Category Archives: basketball

LeBron James, Time to Forgive?

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I’ve made it clear on multiple occasions that I do not watch the NBA.  It is simply uninteresting, not exciting and not a watchable sport.  College Basketball is where it is at for me.

On the flip side, the NBA is full of fun, interesting and compelling stories.  In fact, it may be the most dramatic in that department when it comes to all sports.  So when LeBron James made headlines again, I simply rolled my eyes.

I’m far from the only person who was completely disgusted with his bolting of Cleveland for Miami.  To be clear, it isn’t because he made the move, it was the manner in which he arrogantly televised his decision.  Someone making themselves bigger than the game is unacceptable.

Since his championship last year, I feel like James has toned his bad boy image down significantly, if not altogether.  He is happy all the time, extremely outgoing and clearly enjoying himself….similar to how he was in Cleveland, no?

Last week, a fan in Miami made an amazing half court shot, a hook shot mind you, to win $75,000.  LeBron James is part of a foundation that also awards money to a youth club if the shot goes in.  As the shot went in, James came over and tackled the shooter in celebration.  It was a fantastic moment for everyone, and aside from the cash, something that fan will never forget.

Seeing the joy on the face of James is not something you would have seen before his championship in Miami.  It looked like the kid I watched on ESPN in high school with the giant grin.  It was the guy putting the Cavaliers on his back and leading a playoff run.

So is it time to put behind us the disgusting past of James?  In short, maybe.  Think about this, what else has James really done to make you mad at him?  It was inevitable he was going to leave Cleveland so I can’t really blame him for doing it.  In fact, if he had stayed, it would have been the biggest sports story of the year and been a massive shock to just about everyone.

Everyone likes to hate a winner without just cause.  He’s not a trouble maker, not linked to any kind of PED’s, and he promotes the game more than most players do.  If he had never been involved in “The Decision”, would you still feel the same about him?  I can’t imagine I would. The Heat franchise probably didn’t help either with their over the top unveiling of the trio of Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade and James, but that’s not really his fault.

I’m willing to cut the guy a lot of slack for his obvious efforts to win back his fans.  ”The Decision” will never be forgotten, but you can’t change the past right?  All anyone can do is work to improve their future, and it is hard to argue what James has attempted.

EA Sports Drops NCAA Exclusivity

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On a day when the NCAA handed down one of the most unprecedented punishments to Penn State University, I’m surprisingly not going to weigh in with my thoughts.  SImply put, it is disgusting and no matter what the NCAA ruled, it wasn’t enough.  Nothing could be enough.

In news that doesn’t make my blood boil, EA Sports has announced it will not extend the NCAA Football franchise’s exclusive rights when it expires in 2014.  This means that anyone else would be allowed to create an NCAA football game if they acquire the license to make it.

This comes in conjunction with a long standing lawsuit from consumers over the legality of exclusive deals with Madden and the NCAA.  The settlement will pay out a few bucks to those who purchased football games since 2006.  It also means EA Sports cannot sign an exclusive agreement with the Arena Football League, which most people probably weren’t even aware still existed anyway.

The better news for consumers is that the possibility of multiple NCAA Football games will soon exist.  It doesn’t mean EA Sports will discontinue the franchise.  In fact, it is entirely possible they still don’t have competition.  It opens the door for 2K Sports to get back into football however.  It is widely debated that NFL 2k5 remains the greatest football game ever.  In fact, it is said that NFL 2k5 (and its $20 price tag at the time) was the reason EA Sports signed the deal with the NFL.

This game actually existed…and could again.

 

As a longtime NCAA Football fan, this is great news to me.  The game has grown terribly stale.  Defense is still deplorable (and identical to the past five iterations), the AI can’t run or defend the option properly and bugs continue to plague the series at launch each year.  In fact, NCAA 12 was NEVER fixed despite several patches.

NCAA 13 was released recently to a mostly negative reaction from reviewers and fan forums.  Madden has made minor positive strides after a few extremely lackluster years and NCAA fans appear to be fed up with it.  The most enjoyable NCAA I can remember is still on the last generation Xbox.

Knowing the option for improved and alternate NCAA Football games in a couple years is a great feeling.  Now if only SOMEONE would put an NCAA Basketball game on the market.

Random Thoughts: 3-29-12

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Excuse me for my absence from JK Gaming and Sports this week.  Wife is out of town, I’m shuttling kids to school and my Little League team began practicing this week.

-  In the minimal free time I’ve had recently, I sat down to try out the Tiger Woods ’13 demo.  In short, I mostly enjoyed it.  The difficulty has been improved tremendously and it feels like you actually earn every shot you succeed at, something that wasn’t true of any previous iteration.

-  I’ll no longer be PS3-less next week.

