THE "OFFICIAL" AROUND THE NBA 2012-13 THREAD...........

The Lakers' star has faded. They've aged faster and more horribly than Brittney Spears.

 

No way Dwight comes back to the Lakers.

 

How about the back-to-back games Carlos Boozer has had? 31 pts, 11 rbs on Wednesday and then 27 pts, 12 rbs in a convincing win over the Heat tonight...

 

How about the fact that I forgot to play him in my fantasy league EACH FUCKING TIME!

 

That's a bitch... how's M-Town treating ya? I know you've got that quick turnaround to Minnesota, but did you get the chance to grab some bbq or hit up Beale?

 

Landed here in Minny about an hour ago....... but we did get the day off in Memphis. We usually hit up Blues City Cafe or Neeleys. But we went to a new spot, Double Js. Good food! I like that town.

 

All good stuff man... that turnaround's got to be a bitch. Memphis to Minneapolis overnight? Some of these schedules don't make a lot of sense. You'd think maybe a road stretch with Memphis, Houston, New Orleans, etc., but Minneapolis? That's out of the blue.

We always get repped for our bbq, but to be honest, I think the chicken's where it's at in this city. There's a place called Gus's, a fried chicken joint that's only a couple of blocks from the Fed Ex Forum downtown that's better than any bbq joint I've been to. It's one of those hole-in-the-wall places that still has like a 30 min wait during lunch hrs.

How would you compare our crowd though to Portland crowds? I wound up just catching it on tv, but it looked pretty damn empty in there. I'm not that worried about the team leaving, because we've got a ridiculous contract with the team that would cost the owner more money than it's worth to leave, but tonight's game was the type of game where you can usually buy a $5 dollar ticket and wind up watching the fourth quarter in the second row.

 

NOVoodoo- how'd you like my Blazers last night?

 

You know, I was actually very impressed. It was cool to see the team I've watched all year long play the team I've read ya'll talking about all year long.

Having Z-Bo out changes things though. The way your frontcourt dominated the glass reaffirmed Z-Bo's importance to the Grizz. Aldridge and Hickson dominated the glass all game against Marc. Even though Marc had a great game and made some great rebounds in the clutch, he was outclassed on the boards for most of regulation. And even though Speights wound up with a high rebounding total, but he missed a lot of important boards and put-backs.

More than anything, I'm disappointed with Tony Allen. There's no scenario where I want Allen taking nine shots, and there's no excuse for him letting Matthews go off for 21 points. Both Speights' and Matthews' offensive performances were really the surprises of the game.

At the end of the day though, the Blazers looked like a playoff team, but I'd still rather see ya'll than the Denver Nuggets in the first round though...

 

No Voodoo, I have to give kudos to your voodoo. You got a good team there. Even without Zach you should have beaten us but you froze up on the last 10 shots. You'll do fine in proportion to your small market size.

 

Memphis' arena is probably in the top 5 in the NBA. It's beautiful....... but there is never any fans there. And the ones are never cheer and go crazy. I'm biased of course, but the PDX fans are nuts! Too bad, cause they the Grizz are good and deserve the support.

 

Spears was the highest paid female musician in 2012...... And oh yes I'd still tap it

 

You mean 111, right?

 

That's the thing though, HCP,... they HAVE the support.

Everyone in the city loves the Grizz, and most peoples' nights in this town revolve around watching the game on game days, but the reality is that we're a "working class" city, and the NBA has priced most of our residents out of tickets.

Speaking from experience, the lower bowl is nothing but corporate sponsors giving their tickets to disinterested transplants, as well as a few unlucky diehards that actually pay full face value. The real fans are in the upper bowls, and I guess that can be said about a lot of cities, but we're probably the worst of any NBA cities financially. The Memphis area has been in a financial depression since I've been born. That doesn't change our devotion the Grizzlies though. That just means that most people can't afford to attend the games.

Ticket sales are only a small dent in a team's profit margin's though, and for that reason, I think the Grizzlies have a sustainable operation. I just look at my brother as an example. The guy's the definition of "working class," having gone to school to be a mechanic, working in restaurants, and raising a child all the while. He knows absolutely nothing about the game of basketball. Growing up, I was always the one who was playing ball, yet every time I talk to him about the Grizzlies, he has a better perspective on their situation than I do. Even though I've played my whole life, know about the game, and study the league, I've got a brother who religiously watches every single Grizzlies game, and he always seems to know the team way better than I do for some reason.

For me, that's a mark of a good basketball town. My brother's the epitome of the average working class Memphis citizen, who doesn't know much about basketball, but he watches every single game like a diehard. The city's full of fans like my brother. They just don't show up in the attendance statistics, because NBA tickets are priced at a level that the average Memphis citizen can't afford...