Piaad 3 Basketball

The Phoenix Suns came to the top of NBA Power Rankings this week by playing strong on road including handling the Celtics their first loss the season on Friday.

Five of Suns’ seven games have been on the road in their remarkable 6-1 season opening, who made Boston look like a bad defensive team.

The Celtics were one place down to second with a 7-1 record. Playing eight games in 12 days. Tired legs affected the defense and the three-point shooting.

The Lakers were one place up to third with Kobe Bryant leading the league in scoring again. Lakers are surviving without Pau Gasol, needing overtimes to win in Oklahoma and Houston this week.

The heat also climbed one place up, joining the Nuggets on the list of teams we didn’t think could have a better season than they did last year. But they’ve got a top-five defense and Dwyane Wade hasn’t had to carry as big of a load.



With half the league looking pretty good and half the League looking pretty bad here’s your NBA Power Rankings:

1. Los Angeles Lakers (4) – Kobe is giving me flashbacks of 2005-06 but I snap out of it when the 40 point game ends in a victory.

2. Boston Celtics (1) – If you want to stay in the top spot you can’t drop your only home game against your only legitimate opponent in the week.

3. Orlando Magic (3) – Blowout in OKC is a head-scratcher, if “the deepest team in the NBA” can’t play better a few people short when the Cavs visit on Wednesday they will be sure to drop–win over the Suns is keeping them afloat.

4. Phoenix Suns (12) – 3-1 with one game left on Eastern Conference road trip, team couldn’t have asked for anything more and they couldn’t be shooting any better from deep.

5. Miami Heat (9) – Quentin Richardson is in the best shape of his life and he is playing great D in addition to outstanding three point shooting—when will be the first game Wade doesn’t lead the team in scoring?

6. Denver Nuggets (2) – Back-to-back road losses hurt, this team is very happy to bring J.R. Smith back but they might be having fears about the Friday the 13th meeting with the Lakers.

7. Dallas Mavericks (7) – The team went 2-1 against three quality opponents, Dirk is in the top five for MVP voting at this point in the season.

8. Atlanta Hawks (8) – Small ball works, the Hawks have done a great job of integrating Crawford in the lineup and Josh Smith realized how difficult he can be to guard in the post.

9. Cleveland Cavaliers (6) – After a four day break, the Cavs will face Orlando and Miami back-to-back, right now splitting would be considered a victory.



10. Houston Rockets (13) – Taking the Lakers to OT is very impressive, Houston is the junkyard dog of the NBA and nobody is excited to face them.

11. Portland Trail Blazers (10) – Win over the Spurs was important for moral, Portland is in a great position to run-off four road wins before entering Atlanta.

12. San Antonio Spurs (5) – Will have to beat Houston this week if they want to get back in the top 10, I understand Pop doesn’t want to wear his guys out but he’s not giving his stars enough PT to win.

13. Toronto Raptors (15) – The Bosh-Bargnani combo is a difficult guard for almost any team in the League, and that’s before you have to worry about the size of Turkoglu.

14. Chicago Bulls (16) – A strong week has the Chi at the top of their division, Tyrus Thomas is out for a while but Luol Deng is playing the best basketball of his life.

15. Oklahoma City Thunder (17) – Beating the teams they should is a good start, beating the Magic at home goes a long way, Durant, Westbrook, and Co. can go 3-1 over the next week.

16. Utah Jazz (14) – Sure they beat the Spurs but they lost to Dallas and now Sacramento, have fun on your road trip.

17. Detroit Pistons (21) – Beating Orlando and Philly in the same week earns them some respect, are the injuries to Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince real?

18. Philadelphia 76ers (18) – They haven’t beaten a team who’s better than them yet, in fact, they almost lost to the Nets.

19. New Orleans Hornets (19) – Beating Dallas was a nice sign of life but their aren’t many easy wins on the horizon.

20. Charlotte Bobcats (24) – Raja Bell’s return sparked a few needed wins, this team is twice as good at home as they are on the road.

