NBA Stories: The 2018-19 NBA season

Here we are at the end of the 2018-2019 NBA season. Watching it was terribly painful for me... There were only a few teams I was watching in regular season because I tried to save myself from boredom. So I kept an eye on LeBron's Lakers, Kawhi's Toronto and J.J. Reddick's Philadelphia 76ers. I looked at J.J. Reddick as an NBA copy of me when I played basketball because that's the role and style of play I used to have. I also listened to his podcast on Bill Simmons' The Ringer network while customising  NBA2K11 on my computer for months. All my work is acquirable on my blog.

The NBA players I have the biggest respect for and watched this season are LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard. I said it earlier: LeBron is the last totally dominant player in the NBA therefore I always put him on the same category with Michael Jordan. I give LeBron a slight advantage over MJ because of his superior teamwork (he is an altruist and made all his teammates better players when he played for different team because of his adaptability which MJ never had). And of course LeBron James is that very rare player in NBA history (along with Magic Johnson) who could play all positions on the court because of his outstanding passing skills and also the ability to dominate the paint area.

Kawhi is the only player apart from Michael Jordan who can play equally well in offense and defense. MJ was even better at that but Kawhi's career is only midway through so better brace yourselves for what's about to come! I am against all these "best" scenarios because I only look at individuals and rarely compare them. There is no such thing as "the best" because players do different things on the court, they have different roles. But people forget some players are more complete than other players so it's good to remind them that sometimes.

I stopped watching the 76ers when they had become an annoying bunch of thrash talkers on social media led by Joel 'Big Mouth' Embiid. Not just that their game had flaws but now the players were becoming cocky after bringing Jimmy Butler. I am completely against this macho attitude we see today on social media and in real life. I think this slows down and even stops the natural evolution of a human being and basketball players in particular. Just have a look at Kawhi Leonard who is exactly the opposite of that! He was quiet for years, managed to escape Poppovich 's 'prison' in San Antonio, and now he is the best player in the world. People still argue about that only because Kawhi is...NOT on social media at all so he doesn't fit the profile of the moron millennial posting crap on the internet every 5 minutes.

This season Toronto Raptors were the biggest surprise...of the decade! Their performance is comparable to that of the Dallas Mavericks in 2011 when they shockingly but well deserved beat Miami Heat in the NBA Finals. But Dallas was expected to have a major impact in that season; Toronto wasn't! In fact many didn't even know Toronto were this good this year. They surprised me too with their playoff run but the truth is  I knew they could survive the playoff defensively when they traded for veteran player Marc Gasol who once was the best defensive player in the world. I couldn't bet Toronto's offense would come on top of other's but I should have trusted the power of the defense which can bring down the opposing teams offense like it used to be in the good old 90s NBA. Sadly nowadays nobody is allowed to play defense by the league because...it is "detrimental to the entertaining flow of the game" (quoting NBA commissioner). But with excellent defense in the end Toronto has won the NBA Finals. I am surprised the NBA comish didn't rig the series or Donald 'Duck' Trump didn't bomb Canada to stop a non-American team from winning in the Finals.

There were problems within the Golden State locker room during this season. They translated to awkward moments on the court especially between K. Durant and Draymond Green. Players started blaming each other for lack of interest in playing or even staying  long term with the team. The main player was KD who got injured earlier in the season and missed quite a few games. Bob Myers of Warriors came to the press conference after game 5 faking tears in his eyes while saying KD was misunderstood because nobody knows how hard he wanted to play. He tried to talk people into believing the only one to blame for KD's major injury was...KD because of his ambition to play. In case you didn't get it, the general manager pretended that nobody in his organization pressured KD to come back. We are talking the decisive game of the 2019 NBA Finals here! The one that if Warriors lost, they lost the Finals to Toronto. And with that they lost the opportunity to win 3 championships in a row which would have made them comparable to the 90s Chicago Bulls of Michael Jordan. That's also when a team is reasonably called a 'dynasty'.  So for all clueless Warriors fans out there: your team is no dynasty team so now you can stop being delusional!

