Shawn Kemp's Offspring

Written by Eboy

This past Saturday I had two sport in-person viewing options presented to me. I had tickets for a Florida Panthers game in the evening from one of my co-workers or was offered a ticket to the Heat game and had to make a decision Saturday morning. After being offered the Heat ticket while on the phone with my friend, about 2 seconds afterwards, I asked my buddy what time we were going to meet up to take the ride to the AAA and leave the ice in the Panthers arena in a puddle of saddened sorrow.

We headed out about 1:00p and stopped at this place, http://www.primantibros.com/. An institute in Pittsburgh, PA (where my buddy is from) we usually stop there each time down for some good food and pretty fine waitresses. After having a great pizza, the road trip continued. Once we got in the arena....I realized that my buddy had good seats (not great) center court, 2nd row, upper level.


My ode to Moose

National Anthem is performed by Keon Dooling's daughter.....again. I've been to 4 games so far in 2009 and she's been on the mic for each game. Not sure if she signed a 10 day and then got extended....but I've never seen someone sing so often for one team. Seats are a great spot for game viewing....not too great for people watching though. We are surrounded by:

1)a couple that had to be in their 80's who seemed like they died by the second quarter.

2)a seriously fine MILF who brought along her 5 pre-teen children and seemed to be hoping that someone with money would rescue her from her life's fate of being that chick that used to be the sh*t and now is just literally in..... the sh*t.

3)a guy with his 8 or 9 year old kid who fell asleep in the third quarter and the kid seemed to be too afraid to try and wake him up. My buddy and I felt bad for him and picked him up a hot dog and a Coke and when the dad finally woke up with about 2 minutes to go in the 4th....he saw the empty hot dog wrapper and the soda at his sons seat and said "did you have money....did you go yourself?" The kid looked nervous and said "no, those guys got it for me" pointing at me and my friend. I think we both felt like pedophiles....but we felt bad for the kid. Sue me and try to stay awake, fat man, so your son won't have to rely on strangers to keep them nourished....your pre diabetes symptoms were in full effect for all of section 325 to see, Rip Van Blimple.

On to the game, for the first 24 minutes....people watching should have been the catch of the day. Poor shooting.....tons of turnovers and really a lack of focus from both teams made both of the potential playoff teams hopes of competing in a playoff atmosphere seem really overblown.

Once the first half debacle ended.....the second half actually got competitive. Andre Miller was really good for the Sixers. His off the dribble game was working to perfection and he made pretty easy work of Mario Chalmers from the tip. The rest of the Sixers are young, rangy, athletic and full of potential. The potential of the future Heat squad was on full display for about 5 minutes in the latter part of the 4th quarter. There was a nice run with JO, UD, Wade, Chalmers and Jamario Moon???? Yeah....there was some good chemistry between D-Wade and Jamario off baseline cuts for alley-oops, something that never came to fruition in Shawn Marion's time as a member of the Heat.


Here's my ode to Shawn Marion

Coming down the home stretch, the Heat executed better and Dwyane made the MVP plays he's made all season. The crowd was feeling it......even with a 1/4 of the arena empty....and that's how every game this season (except the Lakers one I attended)has been. People still really aren't believing in the team yet....so there's still a bit of uncertainty about putting out the cash to make the trip to the arena....and right now it's warranted uncertainty. Jermaine looked good at moments on Saturday (let's not talk about Sunday's "battle" with DaHowitzer...ugh)and if he can put together a full game of strong play...like he had going early on...the Heat's offense should begin to free from the shackles of D-Wade's always doubled, dribble drive game.

The Sixers can't really be considered any kind of a threat either. They're too reliant on the outside shot and missing a bona fide post presence in Elton Brand is way too much for a team like them to live and die from the perimeter on, especially without the threat of a true potent deep ball shooter.

Luckily this night ended with a Heat win. Sunday was not so cheery. After the game we wound up here.


This would make any night better.




*********EXTRA, EXTRA***************

Here's some observations I made in-game that kind of made laugh:

One sequence during the 3rd quarter...Reggie Evans and Michael Beasley got into a little war of words/pushing and shoving match for a quick minute. I'm not sure if it showed up on the Heat telecast locally, but I've noticed that among Beasley's penchant for talking comical trash....he has a little bit of fire that I hope turns inferno-like in a couple of years. Beas was talking all kinds of sh*t in a very undemonstrative way...which really pissed Wedgie off. Good work by the kid.

I think Louis Williams missed his calling for playing ball for the And 1 tour. He was a dribbling machine during halftime while everyone else was shooting around. His handle was phenomenal, btw.

Chris Quinn is still really bug eyed, really slow and really not ready for back up point guard duties. While he can make shots.....his lack of D is really putting me back on the Decapitate Chris Quinn bandwagon.

I'm convinced that Mario Chalmers is from the same acting school as Derek Fisher. A simple forearm bump sends him flying like he was shot in a gangwar in Little Haiti over some bad 4 day old grio. He doesn't get the calls yet....but I have a feeling he will in due time.



Let's just say, if they were there, the game could have gone into a vortex of perpetual airballs and I could have gave a sh*t.

Just sayin'