W.I.N.N.E.R.S.
Michael Finley. 8 threes. Of course.
Two days ago, I dedicated a large portion of W.I.N.N.E.R.S. to talking about Second Life. I mentioned that I am slightly freaked out by the realness of that “game.” This scares me. Anyways, last night I got an email to my personal account - not my work email - inviting me to join some group in my Second Life. I am officially terrified.
OH GOD. I wrote that paragraph, then checked my personal email and I got my second message from Second Life. Now I’m hiding under my desk.
Onto the W.I.N.N.E.R.S.
SAN ANTONIO: Fin dog! Michael Finley. Why do the Spurs always have these guys that do very little all year then erupt and hit 8 threes in a playoff game. Steve Kerr pulled the same stunt when they beat the Mavs to go to the Finals. Brent Barry does it now and then. Robert Horry invented it.
PHOENIX: I’ll just give it to Shawn Marion who gets slighted for trophies like it’s his job. The Lakers won a game in this series, and all it took was Lamar Odom stepping up through a tough injury, Kobe being “on” and finding the balance between helping his D League teammates and gunning, and Kwame Brown performing miracles like catching a pass. In other words they needed to play beyond perfect basketball to have a chance. They did not.
Now to work on the never-ending mystery of the slamonline contests page.
34 Responses to “W.I.N.N.E.R.S.”
May.3 at 4:32 pm
jbn74sb says:
Now that the Lakers are done, I am rooting for Golden State and Baron Davis, with his L.A. ties and phenomenal style of play. And I am also looking forward to Round 2 of Slam’s 50 Most Valuable Players, hopefully coming sometime in July-October.
May.3 at 4:33 pm
white hot eboy says:
Sam, that dude in second life looks like a chubby Jon Barry.
May.3 at 4:35 pm
Ryan Jones says:
Like many things, the internet can be a force for good or a force for evil. This is a force for evil. Or losers. It’s one or the other.
May.3 at 4:36 pm
DDC says:
Is there a number to quantify how low Kwame Brown’s Basketball IQ is?
May.3 at 4:39 pm
Ryan Jones says:
Actually, no. The more I think about it, Second Life is a place for people whose first one probably sucks. Hence, this sh*t is strictly for losers. Sorry for any confusion.
May.3 at 4:40 pm
Cheryl says:
2
May.3 at 4:44 pm
the brown guy says:
GSW and SUNs in the west finals please, that would SO entertaining.
and will the spurs please just DIE, i am tired of their consistancy, i respect you already, now back off dammit !
May.3 at 4:44 pm
white hot eboy says:
Ryan, I agree. “I’m a fat, bald Jon Barry lookin’ queen in my 1st life. If I pretend to live inside my computer I can pretend to be anyone,…. like a tall, athletic black guy, where I can join a pretend NBA team and know the plight of the black man by having more foul calls called against me.” Get the f*$k out of here!
May.3 at 4:44 pm
the brown guy says:
oh and can marion please win something,
SLAM can you invent an award to give him, the guy deserves it
May.3 at 4:45 pm
Cheryl says:
2, as in Kwame’s BBall IQ. I watched him try to make a move to the basket lastand put the ball on the floor like a foot past the length of his arm. If there had been a defender anywhere near, they would certainly have stolen the ball. And he STILL missed the shot he tried to put up. Dude is just tall that’s all. No skills and no common sense IQ either. I mean stealing a birthday cake?? How the hell do make that be a news story about your off court exploits??
May.3 at 4:53 pm
Jason says:
2 is two too high for Kwame. Does he even like playing basketball? I get the feeling we’re going to read about him retiring to dedicate himself to his real love of baking cakes or professional dog walking within the next couple of years.
May.3 at 4:56 pm
Keith says:
Why is Stone Cold Steve Austin pretending to be Molotov Alva?
May.3 at 4:58 pm
Sam Rubenstein says:
There was a really weird moment on Sunday when Kwame had left the game with an injury and he was interviewed by Michelle Tafoya on his way back to the court (which is unprecedented as far as I know). She asked what happened and Kwame responded “It’s cool. I’m good. Yeah.” Stuff like that. He might be in a coma.
May.3 at 5:06 pm
allenp says:
I agree, Kwame is a little off. It’s strange how big a deal people are making out of this NBA ref story. People are all upset that bias was even suggested, even though it was done by some random academics looking for publicity. People are falling over themselves to point out how ludicrous the idea it, even though nobody outside of the researchers and the NY Times has said it makes sense. Weird.
May.3 at 5:11 pm
jbn74sb says:
Lay off of Kwame. He’s nowhere near as bad as Olowokandi, who had the benefit of college. Yeah, his hands are bad, and yeah, he’s senstive. We know this. But the dude is 7 foot and built, and is (physically) quick, for his size. If they guy could stay healthy, he really could average like 12 and 10, all while playing on-man defense. It’s his help defense and reactions that are suspect, which is even more of a problem for the rest of the Lakers. But, although I have always been and will always be a Lakers fan, we should be talking about teams and players that are still in the playoffs. After all, as bad as the Lakers were this year, we (yes, we) still were better than most of the teams in the leauge. Most of the likely matchups in the next round are phenomenal, especially when you consider that the Warriors (a Compton summer league team version of the Suns) might match-up against Houston and it’s 7′6″ center.
