Denver Nuggets vs. New Orleans Hornets in April 2009: the Nuggets Finally win a Series, Part Twelve
Editorial Notes: The following was written during the late April 2009 first round playoff series between the Denver Nuggets and the New Orleans Hornets. This content was put on the independent New Orleans Hornets forum during the series. It is presented almost exactly as originally written here, with a very few minor additions here and there.
See the additional editorial notes at the end for more details about late postings and how they are not going to be a problem any longer.
Just before I left the Hornets forum, there was a seemingly unlikely development. A Quest for the Ring visitor realized that out of ten million basketball forum posters, it was Quest for the Ring that was posting on the Hornets forum. I say seemingly unlikely, because when you think about it, the only possible reason anyone could do that is because Quest writing is so distinctive that it stands out amongst a quarter of a million basketball site writers. (Estimates of numbers of basketball writers pulled out of thin air quite honestly).
So here was the response to the Quest visitor on the Hornets forum...
FROM APRIL 29 2009 DURING THE DAY, BEFORE THE NUGGETS WON GAME FIVE 107-86 AND WON THE SERIES FOUR GAMES TO ONE
looked at your site, because I came on to my hornets board and saw the unintentional comedy scale soar off the charts by some "expert" wanna-be blogger. Now claiming to be objective observer of the NBA because the Nuggets have ticked you off (maybe by not granting you access?).
Funny, very funny. Other wanna be bloggers have about 400 articles and almost 1,000,000 words on their web sites? Laugh out loud, I never knew!
Wait, on second thought, I'll add that you still have not explained how you know which site I help produce.
Denver has gotten better this year, so maybe it's the trading of AI that got you ticked off. Who knows, who cares. Next year you will be a Laker fan anyway.
Denver has not "gotten better" this year to speak of if you look at efficiency. And don't waste your time criticizing efficiency as the most important summary measure, because the great majority of Championship teams had the best combination of offensive and defensive efficiency in the NBA in the year they won everything.
George Karl and the Nuggets ticked me off many, many times, whereas by contrast, the Pistons didn't tick me off much at all, despite there having such a miserable season. So the problem is not me being too easily ticked off, I can assure you.
The Nuggets are not a full scale NBA franshise; they pretend they are that, but they themselves know they are not.
But I was very fair with them, and I explained their errors with such detail that I have the longest articles of any writer I have seen. Do you know how much traffic I lose, in theory anyways, because of how long some of my articles are?
-Writing the book on AI, no you didn't. Any fan of the NBA could figure that out after observing his career. AI only cheated himself by never becoming a team player. Watching him live several times, You grabbed a sense of how boring it was to watch him and no one liked to play with him.
Laugh out loud. Did you know that Allen Iverson haters is the only known constituency who thinks I am more wrong than right about basketball? Gee, what a coincidence.
And did you know that every argument I have ever had on the internet, regardless of the subject, has been with me on one side and an Iverson hater on the other side? The Iverson haters are upchucking their last meals at the thought that someone will explain what really happened with Iverson.
Unfortunately for me, those who hate Allen Iverson is a surprisingly large group of basketball fans. A much bigger group than the small number of smart people who would like the Iverson mystery explained.
Laugh out loud, now that I have revealed that, the next thing to happen will be that Iverson haters posing as Iverson fans will claim I am wrong about everything.
It is apparent that the Allen Iverson haters have to hate Iverson for the rest of his and their lives. It's like one of those bad original Star Trek episodes, where one alien population had to hate another one for all eternity. Once hatred goes on for years, it's generally a permanent thing. The hatred of Allen Iverson is so strong that it's about as strong as the hatred of the swine flu laugh out loud. The Iverson haters definitely do not want anyone to upset their obsession with hating Iverson by stating and proving controversial theories..
Well, I don't give a damn whether I upset the whole basketball world or not. I am going to explain what needs to be explained. I have been writing and I will continue to be writing the "Allen Iverson book" precisely because I am apparently the only one who has objectively and in great detail looked at this mystery, regarding how a Hall of Fame player can be hated so viciously, and how he can in fact not fit in well with his team's offenses.
Because I am the only one in existence who on the one hand does not hate Allen Iverson but on the other hand agrees he is not a good team player. So I do believe I end up being just about the only one who has the real truth about this subject. Not that I set out to accomplish this, it just fell into my lap because everyone else is either on the one hand hating Iverson or on the other hand not acknowledging there has been a fairly serious problem with the way he plays.
