GarageGabs

One of our readers (Jeff) asked for this.

Once you get a couple of posts in your honor, you are elevated to category status. Say hello to Bruce Bowen, in the news last week for his kick to Amare Stoudemire’s Achilles, he has now aimed for a much more sensitive area; Steve Nash’s groin.

Bruce Bowen Catches Steve Nash In The Nads

The NBA finally decided to “take a look” at Bowen’s style of play. After looking at the play the league has insisted that Bowen will not be suspended for game 4, calling the shot to the groin a “flagrant 1″ foul.

Yeah, this is good news for the Spurs. Bowen hasn’t been suspended. However, it’s bad news for the Spurs that the league is actually giving credibility to the complaints on Bowen. Dude is gonna be watched like a hawk from here on out, I’m saying it now: This whole Bruce Bowen mess is going to lead to MAJOR DRAMA before these playoffs are concluded. I also believe David Stern and Stu Jackson read my site.

 

After losing to Utah 115-101 last night, the Golden State Warriors are now looking at a 3-1 series deficit as they travel back to Utah.  A little composure, and they would be holding a 3-1 advantage.  The Warriors totally blew game 2 of the series, missing 3 key free-throws and turning the ball over down the stretch.  Last night, Baron Davis & Company were at it again, this time missing 13 free-throws and breaking down defensively in a game that was MUCH closer than the score indicates.

Utah is obviously the better team.  The Jazz run a well oiled system, methodically getting the ball into Carlos Boozer in the post.  Golden State, as Coach Don Nelson put it, “has no plan B”.  They run and shoot 3’s until the wheels fall off.  Nice concept, and it actually works from time to time…..add a little bit of focus and control to the mix and they would have won last night.  As the Warriors began to fall into a hole last night they immediately began hoisting up bad 3’s, missing free-throws, and losing their cool.  Baron Davis missed 2 key free throws and elbowed Derek Fisher; Jason Richardson hoisted up bad 3 after bad 3 and slammed Okur as he went in for a late game dunk; Matt Barnes heaved up a couple off balance NO CHANCE type 3 pointers.  The Warriors need to understand…as a playoff game moves past the 6 minute mark in the 4th quarter, each and every possession  becomes important.  They are an athletic team.  Keep attacking the rim.  Get to the free-throw line and actually make your free throws.  Play with composure.  It’s time to shut the whirling derby down during the 4th quarter of close games.  Only then will they be able to finish.

It won’t matter.  This series is over.  Golden State is beaten, tired, and demoralized.  They’ve gone to the well one to many times and come up empty.  Utah finishes this series out at home, 4-1.  Oh, and I hate to finish this post up without mentioning this guy; Derek Fisher has been flat out amazing.

I am fascinated by things like this, I’ll probably try and post one daily.

I’ve had some issues with the Spurs for several years. I’ve always thought Tim Duncan was incredibly whiny and that Manu Ginobili played out of control on purpose; with the intention of catching someone in the nads with one of his flailing legs. In my opinion the Spurs are boring to watch and have always pushed the envelope in regard to playing too rough. I’d never given much thought to Bruce Bowen. My opinion of him was over-rated defender/decent spot up 3 point shooter, especially from the corners.

Now you know my original stance on this topic.

By now you’ve probably heard that Amare Stoudemire has accused Bruce Bowen of intentionally kicking him in the Achilles. He has also gone as far to say that the Spurs are a dirty team. You might have even seen the replay on ESPN and thought that it was kinda tough to tell what Bowen’s actual intent was on that play. Maybe he just slipped. Well, the power of YouTube has come to the rescue, just in time to show that Bruce Bowen probably didn’t slip. In fact, when you take Bowen’s action in the context of his previous behavior, you get the idea that this is what he does. Bruce Bowen IS a dirty player:

First, lets take a look at the play in question involving Amare Stoudemire:

Yeah, it’s really hard to tell if Bowen intentionally stuck that right leg out there. He could have just been slipping. Let’s dive a little deeper into Bruce Bowen.

Ok, not sure if you’ve ever ran at a jump shooter but I’ve never done a sideways split causing me to awkwardly land in the landing area of the shooter. Yeah, you can call it getting up into a shooters face, but it looks more like Bowen is trying to take away the shooters landing space….with his own feet, which is terribly dangerous. The easiest way to tear up an ankle or other joint is by landing on someone’s foot. Still not convinced?

Once again, Bowen has that “what’d I do?” look on his face. Bowen knows exactly what he did and Carter’s reaction was the proper one. There is nothing wrong with playing great defense but playing dirty is a different story. Go to your local court and play some pickup basketball. The first time the guy that you are guarding shoots a jump shot do the Bruce Bowen move, placing your feet right under the jump shooters feet. Then do it again. If you can do it a third time. Someone is either going to get hurt, or get into a fight.

