Good vs Evil

The NBA Finals have begun so let's talk some storylines.  Here are a quick five that I've been thinking about... in no particular order.    

1.) Jason Kidd.  Last week we talked about how the outcome of this Finals series will shape the legacy of Dirk Nowitzki, but the same thing may be even more true of Jason Kidd.  Kidd is going to go into the Hall of Fame as one of the best 7 or 8 point-guards of all time.  But his only memorable post-season runs came in the early Otts with the New Jersey Nets, when he lead them out of the paltry East to the Finals twice in a row.  And where they were promptly, completely destroyed by the Lakers and Spurs respectively.   Maybe considered the smartest player of his era, Kidd has never been shown the kind of respect reserved for Magic, Cousy, West, Oscar Robinson, Clyde Frasier, and Isiah Thomas, because those guys all won the hardware at some point.  And Kidd never has.  So where does his legacy go if the Mavs can win this title? 

2.) Erik Spoelstra.  Met with such harsh criticism during the regular season, mainly because of the constant media attention (and the writers' subsequent need to write something… anything) coach Spo has emerged from the pressure cooker unscathed.  And now he’s poised to enter that ever-elusive fraternity of NBA Champion coaches, possibly to be known from now on as the Jackson Club.  All-time great coaches Jerry Sloan, Don Nelson, Rick Adelman, George Karl, and Jeff VanGundy aren’t in it.  But Spoelstra now has a chance be a part of the Jackson Club, at the ripe old age of 40.  It may be blasphemy to say it, but he looks like he could become the modern hybrid of Pat Riley and Phil Jackson (He's only 16 titles behind at this point.)  The calm intensity and work ethic of Riley, coupled with Jackson’s ability to shepherd mega-talents, creating inventive ways to motivate them and improve upon their weaknesses.  In a league where you must have great talent to compete, coach Spo has been gifted an amazing opportunity, but he still deserves a lot of credit for the Heat’s success.  And this could be the start of something huge. 

3.) Shawn Marion (and Peja Stojakovic.)  The Dallas Mavericks have spent the last ten years adding talent intermittently to their glitzy roster.  Some smart, some just head-scratchers, but none were as surprising to me as the 5 year $39 Million contract they doled out to Marion in 2009.  What were they thinking?  The Matrix had his hay-day with Steve Nash and Amar’e Stoudamire in the mid Otts while playing with the high-flying Phoenix Suns.  But he was apparently unhappy as a third fiddle, and he eventually forced his way out of town.  After that, the world crashed down around him and he slipped into obscurity; it looked like he was completely done.  But in this playoffs he has been rejuvenated and has played a large role in the Maverick’s resurgence.  To a much lesser extent, the same can be said of Peja.  In fact, there's no shortage of career redemption stories that hang in the balance on the Dallas side is there?

4.) aaand of course, Good vs Evil.  Okay, we’ve probably made too much noise about this particular theme here at the Underdogs, but what it really does is describe just how drastically these two teams contrast each other in style, personnel, hype, and how each team was constructed.  The Mavericks have played together for years, battling adversity together.  They have succeeded and failed over the years, and as I’ve alluded to earlier, they have now, almost poetically, been offered this one chance at redemption.  They represent stability, humility, perseverance, and a team that is truly more than the sum of its parts.  

The Miami Heat on the other hand have, fairly or not, come to represent excess, entitlement, arrogance, and big man on campus type status.  They were constructed in a way that no team in history had been before… overnight, and it instantly transformed them into a champion contender, seemingly without having to really earn it together on the floor.  That’s why America hates them.  America doesn’t like skipping steps, or any deemed honor given prematurely.  When a big flashy new-bully-on-the-block preens and gloats, predicting years of dominance before even playing a single game, (like LeBron did when he joined Miami last summer) America wants one thing… come-up-ance!  More than anything else in the world.  It’s like my boy, and Honorary Underdog Austen said the other day.  He wants to make a t-shirt that says, “I’m a __________ vs Miami Heat Fan!”  And you know those would sell!  It’s so odd, but the Heat have united America!  And the Mavericks represent the last hope against this mighty Evil-Empire-to-be.  It’s Luke’s one chance to destroy the death star, before it becomes too powerful to overcome.  Because very soon, it will be too late.        