-  I can’t possibly be the only one who didn’t know that MLB played regular season games in Tokyo right?  I’m super thrilled for all the great opening games next week, but it seems like no one told me that Seattle and Oakland were playing a pair.  Then again, it is Seattle and Oakland….so….

-  The NHL playoffs are less than 2 weeks away and I cannot wait to break down all of the match ups, stay tuned.

-  The NFL made minor rule changes but the most significant is that regular season overtimes will now use the 2 year old playoff overtime rule.  No longer can you kick a field goal on the first possession of OT and win.  Now if we can just eliminate ties in the NFL.  It’s funny that the NHL, a league that was notorious for having ties, eliminated them but the NFL still has them on occasion.

-  Finally, it is Final Four weekend.  Enough said.

The NCAA Tournament, First Week

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It’s my favorite tournament in any sport.  I’ll take it over anything and everything and I won’t hesitate to defend it.  The NCAA basketball tournament reigns supreme and while it has its off years, it never disappoints.

Here are just a few of the moments that stood out for me:

-  The “First Four”…I’m begging the NCAA to stop this nonsense.  Not necessarily the games itself, but pretending that these games are just as important as when the field hits 64 teams.  It is impossible to argue that the two games played on Tuesday night in Dayton were surprisingly awesome.  Western Kentucky overcame a 16 point deficit with just 5 minutes to go.  BYU trailed Iona by 25 points and rallied to win.

I still don’t know what this thing is, but I love it.

While these two games can be considered a couple of the best that the tournament had to offer, they still aren’t real games in the eyes of many.  For the committee to do this right, I think you really need to have ALL the teams who play Tuesday/Wednesday to be the final 8 at-large teams.  It’s still not fair to conference champions to play extra games.   Make the 8 at-large teams all 16 seeds and let the winners play UNC, Kentucky, Michigan State, and Syracuse.  Seeding is overrated anyway…that’s why so many good seeded teams go down.

-  UNC-Ashville vs. Syracuse.  The officiating was absolutely brutal in this game.  If not for the referees, I really believe we would have seen the first #1 seed lose in the round of 64.  UNC-A’s J.P. Primm was called for a huge lane violation, which was questionable at best.  It occurred on a crucial free throw attempt for Syracuse which resulted in two additional shots being made.

With just 35 seconds left, Syracuse was inbounding the ball up 3.  Syracuse’s Brandon Triche misplayed the ball and it clearly went out of bounds off him.  Officials signaled otherwise.  Whether or not a foul should have been called is irrelevant, the ball went off Triche and that was obvious.

-  VCU over Wichita State.  If you didn’t see this coming, you are not paying attention.  VCU’s head coach Shaka Smart became a household name at the NCAA tournament last year.  He took his Rams to the Final Four and showed no sign of stopping in their first game this year.  Expect Smart to get a more recognizable coaching job in the near future.

-  15 seeds.  My favorite moment in NCAA Tournament history is when 15th seeded Hampton shocked Iowa State in 2001.  I’ve never seen such genuine joy from a coach than what I saw in Steve Merfeld.  After Iowa State’s Jamaal Tinsley missed a shot with 1.2 seconds on the clock, Hampton’s David Johnson carried Merfeld across the court.  Merfeld was pumping his fists and kicking while being held.  It was such a cool moment.

My favorite NCAA Tournament moment, from 2001.

Friday saw the first 15 seed to win since that moment.  Norfolk State seemingly matched Missouri bucket for bucket as the game progressed.  They wouldn’t go away and they ultimately defeated the 2 seed Missouri 86-84.

Fast forward just a couple hours and Lehigh, also a 15 seed, would shoot down the almighty Duke Blue Devils. It was unreal and almost unfathomable.  The parity of college basketball is improving every year and it is great to see.

- Indiana defeats VCU.  The round of 32 saw my favorite team, the Indiana Hoosiers against Smart’s VCU Rams.  VCU controlled a good portion of the game but Indiana was resilient late in the game.

IU’s Will Sheehey helped take IU to the round of 16.

Will Sheehey’s shot with 12 seconds left had me jumping for joy and was a 2nd reminder that IU basketball is back.  The first of course, was the Kentucky game at Assembly Hall…….rematch on Friday by the way!

-  St. Louis and Purdue’s almosts.  These teams almost pulled off major upsets but came up just short.  Purdue had a chance to put Kansas away but still pulled off a valiant effort.  St. Louis meanwhile hung with Michigan State to the very end, but to no avail.

With 16 teams remaining, it will be interesting to see what develops now.  Obviously everyone will be talking about the Kentucky/IU rematch, but how far can teams like Florida, Xavier, Ohio, and NC State really go?

