State Of The Union

Da Realist:

I'm trying not to get started.. but let me ask you? name the top 5 players in your mind. besides kobe, which one has IT? tim duncan? does he really make you stay up at night shaking in your boots like olujuwon did? kg? steve nash? vince carter? if he's dominique, then where is his 1988 game 7 versus boston?

name the top 5 coaches. which one, besides phil jackson, has the game locked up? gregg popovich? ehhh, ok...maybe. but he never had a super team. just one good enough to take over after the lakers imploded. who else? larry brown just got run out of new york. this version of pat riley has nothing on the 80's version, but ok, let's count him too since he just won. who else? rick carlise? george karl?

now take away your favorite team. who else do you have to watch? i remember in 87 or 88, the lakers were playing at boston in the regular season and my parents decided to take us all out ot dinner that night. i was MI-SER-A-BLE. couldn't wait to get home. we finally get home, i run to turn the tv on (one of those deals where the sound came on a full minute before the screen showed) and just managed to watch magic johnson hit a last second shot to win the game. i was elated and FURIOUS at the same time. who, in today's nba, would make you feel like that if you had to miss a game?

i'll leave it at that.

Waldini:

That's a good point. When the top two teams, Phx and Dal, play each other on national TV, I dont go out of my way to watch it (nor do i feel bad if I missed the game altogether). Or if it's a matchup of top talents, say Lebron vs Wade vs Melo, I dont feel as if I am missing something important. But then again, I didnt really care for watching the Hawks on TBS all the time when Nique was in his prime either.

Top 5 players in the league right now....Duncan, Garnett, Bryant...I am struggling to find another two b/c all 3 of these guys play defense too (although Tim and Kobe are having down yrs in this dept). I would put Nash for his offensive brilliance but he's a liability on D. Same for Bron and Wade. Then you have AI, T-Mac, Dirk, etc and countless others who are elite players.

Top 5 coaches - Phil, Pat, Pop, Avery, and shock Nate McMillan. the latter b/c he's honest with his players and if you dont like his ways, he shows you the door. For all the marveling they do at LB, he gets knocked down for quitting and blasting his teams.

Da Realist:

You didn't watch nique? i didn't like the hawks but they were ENTERTAINING. i remember all those guys...nique, spud, doc, jon koncak, john battle, tree rollins, antoine carr, cliff levingston. those were some sweet uniforms too. well, back then they were. :-)

Waldini:

Looking at those empty orange, red, and yellow seats in the Omni would drive my eyes batty :-). Wow talk about the first time I knew what overpaid meant in Jon Koncak. they hated on that guy for years in ATL (and rightfully so). You took it back bringing up Battle's name but he was underrated on both ends. I do miss glue guys like him, Trent Tucker, Dell Curry, Johnny Newman, Terry Cummings (although he was more upper echelon early in his career), Jeff Malone, Hot Rod Williams, etc

Gangsta D:

Growing up in Georgia, Nique was OUR Jordan. Even if you didn't like the Hawks, you loved Nique. We almost went apeshit, when we thought the Hawks were gonna beat the Celtics in '88. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be. But nobody, and I mean nobody dunked the ball like the Human Highlight Reel.