NBA Playoffs 2010

[sinobball]

maybe even into July, does anybody know??

I know, the answer is NO. Only summer leagues in July. NBA Finals are over by mid-June.

[mvblair]

I know, the answer is NO. Only summer leagues in July. NBA Finals are over by mid-June.

Oh! That's a good idea, though! A Summer League game might be fun for Mark and his wife, too. Mark, summer league games are for players who are trying to get into the NBA or young players who don't get many opportunities to play. Your wife might enjoy a summer league game! Those schedules are not firm yet either, but the tickets are very easy to get and pretty cheap (maybe $10 for a good seat). That's another thing for you to think about!

[sinobball]

Oh! That's a good idea, though!

The problem is summer leagues are now all in Las Vegas. There used to be one in Long Beach, California but it got folded.

Of course if he's that desperate he can make the 5-hour drive, but I still say go for the WNBA game if you want to watch basketball.

[Wu-Tang]

Roy may even get back already vs the suns:

PHOENIX - One day after Brandon Roy did his first post-operative activity, the Trail Blazers are leaving open the option that the All-Star guard can return in the playoffs, perhaps as soon as the first round series against Phoenix.

http://blog.oregonlive.com/behindbla...open_to_b.html

Marvelous news!

[Creyes11111]

I am sick of the Lakers! Go Cavs!!!!!!!!

[eliooo93]

Game 2 tonight between The Suns and Portland is very important. Phoenix HAS to win, they can't afford to lose another game

[eliooo93]

Day 4:
Atlanta 96-86 Milwaukee
Boston 106-77 Miami (KG DNP because of the suspension)
Phoenix 119-90 Portland ( they needed this one)
Lakers by 4 with 12 minutes left.

[kaiziken_pinas]

GO thunder! KILL THE LAKERS!

[sinobball]

Hold on OKC, almost there...

[rski56]

Spurs evens series at 1-1. Dirk was contained this time.

[LordOfLeyte]

The 0-2 state of the OKC Thunder against the Lakers is not as bad, if seen in the perspective of a long term approach for this young cast coupled with some veterans. If they continue to improve and add more pieces, we can most likely see a contender in the next 2 years as the Lakers are on their prime and peaking at this point and somewhere down the line, old teams must give way.

[mvblair]

Wow, Chicago beat Cleveland! I'm really surprised. LBJ, Jamison, and Williams all had 19+ points. Unfortunately for us, Hinrich and Rose came to play. It's too bad that their two best players are both PGs. Looks like Vinny Del Negro is basically using a 7-player team with Brad Miller and Flip Murray coming off the bench. Good win for Chicago. I expected a sweep for Cleveland.

LA also lost behind pathetic shooting from Kobe. He needed 29 shots to make 24 points. Durant and Westbrook had great nights. I never expected Westbrook to be so good, but from what I'm reading, the kid is a great one-on-one player.

[Saskibaloia]

Here's a nice article for those who aren't fans of Kobe: "Is Kobe Bryant just like a cranky, arrogant Hollywood movie star? Or worse?"

[Saskibaloia]

LA also lost behind pathetic shooting from Kobe. He needed 29 shots to make 24 points.

This is a demonstration of the "Kobe of Old" slowly coming out of Kobe and his obsession in taking over the game all by himself. Doesn't this guy ever understand that basketball is a team game and that if his team is to repeat he should start using the immense offensive weaponery he has at his disposal rather than try to beat the opposition all by himself.

[brown bullet]

he rockes !

COOL

But lbj lost to rose

But lbj lost to rose
because
they did not play hard they lost by 2

cf he lost

but look Saskibaloia THIS IS KOBE With the first round of the NBA playoffs in full swing, I've found myself absorbed in the sports pages more than ever, which is what drew me the other day to a surprisingly heartfelt lament from my colleague T.J. Simers, who in the course of assessing Lakers star Kobe Bryant's often chilly and contemptuous attitude, asked the question: "I know why Kobe is angry and unhappy with me, but what's he got against everyone else?"

T.J. said that Bryant plays a game for a living, "but there is no joy in his play, no indication that he's having a good time, no exuberance.... He struts out on the court when the starters are introduced without a glance, handshake or anything else directed to his teammates -- as if he's just arrived and now they can play the game." Even though Bryant has won innumerable games with buzzer-beating jump shots and helped earn the Lakers four NBA titles, outside of L.A. he is viewed as a gifted basketball player who has a heart of stone.

