It was Opening Night in Oklahoma City as the hometown Thunder took to the NBA hardwoods for the first time. The Commish was there along with a full house in the Ford Center. There was a huge celebration. And then they went out and got rolled by the lowly Milwaukee Bucks.
John Rhode of the Oklahoman observed, "This season could be longer than originally thought, Thunder fans. Given what transpired Wednesday night at the Ford Center, patience not only will be a virtue with the Thunder, it will be a minimum requirement.
The Thunder got rolled by the Milwaukee Bucks 98-87 on opening night inside the Ford Center.
The home team trailed by double-digits for the final 29 minutes and trailed by as many as 24 at one point.
Granted, it's only one game, but is that a good thing or a bad thing?
Keep in mind, people, the Bucks aren't very good.
Much like the Thunder, no one is picking Milwaukee to play more than 82 games this season.
The Bucks wore green, but they hardly resemble the world champion Celtics, who next Wednesday will make their only visit here.
“We didn’t play like we were capable of playing, and that's a shame,” Thunder coach P.J. Carlesimo said afterward.
The Thunder struggled from the very beginning. The effort in the first half was questionable.
All summer long, we've been selling this team as a group that might not win, but it will at least play hard.
The Thunder did neither, and that's unacceptable, even to a bunch of forgiving, impressionable newcomers like us.
As for the Bucks, it appears that new coach Scott Skiles' patience with Charlie Villanueva lasted all of two games. Already, Charlie V is in the doghouse for his intermittant style of defense.
The Phillies finally won that World Series that wouldn't end last night and I'm truly happy for Geoff Jenkins, one of the good guys in the game. The former Milwaukee Brewer was always decent and available to the press. Even though, he didn't play that much, he was a major part of the deciding game.
Many, including ESPN's Mike and Mike In The Morning (yes, THEM again), noted that Ryan Howard became part of an illustrious crew: among the few to win a championship while HR and RBI leader of the season. Babe Ruth was the first and Roger Maris was the most recent before Howard.
But then, some dummy listed Henry Aaron -- which is true, but they listed it as:
Hank Aaron - ATL - 1957
No. no, no, no, no, NO! The MILWAUKEE BRAVES won in 1957.
Yeah well, this same dummy will reply, they're in Atlanta now, so?
SO?!
You don't say the Baltimore Ravens won the 1964 NFL title. You don't say (or at least, you shouldn't say) that the Oklahoma City Thunder won the NBA title in 1979?
Get it right, sheesh...
While we're talking on-air blunders , former Minnesota football coach Glen Mason claimed on the Big Ten Network that -- in his mind -- Michigan State is probably the 3rd best team in the league as "they've beaten Notre Dame and Michigan and Wisconsin..."
Uh, coach? Psst...the Spartans play the Badgers THIS SATURDAY!! Maybe, that attention to detail is why you're a former coach on the moribund Big Ten network, eh?
Finally, tomorrow is Halloween, which here in Madison means that we locals get to exclaim, "AARRRGGGH, what are you doing to my lawn???!!!"
October 31 in Madison means that thousands of drunken college kids ( I know what you're thinking now, there are other kinds?) decend on the city to get arrested as fast as possible. Think, a white trash, colder version of Mardi Gras, with none of the good food.
One year, Sponge Bob -- or some drunk kid -- got busted across from my porch. I saw this as I sat there -- after having 10 or 12 beer bottles thrown at my house. After the 12th, I took my lawn chair and a baseball bat, sat there and just kept saying, "just keep moving, kids."
Anyway, I don't live downtown anymore and October 31 is one of the major reasons why. Still, if you're in town for the festivities, DON'T think you WON'T get arrested.
This is something of an accomplishment as the Milwaukee NBA franchise makes it on national cable television about as often as...oh, I dunno, the city of Cleveland gets to celebrate a championship.
Indeed, ESPN networks are televising 72 regular-season games, which include 29 games on Wednesdays and 35 on Fridays. The slate consists of 27 doubleheaders.
