Jack Jack

That's a disappointing response pantaloons. The playoffs are a completely different game to the regular season. Just having Kobe on the team is a massive difference to begin with. "Everything negative - pressure, challenges - is all an opportunity for me to rise." Second time in 19 years? Really? I didn't know that. Should be a good series with Denver, interested to see who will stand up. And on another note, is it me or are the GSW guards greedy and completely under utilising some of the better big men in the league? Thompson and Curry are taking a huge numer of shots each game, Bogut and Lee wouldn't have half the opportunities they do. Seems strange (or is Bogut clouding my judgement?). Celtics and Knicks should be a ripper. Not sure the Celtics can get that far without Rondo, but they're the kind of team that won't die wondering. I'm looking forward to the Nets Bulls series. Not overly confident of the Nets, but should still be good. What are the chances of seeing Rose back in the team, coming off the bench for the first series? After the last few months of speculation around Rose it would add some drama to the playoffs.

Nice. You can't have too much of a good thing. Jack Jack 5.2

You'd be at the wrong game, or is that the intention? But in all seriousness, it's a great idea.

Most of the players are deserving of being dropped to gain some form and self respect, but unfortunately we're still required to field a team this weekend. But the inference was that Dun's mum was having a sook because her son was dropped, when he was in fact omitted through injury.

He's injured.

The obvious answer is all of the above, but a the very least one of the above needs to step up. The person who would make the most immediate impact is the coach, but he seems somewhat disillusioned and shell shocked. Is he capable?

Unity can only come around with leadership, strong leadership. And that starts at the top. The President, board, CEO and coach. The Schwab debacle is an ongoing stigma against the current, largely unchanged, board. And, Irrelevant of whether our CEO is capable of such leadership, has the post 186 incident compromised his ability to truly show strong leadership? And as far as the coach goes, I believe the players performance is a fair reflection of his strong, or lack there of, leadership. So the answer really is, who is going to step up or step down?

I stopped watching about 3 quarter time. Did I miss much?

Varcoe down the boundary line on the MCC wing, kept following up and running hard, ended up with 3 or 4 possessions and ultimately a goal. Motlop for the Cats and Puolpolo for the Hawks didn't look too shabby either. Both teams went hard all day. Hawks started to fade in the last quarter but still had enough heart to keep pushing the Cats. I was there, it was an utterly depressing exercise. I kept thinking how much either team would smash us by.

Well Detroit are long out of the playoff equation. Brooklyn are in 4th place in the eastern conference, just. But, realistically, they're only making up the numbers. I hope that Bogut can strike some form in the next few weeks and GSW can go deep into the playoffs. But even that seems unlikely. Lakers seem shaky again, the Jazz have just taken back 8th position. It's interesting looking at teams performances and comparing against payrolls. On other news, some coaches have been getting more active amongst some of the leagues. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSZtyvz0NnQ But the big news of the week is Phil Jackson signing up to Twitter. Hilarity ensued when he made his first tweet. As it turn out it was just very clever marketing for his new book. But it was funny nonetheless. (I thought he had 13 rings?)

Hindsight tells it was absolutely the right decision. For DB to let the players dictate training is deplorable, let alone the blowout losses we had. The reports of how far behind we were in fitness is further proof of the tail wagging the dog. Bailey was under staffed/funded during his tenure, so it's questionable whether he can be held solely responsible, but it remains that a change was needed. Exactly. The general consensus is that we're not going to win a lot of games this year, so how about talking up the intent of the team. To keep digging deep when we're behind, irrelevant of by how much. Wins would be great, but how about setting ourselves up for when we do get there. Neeld has set "elite" standards around the club. Does that include giving 4 quarters of 100% effort on the field. Scrapping for every possession and opportunity. I hope that it is just inferred and not another DB scenario where it will just happen.

