The Super MVPs

Super MVP: A player who wins both the NBA regular season MVP and the NBA Finals MVP award in the same season.

This article started in my mind several months before my fingers typed it out: it started with a discussion with my brother about the factors that define the legacies of the NBA's greatest ever players. As far as quantifiable measures go, a players' greatness can be determine by the championships he wins, the MVP awards he collects, and the statistics he posts up. Other factors such as all-star appearances, all-NBA teams, defensive player awards, and overall season/playoff games won also add to the argument.

Above all the other individual accolades that could be handed out to a player is the MVP Award. Since it was first given out to Bob Pettit in 1956, the MVP award - known as the Maurice Podoloff trophy - has been handed out 55 times to 29 players. Heralded to individual glory as this award may be, it does carry a sort of a curse with it (which I wrote about over a year ago): Only 20 times since 1956 has the NBA, MVP won the NBA Championship: only 12 players have lifted both trophies in the same season. Since Michael Jordan retired, only Shaq (2000) and Duncan (2003) have been an MVP and an NBA Champion in the same year.

Realising how difficult it is - and how much more difficult it is becoming - to win both these trophies in the same year, I have come up with a new award, handed out trademarked by the Hoopistani Blog: THE SUPER MVP. Since the 'best' player in the league, the Most Valuable Player, is thus most likely to also be the Finals MVP if his team wins a championship in the same season, this player would be that season's Super MVP.

The Finals MVP award was introduced in 1969, and in that very first year, it was handed to someone who lost in the Finals: Jerry West. West averaged 38 ppg for the Lakers in a 4-3 Finals loss to - who else? - but Boston Celtics! Since then, the subsequent 42 Finals MVP awards have always gone to a champion, a trend that I hope continues to make my Super MVP award relevant.

The year 1980 was also one other curious exception to the trend. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won the regular season MVP and the NBA Championship with the Lakers in the same season. But the Finals MVP Award that year went to a rookie Magic Johnson, who, in Kareem's injury absence, did some things which were unfathomably incredible. Sorry, but that shifts Kareem's 1980 season out of the Super MVPs list, although he does make the lineup much earlier.

The 'NBA Finals MVP Award' wasn't introduced till 1969. In 2009, Commissioner David Stern announced that he is renaming the award to honour celtics' legendary Center Bill Russell by calling it the 'Bill Russell Finals MVP Award'. That is ironic, of course, because Russell retired in 1969 without ever having won the award. Beforethis award was started, there were only five instances in NBA History when a regular season MVP won the NBA Championship in the same season. Since these players were considered to be the NBA's best for that season, and they won a championship, I'm going to assume that they count as Finals MVPs, and hence, 'Super MVPs', too.

- 1957: Bob Cousy (Celtics)*
- 1961: Bill Russell (Celtics)*
- 1962: Bill Russell (Celtics)*
- 1963: Bill Russell (Celtics)*
- 1965: Bill Russell (Celtics)*
- 1967: Wilt Chamberlain (76ers)*
- 1980: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Lakers)**

*Won an MVP and an NBA Championship before the Finals MVP Award was introduced
**Won an MVP and an NBA Championship but not the Finals MVP Award.

And here is my list of the NBA's Super MVPs after the Finals MVP award was introduced:

- 1970: Wills Reed (Knicks)
- 1971: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Bucks)
- 1983: Moses Malone (Sixers)
- 1984: Larry Bird (Celtics)
- 1986: Larry Bird (Celtics)
- 1987: Magic Johnson (Lakers)
- 1991: Michael Jordan (Bulls)
- 1992: Michael Jordan (Bulls)
- 1994: Hakeem Olajuwan (Rockets)
- 1996: Michael Jordan (Bulls)
- 1998: Michael Jordan (Bulls)
- 2000: Shaquille O'Neal (Lakers)
- 2003: Tim Duncan (Spurs)

It is an impressive and exclusive collection of NBA superstars. Michael Jordan makes that list four times, and Larry Bird twice. In two occasions, Abdul-Jabbar won the MVP award and the championship in the same season, but with different teams. And before the award was introduce, it's namesake Bill Russell had an incredible four seasons where he lifted both the MVP award and the NBA Championship trophy. As the last one to achieve this feat, Tim Duncan is the honorary holder of my Super MVP award.

The rarity of being a Super MVP is what makes the feat that much more incredible. There are too many players who have a good season to win an MVP award but never add the ring to their resumes: Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, and Allen Iverson (barring his return to the NBA) are perhaps the first three names that come to my mind with the 'incomplete' legacy. A lot of former MVPs do on to become smarter players in better teams and win championships in later seasons, such as Julius 'Dr J' Erving, David Robinson, Kevin Garnett, and most recently, Dirk Nowitzki. Amongst the current crop of players, the likes of Steve Nash, LeBron James, and Derrick Rose are those who will be looking to add some championship hardware to their individual accolade.

Then, are are also many players who have never had a complete, dominating MVP season, but because of their team-play and/or their individual brilliance in the Finals, have won the championship and the Finals MVP award: John Havlicek, Rick Barry, Jo Jo White, Dennis Johnson, Cedric Maxwell, James Worthy, Joe Dumars, Isiah Thomas, Chauncey Billups, Dwyane Wade, Tony Parker, and Paul Pierce are the names who belong in this category.

So what does all this say? Considered damn-near-unanimously as the Greatest Of All Time (GOAT), Michael Jordan has also achieved the perfect combination of individual dominance and team success more often that anyone else. And if we counted those before 1969, 11-time-champ Bill Russell equals Jordan's four 'Super MVP' seasons.

And as we await the possibility of the locks to be opened for the new NBA season, and as the predictions for the champions and the MVPs pour in, I'll be keeping my eye out to see if someone can achieve the difficult combination of the two. If someone can emulate Jordan, Bird, Duncan, or Shaq for one season. If someone can finally become a Super MVP again.

Yao Ming lifted basketball in China, gave hope to the game in India

There is a major reason that we have hope in the rise of basketball in India today. A reason why we feel that, one day, the game can grow in India, one day we can produce our own NBA superstar, and one day, we can challenge the world's best hoop-playing nations at the biggest stage.

And that reason is China.

Of course, we have our own way of doing things, our own history in the game, and our own legends of the game, but it has been China's sudden rise that has allowed Indian basketball to hope that one day we can too turn our basketball potential into actuality. Over the past 12-13 years, basketball has seen a meteoric rise in our northern, (sometimes unfriendly) neighbours. It has risen above all to become one of the most popular sports in the country, along with football and table-tennis. In a little over a decade, the Chinese basketball team has gone from strong performances in Asian championships to making a mark amongst the world's best country's, including the US, Spain, Argentina, Serbia, etc. In that same time span, the Chinese Basketball League (CBA) has become a lucrative venture, even attracting former NBA stars Bonzi Wells, Stephon Marbury, and Steve Francis to star in the league. From the grassroots development of the game to the popular fan-frenzy for the Kobe Bryants and the Allen Iversons... China has gone from becoming a sleeping giant in the game to the NBA's largest market outside the US.

And there is a major reason why basketball is so popular in China today. A reason why Stephon Marbury played in the CBA. A reason why China ranks 10th in the FIBA rankings. Why more and more Chinese youngsters want to grow up and become basketball stars. Why Iverson jerseys flew off the shelves across the country over the past decade.

And that reason is Yao Ming.

Two days ago, news leaked that Yao Ming had told the Houston Rockets, the only team for whom he had ever donned an NBA jersey, that he was planning to retire. The announcement brought a sudden, depressing, yet not wholly unexpected end to a short, brilliant, and much-maligned career. China's biggest sporting icon, the man who had opened more possibilities than ever for basketball in the world's most populous country, and thus given hope for a future in basketball for us in India, the second-most populous country, was calling it a day.

By most standards, Yao Ming did not have a super-spectacular career on the court, yet as Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! NBA argues, it is his global impact on the game of basketball that should be enough to make him a Basketball Hall of Famer. The 7-foot-6 giant was the first pick of the NBA draft in 2002 by the Houston Rockets, a choice that immediately brought the NBA to China and had more Chinese fans wearing Steve Francis Rockets jerseys than American ones. That was bound to happen, right - Yao was the icon, but it was his teammate Francis whose game and size fans could relate to more. After Francis left Houston, it was Tracy McGrady. And all this because of Yao.

