When people think of basketball in Canada, they tend to think of Steve Nash, with good reason; he’s an incredible talent who’s done a lot to raise the profile of the sport in the country. However, there’s much more to it than that; Nash hasn’t played in a major tournament for the national team since 2003. That’s understandable, given his age and health concerns and the way he spent a decade carrying the team back when their supporting cast was much worse (his first big tournament was in 1993, when the Canadian team featured such luminaries as William Njoku, David Turcotte, Rob Wilson, Cordell Llewellyn and Rowan Barrett), and Nash certainly shouldn’t be blamed for no longer suiting up for Canada. However, it does mean that the Canadian basketball team is about much more than just Nash.

Basketball in Canada was considered a joke internationally for quite a long while, despite a Canadian inventing the game. Part of that was thanks to much lower interest and participation rates in Canada than in the U.S. or many European countries, as well as a lack of elite development infrastructure. Despite that, though, the national team still found some remarkable success, finishing second at the 1936 Olympics and fourth at both the 1976 and 1984 Olympics. They did struggle when professionals were brought in in the early 1990s, as they didn’t have a lot of guys playing at the highest levels of basketball, but contrary to popular legend, they never called Bart Simpson and Milhouse Van Houten up.

Despite popular perception, Canada’s never actually been all that horrible at basketball. Most of the cultural references to the contrary come from Canada’s close proximity to the U.S. (which obviously has much more basketball talent to work with and does much bettter on the international stage) and the stereotypes about Canadians spending all their time on hockey. It’s true that basketball’s far from the top sport up here, either in interest or participation, but it does have a significant profile, and that profile is growing.

That’s perhaps illustrated by the talent on the current national team. It’s now coached by former Syracuse star and current television commentator Leo Rautins; former coach Jay Triano is now the head coach of the Toronto Raptors, and the first Canadian-born NBA head coach. At their most recent big tournament, the 2009 FIBA Americas Championship in San Juan, the team placed a respectable fourth. That team featured a considerable array of talent, including the Miami Heat’s Joel Anthony; they would have had Samuel Dalembert as well if not for an earlier feud with the coaching staff. They also had several players who had performed well in European leagues, including Carl English and Jesse Young, and they got huge performances from college players like Syracuse’s Andy Rautins (Leo’s son) and Canadian powerhouse Carleton University’s Aaron Doornekamp. As this preview of the team from The Painted Area shows, they didn’t have too many guys who could overwhelm you offensively, but they made up for it with solid defence and team play. A fourth-place finish there is nothing to sneeze at.

Moreover, the future looks bright for Team Canada. There are more Canadians playing at a high level in the NCAA than ever before, and the Canadian university game has itself come a long way. Developmental leagues have improved dramatically (thanks in large part to Steve Nash’s Youth Basketball League), interest in the Raptors and the NBA has shot up, and basketball’s profile in Canada is rising all the time. There are still major issues to address, such as if it’s best to develop high-school talent at home or abroad, but basketball in Canada is getting better by the year, and that’s a good thing. If Bart and Milhouse still want to make the national team, they’d better hope for a quick growth spurt; their window is closing fast.

The thing is, hops like that have to be put in the right hands. McGee is still inexperienced and is learning to harness his super-human powers. Kyle Weidie at Truth About It has a nice demonstration of how McGee can get faked out in his hunger for shot blocking.

Dirk did the worst. Pau did the best.

The Chevron: Is Carmelo Anthony the “purest” scorer in the league today? [My Expiring Contract]

The Dali: Seth Pollack breaks down the Amare sign-and-trade market. [Bright Side of the Sun]

The English: Might Sebastian Telfair be able to contribute to a championship-caliber team? Maybe? [Cavs: The Blog]

The Fu Manchu: The Kings frontline has noticeably improved since adding Carl Landry, and the evidence shows that the best is still to come. [SLAM Online]

The Handlebar: Zachariah Blott explains why Lebron will most likely stay in Cleveland, but also why he should consider New York and New Jersey. [Empty the Bench]

The Horseshoe: Sebastian Pruiti takes a detailed look at how exactly Tyreke Evans was able to notch the third rookie triple-double of the season. [NBA Playbook]

