Hornets Hype

Great article on ESPN today about allegations that the league fixed Playoff series. Conspiracy theorists globally are feeling vindicated. Personally, I remember Jeff Van Gundy making allegations three years ago that he was told about league plans to fuck the Rockets and Yao Ming. He was fined $100,000 and then mysteriously retracted his allegations. The story disappeared. Until Tim Donaghy corroborated it this week. And then JVG reiterated his claims tonight on national TV, though stopping short of saying he would endorse Donaghy’s claims beyond that particular series. Of course, reading his body language, he was chomping at the bit to say more. Conversely, when ABC showed David Stern’s response, his body language was clearly uncomfortable with the lie he was uttering through forced smiles. That’s just my read. But the truth was in his eyes. You just have to look for it.

Another impugned series by Donaghy? Kings-Lakers 2002. Another oft-complained about series. And surprise, surprise, there were also allegations of favoring star players. Gee, really? In the NBA? What? By the way, someone found our site the other day using the search term “NBA referee steals game.” Yeah. Probably a Laker fan. While I make no excuse for the lameness of some Laker fans, the refereeing was definitely wicked questionable in Game 2. But, expect it to be lopsided the other way in L.A. to ensure a 2-2 split. Because as Donaghy makes clear, and anyone otherwise enlightened can see, the NBA cares more about a long series to ensure TV revenues and happy sponsors than who wins. Of course, that’s assuming both teams have superstars and big markets.

Right. But people will say Donaghy’s a rogue. He’s just trying to save himself. Right. His accusations are so implausible. Bullshit. They’re what most fans think most of the time but have no proof thereof. Which, of course, is the hallmark of a good conspiracy. So such logic says the Finals will start in Game 5. By then the refs, and Stern, won’t care who wins. They will have made their money.

… I can’t help feeling like Hornets/Lakers would have been epic. Like we were slightly cheated. The Spurs were already more than half done when L.A. got them. I know there wasn’t a huge chance, but… sometimes I feel like we could have beaten the Lakers. We could have beaten the Celtics. Every time I saw one of these teams miss the connection for an alley oop tonight… I thought about Chris Paul.

We could have been great in the Conference Finals. We would have been great.

Definition: Player who is not a member of your hometown/primary team, whose pure awesomeness you have come to admire thanks to watching the NBA playoffs. The Playoff Crush, unlike the real life crush, is not predicated on physical attractiveness but rather on some combination of the aforementioned awesomeness factor (see Game 7 vs. Cleveland), on-court personality, and other X factors that vary depending on the person.

Example: 1) I have a playoff crush on Paul Pierce, who I find inexplicably sexy despite the fact that he is, let’s face it, not really hot. 2) Many people around the internet were heard to proclaim their playoff crushes on Chris Paul when the Hornets hit the playoffs and you could actually watch them on TV.

Related Terms:

Playoff Man Crush: If you are a dude, what you have is a Playoff Man Crush. Right on, guys. Own that shit.

Footnote 1: How you like that blog hijack?

Footnote 2: I am not sure that there’s any Hornet player for whom, if you run a Google search, as many pictures of him at bars immediately pop up as do when you Google Paul Pierce. Haha.

So out in the ether of the world wide web, there is plenty of Hornets’ hatred for the Lakers. Go figure. Is it because CP didn’t get the MVP award and Kobe did? The fact of the matter is, that the award was CP’s to win, and whether he blew it down the stretch and couldn’t help his team seal up the #1 seed, or Byron instructed him to do so so that they’d have a better matchup in Round 1, he still lost it. Kobe earned it. There was no thievery there. Almost any critic in the league would tell you that Kobe’s the best player in the league, and has been for years. Most valuable? There’s plenty of room for argument there. But the answer, like it or not, for this year, is yes.

Maybe it’s jealousy because they got Gasol? But why? If the Trailblazers had offered us Brandon Roy for Adam Haluska, Rasual Butler, the rights to Birdman, Arvydas Macijauskas’ expiring contract, two first round draft picks, and cash, who would have said no? You can’t hold it to them for making a great trade. Leave the complaining to asses like Popovich, who said the league should banned the trade. Boo hoo from the guy wearing 4 rings.

Maybe it’s the realization that we might not have beaten them the Lakers this year if we made it to the conference finals, and they weren’t even sporting one of their best players, Bynum. Or maybe it’s the gut reflex of knowing these are the guys we’re going to have to go through over the next four-plus years, and anticipatorily hating them for it. That I can buy. A rivalry. Let’s just hope we don’t end up like the Kings or Blazers from the years the Spurs and Lakers were taking home trophies.

