COLUMN: Eye on the NBA
For all you die-hard NBA basketball fans, you know how the summer and early fall months can be some of the longest of the year. From June to October, basketball crazies can only wait and count the days until the next NBA season begins. This year, however, the summer was a little bit different.
First of all, the FIBA World Championships, held once every four years were held in Turkey this summer and the United States won the gold medal for the first time since 1994. But even more noticeable than bringing home the gold was the media frenzy that surrounded the NBA offseason. The 2010 offseason will go down in history as being one of the busiest, most-hyped and most ridiculously media-saturated in NBA history.
However, we can’t say that we didn’t see this coming. For several years people have speculated that 2010 would mark the “Summer of LeBron,” because of his free agent status, and if that didn’t give it away, I don’t know what would have. The summer lived up to its billing, as the former Cleveland Cavaliers superstar reached the end of his contract during the summer and there was only one thing anybody could talk about – “where is LeBron going to play?”
In July the long-awaited decision was finally made and we all hoped we might actually get a break from hearing about LeBron 24/7. No such luck. LeBron made sure to keep himself in the news when he opted to head to the Miami Heat to join Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh and create arguably the greatest trio in basketball history.
The decision to ditch leave infuriated Cavaliers fans and people across the nation. LeBron went from being the most loved person ever to live in the city of Cleveland to one of the most hated in a matter of a few hours. Hey, I’m not going to lie, when I found out, I was disappointed as well. However, his decision as well as the bashing he received only gave the media more to talk about and set up everybody’s new favorite question – “how good will the Heat be?”
Of course, nobody really knows the answer to that, but that hasn’t prevented anyone who has ever heard of basketball to have their own strong opinion about it.
Apart from the buzz surrounding LeBron and the Heat, there were plenty of other stories playing out through the offseason. There were big names being traded and re-signed all over the place, including Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudemire, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Joe Johnson, and Dirk Nowitzki. Another interesting storyline that is a little closer to home, literally and figuratively, involves the Utah Jazz.
After a playoff run filled with ups and downs, The Jazz offseason started on a bad note. Utah lost their leading scorer and rebounder, Carlos Boozer, up-and-coming wingman Wesley Matthews and three-point specialist and Ashton Kutcher look-alike Kyle Korver. Utah was left reeling and the morale of Jazz fans – myself included – started to slip lower and lower as it looked like Utah’s season might be over before it even started.
It was then that Jazz general manager Kevin O’Connor went to work and somehow pulled off a minor miracle, going from bad guy to hero in the process. In the space of about a week, O’Connor regained the trust of all Jazz fans by landing Minnesota’s Al Jefferson and former Jazz player Raja Bell. These two players filled huge gaps in Utah’s lineup and will give fans a reason to cheer once the season starts. Utah also signed center Francisco Elson and guard Earl Watson, both of whom will really help the Jazz’s depth.
With the offseason behind us and the preseason upon us, it is finally time to stop talking and start walking. Now we’ll see if Miami can handle the pressure, if the Lakers can really pull-off a three-peat, if the Cavaliers can bounce back from a stinging betrayal, and if the Jazz can gel as a team and form a cohesive unit. It’s game time, and I don’t know about you, but I can hardly wait.
Mark Israelsen is a freshman majoring in mechanical engineering. Mark is a Utah Jazz fanatic and longtime NBA follower. He can also be reached at mark.israelen@aggiemail.usu.edu.