Bleacher Report - Articles by Justin Chatelle

Andrew Bynum: Same Story, Different Season

Justin Chatelle — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 16:58:02 -0500

There has been one thing missing in Los Angeles since 2004—a dominant low-post presence.

There was one thing missing last year in the NBA Finals—a dominant low-post presence

And this season brings more of the same for the Los Angeles Lakers in almost a mirror image of what happened just a year ago, Andrew Bynum going down with a knee injury.

In a game this past weekend against the Memphis Grizzlies, Bynum tore his MCL when teammate Kobe Bryant inadvertently rolled into his leg when going for the ball. The injury is going to require surgery and place Bynum on the injured reserve for 8-12 weeks, possibly costing him the rest of the regular season and maybe the post season.

It's so similar to last season that the very thought of it must send chills down the spines of Laker fans everywhere. Especially given the situation. Bynum had been on a tear over his last ten games averaging 21.2 points and 8.8 rebounds per game including a career-high 42 points and 15 rebounds on Jan. 22 against the Clippers.

The injury means another race to the MVP for Kobe Bryant this year as it is going to take a duplicate performance from last season to get the Lakers back to the NBA Finals again in a very competitive Western Conference.

His 61 points Monday night at Madison Square Garden is a good start, but can Kobe lead the Lakers to a No. 1 seed in the West again as home court advantage makes all the difference, just ask the Celtics.

And what does the injury mean for the rest of Andrew Bynum's career? This is now two consecutive years that a knee injury has sidelined Bynum for the rest of the season, and at 7'0" 285 pounds, those knees take enough abuse as it is throughout an entire season.

After two knee surgeries the Lakers must be wondering if that four-year, $58 million contract was the right investment to be making for the organization.

Andrew Bynum has become the missing piece of the puzzle since Shaq's departure to Miami in 2004 but he isn't providing the Lakers with any help while sitting on the sideline nursing injuries and if he doesn't get better by the playoffs this season the Lakers will come up just short of an NBA championship once again.

Not having Bynum in the line up to battle with Kevin Garnett and Kendrick Perkins last year was the biggest difference in the series and with a hungry Spurs team in the West, great seasons from the Magic and Cavaliers thus far, and the defending champs staying true to their title it seems to be an uphill battle for the Lakers.

And without Andrew Bynum it just seems to be the same old story for Kobe as he continues to chase the elusive fourth NBA Championship ring.

Dwyane Wade: Midseason NBA MVP

Justin Chatelle — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:44:35 -0500

Done with the commercials, advertisements, and photo shoots, Dwayne Wade has come to the 2008-2009 NBA season ready to play basketball.

And he’s doing it at a higher level than anyone else in the league this right now as the season reaches it’s midway point. Leading the league in scoring at 28.9 points per game while also averaging 4.9 rebounds, 7.2 assists, 2.2 steals, and 1.5 blocks per game, Charles Barkley and T-Mobile have taken a back seat to the hard work and determination that got Wade those endorsement deals in the first place and he is back to the Dwyane Wade that America fell in love with during the 2006 NBA Finals.

Yeah, remember that performance? The one that ESPN.com ranked as the best finals performance of all-time? He had an astounding 34.7 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 3.8 assists per game, and after the Dallas Mavericks jumped out to a 2-0 series lead Wade put the Miami Heat franchise on his back and ran off four straight victories to end the series in six.

Well, he’s turning that finals performance into a whole season full of highlights this year. Filling up the entire stat sheet every night the Heat have a game, Wade has been for more “valuable” to his team this year than any other one player. LeBron James is a close second because of the Cleveland Cavaliers' great start, and where would Cleveland be without LeBron, but everyone knows where Miami would be if it wasn’t for Wade. Dead last.

It happened just last year when Wade missed the majority of the season due to injury and Miami won a league worst 19 games. But with a healthy Dwayne Wade back this year, fresh off an Olympic gold medal performance in Beijing over the summer, the Heat are 24-19 already improving on their record from last year with the season only half over. And Wade has made all the difference.

