USA! USA! USA!

Some unorganized thoughts from Team USA’s exhibitions this weekend against Lithuania and Spain. Bullet time!

-USA looked awful in the first half against Lithuania and trailed by two at the break. The key difference that led to “The Tale of Two Halves*”? Lamar Odom eschewing his headband in the second half. It’s either that or America’s athleticism on the defensive end wore down the Lithuanian guards. One of the two.
*Thankfully this boring game ended within two hours instead of many hours and 400 pages later. No offense, Mr. Dickens.

-Kevin Love may not be fully healthy but deserves more playing time. He is the best rebounder on an undersized team, an excellent outlet passer on a team that wants to push the pace and his defensive shortcomings aren’t as noticeable because the other options are Rudy Gay/Kevin Durant at power forward or Tyson Chandler getting extended minutes. It’s odd that Chandler has been able to play for this team; I could have sworn I saw him washed up while at the beach this summer.

-The Lithuanian team takes a page out of Herb Brooks’ book and realizes that “the name on the front is a hell of a lot more important than the one on the back.” Sure, the name on the back is their team sponsor, pokerstars.net, but still. It’s all about the L(ithuania), fellas.

Kevin Durant Knows Kung Fu

Kevin Durant had the greatest freshman season in the history of NCAA basketball at the University of Texas during the 2006-2007 season. He was unquestionably the best player in the country and teamed with future first round picks Damion James and D.J. Augustin, as well as A.J. Abrams, to form a powerful Texas team. Durant followed a strong regular season by winning the MVP award for the Big 12 tournament but Texas blew a 22 point lead in an overtime loss to Kansas in the Big 12 championship game. Durant posted okay numbers in Texas’ subsequent NCAA tournament appearance but was noticeably out of sync and described as “jumpy” in a narrow first-round win over #13 seed New Mexico State. Texas then fell to USC by nineteen points in the second round. Texas had the best player in the nation and a reasonably strong supporting cast but there was a reason they were easily dispatched in the second round (and it was not just because Rick Barnes is a mediocre basketball coach). Kevin Durant was only an eighteen year old kid. He was not ready…yet.

An Introduction

Another day, another blog. This one is about the NBA. The list of things you should know before reading this blog include the following…

Favorite Player/Team: Kobe Bryant and LA Lakers. I grew up a Washington Bullets fan but realized around age nine that I was a more capable GM than Wes Unseld. Deciding factors for my new team wound up being my (heterosexual, HIV free) love for Magic Johnson and Kobe taking Moesha to the high school prom.
Least Favorite Player: Kendrick Perkins. Mostly because I think he would eat my unborn children. Also, he is a Celtic. Also, in the right light his eyes seem to be yellow. Maybe he fights Edward Cullen on his off days?

Biggest Man Crush: The Chris Paul/Steve Nash hybrid. A biracial penetrating machine that can really dish it out. Ummm…yeah.
Biggest (Basketball-Related) Woman Crush: Dwyane Wade’s current girlfriend, Gabrielle Union. Appeared in two of my favorite chick-flicks of all-time in Bring It On and 10 Things I Hate About You. But…mostly self-explanatory.

Greatest Event in the History of the World: Creation of Gutenberg’s Printing Press
Second Greatest Event in the History of the World: "The Miracle on Ice"
Random Skills: Crosswords, Juggling, Scrabble, Fantasy Football, Mario Kart, Eating Chick-Fil-A

Best Dunk of All-Time: Vince Carter
Best/Worst Dunk of All-Time: European Guy

Best Dunk Face of All-Time: There can be no other. Michael Jordan.