The Basketball Thread

I’ve seen enough off-topic comments in other threads to suggest that a lot of you follow basketball.

So who do you support? Who do you hate? Will the Heat ever win a championship? Is Fat Lever the best NBA name ever? Will this fucking lockout ever end? (I’ll be in the states for november/december and if I don’t get to see any games I’ll be devastated). Anybody play locally?

Go the suns, i just want Ghill to win one ring before he retires, the sh1t he was doing last season was nasty for an old fella

I only backed the mavs last year cos Jkidd deserved a ring too.

Heat will win one, be interesting to see the knicks this season with mello though.

oh - played for my school, continued playing with my mates down at Auburn (sydney). Moved to perth and havnt had time to join a team, been freakin 4 years since i played a full game.

Last friday was my first pick up game in aaages, forgot how sore you get! gettin oold.

I followed the Cavs since about 2001 but as of late so I’m supporting the Bobcats. Go Bismack and Kemba. (I like supporting shitty young teams)

I hate the Lakers and Mavs.

I want the Heat to win a championship, my theory is that they will take a risk and pay a lot of money to sign Greg Oden… then he get’s his form back then the Heat win 3 straight championships. (I really hope they don’t sign Eddy Curry, which it looks like they might -.-)

I played basketball through all of Highschool on the school team and a club team but haven’t played a full game for over a year.

I’d be so, so bummed if I went to America and the NBA was still in lockout, hope its back by the time you are going!

I was a Utah fan way back when, only cause thats where John Stockton was. I had that whole intense dislike for the ‘Bad Boys’ era Pistons who were kicking around at the same time. I enjoyed watching the Magic era Lakers play, but hated seeing them win. Always had a soft spot for Boston with Larry, and switched allegiances after Stockton retired, so I’ve had a few good seasons to watch since then. Dunno about Boston this season, lost a few, gained a few, and I havent been keeping track. And I hope we get an NBL worth watching this season.

Started played when I was 8 in a country town, then up to Narrabeen and back twice over many years, and finally had to stop when I was 31 and my knees couldnt cope any more. Primary school, high school, university, opens, pickup games, comps, regional carnivals, you name it, I wanted to be involved. Even if I wasnt that good. I blame going from 5’10" at 17 to 6’2" at 18 and the subsequent move from guard/pt to forward for being a crap small forward/tiny centre.

I can still tell you which numbers I wore for every team I played for…

I don’t follow the NBA actively, but do read alot of Nike related blogs so have more interest in the shoes more than anything.

I played basketball for 15 years before moving from the country.Usual club, school and representative basketball. I definitely am/was not a flashy player and more than happy to get some rebounds and assists. I will stroke my own ego and say I’ve got an alright mid range jumper, and my free throw average is ridiculous! I always planned to find a new team to play for when I moved up here, but never quite got around to it and that was 6 years ago.

My main interest in the NBA at the moment is not being able to see a game in November when I’m in America.

I can’t see the knicks getting past the second round of the playoffs in the next few years, I think they gave up way too much to get Melo, and they don’t really have much room to trade or sign new players. Especially if there is a hard cap in the new CBA. They’ve already got about $70m owing for the 2011-12 season. I know James Dolan has deep pockets, but shit that’s a lot of money for Amare, Melo and a bunch of scrubs. (chauncey is over the hill)

i dont think it is all that likely that we will see even one game this season!

they may not have ‘gelled’ as quick at the heat, but maybe melo/amra/billups just need some new motivation? either way, being knicks with big signings, eyes will be on them

FG, i went from being tallest in my class playing PF/C in my jnr high school years, then watching all my mates grow, and having to slowly move to SF, and then by final year at highscool, playing PG. I did get to love playing PG though, and the Post Up skills i learnt playin 3/4/5 meant i had a good advantage posting the guards if they were playing man on man.

good times.

I was a Nuggets fan back in '93-94, man they were cool, LaPhonso, Rodney Rogers, Robert Pack, Mahmood Abdul Rauf (Chris Jackson), and of course good old Dikembe. Don’t really follow anyone any more, but after not paying the NBA much attention in my 20’s I’ve started to get back into it the last couple of years. But nothing will ever top this…

//youtu.be/JQ-iQhaKqBA

Played junior ball up to the end of High School in '97 in Ararat/Ballarat. The last few years though my only time on court has been during the Corporate Games. Would love to play a social league again, but who the hell has the time, right?

