Drop it like it's hot

Is it just me or are medics across both nations working serious overtime these days:

• Bosh goes out indefinetly 8 days ago with a knee injury. He is apparently back practicing
• TMac is walking around with his annual back injury. Out indefinetly since the 12th.
• Lamar has a well-documented issue with his knee.
• The Big Chinese Person fractures his medial tibial plateau. Not his knee, as Uncle Tim points out. Gone for 6 weeks.
• Monta Ellis, Yay Area hero, hurts his shoulder in last night's game.
• Josh Smith has hernia surgery, gone for four weeks.
• Nenad Krstic shreds his anterior cruciate ligament. Done for the year.
• Sam.i.am w/plantar fasciitis, could sit out a few games.

In a related note, have a very Merry Xmas watching the G.O.A.T. duking it out with Public Enemy #1.

EDIT: Observe Dan le Batard's excellent profile on KB24. More on that later.

Gangsta Gangsta

Legiterally hours after Stop Snitchin' and JR were removed from the Nuggets lineup, the Nuggets go out and find an Answer resting on the scrap heap. Billy King did not fail to dissapoint, taking back a confusing medley of players (1.e. Joe Smith + Andre Miller) and a couple of 1st rounders.

This is w/o doubt the second most exciting destination for A.I., finishing just behind Minnesota on the Pump-o-Meter. While their status as the ultimate brawling team was somewhat in doubt as far as their status in the all-time annals, this move cements their #1 spot. Answer brings toughness+willingness to sacrifice whatever it takes to drag his teammates into the storied land.
Think about this for a second before you talk about team chemistry, and how Melo and Ivey will have a tough time adapting to each other: A.I. has been busting his ass up and down the court for about 5 years w/o a single teammate worthy of his lofty stature. Now, picture him w/a bunch of quality teammates sorely in need of an offensive boost now that Options 1 and 2 are suspended for 15 and 10, respectively. It's true that there will be 2 learning curves for Iverson, one w/o Melo and JR, one w/both in full effect.

Before you write this entire move off as stupid on both parties, consider that Iverson has nothing but desire to win. I have not doubt that not only will he not fuck this situation up by playing petulant/former frustrated alpha dog, but in fact he will embrace his role as perhaps the second banana. Or maybe Melo and A.I. will figure a unique way to share the ball and scoring responsibility in a way that benefits both of them in a quest for a championship. I would hope that they can form some kind of alliance that results in both of them scoring obscene amounts on the same court, with JR picking up the rest of the point-scoring tab.

While I don't yet know how that will work, it's my sense that Melo might start spending more time on the perimiter, allowing Iverson ample room for his barely controlled drives toward the rim. Although this trade still leaves Denver bereft of shooters, it should allow them to play at what has become the league's fastest pace with a premier PG/SG running the show.

BLACK SUNS BABY!

Don't never blink

Step away for a moment and look at what you miss:

1. Kobe goes for 45 and AgentZero explodes for 60 on the same court. Lamar (the blog + the person were rightfully ecstatic.
2. Brawl @ MSG.

As a subhead to Item 2, Melo gets slapped w/15 games, JR Smith w/10, and NateRob w/10.



All these suspensions represent a concerted effort by Stern + co. to make a move away from the gangsta-ism repped so heartlessly by A.I., Melo, and even Isiah in his playing days. The brawl itself seems like pretty minor spat; the only thing even vaguely remarkable was Melo pimp-slapping Mardy Collins then backpedaling away from Jared Jeffries for the length of the floor.

I don't particularly understand why Melo got hit with such a large suspension when it was clearly Napoleon complex'd NateRob that pushed the whole damn altercation to a level that passed what would have been appropriate for the foul. JR was clearly restrained and everything was on the verge of calming down when NR came in and blew that shit up.

If anything, Melo's suspension is justified for the sheer stupidity of it. How do you smack the worst player on the Knicks for yapping at you? Point up to that Jumbotron and remind him not only do you (a) earn more money in a single year than he will in his life (b) just ran his squad off the court and (c) starred in a ridiculous "Stop Snitchin" gang video straight out of Ballimore.
To be honest, this whole thing was more than a little disappointing. The Nuggets have arguably the best brawling squad in the NBA, bar none. Perhaps the 04 Pacers could give them a run for their money, but the Nugs have some serious bangers, which fall into a few main categories:

1. Hood: Melo, JR Smith, K Mart (when healthy)
2. Foreigners: Eduardo Najera, Nene (seems like a monolith. a badass monolith.)
3. Guys Not Particularly Dangerous on the Surface but Make You Vaguely Nervous: Marcus Camby, Earl Boykins

Name another team with a lineup that can even pretend to compete w/them. Simmons says the Wiz come close, and I guess I buy that just b/c Gil seems like he has only a vague idea of what's happening at any given time and so could be superdangerous. Even if he decided that the fight was the perfect time for a powernap.

