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NBA.COM'S CLICK AND ROLL: READER RESPONSE PAGE |
All right, the responses to the best ball town (and whether I should haul my butt to Philly to play hoop against Donny) have been overwhelming.
(Well, at least for me it has.)
So, because of all the responses and to minimize the risk of having a longer column than the ESPN's The Sports Guy, I've created NBA.com's Click and Roll Reader Response Page.
This page will be a repository for many of the e-mail we get when we ask you questions like "How should the NBA realign?" or "What's the best basketball town in the U.S. of A.?"
We'll print the best in the main column, while we don't want to be seen as playa hatin' (Can I use that? Am I down enough? We'll see.) the best of the rest will end up here on this page.
We'll try to get to everything, but nothing is guaranteed. Thanks for your continued support and let your friends know we're here.
STACY of Bowling Green, Va.: I think the best ballers in the world come New York. I love Philly ball and L.A. West Coast ball, and even Chicago. But I feel that if you can do it in New York, you can do it anywhere. Even on the playgrounds of NYC you have to prove yourself. It is the most popular basketball Mecca in the world from the Rucker tournament to West 4th St. The runs are fierce in NYC. So that's why it is the best place to hoop. Oh and by the way, I think you forgot about D.C. and Virginia. We good ballers as well. Peace!!
eaglessixers (of Philly, I assume): Philadelphia has had the best basketball players ever. They have had guys like Wilt Chamberlain, Billy Cunningham, Moses Malone, Dr. J, Charles Barkley, and now Allen Iverson. For every era of great basketball players Philly has always had one. No other city can even come close to comparing with Philadelphia. If you could put a team of every city's best players at their prime and put them all in a playoff, Philadelphia would win every game.
KEN from Somerdale, N.J.: Philadelphia is the best basketball city in the U.S.A. Not NY, not Chicago, and certainly not Los Angeles, they tend to steal the good players from other places.
STAN from San Diego: Philly, by far, I believe has now, and in the past, some of the best ballers ever to play in the NBA. The town breeds true ballers with a strong desire to win and play the game to its highest level.
VICK of Brooklyn, N.Y.: Philly is da best cause of all the legends they had. Dr. J, Wilt, Charles, and soon to be legend ALLEN IVERSON. Definertly Philly. Dey are bangin'.
(Editor's note: Goin' against your hometown of N.Y.? You're lucky we don't include last names.)
GYASI of Washington D.C. D.C. has the best ballers. Period. End of story. NY gets all the credit and Philly does too but look at the players who come out of the D.C. area and you'll see.
LOUIS of New Orleans: This is easy, where else but the Big Easy (New Orleans),some of the best all-around ballers in the U.S.A. hail from the Big Easy.
For some reason, I can see this guy getting so worked up and so excited, that he ended up clutching his chest after writing this e-mail. Hopefully a loved one revived him and forwarded this e-mail. It's entertaining for sure.
RUS from Carlisle, Ohio: Here's a realignment proposal to where Stern won't have to change too much. Keeping the Conferences in the East/West separation, we'd have the divisions as follows:
PacificWest or GreatWest(I prefer Great): Seattle, Portland, Sacramento, Golden St. & L.A.L.
WHY? It gives us what I like to call the "Equalizer Rule" and distributes the "powers that be" more evenly. The EQ provides us with Dominators (self explanatory), Spoilers (the annual "we-don't-want-to-play-them" team come playoff time) and a Creampuff (the Division Whipping Boys) for each division.
Here we have the Dominaters(Lakers/Kings), Spoilers(Sonics/Blazers), Creampuff (Warriors of course).
Geographically they fit perfectly, straight up the Great West coastline, all being the most northwestern teams in the conference (Lakers rate "above" the Clips, so we count that as the north part).
SouthWest: New Orleans, Houston, San Antonio, Pheonix and L.A.C.
WHY? EQ in affect here too. Dominators (Spurs/Rockets), Spoilers (Hornets/Suns), Creampuff (Clips -- they get that till Sterling pays up a couple of the young studs. If he does, then this division gets an extra spoiler).
Geographically you can call it Southern Comfort, as all are as South as you can get. The Clips claim Southern Comfort in that they get out of the Lakers division (kind of like a young, grown man living with his tough dad that beats 'em up all the time, except now he gets to live in the guest house so he just doesn't get beat up as often even though he's still stayin' his daddy's house).
