Needless to say, I'm very excited about the NBA season finally starting. There are so many interesting stories to watch for this year, along with more exciting players to see than I can remember. But without further ado ... here is my first installment of NBA Notes for this year:
- Being a web programmer, I have to mention this first ... the new NBA website is sensational! The design matches their brand much better than before, and the layout does a great job of not getting in the way of the content (scores, stats, news, and all the info that NBA enthusiasts come to get!) The only problem I've seen is that the scores are not as up-to-date as other sources are; perhaps this can be fixed later by replacing their Flash components with Silverlight apps (he,he). Anyway, nice job, NBA (or whoever actually built the site.)
- I'm very pleased about my Lakers. As most of America knows, having Bynum back is huge. And now that Kobe has a league MVP under his belt, he seems more focused than ever to work towards another ring (and become a Finals MVP!) I'm very happy.
- How 'bout the Hawks, eh?!! So far I'm impressed with how they're able to win games in the 4th quarter and/or on the road - two things they didn't do well last year. And out of all the games they've played so far, I've been the most pleased with how they played in their first loss against the Celtics. Without their star player J-smooth, they were only a "desperate, fade-away, luck shot by Pierce" away from winning against the champs in the Garden. Yes, folks, the Hawks are for real this year.
- It was weird hearing that coach PJ of the OKC Thunder was fired last night, after I just finished watching them on ESPN last night. That being said, he looked more like a college coach (like when he was coaching Setan Hall) than a NBA coach. But I was still sorry to hear the bad news, he's one of the good guys in basketball; perhaps one of the TV networks will pick him up, he's a great analyst.
- I have a co-worker that thinks the Spurs will not make the playoffs this year. He honestly thinks that their are 8 teams better than them in the West. My opinion is that he's crazy ... or he is? If the playoffs started today, the Spurs would be the 8th seed, with Dallas and Golden State close behind. Everytime he mentions it, I keep telling him it's a 82 game season and that's early; but I have to admit he's making a compelling argument. In the end, my money's on Coach Pop and Mr. Fundamental that they'll find a way.
- If you're into basketball AND into the internet, you'll like what SLAM Magazine is doing. In addition to their website, they have a Twitter page and a MySpace page. I'm not much into MySpace yet, but I do know that every night their Twitter page is very active; I even got a reply from them on one of my tweets!