Topic: American Sports

@Th3solution I think JB got more mad than i've seen him before. Technically they will say "oh. he pointed twice" or something, but I feel like when MVP candidates are mad a quiet word and a "maybe I missed the call or saw it different, my bad" with an actual logical explanation could have calmed him without the hall monitor joining in. I do think a lot of it is the culmination of how he sees the NBA and all kinds of entities not respecting him because he isn't media friendly. Like, he's a great guy for the community, he is a thinker, an intellectual, but he is quite standoffish and talks a lot of sh** as well - basically he goes against the grain. I mean, he turned down Nike because they had free speech clauses in their contracts and because he understands that they could find a way to cancel him down the line, and that they all have to tend to pretend to be this image of what a sportsperson is to, in essence, sell shoes to kids... or is that sell shoes made by kids. (Both. It's probably both - this is me voiding my own Nike contract haha) then that led to the whole Team USA sponsored by Nike thing and him feeling snubbed. He gets significantly fewer fouls called in his favour than most stars who just need to be slightly breathed on to get a whistle, almost like maintaining strength through contact is a disadvantage over being a neck snapping, flailing flop artist. Some of it rings true, some of it will be personal exaggeration for motivation, some of it is probably accumulated paranoia based on an initial fact. Last night, I think he'd just had enough of it, especially with it being SA who got away with a lot in the first game. The crew chief looked capable of taking it and moving on because of the importance of the game for the NBA, like, it was probably worth 2 techs, but Brown probably thought he could judge how far he could go as it was the chief he was arguing with, it being a national televised game usually gives people leeway because they won't want to eject a star so early, and the assistant ref just plain ignored him and let him go right by him without making eye contact or caring, but the hallmonitor looked like he just wanted to come over from afar and get in on the action without giving it a second. A rush of excitement for him, perhaps.

I wonder if the league will double down on a 'no pointing' stance in public but have a quiet word that sometimes you have to let a guy get out their frustration when they are dominating the momentum of the game for the sake of the spectacle. Like he is mad, a technical will thus make him more mad, so let the crew chief decide the cut off time after that second wave has hit him. I can't see this having happened with any other star, it shouldn't even get to that point to be honest. If he got pushed out of bounds because they always have their hands on him, just make the call and let the opponent challenge if they disagree. But SA must be protected so they can't calling fouls like that, otherwise they would have to call everything else on them 😛 of course i'm joking and fuelling the conspiracy for fun. But there is a nugget of truth in there somewhere.

Positives. Ron Harper Jr filling in Pritchard minutes was pretty damn good. A cool moment for the Harper family with the two brothers playing against each other. Derrick White was locked in, apart from when he had to fire up the last second off balance threes because the offense broke down and there were no options. Targeting Wemby on the drive seems the best way to break them down, like you said, it is maybe his one weakness even though he is mobile, he is still a giant bean pole and inertia is inertia. Not like he topples over, but it is the best way to get him off balance for a second with aggressive attacks, and being aware he can still reach and block from behind so junk up your timing like D White was doing. He had one play where he kind of stopped but put up a really fast layup where a player usualy takes a look at a pass option to avoid ir fake out Wemby. And one where he made 2 or 3 head up-fakes under the basket while keeping the ball away from the defence, and left it to the very last milliseocnd to actually shoot it.

And it is always interesting to watch Wemby, so I do hope they do well, regardless of if we are the ones to play them or not. I'd rather see them go for a title over OKC or Denver. The fact his on off numbers are so large it kind of makes you think that will be what means they don't make it. Would they be able to keep up with teams in a 7 game series with tailored game plans for their other players, or would Wemby ever be able to play like 40/42 minutes? I'm not sure he is the type to do that and it wouldn't be worth the long term risk yet.

@StitchJones That’s understandable. I’ve seen the Flames do this too many times. Not bad enough to do something productive in the draft but not good enough to make the post season. Hopefully it’s just that we were that bad but honestly, the Rangers were looking pretty dangerous last night! A hat trick too.