Rose's Thorn

The dream that was the start of the playoffs has turned into a nightmare. And it's not just one of those nightmares that you wake up from in a cold sweat and then it's over; this has been a nightmare that has replayed over and over and over, and won't end anytime soon. It seems like every time I turn on the TV I see another replay of it. Derrick Rose was attacking like he always does, like few others can, and then something went horribly wrong. His knee just gave out and he slowly lowered himself to the court, holding his left leg. I couldn't believe it was that bad at first. I immediately assumed that he had just tweaked his ankle again and would be fine in a couple of days. Marv Albert was freaking out. He wasn't helping. Shut up, Marv! It's not that bad! Stop making a big deal out of it! A pause came, and the trainers came out to check on Rose. A hush came over the United Center, and his teammates looked on in disbelief.

I still couldn't accept that it might be serious. A close-up of Kyle Korver's face told the whole story. He - like the rest of the Bulls, like the city of Chicago, like Bulls fans everywhere - had just had the wind knocked out of him. The "Windy City" was wind-less (lame, I know, but I couldn't resist; consider it a little bit of comic relief). Then Derrick got up, supported on either side, and walked off the court and into the locker room. Ok, at least he wasn't carried off. He might be okay.

The Bulls won, but whatever. For the next few hours I got texts from my two older brothers and some friends expressing their condolances. Now that I have started coming to terms with what happened, I appreciate them more, but at the time I was still convinced that he was going to be fine. I was doing some homework. I decided to take a break and turn on the TV for a minute. ESPN was buzzing with the news. The nightmare came into full swing. My favorite player had torn his ACL. He was done for the rest of the season, effectively dooming the Bulls' hopes for a championship this year and probably next year as well. I was depressed, and I still am depressed. I'm sad for Derrick Rose, for the Bulls, for Chicago, and for the NBA in general. He is one of the league's brightest young stars, the youngest MVP in NBA history. I've never enjoyed watching someone play the game of basketball like I enjoy watching Derrick Rose. Here's to hoping (and praying) that he will make a full recovery and we'll get at least most of the same Derrick Rose back again.

I don't care if you're a Bulls fan or not. If you're a basketball fan, you should be feeling some of the hurt from the events of yesterday's game in Chicago. I sure am.

Check out Mike Wilbon's article about it.

Bulls/Sixers Game 1

It's playoff time, and I couldn't be more excited about the next couple of months. We just reached halftime of the first game: Bulls vs. Sixers in Chicago. The first half was a game of catch-up for the Sixers. They started off with a 3-0 lead, but that was the last time they would lead. They tied it once at 28-28, but the Bulls followed that with a 9-0 run to start pulling away and they ended the half with an 11-point lead.

Derrick Rose looked like his healthy self in the second quarter. He made Evan Turner look silly on one drive. That's what Turner gets for thinking that he would rather play the Bulls than the Heat. Rose and Turner are old high school rivals from Chicago. Rose went to Simeon and Turner went to St. Joseph's. Rose got the better of Turner back then, and it's looking like that trend is going to continue.

The third quarter is underway. Eight minutes to go in the third and D-Rose just hit a three. He's back! Actually I should probably save that declaration for his next monster dunk like we saw in last year's playoffs.

Coach Thibs is barking so loud I can hear him through my TV. Looks like he already lost his voice in this game. The Bulls have their biggest lead of the game with seven and a half minutes left in the third at 14 points.

Rip Hamilton looks real good. I love the chemistry between Rip 'n Rose. I love Rip's mid-range jumper. It's a thing of beauty. And there's another three from Rose!!!  And the lead is back to 14. When he's making his outside shots, there's no way you can guard him.

Boozer is looking good as well. He didn't miss a single game this season. What? Boozer stayed healthy? Yeah, you heard me right. And there he is mixing it up a little bit after the play. I like it, Booz. There was a little confrontation there. Technicals all around, but I like the intensity.

The third quarter comes to a close with Taj Gibson extending the lead to 13 with a couple of free throws. Here comes the fourth quarter, and the Bulls are looking good.

Coach Thibs just did an interview with Sheryl Miller and he sounded like a frog. Gotta love the croaker.

The lead is 17. Might we have a White Mamba sighting? Don't jinx it, Brett. I haven't even noticed if he's suited up in a jersey or in some Armani apparel. I hope he gets in. We love him.

If you're watching this game, Utah fans, I bet you wish KK shot like that when he was with you. Two words: en fuego. Three words: a luat foc! He can't miss! Dangit he missed one...finally.

