Tag: MVP

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basketball NBA Sports

A Sad Month In The NBA

Part of me cried a little today. Today marks the retirement of Tracy McGrady, this month marked the retirement of Allen Iverson as well. Goodbye Tracy McGrady. Goodbye Allen Iverson

Allen Iverson aka “The Answer”, a former first round pick for the Philadelphia 76ers, lived up to his high draft pick. Allen is historically one of the 76ers greatest players to ever wear their uniform, add to that his ROTY (Rookie of the Year) award, a NBA MVP, multiple:scoring titles, All Star selections and NBA First Team selections, lastly a 2001 Finals appearance; A.I has quite a nice resume for any NBA player.

“The Answer” will probably be best remembered for his “practice” rant that signaled his end in a 76ers uniform. Past that rant though, he’ll be remembered for his killer cross over, his one handed put back dunk, and his amazing Game 1 Finals performance in 2001.

Allen’s legacy will be an interesting one. He revolutionized the Point Guard position, proved a little guy can hang with the best, and brought about a cultural revolution in the NBA (tattoos, corn rows, oversized jerseys); on the flip side though he will be remembered for being selfish, a cancer to teams, and a coach killer.

Tracy McGrady aka T Mac was a former 9th round draft pick for the Toronto Raptors. He may have played up to his superstar potential but never achieved the success others did. T Mac was a prolific scorer and earned multiple scoring titles, All Star selections and NBA First Team selections as well; sadly T Mac never took his own team to the Finals, let alone past the first round of the playoffs.

T Mac will be best remembered for the classic performance he put on against the Spurs where he scored 13 points in 35 seconds! McGrady will also be remembered for his amazing dunks and his offensive dominance.

Tracy McGrady’s legacy is also an interesting one. He had the superstar potential to be one of the best, in his prime years he easily was the best. Sadly due to injuries he never was able to win it all.

This month marks the end of two of the great players in the NBA. While these two men have no rings between the two, their names are still talked about today and I will tell my kids about Allen Iverson and Tracy McGrady. I hope to see both in the NBA Hall Of Fame as soon as they’re eligible.

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Carmelo Anthony NBA Sports

And The MVP Is..

Lebron is poised to win his 4th MVP Award

The Maurice Podoloff Trophy is given to the Most Valuable Player each year in the entire NBA. This year the clear favorite to win his fourth MVP award if Miami Heat Forward Lebron James. I will not sit here and say Lebron James is not an amazing basketball player, but I do not believe he deserves the award this year. Yes, he led the Miami Heat to a franchise record 27 win streak, yes he is the most dominant player right now, and yes he is a full-fledged superstar, but he is on a team built to achieve above and beyond the known limits. He is a very important corner-stone to the team, but not the most valuable player in the league.

2008 NBA MVP Kobe Bryant

No matter what arena you see him play, no matter what team he is playing against, Kobe Bryant will always hear “M-V-P! M-V-P!” chants. Oddly enough Kobe has only won one NBA MVP award back in 2008. This year he easily deserves to be a front-runner in the MVP conversation. The horribly underachieving Lakers have been willed on by Kobe alone and even though he is now out with a season ending Achilles tear, he has gotten them into the 8th seed of the playoffs.

Clippers Guard Chris Paul

Chris Paul (a.k.a CP3) has made the Clippers the team in Los-Angeles now and for years to come. He will become the corner-stone of the new dominant west coast force that are the Clippers. Chris Paul is long due for a MVP award and after watching him this year lead the Clippers to their first division title in decades, hitting the 50 win mark for the first time since 1976, and taking the Clippers on a dominant and undefeated month of December.

New York Knick Forward Carmelo Anthony

Carmelo Anthony is poised to win his first NBA Scoring Title after this season just nudging out Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant. Over the month of April Carmelo has averaged nearly 29 points per game and lead his Knicks on a 13 game win streak that ended in Chicago. Anthony has always been an elite scorer but this season in New York he is proving to be a real MVP candidate. Over this season the Knicks were written off as “too old” but they have secured a second placed seed in the Eastern Conference and will match up against Boston in the first round (a real good game by the way).  While Carmelo’s stats are no where as nice as James or other players, his Knicks are only 6-7 without him. I would easily give him the MVP Award this year since Melo is long overdue and has clearly proven his worth.

Spurs Guard Tony Parker

Ah, Tony Parker, he was once the “dark horse” MVP candidate throughout this season. In 65 games this season, Parked has averaged 20.4 points, 7.6 assists, while shooting 52.4%, and 35.3% from beyond the arc. He has once again lead the San Antonio Spurs to a 58-23 record while securing the second place seed in the Western Conference. Earlier this season some people would’ve penciled in Parker as the favorite to win the MVP as he was and the Spurs were just on a roll. Sadly in the month of April he has dropped off due to injuries and has only played four games. No matter what though, Tony Parker is still the dark horse candidate to win MVP.

Once again, I am not putting down Lebron James and his amazing talent and ability to play the game of basketball. He is the most dominant force in basketball right now and will be for a couple more years. James though, does not deserve another MVP award as he is clearly not the most valuable player for the team compared to others. Sadly though, a fourth trophy is inevitable.

Categories
paycheck Sports

Aaron Rodger’s Payday

 

2011 NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers

There is no doubt in any NFL fan’s mind that Aaron Rodgers is the best Quarterback in the league right now and he is expecting a big huge check coming his way from the Green Bay Packers. I can’t sit here and argue that he isn’t deserving of that money; Rodgers is a three-time Pro Bowler, passed for 4,295 yards with 39 touchdowns last season while leading his Packers to their fourth straight playoff appearance. This man deserves his money and will no doubt be getting it soon.

Move over Joe, Aaron Rodgers is coming with his fat paycheck

Over the offseason Joe Flacco was signed to a $120.6 million dollar deal by the Baltimore Ravens where he is going to be making $20.6 million a year. That deal was historic in NFL history since it made Flacco the highest paid player ever. Ever. Now Rodgers gets to have that title and plans to smash Flaccos small deal into last year. Even though his current contract extends through 2014 and gives him $19.75 million through though last two years, the Packers plan to extend that contract and give him a contract (of unknown length) coupled with $21 million per year, if not more!

The Packers are still trying to hash out all the details of Rodger’s contract extension and hope to have him signed before the season starts. The latest news coming from the sides was that they were still $2 million apart. Once they finalize that contract details they will more than likely turn their attention to Linebacker Clay Matthews and defensive end B.J. Raji. Rumors are that those three contracts will total around a quarter of a billion dollars

Linebacker Clay Matthews will more than likely be given an extension through his 2013 contract

As a Packers fan you must rejoice over having the best Quarterback in the league locked down and what looks like being able to finish his career where it started. On the flip side though you must be wary of the fact these contracts will eat a huge chunk of an already small cap space which sits at $17,799,553 for the 2013 season. Only time will tell if Green Bay’s choice to empty their wallet for Rodgers will pay off. As for Rodgers, I don’t think he could be any happier.

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