TNT is televising 53 regular-season games, including 47 as part of Thursday night doubleheaders and a tripleheader on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. TNT also exclusively televises NBA All-Star 2009 festivities in Phoenix from Feb. 13-15, culminating with the NBA All-Star Game on Sunday, Feb. 15.
However, unless you have Fox Sports Wisconsin or pay good money for NBA-TV or Direct TV's NBA League Pass, you have a better chance of seeing Sarah Palin hug an illegal alien than watching the Milwaukee Bucks. Talk about your endangered species!
And yet, here were my Milwaukee Bucks on, of all places, ESPN Classic this morning as part of something called the NBA China Games 2008. This impressive monicker has been given to a couple of preseason games in China between two moribund NBA franchises -- the Bucks and the equally sad-sack Golden State Warriors -- who collectively could share space on a milk carton. Have You See This Team?
Still, here I was, watching my Bucks and feeling a lot like the guy in the beginning of Major League -- saying to myself, "you know, maybe they aren't so sh#$%#y." Of course, here is where the director would cut to the two Japanese groundskeepers replying, "no, they're still sh#$%#y."
The expectations are so low for the Bucks that even approaching the .500 mark will be considered a fantastic season. And a quick look at the sum of their parts reveals the makings of a decent basketball team.
This is where we cut for a moment to get you all up to speed on hoops-speak. Coaches are busy men -- along with some actual women in the women's game -- so they use numbers to define the five basic positions of a basketball team. To break it down simply.
1 = Point Guard
2 = Shooting Guard
3 = Small Forward
4 = Power Forward
5 = Center
So, for the next umpty months of the hoops season, you can now prepare for each and every coach telling the reporters after each and every game, "well, we thought we could play him at either the 3 or the 4 and if we had to, maybe at the 5, but then we were stuck by not having anybody who could cover their 1 or 2."
Still with me? Good, there'll be a test at the end of this column.
So, new coach Scott Skiles has Richard Jefferson who play as the starting 3, but -- along with hold-over NBA All-Star and recent Olympic Gold Medalist Michael Redd -- can step back to be a 2, if the Bucks want to play a bigger lineup. Former No. 1 draft pick Andrew Bogut is firmly entrenched as the 5 with Charlie Villaneuva slated as the 4.
Yi Jianlian is gone and though we hardly know Yi, this is a good thing for the Bucks. I never quite understood why they drafted Yi anyway -- he was basically a unpolished rookie with the same skill set as a player already on your roster, Charlie Villanueva. It seemed to me that only reason in drafting Yi was to sell more Milwaukee jerseys in the burgeoning Chinese market. I mean, doesn't the Senator (Herb Kohl) have enough money?
So, I was elated that when the front office was cleaned out, Yi was sent out east and getting Jefferson was the proverbial frosting on the cake. I would have been happy if the Bucks had gotten Gary Sheffield and Pac-Man Jones in the swap -- receiving a very good small forward -- sorry, a 3 -- in the bargain made it a steal.
Another new acquisition, Luke Ridnour, joins Redd in the Milwaukee backcourt while two rookies will provide some extra firepower off the bench. Lottery pick Joe Alexander could be the next Larry Bird -- he does have much the same skill-set as the former Celtic -- while former UCLA Bruin Luc Richard Mbah a Moute gives some toughness with someone capable and willing to play defense and grab rebounds.
All of those parts were on display in this morning's victory over the Warriors.
Bogut messed around and got a double-double -- kudos for all who caught my pop culture reference to Ice Cube -- finishing with 18 points and 12 rebounds as the Bucks won for the first time in five exhibition games and recorded their opening victory under new coach Skiles. Ridnour added 16 points and 12 assists while playing 37 minutes, and Alexander finished with 11 points.
Jefferson added 13 points and five rebounds, and Mbah a Moute had 12 points and eight rebounds. And the Bucks were able to win a game -- albeit an preseason tilt over Golden State -- with Redd on the bench with left knee soreness.
The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Bucks' blog reports that the two teams will meet again at the Olympic venue in Beijing on Saturday morning (10:30 p.m. Friday Milwaukee time). The Bucks headed for the airport directly after the game and were scheduled to arrive in Beijing around 3:30 a.m. Thursday (2:30 p.m. today Milwaukee time).
