Yeah yeah the Celtics and Lakers are getting ready to face off yet again for an NBA championship, but please spare me the rivalry renewed nonsense these franchises haven’t meet in the finals in over 20 years I have a hard time thinking Kobe and Lamar Odom wanna get a ring for the showtime Lakers and make them proud. Sure thats a nice added bonus but lets be real these guys are trying to win for them and for now, history is irrelevant except for of course when you take into consideration that this could go a very long way to establishing the legacy of one Kobe Bean Bryant. Over the course of the season I was one of the most adamant that Chris Paul should of won MVP, I can say it now, no matter how much it hurts, I was wrong. There is no one player more important to his teams success and it all starts with him buying into the team concept. I thought the Spurs might of been able to derail that train of thought but it only took Kobe the first half of game one to snap out of it and see what they were doing and how to attack it. So David Stern got what he wanted ( I’m stunned really you should see my face, sorry sarcasm button is broke again ) and 2 of the most storied franchises with 2 of the biggest fan bases have made the finals a perfect storm for Stern and the NBA. On one side you got Kevin Garnett everyones favorite player, seriously good luck trying to find someone say a bad word about K.G. and if you do manage to hear it you can literally feel the bitterness and jealously seeping through the words, teamed up with 2 more all-star vets who people actually wanna root for. On the other side you got L.A., yeah Hollywood will be out in full force which Stern will no doubt love but more importantly you got Kobe aka the black mamba getting ready to really put the game in a choke hold. People who know me know I’m a Kobe hater always have been, from watching him as a spoiled egotistical punk right out of high school to driving Shaq off the Lakers and the hate grew to an all time high when he snitched on Shaq when he was hemmed up with that mishap in Colorado. However at some point in the middle of the season, I’m not quite sure when it happened, I couldn’t allow myself to hate on the man anymore. Sure he comes across more smug and arrogant as ever, sure he seems to be forcing smiles and putting on a show as contrived and fake as can be but watch him play basketball and all the rest because moot. True no matter how good someone is at a sport doesn’t mean they are good people but Kobe will never be anything other than a basketball player in my life so thats all I can and am willing to judge him on, basically I’m making myself be objective because well he is that good. So while everyone is eager to try and restore the historic rivalry
or argue great defense vs. great offense my main focus is on Kobe Bryant and him trying to stake his claim as the best to ever play the game.

* Patiently waits for the Jordan Stan’s to come out with their preprogrammed thoughts and ideas of how since Jordan was the first player to convince them to spend over 100 $ on a pair of shoes, they fell for the not so subliminal advertising and literally wanted to be like Mike and after all Jordan started in a movie with Bugs Bunny so there no way anyone will ever be a better basketball player than him. * Walk wit me… »

So the 21 Questions concept/gimmick post is back, I’m still not exactly sure how everyone else as a whole felt about it but I had fun with it so I’m a rock it again and try and make it a semi regular post here at New Jersey Drive. As you can see by those blue words in the first sentence I have finally figured out how to properly link things ( shout to I Fux for the tutorial ) so that should make things flow a lot easier. So why 21 Questions, in case your wondering, no I’m not a 50 Stan but I needed to decide on a number of questions and well that seemed to make the most sense, end of story. Once again these are 21 things that on my mind that I am questioning, it’s not regulated to just sports, even if sports questions dominate this weeks 21 Questions. So without further ado here is installment # 2 of 21 questions. Walk wit me… »

