http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=jackson/050426 By Scoop Jackson Page 2 EDITOR'S NOTE: Scoop Jackson knows his way around the NBA like the rest of us know our way around the buffet table. Now that we're into the early stages of the playoffs, Scoop wraps up the just-completed regular season with the best � and worst � of the league's last six months. BG has game, but Emeka ruled the elusive double-double. Squad: The Chicago Bulls All-NBA 1: Steve Nash, Allen Iverson, LeBron James, Dirk Nowitzki, Shaquille O'Neal. All-NBA 2: Dwyane Wade, Ray Allen, Amare Stoudemire, Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan. All-NBA 3: Gilbert Arenas, Kobe Bryant, Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady, Manu Ginobili. GM of the Year: Bryan Colangelo. Coach of the Year: George Karl. MVP: AI. MVP (Defense): Tayshaun Prince. Role Player of The Year: Joe Johnson. Worst midseason trade: C-Webb to Sixers. Best midseason trade: (tie) Antoine to Boston; Vince to New Jersey; Baron to G. State. Worst overall trade: Shaq from LA. Best overall trade: Shaq to Miami. The "Damn I Wish My Trade Didn't Go Through" Award: Al Harrington. The honeymoon is over and all that's left for Isiah is divorce court. Rookie of the Year: Emeka Okafor. All-Rook Squad: Ben Gordon, Luol Deng, Okafor, Al Jefferson, Dwight Howard. All D: Bruce Bowen, Tyson Chandler, Tayshaun Prince, Larry Hughes, (tie) Marcus Camby and AK-47. All 4Q (Fourth Quarter): BG, D-Wade, Reggie Miller, Tracy McGrady, AI. All Fall-off: Peja, Webber, Steve Francis, Zach Randolph, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Lamar Odom, the Minnesota Timberwolves. All Off-the-Bench: Jerry Stackhouse, Ricky Davis, Earl Boykins, Jimmy Jackson, BG. Sixth Man: BG. Comeback Player of the Year: Carmelo Anthony. Most Improved: Bob Sura. Best Dressed: Michael Redd. The "Y'all Bet Not Ever Sleep On Me Again" Award: Gilbert Arenas. The "Out-Performed His Contract" Award (The Drew Rosenhaus Award): Bobby Simmons. The "He Should Give the Team Some Money Back" Award (The David Falk Award): (tie) Dikembe Mutombo; Tim Thomas. You wouldn't want to face the Millers at the playground. Most Missed: T.J. Ford. The "I Made Everyone Look Like Damn Fools" Award: Danny Ainge. The "I Got One More Year Before I Get Run Outta Town" Award: Isiah Thomas. The Most Important Missed Play of the Season Award: The foul Ben Wallace put on Ron Artest the play before the drama that led to the Drama. Best Throwback: Baltimore Bullets (circa: 1969-70). Best Shoe: (tie) Nike H2K5; adidas A3. Decade's Best Dance Squad/Cheerleaders: Dallas Mavericks Dancers. Best Commercial: KG, TD, T-Mac and God/adidas. Best Ad Campaign: "I Am?"/Reebok. Best Television Moment: (tie) Steven A. and Greg Anthony arguing over Jermaine O'Neal's racial comments; Caron Butler on "The Tonight Show w/ Jay Leno." Best Moment: (tie) Cheryl Miller coming over to hug Reggie during his post-game interview with Michelle Tafoya after his last regular-season game; referee Bob Delaney's speech to the players prior to the Pacers/Pistons game on Christmas Day. Worst Moment: Nov. 19, 2004. The Comeback Player, 2006 (prediction): C-Webb. The Comeback Team, 2006 (prediction): Indiana Pacers. The New Uniform Team, 2006 (prediction): Ray Allen, Eddy Curry, Yao Ming, Michael Redd, Jason Kidd. Players Who Will Beat My Derriere After Reading This: C-Webb, Stevie Francis, Ben Wallace, Tim Thomas and Shaq. Scoop Jackson is an award-winning journalist who has covered sports and culture for more than 15 years. He is a former editor of Slam, XXL, Hoop and Inside Stuff magazines; and the author of "Sole Provider: 30 Years of NIKE Basketball," "Battlegrounds: America's Street Poets Called Ballers" and "LeBron James: the Chambers of Fear." He resides in Chicago with his wife and two kids. You can e-mail Scoop here. --------------------------------------------------------- I'm having a hard time trying to decide what his most outrageous point is. This is all pretty bad. ....oh and on a side note, Scoop, if you're going to butcher the All-NBA teams you can at least make sure each team has 2 guards, 2 forwards and a center----not 5 guards like the All-NBA 3rd team has.
the new uniform team is ridiculous i dont think anyone wants kidd with his contract and injury issues + they have a decent group of guys for next year and time and time again how many times must we rockets fans say that yao isnt going to go anywhere except houston?
