NBA Playoffs

This is a public service announcement.

If you are at all a basketball fan, you must watch Steve Nash. He doesn't have the electrifying athleticism of a Steve Francis, but the things he can do will take your breath away. He is just great at: decision making, passing, shooting, free throws, post moves, and acrobatic layups. What I think is most unique though is his ability to create. Any idiot can throw alley-oops to Amare Stoudamire, it's true, but Nash can find the open man better than anyone in the league. As one of the commentators last night said, he plays behind the basket as Gretzky did behind the goal. Then he'll decide he needs to carry the scoring load for a while and he'll sink two or three shots in a row. He's Magic Johnson one minute and a high-percentage Allen Iverson the next. He's going to go down as one of the greatest of all time and we get to watch him in his prime.

As a bonus, if you watch the rest of their series against the Lakers you have a chance at seeing Kobe Bryant become Michael Jordan for a half or even a whole game. Kobe was spectacular -- at least as good as Jordan -- during the first half of game one, but without a supporting cast, he can't maintain it. Even Jordan wasn't Jordan without Scottie Pippen.

Sports Writing Round-up

Gilbert Arenas has a blog. And it's great.

Growing up, it wasn’t about the money. It wasn’t about the cars. It wasn’t about the bling-blau that it is today.

It was simple.

It was, “How did MJ feel? How did he feel right at this moment after he hit that game-winner?”

That’s what I wanted to know. Like, “What’s going though his mind?” Like, “How does he feel crying, kissing that trophy, with the champagne on his head?”

That’s what I wanted to know about.

Chuck Klosterman on why we look the other way about steroids in the NFL.

Shawne Merriman weighs 272 pounds.

This is six pounds less than Anthony Muñoz, probably the most dominating left tackle of all time. Shawne Merriman also runs the 40-yard dash in 4.61 seconds. When Jerry Rice attended the NFL draft combine in 1985, he reportedly ran a 4.60; Rice would go on to gain more than 23,000 all-purpose yards while scoring 207 career touchdowns...

After the summer of 1964, the Beatles started taking serious drugs, and those drugs altered their musical performance. Though it may not have been their overt intent, the Beatles took performance-enhancing drugs. And this is germane to sports for one reason: Absolutely no one holds it against them.

Brian McCormick on why Kobe should be MVP.

If you took Nowitski off the Mavericks, Dallas makes the play-offs. If you took Nash off the Suns, Phoenix makes the play-offs. If you took Kobe off the Lakers, they would fall to the bottom of the Western Conference along with Memphis...

And, now the most talented player in the League is doing things nobody has done in forty years while in the thick of a play-off race...