21. Indiana Pacers (22) – After the next two weeks this team should be sitting above .500, they aren’t ready for the playoffs but they are better than people think.

22. Los Angeles Clippers (23) – Three-game streak has Chris Kaman looking like an All-Star, but don’t be fooled they were playing Minnesota, Golden State, and Memphis.

23. Milwaukee Bucks (20) – Brandon Jennings showed New York the mistake they made when they drafted Jordan Hill over him.

24. Washington Wizards (11) – A four-loss week hurts, Gilbert is scoring but he isn’t taking over like he did before the injury.

25. Sacramento Kings (27) – Down goes Kevin Martin (surprise, surprise) and Tyreke Evans is ready to battle Jennings for the ROY, 55 points in two games is a good start.

26. Golden State Warriors (25) – How long till Don Nelson starts going crazy with his roster?  If Morrow isn’t starting by the end of November I’m starting a petition.

27. Memphis Grizzlies (28) – Saying goodbye to A.I. could be best for the team, now if they could only find a way to chase off Z-RO.

28. New York Knicks (26) – This team is sorry, sad, and ugly.  I hope 2010 is worth it because basketball is dying in New York.

29. Minnesota Timberwolves (29) – Is everyone aware that Olesksiy Pecherov is starting in Minnesota?  You know, the 7-footer born in Donestsk, USSR?  No?  Anybody?



30. New Jersey Nets (30) – John Wall would be my pick, especially if Harris is going to get hurt once a month.  If not maybe Ed Davis or Derrick Favors would be an attractive post to pair with LeBron.

Understanding different basketball terminologies is the first step to understanding the game. Here are the popular terms you often hear during the game.

Offense – The team that is in possession of the ball and with a chance to score.

Defense – The team without the ball; the team that is guarding another team to prevent them from scoring.

Free throw (foul shot) – A shot that is worth 1 point. A shot taken from the foul line after the opponent committed a technical foul or a personal foul.

Dunk – A shot where the player aggressively jumps and reaches the rim to score.

Alley oop – A play executed by throwing the ball to a player in mid air near the basket to immediately score before touching the ground.

Bank shot – A shot where the ball touches the backboard first making an angle to drop the ball into the basket.

Three-point shot – A shot thrown beyond the arc; a shot that is worth 3 points.

Lay-up – A shot taken by driving in to, jumping close to, and putting the ball directly into the basket using one hand.

Pass – A ball thrown by a player to a teammate. This is used to start play or help the teammate to make a basket.

Assist – A pass given to help a teammate score.

Rebound – An action made by a player to grab the ball bouncing off the rim or the backboard. It is usually made after a player made a shot.

Offensive rebound – A rebound made from a teammate’s own missed shot.

Defensive rebound – A rebound made from the opponent’s missed shot.

Man-to-man defense – A defensive technique where each player guards a specific player from the opponent.

Block – An act where a defensive player touches a part of the ball on its way to the basket, thus preventing a field goal.

Shot clock – A time limit given to the offensive team to shoot the ball.

Jump ball – Where 2 players jump and try to tap the ball tossed by an official in between them. This is used during the start of the game (tip off), start the overtime period or to reset the play.

Traveling (walk) – A violation where the ball-handler makes more than 2 steps without dribbling the ball.

Points in the paint – Points made inside the shaded area (in the foul line) of the court.

Personal foul – An illegal contact committed by any player against the opponent.

Team foul – An accumulated foul of the team within one quarter.

Penalty – A situation where the team is forced to send the opponent to the foul line every time they commit a foul.

For quite some time now, there has been a big debate about whether or not college athletes should be paid. Some people believe that a scholarship should be payment enough. After all, a scholarship can be easily worth $15,000 – $25,000 or more per year, plus a career after college that can be worth a million dollars over a lifetime. Additionally, student athletes receive all kinds of perks while they are in college, like staying at fancy hotels, being seen on national tv, and all of the notoriety that goes with being a stare athlete. Its hard to put a price tag on all of that.

