NBA Round-Up

Mark Jackson hired as Golden State Warriors Head Coach

First and foremost, kudos to Mark Jackson on getting this job. I already like him more than Mike Brown (shot fired fool!). I've been impressed with his basketball knowledge as a play-by-play guy even though I sometimes hate his one/two-liners. If I have to hear "Hand down, man down!" or "Mama, there goes that man!" one more time this season I may just throw my drink at the screen. But hey, he's got signature lines that he uses and they haven't gotten him fired yet.

I did find it a little curious that he has been hired with no coaching experience at any level, ANY LEVEL. Not high school, college, or the pros. Maybe he coached a kids team before I don't know, but it just seemed a little odd to me. Like he mentioned on ESPN last night, he has had experience as a "coach on the court" during his playing days in the NBA. That's a good point and I do think that having NBA playing experience works in his favor but I'm not so sure that it correlates to being a good coach and/or substitute for relevant coaching experience. Nevertheless, I hope he is successful because he seems like a smart basketball mind and a straight-shooting guy. I'm also curious as to whether he'll try to bring former coach and current co-analyst Jeff Van Gundy on as an assistant since Mark has stated that he wants his team to be defensive-minded and Van Gundy's a pretty good defensive coach.

Dirk Nowitski's Game 4 Performance

Dirk played great last night considering he apparently had the flu. But let's not get carried away with the Jordan 38 point with the flu in '97 comparisons. This also reminds me that I'd like to introduce the "medical term" Dirk Flu into existence. Not to be confused with Bird Flu (though someone - not me - might say Dirk kinda looks like a bird). The Dirk Flu means you have a 102-degree temperature but still shoot like Larry Bird at the Garden but the downside is that you will miss a single free throw.

Who is feeling more pressure about Game 5 of the NBA Finals?

Miami. Or better yet, LeBron James. If Miami loses I still believe they have a solid chance to win in 7 but the pressure will be on. They'll be returning home to Miami to play a potential series-losing game 6 on their home court. That's pressure! No one wants to lose at home to close out the NBA Finals. And most of all, LeWosh does not want to lose at home in the Finals after all the hoopla surrounding them prior to and during this season. One thing you can't take away from them win-or-lose however, is that they had a hell of a season and made it to the Finals in their first year together. To pull that off wasn't easy and if they win this series there will still be a lot of hate to go around but there'll also have to be some respect given as well. We'll see what happens.

Speaking of LeBron...

Chris Broussard was on Sportscenter this morning talking about how he was in communication with former LeBron teammates or associates and how during the game they were saying that LeBron gave up like people think he did against the Celtics last year in the playoffs. I'm not so sure I buy into this. Wade had an amazing Game 3 and was off-the-charts in Game 4 so I'd guess that LeBron was being passive because Wade's been the hotter hand. I do agree that James looked lazy at times during the game but "mailing it in", I don't think so. Meanwhile, doesn't Chris Broussard remind you (just a tad) of Bob from the Martin TV show?