The New East... and the Chicago Bulls

In the last blog I mentioned how excited I am for the NBA playoffs this year, so I can’t resist diving in real quick.  And who would have thunk it??  It looks like the East’s top four might be as good as the West’s this year… or maybe better!  If you had uttered that phrase anywhere near knowledgeable hoops junkies during the last twelve years, you would have been laughed right out of the gym (or sauna?), and rightfully so.  The “aughts” were an absolutely terrible decade for the NBA’s Leastern Conference.  While the monsters of the West battled among themselves (often times having five or six of the leagues top six teams) the East, on the other hand, started promoting sub .500 teams into the playoffs.  In 2004 the Knicks got in to the playoffs and they were ten games under .500!  Conversely, it became commonplace for Western Conference clubs to be left out of the playoffs with winning records.  Multiple teams in multiple years this happened.  It was absurd and unfair.  The West was just that much better.  

So as a result, very strong teams like Dallas, Phoenix, Sacramento, and even Portland (in the early part of the decade) who would have dominated had they played in the East, are mostly forgotten historically, while the New Jersey Nets, Philadelphia 76ers, Miami Heat, and Detroit Pistons and their players get bogus credit for all the Eastern Conference Championship Banners they won.  When for the most part, it was kinda like playing in the NIT tournament.  Seriously, who grieves for Chris Webber?  Steve Nash?  Bonzi Wells??? 

Today the West continues to have the better conference.  As of now three teams have winning records that will be left out of the playoffs, while in the East the eighth (and possibly seventh) playoff seeds will finish below the .500 mark.  While that is still despicable and embarrassing, and the top three teams in the league still reside in the West (including the current NBA Champs,) for the first time in years the East actually might make things interesting. 

  

The Boston Celtics have been the cream of the East for the past four years, and the Orlando Magic have risen to a legitimate contending level as well.  LeBron and Wade joining forces in Miami this year has solidly put them in the top four, but the best team in the East, right now, has to be the Chicago Bulls.

At the top of their roster the Bulls are laden with good and more importantly, complimentary basketball players.  Take note Miami.  Somebody, and I can’t remember who, made a great point the other day.  They said something like this, “If somebody told me I could have both LeBron and Dwayne Wade on my team, of course I would do it.”  BUT, fitting those similar pieces together within a real basketball situation (not just fantasy numbers) has been something of a nightmare for the Heat and Coach Spolstra.  There is only one ball to go around.  Yes, they still have a good record at 45-21 (winning against lesser talent) and they will certainly be a high playoff seed in the East, but there is still an enormous question mark that hovers over their late game-half court offense when the score is close… and who takes the shot?  So far in that situation they have been impossibly terrible.  This is not the case in Chicago.

When the Bulls took Derrick Rose with the first overall pick in the 2008 draft, I thought they should have taken Michael Beasley instead (because they really needed a low-post scorer.)  But boy was I wrong.  John Paxson and the Bulls brass obviously met with both players before making their choice, and after talking to Rose, they KNEW that he was the guy for them.  Why?  Because of his character.  Everybody in the draft’s top ten has great talent, but Rose was so much more than that.  He was smart, he was hungry, and he was a leader.  He was exactly what they needed.  Rose is the perfect example of this new trend of dominating point guards in the league.  Somehow, at a very young age, these guys just get it.  They care about winning more than making commercials or starting record labels.  They care about creating a legacy.  And Rose has been invaluable.   

With Rose running the show and Luol Deng playing brilliantly off the ball, the Bulls are just now getting solid contributions from their two big men, Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah, who missed dozens of games with injuries.  Only recently at full strength, the team is just now coming into it’s own, which is scary for the rest of the league.  Right before the season started there were rumors that the Nuggets were willing to trade their superstar Carmelo Anthony for Noah, virtually straight up, but John Paxson adamantly refused to include him in any deal.  I was shocked by this.  I thought he made a huge mistake by not seizing the opportunity to add a perimeter player of Melo’s ability, because their biggest weakness now was their outside shooting.  Although I knew how valuable Noah’s defensive intensity was (and of course I LOVE the guy… he lead my Gators to two NCAA Championships for crying out loud!!) I really thought Pax missed the boat on that one too, questioning his foresight.  And guess what?  I was wrong again!

The Bulls new head coach Tom Thibodeau, the defensive mastermind behind the Celtics last few years of championship contention as Doc Rivers’ top assistant, had a plan for Noah.  He was the second most important piece to their puzzle and was to be the anchor of the Bulls Defense, and that plan has pretty much worked to perfection.  Add in Taj Gibson and Kyle Korver off of the bench and the picture becomes clear.  The Bulls are, pretty much, a good Two-Guard away from winning the next five or six championships.  (Hmmmm isn’t that the position Michael Jordan revolutionized a few years back?  How interesting!  You think he thinks everyday about maaaaaybe coming back?  Yea, me too.) 

