NBA blogging thievery

Yahoo's Ball Don't Lie has what they call The Ten Man Rotation. Every day they find interesting NBA stories on the interwebs and post the links. Usually I'm not overly interested in what they find, but today's entries are pretty good. With apologies to J.E. Skeets and crew, I've copied the more intriguing items here, with my comments in italics. But seriously, go check the whole thing out here.

C: FirstCuts. NBA All-Stars will play "G-E-I-C-O," not "H-O-R-S-E" in Phoenix. This is completely and utterly lame. I realize it's a televised event, and television is all about sponsorships and money, but come on. I think it's bad enough that we have to attach sponsor names to every event these days... but even "The Geico H-O-R-S-E Competition!" is better than this terrible idea.

PF: D.C. Sports Bog. Why is Gilbert Arenas wearing a hotel "Do Not Disturb" sign around his neck? Because Gilbert Arenas is crazy. Not "lock him in a mental institution" crazy, but crazy all the same.

SF: NBA FanHouse. What's the matter with Amar'e Stoudemire? (It has to be the apostrophe, right?) There's no reason Amare shouldn't be averaging at least 10 rebounds a game. He's currently at eight.

6th: The Sporting Blog. With all due respect to Brand, his season-ending is a good thing for the Sixers. With the injuries to big men like Brand, Bynum, Jermaine, Oden, etc., it's amazing Karl Malone missed only ten games in 18 years in the NBA.

8th: Didn't Draw Iron. If you cry easily, don't click this link: Dirk Nowitzki breaks a kid's heart. Dirk is a huge punk.

9th: Talking Points. Tim Kawakami selects his mid-season NBA All No-Defense Team. He didn't name Carlos Boozer or Okur... we must avenge this injustice!

Recurring dreams

I have three recurring dreams. I've experienced one or more of these dreams at least once a week over the past five years or so.

The first is your typical "Hey, I'm back where I served my mission" dream all returned missionaries have. Had this one a couple night ago... I was just visiting Mada, not a missionary (I am very rarely wearing the white shirt and tie), and generally having a good time catching up with members I know over there. A thought came to me, "How did I get here? I don't remember the 30 hours of travel from Idaho," and somehow the answer was supplied: "You slept the entire plane ride over, don't worry about it." That satisfied my dreaming consciousness, and good times continued. I'm always really fluent in Malagasy in these dreams, but I think that's because my brain is generating all the words and phrases used, and it can't generate what it doesn't already know. I wonder how well I'd really do if I went over there today.

The second is one where I can breathe underwater. Usually it starts out where I'm in a pool or a lake or whatever and at a pretty good depth. For whatever reason, I try to breathe a little and it works. I have to keep my breathing slow and steady, or else I choke on the water, but I can stay underwater indefinitely. It's pretty fun.

The third is one I experienced again last night. You know how a lot of people have dreams where they can fly? My version of that is where I can dunk a basketball. And I'm not just slipping the ball over the rim, either; I'm skying like Dwight Howard's Superman dunk on steroids.



So yeah, that's me, except about 18 feet in the air. Last night the scenario was that a friend and I had shown up at a weekly pickup game at some church (I think only Mormons would ever have that dream). They already had 10 guys ready to play, so we sat out at first and waited to sub in. The team I was on went down 10-2 early, and I was chomping at the bit to get in. After what seemed like way too long, one of my teammates finally came out and I hopped in. I almost immediately took a couple jumpers and missed badly, so I decided to start taking it to the hoop.

The funny thing is that it's hard to control this extreme jumping. The gravity seems a bit lower than normal, so it's not like I fall quickly, but angling my body from six feet above the hoop down to the exact area where I can get the ball through the rim is tough. Adding to the difficulty is the fact that the guy guarding me can sky as high as I can. Maneuvering around him while aiming for the orange rim is tricky.

And it's not like I'm throwing it down with authority, either. Since I have zero experience dunking in real life, I'm not quite sure how to hold the ball correctly, so most of the time it's kind of bumbling around in my hands while I get it through the basket. The lower gravity also means I'm falling slower, so the lesser force behind the action might have something to do with it, too.