From 2002-2011 Yao spent just nine seasons in the NBA, averaging 19 points and 9.2 rebounds per game over his career. After a quiet first season, he soon became a force to be reckoned with. He arrived into the NBA just as Shaquille O'Neal sipped on the champagne of his third straight NBA championship with the Lakers. I still remember how Yao was supposed to be the guy to one day match Shaq. The behemoth clash never really lived up to its fullest potential. By the time Yao got into his prime (2006), Shaq was already done with his. The best thing that ever happened of the Shaq-Yao media-hyped-rivalry was a mixtape rap song released by Shaq called 'How to Rob the NBA League', where O'Neal hilariously bragged: "I got three rings, fool; Yao Ming, who?"

Yao didn't have the rings, but he did have a popularity to match Shaq. With or without injury, Yao was voted eight times as an NBA All Star, mostly thanks to his devoted fan-following in China. It is bitter irony then that, within one month, NBA fans have had to bid farewell to both these memorable giants.

Yao never played a full NBA season after his second one. His injury troubles began in 2005-06. From 2005-2008 three seasons, Yao only managed to average 53 games during the regular season. This injury-riddled time also coincided with his peak, as he averaged 22.4 ppg and 10.1 rpg during this time. This fact makes the Yao tragedy perhaps even more tragic - it was in his worst years where he was at his best.

Yao recovered valiantly to play 77 games in 2008-09, but then sat out all of the 2009-10 season, and only managed to notch five games in his attempted comeback in 2010-11. Through this time, his most gifted teammate, Tracy McGrady, also suffered from various ailments, and the talented duo could never have the success together that they deserved to enjoy.,

His injury list during this period has been long and horrifying, from developing osteomyelitis in the big toe on his left foot, breaking his right knee, getting a stress fracture in his left foot, and a broken bone in his left foot. It was the stress fracture on his left ankle that was finally aggravated again last season and took him out of the game for good.

Even Yao Ming's giant legs weren't strong enough to carry the weight burdened on to him. The weight of expectation from all of China, the expectation of carrying both the Rockets and the Chinese National team, and carrying them as often as he could. His knees had been overworked, his feet had run up-and-down the court way too many times. Big men are notoriously infamous for having career-riddling injuries - Yao was amongst the biggest of them all, and even though injuries shortened his career, he was still able to make the most of his time on the court.

New Delhi, India, thousands of miles away from Yao's hometown of Shanghai, and thousands more from Yao's adopted hometown of Houston. I'm watching the teenager supposed to shoulder India's basketball aspirations, the 15-year-old, seven-foot-one gentle giant, Satnam Singh Bhamara, who has already drawn unfair comparisons to Yao Ming solely due to the similarity in the country's from which they both hail, the potential of where India stands now in world basketball as compared to where China stood 15 or so years ago, and of course, their size. Bhamara is playing for Junior Nationals Championships for Punjab, dominating the competition with a sleek combination of size, strength, speed, and dexterity. His potential, like Yao's potential, is scary good.

Yao's story, for the sake of Satnam and others, should be a lesson learnt, a parable for how to be responsible superstar carrying the homes of ones countrymen, and how to be careful as a big man and make sure to elongate a potentially great career the way Yao unfortunately couldn't. Satnam may just be the first, but from henceforth, every talented seven-footer from India will be compared to Yao, until the first one makes the breakthrough into global basketball for India the way Yao did for his country. For this, he will never ever be forgotten.

I'm going to finish with this: My most vivid memory of Yao Ming took place off the court. It was the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The opening ceremony of sport's grandest stage was the grandest opening ceremony of them all, marking China's "coming out party" economically and culturally into the West and the rest of the world. It was an occasion where China got to showcase the best it had to offer in its history, its tradition, it's economy, and ultimately its sport.

And there was a man carrying Chinese flag on this opening ceremony, the man who led the Chinese contingent, who was chosen ahead of all the others, towering over, giving the athletes and the rest of his countrymen the confidence and the belief that they could stand tall with the rest of the superpowers in the world.

That man was Yao Ming.

BIG: A Eulogy to Shaq's NBA Career

How's this for a (semi) oxymoron: devastatingly hilarious.

After 19 years, Shaquille O'Neal retired from the NBA. The only NBA player, or person alive, or person dead, that I can truly describe to be both - devastating, and hilarious. If I can describe him in two words, it would be those two. Not someone who was so hilarious that it almost destroyed people. Not someone who was so devastating that it was funny. No: Shaq was both those things, separately and together, in one single entity.

I heard the news seven or eight hours later than it was first announced: but this is 2011, and in the world of fast news sharing and even faster reactions, seven or eight hours is a lifetime. There was a newsletter from the NBA in my inbox, but instead of discussing the NBA Finals, the focus was all about a certain announcement by the NBA's biggest personality.

On a 16-second long video posted on Twitter, Shaquille O'Neal of the Celtics, and the Cavs before that, and the Suns before that, and the Heat, and most memorably of the Lakers, and for the Magic, announced his retirement.

The 'twitter retirement' was a surprising whimper in the story of a man who is loud, proud, boisterous, and overly Shaqtastic.

Everything about the career of Shaq has been Big. Not just Big, but BIG. It should be in bold actually. As a matter of fact, here you go: BIG. From his 7 foot 1 inch, 150 kg body to his achievements - his four championship rings, his three Finals MVP awards, his 2000 NBA MVP award, and his 15 All Star appearances. He was BIG when it came to dunking on everyone from Dikembe Mutumbo to Robert Parish, and BIG when he broke backboards on his dunks.

Now, he retires as one of the best Centers ever to play the game - and in all seriousness, I will put him in top 3, somewhere in the league with Bill Russell and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - I'm sorry but I have never been a fan of Chamberlain. Put Shaq in the Chamberlain-era and he would've made averaging 60 and 30 look easy.

But his career to me also leaves a HUGE gaping hole and a list of questions and what-ifs - yes, I know, every player has a what if (what if MJ never left in 93? what if Grant Hill never got injured? what if the Lakers never traded for Kobe as a rookie?), but the Shaq what-if is simpler, and thus, most frustrating.

What if he cared more?

Never in his 19-year-career did Shaq play all 82 games of the regular season. His peak of dominance, where he made every other player in the league look like mincemeat, was far too short for someone with this potential. I know I'm saying this of a player, who with one trade, changed the entire balance scale of the NBA, but Shaq was THAT good. Even after a hall of fame career, I say he could've done more, could've been better. What if Shaq tried to stay in better shape? What if Shaq took the regular season more seriously? What if Shaq worked on his free throws? What if there was never any drama between him and Kobe in LA?

I read an article many years ago about how, based on pure dominance, Shaq is the man who comes closest to being the one person to change the entire shape of a franchise. Only Michael Jordan in the history of every great basketball player may rank higher. And what if Shaq had the hunger MJ had? What if he had 75 percent of that hunger? What if he tried harder and sacrificed more to keep winning. I'm convinced that he would be sitting comfortably on a couple more MVP awards, a couple more rings, and a place in NBA history as perhaps the second-best player in basketball.

Well, it's finally over now, and by most reactions, people are happy Shaq called it a day. From being the league's Most Dominating Ever (MDE) to a mere sideshow who was now more famous for his jokes and his dunks, the end of Shaq's playing career was a little too quiet.

There has been just too much about Shaq, on and off the court, to truly capture in a silly little article. I try to think about how to approach this, but the idea of Shaq, like Shaq itself, is bigger than most other NBA personalities. So I'm going to take a cop-out and list to you the many, many, MANY things that I remember about Shaq. Some you may know, some you may have forgotten, and some may be new to you - I just hope that, by the end of this list, you realise that there will never be a player who was as dominant on court and as awesome off it as Shaq again.

1. I have already mentioned this before, but Shaq broke backboards.

2. In additional to his basketball career, Shaq released four rap albums in the 90s: Shaq Diesel, Shaq Fu: The Return, You Can't Stop the Reign, and Respect.

