All-Star Blogging

It's All-Star weekend in the NBA so I wanted to throw out a lot of Basketball thoughts that have been on my mind.

First I just had to follow up on the Tim Hardaway comments about hating gay people. I'm glad that Tim was willing to speak his mind, because there were some people trying to pretend that the only reason that there haven't been openly gay players before was a personal choice not to announce it to the public. Well no, between Hardaway's comments and what Amaechi wrote in his book about Jerry Sloan I think we have a better understanding why no active players have come out. So as glad as I am that Hardaway spoke his mind, I'm even more glad that the NBA has fired his ass.

Another criticism I've heard a lot lately is that Amaechi's book is just a money grab, where John is cashing in on his homosexuality, and while I don;t know for sure that he isn;t just cashing in I would argue that there's at least a chance that some young gay athlete will be helped by reading his story. Sure he wants to get paid, just as much as anyone who's ever published a book before him, but I'd say that just about anyone thinks their story is worth telling. One of the more ironic things about this criticism is that two of the people I've seen criticize him are always busy trying to sell their own books. (Unfortunately neither Bill nor Michael read my blog, but if you see them you could call them out on this.)

Ok, I've said my piece on that, onto other happier news. Scottie Pippen wants to make a comeback, and while I think this is an awful idea, it does give me an excuse to make my argument about Pip becoming the most underrated player of all-time. The main reasons to me are simple, a lot of people enjoy the revisionist idea that Jordan was a one man team, forgetting that at times Pippen may have been the second best player in the league, not just the second best player on the Bulls. Second was that Pippen's weakest point was scoring, which is the most basic thing for fans to identify. Pippen was the real point guard on those Bulls teams, not BJ Armstrong or John Paxson and definitely not MJ. Also Pip was one of the best defensive players to ever play the game. He was the perfect complement for Jordan and I think the fact that they fit together so seemlesslyl is one reason why people don;t appreciate what he brought to the last great dynasty in pro sports. In summation, don't come back Scottie, it will just make more people forget how great you really were. He looked to be in good shape, but he's a lot skinnier than he ever was, he may have lost 20 pounds of muscle since his last season.

I've already heard a bunch of people criticizing this year's slam dunk contest, and I do agree that it's not what it used to be. That being said some of the criticisms have been way off base. Some complain about the fact that Kobe, Lebron and VC weren;t participating. Belive me, this is not the issue, there's a simple reason they didn't compete, mainly, they wouldn;t win. They should open up the competition more, and have more penalties for guys missing their dunks, (for the second year in a row Nate Robinson made a mockery of the rules.) All that being said, Gerald Green is the best dunker in the league right now, and his dunks were nice in this year's competition. Dunkers reach their peak right around 20 years old, and Gerald probably could've done more with a couple more attempts.

I didn't really pay too close attention to the dunk contest because I was watching BC vs. UNC over on ESPN. A crushing loss for the Eagles, who are doing their best despite the loss of the best defensive player in all of college basketball. I've really enjoyed the Jared Dudley era at Boston College. He was a last minute addition to the team his freshman year after big recruit Dan Coleman decided to go to Minnesota at the last minute. I guess sometimes it's better to be lucky than good if you're a college basketball coach. During last night's game Dudley made one of the greatest steals I've ever seen, it was right out of the Larry Bird playbook, he faked as if he was going back on D, then quickly jumped back and stole the ball, if Tyrese Rice had done a better Dennis Johnson imitation it may have been the sportscenter play of the day. Dudley missed some key shots down the stretch but that doesn;t happen very often, I don;t know if dudley will be drafted this June, but I'm sure that he'll be a role player in the NBA and have a long career because he does all the little things, and while stiffs like Roy Hibbert and Aaron Gray get a lot of ink about their pro potential, Dudley will be a better pro than either of them.

Speaking of Roy Hibbert, I watched G-town play Villanova, and it was a perfect reflection of the type of basketball that ruined the Big East back in the early 90s. As Jim Carrey might've said "I guess they were playing prison rules." When they get bounced in the first weekend of the tournament and whine about how the officials called them too tight on some nickel-dime fouls, remember that they should know better by now. The only Big East team who looks like they'll do well come March are the Louisville Cardinals, just when I was ready to write off little Ricky he goes and pulls something like this, and completely redeems himself. I'll never be a Pitino fan, he's as much a reason as anyone that the Celtics are still so awful, but he's a good college coach, hard to dispute that.

That's about all I have for today, exceopt maybe a parting shot at Tyler Hansborough, some people say he's hard-nosed and blue collar, but I think he's a cheap shot artist who plays dirty. I hope he enjoys his career at UNC because I don;t envision nearly as much success in the NBA as has been predicted.

And now, that's all I've got for now. I'll be back soon, maybe to discuss my final verdict on Danny Ainge and call for his firing before he blows a big opportunity for the C's this summer.

-Bender out.