Report from the hive

["R. Bentz Kirby" <bocelts@usit.net>]

Last night I attended the Nets vs Hornets in Charlotte.  What a sad
place that has become!  The last time I was there, about 3 years ago,
they were in the midst of a continuous sell out string.  There were lots
of empty seats there, despite winning 10 of last 11 and in the hunt for
a playoff.  Some thoughts from the game:

NBA players can't really shoot anymore.  Kerry Kittles missed several
wide open shots with poor technique (no arc, poor followthrough) that
made a real difference.

Wesley shot the ball well and hustled.  On paper his numbers looked
good, but Marbury abused him.  Willingly.  They had to put Phils,
Recaster and someone else on Marbury or he would have scored 50.  I
think Wesley would be a good back up point guard.

Van Horne does not play weak.  He was scoring at will, inside and
outside, until they put Derrick Coleman on him.  Coleman was playing
professional wrestling and got away with it.  But Van Horne took it to
the hoop while getting double and tripled teamed and bullied by Coleman.
He had some great moves and I would love to see him in a Celtic uniform.

Marbury is a showoff, but he can flat play.  Period.  Marbury and Van
Horne almost won this game till the lack of a center for the Nets let
Campbell and Coleman score some inside in the middle of the third
period.

The quality of the players in the NBA, other than Marbury, Van Horne,
and possibly Phils, has dropped off dramatically since the mid-80's. 
There is a serious problem with the game.  The Bulls won with the help
of officials, but they also won in a diluted league.  There are no teams
like LA, Boston, Philly (early 80's) and Detroit from the 80's.  And at
that time there were at least 4 or 5 great teams.  There is something
seriously wrong with the game.

The Hornets had a survey that disturbed me even more.  I don't know if
it was an official NBA survey, but one of the questions was how
important is it to you for the HOME team to win and another was does the
NBA do a good job of the HOME team winning.  So, the fix is in maybe? 
Or was it already in for the last several years?  The implications of
the survey questions are very scary for the game.  I can see the head
honchos, well, the fans want the home team to win, so how else can we
fix it up for that to happen?

All in all, the NBA sucks cause the Nets had two first line players and
Charlotte had none on the court.  (Eddie Jones was out with a hand
injury.)  Other than those three, no one on the floor would have started
on the four 80's teams I mentioned, but they could have started on the
Bulls team from last year.  Scary if you let it sink in.   I think that
the league needs to close about four clubs to get the level of play back
up.  And cut out the wrestling.  Some one like Van Horne ought to be
allowed to drive on Coleman without being held and clobbered.

The NBA, I used to love this game and am sick and damn tired of the
Lakers being on NBC!
-- 
Bentz
bocelts@usit.net

http://www.scsn.net/users/sclaw