Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Buhhh! Ed Rider...

It's already past 5 and I haven't even begun to put together any material for my previously promised afternoon post.

Oh well, I lied. It's certainly not the worst thing I've ever done. That honor would most likely be a two horse race between the time I peed on some girl in my sophomore year and then shamed her out of school by the semester break (it was a very small college) and the time some friends(I'm looking at you Greg) and I got one the retarded kids in school elected as the ninth grade class president. Come to think of it, I've definitely done alot worse than either of those in my time but since I'm not exaclty "built for prison" we're going to drop the subject.

The subject at hand for this evening's mini-update is none other than basketball. (cue Kurtis Blow's classic "Basketball"...We're playing basketball, we're playing...). Well you get the idea.

-The Magic finally pulled out a win at home last night over the Charlotte BETcats and Rookie of the Year Emeka Okafor. This game was of special interest for two reasons. First, the Bobcats are a team that the Magic could, and should, beat at home (even though Charlotte won 3 of 4 last year). Secondly, this was the season's first clash of last year's #1 and #2 picks. Dwight Howard was selected #1 by the Magic but he finished second to Okafor in the Rookie of the Year voting. Don't think that his teammates haven't been reminding Howard of that fact every chance they get either. Somehow I think that Dwight was the guy doing all the talking at this morning's shootaround. Dwight came in to the game with better stats than Okafor in every major statistical category, further serving notice that he was the right guy for the Magic at #1. His increased output is not only a sign of his continued improvement but also a by product of his increased role within the Magic's offense. Howard continued to build upon his already stellar season last night as he posted his fifth straight double-double, getting 21 points and 20 rebounds on Charlotte. Getting to watch this kid develop is almost worth the pain caused by the Magic's decade of ineptitude.

- I had no idea that Reggie Theus was the Head Coach of a Division I basketball team. Am I the only one who missed that blurb on ESPN? Evidently, he's the coach at New Mexico State...that's big step up from high school ball in Indiana. I only found this out because I turned on ESPN2 last night to catch a little of UCLA's game against NMSU. I tuned in to catch a little of UCLA point guard Jordan Farmar, who I think is the best young point in the country right now. He's extremely smooth, a more than capable scorer and he runs a team like few his age. He has a good shot at being a lottery pick in a year or two. As for NMSU, Reggie and the boys were having a tough go of it offensively against a pretty athletic Bruin team. Though I think you can attribute alot of NMSU's struggles to them being without their leading scorer, that cute blonde girl who plays shooting guard and dates the power forward. Her jumpshot just changes the way teams have to defend the Lobos.

- Finally, while we're here I thought I'd give you another drinking game to pass the time this evening. Tune in to the Lakers-Knicks game tonight. Everytime that the announcers bring up Larry Brown and/or Phil Jackson and their new jobs/challenges, go ahead and take yourself a big swig of firewater. You'll be hammered by halftime and Greg Anthony will actually make sense.

Godspeed.

10 comments:

Mark said...

Where was Ludacris doing this? i watched a good deal of the Lakers-Knicks game so I'm guessing that he did this during some performance on another network. Did he do this at the CMA Awards?

Mark said...

I wasn't sold on the Magic drafting May either but I certainly would've taken him over nobody. Other guys I'd love to have in Orlando right now: Danny Granger, Antoine Wright, Gerald Green.

I'll live without the likes of Rashad McCants, Joey Graham, and especially Yaroslav Korolev.

CFunk28 said...

New Mexico State Aggies you douche. You should really brush up on your Sun Belt Conference teams. The New Mexico Lobos are actually considered a credible program.

Mark said...

Calvin...I've missed you here. Welcome back, you douche. I had lunch with Trey, Roy, Bubbles, Tyler, & Tim at Beef's yesterday. Roy had some great stories about the goings on in Buckland.

By the way, you totally missed my references to "Fastbreak" the Saturday morning NBC show where Reggie Theus was the coach...you should be ashamed.

Mark said...

I was definitely guilty of thinking that Reece could/would be a decent guard in the League. He looked good at Luoisville, but it's become obvious now that he was aided by Pitino's system as well a constant green light to improvise and break out of the structured offense.

Probably the only thing that makes his selection sting less is the mediocrity of the guards selected in the 1st after him. Just look at the list: Troy Bell, Zoran Planinic, Leandro Barbosa.

Far different from the Jerryl Sasser pick when the Magic passed over Tony Parker and Jamaal Tinsley.

This draft should kill Celtics fans b/c they drafted Marcus Banks one spot ahead of ahead of Luke Ridnour. He's not great but he'd be a fantastic addition to that Boston team.

Mark said...

Vibe Awards, huh? Did you and Burr attend?

T.J. said...

Mark, Larry Brown does not hold Smush Parker in the same high regard as you do:

"...Apparently, Brown wasn't enthralled with Parker being a floor general (he was on the Pistons last year). During yesterday's shootaround, Brown told his players in huddle: "He's a turnover waiting to happen."

Mark said...

Larry and I haven't ever really seen eye to eye ever since he refused to give big minutes to my cousin Larry during his tenure in Philly.

CFunk28 said...

Speaking of your cousin, it was nice of him to finally start earning his money Tuesday night against the Wizards. I've got faith, he'll figure out his niche.

Mark said...

He's in a tough spot in Cleveland. He and LeBron are very similar in syle as well as comfort zones on the court. He's going to have to work to maintain spacing and chemistry on the court w/ LeBron as they are both slashers at heart.