Enough with the crybaby/flopping nonsense Lebron, at first I thought it was an inaccurate assessment thrown at you by the haters but somewhere in the middle of last nights game I found myself with an application for the Lebron haters club in hand don’t worry I’ll tell you every reason why. For starters I can’t believe you duped the refs into calling a flagrant foul on Cassell in the first half last night. He barely grabbed the back of your jersey and you went down crying like you just took a moving car to the face, what did Cassell rip off that imaginary Superman cape ? You are a genetic freak and absolute beast. ( 6?8 250 lbs. or 6?9 260 lbs. according to him ) You should be able to take a ninja kick to the face from Chuck Norris without flinching. Just cause the rest of the rest of the league stays flopping/whining doesn’t mean you should, didn’t your mom ever teach you that ? If the rest of the league jumped off a bridge would you follow right behind them ? You want to be King James super-duper star of the league, well then you have to be above that and o yeah you might want to actually make those lay-ups at the end of games or more importantly take it strong and dunk the damn ball already. Walk wit me… »

Jay-Z might of gotten some good news today with his 150 Million dollar Live Nation deal finalized ( just check the big homie Eskay’s site for that news, http://tinyurl.com/5dowdp ) but his dream of moving the Nets to Brooklyn has taken a giant step back and I for one couldn’t be happier. After listening to all this talk about Seattle losing the Sonics and how outraged everyone should be that they are getting hijacked I couldn’t help but think why isn’t the same outrage happening here over the Nets ? Don’t get it twisted the fans in Seattle have every right to be outraged just like me and most of my friends were when this proposed plan to bring the Nets to BK first broke but it seems like everyone forgot that this was was supposed to happen. Awhile back Nah Right vet ( shout to 911 ) asked me that very question why aren’t Nets fans up in arms about the move. My answer was there were numerous reasons, for one the Nets are low on the totem poll as far as sports teams go in the tri-state area, second the current arena at the Meadowlands is a dump and forget how much of a pain it can be to get to once your there you feel dirty and very uncomfortable, yeah yeah I know that’s Jersey for you. Thirdly it’s only a basketball team was a common theme among people who could actually do something about it and they didn’t care cause the Nets were losing money not making it and instead of using common sense and logic to see why they were losing money and what could be done to have them make money they just wrote it off and concentrated on getting that new hockey arena built in Newark. Seriously hockey was a dying sport it seemed people were forgetting it ever existed and their main focus was on getting hockey to Newark, HOCKEY to NEWARK ?!!! The last reason why I said a big deal wasn’t being made has come to light, most of us just didn’t believe it was ever gonna happen and it looks the lovely borough of Brooklyn is in the process of losing. Walk wit me… »

Talk about a match-up. OK so yes it is just hyperbole I know this isn’t the finals might not even be the best series but for my money this is about as good as it gets, sans a Kobe vs. Lebron match-up but I’m still leaning towards that not happening. I’m glad to hear that people are finally saying they are not gonna underestimate the Hornets anymore, even though usually when everyone says that is when said team falls on their face, they have finally had enough answers to show that yes Chris Paul really is that good and his supporting cast ain’t half bad either. Yeah they are what he makes them for the most part but whoever the GM of that team is needs to get some recognition, maybe people like me learning his name would be a good start (note: the GM is Jeff Bower, Google is indeed your friend ) Anyone who knows me, or e-knows me, knows I think Chris Paul is the MVP and he also just so happens to be my favorite player to watch, I take every chance I get to talk him up but enough is enough the GM Jeff Bower needs his respect because he has built the perfect team around Chris Paul ( more on this later ) and a team that has a real shot at beating the Spurs. So why I will preview the other match-ups when they are finalized this one is too good not to get it’s own separate post. Walk wit me… »

So normally I do a post about a specific topic in sports but today I got an idea to try something new/different. Will it work ? Who knows we shall see. Over the weekend I was watching the Bernard Hopkins Joe Calzaghe fight and I had a few questions about what could be done to tweak some of the old stale rules to make boxing more exciting and lead to a better way to determine the winner. Then today I saw the post on nah right about what NYoil had to say about Nas’s new song and thought about people quick to claim Nas is on some gimmick tip trying to get attention and that got me thinking. Then to top it off there were a couple other statements made by people that literally made me shake my head wondering if these people were new to planet Earth. Add these things to the fact that I’m always thinking and trying to expand on ideas I decided to see if I could freak a post out of asking questions. Maybe I’d provide an answer ( of course my answer meaning my opinion, meaning truth aka fact, just kidding…. kind of, lmao ) to some, maybe I’d leave it up to any and all readers to answer in their own way, either way I figured it would be entertaining, to me at least and being that I live in my own world thats really all that matters. So without further ado heres the 21 questions that have been on mind lately. Walk wit me… »

