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Oct 11, 2006, 04:15
Three Points: Rap sheet • Missing piece • Basketball’s simple
By Os Davis
FullSportPress.com
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• Rap sheet
Good to see some folks are using their off-season productively; heck, if upstanding players like a certain quartet of Indiana Pacers weren’t keeping busy keeping in shape, we might go back to having separate sections in the newspaper for the “police blotter” and the “sports page.”
Rounded up for general naughty behavior recently were Stephen Jackson (16.4 points per game last season to go with 1.28 steals per game and 34.5% shooting beyond the arc), Jamaal Tinsley (9.3 ppg, 5.0 assists per game), former Dallas Maverick Marquis Daniels, and Jimmie “Snap” Hunter (no NBA stats).
The Pacers were at Club Rio – no, that’s not a church, it’s a strip club in Indianapolis – when an “altercation” broke out at 3am. According to ubiquitous-for-a-day police sergeant Matthew Mount, Jackson “sustained an injury to the mouth” and was later hit by a car. “I believe he went over the hood,” Mount told ESPN in his moment in the sun. Oh, and at some point Jackson fired five shots. In the air, reportedly. Ahem.
Isn’t the offseason great? Such insights into the game…
• Missing piece
As this column’s legion of fans may recall, this writer figures – no, knows – the Houston Rockets to be the 2006-2007 NBA Champions. In order to cement my non-existent rep, just one week after being proclaiming the future title-holders, Houston iced it with the signing of Bonzi Wells.
Wells is the latest in a line of NBA free agents who are taking less pay and shorter-term deals in order for a chance to play for a championship. The line of said money men who have taken that championship chance with the Rockets are few. In fact, the list is composed of approximately, um, one. As the latest with Payton’s Syndrome, Wells gets a “mere” $2.1 million in a one-year deal with Houston.
Eight-year veteran Wells ran up a respectable line with the Sacramento Kings last season, at 13.6 points, 2.8 assists and 7.7 rebounds for the Kings in 2005-06. With Wells at shooting guard, the starting lineup consists of Wells, Rafer Alston, Tracy McGrady, Shane Battier, and Yao “The Great Wall of China” Ming. With Bob Sura and Vassilis Spanoulis, the Rockets are a bit small up front, but talented.
These guys can’t lose, and possibly … what? They’re at 20-1 in ‘Vegas right now? Well, what do they know?
• Basketball’s simple
Conversation with my son, the almost 15-year-old known as “Nitch 23.” (Don’t ask; just let me indulge the lad. You’ll understand someday.)
“So, I have to write this column. What am I writing about?”
“Okay, write about how the Suns are gonna win the championship, about how none of the rookies are going to be any good, and why the Bulls aren’t going to be much better with Ben Wallace.”
Now, this last statement particularly gets my attention – Nitch has doubts in fuzzhead? “Yeah? How so?”
“He’s not going to improve their defense anyway, and he’s just going to take away scoring.”
“Hmmm. And the Suns?”
“Nobody can compete with the Suns,” and, taking a break to maneuver his way through a 60-yard run with Jamal Lewis as his Baltimore Ravens smoke some poor competitor’s Kansas City Chiefs in a diversion of online Xbox 360, comes back with “It’s gonna be exactly the same as last year – the Spurs vs. the Suns in the Western Conference final.”
(Hey, I wrote it down, and I still don’t get that one. Plus, he’s a Mavericks fan. Have they already forgotten down there in Dallas-Ft. Worth with the onset of football season?)
“And the rookies?”
“What, you like [Adam] Morrison or something? He couldn’t guard a bank with a machine gun.”
“Now, where’d you get that?”
“I read it on some guy’s post.”
“‘Basketball is so simple,’” I quote Nitch to himself.
“It is!”
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