Steve Perrin will get mad at me for not mastering a simple link yet, and I was going to just do a fan post. But I started to lose my mind there for a second when I went over to ESPN, and I thought we might as well move on from the Denver game frustration, maybe find a new target for our spilkas.
So if you go to ESPN NBA you will see something about Team USA and a trio of photos, Russell Westbrook, Kevin Love, and Lamar Odom, Rudy Gay or Tyson Chandler. It's Mark Stein on Weekend Dime writing in a fair amount of depth about the impact of playing on Team USA on the performance of its members in the NBA this year.
To tell you the truth, I couldn't even read the thing.
I looked at the photos and was bummed that Eric Gordon wasn't there. So I clicked to the article, expecting to read about his analysis of Gordon and his amazing but quiet and futile run. Umm, no.
That's right. A cruel snub. Westbrook and Love. Odom, Gay, and Chandler. No Granger. And no Eric Gordon.
I wrote over at Clipperblog about how the 08 Rookie Race seems to be playing itself out again in some ways, as a number of the same guys are playing at All-Star level now. Of course, it takes some extra effort (of following the best players in the league, but you know, why would anyone be interested in doing that?) to know that Derrick Rose wasn't the only candidate in 08, despite being a wire-to-wire winner.
I'm not going to get into all of it all over again. Stein leaves out Rose because you don't need to talk about Rose. Westbrook is obviously a fine player to discuss. Odom's good play is a nice story I guess, though Bynum being out might have a lot to do with his production increase. And Odom made a significant contribution to Team USA. Unlike, say, Rudy Gay, Kevin Love, Danny Granger, and arguably Tyson Chandler. Love is rebounding like a demon, and Gay and Chandler are playing well enough I guess.
But does no one know what Eric Gordon has been doing lately? Really? They don't know at all?
This article by Stein isn't going to help. I'm going to go read it very angrily right now.