THE NBA TROPHY IS IN THE ALAMO ... IN THE BASEMENT

by Jordi Scrubbings, The Serious Tip

11 random thoughts as the NBA tips off:

I know the Alamo doesn’t have a basement, but does the Alamo Dome?

And why is Notre Dame playing Washington State in a football game in San Antonio on Oct. 31, 2009?

Pop quiz: from which country, besides the US, do the most NBA players come from? (answer on bottom)

Greg Oden is probably happy he missed the first game of the season. He would have gotten killed by Tim Duncan. Then the media would have been all over the "is Greg Oden really ready to play in the NBA" story. Yeah, like Tim Duncan only destroys rookies and Joel Pryzbilla.

I expect Darius Washington to stick around for a bit. He wasn't too bad last night.

Speaking of Dariuses, what ever happened to Darius Miles? Does he still exist?

On the subject of Miles, here is a nugget of wisdom from Charles Barkley during his early TNT days:

"I don't think the Clippers are a good environment for (new No. 1 pick Darius) Miles. They're a terrible organization ... I hope he gets out of there ... The Clippers are one of the problems in sports. People think you have to win to make money -- the Clippers are a perfect example of a team that lets all their good players go every year ... they're giving their fans a bad product ... that's one of the problems in sports today. There's just no excuse for what the Clippers have been doing for the past 10-15 years, letting all their good players go." (found in an old Sports Guy column)

Again on the subject of the Clippers, I’m buying an Al Thornton jersey the moment the jersey store finally gives me a call and tells me they have them in.

As I am sure you know by now, Scoop Jackson thinks blogs are ruining the NBA. After what happened with The Big Lead, why say something like that? As my mother used to say, if you don’t have something nice to say, drink your complaint away. Actually, she didn't say that, but it's good advice.

Although I am a little tired of Gilbert Arenas’s blog, Rod Benson’s blog is still hilarious. The poor guy is returning to the land of “Bucks, and Stadium, B Dubs and Dennys, the Steak Buffet and Wal Mart, Best Buy and Ressler Chevrolet commercials”. Best of luck, Rod (no homo).

Random complaint: Is there anyone else that gets the NBA radio station on satellite radio? I am convinced this station is useless. Today I listened hoping to get some excitement, get the blood flowing, hear some opening day hype. Instead there were sound bytes by unidentified people on what suits they wore on draft day. Like I care. The only one I recognized was Joakim Noah, who talked about his bow-tie. Um, Mr. NBA Radio Programmer Guy, it’s opening night. Where are the previews and analysis and discussions and banter, etc, etc.? Needless to say, my adventure in NBA Radio didn’t last long before I switched back to Night Calls on Playboy Radio.

Answer: Serbia (8).