The Drubbing

Yao serves up a pork fried facial

During the first round of the playoffs I felt that few outside of Houston believed that the Rockets could give Mamba all he wanted in the second round. I believed. I spoke to several people (including The Drubbing’s own Ryan), all of whom believed that Portland, not Houston, could beat L.A. in the second round. The argument continued “L.A. can’t win in Portland.” My response to these statements was that they were, unequivocally, nonsense.

Any team featuring Kobe Bryant has an abundance of toughness. Nobody who watched Team U.S.A. play Espana in Beijing can question the toughness Mamba. I believed that Kobe alone could handle Portland in a maximum of five games.
Continue reading “The NBA: Where Toughness Happens” →

Taking the fro-hawk to a whole new level

My colleague Nate and i were talking about the new look in the NBA, the ‘fro-hawk.  This year’s afro-mohawk look has taken over for last year’s fashionable sleeves look.  Hopefully Nate will dive into this with more detail in an article that has taken longer to go post than Chinese Democracy.  What i want to focus on, is Ron Artest.  We are so busy focusing on all the negative aspects of his brawling, rap career, and other incidents that we forget about his style.  Yes, his style.

Watching the Rockets lay the smack down on the LA Lakers last night, i was pleasantly surprised by Ron taking things to the next level.  Sure, he had the fro-hawk.  But he added his own little bit of style to it.  On one side is an intricate design, on the other the Rockets Team Logo.  Now that my friends, is mixing some team pride with the newest trend in the NBA.  I thought i was cool in 9th grade when my braces had rubber bands the same color as my school (OK maybe i was the only one who thought that), but Ron has found some artist to bring back a little retro late 80′s look mixed with today’s hot new style.

And for that, i am rooting on the Rockets.

We’ve all heard the saying, “no blood, no foul.” Well, it seems like that’s not always the case. In two Eastern Conference series, that have supplied all of the NBA’s 1^st round drama, there have been tons of physical play and questionable calls or no calls.
Continue reading “No Blood, No Foul” →

The final moments of game five of the Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls series has created quite a storm. And I understand why, but I don’t understand why. The play/call that’s been questioned the most is the foul by Rajon Rondo on Brad Miller, which wasn’t necessarily the most-questionable call of the game.

As we all now have seen, Miller ended up wide open in the middle of the court, drove to the hoop, got swatted in the face by Rajon Rondo as he went up and flipped a shot up at the rim that ended up not even being close. Miller subsequently stepped up to the line, after getting his oral bleeding under control, and missed the first (unintentionally) by a mile, and missed the second shot (intentionally) and didn’t even hit the rim. All while in some pain and discomfort, and doing a fantastic acting job to appear severely disabled by the blow to the head.
Continue reading “Rajon Rondo fouls Brad Miller, NBA officials make correct call, Chicago fans cry like they play for the Spurs” →

I never thought I’d see the day, but Charles Barkley has failed an eating contest. This one is right up there with the saltines challenge, and the Friendly’s Jim Dandy™ challenge. Allegedly only a special few have been able to down a piece of bread in 25 seconds. Chuck is not one of them.

On April 21^st the National Basketball Association named Dwight Howard the Defensive Player of the Year. First let me start off by saying CONGRATS DWIGHT HOWARD! That being said, Dwight Howard, you are NOT the Defensive Player of the Year in the National Basketball Association.

If you are so intent on choosing a Defensive Player of the Year from Florida, look no further than Dwyane Tyrone Wade, Jr. Everyone says that defense wins championships – well the Miami Heat are not going to win a championship but they did make the playoffs and that is an achievement for that franchise.
Continue reading “Dwight Howard is NOT my Defensive Player of the Year” →

29 points, 9 rebounds, 7 assists. 36 points, 11 assists, 12 for 12 from the stripe. 27 points, 7 assists, 10 for 17 from the field and 5 for 8 from behind the arc.

