Hey, my one and only NBA comment, couldn't resist, although I must say that whatever Chuck is drinking, I'd like some if it will let me see the NBA in the same light! Frankly, I enjoy the Discovery Channel in HD far more than the NBA. BTW, has anyone seen the Spice Channel in HD?

Any-who, anyone read the story in USA Today about how both coaches and players are a little upset over all the hoopla in the pregames?

Seems the league wants to keep up the FAN-tastic motto, while both coaches and players want to mimic the octogon's motto of, "Let's get it on!!"

I simply found it interesting after the long winded discussion some us had on the merits of the NBA and their marketing strategy.

And to make matters worse, an NBA labor dispute is looming? Say it ain't so. With the average salary pegged at a mere 4 mil per year! Ya gotta love it! After all, it is FAN-tastic.

Ahh, maybe someone otta mention to the players these 3 little letters; N-H-L?

goose

I'm from Boston. After watching the Pitino Celtics try to press backcourts like Iverson and Snow and then watching his successor O'Brien install the most horrible style of basketball imaginable (offense & defense)....this series looks like artwork to me.

I love good NBA. I think that the League has evolved away from good basketball too far and Stern bears some responsibilty. The Pre-Game Shows & Laser Introductions are just horrible. Where is the respect for the actual competition? The drama? I grew up watching Russell and the Celts walk onto the court against other great Teams. It was like the start of a great battle. The drama was the game not the Intro. A good game doesn't need a Broadway Show for 1/2 hour before it begins.

The additional timeouts in NBA Games have taken "endurance" out of the contest. I simply can't watch regular season games due to the inordinate number of TO's. It's not even basketball.

It is sad but the foreign players are the carriers of the spirit of the sport that I grew up knowing.

Could someone tell Bill Walton that Ginobli is left-handed? If I hear him rant about his ability to finish with his left hand again...I'll lose it.

Walton is a great guy but he's not knowledgeable about the Rules. In the Oplypics he was ranting about the inexplictable travelling calls on American players. All the calls were on guys thriple-threatening off a "Rear" pivot foot. They all pick up their rear foot before releasing the ball for a dribble. The International officials were just calling it right.

I'm afraid that there will be more time outs in the future if they going to continue increasing their salaries. Gotta pay the bills somehow.

Anybody catch the oxymoronic side-show between Rasheed and Larry Brown?? 'Sheed gets mad and Brown gets between him and the official to "calm 'Sheed down"...then when Brown gets whacked and wants a piece of Crawford, there's 'Sheed the peacemaker staying between the two of them...I was ROFLMAO.

And I agree with the earlier post - can't stand watching Detroit when they're getting spanked like that - turn into the biggest bunch of cry-babies I have ever seen...Men's Rec. ball isn't that bad...

Right now there are 13 mandatory breaks in the action in every NBA game.

• One mandatory TO charged to each team in each quarter, usually after the 6:00 mark and the 3:00 mark. That's 8 breaks.
• One uncharged mandatory TO after the 9:00 mark in the second and fourth quarters. That's 2 more.
• Three breaks at the end of a quarter.

But if you think about it, that's actually a whole lot better than baseball, which takes 18 mandatory breaks (one between each half-inning) along with breaks at each pitching change; and it's better than the NFL, which takes a full TO after every change of possession and after every score. I love the sequence that goes TD-PAT-commercial-kickoff-commercial.

I don't really think the TO's are all that bad for a pro sport on TV. If you want to get rid of commercial interruptions, tune in to Major League Soccer. Blech.

Early yesterday afternoon ESPN Classic had the 1985 Game 4 between the Celtics (Bird, Ainge, Mchale, D Johnson and Parish) vs Lakers (Magic, Worthy, Jabbar, Cooper and Scott). Tied at 105 Celtics calmly took the rest of the time off the clock, Bird penetrated, kicked it out to Johnson who hit-thats right-a 16 foot jump shot. These guys pushed the ball, passed the ball, set good screens, rebounded and played really good defense. There was creativity without selfishness or stupidity. San Antonio plays this same game-why can't other teams play this way? I'm sure some of it has to do with the fact that seven of these guys are in the Hall of Fame-or are seven of these guys in the Hall of Fame because they played that way?

Also-only two officials. What was the first year of 3 man in the NBA?

You oughta see it in 3D.

Here comes Wendy Whoppers.......:eek:

Faaaaaantastic........

There are less timeouts in an NBA game than there is in a college game. There are 8 TV timeouts in a college game, plus 4 fulls and 2 30s for each team. In the NBA, there's a timeout between quarters and each team gets 6 fulls and 2 20s. That's 20 timeouts over 40 minutes, compared to 18 timeouts over 48 minutes.

Now, who's taken the endurance out of basketball?

Within a year or two of this game, they went to 3.

Awesome answer. Nothing gets by you, does it?