NBA ALL STAR WEEKEND 2025 & ETC

 I don't think I need to say too much  about Mac McClung's winning the dunk contest except to say in terms of creativity and athleticism it was the best I've ever seen, Remember the dude is only 6'2" tall. That little rim touch before dunking the last of his jumps was pure dunk contest desert. I'm writing on Sunday morning, so I'm holding off what I think of the new tournament format for the All Star Game, but I have a feeling the NBA might have a winner. It smells like it will be more competitive. 

As for the contests themselves, the addition of Stephen Castle proved that there are dunkers in the NBA, to make the competition meaningful. It's up to the league office to vet the contestants more thoroughly. The first two other leapers Andre Jackson and Matas Buzelis were mediocre at best. The 3- point-shooting contest remains the most competitive. The skills competition really needs a face lift. The shooting part needs to fit the concept of SKILL? This contest should be about a player's handle and passing, or if there must be shooting it should be floaters or reverse lay-ups. I'd love to see spin moves, crossovers and change of direction, etc. This would add a creativity component to the contest. Speed, yes, but creativity as well. The contest needs to get the fans up on their feet. Imagine, a Wembanyama vs Kyrie in a handle contest. See what I'm saying? Big Shout out to Sir Charles for donating $250,000.00 to the Glide Center. 

ETC

I've been critical in the past of the All Star game, particularly the game itself, as boring. I'm looking forward to the new format this afternoon. But my ETC (above) has to do with the negativity I'm reading from fan comments. Not just actual criticism, which can be constructive, but meanness. This kind of vitriol has increased since the Trump era began and is worse since his reelection. Trump has opened the Pandora's box of meanness and vitriol. It has got to stop, people. Let's be human again. Let's think kindness. One negative MAGA dude compared the NBA All Star Weekend to a CARNY side show. This guy needs to get a life. Instead of CARNY we should think CARNIVAL, like the Mardi Gras or Rio Carnivale in Brazil: music, dancing, spectacles, joy, fans and players mingling, good food, friendship, that's what the All Star Weekend is all about. As a nation, we need to jam all of Trump's meanness back into his Pandora's box, so the rest of us can live our lives positively. 

AIR McCLUNG

McClung pausing
on the last rung
of his air ladder
taps the rim
for good mesure
before he dunks
for fifty points.
And if my eyes 
didn't fail me 
stayed airborne
for a moment more
just for the legend.

HAS THE NBA GONE MADDOG & Etc

Is it only me, or has the TV sport honcho set sent out a memo to their sports commentators scream at the top of their lungs at every effective play executed, even if is not particularly spectacular? The Super Bowl was too much to bear. Any completed play over ten yards received an enthusiastic cheer that in years past might have earned a sincere well done and anything beyond ten yards--especially catches by wide-open receivers had me clutching my ears. 

Am I exaggerating? I don't believe so. It's been this way through the entire NFL and NBA season, commentators going  Ga-Ga over every frigging play--spectacular or not, and not is usually the case. Not that good plays are unimportant. But a simple back door pass to a cutter for a dunk does not require testing one's lungs to see how loud they can function. Every completed 15-yard pass a wide receiver snares and tiptoes out of bounds with is not the catch heard around the world. 

Where is the subtly and dignity of the play-by-play announcer gone, long time passing? Gone to Mad Dog everyone and Stephen A like everyone - with apologies to flowers and the seriousness of Pete Seeger's marvelous antiwar song. But, hey, is anybody out there in TV-sports-land just fed up with Stephen A and Chris "Mad Dog" Russo screaming over each other and other broadcasters who emulate their absolute nonsense. Can anybody understand what in the hell Shaq and Sir Charles are talking about when they're screaming at each other and Kenny is trying to get a point in that might have something to do with basketball and Ernie Johnston is simply looking silently silly. 

What's sad is that some very good announcers and color commentators who years ago would never have dreamed of screaming their lungs out for every dinky play are now on board with this Red Bull strategy. If you think I'm wrong, go back even two years and you won't find Chris Collingsworth and Mike Tirico shrieking at each other.   

I get it. This is theater of the absurd and sports is strutting on the stage. But I yearn for the savvy and dignity of Chick Hearn and Bill King in the NBA and Pat Summerall, Curt Gowdy & 49er Lon Simmons in the NFL and many more I listened to on radio and television. Even, as far as the talking heads on daily television like the Pat McAfee Show are concerned, I'd take even Howard Cosell over them any day. 

