and proof that NBA on NBC knew how to sell a game. [video=youtube;YLvTGBy-ESg]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLvTGBy-ESg[/video] Painful because we all know what happened in that series and especially that game.
Damn it, damn it, damn it .... Oh how bad I wanted us to win that series and shut all the Jordan lovers up. Especially after game one. But it was not meant to be. Im not sure if that was more painful and disappointing or if the 2000 WCF Laker loss was knowing that we would have had a great shot of winning that finals matchup.
Hey, that's good stuff. NBC was as great as PJ's stash... I don't see that series as painful. It was part of history and an honor to be part of. I was lucky enough to see a game in person. Great stuff. I still think the gameplan should have established more lower post up w/ Duck vs Cart. Duck could take him all day long. --is it just me, or do the former NBC announcer voices raise the adrenalin and blood pressure?--
No question 2000 WCF was the most disappointing outcome I've ever experienced with the Blazers (or any other sporting event for that matter). Had we held on, it would have been a great series with Indiana. We were 0-2 against them that year, and we NEVER won at Conseco Fieldhouse back then. We would have had home court advantage though. Indiana was a really good team, and a tough matchup for us. They just didn't have anybody to slow Shaq down. He averaged close to 40/20 in that series I think.
Man, Shaq was just so damned devastating in those years. Just one of those once-in-a-lifetime freaks of nature that you couldn't stop. In much the same way LeBron is now. The only thing that stopped Shaq was when his teammates inexplicably forgot about him. LeBron is less physically dominating, but he has far more control of how often he touches the ball. Or at least he used to. It's going to be fascinating to see how LeBron is used next year. He may find himself with the same problem Shaq sometimes had--Kobe (Wade/Bosh) taking advantage of a major mismatch at the expense of Shaq (LeBron) taking advantage of an enormous mismatch.
I honestly think 'Bron will try to lead the league in assists! He is very capable of not being the go to guy, he showed it during the Olympics. Now the only question is who takes the last shot in a tight game.
Yeah, he's capable. Just like Shaq was capable of not being the go-to guy and focusing on netting 15 rebounds, scoring 15 points on putbacks, and great defense. The thing is, on the rare occasions he did that against Portland I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I'd much rather LeBron focus on distributing when he plays against Portland. We've got players who can somewhat contain Bosh and Wade. But if LeBron decides he's going to drop 35 points on us AND get his rebounds and some assists and draw a shit ton of fouls on our bigs, there's not a hell of a lot we can do about it. We just don't have anybody who can contain a 6'9 guy built like a linebacker with the handle of a PG.
Shaq was devastating because the league made him devastating. I don't think he would have been nearly as difficult to defend if the league would have actually called offensive fouls and traveling on him. He used to take three or four steps and knock his opponent out of the way every time down the floor.
At the same time (And I can't believe you're turning me into a Shaq apologist) if the refs had called every foul committed against Shaq we would've had the longest games in history, until the other teams' bigs were all fouled out and Shaq was playing 5-on-4 with Reggie Miller guarding him.
That doesn't change the fact that Shaq was allowed to literally lower his shoulder and knock his opponents out of the way before taking three or four steps and dunking the ball. We saw it done time and time again.
The problem with that is most of the hacks of Shaq were because of the initial uncalled fouls on Shaq. Once Shaq has lowered his shoulder to clear out space to get to the front of the room, defenders had little choice but to shove him and whack him and grab him. Many of those fouls in response were called, many weren't. But if Shaq were never allowed to crush people out of the way, he'd have had to play a different way and defenders wouldn't have fouled him as much.
No doubt... he'll have 10 assists about the time he throws chalk in the air before the game. Seriously though... he will have a boatload this year.
What I hated about Shaq's play is that they only will call an offensive foul if you lower the shoulder and plow straight into someone... but if you spin and knock someone back with your huge butt... never a call. The dude couldn't jump at all... without knocking someone off balance he wouldn't score on anything but a dunk... and honesly most of his dunks where the same thing... spining and knocking the defender back.
I think that's why I enjoy watching LeBron dominate more. Sure, he gets away with a ridiculous amount of traveling and superstar calls, but it's not like he's doing anything different from other star players. Shaq had pretty much his own set of rules. (Of course, LeBron's game is also just a more entertaining brand of basketball than Shaq's.)
Yup. Shaq's game was one of the most effective in NBA history, but I never thought it was fun to watch. And that had nothing to do with him being on the opposing team...Kobe has always been on the opposing team, but I thought he was remarkable to watch play.
