Saturday Night Fever

By referencing a John Travolta movie I might be dooming this column, especially since I have never even been able to sit all the way through this movie. However, there really aren't many good Saturday titles to steal. I mean I am not going to use an Elton John song to lable my column for Christ Sakes. Although I would love to see the Mavs play by play announcer refer to Avery Johnson a the tiny dancer on the sidelines. This week has seen some interesting developments.

Carmelo Anthony tried to choke slam that guy on the Lakers no one had ever paid any attention to before he dropped 22 on the Nuggets earlier this week. Carmelo is going to have to grow out of this even if he is from Baltimore. He would have been the MVP last year if he had not been suspended for fifteen games. I firmly believe this. I understand the NBA's suspension rules given the Auburn Hills incident, but if you remember it was not that long ago that the Knicks and Heat games were sure fire slugfest. Charles Oakley hasn't been out of the league so long either. Speaking of the Knicks.

I really didn't want to even touch this one, but damn I guess it is obligatory. This was the most embarassing lost in league history, nevermind the fact that Nate Robinson's heave at the end saved them from the technicality. I wish I could get paid the money that Isiah Thomas gets paid to be that bad at my job. It is his job to make sure that the Knicks know which nights there games are, and these guys looked worse than the Varsity Blues squad after a night with Ms. Davis. Thomas has become a parody of himself. If the Knicks were smart they would petition David Stern to dissolve their team this summer and start over with an expansion draft. If he could set it up where they got Ewing back in the day he could do this right. The people of New York would be forever greatful.

Durant dropped 35 last night. Kevin Durant is just smooth. The kid is going to be amazing, and the Celtics fans cheering their new big three will in the end still be pissed that this year's draft didn't play out differently. I am realtively convinced that David Stern stepped in on this one too after the Ping Pong balls didn't bounceright and forced Danny Ainge to make some moves that were more dramatic than fogging a mirror. The NBA could not have the Knicks and the Celtics suck as bad as they did last season simultaneously again. This would have been horrific for Stern who knows that the marquee east coast teams need to be big in order for the league to match his vision. Back to Durant. He has the potential to be the best scorer in the league with in the next two years because he can score from some many different ways. When he was at Texas he was as good as Melo was in his year at Cuse, but he had now Gerry Mc to take them into the final four. Durant will shoot a bad percentage this year, but will be above forty percent from the field by next year once his moves catch up to the speed of the NBA game.

Golden State has recovered from their Jackless start. Stephen Jackson is terrifying. He is the man that makes sure that no one tries to tweak the fantastic Mr. Glass, also known as Baron Davis. Davis is damn good, but the over and under for him staying on the floor past January has to make Warriors fans nervous. Everyone already knows that I am a fan of Kelenna Azkubuike. The Jason Richardson move might still come back to haunt them because he was the guy that led this team who was not crazy. Davis is not the leader of this team even if he is the heart of it. Baron will play his ass off, and he should take the last shot of the game. He still doesn't keep the ducks in a row the way that Richardson once did and Jackson does when he isn't too busy giving officials the stink eye.

The Hornets are all on the floor, quick go knock on wood. They look good too. I love to watch this team for a couple of reasons. CP3 is the obvious one, but there are some others too. David West is a big man who can really play, especially when he can funnel people to the beta version of Ben Wallace, Tyson Chandler. They worked out the personality programming issues on the beta version and he is capable of throwing the ball in basket at a clip better than the starting center for the Washington Generals. The next reason is that Peja is becoming Jeff Hornacek. He is doing the long hair come over that is cemented with hair gel. They have the same sweet shooting touch, but Peja if you remeber Peja actually has the ability to average twenty a game. He has not done it recently, but if he can stay healthy (along with Paul, West, Chandler, and Jackson) I wouldn't count New Orleans out in the West as a first rounder nobody wants to see. The Southwest is gruesome. If the Hornets were still in Charlotte with this line up then they would be a top three seed easy.

Worst nick names in the NBA... sorry for the lack of a transition. Here is the first installment of this list, feel free to add, I'm sure Dusty will.

Red Rocket- The Spurs commentators call this man the Red Rocket without apology every game. I guess it's slightly better than lipstick. Still South Park pops in mind every time.

J-Ho- Josh Howard cannot like this name. This also speaks to the larger point that the people who call games need to quit smashing the first letter of someone's first name with the first half of their last name. It was never all that cool, and it is really taken on a life of its own. This should be stopped.

Scal- Brian Scalabrine doesn't really even warrant a nickname, not that Matt Bonner does, but this sounds too much like scab.

Black Mamba- for reasons already mentioned in this space.

Starbury- this man is no longer a star. Let's not give him any reason to think more highly of himself than he already does.

More to come... the Captain signing off for now.