NBA Black Friday Sale Edition

I was late on my weekly column being a short week for the holiday.  There are no excuses though.  Since everyone is out shopping on this black Friday, I thought I would put together a black Friday themed column this week.  So get your shopping carts ready and have your mace handy and join us for this mad rush of shopping for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving.  This will be a short one for a short week.  Enjoy.

Brandon Roy likely to retire.

This column will jump all over the place with references to selling, buying, for sale and shopping.  I start off this week selling a player because many believe his career is over.  Let’s say goodbye (again) to Brandon Roy.  Recently, the former all star came out and explained that he has level three arthritis.   Level four is when you have to get a knee replacement. 

This is very sad news for fans of basketball because Brandon Roy was a very special player but only for a short time due to his knee injuries.  Brandon leaves us with only 326 games having career averages of 18.8 ppg, 4.7 ast, 4.3 rebs while shooting 45.9% over 35.5 minutes per game.  A three time all star and 2007 rookie of the year, Brandon never got to live up to his potential, which is something NBA fans were robbed of.

His triumph return to the league after his first retirement was heroic but most didn’t feel it would last long.  Some mountains are just to high to climb and I think the history with knee injuries in sports have shown that.   Brandon will most likely never play in the NBA again, which is a sad thing for the league.

The NBA officials miss the call

The NBA released a statement that the officiating crew of Ed Malloy, John Goble and Violet Palmer missed a game changing call when the Toronto Raptors visited the Charlotte Bobcats on Wednesday night.  As you can see in the reply above, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist clearly fouls Andrea Bargnani on the final shot attemp.  In a way, I can’t say I blame the officials because we are all caught up in this Bobcat mania and being how amped that crowd was, it appears the officials just got swept up in the moment.

Unfortunately there is nothing in store for the Raptors who are the losers in this situation.  They lost 98-97 that night and nothing can change that.  There was no guarantee that Bargnani would hit both to win or miss both to lose, but I bet we could have seen five more minutes of basketball in that game that appears to have been a coin flip. 

The worst of this situation will be the increased anger of a fan-base already jaded by the officials.  Most know the public opinion about the officials being paid or directed of some sort.  Many believe the NBA is “rigged” with examples of the 1985 draft.  The NBA can’t afford to continue this downhill image of their officials. Right now the fans are selling these officials.

Rasheed Wallace is a blogger’s wet dream

via Need4Sheed.com

I wish I could buy these dance moves.