Bleacher Report - Articles by Harrison Moore

Are the Lakers Becoming the NBA's Next Legendary Team?

Harrison Moore — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:02:01 -0500

After the Lakers' less-than-stellar 7-3 start, the expectations surrounding this team had substantially lowered. But as they've shown in the past, that's when the Lakers function at their best.

The fact that they dropped their second game of the season to Dallas? Proof of how critical Pau Gasol's absence can be. The fact that Phoenix had the best record in the West until as recently as yesterday? A pesky, short-term technicality.

Since the return of Pau Gasol, no team the Lakers have faced has been capable of remaining within 10 digits of their final score, never mind beating them. Now the Lakers are starting to show the tip of what could very well be an insurmountable iceberg.

After all, several of the greatest teams in NBA history have gotten off to relatively slow starts. The 1996 Bulls started off at 10-2 before capturing the NBA's best ever record of 72-10. Two years later the Bulls started off at 12-9 before winning 50 of their next 61 games. The 1972 33-straight-win Lakers started off at 6-3 before finishing at 69-13. The 2001 Lakers finished with a record of 56-26, 11 fewer victories than they had earned in their previous regular season, before going undefeated until the Finals.

Phil Jackson has been quoted as saying that the Lakers are “on the brink.” There has been much speculation over what he meant, but given the Lakers' play of late, it's becoming more and more clear.

A champion can be made in a year and forgotten the next; ask Miami. Becoming a legend, however, is something entirely different. Legendary teams are never forgotten. Their triumphs define their generation and echo throughout the course of history. Usually, this is not a feat that can be accomplished in a single season.

Legendary teams, be it those of Jordan's Bulls, Russell's Celtics, Magic's Lakers, or Laimbeer's Pistons, have forged their place in history by undergoing multiple championship runs. Already reigning champions, the Lakers now have the opportunity to do just that.

And I wouldn't bet against them.

The Lakers' road will be far from easy. The season is still very young, and as every champion will tell you, defending the title is always more difficult than winning in the first place. But then if it weren't, such teams wouldn't be legends.

Pull the Trigger or Pull the Plug: Re-Signing A.I. Is Sixers' Only Hope

Harrison Moore — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:04:27 -0500

With last night's loss to the Spurs in the books, the Sixers stand at a dismal 5-12, their most offensively potent guard (Lou Williams) may be out for as many as eight weeks, and their attendance is the second worst in the league, yet their management hasn't decided whether they even want to try to re-sign Allen Iverson.

Someone's gonna have to explain that to me.

It's one thing to worry about your team's chemistry when the chemistry in place has proven successful, but what exactly do the Sixers have to lose?

Don't give me that "development of your younger players" BS. Passing on Allen Iverson for the sake of "developing" Jrue Holiday or Lou Williams is like turning down a job offer in the White House for the sake of purchasing additional tickets in a lottery with a three digit jackpot.

With their meager 96 point per game average, the Sixers have already proven that they don't have the offensive firepower to hang with the big boys, and Iverson's name has been synonymous with putting points on the board since the '96 NBA draft. So what's the hold up? At 5-12, can things really get that much worse?

Short answer: no.

Even the five wins the Sixers do have paint a deceiving picture. Of those wins, only one of them was against a team with a record over .500, and two of them were against a Nets team that hasn’t won a game since Apr. 13th.

I’ll repeat it: What do the Sixers have to lose?

Even if re-signing Allen Iverson doesn't improve the team's condition, it will put butts in seats and will bring some level of national attention back to this team, if on nothing but Iverson's raw star power alone. If given a chance to shine, Iverson will likely rebuild his marketability enough for a decent trade regardless of how the team performs.

Simply being content with increasing Jrue Holiday's minutes equates to medicating a bullet wound with a Band-Aid, and now with the losses pouring in, the Sixers are bleeding heavily enough to make a scene of their own in a Quentin Tarantino flick.

Something's going to give. Whether it'll be management's overly cautious disposition towards Iverson or the last breaths of the Sixers' relevancy, I don't know.

Open Letter To Allen Iverson

Harrison Moore — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:34:21 -0500

Allen, I’m going to be frank here: you’re out of answers.

Due to no fault of your own, your reputation in this league has been tarnished, downsized, and spat on. The media has played no small part in your fall from grace and are one of the main catalysts for this growing fetish around the league involving you and coming off the bench.

You deserve better.

I know it, you know it, and honestly, so do most of the GMs and coaches around the league. But instead of giving you the chance to bring the team production and possibly even wins, coaches are more interested in wearing your pride as their badge of honor.

They want you to come off the bench behind a Mike Conley or Rodney Stuckey? That’s a joke. Trying to develop younger players is one thing, but these guys haven’t shown the potential to be half of what you are.

You put your best player at each position on the floor at the start of the game, that’s a no-brainer (the sole exception being a Lamar Odom-like situation in Los Angeles).

What I’m about to suggest here won’t shock you, Allen, not after I tell you where I was born. Philadelphia is my hometown and watching the finesse and heart you displayed nightly was one of the main joys of my childhood.

You were one of the biggest reasons I even got into basketball.

Look at the 76ers now, Allen. They’re without a leader. Sure Elton Brand shows flashes of who he used to be. Sure Lou Williams can put up 25 in any given game, but both of those guys can disappear for over a week just as easily.

Andre Iguodala is the most consistent force Philly has to offer now, but he’s no leader yet. He’s a Robin desperately in need of a Batman. Look I’m done beating around the bush here, Allen. My suggestion is as simple as this: come home.

I won’t lie to you, my suggestion doesn’t offer you a chance at holding the Larry O’Brien this June. It doesn’t offer you 25 shots a game either.

What it does offer you is a fanbase that loves you more than any other and even more importantly to you, Allen, it offers you a starting job. On a 5-10 team that hasn’t been out of the first round of the playoffs since the 2001 Finals (which you led them to), nobody’s starting job is untouchable.

As you already know, Sixers management won’t approach you, Allen. If they do that, they’d be conceding that they really weren’t better off without you at all. That won’t happen. You’ll have to go to them and you’d be well served in not making this a public affair.

Going behind closed doors will ensure that you have the opportunity to establish that you will start and if you won’t, you can just walk away and the world will be none the wiser.

I’m a big fan of yours, Allen, and I hate where your career is heading. You haven’t always made the right moves but as I said earlier, you deserve better and I don’t know that you’ll get it anywhere else. So please, make the right move now, Allen.

Come home.

Testicular Fortitude: Why Steve Nash Will Never Be The NBA's True MVP

Harrison Moore — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:12:58 -0500

First and foremost, an MVP is a leader.

There are many different ways in which one can be a leader. Some leaders are more emotional than others, others are more maintained than some, but there are universal traits which are apparent in every true leader, the first of which is accountability.

True leaders hold their teams accountable for their play, not make excuses for extenuating circumstances outside of it.

Unfortunately, Steve Nash didn’t get the memo.

After being routed by Los Angeles yesterday night, Nash said in his post game interview “We were a tired team. We missed a lot of easy shots that we normally knock down. It's been a tough stretch for us and I'm glad it's over.”

I suppose you are tired, Steve. When your team’s focus is centered on scoring 110 points every night, how can you not be? I won’t bother doing the research, but I’d just about bet my left leg that during the span of the last two years, the Lakers are undefeated when scoring over 120 points.

But you’d rather focus on your team’s early-season exhaustion wouldn’t you, Steve? Who needs commitment to the defensive end of the court when you can drop 100+ on just about every team in the NBA, right? Who says that that defensive commitment stuff is necessary anyway?

….Well, only the last 63 NBA Champions, but what do they know?

This isn’t the first time Steve has made excuses on the behalf of his team. After signing an extension with the Suns earlier in the summer, an event we’ll come back to in a moment, Steve Nash complained in an interview that “No one gave (the Suns) Pau Gasol for nothing.”

Well that’s great Steve, but what have you done to force Phoenix’s front office to make moves for the team’s betterment? Sure you guys brought in Shaq in 2007, but that wasn’t a move that you prompted, nor was it a move that made your team any better.

Do you remember what Paul Pierce did in the 2007 off-season? He walked up to Boston’s management, informed them he was tired of the team’s losing ways and essentially told them to make a move or watch him walk when his contract expired.

Do you know what Dwayne Wade has done? He’s essentially put the team’s management over a barrel by putting the team on his back and not re-signing, therefore increasing his market value for his upcoming offseason as a free agent.

Do you know why the Lakers got Pau Gasol for nothing, Steve? Kobe was going to walk. He actually demanded a trade because of the lack of quality players around him. He put his hopes, his dreams, and his thirst for a Championship above his loyalty to his employers and guess what? It paid off.

Women aren’t the only area where nice guys finish last.

Therein lies Steve’s problem in a nutshell: he’s just too nice. Why do you think the NBA gave him the MVP award back in 2005 and again in 2006?

Simple: the NBA wanted a makeover. Embarrassed by the growing hip-hop culture of the league, the NBA wanted to move towards a more “family friendly” image and Steve was simply a beneficiary of that.

Don’t buy it? Ask yourself how much the timing of the Pistons-Pacers brawl earlier in the 2004-05 season had to do with Nash’s award.

Ask yourself why the NBA instituted their dress-code policy in that same time frame.

Then ask yourself why Steve Nash is the only two-consecutive-time MVP in the league’s history without a Championship ring, only two-time MVP without multiple Finals appearances and the only MVP of the last decade that hasn’t led his team to a single Conference Championship title.

Steve is talented, sure. Maybe not as much as a Kobe, LeBron or Tim Duncan, but that’s not the only reason he doesn’t belong in their ranks.

In earlier generations of the NBA, elite teams and players saw defense as a testament to their own manhood. Talent was only half the battle. Sure the league has gotten less physical since those days, but those principles remain.

Nash will never be a true MVP because to be an MVP, or for that matter a Champion, you need a firm pair of balls and I don’t mean Spalding.

Leave Philly Alone! Top Five Reasons To Ease Up On the Sixers

Harrison Moore — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:43:34 -0500

And how flipping dare anyone out there make of the Sixers after all they’ve been through! They traded away their franchise player, their only scoring big-man is always injured, their team president turned out to be incompetent and a buffoon and now they’re getting pushed to the end of the Eastern Conference. ….Oh I’m sorry did you expect Harrison to be writing this piece? Well, he’s not well right now! So I’ll be stepping in for him, here are my top 5 reasons to LEAVE THE SIXERS ALONE.

Begin Slideshow

Thrashing by Celtics May Signal Beginning of the End for the Sixers

Harrison Moore — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:54:25 -0500

What, you don’t think an NBA season can end before April? You’re wrong.