Now, Kevin Durant is an introvert. If you know anything about introverts...of course nobody understands him! What the GM was trying to hide is that Bob Myers himself contributed to KD's Achilles tendon injury that looks like a career ending injury if we look at the players who's careers were cut short over the years. Bob Myers threw an already injury prone KD in for 46 minutes in the Houston game earlier this year playoffs. That's where the problem started. Kevin Durant played with an injured calf in game 5 versus Toronto - and calf IS RELATED to Achilles. You don't have to be a doctor to know that! A mechanic also knows if there is a rusty or loose piece in the car, something else will be affected and probably brake down. These people are paid tens of millions of dollars to PREVENT this kind of things. The sad part is everybody takes his doe and disappears afterwards without caring too much... So yeah, congratulations for probably destroying KD's career, Golden State Moroniers! YouTubers comments on this topic: 

• Damn, KD risked his career for the warriors to stay alive in this series. RESPECT

• As someone who wants Raptors to beat GSW. It sucks seeing such a great player have to go through this. I had a feeling he was goin to get hurt tonight's. Last game with the Warriors...
• If not for those 11 points Raptors would have won it tonight. He saved the warriors so they can fight for another day. Prayers for KD. Damn Achilles is always a career ending injury.
• GSW training staff fired. Whole team with injuries. Come on man, KD wasn't supposed to be back like that. He didn't reach a full recovery, you could have seen it on his face.
• Not a different injury.   Its a extended injury.  Playing with a injured calf can lead to a Achilles injury.  The GSW should blame themselves.
• You can tell that the staff cleared him to play because Kerr said he was not going to be on a minutes restriction (which as a coach who used to be a player on a championship team, he should've known better than to do this). Restricting minutes is the least he could've done.
• When you realize you’re gonna be paying 31 million for a guy who won’t be playing on your team next season.

• Dumb move. This could ruin his career. I blame GSW coach, management and medical staff. All of them. They should have protect their player.

• Let KD rest until his full recovery. Don't end one great player's career over one championship. There will be another championships in the future.
• Kinda too late isn't it? Warriors were just thinking about now. They didn't want to get eliminated.
• Probably a partial tear the first time that went full rupture. The Warriors fucked KD. They lied about the initial injury and forced him back. If I was him, I would leave at the earliest point.
• ME: Basically it's the Kawhi scenario at Spurs one year ago.
• That's why Leonard sat out that season with the Spurs. He knew his body though they said other wise.
• Just reading through the comments you can see how screwed up people are in this world.
• ME: At least they are saying something and are passionate as opposed to bandwagonners who just get on board with the winning team every year. I would take the first ones over the second ANY DAY.
• You should see what doesn't even go In the comments. The world always been like this. We just have the internet now. It's a lot worse.

So GSW had won game 5 because of Raptors' coach mistake who called a time out with 3 minutes left to play when his team was on fire. It was another J.R. Smith but this time coming from a coach.

• Coach Nurse calling a Timeout when Klaw was on a run. WTF?
• Kerr: Oh crap Kawhi is on fire, he just scored 10 points in a row, Raptors have a 6 point lead 3 mins to go, next possession I'm going to call time out to see if it will stem the tide.
• Nurse: Don't worry coach I got your back, I will call timeout and place Kawhi on ice!
• Kerr couldn’t even call one, they were down to their last timeout at that point (3+ mins left)
• Nick Nurse > JR Smith
• Nurse had a brain freeze and cost his team a potential championship.
• He did EXACTLY what was in his nature to do... he ‘Nursed’ the Warriors back to health!
• I would like to flush Nurse's head down the toilet. When he should've called a timeout with 15 sec left he chose not to! You have to make sure the ball is in Kawhis hands at the end.
• Nick should be sacked that was possible one of the worst time out calls ever when they were flowing and had them on their heels.
• Don't y'all know 7 games is more lucrative for the NBA than 5...?

Next, game 6 and...the Canadian Toronto Raptors  wins the American NBA title! Surprised? Hell, yeah. It was Klay Thompson's turn to break his leg (literally!) when he torn his ACL at the end of the game. All Warriors fans are now crying on the internet. Well, not all of them because some of them already left the sinking ship like rats and are becoming Raptors fans overnight. These millennials have no gratitude nor honor; they want instant gratification and be on the winning side every time they feel like losers in private. On Facebook people started sharing thoughts:

• Congrats TORONTO RAPTORS for winning the 2019 NBA Finals! What you did was a historic run! Kudos to the Warriors for fighting valiantly despite injuries.