The Imperial: Our very own Mookie Schiralli passes along this video of Drazen Petrovic in an epic match up with Oscar Schmidt from the 1989 European Cup. [A Stern Warning]

The Lampshade: Tom Haberstroh invents a pretty revolutionary new statistic called “weighted assists,” in which assists that lead to higher efficiency shots are worth more. [Hardwood Paroxysm]

The Painter’s Brush: Royce Young checks how the Thunder match up against all of their potential playoff opponents. [Daily Thunder]

The Pyramidal: NBA hopeful, Kevin Owens, is now writing from Estonia, where saying it is cold is an understatement. [Hugging Harold Reynolds]

The Toothbrush: You know we love our over-the-backboard shots, so what did you think of this one by Tyreke Evans? [The Hoop Doctors]

The Walrus: Zach Harper delves into the parallel sagas of Budd, the assassin from Kill Bill, and Hedo Turkoglu. [Raptors Republic]

Got a post you think is Milk Mustache worthy? Send it to stacheketballtips [at] gmail.com or follow me on Twitter.

Far too often, we label players as franchise players before even seeing them do things that franchise players do. For instance, I like Danny Granger a lot, and so the Indiana Pacers. When healthy, he is one of the best scorers in the NBA. He does it in a variety of ways: jump shots, drives, put backs and occasional post ups. He is probably the Indiana Pacers’ franchise player. But is he an NBA franchise player? There is a difference.

Granger helps the Pacers sell tickets and helps his team be somewhat competitive. But does he shift the balance of power in the NBA? Not at all. The Pacers are unable to compete for a playoff spot in the weak Eastern Conference, so that settles the debate in my opinion. But I figured that we needed some guidelines when trying to decipher just who exactly is and is not a franchise player. Click here to get a list of the criteria required to be a franchise player. Here’s the list of players that I have covered so far. Feel free to click on their names to be redirected to the feature I wrote on them.

• Carmelo Anthony
• Dirk Nowitzki
• Dwight Howard
• Dwyane Wade
• Tim Duncan

Let’s get this started then…

I reside in Montreal, Canada. Consequently, I understand the hardships that a Canadian ball player faces if he wants a shot to play in the NCAA. Back when high school seniors skipped college to make it into the NBA, the American universities started scouting talent in Canada because they needed players that would stay with the program for two or three years. Talented players from Eh Land (you know you make fun of Canadians by ending your sentences with the term “eh”) finally had a shot at making it big in the States; but here’s the thing: our featured player came long before such opportunities were available to him. He had to make it the tough way. He had to send tapes to colleges in the hopes that someone would notice him and give him a shot. No one was coming to recruit in Canada, therefore if he wanted an opportunity, he had to make it himself. Santa Clara University saw his tapes and had him come in and be part of their program.

After graduating from Santa Clara, our player was drafted by the Phoenix Suns. Afterwards, he got traded to the Dallas Mavericks and was given the chance to play his game as the Mavericks starting point guard. Steve Nash teamed up with Dirk Nowitzki to make the franchise a perennial playoff contender. Then by the summer of 2004, Nash had become a free agent and signed with the Phoenix Suns, returning to where he started out.

Nash has since gone on to shine in the Desert and inspire tons of Canadian basketball players. Canadians are getting scouted now more than ever and are now given a fair chance to succeed or fail at the collegiate level. You see, while Young Jeezy and Jay-Z were busy putting their cities on the map (in their hit song Put On, Jeezy raps about putting Atlanta on the map, while Jay-Z raps about making the Marcy projects famous), Kid Canada put his whole country on his back. That’s why Nash is treated like royalty whenever he comes back to his homeland. With that said, is Steve Nash at this stage of his career a franchise player? Let’s get to it.

