Archive for December, 2008
This is only partially basketball related, but it’s such an amazing story that I couldn’t pass up writing about it. Different people have different ways of inspiring people. A friend of mine posted this story up on Twitter today. She always has a knack for finding great stories, but nothing this heartwarming though.
She’s not a basketball player, but she deserves much more recognition for her hard work and her will. It amazes me that someone so young has such a positive outlook on life, and has the drive that she does.
Check out this story from Weird Asia News:
Qian Hongyan, who was forced to use half a basketball as her prosthetic body, has inspired millions recently with her ambition to compete as a swimmer in the 2012 Paralympics in London.
Qian swims about 2000 meters a day and trains really hard.
“Qian Hongyan studies hard. She never grouches in training although she was confronted with many difficulties at the beginning, ” her coach said.
The 10 year-old was injured trajically in an auto accident when she was only 3 years old. To insure her survival, the doctors were forced to amputate her legs.
Qian’s family, living in Zhuangxia, China, was unable to afford modern prosthetics and instead used a half a basketball to get around on. Once on the ball she uses two wooden props to help her move around.
Qian now has a pair of proper prosthetic legs, but still says she likes to use the basketball from time to time as it is easier for her to get in and out of the pool with.
With the recent struggles, a lot of fingers were already pointing in the direction of their PGs, Fisher and Farmar. Now, Farmar needs to go under the knife to repair a torn meniscus. Not good news for the Lakers, who had to use Sasha Vujacic as the backup PG in Saturday’s game against the Magic.
A recent rumor on Hoopsworld has the Lakers looking to trade Lamar Odom, possibly for Gerald Wallace. This trade both makes sense and doesn’t at the same time. Odom is a huge part of the Lakers, both offensively and defensively. He has the ability to back down smaller guys and then take a bigger guy off the dribble. On the other end, his length this year has led to him playing the passing lanes more and igniting the fast break.
Gerald Wallace is definitely an upgrade on both ends. Think of him as Trevor Ariza with more scoring ability… but also more injury prone.
This trade doesn’t make sense for the time being, especially with the Lakers being thin at the PG position. This trade would make sense if the Lakers somehow managed to get both Wallace and Felton in the deal, but with Augustin being injured, it’s highly doubtful that the trigger will be pulled.
Another possibility is trading Odom for Wallace, and then signing a PG. Possibly someone like Jannero Pargo, who already knows the Tri. Or maybe somehow somehow somehow getting rid of Puke Walton and his disgusting Mitch Kupchak sized contract for a worthy backup PG. But PLEASE… no Starbury.
Found on Ball Don’t Lie:
I think someone needs to learn to box out. Props to Nate for being in the right spot. Nice poster, buddy.
After a disappointing weekend, the question came up in a few discussions in my group of friends regarding why the Lakers have lost 2 in a row to teams they could have/should have beaten if they truly were a championship caliber team.
On Friday, the Lakers lost to a young Miami team that is still working to find it’s identity. Then Saturday, on the tail end of a back-to-back, they lost to a strong Orlando team. 2 losses by a combined 5 points. All throughout history, championship teams found a way to win these close games.
Many basketball fans will put a lot of the blame on Andrew Bynum and his previously injured knee. Others will put the blame on a soft as toilet paper defense. Many will put the blame on Kobe for one reason or another.
After watching these recent losses, one thing stuck out in my mind. Phil Jackson is getting out coached by the youngsters. One Friday, Spoelstra managed a young team to victory by firing up his team and making the right moves at the right time. Then came Van Gundy and the Magic. Jackson, on the other hand, stood by and watched teacher’s pet Luke Walton get manhandled while putting up 4pts on 2-6 shooting, 6 rebounds, and 1 assist in 25 minutes in those 2 games. Yet Jackson continues to go with him in the starting lineup, even though Odom has been outplaying him this year… and will continue to do so for the rest of his career.