There’s no end of damage momentum, or lack thereof, can do to an NBA team over the course of a season if left unchecked.

That’s why, aside from the MLB, no sports league allows nearly as many timeouts as the NBA. After all, several head coaches use the majority of their timeouts with the sole intention of breaking the other team’s momentum.

That’s just how powerful the damn thing is, and right now the Sixers have none of it.

Boston’s a tough team to beat—after compiling a 29-3 record in the Atlantic Division over the last two seasons, that pretty much goes without saying. But there’s no excuse for the 31-point rout the Sixers allowed the Celtics to serve up on their home floor Tuesday.

While the Sixers may not have the raw talent to compete against the league’s elite, they’re going to have to find a way to compete—fast.

Philadelphia isn’t a city known for its tolerance. While Sixers’ management may be content to simply bide their time and uphold their quickly diminishing status quo, it won’t take long for the City of Brotherly Love to show their love isn’t unconditional.

As recently as this time last year, the Sixers’ average attendance numbers were only 12,601, ranking them 28th out of the NBA’s 30 teams. The Sixers’ attendance isn’t a whole lot better now, and there’s nothing more disheartening for a young team than playing in front of a small, uninterested crowd.

Besides, it's not as though the Sixers’ management doesn’t have enough financial problems as it is.

Tonight, the Sixers will attempt to defend their home court against the winless New Jersey Nets. Beating them certainly won’t redeem Tuesday’s demoralizing defeat, but it would be a start, and something’s going to need to start changing soon.

The Sixers may be a young team, but they’re running out of time faster than they think.

Reality Check: The Stark Truth Of The Sixers' Destination

Harrison Moore — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:14:41 -0400

Think of competing in the NBA as a constant struggle against a firm, deep current in the ocean. You are either moving forward or you are moving back.

There is no treading water.

If a team falls back too far they risk taking a plunge off the waterfall that is NBA relevancy and for most, those depths are a place of no return.

Enter the Philadelphia 76ers.

The 76ers’ overall production has been as consistent as a rock for years, but therein lies the problem. This team is in the exact same shape they were in during the days when Detroit and Miami ruled the Eastern Conference; a middling .500 team with enough fight to momentarily scare an upper seed in a playoff game, but not enough talent to win the series.

Unlike most teams, the 76ers shortcomings aren’t due to lack of front office aggression. To the contrary, one could argue that the 76ers have been too aggressive in their attempt to ascend in the Eastern Conference’s standings.

I like Andre Iguodala as much as anyone, but shelling out 80 mil over the course of six seasons for him isn’t just overpaying, it borders on self-robbery. Elton Brand hasn’t exactly lived up to his five year, $82 million contract yet either.

What’s worse is that these moves revealed the desperation of the 76ers front office and the financial restrictions they impose will likely keep them out of the arms race for the 2010 big-name free agent sweepstakes.

Through their recklessly frequent hiring/firing of head coaches (five different coaches in the last five seasons), their overestimation of Iguodala’s growth and the relatively new juggernauts waiting at the top of the Eastern Conference, the 76ers have been pushed so far downstream that they are now on the brink of irrelevancy and it may not even take until the end of the season before they take that plunge.

To be fair, the fact remains that nothing the Sixers could have possibly done over the off-season would have given them the chance to bring Larry O’Brien home this upcoming June.

The stark reality of today’s NBA is that there are only five, maybe six teams that have a realistic shot of winning the whole damn thing and there is too big of a gap between them and the rest of the league to bridge in only one season.

The loss of Andre Miller will only further damage an already incompetent half court offense while the 76ers inconsistent defense will keep them miles beneath Boston, Orlando, and possibly Cleveland as they’ll duke it out for Eastern Conference supremacy.

The Sixers 120-106 opening loss to Orlando, in which they trailed by as many as 31 points, only further cements the point that they just aren’t ready to play with the big boys of the league yet.

With the development of Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls, the potential of the new look Pistons, and with Dwyane Wade entering what could be his last season with the Heat before looking for a new contract elsewhere, the Sixers management better find answers from somewhere soon.

It won’t get any easier to move upstream once they plunge off the deep end.

2010 Playoff Picture: Eastern Conference Predictions and Analysis

Harrison Moore — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 16:58:22 -0400

1) Boston Celtics (65-17)

(low: 59 high: 68)

There’s quite a difference between the highest and lowest possible amount of wins I have listed for this team isn’t there?

The reasoning behind that is rather simple:the Celtics have more room for fluctuation than any other team in the NBA. And it's not very difficult to understand why.

With Kevin Garnett, the Celtics were head and shoulders better than the rest of the league in 2008 (in no small part due to the fact that the Lakers, their Finals opponent, were lacking two of their key components in Trevor Ariza and Andrew Bynum). However, without KG in the mix last year, the Celtics were pushed to the brink by a middling Chicago team and found themselves unable to even reach the Eastern Conference Finals.

With KG returning, and Rasheed Wallace on board, this team will closely resemble the imposing championship unit it was in '08 in both defensive ferocity and swagger.

Unlike last year’s Cavs, who were powerless to defend their interior;last year’s Magic whose offense proved to be too one-dimensional for them to grasp the title; and last year’s Lakers who were flat out terrible at defending the league’s faster point guards; the Celtics have no real weaknesses, at least not on paper.

Even Rajon Rondo, who was once considered to be the weak-link in the Celtics’ starting five, has emerged as a top five player at his position and a legitimate All-Star. Rondo averaged a near triple-double in last year’s playoffs with averages of 9.7 rebounds, 9.8 assists, and 16.9 points per game.

If the Celtics can stay healthy, there isn’t a team in the Eastern Conference that can beat them in a seven-game series.

2) Cleveland Cavaliers (63-19)

(low: 57 high: 64)

This is NOT the second best team in the Eastern Conference.

They will, however, win the second most amount of games. Why? LeBron James is the best workhorse the game has seen since Jordan, hands down.

The addition of Shaquille O’Neal was a move of desperation, and we saw how well that worked out for the last team that tried it. While Shaq may not be as out of place in Cleveland as he was on the fast-paced Suns, there are still many question marks he represents.

How will LeBron, whose offense heavily relies on getting into the paint, coexist with Shaq, who always takes up a sizeable amount of space and attracts a sizeable amount of attention inside? How will Shaq’s body hold up under the pressures of an entire season, without access to Phoenix’s excellent medical staff? Will Shaq be able to adjust to the reality of being a role player now?

Winning at least the second seed in the Eastern Conference is more of a necessity for the Cavs than most may realize. Cleveland was simply terrible on the road against the upper-echelon of the NBA, going a combined 0-5 in Orlando, Los Angeles and Boston last regular season. They lost the contests by an abhorrent average of over 14.5 points.

While the Cavaliers seem to be an elite team on paper, one has to wonder how seriously they can contend for a championship when faced with the same matchup problems they were incapable of dealing with against Orlando last year.

3) Orlando Magic (62-20)

(low: 58 high: 63)

Had just a few plays turned out differently in the Finals, we may well be talking about the reigning champions here.

Many point out that the loss of Hedo Turkoglu’s play making abilities could prove to be more toxic than the Magic had anticipated, but with a healthy Jameer Nelson, this team should be just fine.

Still, the Magic certainly have their work cut out for them this season. Only seven of the 63 championship teams in the NBA history have won the title the year after a Finals loss. The Magic certainly have the talent to make it happen, but the biggest problem with this team isn’t a talent; it’s a lack of leadership.

The Lakers have Kobe Bryant, the Celtics have Kevin Garnett, the Cavaliers have LeBron James, but the Magic have no one. Dwight Howard just isn’t a championship-caliber leader.

We saw as much in last year’s Conference Semif-finals against Boston. In Game 5, the Magic were taken out of their game plan and simply could not get Dwight Howard the ball. However, instead of Dwight resolving the issue on the court or even the sidelines, he criticized Stan Van Gundy’s coaching and his teammates inability to find him, during the post-game interview.

Unacceptable.

Championship-caliber leaders are guys that can resolve the strong majority of their team’s deficiencies during the game, but I don’t think that Dwight likes being that confrontational.

He certainly isn’t afraid to be, but I just don’t think that direct in-team confrontation is in Dwight’s comfort zone. He’d rather be the approachable, almost cartoonish big guy that everyone likes.

It’s not that the Magic don’t have other question marks, they do. Can Jameer stay healthy? If the team’s shots don’t fall and Dwight can’t throw it down, where does the offense come from? Are they good enough to handle the Celtics with KG in the lineup?

However, I’m a firm believer that if the Magic are going to win the NBA Championship, it has to start up front with Dwight Howard.

If Dwight can’t develop a more firm demeanor that holds his teammates accountable (or at least some offensive back-to-the-bucket moves to add to his repertoire) then the Magic won’t ever win. Period.

4) Washington Wizards (50-32)

(low: 46 high: 52)

Gilbert Arenas is the one player on Earth capable of really shaking things up for the Eastern Conference’s top three teams prior to the Finals. He’s the best scoring point guard the league has to offer and now he’s back with a lot to prove.

With sharpshooter Mike Miller and offensively oriented coach Flip Saunders, the Wizards should certainly be able to put some points on the board. Whether or not they'll be able to defend is a different story.

Knocking off any of the top three team is probably too tall of an order for this year, but in another two or three years, who knows where Boston will be? Besides LeBron may even walk away from Cleveland after the season.

If you keep in mind that the landscape in the Eastern Conference has changed dramatically every few years for the last decade, its not that difficult to predict Washington as the next team in line to reach elite status.

5) Atlanta Hawks (48-34)

(low: 45 high 50)

Molehill highs and valley lows about sums things up here.

After their dismal 38 win season in 2008, everyone jumped on the bandwagon once this team managed to somehow push the Celtics to seven games.

Many had even projected that this would become an elite team afterward, particularly after they became one of only two teams in the NBA to open last year’s season with a 5-0 mark. Yet, it simply wasn’t to be.

Injuries to Joe Johnson, Al Horford and Marvin Williams certainly didn’t help the Hawks any, but the Hawks seemed to be treating the playoff series against Cleveland as a pre-season exhibition. We saw very little, if any of the heart we had seen in their series against Boston the previous year.

6) Miami Heat (45-37)

(low: 42 high: 49)

One of three things is going to happen here: 1) Dwyane Wade’s back is going to give out from carrying all the team’s weight 2) Miami is going to renew its sense of urgency in surrounding Wade with quality players 3) Wade books a one-way ticket to Chicago.

As far as figuring out which of the three is actually going to happen, its anyone’s guess.