The weirdest thing is that I don't even get that much satisfaction from dunking. It's just a way for me to score... it's not as though I'm excited that I finally did it, like I'd normally be.

Thanks for joining me in today's episode of "A Look Into Brandon's Psyche." Join us again next time as Brandon tackles his dislike for corn as anything but a side dish.

Utah and hoops talent

ESPN's Truehoop blog features an interesting NBA-related concept: territorial-based teams. In a nutshell, what if players could only play for the team in the region of the country they grew up in?

A blogger in Philly spent forever compiling the data and came up with some interesting results.

New York's team:

PG Ben Gordon (Mount Vernon, NY)
SG Ron Artest (Queens, NY)
SF Lamar Odom (South Jamaica, NY)
PF Elton Brand (Peekskill, NY)/Ryan Gomes (Waterbury, CT)
C Charlie Villanueva (Queens, NY)

And Portland:

PG Jason Terry (Seattle, WA)/Rodney Stuckey (Kent, WA)
SG Brandon Roy (Seattle, WA)
SF Jamal Crawford (Seattle, WA)
PF Marvin Williams (Bremerton, WA)
C Carlos Boozer (Juneau, AK)

But what I found most interesting is that the only Utah native this guy could feasibly put on the Jazz was the retired Ute grad Keith Van Horn, and he was born and raised in California.

I've theorized that the Wasatch Front contains more basketball hoops per capita than any other region in the country. Between hoops in every other driveway and courts in every LDS church, it's apparent there's no lack of interest in the game among the young men of Utah. Junior Jazz is a big organization, and the state has three Div-1 basketball schools.

Yet we can't field a solid NBA player to save our lives.

Do we attribute it to race? Are white boys just doomed to a life of basketball mediocrity? Or is it something else, like the effect of LDS missions on kids with promising talent?

It's an interesting question.

Rajoelina refuses to step down

It looks like my first impression, that Antananarivo mayor Andry Rajoelina would fade into the background, was not entirely accurate. Reuters reports that the major vows to continue his fight against President Ravalomanana.

"The people of Antananarivo who elected Andry Rajoelina will not let this be. The people will not allow the government to ridicule their choice," Rajoelina told supporters outside his old office.

However, the article also states that only a few hundred gathered to support Rajoelina at his latest rally, compared to the few thousand he had attracted as recently as last week, so we may be seeing the end of this conflict yet.

NBA injuries and HORSE

Major injury-related goings-on in the NBA lately, and not of the trivial kind, either. Quick rundown:

1. First, Andrew Bynum went down with what has been diagnosed with a torn MCL after being hit on the knee by teammate Kobe Bryant. It's not much of an understatement to say that a large part of the Lakers' championship aspirations are on the shoulders of their fourth-year center. He's supposed to be out 8-12 weeks, which means he could very likely miss the first round of the playoffs or more. And as nice as a nucleus of Kobe, Gasol and Odom is, it might not be enough to beat a hungry New Orleans or healthy Spurs team.

Bynum was averaging 14 and eight in 29 minutes per game, and had some monster games before the injury.

2. But speaking of New Orleans, Chris Paul went down with a right groin injury against the Trailblazers last night. From the Basketbawful blog:

When Paul left with 1:30 left in the third, New Orleans was up on Portland 72-55. They were then outscored 42-17 [!!] the rest of the way, including 38-15 in the fourth quarter, en route to losing 97-89. No doubt if you look up "complete and total collapse" in the dictionary, you'll find a short description of this game.

Good gravy... I knew Paul made this team go, but that's flat-out amazing. If you watch Hornets' games, you see just how involved CP3 is on every single play the team runs while he's on the court. If he doesn't pass to the guy who's shooting, he shoots it himself. It's a small wonder he's so statistically dominant... when 95% of your team's plays are run directly through you, your stats will benefit. But if he can't be back for the playoffs, this is another team that can't get it done with the remaining pieces.

