NBA Playoffs 2012 Running thread

Sure, if you care only about overhyped personalities instead of basketball.

 

I don't get why Spurs-Pacers is "unwatchable". I have never understood the theory that small market teams playing in a Final is somehow garbage. Yet if the Knicks are in it, its much more palatable.

What on earth about the Spurs is unwatchable basketball?

 

I don't get it, either. These arguments always fascinate me.

Why would it be unwatchable? What is it about the word "Lakers" or "Celtics" on a jersey that magically make the games more exciting, the plays more spectacular, the level at its peak? Wasn't Lakers-Celtics Game 7 in 2010 (winning team shoots 32%) or Lakers-Celtics Game 6 in 2008 (a 39-point blowout) about as unwatchable as it gets?

Do you need a team or players that inspire strong dislike (as the Heat, Lakers and Celtics do among some fans) to make fans of neither participant care one way or another?

It kind of reminds me of that old debate I had with BYH when he ripped the Spurs-Pistons seven-game NBA Finals series in 2005 as "more boring" than the Red Sox's 4-0 World Series sweep of the Cardinals several months before.

 

Good for Kobe, and something needs to be put in place so that people making murder threats online need to have something done to them. That should be a crime.

 

Dear Poin and BTE: By "unwatchable" people mean, "a series between teams I don't see covered in the media as much." Sports fans, like everybody else, are comfortable with the familiar and find reasons to dislike the unfamiliar.

 

Didn't see the game, but from what I gathered, Blake was the only one open. If Bryant was open, I'm sure the ball would've gone to him. For once, I'm actually going to defend Artest (it's easier than typing World Peace) and say he made the right pass. Fans need to calm their butts down and take a second look at the video....

 

The Spurs run of success is even more impressive if you extend the framework beyond the Duncan era all the way back to 1989. Aside from the NBA titles, you realize the Spurs have finished 1st or 2d in their division an incredible 22 out of the last 23 years:

http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/SAS/

That's downright astonishing for a small market franchise that enjoys no Yankee-like financial advantages, the most impressive record over the last quarter century of any American major league sports franchise.

And I'm not sure Popovich has quite gotten the credit he deserves for it. He's been around for virtually every minute of it--he was a Spur assistant when that run of success began in 89 and has been running the show in the front office or on the bench since 94. I think what Popovich has done maintaining that sustained success in one small market location may be more impressive than the "zenmaster" Phil Jackson's titles earned by cherry picking the absolute perfect situatons to step into and then stepping out when things start to sour.

 

Is there anyone other than Duncan left from the 1st championship team.

 

No, Duncan's the only holdover from the 1999 team. Actually (as I looked it up on basketball-reference.com) he's the only one still playing in the NBA at all.

 

But then people bitch when the "stars" get all the calls and the "glamour teams" get all the calls and the top free agents. Conspiracy! David Stern DEMANDED that the Heat was not going to lose!

And when the glamour teams lose, it's "Meh, I'm not gonna watch THAT final."

There was bitching about the infamous Lakers-Kings series a decade ago. There would have been bitching about an "unwatchable" Kings-Nets final had Sacramento won the West.

In other words, "whatever happens, I'm gonna bitch about it."

 

Playing, yes. But that team is chock full of present-day announcers:

Steve Kerr (network)
Sean Elliott (Spurs)
Avery Johnson (ESPN when he's in between head coaching jobs)
Will Perdue (NBA radio)
Malik Rose (Sixers)

Antonio Daniels was an active player this year -- in the D-League.

By the way, the only NBA players left, other than Duncan, from the 1997 NBA draft are Chauncey Billups, Tony "El Busto" Battie, and Duncan's once-and-future teammate, Stephen Jackson.

 

I had no idea Stephen Jackson was that old.