Sorry for anyone reading this and expecting a summary of my specific Iverson claims, of my specific explanations of this Iverson mystery/mess. I'm not putting that "high level content" here because as I just said it is quite "controversial," so a huge amount of proof is needed to go along with it, and I am not prepared to move my whole site here, laugh out loud.
I cover Iverson and everything else objectively with no hatred and with no hype, with no ax to grind, and with no big name heros to worship such as Larry Brown or George Karl. I always have a large amount of proof to back up all of my statements, whether they are controversial or boring as hell.
As a result of going wherever the evidence leads, I will never be sponsored by ESPN because for example I will trash someone like Larry Brown or even David Stern if and when he needs to be trashed, whereas the ESPN bloggers would never dare to do that. And if they did do that, they would not be ESPN bloggers for very long.
As for using the Phil Jackson/Kobe analogy, Phil wrote a book about Kobe's selfishness. Kobe has matured and actually gets his teammates involved like Melo is doing now.
Phil Jackson wrote a book about Kobe Bryant being selfish? Wow, and apparently hardly anyone knows about it! And you didn't provide a title or a link. So when late tonight or tomorrow I Google for it I'll definitely find it, right? I will find it, right? I'd better, laugh out loud.
Championship teams with out "superstar" scoring machines? 04 Pistons, 08 Celtics,when the Big Three realized sharing the ball prevented collapsing defenses.
Richard Hamilton of the 2004 Pistons was not a power scorer? He was hounded to rebound and assist more? Gee, I never knew if that's true. That is true, right? I'm starting to get nervous that it might not be true, laugh out loud.
The 2008 Celtics had two superstar scorers: Garnett and Allen. Arguably three, if you count Paul Pierce. Neither one of them were ever trashed by their coaches in the years before they came to the Celtics for not being well rounded players and neither one of them were told to stop shooting and scoring so much or else they would never win a Championship.
But at least you didn't need me to figure out that if you have two or three superstar scorers instead of just one, you want to make sure they work together; that there is balance and chemistry between them. Nice job on that anyway.
The Spurs have had scorers, but never above the team game.
The Lakers and Cavs have figured out spreading the ball out is the best way to go.
Laugh out loud at this gibberish. I already told you that most Championship teams have power scorers and offensive balance. It's not an either or thing. And when the Lakers-Cavaliers Championship is on ABC TV, the Kobe vs LeBron battle will take center stage, not which team is better at "spreading the ball out". I can already visualize how the screen will be plastered with comparisons of who is the better player, and especially the better scorer, Kobe or LeBron.
So I guess you won't be watching the Championship, since you disagree with the idea that a team should encourage it's best scorer to be a power scorer. Or at least if you do watch it, you will be ticked off, laugh out loud.
FROM APRIL 29 2009 DURING GAME FIVE, WHICH THE NUGGETS WON 107-86 AND AFTER WHICH WON THE SERIES FOUR GAMES TO ONE
Posted by ranmasama
This is my first year following the hornets and believe it or not I am proud of what the hornets have done. I think our expectations have been too high since last season. I really believe that the hornets went down gunning and most of what happened this series has been the nuggets getting all their shots too go and hornets being really battered even in game 1. I am proud of our guys no matter what happens in the fourth. I thank you for this forum
Yes, you are right. This series like many round one series was all about which team has injuries and which doesn't. The teams that have substantial injury problems get washed out in round 1. This year, you did and the Spurs did. You didn't really lose to the Nuggets, you got washed out due to being banged up while the Nuggets were not banged up in the least.
By not playing him in game five, the Hornets finally admitted (or signalled, anyway) that Tyson Chandler was not really able to play in this series.
You can not beat anyone without a starting center in an NBA playoff series, let alone beat a team that is obsessed with driving to the rim all the time. The Tyson Chandler injury situation was the worst thing you could have going against this year's Nuggets. Had he never played in the series at all, it would have been obvious to everyone from the start that the Hornets could not win this series.
This is a big problem with basketball. Individual players can be so important that if even one of them is injured it can ruin the chance to win a series. Whereas in football, there is less chance that a single injury can ruin a team's chances.
So I agree, the Hornets did the best they could given the Nuggets' unusual strategies and given the banged up situation of your team
Just keep making sure you don't waste Chris Paul's time and your team will go farther and farther.
========== Editorial Notes ==========
--The above was written in late April, 2009.
--As promised, we are finally posting material written and posted on forums in the spring. Obviously, if you have your own site, you should be posting at least simultaneously on your own site when you for whatever reason post elsewhere. But there has been a bad habit of not doing so, a bad habit that is being beaten down due to new content sharing regulations that have teeth.
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