So I don't sound like a cranky old man, I'd like to shout out for Malika Anderson host of NBA Today and her color commentator crew: Richard Jefferson, Cheny Okwumke, & Kendrik Perkins for providing a show that is both enthusiastic and informative. I'm a huge fan of Big Perk with his very thick Texas drawl that does not interfere with a marvelous vocabulary and usage of the English language. Malika allows her crew to over-decibel, but brings them down to commentary level before they go too far. Bravo, the four do not carry on in the same histrionics of Stephen A and Mad Dog, And a shout out to Doris Burke, who is very knowledgeable, On occasion, however, Doris does get bitten by the screamer's bug. Come on folks most Dunks are dinks these days and threes are getting to be ho-hum. You can't make them more sensational by screaming them sensational.  

ETC

Warriors' news: so far so good, as Jimmy Butler has made life easier for Steph Curry, as Steph's point production has skyrocketed since Jimmy has come on board. It's best, of course,  not to get to enthusiastic, but better enthusiasm than depression, which was the state I was in watching poor Steph get double and triple-teamed all over the court.  

And what is the deal with the new owners of the Dallas Mavs? They had to sign off on the trade, which is leading to all sorts of conspiracy theories. Even IF Luka was not in shape, this trade of a 25-year-old offensive wizard for a 35-year-old AD with an injury history does NOT make any sense. Will we ever learn the true story? 

Coming up soon is the anniversary of Wilt Chamberlain's 100 point game, Here is a poem I wrote about The Dipper. 

WILT THE GLOBETROTTER   1958/59

                  For all the children of the world

 

Wilt the Stilt, his fancy tricks
were skyward done above the rim.
Kids in all the countries of the world
cheered the ball when from those heights
the ball dropped in. It was a miracle of flight
those balls and Wilt in uniform of stars and stripes.
And when he landed on the court
it was only for a visit that was short
before he bounded back into the air
of the arena, ball in hand, and waved hello
to the children of the world below: hello, hello!
I’m Wilt the Stilt, I Dipper dunk, I’m here for you
to have some fun & learn with all my pals
The meadow lark, the Goose and Marques
Haynes who dribbles with his forehead through
the gap between my legs set wide apart.
Then sing for us Sweet Georgia Brown
as we travel from town to town, the clowns
of basketball and joy. Globetrotter of the heart.
 

A PULLING THE TRIGGER

 Pulling the trigger is an apt metaphor for the trades that have just occurred. Will the bullets hit their marks or will they miss, and if so, how badly? I'm going to take a look at the two blockbuster trades to examine the trajectory of the bullets. 

THE LUKA/AD TRADE: The bullet is going to miss for both teams. For the Mavs, it may miss by a mile. In the first place, as great as AD is, he is prone to injuries. More importantly, why was AD needed on a frontline that is one of the Mavs strengths? Dereck Lively is going to be a super star center very soon, and Daniel Gafford at 6'10" is a power forward/center as rugged as they come. Then, there is PJ Washington, a talented stretch-4. The Mavs front court is better than solid. Of course, if GM Niko Harrison trades Gafford for perimeter offense (that they lost with Doncic gone),  AD's  trade makes sense. There is still a few days until trade deadline, so Harrison may have something up his sleeve. It better be a rabbit to make up for trading away one of the truly great scorers in NBA history. 

ABOUT THE LAKERS: Pulling this trigger was a no brainer most pundits say. I say, yes and no. Luka assures the Lakers a new face of the franchise when LeBron leaves, perhaps as soon as next season. But, for now, the Lakers are without a Big D presence in the post. Unless the Laker's GM makes another trade pronto for a center to fill the void left behind by AD's absence, this season is going nowhere. Luka is ball dominant, so is LeBron. What happens to all the other players watching Luka and wondering where they fit? The season could be over before they figure things out. The Lakers bullet will miss but by not as much as the Mavs. This could turn out to be as bad a trade as ever there was.

KINGS/SPURS TRADE: The Spurs' bullet will be a bullseye. Fox's ability to penetrate virtually at will facilitate a  Wemby dunkathon. That the Spurs pulled this off without losing their young core makes the bullseye more of a bullseye. Just in time for Pop to return to the bench. This is a long term fix and they were on target. 

As for the Kings. They are left without a true point guard. At the same time they filled a very important need. They now have a solid three-ball shooter. They traded two years ago for Heurter who was supposed to be that guy, but he was to unpredictable and couldn't play a lick of Defense. Levine is not a great defender, but his shot from distance is pure. The Kings missed the bullseye, but they didn't miss too badly. They still need an aggressive power forward and desperately need an athletic back-up center.

ETC: 

One has to believe LeBron James had to be consulted by the Lakers before they pulled The trigger on the Doncic/AD deal. Right?  I wonder what AD thinks of that. I also wonder if, and here I'm reaching, Lebron has a plan for his future for the remainder of this season and the next that does not include the Lakers. His last game time courtside interview was cryptic and his smile just a little too sly. 

When it comes to pulling the trigger on a Jimmy Butler trade, it's my opinion that in the case of Jimmy Bucket-of-tears, if it happens, the bullet will boomerang. Couldn't happen to a more worthy malcontent. 

