Knock on Lebron James

This is what I think about Lebron James' success as an NBA basketball player. He is a superb athlete. He can run, jump, block shots, score, rebound, pass, and steal the ball. If he needs to improve on anything in basketball and life, it is his attitude towards winning an NBA championship. He needs to realize that he will not have all the tools to win an NBA title in one season or more. James needs to realize that the formula to creating an NBA-championship team is a process. During the 2009 NBA playoffs, when his team the Cleveland Cavaliers lost to the Orlando Magic in the east final, he left the court without shaking the opposing team's hands. He later said to the media that he is a winner and he felt bad for not winning the east final. Hello, Lebron James. Translation: You're a sore loser. Now, he is leaving Cleveland to join a Miami Heat team that has Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. He sees an opportunity to win an NBA title and he took it. He did not let fans know of his impending decision to leave Cleveland or the fact that he was announcing he was going to sign with Miami. I see Lebron James as an athlete, not a basketball player. He is a terrific athlete and I think he is gifted to play the game of basketball for his athleticism. He doesn't rely on his scoring ability or shooting to take over the game. This is what separates James from the great scorers of the game like Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan.

Big Three in Miami

There's a new trio taking form in Miami. Chris Bosh is joining Dwayne Wade and Lebron James to form one of the NBA's newest triumvirates. I believe that this Heat team belongs to Wade. James and Bosh are the supporting cast. Wade must take on the role of leading Miami and the burden of scoring. Bosh must help out Wade with his rebounding and shot-blocking ability, as well as his tendency to score low-post points. Lebron James' athleticism will again win the day for basketball games in Miami as he will display a wide array of athletic skills such as running, jumping, blocking shots, and getting steals. If there's anything getting in Miami's way, it is injuries. Wade, Bosh, and James must stay healthy throughout the entire NBA season. For Miami's supporting cast to develop, the Heat must get role players who are willing to take a back seat to James, Bosh, and Wade. These role players must be able to contribute to the Heat offense and defense as the entire Miami team revolves around the three superstars.

2010 NBA champs

The Lakers are NBA champs for the second consecutive year in a row by beating the 2008 NBA champion Boston Celtics. They won this year's championship series in renege to the year in 2008 when the Celtics triumphed over the Lakers. This year's champion Lakers won the 2010 NBA title because of Kobe Bryant's heroics in Game 7 in Los Angeles. He hustled for rebounds, he played defense, and most of all, he scored points for his team when it counted the most. The Lakers got contributions from Pau Gasol, Ron Artest, and Derek Fisher as L.A. built a six point lead in the fourth quarter of Game 7. Lakers sixth man Lamar Odom was a non-factor in the Lakers' championship victory in the final game, because he was unwillingly unable to make the big plays for his team. He showed support for his team by being a role player, saying that "we will win as a team." This is Phil Jackson's 11th championship ring, the most for an NBA coach in basketball history. Kobe Bryant noted that this was the most hardest championship series he has ever played in and it showed. The Celtics-Lakers rivalry has continued for 17 championship series and this series went the full seven games.

2010 NBA Playoffs

The playoff games of the 2010 NBA playoffs have had some entertainment value to them. I thought the most entertaining playoff series was the first round series matchup between the Chicago Bulls and the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Bulls play so hard and work hard to compete that I really thought they could upset the Cavs. Of course, Cleveland won their first round series with Chicago in five games. In the matchup of the number two seed Orlando Magic and the seven seed Charlotte Bobcats, Stan Van Gundy-coached Magic team led his team to a 4 games to none victory. The competition was nonexistent. In the other series bracket between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Atlanta Hawks, I found this series to be very exciting. The Hawks were very spirited and athletic and full of speed and superior size. The Bucks were a scrappy bunch of players who were at the helm of Milwaukee coach Scott Skiles, whose none-no-sense approach to basketball made him well respected. It was an exciting series when Milwaukee won Game 5 in Atlanta 91-87 and were appearing to win the series in Game 6. At halftime of Game 6, the players for Milwaukee were so excited they could not hide their excitement that they were actually going to win the series. Unfortunately for Milwaukee, they still had another half to play and Atlanta came out flat. This Hawks team came out on fire and destroyed the Bucks in Game 6 of the third and fourth quarter. The Hawks won Game 6, forcing a Game 7 in which they won 95-74. The Celtics took care of the Miami Heat in five game straight no contest.