3. Shaq played for six different teams in his career, and he took THREE of them to the NBA finals - the Magic, the Lakers, and the Heat. He won with Lakers and Heat.

4. Shaq did a legendary song with another BIG - the Notorious B.I.G. - on the classic, "You Can't Stop The Reign" - "7-0, towerin inferno / invincible smooth individual / who wanna test it, foreign or domestic / no matter where you're from, I'm not the one you wanna mess wit".

5. Oh, Shaq was rookie of the year too, with the Magic.

6. Yes, Shaq did movies, of course Shaq did movies. You don't remember the classic Kazaam? Or the unstoppable Steel? What's wrong with you?

7. These were Shaq's statistics in the NBA Finals during the three-peat with the Lakers (2000-2002): 35.9 ppg, 15.2 rpg, 2.9 bpg, and 60 percent shooting. He was Finals MVP all three times.

8. Shaq has been in many music videos too, not including his own. This is very random, but I used to watch a lot of NBA Inside Stuff in the 90s, and they showed the making of a video of a little child- Aaron Carter, younger brother of Backstreet Boys' Nick Carter - of a song called "That's How I beat Shaq". No need to say more. (BTW, one of the worst songs ever). "Hey Aaron, are you for real? / One on one with Shaquille O'Neal?

9. Shaq is the fifth all-time in career scoring, at 28,596 points. He has mentioned several times that he regrets not hitting more free throws and getting higher up this list.

10. Shaq like to nickname himself, over and over again. Here is a short list (believe me, it's short): Diesel, Shaq Fu, Big Daddy, Superman (Yes, children, Shaq came way before Dwight), Big Agave, Big Cactus, Big Shaqtus, Big Galactus, Wilt Chamberneezy, The Big Baryshnikov, Dr. Shaq (after earning his MBA), Big Shamrock, Big Leprechaun, Shaqovic and Big Conductor (because he conducted the Boston Pops orchestra, obviously). He even asked fans to give him a post-retirement nickname, and settled with the 'Big 401K'. Not to mention his most recent nickname which he gave himself during the 'retirement press conference', as The Big AARP (Association for the Advancements of Retired Persons).

11. Don't be fooled by the last few years, in his prime, there was no bigger force of nature than Shaquille O'Neal. In his prime, he was one of the league's best scorers, best rebounders, best shot-blockers, and had developed his own drop-step dunk, of course, nicknamed by him, the 'Black Tornado'. To put it mildly, take Shaq 2000-2003, put him against any player in the history of the league, and NO ONE would be able to stop him. The only defense against Shaq was 'Hack-A-Shaq', aka, fouling him and forcing him to shoot free throws.

12. Shaq has a long-list of other possible work avenues besides basketball. I've already mentioned the movies and the music. In 2010 he undertook a PhD in Leadership and Education with a specialisation in Human Resource Development at Barry University. His dissertation topic was "The Duality of Humor and Aggression in Leadership Styles". Humour and Aggression - Laker leadership, anybody? Shaq is an honourary US Deputy Marshall and a Miami Beach reserve officer. He is trained in Mix-Martial Arts - boxing, jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai and wrestling. And he's on Reality TV, extremely popular with the Shaq Vs. show.

13. In 2004, when Shaq was traded to Miami, it became the biggest shift of NBA power in recent memory - he immediately made a paper thin Eastern Conference stronger. The only other players to make a big difference in the entire map of the NBA within one year in a new team have been Kevin Garnett (Timberwolves to Celtics in 2007) and LeBron James (Cavs to Heat in 2010).

14. Shaq liked to dance, and we like to watch a behemoth dance like he's Michael Jackson. Out of all of them, my favourite highlights are: 1. Shaq, LeBron, and Dwight Howard having a dance-off at the All Star Game, 2. Shaq dancing with the Jabberwockiez, and 3. Shaq challenging Justin Bieber to a dance-off.

15. Shaq played for six different teams during his career - definitely the most for any player in my 'greatest ever' list: Magic, Lakers, Heat, Suns, Cavs, and Celtics. What I liked was how, in every city, he truly embraced its culture and became a complete vocal part of the team.

16. After Kobe lost the 2008 Finals to the Celtics, Shaq went on stage at a club to sing, "Kobe, tell me how my ass taste?"

17. Only three players have won the All Star MVP, NBA MVP, and Finals MVP in the same season. They are: Willis Reed (1970), Michael Jordan (1996 and 1998) and Shaq (2000).

18. No, Shaq didn't play a lot in his last season in Boston, but he entertained fans in another way - posing as a statue in Boston Square, dressing up in drag on Halloween and calling himself 'Shaqueeta'.

19. I'm currently working on my list of top 25 greatest players ever, a list that takes into account a mixture of talent, peak, and overall resume. At this point, Shaq ranks 6th, only below Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Bill Russell, Larry Bird, and Tim Duncan.

20. It's fitting that Shaq said his goodbye via twitter. He has more followers than any other player in the NBA (3,888,667 and counting), and ranks 28th in the top list of all twitter accounts. Considering that the existence of Twitter has been parallel to the downfall of Shaq's dominance, it shows how popular Shaq is off-the-court.

But the off-the-court Shaq isn't going anywhere - if anything - he's gonna be present more - analysing NBA games, doing reality shows, making rap albums, saving the world, whatever. It is the on-court Shaq that is done, and his contribution to the NBA will be dearly missed. He is the one and only one: a personality that can be so devastating and so hilarious at the same time.

In a list of top-10 greatest players ever, there can only be 10 players. And 10 out of thousands is a very small number: very rarely will we get a chance say goodbye to someone as dominating as Shaq, but the time is here and now: So goodbye, finally, to the BIG Everything.

The NBA's Social Network

It's no secret anymore how much social networks have changed our lives. There are about 500 million people on Facebook - in India, we started a little late, but we quickly caught up and take over, becoming one of the biggest Facebook users in the world.

But we are still a little slower to catch on Twitter, which is kind of a pity, because nothing bridges the gap between news-maker, news-sharer, and news-reader than Twitter does. There are about 140 million tweets sent per day between millions more.

And one of the fascinating developments of the ever-twittering world is the bridging gap between the Big Guys and the Little Ones. Now, within an instant, the average Ramu on his PC in Faridabad can tell 50 Cent how awful his last album was, and have 50 Cent give a derogatory response, too.

So of course, for NBA fans, Twitter has helped to create a new kind of relationship and understanding with otherwise unapproachable superstars that live the grind of 82-game-plus-more NBA seasons half-way across the world. Not all the information has been useful or interesting (it rarely is), but through Twitter, I've learnt what certain NBA players think of their opponents, how certain players would like to address any controversy or speculation regarding themselves, their favourite foods, and mostly, a whole bunch of other incoherent garble.

The first person I followed on Twitter when I created my own account was Shaquille O'Neal (@THE_REAL_SHAQ), and it has been a very wise decision. Shaq has described himself as being 'VERY QUOTATIOUS, I PERFORM RANDOM ACTS OF SHAQNESS', and really, if you don't know what means, then you are probably at the right place, because I'm not sure Shaq knows either. Like you would expect him to be, Shaq is funny and memorable, posting pictures of himself dressed up in drag for Halloween, inviting fans in Boston to come and hang out with him, or praising Justin Bieber.

Basketball's biggest superstars are surprisingly non-existent on social networking. Kobe Bryant doesn't have an account yet. LeBron does, humbly calling himself @KingJames, but he, too, is mostly politically correct about things. I say mostly, because every once in a while, LeBron does pull a Homer - like the time he told followers to shower their hate - and they did - and then he went ahead and retweeted their comments to everyone else. His finest/worst moment so far came when he published the famous 'karma' tweet. The Cavs had lost by a franchise-worst 55 points to the Lakers, embarrasingly, when LeBron wrote "Crazy. Karma is a b****.. Gets you every time. Its not good to wish bad on anybody. God sees everything!" Karma, indeed was a bitch, since LeBron was injured a game later and Miami went on to lose four straight.

