Lebron's Unpopular Triple Double

I don’t know where I’ve said it but I know I’ve said it. One of my favorite things about the NBA Playoffs is the feeling you get after each game. It’s either that you can’t lose, or you will never win again.

It can be obnoxious when you are impartial and ESPN is blasting it at you all day. It sounds impenetrably true when it is your squad facing an elimination game. It happens so quickly but it feels like forever.

That is what makes it fun.

I am rooting hard for these Miami Heat.

I am feeling all these losses, man. Feeling ‘em. That’s how I enjoy this league. Cold impartiality? Nah. That shit is for bitter people.

I am not a stranger to this feeling, though. My taste in fandom had me root for the underdog a lot of the time. When it wasn’t the Spurs, I rooted against Jordan, Kobe, Shaq, Hakeem, Ewing, Dirk and for Barkley, Hakeem, Payton, Kemp, Malone, Stockton, Hornacek, Reggie, Kidd, Iverson, Wade, KG, Pierce, Allen.

I've learned that hyperbole and narrative reduction are part of this game. Listening to the stories about Jordan in the 90s, you would think the dude averaged 82 wins a year, and swept every series. Truth is that there were some close calls to Detroit, Phoenix, Indiana and Utah.

But History is written by the victor. That is also part of this game.

***

Maybe having too much too soon really did fuck up LeBron's head some. He says all the right things and does some of the right things some of the time. I mean, he did (finally) become the all-around force that everyone wanted him to be in 2007, winning the MVP two times since. He took over playoff games against the NBA’s best defenses (Detroit, Boston). Then . . . he quit?

Something happened.

His mom smashed with Delonte or he lost the edge that drove him to do it alone, or he was led astray by his handlers.

Something.

He is still so fuggin’ good at this game that it is easy to miss that he occasionally drifts. That was the knock on his game in his early Cleveland days. Could it be that he is still trying to figure out how to win a playoff game with D-Wade? Not just how to beat the Clips in November but when you are on the biggest of the big stages? I know this isn’t the first series but it can be argued that this is the toughest.

The other playoff games were easier, with opponents that were overmatched and/or overwhelmed. Boston lost their heart and is old. Chicago only had Derrick Rose. These Mavericks are old veterans that are too desperate for a last-chance title to worry about getting blocked and/or dunked on.

It would suck if it is just bad luck that is killing him now. Like a slugger that hits a slump in the World Series or something. He looks a little hesitant shooting. Compare the fadeaway at the end of the third with the way he has been shooting in the last two. The difference? He made them then, he misses them now.

It would be easier to do like Bosh and just dismiss James’ Game Five as “Triple double. We just didn’t win the game.”

Nah.

LBJ is not playing like Wade is playing. That is not to say that Dwyane is playing like a MJ (or how we think MJ would play if he were 26 and on this Heat squad). Nope. Wade has turned the ball over and missed free-throws in crucial situations. No one talks about how Wade tripped and LeBron saved a Dagger by blocking -- kinda looked like fouling-- Marion, keeping Miami in the game with a minute or so left tonight.

Hey. How about that fumble on the potential game tying three the other day? How about the free throw that kept it at three instead of two? Anyone?

Nah. All these writers are talking LeBron and giving Wade a pass because he looks like he is playing all-out. I’m one of them. Effort sins are forgivable sins. So says me.

The same passes are given to Dirk and for the same reason. Dude is playing great and looks to be playing about as well as he can. No one expects him to D anyone up (anymore) and late in games he is going to the rim (Game 5 -Dunk w 2:25, Game 4 - gamewinner, Game 2- gamewinner).

For all of James’ stats and productivity in his role as point-forward, he doesn’t look like he is leaving it all on the floor. That isn’t compared to just his potential, that is compared to 2007 LeBron. And, of course D-Wade and Dirk. I am a fan of his game except when his game looks like he is trying to play like 38-year old Jason Kidd instead of two-time MVP LeBron James.

