Tag Archive: miami heat

Doug Collins, NBA Playoffs, and Iggy’s Comeback Season

April 17, 2013 Randy Neil

20130417-104206.jpgIt’s been a rough season Sixers fans, but I am thankful to report that with tonight’s game, the season will finally be over. The Sixers play the Pacers in Indiana, just after the recent announcement that Doug Collins will resign as head coach.

This was right after his recent announcement that he was not resigning as head coach. That came right after Sixers’ ownership released a statement backing Collins as the head coach of the future.

Real classy Philadelphia.There’s a lot of speculation that Collins will remain with the Sixers as a consultant (which is probably what he wanted all along), and that definitely takes away some of the trashiness of this debacle, but never the less, this was handled wrong. Like most things with this team.

It’s hard to say where the Sixers go from here. The free agent market looks pretty dismal aside from that All-Star center who will be anxiously shopping for a team next year. Let’s not get burned twice.

NBA Playoff predictions: Heat in 5 over the Denver Nuggets.

I also want to note that with all the fanfare and attention Iguodala is getting in Denver for his contributions to that team, his averages are down and his stat sheet is not any better than it was while in Philadelphia. In Denver, he’s credited as a major player for that team (maybe THE major player for that team) with almost identical or worse stats than in Philadelphia. Still, the media pegs him as a huge contributor and attributes him for the Nuggets playoff success.

You can definitely argue that in Philly, he was expected (and paid) to be a superstar, but money and fame aside, he was a big puzzle piece to a winning franchise and undeservedly carried a lot of the blame for the Sixers’ shortcomings. I think this post season will prove that.

I mean, in Denver, he is still the biggest star they have, the most well rounded player there, the only All Star starting for them, and he’s getting paid the exact same amount as he was in Philadelphia. Why is there no resentment in Denver fans?

Haha, even with my bold acclamation, I’ve changed my Finals prediction to Heat over the Spurs in 6.

Thank God I don’t get judged like Iguodala.

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The Thunder Are Built to Last

June 8, 2012 Adam Thomas

Built to last till time itself falls tumbling from the wall
Built to last till sunshine fails and darkness moves on all
Built to last while years roll past like cloudscapes in the sky
Show me something built to last or someone built to try—Grateful Dead

Bill Walton would be proud. Starting out an article using a Grateful Dead song to describe an NBA team. That song–I think–is about how nothing lasts forever, not even TIME (far out). My counter argument to the Grateful Dead would be to look at the Oklahoma City Thunder. They my friends, are built to last.

Their nucleus is young and locked up for a while, their bench is deep and their coach is great. This is their first trip to the finals. I doubt it will be their last. I fully expect them to handle the Celtics and the Heat easily. That is, of course unless…

2.) Lebron James has 4 games in a row like he had last night.  Good golly what a show.  Look, I hate Lebron James, you hate Lebron James. Everyone hates Lebron James. The dude is a douche. And how cringe worthy is it every time someone refers to him as a “BRAND.” Gah!  Shut up. Enough with the brands!  He is a human, a player. And he is phenomenal at what he does, when he chooses to do it.

Which is why he is easy to hate. He made it look so easy last night, and it makes you wonder ‘why can’t he do that every night?’ I dunno. I don’t even think Lebron knows. He is a man-child of the highest order. If he ever becomes “the man” like we saw last night on a full time basis, then watch out. Championships are in his future and haters like me will just have to give credit where credit is due. Or pretend like the NBA doesn’t exist.

3.) Speaking of the NBA…the Sixers are heading for a pretty interesting off-season.  And me and Randy could not disagree more about what they should do with Iguodala. My position is the same as it has been for the last 4 years. TRADE HIM. Yes he throws down thunderous dunks, but he also has bad knees, can’t score and never “takes a game over.” Evan Turner–even if this was a TERRIBLE thing to do at times–at least tried to put the team on his shoulders in the playoffs, and that’s what I like to see. I like my team leader to not be afraid to fail, Iggy is TERRIFIED of it. He always has been (not unlike a certain person mentioned above). To be fair, Iggy did have some big moments in these most recent playoffs, but it’s too little too late. I’m tired of the Sixers settling for mediocrity.

If they can move Iggy for a top ten pick, I do it in a heartbeat. Goodbye Iggy, Lou and Spencer.  Don’t let the door hit ya.

4.) Phillies. Bleh. Terrible. Time for a sad confession. I have not watched one game from start to finish ALL SEASON LONG. Isn’t that a sad statement to make? Yes. But it’s true. I don’t think I could name you the Phillies line-up. Call me a front runner if you want, but I think I’d be like this even if they were winning. I’d just be bragging more (isn’t that the definition of a ‘front runner?’) Baseball is just incredibly boring to me. It’s like hockey in that regard. Playoff baseball and hockey are awesome to watch. The regular season…not so much.