The bottom line is the Bulls play the right way.  They play amazing team defense and Derrick Rose’s ability to either score or find the open guy on offense is nothing short of a miracle.  There is no question mark in Chicago as to who is going to have the ball in his hands, and as long as Rose is healthy I really think the Bulls are the favorites in the East.  And he’s still getting Better!  But, even if the Celtics, Magic, Heat, Hawks, or (gulp) Knicks are somehow able to knock these guys out of the playoffs this year, the Bull’s future is downright scary.  Next year they will be in a position to add the aforementioned A or B list Shooting Guard to the squad (Jason Richardson anyone?) because Chicagoans know, Keith Bogans and Ronnie Brewer are more like K and L list, respectively.

So, assuming that happens what have you got?  A new Chicago Bulls Dynasty?  Another statue infront of the United Center?  Be afraid Eastern Conference.  Be veeeeeery afraaaaaaid!

This past summer, a pal of mine, and honorary Underdog, Kyle Fabel said that LeBron, Dwayne Wade, and Chris Bosh had ruined the NBA when they decided to join up in Miami.  That creating a “super-team” was going to destroy the competitive balance in the league.  Well, I’ve already admitted twice in this blog when I was wrong, and Kyle was wrong in this case.  It’s not about the individual players.  It’s about how they fit together as a team.  How they can co-exist.  It’s about basketball… and the better team always wins. 

Derrick Rose knows that, Joakim Noah knows that, Tom Thibodeau knows that.  And now, so does Kyle.  And that lucky jerk is a Bulls Fan!!! 

You think he’s looking forward to the Playoffs!

Yea, me too.

And so are we. 

Thanks for reading,

Underdogs OUT!!! 

Carmelo, the Knicks, and the small-market conundrum...

What's up Underdogs?  Welcome back to the show.

I spent the last month in New York and the whole city is a buzz with excitement, because during that time, as you might have heard…
The Knicks got Carmelo Anthony!!!

Yes, the NBA these days seems to enjoy as much of its intrigue and attention from player movement (and speculation of said movement,) as from the actual games.  Possibly more.  Fans and Media members are extremely fascinated with players changing teams, and rightly so.  One player with specific needed strengths can make a more dramatic difference on a basketball court than any athlete can in any other American Sport.  So diehard Hoops fans just love trade speculation.  And this year, we got a ton.  (And not just talk this year but actual trades!)  It was the best trade deadline ever!

But it’s tricky business.  Because the league’s unique salary cap is dictated by maximum contracts, NBA teams' General Managers have to be creative and above-all intelligent, in the way they construct their teams.  The consequence of multiple missteps in their team-building strategy could be years upon years of bad basketball.  (Just ask the Knicks and the ever-delusional Isiah Thomas.) But if you make smart moves and plan well within a solid system, as a GM, you can prove invaluable to your franchise, your city, and your business partners.    

Will promising young Clipper, Blake Griffin, skip town
in five years?

The natural bi-product of this system is that at some point you, as a GM, have no control over what will happen.  For instance, let’s say you are a GM.  What happens if A) Your best player’s current Maximum contract is going to run out at the end of the season, and B) You offered him a Maximum extention on that contract on the first day you were allowed to, but C) He has refused to sign it?

Why?  Because he wants to play for the Knicks.   

This is what you would have had to deal with this year if you were the GM of the Denver Nuggets.  It is an element of a mostly-effective system that has really reared its ugly head this season.  And for the always image conscious NBA, this has become a bit of a problem.  Or has it?  You know what they say about publicity.  Even if this seems like a negative aspect of the NBA's inner workings, the media loves it.  They write articles about it every day, and NBA fans gobble it up!  Somehow I don't think that David Stern is losing any sleep.

Anyway, back to the point.  Since the beginning of the season, the Nuggets and Carmelo pretty much knew this was their last year together, but what to do?  No team was going to trade for Anthony (or give up anything of value) unless he signed an extension, so they wouldn’t be simply “renting” him for the last months of the season, and Carmelo repeatedly said he would only sign the extension with the Knicks.  But the Knicks didn’t have anything that Denver wanted!  It was a circular-logic problem and there appeared to be no answer.  Or, as Ned Flanders would say, this was a “Dilly of a Pickle!”        

So what happened?  Well eventually, after scratching their heads for two-thirds of the season, Denver finally decided that they didn’t want to be like Cleveland or Toronto this past summer (when those teams lost LeBron and Chris Bosh respectively… for nothing,) so they traded Melo to the Knicks.  Proving that if you’re good enough, you can get what you want.  It’s the way of the world right?  The Knicks get the guy they want under contract for the next 4 years and for the first time in ages, the future in New York actually looks bright.

The Mavericks have continued to contend with
solid personnel moves.  