This is the story of the Finals.  It is overly dramatic and possibly completely irrelevant, because all that’s really going to happen is that these two teams are going to go out and try to beat each other.  And it figures to be wonderfully entertaining ball.  For all of the Miami “Hate” they have been playing marvelously together these past weeks and the Mavericks have as well, so all that’s left is the showdown.  And that brings us to our last storyline. 

5.) The Refs.  Are they going to let them play?  Or are they going to call fouls every time LeBron and Wade drive to the basket and get bumped?  Will the Heat shoot 50 free-throws a game?  Oftentimes fouls are subjective, and the Heat’s attack options have the potential to make things really difficult for those guys.  Hopefully they’ll let them play and only blow the whistle when absolutely necessary, because the last time these two met in the Championship in 2006, the series was swung by some very questionable calls.  It needs to be more even this time.  Every fan has to accept that the refs are a big part of the game… but let’s just hope they're not the story!    

Enjoy the Finals. 

Underdogs OUT!              

The Good German... and America's New Team!

I got to see the Mavs earlier this year.

So last time, here at the Underdogs, we were anxiously awaiting either the Memphis Grizz or the Oklahoma City Thunder to emerge from their seven-game battle for Underdog royalty status.  And even though the Thunder came through with flying colors and ended the NBA’s only Cinderella story since the 1999 Knicks (and that was during the lockout-shortened "non-season") what Memphis was able to accomplish, considering they’d never won a playoff game before and they’d lost their best player for good a few months back, was still pretty amazing.  So they have assured themselves honorable mention at least.  But the Thunder came up huge when it counted most, and the feel-good story became theirs.  A small-market team, perennially in the lottery, built almost entirely through the draft of quality character guys that fit well together within the system, had risen up to be one of the NBA’s elite teams.  These guys had been so patient with their players.  I’m not sure they expected to be this good, this fast.  Their confidence was at an all-time high... but then of course... they ran into the Dallas Mavericks.

Now, the Mavericks have been overlooked by this blog (and probably other various forms of Underdog Media) for a number of years, because they have been a consistently good team.  They’ve had one of the best players of the last ten years in Dirk Nowitzki, and always had a seemingly deep team around him (because of their owner Mark Cuban’s deep pockets.)  But they were actually the kind of favorite that underdogs loved to play against.  In fact, the 2007 Underdogs of the Year, the Golden State Warriors, pretty much earned their title by dismantling the number 1 seeded Mavs in six games; the only time an eighth seed had beaten a first seed in a seven game series, until the Grizz duplicated that feat this year.  The Warriors just overwhelmed Dallas in that series, and most of the country relished in the monumental collapse of those “pretenders” from Texas, that had also choked away the Championship a year earlier to the Miami Heat.  They were considered physically soft, mentally insufficient, and worst of all… un-clutch.

Jason Kidd and Dirk.  Two more Hall of Famers.

That year, Dirk infamously had to accept his MVP trophy during the third week of the playoffs, from his living room.  Usually it’s done on the court before a game.  It was the first time I’d ever seen that happen, and it had to have been a huge humiliation for him.  After all, this isn't baseball, where MVP’s have come from last place teams before, this is the NBA; MVPs always play for at least a few rounds in the playoffs!  Combine that disaster with a few more years of early playoff flame-outs, an aging, non-defensively oriented team, and a seven-foot star who seems more comfortable shooting threes than forcing the issue, and you have the Mavericks in 2011.  Nobody expected them to do anything in this year's playoffs, and that makes what they’ve done even more surprising!  (Well nobody except for my girl Stacey, I guess, who I saw the Mavs with earlier this year.  She's the biggest Mavs fan I’ve ever met, although at times she seemed a little bit more interested in Tyson Chandler’s arms than the score of the game.  Youch!  Sorry Stace)  This year though, suddenly out of nowhere, the Mavs appear to be the real deal, and most of the credit has to go to Dirk.     

