NBA Talking Points: The Playoffs Are Coming...

First off, apologies for the slow-ish week we’ve had so far. SB Nation held its quarterly meetings this week, and sadly, attendance was mandatory at said meetings. We did our best to multi-task, but when you’re in conference room all day, after a while your brain just goes numb. Good thing I don’t have a real job.

Strategizing ensued, buzzwords were tossed about at an alarming rate—real-time synergy integration of the viral community—and basically the only thing that registered was when our CEO tried to relate to me by likening the internet to The Wire. Or maybe I did that.

In any case, that’s why my output was struggling this week. So it’s to nice to have that overwith... And now we need to talk about something.

1. THE PLAYOFFS ARE COMING

As I’ve mentioned here before, the NCAA Tournament’s pretty phenomenal in its own right, and I’ll still argue to the death that it’s every bit as compelling as the NBA playoffs. But here’s why, for true basketball fans, the NBA playoffs win out. Where the NCAAs rely on the brackets to supply the drama, or the backstory of a team like Butler, the NBA is all about the players. No, it’s not the name on the front of the jersey that matters. It’s the name on the back, and players like Kevin Durant and Deron Williams, that make the playoffs so special.

The best players in the world killing themselves to stake their claim to greatness. These are people and performances that we’ll remember watching for the rest of our lives. And it starts next Sunday!!!

Watching Utah and Oklahoma City battle the other night, you didn’t even have to know that these were two teams battling for playoff positioning, or that the Thunder have had their own sort of Cinderella run this season. Nothing was contextual; everything that was great about that game was self-evident. The stakes were high because the players were great, and as both teams kept answering each other, the tensions continued to rise.

When playoff basketball works, we get to see the best players in the world push themselves to a different place, and we see guys like Kevin Durant and Deron Williams playing out of their mind at the same time. That, to me, is as good of a spectacle as you’ll find anywhere in sports. They say the NBA Playoffs is like a second season because it’s so long and it has its own kind of grind. But it’s also like a whole different game. The mental toughness required to win, the players pushing themselves to a different stratosphere, and even the gamesmanship between coaches. In April and May and June, the game gets racheted up another level. It’s where the great ones cement their legacy, and the game’s budding superstars stake their claim to greatness. It’s where amazing actually happens.

And did I mention that the NBA has more superstars right now than the league’s had in about a decade? Here are players currently capable of “out of their mind”-type performances:

Almost all of those guys will be in the playoffs next week, and I’m DEFINITELY forgetting a few people. Still, that’s the list of guys that can make or break their reputation these next few months. They all know it, too, and in the best of cases, we get to see them take their game, and their teams, to a whole nother level. That’s what happened in the Utah and Oklahoma City game.

Deron and Durant just kept one-upping each other, and it became a matter of pride for both players, and both teams. And when it was all over, the game of basketball was the beneficiary.

And that’s why, cliches aside, it felt like a playoff game. When it was all over, I had goosebumps, and was just grateful to have seen it. The next few months should be fun.

2. A FEW MORE NOTES ON UTAH-OKLAHOMA CITY

The refs are still a problem. Yeah, I sort of ignored the ending in Oklahoma City-Utah in the passage above. But don’t think I forgot. It’s the single biggest problem with the NBA, and the reason why I can’t really blame casual sports fans for not taking the playoffs as seriously as I do. These are the facts: Kevin Durant was fouled, the NBA admitted as much, and if it happened three weeks from now, the refs would probably make the exact same call. No reason to dwell on it, but worth pointing out that in the regular season basketball that most resembled a playoff game, it was ultimately decided by a bogus call. A cruel coincidence, or a prime example of what’s wrong with the league?

Deron Williams is the most underrated player in the NBA. Maybe it’s because he plays in Utah, or maybe it’s because Chris Paul looms so large in New Orleans, but I think NBA fans (myself inculded) forget just how good this guy is. Of the league’s best players, he’s easily the guy that you’re most likely to forget when you list off your top ten players. But he should be on that list.

Instead, Green stands as one of the best sidekicks in the league, and a classic Posey to Kevin Durant. He hits threes, he’s active on defense, he rebounds, and he’s an integral part of an Oklahoma City that’s looking poised to contend for NBA titles for the next decade. On a different team, he’d be asked to do more, and be looked upon as a disappointment. With Kevin Durant (and Russel Westbrook), he’s a perfect fit. This is obvious, of course; I just had to go on record saying as much.

The silver lining for Kevin Durant. Yeah, so... Ignore for a moment the hilarious Oklahoma City announcers on this play. (Commentary on the foul: “TRAGIC non-call... Tragic non-call”)

Just pay attention to Kevin Durant. Even as one of the best players in the league, he’s still just a 21 year-old kid, and in a lot of ways, he seems even younger than that. He’s shy, talks softly, and treats his elders with the utmost deference off the court. This is why everybody loves him so much.

But watch him after that foul call. As soon as he realized he wasn’t getting the whistle, you can see him trying not to explode. He’s looking around, out of breath and exasperated. He almost bites his tongue and walks off. But he can’t. After a few seconds, he explodes (by his standards) and curses out the refs.

And that’s what makes Kevin Durant so special. Obviously, he’s preternaturally gifted on the basketball court, and his frame and skillset are borderline unstoppable, but more than that, he’s got a competitive fire that all the greatest players have. It’s completely contrary to his character off the court, but when the game hits crunch time, he wants to f—ing win. You can see it. Just look at the video above. It’s what makes him so great now, and it’s what makes me certain that for the next fifteen years, Kevin Durant is going to be ruling the NBA.

