Rants and Ranks

The minute I read, "Steve Nash injures himself carry luggage," I knew that he was in trouble.  But let's face it, the minute he suited up in purple and gold it hasn't been pretty; it's been downright ugly. He broke his leg his second game as a Laker, eventually missing 32 games.  That unfortunately was his best LA season.  The next year he played in a whopping 15 total contests.  It's a really sad way for a legend to end his career.  It's certainly not the first time we've seen something like this, but it doesn't make it any easier to digest.   Nash will officially join the "Ring-less Club" as soon as his contract expires at the end of this year.  I mean in reality he is already retired because he's not playing this year, and even if he wanted to play more, who in their right mind would sign him?  So even though he hasn't "officially" used the "r-word" it's pretty common knowledge he's done.   So wh...

Here are some thoughts leading into the new season.  (In no particular order.) 1. This is the first season in many years where we don't need to ask about the health of Andrew Bynum and Greg Oden.  Neither are currently in the league.  I could see someone taking a flyer on Bynum towards the end of the regular season, but I think Oden is done.  He's having some legal woes, and doesn't seem to be worth the headache; not that Bynum is.  The question is: will the two injury-prone talents now be Kobe Bryant and Derrick Rose?  Obviously the repercussions of these two are infinitely higher than the other two knuckleheads.  (More so for Rose and the Bulls than Kobe and the Lakers at this point.) 2. What's Cleveland going to look like?  Is it too good to be true?  Or will LeBron be able to pull it all together?  That team wasn't exactly a harmonious place last year. 3. How will the "grandpa" Spurs hold up?  Popovich is the minutes-...

Nobody reading this probably knows who Reggie Williams is, and that is precisely the point.  Reggie was picked just ahead of Scottie Pippen in the '87 draft.  I would be willing to bet money that you know who Pippen is. The Clippers are who drafted Williams, who was coming off 24 PPG at Georgetown his Senior season. That seems like a pretty good selection for the 4th pick.  Pippen on the other hand, was a virtual unknown, who was actually booed when he was drafted. (It also needs pointed out that the Sonics are the ones who drafted Pippen before trading him that night for nothing in the same stratosphere as Pippen's talent.  Whoops factor on that trade: 5!  This is a double whoops scenario.) Williams topped out at 18.2 PPG in the '92 season, which was inflated due to being on the "run and gun" Nuggets of the early 90's.  He was in actuality a 10-13 PPG scorer the majority of his career, which ended in '97.  (Just for the record, in 1992 Pippen...