An NBA Christmas

One of my favorite parts of Christmas day is the large amount of NBA games on during the day. This year there are 5 games, and some of them should be quite good. Bulls @ Knicks, noon ET, espn. Celtics @ Magic, 230 pm, abc. Heat @ Lakers, 5pm, abc. Nuggets @ Thunder, 8pm, espn. And finally Blazers @ Warriors, 1030 pm, espn.

With all of these games, a few people, like Phil Jackson and LeBron James, have talked about how they wish there weren't games on Christmas so they could be with their families. But they get paid a lot of money to entertain the people who are off work today. And they get paid a lot more than me, and yet I'm writing this post while I'm at work right now.

With all that being said, I came across some interesting Christmas day info from espn. Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal will each play in their 13th Christmas day game today. This will tie them with Dolph Schayes and Earl "The Pearl" Monroe for the league record. Phil Jackson will coach his record 18th Christmas day game today, but he also played in 10 games on Christmas in an 11 year spam from 1967 to 1977. The record for most points scored on Christmas day is 60 by Bernard King of the Knicks in 1984.

So enjoy your Christmas, an if you get a chance to watch some basketball for me, do it.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14

NBA vs. NCAA pt. 2

Part 2 of why the NBA is better than college basketball is short and simple, which is to say it’s longer. Don’t follow? What I mean is it is a short answer: the season is longer.

In the regular season, each NBA team has 82 games and each NCAA team has about 30. Some may argue that this makes NCAA better because each game counts more, and I can understand where that argument comes from. However, I think this makes the NBA better because you have more chances to watch. We all have busy lives and can’t watch every game of our favorite teams, no matter the sport. With the NBA having more, if you miss a few games it’s no big deal.

And with more games, you also have a chance of seeing something awesome happen. Each of the 30 teams has quality players. Even the lowly Clippers, who are terrible year after year, have reason to watch. Blake Griffin, the former Oklahoma Sooner, is one of the most fun players in the game to watch.

If you want to counter my argument by saying, “yeah, but the NCAA has way more games overall than the NBA,” I will respond, “7,650 more games per year are too many to keep track of. If something cool happens in a game between Murray State and Eastern Kentucky, then you can watch it on SportsCenter. There are so many awesome things that happen in an NBA game that you can’t see in a college game that ESPN doesn’t have time to show them all.” Then you will most likely respond with something along the lines of, “Wow, you are correct, just like you always are. I’m sorry for ever questioning you.”

More games = More awesomeness.

Pacers vs. Hornets 12/21

I have been to many Pacers games in my time. Last night's game was one of the best I have ever been to though. It started off normally enough. Pay $20, get a ticket and all-you-can-eat concessions. Went with four other people. We noticed there appeared to be more than the normal amount of fans at the game. The Pacers got off to a pretty good start and led most of the way, but in the 2nd half the Hornets seemed to be playing better and the two teams began trading leads back and forth.

With the all-you-can-eat tickets, I was feeling very full and uncomfortable after all that food. So my brother, Adam, and I decided to walk around for a bit at the start of the 2nd half. We noticed it had been snowing quite a bit since we got to the game and the roads didn't look in good shape, so we talked about leaving early. We were both glad we didn't.

As the final few minutes of the game came upon us, we realized just how close a game it had become and we were glad for that. As usual, Adam and I always root for overtime, because we figure we paid for 4 quarters of basketball and anything past that is free basketball. Things were looking good for our overtime prospects as the Hornets had a 2 point lead with about 30 seconds left. However with about 16 seconds left, the Pacers' James Posey hit a 3 right in front of the Hornets' (his former team) bench. Pacers had the lead by 1. Now we had to stand up for the defense, even though we usually like to stay sitting. It was too good of a moment to stay sitting.

Hornets have the ball, and I asked Adam who he thought they would go to on offense. We decided it would either be David West or Emeka Okafor because they had been beating the Pacers up on the inside all night. At this point, the fans at Conseco Fieldhouse were as loud as I had heard them in a couple years. Hornets' point guard (and best player) Chris Paul drove, then kicked it out to West near the free throw line where he knocked down the jumper. Hornets lead by 1 with 3 seconds left. (side note: both Posey and West went to Xavior University. As we were leaving after the game we saw a guy with a Xavior hat on. Wonder which team he was rooting for in this?) Now the pressures on the Pacers.

