Monday, February 18, 2008

Somewhere, Emeka Okafor Is Smiling


Before I elaborate on my newfound man-love for Dwight Howard, let us take a moment to admire the reaction of Jason Kidd's young son (see above) to the now famous superman dunk.  I know I should try to avoid obscure references but Kidd's son reminds me of what I imagine a young Karl Pilkington was like, inducing involuntary smirks by his mere physical appearance.  (If you don't know Karl Pilkington, look his podcast stuff with Ricky Gervais up on YouTube).

Anyway, back to Saturday Night in New Orleans.  First of all, props to Gerald Green.  I had heard of a possible "kiss the rim" dunk from Howard but Green's cupcake candle blowout dunk was something else.  With that said, Dwight still deserved the title, but having a competitor like Green there making it a close race really earned this contest a spot in history.  He was Desmond Mason to Dwight Howard's Jason Richardson.

As for the Game itself, Sunday night gave the rest of the country a chance to see this next decade's best point guard, NO's Chris Paul, in action.  LeBron put on his usual performance, Dwayne Wade got one of his last wins of the season, and Damon Jones further cemented his position as the NBA's version of Freddie Mitchell.

The League is in good shape though, maybe even great shape.  The west has 9 teams with likely 50+ win seasons, blockbuster trades are making that competitive west even more competitive, and the current generation of stars are all likable guys.  LeBron, Wade, Chris Paul, Brandon Roy, Dwight Howard, Greg Oden, Kevin Durant, Deron Williams: all good guys.  David Stern has reason to smile.  And for me, usually April can't get here fast enough, but with this playoff chase looking crowded and inevitable, I think I can take a couple months of meaningful games.  




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