There are a lot of insanely talented players in the NBA, but the difference between “very good” and “great” often comes down to that one quality. Competitive fire. Again, we’re trafficking in cliche here, but it’s true. The good players have the skills to win the game and sometimes do; the great players have the skills to win the game and they usually do.

Becuase people like Kevin Durant turn into a different person when the game’s on the line. Or when they get fouled, and screwed out of a chance to win it. You can see “It” with Durant. He’s great.

3. A WORD ABOUT ANDRAY BLATCHE

So let me ask you: Who’s the coolest assistant coach in the NBA?

(...waiting...)

There’s an old rumor that Andray Blatche once spent all of his rent money, and had to spend a month in the Verizon Center. Do I believe it? Absolutely. And even if it’s not true, there’s a reason the rumor gained traction. Andray Blatche is so obviously immature, it’s not inconcievable that he could have blown all his rent money and spent a month living out of the Wizards’ arena. Does that sound like someone you can build a team around? When casual fans outline the stereotypical NBA player that doesn’t give a shit, they’re talking about Andray Blatche.

And let me just make one final point, as a Wizards fan that’s heard other fans call Blatche “promising” and a “bright spot.” Sam Cassell is, again, the coolest assistant coach in the NBA. He practices with the players. If he wanted to, he could probably still play in the NBA. He’s the definition of a “players coach.”

So, from one Wizards fan to Andray Blatche:

IF A COACH WHO WAS ONCE FAMOUS FOR PANTOMIMING A TESTICLE DANCE THINKS YOU HAVE MATURITY ISSUES, THEN YOU HAVE MATURITY ISSUES.

I’d say more, but Andray Blatche isn’t worth the effort. Let’s just say, after about ten I’m not convinced he’s a solid building block.

4. JUST WATCH J.R. SMITH ON THIS PLAY

This had me giggling for a solid twenty minutes yesterday. I’d say more, but Trey at Ball Don’t Lie nailed just why, exactly, this might have been the most bizarre sequence in NBA history.

5. SONG OF THE WEEK: TRUH-MAY

The “Song of the Week” comes from the new HBO series Treme (pron. “truh-MAY), and it’s by a man named Yacub Addy, part of a performance called “Congo Square.”

It’s also a perfect opportunity for me to talk about Treme, the next big project from David Simon, the man who’s partly responsible for The Wire, a.k.a. the Greatest Show of All Time. Since The Wire wrapped, there’s been a void in my life. It’s not that other TV isn’t good, because there’s probably more compelling television these days that ever before. But it’s not the same as The Wire. That show felt like I was watching real life.

It was sad, but it always felt real. And for all the sadness and cruel reality of life on the streets in Baltimore--or trying to police those streets while fighting a soul-crushing bureaucracy--it was equal parts black comedy. People don’t think about The Wire as a “fun” show, but to the people that watched it religiously, that’s how it felt. The characters were so masterfully crafted, we always got three dimensions with them, and that included parts of their personality that everyone found funny. This was a good thing.

Toward the end, though, when David Simon took the reins in Season Five, it began to feel a little different. Yes, David Simon created The Wire, but he co-created it with Edward Burns, an ex-cop that had seen all these characters in the streets, and helped make sure that we got the good with the bad. Once Season Five arrived and the “media” storyline, Simon, an ex-reporter, started to exercise more control, and you could tell.

There were more pointless monologues from all the characters that you could tell came straight from Simon. The newsroom characters, also straight from David Simon, lacked the three-dimensions that made the guys in the street so great. And mostly, it just felt like an ordinary, good show. Still great, but the were no longer transcending the TV medium. It was just an entertaining drama, and one angry screenwriter trying to make a point about the death of media. The street narratives were still phenomenal, but Simon’s clumsy vitriol toward the newsroom distracted us from it, and diminished what should have been a grand conclusion to the greatest show in the history of television. This is all contextual stuff that only true-Wire obsessives will connect with, but it bears mentioning.

So what does it have to do with Treme? Well, nothing, except that Edward Burns isn’t around this time to save David Simon from himself, and I’m worried about it. A show about New Orleans is incredibly difficult to pull off with any success, and Simon deserves credit for being one of the only writers with the audacity to try. But if he tries to turn this into another Wire, using post-Katrina New Orleans as the muse that allows him to ramble on about the failed American system, it’ll just be depressing. And counter-productive to rehab effort in New Orleans that continues to this day.

And the city deserves better than that. So here’s to hoping that David Simon gets it right. His ego got the better of him toward the end of The Wire, but to be fair, he was blinded by a massive resentment toward the dying newspaper industry. So maybe he’ll get back to what he does best with Treme.

There’s no city in America where humor, joy, and suffering reside in closer proximity than New Orleans. That mix, done so well and with such astonishing authenticity, is what made The Wire such a meaningful experience for millions of Americans that have never even seen West Baltimore. If David Simon can do that again, and avoid turning this into some sermon on the ills of American government, or a euology for a city that never asked for one, then this should be pretty fantastic. Because when David Simon’s good, there’s nobody better.

And with that said, here’s a second trailer for Treme. It airs Sunday night at 10 pm on HBO.

Okay, so maybe I’m not worried about Treme. This should be awesome. ‘Till next week...