My favourite NBA-twitterer - by FAR - is Ron Artest (@ronartest). On a daily basis, Ron Ron pretty much confirms what everyone already thinks - that he is in serious, serious need of his psychiatrist! It is an unpredictable ride daily as Artest boasts about Laker winning streaks ("do u like to win? then u must be a lakers fan"), promotes his music ("Go Loco"), writes nonsensical stuff that he probably thinks of on a daily basis ("i love my pet penguin", "I can't believe I jumped in the air like a silly pirate on drugs") or talking about his favourite eating joint ("It's. 1:30 In n out is open Wozeers").

But behind all the crazy, Ron Ron does some good, too. He is known to randomely hand out tickets to his fans in LA, those who responded fastest to him on Twitter. He even follows some of his fans.

Late last night, Artest made his India connect, asking Abhishek Bachan (@juniorbachan) if he is a Laker fan after Abhishek had a Twitter conversation with Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson).

Speaking of Magic, the Laker great is pretty active on Twitter, too, giving his commentary on NBA/NCAA games, and awkwardly, adding his Dove Men Care sponsorship with each Tweet.

Another fairly regular tweeter is Steve Nash (@SteveNash) - the legendary Suns point guard proves that he is pretty much as cool in real life as you would expect him to be. Nash talks about random day-to-day issues or makes references to his favourite football team, the Tottenham Hotspurs.

As a Knick fan, I follow a bunch of New York players, including Amare Stoudemire (@Amareisreal) and new Knick Carmelo Anthony (@carmeloanthony). The most interesting Knick, though, is rookie Landry Fields (@landryfields). Fields has posted refreshingly honest thoughts and funny videos to quickly become a Twitter Superstar for the Knicks.

One of the NBA's rising young stars is Kevin Durant (@KDthunderup), who used his Twitter status to make the biggest statement in the smallest way in the last off-season, when he wrote "Exstension for 5 more years wit the thunder....God Is Great, me and my family came a long way...I love yall man forreal, this a blessing!"

Amongst the other big NBA stars, the likes of Dwyane Wade (@dwadeofficial), Chris Bosh (@chrisbosh), Dwight Howard (@DwightHoward), Pau Gasol (@paugasol), Chris Paul (@oneandonelycp3), Rajon Rondo (@RajonRondo), Paul Pierce (@paulpierce34), Blake Griffin (@blakegriffin), Kevin Love (@kevinlove), and Russel Westbrook (@russwest44)) are also on Twitter. Besides of promoting non-NBA events that may be involved in, or talking about their family and friends, the players mostly just check in and out with their fans, conversing with a few every now and then and helping to build a unique player-fan relationship.

And of course, there are the NBA's cast-aways, but via Twitter, you can be sure they are never too far. Allen Iverson (@alleniverson) makes sure to check in from Turkey occasionally, and regularly proving to the universe that, like his shooting outbursts, he has a hard time keeping the 140-character limit in check, too. From China, I here from Stephon Marbury (@StephonMarbury) sometimes, who makes sure to drop his words of positivity and optimism every now and then.

The one person that I really wish was back on social networking is Gilbert Arenas. Before anyone else did it, Arenas was the first NBA superstar to really establish the one-on-one connect with the fans through his blog. Twitter was to become the perfect platform form the Former Agent 0's hilarious musings, before his account was deleted last year, around the same time he was suspended by the NBA for the whole guns-in-the-locker incident. His tweets during the ordeal only added fuel to the fire, and suddenly, like Arenas, the account was suspended indefinitely too. Arenas has returned since, but his Twitter presence hasn't.

Of course, if you prefer to follow your favourite teams, they all have twitter accounts too: From the Lakers (@Lakers), to the Celtics (@celtics) to the Heat (@MiamiHEAT) and the Knicks (@thenyknicks) - and of course, the NBA (@NBA) is on Twitter, too!

This is just a start. You can literally go crazy looking for your favourite teams, players, news feeds, reporters, or fake-player pages. For Indian basketball fans, I'm going to leave you with some important few feeds to follow:
- Basketball Federation of India: @BFIbasketball
- Troy Justice, Director of Basketball Operations, NBA India: @troyjustice
- JD Basketball / JD Walsh, American basketball coach in India: @jdbasketball


And of course, yours truly, for getting the finest information about basketball, India, NBA, philosophy, and a bunch of other things, you need to follow the Hoopistani (@Hoopistani) twitter feed. It will make your life better, I swear it. Or at least more interesting.

10 Questions - NBA 2010-11

Despite the fact that the NBA off-season was one of the most intriguing in recent memory, it has still seemed long, barren, and never-ending. Mid-June till the end of October? That's a long time, especially for someone as impatient and NBA-spoilt as I am. So what if the off-season chatter included the cementing of Kobe Bryant's legacy, the NBA draft, the LeBron James Decision and the coup over at Miami, the coming of Dwight Howard, Pau Gasol, and the NBA trophy to India, Carmelo Anthony's indecisiveness, and a dozen other plotlines? I still want more!

But here we are now. Less than a month away from the beginning of the 2010-11 NBA season (about 28 days, 7 hours according to the countdown on nba.com). As a matter of fact, the totally inconsequential yet still mildly interesting NBA Pre-Season is set to begin October 3, when my New York Knicks head to Italy to play Olimpia Milano.

Yes, in case you were wondering, I am more excited about a meaningless pre-season game between a weak NBA team and a random European squad than I am for the other thing that will be starting in my own backyard back home in Delhi. I can't remember what it is - people keep on calling it some 'Games' but all I hear about is dirty toilets, expensive treadmills, and infectious mosquitoes.

Anyways, back to the point - Yes, the season is creeping up - and I have many (many) things to get off my chest. So here are the 10 most important open questions I have about the upcoming season. Anyone got the answers?

1. What can we expect from the John Wall - Gilbert Arenas backcourt in Washington?
Believe me, this question is a lot more important than the layman may believe it to be.
First you have Gilbert "Hibachi" Arenas, the NBA's former most intriguing and interesting player who's also gifted with a crate-full of talent and an even bigger crate of crazy. Now, you take this crazy-talented player, suspend him for most of a season for bringing his guns to the arena, and then you bring him back amidst trade rumours. He returns looking serious and motivated and he has a new beard, and he's boasting the same kind of motivation that propelled him to superstardom earlier in his career.
Then you pair this player along with the first pick of the NBA draft, John Wall, a player who plays essentially the same position as Arenas. A player who is being already lauded for his explosiveness and his other-worldly talents, someone who is already a favourite for being the Rookie of the Year and a future superstar.
And then you put both of them together. Boom!

Where the hell will Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul start (and end) the season?
Carmelo Anthony and Chris Paul have seen their pals LeBron, Wade, and Bosh take the party and the hype down to Miami, making the greatest three-some since the Musketeers. Anthony, whose contract expires at the end of this season, will reportedly not re-sign with the Nuggets. Nuggets have been trying feverishly to get some return for his talents now and not get short-changed like the Cavs or the Raptors did. The situation is complicated: The Nuggets want Anthony to stay, but can't keep him; Anthony wants to go to the Knicks, who can't have him; The Nets want Anthony, but he doesn't want to go there. Add a couple of mean father-in-laws and some song-and-dance routines around the park and you have yourself an NBA Bollywood blockbuster.
Oh, ya, and Chris Paul, too, who complained a desire to leave earlier to his team, but then changed his time and was suddenly excited about the Hornets again. Yeah, right.

3. Which young team will get over the hump?
I already know which young teams I'm thinking about when I ask myself this question.
Over in the East you have the Bucks, an exciting young squad that showed considerable improvement last season, and were one win away from making it to the second round of the playoffs. The Bucks are led by talented big man Andrew Bogut (who actually missed the playoffs) and are supported by Brandon Jennings, one of the most potent young men in the league. Along with the likes of Carlos Delfino and Ersan Ilyasova (both who performed wonderfully at the FIBA World Championships), Corey Maggette, John Salmons, and the potential return of sharp-shooter Michael Redd, the Bucks have a good team which could turn some heads this year.
And then there is everybody's new "second-favourite" team - the Oklahama City Thunder. The Thunder play an exciting brand of basketball, full of tough defence, sprints down the court, and sharp-shooting. They haven't really made much changes in the off-season, but a core of Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Jeff Green, Nenad Kristic, James Harden, and Thabo Sefolosha, the Thunder will continue to be trouble. Don't be surprised if they emerge as the Lakers' biggest challengers to the Western Conference crown.

