From Bad to Worse

The 2012 NBA season has been a disaster.

It almost didn’t even happen.  The lockout stretched much further than anyone anticipated.  This left many, including myself, wishing for a cancelled season so the league could just start over from scratch.   Then after a long and very ugly battle between the players and the owners, the sides finally settled and the season was scheduled to begin. 

But, before the season can even get underway, more controversy rears its head.  The Los Angeles Lakers look as if they have completed a deal with the New Orleans Hornets that would bring dynamic point guard, Chris Paul, to the Lakers to pair up with Kobe Bryant, the NBA’s reigning best player.  Suddenly, Commissioner David Stern steps in and says “no” and everyone is angry.  Paul eventually ends up in Los Angeles, but not with the Lakers, instead he joins the Clippers, the punch line to every NBA joke. 

Since the lockout lasted so long, the games need to be bunched into a shorter time frame.  Teams are playing several nights a week, with many games occurring on consecutive nights.  The players are not getting proper rest, which leads to many injuries and lackluster play. 

The biggest problem has been injuries to marquee players.  Bryant has missed several games due to various injuries.  His age and decrease in rest has limited his ability to be a superstar.  Dwyane Wade, another of the NBA’s top 5 players, has also been injured most of the season.  Add to that list: Paul, Derrick Rose, Paul Pierce, Carmelo Anthony and Jason Kidd to name a few.

Lebron James, who was branded as the next Michael Jordan, is still suffering from the image crisis that occurred when he left Cleveland and took his talents to South Beach.  So Lebron couldn’t be looked at as the rallying point for the NBA.  Especially, when he makes comments that he has thought about returning to Cleveland.  The man just doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut.

Then a spark appeared.  A nobody named Jeremy Lin emerged on to the big stage in New York City.  Lin went from sitting on the bench to being the biggest name in sports in a span of two weeks.  A couple of high scoring games and a big shot here and there and the Knocks and the NBA were flying high.  Never mind the fact that Lin had 8 or more turnovers in 4 of his 11 games as a starter.

Then it happened. 

Just when you think it couldn’t get any worse, it was time for the 2012 NBA All-Star Weekend.  The NBA flocked to Orlando to flaunt its best players, though many were hurt and unable to participate in the festivities.  The weekend started harmless enough with the celebrity game and the Rookie/Sophomore  game.  Though did anyone actually watch either one? 

The main highlight in the past has been the slam dunk competition, with amazing memories such as little Spud Webb, Jordan vs. Wilkins, and Dwight Howard playing Superman.  Last year’s competition saw phenom Blake Griffin easily walk away with the competition.  So what happens this year is a complete joke.  The competition is between 4 players no one has ever heard of in the NBA.  I would bet some of their own home team fans don’t know them.  Look at this stellar lineup: Paul George, Chase Budinger, Derrick Williams and Jeremy Evans.  Seriously.  No Griffin, no Lebron, no Howard, no body worth watching.

As for the competition itself, it was even worse.  Williams was 1-for-8 on dunks!  How can someone shoot below 20% when trying to dunk a basketball?  Shaquille O’Neal makes free throws at a higher percentage.  Every competitor used props in the events, since various props seem to be the new theme.  If you remember the great performances, the only prop was the ball.  Jordan, Wilkins and Carter didn’t need props to wow the crowd.  The winner, Evans, wasn’t overly impressive.  He had the best dunk of the night, but probably the worst as well.  Oh and the winner is chosen by the crowd.  The NBA should just put the dunk contest out of its misery.

And then there was the All-Star Game.  Did you happen to see the final score?  For those who didn’t the game ended 151-149, when Lebron decided to throw the ball away instead of taking the last shot.  That’s 300 total points.  Did any of these players even think about playing some defense?  Granted the dunks in the game were much better than the dunk contest.  Yes, the score was close, but I find it hard to say that it is a good game when a major part of the game is missing.  Yes, it is an exhibition game and players want to show off, and did they ever with the disgraceful player introductions, but is this really the product the NBA wants to show the world?

This is not what the NBA needed to save their season.  I’m not sure what that solution is and I don’t think the NBA does either. 

~Brad

WHAT I LEARNED FROM THE 2012 ACADEMY AWARDS

Let me start by saying, I did not see any of the movies nominated for Best Picture, or most in the other categories as well.  So I decided to watch the Oscars to give me some insight into this year’s batch of the top films.  The following is a list of what I learned over the 3 hour course of the 2012 Academy Awards.

 

1.        I need to watch Bridesmaids.  It was one of the Best Picture nominations, but every clip shown of that movie was hilarious.  The biggest question of the night was why haven’t I seen this movie yet.  I’ve heard nothing but good things.  It is now on the Must-See list. 

