That was a great series. Boston-Chicago had everything you wanted and then some.
The full seven games ... overtimes and close finishes ... star player stepping up ... role players emerging. You name it. Yes, it was truly a great series. But the best first-round series of all time? Let's not go that far.
I'll still take the Warriors' "We Believe" upset over the Dallas Mavericks two years ago and even the Denver Nuggets knocking off the Seattle SuperSonics back in 1994 over this one.
In this clip from TNT's Overtime, Kenny, Charles, and C-Webb discuss the firing of Raptors' coach Sam Mitchell. While debating whether the team's sub-.500 record was Smitch's fault, they also discuss the personnel of the team, and after Charles makes some kind of Playboy bunny analogy, he mentions to Kenny that he might be confusing Jose Calderon with another Jose he has a fondness for.
I love the fact that it's like 2AM when they're filming these segments, so pretty much anything goes. The NBATV show that features Webber and Gary Payton together is quickly gaining on the TNT crew in terms of entertainment value, but still, nothing beats some classic analysis from Charles Barkley.
NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.
1. Basketbawful. A poignant consideration for anyone who considers un-fans of the WNBA to be sexist. 2. Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Gary Payton makes it clear that he wants nothing to do with the Oklahoma City Thunder. 3. Dime. Gilbert Arenas on the state of NBA punditry: "Reporters in today's game, they don't have no personality to themselves. If one person says something, they all run to the same story." 4. Fear the Beard. An impassioned Warriors fan lashes out at Golden State president Robert Rowell for basically ruining the team.
"I sure don't want to get my jersey retired in Oklahoma City," he said. "I don't think that would work for me. That ain't where I played. Oklahoma City fans didn't get to really, really see me. They saw me on TV, but that was it.
"My fans are here in Seattle. It would be nice for me to come back and raise my jersey in Seattle here and let everybody appreciate it and my family can appreciate it."
Payton may still get to see his No. 20 raised to the KeyArena rafters -- the legal battle between the Sonics and the city of Seattle won't be resolved until some point this summer, meaning (for better or worse) the city will get at least one more season with the team.
But assuming the Sonics do eventually move, should Payton's No. 20 stay retired in Oklahoma City? Or should Clay Bennett be forced to forfeit his claims to Seattle's basketball history, much like Art Modell did when his old Cleveland Browns became the new Baltimore Ravens?
I hope it's the latter. Even if David Stern is serious about not putting another team in Seattle, it's preposterous to think the citizens of OKC have any emotional attachment to the likes of Payton or other legends like Gus Williams, Jack Sikma or Shawn Kemp.
The "Gary Payton to the Warriors" rumor first surfaced a couple of weeks ago, but since then it's more or less been dormant. That doesn't mean that it died on the vine, though, as Golden State of Mind points out how his name has been connected with the team at least two more times in recent days.
Baron Davis continues to say that he would welcome the free-agent addition of Gary Payton if Warriors coach Don Nelson eventually decides he wants a more seasoned backup at the point.
"Absolutely," says Davis. "Him being an Oakland native, his mentality and leadership, he'd fit in great with us."
There's no doubt that Payton's mentality and attitude would fit in, but would his legs? The Warriors play at a frantic pace (third in the league behind Denver and Indiana) and I'm not sure a 39-year-old point guard who's been sitting for half the season could keep up. This might be one of those things that looks good on paper but not in the real world.
That's Antawn Jamison, understandably giddy about leading the Wizards over the Celtics for the second time in two games. The suddenly fallible Celtics, in fact, have dropped three of their last four ever since affirming their stance as the league's top dog with a win in Detroit earlier this month.
But before we try diagnosing what ails the Celtics, first let's give a nod of respect to the Wizards. They've long been derided as a high-scoring team that doesn't play a lick of defense, but that label clearly no longer fits: they actually rank 11th in the league by allowing just 96.9 points per game. Add in the fact that the Wiz can still keep up with anybody (Jamison and Caron Butler are the highest-scoring tandem of forwards in the league) and it's not as surprising as it might initially seem to see this team handle the Celtics in consecutive games.