( As yesterday pic blatantly swacked from ESPN and only the pic )

OK lets face it yesterdays post was just a warm-up for this post, the Eastern Conference is very top heavy but after that it’s really a joke and I’m not just talking about those teams from NYC and Miami even the other playoff teams would probably lose to Davidson ( I told you the kid Curry could shoot ) It’s possible the best 2 teams in the league are here in the East and probably the single best resides here, no matter how much it pains me to admit it. The Celtics could do more than survive in the Western Conference and their 22-4 record against the West should be proof of that. However we won’t need to worry about that for a month or so so lets gear up and get ready for what should be the single greatest playoffs EVER. The East will be boring until the end, the West should have absolutely great match-ups from the start, some of these first round match-ups could be as good or better than some of the best conference finals in recent years. So lets not waste anymore time talking about the obvious let’s get it in. Walk wit me… »

( Pic blatantly swacked from ESPN but that is all that is swacked )

Whats good people it’s been a minute since I’ve blessed you with a sports colum, I’ve been a bit busy but no need for details so let’s keep it moving. This has been a crazy year for the NBA, one that has managed to erase memories of last year debacle that started to drive certain fans away, i.e. ME, and brought my interest in the game back with a vengeance. Yeah the Celtics might have revived a lot of other peoples interest but their from the Boston/New England area they have had enough going for them with 2 world series rings and 4 recent Super Bowl championships with one being a perfect season, o yeah wait that didn’t happen they went 18-1 and only have 3 rings. ( laughs at self for saying ONLY 3 rings but I digress ) OK so I guess the Celtics dominating isn’t so bad after all. The real story of the season has been the Western Conference probably the best and most competitive conference/league in sports history. From the fact that the top 6 teams finished within 3 games of each other to the fact that a team with 48 wins actually missed the playoffs, while 48 wins would be good enough to earn fourth place in the East. Yeah the East after the top 2 teams really is THAT bad. Walk wit me… »

I know it seems like a silly question right ? I mean most valuable should mean just that, which player holds the most VALUE ? Not whose the best player in the league, Kobe right now, not whose the best player on the best team, K.G., and definitely not whose the been the best player over the years to never win it, Kobe again. However you define MVP please limit it to this year, career achievements means nothing when discussing THIS years MVP. Walk wit me… »

Ok so I haven’t had the chance to dissect the brackets like I normally do since I have been sick as all hell the last 2 days, normally I fill out like 62 different brackets I look at them all and decided to mix and match and see what ones I feel more comfortable with. Well this year I filled out 1 wrote a post and then got deathly ill, OK maybe not deathly ill but it sure felt like it. So this morning when I wake up and I feel a little bit better, meaning I can actually stand up on my own power and I can think semi clearly I decided to start rapid fire picking my brackets so I can hurry up and make the deadlines in all the pools I’d be entering. Well apparently the Flu = no balls ( pause of course ) as for some reason I have very few upsets this year. At first this hurt my soul, whats the fun in this if not for picking the upsets ? But the more I looked the less reasons I could find to pick some, I mean yeah I could pick just to pick upsets but the idea is also to be right. Well this year it seems the selection committee decided to take the fun out of the tournament by placing to many of the sleepers to either match up early ( Butler, South Alabama ) or match up against the elite seeds way too early. ( Davidson against Georgetown in the 2nd round ) Are they trying to make it so all # 1 and # 2 seeds advance and what the deal with giving UCLA a damn near free pass to the final four, now I see why everyone is picking them to win it all, it’s by far the safest bet because they have by far the safest road.

Walk wit me… »