Skiles said he expected Redd would be able to play in Beijing in the second game of the trip. Forward Charlie Villanueva suffered a neck injury in the second half today and had to leave the game, but it was not thought to be anything serious.
Alexander, who had struggled in his first two exhibition games, contributed some key baskets in the Bucks' fourth-quarter run.
"He was able to get a couple good looks and knock them down," Skiles said. "He still doesn't know what we're trying to do yet.
Before the Bucks’ practice Tuesday at the Guangzhou Gymnasium, the 6-foot-8 Alexander was swarmed by a huge group of reporters. His fluency in Mandarin was one reason for his popularity, and the fact he spent much of his youth living in Beijing, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
“They enjoyed me a little bit,” Alexander said in a phone interview. “There was a pretty fair amount (of media), more than I’m used to.”
The new Joltin` Joe didn't play in the Bucks' first two preseason game and is still acclimating himself to his new team and the NBA. Still, in the much weaker Eastern Conference, at season's end, Milwaukee -- with a new coach and many new players -- could be in the hunt for one of the last remaining playoff berth.
At least, they give the impression -- as those Cleveland Indians in Major League -- that maybe they won't be so sh#$%#y.
The World Series is approaching a Tampa Bay-Philly matchup, while FOX Sports might not appreciate this very distinct possibility, ESPN's Tim Keown would be eternally grateful.
If either the Phillies or the Rays -- or both -- advance to the World Series, this great country of ours will owe them an enormous debt of gratitude. The first two weeks of the postseason have provided us with indisputable evidence: Dodgers-Red Sox is a World Series matchup America simply cannot afford.
This isn't about teams or individuals. This is about coverage. This is about nonstop Manny Ramirez versus the Red Sox, with every angle exposed and every past transgression unearthed.
Your rooting interest is beside the point. You know this as well as I do.
There's only so much Manny anyone can take. There's only so much Red Sox anyone can take.
The combination? Sorry.
The Chicago Tribune -- surprise, surprise -- thinks that Da Bears have the best chance of the collective 3-3 teams in the NFC North to win the division. Call him provincial, but the Trib's beat reporter David Haugh makes the point that...the numbers clearly show neither the Packers nor the Vikings have a schedule loaded with more opportunity than the Bears.
The Bears' remaining 10 opponents have a combined 25-31 record, and the only team left on the schedule currently above .500 is Tennessee. And the Titans have to come to Soldier Field on Nov. 9. That's one of six home games left for the Bears—the most of the three first-place teams.
The Packers' remaining 10 opponents have a combined 28-28 record and Green Bay has to play three teams that currently have winning records: Indianapolis (on Sunday), Tennessee and Carolina. They have to play the Titans on the road, as well as the Saints in New Orleans and the Jaguars in Jacksonville.
The Vikings might face the toughest schedule of the three. Minnesota's remaining 10 opponents have a combined 29-28 record and the Vikings still have to play four teams with winning records: at Tampa Bay and Arizona and home games against Atlanta and the New York Giants.
Meanwhile, leave to to a Madison poltical wonk to crunch the numbers on our Liquid Assets feature the other day, MB did so and insists that this columnist indulged in a bit of fuzzy math.
Hey, I was merely sharing another reader's letter, MB. I didn't get paid for it and you didn't have to pay for it, so I think we're about even.
Still, MB makes the case that...DAL (Delta Airlines) was trading at around $20/share a year ago and now trades at $6/share. That’s, huge – but that $1000 investment would still be worth around $300 today. Whereas, $1000 in six-pack cans (assuming $5/six-pack, for 200 six-packs or 1200 empty cans) wouldn’t yield anywhere close to $214 unless you could find a recycler that’d pay $.18 per can – in which case I would only drink beer in cans and not curb them.
Okay, picky, picky, picky. Still, MB did offer to cop me a Obama yard sign, so it's all good
Finally, loyal readers might have noticed that your new favorite sports blog -- the column formerly known as Talking Sports -- has a lot of @$%#(&^%()* where there are clearly some words. This is not self-censorship, but many of my former editors would make the case for SOMEBODY, ANYBODY censoring my syntax, verbiage etc etc etc...
