Whose Team Is It?

Some thoughts on the Miami Heat…

Let’s first get past the narrow minded, MJ-fueled notion of what it means to be ‘The Man’. Kobe Bryant isn’t the leader of the Lakers because he’s the one who gets to chuck up 18 foot jump shots at the end of regulation. Kobe isn’t handed the keys to the team simply because he’s been around the longest either. Leadership is always about the intangibles. Admittedly, the whole ‘Star player singlehandedly wins game’ storyline is so much more epic than the  ‘Star player passes to role player #3’ alternative. And yet, there’s no rule or reason, outside of highlight reel resume building and ego padding, that the team leader has to be the designated late game savior.

There have been premature proclamations as to who will be the leader of this star driven team. Columnists have to write columns, the Heat are the trendy topic right now, and there are only so many facts to follow before speculation becomes the easiest way to bang out a couple hundred more words about LeBron and Wade.

It’s not unreasonable to think that Dwyane Wade will be the face, legs, body and soul of the team. The man can flat out play and is right up there as a top 5 player in the league. LeBron is undoubtedly the better basketball player, but perhaps LeBron lacks that essential, or maybe imaginary, alpha male ‘tear your throat out’ mentality that American values dictates to be necessary in any great athlete.

However, it is, without question, unreasonable, and quite frankly ignorant, to say that this is Wade’s team if your reason simply consists of  ‘He was here first and he’s won a championship here before’. Pocahontas and the American Indians were ‘here first’ but the Pilgrims had something to say about that once they arrived didn’t they? In case the analogy isn’t clear, Dwyane Wade is Pocahontas, LeBron James is a turkey eating Pilgrim, and Chris Bosh is smallpox.

Flawed analogies aside, this Heat team is nothing like the Heat team of 2006. Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem are the only remainders. This is a brand new team with a sparkling new team dynamic. One could even take the angle that Dwyane has his buddy Udonis Haslem while LeBron James brought his playmate Big Z to this new team. Chris Bosh brought the ball boy that no one likes. It’s anyone’s team at this point, as long as anyone only consists of Wade and LeBron.

I want to see this guy do well but…

… can he please get rid of that moustache/goatee?

Von Wafer

Preseason is a good time to impress your coaches. Someone should tell Von Wafer this because in 12 minutes, all he accomplished was 2 turnovers, 3 fouls, and 1 technical. But hey, at least he didn’t miss any shots!

(Click to see a bigger picture)

Stoudemire needs new friends

With free agency looming, some big name free agents are talking about getting together and discussing their plans for league domination. The original group consisted of Lebron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, and Joe Johnson. Not wanting to be forgotten, Amare Stoudemire has expressed interest in joining this group.

"I'm friends with LeBron, Dwyane, Chris [Bosh] -- all those guys are friends of mine," Stoudemire told Fanhouse. "So I'm pretty sure they'll call me and we'll talk about a few things."

I can just picture Stoudemire sitting next to the phone waiting for his ‘friends’ to call him to hang out. And when they never call he’ll try to invite himself to their meetings and they’ll avoid him and it’ll be all awkward every time Stoudemire sees them. Then again, if Joe Johnson, the almost-but-not-quite superstar, is invited, Stoudemire will probably be too.

Reasons why Lebron should go to New York

Hedo Turkoglu Is Not That Good

Turkoglu was both beastly and awful in today’s game against the Chicago Bulls. He had half of his team’s total defensive rebounds, and 19 overall. However, his shooting was… off.

What to take from all this: Hedo Turkey-glue is a balanced player, shooting from both the outside and the inside. However, he is also very bad at shooting, from both the outside and the inside. He kind of sucked today, and he did not even win the funny picture of the day award. That honor goes to Jarret Jack’s swan dance improv.

Richard Jefferson – Genius or Insane?

After reading that Richard Jefferson is considering opting out of his current contract (next year is the last year, worth $15 mil), I had several reactions.

Reaction 1: LOL

Reaction 2: Come on, Jefferson is useless, who would want to sign him to another large contract.

Reaction 3: He’s so dumb and useless and bald.

Reaction 4: This actually might make some sense for him. He knows that if he sucks again next year, his value will plummet to less than nothing, and he’ll have a hard time getting a new contract. Taking on a new contract that runs longer would provide him some financial security.

Reaction 5: Still, he’s so useless. I doubt he is worth more than $6 million a year unless he is placed in a perfect situation.

Reaction 6: I hope he opts out so the Spurs can get some real players next year.

Reaction 7: Lawl

After those reactions, I then stopped laughing long enough to actually read the article. Jefferson sees getting a new contract similar to signing an extension, which makes sense.

"So you figure it out. If you're able to get four years and 40 (million dollars by opting out) from someone, it's like, 'OK, I did lose out on 15 (million dollars). But I'm going to get basically a $25 million extension.' Those are things that you think of at the end of the season.''

I could see him getting 10 million a year from certain desperate teams *cough*Knicks*cough*, but even then I kind of doubt it. He makes it sound like his game is more suited to up tempo basketball and relies heavily on his athleticism, but he’s already getting old.