Then you have Bynum. I’m not sure if Jackson is trying to teach Bynum a lesson in humility or if he’s just being stubborn, but Drew needs to be in at the end of games. Teams are marching to the basket like pre-game layup lines when Drew isn’t there to alter their shots. Yes, Bynum is still getting his timing back, but just simply having a 2nd 7 footer in the paint is scary. I don’t care who you are. You never want to take it in against 2 towering players, especially when one of them (or both) can send your shot into the 3rd row.
Phil Jackson has always been stubborn with his player rotations and timeouts blah blah blah. It used to work. It doesn’t anymore. It’s about time something changes. Phil had started Vlad Radmanovic for the majority of this season, but suddenly decided to switch it up and start Luke. Now the premiere outside threat for the Lakers is barely getting any minutes. The guy is shooting 46% from beyond the arc and you bench him? Yeah some people might say that he’s not playing solid defense. Is ANYONE on the Lakers really playing defense? If that’s the case, pretty much all the players need to ride the bench for a while, with the exception of Trevor Ariza. Rad can at least stretch out the defense and force other teams to stay honest and not double off of him. That’s exactly what made Sasha Vujacic so valuable last year. Great job benching him, Phil. Notice the slip since you started playing Walton?
The offense will continue to be there, but Jackson needs to stop talking about his team playing defense, and get them to actually do it. He left Kurt Rambis in charge of the defense, and apparently it’s not working right now. It’s time for the Zen Master to get off that huge chair of his and actually preach defense. You have an athletic and talented team. Maybe you should use their skills rather than force them into your style. The Lakers were clicking on all cylinders at the beginning of the year when Jackson allowed the bench to run up and down the court and tire out the opponent. Now they’ve struggled since Jackson put the reins on Farmar. Ariza isn’t getting as many steals and breakaway dunks because of this either. And the rest of the bench is simply stagnant as the ball keeps getting passed around the perimeter until there are 3 seconds left on the 24 and someone is force to throw up some garbage.
Woo hoo great coaching. I’m so glad the Lakers have the greatest coach of all time on the bench. Needless to say, something has to change. And that change is Phil’s coaching philosophy. The times have changed, Phil. Now it’s your turn to adjust to the new NBA.
Check this video that I found from Lakersground. I think there are actually people out there that are getting more and more bored than I am with watching the Lakers bench stink up the building!
From Mark Stein over at ESPN.com:
The Washington Wizards, Memphis Grizzlies and New Orleans Hornets have agreed to a three-team trade that will bring two new guards to the Gilbert Arenas-less Wizards.
The Wizards will receive New Orleans’ Mike James and Memphis’ Javaris Crittenton in the exchange, with the Hornets acquiring Washington’s Antonio Daniels and the Grizzlies coming away with a future first-round pick. New Orleans also received a conditional second-round pick from Memphis.
So far, I’m liking the sound of this trade from Washington’s standpoint. James is a shooter, streaky… but a shooter. Not much is known of J. Critt’s game other than that the Lakers were very high on him when they drafted him. From what I’ve seen of him in some of the Lakers games last season, the kid can play.
Critt has the ability to create his own shot off the dribble and is a decent passer with size. Think back to Arenas in his first few years in the league. Couldn’t show off much of his talent because of the lack of minutes, but once he gets the minutes, his game will flourish. He’ll be a solid compliment to Caron Butler and Jamison for the time being.
As for the Hornets, I doubt Daniels will be able to provide too much help. He’s a solid defender, but he’s been showing signs of slowing down. Not much of a move here.
The clear winner here is Washington. Let’s see if this move will help them begin to turn this season around. I’d hate to see years of Butler’s prime being wasted on a team like the Wiz, but at least this move could help him out a little bit.
According to Yahoo Sports!:
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP)—Antonio McDyess has re-signed with the Detroit Pistons a month after being dealt to Denver as part of the Allen Iverson trade.
The Pistons announced Tuesday that McDyess was back for the rest of the season, but did not disclose financial terms of the deal.
