Recently, we have begun to develop a basketball mixmaking team on the message board and one of the recent members (damnshow) has released an amazing video called Steve Francis - Boom! (It’s on) and it has become quite popular. Now, as of right now, most of my blog traffic doesn’t actually visit the forum much because I have, for the most part, neglected to unify the site’s theme and design. I’m getting to that. Though, right now, I’d just like to give my blog readers the opportunity to check out this binary basketball mix.
So the Phoenix Suns being their pre-season by meeting up with the team that got a bit lucky and managed to keep their protected first round pick of the 2007 NBA Draft — the Atlanta Hawks. I have no real reason to dislike the Hawks because I like Joe Johnson, Al Horford, and Josh Smith. I really enjoy watching those guys play. The problem though, is that I’m petty. So for the last year I have wished the Hawks as much failure as I could but in retrospect, I don’t think that turned out to be a very good idea. Seeing as how the Hawks somehow mustered up the ability to make it to the 8th seed and give the 2008 NBA Champions a fight in the first round.
I was also confident the Phoenix Suns were going to win the championship in 2007. We all know what happened then. We were plauged by a dirty ref, a scrub’s clutch assault, and our star big man as well as his backup being suspended. They came close but did we really want to see Kurt Thomas playing 40 minutes?
Could it be the result of Phoenix Suns Curse? Could it be the result of Robert Sarver and his buddy Steve Kerr? Could it be the feiry wrath of witchcraft and voodoo? I’d like to think it was a little bit of all of the above.
So here we are… About to begin the pre-season without Amare or Barbosa in uniform. How is Amare going to adjust to wearing goggles during games? How is Barbosa going to perform after he comes back from being by the side of his critically ill mother?
I’ll tell you. Since everybody actually has a legitimate reason to question the Phoenix Suns this year, the voodo is going to backfire. Yeah, that’s right. All these legitimate questions are going to let the Suns get back into focussing on coming from behind like they did in the year they made it to the Western Conference Finals without Amare. We still have Steve Nash. We still have a new and improved Amare Stoudemire (now with 4 eyes). We still have that massive beast called Shaq that can still take advantage of mismatches and generally being massive. We also have some new rookies that can provide us with some minutes and a couple of them are legitimate backup point guards for Nash.
In fact, I know this year is going to be really good for the Suns purely because of the fact that I almost don’t want it to happen because we are just going to see everybody say how the Suns couldn’t put together a successful season by only playing offense and not playing defense (they actually were average defensively). I know they are going to have a great season because it’s going to come back and haunt me regardless of how much I evidence I have provided in forums, blogs, real life, etc… that the Suns have been unfairly criticized in their inability to get a championship.
So hold your drinks up Suns fans. Here is to a brand new season of failure by win.
Check this new video out from our newest member of the mixing crew, damnshow…
One of the best mixes I have seen in a while and that’s not even getting into the absolutely disgusting clips used from early on in his career. Here are the goods
Ben Gordon has finally come to an agreement with the Chicago Bulls and has signed a one year deal with the team. Per his contract, during that year he is not allowed to be traded. This guarantees that Gordon will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2008-2009 basketball season.
This is exactly what Gordon wants. He has stated that he won’t play for the Bulls again and he obviously thinks he can do better. He doesn’t seem like he is very happy on the team and this contract proves it. Because he was a restricted free agent this year, Chicago had the ability to match any qualifying offers. Chicago got what they wanted by keeping their leading scorer and Ben Gordon will get what he wants as well.
Because of the clause that says Gordon can’t be traded this year, he is guaranteed that next year, he will be able to auction himself off to the highest bidder with maximum comfort. Had he not had that in his contract, the Chicago Bulls would have been able to trade Ben Gordon during the regular season in order to get some value out of him before he inevitably left.
Essentially Gordon assures himself that he will not be forced to play for a different team that he will not likely play for the following year. Good move for him, bad move for the Bulls.
Earlier, the Miami Heat signed point guard Shaun Livingston to their roster. Personally, I think this is a great move by Miami. Even though Livingston might not return as the player he once was, it’s one of those situations where you have to take the chance because it’s low risk and high reward.
While with the Los Angeles Clippers on Feb. 27, 2007, Livingston dislocated his kneecap and tore three ligaments. While his injuries were very severe, I really doubt Livingston managed to acquire a big contract. This laves Miami in very good position for the future. They signed a two year deal to a player that has the potential to drastically outplay his contract.
It’s an extremely easy sign for the Miami Heat considering their lack of talent at the point guard position.
The Phoenix Suns officially signed backup point guard Goran Dragic for a 4 year deal. It seems they have a lot of faith in Dragic. They are talking about cutting starting point guard Steve Nashes minutes in order to work him into the rotation.
Dragic must go back to Slovenia to work out the Visa issue but he is expected to travel to the team to Tucson for training camp.
It seems as though every week my confidence in the Phoenix Suns’ ability to have an outstanding season and bring home the trophy gets smashed. It’s almost like I have a very deep need to have confidence in them because when something happens to the team like D’Antoni leaving or Marion getting traded for Shaq, I always look for the potential positives. This year we have quite a few changes that one could reasonably conclude would give the Suns a better chance at the title than they had the previous year.