Look for the Warriors to pull the trigger next.

No poem. Instead, I offer a recommendation for a book. Those of you interested in creativity, read |Big Magic, by Elizabeth Gilbert. It is not just for artists, but for all people about thinking outside the box. For example, as it relates to the NBA - how the Pelicans should start thinking about Zion and the 76ers should start thinking about Joel Embid's health issues.  

THE CENTER WILL NOT HOLD

 Yesterdat I suffered a kind of depression that was both intensely personal and at the same time beyond personal.  I was witnessing the most immoral and unethical human being I could imagine being inaugurated as president of the United States, and knowing, horrified,  that a majority of Americans voted for him, even though Donald Trump's immorality and lack of ethics was and still is well known, How could they? What personal justification could have motivated them to vote for such evil? I thought of the following poem by William Butler Yeats

he Second Coming

By William Butler Yeats

Turning and turning in the widening gyre   

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere   

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst   

Are full of passionate intensity.

Surely some revelation is at hand;

Surely the Second Coming is at hand.   

The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out   

When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi

Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert   

A shape with lion body and the head of a man,   

A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,   

Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it   

Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds.   

The darkness drops again; but now I know   

That twenty centuries of stony sleep

Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,   

And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,   

Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

Copyright Credit: n/a

Source: The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats (1989)

GETTING CLOSE TO TRADE DEADLINE

Here are some of my thoughts about the which teams should make a trade for the good of the team, but also for the good of the player, which is a little different slant.

Miami Heat: Pat Riley needs to get rid of Butler as pronto as he can. He should try for Bradely Beale. 

The Phoenix Suns: For Bradley Beales sake, make the trade for Butler. Butler will give the Suns a heck of a good couple of seasons before he starts pouting again. In which case he'll be too old for anyone to take him seriously. Looks like Nuric is up for sale. How about the Lakers to spell Anthony? 

The Lakers need a real point guard desperately.  Van Vleet of the Rockets?  Perhaps a pass first guy might be the best. 

The Sacramento Kings. They need a more athleic Big back up center for Sabonis than Lem. Proba bly not likely but they migh want to consder going to the Rockets for Jabari Smith, Steven Adams and a first round draft choice for DeAron Fox. 

Golden State Warriors: I'm back to believing that the Dubs could make a run if  all their injured players come back healthy after All Star Break. However, if they could get Vucevic from the Bulls, he would really help, A big who can shoot the three, is a smart passer, and can compete with the Big Bigs like the  Joker. 

For the good of Markkaanen, the Jazz should trade him to a team competing for a championship. By the time he jazz can realistically via for higher than a playin, the Finish star wil be on he downside of his career. Not fair to him. 

TWolves made a bad trade getting rid of Towns. Randle and Gobert viia for the same space on the court, and Rudy is an immovable object. It might be too late for a trade without disurpting the team more than it already has been disrupted. Naz Reed is by far the better fit. I'd take a chance and trade Randle now for Cam Johnson if the Nets would go for it and a first round pick. 

I've been thinking about coaches lately. Doug Christie surprising me with the Kings. All the years Coach Kerr has made my life happier by creating great baskeball teams. Spoelstra of the Heat seems to have the kind of chops it takes to last so long - fair, tough and smart. Coaches make a big difference. I think Nick Nurse is a fine coach but is stuck by management between a rock and a hard place. Cleveland found a winning coach. I think back to all the great collegiate coaches. Ben Neff was my high school coach.at Lowell High in San Francisco. When I left high school I knew moe about how to play basketball than all the players that I would be playing with in college. The poem below has a lot to do with both the good and tthe bad. Which is reality when it comes to coaching. Consider Bobby Knight of Indiana. 

Benny Neff

Coach, I loved you. I owe my fundamentals
to you. I do not hold it against you
that you called me a sonovabitch and
that you questioned what I was good for
and that your anger wound up as spit in my face.
Those of us who could withstand your anger
learned how to play the game of basketball
so well that we carried it with us into college
and me into the pros. But I remember a boy
trying out for the team you frightened badly,
who ran and you chased him and he swung
up in to the standard and sat like a bird
perched above the hoop crying while you
threw basketballs at him, one after the other,
and the rest of us, thinking it was funny,
fed you the balls, throwing nice crisp
two-handed chest passes just the way
you taught us, fingers straight, thumbs down. 

BEWARE REDUX

 This is not exactly time for the NBA to panic, but it's time for the league to listen more carefully to the grumbling of dissatisfaction with the game and players. I follow The Athletic and read comments about players, teams and league. More and more I'm reading about spoiled players, high ticket prices, absent superstars, and, what bothers me the most, boredom with the game itself. 