Now naturally, this situation has many people up in arms about the future of a league where players seem to have an inordinate amount of power, sort of like the tail wagging the dog.  The Denver Nuggets played the role of victim masterfully in this case, and all other small-market teams located in “less desirable” cities are freaking out as a result.  They are terrified that they will lose their ability to compete with the larger markets, something along the lines of what we have seen happen in baseball.  But the key difference, is that the NBA has a salary cap.  So technically, the footing is far more even.  Two of the three best teams of the past decade in the NBA have been from San Antonio and Detroit.  And during that span teams from Dallas, Denver, Phoenix, Sacramento, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Oakland, Portland, New Orleans, and Oklahoma City have ventured deep into the playoffs.  Would that happen in baseball?  Never. 

The Clippers finally unloaded Baron Davis' ridiculous contract
at the deadline.  Is their historically inept leadership turning around?

So conspiracy theorists are really reaching when they accuse the NBA of having a large-market bias.  From a business stand-point the league is almost certainly at its healthiest when the dominant teams are in Los Angeles and Boston, and then maybe throw in Chicago and New York, if possible.  And yes, that happens to be where we are today, (and if I was a conspiracy theorist, the Pau Gasol and Kevin Garnett trades would be exhibits A and B respectively.)  BUT, the Celtics were bad for seventeen years!  San Antonio and Detroit won five championships in eight years!  And the New York Knicks have been the laughingstock of the league for ten years!  (Not to mention the LA Clippers thirty years of futility.)  It seems like none of these things would have happened if David Stern was really pulling the strings like Stromboli.         

Can D'Antoni lead Amar'e and Melo to a Championship in NY?

So, is the league “happier” when large-market dollars are dominating the attention of the league.  Probably.  Just ask any economist.  But I definitely believe that the league has created a system where small-market teams can compete, AND be fiscally responsible.  You have to be very smart and a little bit lucky (San Antonio and Oklahoma City.)  And yes, you may eventually lose your “star” player, but Denver and Cleveland had Melo and LeBron for seven years respectively.  Phoenix had Amar’e for eight years.  It’s not like they came to town, didn’t like it, and bolted.  Build a winner around them and they will stay.  Period.  Make questionable moves, never define an effective system, create an aura of instability… and they will leave.  It’s the way of the world.  Why should basketball be any different? 

So here’s to the NBA and what will certainly be the best playoffs in many years.  The basketball this year has been amazing!  And don’t worry too much, about the future, small-market owners and fans.  Don't cry foul, the roof's not caving in.  If you build it… they will come.

Thanks for reading as always,

UnderDogs OUT!           

The 2010 Underdogs of the Year

What's up Underdogs?  So they are telling me that 2010 is over.
It seems like it just started... like five years ago right?

The Underdogs began the year twenty-ten back in Miami, when Dwayne Wade and the Heat blew out the Atlanta Hawks.  (About six months before Lebron "took his talents" down there... youch.)  And we ended it in the house that John Wooden built, as UCLA held off a resilient UC Irvine Anteaters squad last week here in Los Angeles.  Overall 2010 has been a good year for Underdogs.  So let's do a quick review.   

First things first:  It’s not ALL about championships, but they are pretty important in the sports world.  These were the notable ones this past year. 

Alabama beat Texas for the College Football National Championship, 37-21, after beating Florida for the South Eastern Conference title.  The SEC has won Six BCS Championships in the last 11 years, including Four different schools winning during that span.  Auburn has a chance to make it Seven and Five respectively, if they win against Oregon next week.   

The New Orleans Saints beat the Indianapolis Colts for the NFL’s SuperBowl Championship, 31-17.  SuperBowl XLIV… (or uh, 44)… was the first appearance and win for the historically tortured Saints fans. 

We made it out to Canseco Field House in Indianapolis
for the Big Ten Championship Tourney.  A few weeks later
Duke beat Butler in the same building.  

Duke beat Butler for the NCAA Basketball Championship, 61-59, in a classic David vs Goliath matchup.  Goliath won this time though, as Coach K snagged his fourth NCAA Championship with the Blue Devils.  Butler was a number 8 seed and is the smallest school to reach the Tournament Championship Round in 40 years.  Their amazing run earns them the title.  Butler Bulldogs – Underdogs of the Year!    

The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Philadelphia Flyers for the NHL’s Stanley Cup Championship, 4 games to 2.  Chicago won game six in sudden death over-time, 4-3.  It is their Fourth Stanley Cup Championship but first since 1961.

The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Boston Celtics for their 16th NBA Championship, 4 games to 3.  It was the Eleventh time these two teams had squared off in the finals, winning a combined 33 Championships since 1949.

The San Francisco Giants beat the Texas Rangers for the Major League World Series Championship, 4 games to 1.  It is their first WS Title since the team moved from New York in 1957.  My SF buddy Joel had been waiting his whole life for this moment and joined the entire City-by-the-bay in a long awaited celebration.  I bet Joel is still smiling!  

Roger Federer won his record 16^th Grandslam Title at the Australian Open in January.  Rafael Nadal won the next three of the year.  At age 24, he already has 9 Grand Slam titles.    

