Four Questions at the All-Star Break: Mike Flint’s biggest NBA questions at the season’s halfway point

Blake Griffin (with ball) catches Baron Davis's pass as he jumps the hood of a car. This dunk made him champion of the 2011 NBA Dunk Contest. Photo from Web.

With a little over half of the NBA season over, there are four ideas that I can’t get out of my head. In question form, here they are.

How do I really feel about the Oklahoma City Thunder?

I absolutely love them. Durant, Westbrook, Harden and his beard, Morris Peterson (MO PETE!), Ibaka. How could you not love them? They are young, talented, exciting, competitive- even interesting (Serge Ibaka is a 21 year-old from the Republic of Congo who started playing organized basketball five years ago—are you kidding me?). They are everything you could want out of an up-and-coming team. They even seem to understand their role as the new contender in the West, going up against Kobe and the Lakers with legitimate passion. You have to love them; they’re just so awesome.

But that’s just the problem. I can’t love them. That’s exactly what the NBA wants me to do. And after what David Stern did to Seattle, falling into the trap and liking the Thunder just seems wrong. Imagine if instead of wearing OKC Thunder jerseys every night, Durant and Westbrook were repping those old Sonics uniforms. It would be the return of Seattle. Payton and Kemp 2.0. And with Rose and the Bulls surging in the East, it would be the return of the Chicago-Seattle rivalry from the early Jordan era. But with OKC we have none of that. We just have a cool new team from Oklahoma, and that frustrates me to no end.

Could I care less about Carmelo Anthony and the f****** “MeloDrama?”

No.  At least with the Lebron Sweepstakes there was an interesting subplot with the whole Cleveland thing. With  ’Melo there’s no subplot (who cares about Denver?), there’s no Decision, there’s not even a First Team All-NBAer at stake. Unless he goes to Los Angeles (which he won’t), I don’t even see him making that much of an impact. He’s a good player, but he’s not taking the Knicks past the Heat, Magic, Bulls or Celtics in the playoffs, so who cares? And what’s annoying is that the whole situation is driven by the fact that the NBA is probably headed in the same direction as the NFL with a lockout next season, but nobody is talking about that. Everyone seems more concerned about where ’Melo is going to end up than about not having pro football or basketball next year. And, to me, that’s a much bigger deal.

Moving from something I hate to something I like, how much do I love the Celtics?

At this point it’s become a cliché—to be a Boston sports fan in the new millennium is to have an excess of riches. Every team (and I mean every team—Patriots, Red Sox, Celtics, Bruins and even the Revolution) is consistently good and every team has likeable players. It’s like being a parent with five amazingly awesome children. It honestly doesn’t get any better than this.

But unlike most parents, who dodge the “Which one is your favorite?” question pretty cleanly with an “I love them all the same!” and an endearing smile, I’m not going to beat around the bush. My favorite kid right now is the Celtics. Hands down. And for a few reasons: the Pats choked, last year’s Red Sox were boring and this year’s season hasn’t started yet, the Bruins never win in the playoffs and the Revolution are the Revolution.

But most of all it’s because the Celtics are so entertaining. Not only are they good, they are super competitive (Kevin Garnett is the scariest person on the face of the planet) and filled with characters. Shaq, Big Baby, Nate Robinson, The Big Three, Kendrick Perkins (who I guess is a really funny guy?), even Semi Erden. Not to mention Rondo, who might be the most oxymoronic athlete in Boston history. I mean really, Rajon? You can completely take over a game, drop twenty assists like it’s nothing and guard Lebron James like it’s no big deal, but you can only shoot 55% from the free throw line? Does that make sense to anyone?

Nonetheless, the Celtics continue to entertain. Pierce and Allen breaking records, Shrek and Donkey doing “The Dougie” on Youtube. We even get Mike and Tommy on Comcast Sports Net at Conn now, which makes everything that much better. It’s only the All-Star break, but I can’t wait for the playoffs.

And, finally, how good is Blake Griffin?

Really good. Like so good I don’t even know if I can do him justice. Because here’s the thing: even with the massive Blake Griffin bandwagon that’s popped up in the past few months, I don’t think people actually realize how good this guy really is. He’s 21 years old, turning 22 in March, missed all of last year with a serious knee injury that required season-ending surgery and plays for a historically cursed franchise. But despite all that, he continually posterizes the best athletes in the world (isn’t there supposed to be a lag time on knee injuries?) and is about to lead the lowly Clippers out of the NBA basement for the first time in literally forever.

And what truly amazes me is that he seems entirely different from all of the other young superstars in the league (except maybe Kevin Durant). He’s flashy and owns highlight reels, but he does it in about the most aggressive way possible. He doesn’t dunk and then smile for the camera like Dwight Howard, he dunks and then stares down his opponent like he’s about to eat them. He’s like a mix between Lebron James and Kevin Garnett—freakishly athletic and freakishly competitive. And in that sense, he may be everything we wish Lebron was but isn’t. In a matter of years he will take over Los Angeles, and if he gets a good enough team built around him (Eric Gordon is a good start), I can legitimately see him winning multiple titles, which is weird to imagine with the Clippers. All I’m saying is, if you’re not on the bandwagon already, jump on it. Dude is ridiculously good. •