NBA starts today, it is always good to have something to look forward to once the weather gets cold in Minnie. I follow two teams. The Celtics who have a decent chance at repeating as champs. KG and Pierce should be back in full force, hopefully Ray Allen holds up. Perkins and Rondo may get a little better with experience. Biggest loss is Posey and we will miss him a lot more than people think. A real glue guy, defense, passing, rebounding, makes the smart plays and as a middleware guy myself I can relate. He will make CP3 even more dangerous.
The other team I follow is the Timberwolves. I think they will be pretty good this year. Al Jefferson is a beast down low. Only four players averaged 20 and 10 last year and he is one. He is the best big man in the post after Duncan. Getting Love and Miller for OJ Mayo was a smart deal by McHale. I think McCants can be a decent instant offense 6th man. Would be good to see Foye step up this year. Weakness looks to be defense
*Flashback*
I am biased but I think the 1980s was the most fun time to watch NBA. Everyone talks about Bird and Magic, but there were a lot of great players back then. Here is my all underrated 1980s team (no Celtics included due to conflict of interest and unobjectivity)
C: Moses Malone - beast of a big man, immovable force under the hoop with fantastic foot work for a big man. It is too bad he was traded by Portland because he and Bill Walton would have been the best big man combo of all time.
PF: Bobby Jones - great defender, good rebounder, good passer for a big man. Typical Tar Heel -fundamentally sound. He would be the James Posey of this team. (Runner up: Calvin Natt)
SF: Bernard King - what a renaissance. Watch his moves on youtube, he was not that tall like say Alex English but he could go in the lane and score on anybody. Jordan of course is an all around better player but I think King was a better scorer and that is saying something. The playoffs when he was putting up 50 and 60 a night he was a terrifying force.
SG: Andrew Toney - they called him the Boston strangler and as Celtics fan there was no one I was more afraid of. Its a real shame his career got cut short. (Runner up: George Gervin)
PG: Tiny Archibald - Ok, one Celtic, but he is seriously underrated - would go flying into the lane, disappear in the trees, Tiny would fly out the bottom of the pile, and the ball would pop out the top and drop in. Probably the last great player to come out of NYC. (Runner up: Mo Cheeks)
Sixth Man - World B. Free - no doubt about this one, he was great as a sixth man. And this guy was plain fun to watch. He would bomb it from 30 feet, when he was on he was a force. He would kick his leg into the defender when he was shooting a j to draw the foul. (Runner up: Michael Cooper)
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Update: Several people have emailed me (apparently it is hard to comment on a blog from a crackberry) that I am off base saying Mo Malone is underrated. So I ask you - name a better Center from the 80s? Kareem? Please. 7 rebs a game, little to no defense. Great taste in jazz though. Artis GIlmore? the human erector set? I don't think so. Dan Issel? great jumpshot, average everything else.
Plus Moses' had one of the best quotes in NBA history saying the Sixers would go through the playoffs fo', fo', fo', winning four straight in each round. The actually went five games in the conference finals and their championship rings say "fo', fi', fo'"
Update II: In a new media beats old media story, I forgot to mention that the "big" Twin Cities newspapers have not one single decent basketball writer. The best Twin Cities hoops writer by far is Britt Robson who writes/blogs for the free Rake mag. he used to be at City Pages.
Interestingly enough, City Pages had the best food writer as well Dara Moskowitz. She is now at Minnesota Monthly.
It is funny to see the big papers like Washington Post going after these hyper-local strategies to fend off their demise. The answer is right in front of their face. The free weeklies - Boston Phoenix, Village Voice, etc. Every city has them. Look what is in there. There is usually one or two really good writers who go n levels deep and geek out on something lots of people care about - like basketball, restaurants, movies, etc.
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