Random Thoughts 03-05-12

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Sometimes instead of a well thought out blog post, I just want to jot down some quick thoughts with little to no elaboration.

-  MLB 12: The Show is released tomorrow on the Playstation 3.  I cannot begin to explain my level of excitement for this.

-  I’m not afraid to admit that I am not a fan of Mass Effect.  ME3 is released tomorrow as well.

-  As written previously, this is the time of year I badly wish for a College Hoops game.  Please someone, make College Hoops 2k13.

-  Speaking of College Basketball, all of the major conference tournaments get underway this week.  I’m especially looking forward to the Big Ten Tournament.

-  Rory McIlroy became the world’s number one golfer over the weekend.  I’ve followed him rather closely the last few years and he could very well hold this spot for a long time.

-  With Peyton Manning’s contract about to take a huge turn, expect some big news over the next few days.

NCAAB Conference Tournament Coverage on ESPN3

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With most mid-major conferences already underway with their tournaments, you may see an explosion of them on the ESPN family of networks.  As a huge college basketball fan, I’m offering a little reminder to you that ESPN3.com offers up not only nearly every game seen on the ESPNs, but a plethora of games you can’t see anywhere else.

Not only will you get first and second round coverage of all the rarely seen conferences, but it is high school basketball championship time.  ESPN3 frequently shows many state basketball championships for boys and girls.

ESPN3 is available at their website, if your internet provider offers it, as well as on Xbox Live for gold members.

It really is a great service that gives you coverage of mainstream sports as well as a lot of fringe sports you could never find on television.

Will College Hoops 2k13 Happen?

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When it comes to video gaming, fans of College Basketball are simply out of luck.  How did we get to this point?  How is it even possible that there are no NCAA hoops games available?  Let’s go back to 2007.

College Hoops 2k8 was released by 2k Sports and was a hit.  It certainly wasn’t the best basketball sim ever, but it was solid.  It had nearly every D-1 school in the game and a majority of their actual arenas and gyms.  With a player editor you could change the names, numbers, and features of any player in the game to make them like their real life counterparts.

The last good college basketball game.

Sadly, after an alleged dispute with EA Sports, this would be the last iteration of the College Hoops 2k franchise.  That was nearly 5 years ago.

EA Sports meanwhile was continuing to release it’s very inferior NCAA March Madness.   It would change the name over to NCAA Basketball in 2008 after 2k bowed out.  NCAA Basketball 10 easily had the most potential however.

Not only did NCAA Basketball 10 utilize full ESPN broadcast presentation and graphics, it also incorporated CBS Sports broadcast presentation as well.  This was completely ground breaking.  Most regular season weekday games would of course use ESPN and their broadcast announcers, Brad Nessler, Dick Vitale, and Erin Andrews.  However, during key weekend dates, big games, and all of the NCAA tournament, you’d get the CBS overlay with announcers Gus Johnson and Bill Raftery.  That right there was a big reason this game could’ve been great.

Unfortunately, the game play was atrocious and nearly unplayable.  So it was over 2 years ago when EA Sports put a halt to their NCAA Basketball franchise.  There hasn’t been a game made since, and there hasn’t been a single confirmed announcement about future NCAA hoops games.

EA Sports gave us the best presentation in a hoops game ever.....at the expense of giving us some of the worst game play ever.

2K should be jumping at this golden opportunity sitting in front of them.  First off, they have NBA 2k which is in its 2nd year of greatness.  2k11 won Sports Game of the Year across the board.  Utilizing their NBA game play engine would be the obvious step into re-solidifying a once thriving franchise.  It also makes for an incredible alternative to those who don’t care for the NBA.

On top of that, 2K doesn’t excel at anything else.  MLB 2k12 is rumored to be the final version of its baseball series because, well, it isn’t very good.  MLB 2k hasn’t held a candle to EA Sports’ MVP 05 since they took the exclusive license from them.  Not to mention MLB: The Show has been a vastly superior product on the PS3.   It’s laughable really that they put resources into a terrible game…on top of giving away $1,000,000 every year to someone who throws a perfect game.  Think about how much the game could improve with a million bucks.

Obviously, there is no football from 2k as that belongs to EA Sports and Madden…another highly overrated product.

2k hockey has been put on brief hiatus as well, even on Wii.  EA has hockey down and even if 2k came back, it would be very inferior.

Clearly there is a void here that needs filled.  November of 2012 would be the perfect opportunity to release College Hoops 2k13.  The game engine is there, the fans are clearly there (many consider CH 2k8 the best sports game of all time), and 2k doesn’t have a lot else going on.

Jeremy Lin, What Exactly Has he Done?

