Column: Huge Balls

     by Rob Stiller

Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE/Getty Images

Of the two conference semi-finals series that went seven games, neither had inspired a lot of hope for a well-played, closely contested series finale. After all, each game in the Spurs-Hornets series had been decided by double digits, and watching the first six games of Celtics-Cavs had simply been nausea-inducing on more than one occasion. But to the delight of myself and countless other fans, both games met, and, in the case of LeBron v. Paul Pierce, exceeded any realistic expectations for a Game 7.

Rave
LeBron v. Pierce

The NBA could have hoped for nothing better than the epic battle staged between LeBron James and Paul Pierce Sunday afternoon. It was a win-win situation for the league, at least for the guy responsible for the Eastern Conference Finals ad campaign. You either have LeBron versus the Pistons, in which case you show clip after clip of LeBron’s 48 Special from last year’s game five, or you have Celtics-Pistons, in which you incite memories of the glory days of the late eighties and Joe Dumars and Larry Bird. But even for the rest of us, the game was still a treat to watch, and will probably be remembered as the best mano-a-mano game of the season. Continue reading Column :: Huge Balls: “Game 7(s) Rants and Raves”

More Friday afternoon time-wasters.  You’re welcome.

- Link of the Week: Charles Barkley loosely admits he’s a dumbass.  I hope whoever was responsible for this got a surious raise.

- If you didn’t hate the Yankees before, now there’s news that Derek Jeter has dated six women on Maxim’s Hot 100 list.  Whatever.  Call me when he’s dated six of the top 10.

- This isn’t a great article.  I was just shocked to see Stephen A. Smith take the, um, other side of a racial argument.  Although he did pose the question, but you take what you can get.

- Your weekly dose of Tim Cowlishaw pessimism.  Can you believe he isn’t happy with the Mavs apparent choice of Rick Carlisle as their next coach?

- Not to be outdone, the Star-Telegram’s Randy Galloway weighs in on who’s the right man for the Mavs.

- This is getting out of hand.  T.O.  Tank Johnson.  The Pacman.  Now Chris Henry wants to join the Cowboys?  Any chance of Jerry Jones luring O.J. out of retirement?

- Rockets’ future: Is there a point yet?  I certainly don’t see the point.  Decent article.  Funnier title.

- I can only hope that one day Papa John’s or some other pizza franchise insults my city.

- What’s this?  Two mentions of the Rockets?  This free agent wish list from Jonathon Feigen of the Houston Chronicle puts us over the top on our quota of Rockets content for the summer.

- There has never been a greater truster of his teammates in the history of professional sports than Kobe Bryant.  At least the idea’s funny.  It’s good to see Stephen Hawking keeps up with pro hoops.

- It’s never a bad time to revisit the Ultimate Professor Highlight Video.

Column: Huge Balls

     by Rob Stiller

In the weeks leading up to the NBA playoffs this season, I shared a sentiment with Charles Barkley in that, as he stated during one of TNT’s Inside the NBA programs, “This is gon’ be the best playoffs ev’r.” Perhaps my expectations were too high, but so far I haven’t gotten what I had hoped for. I never thought the Suns-Spurs series would be over in five games. I never thought the best first round series would be Boston-Atlanta. And I certainly never anticipated being so distracted and disgusted at that standard of officiating that has cropped up this playoff season, part of which has been just bad officiating and part of which is due to how the league has chosen to handle certain situations, particularly the flagrant foul.

Continue reading Column:: Huge Balls: “Officiating in the NBA Playoffs”

If you had asked Kobe Bryant last May what would constitute a successful 2007-08 season to him, it’s safe to say his expectations wouldn’t have been very high.  He certainly couldn’t have expected this to be his first official MVP season.  And considering he was pushing for a trade to teams that would have had to dismantle their rosters to afford him, a potential NBA Finals appearance would have seemed equally unlikely.  No wonder he’s been popping his jersey so much recently.