My 11-year-old son is a die-hard basketball fan, but while he respects Kobe's amazing skills, he has far more affection for LeBron James or Dwyane Wade, who to him display a passion and a playful exuberance that Kobe lacks. As my son often says: "It's hard to like someone who always looks like he's mad." Maybe that's why many top sportswriters, starting with ESPN Sports Guy Bill Simmons, routinely disparage Bryant for his arrogance and selfish play (when Kobe scored 61 points against the woeful Knicks, Simmons noted: "THREE ASSISTS AND NO REBOUNDS. Talk about a team guy"). There's even a I Hate Kobe Bryant Facebook page devoted to fan diatribes against Bryant.

But what struck me most about T.J.'s column, which painted a picture of a star who always looks upset, isn't approachable, holds the media in contempt and seems full of distrust and disdain, was how much that description reminded me of Hollywood stars like Russell Crowe and Sean Penn, who go around with a perpetual chip on their shoulders, unable to show any joy or take any delight in their own line of work. Like Kobe, Crowe always looks like he's mad while Penn is routinely grim and humorless, even when he accepted a best actor Oscar last year for his starring role in "Milk."

I'd be the first to admit that there aren't always exact comparisons when it comes to stacking up athletes against showbiz personalities. But I'd argue that we give far more love to the personalities who exude an air of self-deprecation, grace and humility. The great icons of sports, from Willie Mays to Magic Johnson to LeBron, have played the game with unbridled joy. In their own way, our favorite actors have this trait as well. There was always a mischievous gleam in Paul Newman's eye, the same gleam you see from Jack Nicholson, George Clooney and Robert Downey Jr.

They let us know that they are having fun. You never got that from Brando, William Holden or George C. Scott, who were among the best actors of their day, but were so prickly and full of self-loathing about their own craft that they pushed us aside, uncomfortable with any acclaim. You could easily argue that Kobe, like Penn and Crowe, has a lot in common with Tiger Woods, who strikes many fans as similarly chilly and remote, despite all of his recent efforts at image rehabilitation.

In virtually every instance, it's hard to get past their chilly exteriors because they refuse to show any vulnerability. Fans are suckers for vulnerability. It's why we always open our hearts to stars who've become ill or infirm or show up at Oscar time when it looks as if it might be their final bow on the stage; think about Charlie Chaplin, John Wayne or Peter O'Toole, who basked in the glow of a prolonged outpouring affection from their peers that wasn't always evident earlier in their careers.

It's no secret that fans are fickle, but our adoration for stars is often even more elusive and mysterious than that. Why is it, for example, when it comes to late-night TV, that Jay Leno has the higher ratings but David Letterman remains the clear media favorite? Not to mention the fact that when the NBC "Tonight Show" succession plan crashed and burned, Conan O'Brien was greeted with a huge wave of support, even though far more viewers tuned in for Leno?

These are not entirely answerable questions, though it's unassailably clear that Leno and Letterman are TV's version of Yankees stars Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter. They are all titans, but it's Letterman and Jeter who are beloved, perhaps for the way they play the game, perhaps for their easy insouciance, while it is Leno and A-Rod (despite their huge contracts) who inspire the least amount of love, always coming off as slightly bland, robotic and carefully controlling. To put it in a word: manufactured (which is a nice way of saying "fake").

Stardom is such an ineffable thing. Everyone thought Jude Law was going to be a star, but it never quite happened. Who knows why? Kevin Costner was a huge star, but his marriage fell apart -- there was an incident with a hula dancer -- and suddenly that special gritty charm he had (remember how great he was as the aging, all-too-knowing ballplayer in "Bull Durham"?) simply evaporated, like the puffy cloud of chalk dust that LeBron tosses up in the air every night before his Cavaliers games.

Crowe was going to be this generation's Steve McQueen, but just as soon as he won his Oscar for "Gladiator" and seemed to have the world at his fingertips, well, he slowly started to let it slip away. Was it really because he behaved badly, like the time he threw that phone at the hotel clerk? Was it because he packed on some pounds? Because he took some bad parts? Those are mysteries that remain unsolved, but inside Hollywood, no one is betting that "Robin Hood" is going to instantly turn things around.