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It’s no secret that I love the sport of basketball.  Raised in Indiana, it is in my blood.  Some of the best high school and college players come from this state.  Unfortunately, I have a dire hatred for the NBA.   The product is terrible and the concept of team is non-existant.  It is a league full of ego and self-centeredness.  One only has to look at how Lebron James handled his free agency to see that.

So while I go out of my way to avoid watching ESPN’s SportsCenter and seeing only NBA highlights while two major sports are currently going on, it is impossible to miss the impact that Jeremy Lin is having on not only the New York Knicks, but the NBA as a whole.

Lin has been an on and off again player having gone up and down from the minors.  He was a superstar in high school however.  His senior season he led his Palo Alto High School team to a 32-1 record.  They won a California state title over a much better team.  He averaged 15 points per game.

Anyone who thought this guy would be a star is a liar.

He went to Harvard and played basketball there earning two All-Ivy League team awards.  He graduated with a degree in Economics in 2010.

He went undrafted in the 2010 NBA Draft.  Let’s be honest here, no one goes to Harvard with the exclusive intention of being a pro basketball player right?   Right?

Well he ultimately signed with his hometown Golden State Warriors for pay significantly less than what other teams, including the Los Angeles Lakers, were offering him.  Not exactly what a model NBA player would do right?

Lin rarely played for the Warriors, being on the inactive list most of the season.  However, whenever he managed to get a couple minutes of playing time, the home crowd would give him a mighty ovation.  He became a fan favorite who didn’t play.

Ultimately, the lockout occurred, he was moved around and finally waived by the Houston Rockets in December of 2010.  He was picked up by the New York Knicks immediately.

After another demotion to the NBA-D League, he was recalled to the Knicks on January 23, 2012.  He was nothing special in the minimal time he played.  In fact, he had only played 55 minutes with the Knicks on the season….until February 4 that is.

Lin held nothing back in his first career start.

That night against the Nets, he went off and put up career highs in points (25), assists (7) and rebounds (5).  After the game, Knicks Head Coach Mike D’Antoni said Lin has a point-guard mentality and “a rhyme and a reason for what he is doing out there.”  His reward?  A start in the next game.

Against the Jazz a few nights later, he went for 28 points and 8 assists.  Who was this kid? He was essentially a no namer to the majority of fans and here he was making headlines.  Surely this was just a fluke……

Two nights later against Washington,  23 points and 10 assists…his first career double-double!  Are you freaking kidding me?

Consecutive start number 3 saw a formidable opponent in the Lakers.  The result?  38 points.  THIRTY-EIGHT!  He led all scorers in this one and led the team to its 4th consecutive win.  Unfortunately, they had to travel to Minnesota and play the very next night thanks to the shortened NBA season.

He only put up 20 points against the Minnesota Timberwolves, but in the process set ridiculous records including being the first player to score 20 points and 7 assists in each of his first 4 starts.

Then there was last night at Toronto…

How do you not appreciate what this kid has been able to accomplish?  The Knicks have now won 6 games in a row because of him.  Not only is he scoring, but he’s got the Knicks playing as a team.  He’s been a huge factor in moving the ball around as a good point guard does.

They go for 7 straight tonight against Sacramento and quite honestly, I’ll be looking for this game on NBA TV.  I’m intrigued at his ability to play a style of basketball that isn’t typical to the NBA.  Perhaps players like Lin will bring in more NBA fans, or those like me who have swore off the NBA since the turn of the century.

The question of course is how long can this pace be kept up?  With Amar’e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony back playing again, one would assume the number of touches would decrease, along with his points per game.  However, if that ratio continues with assists, it would show a direct correlation with his production to the team.

Oh, and I’m going to predict that his jersey sales have gone up by about 3000% in the last week.

Will Ferrell Announces Starters at NBA Game

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Veteran funny man Will Ferrell was a guest public address announcer at the New Orleans Hornets game last night as they faced the Chicago Bulls.  Normally I wouldn’t pay any attention to anything in the NBA as far as news goes, but this was particularly interesting.  In fact, this is something small the NBA do more frequently.

Ferrell was in New Orleans shooting a movie with Zach Galifianakis.  He was asked to do the starting lineups and did it in typical WIll Ferrell fashion.  Ferrell came off as very professional with non-offensive humor thrown in.  He got the job done, and I commend him for his efforts.

Check out Ferrell’s performance from inside the arena below.

NBA Jam: On Sale Edition

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Xbox gamers can get the sequel to an overpriced and mediocre game a little bit cheaper this week. NBA Jam: On Fire Edition is dropping the price from 1200 ($15) MS to 800 ($10) MS.

Team fire, tag mode, and vastly improved AI are a couple of the changes made to this XBLA download. If you were turned off quickly by the $50 version of the game and haven’t checked out “On Fire” for that reason, now might be a great time to get reacquainted with the series. I assure you, this version is superior in nearly every way.