However, it seems as though more and more “experts” are losing confidence in the Suns. Though, I have to question the importance of them losing their confidence. For years now most of the “experts” never really promoted the idea that they had a solid chance at the championship despite the contrary evidence. Two years ago I feel they were legitimately a better team when they lost to the Spurs and if it weren’t for multiple scenarios in the Spurs favor, the Suns would have gone on to beat the Cavaliers in the finals. And for every year Robert Sarver has been with the team, they have managed to cut integral players that added to depth, multiple rookies with potential, and traded other players, effectively putting more money into the pockets of Sarver and the rest of the investors; all while keeping the team just good enough remain around the elite teams. So instead of saying something I might regret later, I’ll say this. The real Phoenix Suns fans need to effectively fire Robert Sarver!
Since he is the owner and can’t really be fired, we need to get him to sell the franchise. To do this we need to decrease his profit enough this year so that he sells his ownership to somebody else. True fans will understand that we need Robert Sarver gone! Here is what we can do to help the Suns.
1. Do not go to any games this year.
This one will be hard for a lot of people because you just can’t beat the excitement of seeing the team live. Don’t give in to the temptation.
2. Do not purchase any Suns merchandise
Sure that Barbosa jersey might look nice. Maybe your hat is looking bad because of the sweat stains from the summer. Don’t give in to the temptation.
3. Tell everybody!
Email this article to all your friends. Digg it. Tell your friends not to go to games or support them financially. Get the word out! The more people that make this public, the better.
Sarver is a good business man but he is a basketball fan 2nd. Once he notices a trend of decreased profits, there is no doubt that he will sell the team before experiencing any losses. Once the team is officially sold, don’t forget to reward yourself by treating yourself to some games. Don’t forget to buy a bunch of merchandise as well.
Some interesting news has surfaced regarding Miami Heat forward Michael Beasely. He has decided to fire his agent, Joel Bell. Beasley claims that Bell had failed to find enough endorsement deals to satisfy his expectations.
At first, I wondered just how could a rookie who hasn’t even played in a single NBA game, or even participated in the pre-season training camp for that matter, be able to ascertain just how many endorsement deals he should get. It kind of seems ludicrous when you think about it.
So I decided to do some research on this Jay Bell character and see who his best players are. This was where I changed my mind, and quickly. Jay Bell manages the following players:
John Salmons
Steve Blake
James Jones
Theo Ratliff
Bobby Jones
Solomon Jones
Brian Skinner
Shavlick Randolph
Dwayne Jones
The only thing impressive with that list is Bell’s ability to keep up with the Joneses. Hoopshype also ranks him as the 40th best agent. The salaries of the 10 players he currently works with, including Beasley, is merely $19,271,235. Don’t get me wrong, having a cut of that much money is impressive but there are 39 other people who manage a higher salary of players. Arn Tellem is currently sitting in the number 1 spot and has 34 players that make a total of $192,313,375 a year. Thats an average of $5.6 million per player compared to Bell’s measely $1.9 million per player.
So while some may see this as Michael Beasley being too greedy, it seems as though he’s making a good career move here before he loses anymore money. Especially when you consider that the Heat considered drafting Beasley just to trade him due to maturity issues and many have considered him to be worthy of the number 1 draft pick.
Recently I read an article citing that DMX was arrested in Arizona for 3 counts of criminal speeding, racing on a highway, reckless driving, 2 counts of endangerment, and driving on a suspended license. While I’m not trying to defend Earl Simmons in any way, shape, or form, I would however like to make a point about the article where it states he was captured by not just 1 but 3 stationary traffic cameras while driving on the Loop 101 freeway in his bright yellow 1966 Chevy Nova II.
Both a friend of mine and a cousin were caught by these 3 stationary traffic cameras while driving on the 101. You see, these three cameras just so happen to be within 5 minutes driving time of eachother. Now, I haven’t exactly seen these cameras flash myself but both my friend and cousin claimed to have not seen the flash.
When you are driving on a freeway you tend to stay fairly consistent with your speed and as a result, these cameras seem to be designed to decrease awareness of the flash itself. Personally, I see this as being tried for 3 accounts of the same crime (lol crime). In the event that an officer pulls you over, you are fully aware that you are being caught for something. You are then made aware, and then it becomes your decision to committ that crime again. This situation with the 101 cameras seems to be just a clever way for one of the richest cities in America to make even more money by exploiting the fines of one crime into 3.
However, in the DMX case, they apparently tried him for everything they could find.
I just thought I’d check in with you all and hopefully get a few comments from some of you on what you thought the future of the Phoenix Suns was…
I’ve talked about it multiple times… With Dragic coming over, Nash still playing well, STAT playing out of his mind, and grandpa Hill and grandpa O’niell playing better than they were in the previous seasons, I think the window of opportunity is still open. Not to mention the possibility of Diaw and Barbosa as well as the other added talent to the Suns in this off season.
One of the biggest things I’m worried about his how Shaq the stalker is going to affect the team chemistry this upcoming season…. He’s got some pretty crazy stuff out there…