I think at this point everybody in the building thought the Pacers would go to their main man, Danny Granger for the win. So the inbound pass from Mike Dunleavy came to Granger and he went up for the jumper. It bounced off the rim once and I thought it would fall in. It bounced off the rim a second time and I thought it still might go in (disclaimer: we were sitting in the top section, so I probably didn't have the best view at it). As it started to fall off the rim, and unblocked Dunleavy jumps up, tips the ball back towards the rim. It bounced once, then sat on the rim for what felt like a long time. As the ball was sitting on the rim, the clock expired. Then, finally, the ball fell in. PACERS WIN!! Everybody in the Fieldhouse jumped and yelled and knew that we had all just watched a great finish. Watch the last play here.

I go to several games, and often they are blowouts, or just not that exciting. But this game proved once again that the NBA's slogan holds true: The NBA, Where Amazing Happens.

Best Value Teams pt. 6

The Magic made major trades this past weekend with the Suns and the Wizards that will affect each team's salary, but I did not have the updated salary information yet when I did this week's installment of best value teams. So look for them to be updated next week to see how it changed each team's rankings.

Also, several teams have gone on large winning streaks this season (at least 8 games in a row) which moves them up the rankings significantly. The Spurs, Mavericks, Heat, Celtics have each had long winning streaks recently.

Biggest improvements in the rankings: Bucks (+5), Rockets (+5), and 76ers (+7).
Biggest drops in the rankings: Bobcats (-4), Kings (-6), and Cavs (-7).

Ranking - Team - Projected wins - Cost per win - (previous ranking)
1. Spurs - 72 - $951,157.10 (1)
2. Thunder - 58 - $999,217.00 (2)
3. Bulls - 55 - $1,019,168.40 (3)
4. Heat - 59 - $1,127,092.64 (6)
5. Knicks - 49 - $1,185,764.04 (4)
6. Celtics - 69 - $1,214,358.83 (7)
7. Hornets - 50 - $1,333,494.46 (5)
8. Mavs - 66 - $1,349,906.50 (10)
9. Jazz - 55 - $1,377,915.55 (9)
10. Hawks - 50 - $1,382,919.70 (8)
11. Lakers - 61 - $1,568,731.00 (13)
12. Suns - 39 - $1,612,548.15 (11)
13. Pacers - 39 - $1,650,472.3 (12)
14. Nuggets - 49 - $1,711,478.37 (15)
15. Blazers - 39 - $1,754,336.21 (16)
16. Magic - 53 - $1,786,830.53 (14)
17. Grizzlies - 38 - $1,865,620.50 (18)
18. Bucks - 34 - $2,033,180.68 (23)
19. Rockets - 35 - $2,089,946.00 (24)
20. 76ers - 32 - $2,167,507.69 (27)
21. Raptors - 30 - $2,217,115.80 (22)
22. Warriors - 22 - $2,293,060.55 (21)
23. Bobcats - 28 - $2,352,88.71 (19)
24. Cavs - 22 - $2,375,412.14 (17)
25. T-Wolves - 18 - $2,526,875.33 (25)
26. Kings - 17 - $2,530,442.94 (20)
27. Nets - 21 - $2,735,586.05 (28)
28. Pistons - 24 - $2,746,575.88 (29)
29. Wizards - 20 - $2,887,888.05 (26)
30. Clippers - 18 - $2,964,963.50 (30)

Best Value Teams pt. 5

In this installment of the best value teams in the NBA, we have gotten to a point where the worst teams (yes, the Clippers are still the worst) have a cost per win of under $3 million. This must mean that as the season goes a long, none of the teams are separated by as much as it might seem.

The best improvement in their rankings this week were the Bucks and Rockets (both +4).
The biggest drop in rankings were the Pistons (-6), the Wizards (-5), and Lakers (-5).

