Dwyane Wade’s Amazing Pain Threshold
Dwyane Wade has been out for six weeks, but is scheduled to participate in his first practice with the Heat later today. And while Coach Riley was quick to pussy-step his way around a possible return date, several Heat officials are confident Wade could be back in the lineup by April 11.
This is all pretty amazing news when you consider how Wade first handled the injury:
What? I laughed.
Comments (2)We Can’t Podcast — Please Don’t Hate
*** NOTE: There will not be a podcast this morning. JD has run himself thin and is under the weather. We’ll be back in full force with a super-duper show on Monday. ***
So, I’ll babble instead. I watched the Heat and Pacers play the 1st game of Thursday’s doubleheader and there were a few times I was furious with the officiating. It was bad. It was horrible. It was awful. It was horri-awful (O’Neal, Shaquille).
The refereeing was puzzling in the 4th quarter. With about 5 minutes left, Dwyane Wade went to the rack and his lay-in got stuck between the rim and the backboard. The referees blew the whistle and the TNT team said it would be a jump ball. Fine, that made sense. After a long discussion, the refs decided to change the call and they hit Jermaine O’Neal with a foul instead. What?! There was no whistle when Wade threw the ball up; the play was blown dead when old leather got jammed. The replay showed Fivehead trying to get out of the way – there’s no way he fouled anyone.
Now, I might be making too much of this, but this horrendous call took me back to the NBA Finals last year when Wade couldn’t get so much as a Stackhouse fingernail on him without getting a whistle. Speaking of Stack, did you see him sing the national anthem for the Lakers-Mavs game last night? He was actually pretty good. Back to the superstar call. This is something that has to be taken care of. It is so blatant that it’s become embarrassing. I don’t think the league influences the officials in any way in terms of which players should get more calls, but the big names have been getting special treatment for as long as I can remember. This superstar syndrome turns the casual fan right off. With the game being called the way it is – perimeter players allowed to move around untouched – the constant whistle blowing has to be monitored. The league can’t take away the speed and flow, the beautiful parts of the game.
That being said, the crew seemed to be having some serious problems in the 4th. When Marquis Daniels bounced it off the foot of Mourning and was called for an over-and-back when he recovered it, Doug Collins rightly pointed out the reason the ball went to the Heat was because Daniels looked guilty. We’re awarding possession of the ball due to a facial expression now? There was more. When the Pacers intentionally fouled Wade with a push to the chest an only 4 seconds left, the whistles remained silent.
Listen, I don’t think the NBA is officiated worse than any other pro sport in North America, but there are those select times when it makes me cringe. There are several factors this happens I guess – the speed of the game, all those big bodies in that small space, the difficulty referees have in seeing things all parts of the players’ bodies because of their positioning and because of the massive physiques, etc.
I bitch because I love, ya know.
Comments (15)Dwyane Wade Amazes Dwyane Wade
From Wade’s latest GQ feature and cover:
“Sometimes I’ll do things on the court and be like, Wow, where did that come from? And then I’ll go back and watch it later, ’cause I watch all the tapes, and I’ll still be like, I did that?”
OK, three thoughts here:
1) Shawn Bradley said the exact same thing in a 2001 Dallas Mavericks media guide. (Well, if you replace “I did that?” with “He did that too me?”)
2) You think you saw a lot of D-Wade last year? Muahahaha…
3) What the hell is up with that picture? Is D-Wade going to suck my blood in a Louis Vuitton hoodie and Prada coat? Because if so; the rest of the league really needs to stock up on garlic.
Dwyane’s World [GQ.com]
Comments (1)“Foul … Number 32 … Goofy.”
Quiet day in the NBA blogosphere today: FreeDarko’s still helping Lamar, Henry’s recycling a Big Ben article, and YAYsports! is nowhere to be found — although lucky for you ladies, he’s left a picture of one strapping lookin’ young man.
[Note: YAYsports! just posted. So … YAY!]
Umm… what else is there? Oh, it’s a couple days old now, but rumor has it Wade’s going to sign … with the Raptors. Yeah, who knew? Apparently Wade’s baby-momma’s got a thing for maple syrup. Kidding. He’s signing with the Heat. Here’s Ira with the indented grapes:
“Henry Thomas, agent for Heat guard Dwyane Wade, confirmed Monday what has been apparent for a while: Wade will sign a maximum contract extension with the Heat once allowed by league rules on July 12.”
