Why Does Sean Marks Keep Getting Signed?

I’m too depressed to even think about Monta Ellis’ injury, so I’ve got nothing substantive to say except I’m totally confused as to why Sean Marks keeps getting signed — this time with the Hornets — instead of a young, athletic guy who might surprise you with his development. C’mon, seriously, someone pick up Rod Benson.

Pinche Spurs

Game 3 was an instant classic, a back-and-forth duel of offensive greatness — with Parker and Paul both going nuts — played at a run-and-gun pace with both teams making difficult shot after difficult shot.

Uh, does that really sound like a formula for Spurs’ success? I’m still worried that this Hornets team is flat-out better than this Spurs team (until at least next year, when we retool with youth). We’re like Boston: if our defense isn’t winning the game for us, we’re in serious trouble.

Anyways, to take the edge off, here’s Charles Barkley calling himself a dumbass.

For the Record

I feel like I’m the only one among my Spurs-fans friends worried about this series with New Orleans. S.A. hangs their hat on defense but they struggle to match up with Chris Paul and David West. That’s why you have Bowen pulling that B.S. where he kneed Paul for no reason — a classic Bowen move when he’s a step slow. And David West’s numbers in four regular season games aren’t a fluke: 23 ppg on 58% shooting. Like another quick, face-up PF, Brandon Bass, West gives Duncan fits.

All that said, Pop will have something up his sleeve, and the Hornets somehow have to account for Ginobili. Should be good, but I think it’ll go longer than a lot of my friends expect.

POSTSCRIPT: For what it’s worth, I also think Utah beats the Lakers just because they’ll make Gasol post up one on one, where he’s terrible. No one seems to notice it, but whenever he has to work in the post on his own, he scores on like one out of every four possessions. No way Utah ever allows him to get uncontested dunks like Denver did.

Tyson Chandler on “The Wire”

Whenever someone links to a Tyson Chandler blog post, I always enjoy it. Should probably bookmark his blog. This link came from Bill Simmons. Here ‘s an excerpt from Chandler’s take on the end of The Wire, but it’s all worth reading:

I just don’t understand how it came to such a halt, like all of a sudden it was the last season. We should complain to HBO, definitely.

Right now, I’m like Scottie Pippen when he pointed at the MJ shoe, like “Come back.”

The Wire shined a lot of light on what’s going on. All of this stuff really happens. Like the politics, the police not having any money to do their jobs, the newspaper printing the wrong stuff, the drug trade. It’s amazing to me because it so reminds me of how I grew up.

We all identify with it, because a lot of athletes came from single-parent homes and from the inner cities. So, we’ve all kinda been through the same situations. And so when you look at it, it’s just crazy. Because I still get calls from my homeboys who get harassed by cops and got beatdowns just because of where they live at.

My mom and my family made sure to always talk to me, because they understood what was going on around me and they understood the neighborhood we lived in. So they made sure to always talk to me all the time about drugs, about people who were dealing, people who were running around and shooting people.

There were times where I was approached by people in the game, but my buddy’s cousin basically ran the ‘hood. If something was about to go down, they would tell us to go home. If there was gonna be a shootout, they made sure we were as far away as possible.

There’s also a crazy anecdote in there about Chandler and his friends having to run from house to house under adult supervision with their Sega so it wouldn’t get stolen by junkies.

To me, the saddest thing about the last season of The Wire is the misplaced rancor the show stirred up at the end. I don’t know how many profiles — some positive, many others not — were written about David Simon, the driving force behind the show and an unapologetic know-it-all. And apparently there’s been a ton of carping online over the show’s dramatic merits in Season 5. Who cares? Leave it to the MFA’s. Simon’s damn right (even if he writes like a jackass) when he says that all that crap misses the mark.

The show’s popularity has always stemmed from its legitimacy — people like Chandler were finally seeing their story told without sentimentality, and people like me suddenly couldn’t ignore that the horrors of the show (and the triumphs) were more than just dramatic devices. That’s why we all watched. The thought that should follow is that The Wire depicts real problems, ones that deserve our lasting attention. What we can do, what our politicians can do, what those communities can do, that’s where the discussion should have been and should be now. All the rest is bullshit.

The MVP Algorithm

The other night Reid and I found a pretty cool sports bar here in SF with League Pass and got into the standard MVP discussion with the bartender: Lebron, Kobe, or Paul. We all know the arguments for and against, and they’re all both valid and yet still unconvincing. So wouldn’t the voting have to come down to what happens down the stretch? Something like this:

IF Lakers win the West

THEN Kobe = MVP

ELSEIF Hornets win the West

THEN Paul = MVP

ELSEIF The Lakers hang close enough to justify Kobe’s career-achievement award

THEN Kobe = MVP

ELSEIF Both N.O. and L.A. fade down the stretch

THEN Lebron and his ridiculous 31-8-7.5-1.8-1 stat line = MVP

Seems about right. Tracy McGrady left out of the discussion intentionally. The bartender was a die-hard from Houston and he didn’t even bring it up. Screw the Rockets, their offense is bunk.

An Open Letter to Rafer Alston

Dear Rafer,

You’re just not that good. Quit talking so much. (I can’t believe Bobby Jackson’s double-cluth, desperation three was the winning margin against the Warriors.)

Sincerely,

The Blogjammin’ Team

P.S. — See also the recent Hollinger article where Chris Paul embarrasses you: “Tracy McGrady is a great player. If I was Rafer Alston, I’d probably ride his coattails too,” Paul said. There’s more.

An Open Letter to Bruce Bowen

To: BruBo

From: A life-long Spurs fan

Re: That Chris Paul cheap shot

You know what? I’ve had it with this trash. My brother and I go to Vegas for a few days, miss the game, and come back to find that not only did you get embarrassed by 25 (and cost Grady 20 bucks), but you pulled out more lame-ass, indefensible bullshit. We Spurs fans defended you for years and loved it when you set off whiny stars like Vince Carter. But we don’t even want to try justify this crap, which keeps happening more frequently. Just stop. We’d rather lose than watch this desperate attempt to make up for those steps you’ve lost.

You deserved to get suspended. It should’ve been longer. Hell, at this point, I wish we hadn’t signed you to that extension. Now I just hope we draft Brandon Rush so he can take all your minutes next year.

Sincerely,
Wright