Kobe and LBJ are zuperfans

August 19th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanR

Hey, notice those two basketball stars in the above photo. (Come on, the picture quality isn’t that bad.) If you guessed Kobe Bryant and LeBron James … you are correct, sir! (Or madam.) They were in the stands  at the Kerri Walsh-Misty May vs. the Brazilians match last evening. (Or yesterday morning, or however the hell the time difference works out.)

And look! They saw Michael Phelps swim for gold the other day — or night — too:

They are apparently fanboys of America’s other top athletes, and who can blame them? We are all in a state of Olympic fevor; why women’s gymnastics has kept me up late at night, for Jimmy’s sake. (Don’t get any ideas, it’s for the competition of it all, obvi.)

I like to imagine them giving awkward high fives in the stands. But then I realize they are Kobe Bryant and LeBron James and they are better, much better, than that.

Dwyane Wade is blogging, sort of

June 30th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

Busy day, and so my own blogging has taken a bit of a hit (until later tonight when I finally get caught up, that is), but this is too interesting to pass up: Dwyane Wade has filed his first blog post for the Chicago Sun-Times. Of course, it is the Sun-Times, which means it’s called a “diary” and not a blog — just like Jay Mariotti’s midday missives are “mini-columns” — but it is what it is. There’s nothing particularly interesting, though I do wish I could be a fly on the wall during press-related stuff like this:

We have a lot of fun together on the court, but we also have fun together off the court. Friday night we all got together off the court. Myself, LeBron, Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Carlos Boozer all had a chance to get away from basketball at a club and really chill. We’re going to have fun together and we’re going to keep doing it with the rest of our teammates as well. While I might be one of the funniest guys on this team, LeBron is by far the craziest guy on this team. With him, it doesn’t matter, he will say anything. Carmelo is very silly. We keep J-Kidd (Jason Kidd) and Kobe (Bryant) young because we keep them laughing a lot.

Is LeBron really that funny? I’ve always had the impression that he felt the need to be funny as a means to a very wealthy end, not because he actually was funny. Maybe he actually is funny. Or maybe Team USA is just a very willing audience.

Either way, D-Wade is writing for the Sun-Times, which is kind of strange, I guess, but he is a Chicago guy, and probably sees the Sun-Times gig as the first step in the door. No doubt he longs to one day return to Chicago to play basketball here during our brutally soul-crushing winters. Right.

Should Mike Brown be fired?

May 19th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

I just got done reading both FanHouse friend Matt Watson’s and TrueHoop’s unwittingly dueling takes on whether or not Mike Brown deserves to keep his job. A summary of the points therein:

Watson argues that Cleveland’s give-LBJ-the-ball-and-watch sets are so brutal, they’re actually holding the team back. He concedes that Brown is a good defensive coach, but that until Brown is relieved of his duties — and fans of the NBA are relieved of having to watch Lebron take on double teams from 30 feet away — the Cavs won’t win an NBA title.

Henry Abbott argues that the Cavs’ stunning lack of non-Lebron talent is the reason for their mediocrity, and that even with that talent, Brown has managed to take the team deep into the playoffs in consecutive seasons. Abbott credits Brown for his ability to get the most out of players like Wally on defense, as well as dealing well with the “Superstar Challenge” of keeping a luminary like Lebron pacified at all times. No easy task, that.

Where Henry fails in his argument, I think, is where he fails to recognize just how good Lebron is. Lebron, and not Mike Brown, has been the reason the Cavs have sauntered deep into the playoffs the past two years. Abbott’s argument stresses the way Brown is getting the most out of lesser players, but I don’t necessarily buy that. If anything, Zydrunas Ilgauskus has gotten slightly worse under Brown (though his increasing age is a factor), while the rest of the team has been swapped out for relatively unimaginative three-point shooters, a product of Brown’s insistence on the Lebron Stand-and-Watch-And-Shoot space continuum.

Anyway, it’s not an either/or question. Abbott wants new Cavs players; the Cavs need new players. Matt wants a new coach; the Cavs need a new coach. Players are probably more important in the near term, but just because the players are bad doesn’t mean Brown is good. It means that everyone not named Lebron has been bad. Which you probably knew already.

Debunking the LeBron dunk

May 13th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanR

Look, do not get me wrong: I freakin’ love LeBron James. So when I heard he threw down some sick dunk over Kevin Garnett to ice last night’s game and tie up the series at 2-2, I jetted over to AA to watch the video. I peeped it and was … not so impressed.

First: He didn’t dunk over Garnett; KG didn’t go up to challenge him at all. He simply let him do his thing. (Although, he did foul him with a bit of a shove.) Second: LBJ has done better. Third: I can’t think of a third.

This is not to say it wasn’t good, it just wasn’t what I was hoping for. Too much pre-hype that didn’t deliver. (Unlike the new Death Cab album. This puppy has delivered. Even Pitchfork was somewhat favorable!)

And now that you all know how I feel about a basketball player and his dunk from last night, I’m going to go eat some food.

Jay-Z’s Deshawn Diss: Meh

April 28th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

I wonder what Jay-Z does all day. I know he’s a business, man, but at some point his surrogates can handle the day’s workload — destroying Redman’s solo career can’t be that taxing — thus freeing up Jigga’s time for important non-retirement activities. Like golfing, or marrying Beyonce. Watching Scarface 50 times. And, of course, writing rap songs about Deshawn Stevenson.

