Fired Up Friday

Sorry for the lack of posts this week.  I have been vacationing in New Orleans for the last week and haven't been able to find a consistent wireless internet connection and therefore haven't been able to post anything to the blog.  But no worries, I am back!  YOU KNOW IT!

Chris Paul

On Wednesday night, I had the pleasure of watching the New Orleans Hornets take on the Golden State Warriors.  I was expecting to see an up and down game with a ton of points scored, but since Dorell Wright singlehandedly killed the flow of the game I was only able to watch one quarter of good basketball.  The reason the game was a pleasure was to watch Chris Paul.  Chris Paul is absolutely phenomenal to watch live. 

As Paul scored on two consecutive drives to the basket, my dad asked, "Why don't they make him shoot a three?  He hasn't shot a three all night."  I tried to convince him that he was just too quick, but as I was talking the Hornets showed a replay of the last play and my dad started to trail off mid-sentence.  "Wow.  I take that back.  That defender was at least five feet away from him.  Paul can really move, huh?"

It's not just Paul's quickness, it's just the way he manages a game.  As I saw Paul surrounded by the likes of Trevor Ariza, Willie Green, Emeka Okafor, and Marco Bellinelli, I started to assume that the Hornets were near the bottom of the Western Conference, but to my amazement they were actually 21-14 and 7th in the Western Conference.  The only reason for their success is Paul and in my mind nothing else.  Paul doesn't make mistakes.  He controls the flow of the game and somehow as a diminutive point guard controls the entire game. 

Just as I started to discuss how great he is with my brother, I checked my Twitter account and immediately saw this tweet from Michael Smith, "Whether ur a Rondo, Rose, or Westbrook guy what's really cool is we're going 2 b having this best-PG-in-the-league discussion 4 a long time."  Smith immediately tweeted that of course Paul, Nash, Williams, and Kidd were obviously in the discussion as well, but the fact that he would even make that first tweet shows disrespect to those other guys.  Sure, Westbrook has highlight dunks and Rondo puts up gawdy numbers (22 assists in one game!!!), but truly great point guards control games and make their team better. 

The four players Smith mentions second (Paul, Nash, Williams, and Kidd) are the point guards who understand what it's like to lead a team and make the players around them better.  These guys might have a highlight play every once in a while, but night in and night out they are the reason why their team wins games.  They are consistently great and the rock that every player on their respective teams lean on.  These guys are so consistently great that it becomes much easier to reward these flashes in the pan and great single games rather than reward the best of the best for their consistency.

NBA Arenas

After watching Wednesday's game in the New Orleans Arena, I have now watched an NBA game at three different arenas.  Once inside each of these arenas, I could not tell the difference.  I know there is only so much you can do with such a large concrete complex, but please some architect get creative and do something cool with an arena.  I am tired of walking into an arena and taking an escalator up to the second floor and seeing concession stands and vendors on each side.  I don't care what it is, but someone do something different.

One of my favorite parts of going to a new baseball stadium is checking out the differences in that park.  Checking out the things I have never seen before.  I know obviously with an open air stadium, you have more options, you can put things different places, throw in a cool looking fountain, there are a ton of options.  I truly hope a rich investor in Las Vegas or Seatlle reads this and decides to do something we've never seen before.  My fingers are crossed.  Someone please impress me.