Let's not even get into WHY a professional basketball player is on the cover of Vogue.
I know the above magazine came out a while ago, but now because of recent events it would seem that LeBron James and Tom Brady have even more in common – other than having their arms around Ms. Gisele Bundchen. On Saturday night, the Cleveland Cavaliers were surprisingly eliminated by the Orlando Magic, which means that both LeBron and Tom know what it’s like to play a nearly flawless season, only to have your teammates disappear in the playoffs.
Ouch.
Now I don’t mean to take anything away from the Magic. I mean, other than “the shot heard round the world”, Orlando would’ve had the sweep. Dwight Howard is damn near unstoppable if Coach Stan Van Gundy (seriously – one of the dumbest names I’ve ever heard, and I know a guy name Harry Roller) decides to build an offense around him, Hedo and Rashard create problems because of their size (6′-10″ shooters?!), and Rafer Alston may be one of the more under-appreciated players in the league. Together I believe they actually cause more of a matchup problem for the ladies from Lalawood (ya, I know, I just don’t like the Lakers), than the Cavs would have. So in case anyone was wondering; yes, I am cheering for the Magic in the Finals (as opposed to Commissioner Stern).
As for LeBron…well, the MVP award should keep you warm until next year. And you can always take solace in knowing that you lost to the eventual champions three years in a row – just like Shaka-Dula!
This is a GREAT little snippet from NBA on TNT and one of the #1 reasons that I LOVE Charles, EJ and Kenny …. (cuz thy play jokes on each other and make each other look like goofs)
I’m a dumbass ….
ROFLMAO
“I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany.”
Oh gawrsh, I hope they never take that show off the air ….
May 30, 2009 at 12:51 pm · Filed under NBA Playoffs
I watched the NBA game yesterday between LA and Denver and I noticed a few things that made me feel worse than I already felt ….
1. Denver came out, in an ELIMINATION game, and played FLAT!
I have not seen defense that poor since my High School days. Did they realize that they were about to get eliminated?
And people will say, well LA played great defenc. First of all, no they didn’t. They played average at best. But instead of taking advantage of their strengths, Denver settled on shooting treys. And on offense, the Nuggets fell asleep so many times and left punks like Vujacic and Walton open for short range jumpers. And there was NOTHING complicated about what the Lakers were doing, it was all just pick N roll and poor defensive rotations. Hell, we cover those schemes better in Men’s League than Denver did yesterday!
The ONLY players that tried, from Denver, were Kenyon Martin and Chris Andersen. Everyone else was content to swagger like teenagers and launch treys. So kudos to Martin and Andersen for their effort. You earned the respect of quite a few people with yesterday’s game, even if you did lose.
It makes me wonder ….. It’s ALMOST as if Chauncey Billups is content with simply getting to the Conference Finals …. lol.
2. The refs REALLY screwed the pooch last night.
It’s difficult for me to understand how a ref can call a foul on Denver (literally!) 5 seconds into the game – a touch foul! And that was just the beginning! The calls were inconsistent ALL night and, at times, they bordered on ridiculous. People REALLY need to understand that JUST because an offensive player barrels his way through the lane and makes contact with a defender, it does not mean that it is always the defender’s fault. And MORE than that, JUST because a player grunts in mid air while attempting a shot, it does NOT mean he is actually being fouled!
I saw Joey “Crack” Crawford was the Senior Official at the helm for the game and I had to wonder why HE would get the call. I mean, he’s got such a sketchy track record over the last few years and there have been so many complaints about his reffing …. it’s difficult for me to not think there was a fix. Not that the refs were PARTIAL per se, but that the league puts specific referees who call the games a certain way … and those calls affect the outcome …
Someone really needs to keep stats on refs the way they do on players …. Hell, I’d do it if I had the time …
3. Kobe Bryant is a chameleon
Now, I’ll probably get a lot of people who will hate me for this comment, but who cares. Kobe Bryant is a poser – a Michael Jordan wannabe. Everything from his number (whether it’s Jordan or because of LeBron) to the tongue wag, Kobe’s game screams of an individual who is a carbon copy of another great player. Yes – Mr. Jordan. Don’t get me wrong, Kobe has an amazing array of skills. But unlike guys like LeBron, DWade or Melo who go ahead and carve out their own legacies, tendencies and habits, Kobe is taking everything from Michael Jordan (right down to the coach) and adding a “twist” to it. I find it difficult to respect him, despite his infinite skill, because of his inability to be himself. That being said, he really did torch Denver last night, not that the Denver Nuggets cared.
