The NBA Is Going Soft

I remember growing up and watching Michael Jordan get the hell knocked out of him constantly during the playoffs. First it was the Detroit Pistons and the "Jordan Rules" which were basically, anytime Jordan gets in the lane, try and kill him. How many times would you see Bill Laimbeer or Dennis Rodman body check MJ out of mid-air? How many times would you see Isiah Thomas try and undercut him?

It was constant, and it didn't end with the Pistons. Once the Bulls conquered Detroit, it became the Knicks who would apply the same tactics against Jordan. I didn't like that other teams were deliberately trying to hurt him, but you could understand the reasoning behind it.

You weren't going to stop him, so you might as well try to hurt him. Luckily for Bulls fans, all any of it did was piss Jordan off, and considering Michael was already the most competitive person on the court, pissing him off only made him more dangerous.

You know what I don't remember as much from all those series? Flagrant fouls being called. There were a few in the most egregious cases, but for the most part, the refs let it go. The league let opponents try and take out it's marquee player.

That's not the case these days.

The one thing that's been driving me nuts this postseason in the NBA is the constant flagrant foul calls. It seems you can't touch anybody anymore. Right now if LeBron James goes to the hole and catches an elbow in the chest, whoever delivered that elbow is going to get a flagrant called on him.

One of the worst cases I've seen came last night when Al Horford was called for a flagrant foul on Kevin Garnett. As Garnett went to the basket, Horford committed a good clean, hard foul. He didn't go after his head, instead he used his left arm against KG's chest to stop him, and with his right arm he swiped at the ball.

Garnett fell to the floor afterwards, despite Horford's effort to hold him up, because generally when two guys who are 6'10 or taller collide in mid-air, somebody is going down. Horford was then hit with the flagrant.

It was a bad call.

I use it as an example, but it's not the only one I've seen.

I understand that the NBA is in a constant battle against ill-informed "fans" who claim that the league is full of nothing but a bunch of thugs and gang-bangers, and that they have to make sure their corporate sponsors still want to fill the arenas and commercial breaks with advertisements (though those same corporate sponsors don't have a problem sponsoring the NFL where the goal is to beat your opponent into submission, wonder why that is?). I also understand that it's a superstar driven league, so the league is going to take extra precautions to protect its superstars, but it's getting ridiculous.

These are the playoffs, and throughout the history of the NBA, the playoffs get a lot more physical. It's a large part of what makes the NBA playoffs so exciting. Now I'm in no way condoning fights amongst the players, and I understand that the constant use of the flagrant fouls helps keep some fights from happening, but the NBA is playing scared.

By trying to cut off all physical play, the NBA is actually taking away a large part of what makes the playoffs so exciting, and it could end up hurting them more in the long run than a few punches ever could.

Your Mom Goes To College

It looks like next season's college basketball is going to be without quite a few of its stars.

Though not yet official, it's expected Kevin Durant will be leaving Texas to join the NBA.

It's good news in Boston and bad news in Austin as DraftExpress.com is reporting that Texas freshman sensation Kevin Durant has decided to declare for the NBA draft and will make his announcement at a news conference next week.

DraftExpress.com cited "multiple sources, both from the NBA and close to the player himself" in its report.

Durant will not be alone.

After winning back-to-back NCAA titles, the Florida Gators will not be returning any of their starters or their sixth man next season. Lee Humphrey and Chris Richard are both graduating, and juniors Joakim Noah, Al Horford, Corey Brewer, and Taurean Green are all going pro together.

Now none of this comes as a surprise, but some people hoped the Gators would return to try for a three-peat. Granted, those people are idiots. They didn't have anything else to prove in college, they'd already won two titles.

As for Durant, he and Greg Oden (should Oden leave) are showing us what the future of college basketball may soon be. Durant was already the first freshman in history to win the Player of the Year Award, but it's likely he won't be the last.

It used to be that the seniors were the best players on the court. Now it looks as if the game is actually moving towards the point where the upper-classmen are the lesser players on a team. With the NBA's new rule that won't allow high schoolers to go pro, the college game is going to be flooded with freshmen who are just getting their year over with before cashing in. As a result, all the best talent will likely be leaving the college game after every season, while the only people who stay are those who can't play in the NBA.

It's going to be an odd shift in the infrastructure of college basketball, but I suggest you start getting used to it. Freshman will be dominating for years to come.

The Wait is Over!

Finally, after what seems like years, we get to see Ohio State and Florida go head to head for all the marbles. (CBS-4PM Est.)

Yeah, we know it's basketball and not football, but that's besides the point. This is still a pretty damn good matchup for this time of year. That, and when you think about it, a big bag of marbles really is a cool prize. You can have all kinds of fun with them.

Ohio State is ranked third in the country and has freshman Greg Oden. The seven-footer has been everything that was advertised so far, and is shooting a ri-damn-diculous .735 from the floor this season. And that's after going 8/15 earlier this week against Iowa State. Before Tuesday he was 17/19 in his first three college games.

There's good news for Florida too, as Al Horford could play even though on Thursday the team announced he was out. Horford practiced on Friday, and felt fine. It won't be decided until after the teams morning shootaround whether or not he'll suit up.

We're guessing he will. If the fourth ranked Gators are going to stop Greg Oden, they're going to need all the help they can get down in the post. He's expected to team up with Joakim Noah against Oden.

While the Ohio State/Florida matchup is the only marquee matchup of the day, Bob Knight is also looking to break Dean Smith's all time wins record when Texas Tech faces Bucknell. (ESPN2-4:30PM Est.)

We're going to go out on a limb and say that the General's probably gonna get that win today.