Kobe Bryant's Diary

Dear Diary,

Back when coach Phil Jackson was in town, he'd always try to motivate me by having me read a lot of books.  Often times they would be very philosophical books that really made you think.  I guess that's why they call him the Zen Master.  Anyway, that worked for a while, but now I'm trying to keep my mind sharp with a new creative outlet, by writing in this diary.

Writing a diary can be a good way to vent your frustrations in a positive way.  Make no mistake, there's plenty to be frustrated about in Laker Land these days.  When we added two All-Stars to our lineup to form a starting unit with four future Hall of Famers, everyone expected us to dominate the West.  Hell, we expected us to dominate, but it hasn't worked out that way so far.

Our biggest issue has been chemistry.  I guess that was to be expected when you try to acclimate new players, especially ones that are used to being the stars on their former teams.  Dwight Howard has had the must trouble adjusting.  His reputation as a flip-flopper seems to have followed him from Orlando.  One day he's complaining publicly about a lack of touches, then he's apologizing for his comments.  Then the next day he complains again!  So let me get this straight.  He wanted out of Orlando to play in a bigger market for a title contender with better teammates.  He he still wants to be "The Man" as the focal point of the offense, but doesn't want any of the pressure or criticism.  Maybe he should have stayed in Disney World, because that scenario is a fantasy land.

Moving on without Rondo

The Boston Celtics earned a bittersweet victory Sunday afternoon on their familiar parquet floor.  Emotions ran high with a hard fought double overtime win over the defending champion Miami Heat - a game which also served as Ray Allen's return to Boston for the first time since spurning his former teammates to take his talents to South Beach.  Those emotions quickly flipped after the game when the team found out they'd been struck with a worst case scenario.

Rajon Rondo suffered a torn ACL in their previous game in Atlanta two nights before and would be lost for the rest of the season.

The star point guard leads the league in assists by a wide margin (11.1 per game), ranks in the top ten in the league in steals (1.8) and was recently voted as a starter in next month's All-Star game.  That kind of production is impossible to replace.  The franchise has been going through a gradual change toward pushing Rondo as the focal point of the team, so this devastating injury has to be seen as a major step back from those plans.

The Celtics now find themselves at a difficult crossroads.  Do they carry on without Rondo, with their veteran core carrying the load, or do they throw in the towel and blow up the roster?  Neither option is all that appealing.

Things I Noticed: Conference Championship

We're down to the final four teams, battling it out for the right to earn a trip to the Super Bowl.  The top teams in each conference face off to crown a champion.

Here are some things I noticed this week:

San Francisco at Atlanta

• Despite being the home team, Atlanta entered the game as 4 point underdogs.  Is that a lack of respect for the NFC's top seed or an overreaction to recent performance?  The 49ers have looked strong all year, particularly since Colin Kaepernick took over, most recently by demolishing the Packers.  Atlanta may have the best record, but they've had some shaky victories, including last week when they nearly blew a late lead to Seattle.
• Atlanta is terrible at blowing teams out.  Their offense looked dominant early on as they posted a 17-0 lead in the first half, but just like last week, they struggled to put their opponent away.  The Niners fought back, outscoring the Falcons 28-7 the rest of the way.
• The 49ers set a record for the biggest comeback ever in an NFC title game by rallying from down 17.
• Unlike the Packers last week, Atlanta was prepared to contain Kaepernick in the pocket.  They did let him get outside for a 23 yard gain, but that was his only positive rushing attempt of the game.  The rest he would have to do with his arm.
• Although Kaepernick may not have produced much with his legs, the threat of having him run opened up opportunities for his team.  The Falcons were so worried about stuffing Kaepernick near the goal line that Frank Gore was able to stroll into the end zone untouched on both of his TDs.
• Vernon Davis has seemed like a forgotten man ever since Kaepernick took over the offense, as he failed to record more than 2 catches or 27 yards in any of the Niners last 6 regular season games.  It seems his QB has finally noticed him.  Davis picked up where he left off last postseason with another big playoff performance (5 catches, 106 yards, 1 TD) to lead the Niners in receiving.

Manti Te'o's fake girlfriend

Every so often the sports world gets rocked by a scandal that captivates us all by being so outrageously beyond belief that we can't help but be pulled into the story as it unfolds.  In today's world of 24/7 news coverage and social media, you'll find endless amounts of content written and said about these stories.  Typically the stories involve an athlete being disgraced for cheating or getting into trouble with the law.

This story is even more bizarre.

Notre Dame's run to the BCS title game came with a captivating sub-plot involving Manti Te'o, the Heisman Trophy runner-up who claimed the tragic death of his girlfriend inspired him to another level of greatness on the field.  The only problem with that story is that it wasn't true... because Te'o's girlfriend never existed.

