Top Five NBA Misconceptions

What would happen to fans if they didn't have the stats or the analysts. What if they just saw the game for what it is, and not have their opinions swayed by the majority?

It's never gonna happen. Although stats and analysts are a great part of the game, they also mislead fans on many levels.

As Plato once said, "there is opinion, and then there is wrong opinion." Wrong opinion is an opinion that has no good evidence to support it, such as if I were to say Michael Jordan sucks.

Here are the top five wrong opinions about basketball:

5. The Spurs are boring.

This is a matter of opinion really, but I feel this opinion derives mostly from jealousy. It's as though playing defense is illegal in the NBA.

Tim Duncan is kind of boring, but look at the other stars on that team.

Tony Parker is one of the fastest players in the league, and he blows through big men like it's nothing. Manu Ginobili is no more boring than any other shooting guard. He drains shots as well as anyone.

Show some respect to the 2007 champs. So what if their players don't take questionable shots or make various facial expressions. They're playing the game the right way.

4. David Stern sucks because he's rigging NBA games.

First off, I usually don't like to talk about cheating or rigging games. I feel it takes the fun out of sports. I have no problem with other people talking about it, but people these days are always so quick to accuse.

Basketball is an easy game to rig. Many calls could go either way. But how can you be sure that refs are rigging games? And how do you know that David Stern is involved?

David Stern has been a great commissioner. What other commissioner in American sports has done a better job of marketing his sport and globalizing it?

Stern has imposed necessary rule changes that sports like baseball are always afraid to impose.

You're not gonna agree with everything he does, but look at it this way: You're not gonna agree with everything a politician does. It doesn't necessarily make them bad at what they do, you just have differing views.

3. More big men should be able to shoot like Dirk Nowitzki.

Range is useful in a big man. But when they're a regular in the three point content, there's a problem.

Big men are there to have an inside game. The sad thing about Dirk is that he's a good ball-handler and could easily post up on most big men. The problem is that he's soft.

The Mavericks are lacking a true inside presence on offense right now and they would be winning more games if Dirk played closer to the hoop.

2. Steals and blocks are a good way of measuring defense.

Yes, and Allen Iverson is a better defender than Raja Bell. Steals are a statistic that calls for defending with your hands over-aggressively. Blocks are a stat that relies on the opponent to shoot the ball and not decide to dribble by the defender.

The most important thing you can do on defense is not let your opponent get between you and the hoop. If you just keep them in front of you and keep your hands up, you have a much better chance of not letting them score than you do if you're trying to swat the ball away.

I'm not saying steals and blocks are bad. It's just not the best way to measure a defender.

There are some guys who rack up the steals and are great defenders, like Ron Artest. But consider Artest great because he's made the Rockets into an elite defensive team and because it's hard to score over 15 points on him, not because of the steals.

1. Kobe can't win a championship by himself. Let's whine about how LeBron James doesn't have a supporting cast.

It wasn't until last year when Kobe Bryant had anything close to a championship caliber supporting cast. From 2004-2007, Kobe's second scoring option was Lamar Odom.

Meanwhile, Shaq went on to win it all in his second year with the Heat. Let's look at the talent around him that year: Dwyane Wade, Jason Williams, Antoine Walker, Gary Payton, James Posey, and other key players.

LeBron James got the Cavaliers to the finals in 2007 with a washed-up Larry Hughes and an aging Zyndrunas Ilgauskas. Yet everyone excuses LeBron for doing nothing in the finals.

Yet Kobe is given the expectation to win a championship by himself. You know who else couldn't win by themselves?

Michael Jordan, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Bill Russell, John Havlicek, Larry Bird, Julius Erving, Hakeem Olajuwon...You get the point.