another awesome Sports Guy article

I love this guy. Reading one of his longer articles is like biting into a nice juicy steak sandwich. That particular comparison probably makes sense to no one but me.

My favorite bits from his most recent article, The NBA, from LVP to MVP:

401. Eric Snow
Every time I complain about the Celtics in a column, I get a few counter-responses from Cleveland fans (independently of one another) that specifically mention the agony of rooting for a superstar-led playoff team that plays Eric Snow 25 minutes a night. In a weird way, they say it's worse than rooting for a bad team. Look, I'm with you guys ... if my life were at stake and I had to pick any NBA player to miss a 20-footer that he was trying to make, or else I'd be killed, I'd pick Eric Snow and rejoice as he bricked a set shot off the side of the rim. But at least you get to watch LeBron. Come on.

I know one particular person who, whenever his team plays Boston, is always calling for Snow to get the ball. It's exactly the same sentiment.

287. Troy Murphy, Mike Dunleavy (tie)
The lesson, as always: Anytime you're considering a six-player NBA trade in which you end up with both overpaid white guys in the deal ... you might want to rethink that baby.

Here in the Bay Area, we could not have been happier about this trade. I'm talking the day it was announced. I am normally very skeptical about trades, and in fantasy sports I pretty much never pull the trigger because I'm afraid I'll regret it, but in this case I felt nothing but optimism when Dunleavy and Murphy went on their way. Now, the Warriors are one game away from the playoffs. I'm still too scarred by the past 15 years to call myself a Warrior fan, though.

And, on the other side of said trade...

69. Stephen Jackson
Gave us a little bit of everything: He had the best off-court incident (allegedly getting hit by a car outside of a strip joint, then firing gunshots in the air); he has a legal trial that starts May 10 and could coincide with the second round of the playoffs if Golden State upsets Dallas (not out of the question); he caused the fading Pacers to make one of the worst deals of the decade because they were so desperate to dump him; he turned his career around by embracing NellieBall, even giving point guard a whirl for a few games (now that was a sight); and if that's not enough, the fact that he's living in Oakland doubles as the most dangerous running subplot in sports right now that doesn't involve Pacman Jones. I haven't been this excited since Tupac got out of jail.

15. Amare Stoudemire
The guy who created microfracture surgery is rejoicing right now.

I'm not sure I like the Suns as a team (my roommate has it in for Raja Bell and it's hard to cheer for them when she's yelling "You suck Raja!" every five minutes) but I do like watching Amare play. It's great to see him back.

D. Wade: Takes an Iversonian punishment every game, only he's not a freak of nature like Iverson was/is. If Wade doesn't start picking his spots, he'll go Earl Campbell on us and be gone from the league by 2011. This would be bad. This summer, Wade might need to take summer courses from LeBron ("The Art of Mailing In Half The Season") and Carter ("How to Spend Entire Games Pretending to Drive But Settling for 20-foot Jumpers").

I think Wade may be my favorite NBA player. He just seems like a good guy, not to mention that whole being awesomely good thing.

4. Tracy McGrady
The lost MVP candidate this season. Lemme know if any of these tidbits interest you:

A. The Rockets were 50-21 when he played this season and 2-8 without him.

B. When Yao went down for 32 games with a fractured kneecap, T-Mac carried the team to a 20-12 record and boosted his stats to a 29-6-6 for that stretch.

C. Other than Yao, his best teammates were Shane Battier, Luther Head, Rafer Alston, Chuck Hayes, Juwan Howard, Dikembe Mutombo and Yugoslavian gunner Turdo Sandowicz.

D. On a personal note, I don't trust basketball stats beyond a certain level because they can't interpret somebody's general impact on a game. Tim Duncan averages a 20-10 every night with two blocks ... does that measure everything he does for the Spurs? Of course not. Along those same lines, T-Mac and his cousin finished this season with almost identical numbers (a 25-5-6 for T-Mac, a 25-6-5 for V.C.), but unless you watched the games, you wouldn't know that Vince happens to be a streaky offensive player, a moody teammate and a defensive liability, and T-Mac happens to be a great teammate and superb all-around player who only goes for his numbers when absolutely necessary (like when he recently bumped his numbers to push Houston into the fourth seed).

If you asked 100 NBA players who they'd rather play with between Kobe, Vince, Arenas and T-Mac ... T-Mac would win the vote in a landslide. You win with Tracy McGrady. Wasn't always the case, but it's the case now. He's a true superstar. Now he needs to prove this in the playoffs. Please.

The Rockets being my adopted team, I can only hope Bill Simmons is right about T-Mac. Down with the Jazz!