In the western conference first round bracket, I saw a terrific series between the L.A. Lakers and the Oklahoma City Thunder. I thought at one point the Thunder were going to win the series because of their outstanding athleticism and competitive spirit and youth to overcome the more experienced Lakers. Nonetheless, experience prevails and the Lakers dispatched of the young Thunder team in six games. In a battle of Texas, the seventh seeded San Antonio Spurs faced the second seed, Dallas Mavericks. It was clearly an upset victory for the Spurs who reached the second round by defeating the Mavs in six games. The face-paced Phoenix Suns were no match for the half-court offensive team of the Portland Trail Blazers. The Suns were red-hot shooting the basketball and won the series 4 games to 2. In a battle between the Utah Jazz and the Denver Nuggets, both teams were struggling with injuries on both sides. The Nuggets' coach George Karl was out and the Jazz's best perimeter defensive threat Andrei Kirilenko was also injured. In what appeared to be a fiery series between the two teams with injuries, the Jazz won their side of the battle 4 games to 2.

In the semifinals, the Boston Celtics put the nails in the coffins of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Lebron James. Their stifling defense stopped the Cavs in their tracks. The Big Three trio of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen stopped the Cavalier offense with their defensive presence and prowess. Also, Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins have grown in their roles alongside the Big Three. They have managed to fit their talents by adding speed, defense, and hot shooting to their arsenal. In the other semifinal bracket, the Orlando Magic swept the Atlanta Hawks 4 games to zero. The Magic proved that the Hawks' athleticism and size could not match up with the Magic offense contributions from the starters and the bench. In order to beat a team like the Orlando Magic, you have to almost play perfect basketball. In the West semifinals, the series between the Lakers and the Utah Jazz were none-competitive nonewhatsoever. The Jazz-Lakers series was not a fun series to watch, because the Lakers are too good offensively and Utah is a subpar team that does not know how to win playoff games consistently. Also, the competitiveness of the Phoenix Suns and San Antonio Spurs was not evident at all. There was precisely nothing the Suns could do to the Spurs that was very competitive otherwise Phoenix won the series 4-0. It was a total dismantling of the Suns offense running rampant and wild over the Spurs.

Overall, this was a very disappointing coverage of the NBA playoffs. NBA teams did not play very well against each other and this led to total annihilation of NBA teams over the other, like the Orlando Magic trouncing of the Atlanta Hawks, the Phoenix Suns four-game rout of the San Antonio Spurs, the Lakers beating the Jazz in four straight games, and the Magic beating up the Charlotte Bobcats in four games. The only exciting games were the Bucks-Hawks series and the Thunder-Lakers series. If I were to give a rating of the NBA playoffs, I would give these games a seven out of ten.

Why the Atlanta Hawks Were Trounced By the Orlando Magic In the East Semifinals

The Hawks are a terrific athletic bunch of players from Josh Smith to Al Horford to Marvin Williams to Joe Johnson to Jeff Teague to Maurice Evans and Jamal Crawford. One thing that they won't succeed in doing is getting over the experience they have of playing against the best teams in the league. They're versatile enough to give you a good basketball game, but overall they need to acquire some kind of center that puts Al Horford at his natural position which is power forward. I think that with the veterans they have on this Hawks team, they don't have the experience to deal with the playoff adversity that they can handle on a professional level. Their inexperience to play almost perfect basketball showed against the Magic. Now that the Hawks have moved on from the Orlando Magic trouncing experience, Joe Johnson is a free agent. What can he do to make himself a better player on a much better basketball team?

USA Basketball

Look out, 2012 London Olympics. USA basketball may have problems trying to stay at the top of the basketball world. It all starts with team management of its players. Basketball stars such as Lebron James and Dwayne Wade are backing off their commitments of playing extended time for US basketball because of summer plans. Why are they doing this? The USA basketball program is not programmed for team dedication such as the overseas European basketball teams and the South American teams like Argentina. The US basketball program is used to having its own way in every way, shape, and form. They're not used to having team-oriented players who are able to do multiple things on a basketball court such as competing on every single basketball possession. That's what team USA basketball is unable to do. They were forced to compete against the opposing teams who were able to scrap, hustle, score, rebound, play pressure defense, and perform all the intangibles it takes to win games. So when Lebron James says he can't commit to a three-year playing spurt for team USA at the London Games commenting that he has summer plans, it just goes to mean that American basketball players have a lot more on their minds than just playing basketball and making drastic improvements on their games unlike the American counterparts who are dedicated to hone their basketball skills , countries such as Lithuania, Argentina, Spain, Puerto Rico, etc. USA basketball director Jerry Colangelo made an edict and he should not back down from it. His edict required that all basketball players who played previously for him would continue since 2009 until 2012 at the London Olympics. He should stay with this plan and propose that all players who play for Colangelo follow through on their 3-year commitment. This is why USA basketball isn't as dominant as was before in the past in the era of Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Michael Jordan. You can't put together star players who have complete and pure basketball skills and blend them together, making them work alongside each other. You need your players to understand the coach as a person, make the players relate to the coach as a person, they will understand why the players need to make this three-year commitment. USA basketball doesn't think like that. The thinking throughout these basketball years in the United States is that you can put together a group of NBA stars and win Olympic games and the gold medal without team cohesiveness and chemistry. Boy, has that thinking gone wrong. If anything, USA basketball is totally dysfunctional because of these types of unwarranted behaviors that nobody expects to read about. Nobody wants to hear about Lebron James or Dwayne Wade taking summer breaks off from basketball. They want to hear about their basketball heroes go to the training room and work on their skills.