The fact of the matter is that Dwyane Wade is not LeBron James. He simply doesn’t have the physique to safely carry the workload that he does year in and year out.

It has to be disheartening for Wade that Miami’s front office was literally on the cusp of surrounding him with a contending team again, until Lamar Odom and Carlos Boozer decided to remain with their respective teams.

Michael Beasley’s problems won’t push this team down any further, but they certainly won’t help.

On the bright side, Wade won't pull a Vince Carter as he’s simply too competitive to give anything but 100 percent, regardless of whether he’s happy with his team’s direction or not.

Still, the most eventful thing headed in Wade’s direction this year will likely be the 2010 offseason.

7) Toronto Raptors (43-39)

(low: 40 high: 45)

Hedo Turkoglu entered the 2009 offseason with little, if any desire to remain with the Magic, and insulted the Portland Trailblazers before landing himself in the greener pastures of. ... Toronto?!

It isn’t exactly secret that Chris Bosh is disappointed with the team’s direction and is looking forward to his free agency in 2010, and Toronto hasn’t won a single playoff series since 2001. So what exactly was Hedo’s reasoning here?

Hey, must be the money.

Hedo’s playmaking abilities should be enough to catapult the Raptors into the playoffs, but what then? Their chances of winning anything higher than a bottom seed are slim and their odds of beating Boston, Orlando or Cleveland are nonexistent.

8) Philadelphia 76ers (41-41)

(low: 38 high: 44)

Andre Miller’s contract is up. Elton Brand has proven to be unreliable (albeit to no fault of his own). The Eastern Conference is getting taller all around you.

What do you do?

Well, logic dictates you should ignore the team’s offensive incompetence, drop Miller, keep Brand, and change the one thing about the team that its fans are alright with, the logo... or at least that's what management thought.

Exactly what made these people decide the Sixers needed that old, hideous, outdated Clipper-like logo back?

Well, Ed Snider says that “This logo evokes memories of some of this franchise’s proudest moments. We also made this change because we understood how much this logo means to our fans, this franchise and to our city.”

You're absolutely right, Ed. If you can’t compete for a championship, wearing the jerseys of the last team in your franchise to do so is the next best thing, right?

The 76ers are quickly losing the feel of an “up and coming team”, their half-court offense is about as potent as a one-legged race horse, and they’ve shown absolutely no signs of improvement in the last two years. But at least they’re wearing the jerseys of former champions.

Gimme a break.

Playoff Matchups

ROUND 1

1) Celtics vs 8) 76ers

PREDICTION: Celtics in Four

2) Cavaliers vs 7) Toronto Raptors

PREDICTION: Cavaliers in Four

3) Magic vs 6) Miami Heat

PREDICTION: Magic in Five

4) Wizards vs 5) Hawks

PREDICTION: Wizards in 6

ROUND 2

1) Celtics vs 4) Wizards

PREDICTION: Celtics in 5

2) Cavaliers vs 3) Magic

PREDICTION: Magic in 6

ROUND 3

1) Celtics vs 3) Magic

PREDICTION: Celtics in 6

Will Lakers' Kobe Bryant Win His Fifth Championship in Two Seasons?

Harrison Moore — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 10:11:14 -0400

Make no mistake about it, Kobe Bryant won four championships last season.

Some may note that the championship rings of 2000-2002 were in Bryant’s display case years ago, but the sad truth is the rest of the world has taken this long to catch up.

Until the Lakers’ clinched their 2009 NBA Championship, almost everyone had forgotten the reasoning behind the success of the three-peat Lakers earlier this decade: with Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, the Lakers had the two best players in basketball and the quality of the veteran role-players around them augmented them all the more, simply making them unfair to play against.

The Lakers were by no means a team comprised of just Shaq.

But that was all forgotten. Instead, many analysts, and random haters with nothing better to do with their time, tried to paint 2000-2002 Bryant as a modern day Mo Williams, attempting to deny him credit for his contributions to the Lakers’ success.

That’s all over now.

That tiresome, moronic old adage “Kobe can’t win without Shaq,” something Bryant himself equated to Chinese water torture, has finally been laid to rest.

There are some that question Kobe’s hunger, wondering what more he has left to prove.

Many saw the 39-point blowout loss against Boston in game six of the 2008 NBA Finals as the Lakers' motivation for the 2009 season, and they’re right.

Still, there’s something about having a rival run up the score against you in a Finals elimination game and enduring their fans rocking, ridiculing and throwing objects at the team’s bus that I don’t think you forget a season later, especially if you’re Kobe Bryant.

Far away as they may seem now, there were also those hideous Phoenix playoff series from 2006 and 2007 during a time where Kobe just didn’t have the talent around him to take the Lakers beyond the playoffs’ first round.

I am absolutely positive that these aforementioned failures will continue to provide Bryant with motivation for the rest of his career.

How am I so sure?

There’s nothing like being at the bottom when you know what it feels like to be at the top.

If and when you get the opportunity to be back on top, you may falter some days, you may be discouraged some nights, but you know better than to let that opportunity slip through your fingers.

All this is made all the more true if you have Kobe's competitiveness.

And it's not as if the low points of Kobe’s career are all he has to motivate himself with.

Everyone can admit that Kobe is among the two best players in the league, possibly behind a certain No. 23.

Just about everyone can admit that he’s the second-greatest shooting guard of all time behind the original No. 23.

But somehow, I just don’t think that’s enough for Kobe.

He’s still got plenty to prove, even if its just to himself. Michael Jordan had that same type of mental tenacity. While he doesn’t have the haughtiness to refer to himself as the greatest of all time now, Jordan could never settle for being second-best to anyone during his career.

Kobe’s no different.

Despite all of his ambition, though, Kobe is no fool. He knows that he’ll be soon approaching the downward arc of his career. He also knows that team around him now represents his greatest, and last, opportunity to add to his championship resume.

He knows what it's like to open the season on a team that has all the expectations in the world. He also knows what its like for that team to fail. (See 2004.)

When Kobe allowed, not forced, the departure of Shaq after that season, he was alleviating himself of a big headache, but I don’t think he really appreciated just how long it takes to rebuild a championship-level team.

He does now.

When a team with anywhere near the Lakers' level of talent is assembled, the only goal can be winning the championship and doing so multiple times.

Failing to win puts the team’s future together in jeopardy. Bryant no longer has enough years left in his career for another Laker retooling. That’s why I’m calling it right now.

The Lakers are going to win the 2010 NBA Championship.

It's not just that the Lakers’ level of talent is so overwhelming. It's that Kobe won’t allow the Lakers to do anything less.

Kobe has more than a few things left to prove in his own mind. And, believe it or not, he still has his share of doubters.

Kobe’s going to put even more of these doubts to rest at the end of the year by winning his fifth championship in "two" seasons.

2010 Playoff Picture: Western Conference Predictions and Analysis

Harrison Moore — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:23:00 -0400

1) Los Angeles Lakers 68-14

(low: 64 high: 72)

The Western Conference just seems to keep getting better and better, huh? With the Lakers’ long-time nemesis Spurs having retooled, the Blazers adding even more depth in the same area that happens to be the only spot of concern in the Lakers’ lineup (point guard), and Denver being a year stronger under Chauncey Billups’ potent leadership there’s plenty of cause for concern in Los Angeles, right?

Wrong.

If winning the Western Conference by over 10 games last year wasn’t enough to give the reigning Champions the benefit of the doubt, the acquisition of Ron Artest is. Oh, and there’s always the fact that they’re reigning champions.

Not only do the Lakers play in the least competitive division in the Western Conference, but they open with 17 of their first 21 games at Staples Center where they won just under 88 percent of their games last season.

Has the Western Conference gotten more competitive? Sure, but given the stark gap in between the Lakers and the rest of the Western Conference, there’s no reason to believe they don’t have at least another couple of years being its number one team. After all, it has taken the conference this long just to catch up to where the Lakers were two seasons ago.

People who will question the mental stability of Artest fail to understand the man’s passion and drive to win and the strength of the Lakers’ locker room. Artest knows this is his last real shot at winning a title, and if a locker room with Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher, over-lorded by Phil Jackson, isn’t enough to keep Artest focused, nothing is.

The most legitimate question around this team is this: When the Lakers approach the 70-win mark, do they push for the record or do they pace themselves for the postseason?

2) San Antonio Spurs (62-20)

(low: 58 high: 64)

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. A team underachieves, sees their championship pattern broken, and suddenly finds themselves looking up at the Western Conference’s elite. Said team attempts to boost themselves back into supremacy over their reigning champion arch-rivals by luring two titleless superstars in the offseason.

San Antonio, did you really have to go channelling the ghosts of the 2003 Lakers?

All jokes aside, San Antonio’s offseason has turned them from paper contenders to a legitimate threat once again. As many are quick to point out, the Spurs’ roster now contains the best supporting cast Timmy, Tony, and Manu have ever had, the problem is that it may be too little, too late.

It's almost tempting to pencil in San Antonio next to Los Angeles in the 2010 Western Conference Finals right now. The question is what happens when they get there? The Spurs have lost seven of their last nine meetings with Los Angeles, and have historically performed poorly against them in the postseason, losing four of the teams' last five postseason series.

For a team that narrowly avoided being swept out of the playoffs first round a year ago, a Western Conference Finals appearance would constitute as a successful season in the eyes of many franchises and fan bases, unfortunately for the Spurs, San Antonio isn’t one of them.

Still, with Manu’s knee as unstable as ever and Tim Duncan’s own sobering admittance “I have slowed down," this team still has more than a few questions marks, and they may find out the answers sooner than they’d hope. There’s no question that this team will make plenty of noise in the regular season, but the problems for this team will come in the postseason when endurance is tested the most, particularly in such a competitive conference.

3) Denver Nuggets (57-25)

Low: 53 High: 58

With the Boston Celtics, Paul Pierce may be the team’s face, but Kevin Garnett is the team’s backbone, and it's not all that much different in Denver. Carmelo will always be the best Nugget statistically, but much of a team’s success comes from intangibles.

Leadership, hustle, clutch plays, and, most importantly, defense are universal factors of championship teams, and before Chauncey Billups arrived, Denver had none of the above.

Now that he’s here, the question is, how far up does the ceiling reach?

Last year, during what was arguably the greatest season in Denver’s franchise history, the Nuggets accomplished monumental things. They jumped up six spots in the Western Conference’s playoff seeding from the previous year (No. 8 to No. 2), beat the New Orleans Hornets by an unprecedented 58 points on the road, and routed the eventual NBA Champion Lakers in game four of the Western Conference Finals by 19 (120-101).