4. Can Yao Ming dominate again?
I feel sad for Yao Ming. He was once the man solely responsible for making China the basketball-mad crazy it is today (and concurrently, giving hope to India that the same can happen back home. Today, he is trying to recover from a career-threatening injury, and will only feature in limited minutes this season. That's okay, because Limited Yao is still better than No Yao. Here's hoping that the talented giant can dominate the game again.

5. Will anyone watch a Cleveland Cavaliers game?
So, one player left. Wasn't this one of the most popular teams in the league over the last two or three or seven years? What, no more Cleveland? Where have all the bandwagon fans gone?
On second thought, there is one game which will make the Cavs temporarily relevant again. You know, when a certain someone returns to his old Arena to be attacked by booing crowds, burning jerseys, and comically-angry fonts.

6. Which young star will finally live up to potential - Greg Oden, Michael Beasley, or Blake Griffin?
It's frustrating to watch the careers of these three players. Especially the first two.
Greg Oden (first pick of 2007 draft), Michael Beasley (second pick 2008 draft) and Blake Griffin (first pick 2009 draft) all came into the league with great expectations in quickly faded into relative obscurity in different ways.
Oden, who I shudder to call young, has had an injury-riddled career and has thus never been able to play and produce as much as expected. He still has "no timeline" for his return.
Beasley had a great opportunity to blossom next to Dwyane Wade in Miami, and he never did. Now, he has been shipped away to have a fresh start in Minnesota.
And Griffin, who is still technically a rookie since he missed all of last season, is finally healthy to take the court and dispel the Clipper Curse. Or flop and totally confirm it.

7. Will Shaq help an ageing Celtic squad achieve one last hurrah?
I love the way the Celtics have played their basketball ever since the epic Kevin Garnett trade three years ago. They won a championship that year, and two years later, were one game away from winning another one. Most importantly, they did it as a team, playing good defence and by sharing the ball.
But they are oh so old. Paul Pierce (33), Kevin Garnett (34), and Ray Allen (35) can only take them so far. They needed the young legs of Rajon Rondo and the defensive intensity of Kendrick Perkins last year.
This year, they hire a couple of more older guys, a couple of O'Neals, to help them out. Jermaine O' Neal (32) and the Big Leprachaun aka Shaquille O'Neal (38) are in Beantown. Can Shaq really gel with this Celtic squad? Will he make a difference? Will he completely destroy team chemistry? Or will he suddenly resurrect himself in the special atmosphere around the Celtics squad and make an important contribution, especially in the playoffs? I can't wait to find out.

8. Will Kevin Durant become the best player in the league?
I have little doubt about this. All the right signs are pointing in the way, and if I was a betting man, I would place my bets on Durant being the league MVP by the end of the season. Here is why:
- He was the leading scorer in the league last season, the youngest to be so (21), and he will only improve.
- He was the MVP of the FIBA World Championships.
- He is the best player in the Thunder, and will have ample opportunity to prove himself.
- His main competitors are either too old to dominate the regular season any more (Kobe Bryant), have gotten together to share their load (LeBron and Wade) or are a tad bit too inconsistent (Anthony and Dwight Howard).
- The Media likes him.

9. Will the Heat live up to the hype?
Public enemy told me not to believe it, but when you get LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh on the same squad, how can I not? Jeff van Gundy claims that this team will the Bulls' 72-10 season record, adding, "They will never lose two games in a row this year." Phil Jackson told everyone to calm down, saying that teamwork wins, not talent. Either way, this is the big story in the NBA, and all eyes will be on Miami to pull off a historically good season or a shockingly average one.

10. Will the Lakers three-peat again?
Lost in the midst of the Miami Hype was the fact that the reigning champs are the Los Angeles Lakers, who are still here, still consistent, still the team to beat. Lakers have won two in a row, and their core of Coach Phil Jackson, Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, Ron Artest, and Andrew Bynum will return for another shot at the title. It might be Jackson's last season, and the man who has won an incredible THREE THREE-PEATS (wowaweewah!) will be looking for his fourth and his 12th ring as coach.
Not much I can say about Kobe's drive to win that hasn't already been said. No matter how he starts, you know he'll be there at the end, taking the most crucial shots in the most crucial games.
And India-visitor Pau Gasol, who has had a rested summer, will be back to continue building up his legacy.
Lakers have made a couple of important additions too - Steve Black, Matt Barnes, and Theo Ratliff have beefed up their bench.
This is still the best team in the league. Will they win again?

Satnam Singh: Larger than Life

The first thing I notice is his shoes. Size 22, made of some obscure shoe brand that I haven't heard of. That is the first thing I ask him, too, and he confirms to me that they are custom made. "Straight from Amreeka!" he says. He confirms that he has another, better pair coming his way. Sure enough, the next time I meet him, he is sporting a pair of black Nikes. Size 22.

I shake his hand and watch my fingers disappear behind his monstrously large grasp. When we disengage, I'm relieved to have my hand back unharmed. It seems that Satnam, still only 14, has learnt to exert minimal pressure during introductory handshakes, because a casual clasp by him could mean certain broken bones for us mere average-sized mortals.

Meet the Satnam Singh Bhamara of the Past: a village boy, a son of a farmer and carpenter from the middle of nowhere in Punjab. His home address has no house number, just a family name and the name of their village,'Ballo Ke'. "District Barnala," he adds, and then he says a few other things in Punjabi so thick that I had to occasionally call on a translator (and I call myself a Punjabi - tssh!). I'm not ashamed though, because even a pucca Punjabi would be confused with his thick accent; his words come out muffled, half-eaten on their way out of his giant mouth.

Until the age of 10, Satnam was just an average youngster who attended a village school and brought refreshments to his father who was hard at work at the farm.

Well, not completely average: Mr. Bhamara Senior stood an imposing 7 foot 2 inches; his 10-year-old son, who seemed to be following in his father's giant footsteps, was already 5 foot 9 and a big, broad, beast of a pre-adolescent. Satnam had never even heard of this game called 'basketball'; not until one of this father's friends saw him and recommended that he take the boy to Ludhiana and teach him the game.

Satnam only needed a few years of work before his coaches realised that there was more to his skill than his size. He was soon a natural, and like every young player, still fondly remembers his first dunk (age 13). He grew a ridiculous 15 inches in four years, and after blazing his way through all the sub-junior competitions, he forced his way into the Youth (U16) team.

Meet the Satnam Singh Bhamara of the Present: still four months shy of his 15th birthday, Satnam now stands 7 feet tall. He's already made a name for himself in the Indian basketball circles across the country. After blazing his way through the Punjab inter-school and junior leagues, Satnam began to collect his international credentials. He represented Indian in the FIBA Asia U16 Championships at Malaysia in November 2009. Back home, he took Punjab to the gold medal of the National Youth Championships at Trichy (Tamil Nadu) in June.

There was no more doubt it - the son of a farmer, who would've had a hard time pronouncing 'basketball' four years ago, had become the country's best young player. Satnam's success led him to be recommended by the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) to be part of a three-player contingent of Indian youngsters sent to Singapore for the NBA's Basketball Without Borders (BWB) Asia camp, which featured 44 junior boys from 19 different countries in Asia and Oceania.

And then came the biggest step yet - barely returned from his BWB experience, Satnam was again nominated amongst 50 of the country's best sub-junior players to take part in a tryout for the IMG Basketball Academies in Florida, USA. Sponsored by IMG-Reliance, expert coaches from IMG descended down to Delhi to watch the Indian youngsters slog it out for two tough days in late July. Only eight of the 50 were to be chosen. Satnam was taller, stronger, bigger than the rest.

When the final list was released, not one was surprised to see Satnam's name amongst the eight. Dan Barto, who is a basketball coach and athletic trainer from IMG, admitted that the youngster was an "intriguing" prospect. By the end of the August, Satnam will be taking his talents to Bradenton, Florida, where he has been fully sponsored to stay as a student-athlete at the IMG Academy, perhaps the best multi-sport training facility in the world. The Basketball Academy at IMG has featured the likes of Kobe Bryant, Vince Carter, Chauncey Billups, Joakim Noah, Kevin Martin, Jrue Holiday, Earl Clark, Kyryl Natyazhko (freshman at the University of Arizona), Dwight Powell (committed to Stanford), and others.

