NBA: Back to the dark ages?

There is a question that has been boggling my mind as of late; has the NBA gone back to the dark ages? If anyone has watched the NBA as long as I have (approximately 11 seasons) you would have realized the changes and improvements in teams,players and their records. As of late even the worst teams in the NBA were winning over 20 games in a season in comparios to teams of the late 90's and early 2000's who would end seasons in the TEENS! However I am noticing a disturbing trend in the NBA, this season, and though we may not have gone back completely to those horrid days it seems that we may be heading there. Prime example and specimen are the Minnesota Timberwolves. The team, now 4-25, are simply ATROCIOUS! Kevin Mchale, in one of the worst managerial moves in recent times, automatically relegated his team to not only a losing season but an embarrassing one as well. In his attempt to 'rebuild' he sold his big star, Kevin Garnett. Now not saying this was a bad move as we will have to wait for the long-term effects. However, what seems to have me lost is the trading off of Ricky Davis and Corey Blount to the Heat for Antoine Walker, Michael Doleac and a draft pick. Now if you're attempting to rebuild why in the world would you trade two relatively young players (both in their late 20's) for two 30+ year olds, one of whom is completely irrelevant and worthless as a basketball player (Doleac)? If you're rebuilding you usually want to get/keep the young players right? What's worse is that they gave up two players who were budding stars and promising to have career-high seasons this year (especially Ricky) to get old, inconsistent and worthless players. Mind-boggling I tell you, Mind-boggling. Another team set to have a record under 25 wins are the Seattle Supersonics. Granted it is a team which although bad has its sparks in young star and future ROY (Rookie of the year) in Kevin Durant. However, they are almost no better than the T'Wolves with a weak offense and possibly even worse defense. It must be noted though that they blew the T'wolves out last night (109-90) basically without Durant which shows there obviously lies more talent here than in Minnesota and most of the players are young. Other teams looking very dismal thus far are the Miami Heat and New York Knicks. Now Miami is doing worse than expected and is probably suffering from a combination of aged and inexperienced players. Try as the superhuman, Dwyane Wade might, his team is struggling a lot and though we must give credit to his resilience, this team looks like a below 25 win team (Just to note they got blown out last night as well, only conjuring up 76 points). The now infamous New York Knicks organization is possibly the least fortuitous team in the league. How can you have such a plethora of 'big names' and yet play this badly. I am watching them play as we speak (aginst the Bulls) and I cannot figure why the fans of New York would bother themselves, spend their money and sit down and watch this team. In fact, I am of the notion that they are there to watch and cheer the other team (or just to boo the Knicks, take your pick). This team's play is nothing near enthralling and are woefully dismal in many areas, especially defense. Eddy Curry, as fat as he is, yes I said FAT, is worthless, so far missing at least 5 easy baskets (it is currently halftime) and it seems like coming off the bench has done nothing to lift his declining game. Then there is Marbury (who seems to be the 'boss' of the team) taking personal time for apparently NO DAMN REASON, and they actually are letting him sit courtside? I won't go into anymore details on this team as my blood is beginning to boil and my fellow writer M.T.M.M. has articles addressing their situation. Even at the top of the league some of the more prominent teams are not playing up to standard and I'm simply hoping that this is due to the 'middle' teams from last year stepping up a gear (eg. Hornets and Blazers). Thus , in concluding, I hope to see the league improve in terms of team records and I sincerely hope these teams mentioned above prove me wrong and elevate/upgrade their standards and their respective organizations.

LOOK AT THAT....Renaldo Balkman just missed a wide open dunk! Yes you know what followed that horrific display of basketball skill, a plethora of "booes". As I finish this article, the Bulls currently lead 73-57 at the end of the third.


Some of these teams are playing like...well to be frank, ASSES (DONKEYS)!

What's with the slump?

Any body notice lately how a certain MVP has seemingly taken a backseat? Well if you are an avid fan of basketball you would probably have a clue about who I am referring to. It's none other than Mr. Dirk "i can't handle pressure" Nowitzki. Being a fan of the Dallas Mavericks for the past six seasons , I have seen this player grow into a mega superstar in the NBA and I'm not using this word lightly. Last year seemed to be the year where everything was coming together and I as well as the millions of other Mavericks fans would finally be compensated for our loyalty. I mean, we were only TWO games out of tieing the nba record for most wins in a season (67-15), so what could go wrong? Lamentably, this dream was not realized as the Mavericks slumped to a 4-2 series loss to the upstarts from Golden State (coached by our former coach & GM, Don Nelson). This was of course riding behind the lacklustre play of Mr. Nowitzki himself, who of all times decided to go to sleep in that crucial series. Of course other factors were at fault as well, such as Avery Johnson's bad decision to not play a full squad in a near-end season match against the same Warriors who were battling for dear life to clinch a playoff berth. As everyone knows, we were disgraced and sent crashing out of the playoffs, my second time experiencing this in my 'tenure' as a fan. Now you're probably wondering where I'm going with this and why I won't just get over it? Well after that season of two tales I was expecting the Mavs to make trades and for the 'great one' to go back to Germany, use his anger to fuel his off-season training and come back this season better than ever before;come back with a vengence. However, what have I been subjected to? A Maverick squad FIFTH in the West, THIRD in the Southwest and 13-8. Now you're probably saying I'm just overreacting and that it's only the start of the season. But being a fan who likes and is used to seeing my team in the top 3 for the past 4 seasons, this start has me a bit shaken. Sure it's nothing like the 0-4 start we had last year, but most will remember that after that 0-4 start we went 40-4! Granted, maybe that's the reason we lost out in the first round, playing too hard in the season and being too tired to play an up-tempo team in a series. The concern I have really lies in how 'on & off' Nowitzki has been. Most would be shocked to know that he isn't even our leading scorer this season. In addition he has had only 2 30-point games in 21 matches. Yeah, sure, maybe I'm expecting too much but if we're not playing as well as last season you begin to look around for the reasons and to me a big reason is due to his play. Then again maybe he's just waiting for the right time. Maybe over the off-season and while playing for Germany he realized that he has to wait for the playoff run to get heated. Maybe he is wary of what happened last year and is conserving energy. Maybe he's distracted. Maybe he's been instructed by the mastermind Avery Johnson to 'cool' it for now and lull opponents into thinking he's lost his mojo or has passed it on to Josh. Maybe he just needs fans like myself to start bad-mouthing him for him to wake up. One can only speculate but in my mind it's very likely that this guy is in a major 'superstar' slump and we may just be witnessing the fall of a star! Who wants to bet on him being a contender for MVP this year? Certainly, not me.

Maybe someone really has 'stolen' his mojo right from under him :)