3. And finally we have the Magic. Just as things were clicking in Orlando, Jameer Nelson tore his right labrum (shoulder) and is out the rest of the season. From Yahoo!'s Ball Don't Lie blog:

It's no slam on the rest of the Magic if we don't expect much from this lot with Jameer Nelson out. Nobody should try to tell you that Jameer is this team's best player, he's not; but he's also an All-Star point guard who can defend, rebound, start a break, push the ball, make good decisions, and destroy teams from all over the perimeter. 50 percent shooting, 89 from the stripe, and 45 from behind the arc? And he can create his own shot? Instead of ruing this team's cloudy future, let's appreciate the sort of year Nelson has had to this point.

And they're right. I've had Jameer on a few fantasy teams over the recent years, and he's never been spectacular. But this year it seems like he made the leap, averaging almost 17 points and five assists a game, while shooting well from everywhere (see above). Though to be honest, I can't understand how someone who has Dwight Howard to lob passes to in the paint and Hedo Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis to kick the ball out to on the wings averages only five asissts a night.

That said, the team is worse without him. This may end the Magic's hopes for a championship.

4. Oh, and the Jazz continue acting as the league's official MASH unit, as Deron sat out last night's game against Charlotte with a contusion above his right knee. Boozer remains out and Andrei is still missing due to an ankle injury. So, uh, their championship plans are also in peril.

And finally, on a lighter note, I bring up another NBA All-Star Weekend suggestion from Bill Simmons from 2002:

Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, children of all ages ... I will now let loose the greatest theory ever unleashed on Page 2, something that even surpasses the stark, overwhelming power of The Ewing Theory. My buddy Joe House and I hatched this plan four years ago on my old website, and it's the only way "All-Star Saturday" can be saved. You ready?

H-O-R-S-E. Every hoops junkie has played roughly two million games of HORSE over the course of his basketball life. It's the greatest game of all-time. This isn't even an argument -- it's an out-and-out fact. Everyone loves HORSE.

Well, it took seven years, but Simmons' dream has been brought back from the dead (apparently the NBA had a HORSE competition until it died sometime in the 80's).

Looks like it'll be fun. Some think the bigger stars won't want to participate, but I hope they do. How awesome would be it be to see Howard and Lebron trying to one-up each other with ridiculous shots? I'm watching.

Republicans showing backbone?

This is a bit late, but I wanted to add my two cents about this whole "No Republicans in the House voted for the Economic Stimulus Bill holy cow maybe they're actually showing fiscal conservatism" thing.

On its face, this move gives conservatives reason to be somewhat hopeful. However, my cynical side believes something else is going on.

People have a natural tendency to behave more appropriately when someone nearby is not. When Billy in your second-grade class is drawing on the wall with crayons, some people will join him, but some will tattle to the teacher.

As adults, this phenomenon can be even more pronounced. When that couple is talking loudly in the theater, aren't you less likely to talk to the person you're with? And if someone throws their sandwich wrapper on the ground, won't you be sure to put yours in the trash?

In this way, I think the House Republicans saw someone else (the Democrats) pouring tons of pork into this supposed "stimulus bill" and put their collective foot down. Never mind the fact that for the past eight years the very same House Republicans had been part of a massive, unchecked spending spree that was very un-fiscally conservative. Oh no, now little Billy is drawing on the walls, so the Republicans decided to be good.

In addition, what do the Republicans have to lose? Their votes were entirely meaningless, as the bill easily passed in the House without them. They could afford to take this very public stand, get kudos from people like Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham, and earn votes in the next election.

Do I hope this means Republicans are coming to their senses? Yes. Do I think they really are? No.

The more I look at the issue of term limits, the more I like them. Seems no matter how well-intentioned someone is when they first get to Washington, it only takes a few years before they're as political and power-hungry as everyone else there.

More from Madagascar

Thanks to the BBC for the following two articles.

This one is actually from last Thursday; it just overviews the violence and protests that have already occurred in Antananarivo. However, it does have a short clip taken of the shop that burned and collapsed, killing over 40 suspected looters.

The latest news is that President Ravalomanana has fired Tana mayor Rajoelina after the mayor declared himself in charge of "national affairs" on Saturday.

Analysts say Mr Rajoelina has successfully tapped into widespread frustration with the government, but may have over-played his hand in trying to overthrow the president, whom he calls a dictator.

It looks like Rajoelina has gone quietly, so the crisis may be over. We'll have to wait and see. I'd like to try and find out why Rajoelina is calling Ravalomanana a dictator.