2010 NBA Playoff Picture

As the NBA playoffs come around on April 17, I wonder which of the sixteen teams in round one will have a big bang on the start of things to come. The Cleveland Cavaliers, behind Lebron 'King' James are a heavy favorite, as are the Orlando Magic, whose dominant basketball plays belong to Dwight Howard and perimeter threat Vince Carter. Not far behind are the Atlanta Hawks, whose playoff positioning has them eager to go further in the NBA playoffs. With the Hawks' addition of Jamal Crawford in the offseason, they want to go the distance and sprint ahead to the NBA Finals. The fading Boston Celtics are still a perennial powerhouse, but they are a force to be reckoned with. Their Big Three of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen are aging and they do not seem to be getting better with age. Garnett's knees are no less young than they were of yesteryear. Paul Pierce is being nagged with injuries. Ray Allen is no less of a great defender as is Kevin Garnett is. Allen's sharp shooting has helped the Celtic offense spurts energy of points. As the Eastern conference ladder goes down for playoff positioning, the Milwaukee Bucks are fifth. They have been surging for throughout the NBA season. The Bucks have been led in part of Brandon Jennings, their point guard acquired in the off-season who has played in Europe and Andrew Bogut, their center. The Miami Heat, Charlotte Bobcats, Toronto Raptors, and the Chicago Bulls follow suit in the six, seven, and eight seeded spots. Currently, the Raptors and the Bulls are tied for the eighth spot. The Heat have been inspired by Dwayne Wade's play, not by his teammates, although Wade's supporting cast has shown brilliant basketball plays frequently on a night-by-night basis, but not enough to warrant a SportsCenter highlight reel. The Bobcats have been fired up by general manager Michael Jordan's 100% ownership of the franchise and Gerald Wallace and Stephen Jackson are leading the Charlotte franchise to their first-ever NBA playoff appearance. This is a big boost for their team morale and especially for Bobcats coach Larry Brown. I'd like to see the GM Michael Jordan-led Bobcats pull off an upset over one of the top four East teams in Cleveland, Boston, Atlanta, and Orlando.

In the West, you have the defending NBA champs in the L.A. Lakers. They are the top seeded team in the West seedings. The Denver Nuggets are second seeded behind Carmelo Anthony's scoring and Chauncey Billups' steady dose of floor leadership and poise. Dallas is third with Dirk Nowitzki's shooting as a seven-foot big man. The Mavericks' combination of Caron Butler and Brendan Haywood, who have been recently been acquired by Dallas are also a threat to be dealt with. Then, you have the Phoenix Suns, whose basketball play has brought them into fourth place. The play of Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire has been outstanding and none of the teams they played against have been able to stop the Phoenix duo defensively. Fifth seeded Utah are no better than they were last year. The Jazz are still the same engine that keeps running behind Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer. They do no better defensively and offensively on a game-by-game basis. The Portland Trail Blazers follow sixth. They are still trying how to win consecutive basketball games consistently. The reason how? Brandon Roy must take more shots selfishly. If Roy does that, then the Blazers will figure out how best they win basketball games. The San Antonio Spurs have fallen way off the map. They hold down the seventh seed. They won't be able to win the basketball games they want to, unless one of the teams they play against will sustain an injury to one of their players. That way, the Spurs will have a chance at least to win one playoff series. The Oklahoma City Thunder are in the eighth seed. The play of Kevin Durant and Jeff Green haven't been able to hold down the fifth seed as of March 18, 2010. If Durant's Thunder has a chance, they might not go back up to the fifth seed unless the Jazz lose games.