Several reports have come out, and continue to come out, updating this story.  There have been so many twists and turns over the past few days that it's still unclear exactly what happened or what version of the story is true.  Apparently Te'o had become involved in an online relationship with a woman he never met.  This is far different from the socially acceptable method of using online dating sites to meet someone.  In this case, the relationship somehow evolved into this woman becoming his girlfriend, despite the fact that they had never met in person! 

NBA All-Star starters

The NBA will announce it's starters for this year's All-Star game later this week.  Since voting for the starters is done by the fans, it typically becomes more of a popularity contest rather than a showcase of the most deserving players. 

Voting should be done primarily based on how players have performed this season, with previous history also playing a small factor.  That previous history often plays too large of a factor, with casual fans voting based on name recognition, even if a player has long passed their prime.  Remember when Allen Iverson kept getting voted in after he was washed up and the entire nation of China voted for Yao every year, regardless of if he was injured and not playing?  Pretty sure he still gets some write in votes, even though he's been retired for a couple years.

With that in mind, here is who I would vote in for the All-Star game starters.  Also note that these are only the starters, so many of those I list in the honorable mention category will deservedly make the team when the reserves are selected.

East

Backcourt:
Rajon Rondo
(13.2 PTS, 5.2 REB, 11.2 AST, 1.8 STL, 18.69 PER)

Photo by CJ Legner

Rondo is the engine that makes the Celtic's offense run.  He's taken on more of a leadership role this season as the team begins to transition away from the aging veterans.  He's raised his scoring and rebounding to career highs while shooting nearly 50% from the floor, better than any other point guard in the East.  He leads the league in assists by a wide margin and had an impressive stretch earlier this season that saw him take a run at Magic Johnson's record for consecutive games with double digit assists.  He also showed his all around talent by recently recording his third triple-double of the season (26th of his career - including postseason).  When it comes to finding a pure, unselfish point guard to lead a team of All-Stars, you won't find a better option than Rondo.

Things I Noticed: Divisional Round

The winners from last week move on to face the top seeded teams coming off bye weeks in the Divisional Round, to determine who will make it to the Conference Championship games.

This round certainly didn't lack for dramatic finishes or intriguing storylines.

Here are some things I noticed this week:

Ravens at Broncos

• Following the game's opening drive, Trindon Holliday returned a punt 90 yards for a TD, then later opened the second half with a kick-off return for another score. 
• Baltimore took a first quarter lead after returning a Peyton Manning interception the other way for a score.  The Ravens got away with blatant pass interference that went uncalled after Eric Decker's arm got held down, leading to the deflected ball finding it's way into the arms of Corey Graham for the defensive score.  Hard to pin that one on Manning.
• The Ravens were clinging to just a shred of hope when they got the ball back with about a minute left and no time outs.  Jacoby Jones picked a good time to make his first catch of the game - a 70 yard game tying TD catch with just over 30 seconds remaining in regulation.
• It took a 2nd overtime period to find a winner, but Baltimore kicked the game winning field goal to upset the heavily favored Broncos.  The winning drive was set up after another Manning INT.  After getting chased out of the pocket, Manning tried throwing on the run to the middle of the field (not exactly his specialty).  That one you can blame Manning for.  The turnover gave Baltimore the ball in Denver territory and a handful of Ray Rice runs put them in range for the winning kick.

• We are now living in a world where Joe Flacco (331 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INTS) out dueled Peyton Manning (290 yards, 3 TDs, 2 INTs) in a playoff game.  Not only that, but he came through in the clutch in a road game, where he has often struggled.  This could be just what Flacco's career needs to get over the hump of mediocrity.
• Flacco has had his ups and downs in his career, but hasn't quite broken through to that elite level.  The one thing he does do very well though is throw the ball high and deep.  That allows him to make big plays to his speedy receivers, like the game tying throw to Jones, or the 49 yard TD pass to Torrey Smith.  He has his flaws, but as long as he can keep throwing it deep and let his receivers go chase after it, he can keep his team in games.

No call for the Hall

The old saying goes - cheaters never win.  While many players during baseball's tainted Steroid Era may have used performance enhancing drugs to cheat their way to victories, the voters have made a statement by denying them of a chance at their legacy's greatest victory. 

For the first time since 1996, voters failed to elect a single candidate into the baseball Hall of Fame.  Voters are able to pick up to 10 candidates and a player needs to appear on at least 75 percent of those ballots to gain election.  Craig Biggio came the closest (68.2), with Jack Morris trailing just behind (67.7).  No other player earned even 60 percent of the votes.

