My 200 favorite things in the NBA: 1-25

In today's marathon DDL, I made an off-hand reference to my 198th favorite thing in the NBA - Stan Van Gundy's sarcastic responses to almost any question that an unfortunate sideline reporter is tasked with asking. This, of course, caused others to question what my other favorite things were, so I thought I'd make a list. Here's 1-25.


 1. DDL.  Enough said, really, but it makes watching the NBA even more entertaining.
 2. Steve Nash.  I am a homer, after all.
 3. Michael Jordan.
 4. Bloggers.  More specifically, the quality information that the NBA bloggers bring to the table. There are a ton of different voices and different perspectives, and each enlightens me to a new statistic or way of viewing basketball that I didn't see before.
 5. The 1992-93 NBA Finals, Game 6.  It was heartbreaking as an 8 year old NBA fan, but that emotion got me addicted to the league.

                                                Image courtesy of Bleacher Report

Oh, Paxson. You broke my heart.

 6. Twitter.  Being able to discuss the NBA in real time is amazing.

 7. The Phoenix gorilla.

 8. Donald Sterling.  He reminds me that pure evil exists in this world.

 9. Jordan Farmar dribbling.  Farmar fly? No, he fall.

10. Chris Webber.  Dude is one of the best analysts in the NBA. Seeing he and Kevin McHale tucked away on the NBA channel makes me sad.

11. LeBron James.  He's an amazing ball player and he's caused interest in my favorite sport to sky-rocket. I just wish he'd stop backpedaling.

12. JR Smith flexing when down double-digits.

13. Clippers fans.  Please, please take Los Angeles away from the Lakers. I cannot stand those stupid little flags that start flying in LA when May rolls around.

Image Courtesy of the Association

Knock it off, Kobe.

14. Blake Griffin.

15. ShamSports' Criminals Page.  Seriously, look at all those arrests!

16. Alvin Gentry.  I feel like Mr. Gentry is a great coach who was thrust into a really tough position. On the other hand, it can be tough to defend the man when he's jerking around his rotations.

17. Photoshop.

18. JJ Redick.  Didn't like the man in college, but I like that he proved that a player can have a place in the NBA if he fills a niche really, really well.

19. Tim Duncan.  If you don't like fundamentals, that's your problem.

20. Rasheed Wallace leaving Robert Horry wide open. Dude has crazy basketball IQ - or so everyone says - which just goes to show you that anyone can make mistakes that cost his team a championship.

21. HoopData's Motion Charts.  Easily one of the best ways to visualize NBA data.

22. The fact that one of my favorite bloggers lives in Israel.

23. Al Harrington.  I hadn't heard a reference to "Dinosaurs" in years - until I started hanging out in DDL.

24. Boshasaurus Rex.

25. FINGA GUNZ.