All I can say is that if stardom is hard to achieve, it's even harder to hang on to once you've got it. Everyone thought Ben Affleck, both handsome and smart, would be a huge star, but he turned out to be like the young baseball phenom who had a couple of big seasons, then washed out when the league discovered he couldn't hit that slider on the outside corner. Instead, it was his less-flashy counterpart Matt Damon who proved he had the chops to make it in the big show. Joaquin Phoenix has more talent than about 83 other young actors combined, but he's even flakier than Ron Artest and Dennis Rodman combined, so no one's expecting that he's going to be playing a high-flying superhero anytime soon.

Nicole Kidman has great acting chops, but she isn't a star. Why not? The simple answer is that we respond more to actresses who exude warmth and vulnerability, which is why Sandra Bullock, Julia Roberts and Reese Witherspoon are stars, while Kidman ends up with the art-house roles. As I've said before, she's too chilly and distant for the multiplex mainstream.

Jeff Bridges isn't a big star, but he's a gamer, like the Atlanta Braves' Chipper Jones or the Angels' Torii Hunter, beloved by his peers for respecting his craft and doing everything the right way. It's why Bridges won the best acting Oscar this spring. He gave a helluva performance in "Crazy Heart," playing the country music equivalent of an over-the-hill slugger trying to hang on for one more season, but he got the Oscar not just for the role but for his work ethic. Whenever I heard people in the industry talk about Bridges, it wasn't just to offer praise for his acting, but for the way he behaved on movie sets, for being a class act to everyone, whether they were a fellow actor or the lowliest grip in the crew.

Those are the little things that make reputations. In the reverse, you could tell that no one in the business was rooting for Jason Reitman to win for best director for "Up in the Air" (not that he actually had a chance anyway) largely because he was perceived as trying to take all the bows for concocting the film's story, even though another screenwriter shared credit for the finished script.

So maybe it's the little things that shape and shift our perceptions of stars, whether it's what happened to Tom Cruise after he took that fatal leap on Oprah's couch or the way Phil Mickelson joyously hugged his wife, who's battling breast cancer, after he won the Masters. If Tiger had won, he would have had to hug his caddy. Tiger's wife has flown the coop after he brazenly ruined their marriage. He may win plenty more golf tournaments, but it'll be a long time before we'll be looking forward to sharing those triumphs with him.

The same goes for Kobe. He's the greatest player of his era, but like Crowe or Penn or Cruise, for all his talent, he's missing that mysterious chromosome in his DNA that allows the kind of vulnerability that makes him unabashedly beloved. In 2003, the Miami Heat retired Michael Jordan's jersey, even though he'd beaten them like a drum over and over during his career. It's a sign of true regard when an opposing team retires an opponent's jersey, the equivalent of one of those spontaneous standing ovations at the Oscars.

But can anyone ever imagine an opponent doing that for Kobe? As one NBC sportswriter put it: "The only way the Phoenix Suns would hang a Lakers No. 8 or No. 24 from the rafters is if Bryant was still wearing the thing."

Photo: Kobe Bryant, left, argues with a referee after a foul called on him during the first half of an April 4th game against the San Antonio Spurs in Los Angeles.

Credit: Jae C. Hong / Associated Press READ About kobe !

he is so king

[Saskibaloia]

Why Kobe isn't the King of the NBA!

And just for you: Why LeBron James Is Better Than Kobe Bryant

Enjoy the truth

[eliooo93]

OKC ties the series! You never know, this series might turn into a huge upset!

The Suns are tied with the Blazers and the lower seeded Jazz and Spurs are both leading 2-1. That's why you gotta love the Western Conf.

[Khalid80]

OKC ties the series! You never know, this series might turn into a huge upset!

The Suns are tied with the Blazers and the lower seeded Jazz and Spurs are both leading 2-1. That's why you gotta love the Western Conf.

True that. The teams in the Western conference are so evenly matched. I honestly thought Portland and OKC would be no match for Phoenix and L.A but I was obviously mistaken (I wasn't counting on Roy playing for Portland though )

[Wu-Tang]

Where Brandon Roy coming back a week after a surgery happens..

[footballbizz]

The Lakers´s players are playing very bad and now it will be complicated the qualify to the next round. Bynum, Kobe are not 100% and the bench´s players do not have good level
we will seee