This marked the first year of eligibility for some of the biggest stars associated with the Steroid Era, including Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa.  Other notable suspected cheaters like Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro have already been on the ballot and been denied entry before.

We can probably all agree that steroids and other performance enhancing drugs should have no place in MLB.  Players that tested positive for PEDs clearly broke the rules and gave themselves an unfair advantage over their competition.  They have tainted the game, the record books and their legacies, but does that mean they should be denied access to the Hall of Fame?

Things I Noticed: Wild Card Round

The postseason opens with the Wild Card round, featuring the third and fourth seeded division winners hosting the two Wild Card teams.  While that may seem obvious to most football fans, yesterday I stood in line waiting for lunch for 20 minutes behind a young couple that clearly could not figure this out.  The guy actually thought the Texans were a Wild Card team because they were playing this weekend.  His girlfriend was nearly as lost, but seemed to know more than he did.  Anyway, I figured it was worth explaining, even though if you're reading a sports blog, you probably knew this already.

Denver, New England, Atlanta and San Francisco earned a bye this week for being the top two seeds in their conferences.

For the other teams that qualified for the playoffs, but not a first round bye...

Here are some things I noticed this week:

Bengals at Texans

• Matt Schaub's first career playoff start (262 yards, 0 TDs, 1 INT) was as underwhelming as his play over the past month has been, but he did just enough to help the Texans get a win.

• Arian Foster became the first player in history with 100+ yard rushing games in first three career playoff games. His 425 rushing yards in his first three career playoff games is a league record.
• Schuab was the only QB in the league that didn't run for a first down all season, but picked up one on a QB sneak at the end of the first quarter.
• Leon Hall undercut the route on a poorly thrown pass from Schaub and ran it back for a pick six to give the Bengals their first (and only) lead of the game.  This was the 4th straight game with defensive TD for Bengals.
• Andre Johnson dropped a ball in the end zone on third down, forcing the Texans to settle for FG to end the half.  All three of the Texans scoring drives stalled short of the end zone, forcing them to settle for field goals, but they still took a lead into halftime that they would not surrender.
• The Bengals had -6 passing yards at halftime, when factoring in sacks.  Dalton completed only 4 of 10 passes and 2 of those completions went for negative yardage!  The rest of his day would get slightly better, but that's not saying much.  He finished with only 127 yards while completing only 14 of his 30 pass attempts.  He also failed to lead a single TD scoring drive for the offense.
• Cincinnati is the first team since the 2007 Chiefs to have negative passing yards in the first half of a playoff game.
• Houston could have stopped the Bengals on 3rd and long and gotten the ball back with the lead and only four minutes left, but they gave the Bengals new life with a pass interference penalty.  Yet the Bengals failed to take advantage, turning the ball over on downs when a completion on fourth down came up short.  In that situation, with the game on the line, you just can't throw the ball short of the marker unless the receiver has a clear path to a first down.
• Houston wins 19-13, advancing to the next round to face New England - also known as the place the Texans were so thoroughly embarrassed last month that is caused the rest of their season to unravel.  So they can't be feeling all that confident about a trip back to Foxboro.

What's wrong with the Celtics?

Well this isn't how things were supposed to work out.  After falling just short of making their third NBA Finals appearance in five seasons, the Celtics reloaded their bench to make another run.  On paper they looked like a good team - an improved team.  Even the most pessimistic fans in Boston had to expect this team to at least contend for a spot in the top half of the Eastern Conference playoff seedings.

Then the season started.  Do we still look at this team the same way now?

The season isn't even half over yet, but already the Celtics have dug themselves into a distressing hole.  The team has lost four straight and eight of their last ten.  Those last four losses have all come by double digits, including three that were blow outs losses by 18+ points.  Their record has dropped to 14-17 and if the season were to end today, Boston would find themselves outside of the postseason.

Nobody ever expected this squad to be a lottery team.  There's far too much talent on this roster for that to happen, but in order to prevent that fate from becoming a reality, there needs to be some improvement.  So the question is - what's wrong with the Celtics?

Sure, there have been some injuries, but all teams go through that at times.  New York, Chicago and Indiana seem to be doing just fine, despite missing star players for most, if not all, of the season.

The main issue with this team has been defense.  The Celtics have been a lock as a top five team in Defensive Efficiency during the Kevin Garnett era, but currently find themselves ranked 13th in the league (102.1).  The drop in defensive performance can't be attributed to the team's defensive anchor.  Even at age 36, Garnett remains one of the league's top defenders, barking out assignments and providing elite help defense.  The problem is, KG is playing a career low 29 minutes per game.  When he's on the floor, Boston ranks as the best defensive team in the league, but when he's resting on the bench they suddenly become the worst defensive team in the league.