The truth about jeremy Bonderman

As you all know, long time Tiger jeremy Bonderman is no longer with theTigers, and it looks like he will be retiring from the majors.  Always has and always will be my favorite player for many reasons as I will explain in this blog. I believe he's been wrongfully fogotten and unfairly treated these last 6 months in the papers, radio, or at your local barber shop.  you can't always look at a players stats to judge a person's career.  I will be taking a deeper look into the career of Jeremy Bonderman and evaluate his stats.

Year 1 2003 (20 years old) Tigers record 43-119
6-19 record 5.56 ERA 1.55 WHIP 108Ks

This was the same year the Detroit Tigers came one game away from breaking the record for having the worst record in MLB history.  His 6-19 record is decieving considering the team only won 43 games.  While most 20 year old pitchers are in the minors at his age, the tigers decided he was their best option and wore out his arm for a full MLB season

Year 2 2004  Tigers record 72-90

 11-13 4.89 ERA 1.31 WHIP 168 Ks

Improved in every category from his rookie year and started showing signs of being a future ace

Year 3 2005 Tigers record 71-91

14-13 4.57 ERA 1.35 WHIP 145 K's

Kept improving while lowering his ERA and improving his win total

Year 4 2006 Tigers record 95-67

14-8 4.08 ERA 1.30 WHIP 202Ks

Playof stats 3.18 ERA 1.18 WHIP

Put it all together, while helping getting the Detroit Tigers back to the world series for the first time since the 80's.  Was a monster in the playoffs, pitching 6 perfect innings against the Yankees and also played great in his 2 other playof starts. Also, if you take out his1st inning stats, he was probably the top pitcher in all of baseball.

Year 5 2007 Tigers record 88-74

Before all star break
9-1 3.41 ERA

After starting the year off slow, he had his best numbers of his career heading into the all-star break. He got snubbed by his own coach ( for reasons that I will never understand) on the all star roster.  Finished second in fan voting for the last spot but deserved it regardless.  He played through an obvious injury to his shoulder after the all star break and his numbers dipped.

Had shoulder surgery in the offseason

Year 6 2008 3-4 4.29 ERA 1.56 WHIP

Had problems managing his hurt shoulder and hardly ever played in 2008, later diagnosed with a blood clot in his throwing arm

Year 7 2009 DID NOT PLAY

Year 8 2010 8-10 5.53 ERA 1.44 WHIP 112 K's

Not saying it was a good year, but after coming off a blood clot and other injuries to his elbow and shoulder, it wasn't the worst year.  A respectable 8-10 record and a decent amount of strikeouts showed promise in his future.

Did he live up to the hype of being Detroit's future ace, NO.  Was it because the talent wasn't their, NO.  Was he on his way to becoming a future star, YES.  Jeremy Bonderman was called up to the majors 2 years too early because the Tigers had such a horrible rotation.  His arm wore out from throwing slider after slider (sliders do the most damage to your arm) when he was just a 19 and 20 year old kid.  From 2004 until 2007 he improved in every single stat, until injuries brought his career to a halt. 

Jeremy Bonderman once had the BEST slider in all of baseball, the pitch Rod Allen liked to call Mr. Snappy.  He came to the majors as an 18 year old kid and improved in every stat every year of his career until a freak injury (blood clot) and other injuries brought his career to an end.  A strikeout master and a guy Curt Shilling (future hall of famer) once said "he would start a team with".  Bonderman was a player that i can promise you wasn't forced to retire, but did it because he could no longer pitch at the elite level he was accustomed to.  A simple guy (drove a F-150) who already made millions (around 50-6-million) and no longer had the motivation to just be "average". It's a shame the Tigers showed no interest in a guy that gave everything he had each and every time he went out on the mound.  He openly admitted he would come back for close to nothing, since he believed he owed the Tigers franchise that much.  I'm ashamed in not only Drombowski, but also Mike Illitch for not at least holding a minor league opening for a big piece in rebuilding the Detroit Tigers back to the world series in 2006.  I will always rock my Bonderman jersey whenever I decide to go to comerica park!

YOU WILL BE MISSED BONDO!

Related articles

• Tigers passing on Jeremy Bonderman (thebaseballblog10.wordpress.com)

The ten most outrageous rules in all of sports!