 

 

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McNabb Frolics in the Ocean

May 17, 2012 Adam Thomas

You know, it gets kind of hard to write these posts sometimes. There’s only so much to talk about on a weekly basis.  And I’m lazy.

But every once in awhile, a video comes along that changes EVERYTHING!  This week, that video came as I was listening to Dave Dameshek’s superb NFL.com podcast (for those of you who have never heard Dameshek, do yourself a favor and give him a listen. High comedy).

If you haven’t seen the video, just follow this link. (Again, too lazy to imbed but maybe Randy will after I post this).

The highlights of this video include: A.) Some guy running at McNabb with a freaking broom stick raised really high over his head as McNabb attempts to pass the ball.

B.) Fat Donovan McNabb standing in the ocean throwing a football to…well…who knows. Maybe a mermaid, maybe a dolphin, maybe to nobody at all.

I’m going to go ahead and say that this video of Fat McNabb frolicking in the waves will not get him signed by a team.

As Dameshek put it, “Donovan McNabb, now he’s out of a job. In fact, I saw him, now he’s trying to get back into the NFL by losing weight and doing a bunch of cockamamie drills, standing in the ocean like he’s Daniel-son being taught by Mr. Miyagi. Or a football version of that. STANDING IN THE OCEAN GETTING HIT BY WAVES? Donovan McNabb, ugh.”

2.) Randy, stop posting about teams the day that they play. You always jinx them. Stop it.

3.) Can you imagine how the obnoxious the Celtics must be in every other aspect of their lives? My goodness. Watching them is worse than the Heat. Every time Paul Pierce drives into the lane, he literally SCREAMS: “AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!” his whole way to the hoop. It draws a whistle every time. That’s not the act of an NBA superstar, that’s the act of a drunk hobo chasing down a shopping cart with a busted wheel full of aluminum cans.

4.) Somebody needs to tell “Coach Spo” and the Lakers coach Mike Brown that they have Lebron James and Kobe Bryant on their teams. With the Heat down 3, who did Spo draw up a play for? Not Wade. Not Lebron. But some scrub from Kansas! (Mario Chalmers).

But Brown topped him. Instead of having Kobe Bryant take the game winning shot, he drew up a play for….STEVE BLAKE! The poor man’s (or white trash version) of JJ Reddick.

5.) Good on ya Hector Luna! Man, what an exciting Phillies season, amiright? It’s been a rough start, but they’ve won 4 in a row (I think), and are only 1.5 games back of the wildcard. How is that possible?  HOW!

As Gandalf would say, “There was never much hope, only a fools hope. Now go make me some sammiches.”

6.) House Hunters was in Wilmington, Delaware last night!  Crazy!  It’s always fun seeing places that you know on TV. When they went to Costa Rica, my brain almost exploded when I saw the horse that tried to kill me.

On that note….until next time!

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Date with Ikea

February 3, 2012 Adam Thomas

1.) For the record, Blake Griffin’s “Dunk” over Kendrick Perkins was not technically a dunk.  Remember a few years back when Dwight Howard put on the Superman cape and jumped up and chucked the ball into the hoop during the dunk contest?  A lot of people cried “That’s not a dunk!” Well, that is exactly what Griffin did to Perkins.  He jumped really high, got fouled and chucked the ball into the hoop.  Impressive?  OF COURSE!  Dunk?  I think not. Kevin Durant agrees with me!

2.) Robert Kraft, owner of the Patriots, recently said, “We’re red, white and blue and our name is Patriots. How can you hate something like that?”  Quite easily, Kraft, cause you make pretentious comments like that. And your QB’s supermodel girlfriend sends out an e-mail asking for friends to pray for “Tommy” as he tries to win the Super Bowl.  Cause that’s what he needs, MORE good fortune in his life. He’s already had the “Tuck Rule”…I think that’s enough good fortune for ten lifetimes.

3.) Stef and I took our first trip to Ikea last Saturday and I have got to say, that place is pretty fun.  It’s like a museum you can touch! It has comfy sofas and couches and beds, and it has…wait for it…CHICKEN FINGERS!  Holy cow, what a place.  You can just be dipping chicken fingers in honey mustard and drinking a Mountain Dew whilst standing in a kitchen with marble counter tops, stainless steel appliances and new age wine racks.  It’s DIVINE!

