FanHouse JoseCalderon

As teams get eliminated from the 2009 NBA playoff picture, Fork 'Em figures out what went wrong.

"If the whole human race lay in one grave, the epitaph on its headstone might well be: 'It seemed a good idea at the time.'" -Rebecca West

Bryan Colangelo either laughs or weeps at this quote after the Raptors 2008-2009 season.

I mean, it DID seem like a good idea at the time, right? You're a playoff team, on the verge of contention. You have a legit superstar in Chris Bosh. You have an up and coming point guard in Jose Calderon, a core of veterans alongside sharpshooter Jason Kapono, and a young stud in Jamario Moon. All they needed was to jettison that black hole, T.J. Ford and minimize that bust Andrea Bargnani. And if they could do all that and upgrade their frontcourt with some muscle, that would be idea.

Enter Jermaine O'Neal. Enter the meltdown.

Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the "lig." Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

The disappointments have appeared nearly across the board in Toronto. An undersold problem, though, has been the inability of one Jose Calderon to fully grasp his role as the full-time starter at point guard. Calderon has been good offensively ... but not as consistent as he had been sharing duties.

Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the lig. Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

The headline is both true and unbelievable. Minnesota is 9-2 in January, the latest triumph an overtime victory against Chicago. Al Jefferson registered as the only Wolves starter in double figures. Luckily, he made them count: 39 points on 16-29 shooting, nine rebounds and just one turnover.

Al's superhuman effort countered balanced play from the Bulls, which had six players with double-digit scoring. Joakim Noah might have had the best game of his pro career, notching 14 points, 10 rebounds and seven blocks. Obviously, Jefferson scored on the Bulls bigs at will. But Noah got his, y'all.

The Raptors played their best game in over a week against the Blazers, after losing their last three by an average of 26 points per game. They had taken a two-point lead with under 10 seconds to play, but Steve Blake made sure this one would end with his team in the win column.



Blake may have pushed off a bit there, but I don't know, to me it looked like he just extended his arm and that Jose Calderon was playing him for the drive instead of the three-pointer. Either way, it wasn't called, so it ends up being a gritty win for Portland and a pretty tough loss for the Raps.

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.

[via BallHype]

Throughout his career, Kevin Garnett has gained a reputation for being one of the most intense players in the league. Sometimes that intensity causes him to step over the line a bit. Last night, in a game with a playoff-level feel to it, Garnett went bonkers and decided it was time for him to shut down Raptors point guard Jose Calderon. Here's footage of what happened next:



It's great to see a player of Garnett's caliber get that hyped for a regular season game. However, I definitely think he stepped over the line on this one.

FanHouse's Tom Ziller argues his ranking of the top 50 players in the NBA.

You know, Jose Calderon was a lot more likeable before he defended the silly slant-eyes photo and blamed referees on Spain's Olympic loss to the United States. A humble but ballsy point guard who could drop a dime while carrying a tray full of fajitas through tar pits on Tuesday, all with messed up hair. Quite a catch, in the basketball sense, no matter how much of a jerk he's been over the past month.

Team USA needs no confidence boost heading into tomorrow morning's gold medal game against Spain: the Americans have whooped all comers, including the Spaniards. By 37. But the United States gets another chip on its stack nonetheless, as Spain's starting point guard Jose Calderon will apparently not play due to injury. ESPN's Chris Sheridan confirmed the news with Raptors boss Bryan Colangelo ... who has a bit of a history with the Spanish basketball federation. Something tells me Calderon (who just signed a weighty contract with Toronto) won't be pressing the Raps on this.

For Spain, this might put wunderkind jumblebum RIcky Rubio into the starting five. Raul Lopez got the nod to open the semifinal game against Lithuania, but was ineffective. Rubio started the second half. He was also ineffective, though he did a spritely job of frustrating craggly Sarunas Jasikevicius.

Lopez and Rubio are both, at this point, significantly inferior to Calderon and vastly inferior to the American opponents ... even Jason Kidd. (!) Spain needed close to a perfect storm to beat the United States to begin with. Without their top PG, Spain needs a miracle.

Team USA needs no confidence boost heading into tomorrow morning's gold medal game against Spain: the Americans have whooped all comers, including the Spaniards. By 37. But the United States gets another chip on its stack nonetheless, as Spain's starting point guard Jose Calderon will apparently not play due to injury. ESPN's Chris Sheridan confirmed the news with Raptors boss Bryan Colangelo ... who has a bit of a history with the Spanish basketball federation. Something tells me Calderon (who just signed a weighty contract with Toronto) won't be pressing the Raps on this.

For Spain, this might put wunderkind jumblebum RIcky Rubio into the starting five. Raul Lopez got the nod to open the semifinal game against Lithuania, but was ineffective. Rubio started the second half. He was also ineffective, though he did a spritely job of frustrating craggly Sarunas Jasikevicius.

Lopez and Rubio are both, at this point, significantly inferior to Calderon and vastly inferior to the American opponents ... even Jason Kidd. (!) Spain needed close to a perfect storm to beat the United States to begin with. Without their top PG, Spain needs a miracle.

During the remainder of the Olympic men's basketball tournament, FanHouse will give you 5 Things to watch for in each game.

Whither El Calderon?: Jose Calderon was injured in Spain's last game against Croatia with a strained adducter, according to Sportsnet.ca and his status for the game against Lithuania is in doubt. Calderon's a pretty huge loss for the Spanish, as he is, you know, their most experienced point guard. While everyone can rave about Ricky Rubio's flashes of brilliance, I doubt Spain's fans feel comfortable going into a game against a very solid Lithuania team with the 17 year old at the helm. If Calderon's not 100%, or out completely, the pressure will be on Pau Gasol, Marc Gasol, and Rudy Fernandez to make up the difference.

True Kleiza: Linas Kleiza continues to fly under the radar, he's just knocking down everything in his way while he does it. Kleiza's in a perfect position in international play, able to play between the 2 and 4 spots. He's got the necessary skills. But Spain's got the elder Gasol and a flurry of offensive weapons. Kleiza needs to be downright spectacular to keep up with their firepower.