Seriously: Deshawn Stevenson. We gotta get Jay-Z a new habit. This is mid-life crisis stuff right here.

Fortunately, it looks like Stevenson recognizes just how cool it is to be the subject of a mild-mannered, arena-friendly Jay-Z diss:

DeShawn, on the song: “That would never happen in Cleveland. I mean, if I even walked into a Cleveland club right now, I’d have two black eyes and I’d be on crutches. And they’d tell me I deserved it too. So, we’re boycotting Love. No loyalty….[Jay Z’s] worth about $500 million, and he’s writing songs about me? What does that say about DeShawn Stevenson? Ballllllling!”

As for the song, I give it a 5.5. A few good lines in there — something about Lebron not being paid enough — but for the most part it sounds like Jay-Z is as bored rapping about Deshawn Stevenson as everyone else is talking about him. Except me, of course, which is why I wrote this post. But now even I am sick of it, and thus likely to be the last blogger on Earth who dedicates any space to it. This is what it sounds like when stories die.

The Wizards should probably stop trying to injure LBJ

April 22nd, 2008 | Posted by PostmanR

The tactics the Wizards are employing against LeBron James to try and curb his game a bit — namely, the cheap shots shown above in part with this Brendan Haywood push — is pretty tactless, but it’s far from unique. Teams back in the 80’s did this kind of stuff to slow opponents, get in their heads, fire up the fans. And small little physical moves (grabbing jerseys on a screen etc.) go undetected all the time. But as Marcel Mutino points out over at Slam today, how much longer can the Wiz continue to do this?

As far as I can tell, their only goal in the series is to knock him to the ground as much as humanly possible.

On offense, there’s no chemistry whatsoever, as guys simply take turns going one-on-one.

[ … ]

Unfortunately for Eddie Jordan and co., no one on the Wizards seems to really believe in this physical plan. Guys have sheepish looks on their faces after knocking LeBron down; when Brendan Haywood got kicked out of the game last night following his hard foul on James, Antonio Daniels slid over to LBJ and asked him if he was OK.

Can you imagine any of the Riley-Era Knicks or Isiah’s Bad Boys checking on MJ’s well-being during their postseason wars? Me neither. So, there you have it Wizards. No one believes you’re hardbody (not even yourselves); focus on the actual game instead. It’s your only hope.

So not only does the plan leave you with a near 30-point loss last evening, but it’s something you’re not even wholly comfortable to begin with. Yeesh.

{Vid HT: Stet Sports.}

What a great day

April 19th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

The Cubs beat Pittsburgh’s brains in (sorry, Lack), the Panera chicken noodle bread bowl was especially on point, and now the above: an absolutely disgusting, monstrous dunk from LeBron James. There is, like, one person in the world who can do that. And he just did. (Video HT: Brinson at TSB.)

Oh, and let’s not forget Suns-Spurs, which just finished up, and which was pretty much everything we can expect from this series. A tactical battle, a couple of overtimes, egregious flopping, a Manu Ginobili game-winning drive, and a bullshit Tim Duncan three that kept the Spurs breathing. This is going to be seven games of craziness.

What a great day. I am to playoff hoops as Ryan Dempster is to Marisa Miller. Visibly … excited.

The new love of my life

March 24th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanE

Filed under: You probably don’t care, but I’m showing you anyway.

Since I excitedly revealed my last pair of basketball shoes over a year ago, the Gils and I have had a good run. Plenty of sloppy pickup games. Plenty of intramural games. A few outdoor shootarounds. Lots of fun.

But sometimes life urges you to move on, to push forward, to accept a new, greener fate. Which is how I introduce to you, dear reader, the new love of my life:

I know they’re patently ridiculous, and I love them anyway. Just like Gus Johnson and Bill Raftery.

LeBron James might be coming out with a rap album

July 3rd, 2007 | Posted by PostmanR

From the, “Wait, no way! A basketball player is doing a rap album?” file comes this bit of gossip out of the Miami Herald:

Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James was partying at The 400 Club at The Fifth on Friday night. According to a witness, James was in the VIP suite with some friends and teammates. He was also with music exec and urban marketing guru Steve Stout, because word is that James has an album dropping in the fall.

As friend of the Postmen Matt Watson points out today over at the FanHouse, we should have seen this coming, considering James is rocking out with a music studio in his new home.

I can only expect Jay-Z will guest on a few tracks, further solidifying that his career has gone to hell since he dropped the Black Album. You know, I would assume dropping a few verses on a LBJ album really isn’t um, too street.

{Via Sports By Brooks.}

LeBron James, in handy Etch-a-Sketch format

June 13th, 2007 | Posted by PostmanE

Like every child of the 90’s, I had an Etch-a-Sketch. (I think it came with my Pogs set.) This is a toy I could never get behind; for some reason, my hand-eye prowess that led me to a distinguished video game career didn’t transfer to Etch-a-Sketch, and that gets frustrating after a while.

Anyway, LeBron might have been fouled last night, and he might not have, but either way, he has something to cherish from these Finals. He has people drawing him in lead. Can’t beat that!

(Via everywhere, including Hoops Addict)