Any way. The fact of the matter is that the Lakers are the Western Conference representative. So I’m rooting for them. I know I stand alone on this. There seems to be plenty of Boston love out there. (Thus the title of this post!) But not me. I still have a permanent scar on my head from the Garden. Fuck Boston. Besides, does anyone out there really believe that the Eastern Conference deserves a champion? Please. Come back when you can field eight playoff teams with a winning record.

Oh, see, someone must have known it was my birthday.

Who gave this kid a camera? The Hornets as a team are pretty goofy. Sniff. I miss them.

Quite the assortment of people on the Hornets’ boat.

True. NBA Coverage is sparse these days. Of games that is. I’m sure there’s all kinds of Finals nostalgia here and there. Especially on NBAtv. Nonetheless, my NBA Hunger Strike has continued. No basketball since the Hornets lost. A modicum of Hornets blog reading, but no major media outlets. As you all know, The End hit me hard. It didn’t feel right. San Antonio fans might disagree with that sentiment with our series, but are likely just as bitter about their own team’s demise. The Stern Button has been activated. The big markets win. Celtics-Lakers Finals. But still, I am a basketball fan. A huge one. So I’m wavering. There are a lot of storylines that intrigue me about these finals.

I might watch. One more day to consider it. Thoughts?

Oh, an addendum to my last post. I showed the much vaunted Hornets tickets. As you know, we at HornetsHype have tabulated the more likely than not tenuously-connected “Ticket-Face-to-Result” statistic. (Who says we don’t do stats here?) Readers also know, we fear the jinx. So we didn’t mention that Mo-Pete was on the ticket-face for Game 7 against the Spurs. Below are the regular season Ticket-Face-to-Result stats:

• Team Photo: 1-0 (1.000)
• D-West: 5-0 (1.000)
• CP3: 8-2 (0.800)
• Peja: 4-1 (0.800)
• Tyson: 7-3 (0.700)
• Byron: 3-2 (0.600)
• Mo-Pete: 2-3 (0.400)

So, as you can see, despite all the actual basketball stats pointing to the contrary, I was skeptical heading into Game 7 for this reason. Playoffs? Playoffs? Those games looked like this:

• D-West: 2-0 (1.000)
• CP3: 2-0 (1.000)
• Peja: 1-0 (1.000)
• Tyson: 1-0 (1.000)
• Mo-Pete 0-1 ( 0.000)

Of course, these are only the home games. Had we progressed in the 2nd round against the Lakers, with only three games at the Hive, it would have been CP3, Tyson, and D-West on the ticket-faces. Which, of course, would have meant three wins. Stats don’t lie. But, we would have needed to steal at least one in L.A. to move on. As you can see from the images below, the same would have been true in the Finals. Against the C’s we would have only had 3 home games, so it would have been CP3, D-West, and Peja. Ah well. I will say this, however: Spurs, my checking account desperately thanks you. Them tickets weren’t getting any cheaper.

No doubt. The Hornets had an amazing season. But as I put away some of the Hornets stuff laying around the house, I flip through the ticket book that the team sent us for the playoffs. You see, when ticktock and I re-upped our season tickets for next year, we guaranteed ourselves our seats for the entire Playoff run, no matter how long that might have been. And so yes, we are proud holders of Western Conference Finals and NBA Finals tickets that are as valuable as “Hornets: Western Conference Finals” t-shirts, part of the annual tragedy of pre-emptive merchandising, destined to lay in the gutters of eBay could-have-been memorabilia.

But at the same time, I feel strangely hopeful. Despite the sour taste that the end of this season left in my mouth, I don’t feel as if my hopes and dreams have been crushed in the sense of, “wow, this was our last shot–we’ll never get back here.” Quite the opposite. I can only imagine the feeling I have now is a lot like what Lakers fans felt the last year Kobe and Shaq got bumped from the Playoffs before tearing through the league for 3 straight rings.

This team is good. And I only expect them to get better in the offseason. Our core is under contract (CP, DX, TC, Mo, and Peja). We have guys that came to the team late with tons of talent, and with a full offseason and training camp behind them, look to contribute in big ways (Bird, Mike James, and maybe Bonzi). Not to the two young bucks that are looking for breakout seasons (Hilton and Ju-Ju). Obviously we need to decide out of these 10 if still want Bonzi and Bird back, whose contracts have expired. Bowen and Ely are similarly past contract, and questions remain about what role they would play next season, if any.