The Kobe Bryant Exception

Steve Nash might be the one guy that is toughest to apply this rule to. The reason is that Nash was not drafted to be a franchise player. He was in fact drafted to be the back up point guard on a Suns team that regularly made the playoffs (the last time they had missed the playoffs up to that point was 1988). He was then traded to Dallas in 1998; but he was still just a small piece of the puzzle. By his fourth season in the NBA, he started to see some regular playing time but injuries derailed his season a bit. He missed 26 games during the 1999-00 season and consequently only started 27 games for the team because he was often in and out of the line up. By 2000-01 though, the Mavs made it to the playoffs and never looked back. Nash eventually made it to Phoenix where the Suns became playoff regulars. However the Suns did miss the playoffs last season (2008-09). Normally Nash would fail to meet this requirement, however the fact that he missed some games due to injury during the 1999-00 season gives him a pass for this criteria. He cut it close, but he’s in for this one.

The Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Standard

In terms of awards, Nash has been able to acquire a few throughout his career. He has participated in seven NBA All-Star games and has appeared six times on the All-NBA team (three times on the All-NBA 1^st team, two times on the All-NBA 3^rd team and once on the All-NBA 2^nd team) and has captured two NBA League MVP trophies. Put this into perspective, Steve Nash has won as many MVP trophies as Tim Duncan. Kid Canada basically gets this criteria rather easily.

The Karl Malone Rule

We look at Steve Nash and see a basketball player that lacks athleticism, quickness, speed and the ability to contain his man. In addition, it’s no secret that Nash plays too many minutes and that it puts some strain on his already bad back. As a result, Nash ends up missing some games and every now and then but not as many some people might expect. Much like Carmelo Anthony, I was expecting to see a huge amount of games missed throughout his career; but he has actually been durable during the span of his career. The Suns point guard has appeared in 1,062 out of 1,181 NBA games; which is an 89.9% participation rate. Needless to say, Nash shows up to play for most of his team’s games.

The Magic Johnson Provision

Whether he’s bouncing a pass with his left hand between his defender’s legs in February, or just hitting a contested jump shot in early November, we all know that Steve Nash brings it each and every night.. But such has not always been the case.  Earlier I mentioned that Nash missed 26 games during the 1999-00 season and consequently was not viewed as a permanent solution at point guard for the team.  However, the following season (2000-01), the British Columbia native (province in Canada) came back strong and took control of the starting point guard spot for the Mavericks and never relinquished it. Since he only started to get some real burn as of that season, wouldn’t it be interesting to know what his career numbers look if we use the 2000-01 NBA season as a starting point? Glad you asked. Here are Steve Nash’s regular season numbers stemming from 2000-2001 up to this season (2009-10):

761 games, 16.9 PPG, 9.6 APG, 3.3 RPG, 49.6 FG%, 43.6 3PT%, 90.8 FT%.

Steve Nash has been a very steady point guard for the last decade; he does exactly what you want your lead guard to do: runs the offense, finds the open man, shoots when open, shoots with shot clock going down and makes a ridiculously high rate of his field goal attempts (considering he shoots off the dribble and rarely gets lay up opportunities). But let’s be real though, Nash didn’t reach Jay-Z status (Jay-Z has written classic hip hop records such as Big Pimpin’, Song Cry, Run This Town, Empire State of Mind, Sunshine and 99 Problems; needles to say, Jay-Z does things big, and so does Nash) by just being a steady player. Indeed, when Steve Nash went to Phoenix, head coach Mike D’Antoni had an offense tailor made for Nash, and his point guard ran it to perfection. Look at the win totals that the Suns have managed in the last decade with Nash as their point guard:

2004-05: 62-20

2005-06: 54-28

2006-07: 61-21

2007-08: 55-27

2008-09: 46-36

2009-10: 40-25

In addition, let’s look at his numbers during that same timeframe:

Still not convinced that Nash has stage presence? Let’s take a quick look at Steve Nash’s production in the playoffs this past decade as a member of the Phoenix Suns:

That my friends is what we call a playoff performer. Just to put things in perspective, look at Magic Johnson’s career playoff averages:

19.5 PPG, 7.7 RG, 12.3 APG, 50.6 FG%.

Let’s be clear though: In no way, shape or form is Steve Nash the equal of Magic Johnson; however if he can be mentioned in the same discussion as him, I think that he passes the Magic Johnson Provision.

