With just a little over a week remaining in the NBA season, let's get a jump on who should win the individual awards. The envelope please...

MVP: KOBE BRYANT, LAKERS. During the MJ era, voters kept finding excuses not to give the MVP to Michael Jordan.  Now, it's Kobe's turn to get the Jordan rule..."you're too good so let's give someone else the award" treatment. I thought Kobe should have won MVP two years ago when he averaged 35 points a game and had the defining moment of the season when he torched Toronto for 81 points. It was only the second highest scoring game in NBA history. But the scribes thought the Lakers' record was too weak to validate Bryant as a most valuable player. So, they gave the Maurice Podoloff trophy to Dirk Nowitzki last year and Steve Nash...TWICE! Ten, fifteen or 20 years from now, we're all going to look back and scratch our heads and try to explain to our grandkids how in the world Nowitzki and Nash win MVP when Kobe was clearly the dominant player of that era.

Continue reading "AND THE NBA INDIVIDUAL AWARDS GO TO: BRYANT, HORFORD, GINOBILI AND RIVERS"

Dust off those old VHS tapes and grab that Michael Jackson Thriller leather jacket off the coat room because the '80s are making a comeback.All signs have been pointing to the '80s flashback for a while. We just haven't fully realized it. Case in point: Bret Michaels and his bandana is relevant again thanks to VH1's Rock of Love and Kylie Minogue's name is back on the billboard charts.And now the NBA is joining in on the '80s theme.My gut feeling says that the Lakers and Celtics are destined to play in the NBA Finals. At least that's what David Stern is hoping and praying for.Two storied franchises.Two teams that have combined to win 30 NBA titles.Two teams that launched a popular slogan in the 1980's...NBA ACTION, IT'S FANTASTIC!The Celtics dominated the '60s.The Lakers got thei

Continue reading "LAKERS, CELTICS DESTINED TO MEET IN NBA FINALS"

Pluto Nash may not have been Eddie Murphy's best film but his performance in the 2002 comedy was a lot better than Steve Nash's work in the first round against the San Antonio Spurs.

Take away Game 1 and Nash was simply nonexistent during the whole series and looked anything but a two-time league MVP. The so-called "great" point guard was exposed and undressed by Tony Parker on defense and looked slow and ordinary against Bruce Bowen on offense. More alarming to the Suns is the way he progressively got worse as the series went along. He looked worn down!

Game 5 was the most telling story.

After the way Boris Diaw gave the Spurs fits in the Suns' runaway victory in Game 4, Mike D'Antoni decided to run the offense through Diaw in Game 5. And on defense, Diaw was assigned to Parker, his good friend and fellow Frenchy, for much of the game. It was bad enough that the Suns have to hide Nash on defense but it was clear the game plan for Game 5 was to go away from Nash on offense because he was fatigued. Wow! Find me a two-time league MVP that needed so much help in such a pivotal game.

Continue reading "STEVE NASH TURNS INTO PLUTO NASH"