Archive for the ‘Basketball’ Category
Kobe Bryant’s father watched his son score 39 points in the Lakers’ 95-92 game 2 win over Kevin Durant’s Thunder on Tuesday night. Why is this important?
Well, apparently it’s the first time Joe Bryant has seen his son play in person in more than five years. Joe coaches basketball in Japan so he has an excuse, but still, not the most supportive father. I wonder how Kobe’s long distance phone call to his dad went last year after he won his fourth championship.
“Dad, you see me beat the Magic?”
“Sorry son, you know the time difference is killer over here. I’ll catch the next one”
“But I won my first Finals MVP.”
“That’s great Kobe. Okay, gotta go, this call’s costing me a fortune.”
To review for all you parents out there, withholding your love gets you an ultra-competitive basketball superstar while showering your child with affection gets you a broke sports blogger.
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BY MATT LAFLEUR
I’m a passionate guy, just ask all the women I’ve romanced without the help of Guy LaFleur. Whether it’s a movie, TV show, song or athlete, we all have our favourites that we’ll defend to the death (sometimes to the detriment of our reputation). Last weekend I was at a wedding and had to defend Jersey Shore to someone who thought it was “low-brow.” Conversely, I had to defend the critical-darling The Hurt Locker to the woman I live with (my wife), who said it was just a stupid war movie. Most aggravating of all, I had to defend Bob Dylan to some dope who told me he wasn’t a good singer; for the record I responded with the same answer I gave my mom when she called during the Grammys asking what Beyonce sees in Jay-Z. “You’re missing the point.”
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Before Monday night’s game with the Rockets, Atlanta Hawks coach Mike Woodson showed up to the arena without eyebrows. Three days later, people still have no idea what happened to them. Making it even funnier, Hawks forward Josh Smith put pieces of Velcro on Woodson’s head, which he then wore during a TV interview prior to the game. Read more hilarious behind the scenes details here. My favourite of which is a quote by Smith: “He claimed his barber did it on accident.”
Naturally, a bold look like Woodson’s is bound to catch on. The first people to adopt the trend… NHL head coaches. Always looking for a new way to get through to players, an alarming number of bench bosses have said bye-bye to their bushy brows. See for yourself:
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After undergoing his second major knee surgery in three years, Portland Trail Blazers centre Greg Oden has decided to leave his injury-riddled basketball career behind and join the Republican party. The former number one pick said he didn’t know what to do with his life until Massachusetts senator-elect Scott Brown inspired him to enter the political arena.
“When I fractured my patella in December I knew my basketball career was over,” explained Oden. “I needed to find something else to do with my life, but it wasn’t until Scott Brown won Ted Kennedy’s old Senate seat that I knew what that something was.”
At that moment Oden began furiously uploading naked pictures of himself on to the Internet. 
“I had to show Republicans that I was a viable candidate,” said Oden. “If it worked for Scott, I knew it could work for me.”
And work it has. After carefully examining each image, a Republic brain trust consisting of former vice-president Dick Cheney, radio personality Rush Limbaugh and former Idaho senator Larry Craig has decided that Oden has “the right stuff” to win the Oregon senatorial seat from democratic incumbent Ron Wyden.
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BY MATT LAFLEUR
After Steve named the NHL’s 10 Most Overpaid Players I had to make a NBA list of my own:
10. Tracy McGrady (ORL) – $22.8M / 1 year remaining
A few years ago McGrady’s inclusion on a list like this would have been met with raised eyebrows, now you could argue he should be ranked higher up it. Fortunately for Houston, T-Mac’s in the final year of a contract he signed before becoming a victim of microfracture surgery. An injury he came back from by showing up out of shape and playing with such little passion that Alexei Kovalev thought he was dogging it.
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BY MATT LAFLEUR
With the trade deadline barely a month away, the Raptors are about as cohesive as NBC’s late night team. Yes, for the moment Toronto’s in a playoff spot, but they’re stuck in a top-heavy Eastern Conference. It’s a situation many teams find themselves in this time of year, and for team president and general manager Bryan Colangelo there are only two ways to go.
The first, which I’ll get to in next week’s post, is to acknowledge you have no chance of competing for a title as currently constructed and to try and get the most for “franchise player” Chris Bosh before he leaves in the off-season. Not so much fun for Raptor fans.
The second option, which is the direction I’m taking today, is to trick yourself into thinking that with a couple moves you can compete with Boston, Cleveland, Orlando and Atlanta in the East. So, without further adieu, here are the four moves Colangelo should make before the mid-February trade deadline (in reverse order):
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Kobe Bryant’s father watched his son score 39 points in the Lakers’ 95-92 game 2 win over Kevin Durant’s Thunder on Tuesday night. Why is this important? 
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