Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Parody in the NBA

Just take a look at the NBA standings. You'll see some things that may rival the comics in humor.

Look out west. The Pacific Division is being led by Los Angeles. But for a change, it's not the Lakers. Yes, the Clippers -- once voted the worst franchise in professional sports -- are winning the division.

How are they doing it? Well, I'm not really sure. I would think that Elton Brand is somewhere in the middle of it though.

But it doesn't stop with the Clip. Just one game back of the 14-7 Clippers are the Golden State Warriors. The new-look Thunder and Lightning Warriors haven't made the playoffs since 1842, but at 13-8, they have the sixth best record in the Western Conference.

And perennial powers Houston, Utah (well, they used to be anyway) and the Lakers are all struggling to stay above water. Those teams are a combined 27-34 and in either fourth or fifth-place in their respective divisions.

The same parody can be seen in the East as well (sort of). Despite the Eastern Conference being a bigger joke than King Kong's running time, teams like Milwaukee and Cleveland, who have been in the gutter for years, are above .500 and in playoff contention.

Credit the revival of notoriously terrible teams to good front office moves.

Cleveland got lucky and won the LeBron Lottery, and King James of Cleveland has single-handedly turned around that franchise.

Milwaukee had good draft picks with T.J. Ford and Andrew Bogut, as well as the emergence of Michael Redd as a legitimate scoring threat.

And in Oaktown, the Warriors, which haven't drafted well since they picked Todd Fuller No. 11 in 1996, (that's sarcasm, people), made a great trade and brought in Baron Davis to revive a city that forgot what .500 felt like.

Success for the Warriors, Clippers, et. al is good for the NBA and good for the fans. It is keeping me mildly interested, which is a helluva lot more interested than I've ever been. If these regular losers keep winning, they may keep me entertained until next Sunday.

In other news: President Bush has resigned for family reasons and Heat coach Pat Riley will assume the presidential duties.

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