So why are the Celtics in their current funk? The easy answer is their lack of depth; Rajon Rondo is banged up (he didn't play at all in the first game against the Wiz and just 21 minutes last night), and the team doesn't have another legitimate point guard on the roster (Eddie House is a shoot-first guy and Gabe Pruitt doesn't even dress). Can somebody get Gary Payton on the phone?
Celtics fans can take solace in the fact that the team's 30-6 record is still pacing the league by a wide margin, but still: if this team can go into a tailspin when a guy like Rondo gets banged up, what will happen if/when one of the Big Three go down?
The Warriors are looking to improve their team's passing and all-around savvy, and one option is signing Oakland native Gary Payton out of retirement to play for his hometown team.
Though questions surround Payton, 39, who hasn't played since last season, sources say there has been enough mutual interest on both sides to merit recent conservations, and Mullin didn't exactly dismiss the possibility.
"I mean, again, there's a lot of different scenarios we're going to look at, probably more guards and bigs than swings," Mullin said when asked directly about Payton.
Even if the Glove fits in Golden State, a deal probably won't happen for the next week and a half: the team just signed D-League point guard CJ Watson (aka, "Quiet Storm") to a 10-day contract. That's not really a road block, though -- considering the 39-year-old point guard hasn't played all season, he might need at least that long to start getting back into game shape to the point that Golden State feels he could contribute immediately, and getting someone who can help reduce Baron Davis' workload now that Troy Hudson is done is a huge priority.
Chris Webber's not the only beloved veteran floating in midseason free agency limbo. Gary Payton, says the Boston Globe's Marc J. Spears, wants to rejoin the Celtics for the extended stretch run toward glory. Shamrock Headband has a tidy take on this.
[H]onestly if there's any former player that Rajon should be modeling his game after, GP seems like an obvious candidate. ... I guess I'd give this move a cautious endorsement. The $1.2m kind of seems like a lot, but it is the veteran minimum and it'd just be a one-shot thing. The C's are already clearly going all-in on this season, and I see Payton's potential rewards outweighing his risks.
The risks, essentially, are nonexistent. Danny Ainge sounds dismissive of the idea in Spears' story, so this will likely remain 100% theory. But if the C's were to venture this direction...
Boston's at least on the verge of luxury tax territory, so it'd be up to a total cost of $2.4 million for the privilege of getting Payton a jersey. Would he produce anything concrete (beyond mentorship of Rajon Rondo and at least three nice practical jokes played on the rookies)? He hasn't been a legitimate shooting threat in three years; he creates almost nothing (shots, assists and turnovers alike) on offense at this point. As you'd expect from a man approaching 40 with this much aggressive mileage on his legs, he offered little sincere defense with Miami last year. If you sign him to actually provide backstop relief in the case of a point guard emergency, you're signing him for the wrong reasons. There have got to be better on-court options in the D-League.
That was a great series. Boston-Chicago had everything you wanted and then some.
NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.
NBA Essentials ranks our six favorite stories of the day.
The "Gary Payton to the Warriors" rumor first surfaced a couple of weeks ago, but since then it's more or less been dormant. That doesn't mean that it died on the vine, though, as Golden State of Mind points out how his name has been connected with the team at least two more times in recent days. 
The last we heard from Gary Payton was late last month when he leaked word to the press that he'd be interested in grabbing hold of Boston's coattails. Now, another team seems to be in the mix. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, there's at least a chance Payton's hometown team might go after him after waiving DJ Mbenga this past weekend.
Chris Webber's not the only beloved veteran floating in midseason free agency limbo. Gary Payton, says the Boston Globe's Marc J. Spears, wants to rejoin the Celtics for the extended stretch run toward glory. Shamrock Headband has a tidy take on this. 
