Vegas Summer League Basketball

Although most people think that basketball is dead during the summer, it most certainly is not. First off, there's the draft, which, for an avid fan, presents an abundance of opportunity to cross your fingers, peruse through countless statistics and footage, and pay your team makes the right call.

For the Kings, we had a decent draft. Jason Thompson's profile reads like he might be a poor-man's Chris Webber (the good one, not the hobbled shell of his former self). A former PG who had a growth spurt in high school and ended up playing power forward in college. So he has some definite ball handling abilities, which he showed in summer league. He also averaged better than 20-10 in college, albeit at Rider. Still he's good. Also, we got Sean Singletary, PG out of Virginia. Singletary was an offensive nightmare for a while, and is definitely a good aquisition in the second round. He also can provide depth at the PG position.

This year was also not short on potential star tallent. Jerryd Bayless, Kevin Love, Derrick Rose, Michael Beasley, the list goes on. The NBA's future looks bright. However, what does annoy me is OJ Mayo getting so much love. He was crowned a future star when he was in sixth grade and has remained on the national radar ever since. Went to USC, and if you ask me was a complete bust. He was supposed to be, hands-down, the number one overall pick. Didn't quite work out that way, as he was drafted third, then traded around. Now, the kid can score, I will definitely give him that. But he's not a PG. He's actually quite turnover prone. Today, I ran across this lovely tidbit on Truehoop:

O.J. Mayo, Grizzlies (No. 3 pick): He had two signature plays -- the dunk and the buzzer-beater -- but he also showed he has the ability to play both guard positions; the game appears to come easy to him. He is a star in the making.

Can play both guard positions? The kid averaged 1-2 in assist to turnover ratios. That's right, for every one assist he dishes out, he turns the ball over twice. Ridiculously bad stat line to throw up there. Never, ever, ever should this kid be considered a guy who can play both guard positions. Unless you have a team running two shooting guards and no point guard. Maybe then, you can say he could play both guard positions. Now, it's just summer league, I know. But how did he do in his one season at USC? 3.3 assists per game, 3.5 turnovers per game. Ummm....yeah, so even in college, he still averaged more turnovers than assists. If nothing else, he did as much harm to his team as he did good, in theory of course (not all turnovers equal conversions by the other team).

I always lobby heavily against the hype train. And this is, of course, another one of those instances. So while Mayo might be a legit scorer in this league in the very near future, please, never, ever, ever say that he can legitimately play the PG role.

Fake Vacation, Coming Soon; Battling Defeat

One last day of work left. Then I re-enter the ranks of the unemployed. Or as I like to call it, I'm going back on fake vacation. Fake vacation consists of making plans, only half of which I will actually accomplish. You see, despite being a pessimist, I'm an optimist when it comes to work output. I always overestimate what I plan on accomplishing and I come out entirely disappointed with the end results.

Part II of this year's fake vacation consists of:

• attempting to write on to law review
• continuing to prep for trial
• planning golf games that never happen
  
• working out more
• researching that project I've been procrastinating on
• maintaining sanity
• pretending like I have a purpose in life

The only thing that excites me about fake vacation? more sleep. Aside from that, I hate when there's no structure to my life.

This past Saturday my team (it's more of Julio's team, although he credits me for being at every function) had their first game. It was a doozy, but I'm so proud of them. We lost. But we knew we would lose from the beginning. There were 13 or 14 of them. There were 5 on our team. There tallest kid was somewhere around 6'2", and burly as I've seen them. I actually questioned their ages aloud. The kids were supposed to be 12 and 13, but these kids definitely looked around the 14-15 year old range. We also have a 10 year old on our team, but the kid is an absolute STUD. He's got a mean crossover, excellent range, and plays with sheer intensity both ways. Natural instincts. I keep saying, if the kid grows a couple of feet, he's bound for college ball for sure.

The first half was sheer dominance. By them. Down 22-7, things were looking bleak. Turnover city. They guarded the fast break well, trapped us. It just wasn't so pretty at first.

