Don't Hate on John Wall

I don’t know why everyone’s hating on John Wall today like he’s some underachieving redheaded step hild. The lightning-quick No. 1 draft pick had 14 points and nine dimes in his debut against Orlando last night, and, despite shooting 6-19 from the field and his team losing by 29, Wall looked damn good for a rookie point guard playing in his first NBA game against one of the best teams in the league.

Throughout last night’s game it was more than apparent that John Wall isn’t just fast; he moves differently. John Wall is an X-Men type athlete whose power is speed; it’s obvious, even amongst a backdrop of hyper-athletes. If you haven’t seen him play yet, the closest analogy I can come up with is footage of a panther being viewed in fast-forward while somehow maintaining its coordinated languidness. And at a long 6’4", most of what I’ve seen from Wall has been against point guards shorter than him, like Jameer Nelson last night, who at 5’10" not only specializes but depends of being the quickest player on the court. With the only advantage of a stunted height in the NBA being ability to hound larger and slower opposing point guards on the dribble, Nelson should have been able to make John Wall’s debut a disaster.

It’s worth noting here that the point guard position is the hardest, most pressurized position to fill as a rookie, because you don’t get the luxury of other people creating plays for you, that’s your job. You also constantly have the ball, dramatically raising the room for error. Yet if you watched last night’s game you’ll have noticed that Nelson was forced time and time again to give Wall a 4-foot buffer on defence in the backcourt, and Wall was still able to burn and crossed Jameer up at will. The fact Dwight Howard, the biggest, most athletic center in the league, was waiting to block Wall on defence irrelevantly dampened his game. It takes time to get used to finishing on people like that. Wall will get it, rest assured.

After the loss, Washington Coach Mike Fratello summed it up best "Who else would you want to have taking the shots at this point?” … From here, it’ll get easier for Wall. He was going against a very good defensive team and a veteran PG in Nelson who just isn’t going to let a rookie make him look bad on Day 1." Well he did.

And, oh yeah, he's only 20 years old.

Amar'e Anyone? Hakim Warrick has Paul Millsap Picking Leather out of His Teeth for Weeks

Poems for LeBron. GetReal's Picks: The definitive list of something no one really cares about.

Remember that Miami Herald/WLRN sponsored LeBron James poetry contest we were mocking a few posts ago? Well the results are in, and they’re kinda well..more insightful and entertaining than you'd think. According to P. Scott Cunningham, who's in charge of the contest, most submission fells somewhere in between loose versions of iambic pentameters and tetrameters. I have no idea what those words mean, but here are some of GetReal’s favorites.

LeBronomics

Financial despair across South Florida

Budget cuts, job loss, broken community

LeBron comes to Miami

The greatest player; the magnificent entertainer

Championships bring revenue and hope,

More than basketball is on the line.

Untitled Haiku from Cleveland

Yo Miami, city near some water.

You got LeBron, from Cleveland he done gone.

Poor you.

Twisted Town

I think that I will never see

More useless hype in our community;

A town whose unemployment soars

And businesses have shut their doors

Where homeless weep and wetlands shrink

Our priorities just stink, I think.

Untitled

Clouds twist and buck like ill-tempered horses as we rest under royal palm

Watching waves crash the shore, my lover stretching her orange and blue James Jersey over bony knees

I ask, ‘Wouldn’t you live here, if you could?’

She turns away and smiles.

Two Words

Who cares!

Duke 2K11 Champions

The NBA season has begun and the basketball media camp is flush with ad nauseam stories about The Big Three, Blake Griffin, Boston and L.A. For some relief, swallow this GetReal NCAA prediction:  The Duke Blue Devils will repeat their national championship in 2011. 

