Over the course of the past two NBA seasons, Steve Nash has been a revelation. After leaving the Dallas Mavericks for the Phoenix Suns at the end of the 2004 season (because owner Mark Cuban didn’t believe he was worth a $50 million contract), Nash has become the leagues premier point guard, also winning the leagues MVP award for the past two seasons.
Now we at the BBQ don’t buy into religion or religious stories, but if you were Steve Nash and you were coming off the best two seasons of your career, would you cut off your trademark long hair for this haircut at the urging of your wife?
I should also point out that Steve Nash’s wife’s name is Delilah! It’s going to be intriguing to see what kind of season Steve Nash has this year - will his ‘powers’ vanish?
The NBA Draft occurred this evening, and nobody made more moves than the Trail Blazers did. While I’m indifferent about Viktor Khryapa leaving and ecstatic that they managed to offload Theo Ratliff, I really hope that the Trail Blazers haven’t given up on Sebastian Telfair too early. The Blazers have a track record of giving up on talented players too early - the most recent case of this being when they traded away Jermaine O’Neal for Dale Davis only to watch O’Neal become an All-Star player and one of the top players in the league.
That being said, the Blazers ended the night with 2 of the top 4 prospects in the draft: LaMarcus Aldridge and Brandon Roy. They will be great additions to the young core of players, which includes the Blazers’ top two picks from last year’s draft - Martell Webster and Jarrett Jack. The Blazers just have two cancerous members left, Zach Randolph and Darius Miles, so if management can manage to work out a trade for these players, the team should be in a good position in a few years time. This young core of players will be a very effective unit, but it’s going to take a few patient years for the team and community to see results.
What a big weekend for sport! World Cup Soccer, French Open Finals, the British Formula One race, and the NBA Finals.
So far in the World Cup there have been a few exciting games, but there were far more games that were lacking excitement. The team that has really stood out so far for me is Argentina. Riquelme looked dangerous every time he touched the ball against the Ivory Coast, and I believe that without him in the lineup, the Ivory Coast probably would have won that game. What I haven’t liked so far is the form of the English team. I thought Beckham had a good game, but apart from him, the team looked very flat and they will need to turn things around if they want any chance of competing for the championship. Apart from the first ten minutes of their match, Portugal looked very average also.
So far, this is the goal of the tournament
In the French Open Finals, Justine Henin-Hardenne won her third French Open title in straight sets, 6-4 6-4. Good thing she wasn’t trailing early in the second set, otherwise she may have gotten ’stomach cramps’ again. On the men’s side, Rafael Nadal defeated Roger Federer in 4 sets, 1-6 6-1 6-4 7-6. Federer came out on fire in the first set, and things really looked good for him. I really can’t explain what happened in the second set, but he totally lost his game and confidence. The third and fourth sets could have gone either way; unfortunately for Federer they didn’t go his way, and he’ll have to wait another year for the elusive French Open title he desperately wants.
Fernando Alonso won his third straight race at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. It’s looking like the championship is all but decided - especially considering he hasn’t finished any worse than second this year. It was another disappointing day for Australia’s Mark Webber, who didn’t even finish a lap after he was taken out by Ralf Schumacher, who lost control after Scott Speed nudged him while taking a corner. Speed called it a ‘racing incident’ and that he was in front of Schumacher going through the corner. I call BS on that. Speed was nowhere near in front of Schumacher going in to that corner and as a result of his ill-adviced move, he took 3 competitors out of the race.
Dallas has taken a surprising 2-0 lead over the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals. What is even more surprising is the fact that Shaq has been a non-factor in the series. Shaq is normally bad from the free-throw line, but 2-16 is bad even by his standards. Add that to his 22 points COMBINED in both games and that spells trouble for Miami. It will be interesting to see if they can turn it around now that the series is moving to Miami for the next two games.
Australia’s first World Cup match in 32 years is 7 hours away. I’ll be up early and late to work so I can cheer the boys on - I hope all you other Aussies will be cheering too!
Since the BBQ will be dominated with World Cup content for the next month, I thought I would highlight some other events that are going on in the world of sport before all 4 of you get annoyed with my writings on soccer.
Congratulations to the person who successfully picked the NBA finals to be between the Dallas Mavericks and the Miami Heat - even though you also picked San Antonio to win the Championship before they were eliminated in the second round. Although common sense is telling me that Miami is going to win the series (and the Championship) because of Shaq and Dwayne Wade, it’s hard to ignore any team that beats the defending champions in a game 7 while playing on the champs’ home court. Dirk Nowitzki has been unstopable for the entire playoffs, and I think he’s going to lead Dallas to the Championship.