Still, the Nuggets hit a brick wall after the Lakers took off the proverbial gloves and one has to wonder if last season’s emergence was in fact the extent of their ceiling. Things certainly haven’t gotten any easier in the Nuggets’ own division and due to their surprisingly silent offseason, they’re in danger of slipping from one of the league’s elite teams to a team good enough to bother the elites.

Right now, the most favorable thing I can see in Denver’s favor is the number seven.

No, I’m not talking Chauncey Billups’ jersey number. I’m talking about Chauncey’s Conference Finals appearance streak. His seven straight Conference Finals appearances places him in the category with Magic Johnson, Michael Cooper, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Kurt Rambis as the only players to accomplish that feat since the Boston Celtics of the 1950s and 1960s led by Bill Russell.

The problem is that streaks, by definition, don’t last forever and the Nuggets have stood pat while rich have gotten richer. Denver’s front office is banking very heavily on the improvement of the players they already have and the benefit of having training camp and opening the season with Chauncey Billups already in the mix.

This would be fine if advancing a playoff round or two is all Nuggets had their hearts set on. However, to become NBA Champions they’re going to need a more consistent interior scoring presence. Part of their failure against the Lakers was due to the inability of “Birdman” Anderson, Kenyon Martin, and Nene to produce against the Lakers’ big triumvirate of Odom, Gasol, and Bynum.

Despite the fact that the walls are closing on Denver more quickly than they realize, I think they’re good for at least another second round appearance. Expecting anything beyond that may be asking too much.

4) Portland Trailblazers (56-26)

(Low: 52-30 High: 57-25)

Portland is without a doubt, the third most talented team in the Western Conference...so why then are they ranked fourth?

Production beats potential any day of the week.

Until the Blazers actually win a postseason battle, they don’t deserve to be ranked any higher than fourth, but with the level of talent on their roster they can’t be ranked much lower either.

There’s simply no other way to say this: Portland has a team of starters.

Adding Andre Miller essentially turns Portland into what the 76ers dream of being: a young team with consistent offense, better defense, and the skill to complement their athleticism. Don’t count on Ron Artest hailing Brandon Roy as the best shooting guard in basketball this season, but make no mistake, Roy is on a short list of young, proven, elite talent in this league and he’s only going to get better.

I honestly can’t find a real flaw in this team on paper. The only real problem is that youth is a two-edged sword. While Portland may have the athleticism to run most teams ragged, a veteran team with enough stamina to keep up with them will burn them in a playoff series just about every time.

Their playoff loss to Houston last year should have shown us that this team isn’t quite ready to be elevated to contender status and while Miller’s veteran leadership will help, it's doubtful that they’ll be able to advance past the second round in this very top-heavy Western Conference.

However, if management holds patient and gives these players enough time together, we could very well be talking about the best team in the league in a season or two. Or three.

5) Dallas Mavericks (55-27)

(low: 53 high: 56)

I used to rule the world. Seas would rise when I gave the word, now in the morning I sleep alone—

Oops. I got mixed up, thought I was writing to Cowboys' stadium. I was going to suggest they play this song as the Mavericks come out of the tunnel on opening night. It's not exactly inspirational battle music, but hey it fits.

Just how far away are the seasons when Dallas came within 4.5 quarters of the franchise’s first NBA Championship in 2006 or when they achieved regular-season immortality by winning 67 games in 2007?

Well, look at it this way: two seasons ago, there was talk of the Mavericks being a dynasty in the making. Last year it wasn’t certain they’d make the playoffs until April 8th.

Sure they picked up Shawn Marion, but anyone who thinks Shawn is gonna be THAT much of a difference maker must have been on some kind of hiatus from the NBA for at least the last two seasons.

How to best describe Marion as he is in today’s NBA? Well three phrases come to mind: injury prone, offensively inconsistent, and unmotivated.

Now he may be a bit more motivated in Dallas than he was in Toronto, but for a player of his age, the truest (and some would argue only) motivation comes from playing for a championship contender, and just being honest, we know that Dallas isn’t going to be bringing the Larry O'Brien trophy home.

Are they good enough to scare a Los Angeles or San Antonio for a couple of quarters? Yeah, but win it all? No. Its just not going to happen.

The irony is that on paper, the Mavericks now aren’t really that far underneath where they were in 2007. What changed?

Blown opportunities take a lot out of a team, and no one from 2006-2007 had a better opportunity to win than Dallas, and they know it. They also know that the Western Conference is a whole hell of a lot worse for them now than it was back then.

Jason Kidd is clearly on his last legs, Dirk is about as frustrated a superstar as anyone not named LeBron James, and the most talking that comes from this team won’t be on court, in fact, most of it won’t even come from the players. Mark Cuban is going to continue running his mouth until his mouth runs him into the grave.

You’re happy the Lakers picked up Ron Artest, Mister Cuban? Are you sure about that?

6) Utah Jazz (52-29)

(low: 47 high: 54)

I’m actually very impressed with the way Utah’s front office has handled the Carlos Boozer situation.

Instead of letting him walk and getting little or nothing in return, they decided to hold on to him, giving him the opportunity to earn another contract and reassert his value on the market and giving them the opportunity to actually get some value for him.

Carlos still has the capability of being a 20-10 guy on any given night and with Deron Williams still running the show you can still book this team for the playoffs. Like the Mavericks, the Jazz aren’t that far removed in either time or talent from their more glorious days, but the increasing competitiveness of the Western Conference has taken its toll.

No longer championship-contending material, the Jazz are actually closer than most realize to coming to a dead-end. Denver’s emergence and the Blazers sudden leap in stature may be just enough to do this team in for good.

What’s worse for this team is that Jerry Sloan, having just excepted his Hall-of-Fame induction will be highly unlikely to stick around through the kind of slump that seems to be only a season or two around the corner.

7) Houston Rockets (50-32)

(Low: 43 High: 50)

Yep, I’m gonna do it.

Other than winning championships, Rick Adelman is a master of every aspect of coaching. He’s made miracles happen before.

Besides, if you look at this team, they aren’t any worse than the unit that pushed the Lakers to seven games last year. Sure the Lakers were still muddling around, but even taking into consideration the fact that they simply weren’t playing throughout much of the series, you still have to be somewhat impressed with a team that pushed the eventual champions without their two best players.

Adding Trevor Ariza certainly doesn’t hurt their cause.

A lot of people are down on this team because of lack of a consistent interior presence, and I’ll be the first to point out that without Yao Ming, the Rockets are vastly inferior to a plethora of teams in that category, but this team has as much heart as any the league has ever seen.

You have to give them that much.

I think that a lot of low expectations circling around this team is due to the fact that one can no longer view them as championship contenders. However, in my eyes they never were. Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming could never stay healthy long enough for that.

Before last season, the Rockets had zero grit and were nothing more than a first round doormat. Last season’s success was fueled by Ron Artest’s toughness, Shane Battier’s defense, Aaron Brooks' emergence, and Yao Ming having a career year.

While some of those factors are gone, I think that Trevor Ariza will fit perfectly into the system’s athletic, defensive-oriented style of play. He just won’t have the benefit of being as efficient offensively without teammates like Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol to defer attention away from him.

8) Phoenix Suns (48-34)

(low: 45 high: 51)

Clippers or Suns?

This was actually a harder call than one might think, but at the end of the day I couldn’t pick a team who had made one playoff appearance in the last 12 years over a team whose formula has been proven to gain them a playoff spot more often than not.

After the departure of the Big Subtraction, Phoenix is more suitable to get back into the high-tempo offense they’ve prided themselves in for years. The problem is they don’t have the talent they used to, and the talent they used to have wouldn’t be enough to get them anything higher than fourth seed in this conference.

With Nash slowing down and the success of Amare’s recovery uncertain there are very few positives for this team heading into the season. The rumors of putting Amare at the 5, if true, will only make their already suspect defense worse.

I pick the Suns to make the eighth seed with very little conviction, and if they do make the eight seed, watch out.

Their first-round date with the Lakers, their hated divisional “rival” (and I use that term very loosely) won’t be pretty.

Playoff Matchups

ROUND 1:

1) Lakers vs 8) Phoenix Suns, PREDICTION: Lakers in 4

2) Spurs vs 7) Rockets, PREDICTION: Spurs in 5

3)Nuggets vs 6) Jazz, PREDICTION: Nuggets in 5

4) Trailblazers vs 5) Mavericks, PREDICTION: Trailblazers in 6

ROUND 2: 1) Lakers vs 4) Trailblazers, Lakers in 6; 2) Spurs vs 3) Nuggets, Spurs in 7

ROUND 3: 1) Lakers vs 2) Spurs, Lakers in 5

The Drama Begins: Reaction to the Ron Artest-Kyle Slavin Fiasco

Harrison Moore — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 09:08:01 -0400

In his open letter to Ron Artest, blogger Kyle Slavin accomplished a lot. His page received innumerable hits, was featured on a ESPN column and Artest even directly responded to it.

The problem?

The strong majority of the feedback on Slavin’s blog lambasted him, painting him as a nobody who had stepped out of his place. The most notable part of Artest’s response encouraged Slavin to wrap his mouth around a certain part of the male anatomy, and Slavin’s letter ironically became the first major distraction Artest has been involved in since he donned the purple and gold.

While people have come down hard on both sides of this mess, I see two problems here, one potentially bigger than the other. While I can agree that Slavin was overstepping his bounds when he tried to “lay down the law” (his exact words), Artest’s reply “no law when it comes to me” should have sent a universal cringe down the spines of everyone in Camp Los Angeles.

What's worse is that this actually isn’t the first worrisome quote Artest has made in the short time he’s been here. During the Lakers' media day only a week ago, Artest claimed that “you’ve got to welcome the distractions.”

The question is: How much substance is behind these little-noticed quotes? If these things really are Artest speaking from the heart, the biggest problem the Lakers have this season likely won’t come from any of the NBA’s other 29 teams.

I was as happy as anyone when Artest inked a contract with the Lakers for five years. I still am, mostly, but my enthusiasm has been a bit curbed by a growing sense of worry. Make no mistake about it, the Artest/Slavin fiasco will blow over in another week or two at the most and no one in Laker World will be worse for wear because of it.

In fact, maybe it’s a good thing that Artest is maintaining his edge. It can be easy to forget, but Artest is deceptively clever. He knows full well that in basketball, defense is played on the mental level almost as much as it's played on the court. And how much of his well-earned rep would he lose if he tucked his tail between his legs for a guy who isn’t even in the NBA?

