LeBron & Shaq: A Closer Comparison Than Anyone Thinks

Miami Heat's superstar LeBron James has a major decision to make this offseason. He could opt out of his contract and try to get a restructured deal with his current team or move on to another team. Many people believe if James leaves Miami, he will get absolutely crushed by the media, and people will criticize LeBron of being a front-runner, not wanting to face a challenge. Personally, LeBron wants to win as many championships as possible.  Shaquille O'Neal was the first modern day player to do this begging the question, "Why aren't more people comparing LeBron's career arc to Shaquille O'Neal? If LeBron decides to leave, their arcs become eerily similar.

Obviously, people do not compare LeBron and Shaq because they are two very different players. LeBron doesn't play in the post like O'Neal, and Shaq is the interior player of this generation where James will be known as the wing player of the generation. It is so easy to compare James to Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant because they play the same position. Although if we go through what happened in their careers, James is much more comparable to what O'Neal through his career. Shaq was never considered a front-runner, why should James?

Maybe it is the hatred and disdain of James which causes it, but Shaq should have gotten the same sort of criticism. If anything, O'Neal's antics were far worse than anything James did so far in his career. Shaq forced his way out of Orlando and Los Angeles because he fractured relationship with guards, Anfernee Hardaway and Kobe Bryant. James might decide to leave when his contract is up, isn't that his given right as a professional athlete?  It is not like LeBron is napalming the entire franchise before he leaves the franchise. LeBron is moving on to see what's next for him.

What's weird about comparing the early arcs of Shaq and LeBron is with O'Neal, he left Orlando after four years while James left Cleveland after seven. O'Neal moved coasts from Los Angeles to Miami after seven years and if James decides to leave, it will be four years. Therefore by their eleventh year, both players were on their third franchise if James heads out of South Beach. There are a lot of different options for LeBron including a return visit to Cleveland, Los Angeles Clippers or Houston Rockets are probably all on the table for The King. It would add to the eeriness if LeBron chose Los Angeles making the arcs of him and O'Neal even more similar.

Personally, I think it is a 50/50 thing whether James leaves or not. People will obviously hammer LeBron for his choice if it is not with Miami. There will probably be a jersey burning like what happened in Cleveland. But at the end of the day, what people have to realize is this has happened before with the best player in the league. No one was better than O'Neal after Jordan left the league, and he bounced all over the league. We really shouldn't make a big deal about James leaving but it will inevitably happen given all of the different media outlets ready to pounce on James.

Charlie.

The Summer of Kevin Love

Kevin Love is a free agent after next season. The NBA season isn't even over yet, but it seems like the Minnesota Timberwolves forward is already looking for a new destination to play basketball this winter. It could be a simple coincidence he was in Boston checking out the sights and sounds hanging out at Fenway, running into Rajon Rondo, boozing with Gronk and getting tweets from David Ortiz, right?  K-Love just taking a weekend vacation to Boston, a team with an NBA franchise and a team reportedly interested in Kevin Love. If I am Love, I am spending the rest of my summer seeing all the different cities and its nightlife that want to trade for him. 

Everyone seems to believe that given Love spend his weekend in Boston that he will be in Celtic green by Fall. I would like to give everybody a big cup of relax with that one. It is not a stone cold lock, but the old saying 'If it smells like a duck, quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck.'  Love could be there, but this could end up being the best summer ever if you're Love. Minnesota announced today that Love is probably gone by Draft Day meaning he could spend the next couple weeks hanging around all of these cities and seeing what they have to offer. Boston is a great time in the summer. Here are all the places Love could look to ensuring a hell of a summer. 

Houston is another team that's interested in him. Head out to there to see an Astros game, run into James Harden or Dwight Howard at some point and crush some beers with JJ Watt. Houston's nightlife is supposed to be a damn good time. I would assume Slim Thug and Bun B would take care of him in a major way. 

