John Powers: January 2009 Archives

The Lakers/Spurs Game tonight was without a doubt one of the best regular season games I have seen in a long long time. Once again Kobe dominated the 4th quarter hitting a few clutch 3's including a fadeaway 3 from the corner to spark a Lakers rally. After being down 100-89 with about four minutes left, LA gained the lead 111-109 with 12 seconds remaining on another Bryant triple. But the Spurs would have the last laugh. Roger Mason Jr. drilled a crazy and-1 jumper with 10 seconds left to win the game for San Antonio. Where would the Spurs be without this guy? Unfortunately, the refs screwed up a traveling call on Trevor Ariza as time expired, putting a little damper on the game, but wow, what a performance by both teams throughout.

In other NBA news, The Dunk contest voting is over. I hope Rudy Fernandez wins.
The rookie Spaniard was one of 3 first years players eligible to be voted into the Slam Dunk contest at this year's All Star weekend along with Joe Alexander and Russell Westbrook.

Tell me that a guy that does this to Dwight Howard shouldn't be in the Dunk contest!

Not only does he have major hops, he is probably the funniest dude I have ever seen.

continued....

16-26. That is a pretty terrible record no matter what sport your playing. Can you guess who it belongs to? No. It's not the Bobcats or the Warriors. The Thunder you say? Not right either, but hey, it would be a damn big improvement for them. In actuality, 16 and 26 is the win-loss total of ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown when picking NFL playoff games. Yeah, these playoffs have been pretty nuts, but wow, 38%. If your job is to pick football games correctly, I expect a little bit better production than 38%. My grandma could pick that well out of sheer luck. Hell, even a blindfolded monkey could match that rate.

Of the five lead analysts on the show,(appearing each sunday morning at 11 am ET), three have records of 4-4, which is halfway decent. But Mike Ditka sits at 3-5, while ex wide-out Cris Carter has posted a lowly 1-7 mark. Are you joking? 1-7, Now that sounds like OKC Thunder to me. By the way, self-proclaimed Man of the People Bill Simmons went 0-4 during the divisional round with his picks.

But Wait, There's more. The NFL isn't the only sport being massacred by ESPN analysts and their lousy picks. Kirk Herbstreit went 19-15 predicting the college bowl season. Now that's not as bad as his co-workers from Sunday Countdown, but 56% isn't very impressive either.

This brings us to the moral of the story. If your a betting man, count on ignoring ESPN before the big game.

A few nights ago, I watched as Luke Harangody dropped 31 points on a helpless G-Town team considered one of the best in the nation. Along those same lines, Tyler Hansbrough of North Carolina has been ripping up the NCAA for the past three years, freaky celebration dances included. And while their production in college has been staggering, (and it really has been unbelievable), how much stock can you actually put in all the numbers and accolades?
Year after year, NBA general managers fall in love with fundamentally sound, un-athletic big men and shooters who are more often than not complete busts in the L. Most surprising, however, is the constant support these guys have despite playing straight-out awful basketball. Yet a struggling black player (a la Sean Williams) faces a career-jeopardizing demotion to the d-league after a promising rookie season. C'mon people, is Adam Morrison really a better NBA player than a young shot blocking athlete with tons of upside. I don't think so.

Free Examples Anyone?

- Minnesota gave away the rightful rookie of the year in OJ Mayo for a dominant college player in Kevin Love who couldn't even out jump Eddie Murphy..........wearing the nutty professor fat-suit. Seriously?
- After Drafting Mike Dunleavy Jr. 3rd overall in 2002, the Warriors stuck by him for five years while he single handedly polluted the entire bay area with his foul play. After finally dumping him off to Indy, Golden State shot right into the playoffs and a first round upset of number one seed Dallas.
- Is J.J. Reddick even in the league anymore?

Continued.....