– snip, snip, snip –
“Basically, it means Wade will play the coming season under the final year of the rookie scale and then receive a five-year extension beginning in 2007-08. The extension is limited to five years because a player, under collective-bargaining rules, cannot be under contract for more than six total seasons.
Because Wade’s extension will be based on the 2007-08 salary cap, the actual value won’t be known until a year from now, but the five-year package should fall in the $80 million range.”
So there you go. Heat fans everywhere can breathe a huge sigh of relief. You’ve got your Ahmad Rashad main man back. Next up, Cavs fans.
And oh, just thought of something else. I’m currently reading Chris Palmer’s book, The Sixth Man: A Season Inside the NBA Playground and well, something on page 158 caught my eye this morning:
April 10, 2005
“Van Gundy hates these hiccups in his plans [Shaq’s nagging thigh injuries] and why shouldn’t he? He’s under enormous pressure. In the last two years, twenty-three of his peers have lost their jobs, including every head coach in what had bee, before this season’s realignment, the NBA’s Atlantic Division. What’s more, Van Gundy’s leash is a good bit shorter than most, because Miami’s front office has done such a terrific job of assembling a championship-caliber team. To save his head, Van Gundy has to win and win big … with Pat Riley watching from the shadows. As the team’s president, the man who put all of those pieces together, Riley doesn’t meddle in Van Gundy’s business. In this, the Heat’s best season ever, he’s rarely quoted in the newspaper. He surfaces just long enough to make it known that he has no designs on Van Gundy’s job. But Stan Van Gundy is a basketball coach and basketball coaches know not to get too comfortable. And Pat Riley is an ex-basketball coach and ex-basketball coaches never get the itch to coach out of their systems. Van Gundy is no fool. Neither is Riley.”
Good call, Chris.
Comments (2)The Basketball Jones - Game 3
Apparently, it is in him …
The Basketball Jones — Game 3 Podcast.
(Ep. 028, 15 mins)
In this week’s post-game Skyped-out episode, J.E. Skeets and Tas discuss Wade’s Jordanesque-like 4th, the pros and cons pros of sitting Antoine Walker, whether we’ve got ourselves a series now, and much, much more…
Oh, all that, and we talk “LIVE” with ex-Heat coach Stan Van Gundy!
[Record a Message for the NBA Finals Podcast — Game 4]
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Thank God For Wade…
Watching this Heat-Pistons series is excruciating. No joke. I don’t think I can take it anymore. I mean, I know I picked the Pistons to take this series and all – and whoa, crazy-talk warning here: I’m sticking to it – but apart of me (see: retinas) just wants this pathetic thing they’re calling basketball to hurry the hell up and end.
Yeah, think about it. You take away Wade’s nightly heroics and the odd Shaq strut, and what are we left with? Two boring ass teams, trading boring ass free throws, that’s what. Which, I should add, they can’t even fucking hit!
So, thank God for Dwyane Wade and his new Outkast track. Yeah, dude’s like Wesley “Two Scoops” Berry out there, givin’ nothin’ less than 10,000 percent. (Fuck you, Hawk.)
And as for THAT play last night in the 4th? Wow. Butterflies. I can’t really describe it, but Dime Mag comes pretty damn close:
Basically, try to imagine Reggie Bush doing his patented dive across the goal line, but making a reverse layup while doing it. We can’t even say the shot was Jordan-esque, because we’ve never seen anyone do anything like that.
Hear, hear!
Mr. Highlight [Dime Magazine]
Comments (6)“Gatorade’s On Fire!”
Well, well, well… looks like someone knew to hold Up + Turbo + Steal at the “Tonight’s Matchup” screen…
Gatorade Big Head Commercial [YouTube]
Comments (8)About
The Basketball Jones is a NBA blog and podcast, written and recorded five times a week by J.E. Skeets, Tas Melas and Jason Doyle. Comments, questions and cold hard cash are always welcome and much appreciated. Contact us.
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