 

2.       The Artist won awards for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Leading Actor, yet I still have no desire to watch this movie.  Has Hollywood so completely run out of ideas that they are remaking silent films.  Hopefully, this doesn’t lead to the 3D (Avatar) trend and all of the new movies are suddenly silent.  The reason for silent films was the lack of technology.   And Best Actor, really!  He said two words in the entire film.  I don’t understand it.  I guess I would need to see the film to truly understand it, but that’s not likely to happen.   I prefer watching “talkies”. 

 

3.       I miss the individual Best Picture descriptions.  They used to show clips of each film that was nominated and give a brief synopsis of the film.  Was Tree of Life that hard to follow that they just gave up on those segments. 

 

4.       Angelina Jolie needs to eat something…..soon.

 

5.       I still have no idea what Hugo is about.  The movie’s previews didn’t make sense when it was released.  The clips shown during the show didn’t alleviate any of the confusion.  It must be technically amazing, since it was cleaning house early in the show.  However, once it did not win Best Adapted Screenplay, I knew it wasn’t going to win Best Picture.

 

6.       For some reason the Academy loves Woody Allen.  He could write Mission: Impossible 6 and he would still win the award for Best Original Screenplay.  I have not found a single Woody Allen movie that I have enjoyed.  Midnight in Paris could be the greatest movie ever written, but I highly doubt it.

 

7.       Meryl Streep is a great actress. Period.

 

8.       On that same note, I just don’t find her movies that appealing.  She has the amazing ability to transform into whatever role she is playing.  The 3 wins on their own are amazing, but 17 nominations is unreal.  Sadly, though, of those 17 nominations, I’ve only seen a few.  The Iron Lady is not going to change that number.

 

9.       I’m not going to watch a movie where Glenn Close and her female co-stars dress like ugly men.

 

10.   Of the Best Picture nominations, I will most likely watch Moneyball and The Help.  But let’s face it, did they really have a chance to win.  It was nice to see Octavia Spencer’s reaction to winning Best Supporting Actress for her role in The Help.  It was genuine.  Though, I guess it could be because her career should greatly improve from this point on.  Just two years ago, she was in a movie called Herpes Boy.  Let’s hope for her sake that her career does not go back in that direction.

 

11.   Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close may be a great movie, but for me it still falls in the “too soon” category.  Reliving that tragedy is not anywhere near the top of my to-do list.  Speaking of too soon, what is wrong with Billy Crystal or the writers for starting the opening monologue with a joke about that movie.  I can’t imagine a time when 9/11 jokes are not too soon.

 

12.   Nice to see Christopher Plummer win at age 82.  But again, I’m not likely to see that movie, especially since I couldn’t even tell you the name of the movie he was in.

 

13.   I found it funny that the Academy was pushing the “let’s go to the theater” theme, but then had a segment on the show performed by Cirque Du Soleil, which is essentially competition to movie theaters.  While on this topic, I must say that Cirque Du Soleil is very talented, but very strange.  Also, why during the performance did we have the camera linger on George Clooney and Stacy Keibler for an extended reaction shot?  We would like to see what they were reacting to. 

 

14.   Speaking of Clooney, I don’t know why I don’t want to see The Descendants, but I just don’t.  I usually watch his movies.  Maybe some recent disappointments (The Men Who Stare at Goats, Syriana, Good Night & Good Luck) have turned me off to his films.  Though every clip or preview of The Descendants does nothing to change my thoughts on seeing the film. 

 

15.   Why is Tom Cruise handing out the Best Picture award???

 

16.   I think the only Best Picture nominee I’ve left out has been War Horse.  I imagine it is a very good movie, but again I won’t watch it, because I have a feeling the horse may not make it through the entire movie.  I love animals and I’m not a fan of crying, so that movie will likely not make my playlist unless I somehow find out that the horse actually lives.  Then I will definitely want to watch this movie.

 

Overall, I was disappointed.  Maybe the movies weren’t the best we’ve seen, but the show didn’t do a good job promoting its product.  The Oscars are supposed to be a celebration of the movies that came out this past year.  Instead, we weren’t given much information about the films themselves, but rather 3 hours of people patting themselves on the backs and poking fun at their own business.   Did we really need to see the segment where Billy Crystal tried to guess what various celebrities and a dog were thinking or listen to the president of the Academy bore the audience into complete silence or movie stars talking about their first time going to a movie theater or even the Cirque Du Soleil segment.  Show us the movies, so we have a better idea why we should watch the movie.  And watching movies is the reason there even is an awards show.

~Brad