Dr Lawyer Indian Chief Z Posts

With Detroit's 114-69 shellacking of the Milwaukee Bucks on New Year's Eve, the Pistons ended 2007 properly, pointing the finger in the faces of Boston Boosters and devotees to ESPN's Best-Team-Ever-Tracker and asking seriously, "Are we the best team in the East right now?"

As 2008 begins, the most important question going into the new year is, Boston or Detroit? The argument is as old as the sun: The Celtics have more talent--Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen out-skill any 15-man roster in the league--but Detroit has experience. With the same core intact from their world championship team just three years ago, the Pistons have a calm and unified presence about them that makes them impervious to whatever teams throw in their direction.

It was no accident that the two teams' epic battle a few weeks ago ended with Chauncey Billups pulling out a wiley veteran pump-fake on Celtics' youngster, Tony Allen, who came down hard on Billups, leading to Billups making two game-winning free throws. The Pistons have been there before and they know what's coming.

Tonight the two teams begin 2008 in opposite corners of the NBA universe with the Pistons looking to extend their winning streak to ten games against the Wizards in Washington while the Celtics take on Houston at home, their first real test at home since they faced Detroit. The way the Pistons are playing I see them having no problem with the Wiz. Boston versus Houston, on the other hand, should be a match of real intrigue simply because of Yao's presence as perhaps the only TRUE center in the league right now having an all-star season. The game will be a critical test to see if centers still really matter in the NBA, or if pure talent in bushels, such as the Celtics possess, can conquer all.

Not sure if this is old news, but last night the NBA on TNT crew was pimping their MySpace page, so I took a look at it, and it's actually kind of fresh. High quality video and graphics, the show's theme song available for adding to your page (gold), and a collection of the best "gone fishing" photos. Not to mention , the page plays on a constant loop, the sound of a basketball bouncing, which is as therapeutic as one of those Rainforest Sounds CDs.

More interesting, however, is the page's top friends. My two favorites include everybody's favorite random 1990s pop culture vaguely NBA-related spokesman, Michael Bivins (what, they couldn't find Jaleel White's page?) and Raja Bell, whose certified chosen MySpace name is:

THE OFFICIAL RAJA BELL MYSPACE [11.9 PPG]

ALSO AVERAGING 0.87 TURNOVERS PER GAME. AND 0.6 OFFENSIVE REBOUNDS.

Slow sports news day on this Christmas morning (I'm currently watching Jemele Hill debate Skip Bayless on ESPN First Take about who would win in a fight, Alien or Predator). I did, however, manage to catch this mind-numbing tidbit about Damon Jones before Sunday's Cavs-Warriors match on Brian Windhorst's Cavaliers blog in the Akron-Beacon Journal:

"Damon Jones was singing Christmas songs and inserting his own lines about wanting to be traded. Which he was doing on purpose with the media in there."

This is the type of material that just further preserves Damon Jones' place as the NBA's most adolescent player. He is truly the Freddie Mitchell of the NBA. Always searching for attention, whether calling himself the "best shooter in the world," donning ridiculous red suits and sunglasses indoors under the guise of being "stylish," or pulling stunts like the Christmas Carols bit. He is always playing sidekick to better players (e.g. Shaq, Dwyane Wade, LeBron). He always assumes people are laughing with him, not at him, such as when he played along with Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley's torching of him as "Alfred the Butler" to Shaq and Wade's Batman and Robin. And throughout his 10-year, 10-team career, Jones has won absolutely nothing. In other words, Since when does Damon Jones think there are teams that actually want him?

For Jones to add further discord to an already troubled locker room, on a team with an angry fanbase and a superstar (LeBron) weighing his options, is just downright unprofessional. Sure, it's only jokey Christmas carols, but that type of behavior may be more indicative of the current climate in Cleveland than it seems. In Minnesota a few years ago we saw a similar situation, in which locker room rumblings lead to the dissolution of team chemistry, followed by the firing of a coach, the trading of key guys like Sam Cassell and Wally Szczerbiak, and eventually the departure of Kevin Garnett. All I'm saying to Cleveland fans is stuff like Damon Jones' jingles is not what you need right now.

In a move that surprised very few who have spent much time around the Chicago Bulls' locker room, GM John Paxson has fired Head Coach Scott Skiles this Christmas Eve. After a 9-16 start amidst inconsistent play from key guys, contract grumblings and Kobe Bryant trade rumors, the Bulls finally decided to shake things up. As these things go, the firing may not be so much a suggestion that Skiles was at the root of the Bulls' struggles, but rather a prototypical attempt to light a fire under the sluggish Bulls' players.