Of course this leaves questions about two players. The big name unmentioned is JP. He has a player option. Will he opt out? Will he stay? And if he opts out will he look to come back? What about Rasual “mmm-bob” Butler? He’s locked down for 2 more years at an average of $3.8 million per. Will he regain his shooting touch? Will he get out of Byron’s doghouse? Will they look to shop him? As a bonus, the salaries of Arvydas Macijauskas, Bernard Robinson, and Mile Ilic finally fall off the salary cap (freeing up almost $4.5 million).

One thing we do know, is that Byron is coming back, and that is huge. He is obviously one of the best coaches in the league. But who will the Hornets take with the 27th pick in the draft? Will he make the team? Will he make an impact? Will they have any interest in bringing back either Marcus Vinicius (a.k.a Marquinhos) or Adam Haluska? Obviously AH never got a shot here, but is exactly what this team needs: a 2-guard dead-on shooter. What about free agency at-large? Who’s available? Who can we afford? Who do we want?

I’m not sure what the answers to these questions are. But I know one thing. I’m hopeful. Even without any big moves, I love our core. They’re not just great players, but they’re great men. They’re great friends. They’re a great team. They’re only going to get better and so are the guys around them. Everyone can clearly see the goal now. It’s not just about scrabbling out way to the top 8 in the West, it’s championship or bust. And without resorting to the unabashed bluster and hype for which this blog is best known, I think I can simply say that I honestly, truly, in the deepest recesses of my heart or soul or whatever organ or ephemeral entrail encompasses that part of us that can hope, dream, pray, or imagine: I believe.

I know someday I’ll see that golden trophy in our guys’ hands. I really do. It’s like deja vu, but it hasn’t happened yet. So maybe I should say, I remember. The Hornets. Winning. A. Championship.

Finally! The NBA plans to impose fines on floppers next season. (Why oh why couldn’t they have come up with this idea sooner, so we could all be watching Hornets/Lakers right now?) So, right on. If players feel they’re not doing the right thing unless they fall on the floor to “sell” calls, something is awry. Hockey eventually began to penalize diving, and that’s worked out pretty well. Of course, the best part of this article is what Rasheed Wallace had to say about it. I won’t quote it here because, hey, this is not a Sheed blog, but trust me. You’ll be (expletive) entertained.

Over on the official blog, it’s been announced that they’re going to have Hornets Insider articles, along with a couple of other new features, next season. The first one is Eight Things to Know About NBA Scouting, which was an interesting read, especially the parts about the off-the-court stuff the Hornets look at in prospects.

And don’t forget to go to At the Hive and vote on the How’d He Do? season player review series. He’s done Ely, Peterson, West, and Wells so far. (Wow, I decided I was gonna go with all last names on that one to keep it consistent, but it felt really weird to type. Like my fingers really were resistant to not throwing in nicknames or initials. Wah.)

And here’s a sentence you never thought you’d see:

The Spurs are going to have to put better players around their big three. They’re going to have to get younger and more athletic, and they’ll need to get a better power forward to match up with David West in N.O., and Pau Gasol (who will move to the 4 when Andrew Bynum returns) or Odom in L.A.

That’s from the ESPN Roundtable today, which discusses the Spurs’ future. I just love the name drop of D West. A year ago, you didn’t think you’d see that, did you? (Of course you didn’t think Gasol would be in L.A., either, come to think of it…) They also call the Hornets “ascendant.”

Ascendant. Great word.

Anyhow, tomorrow morning I’m taking a flight to Syracuse, on my way to visit the (expletive) awesomeness that is St. Lawrence University, where I will be getting up to All. Sorts. Of. Trouble at my 5 Year Reunion. So I will clearly not be seen in these parts until Monday, not that I’ve been posting much lately anyway. But I do want to go through that playoff swag next week and figure out what to send to who. So ticktock6 = partying. Ticktock6 = not in the NOLA.

And then next Friday is my birthday, which, if someone wants to make it a real memorable one, you know, it would be great to wake up and be notified that next year’s season tickets are now free. Or like, Tyson Chandler on my doorstep… I’m just saying. No? Fine, I’ll just have a Tanqueray and tonic, I guess…

Later, Buzz Friends. I’m out like Ginobili’s flop.