These aren’t the stat lines of Jason Terry, Tony Parker, Chauncey Billups and Jason Kidd. These are the stats of Rajon Rondo, Derrick Rose and Aaron Brooks. Two of which won their first game of their playoff series, the exception being Rondo.

There’s a new cast of point guards wreaking havoc throughout the NBA, many of them made it to the playoffs this year, and now they’re leaving their mark.

Speaking of leaving their mark, Dorris Burke continues to be a blemish on the NBA landscape with an abysmal performance during the Portland/Rockets game tonight. So I guess it’s more of a skid mark. The next time ESPN or ABC is thinking about having Dorris Burke do color commentating for a game, don’t. Please call me. I’ll fly myself to the game and I’ll do it for free. Even if I don’t say a thing the entire game, it won’t be quite as bad as having to listen to Doris. They learned their lesson quickly with Kara Lawson. She did one game before getting the ax.

Best line of the night

This has been a great day of basketball, as we break the seal of the NBA playoffs.
- Mike Terrico

Worst line of the night

Ron Artest goes into the stands [to save the ball]!
- Dave Pasch

I love this game.

Forget about 64, I want 16. You heard me 16. I want the NBA Playoffs.

Witness the best in the world as they go face to face. Watch Kobe v. Deron Williams, CP3 v. Yao, Brandon Roy v. Tim Duncan, Carmelo v. Dirk… all in the first round.

40 games in 40 nights. Where amazing happens. Without a doubt, the best show on TV from April through June.
Continue reading “The Tournament… and I’m not Talking about the NCAA” →

The Man, the Myth, the Legend, oh yeah there is a MJ statue infront of the United Center too.

Tuesday, March 17th, i decided would be a good day to visit the Mecca of NBA in the 1990′s, The United Center.  Also, my Boston Celtics were in town and it just so happened to be St. Patrick’s Day.  I really had no option but to go to the game.  The first thing you notice about the United Center is the amount of parking available, I’m not kidding.  If you drove, you had no issues finding a spot, unreal for a sporting event.  Inside, the arena was nice, a little old, but overall it was comfortable.  The food stands were plentiful, and while they lacked cotton candy, the rest of the event food was good.

I had club level seats behind one end of the basketball court, and sat in the first row, lucky for me right in front of Super Fan 23.  Sporting my green Paul Pierce jersey, i immediately got “boo’ed” as soon as i sat down, awesome.  Then, the killer.  A man who had to be about 6’2 300lbs sat right next to me.  Well, in reality he sat in his seat and half spilled into my seat, lovely.
Continue reading “The House that Jordan Built” →

Sitting on the bench in the NBA apparently has its perks for some.

In Marko Jaric’s 7 seasons of NBA basketball the 6’7 Serbian has been on 3 NBA teams, and has averaged 7 points, 4 assists, and 2 rebounds a game.  This season he is averaging a career low 10minutes a game for the lowly Memphis Grizzlies.  He gets to sit on the bench making $6.5M a year.  Not a bad gig at all.

Now ordinarily that would not be such a big deal, but in case you did not know, he is a very, very, very, very, luck guy.  Yes, that is the one and only Adriana Lima (and yes i could have added more “very” ‘s).  Basically, Marko lives the life we only dream of, except he has less talent than the person we envision in our dreams.  Marko has found the real life version of the Golden Ticket.  He is not a very good professional athlete, he is a millionaire and he is married to a Brazilian Victoria’s Secret Supermodel.

So how does Marko use his luck and fortune? By being involved in this.  Now this is only an investigation, and he could be cleared over a case of mistaken identity, a gold digger wanting to get paid, or maybe even a “cultural difference” (kind of like if i go to Japan expecting a “happy ending”).

If you think this article was half written just so I could post pictures of Adriana, then you would be correct.

I only hope the incident does not escalate and we find out he has started to pull something along these lines.  Because that would be a slap in the face of all of us out there living normal lives.