The French Open Finals will be played over the weekend also, with the women’s competitors already decided: Svetlana Kuznetsova playing against defending champion, Justine Henin-Hardenne-Soreloser-I’m ’sick.’ I would really like Kuznetsova to win this match, but I don’t see it happening. Henin-Hardenne in straight sets. On the men’s side, it looks like we’re heading for another Federer vs Nadal final. Federer is, without a doubt, the best and most complete tennis player I have ever watched, but he always struggles against Nadal, who is the best clay courter around. I think that if they both make the final, Federer will erase his demons against Nadal by winning his first French Open title. If he manages this, I GUARANTEE that he will win the Grand Slam this year, becoming the first man since Australia’s Rod Laver to accomplish the feet.
In local BBQ news, the Portland Trail Blazers have been put up for sale. While I’m not a fan of Paul Allen in the slightest (the fact that the fifth richest man in the world can claim one of his business is bankrupt makes me sick), you can’t deny the fact that he did everything in his power to bring a Championship to Portland. He came close, too. If it wasn’t for the biggest choke in NBA history in game 7 of the 2000 Western Conference Finals against the Lakers, Portland would have won the Championship that year. The city and the fans need a fresh start - they have become increasingly despondent with Allen, and the sale of the team is what they need in order to fall in love with the Blazers again. Anyone have a spare $300 million?
After being less than 5 seconds away from being eliminated in their playoff series againt the Los Angeles Lakers, the Phoenix Suns came back to win game 6 in overtime and then blew the Lakers away in game 7, 121-90. I guess I spoke too soon in saying that the Lakers would make it through to the second round of the playoffs.
courtesy of nba.com
The second round of the playoffs has San Antonio versus Dallas Mavericks, Los Angeles Clippers versus Phoenix Suns, Detroit Pistons versus Cleveland Cavaliers, and Miami Heat versus New Jersey Nets.
In my opinion, there is only one really easy to pick series and that is Detroit over Cleveland. San Antonio and Phoenix are both favoured to win their series, but they are facing two hot teams that could easily surprise their opponents and make it through to the conference finals. If Miami plays the same way it did against Chicago, they will have a hard time getting past a New Jersey team with Vince Carter, Richard Jefferson, and Jason Kidd playing exceptional basketball.
I think Detroit will make it through in 5 games, San Antonio in 6, Phoenix in 5 really close games, and New Jersey in 6. Time will tell.
So Mr. Attempted Sexual Assault gets a $10,000 fine and then Raja Bell gets slapped with a one game suspension because of this (see video).
So basically the NBA is saying that it’s ok to molest a fellow player, but if you grab a player by the shoulder (initial contact was nowhere near his neck) and bring them to the ground then that’s worthy of a suspension. Does anyone really think that Kobe Bryant being on the receiving end of the clothesline had nothing to do with the suspension given to Raja Bell? Bell has done a great job defending Bryant through this series, and without him guarding Bryant in tonights game at the Staples Center, I expect the Lakers to win and advance to the second round. I bet Commissioner David Stern will love the ratings numbers he sees in the second round since it will be L.A. (one of the biggest media markets) and not Phoenix (nowhere near the biggest media markets) that will be playing.
Watching the Clippers and the Nuggets play the other night with some friends, I came across a moment that was reminiscent of John Hopoate. Click on the video for actual footage of the incident involving Chris Kaman of the Clippers and Reggie Evans of the Nuggets.
Needless to say, there is really no room for that kind of behaviour in any sport. Mrs BBQ pointed out that if this incident had occurred in any other type of setting, it would be cause for sexual assault charges. Kaman was incredibly restrained in only reacting the way he did - he would have been well justified to beat the living crap out of him. I believe that Evans should have been suspended for multiple games, but unfortunately, he only received a $10,000 fine for what they called “unnecessary and excessive contact.” You don’t say?
The NBA playoffs have begun and I have to admit that I really don’t have a great idea of who I think will win. I didn’t follow the NBA that closely this season as a result of the poor play and attitude of the Trail Blazers. Despite that, I have opinions on who will win the individual playoff matchups to move on to further rounds. Here they are: In the Western Conference there are two matchups that will be blowouts and two that will be very close. The two blowouts will be the San Antonio Spurs over the Sacramento Kings and the Dallas Mavericks over the Memphis Grizzlies. The two close series will be Phoenix against the Lakers and the Clippers up against the Nuggets; in these two series, I like Phoenix and the Clippers. The fact that the Clippers finally made the playoffs after years and years of futility is good to see, but it’s almost hard for me to believe that I would pick them to win a series.