His world about to turn upside down, Satnam seemed surprisingly bindaas about things. He had a childish exuberance about him, and then I remembered that's because he is still only a child!

I ask Satnam if he follows the NBA.

"Yes," he answers.

"Which is your favourite team?"

Satnam looks a little embarrassed. "I don't know, whichever team Kobe Bryant plays for."

"Oh - Lakers," I laugh, "But shouldn't you like a player closer to your size. A centre. Kobe Bryant must look small to you."

I shudder as I say that. If Kobe friggin 6 foot 6 Bryant is small compared to him, I'm closer to being a Leprechaun.

"What about Shaq?" I ask.

"Oh, ya, Shaq!" his eyes light up - Shaq seems to have that effect on people - "I like Shaq! And that other guy who is coming here - what's his name?"

"Dwight Howard," I tell him.

"Yes, Dwight Howard. I want to meet him."

I remind Satnam that he's bigger than Dwight, too. He may not garner the same kind of attention that 'Superman' did during his visit to India, but Satnam has his own little celebrity legend. He gushes and tells me how strangers ask him for autographs and ask to touch him. He tells stories of how he has to struggle and fit on a bus seat from Delhi to Ludhiana, and how people on the bus line up to photographs snapped next to him.

But despite his growing popularity, the young man-child has managed to remain humble. Credit his farm upbringing, the advice of his many coaches, and the fact that a committed basketball player rarely has time to concern himself with other things. In Satnam, India has been blessed with a hell of a committed player.

"I'm very fond of this game," Satnam says, "It was given me so much, and I want to continue improving."

Before he took claim to the giant centre position on the floor, Satnam was initially trained to play as a forward. His early training shows - he is an efficient shooter from the three-point range and says that his strongest feature is probably his ability to drive the ball in. With size came the evolution of polishing his post-up game and making him devastating on the defensive end of the floor as a rebounder and a shot-blocker. Few brave souls would dare run full speed into this giant brick wall guarding the basket.

"I still have to improve my dribbling though," he concedes.

More than any one specific thing, I believe what Satnam needs is experience playing games at the highest possible level for his age, and this is where his stint with the IMG Academy will be nothing short of life-changing.

So what will we see in the Satnam Singh Bhamara of the future? If all goes as scripted, he has the potential of becoming one of the finest Indian players of this generation, if not one of our brightest prospects ever. Alas, few scripts in real life have this kind of filmy ending - in Satnam's case, each Indian fan will be hoping for the holy grail of basketball for him.

"NBA... That is my dream," Satnam admits, "I want to play in the NBA."

He has ambitious dreams, but the NBA is the toughest of all basketball nuts to crack - time will tell if he will ever become good enough to ever play there. Fortunately for Satnam, all the signs are pointing the right way. His greatest assessment came out of a man who knows a thing or two about basketball talents. Troy Justice, the NBA's Director of Basketball Operations in India, worked with Troy and the rest of the Youth team at Ludhiana a few weeks ago. "If I could, I would work with this kid every day," Troy said, "He can be the chosen one for basketball in India."

Those size 22 feet have come a long way from the village to the basketball court to one of the world's greatest academies. Now, Satnam Singh Bhamara has the opportunity to do something a giant of his size rarely has the opportunity to do - look up, even above himself, and dream!

Almost Michael... But Not Quite

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I remember, back in 6th Grade, my English teacher Mrs. Bona forced a great many, supposedly simple pieces of poetry on the class. I've never been a huge fan of poetry, but one particular poem by Shel Silverstein always stuck in my head, as much for its content as for its rhythm.

The poem was called "Almost Perfect... But Not Quite", about a girl called Mary Hume who goes through life finding little problems with everything that came her way. From the tablecloth at her seventh birthday party, to her boyfriend, to even heaven... Everything for Mary was Almost perfect... but not quite.

And if there is one player in the basketball world who wouldn't even be satisfied with anything but perfection is Number 24 of the Los Angeles Lakers, Kobe Bryant. Perfection in basketball is symbolised by Michael Jordan, and as much as Kobe continues to succeed, he will have to be content with being almost Michael... but not quite.

The world watched as Kobe Bryant captured his fifth NBA title yesterday. We watched as he won his second successive Finals MVP award. We watched as, for the second year in a row, the NBA champions were his team, not Shaq's, who led the Lakers and Kobe in the first three title as the beginning of the last decade.

If there was any question about Kobe's legacy as a top-10 player of all time, they should all be buried six feet underground now. Kobe is the greatest player of the modern era. Forget that LeBron James has been overshadowing him in the MVP battle, the real reason for Kobe's NBA existence is Championships, and he collects them like few others. These were his seventh NBA Finals, including his third straight. No matter what happens in the regular season, it is (almost) always certain that Kobe Bryant will be in the spotlight when it matters the most.

But despite his successes, his brilliance, his ability to always find a way to win, Kobe Bryant will never be the player he wants to be, or rather, the player he wants to be better than... Michael Jordan.

You must have heard the comparisons all before. The wagging tongue, the sweet mid-range jumper, the height, the position, the scoring spurts, the clutch shots, the fourth-quarter takeovers, the mean streak, the cold-bloodedness, the anger with which he motivates his teammates, the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat... Kobe has so many things common with Michael that it's eerie. The world still remembers Jordan as the one player that rose above the NBA, above basketball. Jordan was transcendent, he was so damn good that he became bigger than the game itself. He was, and remains, the Greatest of All Time.

And then there's Kobe, the hungriest player in the league today, the one player who really as a shot at being the Greatest, both in terms of talent and success. He is the only today who can seriously start thinking about being the same heavenly company as Jordan. And his own personal strive, his ego, his ambition is so lofty that he won't rest until he becomes better. Until he becomes the best ever.

The only problem is that he won't.

Kobe will always be almost Michael... but not quite. On the basketball court, Jordan could never take a bad step, never a wrong decision, or at least that is what the legends will have us believe. Kobe on the other hand seems to be incomplete version of the Jordan legend, a slightly faulty piece of the perfect which works (almost) as well as the original. The Lakers are again favourites to win the championship next season, and Kobe may soon be the proud owner of as many rings as Jordan, but that won't make them equal... far from it.

Jordan was the undisputed MVP for his 6 championships - Kobe was Shaq's sidekick for the first three, and in the most recent one, no intelligent basketball mind would've been surprised if the Finals MVP had been handed to Pau Gasol instead of Kobe. As a matter of fact, Kobe had one of the least overwhelming Finals MVP performances of all time in this series. This is not to take away from his brilliance - it is to say that there is no chance that Michael would've struggled like Kobe did in the Finals.

With his fifth ring, Kobe has surpassed the two other biggest winners active in the NBA today: Shaq and Tim Duncan. He even dropped a jewel of a quote reminding us about it after Game 7: "I just got one more than Shaq!" Bryant said happily. "You can take that to the bank … You guys know how I am. I don’t forget anything."

Indeed, you did overshadow Shaq, Kobe. And what more, the player known as Black Mamba was his cold-bloodedness in clutch still has three or four years left of all star level basketball. With the brilliant supporting cast of teammates working with him, Kobe could easily bag up a few more championship rings. He will be remembered for being the most historic player of this era, with his championship rings, his winning mentality, those scoring spurts (he once had nine games straight with over 40 points, and once had five with over 50), and that 62 points in three quarters game against the Mavericks, and those 61 he dropped at the Madison Square Garden, and his Finals MVPs, and All-Star MVPs, and Olympic Final Takeovers, and countless game winners and clutch performances, and even that Slam Dunk Championship, and how he almost became the best player of all time.

Oh ya, and he once scored 81 points in a basketball game. See it to believe it:



But he will never be Jordan. By the time he retires, Kobe's legacy will lie competing to become, or maybe even becoming, the greatest Laker of all time, challenging the likes of Jerry West, Kareem-Abdul Jabbar, and Magic Johnson.

Being the second-best shooting guard of all time? If Kobe could live with it, then that would be a spectacular distinction for his career. Only that he won't. As I said, Kobe is too much like Mary Hume, and until he overtakes Jordan, his career will remain almost perfect... but not quite.