I used to be the biggest Reggie Miller fan back in the day. I have to say, one of the highlights of my last work trip to america was watching the final playoff match with a bar full of ‘locals’.
My involvement these days is wearing basketball shorts as often as I can, because they are some straight-up comfortable shit.

celtics fan here.

never stop being amused how they manage to acquire yet another pensioner with fucked knees each season in exchange for picks or someone young and awesome.

like last season- replace on shitty o’neill with another one.

do you think the all new Brooklyn Nets will all have ironic mo’s and wear cut off denim shorts?

hell yes, having well off aunties in indo (back in the 90s), i had a good supply of shoes with every relo that visited us here in oz.

a few i pairs i got to ball in

Air Max Force CB, and a pair of CB34s

Penny 1 and 3

Air Zoom flight, probably one of my favourite shoes to ball in

Currently have some Kobe 4s that i played in the first time last friday, feelsgoodman.

i’ve been team drifting since charlotte stopped hosting the hornets.
i refuse to go for boston despite being about to live there (i will follow the bruins however).

i hope the season starts. will try and get to the garden to watch durant play one day. i like him.
i also hope bogut continues to improve and become a better player…the bucks have been pretty fun to follow for the last two seasons.

Considering he played last year with one arm, he’s pretty awesome. Such a shame about that injury, hopefully he gets a bit more use out of that right arm this season.

yeah, that run into the playoffs the season before last was awesome, until the stack.

I’ve supported the Mavs since I’ve been following basketball, so stoked to see them finally win after such disappointing playoff-performances in previous years.

Not a fan of Miami.

Probably will win a championship but only once they become more cohesive as a team, was unfortunate to see 3 great players play such horrible games (Lebron especially) when it was important. I feel that after being such dominant players in their respective teams, they aren’t taking too kindly to other players stealing the spotlight (once again, Lebron especially)

Fat lever is an awesome name.

Should end eventually.

I’ve played for as long as I can remember. Played for a local club for a while, went overseas to play in the Maccabia games (jewish olympics) for juniors. Started VCE, couldn’t train so now play at MSAC in an open league with some mates.

best thread evaaaaaa, the one thing i like more then bikes

i love the suns, but just too depressing to watch them go down in flame the next couple of years with Nash keeping them out of good lottery picks, that being said I now have a soft sport for the Knicks as i see them as a kinda zombie suns with Amar’e & D’ntoni coaching, i think if they can pick up one more star (cp3, howard, williams, iggy, etc) ((though i would rather them spend the same money of 2-3 solid players, maybe keep with the trend and take 1 of the suns 1,000,000 sg/sf’s & frye)) they’ll surprise a few people, having 2 players combine for 50+ point a night consistently is hard to stop and take a lot of focus off players such as billups, fields who will space the floor it just a hard match up… only thing stopping them is the fact they refuse to play anything resembling defence.

im thinking it will be like the 1998 lock out and we’ll have 50 games, so until then ill watch basketball vicariously through 2k12 where, ironically, my player got drafted to the suns

what about cards? anyone used to collect? or still collect?

spent all money on cards during my high school years, stopped when i went uni, (more important things to spend on) I kinda wished i kept collecting because thats when they started introducing ‘pieces’ of players jerseys, shoes etc. i thought that was a pretty cool concept for inserts.

hahah, you had family in Indo and I had my grandparents who would always bring stuff back from their Hong Kong adventures!!

These two were the highlights.

Hans kills everyone when it comes to shoes, but I’ve still got these stashed away at Mum and Dad’s for a rainy day.
Jordan XV

Jordan VII. I would’ve worn these if they were a 13, all I could get my hands on were a 14 and they are too big.

These and Huarache 2k4 were my favourites to play in. I’ve still got these somewhere at Mum and Dads as well.

hells yeah.
used to have the larry johnson rookie, and the penny hardaway one.
usually upperdeck ones. stopped at the end of primary school (well dad stopped buying them for us and instead started buying marvel/comic cards).