MVN - Most Valuable Network

“Do I have ‘moron’ written on my forehead?”

Given that I have spent my time since Tuesday night getting progressively more and more excited for tonight’s Game 6 in Oakland, this column was originally going to be a prediction piece for tonight’s game.

Sadly, I realized that this would put me in quite the bind, as I wanted to wax poetic about how the Warriors would win tonight and complete the upset, but then remembered my success – or distinct lack thereof – with NBA predictions this year. While fear of losing normally doesn’t scare me away from handicapping, this series has been too good to ruin with one of my predictions. But intentionally picking Dallas to win so that they could lose would have to be a violation of some sort of NBA karma policies. It has to be, right?

Under no circumstances could I possibly let myself be a potential jinx on this series. It’s just too compelling in its own right for my dopey predictions to be the difference-maker. So instead of the prediction, let’s just say that yes, for the last two games already I have been somehow returned to rooting for the Warriors (which isn’t to say that I’ve reconciled my feelings about certain members of their roster, but it’s the NBA where the best-case scenario is generally picking one of two evils anyway), and I will be on the bandwagon again tonight. Should be a good one, folks.

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Stephen Jackson: “Do I have ‘moron’ written on my forehead when I walk out on the court or something? I don’t. … I’m smarter than a lot of people think. I’m going to continue to play basketball and do what I do.”

Yes, Stephen, until further notice, yes you do. This is what is known in the trade as a reputation. It’s what you earn when you establish a legacy of acting like a headless criminal.

You earn it by hurtling into the stands in Detroit with a “Who’s got next?” expression on your face rather than any real interest in pulling teammate Ron Artest out of the stands. You earn it by being involved in strip club shootings. You earn it by refusing to leave the court after ejections while yelling all sorts of obscenities at the referees. You earn it by habitually being a hothead and looking to fight anything and anyone that gets in your way.

These are the consequences of acting like an idiot.

I don’t know if Jackson’s ejection Tuesday night was fair or not, and frankly, I don’t care. He, like old running mate Ronnie, may be on a much shorter leash than many of his counterparts, but he has thoroughly earned that distinction. So until he permanently straightens up his act, I’m not shedding any tears over how Stephen Jackson gets treated.

* * * * *

While the Mavs-Warriors series is too cool for me to jinx, I am more than happy to say that both the Houston-Utah and Toronto-New Jersey series are going as planned in our respective Taking It to the Rack Eastern and Western conference playoff previews. So give me the Rockets to close out their series tonight in Utah and the Nets to do the same at home tomorrow.

* * * * *

Props to my colleague Chris Clarke at End of the Bench, who pointed out a certain New York Times piece about NBA referees yesterday in his column and wrote, “Something tells me this is going to be a pretty major topic of discussion before the week is over.” Well, the NBA came out with its indignant response yesterday, and the story is now well on its way to the stratosphere. Well done, Chris. That’s one more correct prediction than I have made in recent memory.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 3rd, 2007 at 9:47 am and is filed under NBA Playoffs, NBA Handicapping, Stephen Jackson, 2007 Western Conference Quarterfinals, End of the Bench, Chris Clarke, Golden State Warriors, Utah Jazz, New Jersey Nets, General NBA, Toronto Raptors, Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets, Blogroll. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.