- HOLY CHRIST JESUS. It’s the day. If you can properly contain your excitement, someone has likely stripped you of your adrenaline glands. Tonight, the Houston Rockets, along with five other NBA teams, will play an actual game of basketball‒ you know, the kind that matters. To commemorate such an occasion, every website in the world has posted a Houston Rockets season preview. Or at least, quite a few got out there in the last 24 hours. SB Nation’s Mike Prada feels the crunch of the 24 minute limit, worrying how a team that struggled without a year of its superstar will handle what will essentially be half a year of him. Though Yahoo! Sports’ Kelly Dwyer actually predicts a worse record than does Prada, his view on the team is quite a bit rosier, particularly on its future: “Even though the Rox should be winning more games than they lose, this is still a holdover year, as the front office figures things out on the fly. And while this team had an impressive singular focus last season, you can only sustain these things for so long. The intensity and competitive zeal that marked that truly impressive 2009-10 run might not return in full force, this year, which could allow for a drop off. 2011-12, however, could be pretty amazing.”
- Continuing the sneak peek-iness of this Daily so far, we turn our eyes to Basketbawful, a site with a sardonic streak that hits a spot close to my heart (or close to the vacuum where it once was placed). Sadly, with that same cynicism readily apparent in its Southwest Division preview, Houston is given the expected treatment thanks to its injury concerns and general recent history of playoff ineptitude: “Still, if Yao can stay healthy for once, the Rockets have two legit inside threats (Ming and Scola), a great young point guard (Aaron Brooks), a crack perimeter player (Kevin Martin), and a group of solid role players/shooters (Lee, Shane Battier, Chase Buddinger, etc.). The Rockets have talent. They definitely have talent.
What they also have is a franchise player who’s body is made of broken glass covered in soggy marshmallow and tissue paper. Meanwhile, their second best player (Martin) is more of a crispy papier-mâché, having missed 88 games over the past three seasons. Oh, and two speedsters (Brooks and Lowry) surrounded by a bunch of guys who have the quickness of a thick paste (Battier, Ming, Miller, Scola, Chuck Hayes, Ruben Patterson). It’s kind of hard to fast break when most of your team takes 10 seconds or more to cross halfcourt. Doesn’t another Yao injury, 40-45 wins and a brave but ultimately futile playoff chase sound about right? Yeah, it sounds right to me, too.”
- So, that team the Rockets actually has to play tonight? Right, the reigning, two-time champion Los Angeles Lakers. It features the best post player in the game, the best veteran talent and late-game finisher in basketball (at least last year) and a completely revamped and improved bench. Oh yeah, and an offense that never stops moving or stops in general (or loses). For more on the most successful offensive strategy in basketball history, at least as implemented by Phil Jackson, Sebastian Pruiti delves into some of the options that the Triangle affords.
- My guess is that you’ve seen LeBron’s new Nike ad. It’s full of quick shots and hints, while never tearing away from the indelible images of LeBron facing his own effacement head-on. This kind of ad screams Michael Jordan in the same way Kanye West’s new short film gladly took on the mantle of Michael Jackson so rightfully. It acknowledges the unmitigated ill will he has bred this offseason and thumbs its nose at it with a giant grin, the kind that could ably fill a mural for seven years in a town that needed every last bit of hope possible. Few will say so, but if by the end of this year LeBron finds himself with an armful of trophies and a new public persona, this will have kicked off the Year of LeBron. I’m hopeful that by the end of all of this, that phrase will exude less contempt than its “Summer of Bron” counterpart does these days.
- As one phoenix rises from its ashes, another goes to sulk in Turkey. I can’t really yell about how much 12-year-old Jacob (and I’m guessing a lot of our younger readers) would have been embittered at the league that did this to Allen Iverson, hip-hop’s public face, the man who had to shoulder the weight of American blackness in professional sports. Ah, but if I knew then what I know now. Had I been able to appreciate exactly how harmful he had been to another culture, that of the 76ers, one for which he was directly responsible, maybe the heads and I would have turned our back on the cornrows. Had I been able to understand what taking 25 shots a game could do to an NBA offense, maybe I would have gotten it. Maybe I would have understood that the NBA didn’t do this to Allen; AI did this to AI. Regardless, none of us can feel good about this. The face of the NBA, for better or worse, for almost half a decade will likely retire playing in another country because no one thinks he can make a team better in America. Even Detroit, where ostracized superstars go to wilt, has already had its fill of him. He’ll fail, we’ll forget, and he’ll be back in five years for us to act like none of this ever happened. But it did. And it meant something, even if it isn’t what I or anyone else thought it did 10 years ago.
- Anyone who thinks the Heat won’t be as good as advertised and enjoys a nice, cold libation should probably hit up Whiskey Tango All-American Bar & Grill, where the bar/restaurant promises a tab of up to $25 to anyone who bet against the Heat in any regular season game. I’m guessing this bar knows a great deal about hamstring injuries (Thanks to TBJ for the link).
- I don’t buy into contraction talk much, but apparently, the league has its eyes set on the Bobcats, Grizzlies and Hornets if such a thing were to occur. Though I’m mostly interested in how that talent would be divided (nothing better than a fresh breath of “Maybe Chris Paul will one day be a Rocket” to start one’s day), this seems like Stern’s bluster is hitting monumental levels. CBA negotiations should be fun. Too bad there’s this whole 2010-11 NBA season thing to get in the way.
