Thank God for League Pass

For giving me something to distract myself from pooish Raptors performances like tonight.  I caught a bunch of Sixers-Rockets instead, a compelling game on a few levels, not least of which is the opportunity to hear the awesome FS Rockets announcing duo.  These dudes are giant homers, they’re hilarious, and they’re generally on point. Some highlights:

John Wall and The Great Point Guard Bounty of 2005-2010

John Wall lays it up against Sam Houston

Derek Rose, Brandon Jennings, and coming next year: John Wall.

This kid is a stud. Now this isn’t a Brandon Jennings-style out of nowhere surprise; absolutely everyone knew that Wall’s game was serious before his freshman season even started. Predictable or not, however, watching him tear up the college game has been an awful lot of fun.

Now, enthusiasm for John Wall’s skills has to be tempered by the fact that UK hasn’t faced any stiff competition yet. Really, it doesn’t matter though, the tools at John Wall’s disposal are just stunning. He gets blocks, he’s a monster in passing-lanes, he has an extra gear (or two), he’s got ludicrous hops and the most ridiculous cross over since young Baron Davis. He also has a pretty nice mid-range game, a sick variety of Euro scoop finishes, and can definitely make plays and run an offense. Oh, and he’s got a menacing ass swagger. He cackles when he makes big plays; he seems to not even blink at big shots; and you can just tell he’s a fierce competitor and a straight up showman…. Talk about NBA material.

On Monday night, despite playing only 26 minutes, he had 14 assists, 6 steals and 12 points with only 1 turnover. Granted the game was against yet another cupcake opponent, but any good basketball fan has to be thrilled by the prospect of John Wall adding to the explosive young point guard dog-fight that we’re sure to witness in the decade ahead.

Think about all these names: Wall, Rondo,  Jennings, Rose, Deron, Brooks, CP, Ty Lawson and, hopefully, Rubio at some point. Plus a lower tier of Stuckey, Chalmers, Flynn, Curry and Tyreke Evans (only in a lower tier because he’s obviously a two guard, so long as your head isn’t lodged up your ass). Wow, right?

The early evidence from the post-handcheck era strongly suggests that defenses have more issues stopping the pick and roll and one-on-one dribble penetration. These changes are hugely beneficial to small-guards. Add this to the mix with the current plethora of jaw-dropping young talent at point guard, and there’s no telling how dominant some of these names could become over the next decade. At the least, some really competitive and fun match-ups, and hopefully some CP3-Rondo style professional grudge-fests, should unfold at the 1 spot over the next 10-12 years.

Indeed, the prevalence of quality small guards could change the way a standard NBA starting five is conceived of. There is a trend emerging early in this NBA season of playing 2 small guards – even two pure point-guards – at the same time. This trend may represent more than a passing fad, at a minimum we should expect to see a lot more of these sorts of lineups in the months ahead. And if just one team that subscribes to this two point-guards/small-guards style can make some noise in the playoffs this year, this trend could become a transformation.

A quick, totally worthwhile digression; the dream scenario for a dominant two guard lineup is the Jazz getting the number one pick (by way of the 3-14 Knicks and coincidentally the prototypical small guard – Isaiah Thomas) and teaming Wall and Deron Williams in the same lightning quick backcourt…

Some John Wall highlights and more gushing about Kentucky after the jump…

“I Was Not Freeballing”

I know we’re coming perilously close to running a personal tribute blog to Ron-Ron, but this couldn’t be ignored. He continues to be the best interview in sports, maybe the world.  In the first part, he clears up the controversy about taking the Rockets’ team bus to a playoff game wearing only his boxers (they have pockets, so they’re not really underpants).  In the second part, he tells the story about confronting Kobe in the showers following game 6 of the Boston series and somehow makes it sound even more gay.  Enjoy.

We Should Be Vegas

This summer, during a heated discussion over whether Trevor Ariza’s torrid 3-point shooting from the playoffs would carry over into the regular season, I made a bet with fellow No Regard editor Prick Barry: $50, over/under 36.5% from 3.  He took the over, myself the under.  Ariza’s 3-point FG% through 12 games?  36.5.  This one isn’t going to be decided until the last two weeks of the season.

Kareem, by Warhol

The New York Times has a short piece up in their Arts section on a show featuring a collection of Polaroid portraits of star athletes by Andy Warhol.  Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (whom our thoughts are with) is there, as is a slightly-crazed looking Muhammed Ali and a Samson-haired Wayne Gretzky.  Oh, and O.J.  Remember when he was just another famous athlete?  It seems insane now to mention him in the same context as Kareem and Gretzky, but that’s how big he was at the time.  Wish I could go see this in person.

“Touch Me Like I’m Blind”

Jesus.  I was all caught up in the shoegate banalities and somehow missed this.  I’m surprised it didn’t come crashing through the wall of my apartment like a meteor. Is it possible to come up with a weirder combination of tracks than this and Afghan Women?  Especially when you consider that both music videos were almost certainly shot in Ron-Ron’s backyard.  I’m calling it right now: his next song will feature Tyson and Howard Hughes’ ghost and will be about aliens attacking the G8 summit.

Iverson Out In Memphis

In a day that featured a pretty surprising personnel transaction, this one surprises no one.  Allen Iverson was put on waivers by the Grizzlies, and when he clears (he’s pretty much guaranteed to) he’ll be a free agent.  The obvious question: is this the end for AI?  Sadly, it probably is, at least as far as NBA is concerned.  Maybe he’ll pop up playing somewhere, but it’s hard to see another NBA team taking him on after what happened in Memphis.  The less obvious, but equally important question: what about all those season tickets the Grizzlies sold in the aftermath of signing Iverson?  Will they be refunded?  Call me crazy, but from what we know of Michael Heisley, I’m going with no.

This Is What They Brought Him In For

In last night’s game against the Rockets, Ron Artest made the heads-up play to keep the court safe and clear of debris.  I’d say that this happened out of jealousy over the crowd’s warm reception of Ariza when he collected his ring pre-game (after Artest was mysteriously booed by Rockets fans a couple weeks ago) but I think we all know that Ron-Ron’s consciousness has evolved way past that point.  For the record, if Robert Horry had done this everyone would have been all, “Oooh, Robert Horry, doing the little things! He’s so savvy!” but with Artest it’ll be more like, “Oh my God, what if he had killed someone?!”

College Watch

College Basketball is back!

A handful of non-competitive ‘cupcake’ games highlighted the beginning of College Basketball season on Thursday evening. Many of the top prospects were in action; and a few potential top picks put up marquee performances on opening night…

Dunk/s Of the Week

5,11 wonder-kid Ty Lawson demolishes the Lakers second line, his dunk put the exclamation mark on what was an embarrassing annihilation of the Lakers by the Denver Nuggets… Great, off-colour play call by Mark Jackson “Are you kidding me? This should be against the law son! My goodness!”

Also, Dwayne Wade took Anderson Varejao so hard to the hole on Thursday that half  the transvestite hookers in Rio were limping all evening on Friday… Here Marv has an unintentionally hilarious call as well, “OOOOO! A Facial!!”