• Warriors indeed!

• ME: Losers nevertheless. Their bandwagonners too. Even BIGGER losers.
• No one's asking for your opinion.
• ME: It's not an opinion, they actually lost! You are using the wrong cliché here. You delusional kids can't differentiate between reality and your fantasy anymore, FFS.
• You don't get to tell people how to look or how they should look on Warriors, you just don't. Not because you hate them means we have to hate them too.
• ME: Another cliché: if you don't love what the moronic masses love, it means you hate... Typical Asian "logic" (these guys are from the Philippines)! If you really want to understand me or anything in life look up the word PITY in the English dictionary. That's how I feel about your bandwagon: I pity the fool(s)!

Praising Jeremy Lin for winning  the NBA titles after playing…1 minute in the whole playoff sounds crazy even if it's been made sarcastically. Patrick McCaw who played for the Warriors and won 2 titles there and now winning another one to become the only NBA player after Kobe to get 3 in a row...after only sitting on the bench most of the year!

• Congrats my man Linsanity for winning a championship ring. Thank you for your great contribution, Averaging 300 claps, 250 high fives, 55 buttock slaps and 15 hugs per game. Just kidding. You deserve it.
• Jeremy took a nap courtside and woke up with a ring on his finger.
• Jeremy Lin getting a $100m endorsement deal in China after this!
• But deep inside, Jeremy Lin's mom wants him to be a doctor.
• When You Get An A+ For A Class Project To Pass The Year And Didn’t Do A Single Thing
• Congrats to Patrick McCaw for being a 3peat Champ in his first 3 years.
• The lucky charm if McCaw got trade on other teams. and and became a champion for sure some of the teams will hire him.
• Confirmed: Lebron calls McCaw few seconds after Game 6.

• "Three peat for Dummies", author: Patrick Mccaw. Available in bookstores.

• If Patrick McGraw goes somewhere next year and they win a championship they going to be bidding him max contracts for his luck.
• Be scared when Patrick McCaw unleashes his special ability: sitting. He'll get you 3 championships in a row.

• ME: He should change his name (like Ron Artest did with his) to Holy Cow so when we say 'holy cow' we know we refer to him as the luckiest guy in NBA history. Everybody envying him now. Or "hating" as you love to say it. "Toxic!"

Watching this year's finals and playoffs was painful. First it was the new style of officiating giving players more freedom of movement to the point commentators started laughing at Giannis taking double eurosteps! Then the players tendency to shoot threes. For example in game 3 of the Eastern final the two teams combined had 89 three point shot attempt, a record for a game in the NBA! At least 10 of them were...bricks! Those who should have never done it - mainly centers - obviously missed them by a mile with the ball literally going into the stands a few times. If that happened at a semi-pro level in the 90s when I played, coaches would have benched you for the next game while at the pro level player were forced to pack their gear and leave the team! Then comes the bad lines from the commentators who are paid to hype this new kind of non-competitive basketball. Yes, even in the playoff some players forgot to stay close to their opponent or run back in defense after losing the ball at the other end, something they did consistently over 82 games in the season.

I find it hard to listen to the game commentary of great 3 point shooter but nevertheless punk Reggie Miller, whinny Chris Webber who's voice always sounds apologetic perhaps because of lying under the oath and destroying his college team's coach career and life a few years before, Marv Albert who now sounds like he ate a whole cookie jar so he has to shout ten times louder so he can hear himself while chewing. I want Doug Collins back! Kevin McHale! Hubie Brown!  Jeff Van Gundy but maybe without his nemesis Mark Jackson who still sounds like a possessed preacher sometimes which was the reason why back in the day the Warriors got rid of him as headcoach.

Game Of Thrones was basically what the NBA is today: lowering the standards to a point where there are no rules so non-skilled players can get a pay check. A lame show to entertain the incapable who of course believe this is the biggest show on Earth. I love it how everybody comes out the closet now. I am expecting a big wave of Toronto Raptors bandwagoners the next couple of years because that's what the 'heard' aka 90% of the people do. 