Golden State would be an awesome time as well. As a suitor of Love, he could do a baseball doubleheader seeing what San Francisco and Oakland have to offer. He would somehow run into Steph Curry or Klay Thompson then explore the nightlife with Aldon Smith... Actually shit wait bad idea. Let's go with Colin Kaepernick, that's better. 

Let's throw Cleveland in the mix for the hell of it. He would be partying with Johnny Manziel and Nolan Murphy obviously, let's get that off the bat. I don't know if I take him to the Indians game given their attendance issues. Kyrie Irving and him could do a redux of the Pespi Max commercial minus all the Uncle Drew makeup get some runs at local Cleveland parks.  

Sacramento?  I have no idea what the hell you do in SacTown.  Do you see the capital or what? For their sake, might want to hope Kevin doesn't spend a weekend trip out there. 

Keep having a blast this summer Kevin, just don't get fat. 

Charlie.  

No Place For Love in the Twin Cities

Being a fan of small market teams like Milwaukee Bucks and Milwaukee Brewers, you tend to relate with other small markets when they have issues with their star player. Thus when news broke on Sunday morning that Kevin Love will be testing the free agent market next summer and doesn't have much interested in rejoining Minnesota, your heart breaks a little bit.  But the Timberwolves need to do the right thing and trade Love getting as many pieces possible because Minnesota has no one to blame but themselves for the reason why Love hasn't been to the playoffs.

This isn't a small market reason in my opinion for Love. He is doing fine in the Minnesota market as he became the face of the franchise, he has been in Taco Bell ads along with other things like playing on the United States National team. Love is one of the most well-known players in the game, and he could build something in Minnesota with ease yet management has led him array by assembling poor teams year after year. Ricky Rubio never amounted to the player everyone expected him to be when Minnesota drafted him from Spain, and that's a majority of the reason why Love wants to live as he sees this team has no hope in the Western Conference. 

Love also probably doesn't want to start over with a new coach as Rick Aldeman retired this season giving him more ammo for wanting to depart from the Twin Cites. People might call it selfish, but does Love really want to be labeled as a loser for the rest of his career?  I would bet not. It will be the same issue Kyrie Irving will be dealing with shortly. A successful player can only take so much losing before he knows it is time to move on and become a winner. Minnesota fans can hate him as much as they want, but this is more of the fault of David Khan and the ones that followed for not getting him a team Minnesota could carry to a playoff appearance, a place they haven't been since 2004 when Kevin Garnett brought the Timberwolves all the way to the Western Conference Finals. 

Minnesota shouldn't be too broken up over Love's probable departure. Love's defense makes me feel like he will never be a superstar because he cannot carry a team all by himself. Much of the reason why Minnesota didn't make a trip back to the playoffs had to do with the terrible defense of Minnesota and Love in general. He will be a hell of a second banana for a team, but Love doesn't have the defensive prowess to be a superstar in this league. But there will be many suitors to acquire Love this summer and they are all teams we hear about when these sort of things happen in the league. 

The two most interesting ones for Minnesota are Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics. The Draft Lottery is tomorrow night with the Timberwolves having some of the worst odds with them likely picking 13th, but Los Angeles and Boston have the fifth and sixth best odds. Minnesota could get two first round draft picks if one of those interested teams wanted to trade for Love. This would be a huge coup for Minnesota especially if either of these teams picked in the top three. If Minnesota could get a player like Joel Embiid or Dante Exum then get a James Young or Rodney Hood in the mid-first round, the future starts getting built quicker instead of being in limbo. Additionally, Love on either Boston or Los Angeles gives them an immediate boost and becomes a fringe title contender.  

