And another one bites the dust. We may be hearing about how the players had lost respect for ol' Reggie, or how he didn't really handle practices well or whatever, but at least he looked like a million bucks in a well-tailored suit. And he was certainly a breath of fresh air after the putrid Musselman season. See ya around, Reg. I'm sure we will. I'm sure we'll see them all again.
Rub the shark's tummy! Strip originally appeared over at Ball Don't Lie!
So, I just got the Free Darko book, and yeah, wow, it's a sight to behold. I haven't absorbed it all yet, but I think you maybe should beat feet to your closest bookstore. And while you're at it I have a couple other hoops book recommendations. These aren't new, but I only read them recently and they relate to last week's strip.
Seven Seconds or Less: My Season on the Bench with the Runnin' and Gunnin' Phoenix Suns by Jack McCallum is basically what it sounds like. The writer was granted total access to the '05-'06 Suns and took lots of notes. Some of the best bits were the interactions between D'Antoni and his assistants. The mind-set behind their offense. Cute Barbosa anecdotes. Amare's child-like curiosity. Good stuff.
And even better, The Last Shot by Darcy Frey tells the story of the Lincoln High School basketball team, Coney Island, 1991. This book had a back cover quote from David Halberstam that snagged me, something like "This is a book I wish I'd written." Wow. Frey vividly describes the squalid poverty of Coney Island, and what basketball meant to the players and the neighborhood. The game is really their lifeline. Dreams of NBA riches are for the most part overshadowed by players desperate for college scholarships and chances to leave Coney Island. Of course, the team does feature a flashy 14-year-old Stephon Marbury. We know where he's gone, but it's important to see where he's from. And what happened to his less-gifted teammates? From the housing projects to unscrupulous Division 1 recruiters, this book doesn't flinch.
Hellooooooo, New York! Stare deeply into Steph's eyes. Lose yourself in a sea of Starbury. Originally appeared on Ball Don't Lie.
I don't really know what the New York management should do with these guys. I do find it somewhat hilarious that a fraction of pundits/fans are now grumbling that D'Antoni might as well play the guy, like a) he should be trying to win it all now with a poison roster rather than sorting out the wreckage, and b) like some solid minutes for Marbury would erase the brains of every potential trade partner in the association. Maybe he's not the only reason for the prominence of the term "mercurial point guard" but he's certainly the standard bearer. Sure, playing him might not be the worst thing either but I'm willing to give D'Antoni/Walsh a little more rope after years of Knicks teams wallowing in a hopeless pit of slime.
---JOSH
Originally posted at Ball Don't Lie.
Heeeeey, basketball is back. Whaddaya know. And with basketball comes it's dark mirror: fantasy basketball. I don't understand all of the details about why the economy is such a disaster right now, but I'm pretty sure that fantasy basketball is NOT going to help.
Originally posted at Ball Don't Lie.
HEY, the part of the year-round NBA news cycle when games are actually played is right around the corner. GTAS is online!
---Josh
Originally appeared at Ball Don't Lie.
OKC fans: welcome to Garbage Time All-Stars. Seriously! I know, this week's strip is a sore subject but please understand that we aren't hating on you or begrudging you the right to enjoy your team or anything like that. You had no team and now you do. You're happy and you should be.
What bugs us is not the fact that you have a team but rather that Seattle does not. It's Bennett's premeditated hijacking that leaves a bad taste. It's David Stern and the NBA and 27 team ownership groups who allowed it to happen (votes against: Portland's Paul Allen and Dallas's Mark Cuban).
So please cut the crap about the people in Seattle not loving their team enough, that they don't deserve a team, that they should have voted for a new arena, etc. There are a lot of great Sonics fans feeling this loss. This was politics and capitalism and powerful interests. Their team is gone. And you know what, a few years down the road it could happen to you too, whether or not you love your team.
When the season starts we will watch the OKC Thunder. We will be amazed by Kevin Durant and the promising bunch of youngsters Sam Presti has gathered. We will absolutely understand that you are happy to have a team. But when we think back on this business of how it came to pass we might also feel a twinge and have to use the can.
And I'm even a little sorry to contribute to the negativity at this point, but it is THE story of the off-season and we didn't want to let it go by without comment. Plus, the logo is hideous.
---Josh
It's one state you don't want to eff with. And you know the first head GSW mounts on a spike? Whatever soon-to-be-announced crappy mascot OKC churns out, whose suit will likely have been "relocated" from a Chuck E. Cheese employee break room. Thunderstruck my ass.
Another option would be change the name of the Warriors existing mascot to "The REAL Thunder."
Anyway, sit tight, all you bored people who read this site at work! After a brief champagne-soaked off-season Mark and I are recharged and ready to toast your retinas. Garbage time is nigh.
---Josh
This comic originally appeared at Yahoo!'s Ball Don't Lie.
And if you want an eyeful of scary, peep Coach Pop in the previous post.
---Josh
This is a fairly unflattering drawing of Gregg Popovich, and, well...yeah. By many accounts "Pop" is an affable, loyal guy, and he does a good job of coaching a basketball team. Still, any time he's interviewed, no matter what words are coming out of his mouth, his barely-concealed message seems to be, "I can't wait to piss on your gravestone."
We're also going to try to post additional stuff over here as much as possible. Stuff like these Odens I just drew, one happy and one classic expressionless:
Like a lot of internet dudes, I've fallen for Oden. I'm not particularly a Blazers fan, but I still want him to come back and win, like, 15 championships. Get well Greg!
Yeah, so anyway, look for the strips over at Ball Don't Lie, and keep checking this site because we are not going away.
---Josh
We're still going to post our comics on this site, only a week after they've run at Yahoo!. And we'll still be posting other NBA-related art stuff here too. But for now, travel at the speed of light over to Ball Don't Lie and drop some juicy kisses with tongue into the comments there.
---Josh
I don't want to hear about trades any more. Smash the trade machine. Anybody got a Tylenol?
---Josh
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