MidWest: Utah, Denver, Dallas, Memphis & Indiana
WHY? EQ isn't as strong here as we'd like, but can you imagine those Pacers in a couple more years!? Soooo, Dominators (Mavs/Pacers), Spoilers (Jazz/Nuggets --I know how they are for now...but remember, realignment is at least a year away still ... just enough time for their free agents they should both get next summer to be settling in and starting to gel well).
Geographically it's perfect as far as being "Midwest". Yes, Indiana is NOT West, BUT, we want to create NEW rivalries, so we put them into the West, and move Minnesota to the East. Besides, Jermaine O'Neal and company match up better with the Mavs than KG (notice I didn't say, "...and company" after KG). Which brings us to this ...
GreatNorth: Minnesota, Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland
WHY? There's some GREAT reasons why! 1) It creates great new rivalries. Think about the NFL's group of Green Bay, Chicago and Minnesota. Also, it gives KG hope to compete (thus giving Minnesota hope of competing ... thus giving Kevin McHale hope of bringing in a top free(zing) agent to the lovely winter wonderland, thus giving their owner, Glen Taylor, hope of having more cold, hard cash, thus giving Mr. Stern one less "former NBA city gone South" to have to deal with).....plus...KG HAS GOT TO BE tired of fighting TD, CWeb, SHAQ, Sheed and the rest of those guys with no help. Switching Indy out there is more fair cause Jermaine has a lot of help to battle the boys out West. Anyway, EQ works here too. Dominators(Wolves are a lock to be one/Pistons), Spoilers (Bucks/Bulls-remember again, a year or two), Creampuff (Cavs for now...but maybe not long).
Geographically it works good except for Minnesota being further west than Indy. But we already went thru that...think about it again tho, KG vs. Chandler vs. Ben Wallace vs. Darius Miles...in a couple more years, of course.
NorthEast: Toronto, Boston, New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia<
WHY? Not much different here, which is a good thing. Vince changed, yes, but it's for his own good. He plays better when he's thrown to the dogs. SO, we throw em at Iverson, Pierce, Kidd and Sprewell (he MIGHT still be there). That's a MUCH better challenge than Ray Allen, J.Rose, Rip Hamilton and Ricky Davis.
EQ works well here too. Dominators (Nets/Celts), Spoilers (76ers/Raptors), Creampuff (Knicks. No worries, this one should still fit in a couple + a couple + a couple + a couple more years).
Geographically this is the best one yet. They are as Northeast as Northeast gets until they until they move the Trail Blazers to the smaller Portland (Maine). Toronto obviously beats out Washington here as they'd have no division to go to but the SouthEast, which since we're discussing IT ...
SouthEast: Washington, Charlotte, Atlanta, Orlando and Miami
WHY? This is the weakest of all divisions, and for a reason. They have Charlotte, a first year team. SO, they get the break. EQ still works somewhat, but a little differently. The dominators go three deep here (Wizards/Magic/Hawks). If Miami stays on pace like this year, and with Riles runnin' it, they should be right back in Spoiler position by the time realignment kicks in.
Charlotte, of course, will take it's fair share of hard knocks being new, but has the weakest division to grow up into. This should prevent them from the Grizzly funk (having to grow up in a powerhouse division/conference. If Charlotte grows quickly like the old Hornets did, and Miami stays on pace to regroup, this will be a the toughest division in the East in five years when TMac, Stack and Kwame, Shareef and Terry and Caron Butler start hitting their primes.
Geographically it IS the best one period. Washington is the only one remotely questionable, but still are clearly the closest southeast team of anyone else. It should start up fresh rivalry blood between the hopefully Larry Bird-owned Charlotte team and the Jordan-owned Wizards. They've always provided good competition. If only Magic Johnson could get in on a piece of the Orlando pie...Magic's Orlando Magic?... Bird vs. Jordan vs. Magic?... In the same division?
Sounds magical doesn't it?
BILL of Los Angeles: This is the best possible realignment plan. It follows an East/West format and has 15 teams and three divisions with five teams for each division per conference. EVERY team is within reasonable distance of the other teams in it's division:
Northeast Division: New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, New Jersey
Southern Division: New Orleans, Atlanta, Charlotte, Miami, Orlando
Central Division: Chicago, Indiana, Detroit, Toronto, Cleveland
Midwest Division: Milwaukee, Memphis, Minnesota, Houston, Dallas
Northwest Division: Seattle, Utah, Portland, Sacramento, Golden State
Southwest Division: L.A. Lakers, San Antonio, Phoenix, Denver, L.A. Clippers