The University of Connecticut Women’s Basketball team lost to Stanford on December 30^th ending their NCAA record-winning streak at 90 games!  It is doubtful that any such streak will ever exist again.

And Brett Favre ended his NFL record “iron-man” streak on December 13^th at 297 consecutive regular season starts.  321 including playoffs through the past 19 years.  It is an amazing achievement considering how increasingly brutal the NFL game has been over that span.  

   

So, anyway, that’s what the Big Dogs did this year...  (But, who cares about them right? :)

This is the moment you’ve all been waiting for… it's the Top Five Underdogs of 2010.  Some of them won championships, some got close, but all of them defied the odds and shocked the sports world along the way.  So without further adieu... Ladies aaaand Gentlemen... preeeeeesenting, your... 2010...

Underdogs of the Year:

1.  Butler Bulldogs - They obliterated everybody's brackets with an inspiring and improbable run to the NCAA Championship game beating Michigan State (5), Kansas State (2), and Syracuse (1) along the way, and were a only a missed three-pointer at the buzzer away from winning it all!  It will probably make for a good sports movie someday.  

 

2.  Texas Rangers - With the third lowest payroll in the Major Leagues, the Rangers blasted the Yankees to capture their first ever American League Championship.  Ca-TiA! 

3.  San Francisco Giants -  Very few people could have predicted a World Series victory for the lowly Giants at the beginning of the season.  Their winning percentage over the previous 5 years was a dismal .462.

4.  Phoenix Suns - Left for dead because of sold-off draft-picks, bad trades, and annual player free-agent defections, Steve Nash and Amar’e Stoudamire still managed to will their thin squad to a sweep of the mighty Spurs in the second round of a deep Western Conference playoffs.  And then they were a bizarre Kobe Air-ball to Ron Artest (guy-in-exactly-the-right-spot-at-the-right-time) buzzer-beater put-back bucket away from possibly beating Los Angeles and making their first NBA Finals since 1993.  Didn’t happen though, and then Amar’e jumped ship for New York.  Triple Ouch for Steve Nash.  Left once again... he's got to be the lonely bridesmaid of the NBA.   

 

5.  Kansas City Chiefs - They are currently playing wonderful and surprising offensive football and are 10-5 with one game left, already clinching the AFC West Division heading into the NFL playoffs.  In the previous three seasons combined, they’ve totaled 10 wins.

Honorable Mention:  Chicago Blackhawks, Oklahoma City Thunder, Cincinnati Reds  

Historic Pauley Pavillion at UCLA in December

So here's to a great year of Underdogs!  

and I'm sure there will be many more to shake things up in 2011.
   

Happy New Year you Beauties!!!

and Thanks for Reading.
  

Underdogs OUT

Outdoor Minneapolis Football and Mother Nature's League...

Last year the Underdogs were in Minneapolis at the last regular season baseball game ever at the Metrodome, before the Twins opened their new outdoor stadium this past spring.  Football has remained in the dome however, as the NFL’s Vikings have played every home game there since 1981.  Well, that is until last week… when seventeen inches of winter snow and severe winds caused the roof to cave in.  Oh man, did you see all that snow falling through the roof?  The footage was amazing!

So that leads us to tonight, when the Vikings will play their first home game outdoors in almost 30 years, at the University of Minnesota’s TCF Stadium.  How strange is that?  You’d think that the Great North Vikings, the famed Purple People Eaters, would have thick skins and a tough-as-nails mentality right?  But in reality, these guys have been playing for the last 30 years as if they called Miami home… or San Diego.  They’re used to playing in perfectly comfortable conditions.  Basically they’ve given away their home field advantage.  They play in Minneapolis for crying out loud!  The Buffalo Bills, Chicago Bears, Green Bay Packers, Philadelphia Eagles, New England Patriots, and the two New York teams rough it outdoors in frozen weather every winter week?  Why have the Vikings gone the way of the Prom queen?  Well, having been in Minneapolis in December before, I would guess that’s it’s because… um, it’s crAZY cOLD OUTSIDE!!!  They link their downtown buildings with skywalks in Minneapolis because it gets so bone chillingly cold there!  Oh and if you need some advice on how to deal with the Minnesota cold check out my cuz, Dr. Robinson in this link.  http://www.northlandsnewscenter.com/news/video/Cold-Weather-Calls-for-Preparation-from-Northlanders-111475519.html?vid=a      

Brett Favre has a great history of playing in Cold Weather Games

One of the great and unique things about football in American sports is that they play the games.  No matter what the weather conditions are the game goes on.  In baseball if it rains even remotely hard they delay or postpone the game.  As tough as Hockey guys are, they never have to deal with any wind chill, and basketball players?... Forget it.  They have 12 prom queens to a side by comparison.  In football, they play the games.  Period.  And this ideology has created some fantastic, almost mythological, contests throughout the years.  

