1-1 Baby!! Can you feel the heat?

The playoffs are here and most of the BS surrounding this team is gone. Even Jon Berry on the ABC is starting to look like he is constipated mulling over the idea that he is going to have to bite the bullet and admit he was was wrong. At the time of this submissions posting we are all tied up at 1-1 and no matter how this all turns out we will have proved everyone that it can be done.

I'm gonna pick you up if you are starting to feel worried or if we have lost already by the time you see this, we will be in the championship game for the next six years. Six years people, whether we win or not. This will make everyone who cares at all about sports feel good about being here or being from here and it's a great bargument starter. The economy will pick up and your neighbors will be that much more friendly.

I personally am not feeling any stress. In fact I'm loving it. So we go into Dallas and what, you think Lebron or Wade will let us fall three straight? You're crazy! It'll never happen. The worst I see us coming out of Dallas is down 3-2 and honestly I only think we will lose one out of the three games there but even if we do lose a couple out there will still have a great chance of killing them because our guys are young and can go harder longer. Boo-Yah.

Heat Playoffs Finally Here

Well this is the time we have been all been waiting for since well last summer, it is finally NBA Playoff 2011 time. We all know the regular season is a joke, it is such a marathon that us fans have to witness players coasting through the motions in at least a quarter of the games. Sure most teams get up for games against the best competition which the Heat didn't even do this season but they will in the playoffs for sure. It is unfortunate that this happens but no doubt James, Wade and Bosh and the rest of the Heat will be dialed in now and despite the disappointment of many fans the Heat still finished the regular season with the third best record in the NBA which isn't half bad. When you look at history the NBA odds are in favor of a Heat 2011 championship team, there is just to much talent like we all dreamed of this summer to expect anything else as in the NBA talent is usually what gets you titles not lucky runs or great team play or even the best defense as in some other sports.

If you look at the Heat's overall stats this season they are 8th in points per game and 6th in points allowed, while they don't lead the league in either category with the combination of the two they are the most balanced team offensively and defensively in the NBA. While many are afraid of the two great defensive teams in the East in the Celtics and Bulls which is warranted as these are two excellent foes this season the Heat have plenty of defense of their own so I am not as worried about that. To me it all comes down to the number of players a team has when everything else is a wash and the Heat have James, Wade and Bosh and that is more high level game changers than the rest can offer so I say the run of championships starts this season.

No Room for Hate

I am not the first nor will I be the last to be fed up and frustrated with hate. Hate is such a useless emotion. It takes too much energy and time to hate and people need to just stop. When something comes up in today's world and the race card is pulled for the most part people say it's unfounded to think race plays an issue and that racism is long gone and or only confined to the Deep South. If you believe that than you're either in denial, blind or lucky because racism is definitely still a part of this world and very prevalent in our society. When being employed by someone you usually have to take certain things you normally wouldn't put up with from friends or family. Because I am white, other white people feel free to spew their hate and vitriol toward blacks and Hispanics at me when none are around. That's where I draw the line in things I will take from someone giving me money. I'll take a lot from an ignorant customer including being schooled in how to do my job but when I hear hate pouring out of their mouths I tell them to stop and respectfully request they not use it around me again, even though they deserve no respectful request.

They used to be able to hide under white sheets and even when I reprimand a single person for using such language he or she still remain hidden from everyone's view. That's not the case in today's world. The media swirling around can make a person dizzy and keeps us informed of every bowel movement of our favorite stars. It's been a famous persons cross to bear having to be constantly gossiped about and followed around but now it is working in their favor. Lebron James retweeted to his thousands of followers a tweet he had received from an ignorant fool named Ryan Outrich from Strongville, Ohio. It said, "@KingJames continuation to my last tweet, u r a big nosed big lipped bug eyed n*gger, ur greedy, u try to hide ur ghettoness." By the way, just so you know he wasn't courteous enough to censor his words. It was immediately picked up by the media and passed on to me a few hours after it happened. Now these asses can't hide anymore and more and more we are going to see these ignorant fools being found out for who they are. Twitter immediately suspended Outrich's account but if you would like to send him a piece of your mind he is still on MySpace.

With the world closing in on everybody nobody has much privacy anymore. My friend showed me a free application she downloaded on her iPhone that allows her to track anyone by just entering their telephone number. Average people are making overnight celebrities much more often than ever before and this is all due our ever increasing interconnectivity. Hell, my television has Wi-Fi so I can check my Facebook on TV. Now we will hopefully see more overnight international idiot sensations like Ryan Outrich called out before everyone and make them feel shame for their stupidity and the hurt they cause. If they continue to go unchecked then they may never know how dumb they really are.

 

New Look USA Basketball

Big subtractions from the U.S.A. basketball team will give Coach Mike Krzyzewski a challenge that he is more than used too. He is built for the turnover of players that occurs in college basketball and is perfect for the job again to bring together this new look team. Out go Lebron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Kobe Bryant, Dwight Howard and everyone else. This new team won't have the any of the superstar talent it had in '08 but I have no doubt we will still be a dominate force in the international arena even starting from scratch. Also having Kevin Durant can't hurt.

While teams like France, Brazil and the rest of the world will be bringing back their star NBA athletes, we here in America have the talent pool to completely turnover the roster and still put superstars on the floor. The biggest additions of all being Kevin Durant who will be expected to put up big offensive numbers and Chauncey Billups who will be there for his veteran Leadership. That was the job formerly held on the '08 team by Jason Kidd. Kidd won't be playing on this team but has been brought back in a mentoring role and should be able to help coach 'em up. Danny Granger and Stephen Curry are two great young talents that I can't get enough of. Granger the more established of the two but Stephen Curry's rookie year last year gave everyone a preview of what's to come.

The biggest problem we will have to overcome is not the quality of our players but gaining cohesiveness in only two weeks and battling teams that have been together for a while in time for the FIBA World Championships. Also they will have to adjust to the rules of the international game which are going to take some time but no matter how we do in the world championships this should be a great team when the next Olympics roll around.

Steve Cochran II

8/23/10