The Arbitrary ChuckJerry

A line from Bill Simmons' column on ESPN.com:

"In a related story, if you scrolled through the lineups of all 30 teams before the season, then asked yourself, "What pair of teammates would be the most likely candidates to start a fight in the stands, eventually leading to the ugliest sequence in NBA history?", the heavy favorites would have been Artest and Jackson in Indiana, with Zach Randolph and Ruben Patterson a distant second in Portland. Those are the facts. That might have been a shocking night, but at no point did anyone who follows the NBA on a regular basis say to themselves, "I can't believe Ron Artest and Stephen Jackson are taking on Row 3 in the Palace right now!" Sketchiest pair of teammates in the league, roughest group of fans in the league. Not a good combo."

This is so true. I wouldn't count out J-Dub and Bonzi Wells in Memphis, either, but they're good guys now. Incidentally, I have the NBA League Pass and I watch a lot of the games. The Memphis announcers insist on calling Jason Williams "J-Will" every time he touches the ball, which is ridiculously annoying.

Also after watching the feeds from other local stations, I'm glad that I live in New York where the announcers are all pretty good. The obvious exception was Michael Kay and the guy he used to announce the Yankee games with on the radio whose name I can't remember right now. They're not together any more, though because one does radio and the other does TV, but gosh were they awful.

I guess the Heat are going to win the East now. Detroit is not as good as they were last year. The Pacers are fucked. The Nets are downright awful. And those were the best three teams last year. The only team to markedly improve is the Heat.

Minnesota is no good any more since Cassell and Sprewell decided they were bitches and not team players. I wait for Golden State to get better and they never do. Troy Murphy is the man, though. Seattle looks real good. If Sacramento gets deeper, they might be the favorite in the West. At the moment San Antonio is still the best team in the league.

Maybe I'll make a whole 'nother post about the Knicks.