sweeter than the rest

I'm no big Kobe or Phil Jackson fan but this is the most convincing and, I would expect, the most satisfying ring for both guys. You could certainly make an argument that before this one Kobe would have no rings at all if it wasn't for Shaq. And, yeah, passing Red Auerbach is awesome and all but, again, I'm sure some sports talk radio wag has contended that, hey, PJ Carlisemo could have coached championships with Jordan and Pippen and then Shaq and Kobe. This one, however, is different. What was it-- three years ago?-- the Lakers didn't even make the playoffs and Kobe was demanding to be traded to the Clippers. This is a strong Laker team, deep, but not bought like the one (w/ Malone and Payton) that lost to the Pistons and sports only one superstar, Kobe. And now the most successful coach, Jackson, in the history of the NBA.

Currently playing:"i wish i were," Martha Wainwright

That's Why They Play The Game

The Cavs were favored over the Magic, even though they’d lost to the Magic both times during the regular season, one of those losses suffering their worst, most humiliating defeat of the year. But the Cavs ended the season with the best record in the NBA and powered through the first two rounds like a locomotive going downhill. The Magic, by contrast, took seven games to dispatch the Garnett-less Celtics and in the first round even allowed the 76ers some reason for hope. By the end of the first game of the Eastern Conference Championship, however, the Cavs looked like Don Quixote tilting at windmills. The formerly supercharged Cavs, w/ the exception of Lebron, looked out of their league. Every position but Lebron’s a mismatch, all in the favor of the Magic. You’d think that the Cavs could take some advantage w/ their faster guards but the Magic defense was always on lockdown, giving up very few fastbreaks. As for the Cavs defense, a strength all season, their frontline looked slow and their perimeter guys totally unprepared for the size of the Magic’s Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkoglu. It’s a wonder, really, that the Cav’s won two games and a testament, again, to the fact, despite of all the King James hype, this guy is the greatest all-around player to come along in a long time. He’s not quite the scorer that Kobe is but that is the only quarter he gives to any other NBA player right now. His points-assists-rebounds averages have not been seen since Oscar Robertson in the ‘60s. Now Denver, on the other hand, not expected to match up with the Lakers, everyone’s pick this year, looked in games two and four like they were a match and then some. But just as soon as you began to think that this could be an upset in the making the Nuggets rolled over and played dead. It looked like they stopped playing defense but some credit should go to the Laker’s disciplined execution on offense. Still, the number of times Chauncy “Big Shot” Billups drove to within a few feat of the bucket and then gave up a difficult pass instead of shooting was maddening. And Carmelo Anthony had another head-freeze letdown in a big game. Really, Anthony is beginning to look cursed. I should have expected this when notoriously erratic J.R. Smith was the Nuggets best player in their two wins. At any rate, in the championship series, the Lakers will be expected to win. Here’s hoping the Magic can upset those expectations and finish this Dwight Howard coming out party in style!

Currently playing:Buraka Som Sistema's Black Diamond

They knew him then, they know him now: Lebron's SVSM teachers are beaming with pride

Terry Pluto/The Plain Dealer Columnist
Cleveland.com

May 4, 2009

There was LeBron James in a dark blue business suit, with a light blue tie looking as much like a young corporate executive as the 24-year-old star of the Cleveland Cavaliers. There was James only showing his nerves as his fingers bounced a bit on the podium.

James took a deep breath and stared out at the packed gym, where he starred for the Irish when they were the nation's top ranked high school team in 2003 by USA Today. But instead of dunking, James was talking about winning the MVP award in a landslide with 109 out of a possible 121 first-place votes.

James thanked his teammates, coaches, friends, family and great players such as Oscar Robertson, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Julius Erving "who laid this path before me." He was composed, clear and in his own way (even without notes) and prepared -- just as James was in Allison's speech class, where James earned a B as a sophomore.

"I graduated from here six years ago," said James. "I'm not that far away from this school ... it has helped me become the man I am today."

James told Burdon that he wanted the teachers and students only to be admitted. Instead of receiving his first MVP award in a glitzy studio, he stood in a gym built in 1950 where the walls are cement blocks painted in green and white. The side baskets have old, square wooden backboards. The seats are long, wooden bleachers.

As Barbara Wood listened Monday, the school's librarian remembered how a young James would walk into the library and sit on her desk to talk. They'd Google his name on the computer, how there were only a few mentions at first -- then thousands.

She thought of how she corrected his grammar: "There is no such thing as fiddy cent. It's fifty cents ... with an S. It's more than one S."

She fought back the tears as he spoke with such poise, usually keeping the syntax and sentence structure together.

"He didn't have it easy growing up," said Wood. "But he wanted a better life for himself and his family."

James stops by the school a few times each year, "just him, not with his entourage," said Allison. He still wanders into the library and sits on Wood's desk. He also visits Beth Harmon, an English teacher for the last 11 years at the school.

"I had him as a freshman and sophomore, he was a solid B student," she said. "He was a pleasure to have in class, punctual and polite. As a senior, he'd come to my room and grab some of the candy on my desk. I used him to help me grade papers. We stay in touch, we text 2-3 times a week, and he always answers quickly."

Allison had James as a sophomore for speech, and then as a junior and senior for English. Allison said he knew James was a good basketball player, but had no idea of his national reputation until the middle of his junior year -- probably when James first appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated.

"I remember his senior year, he gave a speech in my English class," said Allison. "I worked with him a lot. I told him that he'd need these skills, and he has used them well."

About that senior year speech...

"He talked about why it made sense for some people to jump straight from high school to the NBA," said Allison. "He had to do the research, and give real reasons. I still have his notes."