Our logo falls into the dust.

Happy birthday to me, but Lamar crumpled like so many cards in a win against the Rockets on Tuesday night.

His fall from the ranks of Lakerland for at least a month could return the Lakes to their last year's paradigm: Kobe scores every time down while the rest of the team takes in his spectacle.

Don't get me wrong; Mamba is perhaps the G.O.A.T. and probably already is with regards to scoring the basketball. However, the evolution of the Lakes into a multifaceted attacking machine was among the more thrilling aspects of this 1/4 done year.

To a large extent, Lamar enabled their startling push into importance. He seemed energized by the death of his infant son. Perhaps his all-encompassing grief finally enabled him to begin to fathom the almost limitless death of his talents. Or, it could be that another year of Phil Jackson was and is causing the Lakers to come together like so many Beatles.The long term effects of Odom's injury could prove more deadly than losing Kobe for a similar span of time. Not to suggest that Odom is more valuable than Mamba. Quite the opposite--his status as 2nd best is what makes this injury so devastating.

Take tonight's game against the Mavericks as a prime example. Mamba dominated the Q3, but as the Lakers fell further and further back as 4Q went on, there was no-one to help Kobe to shoulder the load. Had Kobe been injured, a kind of communal spirit would have been in effect; since there would have been no focal point at which the Mavericks could direct their defensive onslaught, they would have instead been forced to contend with the very real possibility of points coming from anywhere on the floor. As it was, Kobe was reduced to wild heaves with an only theoretical possibility of bringing his team back into it.
The Lakers are not an elite team yet, but Lamar's multifaceted goodness pushed them constantly in the direction of the sanctity of a Top-5 seed. It remains to be seen whether or not they can weather his stormy absence from the court, but never underestimate the wizardry of the man in the suit.

Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K

On the news front:

1. I guess the Ivey trade is superbig news after all. The trade machine makes its season debut, allowing me to while away the hours until Iverson finds his new home.
2. Luke Walton is the second most popular Laker with the ladies. Him and Kobe. Wow.
3. Amare Stoudemire is like 95% back--observe his performace against NJ on Friday.
4. The leather is back.

That is all.

The Answer Cometh

Fresh off denying Jerry Sloan his 1,000th, KG drops a bombshell I certainly didn't see coming.
For those too lazy to click through, here's what it is:

"Bring it on, I love 'The Answer," Garnett said Friday night. "We welcome A.I. with open arms. Where's Kevin McHale?"

Whoa.
I have to admit that I'm not entirely ready for this pairing to happen just yet. Simmons claims that KG is the ultimate second banana, whatever that means. He's never truly been a dominant scorer in the purest sense of the word. Also, he's never been a dominant big man, despite being arguably the best in the game.

His versatility is his ultimate downfall. KG resembles Lamar a lot in that regard; he is perhaps tortured by his ability to do so much, that he settles for less than the sum of his parts. For Garnett, this is less true than it is for Lamar, but the concept lurks just below the surface.

Were he to focus on any one aspect of his game, he might morph into a more dominant, more perfect player than he already is. However, it is that dangerous element of raw imperfection that lends KG's game its indisputable charm. He isn't shackled to the post like so many of his predecessors and prodecessors.Garnett isn't easily comparable to anyone in particular. If anything, he is the idealized image of what Fab5-era CWebb should have been. Minus the boneheaded timeout calls, the petulance, and plus some insane competitive fervor.

The Answer brings many of the same elements to the table. He is a non-traditional player in a very real sense of the word; upon NBA entry, he violated every conceivable rule of style and etiquette both on the court and off on his way to becoming the Best 6-Footer Ever (caps definitely necessary.)

Like KG, he brings an insatiable desire for victory onto the floor, as well as the skills and motivation to sacrifice every inch of his frail humanity to achieve that success.

However, he differs from Garnett in his desire to score the damn ball. While KG sometimes seems vaguely content to exist w/in the flow of the offense, AI Creates his own flow on the fly. Sometimes he realigns some inviolable tenets of The Right Way while doing so, but so be it. Maybe all Garnett needs to reach his own personal promised land is a little bit of hood flavor.