Shaq joins Tuner Sports

Shaquille O'Neal has agreed upon a multiyear deal with Turner Sports to be an analyst for it's NBA Coverage. Shaq now joins Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley in the TNT Studios. The 3 of them alone is definitely the best NBA Pre/Post game coverage around. Having Shaq joining them on the set can only make viewing more enjoyable. I'll be looking forward to seeing them on Thursday nights thru the NBA Season and Playoffs, of course that's if the NBA even has a season.

Source: ESPN Los Angeles

NBA Draft 2011

The 2011 NBA Draft all goes down tomorrow night in New York City. Once again the Class of 2011 is loaded with a ton of Underclassmen, sprinkled with some Seniors and International players. Highlighted by the likes of Kyrie Irving from Duke, Derrick Williams of Arizona, Ernest Kanter from Turkey, Jimmer Fredette of BYU  and Kemba Walker from the National Champs the University of Connecticut. Although this draft is really lacking on "Superstar" talent, it may still turn out to be one of the more interesting ones. A lot of big names have been rumoured to be a part of "Draft Day" trades. Players such as Pau Gasol, Steve Nash, Josh Smith, Tony Parker and Kevin Love have all been mentioned in talks amongst teams trying to get a higher pick or unload heavy contracts. Without any big time trades during the draft, I don't see many of the bad teams really improving too much thru the draft. I know i'll be interested to see what my Lakers will be doing with their 4 picks in the 2nd round, it's like they're picking from a "Dollar Menu" and McDonalds.

This will be the last bit of NBA action that we'll see for a long while. With NBA Owners and Players Association being miles apart on the upcoming new Collective Bargaining Agreement (supposedly even further apart than the NFL), we may not be seeing any NBA games till the earliest January 2012. Which means there will be no Summer Leagues in Orlando or Las Vegas, all players will be locked out of team facilities and more importantly  no one will be getting paid. It's definitely going to suck for the Class of 2011 rookies, to be drafted and not get paid. Many of them may have been better off staying in school.

So soak it ALL in tomorrow night because it looks like it's going to be a LONG offseason full of NBA Games reruns on NBA TV.

2011 NBA Champions

Congrats to the Dallas Mavericks for winning this years NBA Championship.

When the Playoffs began NO ONE (unless you were from Dallas) had the Mavs in the NBA Finals let alone making past the 2nd round in the Western Conference. Many analyst that cover the NBA on TV, internet and sports radio had the Mavs losing the Blazers in the 1st round and should they have passed them to be crushed by the Lakers in the 2nd round. Now given the Mavs recent Playoff success since they lost to the Heat in 2006 you can fully understand why. In 3 of the last 4 years the Mavs failed to advance past the 1st round.

In the 2011 Playoffs, the Mavs have had one of the most impressive runs to the title in a long time. Not necessarily record wise but by the way they won games. After getting torched by Brandon Roy and the Blazers in the 4th qtr of Game 4, where the Mavs up by 23 late in the 3rd qtr ultimately losing the game. Mavs went back home in Game 5, took care of business on their homecourt and finished off the Blazers in 6 games in Portland.

From there Mavs started to roll, they went on to meet the defending champs Los Angles Lakers where they took care of them in an impressive 4-0 sweep. Continuously exposing the Lakers lack of defense against quicker PG's and 3pt shooters. Everything the Lakers tried couldn't slow down the Mavs, they were just the better, more complete team 1 thru 12 and it showed. 

Off to the Western Conference Finals where they were met by the Oklahoma City Thunder, unfortunately for the Thunder this is when Dirk took it to another level. With numerous memorable late 4th qtr comebacks, Dirk showed the world an array of fade ways off one leg and off balanced making clutch shots one after the other. Mavs beat the Thunder in 5 games advancing to the NBA Finals

In a rematch of the 2006 NBA Finals, it was pretty much the Mavs vs the so called "Big 3" of Wade, James and Bosh. No else on the Heat is so much worth mentioning. Needless to say the Mavs showed the Heat that it's a TOTAL team effort to win an NBA Title. Mavs defeated the Heat in 6 games with contributions from Dirk, Jason Terry, Tyson Chandler, Shawn Marion and a host of others.

Just like that the 2010-2011 NBA Season has ended.

So who's looking forward to the NBA Lockout? Word is that the NBA is further apart in their labour talks than the NFL is.. NO GOOD!!!! Hopefully the NBA will have something in place for the season to start by Jan 2012, yeah you heard me. It's going to be a LONG offseason.