I Alone Will Tell You When to Care About the NBA

by TheAngryT

If you are anything like me, which would require you to be the proud owner of a prehensile tail, then you are pretty disgusted with all this NBA summer league coverage. Sure, it's great to see your team's first round draft pick play, but you have to realize that their play means just about dick. In fact, it may be worth less than dick, depending on the strength of the yen. But that doesn't stop ESPN, SI.com, and NBA.com from covering this glorified YMCA pick-up league like we should give a shit.

There was a fantastic piece of journalism earlier this week on ESPN detailing the meteoric rise of J.J. Reddick. Oh, you didn't know how great J.J. has become? Neither did I until I read this gem of an article. (for your sake I hope you have insider) Apparently, David Thorpe and the rest of America gets very excited when J.J. scores 30 on 7 of 18 shooting against the likes of Toby Bailey. That's right, former UCLA superstar Toby Bailey is playing in the summer league. (to read more about Toby Bailey and the other clowns in the summer league, read this. Also to get a hearty chuckle at the rosters, check this out and click on the teams) I apologize if I am not sold on J.J. as a 2008 All-Star because of three games in the summer league. I would rather base my opinon on his inability to get on the floor for an 8th seeded Orlando Magic team.

SI.com followed ESPN's lead by posting a story on their main page about Jeff Green and Kevin Durant combining to score 60 points in their summer league finale loss. (the team only scored 74 points) Someone MUST care if they these news outlets chose to put the story on TV or the internet, right? Wrong, case and point "Who's Now?"

Just so you know how big of a farce this league really is, let's go over a few things. Did you know you are allowed 10 fouls per game in this league? Gred Oden commited 19 fouls in his first two games of the Las Vegas summer league. That's good for three NBA foul-outs in around 40 minutes of play. Did you know that Marcus Banks set the summer league single game scoring record this year with 42 points. Yes, that's career 6.2 point per game Marcus Banks dropping 42. Von Wafer tied that record last night with 42 points against the Knicks. Yes, that's career 4.6 MINUTE per game performer Von Wafer. Did you know that Toby Bailey plays in the league? Oh yeah, I told you that above, but did you know he averaged 14 points a game as a 32 year old playing in the summer league? Didn't think so.

So just say no to believing the hype about this league from the suits in New York. Do something else with your summer days and evenings other than worrying about how many points the 15th pick can score on the dregs of the basketball world. Take in a baseball game, go ride your bike through a field of poppies, but for good sake don't watch an NBA summer league webcast to see how Boniface N'Dong is progressing.

The Angry T

By the way, for the three or four of you out there who aren't familiar with our work, my name is Anthony or "TheAngryT" and my friend "Violent J" and I can be found here, constantly talking about N'Dong.