Monday Morning Medicine

Morning, gang.  I’m here to Shepard you gently through the monotony that is Monday morning.  So settle in with your big bowl of FrootLoops, and jump in.

Saturday Box-And-One

So I decided on a new “segment” if you will.  It’s called the Saturday Box-And-One, and really it’s just a glorified link dump.  But hey, it’s OUR glorified link dump. Here we go:

1.) Skipping right past the goggles and into the operating room:  Amare Stoudemire will miss the remainder of the season after detaching a retina in Thursday’s game against the Clippers. It’s well known by most of you already, but the injury is going to do a lot to keep Phoenix out of the playoffs and could have an influence on whether STAT stays in the desert or not.

2.) Hey, at least they still have Marquette to root for: Things just keep getting worse for the Milwaukee Bucks, as LBJ drops 55 as the Cavs zoom past them.  This is LeBron’s SEVENTH career fifty point game, second only to Kobe for active players.  (Plus, Kobe’s got a few years on him.  The King is a stud.)

3.) A sad note: Utah Jazz owner Larry Miller died Friday at the age of 64.  Our hearts go out to the Jazz family.

4.) KG to miss three games with sprained right knee: Basically speaks for itself.  Garnett was sent back to Boston on Friday to get the MRI on said knee.

5.) Report: Warriors reject trade that would send Baron to Golden State for Maggette and Marcus Williams: Apparently, this has been confirmed by a team official too.  Seems pretty interesting that LA even offers this deal, which if accepted would basically be both GM’s saying “We screwed up.”

There you have it.  The inaugural Saturday Box-And-One. See you next Saturday.

-Yardbird

Losing Money During a Renaissance

It’s unprecedented to think that a league that has finally shed itself of the stigma that hung over it in the post-Jordan era is losing money and racking up debt.  But according to this article, the NBA is borrowing $175 million that will ultimately help up to 15 teams offset decreasing streams of revenue.  It’s arguable that we’re on the verge or are entering another Golden Age of the Association, and it’s a shame that the current economy puts a damper over it.

Not since the Great Depression has the economy affected professional sports more than in the past year or so, and today’s trading deadline is proof of that.  No big blockbuster trades, no moves for championship contention.  99% of the trades made were made for one reason: money.  I mean, when Larry Hughes’ contract is the centerpiece of a deal, you know times are bad.  Never before has an expiring contract been worth so much to so many.

(Yeah, that’s Larry Hughes.  Apparently those women aren’t attracted to a nice jumpshot.)

The most bizarre part of the deadline was the take-backs of the Tyson Chandler trade.  The move was purely for monetary reasons from the NOLA side, and yet they cannot catch a break on that one.  Must have been awkward for the two teams playing on the same court two nights ago.

Shoals wrote a nice little piece about the current state of the NBA’s economy, and you can read it HERE.

HERE’s Hollinger’s grades of the deadline deals from ESPN.com.

I leave you with a Garbage Time All-Stars comic that represents the feeling of today’s deadline well.  If you haven’t already, check out these guys.  They write and draw some good shit.

Be Easy,

Yardbird

Absurdity, Thy Name is Starbury

For most of the first trimester of this NBA season, there has been one man constantly stealing the spotlight away from such places as Lebron’s new found transcendence, three teams (Si, three teams) that could reasonably reach 70 wins without surprising anyone and the widening of the PG gap between Chris Paul (I refuse to refer to him as CP3. It’s an awful nickname) and Deron Williams: Mr. Head Tattoo himself, Stephon Marbury.

Absurdity, thy name is Starbury

First it was the scalp art, then the sometimes dramatic, always absurd melodramatic divorce between Starbury and the Knickerbockers, and now this:

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3804977

Besides the obvious tension that would exist between Stephon and his first wife, Kevin Garnett, this could potentially bring down the House that Ainge built.  How would he interact with the BIG3? What would happen to Rondo?  Could he prevent another Celtics dynasty?  Would he get Red Auerbach tattooed on his head as well? No one can say for sure.

The point is, that Marbury has been turning the greatest sport in the world into a joke in the very city that brought it to greatness in the first place.  Stephon Marbury is an enigma, simultaneously showing the light side (players such as Dwight Howard, the aforementioned Chris Paul, and Brandon Roy) of the game by serving as an almost comedic and disproportionate foil to these players, and at the same time representing all that is rotten in the league (unquenchable thirst for money, power, and fame). He shouldn’t be villainized , he should be celebrated as the ludicrous and farcical character in the great production of the NBA.  Do not reject and scorn this man, respect and treasure him as the ultimate agent of absurdity in the king among sports.