The NBA is Full of Sallies...

Professional basketball is a contact sport. Can someone please tell the refs this immediately, before they ruin the NBA playoffs. Obviously basketball is not on the level of football, hockey or rugby, but if you have played the game you know it gets physical and if you grew up watching the NBA you've witnessed how physical it can be. Playoff basketball was the modern day equivalent of titans battling one another in epic clashes of athleticism, skill and brute force. Legendary battles like Celtics versus the Sixers or Lakers in the 80's or Bulls versus the Knicks or Pacers in the 90's were staples of competitiveness. These games were incredible to watch during the regular season, but were completely on a different level come playoff time and there was never any question what a foul was back then because you would know it when you saw one.

Sadly those days are forgotten and are now replaced by the longest tenured trend in the NBA, the ticky-tack foul. If you just began watching the NBA this year, you'd think the entire NBA was full of overpaid she-males. Players like Rasheed Wallace and Dwight Howard actually have reasons to complain. If they so much as sweat on someone, they could be charged with a foul. It's truly sad when there have been at least a hundred moments when I've thought after watching an NBA game, did that team really lose or did the refs blow it? Granted on the great scheme of things an NBA referee can only do so much, but sometimes thats a lot more than they should. Players can't battle for rebounds now or stand up in the lane to defend a driver. If that player has momentum you had better get out of the way or a foul will be called, especially if that player is a star... *cough* *cough* Lebron James *cough*.

Even more surprising than all of this is the fact that the Cleveland "superstar" averages less fouls than any other starter in NBA history, in a foul happy league at that...Go figure...but that's for another time.

So as NBA fans what are supposed to do? The answer for that...nothing. We are stuck with this watered down league until David Stern is finally finished and even then who knows what would happen. All we need is one more player to be injured from a non-call and we will probably have games decided by free-throw contests instead of teams actually playing each other.

It's not like I am condoning injuring one another or desiring the league to be more like AND1 streetball, I'm just asking if the refs can swallow the whistle more often. Let the men be men and play the game the way it's supposed to be played.

All-Time NBA Teams

The NBA is by far my favorite professional sports league and although commissioner David Stern is seemingly a tool, its still my sport of choice when all is said and done. That being said, I can admit to the fact that I am an "NBA nerd" and facts and stats go through my mind on a daily basis. During the last occurance of this random NBA thought, I began to consider the greatest players in the sport from a statistical point-of-view, a popularity point-of-view and an athletic point of view and the three lists generated were quite different. To make it easy I created hypothetical lineups as if they were all-star teams and this is what I came up with.


All-Athlete Squad
Pg. Magic Johnson
Sg. Michael Jordan
Sf. Dominique Wilkins
Pf. Karl Malone
C. David Robinson
Bench
1. Lebron James
2. Vince Carter
3. Kobe Bryant
4. Kevin Garnett
5. Patrick Ewing
6. Dennis Rodman


All-Popularity Team
Pg. Magic Johnson
Sg. Michael Jordan
Sf. Julius Erving
Pf. Larry Bird
C. Shaquille O'Neal
1.Allen Iverson
2.Kobe Bryant
3.Charles Barkely
4.Vince Carter
5.Lebron James
6.Scottie Pippen

All-Stats Team
Pg. Oscar Robertson
Sg. Michael Jordan
Sf. Lebron James
Pf. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - Yes I know out of position but had to be a starter
C. Wilt Chamberlin
Bench
1.Karl Malone
2.Larry Bird
3.Magic Johnson
4.Kobe Bryant
5.Allen Iverson
6.Shaquille O'neal

These are my creations for your enjoyment, say what you will about them. If there is anyone I might have forgotten and you have a reason why, let it be heard and reply on my comment section.

Jordan, Kukoc, Harper, Longley, Kemp?? The Trade That Could Have Been...

In 1994 the NBA looked very strange. The game had lost a very familiar face in superstar Michael Jordan and this meant one thing for the rest of the league, time for a new champion. The Chicago Bulls had won the last three championships and before "Air" Jordan's retirement they looked fully capable of continuing their winning ways throughout the greater part of the decade.

Jordan did retire though and the Bulls would become ordinary. They still had some very good players, but they were unsure if the pieces would be able to lead to another championship without Jordan as the anchor.

A trade was proposed during the off-season of 1994. A trade that would have dramatically changed the way the Bulls played and could have severly affected their chances of winning the 3 more championships from 96'-98' when Jordan came back. The Seattle Supersonics were looking to add a superstar and at the time were having some contractual issues with their own star so a possible swap was in order. The Supersonics wanted to trade Shawn Kemp for Scottie Pippen. The deal was done in principle, but the Seattle General Manager backed out at the last moment.

If this deal had gone through, things would have been extremely different for the Bulls when Jordan came back. Pippen, one of the NBA's fifty greatest players, might have been the piece that pushed Seattle over the edge. Considering Seattle did make the NBA finals in 1996, though they did lose to the Bulls. How far would the Bulls have gone without the Pippen and Jordan combo. 72 wins would have been highly unlikely. Kemp was a good player in his prime, but was never the player Scottie Pippen was. That being said, Toni Kukoc would have become a starter instead of the 6th man and the lineup of Harper,Jordan,Kukoc, Kemp and Longley would have been very high scoring.

The concept of Pippen not with the Bulls is unfathomable and Shawn Kemp playing alongside Jordan would have been very interesting. Obviously this deal could have changed a lot in both franchises futures, but luckily it never went through and the Bulls went on the have the greatest season in NBA history