Basketball and everything in between

Well it is time for another edition of Silly Sollies.  This may (and I emphasise the word may!!) be my last blog entry for a while.  My wife, child and I are moving from our home of four years St George in western Queensland.  We are returning to civilization in Brisbane.  We are both primary school teachers and have been transferred to awesome schools on the north side of Brisbane.  The truck comes on Monday and we unpack on Tuesday at our home in Brisbane.  My mother in law has been renting our house off us for the past four years.  We have had the inside painted, the outside painted, put up a new fence and ripped up the carpet and laid floor boards.  It should be like a brand new home.  By the way, that isn’t my house.  Anyway on with the Sollies!

- If you have been away from the NBL scence this week, you wouldn’t have known that the Cairns Taipans have been placed into adminstration.  I wrote earlier about this in the week.  Everybodys favourite NBL journalist Boti Nagy has wrote a piece entitled Taipans woes have NBL reeling.  Boti basically agrees with my ideology that the Taipans decided that they weren’t going to be part of the league next year and obviously decided to cut their losses mid season.  It would have been interesting to see if they would have cut their losses if they were 12-6 rather than 6-12!   I feel very sorry for Dave Thomas and Larry Abney.  I honestly think that the Dragons may attempt to pick up Thomas.  I think that he would be a perfect pick up for them.  He would be able to play a role for their team and not be asked to be a superstar.  Abney on the other hand would be extremely handy for the NZ Breakers.  I understand it is problary a big ‘we don’t have enough points’ thing but how awesome would it be for Breakers fans to have an explosive Larry Abney in their lineup? 

- Another almost extinct NBL team (Sydney Spirit) have established a fighting fund to keep them afloat.  It is awesome that Andrew Bogut has chipped in some of his own money to help out the Spirit.  If the spirit could just get some other large corporations or famous people to chuck in $30 000 each, they would be laughing.  Every NBL fan (myself included) should try and donate $20.   

- Michael Scibilia has wrote a piece titled Plagrise at your peril I was wondering when I saw the heading what the piece was all about.  It is actually about how the NBL is plagerising the model set out by the A League.  It is an interesting read and provides heaps of statistics in regards to ratings etc.  Well worth the time to disect and think about.

- It was awesome that Boti Nagy took 35 minutes of his Monday afternoon to be the first ever guest on this weeks episode of The TO.  Boti spoke about the old days in the NBL and about his favourite players and villians throughout the history of the NBL.  He also spoke about a flamboynt coach by the name of Ken Cole.  If you haven’t already downloaded it, you really should.  It is a great listen and well worth the investment in time.  He is very passionate about the league and basketball in general. 

- I once again pose the question about the $35 million deal from Fox Sports.  What the hell is going on with this?  Are they negotiating with the new Channel 10 Sports channel?

- Justin Bowen has won the NBL player of the week award and he is a deserving winner.  I haven’t had the chance to actually watch any of this guy live on the TV but he seems like he has a pretty solid all round game.  By looking at his numbers, he seems like a poor mans Julius Hodge.  Is that a fair comparison?

- I used to enjoy the Sydney Spirits website where they had a feature called Spirit Talking.  I guess that feature has gone and they have more important things on their minds (e.g keeping their franchise on the floor)

- The Adelaide 36ers gave the Crocs a hammering on Wednesday night. I haven’t had a chance to watch the game as of yet.  I have it taped and will watch it soon.  In the highlight package it looks as if the 36ers just did what they wanted to against the Crocs.  Julius Hodge seems to get the crowd very excited.    JR talked about the changes in the Crocs attitude and the crisis type meeting that was held.  Whilst I don’t think that they need to hit the panic button again, it must be concerning to all Crocs fans at the fashion in which they got smakced.  I look forward to hearing JR’s analysis of the game on the next episode of The OT

- My boy Stephon Marbury was apparently a victim of a prank call with the subject being a huge contract with Real Madrid This is pretty funny stuff but apparently he didn’t take it to well.  He is not a happy camper and is considering taking legal action against the people who made the call.  If you ask me, it is bloody hilarious.  Whoever was doing the hoax was pretty prepared.  They even talked to the actual Knicks front office staff.   

