pantaloons

Absolutely furious with the team's lack of effort in Game 5, particularly Bynum. That guy has talent galore and has been heavily invested in, and yet he refused to show up for every playoff game. Disgraceful. That said, at the start of the series I picked Lakers in 7, so I'm not surprised it's gone this far. The only way Denver wins Game 7 is if LA is truly a team disunited, but I think we've been down this road many times before and will pull it out. If we're not up by double digits at quarter time tomorrow though, the nerves will start. I'm expecting a furious LA to start the game.

I think we're 42-1 in best of 7 series after leading 2-0. The one loss was in the 1969 series against a Boston team that won 11 championships in 13 years. Not to be uppity, but it would take the lightning in a bottle scenario of the greatest performance in Denver history and the worst choke in Laker history for LA to lose this series to an overmatched Nuggets team. The loss does mean that Ron Ron will only miss a maximum of one game in the second round now, which is the bonus from the loss. Personally, I'd have rested our better players for longer yesterday after we threw the game away in ten comical minutes. Oh, and NBAtv is great. I've pretty much caught every Laker game this season, and can watch the games at my own pace and see them after work or whenever is convenient. I get too nervous watching games live now anyway, so being able to speed through stages of games where we're getting flogged or the opposition is storming back is great. I'll likely make the investment again next season. It's around the $200 mark, and has been well worth it. I ended up choosing it over NHL Gamecenter mainly because you get the playoffs thrown in with NBA League Pass.

Unless you're a mavs fan, Cuban tantrums are great to watch. This one is self-inflicted though. His decision to gut a newly-crowned championship team for the hope that Deron might come as a free agent at the end of this season ended any chance they had this year. Office space is a cult classic. Vintage Gary Cole. I like the Brooklyn logo. It's very simple and old school. It looks like its been on the wall on a gym in Brooklyn for 70 years. Their excited claims of 'we're the only NBA team in black and white' is laughable though. The Spurs have sported that look, albeit with a touch of silver/grey for decades and made it their own. Big game for the Bulls tomorrow in the match of the day.

If people don't like the current system, watch the epic meltdown in the Hun when Collingwood finishes 13-9 and misses the finals while an 11-11 team that finishes second in its division makes it. The system isn't ideal, but it isn't broken. Part of Feldman's idea could be implemented - the rotating fixture could work fine with a regular ladder in place. Conferences and divisions are unnecessary for the AFL. They work in the US and that's fine, but it doesn't mean they should be used here. There are plenty of other US sporting ideas I'd look at here before a divisional structure (franchise player tags, a less insane zealotry to suspend half the competition every week, better live to internet packages for starters).

Just tragic. That's a championship gone begging for a very good, honest Bulls team. They deserved better than that.

Cometh the hour, cometh the Monster!

Blues v kings Coyotes v predators Rangers v Capitals Flyers v devils A lot of fresh faces. Anyone's game!

It won't be much of a jinx. I fully expect us to not make it to the WCF, and whether we win one series or none, its not much to be celebrated, just more avoiding the humiliation of being upset in the playoffs two years running. Talk's cheap in sport, but I absoltely love Kobe's attitude. As a fan looking in at the team, I can't see any way we, or 25 other teams, can win the championship, but I love that he is confident that we can. Hopefully that belief is contagious amongst the rest of the team. The guy has won more than anyone else currently in the NBA (except Fish) so naturally they should take on board what he says. It is funny that it's a headline though. It would be a shame if any player involved in a playoff team didn't think their team could win the championship. It's a pretty clear cut first round. I can't really make a case for any upsets at this stage.

Yes. It wasn't so much neglecting key forwards, it was not being able to bring in genuine top quality ones. You can add Nicholson, Lamb, Ellis, Rodgers, Newton and Miller to that list of KPPs (not all forwards obviously).

