Rouuuundup
Another quick update on a few things…
I guess out of my 4 regular readers none cars about the NBA or sports in general but there’s things that just need to be addressed :)
Utah just eliminated Golden State. Yep, now officially have no team to root for anymore in the Playoffs. Thing is, after this quite relaxed 4-1 in the series now the Jazz happen to be one of the top 4 teams in the league this year, but hey, no one counted them in as a candidate at the start of the season. Experts… Now they are in a groove and happen to have an awesome inside-out pair of All-Stars to be in Deron Williams and Boozer (who probably is a top 3 PF in this league right now), to go with a small forward, Kirilenko, who can shut down anyone on the opposite team with his athletic defense and long arms and actually decided to start giving a crap in this conference semifinals, a center (Okur) who can shoot the lights out from beyond the arch and a hall of fame coach. Add a streaky shooting guard to the mix, Fisher, who now is playing with an extra motivation, due to his daughter’s illness and another tough inside presence in Millsap and this team is quite scary.
The funny subplot, yet again, is the misjudgment of talent in the 2005 NBA Draft , after witnessing the impressive development of Deron Williams, especially in this Playoffs. Two teams, Atlanta and Milwaukee, passed on him and Chris Paul, and it turns out both Point Guards (one of the most difficult positions to fill with a quality player these days… and all the teams left fighting for the title have QUALITY Point Guards) are franchise players for years to come. Woaaaaaaah. So the Bucks and the Hawks, who scouted these players, and scouted them heavily, before deciding who to pick decided to go with a shaky, dodgy looking Australian bloke wit a moustache, Andrew Bogut (Milwaukee) and an undersized PF who now plays SF in the league, Marvin Williams (Atlanta) when the team had just picked to SF’s in the previous draft. Nice.
This is completely insane. Nuts! It is like a lottery with 4 winners and each one getting to chose one car. Available are: one Series 5 BMW, a Mercedes Series 300, the token new Asian brand and a Golf. So what do you do, you start evaluating the cars, the brands, everything… The first guy shows up and picks the Asian car. Reliable, you know what you have in terms of mechanics but there’s questions as well. You don’t know when the pieces might arrive if you have to repair the car and even though it looks very good on paper, there is not much of a record for this brand in the market yet… The second guy, who happens to own a Golf thinks woahhhhhhhh, I can get another one for free? Let’s do it! ... and chooses the VW. And then, there’s the two guys who get to pick last, who by now are probably throwing already, thinking themselves “Wow, hit's good those two guys picking ahed of us are so stupid? We just got the two better and more expensive cars out of the 4! We do not know if we want a fat car like that actually, but even if we don’t, we can always sell it, buy a Golf or an Asian one and do something else with the rest of the money…”.
So that is exactly what our smart Atlanta and Milwaukee General Managers did 2 summers ago, they said: “Ah f*ck it, why would we go for the sure choice and select two guys who can help turn our struggling franchises around? Two guys who will be borderline All-Stars for years to come... Let’s make the risky pick (Bogut) and stockpile assets instead (M. Williams), you can never have enough SF's on your roster…" Too bad you normally just play one freakin' small forward at the same time!!! And again, these guys get paid millions to do their jobs... lousy jobs!
Did I mention that Atlanta has been looking for a Point Guard for about 10 years now? And that they signed one last summer for more than 30 million dollars, just he wasn’t what they expected (nor needed) so he ended up buried at the end of the bench by the end of the season, when he was not injured? In the meantime Utah, with Deron Williams, who, oh, happens to be a Point Guard, is one of the 4 best teams at this point of the season and Chris Paul, another Point Guard, improved New Orleans' winning record by 20 wins in his first season with the team. Atlanta and Milwaukee? Neither made the Playoff or was even close to do so this season...
This reminds me a lot of when Barça signed Eto’o from Real Madrid a few summers ago. He was a complete stud, an above average athlete, a bit crazy, yes admit it, but he has tremendous potential and just needed a better club in order to thrive (he was playing for Mallorca back then). So Barcelona goes for the guy and former Real Madrid President, Florentino Pérez, thought “ah, f*ck it, why would we need a striker who gives 110% every game he plays, scores once or twice every time he plays against us, is 23 years old and his motivation on a football pitch is off the charts” and sold him to Barcelona, Real Madrid archrival. What happened, Eto’o immediately started scoring goals like crazy (24 and 26 league goals in his first two seasons), as he was playing with a chip on his shoulder to prove everyone at Real Madrid wrong for not wanting to keep him. Now he is probably worth double the price Barça paid for him and is regarded as one of the TOP3 strikers in the world.
This actually led to a bet with my good friend Gérard, who is a die-hard Real Madrid fan. We bet that he’d buy me a very good bottle of rum if Eto’o did score more than 25 goals in all competitions. By Christmas time, halfway through the season, the guy had netted already around 20. Needless to say I won the bet…
On another note, I played scrabble in the pub the other day. In English, as the two other participants were French young ladies, which made it slightly more complicated but hey… but it was very good fun!! I mean, how random was that? Suggestion: always go for a pint (not more than one though) while you play, in is a source of inspiration and you come up with better words, no seriously.
And this picture sadly sums up Barcelona's current status... If the Celtics don’t get a Top2 pick in next Tuesday’s NBA Draft Lottery (which I tried to explain to my girlfriend on the phone yesterday but probably doesn’t make any sense at all, unless you care about hoops, or at least that’s the impression I had myself, while explaining the procedure, which is very weird itself…), I will officially quit on Sports and look for a new hobby. Like fishing, I don’t know… or start drinking. More on that next week as I get mentally prepared for a possible bust!
Labels: The Ramblings