Dirk's NBA career wasn't always all smiles.  

Dirk Nowitzki came into the NBA with no fanfare.  In 1998 the Milwaukee Bucks selected the unknown German with the sixth pick and then traded him to Dallas for Robert “Tractor” Trailor; a career underachiever out of Michigan.  Clearly most GMs didn’t think much of Dirk back then, because that trade turned out to be one of the most lopsided in history.  (In fact, Dallas GM Don Nelson also got Pat Garrity with Dirk and then flipped him to Phoenix for Steve Nash.  So, basically Nelson traded Trailor for two future first-ballot Hall-of-Famers!  That’s just insane.)

Early on, however, Dirk struggled mightily.  Back then European players still had the slow, un-athletic, and soft stigmas attached to them, and Dirk fit the bill in spades.  Offensively he tried to play down low with little success, and of course he got torched on defense.  More than a few people started calling him Irk Nowitzki… no D.  Interestingly he now plays on a team with the guy they used to call Ason Kidd… cause he had no J.  Hmm, not too much original thought going into those heckler chants eh?     

Owner, Mark Cuban with Kiki Vandeweighe.

Anyway, eventually the tide started to turn, when Mark Cuban bought the team and started investing in players to compliment Dirk’s revolutionary style.  They started utilizing him in ways unseen before.  The seven-footer could make shots from anywhere and was one of the best passers in the league.  And after a few years, when he decided to also start driving to the basket, it was on!  Marginal defense non-withstanding, he had transformed himself into one of the greatest weapons the league had ever seen and the Mavericks flourished.

So after being one of the worst teams of the 90’s, the Mavs have been prolific in the last eleven years, winning 620 regular season games.  But in this league, what you do in the regular season is a distant memory once May rolls around, and this year the Mavs were easily written off once again by every media person I heard and read.

Stacey.  While not checking out Tyson Chandler.  

Most people, other than Stacey and the Mavs faithful, had them losing in the first round to the sixth seeded Trail Blazers, (because it’s fashionable to pick at least one upset.)  Such disrespect!  No one had them winning the first round, no one in a million years would have predicted that they would sweep the Champion Lakers in the second round, and here they are on the brink of another berth into the NBA finals; a chance to exorcise the demons of that 2006 historic collapse.  Dirk’s even said as much.  No one believed in them, they got no respect, and you know what?  Third seed or not, that sounds like an Underdog to me!  So maybe Dallas was America’s team all along.  And now, our only chance at basketball salvation against the South Beach Talents.

J.J. Barea... the Hobbit.  

And Dirk has done it in incredible fashion.  Who is his best teammate?  A streaky Jason Terry?  A very old Jason Kidd?  “Seen-much-better-days” Shawn Marion?  Or Mr. Clothesline, 5 foot 6 J.J. Barea?  (Or at least he seems that short.)  No one has won a championship with this much of a drop-off between guys one and two in NBA history.  Even 2004’s Detroit Pistons had a more even talent spread.  So the Mavs are doing it on pure grit.  Preparation and fearlessness.  They are a team that just believes they can do it, against all the odds.  And that’s inspiring stuff.  Seriously, nobody saw this coming!!!       

So hopefully they can make it happen tonight against Oklahoma City.

And I really hope I haven’t jinxed em!!

Because America needs the Mavs.  And so do we. 

Underdogs OUT! 

Eat your heart out Stace!  :)

    

             

Game 7 for The Western Underdog...

Many people have said it.  This has been the best NBA season in recent memory.  Maybe even the best in 20 years or so.  There has been no shortage of great storylines to digest and the basketball has been just beautiful.  It stood to reason then that these playoffs would be equally as intriguing, and they have lived up to the hype. 

At the start of the season, I think that most people would have expected Miami to be one of the last teams remaining on May 14, but Chicago?  Well, maybe.  Dallas?  Probably not.  Oklahoma City?  Hmmm, a long shot.  Memphis???   Not on your life.  