Then came the second half. Our team played with intensity. A few blocks, some timely turnovers, a couple of three balls and the score was suddenly 36-26. The kids were playing like they were possessed or something. I was so proud of them. Particularly because our backcourt was full court pressing most of the time and running for forty minutes is insane. Another three, and we were only down 7. But our little run got cut short as they forced some turnovers and burried some buckets. Final score, 42-29 (I think). But I was ecstatic. Our kids played with sheer heart. They looked so defeated afterwards and I felt bad. Julio and I kept trying to encourage them. With no bench, they should be so proud of themselves for keeping it close and not getting absolutely waxed by the opposition. We definitely have some stuff to work on, but there were so many brightspots, I can't wait for the next week. Plus we'll have more depth.

You Must Have the Lows

I should have seen this coming. Things had just been going too well for too long (oh, the pessimism). So, in the last 24 hours, here's what's going down:

• AC on the third floor of the house mysteriously stops working. It is now 90-something degress up there.
• This morning, wake up on the wrong side of the bed. Something didn't feel right.
• Drive to work. Hit the first major accident I've encountered in the 8 weeks I've been commuting. I suppose I was due. There's what that gut, something-doesn't-feel-right feeling came from.
• 2 miles in 20 Minutes. That's what I'm talking about! well, at least I maybe saved some gas.
• Arive at work approximately 1 hour later than planned. I love when a 30 minute drive turns into an hour and twenty minutes.
• The ongoing Crap project is still A Crap Project today. See?! It doesn't pay to be optimistic.
• Roommate will be out of town this weekend.....naturally, another weekend of no golf....and another weekend with the flakemaster (or rather, without).

Life feels overwhelmingly redundant. Lets hope this day gets a little better. But like I said, you gotta have the lows to appreciate the highs of life.

Tonight is the Night

Since the Wire has ended, Entourage has been delayed, and there was the whole writers strike that made prime-time TV start back up with April / May (the heart of finals studying), I haven't had a ton of stuff to watch on TV in months. Thankfully, AT&T hooked it up with a monster package for the first month, so there is always something on TV to watch movie-wise. But this all ends tonight. I return to the life of anticipation; waiting with excitement and anticipation for the next episode. It's been far too long:



Generation Kill premiers tonight on HBO. Based on the article the Killer Elite for Rolling Stone which then turned into the book, Generation Kill. The mini-series is directed by David Simon, who has also done the Wire (most amazing crime drama EVER) and Homicide: Life on the Streets. Tonight is an exciting night for me.

So Apparently....

...I suck at this blogging thing. I don't regularly keep up with these things, and I can't juggle the busyness that has become my life.

Quick updates, bulletin style:

• New house is great. good roommates, good times.
• Work is busy. Add in the commute time, plus working ten hours a day and trying to fit in workout time is difficult to say the least. Well, it's actually more difficult to find time to do other things.
• Did some pro bono work with the office at a VA hospital yesterday. It felt good to do lawyer-like things. Even though I didn't say much to the clients
• The basketball team is great. I told Julio, the pieces are in place, we just have to figure out how to use them. Plus the kids have great attitudes and seem to have a lot of fun. Go Blazers!!
• Professional basketball free agency moves has been phenomenal. Brand to sixers?! Maggette to Warriors? Baron to Clips? Interested to see what Kings might have in the works. Getting Odom and dumping K-9s outrageous contract wouldn't be so bad. Although losing Artest is going to sting. But hopefully the team gets better.
• Prepping for mock trial (with J-Reinhold; inside joke there) has been tedious. Haven't been doing too well, but well, life goes on right? I guess it's been alright, maybe I'm just being hard on myself.
• Also have an interview coming up, and hopefully a few more to come. But we'll see. I'll keep rough updates on this.
• Andrew, my old roommate is coming to visit. I'm definitely stoked. Hopefully we get a round of golf in. It's been far too long. And that actually makes me miss Massachusetts. Well that and Wings....hahahha
  

So that's life, in a very, very small nutshell. I make no promises about regularly updating this thing in the coming weeks. But please, continue to bear with me through the summer.