In another sense, Skiles' firing seems clearly influenced by his ongoing bickerings with two of the Bulls' freewheeling youngsters, Tyrus Thomas and Joakim Noah. As early as last year, Skiles' seemed to be playing mindgames with Thomas and this year he openly questioned Thomas' effort, stating, "We ask him to sprint the floor...To my knowledge, in his career, he hasn't done it one time -- not one time.'' Skiles similarly called out Noah in a public manner after Noah questioned the Bulls' effort and their psychology after he played in his first game. "If I had just played my first pro game," Skiles said, "I'd probably keep my mouth shut, to be honest with you."

A quick search of "Kevin Garnett" with "author: Sam Smith" on the Chicago Tribune website yielded 611 hits. During Kevin Garnett's Timberwolves days (1995-2007), Tribune columnist Sam Smith made quite a living off of messing around with trade machine and spouting off any concoction he could come up with that would bring Garnett to the Bulls. In 2003, moments before KG's MVP season, Smith suggested "Jay Williams, Tyson Chandler, Jalen Rose, Eddie Robinson and their first-round pick (provided it's not the No. 1 or 2 overall pick) for KG." Later he wrote vaguely more realistic ideas about the Bulls offering Tyrus Thomas, PJ Brown, and some draft picks that might actually have been true. During the times that the Bulls were seemingly out of the KG sweepstakes, Smith couldn't help himself, still focusing his column largely on KG but pitching him to other teams such as the Pacers and Lakers. For whatever reason, Smith hated the sight of Garnett in a Timberwolves uniform.

Now that Garnett is donning Celtic green, still KG's presence has remained strong in Smith's columns. At least Smith has been good-natured enough to admit his obsession in a recent article praising Garnett's selflessness and his play for the Celtics:

"See, this is what I've been writing about for three years in proposing all these trade scenarios for the Bulls to get Kevin Garnett. Though it turns out to be yet another tale of unrequited love...OK, I admit it: I love Kevin Garnett as a player."

And even as Smith (pictured above with another potential crush) took a recent opportunity to discredit the current Celtics squad as "no powerhouse," he still managed to do so praising KG all the way. In Smith's article--a treatise on the Celtics' inability to match the 72-10 record of the 1995-96 Bulls (SINCE WHEN IS THIS A QUESTION)--he notes that "some flaws in the Celtics' makeup that have been obscured by the brilliant play of Garnett and a relatively soft schedule." For Smith's sake, I hope KG retires a Chicago Bull, being finally led to the promised land by the 2013 version of Shaq and Kobe: Aaron Gray and Romeo Miller.

In Magic Johnson's mind, the economy is booming, Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun" is in heavy rotation on MTV, and Saddam Hussein is some wacky old coot who is better off being ignored. To put it more simply, Magic Johnson appears to be stuck in the glory days of the 1990s, as he hit the campaign trail in Iowa with Bill and Hillary Clinton, to help promote her presidential campaign. From Sridhar Pappu at the Washington Post:

"I'm a businessman," Johnson says. "I think people know that, recognize that. I helped Bloomberg, helped in his reelection. I helped Antonio [Villaraigosa] become the mayor of Los Angeles. Why I'm here? I'm involved in politics and I want the best for this country...Remember something about the Clintons: They're winners and Hillary Clinton wants to win. She wants to win because she has the best experience, the best vision. Bill Clinton wants her to win, and he's supporting her."

That's the right attitude, Magic, stick with the winners. Perhaps you forgot all about the Lakers' ill-fated Rudy Tomjanovich hire, and how, sometimes the proven winners from 10-15 years ago don't really have that spark anymore. As a colleague of mine asked, "What type of NBA player supports Hillary?" And to be honest, I'm rather stumped. If you're playing for the National Basketball Association and aren't a Republican or supporting Obama, something is seriously wrong with you. At any rate, the following is a firsthand look at Magic and the Clintons in action, in Iowa:



As H-Clinton states at the :23 mark, "What he's doing to bring economic opportunities is what I'm going to do as President, to be a good partner." I'm not sure what the Presidential equivalent is peppering the country with a bunch of movie theaters and T.G.I. Friday's while forcefeeding Starbucks to communities that typically thrive on mom & pop establishments, but I'm sure it's going to be outstanding.