4. Luke Walton has no business being in the NBA
I mean, sure, his dad is one of the “all time” greats. But aside from that? He barely gets playing time, and when he does he comes in and makes some really DUMB plays – like fouling a guy while the ball is not yet in play – that hurts his team. He is so bad, that not even one of the greatest coaches in the history of the NBA (Phil Jackson) can help this kid out. I mean, how long has he been coached by Jacks? And he’s STILL a3rd or 4th option on the bench!! Let him go already … then gain, if he wasn’t with Phil, Luke is so dumb he’d probably strangle himself with a wireless phone cord ….
May 27, 2009 at 7:41 am · Filed under NBA Playoffs
I don’t know why, but I had expected LeBron and his crew to just waltz to the Finals and to see them on the ropes against the Magic really makes me wonder what the heck is going on!
Are Kobe and the Lakers going to win a chip?!?!? I would hate the NBA if it let this happen.
Call me a hater. I don’t care.
But I’ve watched 3 of 4 games in this series and it is amazing! Don’t miss this series, it is EPIC.
So Vince McMahon – PISSED after the WWE was kicked out of Denver’s Pepsi Centre – goes onto Monday Night Raw and “kicks Stan Kroenke’s ass” in front of the Staples Center crowd.
Haha. I guess he can do that sort of thing. I mean, this business man is no ordinary business man. And I guess he can embarrass people at his own discretion, regardless of any business ventures that may be lost …
Man, I loved WWF (WWE) when I was a teen and this story makes me wanna watch it again!
The BEST part about it is that the Final wrestling match of the night featured the wrestlers wearing the Denver Nuggets and Lakers jerseys! And, not that I’m a fan of them, but the Lakers won and the crowd went nuts. I think it would have been funny as hell to see this go down.
Good day to all of the “regulars”, and a warm welcome to the new-comers. I am the infamous “Nate Dawg” or “Big Nate” (depending on which previous post you read), and I have recently been promoted from regular Hoop Fiend reader to a fellow (albeit part-time) author! I am also a bit of a “hoop fiend”, and I would like to first off thank Rico for granting me this privilege.
All right, enough with the smoke blowing…so last weekend, as you may have already read, Shaka-Dula made a short pilgrimage to Brandon, Manitoba for a little basketball tournament. It was fun, going on a bit of a road trip, rooming as a team at a REALLY NICE bed and breakfast, not getting ANY sleep because some people (not naming names…ahem… Steve) snore really loud, eating at BP’s and watching Lebron prove he IS the best player in world right now, and even playing a little basketball ourselves. While we may have ended the tournament exhausted, and with only a 2-2 record (which really is decent considering our competition), I think those of us that went became much closer as teammates – and more importantly, as friends.
May 25, 2009 at 9:19 am · Filed under Men's League
In looking at the comments that were posted by Nathan, I realized that I completely neglected to thank the Eisbrenners (Wayne & Judy) for being generous and gracious enough to take the time to videotape and photograph our games in Brandon.
It is always a pleasure having them around and we appreciate the effort they made in getting to our games.
May 24, 2009 at 4:41 pm · Filed under Men's League
We finished our weekend with a record of 2-2. Our points for was 184 and our points against was 197 for a +/- of -13. All in all, not a bad set of numbers.
It was in this tournament that I came to a group of realizations, as well ….
#1 – We start slow, apparently.
And maybe it was just THIS particular scenario but it seemed like it took us a long time during the game to get into the groove of things. Once we did, it was usually when we would mount our comeback and take a lead. Against the regular teams anyway. With the Brandon Team, we were able to hold the ship steady after we got into it. But it is something to consider for the upcoming season. Maybe I need to start showing up earlier to warm up?
#2 – There is a HUGE difference between CIS (University Basketball) and Men’s League – And what is that difference? Size, Skill and Conditioning.
All the starting guards we played against that play U Ball were like 5′-11″ and over! Our guards aren’t so genetically privileged in that sense.
And I’ve read somewhere that it takes something like 10,000 hours of ‘work’ to be able to consider going Pro. And in talking to a few of the alumni players who play University Ball, they say that they shoot something like 800 shots per day every day of the summer. Over the course of an off-season (May – November – 6 months, give or take) we’re talking about 144,000 shot attempts at practice (18o days * 800 shots), if the player indeed shoots only 800 shots per day. Now, if a player takes 2-3 hours a day to shoot those 800 shots, then we’re talking about 450 Hours (144,000/800 = 180 practices * 2.5 Hours = 450 Hours) per offseason. If that player plays his full 5 years of University Basketball, he will have received 2,250 hours of training focused SOLELY on shooting!
This isn’t even mentioning the personal coaching they get to further develop skills, the physiotherapy and nutritional training they receive so that their bodies operate at optimum efficiency OR the conditioning they do either! It’s NO WONDER we lost by 15 and 21 to these guys!