And.....Back

The beginning of a new day.

New house.
New internet and cable service.
New 12-13 year old basketball team to coach with Julio
Beno re-signed with the Kings

Today was a good day.

hope you kids are doing well. There's plenty to post, but I'm still getting things in order.

Another Layoff

Just moved, no internet. No blogging for at least a week. Enjoy the vacation from my words. There's plenty that's in the chamber and ready to go.

My Uncle

I haven't seen my uncle in sometime. But my cousin was so kind to post this article about him on Facebook. He's a pretty big deal in Canadian weather, but modest nevertheless. Here's the post in its entirety:

When blizzards,freezing rain, hail or tornadoes strike, the outstanding work of Dr. Paul Joe helps give the Canadians more time to protect their families and property. Paul played a central role in the development of the National Doppler WEather Radar Network, which helps meteorologists detect severe weather sooner so they can issue weather warnings at an earlier stage in a storm's development. He has also been the scientific lead for the National Radar Program for the past 10 yrs.

The National Doppler Radar Network consists of 30 Doppler radars that cover populated areas of Canada from coast to coast. Paul led the development of the software that uses multiple radars to identify significant weather developments and track their movement. This was a major breakthrough in weather forcasting. He has personally devoted an enormous amount of energy and enthusiasm training meteorologists in the use of Doppler radr and developing technology to support their decision-making.

Throughout his career, Paul has been extremely active on the international scene. He organized workshops, participated in World Meteorological Organization sponsored training courses, took part in international experiments and is a member of several international commitees. He initiated and participated in the World Weather Research Program Forecast Demonstration Project for the Sydney 200 Olympic Games, where Canadians and Australians shared their knowledge. Australia subsequently changed the way they operate their Doppler radars. He will be providing similar leadership for the Beijing Olympic Games.

For his outstanding innovative and trend setting initiatives, Dr. Paul Joe is honoured with the Geoff Howell Citation of Excellence.

And my cousin's words:

I'm really proud of my dad and of his achievements and he is and inspiration.
We were recently in Ottawa for him to recieve 2 awards in Innovation. The first one was the 2008 Publice Service Award of Excellence in Innovation, the second one was within his department of Environment Canada - Departmental Awards Ceremony.

Congrats Uncles. Sorry you're probably not reading this.

I Will Hear Nothing.....

.....from the Laker fans. Your team got DOMINATED. I admit, Kobe is the best player in the world. But he was nothing but background for this championship series. An extra if you will. I have never felt so exhausted through a championship.

I am also $25 richer, at the expense of Mani (2-1 odds in a series I thought the Lakers would take in 5 games).

Now, I admit, I am a bandwagon Red Sox fan. They rejuvenated my interest in baseball. But the Celts? No. I watched them beginning two years ago when I lived in Massachusetts. They were terrible. Pierece....couldn't do it on his own. I really took flight as a fan when Rondo arrived. I watched his game and I was hooked. He actually sucked.....but I rooted nevertheless. I even loved the Paul Pierce commercial with him and Rondo, and Lucky, the cardboard mascott, and the awful suit.


If you've lived in Mass, you know what a Tommy Point is (Tommy Heinsohn, ex Celtic). I sat through him Homering (see Dimemag.com for the definition of a Homer) the team in all of the desolate and hopeless games.....By no means have I sat through twenty two years of a basketball championship drought, but I was there when they were awful...and I'm proud to have been a fan in the bad times. I dropped serious cash (for a poor student) to sit center court and root against the Mavericks (JJ Barea, you still suck). It was amazing to watch. Paul Pierce, I'm sorry for all of the cheeseburger jokes....you were the heart and soul. You held it down. Simply put, you were AMAZING. KG?!? you showed up when it counted, and I love it. Ray? I hate the daggers you dropped on Sacto (KG, that goes for you too), but you came back and knocked down your shots. Eddie House, this one's for Mike Bibby! Scot Pollard, this is the ring you originally got gipped on when you were a legit center with SAC. I LOVE THIS GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!