James went from the inner city Akron high school to the top pick in the 2003 NBA draft and Rookie of the Year. Allison said James drew two pictures that the teacher still has -- one of Michael Jordan, his favorite player and whose No. 23 he still wears. The other was of Macbeth.

"We were studying Macbeth and he drew it with a pencil for extra course credit," said Allison. "For a few years, I had it on my classroom wall. But when he became famous, I took it down and put it in a bank vault."

Headmaster David Rathz said the only once did he have to deal with James on a discipline issue -- for making noise in the hallway. He remembered seeing James in a geometry class, his long legs and knees up, his head down over a desk as he worked a problem.

"As a senior, I called him in and said that I was supposed to tell him and the other students they should aim for college," said Rathz. "But I smiled and said I wouldn't mention it again. We knew he was going to the NBA, but he still made the honor roll in his last grading period. He really wanted to do the right things."

Currently playing: "Strange Enough," NASA

Final Four

I entered the weekend w/ four of the Elite Eight and somehow still managed to not get one team into the Final Four. One of my poll picks, I mean. Truth is by the Sweet Sixteen I’ve usually picked up on underdog faves from the first two rounds. Come Saturday I wanted Villanova but had already picked Pittsburgh in my brackets. Now all I care is that the championship game be any combination other than NC-UConn. I just don’t like the script. Right, those two teams are deeper in talent than the competition. So go State and/or Villanova!

All-Tournament Team for First Four Rounds
Goron Suton C Michigan State
Blake Griffin F Oklahoma
Stanley Robinson F UConn
Levance Fields G Pittsburgh
AJ Price G UConn

Big Dogs and Underdogs in the Sweet Sixteen

The dance is on. The first weekend had its moments: 3 OTs, 12 games decided by 5 points or less. Unfortunately, in several nail biters my picks lost: UW, USC, Florida St, TEX. But, let’s face it, this Sweet Sixteen is predictable. So much so that this is the first time the top three seeds in each region have all made it to the third round. Even the lowest remaining seed, Purdue, won the Big 10 Tournament. This year’s tournament is a battle of the power conferences, the Big East leading the way w/ five teams still alive. The remaining field is studded w/ pillars of hall of fame coaches: Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Calhoun, Jim Boeheim, Roy Williams, Rick Pitino, Tom Izzo, John Calipari. This is all good for marquee headlines, but what is the underdog loving sports fan to do w/ this bevy of heavyweights? Pull for Villanova and/or Missouri, I say. (I wish I could say the Zags, too, who put on the floor a team as talented as any, but seem to have this unerring penchant for stupid letdowns.) Consider Villanova Wildcats’ coach, Jay Wright. He is Mr. Pennsylvania, never having played or coached outside the state, built successful programs wherever and at whatever level he’s coached, and is something of a dandy w/ his tailored suits. Now all he needs is a National Championship. The Missouri Tigers coach, Mike Anderson, has been successful wherever he’s coached too, but soldiered for years as an assistant under Nolan Richardson, and has been challenged every step of the way for the style of play he coaches. Said style, full court presses, up and down craziness, is ab as exciting to behold as it gets. The Wildcats, too, play at breakneck speed, slashing and passing, w/ big athletes flying at the rim in waves. These two coaches and programs aren’t just deserving b/c they aren’t Duke or North Carolina or UConn, they play brands of basketball as aesthetically pleasing as any left in the field. But can they win; or specifically, and respectively, can they beat Duke and Memphis (an even more talented team than the Zags w/ a penchant for the stupid) this coming Thursday? Can the Wildcats take advantage of Duke’s inside game deficiencies and defend against Duke’s crisp passing? Can the Tigers turnover the Memphis guards and show more moxie down the stretch? They’re both longshots but I’m pulling for them.


All-Tournament Team (so far)
Blake Griffin F Oklahoma
Terrance Williams F Louisville
Cole Aldrich C Kansas
Sherron Collins G Kansas
AJ Price G UConn

Let the Show Begin: Bracketology for Dummies

Smart money always follows the seeding even though last year was the first year in history all the number one seeds made the Final Four. Me, I’m like a guy who goes to the race track only once a year and picks the ponies on superficial appearances or, in some cases, only reputations or even mascots. (Gotta love the Big Red!)This year everything feels up for grabs or perhaps back to usual. Frontrunners NC and UConn and Pitt all have uncertain injuries to crucial backcourt players. Okalahoma has had a question mark about them since Blake Griffin got his bell rung by Texas almost a month ago. Louisville would seem to be the only untarnished money pick, having won the Big East tournament and finished first in what is the toughest conference in the country, but they lost by thirty points in their first game this season. USC and Syracuse come barreling out of their conference tournaments but had mediocre seasons. Purdue ruled the Big Ten in a year most everyone admits was a down year for that conference. Villanova or Missouri or Gonzaga have as many athletes as anybody and could be “dark horse” picks. Arizona State has probably the most pro-ready player in the tournament in swingman James Hardin. Homies, UW have probably the worst draw in the field, facing the SEC Tourney winners, Mississippi State, in the first round, then Big Ten tourney winners, Purdue, for the Sweet Sixteen, and a dream rematch w/ the right coast Huskies of UConn, for the Elite Eight. Not likely! Then there are teams in the field led by Tom Izzo (Mich St) and Bill Self (Kan) and Mike Krzyzewski (Duke) and Rick Barnes (Tex), coaches who always seem to find a way to compete at the highest level. Which team will win? The one w/ smartest backcourt and a gang of leaping greyhounds in the frontcourt; the one w/ the most heart and guts and more then a little luck. All you have to do is win six games in a row. It’s March Madness, baby. It's one of the greatest shows on earth. At least on the weekend, turn off the news. Order a pizza. Don’t miss the overtime!