So, I awoke in my favorite recliner in repose in front of the telly from my usual mid-evening nap, just as OKC’s Thunder and and Washington’s Wiz started OT.
And a splendid five minutes of extra time it proved to be. Back and forth, until Russell Westbrook zipped through an opening in the defense wide enough to allow the Bud Clydesdales passage . . . with room to spare . . . for the winning layup.
But I’m here to consider Kevin Durant, whom the D.C. crowd kept imploring to pull a LeBron/E.T.and come home. He’s listed as 6-9, but he knows that you know that I know that Adam Silver knows that’s a considerable misundermeasurization.
Lithe and silky smooth, the guy handles the ball like a PG, slithers to his spots like a SF and his shot reminds me of Pete Rose in his heyday. Which is to say that, so wicked was his way with a Louisville Slugger, when Ramblin’ Gamblin’ man didn’t get a hit, you had to wonder what happened?
Which is how I feel when Durant launches one from the height of his considerable hops and it doesn’t find twine. The guy is radar.
Well, in OT, he worked through a double screen, cutting to his right, elevated while drifting across the sideline into the bench at least thirty feet from the hoop, and drained the longball like master sniper Chris Kyle dropping another Al Qaeda in a black burka.
And that was only his second best score of the OT.
The best was a Thunder slam over Eurohawked Martin Gortat.1
Gortat = Don Quixote. Durant = Wind Turbine.
Oh, watch it for yourself:
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One more curiosity about that tilt, before I move on. The zebras reviewed a goal tending call.
Just what the NBA needs, where there can be a dozen timeouts in the last minute of a close contest.
More clock stoppages.
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The Rick is now spinning that Montrezl Harrell removed himself from captaincy of this season’s U of L Cardinals. Because, says coach, he was too hard on the newcomers, and was undermining their confidence, instead of showing the way as a leader should.
Okay, even if it is true,2 it indicates all is not as well on Floyd Street as Cardinal fans would hope as this season takes a turn for home.
Silent L, as I’ve written many times before, is not the leader type. He’s the ultimate grunt, grabbing boards, providing energy with monster slams . . . when appropriate. His game, as powerful as it has been at times, and can be in the future, is inelegant. But effective and certainly necessary to the success of U of L this season.
It’s going to be interesting come Sunday @ Pitt to see what if any tweaks The Rick has wrought?
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Well, imagine our surprise that serial recidivist Bill Belichick is making air pressure and footballs as famous as Brooklyn Robin Burleigh Grimes made slippery elm and baseballs.
Deflation = spitball.
Except that such scofflawery is viewed with a wink in the national pastime. Grimes is in the Hall of Fame. While the not so Patriotic deflategate is a national crisis of debt ceiling proportion.
So, just take away all New England’s draft choices, and the ability to trade for them, for the next two years, and move on.
Here’s what baffles me about the NFL, which tries to foster this image of efficient, unwavering parity and fairness.
Why on earth do the competing teams provide the balls they’ll use on offense in a game?
Riddle me that.
Shouldn’t the league be providing the balls and their protection against chincanery?
Just askin’.
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Then there’s Green Bay’s meltdown against the Seahawks, like they were a bowl of Wisconsin cheddar fondue, waiting for a dip of skewered sourdough.
For me, that explicable choke job3 isn’t the biggest story of the NFC title match.
In the aftermath of that game, I’ve not seen a word printed or uttered about the patent unfairness of the NFL’s overtime rule. Don’t understand the lack of outcry.
Green Bay lost without ever having a chance to score.
Huh?
There is no plausible reasoning to support such an absurd scenario.
Football is a game of offense AND defense.
Seattle scored. Good for them. When it mattered, the Seahawk O overwhelmed the Packer D.
However, because of an indefensible procedure that makes Judge Roy Bean’s frontier justice look fair and equitable, Green Bay’s offense never had the opportunity to prove it could score too.
What a crock.
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I’ve been watching more of the early rounds of the Aussie Open than ever before.
Because it’s soooooooo warm and sunny Down Under.
I know, because I’ve spent a January in Sydney, and have experienced how soothing a couple of weeks there can be in the middle of our winter. And, while there, went to some early rounds of the Sydney Open, a precursor to the big one in Melbourne, and understand the importance of tennis to the Aussies.
Later.
— Seedy K
In light of Bron’s infirmities; Koby and Duncan’s age; KDurants frailty; Rose’s ignorance and inability to stay uninjured; Anthony’s inability to win at anything since he was a frosh at SU; I tender a vote for Westbrook as the “best” player in the NBA.
Sure, when he is healthy LeBron is still the best; but the new breed including Russell W, the Brow, and my main men, SCurry and Klay Thompson have actually made me more than peek at NBA regular season action this year. This is esp’ly true in light of the shooting ineptitude of my Cards and the cheating permitted (encouraged?) by the NCAA and used to great effect by certain, uh, programs, (BTW….who are these guys playing for the Hawks who just cannot lose? I haven’t heard of hardly any of them.)
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The NCAA’s continued and historic inability (or unwillingness) to create a level playing field is unmatched in sports history–until one considers your sage description of the NFL overtime system, which makes a firing squad at 20 paces seem “fair”.
Say what you will about college football, but the OT games in college foots are incredibly exciting and involve a great deal of strategic planning. (One change I would suggest is that I wish the ball would start at the 35 or at least 30 so the team getting the ball second in each session doesn’t have such a huge advantage, but that is picking at nits.) Compare that to the NFL system wherein one team might well never even touch the ball? What’s “fair” about that? Why should anyone care about games that aren’t really “fair”?
What it proves to me is that the NFL is not really concerned about fairness. It would rather involve itself with matters that tend to be controversial that trigger unending news coverage (“deflate-gate” anyone?). But what NFL Inc. is primarily concerned with is protecting its main assets–the players–but only while they are useful. That’s why the league has changed into a virtual flag football league and the main assets–the QB’s—are almost untouchable and the hitting that used to be the hallmark of the league has virtually been outlawed.
I know, at its base level football is barbaric. But the way the NFL protects its assets while under contract compared to how it treats its players, post-career, is shameful. (Don’t get into the we are trying to protect them while they are playing. If that’s the case, why showcase the big hits every week on the innumerable NFL weekly shows that permeate TV on a daily basis?)
The NFL was built on the backs of many men who don’t even draw a pension, even if they can hardly draw a breath or formulate a cogent thought because of the risk the players accepted to win one for the ol’ Brownies, etc. Considering the money just one SB game brings in to the League, it is a shame that any ex-player has to want for medical care or 3 squares a day forever.
Sorry for the rant, but for some reason last weekends happenings really triggered my protest button…….
Klay Thompson’s stroke might be the prettiest of them all. That ESPN steam table must start featuring Chicken Klay Pot.
And while the Hawks are being heralded as the hottest team right now, how about my Detroit Pistons, who are right behind? Less is more after throwing that Smith guy overboard. Led by suddenly beastly Andre Drummond, who played like a plug during his one and done at UConn.
NCAA OT Rule = Incredible. And, whodathunkit?, fair.
And why not, within certain reasonable limitations, allow each team to decide what the PSI of the football should be????
Because, Mr. Pony, each team needs to play on the same field with the same rules and the same ball. Geez, that’s pretty basic.
Agree completely with your position on overtime. But the best part of your column was the reference to Oz in January and February. As one who has spent six Ozzie summers in Sydney, I can only say that for me it is heaven on earth. Even fun to go from bar to bar finding a European ESPN that had on a Cardinal game.