- Not enough has ever been made of the fact that Dwyane Wade spells his first name like that. I mean someone like Chone (pronounced "Shawn") Figgins of the Seattle Mariners gets grief all the time and he's not even that famous outside of baseball circles.
Even Brett Favre took flak for years and years because his last name reads like "Faver" rather than "Far-v."
- NBA players should take a cue from actors and tweak/change their names for purposes of sticking in people's heads.
Topher Grace made a very shrewd move by not going by Chris. No one would have ever remembered who Chris Grace was. He would have turned into a "that guy."
I'm looking at you Joel Anthony, if you ever want to be Joakim Noah.
- PER is a nice stat that has its place somewhere but anything that ranks Pau Gasol's 2011 playoff performance ahead of Brandon Roy or Jeff Teague or even the limply armed Rajon Rondo has to be questioned.
- Is there anything more impressive than playoff hockey referees? Watching them avoid pucks, leap over passes and sticks, slide down the boards and seemingly make good calls most of the time makes NBA referees look even worse by comparison.
Dick Bavetta makes bad calls jogging slowly on his feet; just imagine if he was on skates.
- Much like 5'-something JJ Barea's playoff coming-out party, wouldn't it be hilarious if model and new Transformers actress Rosie Huntington-Whiteley is actually tremendous? Everyone made all the jokes when her involvement was announced but what if she's a really good actor?
I know, it seems unlikely but so did a player shorter than six feet taking the NBA by storm and being unstoppable at the rim.
- The most underrated storyline of the NBA playoffs in general has been the takeover of the Oklahoma City Thunder by Russell Westbrook. Sure plenty of people have mentioned how he hogged the ball too much and made bad decisions but I've only heard a couple people get to the crux of the problem: the Thunder are going to be Westbrook's team.
No one will argue that Kevin Durant is a better player and yet he seems to be letting Westbrook take over the team, emotionally and with the ball. This is not a good thing for the team's future.
- This Finals match-up has some tremendous storylines of its own.
LeBron James and Dirk Nowitzki are each trying to win their first title and push their careers to that next level. As is Jason Kidd.
The Miami Heat, everyone's villain, got here a year or two earlier than we expected. A title in 2011 may set up the next sports dynasty.
The Dallas Mavericks are returning to the championship game and will face the monkey on their back, the team that vanquished them in epic fashion in 2006, the Heat.
The failure of the Bulls and Thunder goes on to prove that getting your playoff chops may still be a necessity to reaching playoff success.
The failure of the Celtics and Lakers may also prove that a changing of the guard in the league is upon us; youth and athleticism is in. Dallas is of course the exception that proves the rule.
It will be awesome to watch LeBron guard Dirk when the Mavericks are on offense, if the Heat play it that way, but Dallas does not have the bodies to match-up on the other end. Can anyone on the Mavs stop LeBron or Wade?
Dallas has the big bodies to outmatch Miami on the boards, especially if Haslem slows as the series goes on. Also, can anyone on Miami stay in front of Barea or Jason Terry for that matter?
I would not be surprised if the Heat won the title in five games. I would not be surprised if Dallas won either, however it would be in six or seven games. I guess that gives the edge to Miami. Dallas still can't get any love.
Dallas has lost three games combined throughout these entire playoffs. They would need to lose four in this one series to not win the NBA title.
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