4.) My friends have recently been asking me to play a lot of poker, and you know what?  I LOVE IT!  I forgot how much fun poker can be, and hadn’t really played in a while.  Luckily, we had one game that wasn’t for money and it taught me that I really needed to hone my skills back to where they were a few years ago during the height of the poker craze–when I lived with Randy and he would leave books by Barry Greenstein lying around and I’d watch Rounders three times a week.

So before heading back to the table to play for some money, I decided to play on-line to test my skills against a bunch of people I didn’t know. I forgot how much fun it can be to bust somebody who is a complete stranger to you, and how deliciously aggravating it can be to lose a hand on the river to somebody you’ve never seen. After playing on-line for a bit, I felt like my skills were sufficiently up to snuff. And lo and behold, I won the next game against my friends.

5.) We’re heading up to the Sixers tonight and I get to do my two favorite things during an NBA game.  1.) Cheer for the Sixers and 2.) BOOOOOOOO Lebron James!  Hooray!

6.) I turned on–and quickly turned off in favor of “Turner and Hooch”–Sportscenter this morning and for some reason, Skip Bayless was interviewing Tim Tebow.  WHY? It made me throw up a little bit in my mouth, but there is no doubt that Bayless was in heaven.  In fact, I’m pretty sure that Bayless’ heaven involves Tebow karate chopping Lebron James in the throat.

7.) While we’re on the subject of “Turner and Hooch” does it really have to end like that?  I’m just saying, it gets REALLY dark pretty quick.  I turned it off this morning before I turned into a puddle.

8.) Good for Sheamus winning the Royal Rumble!  I’ll never forget when NT first saw Sheamus and literally started screaming “EWWWWWWWW” The man is incredibly gross to look at, and his nickname “The Great White” is questionable at best, flat out racist at worst. His goatee also looks like what would happen if you sprinkled a bunch of Cheetos on a dry erase board.

9.) Oh, and if you’re still here, my Super Bowl pick is Giants 27, Patriots 24.

Enjoy the game!

 

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Random Thoughts (parenthesis edition)

June 10, 2011 Adam Thomas

1.) That dashing fellow over there is the real King James.  Or at least, that’s what Google image search told me, I didn’t actually look it up to confirm. I digress…

Nothing is more annoying right now than the quazi pity party that people are throwing for Lebron James. They are saying shit like, “The media is scrutinizing his EVERY MOVE!” Steve Kerr even said, “I feel bad for the guy.”

Yeah.  I feel bad for the guy too. Cause he is pooping the bed night in and night out in the most important games of his life.  Bbbbbbbut he had a triple double.  He has been getting assists and rebounds all series!

Yes, because when we think of Lebron, we think of great passing, rebounding and defense.  That sounds like Andre Iguodala to me. King Iguodala to you!

Fact of the matter is, Lebron shot two free throws last night.  TWO!  Attack the rim dagnabbit!

But lets not forget one important key element here: Lebron brought this on himself.  He calls himself King James (nut-uh, da media does), he had that whole taking my talents to south beach thing, he is by all accounts, a douche bag extraordinaire. We hate him because when it comes to athleticism, he is everything that we’re not. But it seems that when it comes to the will and want to win, we all seem to grasp the situation better than he does.

I seem to want a JV soccer win when I am coaching more than Lebron wants an NBA championship.  Sure this is pure conjecture, but I’ve seen his post game interviews and I have seen him sleepwalk through the three biggest games of his life looking like he doesn’t give a shit.

But back to my original point: Come on, media!  This man deserves every flipping thing that is coming his way.  He asked for all this hoopla about himself and then he hasn’t done shit on the biggest stage of his career.  So F him.  We are this close to ruining this man’s life, and you want to back out and get a conscience now?  Grow a pair. I wanna see this sucker have a complete and total mental break down.  We’ve worked too hard for his demise to feel sorry for him now! When this is all said and done, I want Bron Bron to be locked in some hotel room, tissue boxes for shoes with a stringy beard repeating over and over again: come in with da milk….come in with da milk….come in with da milk….wave of the future…..wave of the future….wave of the future….

(In the case of full disclosure, I am still standing by the Heat.  I think they win it in 7.)

2.) Can we talk about this Rashard Lewis rumor for one second?  Rumor has it that Lebron has been playing bad because Lewis slept with his old lady.  No, not his mom (like what happened last year), but his girlfriend or wife or whatever. I told Randy about this and here is his response: “no way a girls so stupid she bangs out a two bit Wizards player when she already has the most paid man in the nba.”

What Randy forgot is that Lewis is playing with a $118 million dollar contract.  James got like $110 million from the Heat.  Sure the endorsements give James A HUGE monetary advantage, but if “Savannah” (never trust a girl with a name like Savannah) did cheat with Lewis, it’s not like the dude’s broke or anything.  PLUS he kinda looks like T.I. and women freaking love T.I.  (Oddly, in that picture they kinda don’t look alike…but in my mind they do!)