There is NO such thing as a perfect person, a perfect car, perfect life,and the same can be said about sports.  Every sport could improve and every sport makes it's share of mistakes.  Most rules are made to keep the fans interested, or for the safety of the game, but a lot of them just don't make any sense.

10. Offsides in soccer
Whats wrong with it: It's a constant imaginary line that the refs have to keep an eye on (which they continously make the wrong calls) that slows down and ruins the game of soccer.  It's the reason why the average score of a soccer game is usually 1-0 or even 0-0.  Whenever teams defense are trying to trap you to go offsides you know somethings wrong.
How to fix it: Make a normal offsides line like they have in hockey so defenders that are overmatched and too slow can't play tricks and games to get an advantage.  If you can switch this rule, games will be more high scoring, which also means more fans (especially in the USA)

9. NFL's limit to the amount of challenges that you're allowed per game

What's wrong with it: Here is how the rules are stated... Each team gets 2 challenges and only allowed a 3rd challenge if they were successful with the 2 previous challenges.  This doesn't happen too often but WHY does a team get punished if a NFL referee makes more then 3 mistakes in a game.  Even if you were wrong on your first 2 challenges, why would you have the challenge option and let a ref ruin a game.  It's not the coach's fault the 84 year old upstairs can't see the TV and thought you should challenge a couple calls by mistake.

How to Fix it: Either have every play reviewable by the refs (how the NCAA does it) or give as many challenges as the team needs as long as they have timeouts available (since you lose a timeout anyways when your wrong)

8. Being able to go for Konkan in the 7th game of a series

What's wrong with it: You could win the first 6 games of the series and have a 500 pt lead. For some reason in the 7th game your opponent still has a chance if it can get "Konkan".  Somehow, the opponent is lucky enough to have 2 jokers and gets the unthinkable Konkan against you and wins the whole series, its bullshit if you ask me.

7.  Everything about baseballs fields

What's wrong with it: Red Sox right field fence is only 302 feet, while wrigley field is 355 feet down the right fieldline.  I've seen 430 feet to center field, and I've seen 390 feet to center field.  Some teams have hills in the outfield and some teams have a bullpen in the foul ball area.  In a league where stats means more then anything, we will never know who is the real home run king every year.  Miguel Cabreras 38 homeruns at comerica park would probably be 45 homeruns at Yankee stadium.  What if the celtics had a shorter 3 pt line or how about if the lions only used a 90 yard field.  It makes no sense to me why each team doesn't have the same exact field.

6. College fotball rules vs. the NFL rules.

What's wrong with it: I understand they try making it easier on college kids then NFL pros so I understand that you only need one foot inbounds for a catch.  What I don't understand is why they make it harder to make a field goal in college than the pros.  How does that make sense? Also, why in the world are you down by contact???? I can't wait until a player is all alone in the national championship game and a player from the opposing bench trips him and the refs wont know what to do because he can't just get up and walk into the endzone 
How to fix it: make the 2 sports rules more similar.  Change the field goal in college and PLEASE change the down by contact rule.

5.  MLB all star game determines home field advantage for the World Series

What's wrong with it: Sorry, but if you can't figure what's wrong with this one you shouldn't be watching sports and you have an IQ equivalent to Alan from the hangover.  This was all to bring in more money, just like when they encouraged HGH/steroids while juicing the baseballs to bring MLB's fans back

4. College Basketballs 3 pt line

What's wrong with it: It's too short, it changes the game of basketball.  Half the shots taken in a college game are usually 3 pointers.  If a team has a bad shooting game from outside the arc, 90 percent of the time that team loses.  To be honest, anytime 5 white boys who run 5.2 second 40 yard dashes and have 20 inch verticals can beat 5 athletic black guys, you know something has to be wrong.

Image via WikipediaHow to fix it: Move the college line back a foot or two, get these players ready for the pros and allow College teams to run a normal offense.  Kevin Garnett can't make an NBA 3 pointer, but his favorite shot (an 18 -19 footer) that he could make with his eyes closed would be a college 3 pointer

3. First round of MLB's playoffs

What's wrong with it: They play 162 regular season games! I repeat, they play 162 regular season games!  Why in the world is the first round only best of 5!  You can have 1 or2 bad games in the playoffs and boom, your 100 win season means nothing.  I just don't understand how you need 5 pitchers to be good in the regular season but only need 2 good pitchers whenthe playoffs start. There should be no days off and all 5 pitchers shouldbe used. How does it make sense that after162 games it can all be over after just 3?