This is the high flying, acrobatic game that back in the early 21st century that made me happy to watch, a reminder that the fundamental pleasure of playing basketball was really based on its playground roots. This is no longer the case anymore, or more to the point I should say the game has left the playground and become a racetrack. 

I don't believe I'm alone. I've talked to NBA fans and an unsettling number of guys and gals experience boredom: Too much mad dashes full court and to score or kick to open three point shooters, too much dribble drives and kick, too much pick and roll and pop and drive and kick to open threes. Iso and kick to three point shooters. Predictable, predictable. The game remains exciting to a certain physical extent, but it's losing it's relationship with its fans. Losing, NOT lost. Not yet, So, I'm playing the role of Nostradamus. Beware NBA! 

Too much of the same-o-some-o, like too much seasoning can ruin the stew, or two little leaves it bland, there is a fine line between the amazing athleticism of the NBA game and too much athleticism. High flying dunking and three point shooting has become commonplace. There are team that play a decentr brand of motion offense, but it, in my opinion, the reads don't have enough time to avoid the predictability of its reliance on athleticism, the drive into the paint and kick to the open three point shooter. Not yet, but there is a growing ho hum. 

Perhaps, I'm not in tune with what the public wants to see in an NBA game. Perhaps, but it's not the vibe I'm getting. So, I've asked myself, what does the NBA need to do to retrieve its fan base that is slowly slipping away as the TV ratings suggest? I'll just mention a couple of possibilities:

1. Ticket prices have got to come DOWN, or in some way make the games more affordable for fans. 

2. A SHORTER season. That would help with the injuries to players as well as reducing boredom.

3. The 24-second clock must become a 30-second clock in order for teams to develop offense more.

4. Increase the LENGTH and WIDTH of the court. Lengthening the court would make the Mad Dash less           frequent. Widening the court would bring the easier corner three in compliance with the normal three     point distance. 

5. Increase the distance of the three point line to 26-feet. It would help to bring back the importance of          the mid range shot. 

6. Now, the most controversial of my suggestions: the first part of the season must have greater meaning. The Cup was not a bad idea, but it really is a Band Aid fix. The league should consider changing the way the final standiings work from a simple wins and losess to a point system based on quarter points. The winners of each quarter should earn a certain number of points. The winner of each game shoudl win an addition number of points, in a sense this turns the game into four separate games of 12 minutes, or perhaps, consider lowering to 10 minute-quarters, which could reduce the time on the court and thus reduc the possibilites of injuries to some degree. Owners and players need to readust their profit margins for the good of the overall game. In today's world TV ratings are essential. The league need to look beyopnd this present windfall tv contract to the next one. I know all this sounds drastic, but it should be given some real THINK.

Finally, I guess what I'm suggesting is to slow the game down a notch. Give the fans a chance to breathe a little between spectacles of athleticism. I leave you with this; What's attractive about the NFL game from the fans' point of view is that between downs and changes from offense to defense, fans have time to contemplate, make guesses, become part of what they are watching. 

It's winter and that means in parts of our country, Curling is on its way. Fans growing as I write. 

CURLING      by Tom Meschery

Let’s hear it for curling, a sport in which
two brooms, like blockers in the NFL
(I’m thinking Packers, Greenbay in the snow)
lead the running back, a guy named Stone
(not exceptionally fast, but relentless)
down the icy field: masked fans in parkas,
sipping from flasks. They’re watching curling
on local ice, while I’m enjoying building
this extended metaphor, thinking that Milton,
had he a sense of humor, which there’s no
evidence he possessed, might have appreciated.
 
My wife also enjoys curling. “What’s not to like
about a sport played with brooms?” she asks.
“The ice needs cleaning, and the players
are only doing what any good wife would do.”
She’s talking to me while dusting,
which comes before vacuuming, a rule
in her sport that must never be broken. 

NBA BEWARE

 Before I get to the BEWARE part, first let me congratulate the Warriors for getting back to playing like the Dubs. They smacked the a 76ers team, complete with their big three, Embid, George & Masey on the court at the same time  by 30 plus points. The ball moved fast and acurately. The defense was steady and there were few turnovers. Everybody contributed, and yes, Step Curry was brilliant. He did something he's never done in his storied career; he went 8 for 8 from three. Nine would have broken the league recored. In the post game, Curry quipped, "the season ain't over." What a glorious Warrior start for the New Year. 

Okay, I've changed my mind. I feel so good after watching Curry and company play last night that I don't have the heart to do my impression of Nostodamus. I'll save it for my next Blog. Tune in. 

AULD LANGSYNE by Scottish poet Robert Burns

Should auld acquaintnce be forgot

and never brought to mind?

Let's not forget our loved ones as we move into this coming year Sing with gusto. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR AND GO WARRIORS. 

 pop? well, so be it. Certain Bigs shoot threes these days. I also bored because I sense that the players for the early going of the season