Vancouver Metro Basketball League

Ball is in the Air

By Andrew “Soda” Wadden

The September sun still hangs on in despair as summer turns to fall across North America. For those who love basketball this means the NBA season is right round the corner. With training camps just about to open, it only seems fitting to take a quick glance at a few summer moves that have sparked my interest. Before we get to that, I must give credit to this year’s Hall of Fame inductees. The 2009 class featured a class like no other. John Stockton, NBA leader in assists and steals, arguably the best point guard in NBA history, the “Admiral” David Robinson, two time NBA champion and former MVP, Jazz head coach Jerry Sloan, the NBA’s all-time winningest coach -and counting-, and lastly the G.O.A.T, his “Airness” Michael Jordan.

The greatest basketball player to ever play the game is now enshrined forever amongst his peers, obtaining his rightful place in basketball’s greatest shrine. Seeing Jordan now in the Hall of Fame seems all too surreal to me. I grew up watching Michael, from his early struggles with a terrible Bulls squad, to his dynasty runs with one of the best NBA teams of all time. Jordan was the ultimate clutch performer who possessed the precision of a deadly assassin. Yes he has fists full of rings, and more hardware then the Hall itself, but the real thing that made Jordan special was the way he changed the game. Michael is the reason the NBA game is played the way it is today. Kobe, Lebron, Carmelo, Durant, all the top-scorers in the league have a little Michael in them. The way Jordan played the game has spawned a nation of basketball players whose dream is one day to be like Mike. Some, like Kobe and Lebron are coming close, but to this day there will only be one true Michael Jordan.

Three thoughts.
This summer’s player movement was your basic NBA off-season. There were a few deals that surprised, some that made me scratch my head and others that actually made sense. Here are three thoughts that came to mind when I take a look back at this summer’s movements.

Surprised!
The Orlando Magic letting Hedo Turkoglu go to the Raptors at a price that would have cost them $10 million a season over the next five years, at first made a little sense. It’s risky to give $50 million dollars to a 30 year-old who is little un-proven. What amazes me is the fact that the Magic gave equally the same amount of money in deals to back-up center Marcin Gortat and forward Brandon Bass. Toss in the acquisition of Vince Carter and his massive contract and you’ll see the Magic are well over the luxury-tax and will be feeling the added pressure to win a championship now. Last season Turkoglu was one of the main reasons the Magic were able to get to the finals. The front-line of Hedo, Dwight Howard and Rashard Lewis created match-up problems night in and night out for their opponents. Carter will create and score, but can he stretch the floor like Turkoglu did? The mismatches were the Magic’s strength, and with Carter in the mix it’s much easier for most of the elite teams in the NBA to match up with the Magic. It should be very interesting to see if the Magic can hang this season with Boston and the Cleveland without their ability to stretch defence’s the way they could when they had Turkoglu.

Scratch your head to this.
Allen Iverson signing in Memphis is a blatant cash grab by Memphis owner Michael Heisley. Don’t get me wrong, the price was right, especially for the amount of talent and allure Iverson can bring to your ball club, but where in the big picture of the Grizzlies future game plan does adding Iverson make sense? Memphis already has Rudy Gay and O.J. Mayo who’ll be looking to take at least thirty shots a night between them. Third year point guard Mike Conley is steady improving his game where his minutes at this stage in his career are so valuable. Iverson will expect to be starting at the one or two guard, leaving Conley or Mayo on the bench. Does limiting your young talents growth for the sake of selling tickets make sense? Well as we’ve seen in the past when Mr. Heisley had the Grizzlies in Vancouver, he cares little for the product on the floor and more about the bottom-line when it comes to his organization.

Making sense of it all.
The San Antonio Spurs made sense of a busy off-season by bucking up and making some very bold moves. The Spurs are probably the NBA’s least sexy team to have ever won a championship-the city of San Antonio will never get confused for New York or L.A.-but they have always had some premier talent and this off-season they acquired more. Richard Jefferson joins the Spurs from the Milwaukee Bucks and you can bet he’s one happy amigo to be out of the black-hole that is Milwaukee. Jefferson and his close to 20 points-per-game should fit in with studs Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. The Spurs also acquired former All-Star forward Antonio McDyess who should add some depth and experience to an all ready deep veteran team. The Spurs will be very tough come playoff time as this team is built for that time of the year. Don’t be surprised if this team ends up in this year’s finals. You heard it here first.