While Duke may not be the most athletic team in the country, the team is a hell of a lot more than a cornbread-fed group of three point shooters. Rest assured Mason Plumlee, Kyrie Irving, Andre Dawkins and Nolan Smith are all big and quick enough to handle the nation’s ultra-athletic teams. From Michigan State and North Carolina to NC State, Duke can hang. While Duke’s best shooter, Jon Scheyer, has moved on to some sort of inevitably disparaging career in the real world, forward Kyle Singler shot 42% from beyond the arc last year and will compensate for his loss. To further increase the team’s fire power, Duke also acquired Seth Curry (brother of Stephen Curry, son of Dell Curry) from Liberty College where he averaged 20 ppg last year. Yes, he shoots like the rest of his family. 

Duke Coach Mike Krzyewski is the undisputed master of Xs and Os basketball. Mike is the basketball world’s version of Hannibal Lecter crossed with Jack Welsh. And, fresh off a gold medal in Turkey this summer, where he led players like Kevin Durant and Chauncey Billups, he’s going to be like a coach on managerial cocaine. He’ll undoubtedly have developed higher expectations, which will trickle down into tighter, more intense and demanding leadership. Ask and ye shall receive, I believe the adage goes. 

Moreover, Krzyewski will be coaching a team largely comprised of returning players, meaning he’ll have yet another season of tweaking and engineering on which to compound before heading into the tournament come March. This will make a team offense and chemistry that’s already deadly effective more so.  

GetReal Hoops is a huge fan of 4^th-year retuning forward Kyle Singler. At 6’8, 235lbs, this kid can shoot the three, play the low post, run the break and pass the ball. With a brilliant basketball IQ and the work ethic/stamina to play the entire game (he usually did throughout the 2010 tournament), he’s a candidate for player of the year. Singler fills stats sheets like water and how much he steps up in 2011 will be key to Duke’s success. Our bet: He will.  

Cause we ain’t talk’n about LBJ today, you heard it here first: Duke 2011 Champs, again.

What Runs like a Deer and Dunks like a Yeti?

Blake Griffin. Two highlights from his 20-point debut in the league. The future is bright.

The Big Baby Davis/Shaq Substitution is a Russian Doll Strategy

Erik Spoelstra's Head is on the Block...and has been since day one.

Tell me that doesn't look a like lamb being led to slaughter

The Miami Heat ran around like a coachless, jittery, over-athletic playground team. The blame and subsequent ax will quickly fall on Coach Erik Spoelstra, whose offenses rarely went beyond 'stand around and let LeBron shoot' with an occasional 'stand around and let Dwyane Wade shoot' thrown in. My guess is Spoelstra and his inevitable sacking is a preordained release valve against the pressure of the Heat floundering around for a while.

Heat management isn't stupid; they're well aware it might take time for its triumvirate to gel, and while it does the media criticism, in light of the hype, will be vile. With Riley running things from the wings, the Heat can work on their game, lose a few games and then sacrifice Spoelstra as a scapegoat when things get real ugly. Pat Riley, whose been running things all along, role's in the wings to ostensibly save the day in what amounts to nothing more than brilliant image manipulation.

With Nothing Else to Do in Miami Other than Rebound, Chris Bosh Has Managed to Develop a Sense of Humour

Tall Justice with Chris Bosh from Chris Bosh

Brand New LeBron Commercial: Nike’s Advertising Team Does it Again.

In the sports world, Nike is the absolute master of spin. Its ad executives and marketing budgets make Don Draper look like a used car salesman. So when the company’s cash cow athletes run into PR disasters like rape, rampant infidelity and trades that piss pretty much everyone off, it’s Nike's advertising teams that swoop in with their 60 second spots and spin the situation just the right way. Watch this new LeBron James ad, the very first after his move to Miami, and tell me you don’t empathize with him more, understand him better and want to be him again? All at the same time. Nike and LeBron 1, Haters 0.

Here’s a few other redeeming, Machiavellian Nike ads that first aired after public disgraces:

Marvel Series of 2010 NBA Preview Comic Covers for ESPN

Check out the rest here.