It’s really a shame that Bruce Bowen uses this move. He is a fantastic overall defender. Every time his name is brought up in conversation now someone will say…”oh yeah, Bruce Bowen is dirty”. Fact is, they’d be right. These videos are only a small sample of the guy’s antics. I respect someone for playing good defense but I’m also a bit old school when it comes to basketball. I don’t care for grind it out games where defenders are allowed to use all kinds of body to slow down offensive players. Stoudemire has just added a huge element of drama to the Suns/Spurs series, which is currently tied at a game each. Also, you have to wonder if Bowen is going to have to “watch himself” now. The league knows what he’s doing as do the fans and players. You can bet there will be some complaining going on the first time he lands under a shooters foot. The series will resume tomorrow at 8 pm, on ABC.

Dirty Play in the NBA? Not Much Anymore (MSNBC)

Well, I’m day 2 into my blogging comeback attempt, and I must admit I’m just not feeling very inspired. Making a comeback is hard work! There are so many things to talk about, but to be quite honest I just don’t feel like diving into much detail on them.

I’ll touch on a couple things very quickly-

Looks like Curt Schilling has decided to apologize to Barry Bonds. I think it’s becoming obvious to everyone that Schilling wants the world to revolve around him. For those that don’t know Schilling basically said all of Barry’s records should be removed from the books since Barry has admitted to doing steroids. First of all, I don’t recall Bonds ever coming out and admitting anything, and I wonder if Curt took the time to think about his World Series rings?? Heaven forbid you have to return a couple of those rings because they are tainted…..I mean, a ring is a team achievement and the law of averages says that someone on the Red Sox or Diamondbacks was juicing…..much less those that have been busted. Curt, shut your hole.

Curt’s Official Blog

Golden State fell behind 2-0 to Utah last night. As much as I want to blame the loss on poor officiating, (it just seems like Utah/Carlos Boozer in particular do a lot of bulling to the hoop and on defense) I gotta put this one on Baron Davis. I know the guy is a warrior (no pun intended) and played his ass off last night but that turnover in the closing seconds of the 2nd half was horrid. I can give him a pass on the missed free-throw, it happens. It just seemed as if he was teetering on making crucial turnovers the entire game….which is of course what makes him so effective, but still. Job #1 in that situation should be getting the ball past half-court and setting up offense, not trying to one-up Derek Fisher with some whirling spin move.

I still think Golden State can make a series out of this, but I really don’t see them taking it. Utah in 7. I like the Suns in 7 as well, Steve Nash knows his window is closing, he won’t let it slip through his fingers. The East is already settled, Cavs and Pistons will advance.

Hey, did anyone else know that Roger Clemens signed with the Yankees!? Ya know, this is a big deal for the Yanks, but in the long run the return of Jon Lester to the Red Sox (Making a comeback from Cancer) will be a bigger deal. Lester passed all his minor league tests with flying colors and hit 96 mph on the radar guns….100 mph on the stadium gun that obviously needed calibrating. Lester will give the Sox a capable lefty starter that can chew up innings. Clemens will give the Yankees another arm in the starting rotation that can’t get out of the 6th inning, which in all honesty does nothing to help solve their problem: OVERWORKED BULLPEN- Sure the Yankees will probably play .550 to .600 baseball the rest of the way out but come playoff time do they really think they can compete with 3 dinosaurs, 2 less than average Japanese imports, and an average pen? The finger pointing has already begun as the Boss fired the “Director of Performance Enhancement”, (with talk of firing Torre and Cashman as well) but at some point (right in the middle of a 15-11 loss to the Mariners would have been a good time) logic has to take over and Steinbrenner must realize he hasn’t given these guys much to work with pitching wise.

Anyway, my whole point to this post was to take a day off and just post a couple videos-

Bradyfan83 usually has some pretty good offerings, here is his take on the upside of talent available in the NFL draft-

 
Quick, tell me who these guys are….Oleg Maskaev, Rusian Chaqaec, Wladimir Klitschko,and Shannon Briggs.  Hmmm, how about these guys: Tito Ortiz, Randy Couture, Royce Gracie, and Ken Shamrock.  Chances are, you’ve heard of a couple guys from the first group.  If you are an avid fan of boxing, you’ve probably heard of all 4 of them.  However, if you are a casual UFC fan (like myself) you know all the guys from the second group.  This is what’s wrong with boxing.  The first 4 guys are each heavy-weight champions in each of boxings 4 organizations.  Out of the 4 of them, I’ve seen Klitschko fight….one time.