However, considering the fact that certain college sports generate millions of dollars for college athletic programs, many people believe the athletes are being used. If the average football scholarship is worth $20,000 per year, yet the university gains $70,000 per year in revenue per scholarship player (please note that this figure is just an estimate – the actual number may actually be higher), the university will profit $50,000 per year, per scholarship player, or $200,000 over a four year period.

It is very difficult to put a numeric value on exactly how much an athlete is worth to a college. A star quarterback will not only help sell tickets, but will bring in plenty of merchandise sales as well. The NCCA won’t allow the universities to sell a college football jersey with a player’s name on it, but they will sell the jersey with the player’s number on it, which is easily recognizable in local, and sometimes national markets. The major colleges earn enormous sums of money on this kind of merchandise alone, yet the student athlete who’s number is being used to sell merchandise will not see one dime of the profits. To say that the student athlete isn’t being exploited in this situation is an understatement.

It goes way beyond that. College athletic programs rake in millions from television and advertising contracts. They also bring in millions of dollars of donations from sports boosters. Yes, salaries need to be paid to athletic directors and coaches, not to mention travel and other costs for the student athletes, and it is great that major college football and basketball programs help fund non-revenue athletic programs. However, the fact of the matter is that, compared to the amount of revenue that student athletes generate for their colleges, what they receive in return is very small.

Here’s where it gets really interesting. An athlete can be “disciplined” for selling their tickets to a fan on game day, yet how much money do the directors of the NCAA earn as a result of the efforts of the student athletes? The reality is that the college athletes quite literally pay for a large portion of the salaries of every person employed by the NCAA. If an executive from the NCAA is able to drive a Mercedes, he can thank a star quarterback or running back for that, and perhaps even several walk ons.

So here is the point: if the NCAA, coaches, and athletic directors can earn huge sums of money from the student athletes, shouldn’t student athletes have a piece of the pie too? This isn’t to say that college athletes should get paid large amounts of money, but it would definitely be nice if their scholarships would pay them a little extra to go out for pizza every once and a while, or buy some nice clothes – just a little extra spending cash as a way of saying “thanks” for their efforts.

If for some reason college athletes could be paid, that opens up a whole new can of worms. All of the athletes on a football team with 125 players work very hard in practice, but only 11can start on offense and defense – do you only pay the starters?. Additionally, if you were to pay more to the star quarterback than you do for an “ok” receiver, you are going to run into a lot of other problems. Having said this, the first thing you want to avoid with paying college athletes is student athletes squabbling how much money they earn or should earn, which happens frequently in the NFL.

The second thing you want to avoid is an uneven playing field. While some colleges at the division I level could afford to pay athletes, many simply don’t bring in enough revenue. If a student athlete knows he can earn more at USC than he will if he plays for his state university, then the playing field becomes more uneven than it already is. Athletes would almost always choose the “money schools” over other colleges. Technically, this happens today more than people realize, because colleges with the most tradition, best coaches, and the best records are usually the colleges with the most money…but, if one college could afford to pay more to athletes than other colleges, the playing field would be even more uneven.

If you are going to start paying athletes, all of the athletes need to be paid the same amount of money, and all of the colleges would need to have the same amount of money to pay their athletes with, which could be pre-determined by the NCAA. Even if this amount was a small amount like $1,000 PER YEAR, per player (which totals ($125,000 per year for a college football team with 125 players), paid every month during the school year, it would be a lot more fair to the student athletes…and most colleges at the Division I level could certainly afford it. For the few colleges that couldn’t afford it, the NCAA could always put up the extra money out of the millions it generates from the bowl game. Another alternative would be to cut the salaries of every executive of the NCAA who has gotten rich off of NCAA athletics by 25%– and give the difference to the athletes…

Most of this article focused on college football programs. The revenues that are generated from basketball programs are even more staggering, considering that the teams, are smaller, the travel expenses are less expensive, and that fewer scholarships need to be handed out, making the profits that the NCAA earns from college basketball programs even more staggering.