Kawhi Leonard was phenomenal this playoff! He is the player I rooted for from the beginning of the season when I said he is the only player who shows similarity to Michael Jordan because of his both outstanding offensive and defensive skills. I watched the NBA since 1991 and here is my opinion. Kawhi has surpassed Kobe already (better passer, better defender etc.) and is the ONLY player who comes close to MJ (tenacity, competitive but without hurting his team like Kobe, better teamplayer than MJ and same defensive skills if not better!). If he was a sociopath like MJ and Kobe, everybody would acknowledge him. History proves you have to be a serial killer to be remembered. Kawhi is not. And that's why he is the only player I follow in this millennial era.

After winning in the 2019 Finals Kawhi basically said "FUCK YOU MEDIA, ALL OF YOU!" for spreading rumours about him faking the injury when he was in San Antonio, and trying to destroy the game of basketball. Of course nobody listens, ever... He is he only player in the NBA I like since Steve Nash retired (who's career I followed from day 1).

• This surely makes Popovich, the Spurs' medical staff and their fans look like fools. I wonder what is Gregg Popovich thinking right now what did I just do? LOL stupid!

• What I hate with the system is they thought these athletes are robots or superhumans. If they say they're in pain, believe it. How can you even doubt an athlete who's refusing to play because of an injury when his life is all about playing? TRUST IS SIGNIFICANT.
• Nick Wright was completely wrong about the Raptors. This is why you shouldn't believe what these so call analysts have to say. I bet FS1 management mandates that no on on the network calls out Skip Bayless on his Kawhi hating. That's right. Keep dancing on that hater Skip Payless!
• There is so much BS in the world. Kawhi proved it.
• Kawhi is like a video game character, the more you win with him, the more abilities and features you unlock.
• Kawhi, you live. Talk to the people, bro. Kawhi: baaahh that shows he's the G.O.A.T.
• What I didn't expect this season: Jeremy Lin wins a ring. Raptors getting the cup. Kawhi being happy.
• The longer he's apart from Pop the more emotions he regains.
• Very classy of Masai to give appreciation to Casey and DeRozan for their role in getting the team close to championship position.
• Lets remember one of these guys was undrafted and one was a late first rounder. The highest pick on the raptors was 15th Kawhi Leonard. Take that in! Tanking is for losers. These guys used to share peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Now they share a championship.
• What I'm really impressed is on how each Raptor player respond to interviewers in such humble ways. Love the whole teams humbleness as opposed to the Warriors Cocky attitude! A humble and deserving team as 2019 NBA CHAMPS! The NBA not only won a city. They made a whole nation feeling good about themselves.
• The fact that these guys are only 25 and are so self-aware and poised is great to see. They'll only get better.

Now after winning it, there are two moments that for me are a turn off and a downgrade of this moment: 1. the locker room celebration with hundreds(!) of champagne bottles showing the destroyed facilities at Oracle Arena despite covering the walls in plastic, and 2. the championship parade with the hyped speeches and a weird Kawhi and a gay, annoying Drake. The title of the video is 'Kawhi Leonard SHOCKS Canada After His Speech & ROBOTIC LAUGH'. 

• ME: There's NOTHING shocking here! Also faking that laugh this time was 1 billion times worse than the genuine original and funny one. Click bait shit!
• Did they really have to start this video with...Drake?! Btw get those Golden State tattoos removed, you bandwagon fan! You cant convince me Drake isn't a full-blown woman.
• There's 12-15 players on the Raptors roster and they interview Drake!? WTF... Interview the team, the men who put all the hard work in!

Serge Ibaka celebrating in the locker room after the game was a hilarious character. There were hundreds, yes hundreds of bottles of champagne in that room! It makes you think back in the 90s the winning team got one big bottle and they passed it from one player to another in the name of teamwork. Anyway, Ibaka had no clue how to drink from his bottle.

• Ibaka has absolutely no idea how to drink champagne.
• Lol...he eats it.
• I'm surprised he didn't sprinkle black pepper in it and tell everyone it taste like filet mignon.
• Nothing like leaving a mess at somebody else's house…

• ME: Especially when not the "hard-working Americans" will have to clean it up but Filipinos and Venezuela and the rest of the...(il)legal immigrants.

Steph Curry doing advertising for his shoe brand in every each way showed how much greed there is in the world and especially how the game of pro basketball has become a business shifting from fun to despair simply because wanting more money is the norm now.