Detroit sent McDyess, Chauncey Billups and Cheikh Samb to Denver for Iverson on Nov. 3.
The Nuggets waived McDyess a short time later, and he had to wait 30 days before rejoining the Pistons.
The 6-foot-9 forward/center averaged seven points and two rebounds in two games for Detroit before the trade.
The 34-year-old Mississippi native signed with the Pistons after they won the 2004 NBA title and helped them reach the finals in his first season and conference finals in the next three.
Can’t say that none of us saw this one coming. McDyess was just filler in the Iverson trade. I’m sure Detroit is hoping he can come in and get things going again for the Pistons, but there’s one other problem. They traded away tehy’re best player for Iverson. 30 days after the trade, it’s pretty obvious which side got the better end of the deal.
Billups has been putting up solid numbers in Denver, and AI is just being AI. The difference here is that Billups is leading the Nuggnuts to victory. That’s right… I used the term Nuggnuts, the worst marketing idea McDonald’s has ever had. Ehh the trade doesn’t really matter. The Nugs aren’t coming out of the West anytime soon, and neither were the aging Pistons. The West is still too powerful, even though several of the teams look worse this year than they did last year. And the East is getting stronger by the day. Good luck to AI and Billups though. Let’s see just how far these old guys can lead their teams.
Found from Yahoo! Sports
MINNEAPOLIS (AP)—Randy Wittman was fired as coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday, two days after an embarrassing 23-point loss at home to the last-place Los Angeles Clippers. Kevin McHale took over as coach, leaving his job as the club’s vice president of basketball operations.
This it already the 4th firing this year and we’re only about 1/4 of the way through. Now McHale is gonna take over? Seriously, what do you expect from this squad? McHale is the idiot that couldn’t manage to build a quality team around Garnett, so instead he trades him for chump change.
Yeah Wittman had his chance and did the best he can, then eventually still failed at building a competitor. What do you expect from such a young team with no true veteran leadership? You’re 1 year from the trade, you’re only true franchise player is Al Jefferson, who is still growing. Some people just expect too much without giving enough.
McHale should have been the one that was fired after he got used in the Garnett trade.
“Kevin has assembled the players on this team, and believes in their talent and skill level,” Taylor said. “It is my expectation that Kevin will be able to get the most out of our team and our players in his new role as head coach.”
Ummm good luck, Taylor. And happy trails, Wittman.
What the fuck is wrong with Yahoo!? There’s definitely something wrong here. I never followed their recommendations very closely, but this just takes the take.
Do they really think that Chris Paul belongs in the not category? They’ve even proved themselves wrong by listing his stats. Good job Yahoo!
A word of advice to anyone looking to beat the Lakers… REBOUND! They got destroyed on the boards my Troy freakin Murphy and Rasho Nesterovic. It all came to show on the last play of the game with Murphy’s buzzer beating tip-in.
It happened in their other loss to Detroit, another team that rebounds well… at least against the Lakers. While watching a pre-game show a few games back, Rick Fox said that the Lakers are still soft. I didn’t want to admit it, especially with Bynum back in the mix. But when you let Troy Murphy get 17 rebounds on your ass, yeah, you’re soft.
Odom has disappeared from the interior when it comes to fighting for rebounds. Bynum doesn’t box out and let’s guys fly right in for put backs and tip-ins. Gasol is left to fend for himself against 2 or 3 rebounders crashing the boards. Yes, it’s still early in the season, but championship caliber teams should not be letting Troy Murphy get that easy of a tip-in, especially at the end of a close game.
Oh yeah, you’re also soft when you let Marquis Daniels drive through the lane for layups and dunks… luckily he missed on a regular basis. But when you have to collapse on a PG running wild through the lane, that’s when the bigs can’t recover in time to box out guys like Troy Murphy.
This puts it on Fisher, Farmar, Kobe, and then down on to Odom and Bynum. Time to show some toughness… please.
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Just some thoughts on happenings around the league, responses to the media and other bloggers, and just a good place for you to spend time instead of actually working.
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