***

So what about those Mavericks? Well they are doing to the Heat what they did to LA: they aren’t giving up. They aren’t letting the bigger, stronger, more athletic team roll over them. They definitely aren’t as talented as Miami or LA--physically. They do have that old man game, that mental talent and experience to play damn near the perfect basketball required to make 15-point comebacks and hang around in games that other teams chalk up as losses. That stuff-- call it resilience, toughness, team-ball, togetherness or whatever--it was the straw eliminated LA and the thing that put the Mavericks on the precipice of their first title.

It’s that Rocky thing I wrote about after the last one.

However, I’ll say it again: Apollo won the fight.

Mavericks, Heat tied at 2-2 2011 NBA Finals

Yours truly. Back again.

I wanted to get in my thoughts on the finals before I shuttered NTM for good (or until I move back up to northern Texas).

On LeBron:

King James has been ripped and analyzed and talked about for his Decision (poorly handled), his aspirations (Global Icon? Really?) and his trophy case (filled with individual accolades). He is oddly self-aware of his image yet sometimes unaware of the consequences of that. Methinks he is perhaps too talented to appreciate. Take away his other-worldly athleticism and he might be everyone’s favorite underrated player. Instead,  he is built like Karl Malone and has hops like Vince Carter. Dude is a beast. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have Mike Jordan’s drive to be the best, nor Kobe’s drive to be Mike Jordan.

What does that mean?

It means we think he could be even more awesome than he already is and we give him shit for not immediately producing the results he "should" be.

That said, he cannot be held blameless. Watch the Decision and listen to his interviews. Look at his tattoos. LeBron brings a lot of that on himself. Cool if he fully understands the consequences and can he deal with the seemingly overwhelming burden of expectation that is placed on him. Is that so? That remains to be seen.

What do we make of his Game 4 performance?

It was a bad game. Those who parrot the zero-sum thinking that a win means you are clutch and a loss means you suck sound stupid. Summing up Game Four as “LeBron sucked, Heat lose” does not do nearly enough justice to the Mavericks nor to the rest of the Heat.

All of the above goes for baggin’ on Dirk when Dallas loses this series.

On Dirk:

Way back in the first round vs Portland I mentioned on Twitter that Herr Dirk was Dave Robinson if he never had Timmy. The soft label, the playoff ‘failures’, the individual accolades are all very similar. ‘Tis why I can’t feel unyielding, irrational hate towards the guy. I know what it felt like to root for Dave and hear the barrage of unfair criticism.

So how can I root against Dirk in this Finals?

He doesn’t need a Finals victory to validate his baller status in my eyes. I ain’t down with the “ITS ALL ABOUT THE RINGZ” bullshit. It is mostly about the rings. Mostly. The rest is far too complicated to describe in this space.

On the Mavericks:

Gutty. Admittedly, I ignored the Mavs this season. Well, ignored is the wrong word. I didn’t take them the least bit seriously but not without reason. Other than a surprisingly good record, they hadn’t shown they were going to nut up in the playoffs. They have.

Sure, the Lakers helped beat themselves and OKC and Portland weren’t serious championship contenders. That means nothing. This Mavs teams is not as young and ferocious as that 2006 squad, but it does have more mental talent. They run out older, wiser Dirk who has vaccinated his game against the tricks that befuddled him in the past, future HOF Jason Kidd instead of Net castoff Devin Harris, 13-year veteran Shawn Marion instead of Josh Howard and Tyson Chandler instead of the junk pile that Dallas used at center.

The stink of the past playoff failures turned people off. Playoff victories and big wins in tough situations were the only things that could make the NBA fandom take this team seriously. Lo, and behold some amazing play by Herr Dirk and ballsy 15-point comebacks (three of ‘em) have resurrected the Metroplex fanbase into full-on Douche-mode (my interpretation).

