Thursday, June 16, 2011

My father's journey to basketball fandom, featuring the Dallas Mavericks

All it took was a lanky European and three little gunners.
Countless times I’ve tried to get my dad into basketball, and countless times I’ve failed. There isn’t enough defence. I don’t understand the game well enough. I just can’t watch a full game. Hockey’s so much better. We are Canadian after all, and for a Habs fan growing up in the late sixties and seventies, it was always hockey or nothing for my dad. He did have a a little Montreal Expos break coming every summer until the NHL season came back, but that was pretty much it. Basketball didn’t even measure a blip on his sports radar screen.  
But then, this year, it finally happened. My dad started to enjoy basketball, and enjoy watching it with me. All it took was a little outside shooting and a little Lebron James beat down.
If you know me or have been reading this blog, you know I’m not exactly the biggest Lebron fan in the world. Clearly, it’s genetic. My dad hates him just as much as I do, and whenever I would try to talk to him about basketball (it was so nice that he pretended to care), he would follow up with his trademark “Are the Heat losing at least?”
Even with all this hate though, I still couldn’t really get my dad to enjoy watching basketball. That is, until this year’s finals.
I knew the transformation was complete when I received a text from him that read: GO DALLAS. Not only was he watching the game, but more importantly, he was watching the game without me. He was watching it on his own time, and not just because I happened to be using the big TV and nothing else was on.
I figured the Lebron loathing aspect factored into this a little bit, but I was nonetheless pleased. It wasn’t the only thing.
My dad fell in love with the Mavs shooting.
Time and time again, he would watch in awe as Jason Terry, or Jason Kidd, or J.J Barea (attack of the J’s!) would calmly step up and nail a three ball with the shot clock winding down. My dad’s always been impressed by the outside shooting of NBA players, but this wasn’t just appreciation anymore; it was excitement.  
In reality, I should’ve seen it all along. If there’s one thing my dad loves in sports, it’s the underdog. He loves seeing the little guys take down the big, cocky favourites, and that’s exactly what this series was. For a guy like my dad (or myself for that matter), what could be better than watching 5’9 J.J Barea knock one down in Dwayne Wade’s face, or Jason Kidd hitting a wide open, crowd energy sucking, dagger three pointer on the road.
Moments like these are the reasons that I love basketball, and I probably should have realized that they are probably the same moments that would make my own father love basketball as well.
The day after the famous GO DALLAS text message, we spoke about the previous night’s game. He told me about how incredible those “three little guys” shot the ball, and how amazing Dirk (I guess after enough times of me talking about him, he remembered his name) was.
He talked about how Dallas seemed to have the two best players out there, “Dirk and the little black guy” (that would be Jason Terry). He talked about how Lebron didn’t impress him all that much, and how the Mavericks just looked like the better team.
While watching game six together, my dad said one other thing caught my attention. In the midst of the Mavs fourth quarter barrage, he turned to me and said: “Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this kind of how the Europeans beat the Dream Team that one time”.
I thought about it for a second and realized that yeah, it kind of was. The Heat were getting beaten the same way the Americans were beaten, and it took a non basketball fan to make me realize it.
Dallas played team oriented ball and shot extremely well, while the Heat’s stars couldn’t find a way to solve the Dallas D. It was 2006 all over again, but this time most of America was cheering for the big, blond European.
My dad was a member of this Dallas cheering section, and a proud member at that. It doesn’t really matter that it might have started as a simple case of Lebron hatred, because it evolved into so much more. It evolved into an admiration and an appreciation of team basketball and shooting that left my dad and I with moments that we will never forget.
So thank you Dirk, Jason (x2) and J.J, and thank you, Lebron, D. Wade and Chris Bosh. You guys gave me the one sports story that not even my hockey loving, basketball indifferent dad could ignore.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Would Jordan ever lose to the Mavs?

I know I haven’t written in a long time, but I’ve been really busy lately, and now I’m going to try to get back into it. Enjoy
A few weeks ago, Scottie Pippen made waves when, live on ESPN, he shared his thoughts on the Lebron-MJ debate. Pippen said that while “Michael Jordan is probably the greatest scorer to ever play the game, I may go as far to say that Lebron James may be the greatest player to ever play the game."
Really, Scottie?
Predictably, these comments have sparked a ton of controversy within the basketball world. From Jeff Van Gundy to Mike Wilbon, educated basketball minds across the NBA landscape are up in arms about Pippen’s assessment.
What Scottie was trying to say was that, while Michael Jordan is the greatest scorer of all time, Lebron James does other things that Jordan did not. Pippen talks about Lebron’s court vision, his passing ability and his defence as factors in his comment.
Well first off, citing Lebron’s defence as an advantage in the MJ-Lebron debate is ludicrous. James is a fantastic defender, capable of guarding multiple positions, but do we forget what Michael did on that side of the ball as well?
Jordan won Defensive Player of the Year honours in ’88 (an award that has recently been changed to the Dwight Howard award), was selected to the NBA All-Defensive First Team nine times, and led the league in steals three times.
Now I don’t want to base the entire defensive aspect of this debate on one play, but roll back the tape and watch what Lebron, standing maybe five feet away, did last night as Dirk drove past for the winning bucket. I’ll give you a hint; it wasn’t much.  
This leads to my next point. Even if you say Lebron is a better passer than Jordan or a better rebounder, there is one thing, one extremely important thing, which you can’t say. Lebron James is definitely not a better winner than Michael Jordan.
Case in point, this series. Now I’ve never seen Michael Jordan live in his prime (the Wizard years do not count), but based on the film I’ve seen and the stories I’ve heard, I will ask you this. Do you think there is any chance that a Michael Jordan led team would ever lose to this year’s Dallas Mavericks?
I thought so.
This isn’t a knock on Dallas, I’m personally one of the biggest Dirk fans in the NBA and I love the way the Mavs play as a team. Dallas just does not have the same talent that the Heat do, and this is an illustration of the difference, at least right now, between Jordan and Lebron.
MJ would never even be tied in a series like this, and there’s absolutely no way he would’ve let his team lose game two, or even game four, for that matter. In Pippen’s quote, he says, in passing, about how Lebron James can also score at will. Well, Heat fans, where was all that “at will” scoring in game two, while the Mavs went on their unforgettable 22-5 run to close out the game?
Where has all that at will scoring been all series, as the Heat have failed to eclipse 95 points, and in three out of the four games, failed to reach 90. I’m not placing the blame solely on Lebron, but again, Jordan would not have let this happen.
In a way, Lebron’s oft touted unselfishness can be seen as a negative in times like these. Jordan would not have let his teams lose in a series like this because he would have taken control. He would’ve put on the You-Can’t-Stop-Me face, stared his man down, stuck his tongue out and gone to work.
If Jordan ever had a guy like Jason Terry on him at the end of an NBA finals game, there would be no more offence. It would be a “give me the goddamn ball right now” iso-fest between Jordan and his man, and you know Jordan would win. He always did.
Again, I’m not trying to discount Lebron as a player. He’s an incredible physical specimen, a great teammate, and he’s great for basketball in general. He’s just not Jordan.
You can bring in all the stats and advanced metrics you want, because in reality, it only comes down to one letter, and that letter is W. Michael Jordan would never allow himself to lose to the Dallas Mavericks; and he wouldn’t even need Wade and Bosh to help him through it.