Widukinds Diary Entry #16

A franchise-savior at age 19.

I’m no basketball fan. I never really liked playing when I was younger, I hardly watch college unless it’s the tourney, and I even failed to get my free ticket for the Warriors bandwagon that left last April. But last night, after getting in to the appropriate mindset, I began to appreciate Utah Jazz basketball. This team is a machine. Every player on their team loves the game, cares about the game, and wants to win. They each play specific roles, and do them equally well. Regular people don’t know who Carlos Boozer or Deron Williams are. They just don’t. What makes this so much more impressive is when you broaden your thinking and begin to consider every guy in the NBA; each player has devoted his entire life to the sport, and they have pretty much nothing else going for them. This kind of thinking lends an understanding to the egotistical personality many professional athletes have, as they are thrown in to the most intense competition on the planet starting at age 8. The fact that the Jazz have been able to compile a group of guys who all play so incredibly well together is unbelievable.
This leads me to my second point; the Houston Rockets are not that team. I understand, they won 829,283 games in a row this year, they don’t have Yao, and Rafer Alston has been hurt. Even last night the Rockets almost mounted a surreal comeback in Utah, with Shane Battier and Alston hitting ludicrous threes followed by an emphatic tip-in dunk by Carl Landry to get the game within two. I was watching the game with two Jazz fans, and despite the Rockets surge they remained convinced the game was in hand. After Deron Williams missed his first free throw, I prophetically declared “Watch him miss again, but the Rockets don’t get the rebound.” Williams bricked, and Tracy McGrady got beat out by Mehmet Okur, followed by a dumb foul by Battier in a scramble for the ball. The Rockets lost.
Jazz>Rockets.
Watching the game (in the right mindset, of course), produced a cornucopia of good conversation. Every time I watch the NBA like this I constantly get blown away thinking about the lives of these kids, what freakishly good athletes they are, and how much weed they probably smoke during the season. Last night we began discussing the potential reemergence of the NBA as a true major sport in the US due to the constant influx of young stars today. The 2003 draft class was absolutely insane, with Lebron, Melo, Bosh, and Wade in the top 5 (Darko Milicic, we hardly knew ye). Kobe and AI were “wily” veterans by the time they were 25!
Now, look at that ’03 class. Lebron is disgusting, and singlehandedly wills his team through the season, and Bosh is sick but hasn’t won anything.
But Melo? If the Nuggets fall to the Lakers, he will have lost 5 playoff series in a row. He’s 24 years old, and he could already be the next TMac.
Dwyane Wade? Remember him? The country’s (and hungyfortacos) second-son as recent as 2006 has virtually fallen off the map after unabashedly throwing his body around for 3 years. Seriously, watch this video. He takes 3 jumpers in 4 ½ minutes, but ends up on the ground 8 times. It’s my theory that for three years Wade’s body hit the perfect synthesis, where he could play sick, injured, or dying of the Hanta Virus and still dribble to the lane through his legs and throw up H-O-R-S-E-worthy shots and consequently smash in to the court. Now, he’s a potential has-been at 26.
The 2003 draft class is now being complemented by the rising stars of Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Kevin Durant and Dwight Howard among others. In a few years, everyone in this Diary entry will still most likely be in the NBA; but imagine how many new phenoms will have entered the league by then.

This entry has been a bit rambly, and I didn’t even include half of the notes I took last night, so another entry will most likely be coming up quite soon. If you’re going to take anything away, it should be this: watch the NBA high. Trust me.

Out like Desean Jackson from my dreams. :(

PS. Last enstallment of Wonder Mike Radio this semester, tonight 12-2 AM at http://www.wmre.fm/. Should be a fun one.