The Chicago Cardinals won the NFL Championship in 1948

1948 the Chicago Cardinals won the NFL Championship against the Eagles in a Blizzard.  In 1981, the Bengals beat the Chargers for the AFC Championship in The Freezer Bowl (there was a negative 59 degree wind-chill that day in Cincinnati!)  In 1982 (The Snow Plow game) the Patriots beat the Dolphins 3-0.  How’s that for a football score?  And of course the 1967 NFL Championship game, also known as The Ice Bowl, the Packers beat the Cowboys on the Frozen Tundra of Lambeau Field.  And even though these days the league only puts SuperBowls in warm weather cities, in 2007 my Bears had to play for the Championship on a relentlessly rainy Miami night.  Nobody could run an offense in that hurricane right?  Although somehow during the half-time show Prince was able to play his guitar beautifully… and he wasn’t lip-synching either!  I checked.  Gotta be one of the best half-time performances ever, I would think.  Y'know, if anybody keeps track of that sort of thing.

Anyway, I don’t think those Bears had anything to complain about really; they were pretty much over-matched in everyway by Peyton Manning and the Colts that year.  In fact, if the weather had been better they probably would have lost by a much worse score.

At the Frozen Tundra... but INside :)

But today’s Bears find themselves in another position to make history.  They can clinch the NFC North Division title with a win tonight in the frigid Minneapolis air, and it should stand to reason that they have the advantage over their perennial rivals.  The Bears almost always play outside.  And what stadium gets colder than Soldier Field in Chicago?  Tonight pretty much gives them an extra home game.  While the Los Angeles Vikings are used to playing in the tropical Metrodome, the Bears have Grit-and-Beared it for as long as anyone can remember.  It’s the reason they’ve never had a finesse passing game… ever.  It’s the reason they’ve always been defensively oriented.  It’s the reason that opposing teams dread when they are scheduled to play there between November and January.  And it’s the reason that Bears fans are insane! 

So as we go into this pivotal Monday Night game tonight in Minneapolis, we Underdogs are reminded of one more quality that makes American Football so fantastic.

Mother nature has a roster spot.

Oh, and apparently Father Time is going to make an appearance too, since Brett Favre had decided to play tonight.  As recently as yesterday he was listed as inactive because of a shoulder injury.

Of course he decided to play.  The drama  just never stops in the NFL. 

Let’s go BEARS!!!

Thanks for reading,   

This is the underdogs.                           

Ornament Box Score Wrapping and the Return of the Knicks....

Incase you haven’t noticed, it’s that time of year again.  The colored lights are up, giant plastic snowmen and raindeer are cluttering up front yards and rooftops, and with each passing weekend the shopping centers are getting more and more unbearable.  But then, on the fun side, there’s putting up the tree!  That's always a good time right?  I have such fond memories of putting up the tree when I was a kid.

One of the reasons was because before we could unwrap the presents on Christmas day, we had to unwrap the ornaments to put them on the tree.  And in my family each year we would secure our ornaments, (some antique, some downright jankity... sorry Mom :) using that old standby… the newspaper.  (For those of you that don’t know, the newspaper was an artifact that used to be issued daily to individuals or families in order to communicate information complied from various news institutions… but truthfully, most people just read the comics.  Ah, whatever, look it up on Wikipedia.)

The great Walter Payton, always my favorite player.

Anyway, the point is, it seemed that somehow most of our ornaments were wrapped in... the sports section!  Oh, yes, that beautiful almanac of articles, rankings, standings, and box scores from historical sports’ seasons past.  It was indeed a secret pleasure of mine to see how long we could last with the same sports section from year to year.  In some cases many years survived.  Of course I put my own personal effort forth to keep the great 1985 Bears' and 1989 Cubs' seasons alive over the years, and it was always fun to re-live the amazing Michael Jordan Bulls' years from the 1990's too, through those crinkled layers of ornament padding.  (Those late-1980’s Bull’s box scores were quite a thrill.  The starting-five scoring was always something like: Jordan: 58, Pippen: 9, Grant 7, Cartwright 5, and Paxson 5.   No wonder they didn’t win championships until Mike started to share the ball.  Yikes.)

In 1991 Michael Jordan's Bulls finally won the championship,
beating Magic's Lakers in five games.

Just one more happy nostalgic element to the holidays, I guess, but for some reason looking at the standings in December is always a little bit warmer and cozier for me.  And box scores too!  Growing up overseas taught me to be a Box-Score-Guy.  Basically, if you couldn’t see the game, you could simply look at the box score in the newspaper and pretty much understand what happened.  Box scores for baseball and football games work quite a bit better than for basketball games though.  In baseball the stat is king; every situation is basically pitcher vs batter in a relatively consistent vacuum.  Football can be mapped out as a series of drives from a specific yard-line to the endzone.  Basketball, though… well, it’s kind of all over the place.  The basic stats: Points, Rebounds, Assists, Steals, and Blocks do tell a significant story of a game, but they can also be rather inconsequential or misleading.  For instance, getting 10 rebounds in a game is considered very good.  But you can miss a shot right at the basket, take four different tries to tip it back in, and end up with 2 points and 4 rebounds on one play.  You can knock the ball away from an opposing player, but it’s the guy who actually possesses the loose ball who is credited with the steal, so many of them are just lucked into.  And assists… well, some are kind of a matter of opinion.  There’s no stat for help defense, or the great pass before the assist, and a full court heave at the buzzer counts as a missed three-point shot.      

