It really is pathetic that the Lakers quit in the NBA Finals. Nice job Phil. You gave up the biggest lead in Finals history and your team quit in game 6.

I know this for a fact. No Jordan team ever quit in the playoffs. Even the first 7 years when the Jordan lost in the playoffs. They never quit. Jordan would never allow that.

so does kobe start out this year's off season demanding a trade again?

A lot of people have long considered Pippen's "migraines" code for quitting.

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By the way, Beardown, it seems like you don't give Phil any credit for the titles his teams won, but you blame him when they lose. That's a bit of a double standard, no?

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Well, Pippen did quit the first year Jordan retired in '94.

But I'll give him the benefit of the doubt with the migraines. People say that is really a tough thing to fight through.

Odom needs to be traded, and I didn't hear any bitching about Gasol when they went like 20-4 after the trade, or after Game 5 when he outplayed KG. I get your point, but you cant blame your cast if your are the best player in the world and supposedly the next MJ and get outplayed consistently on both ends of the floor by Paul Pierce.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Don't worry, NSJ's guy at the emissions station says this loss will seal Kobe's move to the Bulls.

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I never said he's a horrible coach. I just don't think he's a great coach.

So if Phil isn't a great NBA coach, who is?

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Rudy Tomjonovich?

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Kid Cairo's Boers & Bernstein YouTube Channel

Kid Cairo: 2013 March Madness Tournament Winner!

"Cowabunga? Cowa fucking piece of dog shit! This game is diarrhea coming out of my dick!"

Phil is a GREAT NBA coach, but he did a TERRIBLE job this series. He was unprepared for pretty much every matchup, managed his rotation pitifully, and basically relied on Kobe to bail them out of tough situations instead of, you know, coaching.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Currently? Not many.

Sloan, Riley and Popavitch.

I know you thing Phil is great. That's fine Midget. I just don't. Sorry.

Please explain how Scottie quit in '94. And don't give me any BS about 1.9 seconds. The guy chooses to sit out a play and gets crucified for an eternity.

He was arguably the MVP that year. Certainly one of the top 3 best players in the league behind Hakeem and David Robinson. The Bulls just happened to run into a more talented, more physical Knicks team.

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Kid Cairo's Boers & Bernstein YouTube Channel

Kid Cairo: 2013 March Madness Tournament Winner!

"Cowabunga? Cowa fucking piece of dog shit! This game is diarrhea coming out of my dick!"

The sound went dead on KG early in his interview. He must have swore.

I liked how he hit on Michelle.

KG - You look good today, girl.

From the great writer Bill Simmons.....

Where you stand on Scottie Pippen depends on two questions:
1. Do you follow the NBA? I mean, do you really follow it?
2. Do you give up on anyone who has made even one stupid mistake in his life?

That really covers it, IMO. He is tied with Moses Malone IMO in the most under appreciated NBA stars of the modern era.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Pippen was awesome in the 6 titles. Don't get me wrong. He was great.

I was referring to the 1.9 seconds. He did quit. Goes without saying. Can't argue that.

Comparing Kobe to MJ officially dies tonight. Kobe was not a factor in about 80% of the series.

Kobe is an all time great, but unless he rallies off a long string of titles he's not on the same level.

He was a spectator a lot during this series watching Boston dominate.

The Celtics shocked the world with how much they dominated this series.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Another Shoutout to all you closet NBA fans. This section went from dead in November to pretty much every relevant thread going multiple pages in the past couple months, including the playoffs thread and the Finals thread going 11+ pages. This Bud's for you, closet NBA fans!

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

I always made it clear that my NBA season starts the day the playoffs start, besides following the Bulls. When the Bulls were terrible, I lost all interest.

