TV can be awesome sometimes

I was flipping through the channels not expecting much, and then I see Darryl Dawkins shooting freethrows. Huh? There's Bill Walton. The Blazers vs. Sixers, 1977 Finals! The one and only Portland Championship, and the game is being shown in all its glory. Now I'm trying to figure out which game of the series I'm watching, so I log on to Comcast Sportsnet Northwest for more info. All I notice is that whoever made the site apparently thinks Sergio Rodriguez is Sergio Garcia. I included a photo of the two below to help them out:

I added arrows to emphasize differences. Mostly, Garcia wears a sweater vest and uses a club while Rodriguez wears a jersey and uses a ball. Garcia also has an unusual mustache, but I thought it'd be rude to point that out. He's a man with feelings, you know?

So anyways, the channel looks pretty cool. I'd love to say more, but Billy Ray Bates just checked in.

NBA Live 08: Bold Predictions (get it? Ha!), 18

I've already written about my giddyness for NBA Live 08 to come out. Since I bought the Wii, I'm also freaked out that the controls will be too weird, but I guess I knew all that going in. In that post, I wrote about how I knew that franchise mode will definitely suck, continuing a tradition of EA Sports giving Madden something so awesome and NBA Live something so lame. I have a few more predictions, observe this official bullet points:

• LaMarcus Aldridge will be underrated. I know its coming, I think the rest of the league has yet to really aknowledge how good of a player he really is. Without Zach mucking things up, its gonna be clear to all this season. Unfortunately, the game makers don't know this, so playing with Portland won't be as fun as it should be.
• Greg Oden will be overrated. Will fans kill me for saying this? Its true. Right now, Aldridge is better than Oden (and it isn't that unlikely that this will always be true), but don't expect to see this on the game. Oden will be an animal.
• My Baron Davis-centric playing will continue to be sweet. Thanks to a solid season and a classic playoff upset, I'm thinking Boom Dizl will be rated at a pretty amazing level, which is great news for me.
• Franchise mode will continue to suck. Yep.
• The Bobcats will be fun. Who knows if this will work in real-life, but video games aren't about real life, and on paper, the Bobcats will be nicey nice nice. I look forward to reenact Walter Herrmann's late season run that saved my fantasy basketball season.

USA vs Venezuela, 2

I watched a good chunk of USA v. Venezuela last night before getting bored and going back to Mario Strikers. It was one of those blow-outs where we all get to feel like the good old days of United States basketball supremacy, and try to ignore the fact that its against Venezuela.

Actually, even the better teams in the tournament aren't really going hard, so lets not get too excited: Brazil has Nene and Barbosa, but not Varejao (who is good) or Araujo (who is um, big). Canada convinced Dalembert to play, but not Nash or Magloire. It is still unknown if someone can step up and fill in for Magloires corny "no-look" dunking, seriously, I'm worried how Portland can fill such a void this season after his departure. Even Argentina, the defending Olympic champs, are without Ginobili, Nocioni, Oberto, former savior of my fantasy league team Walter Herrmann, and one of my favorite players ever Pepe Sanchez.

I have two other notes from the game:

1) Michael Redd's bald spot has gone from humorous distraction to disturbing. I think the shape reminds me of the space between your hands if you throw up a Roc-A-Fella sign. Mr. Redd, you should probably just shave it all off. Hov!

2) Bill Walton surprisingly did commentary for this game. The highlight was him throwing praise and support behind Venezuela Dictator President Hugo Chavez. I love you Bill, and don't answer your phone, its homeland security, they want to get together in Cuba for a little meeting.

2007 Summer League: Portland vs. Seattle

Portland 84 Seattle 78
Box Score

I wasn't going to write anything tonight, I honestly believed I had gotten my fill of watching summer league. I love all things basketball, but there's only so much a man can take. Then after deciding to take a peek, I noticed Koponen was actually getting decent minutes in the first half. Even more, he was getting to run the point. I can't let Finland down, so on we go:

The Finnagler looked more comfortable than in any previous summer league game, maybe due to a combination of getting used to the atmosphere and actually getting to play his position. He sunk a couple jumpers and had numerous nice plays setting up teammates for easy buckets, which they often didn't convert. The play-by-play for the game shocked himself by exclaiming, "Koponen is seeing everything on the court." Good stuff.

After all the Sergio hating I've been engaging in (still plenty of room on the Trade Sergio Bandwagon, by the way), I should probably note that he ran the offense as well as he has all summer today, and really wasn't looking to score as much as usual. He had some of the usual defensive slips, but none of those disturbing lapses we've seen in previous games. The truth is that Seattle doesn't exactly have top-flight guards on this team, even by summer league standards. This probably had something to do with Sergio & Koponen's play tonight.

Joel Freeland is a man. This has been verified. On one baseline in-bounds play Mancinelli threw him a lob, which Freeland jammed through the hoop with two hands in traffic-and got the foul. He also canned a nice jumper from 18 feet, and even gave someone a version of Kevin McHale's slippery eel, which always gets big points with me. He continues to prove he can be as active as anyone down low.

Zendon Hamilton was again Portland's best offensive threat down-low. The man is playing to get back in the league and made a fine case that he should be. Also solid tonight was Chris Ellis.

Stefano Mancinelli showed flashes of those solid all-around skills, although he still would disappear for long stretches. He also had the assignment of guarding Kevin Durant all-night, so maybe we cut the guy some slack tonight.

Martell reminded us how beautiful his jumper is. Taurean Green didn't get many minutes (and had to play off the ball most of the time), probably so The Finnagler could get in some work at point.

Quick notes on Seattle:

Kevin Durant can play, but Jeff Green can play too- and he was the man tonight.

Robert Swift was rocking a very long, very red pony tail on the sideline. This is only excusable if you are as good as Bill Walton. Robert Swift, you have been warned.