Xpinionated: Other Squads

It happens anywhere NBA fans congregate. My team is better than your team. Eventually, the discourse evolves into the past successes of the teams involved. However, when the discussion involves to the greatest franchise the NBA has seen, there are only two teams that can be considered: The Los Angeles Lakers and The Boston Celtics.

So how do we define the greatest franchise in NBA history? Titles? Playoff appearances? Rivalries? Overall win/loss records? There are no standards for this sort of thing. No guidelines that indicate what should and should not be considered in the discussion of the greatest of all time. I think it would be best if all were considered. Disclaimer: I am an avid Lakers fan.

Most NBA fans are aware that the Celtics hold 17 NBA titles while the Lakers organization sits at 14 titles. At first glance, the edge here would go to the Celtics with three more championship rings. However, if you take a closer look, the bulk of their championships came in one fantastic time period with 8 in row in the sixties. There is one crucial point that is often overlooked. Winning the initial NBA Finals championship -- which was also their third straight title counting the two previous years in the NBL and BAA -- began a run in which the Lakers would win five of the first six NBA championships. The Lakers franchise dynasty actually began before the Celtics dynasty emerged, contrary to popular (and reported) belief.

Including this season, the Lakers and Celtics have been staples in the postseason. The Celtics have made the playoffs 46 times in 63 seasons, an amazing 73% postseason appearance rate. They have been division champions 26 times, won 20 of the 31 Conference Finals they’ve appeared in, and currently rock a 17 – 3 finals record.

In comparison, the Lakers have made the playoffs in 56 of their 60 seasons, a 93% clip! The Lakers history (including the Minneapolis years) includes 28 division championships, 29 of 37 Conference Finals won, and a underwhelming 14-15 Finals record.

So with all these numbers crunched, it looks like we may still be knee deep in indecision. I think the final leverage comes in the definition of the word dynasty. As defined by dictionary.com: dynasty – a family or group that maintains power for several generations. The Celts have maintained power at several different stages in their NBA history. The Lakers have maintained power at all stages in their NBA history. Every twenty years or so, the Celtics seem to have a re-emergence – the 60’s, 80’s, and possibly the 2000’s. However, the Los Angeles Lakers were winning titles in the 40’s, 50’s, 70’s, 80’s, and 2000’s. Granted the Celts did win titles in ’74 and ’76 but they were hardly considered the dominant team of the decade. In fact, the only decade for which they can claim dominance is the 60’s. On the other hand, the Lakers can claim the 50’s, 80’s, and arguably the 2000’s as ‘their decade’.

With two teams so close in every way, it is definitely an argument that can go either way. In this author’s eyes, the Lakers are the greatest franchise in NBA history.

In foxsports.com's latest NBA Power Rankings, the Miami Heat are ranked 30th out of 30 teams. The Los Angeles Lakers are ranked 1st out of 30 teams. How's that for a 'flip the script' kinda moment?

Technorati tags: Lakers, Heat, NBA Opener

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Miami seeing what L.A. already knows

With Smush Parker's point guard play disappointing the Heat ( Pat Riley believes he's better at shooting guard), people inside the team are wondering if he will be traded when he becomes eligible Dec. 15.
Even at shooting guard, Parker (shooting 30 percent entering Tuesday) has limitations, with one NBA personnel director noting that even though he can shoot from long range and finish at the rim, he's hurt by his lack of an ''in-between game,'' which Parker admits.
The Heat tracks plus/minus ratios, and although it's a small sample size, consider: Per every 48 minutes, Miami entered Tuesday's game outscoring teams by 1.5 points with Parker on the bench, but it is being outscored by 16 with him in the game.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

West Semi-finals Suspensions

Let's take a different look at this situation...my 'off-the-wall-I'm-just-being-a-hater-cuz-I-hate-the-Suns' theory is as follows: Let's not blame Amare or Boris for coming off the bench. Let's not blame Stern for being to harsh or enforcing the rule too rigidly. Hell, let's not even blame Horry for the hip check. Instead, let's blame Steve Nash. That's right, I said it. Blame Nash. See, Nash in the offseason plays soccer. If there is a sport that does more acting when trying to draw a call from an official more than basketball, it's soccer. Perhaps if Nash would not have flopped, his sidekicks wouldn't have left the bench and we would be talking about Game 5 purely based on the expectations instead of talking about the fallout of Game 4. Though, many are calling it a wrap for the Spurs now, remember the Suns were shorthanded in Game 6 last year and down 3-2 to the Lakers and came out with a victory....granted it was Bitchilistic Bell which isn't nearly a big a loss as Diaw is much less Amare. But still....