How to fix it: make every round in baseball best of 15

2. Home court/field advantage in the NBA, NHL, and MLB

What's wrong with it: Example, in 2006 Dallas had a record of 67-15, had the number one seed in the west and played the #8 seeded Warriors who had a 42-40 record.  When you do the math you can see that Dallas had a 25 game advantage over Golden State in the regular season. For some reason, being better then the other team by 25 games reward is one extra home playoff game (most of the time ZERO).  Like what happened in 2006, 90 percent of the time when an underdog wins a series they win it in game 6.  When that does happen, each team gets an equal 3 home games.  So basically, having a 25 game lead throughout the whole season means pretty much nothing.  All the stats will show you that the team with home court advantage wins the series 75 percent of the time, but be smart and figure out the main reason for that is because the home team is the better team.

How to fix it: give the 1 seed 5 home games, to the 8 seeds 2 games, or re-arrange how the series goes with home games (maybe 3-2-1-1).

1. NBA's Jump Ball

Whats wrong with it: I have nothing against the opening tip-off as each team gets to pick it's most athletic player tojump with the other teams big man.  Let's imagine a scenario, Steve Nash hustles  his ass off and dives for a loose ball with Orlando's Dwight Howard and they both end up with the ball.  Steve nash's coach and teammates and even the ref applaud Nash for his hard work and here is how he gets rewarded...  We are going to throw the ball up 12 feet in the air but only you (5'11,18 inch vertical) and Dwight Howard (7'2, can dunk on a 12 foot rim) have a chance to jump for it.  Why would Nash or any other small player ever even fight for a ball.  Remember when your lil 4 year old brother wanted something from you, so you put it in your hand and made him try and jump high enough to get it from you.  Well that's what it looks like when Nash and Howard are involved in a jump ball, he can't even jump high enough to give Dwight Howard a high five

How to fix it: Simple, you get to pick who does the jumpball from the 5 players on the court at the time.  What would really get the fans interested is if you play like in street ball, and shoot for ball

And there we have it, the ten most ridiculous rules in all of sports, if you have any rules of your own, feel free to comment.

Just missed the cut: Baseball having 6 teams in the NL central and only 4 teams in the AL west. 

The Rise and Fall of the Detroit Pistons

I know I speak for all piston fans when I say I miss the days of yelling "DETROIT BASKETBALL" at the top of my lungs at the Palace.  I miss seeing the "detroits goin to work" commercials.  Hearing "yes sirrr" everytime Rip comes around a screen and swishes a mid range shot.  The bell sound everytime Big Ben made a defensive stop.  Or everytime Mr Big shot came through in the clutch.  I miss the atmosphere of 20,000 plus fans every single night (259 straight sellouts).  The Wallace brothers patrolling the paint, when OUR team used to be built around Defense.  Six straight conference championships, 2 straight NBA final appearances, 1 championship, and the respect of the rest of the NBA.  So how could a dynasty rise and fall so fast in a sport where teams stay on top for many years...

How Detroit Piston Dynasty started...


