Carnival of the NBA: Still I Rise

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Dat not good

The following things are just horrible:
1) Being a Michigan sports fan right now
2) Reggaeton music
3) Janice Soprano
4) Living in South Dakota
5) Having a job

For the second week in a row, I couldn't really update my joint last week because of #5 on the preceding list. There was too much work and too little time. Worse that leaving you, the readers, hung out to dry, I also left the NBA bloggers out there, soaking wet and flapping in the breeze. It's my turn to host the Carnival of the NBA, a regular stroll through the NBA blogosphere. The oldest-established, permanently floating NBA aggregation series on the internets.

The significance of the Carnival was again apparent as I watched the Knicks' kind of valiant effort to come back against the Bobcats fall short on Saturday night. In the fourth quarter, there was a fleeting five-minute period during which Steve Francis, Stephon Marbury, and Jalen Rose made Isiah Thomas seem as though he were only incompetent to a regular extent, not the biblical proportions he has otherwise sought to claim. The Knicks were sharing the ball, moving it inside and out, and attacking the Bobcat defense from nearly all points on the floor. Even a hater and sadly justified cynic like me couldn't help but drink the seductive nectar of hope: After a Steve Francis put-back dunk, I even channeled Hubie Brown, using the second-person perspective to think to myself, This is why you like having an athlete like Francis playing alongside a dangerous scorer like Marbury. You love the athleticism and the versatility.

During moments like those, the opportunity for typed, intermittent dialogue afforded by the blogosphere takes on additional value: it's nice to know that there are people who would want to challenge, corroborate, and/or expand such sentiments.

So come with me, now, as we take a look at where else one might regularly find admirable NBA analysis and passion.

An obvious place to start is True Hoop, the widely recognized, highly regarded source of many engaging, thoughtful NBA questions and topics for discussion. Proof? How about the Democrats and Republicans of the NBA? Or Henry's breakdown of whom he'd select for the Team USA roster?

Meanwhile, over at Celtics Blog, Jeff can't help but gush about his C's as they continue to compete and improve, led, of course, by a rejuvenated Paul Pierce.

NBA Source is getting all hypothetical on your ass, dropping science about conspiracies and taking the "What if?" approach to roster analysis.

Similar interest in the speculative can be found at Page 4 Hoop, a site where Anthony has been wondering about the future of the NBA, division by division.

Taking a quantitative approach in its search for an answer that satisfied a subjective question, the Yay Sports NBA blog wanted to know who the most hated player in the L is. The results? Read here...

Pondering other questions while taking the NBA blogosphere into the realm of multimedia thanks to its podcast series, Hoops Addict comes correct, even hitting you off with some NCAA coverage.

For all the talk of the Pistons as unbeatable and a sure thing to at least reach the NBA Finals, anyone paying attention can tell you that the presumptive champions haven't been playing their best ball since coming back from the all-star break. Motoring, of course, is one of the sites cataloguing all things Detroit, and this March 6th check in is a fine example.

Sticking with the team focus, Bucks Town is home of the originoo gun clappers and your source for everything you need to know about the Milwaukee Bucks.

And over at Blog-A-Bull, Matt, the chairman of this Carnival shit, sets his sights on the offseason and how GM John Paxson might proceed.

Raptors HQ gets all graderiffic.

And finally, Give Me the Rock: all kinds of NBA fandom and musings and knowledge.

That's all for now...

(P.S. Jones, get in on this Carnival)

(P.P.S. Where's Free Darko?)