As unlikeable as these Mavs are to little ol’ me, they are making these playoffs fun to watch. That is why I want to watch in the first place, anyway. Fun.

That said, did anyone really think that the Mavericks were going to give up and die in Game Four? Dallas has already shown they believe enough to not quit and are skilled enough to execute a comeback. They have no reason to think they cannot do the same in this series. It is pretty rare for a squad to have that combo. They shirked off a “for sure” loss in Game Two and nearly stole another on their home floor. This game? Actually they should have sewn it up with around a minute-thirty to go. Dallas had wide-open shots from Terry, Dirk and DeShawn that didn’t drop and spared Miami a KO blow.

On Heat:

So now they have the pressure. Who is applying this pressure? Media. Some can be self-applied but it is hard to duck 48-hours of questions without it affecting your mindset. That is, of course, if you don’t believe in yourself and/or your system. Reaching the Finals, playing so well for stretches and the presence of Dwyane Wade and LeBron James has to give that team some confidence. For D-Wade? His ability and performance this series gives him even more. For LeBron? Well, the shadow of doubt might creep into his mind. Maybe it won’t. Hard to tell with that dude. It isn’t new pressure or criticism and his press conferences seem to show a guy that is not rattled in the least. He has an answer for every question, takes responsibility for his (poor) performances and seems to have an idea how to improve it. Sounds like confidence to me.

Still, it is like in Rocky when Apollo Creed knocks down Rocky for the 100th time and yet he gets up. Apollo turns, looks at him and shakes his head in disbelief. Dude won’t stay down. Miami is the more talented, more athletic squad. So far, they won’t stay down.



By the way Apollo wins that fight.

Cuban v Trolling

Mark Cuban started a small uproar amongst media-types with his post on the role of media for sports teams.

I’m going to make this short and sweet. In the year 2011, I’m not sure I have a need for beat writers from ESPN.com, Yahoo,  or any website for that matter to ever be in our locker room before or after a game.  I think we have finally reached a point where not only can we communicate any and all factual information from our players and team directly to our fans and customers as effectively as any big sports website, but I think we have also reached a point where our interests are no longer aligned. I think those websites have become the equivalent of paparazzi rather than reporters.

There is the crux of his argument. He goes on to weigh the relative (to his business success) importance of each medium of information. His points about TV and physical newspapers remind me of the David Norris’ (Matt Damon) speech about the right amount of scuffing on the politician’s shoe. You don’t want to alienate the working man but you also need the big wig dollar. So it is with print vs online. Balance, baby.

The most controversial point -- in that it is the one being discussed most -- is the one about internet reporters.

Here is the meat of the argument:

If you can back up what you say with well thought out and in depth analysis, you know the things that some people used to call journalism, you are welcome in the locker room.

The internet reporters who get paid , IMHO , are to the Mavs and any sports team, the least valuable of all media . I’m a firm believer that their interests are not only not aligned with sports teams like the Mavs, but in fact are diametrically opposed.  They tend to look at the number of page views they get for any article as ‘their ratings”. More is better. Which in turn leads them to gear their work towards generating more pageviews.

I totally agree with the guy. Totes. Cuban has guys trolling for divisive quotes in is locker room that eff up his business.* Is it really so hard to understand why he is questioning why he enables this?

What about the public’s right to know? That is the tricky part. How much does the public have a right to? Locker room conversations? Private lives of players? Sexual liaisons?

Part of being a fan is wanting to know more. There is a near-insatiable desire for more information about these sports and games and teams and players. Witness the growth of ESPN and the non-stop stream of stuff from insiders that when looked at is really just stuff and nothing of any real usefulness.

You hear reports of the practice statistics at workouts. “QB hit only 3 out of 11 slants today in the 7-on-7.” We read it because we want it and pretend we know what to do with it.** They report it because we want it and pretend we know what to do with it. It is part of the fantasy of being a fan. Unfortunately there is no safe word and we are still trying to find out if we are all cool with what is going on. It is tough in the age of The Internet Never Forgets and Everyone Can Tweet A Pic of Your Anus.

