Lesley, Part Time ESPN.com author

My sister, who many of you may know beat me in everything growing up, just published a great NBA post on her blog. Check it out.

http://lesleyandtrevor.blogspot.com/


She is the one in the middle with that sweet "Justice" shirt on.

NBA Play-offs 2008

As I sat on the couch watching the Mavs host the Hornets I thought to myself, where have all the good times gone. The NBA is not what it used to be 10-20 years ago. I don't really want to go off on that because we here about that all the time Collin Cowherd. But to prove my point let us test your NBA knowledge 2008.


1. Name the last four teams in the play-offs this year in the eastern conference?


2. Name four players on the Hornets (Team slogan- Passion, Purpose, & Pride). They could be the #1 seed in the west depending on what happens the next couple of days. And tell me, do you know four players on there team?


3. Can you name anyone who plays for the Orlando Magic other than Dwight Howard the man child?


4. How many teams has Rick Adelman coached? (Not including Chemeketa Community College in Salem Oregon)

5. How many coaches can you name out of the 16 who made the play-offs. Probably your team, LA, Boston, and maybe a couple others. Try the eastern conference, and especially younger coaches. Good luck.


6. In the NBA how many seconds do you have to make it across half court?

7. How long is the NBA basketball court? How wide is the key?


8. In the first round of the play-offs is it a best of 5 series or best of 7 series?


9. Who will win the 4/5 match up in the east? Cavs or Wiz?

10. Will you go to a play-off game?

Blazers headed back to the Top

Ryan if I would have known all you do is hate I would have given my co-author position to someone like Jim Rome the hater himself. Why don’t you do a post on someone you support, then I will go and hate on that. To me its insecurity, haters in most cases are insecure bandwagoners (Lakers, Yankees/Red Sox, UNC, Patriots, now Celtics, etc). Although if you want to keep hating that is okay too I guess, I will just have to keep doing these “reply” posts instead ones on my own. If you need some more creative ideas click here.

Now that I am back in Portland, the Rose City, I can do your Blazer hater post justice. Let me break it down for you, "Mr. I am in love, so I can't think about sports clearly...."

1. How can you be anti-Blazer now? I understand in the past they had trouble with the law, but now they are as clean as a whistle and are 40-40, how can you hate a team that doesn’t even make the playoffs? (Too bad they are not in the east they would practically have home court advantage with that record).

2. Bill Walton, yes weird and now has a man crush on Kobe Bryant (not Kobe Karl) and the Lakers (thanks Luke) he did set records in Portland and won a championship.

3. Charles Barkley, who doesn’t love to listen to Sir Charles, that my friend is true entertainment.

4. Sam Bowie/MJ, there is no way MJ would have beat Portland without that supporting cast which is always overlooked. Scottie Pippen, John Paxon, Horace Grant, B.J. Armstrong, not too mention one of the greatest coaches of all time.

5. Kevin Duckworth, just because he preferred to lay the ball in, not dunk it is no reason for hating. Here is where I would rip on your “team or guy” but you don’t have one. Did I mention he was an all star, the same year Kersey, Clyde, and Coach Rick were also all-stars?

6. Here is where you really blew it brother, Sabas, (Arvydas Sabonis) Arguablly one of the best players ever. You know you were ripping on him and his time in Portland, but not only did he rip it up then, but then was well after his prime. It was politics that kept him out of the states, no other reason. In 1996 he finished second in voting for 6th man and rookie of the year. He took the Blazers to the playoffs every year he was in Portland (1995-2001). He and Rasheed were the first two big man to really introduce the outside shot (3 pointer) from the big man. Previous to them it was unheard of, now you see it all the time (Dirk, Sheed, Jamison). He could pass better than Magic, he had a sweet baby hook that was money, he could actually hit free throws (unlike Shaq) and this was all in an athletic era, and still no one could stop him.

7. Greg Oden, originally I agreed on Durant but not after I thought about it. Oden was by far the right decision. We already have an all star forward in Brandon Roy who was the rookie of the year last year. We don’t need Durant, for one he ways less than I do, and secondly he won 19 games this year. I agree Oden does look like he is 50 in the face he will change our club. Today to win, you need a big man, though this was different in the 90’s look around today. Lakers-Gasol and Bynum, Suns-Shaq, Celtics-Garnett, Pistons-Sheed, Jazz-Boozer.

