New Knicks : Anthony & Billups

NBA trade deadline have just passed last Thursday. One of the major transactions was Denver’s Carmelo Anthony. For the past few months, rumors have been going around talking about which team he will end up with. Denver has offered to extend his contract multiple times but it was obvious Carmelo doesn’t want to stay with Denver anymore. There were talks about him going to New York, New Jersey, and even to the Lakers. Well the wait is finally over; Carmelo is now officially with the New York Knicks. Here is an article regarding the blockbuster trade happening. Knicks finally land Anthony.

Even though Chauncey Billups was part of this trade, often times, people forget about him. All the attention went to Carmelo. But lets not forget that Billups is known as Mr. Big Shot. He makes shot when it counts the most. And also, back in 2004, he was part of the championship team in Detroit.

So Anthony has been with the Nuggets for 7 and half years now. They haven’t won a championship within these years. They got close in 2009 by making it to the Western Conference Finals; however they fell short to the Lakers. Their team made playoffs yearly, but they just didn’t have enough to go all the way.

The Knicks starting lineup went from:

- Landry Fields

- Raymond Felton

- Timofey Mozgov

- Danilo Gallinari

- Amare Stoudemire

To the new improved:

- Chauncey Billups

- Landry Fields

- Amare Stoudemire

- Carmelo Anthony

- Shawne Williams

The trade worked perfect for the Knicks. Their roster is stacked with talent now and will enable them to become legitimate contenders in the Eastern Conference now. With Billups, Anthony, and Stoudemire paired together, they will become threats. However, even with the improved team, they still have to worry because of other elite teams such as Miami, Orlando, Chicago, and Celtics, all within their conference.

With the new team put together, the game today against Miami was a good test to see how these teams compare and matchup. New York ends up edging Miami in the final minute with good defense. Here is a quick recap of the game: NY 91 - MIA 86. We could tell that the chemistry with the new team still isn’t quite there yet, however with time, they should be fine. Billups and Anthony been playing together for a few seasons together in Denver already, they will just have to incorporate all the other guys on the team. The Miami Heats has been a threat since summer when free agency went wild and landed LeBron James and Chris Bosh onto the same team as Dwayne Wade. The Heats been in the talks all year and competing teams been making trades and upgrades to roster just to match them up. The Heats are projected to win the Finals this year. But it looks like they will have some good competition before reaching there. The new Knicks will be one of the contending teams; we shall see how far they can go with all the heavy competition in the Eastern Conference.

As for the Nuggets, losing their star Carmelo and Chauncey Billups, they will just have to be in the re-build mode. But even if they somehow got Carmelo to stay with them, it wouldn’t do them any good. Both Carmelo and Denver’s coach George Karl aren’t happy with each other. And when there is dispute between coaches and players, the team will not win. So Denver is better off parting with Carmelo. They will just have to make new investments and hopefully the players already on the team can step it up and take the team into playoffs once again.

2011 All-Star MVP Kobe Bryant !

The NBA 2011 All-Star Game was just last week. It was a great game; it got very competitive in the 4^th quarter. I of course was rooting for the West since my favorite basketball player is Kobe Bryant. The West this year was considered as underdogs, however they were still able to win the game with great talents. 

The All-Star game was held at the Staples Center in LA, Kobe’s home court. So of course he would put on a show. We can all tell since the beginning of the game he was trying to go for MVP. Typically whichever conference wins, the player with the most points scored in the game from that conference would win MVP for the game. Kobe scored 11 pts in the 1^st quarter, 10 pts in the 2^nd quarter, 13 pts in the 3^rd quarter, and 3 pts in the final quarter to total 37 pts for the entire game.  Although arguments say that Kevin Durant should have gotten MVP because he was the main reason why the West was able to hold onto their lead in the 4^th quarter, Kobe overall had a better performance. Durant wasn’t far behind with his 30+ pt game as well, but Kobe was more outstanding of course.

Here is a short clip of the action in the 3^rd quarter.
 

LeBron was on chase down towards Kobe, and Kobe was still able to dunk the ball in. One of the funny parts was when Kobe slapped LeBron in the behind after the play. And following that play, another turnover and Kobe was able to convert that turnover into a swoosh 3 pointer. MVP status indeed. LeBron didn't do too bad himself either, he recorded a triple double for the game, just that his conference lost the game.

I was happy to see Kobe receiving his 4^th All-Star MVP award; he is now tied with Bob Pettit for most All-Star MVPs =) Now all Kobe has to do is try to win another All-Star MVP within the next few seasons then he will hold the record at the #1 spot for most All-Star MVP awards. How awesome would that be right? 

Kobe’s first All-Star MVP was back in 2002 when the game was held in Philadelphia. It was sad that year, because even though he won the award, the fans in the arena BOOed him. It was harsh for him since Philadelphia is his hometown after all. His 2^nd award came in 2007 when the game was held in Vegas. Not only did Kobe win All-Star MVP that year, he also won league’s MVP award as well for the entire season. The only down part to that season was he lost to the Celtics in the NBA Finals, or else it would literally feel like Kobe’s year to win everything. Right after the finals that year, Kobe and the U.S Olympic Team brought home the Gold that year too … so if only he had won the Finals that year, it would be the perfect career year for him. The 3^rd award came in 2009 at Phoenix Arena; however, he was Co-MVPs along with Shaq. I thought that was kind of whack, Kobe should have the award to himself … And finally the tying history award came last Sunday. 

It is great to watch Kobe achieve so much through his career, especially since I been following and watching him since he arrived in the league in 1997. Because I am a huge fan of Kobe, you might see some bias in my future blogs towards him …

Remember the Name

Everytime I watch NBA on TV I still always remember the playoff theme song from back in 2006. The song they used for most NBA commercials promoting on TNT was Fort Minor – Remember the Name. I thought the chorus part of this song matched the intensity of basketball very well.

 “This is ten percent luck, twenty percent skill

Fifteen percent concentrated power of will

Five percent pleasure, fifty percent pain

And a hundred percent reason to remember the name”

This mini clip shows a little bit of the different players in the league. Since it is a commercial for playoffs, it pretty much only showed players from the top teams. It showcased players such as Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade, Carmelo Anthony, LeBron James, Tim Duncan, Steve Nash, etc.

It is obvious this commercial was from a few years back because if we are speaking of up to date, a lot of things would not match in the clip. Kobe Bryant from the Lakers is no longer # 8, Shaquille O’Neal isn’t with Miami, LeBron  James parted with Cleveland, Pau Gasol was clean shaved, Vince Carter is no longer with New Jersey, etc.

I really like this short clip because it shows highlights and great footage of how exciting playoff basketball can be. From slam dunks to crossovers, from the skills and special talents displayed by every NBA star, to just the entire atmosphere of the game, it is exciting and entertaining as a whole. And the song played perfect into this whole theme and idea, the song itself had a great upbeat and feels very motivating. Even till now, 5 years later, when NBA playoffs come around, this song is one of the first things I think of.

Intro.

Hi my name is Rosanna. I am a senior at SF State majoring in Hospitality Management. One of my main interests are sports such as the NBA. I started watching the NBA since I was in 5th grade. I like to play basketball as well as watch how others play the sport.


[This is me at a Warriors vs. Lakers game, the ESPN NBA bus was at Oracle Arena that year so I had the chance to take a picture with it. Do Bill Walton and Kenny Smith look they're really sitting next to me?]

My topics mainly will be based off of the NBA because that is something I keep up with regularly. My blogs will be my perspective and opinions expressing and responding to sports articles and news regarding basketball and basketball players whether its on or off the court. Or it could just be some random thoughts : NBA Random Blobs :)