the dunk by howard to win it was mighty impressive.
namkcuR said:
If Chicago keeps getting better and becomes a consistently good team(which I think they will), that would be huge for the East.
But you appear to be rather critical of the Bulls.
Dallas Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki chose not to respond Friday to Dwyane Wade's criticism of his leadership skills.
But Mavericks owner Mark Cuban fired back at the Miami Heat guard on his blog on Friday.
Wade was quoted Friday: "Dirk says they gave us the championship last year, but he's the reason they lost the championship, because he wasn't the leader that he's supposed to be in the closing moments. That's because of great defense by us, but also he wasn't assertive enough as a leader's supposed to be.''
Cuban took issue with that, questioning Wade's own leadership abilities.
"I guess you have earned the right to criticize Dirk with an obvious display of your own leadership skills," Cuban replied. "You are an amazing player Dwayne. I love watching you shoot free throws. What you know about Dirk's leadership skills is non-existent. You don't have a clue. Your ability to evaluate leadership skills ... well you obviously have an overinflated value of your own."
Mavericks coach Avery Johnson took a different tack, saying Nowitzki is in fact a leader and that he has a history of hitting clutch shots.
"It's a guy's opinion, man," Johnson said. "He's won. He's the champion. Everyone's trying to dethrone them. ... When you win, I guess you can say whatever you want to say."
Dwayne Wade a Leader ?
I hope Dwayne Wade was misquoted in an article today in the Miami Herald. I know the Herald has issues with accuracy and they are still probably looking for the boat I dont own in Miami, but according to the Herald, and i have a hard time thinking even the Herald could get this quote wrong, Wade said the following:
DIG AT DIRK
After the Heat practiced Thursday at Quicken Loans Arena, Wade was asked if he believes players are ultimately remembered for what they do at the end of games.
Wade, who usually is selective and subtle with his criticisms of opposing players, took the opportunity to take a jab at Dallas' Dirk Nowitzki, who has failed to give the Heat credit for beating the Mavericks in the Finals last season.
''At the end of the day,'' Wade said, ``you're remembered for what you did at the end. . . . I think that's the reason -- Dirk says they gave us the championship last year, but he's the reason they lost the championship, because he wasn't the leader that he's supposed to be in the closing moments. That's because of great defense by us, but also he wasn't assertive enough as a leader's supposed to be.''
Say what ? Is this the DWade of some of the lamest , boring commercials known to man ? Commercials that are singlehandedly responsible for selling more commercial skipping Tivos than anything else on TV ?
Dwayne I don't blame you for not looking at tapes of the finals. You obviously didn't. You would have seen your unbelievable skills and some other unbelievable elements that if I could discuss honestly here I would get fined for.
You are right, endings are remembered. And the ending of 3 of the games of the Finals will be remembered alongside Game 6 of the King vs Lakers Conf Finals a few years ago.
I guess you have earned the right to criticize Dirk with an obvious display of your own leadership skills.
I know Shaq appreciates your leadership as well. He called out your team a few weeks ago saying it was "embarassing'. Great leadership DWade. Your coach sat players for being fat. I guess you couldnt lead them away from the buffet.
You are an amazing player Dwayne. I love watching you shoot free throws. What you know about Dirk's leadership skills is non existent. You don't have a clue. Your ability to evaluate leadership skills....well you obviously have an overinflated value of your own. Did you take business classes at Marquette ?
Now we know why Charles won't put you in his 5.
And Im pissed for one more reason. Im going to have to miss our next game against the Heat on Feb 22. A previous engagement. I guess its just a missed opportunity to bring a local business class to the game and try to let them interview you about your leadership skills.
inmyplace13 said:Sour grapes from the Finals? You bet.
inmyplace13 said:
I know. I already admitted it.
phanan said:They were actually leading that game for a bit, too.
Bring on the west coast.