If we’re being honest, though, I’d be lying if I said Kobe’s trade demands last summer and his criticisms of Mitch Kupchak and others in the organization weren’t on my mind when considering how my own MVP ballot would look this season.  Kevin Garnett never would have turned his back on his team like Kobe.  I don’t think it’s unfair to say Bryant has been somewhat of a “fair weather Laker” over the past 12 months.  The MVP elect has indeed undergone quite a transformation since this time last year, and here’s an article in today’s L.A. Times by Mark Heisler that nicely chronicles Kobe’s turnaround with the Lakers.

“In the depths of the Lean Years from 2004 to 2007, Bryant discovered something new: fear.

Once serenely confident of achieving his goals, he felt abandoned and reviled — “an outcast my entire life,” he wrote for Dime Magazine — “[always] made to feel like there was something wrong with wanting to win so badly and wanting to become the best at what you do.”

Happily for Bryant, laying siege to the Lakers’ organization from last May to October didn’t get him traded to Chicago, which might have cast him into mediocrity forever.

Now his career lays out perfectly, on a rising power that should only be better when Andrew Bynum returns, with everything — multiple MVPs, multiple titles — possible.”  Full Article.

Column: Huge Balls

     by Rob Stiller

Dallas Stars: Lost at the San Jose Sharks Friday 3-2 (OT); Beat the Sharks in Dallas Sunday 2-1 (4OT)

It’s only fitting that the ballsiest player on the team scored the ballsiest goal of the season for the Stars as the team advances to face the Detroit Red Wings in the Western Conference Finals after appearing on the brink of completing an historic collapse. I’m talking about Brendan Morrow, for those of you who didn’t weather the five and a half hours it took to decide a winner early Monday morning. Just as significant as the playoff implications this game held, though, is the fact that this game reminded us that hockey games needn’t be high scoring affairs to be exceedingly entertaining. As much as the league has tweaked the rules in recent years to allow for more scoring, games like this, in which two goaltenders go toe to toe for hours, are the ones that will be tagged as “instant classics” in the hockey world. If you had asked me three weeks ago how much hockey I had watched this season, an honest response would probably have been about six hours. But not only did I watch as much Sunday night, I was on the edge of my seat the whole game, as Turco and Nabokov made ridiculous save after ridiculous save. As of 2:43 Monday morning, there isn’t a YouTube video of the game winning goal. But to me this HUGE hit Brendan Morrow layed on some San Jose chump might as well have been the game winner. Video, as well as Rockets and Spurs weekend news, after the jump. Continue reading Columns:: Huge Balls: “Weekend Wrap: Stars Induce Multiple Heart Attacks, Insomnia”

It’s Friday, and in an effort to further stifle any and all productivity, here are some fun/interesting/moderately entertaining links with which to kill the last few minutes and/or hours until the weekend.
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- Avery Johnson’s first interview after being fired Wednesday, with Randy Galloway from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

- Always the pessimist, Tim Cowlishaw paints a bleak picture for the Mavs in the near future.

- Interesting article on the merits of D-League affiliation.

- Mike Modano has added to his Stars legacy by accepting a new role this season, and has a near Western Conference Finals appearance to show for it.

- Oh, indeed.

- Here’s a video of members of the Houston Rockets giving their best Dikembe Mutombo impersonations. They still should have brought in Michael Wilbon as a guest impersonator.

- As of Day 2 of the NFL Draft, the Buccaneers have a whopping EIGHT quarterbacks on their roster. But you better believe they have high hopes for that eighth-string signal caller.

- Here’s a virtual tour of what exactly $1.1 billion will buy you these days, in the form of the new Dallas Cowboy’s stadium.

- It might be rebuilding time for a Texas baseball team that isn’t the Rangers, according to Richard Justice of the Houston Chronicle.

- Is Dwyane Wade really dating Star Jones?? Surely the Chuckster can get to the bottom of this. I was really pleased to find out that ‘cougar’ somehow made the cut for Charles Barkley’s sometimes lacking vocabulary.