Yep Mutombo definately gets paid wayyyyy to much And Grant Hill really did suck this year compared to last year, of course Carmelo had an even worse year last year and a much better year this year than GH Since he's got so many crap/useless awards, how about half-season coach of the year, then you can give it to Karl. Maybe he should give the COTY award to a coahc who coached for the entire year Apart from that, the rest of the awards are stupid, useless, or in the most part, just plain wrong
is carmelo getting it for coming back from earlier this season or something? because last year was pretty good to him. and while i like all his all-nba selections (he may have had the same 15 guys i had in that earlier thread, i'm not sure), having 5 swingmen/guards on the 3rd team was ridiculous. and i don't get how francis made the all fall-off team? this wasn't a banner year for him by any means (what with kicking incidents and skipping that practice) but he put up some of his best stats ever with 21/7/6 and still was the best player on his team and had the best plus/minus. the other guys suffered real statistical declines and/or sucked or got injured. francis still produced, and produced in the clutch quite often. and how the hell is yao on the new uniform team for 2006? considering he's still under contract, he can't possibly think we're going to trade him. so i'm lost.
well technically he's getting 18 million dollars, which is ridiculous for him even in his prime, or hell just about anybody in their prime. but since we're only paying him 4.5M he's a bargain.
i never heard of this Scoop Jackson guy before he came to ESPN his writing style is awful IMO .....very hard to read without getting a headache
So the all NBA 3rd team doesn't have a center...guess they are going with the small line up. And come back player of the year to Melo? give me ab reak the whiny baby shouldnt get jack..how about my man Grant Hill...didn't even waste my time reading the rest of it after those few lines. And almost forgot....Yao changin uniforms in 2006 LOL that's all i got to say.
Who is Scoop Jackson? Well, I think.... "Scoop Jackson is an award-winning journalist who has covered sports and culture for more than 15 years. He is a former editor of Slam, XXL, Hoop and Inside Stuff magazines; and the author of "Sole Provider: 30 Years of NIKE Basketball," "Battlegrounds: America's Street Poets Called Ballers" and "LeBron James: the Chambers of Fear." He resides in Chicago with his wife and two kids." I don't think the article was as bad as you do. He's been an unapologetic AI/Sixers fan for years. He does apparently need to watch more Rockets games though.
All NBA is voted based on positions... 2 Guards, 2 Forwards and a Center... and Scoop Jackson is suppose to be a know-it-all around the NBA? Anyway, I think Tracy should definitely be ahead of Lebron on the All NBA first team. Although Lebron might have the better stats on paper, but Tracy now plays on both end of the court, that is defence, which is something Lebron tend to rest upon while focusing more on his offensive inputs. Additionally, Tracy has led his team to a 51 win season which compares favourably to Lebron's that missed the playoffs in the East. Not saying that Lerbon isn't good, he is very good infact, but just not better than Tracy this season. As for Dirk making the All NBA first team, I think basing on the regular season, he deserves a spot there if not close to it. Obviously his playoff games so far aren't up to par, but that has no bearing on the All NBA selection. Yao should be the All NBA third team's center, this time behind Shaq and Amare. Just my 2 cents. -G'day-
Wow. Yao Ming in a new Uni? The only way I see that happening is if he hits the gym hard and has to go up a size. I really can't stand these 'hype' writers. You can always tell who they are when they prop 'street cred' players (usually Eastern Conference) like AI. J
He's been around for the past decade, mostly in print. He sees himself as equal parts sports writer, beat poet, and "the man who'll say things the man doesn't want to hear". He annoys the fool out of me more times than not - I learned to skip past his columns and interviews a long time back. His awards aren't that horrible though. I'd quibble with some of the all-NBA, but the only ones I think are dumb are Melo over Hill for comeback (I mean, is he serious? Did he just forget?), the Mutombo thing (he got bought out of that contract sevral years ago, for heaven's sake), and the Yao new uni bit. Where did that garbage come from? His Kobe/Lakers woodie? He's also delusion if he still think Webber's coming back. Evan
Center? They don't even have a power forward. And, a journalist calling himself 'Scoop' has to be just about the tackiest thing I've seen in sports.
I'm so sick of seeing Ray Allen above Tmac on the all nba team. The sonics have like 4 guys who are having their best year ever, and they won one more game than us. Tmac has better stats, and has led us to 3 victories against Allen's team.
BTW, SLAM, while Scoop here was aboard, was over-eager to make fun of Yao his rookie year. The first issue from that season was vicious and made it clear, in my eyes, that they were wanting him to be the next big butt-of-all-jokes (Bradely, Dare, Bul, etc). They ate crow, just like Barkley, and eventually gave him a co-cover with Steve, but still were very closed on giving him positive pub. Evan
he thinks yao is getting traded this offseason? even those who hate yao know thats not going to happen. he put tmac on the all 4Q team. tmac finaly getting some props for being clutch. deke is on the "give $ back" team. we are only paying him the minimum. maybe he should give $ back to the nets or knicks (whoever is paying the other 17 million to him this year) has sura as MIP. i like that idea. maybe he should get it, even though it looks like wade or amare are shoe-ins.