First there was this little story of him being contacted by a teen girl who complained there were no Curry shoes for her age which the documentary inadvertently used to prove how rich people always find ways to become richer. Curry took the hint and allegedly teamed up with the teenager to expand his business. First he promised he will do this to help the youngsters but as the story goes on he ends up adding a new branch to his business instead selling shoes for the teens at the same price as for adults! The irony is he put that teenage girl and her family to work instead of giving them...let's say a $100 million for the idea. Really there is no end when it comes to greed...

In a different video by ESPN at the end of the 2019 season, they show Curry going to Japan to pump up his shoe brand while getting a vary warm - you might call it 'traditional' - welcome at a high school where they organized a brief basketball shootout for him involving kids.

• ME: Advertising much, former bankrupt ESPN? Everybody getting their dough these days feeding off the game of basketball. Shiiiet!
• Curry's shoes trying to get in Japan before *Rui Hachimura’s shoe [*who is a 2019 NBA draftee with Japanese ancestry]
• Imagine Rui going back after his first season. He's going to get an emperor's welcome.
• ME: Too bad you didn't know for the first time in Japan's history the emperor stepped down. Ignorance is bliss indeed.

At the 2019 NBA Awards, Shaquille O'Neal 's opening monologue was quite funny but somehow the audience didn't get the jokes or perhaps they weren't educated enough. And then finally someone got the chance to make fun of Shaq, who by general consent is the most annoying character at ESPN. 

Some YouTubers got the same impression after watching it.

• The crowd got some money and think they too cool to laugh.
• Athletes don't know how to cheer because they're so used to other people cheering for them.
• At least the LOGO, Giannis and Chuck were laughing, everyone else so damn serious.
• Crowd is ass but this was really good.
• These young guys need to really pay respects & homage to these legends of entertainment, instead over there looking like Simon Cowell judging American Idol.

Giannis getting the season MVP trophy and crying got me thinking… I wish NBA kids nowadays - yes, I am talking about the players! - pretended less to be macho assholes and become more respectful towards everybody so we can get rid of the idiotic hypes and the brainwashing media. Bring back the real competitive NBA so we can forget the last decade of shameful soap opera basketball league! BTW this is the first time in NBA history when the MVP award goes to a player who can't shoot the ball. He doesn't have a jump shot, shoots bricks from three, airballed several free throw attempts against Toronto. Shameful! But yeah, for somebody who can only score if he drives to the basket and dunks the ball(!), he is quite good in the new money-hungry NBA. I remember the story at the beginning of the 2018-19 NBA season when Giannis was trying to organize a yard sale for pennies at his hundreds of thousand dollar rented house with his tens of million dollar salary. That tells you he is a first generation rich guy. Not very bright either.

Driven by a similar story, we have Joel 'Big Mouth' Embiid and his nasty personality because of talking shit to everyone and unintentionally competing with president Trump at posting crap on social media all year long. At the end when his team Philadelphia lost in the playoffs, he was giving this tantrum with a hysterical crying like a freaking caged alligator. By the way, I wrote this 3 weeks before Shaq made fun of him at the 2019 NBA Awards! As for Embiid, he has to learn to defend and use the paint area properly. Right now he is very slow and does stupid fouls. He looks like an 18 wheeler truck with a couple of flat tires. He should also stop jacking up 3s. His team is losing because of him. No wonder on July the 1st, half of his teammates left Philadelphia and got traded to other teams.

As a final thought I have to say these players don't understand that they choose a lifestyle and an attitude and with that come consequences. They all like to pose as immortals but when the day comes they all turn into financial and emotional ashes. Vince Carter and his NBA players guests on his 'Wing It' podcast were complaining about the media and fans forgetting the players are humans too. That's fair but I would add NBA players are the first benefiting from the demigod status when they pose on social media as celebrities. Of course they hit the bottom hard because they fall from high! Just to give you an idea, 70% of the former NBA players lost all their money and most of them had become criminals with many of them being imprisoned for life for their crimes like tax evasion, money laundering, drug dealing, murder! 

The problem is nobody cares about education - and this is obvious when we deal with wealthy people. Of course they have diplomas bought with big money but sadly institutions don't teach how to live only how to be pretentious so people can show off with a title and their stamped piece of paper. The future is...NOT bright despite all the glamour and the spotlights nowadays  you see live and online.