Motivated by the critics and skeptics (myself included) who said he had lost something about him and had started to go soft, Wade’s playing harder than ever to prove every doubter wrong. The Olympic experience really seemed to help out as well, not just for Wade but for everyone who played on the team, as each member of Team USA has come playing at a very high level this season. When you get a chance to play with 12 of the best basketball players in the world you are bound to pick up something that’s going to be of value to your performance on and off the court, and each member of the national team roster definitely did just that, bringing Wade back to his old ways.

He has great footwork when driving to the basket and his shooting range continues to improve as he gains more experience. But along with his tremendous offensive skills, it’s everything else that Wade does that separates him from the rest of the league. It’s the assists, rebounds, steals, and blocked shots that make Wade the most valuable player at the mid-season point, as the MVP award means most valuable player to his team. And everything other than scoring that Wade does is most important to the Heat.

One article showed a chart that measured the amount of the team's points that a player creates and saves as a result of their offensive and defensive skills, and it measures Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, and Kobe Bryant as arguably the three best players in the league. Wade's percentage of points created, which is a combination of points and assists, was 44.8 percent, besting LeBron’s 40.2 percent and Kobe’s 33.6 percent. And his percentage of points saved, a combination of steals and blocks, was 5.9, also better than LeBron and Kobe at 4.9 and 2.5 respectively, showing that he is helping his team out more than any other in the league this year.

“Flash” is back this season and Dwyane Wade continues to prove it with each passing game. One highlight this season showed Wade in the fourth quarter against the Charlotte Bobcats splitting two defenders at the top of the key by cutting between them, driving down the lane hard, and as Emeka Okafor stepped up to block his shot, Wade exploded to the rim for a thunderous dunk over the outstretched hand of Okafor.

Each time Wade steps to the free throw line the Miami fans chant, “M-V-P! M-V-P!,” and if he continues to play at this level Dwyane Wade will get a trophy at the end of the season that says the same thing.

Sweet 17 for the Boston Celtics: And Oh, How Sweet It Was!

Justin Chatelle — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 11:12:16 -0400

June 17, 2008.

Funny how much of a difference a year can make.

Let’s rewind. One year ago at this time, Celtic fans—including myself—were hoping for either Greg Oden or Kevin Durant to walk through the doors of the TD Banknorth Garden as the newest member of the Boston Celtics.

But once the NBA draft lottery came and passed with the Celtics ending up with the fifth-overall pick, reality set in—and it became apparent to the Boston faithfuls that it was going to be another long season for the Celtics.

Draft day came, and Celtic fans gathered around their television sets hoping, praying, that maybe by some miraculous chance that either Durant or Oden would fall into our laps at the five-spot, much of the same way that Paul Pierce fell to Boston with the tenth pick in the 1998 draft.

But instead, Danny Ainge and the Celtics decided to do some shopping with pick, seeing if they could make a trade to help benefit the team. That trade came in the form of Ray Allen, when Boston traded Delonte West, Wally Szczerbiak, and the rights to the fifth-overall pick, which ended up being Georgetown small forward Jeff Green.

I can’t speak for others, but as a Celtic fan, I wasn’t very fond of that trade. I felt that it hurt more than it helped at the time. Instead of drafting a young player to help out the team, the Celtics had traded for a 32-year-old Ray Allen, whose best days may have been behind him. And it still looked like it was going to be another long season in Boston.

But then came the most exciting day in recent history for the Boston Celtics. July 31, 2007. Kevin Garnett was traded to the Boston Celtics in a huge seven-for-one deal that sent Garnett to Boston for Ryan Gomes, Gerald Green, Al Jefferson, Theo Ratliff, Sebastian Telfair, a 2009 first-round draft pick, and a return of Minnesota's conditional first-round draft pick previously obtained in the Ricky Davis-Wally Szczerbiak trade.