The NBA, Cheating: Where Do I Begin

Despite all of the grotesque things we have witnessed humans do throughout the course of our respective lifetimes, we often choose to disregard them or turn a blind eye, particularly in matters involving television. I speak particularly of sports, and secondly of the media in general. In this day and age, I'm finding myself more and more disillusioned to the integrity of the media. Gone are the days of Woodward, Bernstein, and "Deepthroat," replaced by Spygate and Tim Donaghy. Apples and oranges? Not necessarily. In the end, it's integrity. The media is paid to do one job: report the news objectively. Less of it is "just the facts ma'am" type reporting, and more of it is speculative, opinionated, garbage. A fist-pound between Barack and Michelle Obama is not news (and it's not time to add in your editorial, garbage, and uneducated / ignorant opinion). It has little to do with his campaign. The point at hand is the media has become more and more of a format for controlling what the casual watcher does and does not watch or care about.

Truehoop had an excellent story on the Donaghy betting scandal, even interviewing a professional gambler. Now, before you start saying "what credibility does that guy have," realize that a professional gambler has the most at stake. It's no different than attempting to trade stocks or buy and sell currrency. And, betting is legal in most states and jurisdictions, just not bookeeping.

A quck excerpt from a long and detailed interview:

I can say with a large degree of certainty that this game was one of the more blatant fixes. That Phoenix vs. New York game was a game that I was told was bet by the crew associated with [alleged Donaghy co-conspirator James "Baa Baa"] Batista, it was also a game where Phoenix shot 14 free throws in regulation and New York shot 36.

There aren't that many games in the last five or six years where a team had a 20 point free throw edge. In a sample of 6,373 games I show there being 167 games where the home team shot 20 more free throws than the visiting team, and 78 where the visiting team shot more. I hate trotting out numbers to prove my point because you can cherry-pick whatever statistics you want, but I think if someone with an objective eye goes and watches this game, focusing on Donaghy especially they'll come away thinking that it was pretty clear the Knicks got a huge advantage in the game.

To me, this piece is very interesting. Again, I say a professional gambler can be likened to one who buys and sells stocks or currency. He does the research, he knows the trends, he understands the statistics because he peruses through the statistics. And with sites like 82games.com tracking back to these statistics isn't quite so hard as one might think.

He also offers this:

What do you think about how the NBA has handled the Tim Donaghy investigation?
From a league perspective they have done a great job sweeping this scandal under the rug, and downplaying it.

I keep on reading how Donaghy "provided information" as though this was the crux of the scandal.

The guy fixed games. He didn't "provide information" he bet on games he was working, and made calls to insure he would win those bets. It's pretty basic stuff but the NBA has somehow turned the focus of the whole investigation away from this and instead focused on the "inside information" angle.

I understand what the league is trying to do, I think in this instance the truth doesn't jibe with the league's best interest. In that respect the League and the Commissioner have done a great job of downplaying the scandal.

Interesting. What's even more interesting is that after this piece was published Donaghy came out and said he wasn't alone. He even claimed that the NBA front-office worked with referees to fix playoff games. (?!?!) Of course, Stern comes out and immediately rebukes this notion, and says these claims are baseless. But what else did you think he was going to say.

The problem is in searching for major coverage on Donaghy's claims, there isn't much out there. But then this story pops up. Ex-FBI Agent vouches for Donaghy's claims. And we're not talking about just a run-of-the-mill FBI Agent:

The man who put away John Gotti, baby-sat Sammy (Bull) Gravano, raided an Al Qaeda bomb factory and helped uncover the NBA betting scandal says Tim Donaghy told the truth.

Philip Scala, the recently retired FBI supervisory special agent in charge of the Gambino squad, which uncovered Donaghy's scheme of betting on basketball games he had officiated, said he believes the disgraced referee's claims that other refs were dirty.

Interesting...Your move Commissioner Stern. Does it hurt to investigate? Yes. But in this world integrity is EVERYTHING. And since you were once a lawyer (insert lawyer jokes here) you should know better. Plus the fact that you run a multi-billion dollar organization. We need transparency.