StumpTownSports

Why was Charles Barkley dressed like Tony Soprano tonight? What was with the gold medalion and the open collar? Do they not have wardrobe people at TNT? And seriously, what happened to Magic? I've put on a few extra pounds as I've aged, but he's put on a few extra people. To think that he was once an elite athelete running a fast paced team is astonishing. That he is a spokesperson for 24 hour fitness is hilarious. I know it is looking like Dallas is going to beat Phoenix, but what happens if Phoenix plays Miami? Will Shaq score 60 points or not be allowed off the bench because his man will be open for 3 all night? That is the goofiest matchup I can imagine, and I'm not even sure I want to watch it play out. It's just wrong somehow. Dallas/Miami though would be epic. Man, I hope Miami beats Detroit. 715 was hit today. I honestly believe that all Bonds ever wanted out of baseball was to be considered in the conversation for who was the best ever. The guy who acts lik

SOME PLAYOFF OBSERVATIONS I just took a welcomed brake from preparing for trial to watch the Miami v. Detroit game 3. Obviously this was a huge game for Miami and the next one is just as big, but I’m not chiming in to break down the game, but rather to offer a few observations about both the series going on right now. 1. Why do Antoine Walker’s coaches allow him to shoot so many 3s? If I were coaching him, I would tell him that if he ever shot a 3 that wasn’t wide, wide open or if his 3 to drive ratio fell below 5-1, he would sit the bench. Walker is an incredibly talented player and when he attacks the rim both he and the Heat are a much, much, much better team. When you play defense like a matador, you better do more than just miss a bunch of 3s on the other end. He was great tonight just because he took the ball in. It’s not complicated, so why is it so inconsistent? 2. What happened to Gary Payton? He was one of my favorite players for years and years after leaving OSU and playing

The Blazers should have gotten the number one pick. They did their best to lose every single game down the stretch and had more ping-pong balls than anyone. Thankfully, they were robbed. Giving the number one pick to the Blazers would be like putting a super-juiced up driver in the hands of a bad golfer. A longer driver in the hands of a bad golfer just means he hits the shot even further out of bounds. The Blazers are so inept when it comes to the draft, giving them the first pick would just be setting them up for another catastrophic failure. Without question they would have taken Center Patrick O’Bryant from Bradley. O’Bryant is a completely unproven bigman with plenty of “upside.” You know, like Olowakandi was when the Clippers made him the number one pick a few years back. Speaking of the Clippers, are the Blazers the new Clippers? Now that the Clips have advanced in the playoffs and the Hawks’ questionable spending on Joe Johnson now looks like a good move, haven’t the Blazers of

The Draft The NBA Draft lottery is tomorrow and I have to say the whole thing has me down a bit. It reminds me how hopelessly bad the Blazers are and will be for a good while and it also reminds me that the Blazers could be in the same situation the Niners were in before last season. Obviously, not all number 1 overall picks are created equal. The year Lebron James or Tim Duncan or Reggie Bush or Mike Vick come out are a little bigger deal than the years of Alex Smith (not that I've given up on him already, but so far he's not lightening in a bottle) or Tyrus Thomas. As you can probably tell, I don't like this draft much. There are some nice players, but no franchise types. I see the best players down the line being Foye, Roy and Aldridge in that order, but only two of those guys work for Portland and both could end up being adequate backups. Not really a ton to get excited about here. Of course, that's assuming that the Blazers even get the first pick. If they do, my h

Everyone talks about how important defense is in the playoffs, but I don't think people really understand what they are talking about. I think people tend to think about whether certain players can guard other players. A little deeper look reveals that, especially with the new zones, "team defense" is actually more important than individual matchups. You really only get an isolated one on one matchup a few times a game, so examining whether Rasheed or Ben Wallace can guard Z misses the point that there will be double teams, and switches and guys coming off the bench and on top of all that, only a few plays called for Z in the course of the game. Even the concept of team defense though, needs to be examined a bit closer. I think you really need 4 things to play D the way you need to in the playoffs. Here they are in order of importance free of charge: 1. Motivation 2. Rebounding 3. The Flinch 4. The ability to create turnovers. Now, here's what I mean in reverse order:

Who's down with CP3? Yeah, you know me. I love Chris Paul. He is the most exciting player not named James or Wade to come along in years. He is Jason Kidd with a jump shot. Barring injury he will go down as no worse than a top 10 point guard of all time. You can make an argument (and someone did on ESPN.com) that he had the greatest rookie regular season by a PG of all time. Even better than Magic. He is quick, fast, unselfish, smart and plays with heart. He can hit from medium range, 3-point range, or take the ball to the basket and he makes his free-throws. I could go on and on and may devote many posts to him in the future, but for now I just want to say that the guy who voted for Deron Williams for rookie of the year, leaving Paul one vote short of a unanimous pick, should not only have his voting privileges removed, he should be banned from ever discussing sports publicly again. While we're here, I should note that the Chuckster made the same argument about the guys who le

One of the things I like about sports is the way you can delude yourself into believing that somehow your life is connected to what is going on in a game. There's direct ways like fantasy sports and gambling and more subtle ways like refering to your team as "we", but there is also the glory of the sports opinion. Everyone has an opinion about sports and why not, it is just a bunch of games played by grown men. It's not life and death (unless you're talking about the crazy fans of World Cup soccer) and there are rarely important moral principles involved, so why not spout off about it.Even better, by making bold and brash predictions you can actually begin to believe the lie that the outcome of a game or success of a player is somehow connected to you. If you said this team will win and they do, you get to strut around as if their victory was somehow influenced by your prediction. And no matter how much you know deep down that this is all silliness, there's no