1) DEREK FISHER IS THE MAN!!!!
I'm a Lakers fan and not ashamed of it and what Derek Fisher did was exceptional for many reasons. First if you didn't see what he did, watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDX2ktK9OR4. Should this be part of basketball? Absolutely not. Was it necessary? Eh. Louis Scola is your stereotypical get under your skin and cry like a little baby Foreign player (he's from Argentina, where soccer and all the BS acting that goes with it is king). He had been flying all over the place, throwing elbows at Lamar Odom and getting away with it and also tried to start something after Odom swatted his shot into the 3rd row, walking into Odom who was walking away instead of doing the same. Fisher saw all this and was tired of it. He basically said, "I'll show you what it would feel like if we really hit you and I'll give you a reason to fall." And he did. And it was amazing.
2) Derek Fisher should be suspended :(
Yes...I just dropped a :(. As I said, I'm a Lakers fan but I'm also rational. What D-fish did is not a basketball play and is far greater an offense than what say Amare Stoudamire did leaving the bench a few years ago. Thus he should and will probably miss Game 3 not by his own accord, but by the demand of Stu Jackson who is in charge of suspensions and also just happened to be sitting courtside tonight (whoops). That being said the news is not all bad. Shannon Brown has played well and much much much much much more importantly there was a Jordan Farmar sighting in Game 2. When Farmar is on he has the physical tools to play with any PG in the game and that's not an overstatement. He's fast and incredibly athletic. He's also a highly driven player (he works out with Kobe and is subject to Kobe's scorn/advice in doing so) and if given the opportunity I think he will shine.
3) Ron Artest should have been kicked out and should NOT be suspended
Ron Ron had a legit point. Kobe did elbow him in the throat. It wasn't on purpose. But he has a point. Kobe and Artest were battling for position inside and Kobe tried to clear out some space and establish position with an elbow that was probably supposed to hit Artest in the ribs. However while battling the elbow missed and hit high and center right in Artest's throat. It wasn't malicious and Kobe wasn't even looking at where he was throwing his bows, he was looking at the ball. Artest immediately went to Joey Crawford (the official) to plead his case and when he couldn't get any love there he b-lined for Kobe to tell him what he did and that that wasn't cool. He wasn't looking for a fight. He was simply trying to tell Kobe what he did and that that's not ok. However you can't do that. Not if you're anybody in the NBA. Approaching the other team isn't a good idea and is gonna get you tossed. Now add in the fact that you're approaching Kobe Bryant and you are Ron Artest who's past is more checkered than the endzones at Tennessee (that was awful but it's now 3:26...what do you want from me?) All that being said, you can't suspend a guy based on rep for this incident. It doesn't warrant a suspension and that's that.
4) Von Wafer is an idiot
Lost in all this mess was the situation with Rockets reserve G/F Von Wafer. He got into an argument with Head Coach Rick Adelman and Adelman didn't care for it and sent Wafer to the showers. Really??? In a huge playoff game that at the time was still tight and winnable (Artest hadn't gotten the boot yet), you're gonna get into an argument with your own coach and let it get to the point where he send you to the showers early? That's weak. Real Weak. I sure hope he was gone by the time Ron Ron got back to the locker room otherwise this might have happened:
Wafer: What'd you do?
Artest: What'd I do? I was out their bustin my @$$, guardin the best player in the world (outside of Brandon Roy, click here for the explination), gettin elbowed in the motha *$!(&^* throat for this team and you're askin me what'd I do? Meanwhile you're stupid @$$ is in here already showered because you can't keep your mouth shut and play ball?
Wafer: I actually have no idea what he'd say to that...so I'll continue:
(The last comment by Artest in this fictional conversation I also find ironic considering Artest at times doesn't know when to not become an easy sound bite but anyways I was going to make a point and that is this). Wafer is no scrub. He can score and score in bunches and when your best perimeter scorer is Ron Artest who is an above average scorer at best and you're best overall scorer is Yao Ming who makes it hard to catch up from behind because you want to speed the game up and he scores in the post (which would imply slowing the game down) you need guys like that who can score. Instead he got himself sent to the showers not by the zebras like Artest but by his own coach. He screwed the pooch (and his own team) big time on that one.
5) Things completely unrelated to the Rockets/Lakers game that are also on my wondering little sports nerd mind
There are cliches in sports that drive me nuts. This is probably the one that gets me the most often and when used right it makes sense but a lot of people muff it up. "They have to focus on stopping LeBron and let the other guys beat them." No. Wrong. Try again. "They have to focus on stopping LeBron and MAKE the other guys beat them." If you let the other guys beat you than you lose. It doesn't matter how you lose, a loss is a loss (more on that in a second). If you MAKE the other guys beat you than you say "ok, we're gonna stop you, and if you beat us than kudos to you, but we don't think you can do it so prove us wrong." Ok that's the first one, but am I done. Heck to the no!
"These games mean more." Dumbest cliche that is commonly used properly. There are two instances that this is used and one kind of makes sense because athletes and sports are weird (hmm...feel like I've heard that before ding ding!) but the other one makes no sense and I will fight you on it and I will win because I am right and you are wrong. The instance where it kind of makes sense is the playoffs. Yes playoff games mean more than regular season games. However, you tell me a regular season game doesn't mean something to Kobe Bryant and he'll flyout from somewhere and smack you. What we saw in Game 2 tonight Kobe does all the time in the regular season. He simply takes over. To the games elite in any sport it's just like any other game. They are great and their better is better than your better. The difference is role players and such will sometimes play harder which is pathetic because that means that they weren't playing 100% during the regular season. And don't give me the 110% crap because that's another dumb cliche, its not mathematically possible and that's the end of that. Now on top of that, if you add in the fact that the teams are playing each other as many as 7 straight times in a row in baseball, baseball, basketball, and hockey than I'll give you it's a little different because by Game 7 you're not doing anything that the opponent hasn't seen before and you know you're opponents' game as well as yours. Now for the situation where the stupid the games mean more cliche makes absolutely no sense. And for this example I will use baseball, a sport where it is used all the time. Games in April and May don't matter as much as games in October. Oh really? The Red Sox are 5-0 against my Yankees this year. That's gonna matter down the stretch when we're chasing their butts hoping for the AL East or Wild Card crowns and if we had one those games it would be a completely different situation. Say for instance on the last day of the regular season the Sox and Yankees are playing for the division. They're all tied up (by the way I haven't looked at the schedule and thus this is a completely hypothetical situation). Oh so now those games don't matter because all that matters is that one game. Like hell they don't!!! If the Yankees had pulled out just 2 of those 5 games that last game would be meaningless. The Yankees would have locked up the division. A win adds 1 to the win column in April and it's still only worth 1 in September and while you have time to make it up if you stink in April the games still count. So don't suck early and you won't be screwed late.
It's 4 am. I'm toast. I'll re-read this thing tomorrow and re-post an edited version and probably split all this junk into 2 but not now. It's 4 am. This was a terrible idea. I'm getting up in 5 hours and it will be 9 am. That's not early. You better enjoy this. It's not happening again. Hopefully you've never heard that at 4 am before. Just sayin...
Thats what she said...
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