In other words, it’s a team game, and unless you watch every minute, you won’t really know which players are the most valuable to your team.  There are intangibles that players contribute on the court that cannot be measured statistically.  Still though, much of each game can ring true through a good old fashioned box score, and as luck would have it this holiday season, the Knicks have been on a TEAR!  (And that’s… TEAR as in, The Knicks are on an eight game winning streak for the first time since 2000, not… TEAR as in Knicks fans are Crying in their Beers again... as has pretty much been the story since that season ten years back.)  As previously mentioned on this blog, since moving to New York in that very same year 2000, I'd made the switch to Knickerbocker-backer, and have been thoroughly enjoying some long awaited Good basketball from this club.  And coach D’Antoni’s up-tempo offense can provide us with some dynamite box scores too!  Like take this first one from a recent 129-125 win against Denver at MSG.  (Click on it to make it bigger.)    

First of all you can tell that Coach D’Antoni plays his starters almost constantly, and secondly, each of the six guys that played at least 20 minutes, scored at least 13 points.  That shows incredibly balanced scoring and means that the Knicks are moving the ball well.  Raymond Felton’s 17 assists and the rookie, Landry Fields’ 7-11 shooting clip from the field along with 9 rebounds also jump off the page as quite impressive.  Of course Amar’e Stoudemire and Wilson Chandler putting up 30 and 27 points respectively, is nothing to sneeze at either (as my dad would say.)  This is simply a beautiful box score for a Knicks fan!

This second box score is a little less satisfying, since the mighty Celtics came into the Garden this past friday and ended the Knicks winning streak, beating them 118-116.  (Again, click to enlarge.)

While sill a rather beautiful box score, what it doesn’t tell you is that Amar’e Stoudemire hit a potentially game winning three-point bucket at the buzzer that was eventually waived off by the refs because he didn’t get the shot off in time.  I was able to watch the fourth quarter of this game, sadly only my second Knicks game of the season, and it was reeeeaally close… but they got it right… Amar'e didn’t get it off in time.  As much as Spike Lee tried to convince the refs that he did :)  Either way, it was still the best quarter of Knicks basketball that I've ever seen.

What this box score does tell us is that the Knicks are still playing wonderfully fluid offensive basketball, particularly Felton and Stoudemire.  Wilson Chandler is performing extremely well as a third option, and Landry Fields is still giving the team valuable intangibles (because otherwise D’Antoni wouldn’t have played him for 36 minutes with only 6 points and 6 rebounds,) and in spite of the loss, the Knicks showing that they can hang with a proven championship contender is a brilliantly heart-warming sign for their fans.  Of course, this box score could also prove quite historic during future ornament-unwrapping-tree-putting-up-sessions.  The Celtics have four FIRST BALLOT Hall of Famers on their team at the same time, and that doesn’t include Rajon Rondo, who is arguably their best player.  By the time his career is over he may be HOF material too.  Amazing.

So the plot thickens in the NBA East, Atlantic Division.  Boston is still the run-a-way favorite to win it, but the New York Knickerbockers for the first time in years are putting up a fight as their solid second place rival.  Happy days are here again for Knicks fans!  It’s been a looooooong time.  And even though these box scores from espn.com are of the digital variety and will be of little use to the ornament wrappers of the world, it is comforting to remember their physical counterparts, and the ways in which we used them in simpler times.  Maybe I'll print these up to wrap the ornaments this year, just for old times sake.        

Happy Holidays everyone… And happy ornament unwrapping.  Which year is your sports section from?  :)

Underdogs out.

Auburn and Oregon... Worlds Apart...

In College Football, not all season finale games are created equal.  This week, the top two teams in the country, Auburn and Oregon, faced defacto play-in games to get into the National Championship.  You win and you're in.  Simple right?  But somehow, it doesn't seem like the playing fields are all that level. 

The Oregon Ducks have amassed an 11-0 record going into today’s game, defeating a #9, a #21, and a #24 along the way.  Their final game of the season is against cross-state rival Oregon State; who comes into the game 5-6 and Fifth in the Pac-10. 

The Auburn Tigers come into the game 12-0 having defeated a #6, a #11, two #12s, and a #22.  Seems like they’ve played a much harder schedule than Oregon, right?  So, do they get to play a cupcake team in their final game like Oregon does?  Uh… no.  They get to play a #19 South Carolina team, that might have an even higher ranking than that, had Auburn not already beaten them in September!  Oh and by the way, South Carolina has beaten a #1, and two #22’s this season.  That’s a better quality win resume than Oregon has!!!  