Rank - Team - Projected Wins - Cost per win - (last weeks ranking)
1. Spurs - 70 - $978,333.01 (1)
2. Thunder - 53 - $1,093,482.75 (3)
3. Bulls - 49 - $1,143,964.53 (4)
4. Knicks - 50 - $1,162,048.76 (7)
5. Hornets - 55 - $1,212,267.69 (2)
6. Heat - 53 - $1,254,688.04 (9)
7. Celtics - 66 - $1,269,556.95 (6)
8. Hawks - 53 - $1,304,641.23 (11)
9. Jazz - 57 - $1,329,567.63 (5)
10. Mavs - 66 - $1,349,906.50 (10)
11. Suns - 41 - $1,533,887.27 (12)
12. Pacers - 41 - $1,569,961.49 (14)
13. Lakers - 60 - $1,594,876.52 (8)
14. Magic - 59 - $1,605,118.95 (15)
15. Nuggets - 51 - $1,644,361.57 (17)
16. Blazers - 39 - $1,754,336.21 (13)
17. Cavs - 26 - $2,009,964.12 (16)
18. Grizzlies - 32 - $2,098,823.06 (20)
19. Bobcats - 31 - $2,125,189.81 (22)
20. Kings - 20 - $2,150,876.50 (19)
21. Warriors - 30 - $2,216,625.20 (18)
22. Raptors - 30 - $2,217,115.80 (25)
23. Bucks - 31 - $2,229,940.10 (27)
24. Rockets - 31 - $2,359,616.45 (28)
25. T-Wolves - 19 - $2,393,881.89 (26)
26. Wizards - 23 - $2,511,207.00 (21)
27. 76ers - 27 - $2,568,898.00 (30)
28. Nets - 22 - $2,611,241.23 (24)
29. Pistons - 25 - $2,636,712.84 (23)
30. Clippers - 18 - $2,964,963.50 (30)

NBA vs. NCAA pt. 1

All previous posts on this blog have been strictly factual, with little opinion expressed, but this is different. I am starting a new mini-series type of post detailing why I believe the NBA is better than college basketball. I’m not saying NCAA basketball is bad, in fact I enjoy it very much, but I am drawn to the professional level for several reasons that I want to share with you so everybody can understand. There certainly are some things that NCAA basketball does better than the NBA, but I will address those things in a later post. This is why NBA>NCAA.

The first and foremost reason why I believe the NBA is better than college basketball is that the best of the best play in the NBA. I believe basketball as a whole is a better collection of pure athletes than any other sport on earth. And the best of these pure athletes make it to the NBA. Yes, there are some great athletes in other sports, but the combination of size, power, speed, agility, and leaping ability required to play basketball at a high level is unparalleled. With that being said, there are 347 Division 1 teams and roughly 3800 players in NCAA Men’s Basketball. The NBA only has 30 teams with about 400 players. So, obviously, only the best college players can make it to the pros. You can see some great college players, but they are so spread out between all of the different teams that it is hard to watch all of them. With only 30 teams in the league, each team has several players who were college stars and you can watch many more of the players you liked in college. Take the Indiana Pacers for example, a team full of college stars: Darren Collison (UCLA), Brandon Rush (Kansas), Danny Granger (New Mexico), Josh McRoberts (Duke), Roy Hibbert (Georgetown), TJ Ford (Texas), Mike Dunleavy (Duke), Paul George (Fresno St.), Tyler Hansbrough (North Carolina), AJ Price (UConn). All of these guys were stars in college, now they are all on one team. So if you liked watching them in college, you should love the Pacers.


The NBA also has the best players from around the world, not just America. It’s rare for foreign-born players to play in the NCAA. Yes, you occasionally get your Andrew Bogut’s and Greivis Vasquez’s who come to America and star in college ball before heading to the NBA, but in more cases than not you get foreign college players like Purdue’s Sandi Marcius. He is a decent role player, but will never make it to the NBA. In fact, a lot of potential foreign-born college stars can’t even suit up for their team. Case-in-point: Kentucky recruited Turkish-born Enes Kanter to play for them this year, but the NCAA has ruled him ineligible because he got paid to play basketball in Europe, making him no longer an amateur. Europe’s basketball stars usually start playing professionally as teenagers, making them ineligible to play for American colleges.

Most of the successful foreign-born NBA players in today’s game did not go to college. Examples being Dallas forward Dirk Nowiztki from Germany won the 2007 MVP award. San Antonio guard Tony Parker from France won the 2007 Finals MVP award. Other current, notable, foreign-born players who did not go to an American college include: Spurs guard Manu Ginobili from Argentina, Cavs forward Anderson Varejao from Brazil, Rockets center Yao Ming from China, Magic guard Mickael Pietrus from France, Kings forward Omri Casspi from Israel, Raptors forward Andrea Bargnani from Italy, Heat center Zydrunas Ilgauskas from Lithuania, Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko from Russia, and Lakers forward Pau Gasol from Spain,.

In most things in life, you want the best you can get: the best education, the best job, the best spouse, the best house; so why wouldn’t you want to watch the best players? If you only watch college basketball, you will see a lot of good, maybe even great, players. But you will miss out on a lot of good foreign players and you won’t see the concentration of talent available in the NBA.