The first is the most obvious: Jordan’s accomplishments built the NBA to what it is now and without it, the opportunity for many of the next generation’s players wouldn’t exist, or exist in a state nowhere near what it is currently.

The second: anyone wearing the No. 23 is simply living in the shadow of Michael Jordan.  No matter how great the player is, after what Michael Jordan did during his career and the number of championships he acquired, no player will have remotely the same impact on the sport.  Regardless of talent, Jordan was the right man, at the right time.

The third ties into the second.  Playing under a different number, The King can build his own legacy.  Kobe Bryant and LeBron James have been heralded as the “next” Jordan, but that is an unfair comparison because they are two players in a much different era.  A new number lets LeBron build his own legacy, away from the one Mike made.

LeBron realizes that not even he could overshadow Jordan’s legacy.

In the past, couples usually dissolved prior to becoming engaged, but sometimes it doesn’t work out and they break things off before the wedding.  Most couples, not even famous celebrities and athletes like Richard Jefferson, won’t wait until two hours before the deed is to be done.  Even fewer would do it by e-mail.

It seems the old-fashioned Spurs have a new age man on the roster.

High school kids have been more timid of social interaction than generations in the past and have often used text messaging to say what they fear to say out loud or simply cannot gain the courage, balls, or machismo to even begin to form any string of coherent conversation.  It’s often been thought that his is because the kids are fully loaded into the digital medium, embracing technology for social interaction while actual physical face-to-face contact, fades into history along with the home telephone, telegraph, eight-track tapes and compact CD’s.

It seems that the social timidity isn’t limited to the youth in America, though with Jefferson’s use of e-mail to cancel a wedding a mere two hours before the ceremony, after the guests had arrived and all of Jefferson’s friends partied on his Amex black card the night before.  No reason had been cited, and one has to wonder if there was any breakdown between the couple or if Jefferson simply didn’t feel like he wanted to be tied down with the wedding fast approaching.

Some of the guests may want to tell Jefferson for his next foray into wedlock that text messages travel faster than e-mail.

Dwight Howard received his 6th technical foul.

In the NBA playoffs, once a player reaches seven technical fouls, he is suspended for one game. The play for which Howard was assessed the ‘T’ was absurd and testament to the NBA’s terrible officiating tendencies displayed this post-season. The only thing the Magic could hope for after the game was for the NBA gods to show mercy and rectify the mistake made in yet another horribly officiated game.

May 27: Mercy was served up on a silver platter.  The NBA, yet again, rescinded another technical foul in these 2009 playoffs. This wasn’t the first, and likely won’t be the last, major overruling of a bad officiating call. In a set of playoff games that have gone horribly wrong for David Stern and his hopes of a Kobe-LeBron final match, there was a break in communication between the office and the officials.

The officials seem to be skewing their calls for the superstar match-up, while the NBA is waging a PR campaign.

Reminds me of watching one of the C-SPAN congressional debates.

Except Jordan has retired.

King James now has the gift.

As the ESPN stat sheet will show, rules for the Magic and Cavaliers (except for LeBron) are pretty similar. Both teams had players foul out, both had amazing and poorly played quarters, and, in general, both had decent parity. 

I think what’s been most overlooked about these stats, however, are the fouls and by who. This, I think, is a stat that deserves more attention. 

Far too many times the referees have shown preferential treatment for the superstar, basically awarding him free throws every time he sets foot on the Magic’s side of the court. I’m all for letting the players play and calling the calls that need to be made, but letting one player run free because he puts people in arena seats and makes the league money tends to ruin the spirit of the game, as well as the chance for small market teams to break out.

It’s so superstar skewed sometimes in the East, I think Kobe Bryant is wishing he were LeBron.

• NBA tryouts have been moved up to April 30th,
• early entrants must withdraw from the draft by May 8th (instead of June 15)
• and the season will begin a week earlier.

These have supposedly been enacted to help returning college students maintain academic eligibility. But, most colleges that I know are out by May 8th so what’s the point?  It’s a great idea but it’s probably not a bad idea to just encourage student athletes to maintain good grades throughout their college career.

It should be interesting to see if this does, in fact, encourage students or just put more stress on them.