And that Ray Allen trade that I had criticized a month earlier ended up being the big factor in bringing Garnett to the Celtics. Garnett had previously denied a trade to Boston, saying that he didn’t want to play in a big-market city, nor did he want to go to a Celtic franchise that had been struggling, having not won a title in 22 years.

But once Allen was sent to Boston, Garnett became a lot more optimistic about the trade thinking that there could really be something special between the “Big Three” of Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and himself. And it began to look like this might be the year for the Celtics to get that elusive 17th banner up in the rafters.

Fast forward to June 17, 2008.

This time, Celtic fans weren’t hoping for the number-one or two pick in the draft. All they were thinking about was that night.

June 17 was Game Six of the 2008 NBA Finals. The series was coming back to Boston after three games in Los Angeles, with the Celtics leading the series three games to two. And all I was thinking was, "How can I go to this game tonight?"

I woke up that morning and went on the computer to look for any way to find tickets to the game, as this was the first time in my life that one of my favorite teams had a chance to win a championship close enough to me in location that I could attend.

First I went to Celtics.com, hoping that maybe there would be some tickets that went on sale at the last minute...nothing. So I went to stub hub.com, a place where I don’t venture to very often because tickets are always priced way above face value. But, desperate times call for desperate measures, and as sports fan I desperately needed to go to this game.

And lo and behold I come across these two tickets—section 312, row 13, seats 7 and 8, about four rows from the back wall in the Garden, $530.00 dollars a piece after tax, with a face value of $55.00 dollars.

Those were going to be my tickets. I sent a text messaged to my friend Mike stating, “I found two tickets to the game tonight, $500.00 dollars a piece, we going?” He replied simply with, “I’m down… you?” And it was decided. We met up to talk about it some more, and then started to make this fantasy a reality.

We went to the bank to get the money situation taken care of, and while standing in line getting ready to withdraw all that money for two tickets, we stopped, looked at each other, and said, “They better win this f****** game.”

It was the first time in my life where the saying "big risk, bigger reward" really meant something to me. A Celtic loss would’ve meant the biggest waste of money in my life, but a Celtic win meant a story and moment to hold onto forever.

We got the money and rushed back to the house. We ordered the tickets and then reality set in. It was kind of like, “Wow! I can’t believe we’re actually going to this game tonight.” Both of us had permanent smiles on our faces for the rest of the day, like we were five years old again and it was Christmas morning.

As soon as we entered the city of Boston, you could tell that it was going to be a special night. Everywhere you looked people were dressed in green to show their Celtic pride, and chants of “Beat L.A.!” could be heard throughout the streets.

The closer that we got to the stadium, the more intense the Celtic fans got. It was an atmosphere like nothing I had ever experienced before, as just a sea of people wearing green and white were all gathering at the same spot with the hopes of the one common goal—Banner No. 17.

And we hadn’t even stepped foot inside the building yet.

Entering the arena, you would’ve thought that the Celtics had already won the game. People screaming and chanting in hopes of seeing the Larry O’Brien trophy by the end of the night. We sat down in our seats way up in the nose bleeds, and agreed that there wasn’t any other place in the world we would rather be than section 312 of the Garden. We were with fans like us in the balcony. The common-folk. Die-hard Boston Celtic fans who probably paid a ridiculous amount of money just so that they could have the chance to see their team play for a championship

Player introductions sent chills through my spine in anticipation for the game to get underway—and when it started, it started with the loudest “Beat L.A.!” chant I had ever heard in my life. That is, until the fourth quarter began.

As most know, the Celtics dominated Game Six with a 131-92 win over the Lakers, which couldn’t have made any Celtic fan happier—unless you were there. What made this win so sweet was the atmosphere in which it happened.

With about seven and a half minutes left in the fourth quarter something happened that made the crowd stand up and cheer. I then noticed that with less than a minute left in the game, I was still standing, and so was everyone else. The whole place knew that this was really going to happen—the 22-year drought was coming to an end, and we were about to be world champions.