This piqued my curiosity a bit, so I parked myself on the couch today to take a closer look. Since both games were on at the same time I was lucky enough to do the remote control cowboy thing, switching back and forth dynamically during commercial breaks.  And as an outside observer… I have to admit.  It looked a little bit like switching from High School Varsity, to Middle School.  At times it didn’t even look like the same sport!  South Carolina and Auburn were bigger, faster, and far more sophisticated on offense and defense than their west coast brothers.  Oregon played down to Oregon State and only broke open the game late in the third quarter, on a clutch (and very questionable) third-down-and-9 pass interference call that gave them the chance to continue driving to an eventual score.  Oregon State turned the ball over four times, often at crucial times and giving the Ducks great field position.  It kind of felt like they were gift-wrapping the title game for Oregon.   While the final score looked pretty good for the Ducks, I didn’t think they looked that good at all.  Especially for the #2 team in the country. 

Regardless, both Auburn and Oregon won their games today so it appears that we will have the two "most-deserving" Championship finalists play each other on January 10th.  But somehow, I couldn’t help but dream of a scenario where OSU was magically replaced by South Carolina for that Oregon game today… just to see what would have happened.  Could you imagine the looks on those Ducks' faces?  (Where's Hermione when you need her?... hey, at least in Quidditch, they have a playoff :)  Because, based on quality wins, I think South Carolina should be ranked above Oregon.   

Blasphemy?  Maybe.  But, speaking of quality wins, let’s take a quick look at our two Championship contenders. 

Auburn Beat

LSU (6)

Alabama (11)

Arkansas (12)

South Carolina (12)

South Carolina (19)

Mississippi State (22)

Oregon Beat

Stanford (9)

Arizona (21)

USC (24)

Of the six games that Auburn won against ranked opponents, ALL of those teams finished the season still ranked in the top 25.  Of Oregon’s three games against ranked opponents, only ONE of them is still in the top 25.  SIX to ONE.      

And now I just heard on TV that they think that Oregon is going to be the favorite in the Championship game.  What???  Auburn is actually going to be the Underdog???  I love it!  I don’t know what expert predicted that, and I’m sure it will corrected before they actually play, but regardless, it is has to be one of the silliest thing I’ve ever heard uttered on the air.  I understand that college football needs to at least pretend that there is parity amongst their conferences, but let’s not be ridiculous.  Auburn’s strength of schedule more than doubled-up Oregon’s for crying out loud!  Where does Oregon stack up if they played a full season in the SEC?  Fifth?  Sixth?

I don't mean to suggest that Oregon doesn't deserve a trip to the title game, but wouldn't it be easier for everybody if the Pac-10 had a Conference Championship game first?  That way they could prove that they belong against a highly ranked Stanford team.  It would certainly level the playing fields a little bit more and then we wouldn't have to keep guessing, comparing apples and oranges.  Right?  Merlin's Beard!  We need some Magic over here!    

Anyway, I asked my Auburn guy, and honorary Underdog Mike Masters, if we could just send Mississippi State to the Championship game instead.  And then when they beat Oregon they can give the trophy to Auburn.  Or how about Arkansas, Alabama, South Carolina, or LSU? 

Mike said no. 

And he wants January 10^th to get here in a hurry!

So do we.

This is the Underdogs.
        

The NFL and the Los Angeles "fantasy" scene...

What's up Underdogs?  Last time around we tackled College Football (and hopefully those realignment ideas are currently being implemented.  Right, University presidents??? )  But for the time being let's just chill out a little and spend some time talking about the gridiron guys that have a playoff system already... and also, the ones that get paid!

(Well, officially that is.  Incidentally... can Cam Newton's dad be my agent??... ooo, sorry Mike :)

The National Football League is far-and-away the most popular sports league in America, and it’s easy to see why.  So many stories to follow, so many intriguing players, and the ever-compelling standoff between offense and defense, which, as elemential as it seems definitively, can be infinitely complex.  After the Big Guy Upstairs, the NFL owns Sundays in this country and it really is a lot of fun to watch!  (Even though the Lady Underdog, Lakisha, can somehow easily sum up every single play of each game as “aaaaaaand… they all fall down.”)  Brilliant right?    

The Rams played in LA from 1946 to 1994 before moving
to St Louis.

In spite of this physical certainty though, every one of our country’s major cities (especially the ones of the cold weather variety) flock to see their teams; if not actually at the stadium then on a flat-screen somewhere.  (The warmer weather cities do too I guess, they just come a little later and leave a little earlier :)  This season I find myself in a warm-weather city listed as the second biggest market in the US, that formerly supported two NFL franchises at the same time and now has zero.  But regardless of this oddity, people in Los Angeles still seem to care, even though they haven't had a pro football team here since 1994.  (Admittedly however, football aficionado, and honorary Underdog, Jimmy Ludwig, does quite often refute this notion by simply pointing out the USC Trojans.  youCH!  Reggie Bush anyone???)  But the question still remains; why does the NFL still matter in Los Angeles?