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The LA Lakers are your 2010 Champions

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No matter how much the colour commentators try to colour it, or the sensational writers tried to sensationalise it, or the hyped-up players themselves try to hype it up, the Game seven of the NBA Finals, the one game to decide it all, was an ugly, gritty, tough affair. No pretty basketball, just hustle and defense.

Just the way I like it!

And in the end, just four point separated the Champions from the Runners-Up. But as the rapper Nelly once said (and I'm sure he was quoting someone too, I just don't know who): "Two is not a winner and three nobody remembers."

And the winners this year were familiar - so familiar that we'd seen them do this same thing at this time last year. Los Angeles Lakers survived the Game 7 against the Boston Celtics to win the franchise's 16th NBA championship. Despite a horrible offensive game, Kobe Bryant shone brightly out of everyone else who offered a faint glimmer and won the Finals MVP.

And now that the NBA 2009-10 season has come to a close, I can't say that the Lakers didn't deserve it. The Lakers were the most talented team on paper when the season began, and ended up as the best in the West, perhaps an underwhelming end to their regular season. But then Kobe came to life, suddenly ignoring his finger and his knee and his so-called, "old age". Gasol became the best big player in the league, overshadowing the likes of Dwight Howard, Chris Bosh, etc for good. Andrew Bynum played until his knee killed him, but he played. And Ron Artest... Oh, I'm going to have a lot more to say about Ron Artest in the coming days - a player who fought all kinds of demons, mostly from within himself, to become the hero. It was deserving that their biggest challenge came from their biggest rivals, the unlikely Celtics, who even took a 3-2 lead. But the Lakers stood tough, and played the Celtics way, and won the Celtics way.

The entire Finals were a tumultuous, up-and-down series, with favourites shifting nearly from game to game. The Lakers were brilliant in Game 1, winning by sharing the ball as a team, and from domination by Bryant, and particularly, the key match-up between Pau Gasol and Kevin Garnett, which Gasol won emphatically.

Lakers had a similar game in Game 2, but there was one difference with the Celtics... Ray Allen! Ray aka Jesus Shuttlesworth broke an NBA Finals record when he made EIGHT 3-pointers in the game, leading the Celtics to a victory, with the help of some amazing clutch play by Rajon Rondo.

The series shifted to Boston, but the Lakers came out undeterred in Game 3. Kobe was brilliant, perhaps playing his best game of the series, as he scored 29 points to go with 7 rebounds. But the game's hero was Derek Fisher, who scored 11 of his 16 in the final quarter and rallied his team to victory. Although this game saw the reawakening of Kevin Garnett, it wasn't enough to stop the Lakers from taking a 2-1 lead.

Celtics came back strong in Games 4 and 5. Relatively quite so far, Paul Pierce began to play like the 2008 Finals MVP again as he led his team in both these games. More importantly, the Celtics found their defense against Kobe again, making him into a bad volume shooter, shutting down Gasol's influence, and forcing their bullying ways on to the Lakers. Game 4 was won by the brilliant Celtic bench efforts - Glen Davis, Nate Robinson, Tony Allen, and Rasheed Wallace. Game 5 became the Paul Pierce show. Bryant had 38 points, including 23 straight for his team and 19 in the third quarter, but it wasn't enough to beat the hot-shooting Celtics.

The series returned to LA, and perhaps facing elimination, Kobe rallied his team together. But he had to back up his words with better team-play: the Celtics had managed to turn the Lakers into their worst fear, a selfish, Kobe-never-pass team. In Game 6, Kobe played much better, scoring 26 and 11, and his teammates Gasol, Odom, and Artest got involved, too. The most important thing was that the Lakers played defense, holding the Celtics to just 67 points, which is the second lowest finals point total of all time.

And so the stakes were set for an exciting, winner-takes-all Game 7 from the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The Lakers trailed the game most of the way, thanks to excellent Celtic defense. But they found an unlikely hero in Ron Artest who came them alive. Also, they held a huge advantage in rebounds, led by Gasol, Bynum, Odom, and Kobe. Kobe had an awful shooting night, going 6-24, but made up for it by grabbing 15 rebounds. Gasol was brilliant, especially in the end, scoring 9 of his 19 points in the fourth and grabbing 18 rebounds total. Artest had 20 points, including clutch plays all game.

And when the dust settled, the NBA Champions were crowned Lakers again. They repeated, Kobe had five rings, one for each finger on his hand, and Derek Fisher did, too. Gasol won the key match-up against Garnett and got redemption for two years ago. And the rest of the squad did just enough to survive the Celtics.

The game followed by some classic quotes in Artest's post-game interview, and Kobe, who finally led his guard down and admitted how important this victory was to him.

"This one is by far the sweetest, because it’s [The Celtics],” Bryant said after the Lakers beat Boston for the first time in a Game 7. "This was the hardest one by far. I wanted it so bad, and sometimes when you want it so bad, it slips away from you. My guys picked me up."

And of course, he didn't forgive his old pal turned enemy Shaquille O'Neal for all those years of rivalry, for Shaq telling Kobe to "tell him how his ass taste" two years ago. "Just got one more than Shaq," Kobe said after the game, "You can take that to the bank. I don’t forget anything."

And so it's over. The Champions have been decided, the confetti fallen, the champagne spilled, the metaphoric ass tasted. The Celtics had an amazing run, but finally had their age catch up with them at the worst time possible - the fourth quarter of the game seven of the NBA Finals. They were four points away from glory, but there can only be one winner.

The Lakers are your 2010 NBA Champions. It's all about Number One. Cuz two is not a winner, and three nobody remembers.

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The Curse of MVP

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The most cherished individual accolade in the NBA consciousness is the Most Valuable Player (MVP) - more than All Star game appearances, more than All Star game MVPs, and perhaps more than the Finals MVP. Look at the list of former MVPs (and many, present and future Hall of Famers), and you will realise how much on an effect their performances for the given season have on the history of the NBA - Bob Petit, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Moses Malone, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, Tim Duncan, Steve Nash, and LeBron James - just to name the ones who have won the award more than once.

Every year, the MVPs are discussed, argued, and the meaning of 'valuable' itself faces heated debates from across the basketball-speaking world. Is the best statistical player the most valuable? Is the best team player the most valuable? What about the best player on the best team? Or the one player whose absence in the team would make the biggest difference on the team's success?

My own definition of "valuable" in this sense is the one player whose absense would make the biggest difference in the entire standing of the league.

But here is the twist in the tale: the MVP award is given only for a player's performance during the course of the regular season, not the playoffs, and of course, not the Finals. That means, in today's NBA, the most valuable player over a maximum of the 82 regular season games that each team plays. Playoff/Championship success be damned.

Let's take a look at the list of NBA MVPs over 10 years, from the 1999-2000 to the 2008-2009 season. I've added the names of their team in brackets - next to the names are the names of the teams that actually won the NBA title that year.

1999–00 MVP: Shaquille O'Neal (Los Angeles Lakers) Champion: Los Angeles Lakers
2000–01: MVP: Allen Iverson (Philadelphia 76ers) Champion: Los Angeles Lakers
2001–02: MVP: Tim Duncan (San Antonio Spurs) Champion: Los Angeles Lakers
2002–03: MVP: Tim Duncan (San Antonio Spurs) Champion: San Antonio Spurs
2003–04: MVP: Kevin Garnett (Minnesota Timberwolves) Champion: Detroit Pistons
2004–05: MVP: Steve Nash (Phoenix Suns) Champion: San Antonio Spurs
2005–06: MVP: Steve Nash (Phoenix Suns) Champion: Miami Heat
2006–07: MVP: Dirk Nowitzki (Dallas Mavericks) Champion: San Antonio Spurs
2007–08: MVP: Kobe Bryant (Los Angeles Lakers) Champion: Boston Celtics
2009-09: MVP: LeBron James (Cleveland Cavaliers) Champion: Los Angeles Lakers

Look at that list again - only in two seasons has the NBA MVP also lifted the Championship trophy - Shaq in 2000 and Duncan and 2003 - and the feat hasn't been repeated in the past six seasons. Now, there are two honourable mentions here, since Allen Iverson (2001) and Kobe Bryant (2008) led their respective squads all the way to the NBA Finals before losing it. Kobe did redeem himself and win a ring the following year. Most of the other MVPs didn't perform too shabbily (with the exception of Nowitzki and the Mavericks epic first round fail in 2007), but you get the picture - for some reason, in the 2000s, the MVPs of the year have rarely been champions.

