McWuncler's All-Americans: Brandon Jennings

To kick off this new monthly installment, we choose Brandon Jennings in honor of his challenging of convention, sticking it to the man, and overt commission to the cause of paper-stacking.
How does one 18-year-old do such a thing? Well, he goes from high school to the pros, of course. The latest Oak Hill Academy (VA) and University of Arizona signee says he is entertaining the prospect of going overseas to play next year instead of Arizona.
This is extremely interesting, as Jennings would be the first American to do this. Currently, the NBA has a very silly rule about players needing to be one year removed from their high school’s graduating class to be eligible for the NBA draft. This move, David Stern thought, would make American players go to college, and cease the influx of high schoolers making the jump to the league.
I have several issues with this rule. To begin with, why is it necessary? There are for sure a few players who will fall through the cracks and never amount to anything except for a flash-in-the-pan pipe dream, but since when do we actually care? Furthermore, it’s not like the NCAA needs help, college basketball is just as popular as it always was, and always will be. They continue to make money hand over fist, and the NCAA Tournament continues to be one of the most watched events in America every year (despite the god-awful broadcasting of CBS). As far as the NBA is concerned, high school kids making the jump weren’t exactly hurting their product either. The three most marketable NBA athletes are Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Kevin Garnett. If you forgot, not a one of these guys took a single class of college. That is to say nothing of Dwight Howard, Monta Ellis, Tyson Chandler, Tracy McGrady, etc.
As far as the college game is concerned, the college option has always existed to serve as a training ground for kids to hone their games, and if the NBA becomes not a realistic option, then a chance to earn a degree and better one’s social status by that avenue. The one-and-done rule creates an environment where schools compete with lucrative options, all the while ignoring the essence of what college hoops used to be about. O.J. Mayo snubbed traditional schools like UNC and Duke, because he wanted to go play ball in Hollywood. The more fun the school, the more apt they are to attain a high class recruit that will only be playing in college for one year. Think about it: Kevin Durant, Texas; Greg Oden, Ohio State; Derrick Rose, Memphis; Kevin Love, UCLA; Michael Beasley, Kansas State; the aforementioned Mayo, USC. All party schools, and with the exception of UCLA, all schools that don’t have the established basketball traditions of the UNCs, Dukes, and Kansases of the world.
So Brandon Jennings, visionary, enlightened, international man of mystery, has figured out a way to prove that the rule is not only unnecessary and possibly hurtful, but also pointless, since there is a clear path around it. Granted, Jennings has established a few qualifiers in a coach who can work with him, a fellow American on the team, etc., but the mere thought of balling overseas instead of wasting a year is pretty outstanding. Just because he’s thinking about it this year means that if he doesn’t go out of the country, soon someone will.

Scot Pollard: NBA Champion

Seriously?

As happy as Boston-area weed dealers and hairdressers are that they now get to hang around with a vaunted pillar of the basketball society, I think it's time to address the fact that it is more than an injustice for this guy to get to say that he is a World Champion.

That, and, I really don't have a whole lot to say about the latter half of the playoffs.

The Kobes played great against the Spurs, and were given a game due to Joey Crawford's long-standing hatred of the team. I'm really not sure how Joey Crawford is still allowed to be a ref for Spurs game, but it's ridiculous that he is. I echoed Brent "Bones" Barry's sarcasm after the NBA admitted he was fouled by Derek Fisher at the end of the game in question when he said, "Oh really? Awesome! Because Doc Brown's waiting outside, we're gonna hop in the Delorean, fire up the Flux Capacitor, go back in time, and shoot some free throws!" Apologizing is well and good, especially when a mistake is made, but let's try to prevent such things from happening. Namely, don't let Joey Crawford in the time zone where the Spurs are playing.

The Celtics took it to the Pistons. I was pretty disappointed at the level of play from the Motowns. I just simply expected more. I mean, the Hawks take the C's to seven, with Joe Johnson and Josh Smith making everybody look stupid, then the Cavs take them to seven, with LeBron doing some amazing work, especially in that deciding game, and then the Pistons get blown out? What's going on?

Finally, it seems that the Celtics got their acts together in the finals. Ray Allen made a jump shot, P-double played great, Garnett was brilliant at times, but always made up for his non-brilliance by committing himself to intangibles.

Also, Kobe was outmatched. He may be the best player alive, but he can't beat the best defensive team, with the best defensive player, by himself. As great as that (un)supporting cast played against the Spurs, they were horrendous in the Finals. What's more, is that Kobe's true leadership colors showed through. If you rewatch these games for any reason (you would have to have them on tape, because they all sucked, and won't be on ESPNClassic or NBA Hardwood Classics anytime soon), a main thing to notice is the difference in camaraderie between the two teams. Every timeout, the Celtics are in the huddle, doing something homoerotic (ass-slapping, hugging, whispering sweet nothings into each other's ears). Every time the Lakers got together, which they rarely did, there were nothing but scowls and shouting. Even Jordan Farmar was barking at his teammates at one point in time. The team needed Kobe, not to score points and be great, but to rally them. It would have been a great confidence boost to lousy-shooting-Lamar and Pau-erless to have the best player in the world tell them to keep their heads up and to keep trying. But he didn't. He was too worried about PR stunts like kissing his daughters in the tunnel on the way to the locker room during halftime. Furthermore, 100% of Celtics players that ended up on the floor were helped to their feet by teammates. Nearly none of the Lakers were afforded the same courtesy.