The final horn sounded, the confetti cannons shot off, and the roof damn near blew off the top of the Garden. Everyone went nuts—fans, players, coaches, everyone. People started lighting up victory cigars in memory of the late Celtic coach Red Auerbach to celebrate as the Celtics were presented with the NBA Championship trophy, and Paul Pierce was named the Finals MVP.

The celebration then made its way out to the streets of Boston, where riot police lined the road to try to keep things in order and under control. But there was nothing to be worried about—the city of Boston was far too happy to destroy anything in a violent manner, and just wanted to celebrate the perfect ending to a season that had so many expectations. Mike and I walked down the street each holding a hand up in the air, just because everyone that you walked by would high-five it and say something like “Go Celtics!”

We stayed in the crowd of people for about an hour before we decided to start heading home. I had never been on such an emotional high in all my life, and it lasted for about the next two weeks. The atmosphere and excitement that surrounded that day is something that will stick with me forever and gave me a story that I’ll be able to tell to my children and grandchildren some day.

So thank you to the Celtics and the city of Boston for giving me a memory that will last a lifetime, and hopefully I’ll be able to do the same thing again one day because…

Anything is possible!!!

Kobe Bryant's Leap From Superstar To Legend

Justin Chatelle — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 05:57:48 -0400

What are legends made of? Is it statistics? No, because if so, Kobe Bryant would've been a legend for many years now as the 12—year veteran has put up All-Star caliber numbers for the majority of his career. But when you talk about legends of the game, no matter which sport it is, it always comes down to one thing: winning. Yeah, Kobe has three championship rings to show off, but there was a big factor in those three titles that goes by the name of Shaquille O'Neal.

Together, Kobe and Shaq will go down as one of the most dominant duos of all time, after running off three straight championships from 2001-2003. But since Shaq's departure to Miami (he has since been traded to Phoenix), where the Heat won the 2006 NBA title, the Lakers hadn't been able to make it past the second round of the playoffs up until last season (where they lost to the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals).

In these past few seasons after the O'Neal trade, Kobe has tried to put the whole load on his shoulders so to speak, by believing that without Shaq anymore, he had to go out and score 30 to 40 points every night in order for Los Angeles to win. He lost faith in his teammates that he once had when he was throwing alley-oops to "The Diesel," and began to think that there wasn't much of a future in L.A. for him as well.

The frustration seemed to be too much entering a 2007-2008 NBA season that started off with the face of the Laker franchise asking for a trade out of L.A., and making it clear that he didn't want to play with second year center Andrew Bynum. But, when trade talks and proposed deals started to fall through, it began to become more and more apparent that a possible shift in scenery out of L.A. wasn't going to happen.

How did Kobe respond to this? Not by moping around and continuing to complain about his situation, but by deciding to make the best out of what he had, playing at higher level than at any other point of his career, and for the first time since the "glory days" with Shaquille, started focusing more on the team concept of basketball rather than the individual statistics. Oh, and that under-achieving center, Andrew Bynum, came out last season playing at the level of a seasoned vet, and seemed like a front runner for most improved player until he got injured.

So Kobe was passing, involving his teammates, and creating good shots for the offense. The Lakers has a record that could put them in talks with perennial championship contenders in Dallas, Phoenix, and San Antonio, atop the Western Conference. And for the first time since the Lakers last NBA title in 2003, Bryant is happy again with the situation in Los Angeles.

But, the Lakers were still missing something. Kobe wanted a trade at the beginning of the season because he wasn't happy with the structure of the team, and he still had the same team that he believed could make the playoffs, but couldn't win an NBA title. Then, the final piece of the puzzle was finally put into place when the Lakers traded for forward/center Pau Gasol of the Memphis Grizzlies.

This gave the Lakers the strong scoring option in the post that they had been missing for the past few seasons. Word of the trade only brought excitement to Kobe, who text messaged the Spaniard Gasol, in Spanish, "Welcome to Los Angeles, let's win an NBA Championship." With the addition of Gasol, the Lakers ended the regular season with the best record in the Western Conference, and made it all the way to the NBA Finals, where they came up just short of the Boston Celtics in six games.