Lakers and Celtics are among the bevy of teams reportedly interested in Love's services. Some of the names highlighted yesterday were Chicago, Golden State, Houston and New York.  First things first, Golden State and Houston are terrible ideas for Love. They both have massive issues with their defense right now, and they want to add a guy like Love whose one of the worst interior defenders. The Warriors would basically get a rich man's David Lee. New York is still pretty unknown when it comes to their situation. Carmelo Anthony is a free agent, they don't have a Head Coach so let's pump the breaks on the idea of Love to New York although it would be interesting. Chicago might be the most intriguing, but do you really want to lose Taj Gibson? He is likely gone because I highly doubt Chicago will go huge across the front line.

Love could stay in Minnesota and return in October which would be a little awkward although if I am Minnesota, I try to trade Love this summer. There is no reason to trot him out for a half year under a cloud of 'Will Love get traded?' It is detrimental to the team, and Minnesota could move on from Love with a new star.  

Charlie. 

NBA Playoffs Recaps: Lowry! Lin! Parker! A Night for Point Guards

Toronto Avoids Collapse with Strong Play From Lowry
It seemed like a pretty calm first session of NBA games this evening. It didn't seem like anyone would make a real run at making it a close game, but Brooklyn Nets come back from a 26 point deficit to make it a close game late for another thrilling game in Toronto. Jonas Valanciunas is thanking his lucky stars because if not for a backcourt violation, Deron Williams 65 foot heave would have went in or at least hit rim before Jonas decided to jump for no apparent reason. It would have been one of the biggest blunders in sports history given the nature of the game, the collapse and everything. Toronto is thanking their lucky stars today. Kyle Lowry was terrific on Wednesday night as he had 36 points and six assists with making six threes as well. Lowry put Deron Williams on skates to get the go-ahead bucket as things looked in peril for the Raptors. I still think this series is going seven, but Brooklyn needs to keep Lowry contained on Friday.

Appropriate tweet: Toronto gave lint rollers away in honor of Drake and We The North might be my favorite team slogan ever.

So this is a real thing in Toronto. pic.twitter.com/pYsyTKP5UV
— Jim ICE (@Jim_ICE) April 30, 2014

Houston forces Game 6 
It felt like we were heading to another close battle between Houston and Portland as it became close late in the fourth quarter, but the Rockets pulled away with cold shooting from Trail Blazers forcing a Game 6 returning to Rip City on Friday night. Patrick Beverly battled a fever rendering him useless on the court as he looked sick with him bundled up, eating food and drinking more water therefore someone need to step up in the moment. The person choosing that role was Jeremy Lin. The goat of Game 4 became one of the reasons they are playing on Friday as Lin had 21 points making nine shots and coming up big for this Rockets team. Also a big part of this game was Omer Asik and Dwight Howard combined for 29 rebounds inside which goes a long way.

One of the underrated storylines from last night was how bad LaMarcus Aldridge played on Wednesday. LMA had back-to-back 40 point performances, and Houston held him to single figures. It could be an aberration and Aldridge ends up having a huge game on Friday night yet if Houston figured out the secret to stop him, it becomes a whole new series.

Parker powers Spurs past Mavs
Even though San Antonio won Game 4, Tony Parker faced some criticism because he struggled most of the game and battled a bum ankle. Parker flipped the script in Game 5 being the difference for San Antonio with 13 second half points giving the Spurs a 109-103 victory. Parker finished the game with 23 points being one of the five San Antonio players in double figures. He took control of this game, and that's an encouraging sign for the Spurs moving forward in this series and the playoffs. If Parker can get over his dinged ankle, San Antonio will be the contender again like we all expected them to be in the NBA postseason. Spurs also dominated Dallas inside as they scored 26 more points in the paint than the Mavericks. It started to feel like the Spurs are taking advantage in this series. I wouldn't be surprised if they close out on Friday night.

Appropriate Vine:  Great answer from Gregg Popovich as Vince Carter was lighting up San Antonio



Charlie.