Regardless, this was quite the anti-climatic season. The regular season was unbelievable, but then the best playoff game was first round, Game 1, Spurs-Suns. There were a couple of good Magic-Pistons games, and Game 7 of Celtics-Cavaliers was an entertaining shoot-out, but they pretty much paled in comparison to that first game. And then it ended with those two teams, which gave us really nothing to watch. Thanks for nothing.

The draft is coming up today, and if need be, I might post a little freestyle by a guy named Shaq.

The NBA: Where tasting asses happens.

speaking of jesus...

....here is the greatest song ever. -MWMF

Jesus finally wins

I'm not that big fan of the NBA. No team ever showed up in STL and I root for the Griz like the cleveland fans root for the indians in Major League. With that being said, i'm happy for Ray Allen, he always seemed like a cool guy and somebody I would love to have on the mythical St. louis supersonics (a whole other post) anyway congrats jesus you somehow found a way to make a basketball movie better than hoosiers.

More fun sports commercials

It's not really a sports commercial. However,per request from the Big Pete... enjoy

The NBA: Where getting bounced early happens.

It's been a month, and 16 teams have been whittled down to 4. It's been pretty great to watch, even though there have been very few surprises. Here's a round-by-round break down.

Western Conference, Round 1.

-Lakers beat the Nuggets. Duh.
-Jazz beat the Rockets. If the Rockets with Yao couldn't beat the Jazz in the first round of last year, why would the Rockets without Yao do it this year? There was one slightly funny moment, in that a bunch of polygamists protested outside Salt Lake's Energy Solutions Arena, saying that Texas is violating the Civil Rights of polygamists. Shows how out of it these people are. First of all, the only thing the state of Texas is doing is sending a bunch of child molesters to a just punishment: being anally raped by H-town gangbangers until they die a lonely and depressing death. Second of all, saying that Houston has anything in common with where that compound was is silly, since they're about 500 miles away from each other. Kind of like saying these protesters have anything to do with Las Vegas debauchery.
-Spurs beat the Suns. This one is depressing, because the Suns are great fun, maybe even my second favorite team in the NBA. The fact that they keep having to run into the Champs is just painful. Furthermore, it kind of set off a bomb in the valley of the sun, causing the exit of D'Antoni.
-Hornets beat the Mavericks. Mavs suck, and they fired the only person who could have done something about it, Avery Johnson.

Eastern Conference, Round 1.
-Celtics beat the Hawks. This one was hilarious, because there's no reason it should have lasted seven games if the C's are really that good. It also shows that the Hawks could do something good next year, provided that they hang on to Josh Smith and Joe Johnson. Furthermore, it provided the best new drinking game: drink anytime Josh Childress does anything.
-Cavaliers beat the Wizards. I don't think there's much good going to come out of Washington in the near future. Unless Gilbert explodes because next year is his contract year.
-Magic beat the Raptors. This is another example of two teams I want to see do well having to play each other way too early in the playoffs. Sorry, Toronto, your team is still good.
-Pistons beat the 76ers. Pistons should have destroyed this team, but they didn't. Makes the East look really suspect.

Western Conference, Round 2.
-Lakers beat the Jazz. Good series, but the Kobeshow is pretty unstoppable this year. One thing that I noticed is that at one point in time, the Salt Lake newspaper began to compare Carlos Boozer to Karl Malone, saying that for all his talents, he will never get it done in the post season, and Utah should get rid of him. Needless to say, *EDITED FOR CONTENT*.
-Spurs beat the Hornets. Could the Spurs please beat a team that I don't like? Please? Chris Paul, David West and Tyson "Straight outta Compton" Chandler are awesome, and were undeserving of the fate of playing the Champs. Although it went to seven games, it was an odd series, because all the games were pretty much home court blowouts. There are two things to point out. Robert "the Hitman" Horry did not cheap -shot David West, it was just an unfortunate collision. The second thing is how wacky New Orleans games are. Whenever Peja hits a shot, a bunch of dudes start running around with enormous cutouts of Peja's face. It looks hilarious. The first game was delayed because the Hornets arena staff doused one end with fire-extinguisher dust. The famous people in the crowd involved Forrest "Ghost Dog" Whittaker, Bow Wow, and Wendell "Bunk Moreland" Pierce. Finally, game seven was delayed because people started hucking stuff onto the court. In addition to that, the crowd would boo for the duration of every Spurs possession of all 4 first quarters. I'm all for fans getting into the game, but *EDITED FOR CONTENT*.

Eastern Conference, Round 2.
-Celtics beat the Cavaliers. If the C's think they're going to win a championship without winning an away game, they're dead wrong. Also, if you can't win one fucking game at the Phillips Arena in Hotlanta, you won't be winning one in the Palace at Auburn Hills in the D. Count on it. I was sad to see the LeBrons to get bounced, but at least LeBron can get back to his true love, marketing himself.
-Pistons beat the Magic. I was singing the praises of the Magic this entire year, but they got plain out-experienced. And Tayshaun will toss your shit for no reason. And the almighty Sheed played out of his mind. Finally, the Magic need someone else to take the big shot at the end of the game besides Hedo "Hedon't Turkeyglue" Turkoglu.

Let's all enjoy the draft lottery and the Conference Finals, although the true championship will the the Western Conference. Finally, I will leave the the parting prophecy that two things need to happen for the Spurs to win it all. I can't be in Texas, and it has to be an odd-numbered year. Things don't look good, but I would love for there to be an exception that proves the rule, especially because the Big Island doesn't have too many miles left.