- So obviously my post on Carrie Graf and the possibility of her coaching in the NBL has inspired Basketball Australia to appoint her as the new Opals coach through to 2012.  Now in all seriousness, I think that this is an awesome appointment.  Our womens team is the real deal people and we should be getting behind them more.  Lauren Jackson and co should still be around for a substancial amount of time and having one of the best players of all time on your roster shouldn’t hinder your medal chances.

- Darko Milicic is one of the most intense guys in the NBA.  I remember a physco YouTube clip where he threatened to kill the baby of the referee or something like that.  Check out his latest Incredible Hulk rip off.  The guy clarly has a screw loose.  At least they are going to auction his singlet and the proceeds will go to a good cause.   I stumbled across the official NBA auction site.  If you are inclinded to get NBA memorabillia, this would be the site for you to visit. 

- Here is a random fact – I am a huge (and I mean huge) Harry Potter fan.  It is pretty sad that a 32 year old man is obsessed with Harry Potter and has read each book in the serious at least 6 times!  But it seems that I am not alone in my obsession.  The best muggle basketball player on the planet Kobe Bryant is also a huge fan and that is awesome in my opinion.  During the NBA finals last year, this is what he had to say:

Kobe Bryant found a magical way to get away from the Game 4 hangover and those old Celtics demons when the Lakers were given Friday off from practice. And he had an assist from his daughters.
“Like five chapters of Harry Potter,” Bryant said. “They just wanted me to read to them, and I swear, it was awesome. (Harry) had more problems dealing with Voldemort than what we have dealing with the media and the Celtics. So that was pretty awesome.”

So this is awesome in my opinion.  I was actually going to write a blog entry comparing Harry Potter characters to those in the NBL.  I still may but I will leave it for the holidays. 

- YouTube really is a great thing!  I was once again just trolling it for random videos and stumbled upon a video entitled Top 10 High School Dunks of All Time.  The first one is awesome where the backboard shatters.  There is nothing like a good backboard shattering!  Oh hang on – it isn’t even in the top 10.  I am watching this as I am posting.  10: Pretty good windmill off the backboard from a teammate.  9: Just jumped over the guy and got a T for some reason!  8: Is unbelievable!  A behind the back alley oop bounce pass!  7: Another backboard breaker 6: Another one like number 9 without the tech.  Pretty good but not as good as 8. 5: A behind the back alley oop passs from between the 3 point line and half way.  The finish is a quick one hand leaner.  4: Is out of this world!  The guy inbounds it at the opposite baseline and throws a baseball pass to his teammate.  The teammate allows it to bounce and catches in rhythm for the alley oop slam.  5 and 4 are both amazing if you ask me.  Lets get to 3!  3: Is a routine two handed alley oop slam over a couple of guys.  Pretty average if you ask me!  2: Is a 360 one hander where the guy pulls down the hoop -  not that great!  1: Is another ‘lets do a Vince Carter at the Olympics and jump over a guy’.  The guy doesn’t even touch the guy that he is jumping over.  It is ok but not as good as 5 and 4 in my opinion. 

- Whilst I was there I found a highlight package of the best of Vince Carter in High School  Some of his stuff was much better than this top ten.  Whilst we are on the High School bandwagon, here is a package of Dwight Howard’s High School career and the Shaq Disel dominating his High School competition.  Finally check out this highlight package of Carmelo Anthony vs Lebron James in High School.  YouTube is to basketball fans what wine was to Jesus!

- This fan defintely doesn’t want Brendan Joyce to be appointed Boomers coach.  Whilst I don’t necessarily agree with his method of getting his point accross, I certainly agree with his message.  I think that BG would have to be a shoe in for it if he wanted it.   

So that is it.  I may not be able to write for a while.  I apologise in advance to you all who really enjoy this average basketball blog.  I will hopefully get my internet connection up and running and we will see how things go.

Merry Christmas to you all!

Ashley