The proclivity for this ^%@*&^$(^*#@ is due to FOX Sports bleeping out what it deems as objectionable speech. For those who will claim that I've sold out to the Dark Side, I'll remind you again that I don't get paid for this, so the worst you can call me is a collaborator.
I can't even quote Dave Barry -- an award-winning columnist, if FOX Sports ever saw one -- saying the words Adolf #### without finding it bleeping bleeped.
Still, if I may once again channel my inner Ice Cube, I wrote this whole column and didn't even have to use my AK.
If you are under the age of 30, you will not like this column. If you are from Chicago, you'll be much happier clicking somewhere else. And if you're under 30, from Chicago AND black, too...well, don't say I didn't warn you.
Being nearly 50 years of age, whenever I'm asked who is the best basketball player of all time, I answer thusly.
1. Wilt Chamberlain set all the records; 2. Kareem Abdul Jabbar broke many of those records; 3. Bill Russell won 11 NBA titles, but; 4. All of those men claimed that Oscar Robertson was the baddest MF to ever step on the court.
Do the math, Bulls' fans -- all of the above would tend to place MJ as no better than a distant fifth place.
In all of the MJ-mania, I've been aghast and irritated by how so many people can get it so right in football and so wrong in basketball. Why do people believe that Jim Brown is the greatest football player of all-time, but then -- in the same breath -- also believe that his contemporary, the Big O, somehow played in the olden days?
I bring up this rant in context after reading Ellioitt Kalb's book, "Who's Better, Who's Best in Basketball." Kalb lists his own rankings for the top 50 hoopsters of all-time with a collection of face-offs to make his point. He gives often compelling and frequently amazing arguments, rating each player against their contemporaries and the all-time best at their respective position.
For his part, Kalb places MJ in 3rd place behind Wilt. His all-time best? Shaquille O'Neal!
My problem with rating MJ or the Shaq Diesel as the all-time best is that I can remember seeing Wilt play. I remember Oscar and Bill Russell. I also saw Elgin Baylor and Jerry West play too and I'd argue that they both deserve a place in this argument.
That last statement inexorably leads to a total disconnect with the under-30 crowd. To the younger generation, Baylor and West are little more than a couple of old dudes that you see every year at the draft lottery.
In fact, Elgin was MJ before MJ was a gleam in his late daddy's eyes. Jerry West might have been the best pure shooter the game has ever seen. Both men had 50 point nights -- long before the advent of the 3 point hoop, I might add. But Baylor never won a title and West never won an MVP. The Celtics won all the championships and Wilt won everything else.
To my mind, calling MJ the all-time greatest is akin to naming Emmitt Smith the greatest football player of all-time and nobody thinks that.
I'd also argue that MJ and Magic Johnson are penalized in the ultimate all-time rankings -- we can't say for sure that their respective missing seasons would have resulted in more championships.
Still, nobody has ever gotten close to Bill Russell's eleven rings, so he gets the first place at the table.
If the Big Aristotle can win another title with the Heat, then Kalb's case becomes more sound. And yet, I can't help but think that much of Shaq Daddy's dominance is the result of the dearth of physically demanding contemporaries. Wilt had Russell, Thurmond and Walt Bellamy. Kareem faced the tail end of those giants' careers and then fought off the likes of Jack Sikma, Bob Lanier, Bill Walton, Kevin McHale/Robert Parrish, Patrick Ewing and Hakeem Olajuwon.
Who does Shaq have? Tim Duncan? He's not a center, but you can make a strong case that Duncan is already better than Larry Bird, Moses Malone or Charles Barkley. (That's another column for another day.)
Back to the countdown. Wilt Chamberlain was a statistical cyclone -- blowing down all the records and preconceptions of the game in his wake, slicing what came before him like so many strands of wheat on the Kansas prarie.
From Kalb's book on Wilt vs. MJ.