Anyway, back to saving boxing.  Supposedly, this past weekends huge pay per view even between Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Jr. was going to save boxing.  Long story short….it didn’t.  Ok, I admit, I was pulling for Oscar.  Even so, this fight wasn’t worth going out of your way to watch.  Yeah, I saw the punch count numbers, Mayweather supposedly out-landed Oscar 207-122.  I also saw that Oscar was often times throwing wildly, while not hitting much.  However, Mayweather just didn’t do ANYTHING.  He danced around, threw the occasional combo, stuck his jab in there from time to time….he never came anywhere CLOSE to actually hurting De La Hoya nor did he ever push the issue.  Mayweather flashed sarcastic smiles whenever Oscar would push the issue…you know, those “You didn’t hurt me” smiles…..but honestly, this fight wasn’t a laughing matter.  Rather than retaliate to De La Hoya’s flurries with smiles, how about throw some punches?  How about come out of the corner swinging….make the fight somewhat entertaining.  I’ll tell you why: That is the only way he loses the fight.  Mayweather knows he can sit back and tactically pick apart any fighter….as they relentlessly slug away at him.  It’s a winning mentality, but it’s a boring one as well.  It’s also why I’ll never pay for another Mayweather fight….assuming there is one.

As for Saturday night’s fight, I didn’t have to pay for that one either.  Just so happened that several of my buddies and myself were in Wilmington, NC this weekend.  We looked around town for a place to watch the bout and finally happened upon the “Boars Breath” Saloon.

My group of friends was pretty diverse….a few white guys, a Guatemalan, a black guy, and an Indian.  An odd collection to say the least, but well represented.  The Boars Breath was the exact opposite.  This place consisted of about 100 flaming rednecks.  Not a big deal to us, we just wanted to watch the fight.  We had a little trouble with our table because 2 kids were throwing darts right by our heads….I thought it was strange that anyone would bring 12 year olds into this environment, but what are ya gonna do?  Anyway, as the fight started, something strange happened.  The karaoke  kept going.  I’ve been to a lot of karaoke joints, but this was by far some of the worst American Idol tryouts I’ve ever heard.  Drunk old women crooning “I’m a redneck woman” and some VERY STRANGE kid that kept attempting to turn groups like Pearl Jam into death metal.  It was hideous.  At one point we noticed a woman singing while holding a puppet….using the puppet to mouth the words to the song.  Anyway, they kept the karaoke going strong and the volume to the fight down.

As we moved into the middle rounds of the fight, it became clear that the majority of the Boars Breath was NOT pulling for Mayweather.  They also weren’t the most educated fight crowd.  “Do somethin!”, “Don’t stop hittin him!”, “Kick him in the balls!”, and “Go white guy!” were all heard.  It quickly became clear that this crowd was pulling for De La Hoya….not because of his fighting skill….but because he wasn’t black.  Soon after we realized this one of the patrons made it dreadfully clear.  A man sitting about 2 seats from our group began to talk about Mayweather wearing a sombrero when he entered the ring.  I’m paraphrasing, but it went something like this:  “He wore a sombrero into the ring to try and disrespect a Mexican….and he’s a (insert N word), a damn (insert N word).”  When this guy let the first N word fly, a few people sitting around him sorta gasped, as to say: “watch out Billy Bob, there be some non-white folks in here”, but this guy went on to say it again.  He said it loud enough so that anyone within 30 feet could have heard him….the karaoke was in between songs, there was no volume on the fight.  My friend Ronald, who is black, got up out of his chair and walked outside.  I followed him out and we semi discussed what had happened.  I went back in, took care of my tab and was able to catch the guy by himself on my way out.  I told him he had disrespected us etc., to which he offered a hand-shake and an apology.  I told him I wouldn’t shake his hand nor accept an apology to which he told me he could get some of his redneck friends to join us.  I made it clear I wasn’t interested in going to jail over this and walked outside.  As I waited outside with Ronald all the other rednecks began gathering at the window staring out at the white guy that took offense to a racist comment.  They appeared to be gathering for something….maybe they thought we were waiting for them, I’m not sure.  The rest of my friends soon made their way out and we left.  I did see the entire fight, only from outside.

So, that’s my “Boar’s Breath” story.  I wish my website was ESPN popular so I could ruin this hole in the wall redneck establishment, but honestly, it probably isn’t the bar, just it’s patrons.  In fact, our waitress was outstanding and the wings were off the chain.  I really believe there was some in-breeding going on amongst the patrons though.