1
The NBA evidently likes to compete against its own well being.
For years, Talking Points has asked that the NBA take off the first two full days of the NCAA Tournament, so all the basketball focus is on March Madness.
Well, it has not happened, and this year, with the squeezed schedule, the NBA wasn’t about to try it.
But the NBA did not have to make Thursday its trade deadline. It could have been three days earlier, or four days later. Instead, on one of the greatest days of college basketball, the NBA competes for coverage.
College basketball gives the NBA free marketing, making names of players before they turn pro. The least the NBA could do was give college basketball a day to celebrate on its own.
The NCAA Tournament is in Portland, but the biggest sports news in Portland is two trades and the firing of a coach. The NBA should have put a moratorium on major transactions until Monday.
2
Well, this is a terrible disorder to have if one is an NCAA Division I athlete.
Iowa State’s Royce White has generalized anxiety disorder, described as persistent, excessive, and unrealistic worry over everyday things.
Flying is one of those everyday things that drives him to, well, to drive rather than fly. While his team flew to the NCAA Tournament, he and his grandfather drove 611 miles.
White does fly when he has to, but prefers to stay grounded.
3
It makes you wonder.
Did the Blazers fire coach Nate McMillan, trade forward Gerald Wallace and center Marcus Camby simple to distract fans from their biggest move of the day?
They cut Greg Oden.
So, maybe it was forgone conclusion, given that Oden had undergone his 57th surgery since being drafted No. 1 overall in the 2007 draft (OK, exaggeration).
But the Greg Oden experiment is officially a flop and led indirectly to Thursday’s implosion.
