For those interested
10. Paul Pierce
He didn't have the blow-up years players like McGrady, Vince Carter or Gilbert Arenas did, but he was phenomenally consistent and durable. Pierce kept his PER in the 20 range all decade, was a much better defender than most high-scoring wings and, of course, was the MVP of the 2008 NBA Finals.
He never made first-team All-NBA and never should have, but his body of work across the entire decade puts him on this list.
Wade
9. Dwayne Wade
You can make a strong argument for ranking Wade higher given his two historic performances, the first coming in the 2006 Finals (which I've argued was the best Finals effort in history) and the second coming with his brilliant play in 2008-09. But major gaps litter his record: a pair of 51-game seasons due to injuries and a brief résumé before 2006.
On a 2005-2014 All-Decade team five years from now he'd probably crack the top three or four, but on this list his body of work is too limited to rate higher than ninth.
Billups
8. Chauncey Billups
The only player on this list to make seven straight conference finals, Billups wasn't a bit player on any of those teams; he consistently posted PERs in the low 20s and added solid defense at the point. In terms of hardware, he won the 2004 Finals MVP, and would have taken home a second if Detroit had hung on to a second-half lead in Game 7 of the 2005 Finals against San Antonio.
Billups also started for eight straight 50-win teams, including one in Minnesota. While he failed to garner the same appreciation his contemporaries did this decade -- just four All-Star teams and three All-NBA teams -- only one player has a stronger case as point guard of the decade.
Nash
7. Steve Nash
While I'm dubious about Nash's two MVP awards, one can't deny he's one of the best offensive players in history. He never won the big prize this decade, but his teams went to three conference finals in a difficult Western Conference. And despite his perceived frailty he also proved durable, playing at least 70 games in every full season this decade.
Nash's strongest case, however, lies in the dazzling offensive efficiency numbers his teams posted. While he never lacked for help, his teams led the league an amazing eight times. Most notably, his 2003-04 Dallas team was the best offense in history.
James
6. Lebron James
LeBron has two principal shortcomings that keep him out of the top five on this list. The first, the lack of a championship ring, is likely to be remedied at some point in the next several years. The second, however, is that his track record is half a decade shorter than the other guys'.
While James' 2008-09 regular season included the best PER ever by a player not named Jordan and marked his second straight season leading the league, he had only three MVP-contender seasons and two others that were All-NBA worthy. That pales beside the players above him on this list, so he'll have to settle for sixth.
Rasheed Wallace says the Boston Celtics can win more than 72 games
Man, I have to admit, I think we are going to occasionally miss ridiculous Rasheed Wallace comments this season. Sheed tells the Connecticut News that the Celtics are going to challenge the Chicago Bulls' record of 72 regular season wins:
"Definitely, playing with those three other guys, also combining that with the guys we have on the bench, I think we definitely can. Me personally, I think we can get that Bulls record. You know we have the talent for it. We have the will for it and ... I think we have the defense for it."
You sure, Rasheed? The writer, Thomas Halzack, even gave have a chance to back off, asking, "Do you want me to use that?" But you know Rasheed would not back off of a crazy quote:
"You can. Because honestly, I really do feel that. That was a good team. They had some HOFs on there, but we have a few on this team, too."
It's true, Boston has some good players. And if this was 2002, that Garnett/Pierce/Allen/Wallace foursome would be a little extremely imposing. But there's a lot of mileage on those guys, particularly KG, and he's still moving pretty gingerly on that knee.
Those 72-win Bulls had a still-in-his-prime, possibly best player of all-time in Michael Jordan on the roster. The Celtics don't even have a guy I would consider a top five player in the league right now (sorry P-squared). Everyone knew that Chicago team was historically good. There's not even a consensus on whether Boston is the best in the East, as most have Orlando or Cleveland favored. I don't see the Celtics winning more than 50-55 games, which is fine for them. No need to ratchet up the expectations.
I don't claim to be an expert on tennis. However the French Open is my favorite tennis tournament every year so will follow it closely.
Going through the futures markets now, hunting for the best price on Rafa which will be the few ocassions I will bet that much chalk. Not going to bet on qualifying though.
From a womens perspective I think it will be a Russian dominated event. Safina and Kuznetsova come into this tournament as the form players on the surface, do believe this is little Safin's year. Wozniacki is a bit of a sleeper even though highly seeded, her movement on the surface is exceptional which will ensure she will be competitive against the big guns but not sure she has the firepower to beat the likes of Safina, Kuznetsova, Jankovic in the business end of the tournament.
The Knicks are at a season low right now, currently on a 5 game losing streak has resulted in D'Antoni talking about them being in a "crisis." The Nuggets start a 4 game road swing today and come into this game with a lot of momentum after their come from behind win against the Sixers.
With Melo back the Nuggets have too much firepower for the Knicks whose shot selection has been atrocious recently.
Nuggets -4 over Knicks
With the news of Mo Cheeks being the latest head coach being sacked it represents the most number of head coaches sacked before Christmas in ANY season played in the history of the NBA.
It's an absolute joke that we are only 25 or so games into the season and that there has been so many who have been given the flick. The NBA players get it way too easy and take no responsibility for their own poor performances. Instead of front office taking the easy way out and blaming the coach for their own team's poor start to the season how about they grow some balls and start calling out some of their own players who don't perform on a nightly basis.
Pathetic,