Compare it to a decade before, where five of the 10 MVPs became champion, although four of those credits go to this guy called Michael Jordan (you may have heard of him!), who played six full seasons in the 90s, won MVP in four of them, and was NBA champion in all six.

So, is there a recent curse associated with the MVP award? LeBron James, deservedly, was voted almost unanimously as this year's Most Valuable Player, repeating last season's feat. But he also seems to be repeating last season's postseason failure. The Cavs were beaten by the Magic in last season's Conference Finals, and have been thoroughly dominated by the Celtics in the 2nd round so far this year. The Celtics have a 3-2 advantage, after winning Game 5 by a whopping 32 points, and holding LeBron to what was one of his worst games ever.

I think of the regular season and the playoffs as two different stages of the same game. Kind of like Super Mario Bros., where Mario can jump around in Level 1-1, easily squashing mushrooms and collecting coins, but has to step up his game when he has to battle Bowser at the end of World 8. And Princess Peach is the Larry O'Brien trophy.

Okay, okay, so I got sidetracked by a decade of childhood gloriously wasted on Nintendo. But anyways, you get the point. The playoffs are tougher, more gruesome, more physically challenging, and our hero faces more evil guys more often. MVPs like Iverson, Nash, Nowitzki, and LeBron who haven't won a championship, still have to conquer these demons to see the bright championship light, thus conquering their trophy/princess.

The Cavs have been the best team in the league the last two seasons, and LeBron has been their best player. He has pretty much been the best statistical player in the league for this period, too, and the one with the highest trade value, and the best team player, the one whose absense would have the most drastic affect on his team and the entire league.

And yet, here are the Cavs and their King, barely surviving against the dominant Celts. I read an amazing article on LeBron today, written by Adrian Wojnarowski, who complained that he has spent too much of his energy and motivation promoting himself as a basketball icon than a basketball winner. The regular season disagrees with this statement, but the championship counter doesn't lie.

LeBron has two more games to win to get past the Celtic stage, and then two more series to win to get to his Princess Peach. Can he survive the MVP curse?

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Let's talk Playoffs!

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It's that time of the year again - all 30 NBA teams have played their 82 games, and the best 16 (top 8 from each conference) move on to the second season, aka, the most exciting time of the year - the NBA playoffs.

The postseason tips off on April 17th - playoffs will be held in knockout fashion with the teams fighting in best of 7 series in each round. The actual postseason lineups are slightly different from what I had predicted a few months ago following the trade deadline.

Here are the playoff matchups for 2010:

Eastern Conference

Cleveland Cavaliers (1) vs. Chicago Bulls (8)
Orlando Magic (2) vs. Charlotte Bobcats (7)
Atlanta Hawks (3) vs. Milwaukee Bucks (6)
Boston Celtics (4) vs. Miami Heat (5)

Western Conference

Los Angeles Lakers (1) vs. Oklahama City Thunder (8)
Dallas Mavericks (2) vs. San Antonio Spurs (7)
Phoenix Suns (3) vs. Portland Trailblazers (6)
Denver Nuggets (4) vs. Utah Jazz (5)

There are a lot of young teams in this year adding excitement to the playoff picture. The Bobcats and the Bucks have been playing out of their minds in the east and fully deserve to be in the postseason. In the West, a nod obviously goes to Kevin Durant and the young Thunder as well as the injury-plagued yet surviving Trailblazers.

Here are my first round predictions:


Cavs vs. Bulls: Cavs in 4 - The Cleveland LeBrons have finished the season as the best team in the league (61-21) for the second straight year and will have home-court advantage right through the playoffs. Reigning (and soon to be named future) MVP LeBron James will be back after being given a week's rest, and Shaq will be back since his injury at the end of Feb. The Cavs are looking great, with Antawn Jamison, Big Z, Mo Williams, Varejao, Boobie Gibson, JJ Hickson all ready to fire.
The Bulls did beat the Cavs twice this season, but a healthy, motivated Cleveland team is too good. Despite Derrick Rose's brilliance, and the Bulls' late season form to sneak into the playoffs, I call a clean sweep here as Cavs will win all four games with relative ease.

Magic vs. Bobcats: Magic in 6 - I don't see this series being too easy for the favoured Magic, led by Dwight Howard and Vince Carter. The Bobcats are a tricky opponent: Stephen Jackson, Gerald Wallace, and the tutelage of Larry Brown will make things scrappy and difficult for the Magic. Still, the Magic, who were last year's finalists, have too much experience of the playoffs and should be able to win the series in six games.

Hawks vs. Bucks: Hawks in 6 - The Hawks are number three not because they deserve to be number three (yes, I'm a hater) but because the Celtics kept on shooting themselves in the foot towards the end of the season. Now, Joe Johnson, Josh Smith, and my main man Al Horford will step up against a defensively great Milwaukee team, who will now be lead by rookie Brandon Jennings. Unfortunately, their best player Bogut got injured at an inoppurtune time, and the Hawks should be able to take advantage of that and get through to the second round.

Celtics vs. Heat: Heat in 7 - Here I go, predicting my first upset of the playoffs. Teams 4 and 5 are always the closest matched, and to be honest, I wouldn't have given the Heat a sniff of a chance against the Celtics in a playoff series at the beginning of the season. Things have since changed: the Celtics are struggling big time, the Big three are looking really old, and unless KG can wake up and take charge, this team will not replicate their famous 'ubunto' identity again. The Heat on the under hand have been on fire to end the season. The incredible Wade has led the team to win 12 of their last 13 games, and there is nothing better than momentum entering the playoffs.
Still, the talent on the Celtics can't be denied. This will be a tough, exciting series, and will go all the way to seven. But D-Wade will eclipse the Big 3 (and 4 now, counting Rajon Rondo) and win an exciting game seven.

Lakers vs. Thunder: Lakers in 5 - Good job at making it this far, Oklahama City. Kevin Durant will be a second-favourite on MVP vote, after already becoming the youngest player ever to win the scoring title. Speaking of scorers, Mr. 81 aka Kobe will be back, and so will the Lakers. Too much experience in Phil Jackson, Kobe, Gasol, etc here - the champs will win again.

I'm excited to see Kobe and Durant go off against each other, too. And to see Ron Ron deal with Durant defensively. Gasol (and the probably returning Andrew Bynum) will eat the Thunder post players alive.

Mavericks vs. Spurs: Mavericks in 7 - The Spurs are hitting form again, led by the return of Manu Ginobili's manhood. Tim Duncan can never be counted off, and that is why I believe they will take a supremely deep and talented Dallas team all the way to seven games. Still, Dirk, Kidd, Marion, Butler, Terry, Haywood... Oh the Mavericks are deep! They'll survive this one!
Here's an amazing Spur stat for you: The Spurs are starting the playoffs without home-court advantage for the first time since Tim Duncan's rookie year. That, my friends, was 12 years ago. Amazing.

Suns vs. Blazers: Suns in 4 - This series could've been so much more - but an unfortunate injury to Blazers guard and superstar Brandon Roy has meant that the Suns, who have finished the season in amazing form, will continue dominating opponents. Amar''e is on fire and Steve Nash is playing like its 2003. Add a rejuvenated Grant Hill and the serviceable Jason Richardson, and the Suns are looking great to sweep this series.

Nuggets vs. Jazz: Jazz in 7 - You smell that? I smell an upset. A Jazzy, Jerry Sloan led, Deron Williams dominated, Chauncey overshadowed, Boozer post destructing, Melo buzzer-beating missing upset. These two teams are too close to call, but the Nuggets seem to have lost their footing a little bit, and the class of Deron and the Jazz will see them through this very, very close series. I'm very excited to see the Chauncey-Deron matchup: two PGs of different generations who play very similar games.

April 17 is the date. Bring on the postseason - only the 16 now matter. Who will be the last team standing? I can hardly wait.

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