Now, after an exciting offseason in which Kobe won his first gold medal as a member of the United States National Team in the Olympics, he is back and ready for another NBA season. With Gasol, a healthy Bynum, and the versatile Lamar Odom, the Lakers have a very tall and athletic frontcourt with impressive rebounding and scoring skills. They are ready to compete with the best that the league has to offer. So, with an excited, rejuvenated Kobe playing a more team-oriented style of basketball and looking to pass first rather than create his own shot, the Lakers seem to finally have given Kobe the supporting cast that he deserves.

So, while Shaq sits on a Phoenix Sun team that seemingly becomes more and more depressing with each passing year, an ecstatic and determined Kobe Bryant appears to be poised for a run at his fourth NBA Championship, and prove that winning, is what legends are made of.

LeBron James: A King Is Born

Justin Chatelle — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 11:18:31 -0400

Never before in the history of the National Basketball Association had so much been expected from one player—let alone an eighteen-year-old kid, as it when LeBron James entered the NBA Draft in 2003.

By far the most-hyped and popular high-school basketball player ever, LeBron was expected to come into the NBA and be the savior to a league that had been losing popularity over the few seasons preceding James' entry into the draft.

This eighteen-year-old high school graduate from St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron, Ohio was expected to come in, dominate from day one, and become an instant superstar.

How did LeBron meet those expectations you ask? By surpassing each and every one laid forth by anyone.

Many expert analysts cannot believe how well he has done, or that he has become so great, so quick. He became the instant leader of a Cleveland Cavalier franchise that had been cellar-dwellers of the Eastern Conference for many years, and which had not made the playoffs since the days of Craig Ehlo and Michael Jordan.

Cleveland did not make the playoffs in LeBron's rookie season, but have been there each year since, including an appearance in the 2007 NBA Finals. A perennial MVP candidate, LeBron has finished among the top finalists for MVP in in each of the past three seasons, finishing second in 2006. And with career averages of 27.3 points, 6.6 assists and 6.9 rebounds per game there is a pretty good chance that he will find his name being mentioned in every MVP conversation again this year.

But let's talk about this newer and more-improved version of LeBron James, the one that seemingly refuses to let his team lose whenever the game is close in the fourth quarter. Going into the 2006-2007 season, the biggest knock on LeBron James was that he could not win, that he just didn't have that killer instinct needed to take over a game and have his team come out on top. Even close friend Dwyane Wade called LeBron out on his ability to finish a game.

Once again, how did LeBron respond to these critics? Well, let's go back to Game Five of the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals, LeBron scored twenty-nine of the team's final thirty points, and the final twenty-five in a row to end the game in the fourth quarter and both overtimes to lead the Cavaliers to a victory.

And by the looks of what LeBron did last season, he really enjoyed taking that game over in Detroit. He dominated the ends of games all season long, averaging a league-leading 9.3 points per game in the fourth quarter, including two away games in which hecklers in the stands tried throwing LeBron off his game—but instead just fueled him to go harder, resulting in losses for the home team on both occasions.

LeBron went from someone who could not finish off a game to a man who lives and plays the game for the fourth quarter. It is almost as if LeBron coasts through the first three quarters just to keep Cleveland close to their opponent, so that he can come out for those final twelve minutes, give everything he has and lead the Cavaliers to another victory.

Whether it be shooting the ball from the perimeter, getting to the foul line, finding an open teammate, or throwing down one of his many thunderous dunks, LeBron knows exactly what it takes to do in order to win a game that is close down the stretch.

Now, with another season getting ready to tip-off and number 23 still running the show in Cleveland, the Cavaliers may be ready to make another run at that elusive NBA Championship and by season's end LeBron will be hearing those familiar chants of "M-V-P! M-V-P!"

The future is now, and at twenty-three years of age he's going to be here for a while, only getting better with each added year of experience and practice. The future is King James.