Maybe you don’t even pay attention to this kind of thing if you’re in the Lakers locker room. Remember that the Lakers main priority with Artest will be to unleash him, not neuter him. Besides, one thing the Lakers have lacked for years is the “bad-cop” to augment Kobe Bryant’s “good cop.”

So in all likelihood, this little mess will be the most negative thing Artest is involved in for months. In all likelihood, Artest is just trying a little too hard to maintain his bad boy image. After all, he needs a new PR guy almost as bad as Rush Limbaugh needs a new dietitian.

In all likelihood, Artest will mesh in with the other strong personalities in this locker room and this is the last time we’ll hear his name and the word “distraction” used in the same sentence for a long while.

It’s the nagging possibility that he won't that bothers me.

Gloat Time: Top Five Reasons To Love Being a L.A. Lakers Fan Right Now

Harrison Moore — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 17:21:58 -0400

There will always be the Dallas Cowboys, the New York Yankees, and the New England Patriots, but if we’re being honest no professional sports team in the world garners more dislike than the Los Angeles Lakers. Personally, I think that’s half the fun. Still, I don’t expect to make any non-Laker friends with this one.

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Revenge of the Fallen: The Best NBA Finals Losers of the Past Decade

Harrison Moore — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 23:29:30 -0400

Nothing hurts more than making it all the way to sports' grandest stage only to walk away empty handed. At times, sports history can have a tendency to overlooking teams that fail to bring it all home, often denying them historical status. Here, I'd like to do those teams justice. Lets take a look at the best-second-best teams of this decade.

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Dissecting Four Myths About the Upcoming 2010 NBA Season

Harrison Moore — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 21:34:47 -0400

The Mythbusters team graciously welcomed me aboard as I take the helm of the new NBA portion of our program. Seriously, due to the surprisingly eventful offseason, we've been hearing a lot of bold predictions, claims and myths.This slideshow will discuss and break down four of the most troubling myths that this offseason has given birth to. Lets begin.

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On The List Of All Time Greats Can There Be a Greatest?

Harrison Moore — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 21:22:31 -0400

It's very common that we find ourselves comparing the greats of today to the greats of yesteryear.

How does the impact of Barack Obama’s "Hope" compare with the impact of Martin Luther King’s "Dream"? For that matter, how does the raw power of America compare to the dominance of the Roman Empire?

The sporting world is no stranger to such comparisons, either; however, in sports, we tend to look upon the greats of our past more favorably.

We are completely blind to the fact that the greats of our past had a key advantage that today’s greats can only dream of: they were the first of their kind. Unfortunately, too many of us believe that that singular fact automatically makes today’s athletes inferior until proven otherwise.

Those who exalt the greats of yesterday often take shelter behind particular statistics or successes. For instance, Jerry Rice has four Super Bowl Rings to Randy Moss’ zero. Joe Montana has four rings to Tom Brady’s three. Michael Jordan averaged 30 points a game compared to Kobe Bryant’s 25.

We somehow forget that the leagues of yesterday are altogether different than the leagues we watch today. Players are stronger and faster, and coaching schemes have been built upon and improved over the schemes of the past.

So how can one accurately tell which generation boasted the greatest athletes?

Simple: one can’t.

Statistics don’t exactly transfer over from generation to generation. After all, it’s a safe bet that a young Wilt Chamberlain wouldn’t average 50 points per game coupled with 25.7 rebounds playing in today’s NBA, right? Would the mid 50’s—late 60’s Celtics win eight consecutive Championships, appear in 10 consecutive NBA Finals, or win 11 Championships in 13 years? Call me a cynic, but I doubt it.

If we’re really being honest, only a select few of the "all-time" debates are as clear-cut as they may seem to be on paper. For instance, Barry Bonds can never be the true home-run king. All the steroid accusations surrounding his success have stripped Bonds of that right.

Another easy call is that Tony Romo has not yet earned the right to be called the next Brett Favre. Sure he’s a playmaker, and sure the kid is about as talented as they come, but he needs to gain some level of postseason success before those comparisons can really begin.

These are among the only "all-time" great debates that are easy to put an end to.

It's much more difficult to pick Jerry Rice over Randy Moss, or vice versa. While Rice may have more yards and more rings, he also spent the lion’s share of his career being thrown to by Hall Of Fame quarterbacks. Moss has only had a single year with one, and it just happened to be the same year that he broke the all-time receiving TD record... just saying...

However, the Michael Jordan vs. Kobe Bryant debate is even more difficult to conclude. People are quick to point out that Shaq was the No. 1 go-to guy in Kobe’s first three Championships, while Jordan was the No. 1 option in all of his Championship victories. Still, how are we to know that Shaquille didn’t stunt Kobe’s growth?

Kobe Bryant has flourished in his role as the No. 1 option since Shaq left, even when his team wasn’t flourishing around him. Is it that far of a stretch to suggest that Kobe might have actually become an even greater player had he become the No. 1 option sooner?

If put in Kobe’s situation, how would MJ have responded? Would a Jordan/Shaquille tandem have won even more Championships? Possibly. It's equally possible that MJ could have never even settled for being a No .2 option to begin with, and that the dynasty would have never happened. Or maybe, just maybe, Jordan would be nearly identical to what Kobe is today.

I won’t waste my breath asking the "all-time" comparisons to stop. They never will. They’re as much a part of the game as the cheerleaders, stadiums, and franchise apparel. They simply add to lore.

Instead, what I will ask is that people learn to respect these greats for what they are.

Like it or not, Kobe’s skill level right now rivals that of MJ’s in his prime. Their shooting ability, athleticism, and overall desire to win are, as Phil Jackson said, "very similar"; and if I had to guess, I’d say that Phil knows a little of what he’s talking about, considering that he’s coached 100 percent of the Championship victories of both Bryant and Jordan combined.

It's no insult to say that Bryant and Jordan are closely matched. Neither is it an insult to say that Jordan is Bryant’s superior. Still, if MJ himself doesn’t take offense when Kobe is mentioned in the same breath that he was, neither should you.

It's up to us to respect and fully appreciate the athletes we have today while we still have them, as those before us appreciated the athletes of yesteryear.

Besides, you never know, we may never see talents like these again.

Even Before Artest, Reigning Champion Lakers Were Without Equal

Harrison Moore — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 00:32:55 -0400

Breaking News: The Los Angeles Lakers were still the world’s best team before acquiring Ron Artest.

Its pretty sad that the world seemed to have forgotten that fact given that the Lakers won the NBA title less than a month ago. Yet somehow the world did forget and ESPN’s Sportsnation reported that the Cavaliers were the overwhelming favorites to win next year’s title less than 24 hours ago.

I find that nothing short of disgraceful and the Cavaliers should literally be charged with fraudulence.

Despite the fact that LeBron James somehow won 66 games in last year’s regular season with a less-than-stellar supporting cast, the Cavaliers were the favorite to win the title at the start of last year’s postseason as well. It was ancient news that the Cavaliers had lost their two regular season games to the Lakers by an average of 13.5 points.

When the Cavaliers opened up what was supposed to be a “title run” with an 8-0 record the world was even more convinced that they were the league’s “best team.”

Nevermind that the deflated, sub .500 Pistons and the injured Hawks were easily some of the softest playoff teams of the last decade.

But then, finally, when the Cavaliers faced off against Orlando, the playoff series showcased what I had been saying all season along: the Cavaliers are a one-man act.

Yet somehow when they acquired an ancient fossil of a once-dominant NBA center, the world forgot about the reigning Champions. Sure a LeBron and Shaq tandem sounds cute…. in a creepy anti-Kobe jealousy scheme kinda way. But it doesn’t at all address the lack of athleticism of the Cavaliers frontcourt and does less than nothing to help out with the inconsistencies of their very overrated guards.

But one thing we should have learned is that Cleveland thrives on being overrated. When they’re actually assessed in an accurate manner, all hell breaks loose. It wasn’t all that long ago that veteran sharpshooter Ray Allen was given the all-star nod over Mo Williams, prompting the entire city of Cleveland to crap their collective diapers.

LeBron James even led the ridiculous charge, calling it “a slap in the face.” (Sidenote: I wonder how many people in Cleveland thought Mo Williams was an all-star during the Orlando series).

Cleveland is simply overrated, unproductive and extremely talkative, so in that regard yes, I suppose that Shaq does fit into their system. Perfectly.

Unfortunately, Shaq’s exactly what the doctor didn’t order in every other regard.

While his rhyming skills were never much better than the guys that composed the rap for the end theme of Captain Planet, they at least refrained from making on-court promises that he’d be unable to keep.

But “Ring for the King???” Wow.

While the reigning Champions add offensive potency and defensive intensity to their roster picking Ron Artest, the Cavaliers added a big rhyming fossil. As lopsided as the difference between these two acquisitions are, they really show the gap and overall difference between the two teams.

The Lakers don’t talk nearly as much as the Cavaliers do, they aren’t nearly as goofy as the Cavaliers are (see Cleveland’s post and pregame warm-ups) and they are much more equipped to win in the here and now.

So just stop it.

Stop the silly predictions. Stop limiting the Lakers to “the best in the West.” Stop pretending as though the Cavaliers are going to dethrone them.

The Lakers were the best team in basketball 24 hours ago. They’ll be the best 24 hours from now, and they’ll still be the best 365 days from now after they’ve won 70 games and their second straight NBA Championship.

The acquisition of Ron Artest merely cemented all of that.

Kobe Can't Win Without ____; The Next Knock On Kobe Bryant

Harrison Moore — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 11:14:53 -0400

Prestigious universities such as Princeton and Yale are now offering free Ph.D.’s to all the individuals who have either privately or publicly claimed that Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers could not win a title without Shaq. With Kobe unable to lead his team to a Championship yet again the Lakers have…..oh wait…. the Lakers won? Oh. Well, that changes things doesn’t it? You’ll have to pardon the sarcasm. I’ve never had any respect for the idiots who believed that Kobe was overrated or that he would never win a title without Shaq. Despite Kobe’s numerous achievements after Shaq’s departure, far too many people held on to the incredibly stupid belief that Kobe was incapable of achieving more greatness without him. Now that we can finally put that idiotic belief behind us, you have to wonder what’s next. The Kobe haters are still out there and like most other morons, they only remain silent for so long. Still, for the sake of sportsmanship, lets try to help them come up with their next argument. Kobe Can’t Win Without….

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In Defense of LeBron James

Harrison Moore — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 09:57:00 -0400

Depending on who you ask, LeBron James is God’s gift to the NBA, better than Michael Jordan himself, the second best player in the league, overrated, underrated, or even some complex combination of them all.