We’ve explored the depths of the internet’s ability to investigate (all the way to nekkid dong pics) and now it’s time to decide if we want to see that (not me).

I commend those who fight for freedom of information and the retention of these new investigative powers. This is not the frontline of that battle, however. Asking “How much does this loss hurt?” and “Do you want to play in New York?” isn’t asking the tough question anymore when you ask it the millionth time in the case of the former and thousandth time in the case of the latter.

This isn’t Lybia, nor Afghanistan, where in-depth reporting brings vital information that could potentially save some lives. It’s a fuggin game, yo.*** And asking those types of questions is akin to asking rebels, “So how did you fell about that last bombing?”

It is a good moment to question if what we are doing here is good and if everyone is cool with it. Cuban is doing just that. It is smart. It’d be smart of the rest of the internetters to take stock of themselves and do a little philosophic self-examination. Short-form filler and puff pieces? Totally the realm of the internet, now and increasingly the realm of the Organization. “Teams don’t need a third party to tell the good anymore.” Aptly put by internet-friend Brian.

Long-form stuff is still up-for-grabs. Although Kindle and the iPad are trying to muscle in, there are still strong arguments for long-form stuff remaining primarily physical in nature. It would be wise for those with access to make good use of it and not fugg it up for everyone.

Another cool thing about Cuban talking about this: that we, the Internet, can make use of it. I’m totally on board with people directly communicating concerns instead of taking action. Makes me respect the dude more (begrudgingly).

Go Spurs.

*This is another branching off point for another set of criticisms of the Maverick mental toughness. These have some weight but not employing mental midgets is but one way to alleviate the problem. Removing instigators is another.

**There are probably ancillary benefits to a greater knowledge of the game. I read somewhere that incoming college frosh are more mentally ready for the strategy part of football largely because of being exposed to it via Madden and its obsessive attention-to-detail.

***I know that line is tired and cliche as the questions I just called tired and cliche. It is no less true.

Be Berry Berry Quiet. I'm Job Huntin'

Really.

Not to long ago I made the executive decision to leave my place of employment and seek out new opportunities. That really is just a nice way of saying that I quit.

So I've been a-huntin'.

You find some curious things on the prowl. There are a lot of poorly-written job postings which pique interest solely for the sucker-exploitation that could occur. That is just the evil PT Barnum in me, however. I have already sat in a few waiting rooms with fellow job-seekers. Some of them display their desperation on their faces. They look ragged and eager-to-please.

There was one guy who regaled me with stories of is old job. He seemed sad to leave it. I didn't ask him how or why he was no longer with them. I didn't want to ruin his groove so close to his interview.

A few of the candidates are cocky, young talkers. Full disclosure: I am sure that some interviewees think I fall into this category, as well. They want to chat up the others waiting to get the once-over by some asshole hiring manager. They ask questions with no intentions of listening to the responses. They make jokes. They talk. And talk.

They aren't even the worst. The receptionist who has stories is the worst. Why? Well you want to make a good impression. You listen. You nod. You look at pictures of her dog. You pretend to care.

Yet I continue. So far I've not had any luck despite my charm and my impressive resume.

It's okay I didn't want those crappy jobs anyway.

Fare thee well, 2010.

I remarked to my wife just the other day that this year has been memorable one for us. Lots of things happened. Not just regular ol' stuff, mind you, but some major ass shit. We graduated college, moved, got a new car, she got a new job, I announced that I was resigning mine and we traveled to the West Coast again.

That is just off the top of my head, too.

There is other stuff. Stuff that doesn't seem big at first glance, but is conspicuous when compared to the rest of my years. I dropped football (for the most part) for football. The latter being soccer. I don't know if I would call the World Cup the catalyst, but it unsurprisingly had a major impact on my new hobby. Now I have this little indoor league squad that I captain. Who woulda thunk? I play FIFA a shitload more than NCAA Football, a fact that would have been unbelievable last year. Again, not huge stuff but big in comparison.