The Diesel Test

Steve Nash is currently 36-years old. So let’s be honest with ourselves here, Steve Nash’s production is soon going to take a dip. However, I doubt that he will have a big drop off because his game has never been based on athleticism and speed. Nash’s strengths are his court vision and his ability to make open jumpers. Hence, even if he goes through some type of decline, he will still be an above average point guard. As a result, if I were an NBA general manager, I would feel comfortable giving him a $20 million for a year or two. Anything more is playing with house money. Nonetheless, our favorite Canadian is still eligible for the money; and therefore passes The Diesel Test.

Conclusion

Steve Nash has been the NBA point guard of the decade and continues to amaze us with his game. He is a gifted passer and phenomenal shooter. Perhaps some people fail to appreciate his greatness, but it’s probably time that they had a good look at what he does on a basketball court. Nash is the ultimate team player; always looking to set his guys up. Picture this scenario: if your life depended on you hooking up with a girl in a club and you needed an NBA player to act as your wingman (meaning he wouldn’t try to swipe her from you either), is there a better choice than Steve Nash? We want our heroes to be selfless team oriented individuals that grasp the big picture and always give you their best. Steve Nash epitomizes those traits perfectly and still carries his country on his back every time he hits the hardwood. Not only does he meet all of the criteria, but he also helped Canada’s finest basketball players get noticed. When March Madness starts and you hear the announcers give you the backgrounds of some Canadian players participating in the tournament, just remember that Steve Nash indirectly helped them get there. Franchise player indeed…

You can follow Shyne on Twitter by visiting his account @ShyneIV.

The Chevron: Mengke Bateer was the first Chinese (technically Mongolian) basketball player to win an NBA title. He’s also the first to kill someone with a coconut. [Sham Sports]

The Dali: The Clippers have officially relieved Mike Dunleavy of GM duties, thereby severing all ties. [Hardwood Paroxysm]

The English: Nets fans like to use Yi Jianlian as a scapegoat, but you can’t blame him for all of their troubles. [Nets Are Scorching]

The Fu Manchu: There are a lot of pressing issues facing Michael Jordan if he truly wants to be the savior of Charlotte basketball. [The Baseline]

The Handlebar: Last summer, the Pistons completely remodeled their team by adding free agents Charlie Villanueva and Ben Gordon. Looking back, those deals don’t really seem to be working out for them. [NBA Fanhouse]

The Horseshoe: Speaking of which, Richard Jefferson is looking worse and worse for the Spurs. [48 MoH]

The Imperial: Tom Martin explains that Jordan Hill is much more than just another big man project for the Rockets. [The Dream Shake]

The Lampshade: Rob Mahoney begrudgingly explains to us commonfolk why it’s not a big deal that the Mavericks are relatively poorly ranked in John Hollinger’s Power Rankings. [The Two Man Game]

The Painter’s Brush: Here’s a look a possible candidates that Donald Sterling might be considering to replace Mike Dunleavy as GM of the Clippers. [NBA Off-Season]

The Pyramidal: Sandy Dover explains that being sent down to the D-League is not necessary as bad as the stigma attached to it, and that some notable draft busts could have been very well served with some time there. [SLAM Online]

The Toothbrush: Everyone loves a good block, and there are few in the game with more exciting ones than LeBron. Here is a look at the top 10 Lebron blocks of the season. [Hooped Up]

The Walrus: Zachariah Blott explains why Dwight Howard is the most impossible player in the NBA to gameplan for. [Empty the Bench]

Got a post you think is Milk Mustache worthy? Send it to stacheketballtips [at] gmail.com or follow me on Twitter.

Now, you’ve read the headline and seen this picture. After putting two and two together, some of you may have gotten five. This man above is indeed NOT LeBron James. He sure does look like him though, doesn’t he? For comparison, here is the real LeBron James:

Many would be deceived at first glance into thinking they’d just seen King James at the microphone. At this point, I should point out that the man in question was cleared of any wrong-doing and was declared not to be a terrorist, he was merely held on suspicion of being one. In fact, the article from AOL News, tells us that he was tortured in cruel and unnatural ways by the Guantanamo Bay authorities.

