NBA extreme ‘fandom’ has been on hiatus during March Madness so we amalgamated a two-week addition of Smoke These Joints.  [Shameless plug] speaking of March Madness and brackets, check out the ‘League Pass All Stars’ 32-man tournament I’ve created.  Onto the recent I Go Hard Now musings.  It’s been a LeBron-centric couple of weeks here, perhaps the staff  was just employing SEO-friendly articles about the  most famous/infamous player in the world.  Likely, a more accurate explanation is this site is manned by die-hard Cavs fans who put on a ‘good face’, but still have trouble moving on.  To make an analogy: it’s like a guy who gets dumped by a long-time girlfriend who was always out of his league, and then he moves onto another girlfriend who is attractive, fun, and loves him, but deep down the guy knows this new girlfriend isn’t as ‘good’ as the lover he was scorned by (to spell it out: LeBron is the girl out of our league, and Kyrie Irving [#swIrving] is the new ‘good’ but not-quite-as-good girlfriend).

Our Joints: 

Good – 2012 NBA All-Hot Team  by SpaceFunMars : I wanted to love this piece, and I did thoroughly enjoyed it.  However, I am confident enough in my sexuality to proclaim Dwyane Wade the unequivocal ‘hottest’ man in the NBA.  From his high cheekbones, to his 3.5% body fat, even his hipster-heavy yet fashionable, style, Wade is a stud – on and off the court.  Therefore, any NBA ‘hot’ list that doesn’t include Wade is suspect.  Plus, no love for Ivan ‘Freeway’ Johnson?  Maybe that’s for the All-Gully Team.

Better - Social Media and Ryan Hollins Mixtapes  by Demetri Inembolidis : Demetri waxes poetic  on the history of posting on NBA message boards and the types of fans you encounter (spoiler: they’re not all insightful).  He posts some of the hilarious comments from  his ill-conceived Ryan Hollins Youtube vid (creating that vid is the NBA equivalent of  writing Battlestar Galactica fan fiction).  The joint is a comment on NBA ‘fandom’ and the effects the rapid changes of the internets has had on us modern NBA junkies.

Best (or ‘Better-est’) - Lessons from LeBron by Angelo Benedetti  : Remember that ‘spurned lover’ analogy I used in the intro?  Well, this article perfectly encapsulates that.   Angelo supposes that the downfall of the Lebron-era Cavs was a middling support cast, which was caused by LeBron being too good.  LeBron’s greatness made the team good too quick, which in turn, by eliminating them from the Draft Lottery, kept those teams from aquiring the talent to be great.  In the process Angelo’s developed a c’est la vie attitude towards the current Cleveland Cavalieros, where, if they win he’s happy to amass the victories, and if they lose he’s happy to amass draft lottery balls. Very ‘Cavalier’ of him indeed.

Joints Heard ‘Round the Internets

Disagree – The Many Evils of Mike D’Antoni by Bethlehem Shoals : I’ll preface this with some ego stroking, I love the work done over at The Classical, and the moth to its butterfly- the work at FreeDarko.  The whole ‘the game is transcending, and by that we mean the way we perceive, analyze, absorb, and proliferate the game‘ thing is fantastic, and yes, even mildly ‘transcendent’.  At the crux of this piece is D’Antoni as an unyielding visionary, and his unwillingness to change that vision leading to his own undoing in Gotham, NY.  The Knicks were skidding, and something had to give.  They weren’t going to ship out the player for whom they had shipped out 86% of their roster only a year previous, so D’Antoni had to bounce.  The reason he didn’t work in New York is because Carmelo Anthony is an asshole.  Of course D’Antoni couldn’t waver and cater to him.  Would Phil Jackson or Greg Popovich have altered their vision to appease someone like Anthony?  D’Antoni wasn’t stubborn he’s just an NBA head coach, and a damned fine one at that.

Agree  - We’ve Got a Pointguard! from Forum Blue & Gold : “Finally, we have Ramon Sessions. Much to the chagrin of the fans of Cleveland, Sessions has sent shockwaves through Lakerland, providing us with a glimpse into a life that heretofore might as well have existed in another galaxy. Not since the days of Nick Van Exel have Laker fans had a young and explosive point guard at the helm. On Wednesday night, Ramon Sessions played the point guard game that this fan base has desperately been waiting for.”  As I’m sure you’re aware, this site began as an ode to the Cavs, and many of the writers (myself excluded) bleed whatever the hell color the Cavs jerseys are (wine???).  Sessions contributing for the heralded Los Angeles franchise is a story of semi Linsanity-like proportions.  Back to that girlfriend analogy, Sessions is that girl you broke up with, but now want back only because you see how great she’s doing with somebody else.

Tube

Warning: NSFW because even if you have seen this vid before, you will laugh uncontrollably.

For all I know you all have seen this before, but who cares, this clip never gets old.  I first came across this Youtube classic about five years ago just checking out random NBA clips (probably while drinking).  Since viewing it, my friends and I have adopted the announcers chant when someone hits a big shot, or just when we want to be funny, but mostly annoying.  RA-ZA-ZA-ZA-ZA-ZA-ZAAAA RA-ZA-ZA-ZA-ZA ad infinitum…