I can't see them doing away with the constructors championship. Briatore was right, if the team and bosses were so up in arms about it, why didn't they order Vettel to give back the lead? It's a simple solution for Webber, he needs to change teams. Vettel and the team bosses have shown their hand. Red Bull have a driver preference, and have had for some time, and if Webber leaves I suspect they'll have trouble finding another driver of substance to take his place as second fiddle. Webber needs to grow a pair and find another team at seasons end. It would take a miracle for him to get a drivers championship with Red Bull.

I've no idea who plays this song or who or what Lupin III is. But it's a bloody good tune. Jack Jack's Jazz 3.8

My only criticisms are that the episodes don't go for long enough and there's not enough of them. The Michael Richards episode is absolutely brilliant.

I suspect that the level of complexity, going from basketball to AFL, would be exponential. I think that some other similar sport would have to pick it up first to make it a little more cost effective for the AFL. Bloody interesting nonetheless. Miami are 26 and counting. But the way they've been digging themselves holes I can't see it going on for much longer. Their next few games are Orlando, Chicago, Hornets, Spurs and New York. I'd be very surprised if they made it to 30. It was just a matter of time right?

A bit unfair on poor ol' Fitzy. He's come a long way since then. McAvaney and Bristle certainly make watching the footy a bit more difficult and are deserving of a mention.

Wow, that's a very interesting article. I can certainly see the merits of using it in basketball. I wonder if we get the same kind of data from the gps units? Albeit only getting one side of the story.

The Miami streak is still on. 22 and counting, equal 2nd all time record. I must say though that, stats wise, it really showed where the Heats deficiencies are and that's the boards. I didn't see the game but I find it quite inconceivable that a team can have 24 offensive rebounds to 2 and still lose by 17 points. What the hell is going on there? The DeAndre Jordan dunk has overshadowed most highlights of late (and for good reason too, it was awesome). But Brook Lopez showing a bit of brotherly love wasn't too bad either. And here's DeAndre's dunk for good measure. Larry Sanders approves. What's the latest with Kobe? I haven't read much since his first quarter exit.

Scott Weiland's toxic vibe has done it again. It's been recently announced that he's been kicked from STP... again. I'd like to think that it opens up the opportunity for Velvet Revolver to get back together, but who am I kidding. Oh well, at least I finally got to see them live a few years ago. Jack Jack 5.1

Did anyone else see this footage? Seriously, what the hell is going on? I remember a few years ago the NBA had a promo line of "Where Magic Happens". I'm wondering whether this would be more appropriate for the NHL.

Crikey, it has been a while since I posted something. Jack Jack's Jazz 3.7

Yeah, a bit short sighted of me not to nice the Jazz. Shame on me! What a game yesterday by the Lakers, come from behind win. We can only hope that the Lakers get through to the finals, it's good for the sport. But they are leaving their run late, and there's already a lot being reported on niggling injuries to players. Kobe's determination to get there is absolutely amazing.

Is GWS a fair comparison? We had more members last year than the eventual premiers. As has been previously mentioned, a pretty decent effort considering our last finals appearance was 6 years ago.

There is definitely merit in the idea, making games more interesting would be great for supporters and the AFL in general. But there will always be teams that have a better draw than others. And the quality of the team you're up against is one thing, but factoring in travel, break between games and injuries could potentially create a serious disadvantage to a team knocked out of finals contention. Theoretically a team knocked out late in the season would have limited scope to change their percentage. But a poorer performing team, knocked out earlier in the season, has a much range for improvement or, more importantly, decline. Current fixtures already create bias, basing draft pick position over fewer games only magnifies this.

So a genuinely poor team, with genuine injuries goes backwards, finishes last and still misses out on the top pick? The biggest problem I foresee is that the fixture isn't a level playing field, making it easier for some teams to improve their percentage based solely on who they play in the last 5 or 10 rounds (or whatever is happens to be) I really don't think that there's a real answer to the tanking situation. Even the NBA's lottery system encourages tanking to a certain degree as the lower finishing teams still get a greater chance of landing the top pick.