The Detroit pistons were a team that was all about effort.  One thing we knew forsure of each and every time we turned a pistons game on was that each and every player would leave it all out on the line whether we were playing the Los Angeles Lakers or the Clippers.  This team all got started by luck, a throw in in the Grant Hill trade.  Ben Wallace was one of those "players to be named later" you hear about in baseball.  Someone you just throw in to make the money work out.  He couldn't score, airballed free throws, an undersized center without any offensive skills whatsoever.  Little did the orlando Magic or even Joe Dumars know, Ben Wallace changed the Detroit Pistons from a lottery team to a championship contender for the next decade.  He never learned how to play offense or anything that has to do with scoring (other then an occasional put back dunk) . But What Ben Wallace did was bring back what the Detroit pistons used to be during the bad boy era.  He demanded respect, controlled the paint, and put fear in any player that wanted to drive to the basket.  Wallace became the new face of the franchise, and with little help (stackhouse, williamson, Joe Smith etc) got the pistons back into the playoffs.
Joe Dumars knew that Ben Wallace was a starting piece to a championship caliber team and started making some moves.  The team flip-flopped there record from 2001 (30-52) to 2002 (52-30) and Dumars knew a couple more pieces would take this team to the next level.  He traded Jerry Stackhouse to the Washington Wizards for Richard Hamilton and signed an up and coming PG that just played his best playoff series for the Timberwolves, Chauncey Billups.  He also had his best draft and picked up two key pieces in Tayshaun Prince and mehmet Okur.  They were starting to be known as a powerhouse in the NBA, a team built on defense and hard work, but couldn't get over the hump in the playoffs when every other team also turned their switch on.
Before the 2003 season, Coach Rick Carlisle was fired and he brought in one of the most respected coaches in all of sports Larry Brown.  Pistons were coasting through the NBA season while NBA bad boy Rasheed Wallace was wearing out his welcome in portland.  The man we all know as "sheed" was being thrown around during the trade deadline for whoever was crazy enough to take on his personality.  Dumars saw he had a veteran team, his coach Larry Brown is from Rasheeds alma matter North Carolina, and took a chance and traded for the highly talented, nuisance Rasheed Wallace.  Rasheed meshed in perfectly with the Pistons.  His high basketball IQ made the Pistons an even better defensive team, and now they finally had a low post big man they were always missing.
The playoffs started and the Pistons cruised passed the Milwaukee Bucks in the first round.  Had a couple bumps against the Pacers but also advanced to the 3rd round against the 2 time defending East champion New jersey Nets.  Dominated a game 7 holding Jason Kidd to 0 Field Goals and made it to the NBA finals for the first time since the Bad Boy era.  Pistons were at least a 5-1 underdog going into the finals against superstars Shaquille O'neal, Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers.  Detroit showed that team chemistry beats talent, and that 5 good players will always beat 2 superstars.  Detroit when on to win the 2004 championship in what some people call a 5 game sweep!  soon there after Kobe and Shaq broke up, Pistons nucleus stayed together and they were ready for another run at the championship
Pistons finally earned the respect by the national media and were favored to win the east in 2005.  They made it right back to the NBA finals and were a Robert horry 3 pointer away from winning back to back championships... and this is when it all started to SLOWLY crumble

Fall of the Detroit Pistons
Larry Brown gave up on the team, and Joe D turned to offensive minded Flip Saunders to be the new coach. It worked out in the regular season as the Pistons finsihed with 64 wins and atop the eastern conference.  Problems started in the playoffs as Lebron james almost pulled off a big upset in round 2 of the playoffs.  Pistons made it back to the conference finals, but weren't enough for the Miami Heat and lost in the conference finals.
Ben Wallace openly criticized Flip Saunders lack of installing the defense that the Pistons were accustomed to and ended up leaving for the Chicago Bulls.  Although this was a good move financially for the Pistons (Ben Wallace was a declining veteran and received a max contract from the Bulls), we lost the respect and the high energy of our defensive leader.  Ben was replaced by many different centers, and Antonio Mcdysse became the closer for the pistons in close games.
The Pistons stuck with the same nucleus and gave it another run in 2007.  Another good regular season for the pistons, and all the problems seemed to go away.  Pistons made the conference finals again and met Lebron James Cleveland Cavaliers.  Evenly matched series, but in game 6 with Mcdysse ejected, the Pistons didn't have enough big men to stop Lebron James from doing whatever he wanted in the paint and the pistons lost again in the conference finals.
Talks of splitting up the nucleus started to come but decided to give it one more chance in the 2008 season.  The same season Boston came out with their new "Big 3".  No one thought Boston would have good enough chemistry to win the east and the Pistons were still the favorites.  Pistons made it to the conference finals for a 6th straight year but came up short again!  Flip Saunders was fired shortly after, and talks of splitting up the nucleus became more and more promising.


