Weekend Hangover - Love/Hate

LOVE

- Steve Nash was unreal last night leading the Suns while looking like a cross between E.T. and Two-Face from Batman. He took 6 stitches above his eye and the eye swelled shut, which somehow caused his good eye to bulge out even more throughout the 4th quarter. Nash and the Suns finished off the Spurs in 4 games and appear to be a pretty good challenge for the Lakers (once LA dismisses the Jazz). The Suns will provide a tough matchup with their outside shooting big men which have the potential to drag the Lakers big front court away from the hoop. The Suns continue their march as The People's Choice to win the title and the vindication of Steve Kerr as a General Manager continues. The Suns finally were able to beat the team that has kept them from getting the NBA finals routinely for the past 10 years. And the best part? We no longer have to watch Manu Ginobili flop all over the court with that large feminine hygiene product strapped across his face.

- Another point guard who dominated a game and put up ridiculous numbers? Rajon Rondo put up a sick triple double in the Celtics win on Sunday to even the series at 2 games apiece. Rondo is often overlooked when talking about the best point guards in the league – Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Steve Nash and Derrick Rose get all the attention. Yet Rondo has proven that he has the ability to step up in the playoffs and throughout his career has played better in the postseason than he does in the regular season. Rondo also resembles ET with his bug-eyes and long, wirey arms. If the Celtics are going to win this series, and I still don’t believe they will, they will have to rely on huge games from Rondo to make up for the inability of Kevin Garnett to take advantage of his mismatch with Antwan Jamison.

HATE

- Dallas Braden threw the 19th perfect game in major league history on Mother’s Day with his grandmother in the stands. It was a great story, except that all anyone wants to take about is Braden’s mini feud with Alex Rodriguez. Give it a rest. The guy wants to own the mound when he’s pitching, fine. A-Rod has no people skills so he has no ability to make a sane response, which blows it out of proportion. Just focus on the fact that Braden is a young talented pitcher with tremendous upside. A guy that was a junior college teammate of the much more heralded Manny Parra, and there is no doubt that the prospects for Braden appear much brighter than those for Parra. Congrats to the guy for throwing a gem against the team with the best record in the league.

- Trying to refrain from making any of the all too easy jokes about Tiger Woods this weekend. Let’s see, he had to pull out….of the tournament……with a bulging disc………There are just too many ways to take it straight to the gutter like asking Rachel Uchitel about his bulging disc. In the end, the critics are going to say that he quit and that he just wasn’t playing well so he opted to bail than stick it out. I don’t buy it. The guy has proven to be tough when he won the US Open on a broken leg, so people think that nothing can stop him from playing. However, if he wasn’t playing well, was in pain, and the pain was causing his swing to be even more off than it already was, I have no problem with him yanking himself off the course.

The Best Point Guard to Never Win an NBA Title?

While watching the Suns take a commanding 2-0 lead in their series with the rapidly aging Spurs, a couple of things came to mind. First, “Los Suns” on the Phoenix jerseys. I get their support for the large predominantly Mexican immigrant population in Arizona and rallying against the immigration legislation. I couldn’t care less about the Suns politics. But is putting Spanglish on your jerseys helping or hurting the cause? I took 4 years of Spanish in high school, and a semester in college, so I have a pretty decent understanding of the language. “Sun” in Spanish is El Sol. The Suns would then be translated to Los Soles. So why in the world did the Suns have “Los Suns” on their jerseys? Who was the genius who came up with that? That’s like your buddy at Qdoba at 3 in the morning asking the guy behind the counter for “tres burritos with cheese-o, senor!” It’s humorous and offensive at the same time. Is that what the Suns were going for?

The second thing that crossed my mind was whether Steve Nash was the best point guard in NBA history without an NBA title. In my opinion, here are the top 4 point guards to have never won an NBA title:

4. Allen Iverson
Iverson was a dynamic scorer and changed the overall culture of the NBA. Unfortunately he was a horrid teammate and extremely mercurial and immature. His ability to get to the paint at his size was unmatched by anyone before or after him. He won an MVP award and got to the NBA Finals once, to go with his 4 scoring titles and 3-time 1st team All-NBA. He also was in the top 10 in the league in turnovers 7 times in 13 seasons and only shot 42% from the floor and 31% from beyond the three point line. He’s like Megan Fox – controversial and enjoyable to watch in small doses, but you can’t win a title or have a blockbuster movie with them.

3. Steve Nash
Nash can light up a scoreboard with his scoring or his passing and like Meg Ryan, has actually gotten better with age. He has bested his career scoring average in all 6 seasons since he turned 30, and led the league in assists 4 times in those 6 years. He ranks 8th all-time in assists and has a career assist to turnover ratio just below 3. He’s a two-time league MVP, but has never been able to get his team into the NBA Finals. The only real knock on Nash and what keeps him from topping this list is his defensive deficiencies. He is about as effective defensively as a turnstile to enter the subway, you can go right through it or jump over it and there’s nothing the turnstile can do. Yet with his creative offense and ability to change the overall pace of any regular season game, he is one of the best point guards of all-time.

2. Jason Kidd
Kidd has never been a prolific scorer and not a strong shooter, yet his all-around skills are what moves him just ever so slightly ahead of Steve Nash. Kidd is a great passer and rebounds better than any point guard to have ever played the game. When he was younger, he was a one-man fast break with his potential to rip down a rebound and instantly be out leading the fast break. Unfortunately as he has aged he has slowed considerably, and his defense and ability to get out on the break have declined significantly. Yet his basketball intelligence remains high and his court vision is on par with Nash and the guy at the top of this list. Like Maria Menounos, a ton of talent, but can only carry a show or a team so far before they top out and no one pays attention.

1. John Stockton
The recency effect almost led me to put Nash and/or Kidd ahead of John Stockton, but once I started looking at the stats, it was actually a tougher decision to not make this just a one person list. He holds the league all-time record for assists and led the league 9 consecutive seasons between 1987 and 1996. Over his 18 year career, he averaged just over 13 points per game and 10.5 assists per game, with an assist-to-turnover ratio of 3.7. He was also extremely durable, only missing 22 games over an 18 year career, playing every game in all but two seasons. He also led the Jazz to the NBA Finals twice and would have a title if it weren’t for that guy in Chicago with a penchant for gambling, smoking cigars and crushing the spirits of everyone that rooted against the Chicago Bulls. Like Heidi Klum, she is the best but you might forget until you break out the stats and watch the highlight tapes.