In the Eastern Conference, I like the Pistons over the Bucks (and Aussie, Andrew Bogut), Lebron James (and the Cavs) over the Wizards, the Nets over the Pacers, and the Heat over the Bulls. After seeing some clips from the Heat vs Bulls game tonight, I wouldn’t be surprised if the Bulls give the Heat a real run in this series. They have a young energetic team and Ben Gordon is just an unbelievable player - can someone please tell me why he isn’t starting for that team?
In other sports news, the Imola Grand Prix gets underway in a few hours, with Michael Schumacher starting from Pole Position. Fernando Alonso is starting from 5th on the grid, and Kimi Raikkonen is starting from 8th. For the Aussies, Webber is starting from 10th. Schumacher looks in good form, and if his Ferrari stays reliable throughout the race, no-one should come near him.
In golf, Stuart Appleby is ahead by two shots going in to the final round of the Shell Houston Open. If he holds on for the win, it will be his second win on tour this year and will get him closer to cracking in to the top 20 in the world golf rankings.
Today I was reading an article by Jason Quick from the Oregonian in which he discusses the fact that Zach Randolph and Darius Miles want out of Portland. Now given previous opinions I have expressed on the bbq, you would expect me to be rather annoyed by this, but I’m not. I’m happy that they came out and expressed a desire to get out of town because now the Blazers’ management will be more likely to take action to ship them out of Portland.
Randolph said that he doesn’t like playing on what is now the worst team in the NBA, and he also doesn’t like the discipline that coach Nate McMillan imposes on the team. I wonder if he realises that the Blazers are the worst team because players like him and Darius Miles ignore the coach and the discipline that he tries to impose. I’m sure that doesn’t compute inside that overpaid head of his though.
I’m pretty sure that if Paul Allen does decide to sell the Blazers, neither of these two players will be here under new management, even if they had not have come out publicy with their desires to be shipped out of town. In the last couple of games, neither Randolph or Miles have had significant (if any) playing time. The group of youngsters that the team has been playing has been showing a lot of energy and the basketball that they have been playing has been extremely exciting to watch, even if there are a lot of errors mixed into their play. I believe the team can build around Sebastian Telfair, Jarrett Jack, and Martell Webster who has been the Blazers best player in the closing parts of the season. If the Blazers win the draft lottery and get the number 1 pick in the draft (please do NOT draft Adam Morrison), we can hopefully draft a solid player who can have an immediate impact. Add to that some veteran players who will be willing to guide the younger players, and the Blazers should be (I hope) in good shape next year and definitely the year after that.
The Blazers don’t need the cancer that is Darius Miles, and they definitely don’t need Zach Randolph’s shoot first, me me me attitude. If the Blazers can find these players a different home over the summer, there will be a lot of excited people in the Portland area.
Last night we got some free courtside tickets to the Trail Blazers - Rockets game. I must admit that I wanted to go because I thought it would be a good opportunity to witness first hand just how bad the team is, and although some players didn’t let me down, there is reason to be somewhat excited for what the future has in store for the team.
After watching the team scrape home for a 76-75 victory, I’m going to go on record and say that the team needs Sebastian Telfair starting. Watching the game last night, it was visible to me that the team flows better when he is on the floor - the kid can flat out make plays, and I think that if he wasn’t playing last night, the Blazers would have been beaten. Of course by keeping Telfair, it means that either Jarret Jack or Steve Blake will have to be traded. Bye bye Steve Blake.
There were two other things I liked last night: Victor Khryapa and Joel Pryzbilla. The team somehow needs to keep Pryzbilla here. They can’t afford to lose him, especially given Theo Ratliff’s history with injuries. Khryapa just flat-out hustles, and that is what this team needs - players that will give 100% effort no matter the score and no matter what is going on behind the scenes. Unfortunately, Martell Webster was kept out of the team last night. Mrs. BBQ and I were both looking forward to watching him play, especially after his recent run of excellent games.
Randolph takes another jumper
What I didn’t like last night was Darius Miles and Zach Randolph. Darius is done. It’s obvious from the effort he displayed last night that he wants out of Portland. He shot 1 of 7 in 24 minutes and that one shot he made was a dunk. Zach Randolph was awful. Does he even know how to give up the ball to his teammates? I counted at least 6 times that he held the ball for at least 5 seconds before putting up an unsuccessful long-range jump shot. Please Zach, give the ball up to your teammates so they can create something for you or someone else. Taking long-range jump shots with a defender in your face isn’t good basketball, as your 6 of 19 shooting illustrates. Learn to pass the ball and make your teammates better.
Darius is happy he gets a shot without defenders around him