Among the many heinous crimes committed against this man, by far the most disturbing was the following (young readers, stop reading right now):

Mohamed was then taken to a “dark prison” run by the U.S. in Afghanistan, where he says he was forced to listen to a recording of rapper Eminem, played at deafening volume, continually for a whole month.

People need to be taken to task for this. This is beyond a human rights issue. This is a crime against nature. No one should be forced to listen to Eminem for more than three minutes straight, perhaps as they walk around a record shop or stumble into the wrong night club.

Just for clarity, this man below is LeBron James and whilst he has blown up in the league, he is not a terrorist.

Follow us on twitter @Stacheketball.

]]> http://stacheketball.neswblogs.com/2010/03/lebron-james-potential-terrorist/feed/ 5 http://stacheketball.neswblogs.com/2010/03/lebron-james-potential-terrorist/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Stacheketball/~3/Tk-Nhlx2_U4/ http://stacheketball.neswblogs.com/2010/03/the-mid-afternoon-milk-mustache-featuring-jordans-tarnished-legacy/#comments Tue, 09 Mar 2010 22:45:30 +0000 Loren Lee Chen http://stacheketball.neswblogs.com/?p=692 The Mid-Afternoon Milk Mustache takes you on a trip around the League every weekday, bringing you the best posts from around the NBA blogosphere. Unfamiliar with the below ’stache styles? The American Mustache Institute will school you on that subject.

The Chevron: Kelly Dwyer berates Michael Jordan for marring his brilliant NBA career with his post-retirement actions. [Ball Don't Lie]

The Dali: Darren Collison set a Hornets rookie record with 20 assists last night, but some of them were a little fishy. Zach Harper checks the validity of each one. [Hardwood Paroxysm]

The English: Kevin Arnovitz asks if fans, of the Clippers specifically, should feel cheated if their teams are not doing all they can to be on the cutting edge of basketball analytics. [ClipperBlog]

The Fu Manchu: KWAPT hangs out with the Celtics before Sunday’s game against the Wizards and gets exclusive footage of a lopsided 1-on-1 match between Rajon Rondo and Brain Scalabrine. [Banner 18?]

The Handlebar: It’s been said so many times before, but is still worth repeating. Are NBA teams making themselves inaccessible with their exorbitant ticket rates? What are some teams doing to fix it? [TrueHoop]

The Horseshoe: After a slow start, Ray Allen has been on fire in the second half of the season. [Celtics Hub]

The Imperial: Kevin Pelton uses his own metric to determine the best shooters in the NBA today and historically. [Basketball Prospectus]

The Lampshade: If you haven’t already had your fill of SSAC stories, here’s another 4000 words on what the conference meant for the Portland Trailblazers. [Blazersedge]

The Painter’s Brush: Sebastian Pruiti breaks down a last-second play by the Spurs, in which they did everything perfectly except make the shot. [NBA Playbook]

The Pyramidal: Jeremy Lin has been getting plenty of press this season, but the real question remains: Is he a pro-level player? [SLAM Online]

The Toothbrush: Is this the best movie pitch since Who Shot Mamba? Will James proposes that we combine Hot Tub Time Machine, Celtic Pride, and Back To the Future to create Will James’ Hot Dog Time Machine. [NBA Off-season]

The Walrus: J.G. Marking brings the good news and bad for Thunder fans by considering the five factors for playoff basketball. [Daily Thunder]

Got a post you think is Milk Mustache worthy? Send it to stacheketballtips [at] gmail.com or follow me on Twitter.

This looks like something I would see in 2 in the morning on the local channels along with those 1-900 ads.

This is what they were talking about. Both videos below talk about the first time Kevin Garnett met Wilt Chamberlain on one special night in Cleveland. KG said that meeting “The Big Dipper” was like seeing an Angel. KG was star struck, He had no idea what to say. I am actually surprised they had not met before because KG played Wilt in the HBO movie rebound in 1996.

As a side note, this furthers my point that KG was devestated last year when Bill Russell told Duncan that Duncan was his favorite player. Garnett is wearing Celtic green every night and Russell is falling in love with Duncan? That had to hurt, especially when you see how much KG respected Wilt. I am sure it was the same way with Russell.