What LeBron James is now, however, is a perfect example of why the sports media and all the mindless drones they produce are fair-weather friends.

As fans, we praise ultra-competitiveness. We praise the “leave it all on the floor” mantra. Yet at the end of every game, most of us not only expect the family-friendly image of everyone, teammate and opponent alike, coming together to share hugs—we demand it.

How reasonable is that?

If the players choose to embrace each other after the game, then so be it. If not, then don’t attack LeBron James because he didn’t fulfill the cuddly, fake, embrace-the-other-team ritual that you puritans have a hard-on for.

The man has every right to be disappointed.

I suppose that none of you have ever turned your cell phones off after your teams have lost just to avoid the frustration of being taunted. I suppose none of you have ever played Madden or NBA 2K9, essentially got cheated out of a win, slammed the controller down, and quit.

Make no mistake about it, LeBron James was cheated out of a win this year, but not by the Magic. The team that cheated LeBron out of a win this year is actually much closer to home.

If we’re being honest with ourselves, we know that the Cavaliers had no business winning 66 games, competing with the Orlando Magic at all, or going 39-1 on their home court before dropping the meaningless final home game of the regular season to the struggling 76ers.

As much as Mo Williams would like to deny it, the Cavaliers were simply outmatched by the Magic.

(Not to mention that Mo lost just a little bit of credibility in my eyes when he guaranteed a win over a team that was one miracle shot away from sweeping the Cavaliers as easily as the Cavaliers had swept the bottom-feeding Pistons and Hawks in the two rounds previous to that.)

Truthfully, Cleveland never had a chance. All the Magic did was finally expose the Cavaliers as the one-man act that they’ve been all season long.

The only reason that Cleveland was more than an afterthought in the regular season, or even around for the postseason, is the same competitiveness on the part of LeBron James that so many of us want to criticize him for now.

But I suppose that it's only admirable to refuse defeat when you’ve won. To be unable to deal with defeat the moment after you’ve been defeated is apparently a sign of weakness or arrogance.

Never mind that LeBron’s refusal to accept defeat just a little more than a week ago resulted in one of the greatest shots in NBA history.

Its amazing how quickly the human psyche will have you turn on the very person you’ve spent the entire season admiring, isn’t it?

Lakers/Nuggets Game 2 Shows Why Zebra Poaching Isn't Always A Bad Thing

Harrison Moore — Fri, 22 May 2009 16:21:42 -0400

The team that really won yesterday’s game 2 matchup between L.A. and Denver doesn’t wear blue and white. Hell, they don’t even wear purple and gold.

The real victors yesterday wore black and white.

For far too long, we’ve allowed Zebras to be above criticism. If they make an idiot call that costs your team the game, then it's your teams fault that the game was within their opponent’s reach anyway. If a ref calls a sixth foul on a player, fouling him out, even if the latest foul call was made erroneously, it’s the player’s fault for having gotten up to five in the first place.

Enough.

When I say that the referees should be shot for their ineptitude yesterday, I don’t mean that as a figure of speech. They should literally be shot.

If you argue with a call the ref makes on court, regardless of how moronic the call may be, you’re liable to receive a technical foul. My question is, what’s the ref’s penalty for making the moronic call in the first place?

Even off the court, a player isn’t allowed to criticize a referee, lest he be fined for his blasphemy. So when do the refs get criticized for blowing games? In a bar? In a locker room? Amongst your buddies at home?

The answer is nowhere. They’re completely untouchable and that HAS to change.

Until it does, plays like the obvious flop on the part of Chauncey Billups that resulted in a foul call against Pau Gasol with 1:44 left on the clock in the fourth quarter and the Lakers already in the penalty will continue to happen and unfortunately, things only got worse from there.

The jump ball violation by JR which occurred shortly afterward happened to come during a very convenient time. Apparently, all of the Zebras temporarily lost their sight for that four second span in which he broke the circle prematurely. But don’t worry, they quickly regained their sight immediately afterward.

Unfortunately, the Zebras again lost their sight when Carmelo Anthony pushed Trevor Ariza to the floor after he gained control of the tip ball. When Ariza lost the ball because of the contact, the non-call that ensued basically put an end the game.

The truth of the matter is that the Denver Nuggets are an excellent basketball team and they are fully capable of beating the Lakers on any given night. My only problem as of now, is that they haven’t.

Yesterday wasn’t a win for them; it was proof of the faulty system that NBA officiating is built upon. Player/Coach accountability, zebra immunity.

For now, all we can do is hope that the Zebra’s incompetence hasn’t put an end to this series just yet.

Five Things We've Learned About the Lakers in the Second Round

Harrison Moore — Mon, 18 May 2009 15:01:17 -0400

In blasting the Houston Rockets out of orbit, the Lakers may have succeeded in securing a Western Conference Finals berth, but they’ve also created more questions than answers in the process. The fact that every Laker victory was a double digit rout, and every Laker defeat (outside of game 1) was equally marginal makes the Lakers even more confusing to analyze. Here are some of the most significant storylines of the series.

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Houston, You've Got a Problem; L.A. Sends Strong Message

Harrison Moore — Thu, 07 May 2009 11:06:46 -0400

Subconsciously or otherwise, Lakers fans have spent the majority of the year comparing this ballclub to last year’s NBA Champion Boston Celtics.

We fell a game short of their superb 66-16 record, we’ve dropped a game on our home court much earlier than they did in last year’s playoffs—but at last, we’re starting to see a resemblance.

When the Lakers’ talked about improving their much criticized toughness, many assumed that they had failed. Well, Houston knows better now.

Outside of Boston, last year’s Lakers were head and shoulders above every other team in the league talent-wise.

But if you watched them play, they rarely got in confrontations, even when it was somewhat necessary. At times, they would even seem intimidated and would back down from arguments, simply being content in the fact that they would probably win the game anyway.

Not this year.

Aside from a few aggravating Houston possessions where the Lakers allowed easy inside looks, this is the physical Lakers ball club that we should be seeing.

Last year’s Celtics were well aware of the incredible talent level of their roster. The rest of the league was aware of it too, the thing is that Boston’s talent isn’t what made them so special. They carried themselves with such a nasty demeanor, particularly in Boston, and it was as though they were saying “how dare you step on the court with us”.

The Lakers seem to have finally adapted a Champion’s misdemeanor of their own that says boldly “Get out of our way, we aren’t going into the summer as anything but NBA Champions.” Lesson well learned—thanks, Boston.

Make no mistake about it, though: I have about as much infatuation with the Celtics as Ron Artest’s barber had with sobriety, but the Celtics demanded respect from every team they stepped on the court with and everyone acquiesced. Who am I to do differ?

Taking a look back on Fisher’s flagrant foul on Luis Scola, I know that some will argue that it was a dirty shot. Even as I struggle to overcome my own personal satisfaction with the play, I can see that it was a bit uncalled for. The funny thing is that in the long haul, the play may have more effect on the outcome of this series than any we’ve seen thus far.

It is not at all unthinkable that the Lakers close out this series in five games. But in order for that to happen against a mangy, scrappy, blue-collar team like Houston, the Lakers needed motivation. What better motivation is there than dislike?

After all, if it’s one thing that the Lakers have been in desperate need of all season long, it’s a wakeup call. As a team, the Lakers have seemed sluggish and unmotivated more often than not. What’s worse is that they’ve been getting away with it for the most part just because of their high talent level.

The Rockets, on the other hand, are not an extremely talented ballclub. They simply aren’t. When Yao is contained, they struggle to just to bring their final score total above the 80s. While their defense certainly is chippy, it’s not nearly as effective or imposing as the Celtics', the Cavaliers', or the Pistons' of yesteryear.

At the end of the day, Kobe Bryant will not allow the Lakers season to end here. And as if his performance yesterday wasn’t enough of a testament to that, no 60-plus-win Phil Jackson–coached team has ever failed to win a Championship, let alone failed to make a Finals appearance at all. That’s not going to change.

Call it arrogant, call it disrespectful, call it what you will, but the Lakers are going to win this series, and I’m more than willing to stake my credibility on that fact.

Five Things We've Learned About the Lakers in the First Round

Harrison Moore — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 10:08:42 -0400

The NBA Playoffs = where subplots happen. Let's be honest, subplots are the cheese on a burger, the A1 on a steak, the caramel flavor in the ice cream. The Lakers are no strangers to subplots. Of their last two finals appearances, the first came during the climax of a public feud between superstars Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O Neal, the latter pitted them against their lifelong arch-rivals, the Boston Celtics. While the end result of the first round shouldn't have raised any eyebrows, there were quite a few shocking developments that took place in the series. Let's watch.

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The Tragedy of the Philadelphia Eagles

Harrison Moore — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:53:28 -0400

I’d like you to picture a beautiful girl dedicating herself to a relationship with a man who has proven himself unworthy more times than even Mother Teresa would forgive.

It's not like we haven’t seen the mistreated lover/antagonist jerk scenario repeated time and again throughout movies, and maybe even in our own lives.

If you haven’t, I recommend you watch the Lifetime channel (it doesn’t really matter what time of day you choose to do so.) When you fully grasp the concept, you’ll understand the pity I feel for Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb.

I cannot emphasize this point enough: Philadelphia is one of the worst cities to play for in sports history, particularly as it relates to football.

When the guy who came into the season as your No. 1 receiver couldn’t get open if he was being covered by a one-legged mannequin (Kevin Curtis,) the only receivers you’ve had since 2005 are guys named Reggie Brown and Greg Lewis, and every tight end on your roster combined accounted for less than 700 yards for the entire season, you aren’t exactly playing with Super Bowl-level talent.

What I’d like to ask the entire city of Philadelphia is this: What do you expect?

Expecting Donovan McNabb to bring home a Super Bowl victory with the level of talent he has around him is literally asking him to build a mountain out of a molehill.

LeBron James is in the NBA for a reason. The one-man act can win you games in some sports, but football isn’t one of them.

The first (and only) time McNabb had a quality receiver, he not only managed to lead the Eagles to the Super Bowl, but he also became the first quarterback in NFL history to throw for over 30 touchdowns and fewer than 10 interceptions.

To me, that provides a not-so-subtle hint that provided with some real level of help, McNabb can play about as well as any quarterback to grace the game.

Unfortunately, the Eagles are about as good at taking hints or making adjustments as L.J. Smith is at not fumbling the football. What amazes me most about the Eagles is that they not only show extreme impatience with their best players, but that they are much more lenient toward less talented players of the same position.

Will someone please explain to me how Donte' Stallworth spent less than half the time in an Eagles uniform that Greg Lewis did, or how Omar Gaither outlasted Takeo Spikes?

