[Hate Hate Hate] Our best player...

Is, according to Win Score, the 53rd most productive player in the league.
I'll say it again: the Bucks best player is the 53rd best NBA player. There are 30 NBA teams. Not only is Redd not in the top 30, he barely makes the top 60. Almost every NBA team could have two players on their roster who are better than Redd.
hate hate hate hate

Sam Cassell's nauseating legacy

It's not easy to ruin an early-season showdown between the East's two best teams. It's even harder when it's a back-and forth nail-biter decided by points scored in last tenth of a second. To ruin a game like this borders on impossible, but in tonight's battle between the Celtics and the Pistons, the up-and-into contact, as well as the NBA rule book's incomprehensible tolerance for it, found a way.

The Celtics won the first half and, in doing so, painted a basketball masterpiece. Ray-Ray was playing a game that would have made Jesus Shuttlesworth proud, KG looked like a man among boys, Rajon Rondo flashed brilliance, and Paul Pierce found himself in the unfamiliar position of sitting back and watching his teammates put on a show.

Then they got bored. The points were coming so easily that they started hesitating and looking for the even easier shot. Their first half flow, lurched, spurted and stalled. Their spacing fell apart, and the Boston ball-handlers found themselves trying to dribble through a tangle of out-of-position Celtic Bigs and  long-armed Piston defenders. They couldn't. Detroit's ball pressure reached a fever pitch, stripping Eddie House and Paul Pierce at half-courts a few minutes apart.

At this point, the intensity was so far gone from the Celtics that their demeanor, despite the score, suggested they were in the midst of a blowout. They weren't.  The Pistons had won the first 22 minutes of the second half, and Lindsay Hunter's uncontested lay-up off a strip of Pierce put the Pistons up 7 with 2 minutes to play.

The Celtics, namely Ray Allen, won the next 116 second. Ray Ray, having already assembled a sweet stat-line, found a new gear.  He went to the basket around a monster screen from KG, and when everyone in the building was expecting a floater, Ray went around the rim and threw it down like it was 1999.  House hit a 3 off a heads up pass from Allen to pull the Celtics within 3, the Celtics got another stop, and found themselves down 3 with 30 seconds left. Then they fell into disarray, letting the chance to go for 2-for-1 slip away. 4 Celtics clustered at the top of the 3 point line, none of them open.

It didn't matter. Ray rose up and, with Tayshaun's freakish arms in his face, stroked a 24 footer like he was alone in his driveway.

On consecutive possessions the usually-clutch Chuancey Billups lost the handle going to the basket and the equally-clutch Paul Pierce missed badly on an 18-foot fade-away with 1.7 on the clock.

The stage was set for drama. One more shot for Mr. Big Shot. He caught the inbound and rose up. Tony Allen went up. The crowd rose up. None of them should have bothered. It was an upfake, and as soon as Allen left his feet, Mr. Faked Shot jumped into him and shoveled the ball to within slightly more than 8 feet from the basket.  Foul on Allen. A tenth of a second on the clock.

And after 47 minutes and 59 seconds of grit, of perfect ball movement matched by lightning rotations, of Ray Allen's firepower, or Garnett's intensity, of Rasheed's uncanny 3-point opportunism, of stifling ball pressure, the game was to be decided by a pair of free throws earned through a play that would get you laughed off of every playground in the country.

There was no protest.  Everyone knows the rule.  For some reason that nobody can adequately explain, one player can launch himself into another and flip the ball blindly at the basket, and somehow earn himself two shots at the most charitable of stripes.

Billups hit them both. Players and fans scuttled out of a silent arena, and not even the Pistons seemed too thrilled.  Detroit got the W, Boston the L, but it was basketball that took the loss.

Joe Calzaghe: "The Pride of Wales"

Joe Calzaghe is the WBO, WBC, WBA, and Ring Magazine Super Middleweight Champion of the World, with a record of 44-0 (32 KOs). He is Welsh and I recently saw him beat Danish boxer Mikkel Kessler in a 12-round decision. I really wish I could find that fight, because it was one of the most exciting contemporary fights I’ve seen, although I might have some of it on tape.

Calzaghe is also considered one the greatest pound-for-pound fighters in the world and he is fascinating to watch. He is quick and has great foot movement and I’ve never seen a fighter with a higher punch volume. When I saw him for the first time in that Kessler fight, I thought there was no way anyone could fight twelve rounds at that pace. He also has a tendency to drop his hands and square up, which is unusual.

I did find his fight against Jeff Lacy on YouTube, where you can see him brilliantly and totally dominate his opponent. I can’t wait to see him fight again. I think he is the most exciting boxer around today (that I’ve seen, anyway).

Click on the video and use the sidebar to find rounds 3-12.

It's Way Past Time to Get Psyched for Mayweather-Hatton

Floyd Mayweather Jr. is universally considered the greatest pound-for-pound for fighter in the world. The owner of my gym called him a "prodigy." He is undefeated (38-0, 24 KOs) and currently holds the WBC Welterweight title.

Frankly, the most impressive footage I've seen of Mayweather are these two videos of him training:

Make sure you watch the second video even if you get bored with the first one. It's some raw shit.

Mayweather is cocky as fuck, but it's hard to argue with his skills.

As of the September issue of The Ring magazine, Ricky Hatton is ranked 8th on their list of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world, which is a pretty big deal. He's from Manchester, England, has held 4 belts in 2 different weight classes, and is also undefeated with a record of 43-0 (31 KOs).

He's known as one of the hardest body punchers in the business, illustrated here in his most recent fight, facing another great fighter, Jose Luis Castillo:



The video's a little choppy in places, but it's worth watching. You really don't see that in boxing very often, especially for a KO. In fact, I think that was the first KO of Castillo's career. There's a rumor that Hatton broke 4 of Castillo's ribs with that punch.

To be honest, I'd never heard of Ricky Hatton before now, but I gotta say, HBO has been doing a great job of promoting this fight, and they've got me excited. I've never shelled out for Pay-Per-View before, but I think I'm gonna have to this time. Hatton is definitely the underdog, and has a way better personality, so I'm kind of rooting for him, but you know the fuck what? December 8th, may the best fighter win.

Yi's a Thang

Give this post a glance-- it offers an interesting perspective on the Bucks-Rockets game last week-- more specifically, it offers insight as to how Yi is regarded in China-- the extent to which he & Yao have been made into symbols of the cultural conflict in China... I wonder if people in Milwaukee understand what a sort-of big deal this apparently is to the Chinese. I kinda think they don't. I'd be curious to hear what Pat thinks about this article.

Del Harris Interview

This was inspiring.
The message boards are going crazy. People are screaming, freaking out, fighting. Yes, Yi's been exciting. But it needs to cool out a little bit. Let the child breathe. It's been 5 games, right?

Smokin' Joe Frazier

So Mike B. and I agreed that there’s no reason not to expand the scope of this blog to cover other sports and topics in general, which I’m glad of because I’ve been interested in boxing for a while now.

I’ve been watching this particular video quite a bit lately:



And as if the music in the background wasn't cool enough, you can also watch it while listening to this:



Smokin' Joe: 32-4-1 (27 by KO)

Undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World for a full 3 years running (02-16-1970 to 01-22-1973).