Words cannot express what a disaster of a basketball club the Knicks were this year....
Funny story about the Blackhawks: James Norris (Sr., and then Jr.) owned both the Red Wings and the Blackhawks in the 50s and 60s. He used to ship his good players to Detroit (they won 7 cups in the 40s and 50s) and his bad players to Chicago, who was the worst team in the league for pretty much all of that time. When both Norrises died (52 for Sr., 62 for Jr.), someone else took it over, and then they won a few cups in the 60s. I have no idea why they've been so bad since then though.
I don't much care for Dirk. While he makes big shots and shoots amazing from the line, I think he's too selfish and doesn't always play with his head. He takes a lot of bad shots. Sometimes, he hits those (particularly at the end), but I don't like him that much because of that.
Kobe was not the best player until the playoffs. I became a fan of Kobe's after that series.
Lebron is just amazing. I don't think a player has ever averaged 30+ and been called "unselfish" by the public at large. He's my MVP.
Popovich is not the best coach this year. I'd take pretty much everyone over him: Johnson, D'Coach of da Suns (can't spell it), Flip, Phil Jackson, etc. over him. The Spurs look bad right now. Like, they don't look sharp at all. Manu has been showing up sporadically all season, and Tim Duncan hasn't been himself all year (for some reason). The Kings played them tough (Ron Artest is a mighty good ball player), but the Spurs just looked like they had problems. I will not be surprised if Dallas beats them. However, the Spurs are really good at getting their shit together when it counts.
that's exactly why Popovich is one of the best - Duncan's hurt (foot/ankle), Ginobli is a fucking lout, and they're still the 1 seed in the west and only finished 1 game behind Detroit.
The Blackhawks suck because the owner is a crotchey old man and they haven't had a local TV contract in a decade or two. That's right, if you want to watch the Blackhawks, you either need to 1. wait for ESPN to show it on a national basis (which never happens because they suck) OR 2. get a Direct TV package that includes local programming from whatever city they happen to be playing.
Try building a fan base when you 1. don't spend any money on players and 2. can't reach any new fans because they can never see your team. What a fucking retard - his excuse is basically that "people won't pay for parking or buy my [overpriced] beer" if the games were shown on TV.
In addition, the fans really got screwed in 1994/5 when Chicago Stadium closed (the old home of the Blackhawks and Bulls) and they moved across the street to the United Center. The Stadium was a small, intimate stadium that even in the upper decks, the seats were great, and it was FUCKING LOUD AS SHIT! In contrast, the United Center is a cavernous piece of shit (oh it's nice, but totally generic, no wonder Jordan hated it), but it has the corporate luxury boxes that make money.
In addition, the season ticket holders who used to have level 1 at the Chicago Stadium got bumped to the upper deck (like level 6 or some shit) when they moved to the United Center unless they paid triple for the new level 1 tickets. That totally destroyed the blue collar fan base who were still willing to put up with shitty teams....
Poll