In contrast, my team practices (read: scrimmages) approximately 3 hours per week during the season and we have ONE game per week that takes maybe 2 hours to play. So we invest, in the course of a 6 month season (November to April), 120 TOTAL hours per season in our own personal development. No personalized skill development, no nutritional help, no additional conditioning or shooting. Plus OUR off-seasons are spent working, taking care of families, doing basic cross training once every few days and trying to find places where we can get a good run in during a Saturday or Sunday afternoon for conditioning, because we do not have access to University facilities. And WE’RE a more dedicated team, I would say, in comparison to some of the other teams in our league.
So there is a HUGE difference between University and Senior Men’s and you can’t even begin to compare the two.
#3 – We really missed our other team members and we are spoiled by having such a great group of guys.
I think this tournament really highlighted how much we depend on ALL of our guys on the team. Without our full complement of players, we’re forced to play longer, work harder and do MORE when out there. Having a full bench of quality players is a luxury that we often take for granted until we don’t have the numbers for a game. So I have to give out a big thank you to all of my teammates for sticking with it and always doing their best.
—-
Nothing special, I’m sure. But something that I had not thought about before, so I felt it was all worth mentioning. I also have to give a shout out to a few people:
Randy and Uly for being willing members of our team for the weekend – you guys did a great job and fit in perfectly with us. It was a pleasure to get to know you both a bit better.
I also want to thank Rob, Pam and Terry Szmon at the White House Bed & Breakfast for being such awesome hosts. Your hospitality was appreciated and your breakfasts were delicious! If anyone needs to stay overnight in Brandon, these people have one of the classiest businesses in Brandon, Manitoba. I highly recommend them.
Thanks as well go to Chris Kraus and the University of Brandon for hosting this tournament. We had a blast and hope to do it again next year!
May 24, 2009 at 3:15 pm · Filed under Men's League
Our final game of the tournament was against this team from Dauphin – called something like “Dauphin Dynasty”. They looked like an average Men’s League team – which is to say, they looked like someone we’d face in our league and someone we’d have a fighting chance at playing against. lol.
Well, we went down by like 8 in the first half but once again brought it back to within 1 by the end of the First Half. More than anything, a few of us – maily me – looked tired and out of sync on the court. But fortunately for us, we hang our hats on our D – some days more porous than others.
The second half was more typical of our usual play. Tight up pressure, man-on-man, fast break ball. Nathan started to play with some fire there and Tackie and Kaiser hit some big shots. Jimmy and Uly were making some nice plays on both ends and, in the end, we were able to pull out a 47-36 score, in our favour.
ALL that being said, there were no playoffs and after our fourth game, it was time to head back home.
May 23, 2009 at 11:21 pm · Filed under Men's League
Our third game in the tournament turned out to be against a mish mash of Univeristy players from Winnipeg, Brandon and Manitoba (Universities). I knew one of the kids who was playing on the team; Zim. Nice guy, hard worker, good shot.
Well, we finished our first half down by 1. A great start, if you ask me, but I was frickin tired. I had imagined myself as being at 100% for the second game because we played at 9:00pm - full 9 hours after our first game – and I felt decent coming into it. But … no. I was bagged. My legs were gone (I shot 3 or 4 airballs from up close) and my stamina was pretty well gone. I was sucking wind and begging for a sub after only 6 minutes of action.
The second half was worse. It was (to me, anyway) nothing more than them running and shooting fast break 3 pointers and us being unable to stop them. We lost the game by 15 – definitely more encouraging when compared to the final score of our first game. But it was pretty frustrating that we lost because of lost defensive assignments, lack of communication and stamina issues.
Now, you have to understand, our team prides itself on running opponents out of the gym. But against this team (and the one earlier), we were run out of the gym ourselves. It was frustrating, to some extent. The final score was 49-64.
They had this one kid who was 6′-11″ tall. I haven’t played someone that big since High School (Todd Macullogh). This kid dunked on a fast break on us tonight. Everyone screamed. ~shrug~ Call me a hater, if you want, but I was somewhat unimpressed. I mean, he’s feet, 11 inches tall!! He puts his hands up and he’s, like, 9′-0″ tall! He barely has to jump to dunk! So I should HOPE that he is able to dunk! And why were the other people screaming?! It’s not like they dunked it! I’m of the “two points is two points” school of thought, and I’ve never been much impressed by dunks to begin with. Whatever.
In the end, I actually felt a lot better about our second game than our first one.
I had the fortune of having someone take video and pictures of the game. So I guess I will be uploading that at some point this week.
May 23, 2009 at 11:07 pm · Filed under Men's League
Our second game in this tournament was against the Home Team – essentially a University of Brandon Team. One guy was apparently a member of The Canadian National Team as well. They had their starting shooting guard, point guard, power forward and one of their assistant coaches playing.
We played at 12:45pm and it was rough.
