XBoxing in the NBA

After the Lakers-Wizards game earlier this week, Ron Artest said that Wizards center, Javale McGee "could be a really good player. I think he got to go to school a little bit more. He's got to work on that IQ a little bit. He got to watch more tape. I don't think he watches tape. I think he plays video games. I do." Based on no evidence, DBSF has a suspicion that the two greatest impediments to most NBA players' success are pot and XBOX (or playstation or any other video game system, although DBSF doubts that Sebastian Telfair goes 36-straight hours on massive multi-player computer RPGs, like World of Warcraft on-line).



You might think that in the NBA video games are a harmless distraction, or an opportunity to entertain the under-agers, who can't hit the clubs on road trips. But, consider this--do you honestly think, ever--literally ever--that Michael Jordan or, say, Hakeem Olajuwon or Charles Barkley ever touched a video game? Jordan had video games named after him and DBSF doubts he even opened the complimentary overnighted UPS package of 60 copies of Michael Jordan: Chaos in the Windy City. You think Olujawon ever put in an Altered Beasts or Bad Dudes session? No, those guys balled, partied until 5 in the morning (okay maybe not Olajuwon), and woke up at 7am to go right back at it. They were the brat pack; but, athletic.

Now you have like Daniel Gibson and DeMar DeRozan creating NBA Live 2011 Daniel Gibsons and DeMar DeRozans that are 7'10", 600lbs, 100 speed, 100 agility, 100 shooting, etc. and scoring 100 points and grabbing 80 rebounds a night and blowing out the competition en route to a 15th consecutive championship for the Raptors. Heck, Nick Young thinks that because he dropped 45 with himself on Live against the Heat at difficulty: rookie he's ready for the Celtics. There in lies the problem.



But, DBSF got to thinking--is there really a positive relationship between XBoxing/ pot smoking and losing? What's the one team that you can almost unequivocally say has no gamers or smokers? The Spurs--a perennial NBA power, and the team with the best record in the NBA. All DBSF is saying is that you know if Greg Popovich walks into one of his player's houses and sees two 72" flat screens with octopus-like tentacles of wires leading to Playstations and such, or if he goes through his players' cupboards and sees an absurd amount of cereal, ice cream, garlic and honey flavored chips, or any evidence of a disproportionate amount of children's snacks for a grown man then that player will be a Timberwolve before he can say "a draft pick to be determined later".