This bizarre disparity is a big part of what has made this post-season so great for the fans.  Gone are the old standbys; the Lakers, Celtics, and Spurs.  Since 1999 those three franchises have combined for 13 Finals Appearances.  The remaining five teams at the moment have 2 total.  Both from the 2006 Finals when Dallas met Miami; and this Miami team only has two members remaining from that squad (and one of those two, Udonis Haslem hasn't played since November.)  So really no matter which way the remaining games go, history is going to be made.  And possibly, new dynasties are going to be started.

But the road to the Finals will have to wait until after Game 7.  Or as we call it here at the Underdogs, The battle to become America’s Underdog team.  The Grizzlies vs the Thunder!  (Fair-weather fans had no idea there were NBA teams with such names! :) 

Fasten your seatbelts!  Cause it's for All the Marbles! :)
Underdog Style.   

The Dramatic Exit of the Lakers and Phil Jackson

Wow.  So… that just happened.  In case you were stuck under a rock this weekend and hadn't heard, the Dallas Mavericks completed a shocking sweep of the two-time defending champion LA Lakers on Sunday.  And it wasn’t even close.  The Mavs were better in every way and incredibly, somehow simply dominated the mighty Lakers (much to the delight of Underdogs everywhere, including this one.)  But we will get to the Mavericks later, as they wait to see who their next opponent will be in the Western Finals.  For now we have to focus on an ending.  Because the NBA’s greatest coach of all time has coached his last game.   

Everyone knows about the absolutely amazing string of championships that Phil Jackson was able to put together during his time in the NBA.  He won two championships as a player in New York, six as a head coach in Chicago, and five as a head coach in Los Angeles.  For a grand total of thirteen rings!  And his staggering eleven in twenty years of coaching, is by far the benchmark that all coaches will be judged against for the rest of time.  His overall winning percentage for the regular season as a coach is an unbelievable .704, and his playoff winning percentage is almost as good at .688.  Statistically he is, by far, the best coach the NBA has ever seen.  But as gaudy and as glamorous as his final numbers will stand, enshrined forever in the Naismith Hall of Fame, we should never forget how hard it was for him to get here.  Phil Jackson was a genuine Underdog. 

Could this uniform BE any more 70s?

Jackson had seriously humble beginnings as a lanky forward coming out of the Division 2, University of North Dakota.  He was drafted 17^th in 1967 by the Knicks and stayed there eleven years, but this was back when most players needed second jobs in the off-season to make ends meet.  By the time his playing days were done in 1980 he had those two championships rings, with the Knicks (as a bench player,) and modest career averages of 6.7 points and 4.3 rebounds to show for it.  But what was next?  Back then there weren’t hundreds of TV jobs or assistant coaching spots just waiting for former players like there are now.  “Coach” Jackson had to struggle to make it happen. 

Phil spent many years coaching in obscurity in the CBA and in Puerto Rico, hoping to finally get a chance to get back to the NBA and all the while wondering if it would ever be worth it.  Finally he got his chance as an assistant coach under Doug Collins with the Chicago Bulls in 1987, and when Collins got fired in '89, Phil took over.  And the man never looked back.  His teams won the championship in eleven of the next eighteen years that he would coach.  In the modern NBA, no other coach even comes close to that standard.  His success is unfathomable.  His resume reads like Shakespeare or Woody Allen… It’s just too much for one man to have done.  He’s eleven for thirteen in NBA Finals Appearances.  They really should just name the trophy after him. 

Now detractors will tell you that Phil’s gaudy record owes itself purely to the fact that he’s always somehow coached extremely talented players, and that is true to a point.  In his dealings with high profile players, Phil re-wrote the book on how you deal with the modern NBA player, psychologically.  His “ego-management” became his most impressive attribute.  He didn’t pretend that all players were the same and would respond to the same treatment.  So from Michael Jordan to Bill Wennington to Dennis Rodman to Shaquille O'Neal, he was able to get all of his players to focus their respective energy on the common goal, collectively.  In other words, yes, the talent needed to be there first but Phil was the guy that could make all that talent work together on the basketball court. 

