THE DREAM LEAGUE
Asian American / Open Basketball Leagues
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2010 Winter/Spring AAA (NYC) |
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The Chip Carey AAA Breakdown - Week 7 | |
| Is it me or has this season just smoked on by? What used to be marathon seasons seems like it was condensed all into a short stretch of time this season. What used to NBA in length (seriously, last season in total stretched over 5 months) is now NBA in feel in terms of teams having to play a more rigorous schedule, sometimes back to back if not two in one week. I guess that’s what not having an NL division will do for ya. And as how you or I feel about this, I think the jury’s still out. I honestly don’t know how I feel about it. I’m sad there’s no NL and yet I’m happy cause now teams really get put to the test as they have to be in tip top shape constantly. When you have more games more regularly, there is no room for lazing away the days. This partially explains why there are no undefeated teams this season now. For awhile, we had a gaggle of 5-0 teams atop the Bangkok Conference, but today, everyone’s got a black eye. Last week, TSIVOS lost their first game of the season to Team Nyce and then the Black Mambas dropped their first to the Gritty Committee. It all catches up to you. In such a shortened, fast and frantic season, it’s impossible to not get knocked around at one point or another. Think about this in terms of when you used to play Buns Up on the playground at school. With so many kids engaged in one game, day after day, it was impossible, no matter how good you were, to not at one point have to be the guy up at the wall taking shots to your rear. It was just the law of averages. So, what I’m saying is, that while I miss the NL and all its glory, I’m really diggin’ the apparent parity this season in the AAA. I mean, honestly, generally, at this point, we can kind of guess who’s going to be there in the end. At least 2 or 3 teams who should make the finals. And we are right about 85% of the time. This season, I honestly couldn’t tell you who the final 2-3 teams will be, much less 4-5. Even if I took my educated guesses, at best I’d likely be only 35% correct in the end. I don’t know where I pulled that wicked math from, but just take a look at what we’re looking at here as we head into the final week and a half of the regular season: TSIVOS, the Black Mambas, Team Nyce, BearBall, and the Gritty are all legitimate contenders to win this season. If you had to bet against any of them, would you? TSIVOS – the defending champs. They’ve been there and done that. Are you going to go against the Lakers this season even though they look a little older and susceptible? Black Mambas – Mark Lee and Ian Yu are both former AAA MVPs. Nyce – Obliterated TSIVOS this week and so long as Steve Hong shows, they should always win. BearBall – 5 words: Kash Miah, Danny/Mike Chin. It’s a new regime in the DL and its called the KMD. This is the highest scoring team in the division. Call them the LMU of today. Gritty – They’re really rounding into form. After pounding Nyce, they’re on a 4-game winning streak and Ken Van is just getting healthy. Okay, and I haven’t even talked about the Villains, who although will not have double-e, have T as in Tony Hu. Is he capable of carrying this team on his broad shoulders all the way? Do I need to answer that? Could United East and Broken Chairs get hot behind Tommy Zheng and James Choi? You guys ever hear of the Danny Manning Kansas story? About the only thing I can say with confidence in looking ahead is that based on the way New Blood, the Good News Bears, Thelonious Dunk, and FirstTrade have played this season, my educated guess tells me they probably won’t be there in the end. I’m 65% certain of that. But maybe New Blood starts having some fun, maybe Dave Wang shows up suddenly, maybe FirsTrade builds off of their win against Dunk, maybe the Thomas Brothers revert back to that season many years ago they took an AL And None team to the title. Maybe, maybe. Maybe, this is why I love this game. |