Well the game is winding down. There's 3:20 left in the fourth and the bulls have a 95-81 lead. D-Rose has 21 points, 9 rebounds, and 9 assists. Let's finish off that triple-double, eh Derrick?

Rose just went down holding his left knee.........

Eff.

Aight he's up and walking. He's gonna be okay. He's gonna be okay. He's gonna be okay. An "MVP!" chant came from the crowd as he got up. That's better than the disbelieving silence that followed his going down.

And that'll do it. The Bulls win with a score of 103-91. If D-Rose is seriously hurt I'm gonna be depressed.

'Til next time.

NBA MVP Race 2.0

What a lame MVP race. No one is really claiming it. Lebron is making a strong case for it right now after his 17 straight points performance in the fourth quarter against New Jersey the other night. Although let's realize what I just said...against New Jersey. But that's basically what we've got to work with. Durant and the Thunder aren't playing that great lateley. Kobe is hurt. Kevin Love has tanked along with the rest of the T'Wolves. So Lebron might end up just winning it by default, which he would love by the way. Did you guys catch that interview when he was asked what it would mean to win a third MVP award? Here it is. You wanna be the MVP for your teammates and your fans, huh? Hahaha! Yeah right, Lebron. You wanna be the MVP so that everyone will continue to think you're awesome. Without a doubt you're the most gifted athlete ever to play the game of basketball, but you need to win some championships with your teammates. Your teammates don't care if you win the MVP "for them," and neither do your fans. It makes me laugh every time I think about the fact that he really said that. Your teammates want to win a championship, and you're fans want to see you holding that bigger, more important trophy at the end of the season. I agree with Skip Bayless on this one. Lebron's focus needs to be on the more important issue: winning a championship.

Here's a shout-out and a tip of my hat to Pat Summitt. She's stepping down after almost forty years as head coach of the Tennessee Lady Vols women's basketball team. She retires as the winningest basketball coach in NCAA history. Take a look.

That's all for now.

MegaSuperPost - Catchin' Up

So it's been a while since I posted. I've been busy with school and stuff. I'll take my last final tomorrow and then I'm free! For a couple of days until spring semester starts.... I need to get caught up on the world of sports, though. There has been a lot of exciting stuff going on, including and especially the NHL playoffs. Who knew, right? It might be kind of unexpected coming from me because I've never been much of a hockey fan, but it has very quickly risen to my top three favorite sports to watch. It goes 1) basketball, 2) soccer, 3) hockey, and then I don't really care as much. Football is probably number 4. Hockey is so smooth and fast-paced, and you can never go wrong with random fights thrown in here and there. This year's playoffs have been full of fighting and big hits. You can tell that these guys really care about the games. There are so many different teams who feel that they can win the whole thing, and it makes for great television. Here's to hoping that the NBA playoffs are just as intense and exciting this year.

Speaking of the NBA playoffs, is anyone else a little bit worried about the top few teams in each conference? Am I just a paranoid Bulls fan? I don't like all of these injuries. Sure, the team is still winning even without Rose and, sometimes, Deng and/or Rip, but we've seen what happens when Rose comes back and is rusty after missing multiple games. He did okay against New York, but the team as a whole didn't play that well. Then there was the game against Miami. Rose scored 2 points on I believe 1-11 shooting from the field. That was not a typo. It was his lowest point total in a game since he entered the NBA. Yeah, he was rusty, so we need to get him back on the floor for a few games before the playoffs start! Ughhh. The cool thing, though, about that Miami game was that Chicago basically beat the Heat with their bench. The starters weren't that good. Only when Taj, Omer (aka The Lurking Turk), Brewer, and the others came in did the Bulls make runs. They locked down Miami defensively.

Let's talk about Miami a little bit. I watched the footage of the huge party they had when Lebron and Bosh signed with them for the first time today. What a joke. It was telling when the announcer declared, "Here are your Miamiiiiiiiii Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaattttttt!!!!!" There were only three guys standing on the stage..................Here's a news flash for you, Miami: basketball is played with five players on the floor at a time. You might wanna look into that. And that's exactly what the Heat are: they're a two man show (sometimes three). You can't win a championship like that. Here's an idea, Lebron. If you wanna win "not one, not two, not three, not four," and so on championships, you better play with not one, not two, not three, not four, but five players. And you and Dwyane better decide what your roles are instead of doing this "Devil went down to Georgia" fiddle duel you've got going. If you don't, you're gonna lose to the Celtics in the playoffs before you even get the chance to meet up with Chicago.