BLAME IT ON FLOPPING....THE LEAGUE HAS SO MUCH POTENTIAL ONCE FLOPPING CAN BE CONTROLLED.

Technorati tags: Steve Nash, Robert Horry, Amare Stoudemire, Boris Diaw, San Antonio Spurs, Phoenix Suns, NBA, Playoffs, David Stern

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Some Straight Clarification

Technorati tags: Gay Amaechi, NBA, Locker Rooms, Straight Men, Gay Men

As we are all painfully aware, John Amaechi came out recently. Anyone with a negative thought about this is considered a barbaric homophobe. In fact, if you say anything to the effect of possible locker room situations, the gay community will crucify you and claim that you have some homo-erotic fantasies about locker room freak sessions.

As a straight guy (something I don't feel the need to shout to the world every chance I get....but that's another story), I want to try to clarify the locker room hesitations some straight athletes may have with a gay teammate. Despite Amaechi's and other gay folks' claims that straight men are so vain in regards to thinking every gay man will hit on them, I think there's a misunderstanding. A straight man will notice a female, regardless of attraction, or intent to solicit further communications. I look at, with at least a cursory glance, most women that cross my path, with no regard to their sexuality. I don't lust after them. I don't want to date them. Hell, most of them I don't even want to talk to but I look because my preference is women.

Now, without ever having been gay, I would imagine that the same goes for a gay man. He will look at a man simply because that is his preference. No intention of hitting on, or trying to establish a relationship. Just looking because that's what we as humans do when encountering our sexually preferred gender.

Locker rooms are genderistically (<-I like that word) segregated. So, before homosexuality was 'out', the locker room was a place where despite possibly being homophobic, you could still dress and undress under the assumption that you weren't being looked at sexually (again, I'm not saying a gay man will see any naked man and pine for them....but as a straight man, I have looked at all kinds of naked woman --regardless of attraction levels -- and rarely turned down the opportunity to see them...). Woman, whom were assumed to prefer men, were not sharing lockers next to a man and vice versa.

In the situation of a gay athlete, things change. If I have an openly gay teammate, will I feel as comfortable taking a shower with him after the game? I would not. Not because I feel that he wants me, or that I'm so damn sexy (although I am), rather it's just a simple situation of I don't want to be looked at by a dude while I'm butt arse naked.

Better yet, let's say a woman decides to fight the common battle of joining some all-male institution...say a gym. Would she feel comfortable showering in the men's locker room? And vice versa, after all, not all straight men are comfortable showering in front of women. Does that make them chauvinistic?

Friday, January 05, 2007

Bitchilistic Bell Back At It

Technorati tags: Raja Bell, Kobe Bryant, Andrea Bargnani

Raja Bitchilistic Bell is back at it. He was suspended for one game without pay for kicking Andrea Bargnani. Let's see, last year in the playoffs he intentionally closelined Kobe Bryant citing Kobe's arrogance etc as the driving factor. What now will he say in regards to Bargnani....after all the dude's first name is Andrea so he can't be all that instigative.

Perhaps Bitchilistic Bell has a maturity and a temper problem...maybe a complex derived from his pure sucktitude...

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Kobe, D-Wade, King James-Let the comparisons begin. . . .

Technorati tags: Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade, Lebron James, NBA, MVP

The following quote from si.com says it all, in my opinion, in regards to the leading candidate for the 06-07 NBA MVP:

Our verdict: Wade's championship credentials have made him the fashionable pick, LeBron is an appearance in the Finals away, but when, as a scout says, "you are the player all others compare themselves to," well, Kobe can take the last shot for us, anytime.