In conclusion you said it yourself NBA teams need a big man to be successful, that’s exactly why we got Greg Oden who has put on 40+ pounds of raw muscle this year while he has been out. The Blazers had a great season considering they were the youngest team in the NBA and would have made the play-offs if the west hadn’t been the toughest it has ever been this year. With Nate McMillian at the helm I am confident you will see Portland in the playoffs next year, and in the finals shortly after that.

Go Blazers, Rip City for life, and boooo haters and Lakers! By the way, how can you not love the only black man in NBA history to go bald and not shave his head upon doing so (thank you Clyde the Glyde)

March Madness Wrap Up

ESPN has put together a great little slide show on the madness if you want to look at it.

I feel like I could talk about each and every one of the 65 games but I want to keep this short. Plus I still need to reply to that RIDICULOUS previous post about Portland big men.

So I just want to list key events from the tourney this year:

Early on:
- How could you not love Curry and Davidson?
- W. Kentucky/Drake game was awesome. I watched it on campus on the big screen in the midst of about a 100 guys cheering for their brackets. What a finish. Best early game.
- Disappointed Trevor thinks the family pool is where you can throw a junk team like BYU to win it all, when they haven't gotten out the 1st round in years.
- Dissappointments for me: USC, Vandy, Clemson, BYU and UConn

Mid-Tourney (from 32 down to 4):
- UNC had a cake walk to the final four
- I now dislike Duke & NC even more than a month ago, media give it a rest
- Again Davidson, upset G-town who I feel was one of the best teams in the dance
- Pitt huge disappointment
- Xavier and Texas A&M were great, both should have beaten the Bruins
- Louisville impressed me against Tenn, but not against UNC

Final Four:
- All one seeds, wow, but semi-predictable
- UNC easiest trip to San Antonio
- Kansas battle against a very hot Davidson team, not just Curry either
- UCLA, I don't know if I will ever be able to watch another UCLA game again. SO boring. Collison is bad, Westbrook can't dribble, and Shipp can't shoot.
- Memphis, wow they looked good coming in
- When KU went up 28 in the 1st half against UNC, I was so happy, but at the same time I knew it wasn't over. Great win for the KU program, sorry Tyler and Roy, maybe next year.
- Memphis/UCLA felt like a blow out, even though it was fairly close.
Memphis is so athletic.

Finals:
- I felt pretty good about our chances, and we had a small lead basically for the first 35 minutes of the game.
- Still confident with 2:32 to go and Whit said, "Ev...you still think Kansas will win?" I responded quickly and boldly, "Yes!"
- Sure enough the free throws came back to haunt Memphis, Chalmers hit the big three to send it to OT, and everyone knew then Kansas would win the OT period.

Overall:
Sure is nice to see your team win it all. Especially when you have bandwagon friends and family picking UNC, UCLA, and the Duke's of the country in the finals. The happiest third place I have ever won. (Refering to the family pool). I must also congratulate my wife, she picked better than anyone this year, I just made the champion point value so high it was too much for her to overcome (she picked Memphis).

Off the Trail- History of Blazer Big Men

On a weekly basis I would like to discuss the history of the Portland Trail Blazers from an outsiders perspective. I am what some might call the Anti-Blazer. Ev...sorry to do this to ya bro!
As I was pondering in the shower this morning on the way to go about this, my first instinct is to write about the history of the Blazer big men. WHAT A HISTORY IT IS. How embarrassing it is too...
Bill Walton- He defined basketball and hippyism at the same time. He was only great two seasons, and then didn't even start for Boston. He averaged on 52 games a season through his career...OUCH! I hate his guts today and every time I hear his voice announcing games, I'd rather turn the channel. I'd rather hear Charles Barkley announce games!
Sam Bowie- All I'll do is laugh and everyone knows what I am talking about....
Kevin Duckworth- This guy was the Blazer big man of my youth while I lived in Oregon. He might of almost averaged a double double thru his years in P-twon but basically any big man does that today. Here's something I found on the internet...haha...Why you probably forgot him: Once again, and we’ve seen this happen dozens of times to some brilliant players, the weight issue got to him. Right after being traded to the Bullets for (their leading scorer) Harvey Grant, I remember him showing up for Bullets’ training camp weighing in at around 375…BY HIMSELF. There were stories published in the Washington Post of people shaking their heads in disgust at him as he loaded box after box of chocolate chip cookies into his basket. He was the anti-Shaq, a mountain of a man who was probably 3% muscle and 97% Oreos, and after frustrating Bullets’ management, he went on to take up space for Milwaukee (the green alternate jersey edition) and the Clippers before sitting down at the buffet for good in 1997.
Arvydas Sabonis- This guy was on that team from the USSR that won the gold in 1988. He couldn't play for the Blazers in the 80's because hes from freakin' LITHUANIA! Was he worth the 9 year wait to finally play in 95?...NO. I hated the wristbands when he played in the 90's. He was slow, and always hurt it seemed, and never really had an impact in the NBA, just another guy to take up space.
Finally Greg Oden- "With the number one pick in the draft, the Portland Trail Blazers select- Gred Oden, Ohio State University." When I heard that, I knew the Blazers did it again. They passed up on yet another superstar...Kevin Durrant. Homeboy looks like hes 50 years old and then he bangs up his knee and doesn't play his first season. Some think he's going to be so great, I see him as no more than a Yao Ming, someone who you know who he is, but you wonder what significants he has...NONE. Oden won't bring a championship to Portland EVER!
To conclude, I see NBA teams being successful without a superstar seven footer (Hornets, Mavs, Boston, Phoenix-before Shaq). Will the Blazers ever see that? Obviously not. Let Oden reign in the C spot while the Blazers will always be a mid Western Conference team. Find more guys like Brandon Roy...and not Sebastian Telfair also.

