Basketball Fiend

(Photo credit: Los Angeles Times)

In my opinion, the NBA has the best sports bloggers on the Internet. (I know, I know. I’m biased.) Now that 2009 is coming to a close, I think it’s time we recognize the best of the best.

Below I’ve nominated what I consider to be the five best written, most interesting NBA blog articles of 2009.  Each one is a work of genius, making it difficult to decide which article is the best. So I’m leaving it up to you, NBA readers, to decide which one gets the “Fiendy”: the award for elite status.

The process is easy. Read and review the nominees below. When you’re done, vote for your favorite in the poll at the end.

The blog with the most votes by 7:00 pm PT on Thurs, Dec. 31 wins the “Fiendy”.

(In the event of a tie, I’ll cast the deciding vote.)

The NBA’s Chex Mix Renaissance - Jared Wade, Both Teams Played Hard

How do you capture the distinction between team chemistry and self-centeredness in the NBA without sounding cliché or preachy? Simple. Use a Chex Mix analogy. Jared Wade wrote this article post-Lakers championship, using the snack mix analogy as both a praise of the Magic and an indictment of talented, “me first” teams like the Clippers. As soon as I read the following paragraph I knew Wade had struck gold. This is blogging at its best; a thought-provoking idea executed with the greatest of skill. Well done, sir.

Sample quote:

If we’re going to compare players to chips (and don’t worry, folks, we are about to) Baron Davis is the Dorito. Both are universally beloved and both have inimitable flavor, but, deep down, you know neither is good for you. Marcus Camby is the pretzel: simple, reliable and underrated. Zach Randolph is the Cheeto; like the chip’s cheese, Zebo’s 20/10 is clearly artificial… Al Thornton is the Sun Chip: solid, yet ultimately nondescript and bland.

Just like Frito’s failed attempt at a party mix (I hope the irony of the name “Munchies” isn’t lost on anyone), these guys do not fit together. They’re just a mismatched group of guys with individual strengths.

If You Must Rage, Rage Consistently - Josh Tucker, Hardwood Paroxysm

Tucker wrote this article in Jan. 2009, using it to admonish Lakers haters for being inconsistent in their coverage of his beloved team. The idea? Essentially, the Lakers get called out by the blogosphere during times of fortune, yet go largely uncovered when they get screwed themselves. Typical Lakers whining, right? Unfortunately, no. You can’t pass off something this well-written and clear-minded as the usual b.s. I’m as anti-Lakers as it gets, but Tucker’s manifesto makes sense. It’s a well-argued point with plenty of specific examples. And the title kicks ass. As much as I wanted to brush it off, I couldn’t.

Sample quote:

Time and time again, bloggers have insisted that at the end of games — especially important games — the officials should “let them play,” even in many cases where there is a legitimate foul, for fear of the referees deciding the game. In fact, barely a month earlier, the internet had erupted in outrage over just such a situation. But this time, the popular opinion was that the foul should not have been called, because of the context.

How quickly things change when the Lakers are involved.

David Kahn Gets Hired, Ditch Gets Deeper - Zach Harper, Talk Hoops

Favorite teams are like WAGs: when things are going well, there’s nowhere in the world you’d rather be. But when things aren’t going so hot, it’s easy to get out-of-your-mind frustrated. For celebrities, this manifests itself in crazy meltdowns and public embarrassment. For bloggers, it’s the catalyst for terrific writing. We’re like song writers that way. Misery brings out the best in us. For Zach Harper, a Timberwolves fan, the best was a thousand-word rant sparked by the incoherent regime of T-Wolves owner Glen Taylor. Written on May 21, 2009 (shortly after David Kahn was hired as general manager), this “Almost Famous”-inspired tongue lashing represents the sentiments of not just Timberwolves fans, but frustrated fans everywhere. Be sure to read all the way to end. The final line is terrific.

Sample quote:

They couldn’t get anyone because Glen Taylor doesn’t know how to own a successful basketball franchise. We watched for a decade while he kept Kevin McHale around instead of finding someone who could figure out how to put winning talent around one of the most talented big men to ever grace the court. We watched while KG’s prime was wasted because he had to drag guys like Dean Garrett and Trenton Hassell (no offense, Trenton. I did like you but c’mon, you know what you are) around while trying to wade through the busted draft picks of Paul Grant, William Avery, and Ndubi Ebi who happened to break up the years of not having a draft pick at all due to an illegal deal under the table with Joe Freaking Smith.  And how are we repaid for this loyalty?

With David Kahn.

Got to Get Off This Never-Ending Combine - Rough Justice, Free Darko

To say there is a lot of mind-blowing content produced on Free Darko throughout the year is an understatement. Nobody mines the finer points of basketball better than Bethlehem Shoals’ crew. But this article stood out as being particularly insightful. Published on Christmas day, Rough Justice’s indictment of the term “athleticism” is both thought-provoking and immaculately written. RJ, one half of the dynamic duo at There Are No Fours, debuts a number of intriguing ideas (among them: the idea that body control is just as important as speed and hops; the concept of the “player narrative” and its affect on judgments of athleticism; and the misuse of the term “freak”) while simultaneously expanding the reader’s vocabulary. It’s an impressive read.

Sample quote:

It’s evident and impressive when someone makes a play up in the air. Similarly, we can all tell when someone turns on the jets to get ahead on the break for an easy basket. It’s right there to see, it’s effective, so it gets noticed. A lot of the elements of this physiological cloud are subtler. Who has the best body control in the NBA? Nobody knows. You can tell if someone is on one extreme or the other if you watch them a lot, but no one could begin to rank everyone in the league. Who has the best hand-eye coordination? These aren’t the things that are or even necessarily could get tested at combines, but they are things that partially determine how effective someone is on the court.

Is LeBron the New Kobe? - Denny Mayo, Waiting for Next Year

2009 was a wild year for LeBron James. He won his first MVP award, momentarily wrestled the “Best Player in the NBA” title away from Kobe Bryant, led the Cavaliers to their best regular season record in team history, hit the best game-winner of his career, swept through the early stages of the playoffs only to watch his teammates self-destruct in the Eastern Conference Finals, and inspired more controversy than anyone in the league with missteps like the non-handshake and DunkGate. Along the way, the public perception of LBJ changed. A lot. Nobody captured that change better than Denny Mayo. Comparing LeBron to Kobe hardly qualifies as an original idea, but Mayo put a new spin on the idea: staging the comparison off the court. It’s an inspired piece; one that I think rings truer by the day.

Sample quote:

In the past months, we’ve seen LeBron not shake hands and get torn up for it.  We’ve seen him not apologize and explain that he’s a “winner” – and get torn up for it… Most recently, we’ve (not) seen him get dunked on – and been torn up for it… The scrutiny surrounding him is reaching a fever pitch.  Everyone’s got an opinion, and wants to be heard about it.  #freejordancrawford is all the rage with the Twitter these days.  The bottom line is LeBron is becoming as divisive as Kobe.

Runner ups: You’ve Got the Look! (Bethlehem Shoals, Free Darko); Tribute to Paul Gasol, NBA Champion (Josh Tucker, Silver Screen and Roll); Hope for the Worst NBA Teams (Tom Ziller, NBA Fanhouse)

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