You know something, Eagles fans? If you want a Super Bowl, then rid yourselves of Andy Reid for a start. A coach that can’t clock manage or draft is more useless than a gasoline-filled fire extinguisher.

If you need further proof of this, you need look no further back than Jan. 14, 2007, when the Eagles met the New Orleans Saints in the second round of the playoffs.

Down by a field goal with less than two minutes to go on 4th-and-10, the Eagles took a shot and converted. Or at least they had converted previous to the false start penalty that negated the first down and pushed them five yards further back.

Then Reid took it upon himself to negate something much greater than a first down conversion.

He decided to negate all the hard work that Jeff Garcia, Brian Westbrook, and the entire team had done to rebound from a dismal 5-6 record all the way to six straight wins, the NFC East title and an improbable run to the second round of the playoffs.

He decided to punt.

The Saints would obviously elect to run out the clock, and there was no credible reason to believe that they wouldn’t succeed, as they had rushed for 80 yards in the first quarter alone, but Andy wanted to be a hero. He wanted to be a playmaker, and when his asinine decision fell through, no one called him on it.

The drug-related incident with his sons soon afterwards turned him into an empathetic figure, and instead of facing Reid’s incompetency, fans elected to blame Donovan McNabb for the team’s midseason slump that saw them plummet from a 4-1 start to the aforementioned 5-6 drop-off.

We fast-forward back to today, and the Eagles are no better off. Reid still stands on the Eagles' sideline, and the Eagles follow their tradition of vehement refusal to acquire the playmakers necessary to win a championship.

If last year’s season should have taught the Eagles anything, outside of the fact that Reid still can’t clock manage, it should have been that the Eagles receivers aren’t worth the cloth their jerseys are made of.

For that reason I’d also like for someone to explain to me why the Eagles refuse to even talk with Marvin Harrison.

Although Harrison was dealing with injury problems over the course of last season, I’d take seven or eight games of him over 16 games of any receiver currently wearing an Eagles uniform any day. Having been teammates with McNabb at Syracuse would at least give McNabb a familiar face to throw to.

Fun Fact: None of the receivers that were on the Eagles roster the year they went to the Super Bowl are still with the team.

At the end of the day, Marvin Harrison in an Eagles uniform is a pipe dream. The Eagles would much rather spend their time giving first round picks to their divisional archenemy Cowboys.

They would much rather draft backup quarterbacks like Kevin Kolb, who's thrown fewer than 35 attempts in three years, than have brought back Jeff Garcia as McNabb’s backup and actually tried to get a player who would (gasp) play, or worse, make an instant impact.

I say all this as a former Eagle fan myself. I once believed in the team and their desire to win, but I learned long ago that winning is a positive bonus for the Eagles, and not the main goal, assuming it even happens at all. This was, of course, previous to their dismissal of seven-time Pro Bowler Brian Dawkins.

In closing, I’d like to say that McNabb took the high road during the insulting situation surrounding the drafting of Kevin Kolb, again took the high road with the Eagles' inability (or disinterest) in surrounding him with quality players, and has for far too long risked his body trying to make plays with an offense devoid of any consistent playmaker not wearing a No. 36 jersey.

McNabb, get the hell out.

This team just doesn’t deserve you.

Another Celtic Championship? It Takes Five

Harrison Moore — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 08:12:15 -0400

A couple of days ago I did a minor article about where I believed the season was going to end for the current NBA Champions, the Boston Celtics.

In writing the article, I made two major mistakes: 1) I assumed the 76ers were going remain in possession of the East’s seventh seed and were headed for a series against Boston, and 2) I assumed that Kevin Garnett was going to return as early as the first round.

The latter of those two sins is, in my opinion, the more forgivable.

Reports concerning Garnett’s return were optimistic as recently as a week ago…besides, this is Kevin Garnett we’re talking about.

Before this year, Garnett had only failed once to play in 70 or more of his team’s regular season games.

All throughout his seasoned 13-year career, he’s played the game with the wisdom of a vet and the athleticism of a rookie and, until now, we haven’t really seen much sign of him slowing down. But now, the general consensus appears to be that Garnett will not return until as late as the NBA Finals, if at all.

Without Garnett, the Celtics’ ferocity exists only on paper. Their center, Kendrick Perkins has been solid for them, but in a potential matchup with Cleveland, he simply wouldn’t be enough to take advantage of their secretly weak interior. For all of Mikki Moore’s height, he just hasn’t provided them with the inside force coming off the bench that the Celtics had hoped he would.

Their near-perfect team symmetry has been greatly damaged and though both Ray Allen and Paul Pierce have done their parts in keeping the team above water, they won’t be able to hold off the sinking forever.

In the simplest of terms, without KG, the Celtics’ “Banner 18” has become mission impossible.

Garnett really does account for that much. Even if you ignore the consistently all-star caliber numbers he brings to the table, he brings so many other intangibles to the Celtics. It is impossible to ever fully determine the worth of his intimidating presence. It’s equally impossible to place a number value on the consistency he’s shown in getting his team’s entire roster riled up time and again.

In last year’s playoffs, his passion for the game inspired his teammates and electrified the entire city of Boston and that is a large reason why the Celtics were able to boast a superb 14-1 home record on the way to last year’s championship.

Kevin Garnett IS the Boston Celtics (or he is, at the very least, their barometer).

Don’t let the Celtics’ 18-7 record without him fool you. They can make up for his scoring. They can even make up a little bit of his rebounding, but without him they are reminiscent of the undermanned Lakers team that lost last year’s Finals.

They can still put up similar stats, they can still win games, they may still win a playoff series or two, but their interior presence will be vulnerable for teams like the Magic and this year’s Lakers to exploit at will.

You should still look for the Celtics to advance past the young and inexperienced Bulls, maybe even sweep them, but afterwards, summer will probably come much earlier than expected for the current champions.

It's official: you may now count out the Boston Celtics.

A Few Reflections On the Boston Celtics

Harrison Moore — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 22:16:07 -0400

We’ve seen the Celtics go from venerable to vulnerable in less time we could blink.

This unit just isn’t the same as the one that won last year’s Championship, nor is it the same one that began the season with a best all-time start at 27-2.

Last year everything went as well for Boston as it possibly could have. Despite the fact that both of their major acquisitions, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen had already played through 11+ seasons, both managed to stay relatively healthy and with Paul Pierce, the trio managed to bring Boston its first championship since 1986.

This year seems headed for a very different finish.

The Celtics haven’t been the same without Kevin Garnett. Sunday’s 107-76 blowout embarrassment provides all the statistical evidence necessary to confirm that. The 31-point margin was the largest deficit the Celtics have lost by since March 7, 2007.

Although Garnett is scheduled to return as early as the first round, it is highly unlikely that he will return to true form immediately. He would be well-served to ease back into his game with a slow paced series against a primarily half-court team. Clearly, the last thing he and the Celtics need right now is a playoff series against a young, athletic, high octane team.

That is precisely why the first round holds a high degree of long-term danger for the Celtics particularly if Philly maintains the seventh seed. So in the likely event that the 76ers do remain in the seventh seed, how well will the Celtics be able to handle them?

Well, the 76ers have posted a morbidly unimpressive 1-7 record against the Celtics in the last two seasons and their sub-par offense just isn’t enough to outscore the Celtics four times in a seven-game series, even without Garnett.

You can’t win a series against a team like Boston with defense alone. However, defense and all-around physical play can run a veteran team ragged, particularly when they’re struggling with injuries.

After the probable series with Philly (which could extend as far as six games), the Celtics would likely face the Magic afterward and probably Cavaliers immediately after that. If somehow they emerged from all of that, they again be pitted against the Lakers, who have not only proven themselves to be the deepest team in the league, but have also harbored a personal vendetta against the Celtics since June of last year.

Far be it from me to advise the general public to completely count out a 60-win, reigning NBA Champion. I’d just say that all facts considered, Boston fans are probably going to have to save banner 18 for another year.

Confessions of a Laker Fan: LeBron James Is the MVP

Harrison Moore — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 18:50:45 -0400

I look at the title I created and I want to shoot myself—repeatedly.

After all, this is the same debate I’ve so furiously argued on the other side of throughout the entire course of the season, but I am man enough to admit when I have been proven wrong…..and I have been.

However, I’m going to set the record straight from the beginning, this is not some form of indication that LeBron James is Kobe Bryant’s superior. He isn’t, but after struggling with this issue for several weeks now I see why that should not prevent him from securing his first MVP award.

When discussing the MVP the question of who is "the best player in the league" is often implied.

If that player also happens to be on the best team, then it should be automatic that he receive the MVP award right? Unfortunately no, and this season LeBron James has been a testament this season as to why.

Many Cavaliers fans believe that LeBron’s superior stats are why he should receive the MVP. They are incorrect. Dwayne Wade has been the most statistically dominant force in the league on every end and every corner of the court this year. If stats were the final determinant than he should have won the MVP award weeks ago.

So why exactly is LeBron James this season’s MVP?

Simple.

The Cavaliers claimed their 62^nd victory over the San Antonio Spurs Sunday afternoon, yes 62^nd, as in the number followed by 61.

Let’s pretend for a moment that we entered this NBA season from a parallel universe where almost everything remained the same, but neither Kobe Bryant nor LeBron James existed.

As you are reading this right now, the Lakers would be on pace to finish the regular season with at least 50 wins and would be battling for a third-sixth-seeded spot in the West.

Pau Gasol, Andrew Bynum, and Lamar Odom would anchor the longest, most physically imposing half-court game in the league. Trevor Ariza would be averaging anywhere from 13-16 ppg and Derek Fisher would average a few more assists and possibly an extra point or two.

The Lakers wouldn’t be nearly as dangerous a threat to win it all, but they would still be relatively high among the short list of teams that nobody wants to meet in the playoffs.

Now while we’re still in this parallel universe, let’s visit Cleveland. At best, the Cavaliers are fighting with Chicago and Detroit for the seventh or eighth-seed in the East.

Their offense averages around a meager 90 ppg while their defense allows anywhere from 92-94. Their lack of offensive interior force allows teams to play them nose to nose at the perimeter with little if any consequence.

Zydrunas Ilgauskas’ already mind-numbing lack of interior aggression on either end of the floor now has the entire city of Cleveland clamoring for a true center.

Mo Williams is the only true offensive threat the Cavaliers have to offer, and teams immediately realize this. Mo Williams folds under the constant pressure of double teams shortly afterward. The best Cleveland can hope for is to take Boston to a maximum of 5 games in the first round where they will quickly be eliminated.

Now let’s come back to the real world.