The only thing the supporters are guilty of is keeping this club alive. How many other club's supporters have had to fork out $5M over the last few years purely in donations to keep their club afloat? 33,500 isn't a disgraceful crowd in the graveyard slot in the rain when the crowd is 80% Melbourne. We'd have gained a few through the gate due to the tribute and lost a few due to being rubbish. Despite the club forcing supporters to ingest the steaming pile of manure they have served up on field over the last 5 and a bit years, our membership tally continues to increase annually. I'll continue to turn up each round, but I can't begrudge those who find this too depressing to watch and vote with their feet. And yes, the crowd noise was brilliant on Sunday night. 3 votes. Clubs don't increase membership bases by hardening up. They do it by consistently winning games and premierships.

Maybe a couple games more than I thought but it could have been worse. If we take care of business in six games in the first round he'll be good to go against OKC in the second round. Clippers just lost so we'll be the #3 seed and avoid Memphis. Can't see us getting past the second round, but I sincerely hope we do as I'll be in LA in late May-June.

Thanks for the reply. I didn't really have much direction to what I was saying, but essentially, I can't fault Daniher for his moves because I agreed with them at the time and to do so would be hypocritical of me. Poor drafting, development and resources can't all be laid at his feet, and while I know that this has been acknowledged in this thread, the title suggests he's a villain in all of this, which I think does him a great disservice. Cheers.

Very sad stuff from metta world war III. Thankfully we pulled out our best win since game 7 in 2010, but this was just brainless. I think Rudy T summed it up best yesterday when he said that the reason his incident, where he was punched square in the face by Kermit Washington, is still so famous, is that none of the many punches since thrown in the NBA have connected. It's dangerous to try to get inside artest's head, but I imagine he was full of adrenalin after the dunk, and when harden bumped him he swung an elbow without considering the potential consequences or fully believing he would connect in such a vicious manner. He certainly knew he was there- harden got in his way and had his forearms into Ron, so he must have felt him, which pretty much blows his case that it was an accidental part of his celebration. I hate suspensions in general, but I'd suspend him for 5 games, taking into account prior history, lack of premeditation, and the fact that we've seen some horrid incidents receive much less than 5 recently, such as wade intentionally smacking Kobe in the face and breaking his nose, and love stepping on scola's face. Horrible incident whatever happens, and his absence will hurt the team.

Neale Daniher was a fine coach for this club. I can't look back angrily at him for the state of our list at the end of 2007. There are a few things that people are picking up on here. Firstly, the topping up. Some of the mature players brought in under Daniher's reign were Pickett, Read, Funcke, Moorcroft, Ellis, Vardy, Bizzell and Moloney. Pickett and Read were brought in specifically to address a glaring weakness of the team - toughness. That may not have resulted in helping us win a flag, but I thought they were the right moves at the time and stand by that. Funcke was a weird decision, but Ellis, Moorcroft, Vardy and Bizzell were all brought in to address positional needs, and that's good. I subscribe to the philosophy around drafting best available regardless of position, and trading for needs. Neale brought in players who could help the team win - which after all, is a fairly key component of footy. Ultimately, we were denied the ultimate in 1998 by a disgusting finals system and in 2000 by one of the best single season teams of all time, and in 2004-06 gave very good accounts of ourselves before injury/lack of superstars and midfield dominance saw the premature end of us. Daniher would have dudded us all by not going all out for it. Secondly, the drafting. This is the key stuff up, and yes as another poster has highlighted the danger of coaches having too much say in draft picks, we saw this first hand with him requesting the toughest player in the 2001 draft crop and Cameron selecting Molan at 9. Cameron has to bear much of the responsibility for the way the list was comprised at the end of 2007. His parade of draft busts were embarrassing, and his failures in the first round of the 2001, 2002 and 2004 drafts in particular go some way to explaining how we got here. I know not every club makes every first round pick a winner, but they also compensate with some later games or at least one superstar calibre player drafted, but not here. On development, what percentage blame can be attributed to Daniher? I don't know, but the club is responsible for paying for this area, and Daniher managed to get us to the finals more often than not in spite of the worst facilities in the league, little FD spending, and poor recruiting. 2007 let's not forget was an injury apocalypse the likes of which I haven't witness before or since. We came into that season the best Victorian team in the AFL and big things were expected. Our list upon Neale's departure had the following players: Youngsters: Buckley, Jones, McLean, Bate, Frawley, Sylvia, Dunn, Petterd, C Johnson, Bartram, Garland, Newton and Bode. Mid-age: Green, Bruce, Moloney, Wheatley, Miller, P Johnson, Carroll, Bell, Rivers, Godfrey, Ferguson, Davey, Warnock, Jamar Senior: Neitz, Robertson, White, Yze, McDonald, Johnstone, Holland, Whelan Retiring: Brown, Bizzell, Pickett He also left the incumbent with pick 4 in the National Draft to work with. The rebuild was a decision the club made, it was not forced upon them because Daniher fed them a vomit burger. I'm not saying it was the wrong decision, but it was a decision - from what you hear not all coaches who went through the interviews for the Melbourne job in 2007 would have taken the same path, but thats hearsay. Regardless, the above list looks a lot better had we not butchered so many first round picks. Neale did his job in terms of coaching a team well on a shoestring budget, and was always prepared to publicly promote the club.