The LA Raiders played here at the LA Coliseum

through 1994.  Now it is used predominantly as the 

home for the USC Trojans

A big part of the answer is due to the fact that many residents of LA are transplants and football bloodlines run deep.  If you were a football fan when you were eight and still are… you probably pull for the same team.  It’s actually quite remarkable.  Even considering the complicated dichotomy of sports-team-loyalty which we will tackle at a later date, I’ve yet to see another sport match the NFL as far as life-long fans are concerned.  So consequently, every sports bar and restaurant in this town is packed every Sunday with ex-pats from other cities pulling for their team via "The NFL Ticket."  (Oftentimes this includes ex-northerners who miss their teams but not the accompanying frozen weather.)  That’s the beauty of sports in 2010.  You can still watch every game your team plays.  Actual geography doesn’t matter anymore.     

My boys Brian Marino and Chris Palazolo don't know
Jimmy Ludwig... but...  

Another reason is probably due to the emergence of “fantasy football,” which might actually be more important on a national scale than the conference standings themselves.  It’s kind of ridiculous.  I do understand the draw for football fans though, because it is a fun way to be competitive with your friends or co-workers every week, and hope for bragging rights. The irony of course being… that you haven’t really done anything!  Seriously, whoever came up with this idea, is a genius.  And I suppose it’s telling, after all.  What’s more American these days than celebrating a victory in which you didn’t really do anything?

... they could all get together, drink a few
beers, and talk about the Detroit Lions.  

Oh boy that’s a tough nut to crack, and I'm sorry to get all deep.  Cynicism aside though, the fantasy leagues must be great for the NFL in generating interest, especially for the less important games, but I can’t help but feel negatively toward them.  Somewhere down deep inside me there is a sports purist that hates how popular the fantasy sideshow has become.  It’s like when I first moved to New York and met a guy named Zulf.  So one day we’re hanging out talking football, and I’m going on about standings and my team, and I ask him who his team is and he says, “Ah, I don’t’ have a team I just care about the lines.  Y’know, the Over/Under for each game and what the good bets are.  Whether or not a team can cover the ‘spread’ or not,” etc…  Zulf didn’t care about the winning or losing in the actual games, just the Vegas angle.  It wasn’t something I had really ever thought about before, but I suddenly realized with some discomfort, that there are countless people out there who don’t care about the game at all.  Just the numbers… and the money.  Ugh.  Well that brought the naïve and idealistic sports fan inside me down a few pegs.  But I understand it, and people can obviously do what they want.  It just, for some reason… made me want to take a shower.

Anyway, fantasy football in my opinion isn’t nearly as egregious a sports perversion as betting on games, but it is still harmful to the game from the purist’s perspective.  In fantasy it’s not about the teams but about the players.  The importance is on individual play rather than actual game results, and that is in direct contrast with the age-old sports mantras.  “There is no I in… T-E-A-M”, "Just Win, Baby," or “Winning isn’t everything.  It’s the only thing.”  Hmmm, I wonder what Coach Lombardi would make of this movement?  I’m not saying that fantasy sports should go away or anything.  I’m just saying… somehow they just don’t feel right.      

Speaking of the ole Coach, he must have been smiling last Sunday when his Packers took out Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings in the Metrodome.  Wow.  What a difference a year makes, right?  Of course, Brett pulled the usual guessing game about whether he would return again this season and decided at the last minute to make another run at it.  The problem is, he did the same thing last year, and apparently… you can’t capture lightning in a bottle twice.  Last year he surprised everyone while performing as one of the best quarterbacks in the league… this year he pretty much the worst!   Crazy right!  I mean, think of all of the fantasy implications!!!  All those poor owners who drafted him too high!  Their seasons must have been RUINED.  :)

Underdog Mike Masters with 2 of Green Bays 3 Lombardi
Trophies.  Mike's Atlanta Falcons might be the biggest favorite
right now in the NFL.

So last year (when the Underdogs were in Minneapolis,) Favre inspired the Vikes to an amazing last second win against the Pack and it started a tidal wave of national speculation predicting a Favre-Vikings Championship.  This year’s game ended it.  As well as the Brad Childress’ coaching tenure with the Vikings.  Ouch.  What a way to go.  You think Favre will be back next year?...  Me neither.

But he gave it a shot right? 

And that’s why we love the games.  Not the statistics or individual accolades, but the numbers on the scoreboard when the clock runs out.  That's the beauty of Football; anything is possible.
We are now up to Week 13 in this NFL season with no clear frontrunners for the Superbowl.  Gotta love it right?  It's a year for Underdogs!
Me?  I'm pulling for the team I've pulled for since I can remember... back when it was Walter Payton, Willie Gault, Mike Singletary, and Fridge Perry suiting up.
Let's Go Bears!! :)  

We out Like Brett Favre!

Thanks again for reading.

UnderD’s OUT!