Games needed to reach 30,000 points: Wilt 941 MJ 960
Scoring average after 1,045 games: Wilt 30.1 MJ 30.3
Wilt also averaged almost four times as many rebounds as Jordan. Try these next couple stats on for size.
Most 50 point games: Wilt 122 MJ 37
Most 60 point games: Wilt 32 MJ 4
Most 70 point games: Wilt 6 David Thompson, Elgin Baylor, David Robinson 1 MJ 0
In 1962, Wilt "AVERAGED" 50.4 points a game including that 100 point night in Hershey, PA. In fact, Wilt scored 50+ points in 45 different games in 1962- more than any other player did in their entire career.
Whereever Wilt is now -- working on his next 10,000 sexual conquests, he deserves the next seat at the table.
Kareem stayed in the game long enough to break many of Wilt's records, so he must be included in the discussion. At the expense of being a shameless homer and lifelong Milwaukee Bucks fan, I bump up the Big Fella's rankings because he sublimated his game with the Lakers late in his career so that Magic could help him win a few more championships.
That's one thing MJ never did -- take team accomplishments over personal vanity. Here's another thing MJ didn't do: lead a team to an NBA title in his second season for an expansion team in its third season.
Here's one last nail in that coffin : They actually changed the rules of college basketball because of Kareem. Lewis Alcindor (aka Kareem) was so dominant as a sophomore -- they didn't allow freshmen to play varsity back then -- that the NCAA outlawed the dunk. In retrospect, Jabbar insists that it ironically made his game better by forcing him to create more shots.
Oscar only won his sole NBA title -- one of the highlights of my youth, I might add -- after sublimating his game to match the Big Fella in Milwaukee. There's only one number I can give you to demonstrate how the Big O dominated the game at guard long before MJ.
Triple Double Games: Oscar Robertson 181 Magic Johnson 138 Wilt Chamberlain 78 Larry Bird 59 Jason Kidd 46
MJ is nowhere to be found. The Big O practically invented the triple double by "AVERAGING" a triple-double season. Think MJ with the bulk of a linebacker, truly the Jim Brown of the hardwoods. Mr. Robertson can now sit down.
So that's my prosecutorial case for my top four -- Wilt, Kareem, Russell and Oscar.
Over the years, I've run into a good many fans who make the case for someone other that MJ in fifth place with a bullet. Magic gets a lot of write-in votes and I can see the argument. He did win an NBA title and Finals MVP in his rookie season. (Kalb rightly notes the award should have gone to Kareem but the press freaked out after Magic's 42 in Game 7.)
Magic brought back the memory of Oscar by establishing his talents for the triple double. He embodied that shopworn cliche -- Magic actually made the players around him better. I'd argue that he made it his mission and therefore, I much enjoyed Magic's game over MJ's.
My Magic moment came, ironically enough, in Kareem's final NBA game in Milwaukee. Kareem was doing a sort of farewell tour and each city was presenting Jabbar with a gift.
(So, of course, Milwaukee shocks Kareem with a custom built, creme-coloured Harley Roadster. How sweet is that? A big bike for the Big Fella!)
(Kareem looked, for all the world, like a kid on Xmas. He had this beautific grin on his face that seemed to say, "can I keep it?" Jabbar also confided that he'd owned a cycle in his days with the Bucks, using it for tooling around the 'burbs in Ozaukee County, adding, "I got rid of that thing when I moved to LA.')
Anyway, back to Magic. Seated in the court-side press table, I could hear what the players -- some of the all-time best -- were saying.
In the 2nd quarter, Kareem takes a seat and Mark McNamara enters the game, fresh off signing one of those 10-day free agent contracts. In less forgiving and less politically correct times, Mac would have been uncharitably called a big white stiff -- less than 2.0 in points and rebounds.
First time down the court. Magic spots that no one is taking the big lug seriously as an offensive threat, and so he snaps a marvelous pass through two defenders...that clanks off MacNamara's hands out of bounds.
The big kid purposely turns his head away from the court, feeling coach Pat Riley's eyes glaring at him when Magic grabs Mac's head, shushes him and merely points to his own eyes with both hands. Just look at me, kid, and you'll be fine.