Thanks DD. I used to have foxtel and was tempted with the footy, but can't justify the expense at the moment. I bought NBA league pass as my Christmas extravagance and that's been well worth it.

Vale season 2011-12. Beaten by a better team. Good luck to the rest of you.

...and if we took these five flags we'd also have to include the VFA from 1877-1896. That means 20 years where we didn't win a flag, Geelong won 7, Essendon 4, Carlton 2 and collingwood one! Nice thread though Paul.

Seriously, that just sums it all up - crushing loss in overtime, own goal, Nabokov stinking it up when it counted most. His blatant choking cost us at least one cup. Thankfully we won the next three games against Colorado to take the series in question.

I don't have much confidence. We blew numerous chances over the last eight seasons unfortunately.

After the massive hissy fit chucked on this site about Ben Polis' remarks only a couple weeks ago, there are some pretty disgraceful posts in this thread. Disappointing.

You're kidding! Yep, same game - January 15 v Calgary. A friend of mine from Toronto is pretty well connected and hooked myself, my wife and another friend up with tickets two rows from the glass pretty much on the goalline at the end Toronto scored their one and only goal. I wore my Dees scarf - pity we missed each other! Great night.

$2.4M I'm pretty sure it was.

Have you seen us play this year? Much like every other season since 2007, we're hardly in a position to pick and choose which games we'll win. There was a good piece on tanking in the NBA on ESPN today: http://espn.go.com/b...-tell-the-truth Footy fans like to throw around the work 'tanker' as an insult, but the reality is, that in any sensible sporting league with a draft at the end of each season, there will be a certain number of teams who don't make it to the finals. What is the best thing for these teams to do when their seasons are shot to pieces? Play all the old guys and try to eke out an extra win or two? Or get as many games into the younger players, have injured players operated on, try players in different positions, and better your draft position and future prospects? I know as a supporter which I prefer. Even before the draft era, bottom teams would be more likely to get inured players operated on rather than risk serious injury as would happen through playing in finals. It's just sensible list management. If you're talking about tanking as losing on purpose, well there's just never going to be enough evidence to mount a good enough case that teams do this. Every player goes out there to win - it's their careers on the line. Bailey's zany moves against Richmond in 2009 were no worse than the side-splittingly comical matchups he STARTED the 186 game with. Every club would have participated in some form of tanking/list management, however slight on the spectrum. It has helped or been essential in some clubs winning premierships - West Coast of 2006, Hawthorn of 2008, Collingwood of 2010 come to mind immediately. That example from the ESPN article I posted has another good example. One key thing Melbourne failed to do in all of this that the other clubs did well (in addition to failing to draft superstars), was surrounding these young draft picks with top class experienced players. We won't have to lose games deliberately to get our hands on good picks this year. I just want to see us start to play some good football, and these kids begin to realise their potential.

I hear there's an energy brokering mob who might be able to throw a few bob their way.

It is a bit sad. They were worse than us on the day, but it was one of the most comical and least competitive matches of all-time, and they had shelved the Fev months earlier so they'd be able to get the top pick. They were about to land their third straight #1 pick, nailing them all, and one C Judd was already in the (brown recycled paper) bag.