Pick and Pop - 5/3
Posted by SK, May 3, 2008 - 8:55 pm
- Almost all of the first round of the playoffs is in the books. For all the talk of Western Conference superiority and parity, none of the series out there went 7 games, and there were no upsets. Meanwhile, the East produced a near giant killer in the Sixers, and the Celtics-Hawks series has gone to a seventh game. Go figure.
- If the LA Times is right, Kobe Bryant will walk away your 2007-2008 NBA MVP. Guess I was way off on my prediction that the media hates him. I’m going to call this Kobe’s Departed season, because this MVP will be a makeup for the years he didn’t get it… like Scorcese and The Departed.
- Speaking of the MVP, I was 4-6 on my postseason award predictions. But I forgot to include one: Zaza Pachulia narrowly edges out Pau Gasol for the 07-08 Hairiest Player award. Pachulia also wins the playoff award for most fun name to say out loud.
- The coaching carousel will be interesting this offseason, with at least one and possibly three teams (Dallas, Phoenix, Detroit) entering the search after winning 50+ games and with more than one Hall of Fame caliber player on the roster. That has to be some sort of first.
- Those Hanes ads with Michael Jordan and Cuba Gooding Jr. are a little too homoerotic for primetime television. I’m just saying.
- Note to the folks at TNT - I love your NBA coverage, and Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, and Charles Barkley are the most entertaining studio crew in all of sports. But I’ve never seen a single episode of The Closer, Saving Grace, or Tyler Perry’s House of Payne… and unless there’s a gun to my head I doubt I ever will.