Phil Partington's Blog

Posted by Phil Partington

I just got back from a week-and-a-half long vacation in Los Angeles and Mexico. What a fun place! The highlight was an excursion where we road in trucks that reminded of an Indiana Jones adventure (very bumpy) up part of a mountain, road mules up the rest, zip-lined across canyons 250-feet in the air, through trees of a rain forest and into water, repelled down a 65-foot water fall and hiked through the forest. It's tough to come back to Washington state's 30-something degree weather after relaxing in Mexico's 90-something degree weather. Yet, tomorrow is Christmas and it wouldn't feel right spending it in the sunshine.

It's fun to return and see what's been going on in the world of the NBA. Who would have guessed, for instance, that the Portland Trail Blazers would have won ten in a row to put them second in the division behind the Denver Nuggets. Most thought their season was lost when top draft pick, Greg Oden, went down with injury for the season. Moreover, the Blazers could extend that streak to thirteen, as its next three challengers all have sub-.500 records (Seattle, Minnesota and Philadelphia). In this ten-game stretch, Portland has defeated Utah twice, Denver and New Orleans. Not bad for such a young team.

Guard Brandon Roy leads the Blazers with 19.1 ppg, 4.4 rbpg and 5.6 apg. Forward LaMarcus Aldridge is averaging 18.5 ppg and 7.7 rbpg. Keep your eye on this young team. They seem to be destined for great things.

Have a wonderful holiday season, folks.

Posted by Phil Partington

New York Knicks owner James Dolan amazes me. He didn't hesitate to pull the trigger on coaches like Larry Brown, Lenny Wilkins and Herb Williams. Yet, Isiah Thomas has brought nothing but trouble to that franchise and still has his job. Thomas has had his own off court embarrassments, which featured a sexual harassment lawsuit against him. The team has the largest payscale in the league for a team of mostly overpaid players - which, by the way, was his fault. Thomas brought the majority of the current roster to New York as the team's president. Despite the apparent talent the Knicks have, Thomas hasn't been able to get them to do much of anything.

It was Isiah Thomas' philosophy that shot blockers were overrated. Granted, he might not have had many shot blockers in Detroit when he won a title as a player in the late 80s, but Bill Laimbeer, Rick Mahorn and John Salley were all players who protected the paint defensively in their own ways. Eddy Curry and Zach Randolph are embarrassments at the defensive end.

In addition, Thomas seems to pass on stand still shooters in order to log jam positions with athletic players who can't shoot. Adding a shooter or two would clearly open things up for these athletes. Yet, Thomas doesn't seem to get that. Despite having David Lee on the roster, a scrappy power forward, he added Renaldo Balkmen and then Wilson Chandler, both similar players as Lee. Thomas has failed to add a true point guard who can run the offense either. Though there's plenty of talent on this team, Thomas has no regard for team balance or chemistry, and it makes absolutely no sense that he remains the Knicks head coach.

Posted by Phil Partington

I apologize for the spacing of my articles of late. It's been a busy, exciting time for me. Aside from the typical rigors of my daily grind, I recently had the opportunity to meet my birth mother and her family for the first time. I was adopted at birth and never knew anything about my blood relatives, so when hired a private investigator and found her, it was pretty hectic and exciting. I even have two half-siblings I didn't know about.

Anyway, I haven't lost track of what's going on in the world of basketball, and as excited as I am that the NBA season is underway again, I'm just as excited about college men's basketball.

I believe the freshman class this year is even better than last year's class that featured Greg Oden and Kevin Durant. Here's a look at what some of the young phenoms are doing with their respective teams:

• Kevin Love, UCLA, 19.3 ppg, 10.5 rbpg on the No. 2 Bruins.
• Derrick Rose, Memphis, 16.6 ppg, 5.6 apg for the No. 3 Tigers.
• Kyle Singler, Duke, 14.3 ppg, 6.3 rbpg for the No. 7 Blue Devils.
• DeAndre Jordan, Texas A&M, 10.3 ppg, 8.3 rbpg for the No. 9 Aggies
• Eric Gordon, Indiana, 27 ppg, 56% FG, 55% from trey in five games. Hoosiers are ranked 15th overall.
• Austin Daye, Gonzaga, 13.8 ppg, 5.0 rbpg for the No. 19 Bulldogs.
• OJ Mayo, USC, 21.8 ppg, 3.3 apg, 4.7 topg in six games for the No. 22 Trojans.
• Michael Beasley, Kansas State, 27.2 ppg, 15.5 rbpg in six games.
• Bill Walker, Kansas State, 12.5 ppg, 6.5 rbpg in four games.

Posted by Phil Partington

I tried an experiment last season. Instead of playing traditional fantasy basketball, where the goal is to acquire players who contribute positive stats like points, boards and assists, I set a league up where the goal was to acquire players who contribute negative stats like turnovers, fouls and technical fouls. It was a points based league and I gave negative points for every point, board and assist collected.

It's sheer brilliance! Imagine the challenge of having to assess the worst of the worst, while getting rewarded for your efforts. For those looking for a new way to play fantasy sports, this might be something to try. When was the last time fantasy basketball owners could cheer for turnovers and low stat production. This idea could revolutionize the game altogether!

If technical fouls are weighted as heavily as I'd imagine they ought to be, Rasheed Wallace could be the top pick in such a league. The possibilities are endless.

Posted by Phil Partington

What happened to the days when an NBA player played his heart out without fuss for whatever team he was on? What happened to the time when a player was greatful for his opportunity to play with the world's best and get paid for it?

It seems that more and more players these days complain about their given situation or whine about the lack of respect they get. How can a player be respected if all they do is whine and complain?

Shawn Marion of the Phoenix Suns is one of the league's highest paid players. He has been named to the All Star game multiple times and has even played for America against International competition. Yet, he still claims he's underrated. Moreover, when his name is involved in trade talks, he whines even more and claims he's underappreciated even when the trade talks are for a superstar like Kevin Garnett.

Likewise, Utah Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko has escallated his complaints to a new level about the Utah Jazz system. More specifically, he doesn't seem to get along with coach Jerry Sloan and has threatened to walk away from his multi-million dollar contract because of these problems.

Whiners like this have cheapened the quality of the league. Players need to shut up and play.