Next year should be a different story though as I'm excited about the future being built around a potential franchise player.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I know, you are definitely one of the better NBA contributors here. I just dont think this sport is as dead as most would like you to believe. Then again, Im easily the most biased one here on that subject. I Love this game, and just like I biasedly defended Favre when he shed tears, I will defend Pierce in the same way. I dont think Kobe would be shedding tears of happiness in the same situation. As a basketball fan, it's very cool to see KG and Pierce win their title and validate their careers.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

naturally the praise goes to garnett, allen and pierce, but rajon rondo ripped them a new asshole tonight, and did on and off throughout the season. but what REALLY sets this team apart is that bench. they bring in some real tough bad-asses that really tighten the screws defensively, and can fill it up offensively as well. posey, brown, eddie house (thank god they stopped running cassell out there), these guys came to play. eddie house is a real weapon, and it took them awhile to give up on the cassell experiment and finally let this guy play. his shooting kept that defense honest, and the penetration just kept shredding the middle.

rajon rondo was something tonight, he looked like an upper-echelon point guard. he has a real feel for where the open shooters are, but i guess that isnt saying a whole lot with the wide open looks they were getting on the perimeter.

this team isnt going away, either. the core will all be back for more next year.

The sport is far from dead, and it will surive whatever happens with this donaghy thing. It may never reach the heights that Jordan took it to again. The ratings for those series are insane. It also will never be on the same level as the NFL.

The NBA sucked after Jordan left. It got a little better with the Spurs and Lakers but was still pretty bad. The league is on the upswing now.

It's up to Lebron James to become dominant like Jordan now. He'll most likely have to leave Cleveland, but he has the potential to dominate the league.

Basically, my point is that the NBA is on the upswing and if it can survive the Donaghy allegations it should continue to increase in popularity.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Right on the money. If you go back in this thread I have been constantly beating the "House needs to play over Cassell" and "Posey if very underrated" drum. Those two things played a huge role in this game, as did all of the Big Three coming through, and basically every Celtic playing like their lives were on the line. As I've said before too, Rondo is My Guy! He desperately needs to develop some consistent shooting/scoring ability, but the rest of his game is as good as any PG in the league except for a couple. Although I will continue to say Doc is not a good coach, as a person I really like him and am very happy for him that he won a title as a coach. He's as likeable of a coach/manager as their is in sports.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Here is something I was thinking about.

Doc Rivers becomes the 1st black head coach to win a title since KC Jones. Ironic. Jones did it with the '86 Celtics. Last time the Celtics won it.

I like Doc. Feel good for him. Glad he was able to do it for his Dad who recently passed away.

Doubly ironic that both teams were considered to win despite of, and not because of, their coaches. Although, I will say Doc did a fantastic job in this series except for the fact it took him 5 games to realize House should have played way more than Sam I Am.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

i think i'd rather see a return to the 70's and 80's when you had a lot of great players, and dominating teams, than see "the next jordan".

for non-bulls fans, like myself, the jordan era became boring as far as the competitiveness of the sport. it was great to watch him, but when you knew every year that the bulls were going to win the finals, UNLESS you were a bulls fans--it was kind of blase. bulls fandom sure did spread like wildfire in those days, and it was kind of nice to see the fire put out in the late 90's.

the thing was...no one took the torch.

we are seeing a new class of individuals who may bring the sport back; i think the argument that this is a thug league is becoming more and more of a white man's myth, and i think the argument that there's no defense or fundamentals and only highlight reels is starting to wear thin.

asking anyone to be the next jordan is asinine. i want rivalries back.

and i want the sixers to win a title.

Zach, I bet you'll be really surprised to learn that ESPN is already predicting next year's playoffs.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

Where are the Hawks at?

They didnt even bring them up.

They decided that Detroit is gonna rebuild, Cavs are gonna get Elton Brand and contend with but fall short of Boston, the Bulls are still a couple years away, Orlando needs to add another piece, and the Knicks still suck.

They have a Boston/LA Finals again next season. I found that funny but stupid. After every championship, they almost always pick the two contenders to be back next season.

_________________
Fare you well, fare you well
I love you more than words can tell
Listen to the river sing sweet songs
To rock my soul

ESPN: The Mockery.

What I hate is that they'll say they're just "having fun" with things like this, but segue into a human interest story that must be taken "seriously", and have the same fervor and intensity surrounding it.

if you're just "having fun" with predicting drafts and playoffs, why are you spending money to devise a show based around it?

ESPN is worse than CNN; at least CNN reports on things that are important to the world.