A sports blog by and for Midwest Sports Fans
Just found this on Reddit, posted by Virgin_Headquarters, and I found myself unable to stop staring at it while trying to parse which parts are Dwyane Wade and which parts are Derrick Rose.
This really is one of the cleanest Photoshop face blends I’ve ever seen.
After an incredibly exciting round of games yesterday, the NBA is officially back. What are the main stories? Who are the most important players? What should you pay attention to this season?
Today, I will cover the Men, the Myths, and the Legends of this year’s Eastern Conference.
For Part One of this two-part series, which is inspired by ESPN’s attempt to rank all NBA players from 1-500, click here.
Remember, our goal here is to rank the top 25 players in the NBA right now.
Things were getting desperate in my household a few months ago. My sister was pregnant and getting ready to have a baby. My wife was starting to get that same itch…
So I pulled out the only trick I could think of: I bought her a puppy.
Now that the desire for something small to love was gone, my wife and I began to try and learn how to raise the little guy. The first day, little Figo (Italian for “cool”) ate some food, drank some water, and then used our kitchen floor as a toilet. A few hours later, he did the same thing in our living room. If you have ever had a puppy, you know this became a common occurrence over the next few weeks.
Every time the little guy did it, I wanted to get angry. But I couldn’t. Why? Because as my father once told me, “You can’t get mad at puppies for acting like dogs.”
Another way of putting would be that “You can’t expect a puppy to behave and obey like his older, more experienced counterparts.”
I have been thinking about this a lot during the NBA Playoffs.
There were only three and a half minutes left in the game and the United Center was ready to burst with energy. Any Bulls fan knows that the 4th quarter is a nerve racking one, but no one expected the game to collapse as quickly and easily as it did.
After the shock passed yesterday and I avoided anything Bulls-related for a little while, I realized that while this series was the most frustrating Bulls performance to watch, the team has made a huge turnaround in one season.
In one of the best defensive series of all-time, the Chicago Bulls finally fell to the Miami Heat.
It was a series of diving for loose balls, blocking shots, and rotating on defense; maybe not something that casual NBA viewer would have appreciated, but something a true NBA fan would appreciate.
The Bulls-Heat battle not only showcased amazing defense, but three of the best players in the game were also on display in Derrick Rose, Dwyane Wade, and LeBron James. These men are three of the world’s greatest offensive-threats, accompanied by solid role-players, whose shared final goal was an NBA championship.
But here’s the catch: two of those three players play for the same team, and that proved enough to take down the lonesome Rose.
Three games into the conference finals, the Chicago Bulls and Oklahoma City Thunder both find themselves staring at 2-1 series deficits.
While the two teams may be in similar holes, there is nothing similar when comparing the two situations.
The Chicago Bulls and Miami Heat are ready to meet in the NBA’s Eastern Conference Finals, which means that we can finally have the match up of #1 and #2 that we’ve been wanting.
Not only are both of these teams in the upper echelon of the current NBA, but they also feature three of the league’s most amazing players. And both teams use one key ingredient as their backbone:
In The Book of Basketball, Bill Simmons describes a conversation he had with Isiah Thomas where he learned “The Secret” of basketball. The SportsGuy listened intently while the one of the greatest pure point guards of all time told him what truly mattered on the basketball court.
Amazingly enough, the secret to basketball is that it’s NOT about basketball…at least according to Isiah Thomas.
The way basketball is structured, especially the NBA, encourages players to play for their own stats. If a player averages 20 p.p.g., or 10 r.p.g., or 10 a.p.g., or so on, HE will get paid. On the flip side, a player like Shane Battier bounces from team to team, EVEN THOUGH every team he has ever played for admits that he contributed in ways that never showed up in the box score.
Thomas knew from experience. His Bad Boys seemed to get closer and closer every single year, but they could never get over the hump. Eventually, it was a trade that made absolutely no sense from a statistical standpoint that seemed to push them to the finish line. When they traded Adrian Dantley for Mark Aguirre, they lost both inside scoring AND rebounding. But for some reason, the team meshed better with Aguirre, it opened up more minutes for a young Dennis Rodman, and the Pistons ended up winning two straight titles.
The secret to winning went far beyond basketball and the stats that were being piled up by players. It was something mental. Something that stretched far beyond the hardwood. Until each player made the choice to put team over self, the team was doomed.
That’s one reason why the point guard position has always fascinated me. More than any other position, it is responsible for making sure that everyone on the floor understands and abides by “The Secret.”
I love clever fan T-shirts, and I just stumbled upon a new favorite thanks to the city of Chicago’s #1 sports fan (as anointed by Midwest Sports Fans): Sarah Spain. She just posted the pic below to her Facebook account, and a simple like wouldn’t do. I had to post it.
Welcome to Today’s Best by MSF. This is our daily rundown of links, laughs, and lovely ladies that will help you get through your work day.
In today’s edition, Shania Twain reemerges on Oprah and reminds us all of her 90s heyday, an inspiring boy teaches us all a thing or two with his brave fight against cancer, Pau Gasol and Tim Duncan play some jazz through the magic of Photoshop, and an idiot Fenway streaker gets annihilated by a form-tackling security guard. And much, much more.
Most of us, if we were honest, would admit that we hate it when people exaggerate or jump to premature conclusions. There was a guy in my dorm at college who was legendarily awful with this. In fact, we called him “Topper” because no matter how outrageous of a story you had, he would pop in the room with a bigger and better tale just so he could “top” yours.
But of all areas in life, sports is the easiest to do it in. Hyperbole abounds anytime somebody’s favorite team, player, or sport is mentioned.
I don’t believe what I’m about to say qualifies. In fact, I am trying to squash the exaggerated notions about Chicago Bulls, Derrick Rose, and their playoff prospects.
Welcome to Today’s Best by MSF. This is our daily rundown of links, laughs, and lovely ladies that will help you get through your work day.
In today’s edition, Kristen Cavallari gets engaged to Jay Cutler, Derrick Rose and other NBA players get mad about foul calls that almost surely were correct, Joe Posnanski and Jon Washburn provide the best of the web and of MSF, and Mother Nature knocks your socks off with the craziest looking fish you’ve ever seen.
Sitting in a Lincoln Park bar and watching the Bulls-Pacers game 4, I overheard a guy talking about how the Bulls were choking and that their playoff hopes were over. Too many times during the first round series against the Indiana Pacers I have heard fellow Chicagoans (and certain not-so-surprising sports analysts) talk about how the Bulls are the “same old”, can’t get it done, will never get it done, and so on.
Well Chicago, it’s time to slow down before sounding the alarms.
The motto for the Bulls’ first three games of their first sound series has consistently been “A win is a win.” And while that attitude may be enough to squeak by the Pacers with a sweep, it definitely won’t work next round against the Magic or Hawks.
Going into Game 4 and beyond, the Bulls have some lessons to learn.