May.3 at 5:15 pm
Joel O's says:
If he has the dexterity to steal cakes - those light, wispy, creamy confections - shouldn’t Kwame have better hands? Why can’t he apply his cake-stealing hands to say, catching a bounce pass? Or learning to dribble. Or nabbing rebounds? Maybe if Phil Jackson secretly went to the ball boys and made them write in black marker the words “Tiramisu”, “Chocolate Mousse” or “Strawberry Shortcake” on the game basketballs, Kwame would hustle more.
May.3 at 6:00 pm
Chad says:
My vote is for Kwame as defensive player of the year. He shuts himself down every night.
May.3 at 6:01 pm
data187 says:
my question is : why not play bynum?
kwame is bad, so bynum can’t be that bad…can he?
May.3 at 6:06 pm
DDC says:
There is one play that Kwame made specifically. I think it was early in the game and I believe Shawn Marion had a wide open layup and Kwame didn’t try to prevent him from making the layup, he just gave him a little shove in the back. If I were coaching, I would have pulled him right then and there because at that point you could see it was going to be one of those nights for him. He had a drop the cake type of night.
May.3 at 6:19 pm
deestarbuckz says:
Remember the Kwame lovefest just less than a week ago? Hmm… where has the love gone?
May.3 at 6:20 pm
Reggie Evans says:
Kwame Brown bobblehands doll.
May.3 at 6:21 pm
Max Airington says:
Thats hilarious.
May.3 at 6:35 pm
Reggie Evans says:
Max, my man, I had a hard time at work today. As the resident Kobe apologist, it was vurrry hard to defend him. Even with his leaky squad, Kob’ could have made better decisions. You ever notice that when he has the ball on the break, he doesn’t run to the middle, so that his teammates can run the wings? The only thing I could really get any traction on were the lack of calls when he would get hacked and lose the ball in the key. If only he would swing the ball more often to the weak side, just to get the defense moving, then get the ball back, he would make his life so much easier, because then at least the defenders would not be set when he made his one-on-one move. Agh. At least Lamar increased his trade value with that one game. Well, there’s always next year.
May.3 at 6:48 pm
Max Airington says:
I really couldn’t blame him for shooting. It was a no win situation. He didn’t make those shots, but I didn’t anyone else out there who was going to either. If he did make em, they would ahve won that game. But he didn’t. Most of them were pretty routine shots, so I dont know what happened. At least no one will call him a quitter this year. I guess I’ve been intetionally mum on it cause either way, the season is over for the Lakeshow. Now fixing that roster is a whole nother story. I love how people are still trying to hold Shaq over Kobe’s head as though the Lakers would be any better off being saddled with his $60mil over the next three years. Right now, I’d settle for the other O Neal.
May.3 at 6:50 pm
Max Airington says:
I noticed that he attacks from the sides rather than right up the middle cause he likes to use the rim as protection from the defenders for that reverse windmill he loves so much…
May.3 at 8:32 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
I am SO sick and tired of Shawn Marion complaining about being underappreciated. Shawn. My man. You have a MAX CONTRACT. You’ve been an All-Star. You play on a team that is TAILOR-MADE to your abilities. Every NBA fan on the planet knows who you are. So please, for the love of God, SHUT UP ALREADY. Christ.
May.3 at 8:42 pm
Michael says:
Whats funny is Kwame is actually very articulate and intelligent when you talk to him off the court. It’s just when he gets on the court he turns into a complete idiot.
May.3 at 8:43 pm
MagicChicken says:
For All those Kwame haters, I just want to remind you of how bad the Laker defense was when he wasn’t in the line up. That was what triggered the increidble losing streaks that defined this season for us. Say what you want about Kwame being horrible on offense, because it’s probably true. It makes you wonder if he’s worth the amount of money the Lakers are paying him (9 mil is it?). But without him, the Lakers were horrible on Defense, which is wierd considering how how low Kwame’s individual numbers were on the year. I bet if you did a comparison though, you’d see that half of the rebounds he could’ve had went to Lamar, and i wouldn’t be surprised if I saw numbers that showed Odom’s Rebs going up w/ Kwame in the lineup. Basically what I’m saying is Kwame is not the problem. His contract is a problem (damn you Mitch!) and his trade value was inequal (damn you Mitch!), but he’s still good for getting this team the defense it needs … For some reason Mihm, Bynum and Turiaf don’t have the same def. pressence he did, so Kwame has to be our guy unless the Lakers’ management can pull something off (but again, Damn you Mitch!)
May.3 at 8:47 pm
Michael says:
Why are laker fans complaining about shots that Kobe always take.
May.3 at 8:52 pm
Russ Bengtson says:
So Kwame’s kind of a poor man’s Jason Collins?
May.3 at 9:22 pm
Jeri says:
Kwame “the Least” Brown?
May.3 at 11:34 pm
Drolfe says:
That’s Kwame’s favourite defensive play: giving up an open dunk, and giving a slight push in the back. Not enough to effect the dunk at all, not enough even for the player to notice it. Just obvious enough for the refs to see it and make the easy call.
May.4 at 6:45 am
Gilbert0 says:
russ, i agree about your matrix comments. What does this guy do? Drive home from the game in his bentley, drink a bottle of expensive scotch then roll around on his pile of money crying because he only saw amare and nash jerseys in the crowd? dude is the perfect 3rd player on a team and is on a max deal. He has played with Marbury, Kidd and Nash. I would suggest he has had some good fortune in his life.
May.5 at 4:58 pm
Tariq says:
How about Elton Brand…would he be allowed to complain? I mean, he IS a Clipper…How about Marbury? Dirk?