Lil Wayne just released a new song about Kobe Bryant. I honestly kinda hated the idea of it at first but then I listened to the song and it's kinda fire. Wayne sweats sports and I think it's ill that one of the best in the rap game is getting at the best in the NBA. I'm rooting for the Lakers by the way, I don't even care, Kobe is my duuuude.
Also Shaq put this picture up on his Twitter and with the tagline that this is what Van Gundy and Dwight Howard's kid would look like. Thing is so CRITTTTTTery I almost couldn't put it up. Also in BREAKING BLOG NEWS we have decided to change the name of the blog to "BEST KIDSSSSSSSS from the Burbs" Just kidding....but that phrase has spread like wild fire this summer. Picture you won't be able to go to an EB party now without hearing the chooch voice and someone yelling some form of "Best kidsss...." or "Biggest chooooch" All I know is this Summer is the Summer of partying...and I'm going to have to write a book on it called "Living the Dream."
45/19/8 blocks for Howard tonight? Jesus. Thats domination. What the hell has gotten into these kids lately? That looks like a line for Blake Griffin (beast himself) against a sub .500 college squad. Superman was in the building tonight.
47 points for Durant tonight. A little bit of confidence after he won horse this weekend? He has been on fire over the last month. This kid is still so young. Theres just no doubt that he is going to be unstoppable over the next 10 years as he keeps improving the jumper and some go to post moves. Hes just too long and too good. Benjamin Button... I mean Oden is a nice kid, but Durant should have been drafted first.
The league has such a fantastic crop of young talent. Good god I love it. We have been lucky to see a lot of amazing talent enter the league and pan out over the last 5 years. The NBA's popularity is really dependent on its superstars. Remember how noone really cared about the NBA in the late 90's and early 2000's? Well there was a direct correlation with that lull and the lack of big time talent coming in after Duncan in 1997. Number 1 overall picks after Duncan were Olowakandi, Elton Brand, Kenyon Martin, Kwame Brown, and Yao. Are you kidding me? Wish I was born as a future 7 footer. And Im not playing it up either, there werent even any successful top 5 picks in that dark age. Kenyon Martin made an all star game but other than that, noone in the lottery in 2000 even starts in the NBA right now, unreal.
Things have changed drastically since Melo won a title at Syracuse and LeBron's high school games were being televised. The rosters at the all star game this weekend were just stacked with young stars. There is a handful of 10+ year veterans like Pierce, Duncan, Shaq, Kobe, KG, etc, and the rest is just loaded with 22-27 yr olds. Thats why there is such a large number studs hitting free agency around 2010. Lebron, Stoudemire, Wade, Bosh, Dirk, Joe Johnson, Redd, Manu, McGrady, Rip, Ray, Stephen Jackson, Chandler, Josh Howard, Jermaine O'Neal, TJ Ford, and more. Better clear some cap space for the Summer of Lebron, whole leagues gettin flipped.
I flip on Sportscenter tonight and see Howard and Durant just crushing it. Think about the Darko draft being about 5 and a half years ago so those cats are in their prime. Lebron went first and rightfully so as his potential knows no limits. Darko 2nd to Detroit which is that much worse when you see the next 3 selections are all franchise players. Melo is a beast. Bosh made the leap to a top 10 player this year. Wade is being overshadowed by Kobe/Bron but he is the third or fourth best player in the NBA.
Im not sure if you've heard of PER, or player efficiency rating, but its a stat that John Hollinger came up with to show how good a player is on a per minute basis. "PER takes into account positive accomplishments, such as field goals, free throws, 3-pointers, assists, rebounds, blocks and steals, and negative ones, such as missed shots, turnovers and personal fouls. The formula adds positive stats and subtracts negative ones through a statistical point value system. The rating for each player is then adjusted to a per-minute basis so that, for example, substitutes can be compared with starters in playing time debates. It is also adjusted for the team's pace. In the end, one number sums up the players' statistical accomplishments for that season." I don't buy into it as the be all and end all because it falls short on defense, but it is pretty impressive. The score is based on 15.00 as league average. It gets a lot of attention as the best measure of a players performance, and some of this years numbers are off the charts. The top 4 are James, CP, Wade, and Howard (young blood). Lebron James PER of 32 is the best of the last 30 years and only matched by a couple of Jordan's seasons. Same thing with CP3's 30. Its one of the best PER's of all time for a point guard.
