but he's the smartest and most consistent. He won't stall an offense, he knows how move in the flow, he can hit 15 footers, you can throw it down to him in the post, he's an excellent rebounder and great POST DEFENDER. When I say post defender, I mean post defender -- a nig who doesnt let opposition get great post position, denies the ball, stays on his feet, boxes out, closes in tight on his weakside help assignments...not these other knuckleheads that are consistently out of position and come flying in the picture trying to swat balls, collecting fouls, allowing back doors. Amare and Dwight are my two whipping boys for this trend because they annoy me when I watch them play. Dwight is great rebounder, but streaky defender and sometimes horrible offensive player. He can only dunk it seems. Amare is fantastic with his innate sense of how to roll and rub off picks and find away to drop buckets in close, but besides that his offensive game is limited, he's NEVER averaged even 10 boards a game and he's an atrocious team defender and post defender. Chris Bosh is soft and looks like a Raptor and has no scrotums to speak of. Okafor is a great defender, but his offensive skill set is limited Dwight Howard-limited, but mad limited. There is not one kat rollin right now that could hold KG, Duncan or even Webber's jock straps when they were in their primes. Somethin better give, because as much as like Boozer and love his approach to the game, if he's the most reliable and productive big man of thew generation then I might have to start rethinking my Platinum age theory.