The first half ended with us being down by 22. They sat their starters at the start of the second and we were able to bring it back to within 12, but when it got to that, they brought their starters back in and, in about 3 minutes, the lead had ballooned back to 21 – which was the final score. So we actually ended up at +1 for the second half, which is not bad. If we had been able to string together a first half like that, who knows how the game might have turned out – still probably with a loss but maybe it would have been by less?
I had complained that it was unfair at the start – having Semi Pros and University teams playing with Senior Men’s teams – but in the end, and in retrospect, I suppose it’s a good learning experience for us and it can only make us better as basketball players. Whatever doesn’t kill you, right?
May 22, 2009 at 11:42 pm · Filed under Men's League
Our first game happened tonight. We played a team called something weird like The Flame Throwers. They were from Estevan, Saskatchewan – which is a pretty far drive just to play in a tourney.
We started slow – something that would happen after a 2 hour car ride with no supper. We were down by 15 at one point, but at the end of the First Half, we managed to pull back in with some pretty fierce D and we ended up being up by 5 at the end of the Half.
In the Second Half we came out scorching hot and went up by 15 before letting the team back in at the end of the game. We only won by 12, but it was still a pretty dominant performance. The final score was 43-31.
Tomorrow we play 2 games. One at noon and one at 9pm. It will be a grind but it should be fun.
So my Diary of a Mad Hoop Fiend finally migrated over from Yahoo 360 – and about time too. Their servers were so crappy that it would take me like 30 minutes to make a simple word based post because of all the dropped connections – not to mention the fact that they are, apparently, Shutting down Yahoo360 next year!
I didn’t even notice this until LAST NIGHT but I am SO glad that I decided to move ahead with my own domain …
That being said ….
All of my P90X posts have migrated to their own blog and that means that my basketball and P90X discussions are separate now. So if you don’t wanna read about me working out, you don’t have to.
There’s a good chance that while playing as a child or stepping on an uneven surface as an adult you sprained your ankle–some 25,000 people do it every day.
Sometimes, it is an awkward moment when you lose your balance, but the pain quickly fades away and you go on your way. But the sprain could be more severe; your ankle might swell and it might hurt too much to stand on it. If it’s a severe sprain, you might have felt a “pop” when the injury happened.
A sprained ankle means one or more ligaments on the outer side of your ankle were stretched or torn. If it is not treated properly, you could have long-term problems.
You’re most likely to sprain your ankle when you have your toes on the ground and heel up (plantar flexion). This position puts your ankle’s ligaments under tension, making them vulnerable. A sudden force like landing on an uneven surface may turn your ankle inward (inversion). When this happens, one, two or three of your ligaments may be hurt.
Tell your doctor what you were doing when you sprained your ankle. He or she will examine it and may want an X-ray to make sure no bones are broken. Depending on how many ligaments are injuried, your sprain is classified as Grade I, II or III.
Treating your sprained ankle
Treating your sprained ankle properly may prevent chronic pain and instability. For a Grade I sprain, follow the R.I.C.E. guidelines:
Rest your ankle by not walking on it.
Ice it to keep the swelling down.
Compressive bandages immobilize and support your injury.
Elevate your ankle above your heart level for 48 hours.
The swelling usually goes down within a few days.
For a Grade II sprain, follow the R.I.C.E. guidelines and allow more time for healing. A doctor may immobilize or splint your sprained ankle.
A Grade III sprain puts you at risk for permanent ankle instability. Surgery may rarely be needed to repair the damage, especially in competitive athletes. For severe ankle sprains, your doctor may also consider treating you with a short leg cast for 2-3 weeks or a walking boot. People who sprain their ankle repeatedly may also need surgical repair to tighten their ligaments.
Rehabilitating your sprained ankle
Every ligament injury needs rehabilitation. Otherwise, your sprained ankle might not heal completely and you might re-injure it. All ankle sprains, from mild to severe, require three phases of recovery:
Phase I includes resting, protecting and reducing swelling of your injured ankle.
Phase II includes restoring your ankle’s flexibility, range of motion and strength.
Phase III includes gradually returning to straight-ahead activity and doing maintenance exercises, followed later by more cutting sports such as tennis, basketball of football.
Once you can stand on your ankle again, your doctor will prescribe exercise routines to strengthen your muscles and ligaments, and increase your flexibility, balance and coordination. Later, you may walk, jog and run figure eights with your ankle taped or in a supportive ankle brace.
It’s important to complete the rehabilitation program because it makes it less likely that you’ll hurt the same ankle again. If you don’t complete rehabilitation, you could suffer chronic pain, instability and arthritis in your ankle. If your ankle still hurts, it could mean that the sprained ligament (s) has not healed right, or that some other injury also happened.
To prevent future sprained ankles, pay attention to your body’s warning signs to slow down when you feel pain or fatigue, and stay in shape with good muscle balance, flexibility and strength in your soft tissues.