The NBA is stacked with young talent. Lets hope the Celts can steal another one before LeBron puts on more muscle and the big three get arthritis.
Fun Fact: 24 year old LeBron James is criticized for his outside shot that manages to go in 32% of the time. Well when Michael Jordan was 24 years old he had played 4 years in the NBA and attempted 189 three pointers and only 16% of them went in. So Michael Jordan scored 31 three pointers through age 24 while LeBron is at 580 and counting.
The NBA All Star game, like all AS games, are pretty hard to get into. Still, I like seeing the best in the business mess around with each other and crunk some alley oops. Tonight wasn't bad. I am more of a fan of the three point and dunk contest though.
I liked how King James was getting interviewed and announced that he is entering the 2010 dunk contest. I really miss the big names from throwing their names in. Dwight Howard is one of the best players in the game and I think that him being involved as the main attraction has brought the contest's popularity back from the catatonic state its been in since Richardson last won it.
The video below is Lebron, Melo, Pierce, and VC at the high school dunk contests, pretty cool. Its too bad that Melo and Pierce packed on a good 30 pounds and dont have the ups that they used to (no big deal, just sayin check the air).
Its hard for a tall guy to look that good in a dunk contest just because dunking 10 feet seems too easy. Dwight Howard is freakish enough that he can pull it off. Howard once dunked on a hoop that was 12ft 3in. He would be in my handpicked dunk contest for sure, but who would the others be if I could pick the 2010 lineup? Give me Lebron, James White, Howard, and Josh Smith.
Kobe can throw down pretty hard but hes so good in real games that his dunking could only be disappointing. Kobe And the Nate Robinson thing was kinda cool but it was too much of a novelty, and novelties get dull fast. VC might have been the best but hes well past his prime, so is Jason Richardson's knee. An honorable mention would be Andre Iguodala. I like seeing him glide and slam. A thing to remember when trying to decide who would be the best is that there are probably 10 or 15 guys with verticals approaching 50 inches, so a lot does come down to creativity, fluidity, and showmanship.
Look at Lebron in warmups man. His ups are just spectacular. Im pretty sure he isn't even going all out here. Its crazy how he has put on so much muscle since coming into the league and hasn't lost any speed or ups.
This is James White. He is still in the D-League but I watched him in the college dunk contest a few years back and was blown away. A lot of the players say hes the best dunker in the game right now. Too bad thats pretty much all he can do because you need to be able to dribble to graduate from the D-League. Still, this is my custom picked contest so I'll pick who I want.
I already talked about him above, and this is the last youtube (or ill get called into Perk's office and be reemed out), but here is Howard practicing for last year's contest. The sheer size and power makes this maybe my favorite video out of all of these. He should get a car on the court next year and sky over that. (Edit: kinda been done before I guess)
Lastly I would go with Josh Smith. This kid is a decorated veteran and I love watching him throw it down. Thats him in the picture at the top of this post. His nickname is J-Smoove which is incredibly ghetto, but when hes air-born he actually is smoother than a babys butt. Smoovy reminds me of Larry Nance, Julius Erving, or even Dominique. A long explosive leaper that likes the windmill type stuff to show the hang time and power.
-If you're into the NBA at all, I would recommend checking out Bill Simmons annual Trade Value Column. I am a huge fan of Simmons anyway, but his NBA knowledge is actually his strongest subject in my opinion.
-Simmons has been saying for a couple years that they should add horse to all star weekend and they finally did this year. He was criticizing it though because of the fact that they put young guys out there for it who aren't super confident and have the necessary swag and experience to talk trash and take it serious. Picture Kobe, Pierce, Garnett, Iverson types out there mic'ed up. That would be unreal to me.
-I have a lot more NBA stuff I want to talk about but this is getting a little long. Ill come back to some things soon. Hope you enjoyed some of the dunk clips. Leave some NBA thoughts in the comments if you'd like. I think I'll do a post on Amare tomorrow too.
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