Kobe and LeBron exist once again, but Kobe is still surrounded by playmakers (not to mention the most championship winning coach in the history of the game quarterbacking them) while most nights LeBron is probably busy trying to convince Beyonce to feature him in a duet remix of “Me, Myself and I”.

Let’s face it, LeBron James has the ball in his hands more than some point guards and that’s specifically because the Cavaliers don’t have an abundance of playmakers. When you look at the Lakers, however, even their reserve players can consistently distribute the basketball and that’s why only the Utah Jazz average a higher amount of assists per game.

In case you need further proof of the lack of playmakers wearing a Cleveland uniform, brace yourself.

The first game in LeBron James’ career in which he failed to record a single assist, also happened to be the same night that Cleveland suffered through its worst blowout loss of the season at the time, a 93-74 trouncing at the hands of the Houston Rockets.

Despite the similarity in the Lakers and Cavaliers’ record, and their seemingly indistinguishable production levels, one team is clearly a league above the other.

Remember that records don’t always indicate a team’s true caliber, in fact they rarely do. Many of you have probably forgotten, but the Lakers and Sixers were 57-25 each when they met in the Finals nearly a decade ago. The seven meetings between the teams that year (of which the Lakers won five) showed us just how closely they were matched, which really wasn't very closely at all.

In the event that both the Lakers and the Cavaliers meet again in the NBA Finals, don’t expect this postseason to be much different.

In case you need more proof of this, lets analyze the two times the Lakers and Cavaliers met this season. As I’ve discussed in previous articles, matched up with Kobe Bryant, LeBron wasn’t able to maintain his usual dominance and the rest of the Cavaliers were incapable of filling the void.

The Lakers cruised both times, the first behind Gasol’s and Bynum’s combined 36 points and the second behind Lamar Odom who played like a man possessed, racking up 28 points and a massive 17 rebounds.

The reason why LeBron James is the MVP is because when you look at the Cavaliers now it’s very easy to forget all of that.

It’s very easy to forget the fact that they are one of the most one-dimensional teams in the game (maybe the most one dimensional 60-win team in the game’s history).

Success just has that effect. The fact that the Cavaliers, who would otherwise be fighting just for a playoff spot, have enjoyed the tremendous level of success that they have is why LeBron James is the MVP.

The league must award LeBron’s effort and production (not that it would be robbery if Kobe were to win it).

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to stand dramatically over the edge of a cliff and contemplate whether I deserve forgiveness.

The Truth About The Cleveland Cavaliers

Harrison Moore — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 12:06:28 -0400

Since everyone seems to fear the concept of criticizing a 60 win team, it looks like I’ll have to be the first to say it: the Cavaliers have overachieved.

I’ll admit that their 13-game winning streak had me a bit nervous. They were scoring 100.5 ppg while holding opponents to an average of 91.3, nearly a double digit gap.

It was quite an impressive run, but still I never feared Cleveland. I do however fear the power of momentum and although it took a surprising amount of wizardry and an overwhelming dose of magic, momentum has all but left the Cavaliers as they cling to a one game lead in the race for homecourt throughout the playoffs.

On one hand the Cavaliers are still a commanding 36-1 at home, the number 1 seed in the East is signed, sealed and delivered in their favor, and they still have one of the greatest players in the history of the game.

On the other, this team has gone a combined 2-6 against the league’s top 3 teams (based on win percentage) the Lakers, Magic and Celtics and they are still completely vulnerable on the interior, due in no small part to the fact that Zydrunas Ilgauskas scores the majority of his points from mid range, and grabs the majority of his rebounds off of long bounces.

I attribute most of Cleveland’s success to the weakness of their division, the overall weakness of their conference and their ability to capitalize on both. With that said, I have to commend the Cavaliers for their consistency.

Outside of the Washington, Cleveland has just about beaten all the teams they were supposed to beat and you won’t find anything on their resume resembling the Lakers’ inexplicable failure to prevent a season sweep to the lowly Bobcats, or like the Celtics 2-7 downward spiral that came immediately after their NBA record 27-2 start.

Appreciate the Cavaliers consistency. Appreciate all the other things they have accomplished too, just realize that their consistency includes the fact they consistently lose to the other elite teams around the league and when you take that into consideration it’s hardly granted that the Cavaliers are going to just waltz into the NBA Finals, even with homecourt advantage.

After all, it isn’t guaranteed that the Cavaliers will continue their dominance at home throughout the playoffs or even for the rest of the season, particularly with the Celtics coming to visit a little more than a week from now.

My point is that the time for everyone to pretend that the Cavaliers’ are the best thing since sliced bread has come to an end. There is a formula to beating them.

When you think about it, how the Lakers blew the Cavaliers out at home, and later became the first team to beat them on the road isn’t exactly a secret….or at least it shouldn’t be.

They got in LeBron’s face, collapsed the lanes, made him into a jumpshooter, sent him to the line frequently and forced his teammates to pick up the slack. LeBron’s supporting cast members were able to hang around the Lakers for the first half of both of their encounters, but in the end LeBron’s 19.5 average in the two games wasn’t enough for Cleveland to remain within single digits of the Lakers by the end of either game.

In analyzing sports, sometimes we like to overcomplicate things, but often the truth is fairly simple.

Sometimes beating a team requires no more than limiting their best player, particularly when the team is built around them and until the Cavaliers have proven that they can consistently win without LeBron dominating like a couch potato playing rookie difficulty on NBA Live, there is no reason to seriously game plan for anyone else on their roster.

As long as that statement remains true, the Cavaliers will NOT reach the NBA Finals, with or without homecourt.

Inspiration: The True Greatness Within Professional Athletics

Harrison Moore — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 00:23:07 -0400

Feeling as passionately about any sport as I feel about basketball will eventually send you to a crossroads where you will either be envious or appreciative of the game and its players.

Honestly, I am somewhere in between.

For me, it’s hard to imagine a professional athlete waking up in the morning hoping that when it’s all been said and done, their life will have stood significantly apart from the average Joe’s.

It’s hard to imagine one fighting the urge to simply go through the motions in their daily routines. It’s hard to imagine one questioning what their financial situation will look like in five years.

I’m not naïve; although most of the people that these questions plague happen to be “normal” there are bound to be at least a few athletes with some of these same questions.

Still, when you think of all the riches, power, and glory these athletes command, it becomes nearly impossible not to be somewhat jealous.

Be aware though, because the NBA, like every other sporting league, recognizes the average fan’s envious passion and it capitalizes on it. What do you think the concept behind wearing an athlete’s jersey really is?

Sure, some people wear jerseys freely without any real care for the athlete whose name they sport on their back, but those people are a small minority.

When most people wear jerseys they do so with tremendous pride. Most realize that jerseys are a declaration of loyalty, passion, and even the right to brag when the player or team achieves greatness.

On one hand, wearing a LeBron James jersey won’t give you the ability to dunk any more than wearing a Superman cape gives you the power to fly. We are adults and we realize this, yet on the other hand, when we don these jerseys we become the athletes, like when we were children throwing on costumes to become superheroes.

When one understands that a shirt with sewn-on numbers and another man’s name can become so much more, one can also understand why us die-hard fans become so emotionally involved with our team and how even a 350-pound man can win an NBA Championship.

After all, don’t most of us refer to our favorite teams as “we” and “us”?

This is why sports have become every bit as much a part of American culture as the great red, white, and blue flag we all salute. Not only does the sports world offer welcome arms to any willing to embrace it, it also offers a timeout from the stress we incur in our everyday lives.

As the NBA playoffs draw nearer, I think we should learn to be more appreciative of the sport itself. In a way, no matter who wins the NBA title, we all win.

We’ve all had the chance to see our favorite teams and players perform. We’ve watched them through highs and lows. We’ve cried and we’ve laughed and we’ve done so with people we know and care about.

Put Up Or Shut Up: Mavericks, Jason Terry Can't Seem To Do Either

Harrison Moore — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 22:44:20 -0400

Sunday’s matchup between the Lakers and the Mavericks went from a blowout into a debacle in a pretty short period of time. After the Lakers bombed Dallas for a 15 point lead, Jason Terry went nuts in the third quarter from beyond the arc (in large part because he had been left so wide open you had to question if he had been diagnosed with leprosy).

From there the 15 point lead evaporated into a six point deficit, and for the first time in awhile, you got the impression that things may just turn out alright for the Mavericks after all….for about five minutes.

We all know what happened then. The Lakers responded to the Dallas spark and saved themselves from an embarrassment that should have never even been close to happening in the first place.

I’ll be the first to admit that the Mavericks made about as big of a statement Sunday afternoon as any losing team possibly could make, but along the lines of watching that game, I clearly must have missed something.

For Dallas, cashing checks that their...er...wallets can’t handle is about as new as steroid abuse in the WWE, but I still couldn’t help but find myself annoyed by Terry’s surprising post game remarks. When he was asked about the possibility of meeting the Lakers in the first round Terry had this to say:

“If it’s the team we have to face down the line, we’re confident we can make it a knockout series.”

Translation: “Because we were able to rally all the way back from a sizeable deficit, it doesn’t matter that we lost the game. We’ve shown that Los Angeles won’t be able to handle us in a seven game series. Remember when we were the number one seed a few years back? We tied for the fourth highest win total in all of NBA history (67) only to be upset by the 42-win Warriors in the first round. It’s our turn to be Cinderella now.”

While his remark wasn’t of the most hate inspiring bulletin-board materials we’ve seen this year from any perspective, there’s a thing called humility. Usually it’s considered appropriate after a loss, regardless of what took place during the game.

Besides, ever since the somewhat controversial trade that allowed the Lakers to acquire Pau Gasol from the Memphis Grizzlies on the 1^st of February last year, the Dallas Mavericks have amassed a grand total of zero wins in the six games the two teams have played against each other.

Although he went about it the wrong way, I’m all for Terry trying to get his team fired up.

Even with a four game lead over 9^th seed Phoenix and only 6 of their remaining 15 games on the road, where they’ve posted a miserable 16-19 record, the Mavericks will need all the fire they can get, after all they’re no strangers to catastrophic letdowns. Terry just better hope he doesn’t bring on more heat than his team can handle in the process.

If I recall correctly, the Mavericks don’t deal with Heat too well.

Five Critical Factors for the 2009 Championship-Contending Lakers

Harrison Moore — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:16:15 -0400

The Lakers have been the league’s most difficult team to analyze this season, but you need look no further than Los Angeles to find the league’s most talented, most seriously contending, best coached team. Although they hold command of an imposing 51-13 record, they have more intangibles heading into the post-season than any other title contender.

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