Reply Post to Love/Hansbrough

Let me play devil’s advocate here Mr. Chapman. Though I thoroughly enjoyed your article, I do have some disagreements. I know you are picking UCLA/UNC final, and I am picking Kansas/Memphis final. Which is another argument, but let us focus on Love and Hansbrough.


Reasons why you cannot hate Kevin Love:
• He is from Lake Oswego, one of my dream cities to live in
• He and his family got DEATH threats when they went and played at the Pit in Eugene
• He is 6’10” and looks nothing like a baller, but yet
• He is an All American and one of the top 5 players in the country


Reasons why you can hate Tyler Hansbrough:
• His victory dance after they beat V-Tech
• His eyes
• His Dad
• He scored 21 points against BYU
• He walks like your Dad
• He gets pedicures

Collison is overrated with his ugly shot, and fouls out all the time anyway, so he isn’t even around to dish to Love in crunch time. If anyone has a huge help at point guard it is Hansbrough, he has Lawson, in my opinion the fastest and best point guard in the country.

UCLA has won 14 games in a row, including winners of the PAC-10 conference tourney, which this year was a far better conference than the ACC. When UNC could not even beat Duke (who is horrible, has no big man to guard TH, and the game was at home AND Duke should have lost to Belmont).

Now to break down Tyler vs Kevin. Tyler is like that kid everyone had on their high school team (Adam Wink), who hustles his rear off, but really doesn’t have much talent. Kevin is like that kid who shows up to intramural games in a polo shirt who looks big, and looks like he has no skill than comes out and lights you up from inside and outside for 40 points (Trevor Winn). Overall you have to give the advantage to Love, because he can shoot from deep and Hansbrough cannot. Hansbrough will pull a JJ Reddick in the NBA, and Love will be a young Arvydas Sabonis.

In conclusion I hope we see neither one again after Saturday, so we can have a Memphis/Kansas final. I strongly dislike UCLA, but strongly dislike UNC more.

The Influence of Sports in America

Traveling is my thing. I've done a lot of it in the last month. From New York to Missouri, from Idaho to D.C. I've seen something this last month with my own eyes and that is, AMERICANS LOVE SPORTS!


As I rocked my St. Louis Cardinal hat on a road trip through the dusty roads of Kansas, a gentleman and I at a gas station at 3 am in the morning discussed the way the Cardinals would replace Jim Edmonds. While in Idaho I discussed a topic I love dearly on the UNC Tar Heels while bowling with people I just had met and the Carliles. In Washington D.C.'s ESPN Zone I see 50 million televisions on and people glued to the NCAA tournament. In New York I saw the Orange of Syracuse on just about every corner or bumper sticker. Even President Bush is caught in the craze by throwing out the first pitch at the new Washington Nationals stadium. Sports are everything!



So in this time in America where just about every person has a bracket filled out, where the hicks church service is the weekly NASCAR race (not a sport) and where Buffalo Wild Wings is filled with sports fans tuned into the game, I ponder now on the influence of sports in America. Sports have become an obsession. Maybe that's why Evan and I have this blog...we are obsessed also. Do work!