But if you really need to read the whole article, here ya go

Monday, October 23, 2006

Even the computers say Shaquille Sucks

In June's NBA finals, for instance, the Lenovo Stat showed the best combination for the champion Miami Heat included Dwyane Wade, James Posey, Gary Payton, Antoine Walker, and Alonzo Mourning. Missing from the list is O'Neal, the 7'1" Miami Heat center who is an 11-time NBA All-Star and named one of the 50 Greatest Players in league history. But it was with Mourning -- rather than O'Neal -- that the Heat had the greatest point advantage during the championships, according to the Lenovo Stat.

Find the full story here

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Shaq owns up . . . sort of

Shaquille O'Neal is finally maturing.

Basically, all I did with D-Wade is just have discussions. Not only that, I learned that, you know, from dealing with the first two guys, I may have made some mistakes in the way I dealt with those guys. We'll never know, but I looked at the mistakes I made with those guys and I didn't want to do it with him. Like, when I was with Penny, we were both young guys and since everybody was going to put the pressure on me, we're going to do it my way. Period. You don't like it? Forget you. The same thing when I went to L.A.

Now that I'm much older and I got a younger guy, and I see that the other two guys didn't really like the yelling and took it personal, so I never yelled at D-Wade. And it probably was the best move I ever made, because he's the first other superstar where we're best friends. The other two, we never hung out. We never talked. We just never did anything ... ever.

Read the interview in it's entirety here.

