Ping-pong balls are overrated.
by AC - permalink
Tonight the hometown Griz played probably the best game I've seen them play all year, gutting out a win in Los Angeles over the Lakers, effectively containing and frustrating the hell out of Kobe Bryant in the process. The Griz outscored LA by 17 in the second and third quarters and held off a charge in the closing seconds, finalizing the win via a beautiful Pau-on-Kobe block as time expired. Memphis walked into the gym without Mike Miller, their second-leading scorer at over 18 a game, starting point Damon Stoudamire, and backup point Chucky Atkins, and somehow still managed to put together a smart, cohesive, intelligent game both offensively and on the defensive end.
Junior Harrington, who played all 48 minutes, and rookie Tarence Kinsey had career nights, and along with Rudy Gay and Pau Gasol they flat-out embarrassed the Lakers tonight. I watch every televised Griz game I can -- I have since they moved to Memphis in 2001 -- and the reason I'm mentioning this one is because of what angry dwarf Jeff Van Gundy said recently. Apparently he thinks it'd be a swell idea if all 30 NBA teams got an equal shot at the draft lottery. Not for some noble, even remotely thought-out reason, but because he thinks this will discourage teams from throwing games in an effort to finish the season with the league's worst record, which would give you a one-in-four shot at the top draft pick. Yeah, he's kind of a dumbass.
I'm not going into all the reasons why making only the 14 teams who missed the playoffs eligible for the lottery, or how much of an asshole this comment makes a guy who has inherited as a coach two number one picks over the course of his career (Yao Ming and Patrick Ewing). I just want to point out that the Griz are currently in the unfortunate position of being in a race for that number one draft position with Boston, Charlotte, and Atlanta. And tonight an undermanned Memphis team fought and clawed their way to an upset win on the road over the heavily favored Lakers, starring a a guy named Bryant who's averaged more than 50 points the last five games, including a 60-point game against the Grizzlies a week ago.
Hey Jeff, guess what? NBA teams don't tank games on purpose. It just doesn't happen. And by insinuating that it does you've managed to make yourself look like a jackass on a monumental level: either you're trying to shame the league into giving you a draft pick now that you're finally back with a playoff-caliber team, or you yourself are willing to roll over and die to move up in the draft -- which probably means you've done it in the past.
Memphis made the playoffs for three straight years, and off the top of my head I know that they won 50, 45, and 49 games, one of the best records in the NBA over that span. This is not a franchise willing to tank games for any reason. There's speculation that Van Gundy's comments were directed specifically at the Celtics, who have won more championships (16) than any other team. Really, dude, isn't it enough that you're tiny and bald? Do you really want to be known as a dumbass and a hypocrite, too?
by AC - permalink
Tonight the hometown Griz played probably the best game I've seen them play all year, gutting out a win in Los Angeles over the Lakers, effectively containing and frustrating the hell out of Kobe Bryant in the process. The Griz outscored LA by 17 in the second and third quarters and held off a charge in the closing seconds, finalizing the win via a beautiful Pau-on-Kobe block as time expired. Memphis walked into the gym without Mike Miller, their second-leading scorer at over 18 a game, starting point Damon Stoudamire, and backup point Chucky Atkins, and somehow still managed to put together a smart, cohesive, intelligent game both offensively and on the defensive end.
Junior Harrington, who played all 48 minutes, and rookie Tarence Kinsey had career nights, and along with Rudy Gay and Pau Gasol they flat-out embarrassed the Lakers tonight. I watch every televised Griz game I can -- I have since they moved to Memphis in 2001 -- and the reason I'm mentioning this one is because of what angry dwarf Jeff Van Gundy said recently. Apparently he thinks it'd be a swell idea if all 30 NBA teams got an equal shot at the draft lottery. Not for some noble, even remotely thought-out reason, but because he thinks this will discourage teams from throwing games in an effort to finish the season with the league's worst record, which would give you a one-in-four shot at the top draft pick. Yeah, he's kind of a dumbass.
I'm not going into all the reasons why making only the 14 teams who missed the playoffs eligible for the lottery, or how much of an asshole this comment makes a guy who has inherited as a coach two number one picks over the course of his career (Yao Ming and Patrick Ewing). I just want to point out that the Griz are currently in the unfortunate position of being in a race for that number one draft position with Boston, Charlotte, and Atlanta. And tonight an undermanned Memphis team fought and clawed their way to an upset win on the road over the heavily favored Lakers, starring a a guy named Bryant who's averaged more than 50 points the last five games, including a 60-point game against the Grizzlies a week ago.
Hey Jeff, guess what? NBA teams don't tank games on purpose. It just doesn't happen. And by insinuating that it does you've managed to make yourself look like a jackass on a monumental level: either you're trying to shame the league into giving you a draft pick now that you're finally back with a playoff-caliber team, or you yourself are willing to roll over and die to move up in the draft -- which probably means you've done it in the past.
Memphis made the playoffs for three straight years, and off the top of my head I know that they won 50, 45, and 49 games, one of the best records in the NBA over that span. This is not a franchise willing to tank games for any reason. There's speculation that Van Gundy's comments were directed specifically at the Celtics, who have won more championships (16) than any other team. Really, dude, isn't it enough that you're tiny and bald? Do you really want to be known as a dumbass and a hypocrite, too?
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