2) Preseason basketball is brutal. We are halfway through the fourth quarter - I was ready for this game to be over an hour ago. Miami played a great first half -- LeBron with some sweet moves in the mid-post gave the offense a new wrinkle. Then, just when it seemed that Orlando's entire season would disintegrate, Stan Van Gundy's head would explode, and they would trade Dwight Howard to the Lakers or Nets at halftime, suddenly they found their legs and started draining jumper after jumper, and now lead by 7 with five minutes to go. No one could care less who wins or loses. Starters are out. Maybe Coach Spo. But I doubt it.
3) Best moment of the game: When The President, and former Heat small forward, Quentin Richardson, tried to start a fight with the man who replaced him, LeBron James. The Pres is fiery, and he's Fam, but he got a little too geeked up tonight and kept skirmishing with LeBron like it was the Eastern Conference Finals. When Pres finally ended one exchange by lowering his shoulder for a shiver into LeBron's chest, which LeBron, to his credit, mostly laughed off, the refs responded in true midseason form by giving Pres a normal foul, a technical foul, then mistakenly giving the ball to Orlando after the technical free throw, then realizing it 25 seconds later after calling a phantom foul on Juwan Howard when his son Dwight tried to drive past him to the basket, then huddling to talk about it for 6 minutes, then taking Dwight Howard's free throws away and giving the ball back to Miami, then arguing with Stan Van Gundy for 6 more minutes before re-starting play. Good job, refs! Anything you can do to drag this preseason game out even longer is much appreciated!
4) Prediction time: If I have to pick "any other team" or Miami to win the title, I'm going "any other team." That's smart money. If I have to pick one team, I'm picking Miami. They were probably the best team last year; they are probably the best team this year. After that, I would guess: Chicago, then Dallas, then OKC. That's all I'm predicting. Predicting is fairly dumb -- they're going to play games, we don't need to predict what's going to happen, we can just watch it. The one thing I know: more than ever this season, it's not going to be only WHO you play, but WHEN you play -- the crazy, compressed schedule is going to lead to some serious sample size-y results. Let us go, Fam -- let us go!
5) Game is finally over, Orlando won. Crowd seems fairly pumped. Or they are manically desperate because Dwight Howard is on his way out of town -- Ha, Jax is asking J.J. Redick about it right now!!! J.J. is right -- as long as they have Dwight Howard, Orlando will be pretty good. Like this J.J. Redick -- he's overcome absolutely brutal coaching in college to craft a pretty good career...By the way, did everyone but me know that Steven Tyler is on American Idol now? I've seen this same dumb ad forty times during the game...Man, preseason basketball is brutal...Best thing about the lockout: only two preseason games!
6) Book Review -- Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention, by Manning Marable. Alex Haley's The Autobiography of Malcolm X has stood as the definitive record of the Nation of Islam minister for over forty-five years! That's a looong time for a single book on such a controversial and interesting dude to endure as the gold standard. That book is part Malcolm speaking directly to the readers, part Alex Haley skillfully constructing a readable narrative, and it presents an iconic, incendiary, coming-of-age fable about a passionate intellectual. Look at how the imagery of Malcolm X has endured -- that doesn't happen without Alex Haley's book. I love it - it is one of my favorite books ever. This new book, which came out this past year, aspires to be something Autobiography is not: a definitive, factual, documented account of Malcolm's life. Alex Haley was a writer, but he wasn't a historian; Manning Marable, the author of this new biography, is a historian who possesses only workman-like writing skills. I love the topic, so I love the book. When it was published, it was reputed to be highly controversial, but that's mostly hype. There are some interesting nuggets in there, though, which we didn't previously know about Malcolm X. Here are my three favorites:
1 -- Was second cousins with Malcolm Jamal Warner
2 -- As a young adult living in Boston, once nailed Lola Falana after a J. Geils concert at the
Beacon Theater
3 -- Until his later conversion to genuine Islam, he always claimed he hated white people; yet, he
loved frozen yogurt
Okay, okay, okay -- the preseason is mercifully over. Let's Stay the Course! We Have Enough! Fifteen Strong! Let's Get It On! Season starts Sunday in Dallas -- if you need me before then, I'll be calibrating my DVR so I make sure to miss Dallas' championship banner ceremony before the game. I've still never seen evidence that they actually won the title - and I'm going to keep it that way. Happy Holidays, everybody!!!
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