Is the Durantula an endangered species?

There was one moment in last Saturday’s Game 3 between the Grizzlies and the Thunder that explained the plot of the Thunder’s 2013 championship hopes. It took two full weeks, but we finally witnessed what the finished product of a non-Westbrook Thunder team looks like.

The Thorny Situation For Derrick Rose

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You either play injured or you stay on the bench-in a suit-long enough to become the villain.

The shadow of the Chicago’s fallen basketball hero is now completely covering the players who still have the ability to suit up on game day. It’s a shadow so dark that it partially covers up the amazing work of head coach Tom Thibodeau. The Bulls were never supposed to reach this point; this storyline wasn’t supposed to play out.

The Doug Collins Pattern

“10-9-8-76ers”

If you’ve attended a Sixers home game in the last year and a half and just happened to catch a victory, these would be some of the lyrics you would be encouraged to sing, as cheesy music played over the speakers in the Wells Fargo Center. Little did we know those lyrics would secretly be a countdown to the team’s destruction.

The ownership group headed by Joshua Harris bought the team in October of 2011, with the hope of bringing back basketball fever to the city of Brothery Love. The franchise never recovered from the downfall of Allen Iverson and casual fans moved onto the new winner in the city, the Phillies. Like with all sports however, if you win, they will come (and buy merchandise).

A Scarlet Mess at Rutgers

There was once a time well before Greg Schiano and C. Vivan Stringer when Rutgers athletics was nothing more than a laughing stock. The university had to bribe their students with free food in an attempt to fill the football stadium on Saturdays, because no one would dare waste their time in watching an opponent run up the score on their beloved Scarlet Knights. For a university that prided itself on playing the first ever college football game, there was no reason to pay attention to the school that created the tagline: the birthplace of college football.

In the last decade the dynamic changed. Greg Schiano made the football program the focus of the university’s athletics. There was general interest in the school from the casual viewer who just happens to catch a game on a Thursday night or a Saturday afternoon. Suddenly there was interest in going to school in central New Jersey because the school was starting to gain exposure.

Everyone involved with the university benefited from the sudden interest in the sports department.

2013 March Madness: Filling out a bracket is overrated

Scott Dargis

I sat in disgust as Marshall Henderson shot the Rebels of Old Miss to the “third” round of the NCAA tournament. I wasn’t pissed off because Henderson now has the ability to continue his best new douche in the sports world campaign. I wasn’t mad that LeBron tweeted that Henderson has the greenest light in the history of basketball.

I was furious because it was barely two days into March Madness and my bracket was toast. Every year it seems to get worse, even though I spend a relatively small amount of time in filling out my bracket, I still have an expectation to do well. This year I had Wisconsin making a semi surprising run to the Final Four because I didn’t believe in Gonzaga, and thought that the Badgers could upset the Buckeyes in the elite eight.

What the hell was I thinking?

2013 Fantasy Baseball: Trout vs. Harper (kinda)

Fineartamerica.com

The who-would-you-rather-have debate between Mike Trout and Bryce Harper is a fictitious thinking exercise. It will inevitably lead to an inconclusive conversation about who is going to be better. The only way to end the argument is to ring the bell, go to your respective corners, and just decide that we should just enjoy the future of baseball. After all, aren’t conversations like that reserved for the guys on the worldwide leader of sports?

Hypothetical conversations such as, Harper or Trout, are fun and a great discussion point during happy hour, but there is one reality in which picking one of the two stars actually matters. It just so happens that this reality is appropriately entitled fantasy baseball.

Different Strokes: How Stephen Curry & Monta Ellis Proved They’re Better Off Apart

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Last year EA Sports released a new entry into the NBA Jam library, entitled NBA Jam On Fire! It was the best entry in the series since the original 16 bit version launched in the mid 90s. I won’t say how much time I spent playing the new version (let’s just say it was a significant amount).

One of my favorite duos to play with was Stephen Curry and Monta Ellis. Together they were an extremely fast, ball swiping, sharpshooting combination that could be unstoppable if used correctly. They could also be destroyed by a duo that featured a well-rounded point forward or anyone that was paired with Hakeem Olajuwon.

I’m not sure if the game developers intended for this to happen or not, but the unrealistic arcade game actually portrayed Golden State’s backcourt very accurately. Fast, fun to watch, explosive at times, but ultimately not good enough against someone who could use the Heat, Thunder, Clippers, Spurs, or The Rainmakers (especially the duo of Steve Nash/Larry Bird).