How it all fell apart
The Detroit Pistons were still a powerhouse team with 3 of there main guys still in there prime.  Winners of countless central division titles, 6 straight conference championships, highest attendance every year in the NBA, and were a player short of getting back to the championship.
So what happened...
1. The rise of Rodney Stuckey
Stuckey showed flashes of stardom when Chauncey Billups went down for a couple games in the playoffs.  What Dumars didn't know is the opponent knew little about him, and never cared to try and stop him in those 2 games.  It's like when a new QB (any rich Rod quarterback) has a couple good games, then they start looking at film on how to actually stop him, and that same qb becomes average at best.  Dumars was so caught up on Stuckey being the future, he traded his floor leader, his clutch 4th qtr player, Chauncey Billups to Denver for Allen iverson (uhhhh ohhhh).
2. Allen "cancer" Iverson coming to Detroit.  What Dumars thought was a way to save money and get a veteran with hunger to win a championship turned ugly fast.  you can play with one distraction (Sheed), but it NEVER works out when you put 2 distractions on one team (ask the cincinatti Bengals).  Iverson quickly started gambling every night (kicked out of 2 of the 3 main Detroit casinos), had many run ins with coach Curry, and before the end of the season he was kicked off the team.
3. Hiring of Flip Saunders, Michael Curry and john keuster.  It's hard enough to coach a team with a bunch of egos, but when you coach a team that already thinks they've got it all figured out, it's nearly impossible!  You CAN'T go from larry brown to Flip Saunders with the same veterans the pistons had.  Ben quickly called his offensive first coaching out and Sheed was calling his own plays out of timeouts.  Flip was followed by Michael Curry, a rookie coach.  Curry's only chance of suceeding was if every single veteran was either bought out or traded. Then came keuster who still has to deal with hamilton and Prince delaying the progress of Daye and monroe.
4. Signing RIP a day before he traded his butt buddy Chauncey Billups.  i've honestly seen Hamilton shed tears when watching Chauncey play in a nuggets jersey, he hasn't tried since.
5. Signing ben Gordon and charlie vilanueva to lucvrative contracts. I have never in my life seen a 6th and 7th man make more money then the whole sarting lineup, although i believe the whore owner we now have forced Dumars to make a couple signings so detroit would have a respectable record to make it easier to sell the team.
6. Drafting Darko over Carmello, no need to get into this, we all know what happened
7. Bill Davidson died (nothing Joe D could do about that)
SO WHAT HAPPENED...
The Pistons gave the Boston Celtics a tougher series in 2008 then the lakers did.  The lakers went out and picked up a couple final pieces, while Detroit dismantled there team.  Chauncey, Hamilton, and Prince were all in the prime of there respecatble careers while Sheed still had a few good years left.  A new veteran coach combined with a Tyson Chandler would've brought the Pistons right back to 2004.  Even if it didn't work, what's wrong with selling out your arena every night and losing in the conference finals?  It's much better then being the laughing stock of the league that we are today.  The Pistons only once lost to a team that they should've beat (Cleveland in 2007) and every other team they lost to ended up being the NBA champions.  Detroit is a big enough market to lure a free aganet, so please don't make that excuse up for joe D, as he hasn't done much to help the team
What Joe Dumars did as Pistons GM
1. Got lucky inheriting Ben Wallace as a throw in during the Grant hill trade
2. Traded Stackhouse for Hamilton (Jordan needed a veteran who can create his own shot)
3. signed Chauncey Billups. Before you think of this as an accomplishment, it took Dumars weeks to sign Billups over Jeff mcinnis, the same jeff mCinnis that was out of the NBA a year later (my 6 year old cousin Bigz at the time could've made that decision)
4. Drafted Tayshaun prince and Mehmet Okur (good job) but also drafted Rodney White (9th pick) Darko Milicic (2nd pick) Mateen Cleaves (14th pick).
5. Traded absolutely nothing and took a chance on Rasheed wallace that ended up working out.  Joe Dumars best move as GM of the Detroit pistons.  Way to go Joe D
6. Signed ben Gordon and Charlie Vilanueva to be our 6th and 7th men off the bench, i don't know how to explain these signings other then what I said earlier.  Even Dumars isn't dumb enough to make those decisions the year before the biggest free agency in NBA history.
7. Keeps the final 2 guys from our dynasty on the team instead of buying them out.  This makes it tough to see how daye, jerebko, stuckey are g oing to develop.  Tayshaun is a good player in his final year of his contract while Rip isn't allowed to play???????? Why havn't you traded prince and bought out hamiltons contract, it's not rocket science!

The Future...
Dear future owner of the Detroit Pistons whoever you may be...
Get rid of joe Dumars, get rid of John keuster.  Find a GM that will either keep our dynasty alive or start fresh, not neither one.  A GM that wouldn't miss out on a franchise player for a 17 year old from Serbia that hasn't proved anything. Stop drafting players that barely make the league weight limit (Daye, monroe, prince, White).  Stick with what's made Detroit Detroit in everything we do.  Strong hard working people that command respect, put fear in our opponent's eyes and know how to play as a team.