3.) I know I talk about Friday Night Lights a lot on here, and that won’t be stopping anytime soon.  I just watched 4 episodes from season 5 and holy crap are they good.  Can someone please get Kyle Chandler an emmy?  At least he is starring in Super 8…

4.) Speaking of which, every review for that movie has said (I’m paraphrasing here): The first part of Super 8 is awesome, the second part kinda drags and is a let down, I give it…Three and a half stars!  Really? I thought a whole movie had to be good for it to get three and a half stars. I guess that’s what its come to in tinsel town.

5.) One of the most satisfying feelings in the world is sitting out back, soaking in the humidity and drinking and ice cold Yuengling after just cutting the grass.  You get to see all the hard (not very hard?) work you just put in pay off and you get a little drunk.  Good.  Stuff.

Until next time…

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Magic Johnson is Shrek; Pryor Skips Senior Season

June 8, 2011 Randy Neil

Can you hear that chewing noise? That’s me, eating my words from last week. The Dallas/Heat series is tied up, and every game has been remarkably close. I’m still sticking to my guns in regards to the Heat winning the NBA Finals, but maybe this will carry to game 7 and actually be a good series. Sometimes I forget that David Stern cares about revenue, and more games = more ad revenue.

I can’t even break this series down very well because both teams are shooting poorly. It’s low scoring, smothering defense that’s taking the forefront of play, and the only people making the highlight reels are Dirk, Lebron, and Wade. I guess that’s how it should be. Bosh has been having some nasty slam dunks, but I imagine since he’s been flopping like a bitch so much, ESPN has chosen not to air his highlights. Not today Count Floppula. You guys like that? I made it up myself. :D

It’s funny to see celebrities Tweet out to each other. I guess I’m using ‘celebrity’ loosely, because I’m referring to Stuart Scott and Spencer Hawes. Both of them were Tweeting to Jason Terry last night during the game. Everyone was criticizing Terry’s poor play in the first 3 games of the finals, and since he decided to show up last night, his celeb friends decided to congratulate him. “That’s nasty!! @jasonterry31” Indeed it is, Mr. Stuart.

My favorite Tweets :

WatchJ J-Breezy The Poet
Hands down… Jason Terry is the best 3rd grader to ever play in the NBA
jose3030 jose3030
Jason Terry, on his post game presser, will attempt to enunciate every word in the Webster’s Dictionary

Mmmm… good stuff. Can I also add that Magic Johnson is my least favorite NBA analyst of all time? Aside from demanding to be introduced as “Future Hall of Famer, Legendary Player, 5-time NBA Champion, 3-time MVP, 12-time NBA All-Star, Shrek Looking, Magic Johnson” literally every time he is addressed, he interrupts better analysts with terribly repetitive speeches that soak up too much air time, and make us all less intelligent. We get it Magic. You were a great player, but you suck as an analyst and mentor.

You can’t interrupt your fellow co-hosts and say something like, “Lebron has to play his game. He can’t worry about what Wade’s doing, or what Bosh is doing, he’s got to focus on being the dominate Lebron James.” For fuck’s sake Magic. How is he not supposed to worry about what Wade is doing when they are still having a power struggle for the closer in games? You have two superstar-caliber players in almost the exact same role trying to win a game. Then, when Lebron opts to be more of a facilitator and handle assists, his points stat is obviously hurt, and you give him shit. There needs to be a quiz for former athletes to take before they are given a microphone.

Along with Jim Tressel, Terrelle Pryor is continuing to make headlines for OSU with his announcement of plans to skip his senior season. Scandal abound, Pryor was already set to miss the first 5 games of the season as punishment for “receiving benefits” that violate NCAA rules. Now the kid has to wait for the 2012 NFL Draft without playing ball on the national level. Well, that’s not entirely true. People have already suggested he could play in the Canadian Football League for a season. Yea, that sounds like a great idea….

This is a pretty big deal though. This whole scandal with Tressel and Pryor, it’s making headlines. At first, I thought it was ridiculous that their was so much shame involved in something that everyone was guilty of. Clearly, OSU is being made an example, and some people are going to have to suffer because of it. On the other hand, maybe this is what the national press and the NCAA need to start to change their ideals about college players. Hopefully, this can be a catalyst for the NCAA to change their regulations on the matter and start treating this system a little more realistically. There is too much fame and credit given to a young athlete that’s not being paid.

Also… to the fellow teammates of Pryor who are ratting him out for the incentives he received…. Ya’ll some snitches. That is all.

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