COLUMN: NBA thriving despite rough start
NBA Commissioner David Stern is one lucky man.
He’s like that basketball referee that messes up real bad in the first quarter, i.e. the lockout and the Chris Paul trade extravaganza, but then gets bailed out because the rest of the game is so intense and exciting and no one seems to remember his mistakes from the first quarter — except of course the Lakers.
We’re less than two months into the NBA season and it seems like the NBA lockout never happened, well besides the seemingly endless amounts of back-to-back-to-back games and players coming up lame all over the court. The excitement the 2011 season ended with is definitely back, and maybe even to a greater degree this season.
Stern couldn’t have asked for more storylines to keep things exciting and rolling throughout the year. Not only did he personally see to it that Chris Paul ended up on the Clippers and not the Lakers, but somehow the most improbable and exciting storyline in sports is taking place in the biggest market of them all – New York.
Not to brush aside the Jeremy Lin story, because it certainly is one of the most out-of-nowhere sports stories to ever happen, and for once the NBA gets to overshadow the NFL — take that Tebow — but enough has been said already about Lin and there certainly have been plenty of other things to keep the league and its fans excited.
Remember the Minnesota Timberwolves? Don’t look now, but they are now 17-17 and just one game back of the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. Timberwolves general manager David Kahn might not be as incompetent as we think after the way his draftee Ricky Rubio has performed.
The Los Angeles Clippers are in first place in the Western Conference Pacific Division after the All-Star break. That’s right, I said the Clippers. After quadruple checking the NBA standings I feel pretty confident that the standings are right and the Clippers really are in first place.
First the Timberwolves and now the Clippers — the tides are changing in the NBA. Stern must be smiling at this as his complete violation of everything sensible in the vetoing of the Chris Paul trade to the Lakers is turning out just as he would’ve hoped.
The Bulls, Heat and Thunder look very, very scary at the moment. Even with Derrick Rose missing 10 games the Bulls still have only lost eight games all season. The Heat are beating everyone in sight, except the 13-20 Bucks who they have lost to twice. Embarrassing as that is, they get a mulligan for their complete domination of pretty much everyone else.
The Thunder look even better than the Heat and Bulls and managed to sign Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook to long-term deals. Could this be their year?
Two of the most surprising and underrated stories of the year have come from Philadelphia and San Antonio. The 76ers are currently atop the Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. Anyone see that coming? Me neither. And the Spurs are atop the Southwest Division in the Western Conference. Even with an average age of 57.7, the Spurs are still getting the job done.
And finally, the Los Angeles Lakers. They almost had Chris Paul. Then they lost Lamar Odom. Now they might lose Pau Gasol. That’s not to mention that Derek Fisher is a shadow of his former self.
Kobe, meanwhile has been playing hurt all season and could be one more dumb-management move away from completely exploding. Los Angeles though does seem like the most fitting place for drama of any sort, so why not some basketball drama?
As “Hot Rod” Hundley used to say, “You gotta love it baby.”
– Spencer Wright is a sophomore majoring in broadcast journalism. He supports Manchester United and hopes to live long enough to see the Cubs win a World Series. Send any comments to eliason.wright3@aggiemail.usu.edu.