Best of luck to you,
Jobz (the next Bill Simmons)

True Value of Kobe Bryant vs. Lebron James

The definition of value: relative worth, merit, or importance

It's the main argument that has been going on for the last 2-3 years in the NBA.  It's the Manning vs. Brady argument of basketball.  Kobe (Brady) has had the perfect formula (coach, superstars, role players, experience) while Lebron was screwed with a team that just ended the longest losing streak in all of sports history a year after he left.  The only athlete I can compare his surrounding talent in his early years would be Dan Marino.  We might be able to settle this argument come June, now that Lebron has joined a team that compares to the other powerhouses of the NBA.  Just for fun and for the idiots that follow the NBA, let's go over Lebrons supporting cast last year vs. Kobe's supporting cast

Lebrons team
C: Shaquille O'neal (under achieved on the cavaliers, but there is a reason he has now been on 5 teams over the last 5 or 6 years, if he were on the lakers, he would be there 7th or 8th man)
PF: Antwan Jamison (One of those guys that puts up good numbers on bad teams, I can guarantee no team will even call the Cavs this year to try and trade for him, he would've been Lakers 7th man coming off the bench)
SF: Lebron
SG: Anthony Parker (WOULD NOT START ON ANY TEAM IN THE NBA OTHER THEN THE CAVS, he would not make the Lakers team)
PG: MO Williams (Another one of those guys that put up good Numbers for a bad team while he was on Milwaukee, Cleveland ended up overpaying for a guy that can shoot 3's, also a shoot first PG, and can play defense just as good as Eddie house, would probably start at PG, but Fisher would be the closer)
6th man: Anderson Verejao (solid role player, does all the dirty work, makes put backs, grabs rebounds and takes charges... oh and BTW he gets paid 11 million dollars a year, WAY TO GO DANNY FERRY)

Kobe's team
C: Andrew Bynum (When healthy is a top 5 true center in the NBA, played well against the Celtics with only one healthy knee
PF: Pau Gasol (offensively is the best power forward in the game, great in the low post, smart passer, good jumpshooter)
SF: Artest (still arguably the best one on one defender in the NBA, and for anyone that thinks he lost a step, tell me why he led his Rockets to a game 7 against this same Lakers team the year before)
SG: Kobe
PG: Derek Fisher (good 3 pt shooter, defender, flopper, clutch, and plays very physical... oh and did I mention he has 5 championships and is a potential hall of famer)
6th man: Lamar Odom (how could you be the second or third most important player on team USA and not start on your own team, hmmmmm, only the Los Angeles Lakers could manage that)

Anyone that used the "how many championships does Lebron have" argument, your IQ must be equal to Antonio Cromartie (and that's me being nice), because as Rudy Tomjanovic says "your only as good as the team around you".  If you look deeper into the value to there teams this season, Kobe Bryant is 5th on his star stutted team in +/- this season while Lebron is 1st in the whole league.  In case your wondering, plus minus is a stat that shows how many points your team wins or loses by, only when you are in the game.  Find me another superstar that is not 1st or 2nd on his team in +/- and I will be your slave for a month.

Value is determined by how much you mean to your respected teams.  If you take Kobe off of the Lakers they are still a playoff team... When we took out Lebron from the Cavs, they went from first to last, and lost about 38 out of 39 games (it started getting so high, I kept losing count of the exact number).  Kobe has been on the team with the most talent, the highest payroll, and the best coach for the last 3-4 years, and Lebron just found out how it feels to play with an all star on his same team.

I don't want to take anything away from Kobe, he takes full advantage of all the blessings he has had  throughout his whole career.  He has 5 championships (Lebron would have 9 if he played with shaq), only wins when his team is favored to win it all (true statement), has never beaten a team with more talent then his, or when he was the underdog (another fact), has as many or less game winners in the playoffs as he does championships (but everyone seems to call him clutch), but his drive to win is higher then every other players (whatever that means).

I'm not saying Lebron is better then Kobe, or Kobe is better then lebron... All I'm saying is we FINALLY get to end this argument this coming June.  If lebron can't get by the Celtics, then I will give the crown to the Black Mamba, and lose all my respect for the King. I will call Kobe the best player of this generation, by default of course.  There teams are finally about equal in talent, Kobe still has a year or 2 left in his prime, and if were lucky, we will see these 2 megastars go at it in June.  If everything works out we will find out who has more relative worth, merit, and importance to there team and to the league!

The Next Bill Simmons
Jobz (special thanks to Stefan Kallabat for getting me started)