Headache in a Suitcase said:
it has nothing to do with my dislike for what the bulls are doing, but the three most important franchises to the all around ratings success of the NBA are the lakers, the celtics and the knicks. two out of three suck, and one is above average. the nba needs the celtics or knicks to be good, not neccesarily the best, just good, to really bring the east back in a ratings sense.
as far as simply talent wise, yes... chicago is right there, but the same arguments i always use with them still exist... they have zero offensive production from the post and they do not have a go to guy who can put the team on his back and carry them come playoff time. you need that guy. every good team has that guy. could gordon or deng develop into that guy? sure, i suppose they could. but it's getting to the point with them where development is out the window and it's time to simply produce.
pao would help them alot. it would actually make ben wallace much more effective if you could put a 20 point scorer in the post next to him (even though it's still an awful awful contract and a huge waste of money... tyson chandler's having a bigger season for less than half the price and 8 years younger).
the bulls have a lot of chips... now they need to start using them. the east sucks. trade for a legit #1 scorer now and they could very easily be in the Finals in may/june. now hell, the east is so bad it would certainly not shock me if the bulls got to the finals with the team as is... but they'd get blown out of the building once they got there. add that #1 guy and they might actually have a chance to win it.
Well stupid Paul Pierce has returned from his injury 25 games too early.Headache in a Suitcase said:
if they get past milwaukee i really think they'll get to 30 straight losses.
i'm pullin' for 'em
Eddy Curry can rest easy. Knicks coach Isiah Thomas' job appears safe for now.
According to a report in Monday's Newark Star-Ledger, owner James Dolan told the team in a closed-door meeting Friday that he was pleased with the job Thomas was doing as the Knicks' coach.
Dolan told the Knicks players that Thomas didn't have "anything to worry about right now," a person in the room told The Star-Ledger.
To emphasize his point, Dolan reportedly playfully tapped Curry on the shoulder after making the statement, drawing laughs from everybody in the room.
Last week, Curry said that if Thomas wasn't the coach of the Knicks, "I'd be trying to get out of here."
The Knicks are 22-29 in Thomas' first season as Knicks coach. They currently trail the Heat by three games for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Last season under Larry Brown, the Knicks finished 23-59.
Curry is enjoying his finest professional season under Thomas, averaging 19.8 points and 4.6 rebounds per game.
namkcuR said:And don't say 'well, if you hadn't given Big Ben that awful contract, you'd have enough cap space to absorb any big incoming contract'. We had that cap space for ONE offseason and we had to use it and Big Ben was the best option for it. Peja would have been a bad signing for us, Drew Gooden would've been meh, etc...you get the idea.
Yes, I'll agree to disagree on Gordon. Not Deng.Headache in a Suitcase said:
we'll agree to disagree on the other stuff... deng and gordon simply do not excite me when i think of guys who can carry a team to a championship, which is the only thing i care about as a fan... but you are dead wrong on this cap issue.
cap space does not go away if you do not use it. you do not have to use it. if there's no one you want to sign, don't sign anyone. period. if you feel you must sign someone, sign a short contract that is easily tradable and you can get rid of if you must.
Headache in a Suitcase said:
we'll agree to disagree on the other stuff... deng and gordon simply do not excite me when i think of guys who can carry a team to a championship, which is the only thing i care about as a fan... but you are dead wrong on this cap issue.
cap space does not go away if you do not use it. you do not have to use it. if there's no one you want to sign, don't sign anyone. period. if you feel you must sign someone, sign a short contract that is easily tradable and you can get rid of if you must.
Got Philk? said:It just puts a lot of emphasis on Tyrus Thomas to become that post scorer.
namkcuR said:
No, cap space doesn't go away, but our rookies aren't going to be on rookie contracts forever....Ben and Luol are up for extensions after this season and Nocioni's deal is up after this season too. Also, at the time of the Wallace signing, Hinrich hadn't been extended yet. We had/have a bunch of players who are going to be resigned, so yes, the cap space wouldn't have gone away, but it would have been used up completely by these resignings. We wouldn't have been able to sign an unrestricted FA for any signficant amount of money this offseason.
Headache in a Suitcase said:now of course they're trying to fix what they could have fixed via free agency with a little patience by trading for pao gasol, and that 10 million dollar chunk of change known as pj brown is going to be part of any deal.