Soccer time! The Champions League semi-finals are in full swing and both of the Spanish powerhouses went down in the first leg. Bayern Munich beat Real Madrid 2-1 and mighty Barcelona fell 1-0 to Chelsea. The Barca/Chelsea game was an anomaly. Barca had 24 total shots to Chelsea's measly 4. Barca won the possession battle 79% to 21%. Holy crap! And they lost!? I didn't watch the game, but I assume that most of the Barcelona shots and possession came in the second half. Chelsea scored right before halftime, and so they would have just packed it in and gone into defensive mode, hoping that they could hold on to the lead. And they did. Props to them. As for the other game. It looks to have been legit. Bayern just outplayed Real and came out on top.

So Pele says that Neymar is better than Messi. Come on, Pele. Really? After I heard this, I decided to go to the source of all wisdom and find out for myself. I looked up some videos of Neymar on YouTube. He reminds me more of Cristiano Ronaldo. He's more flashy. He'll dance around and complain about calls. Messi, on the other hand, just flat out delivers. If I'm a coach and I need a goal, I'm looking to Messi. He is the best player in the world right now, and there is no doubt in my mind that, barring an extreme turn of events, by the end of his career he will be absolutely in the discussion for the greatest player of all time. He just beat the all time scoring record for Barcelona.......and he's 24. He's 24 years old!!!! Is everyone else not flabbergasted by that? I am. I'm flabbergasted.

That's enough for now.

Until further notice.....

...it's still Kobe's league. 

Tonight I had the chance to watch the second half of the Lakers/Clippers game.  When Kobe is on, it's a beautiful thing to watch.  His shot is just pretty.  When he took that shot tonight to ice the game, you knew it was going in before he even shot it.  He has made a big shot like that in three of the Lakers' past four games, and in the other one he scored 40; a big, clutch shot like that wasn't needed.  Sure, there are a few players in the league right now that put up better overall numbers than Kobe.  The list is short.  Kobe is the leading scorer in the league right now, but Lebron, Durant, and Kevin Love are filling up stat sheets.  That being said, I would rather have Kobe on my team taking the decisive shot in game 7 of the NBA Finals.  Until that changes, it's still Kobe's league.  Until Lebron or KD prove themselves on the biggest stage, it's still Kobe's league.

On a different note, I miss D-Rose.  The word is that he'll be back for tomorrow night's game against the Celtics.  Hopefully he can stay healthy so that his name can be added to the above-mentioned list of Kobe-challengers.  Is anyone else as psyched as I am for this year's playoffs?

That's my take for the day.

Takin' on Kobe

I'm taking this opportunity to give my take on Kobe Bryant.  We all know that Kobe is one of those iconic players that causes a division among the masses.  You either love him or you hate him.  I'm gonna go ahead and channel my inner politician by saying that I neither love him or hate him.  I respect him.  He is without a doubt one of the greatest players in NBA history.  I enjoy watching him play.  I admire his fearlessness and his confidence.  I am definitely not a Kobe-hater.  I would probably like him more if I wasn't always surrounded by Kobe-lovers who try unsuccessfully to convince me that he's better than Michael Jordan.  That kind of annoys me, and so I like to mess with them sometimes and bag on Kobe a little bit, but it's all in good fun.

On a related note, the Lakers are an interesting phenomenon this year.  There's been all of this talk lately about their chemistry problems, rumors that Mike Brown doesn't have control of the team.  Mike Brown isn't Phil Jackson.  Of course there will be some bumps in the road in his first season as head coach.  The Lakers have had to learn a new offense and adjust to Brown's style.  All this worry about their chemistry is an overreaction in my opinion.  There are certainly a few rough edges, but nothing to be too worried about.  Bynum is playing great, Gasol is as solid as ever, Sessions has breathed new life in them with his uptempo play, and Kobe is Kobe.  There's no Fisher, though.  I'm not even a Lakers fan, but it's sad to see Fisher in a different uniform.  I watched the Lakers/Thunder game last week with my older brother, Thayne, who is a big Lakers fan.  He was definitely sad to see "Fish" wearing something other than the purple and gold.

On a different note, congrats to Kentucky on winning the National Championship.  They were the best team all year, and now they've proven that the rankings were correct.  I'm excited for this year's draft.

Tomorrow my intramural basketball team plays in the Sweet 16 of the 2nd division tournament.  Wish us luck, and for anyone in Provo who wants to come watch, the game is at 9 pm in gym 144 of the RB.

That's my take.