Tapping The Keg Podcast Episode 86

Tapping The Keg podcast rolls on with a late afternoon edition features the two stalwarts of the SnoTap Podcast game with Charlie and Mitch yapping at you about all things sports. We talk about James Young sitting next to Rihanna last Friday, and who would be some of the people we would be nervous to sit next to, this also leads into another couple fun tangents. Despite their loss today, we talk about the Milwaukee Brewers success in the first month of the season and why they are for real with no collapse involved. We also talk about Wei-Chung Wang's spot on the team. We move on to discuss Donald Sterling scandal more so from Doc Rivers angle plus some other things. We talk about the upcoming NBA playoff games and Jameis Winston's crab leg mistake.

Charlie.

SnoTap NBA Playoffs: LMA's Dominance, Heat Hang on & Road Mavs?

I am a man of the people. I realized our NBA Playoff recap blog posts where not really popping as they suffered in hits, but story of this blog's life for 2014. I want to try something different with the hopes that maybe this is more what people want versus having to rely on three different blogs. We are going to try to include a GIF or video for each recap, but I cannot make any promises. We will also rank the games because why not?

1. Portland 112 Houston 105 (Blazers lead 2-0) - LaMarcus 'Don't call me LAM, call me LMA' Aldridge dominated for the second straight game with 43 points with eight rebounds. Aldridge is averaging an insane 44.5 through the first two games of the playoffs. Aldridge will be even more of a household name tomorrow morning. Good for LMA though. He is a really good player that doesn't get credit for being great sometimes, and he will get his due. It really seems like Houston has no answer for him, and Aldridge knows damn well this is the case. Fascinating to see how he plays for the reminder of the season.

As for Houston, Dwight Howard played his ass off with a 32 points, 14 rebounds performance although most of it came in the first half when Howard wasn't in foul trouble. Howard still looked like a guy ready to put the team on his back. James Harden is starting to develop a reputation of disappearing in the playoffs a la Tracy McGrady and others. Harden has missed 30 shots from the field already, and it will not get easier heading into a fired up Rose Garden.

Approrirate Video: Robin Lopez ended Jeremy Lin's life. (h/t @cjzero) 



2. Miami 101 Charlotte 97 - Honestly, Miami did not play well at all in this game besides LeBron James, but that's all it takes for Miami to win basketball games. Heat are the only home team with a 2-0 lead which is crazy to think about given the lack of parity in the NBA. James delivered 32 points, eight assists and six rebounds which is also known as another night at the office. Chris Bosh played well with 20 points as well. Charlotte needed a better late game shot down three. Gary Neal got the ball and tried to be the hero leading him passing the ball to Chris Douglas-Roberts whose asshole was tighter than a wet cat on a rain barrel. It should be Kemba and only Kemba who showed a Big East glimpse hitting a big shot late from the top of the key. Yet he struggled from the field as Al Jefferson and him combined to go 14/41 for the game.

Approrirate Video: Josh McRoberts throat chops LeBron. WHO SAYS THIS SERIES CAN'T GET CHIPPY. McBob landed a pretty nice shot to James' Adam Apple. (h/t Sports Illustrated) 



3. Dallas 113 San Antonio 92 - Um what the hell?  This was a series expected to last four or five games, but maybe the Mavericks want to throw it back old school where we have these teams playing seven with some ridiculous games thrown in.  Dallas had four players score more than 15 points last night - Dirk Nowitzki, Shawn Marion, Monta Ellis and Devin Harris, were all great for the Mavs at some point. They used a balanced attack to take down San Antonio and make this a more intriguing series. For the season, Harris or D-Ha if you're from Wauwatosa, averaged right under eight points, he is averaging 18.5 in two games versus San Antonio. He is an obvious problem for them.

Another big issue for San Antonio was the turnovers. Spurs gave away the ball 22 times which is very un-Spurs like. Tim Duncan only had eleven points with shooting five times. That cannot happen. Duncan needs to get way more involved to ensure a deep run for San Antonio. If you want one bright spot, Manu Ginobli looked like his old self with 27 points making five threes and only missing three shots for the game He had 17 on Sunday so it appears there might be a bit of a mismatch problem.

Charlie.