NBA Power Rankings Week Of 01/15/2008
Rk	Team	Last Wk	Rise/Fall	High/Low	Comment
1	Lakers	7	(+6)	1/15	(26-11) Will Kwame Brown pick up the slack during Andrew Bynum’s absence? Don’t count on it. Count on Kobe to start scoring 35 per night – or more, like the 48 he dropped Monday on Seattle. Team: Home \| Stats \| Fantasy
2	Hornets	5	(+3)	2/19	(25-11) They’ve won seven straight on the road. Imagine how good they'd be if they enjoyed an actual home-court advantage. Team: Home \| Stats \| Fantasy
3	Celtics	1	(-2)	1/4	(30-6) Their defense has remained excellent, but offense is becoming a serious problem. They averaged 82.5 points in going 1-3 last week Team: Home \| Stats \| Fantasy
4	Suns	3	(-1)	1/9	(26-11) Grant Hill's appendectomy means Boris Diaw needs to play a much larger role. Can he handle it? Team: Home \| Stats \| Fantasy
5	Pistons	2	(-3)	1/9	(28-10) They must have been wasted by the end of that five-day, four-game road trip. Nothing else explains scoring 65 vs. the defenseless Knicks. Team: Home \| Stats \| Fantasy
6	Mavericks	4	(-2)	1/8	(23-12) They might be No. 1 if they’d knocked off the Kings on Monday. But if you can’t beat the Kings, you can’t be the king. Team: Home \| Stats \| Fantasy
7	Trail Blazers	8	(+1)	7/22	(23-14) Of all the improbable success stories on this team, the most improbable may be James Jones, a career sub-40% shooter who can’t seem to miss this season. Team: Home \| Stats \| Fantasy
8	Spurs	6	(-2)	1/8	(25-11) The Tony-Timmy-Manu triumvirate is finally intact. So why do the Spurs still look so average? Team: Home \| Stats \| Fantasy
9	Warriors	10	(+1)	9/28	(22-16) Monta Ellis is a perfect fit for Nellie’s offense. He just needs to become more consistent and improve his shooting range, but he’s only 22. Team: Home \| Stats \| Fantasy
10	Jazz	14	(+4)	5/16	(22-17) Utah protected its home court with four straight wins. The Jazz are now 16-3 at home, 6-14 away. Team: Home \| Stats \| Fantasy
11	Nuggets	11	-	7/11	(21-14) Other than Marcus Camby, no one on this team seems particularly interested in playing defense. Team: Home \| Stats \| Fantasy
12	Wizards	15	(+3)	11/27	(17-15) The consecutive wins over the Celtics were especially surprising when you consider that Washington hadn’t beaten a team with a winning record since Dec. 1. Team: Home \| Stats \| Fantasy
13	Cavaliers	13	-	10/20	(19-18) It’s a good thing LeBron is putting up the numbers of two normal players. Because Sasha Pavlovic has provided next to nothing. Team: Home \| Stats \| Fantasy
14	Rockets	16	(+2)	5/19	(20-18) Houston's offense has gone through Yao during Tracy McGrady’s absence. It should do the same when T-Mac returns. Team: Home \| Stats \| Fantasy
15	Raptors	17	(+2)	10/17	(20-17) Chris Bosh’s commercial is cute, but his play will determine whether he makes the All-Star team. Totaling 78 points and 25 boards in back-to-back wins helps his cause. Team: Home \| Stats \| Fantasy
16	Magic	9	(-7)	2/16	(23-16) They’ve now gone 7-12 since their 16-4 start. The main culprit? Arguably the NBA’s worst backcourt. Team: Home \| Stats \| Fantasy
17	Nets	12	(-5)	12/20	(18-19) For a while, it looked like New Jersey was going to make a move in the Eastern Conference. But it’s looking more and more like this is a .500 team – nothing more, nothing less. Team: Home \| Stats \| Fantasy
18	Hawks	18	-	8/21	(16-17) No wonder the Hawks are so good at home. Their stat crew uses fuzzy math in counting opponents’ fouls. Team: Home \| Stats \| Fantasy
19	Bobcats	26	(+7)	13/27	(11-21) In a span of seven days, they beat the Nets, Celtics and Nuggets – and nearly beat the Cavaliers and Pistons. That would be a good week for an elite team, much less a mediocre one. Team: Home \| Stats \| Fantasy
20	Kings	23	(+3)	15/30	(15-21) Aft er sitting more than a month w ith a groin injury, Kevin Martin picked up where he left off. The man is a scoring machine. Team: Home \| Stats \| Fantasy
21	Bulls	20	(-1)	8/30	(14-21) Andres Nocioni is starting to get untracked for Chicago. Will Kirk Hinrich join him? Team: Home \| Stats \| Fantasy
22	Pacers	19	(-3)	11/28	(16-19) That Western swing was predictably brutal. Indy allowed at least 105 points in all five games and lost four of them. Team: Home \| Stats \| Fantasy
23	76ers	21	(-2)	21/27	(14-24) Consecutive 20-rebound efforts by Samuel Dalembert haven’t kept the Sixers from freefalling. Team: Home \| Stats \| Fantasy
24	Bucks	22	(-2)	9/25	(15-23) That road trip against the Lakers, Suns and Jazz went about the way you’d expect – three L’s. Team: Home \| Stats \| Fantasy
25	Grizzlies	24	(-1)	23/27	(10-27) Pau Gasol’s role in the Memphis offense is increasing. So is his trade value. Team: Home \| Stats \| Fantasy
26	SuperSonics	25	(-1)	23/29	(9-28) Nick Collison is playing like a legit NBA power forward. As this franchise looks toward the future, that’s a positive sign. Team: Home \| Stats \| Fantasy
27	Clippers	27	-	13/27	(10-23) Sam Cassell's not making shots and the Clippers backcourt has no keepers, unless you count Shaun Livingston. Team: Home \| Stats \| Fantasy
28	Knicks	29	(+1)	18/29	(10-26) Rumor has it Stephon Marbury will opt for ankle surgery to hasten the end of his season. Other Knicks might be wise to follow suit. Team: Home \| Stats \| Fantasy
29	Timberwolves	30	(+1)	28/30	(4-29) Beating the Heat gives Minny a reprieve from the cellar, at least for one week. Team: Home \| Stats \| Fantasy
30	Heat	28	(-2)	17/30	(8-28) Miami had a loss stricken from its record (temporarily) based on an error by the Hawks stats crew. Pat Riley is now protesting the other 28 losses on the basis of human error by his players. Team: Home \| Stats \| Fantasy
	advertisement

Xpinionated

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

ESPN Special Report: LeBron's One Hour Decision

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Lakers - The Greatest NBA Franchise!

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

What Others Won't Say

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Turn of events