2010 has also been important for this little blog. It has fallen into disuse. There have only been 60 posts (including this one) this year. I am of two minds on what to do with it's future. There are different outlets for the rants that it originally housed and this also has no real overall theme, anyway. Other topics were compartmentalized in their own sites in an attempt at correct that problem, leaving me with nothing but bullshit for this thing. A traverse through the archives reveals filler posts in between a few longer rants that otherwise would have had no home. So I thought about deleting it.

I don't want to do that, though. It doesn't cost me more than ten bucks a year (domain registration) and the previously mentioned uses -- housing the things too long for twitter and too personal for the other sites, and it let's me try out web-related coding from time to time -- have stayed my hand.

The most prominent complaint is that I feel like I have to keep putting stuff up here, even when I don't have much to say. I'd like any posts to come organically and not be forced. Other times I try to give myself reasons to write because it gives me motivation and reason to not let my writing skills atrophy.

Whatever. I'll probably let it go on until I become embarrassed by it or something.

I am proud of Mean Green Nation and Denton: Rated. I had high hopes for the latter, but my own procrastination combined with circumstances conspiring against it prevented a more vigorous effort. It gets the most regular views despite it's poor maintenance record and I still want to do more fun stuff with it. We'll see how all that goes.

MGN is like NTM, part two. One of the unacknowledged reasons for starting this blog was because I had it somewhere in my head that I should blog about being at UNT, but not really. Early on I realized that topic wasn't focused enough for a blog theme. And really -- what the fuck would anyone care what some asshole did at school everyday? I certainly wasn't going to write up the actual things I did, either. If I would have, there would have been two realistic options: A.) Be boring as shit and B.) Live an interesting life while also secretly blogging about it. That would require an amazing ability to be vague yet compelling. I would have had to do some Harriet the Spy shit. Unfortunately, I am a little too honorable and also a little too underfunded. I ain't got socialite money and I was/am spoken for. 'The fuck kind of stories am I going to tell then? Amirite?

Let's not leave out the fact that both options are extremely self-important, douchey things to cover. I've perused a few 'I Wore This Outfit Today' posts in my time on the webz. Completely uninteresting. I've also seen my share of 'Drunken Tales of Hook Up, Bro' (try Deadspin for that) stories, too. Completely eyeroll-inducing.

As I was saying, however, MGN is focused. It has purpose and it has a future. For that I am glad.

It does, disappointingly, have it's limitations. Whereas other team-focused blogs can use the national media as tools, the dearth of coverage for North Texas games makes this shit fairly difficult. To make the blog really awesome, I will have to go out and actually work at it. Ugh.

Not that I am unwilling. I am totally down for a labor of love. Not so down for a labor of love and sacrifice, though. This means, of course, that really doing it would use up the time and effort I have earmarked for other hobbies and life shit. Sometime next year I will probably make a full run at it. A very large portion of the site's popularity will vary with the popularity and success of the UNT basketball squad. Right now I am predominantly writing for the five people who give a shit about the night to night adventure of the college basketball regular season.

If only I gave more of a shit, too. I used to be a die-hard guy. I would have been awesome at this shit if 13-year old me was covering this team. Like they did to my dad, time and experience have transformed me into a big-picture guy.

Wait. I am being a little unfair to myself. I do have fits of obsessiveness on occasion. I probably would breakdown some UNT film if I didn't have to shoot it myself--

You know what? Fuck it. I'll stop bitching. I need to find me a way to get game clips. If I have to go to the video guy, I'll go to the fucking video guy.

Sorry for being a little bitch, 11 phantom readers.

I also apologize for this turning into a blog-retrospective, but really, you don't pay me and it's my shit anyway so I can do that.


Happy New Year!