http://www.yardbarker.com/blog/jessejaymes1/home Recent jessejaymes1 Posts en-us After all has been said and done what really happened in the NBA? The Champion Miami Heat face the toughest draw in the game in trying to repeat. What have they actually done to improve? Ray Allen is dubious.. Fought injuries all year long last season and he's not getting any younger. However, with the Heat he doesn't have to be in perpetual motion. They got him to spot up and drop the 3. With his quick release and little offensive energy being needed he should excel at his new home.  He could even do this job if injured. Rashard Lewis is done. Not even as a role player. Color him another Mike Miller and the cast of thousands the Heat have tried to bring in to shore up their bench. The main consideration is the career long injury problems with Dwayne Wade. His body didn't even hold up to the short season and he's only had one injury free season in his career and even that one had small owies.  Allen is key here. If Allen can help build big leads/keep big leads then Wade's minutes can Thu, 06 Sep 2012 01:18:38 -0400 http://www.yardbarker.com/blog/jessejaymes1/article/semi_tough/11639725 http://www.yardbarker.com/blog/jessejaymes1/article/semi_tough/11639725 Semi-Tough http://www.yardbarker.com/blog/jessejaymes1/article/semi_tough/11639725 http://www.yardbarker.com/images/yb_logo_square_grey.png We're Americans. We were raised on sports. We played sports. Most everyone did back when Hector was a pup. We starved for sports. When the evening paper came someone peeled off the sports section and we gobbled it up. Every box score, every article. We had baseball cards, football cards and finally basketball cards. The marketeers threw Arnold Palmer and golf at us. We were game for a taste of the elite's sport. Tennis with Rod Laver and the stars of the 1960's barnstormed America and we were there. From the Harlem Globetrotters zany idea of a game to the fiberglass pole vaulting bending and slinging a guy over 16 feet you could count on us. ESPN came along and by golly we got a handle on the rules of Australian football and knew who bowler Don Weber was. We'd watch a cricket match before we'd watch the top rated TV show of the day. Jim Brown, Gordie Howe, Jack Nicklaus, Sandy Koufax, the list of of thousands of names were stored in our brains and locked there for eternity. Tue, 12 Jun 2012 18:36:11 -0400 http://www.yardbarker.com/blog/jessejaymes1/article/running_on_empty/10998839 http://www.yardbarker.com/blog/jessejaymes1/article/running_on_empty/10998839 Running On Empty http://www.yardbarker.com/blog/jessejaymes1/article/running_on_empty/10998839 http://www.yardbarker.com/images/yb_logo_square_grey.png Let us not wrap ourselves in the Flag and pretend that we're the most important sports nation in the world. Soccer is the world's biggest sport by a mile. And truthfully while the USA has gotten the hang of making little kids play soccer on every field in every city you see, we're still not that good at it. The NFL is our biggest pro sport and college football the biggest non pro sport. So the NBA ranks somewhere down the line ahead of Hockey in the USA but behind football. Still we're a crossroads in America and this NBA finals is a microcosm of our society. The Hip Hop culture is represented by the Miami Heat. A lot of ego, very little structure, bragging on yourself, freelancing and getting by on God given talent. The OKC Thunder (despite my suspecting many of their players listen to just as much rap as the Heat do) represent the Heartland of America. The small cities. The American Work ethic. The, we are family mantra. Read today that James Harden sometimes joins a Bible St Mon, 11 Jun 2012 00:38:16 -0400 http://www.yardbarker.com/blog/jessejaymes1/article/will_the_real_america_stand_up/10984229 http://www.yardbarker.com/blog/jessejaymes1/article/will_the_real_america_stand_up/10984229 Will the real America stand up? http://www.yardbarker.com/blog/jessejaymes1/article/will_the_real_america_stand_up/10984229 http://www.yardbarker.com/images/yb_logo_square_grey.png As our time on Fox draws to a close (hopefully we still get the NBA finals time) here are some observations that will help me tidy up loose ends. The OKC Thunder should win the NBA finals. They have a better starting 5 and their bench is dominate. We need the Thunder to win. This will take yet another year off the "7 titles" that the Heat star egomaniacs predicted they would win. If the Thunder can take this one that leaves LeBron James still looking for his first title at age 28. That's enough reason for most to become instant Thunder fans. It's somewhat surprising to me but the Celtics loss in the Eastern Conference lies mostly on the shoulders of Paul Pierce. Everyone thought Kevin Garnett was too old but he played well. Rondo played very well. Ray Allen has the ankle spurs and did about what was expected. Very little. But Pierce has always risen to the challenge the past half decade. Not this time. He was terrible in this series.  