David Stern - NBA Defensive Player Of The Year

THE NBA LOCKOUT IS OVER!

Thank goodness! And here we were, NBA fans around the world waiting for free agency to open, to see which team will be the first to use the amended amnesty rule, and who is the first to refer to the formally known Ron Artest to his new title of ‘Metta World Peace’.

Moves are being made already, with Tyson Chandler looking like he will be playing his home games at Madison Square Garden and Gilbert Arenas being waived under amnesty by Orlando Magic, who now owe him over 64 million dollars.  Handy.  And this is just the beginning.

However there are two big moves, or un-moves that stand out at this early stage of the preseason.  Dwight Howard is being courted (pardon the pun) by many clubs and looks to be interested in a move to New Jersey; Jay Z must have offered up Beyonce for a night or something, and Chris Paul, CP3 WAS about to be a Laker.  BUT THIS WAS STOPPED BY THE NBA!

Yep, it was all good to go ahead yesterday with CP3 packing up his saxophone and other New Orleans stereotypical references, and moving to Los Angeles in exchange for Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol.  Lamar was resigned to the fact he was going, and already had his TV crew ready for a new series of ‘Khloe and Lamar get assaulted in New Orleans’, and Pau Gasol just stood there and looked like a confused Euro.  But with the deal about to be signed and sealed, the NBA said ‘no thanks’.

In short, the NBA owns The New Orleans Hornets, and paraphrasing a statement released by David Stern this morning, he said “Hey, we own New Orleans and don’t want them to be shit, so we’ll keep Chris Paul thanks…PS - Fuck You Lakers”.  I can understand that the NBA want a fair league, and the whole purpose of the new CBA was to even up the competition and not allow the richer and powerful sides to remain powerful and financially viable, while the minnows stayed minnows, but this is just pathetic.

The NBA, which attempted to keep a team successful in a town which hasn’t had much happiness over the past decade have not only made Chris Paul pissed off, to the point that he is seeking legal advice, but allowed Lamar Odom to realise that even with a Kardashian, he isn’t guaranteed a spot on the Lakers roster and successfully put every NBA fan (including me) on a crazy roller coaster of emotions yesterday.

So to sum it up, this is where I think the situation is at:

• NBA needs to let the trade happen, as if not, CP3 will leave anyway and NOH will end up with nothing, compared to something pretty decent
• Odom will stay unhappy knowing The Lakers don’t want him - just look at Daniel Bradshaw and Michael Rischetelli in the AFL when they were shopped around by Brisbane.  They aren’t there any more.  So he will go.
• Luke Walton should retire, and that would make everyone happy.
• A big move like this has everyone in sport talking and excited for the NBA to start again, similar to Lebron and Bosh moving to Miami…it created hype.  And the NBA are preventing this.

David Stern, let the trade happen.  Short term pain, for long term gain.  

Finally,

Thank fuck the NBA is back!

The Slory Experiment that didn’t Andwele

I don’t like speculating over sensitive issues.  Especially when most of the media is made up of speculation.  I like getting the facts and expressing my view once I know what they are.

Andy Slory ‘retired’ from International football yesterday, leaving Adelaide United after only appearing twelve times since putting pen to paper earlier in the year.  I remember chatting to him at Adelaide Oval before the Sydney FC game in front of a packed crowd, and when I asked him what he could bring to the team, he responded with ‘pace, goal scoring and a fantastic team work mentality’. And now he has gone.

Since his signing, Adelaide United have lost a lot of fan and club favourites: Dodd, Flores, Pantelis, Fyfe, Hughes etc and ‘speculation’ was that Slory was commanding a rather large salary which made it difficult to keep all of the former players.  As I said, I don’t want to look into that side of things.

Since the Brisbane Roar spanking, Adelaide United have had issues with Andy Slory which has been widely reported, and no one will know what has gone on inside the club, apart from those inside the club.  His on field performance had been below par for a Dutch International, and he seemed disinterested on occasions.  He was also left out of the squad for the Wellington match on the weekend that’s just passed.  It has been reported that he was asked to work on his attitude, team ethics and professionalism to Adelaide United FC.

And now, he is gone.  I don’t want to pass judgement on his talent, as he has a shitload more than I do.  I don’t want to pass judgement on his attitude, because I can only assume or ‘speculate’, and I refuse to do that.  But what I will say is this:  If Andy Slory has retired from international football due to a loss of passion, and a drive to succeed in other areas of his life - then good luck to him, and it’s a shame it’s ended like this after he arrived with such a good reputation, as expressed by Rini Coolen.  But if he has decided to ‘retire’ due to a lack of commitment to a team culture, and belief he is above the rest of the Adelaide United Squad, then farewell Andy.  We don’t need that around our football club. 

Lockout Thought

Watched Patty Mills singlehandedly keep the Melbourne Tigers in the game last night against the Adelaide 36ers including a 15 point first term with 3 from beyond the arc, and a dominant last quarter.

What I noticed though, was in the last term when the game was in the balance, the Tigers players just looked for him to dish off the ball, and let him do the rest.  He is a gun, but he isn’t invincible.  And when he heads off back to the states once this lockout ends, what will Melbourne do then?  They’ll have to change their game plan completely.  It will be interesting.

End the lockout