Phil has had three eras as a coach.  In Chicago he was the hippy zen-master, battling the establishment with new and fresh ideas based in many philosophy.  Then in his first five years in LA he became the establishment, and he somehow morphed into “Evil-Emperor” mode, appearing much more smug and arrogant than he did in his previous incarnation.  These days though he is more of an old wise man, seemingly enjoying his “last days” as a coach.  He seems friendlier and much more introspective.  And now, after going down convincingly to the Mavericks in four games (his team completely unraveling around him) he seems finally ready to retire from the game and head to his beloved ranch in Montana.  

And although it hardly seems fitting that the man who in twenty seasons of coaching in the playoffs had never been swept in a series, somehow got swept out of his final one, that is indeed the way it went down yesterday.  The Mavs were amazing.  Even Phil had to admit that they outplaying the Lakers across the board.  But even though yesterday belonged to Jason Terry, Peja Stojakovic, JJ Barea, Dirk Nowitzki, and the rest of the Mavericks, for now at least, history still belongs to Phil. 

Underdogs Out.

America's Team!

So far in the second round of the NBA playoffs we’ve seen the Celtics get bullied by the Heat, the Bulls get upset on their home court, and most shockingly, we’ve seen the Lakers drop their first two games at home to the Mavericks (did you see Kobe's expression?)  But the most compelling story so far has got to be (Drum Roll please)... that the Memphis Grizzlies have become America's Team!

Okay, so maybe my proclamation is bit of a reach, but they really should be.  Featuring an assorted and compelling cast of characters and a coach who was an assistant for 18 years before getting the gig two years back (and still I'd never heard of him,) these guys have somehow managed to do the impossible.  Their first round matchup against the mighty Spurs was case-in-point. The Four-Time Champion Spurs had the best record in the West this year.  The Grizz had the worst record in the Western Playoffs, had never won a single playoff game in history (much less a whole series,) and they had lost their “best player” Rudy Gay for the season a few months back.  Plus, only once before in history had an eighth seed beaten a first seed in a seven game series.  The odds were significantly stacked against them.  It was the Evil Empire vs Luke.  Rocky vs Apollo Creed.  America Loves this stuff!!!

Will Z-Bo's Smile Continue?

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich didn't look at it that way though.  After losing Game 6 and the series, he openly admitted that the end result was no fluke, quipping to reporters with a defeated but sentient smile, "People might look at this and call it an upset... but they don't know the West.  They haven't seen these guys play."  What have I been saying for years people?  The West is vicious!   

 

Anyway, despite Pop's attempt to diffuse some of the drama, the Grizz are certianly the biggest underdog left in the race.  This young group of scrappy upstarts has the full attention of the league and the only thing left to wonder is, "Um, how far can they go?"  Can they handle the pressure cooker?  After watching them defeat Oklahoma City rather convincingly on the road, only a day and a half after dispatching the Spurs, I started thinking the unthinkable, like "Ummmmm… can these guys actually win the West???”

Lionel Hollins has taken his team into uncharted waters.  

This notion, previously thought to be completely ridiculous (if thought of at all,) now suddenly doesn't seem like such a stretch. If they can continue to get such inspired performances out of Z-Bo Randolph, Marc (Little Bro) Gasol, and Mike (somehow I got good really quickly and rather unexpectedly) Conley, it might just be possible. And then where would we be? The entire league would be turned on its head! There are no Cinderella stories in the NBA. The system of drawn-out playoff series' all but prevents them. Yet here we are. Could we have our first real Cinderella-type run since the Knicks of ‘99?  Well, here's hopin'!  The league may not want it, but basketball fans and underdogs everywhere would relish in it!

So as the basketball world continues to marvel at Miami’s Dynamic Duo, the Bulls’ fearless tenacity, and the Mavericks’ uncanny control of the Lakers, a big chunk of attention also has to be focused on a place altogether expected; Memphis, home of the mighty Grizz.  America's Team.  And hey, if they can’t make it out the second round, America’s team would simply then become the Oklahoma City Thunder.  Aw y'know… It’s not personal... it's an Underdog thing!

Here's to the little guy!  (Figuratively speaking of course.)

and Thanks for Reading,

J