It cost them the series. Since we'll Sun, 10 Jun 2012 00:56:15 -0400 http://www.yardbarker.com/blog/jessejaymes1/article/out_through_the_in_door/10979189 http://www.yardbarker.com/blog/jessejaymes1/article/out_through_the_in_door/10979189 Out through the In Door http://www.yardbarker.com/blog/jessejaymes1/article/out_through_the_in_door/10979189 http://www.yardbarker.com/images/yb_logo_square_grey.png LeBron James is pushing 28 years old. Young by any standards unless you're a gerbil. Kevin Durant is 23 years old. Even some horses live that long. The NBA powers that be continue to claim that James is the best player on the planet. Saw fit to give him another MVP Award. I saw fit to give the MVP to Kevin Durant. Why? Because I'm a LeBron James hater? That's not in dispute but I also believe in giving the devil his due. My problem with giving James the MVP is that I'm not a stat freak. After a lifetime of NBA watching I know there is more to the game, more to a player than stats. While watching the Thunder dispatch the Spurs we saw Durant take over a game in doubt and score 16 in the fourth quarter. James has done that. But never when his team was down 2-0.  Last night when the Thunder put away the Spurs, Durant played all 48 minutes. He only had 6 points in the fourth quarter but on a night when that overrated scowling poser of a center named Kendrick Perkins choked his salar Thu, 07 Jun 2012 15:59:04 -0400 http://www.yardbarker.com/blog/jessejaymes1/article/a_matter_of_heart/10963799 http://www.yardbarker.com/blog/jessejaymes1/article/a_matter_of_heart/10963799 A matter of heart http://www.yardbarker.com/blog/jessejaymes1/article/a_matter_of_heart/10963799 http://www.yardbarker.com/images/yb_logo_square_grey.png You can't play in the pro's of any sport without a significant amount of ego. That guy we all know as a stiff waving a towel who never plays? His high school legend. He thinks he should be playing. After Jeremy Lin's success it's possible the stiffs are right. Having said that, there is a problem with ego overriding pride in the NBA. Whether I was Blake Griffin, Dwight Howard or yes, Shaquille O'Neal I wouldn't have the nerve to show up to camp without having spent the entire summer shooting free throws. But they're not (weren't) the only culprits. The entire league shoots under 75%. Rajon Rondo is probably the closest thing to an in his prime Jason Kidd. He can assist to a league leading level, he can rebound like a maniac for a guy his size, he can get to the rim and now & then make a three. What he can't do is shoot free throws. Absurd. Let's take this out of the spectrum of a disgruntled fan and put it into the perspective of team value. Players are being Wed, 25 Apr 2012 22:09:24 -0400 http://www.yardbarker.com/blog/jessejaymes1/article/pride_vs_ego/10645201 http://www.yardbarker.com/blog/jessejaymes1/article/pride_vs_ego/10645201 Pride vs. Ego http://www.yardbarker.com/blog/jessejaymes1/article/pride_vs_ego/10645201 http://www.yardbarker.com/images/yb_logo_square_grey.png Much is being made of the Ron Artest (MWP) elbow to the head of James Harden. He deserves to be suspended but he did not even know who he was elbowing off. Dwayne Wade knew what he was doing when he dislocated the elbow of Rajon Rondo in the last playoffs. LeBron James knows what he's doing when he hooks and travels and charges and gets no foul calls against him. Blake Griffin knows what he's doing when he pushes off during a highlight reel dunk. Stars have always gotten calls. But there is a triple standard in the NBA. Reggie Evans of the Clippers is a thug. Always has been. But he flops and gets the call? For the same reason that the Clippers got Chris Paul instead of the Lakers. Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom was a better deal for New Orleans than Chris Kamen and Eric Young. Young spent the entire season injured as he has the past couple of years and Kamen was sent home for a time just as Odom was. Gasol of the four was the far superior player, yet the Hornets took the worse deal. The reason this ha Tue, 24 Apr 2012 14:59:19 -0400 http://www.yardbarker.com/blog/jessejaymes1/article/bad_to_the_bone/10633381 http://www.yardbarker.com/blog/jessejaymes1/article/bad_to_the_bone/10633381 Bad to the Bone http://www.yardbarker.com/blog/jessejaymes1/article/bad_to_the_bone/10633381 http://www.yardbarker.com/images/yb_logo_square_grey.png