Can you even imagine how to cool it was to play with Magic Johnson? If you run the court and keep your eyes open, the man will somehow get you the ball. Doesn't matter, if you just walked off the street. The total antithesis of a Scottie Pippen, who once refused to enter a last second playoff game because the play wasn't drawn up for him.
By the way, let's stifle the Pippen in the Greatest all-time fifty players list garbage right now. If it wasn't for MJ, Pippen would be a high school coach in rural Arkansas. Okay, maybe, he might have gotten a shot at coaching the Razorbacks by now.
All of the people mentioned so far are lightyears ahead of Pippen, and if it's rings that make the champion, then all of those Celtics rate above Pippen too.
Magic Johnson's actions that night in Milwaukee told everyone - from his team to his coach to the fans in the stands to the entire league -- you WILL guard everyone on my team or I'll take this lug and make him a star. For me, I'll take that over MJ's game anyday.
Moreover, I'd rather place Magic at No. 5 because I'd love to have seen him play point guard with Wilt, Kareem, Russell and Oscar. Let MJ have next game and he can take the next four in line to play against my all-time five.
Now that MJ's slipped to 6th place, there's another inconvenient truth for Bulls' fans. Jordan's ranking could soon be in jeopardy from the current generation of players.
I mentioned earlier that Tim Duncan may be the game's finest all-time forward already. He's got three rings and enough time to get three more to match MJ's six titles.
Don't look now, but we've come to Mr. Kalb's argument. Shaq has four rings now and a couple more would move him up the list. As of now, Timmy and Diesel get the next seats at the table.
A couple years ago, I thought Kobe Bryant could someday become the all-time greatest, but I don't think that way anymore. Maybe, he'll get his act together and more emulate Mike Jordan and not Mike Tyson, but I also wonder more lately if Kobe's not another Darryl Strawberry waiting to happen.
The last invitee to the party is Lebron James. After an MVP-worthy regular season, he showed he could be just as good in the playoffs by recording two triple-doubles and averaging 30.8 points -- Jordan averaged 43.7 in his first playoff season. James also became the first player to average at least 30 points, eight rebounds and five assists in the playoffs since Oscar Robertson (1963).
Add that to Lebron's 2003-04 NBA Rookie of the Year award -- becoming the first Cavalier and youngest player to ever receive the award as one of three rookies in NBA history to average at least 20 points, five rebounds and five assists in one season (O. Robertson, M. Jordan) -- and the case is made for the youngster to eventually become the all-time greatest.
In this, James' third season, he ranked
#3 in the NBA in Points Per Game,
#12 in the NBA in Assists Per Game,
#2 in the NBA in Minutes Per Game,
#2 in the NBA in Minutes Played,
#2 in the NBA in Field Goals Made,
#2 in the NBA in Field Goal Attempts,
#6 in the NBA in Free Throws,
#3 in the NBA in Free Throw Attempts and
# 2 in the NBA in Points.
Having seen all of the above players, I'd argue that Lebron's season -- and especially his first playoffs -- bears some consideration. He's the Joker in this deck -- we simply cannot say how good this guy could become.
As for those still on the Good Ship MJ, I see him being squeezed between the old schoolers and the newer kids on the block.
Michael Jordan, the all-time best? I don't think so.
John Shivers is in his 25th season as a journalist -- for the least two years producing and hosting a funk music show -- Back In The Day w/ Johnny Rasta -- on WSUM 91.7FM Madison, WI. Started in radio as a Morning Sports Reporter and Late Night DJ with WMAD 92FM. Served a quarter-centu ry as a sportswriter most recently, for the Milwaukee Shepherd Express, including stints as a beat reporter covering Major League Baseball (Milwaukee Brewers) and college football and basketball (Wisconsin, Marquette & UW-Milwaukee) . Born on January 5, 1957, John is the great-grandso n of slaves who first homesteaded in Wisconsin in the 1840's. He holds a BA in Broadcast Journalism (2001) from UW-Milwaukee with a Minor in Africology. John, now single, resides in Madison, WI with his beloved kittie: Black Jack (McDowell)
