Don't even try.You'll only make yourself crazy and end up looking like a fool.I should know.If I had a dollar for the number of column inches I've wasted trying to draw steadfast conclusions about the Orlando Magic, then Rashard Lewis would be my pool guy.
Speaking of Rashard Lewis, I wrote a column earlier in the playoffs that he wasn't earning his massive salary because he wasn't coming up big enough in big games.I also wrote a column about Rafer Alston becoming a liability and the Magic desperately missing starting point guard Jameer Nelson.And then there was that blog where I wondered about Stan Van Gundy's job security after Dwight Howard publicly second-guessed his coach following the Game 5 meltdown in Boston.I repeat, don't even try to make sense of these guys.Don't try to analyze their past performances.Don't try to prophesize their future ones.I feel especially bad for our West Coast media guests who have already been sucked into this Magic madness. After the 25-point loss in Game 1, columnist Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times cracked that he was picking "the Lakers in 3." Another West Coast wag, Marcia C. Smith of the Orange County Register, encouraged Lakers fans to prepare for a sweep and "buy more brooms."To paraphrase the words of yet another L.A. columnist, the late, great Jim Murray: "Gentlemen (and ladies), start your mea culpas."When are we stupid columnists going to learn to stop trying to make rational judgments on an irreverently irrational team? From now on, we should just sit back, have a beer and enjoy perhaps the wildest, wackiest potential champions in NBA history:The Orlando Manic-Depressives."We might be one of the silliest teams you'll ever see," Magic center Dwight Howard says.They were silly enough to believe they could go on the road in a Game 7 and beat the defending champion Boston Celtics.They were silly enough to think LeBron James should sit at home and witness them in the NBA Finals.And now they are silly enough to think they can actually take down one of the greatest coaches and greatest players in NBA history.And if they do it, they will do it their way, which is a way only they fully understand. It is an unconventional and unpredictable way that starts with their nonconformist head coach and trickles down to a frolicsome bunch of free spirits seemingly immune to the pulsating pressure of the moment.Kobe and the Lakers scowl.1
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Dwight and the Magic howl."We laugh and joke and have fun," Howard says."We love to put a smile on each other's face before games," Alston says.Maybe that explains how the Magic can shoot an abysmal 29 percent in Game 1 and then come back in Game 3 and shoot a Finals record 62.5 percent.Or how Alston can look like the second coming of Tiny Archibald in Game 3 after looking like the second coming of Tiny Tim in Game 2.And, sometimes, it goes the other way, too. Like when Howard scored a career-playoff high 40 points in the close-out game against Cleveland and then made only one field goal in Game 1 of the Finals.Van Gundy admits he is a bit unorthodox and that his rotation of players can change from game to game and even minute to minute. Thus, J.J. Redick was in the lineup guarding Kobe Bryant at the end of Game 2 but never even got on the floor in Game 3.Or what about Game 2 when Van Gundy had three point guards sitting beside him on the bench and 6-foot-10 Hedo Turkoglu bringing the ball up the court?"I'm not trying to be unconventional," Van Gundy says, "I'm just trying to do what I think is best."But how many coaches, with his team rolling into its first NBA Finals in 14 years, would have the audacity to risk upsetting the basketball gods by bringing back the injured Nelson after a four-month absence?Van Gundy is nuts.His team is nuts.Just nuts enough to think they can win the NBA championship.
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Dwight and the Magic howl."We laugh and joke and have fun," Howard says."We love to put a smile on each other's face before games," Alston says.Maybe that explains how the Magic can shoot an abysmal 29 percent in Game 1 and then come back in Game 3 and shoot a Finals record 62.5 percent.Or how Alston can look like the second coming of Tiny Archibald in Game 3 after looking like the second coming of Tiny Tim in Game 2.And, sometimes, it goes the other way, too. Like when Howard scored a career-playoff high 40 points in the close-out game against Cleveland and then made only one field goal in Game 1 of the Finals.Van Gundy admits he is a bit unorthodox and that his rotation of players can change from game to game and even minute to minute. Thus, J.J. Redick was in the lineup guarding Kobe Bryant at the end of Game 2 but never even got on the floor in Game 3.Or what about Game 2 when Van Gundy had three point guards sitting beside him on the bench and 6-foot-10 Hedo Turkoglu bringing the ball up the court?"I'm not trying to be unconventional," Van Gundy says, "I'm just trying to do what I think is best."But how many coaches, with his team rolling into its first NBA Finals in 14 years, would have the audacity to risk upsetting the basketball gods by bringing back the injured Nelson after a four-month absence?Van Gundy is nuts.His team is nuts.Just nuts enough to think they can win the NBA championship.
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