LOUD NOISES
To be honest, I have no idea what I’m going to talk about—which means I probably shouldn’t write this first, but oh well. Be surprised.
Hm. Slow news week. Michael Jordan at the Ryder Cup, the Sonics buying new uniforms for Cleveland High School in Seattle (a story that reminded me of the boxer discussion in Naked Gun 2), Speedy Claxton breaking his hand—and that wasn’t even this week, actually. And it’s another week or so before the Christies’ reality show starts, which should be REALLY fun.
So what to talk about? No clue. Shawn Kemp’s comeback attempt? Tried with the Bulls but missed a day, was considered by the Sonics (oh please oh please oh please) but that doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen either. Hopefully the brotha can land on his feet somewhere and at least get a cameo appearance in the L this season (and hold off on smoking another L until he’s back retired for real).
What I should have written about earlier (and I guess it’s not too late) was Chris Mannix’s column on SI.com where he picked the Bulls to win it all this season. I mean, I’m as big a Bulls fan as there is, and even I think he was smoking something when he wrote that. I ain’t mad at the current squad—and I love love LOVE the fact that they swiped Ben Wallace from the Pistons, even if they had to slide him some extra cheddar—but I don’t see them as a championship team quite yet.
Look, I don’t think the Bulls have been through the fire enough yet to win a chip. Sure, they gave the Heat a little bit of a scare last year, but that was only the first round. You just don’t go from a first-round loss to a championship in a single season. Even MJ’s teams needed more time than that. I’m not saying that this Bulls team won’t win a championship eventually, but it just ain’t happening this year. They need to get to the Conference Finals first.
Which of course begs the question, who do I think WILL win it all this year? And now that I’ve painted myself into a corner, I guess I have to answer it. If I had to pick right now, I’m rolling with the Mavs. They did the trial-by-fire bit, and all of their key guys are still in their prime, or are just getting there. They suffered no major off-season losses, and most of the other contenders—Miami, Detroit, San Antonio—have either suffered personnel losses or just plain gotten older (Shaq’s gonna fall off HARD soon). It’s Dallas’s time.
Now, if we can just get Cubes to stop wearing those damn jerseys.
5 Responses to “LOUD NOISES”
Sep.27 at 3:00 am
OKNARB says:
hey Russ…so happen to be surfing when I came across this article by Rosen over at foxsports about all time dirtiest players and after reading this last sentence I thought of you. “But the worst offender on that team was Isiah Thomas. Zeke’s favorite little trick was exercised on defense, when he was wont to step on an opponent’s plant-foot just the unsuspecting player was trying to take off with ball in hand and jump to the basket. If the refs never caught on to this nasty business, Thomas’s peers were well aware that their careers were jeopardized whenever they tried to beat Zeke to the hoop. And this was the primary reason why MJ refused to play on the original Dream Team if Thomas was included on the roster.” .. who cares about the Zeke stuff.. you still want to tell me MJ had nothing to do with Toni K coming over late and riding the pine?
Sep.27 at 9:14 am
Russ Bengtson says:
I don’t doubt that Jordan had a LOT to do with Kukoc’s delayed arrival—and even potentially with keeping him on the bench—but I still HIGHLY doubt he was ever scared that Kukoc would steal any of his shine. I think he was just upset that Krause was salivating over Kukoc rather than redoing his and Pip’s contracts. Since he couldn’t take it out on Krause directly, he settled for messing with Toni.
Sep.27 at 12:27 pm
OKNARB says:
Umm… ok.. I’ll meet you halfway.
Sep.28 at 6:10 pm
albie1kenobi says:
poor Russ is getting slept on here. a much ado about nothing column, but there’s still some meat regardless. people gotta show some love to you!
like you, i definitely like Mavs’ chances this year, they kept their core players and brought in new blood that’s better. buckner is adrian griffin with a J, croshere fits in the already established KVH mode, devean george has championship experience, and anthony johnson is better than darrell armstrong. they’ll be nice this year.
suns though, as unconvinced as i am, will be interesting to watch. and i’m not sure the spurs made the right moves either.
Oct.1 at 1:12 am
Aaron says:
First I got to say I liked your old column/website/blog thing. It loaded up nice and quick but replying on this is so much easier. Anyway, as much as I would like to see the Mavs go all the way, I don’t think Dirk is going to last to end of the post season fitness wise. Dirk wasn’t as good in the finals as he was in even the conference finals. I think the toll of playing so many games and playing brilliantly in so many really showed in the finals. Every player who plays in the olympics or world championship always says they’ll be bettter for it because over the summer they were playing the best in the world but I’ve never seen it to be true. The offseason is very important for rest, especially when you play in the toughest league in the world. 82 games is a lot of games.