No Regard Previews: Calm Go The Wild Seas

One Game We Will Definitely Watch Tonight: Chicago Bulls vs. Miami Heat


While Dwyane Wade is doing his best John Kerry impersonation regarding if ballers should get paid to represent their countries in the Olympics, the Bulls and the Heatles prepare for a Titantic clash between two Eastern Conference favorites.

With the Heat trailing the Bulls by three games, the result of tonight's game should have serious implications on which side ultimately nabs the top seed. With Derrick Rose still hobbled and more than likely to continue his stint wearing a suit on the sideline, the Bulls will continue to look for Hot Deng, who has been hotter than hot all season long, for offensive production. They'll also need contributions from Carlos "I spray-paint my head," Boozer and Rip Hamilton.

As for the Heatles, recently transformed starter Ronny Turiaf will play a crucial role in Miami's pursuit to slow Chicago's superior rebounding. I was tickled to find out he was on the squad the other night. The Frenchman really rounds out the supporting cast of characters that make up this Heat roster. It includes some classic NBA employees and No Regard all-time faves: the ever-endearing Super Nintendo Chalmers, Shane "Clean-cut" Battier, Coach Erik and Chris Bosh. (If you only click one link today, please, please, please make it the Bosh one.) Pat Riley really has brought together a wonky group. Well done, Pat Riley.

As always, the key to stopping Miami is slowing down their transition game, controlling the clock and forcing LeBron and Wade into half court sets—which they still haven't seemed to figure out after almost two seasons worth of trying. Here's a hint: Give the ball to King James and everyone else get out of the way and try to get offensive boards. Outside of the super-intriguing Turiaf/Noah battle, it should be interesting to see how Miami attempts to handle Hot Deng. LeBron, Wade, Battier, or play a "Box and 1" on Kyle Korver when he checks in.

While the Celtics are playing the best ball of anyone in the East right now this is still a potential Eastern Conference finals preview, so start popping that popcorn (which, apparently, is full of antioxidants these days, who knew?) and enjoy another episode of the LeBron James featuring Dwayne Wade vs. the Chicago Bulls show.

One Game We Won't Watch Tonight: Golden State Warriors vs. Dallas Mavericks

Two individuals, who you might remember from their time dabbling in No Regard had a Facebook exchange about the Dallas Mavericks a few months back. Mugsy2Manute made this status one fateful afternoon:

"Dallas Mavericks = Most unimpressive reigning champs of all time."

Here's is (resident MFFL) Endless Pat's response:

*Warning, explicit.*

"Listen you feckless snob - there's a lot of shit going on this season, not the least of which is an aging championship team falling behind the curve of dealing with this schedule. No one is more frustrated than me with their performance, but your smug, low-hanging-fruit-pickery, is not accomplishing much but making you look like a pair of shorn balls. I'd also like to take this opportunity to point out that one of our teams is paying Tyson Chandler Dirk money and the other is paying it to well, Dirk."

Just thought everyone who reads this website should know that this dialogue took place.

Who'd You Get?!: Don Nelson, Fleer (1991)

We at No Regard used to collect basketball cards. Convincing a parent to shuttle us and our friends to the local collector's shop was a consistently important victory. When we found out KMart was selling entire boxes for $20, we almost wore out our bike tires pedaling back and forth.

Now we've unearthed the cache, and the results are stunning. We've been reminded that players named Dino Radja and Wesley Person briefly and forcefully carved out steady roles for themselves in the league. We've been straight tickled by the goofy casual pics. And we've been touched and inspired by the relentless optimism of the copywriters. We hope you enjoy this odd time capsule, a Utopian angle from which to view the league, where everyone is the next somebody and context is pointless.

 Back of the card after the jump.

No Regard Mixtape: Jeremy Lin

On February whatever, against the Nets, Jeremy Lin took the red pill and escaped from the 2010 Summer League YouTube highlight reel that had imprisoned him for the past 18 months. In his first two weeks of running the Knicks squad, he played event basketball. He birthed cults, slayed dragons, sold organic radishes at farmer’s markets, won a bunch of games… and became a bit of a crush around the No Regard water-cooler.

We've had our eye on him for a minute now, but like you, we didn’t really know. We didn’t know that he had enough granite and grace in him to twerk his way to the hoop, almost at will, and take or avoid contact as he sees fit. We didn’t know that he could unpack defensive schemes and pry open passing lanes like a literature grad student dismantling Toni Morrison novels. We didn’t know he had a jump shot sturdy enough to keep defenses honest, preventing him from developing the type of agoraphobia that plagues Rondo. We didn’t know he had the bravado of Sam Cassell, tempered by a humble devotion to Christianity and D’Antoni’s system (RIP). Simply put, we’ve learned a lot about the guy.

And we keep learning. With D'Antoni's departure, Melo's return to whatever angry fans were clamoring him to return to, and gravity's insistence, Lin fell back down to walk among the other peasant point guards of the league. It's crystal clear that he was dropped into the perfect confluence of events and that this ready-to-cook goulash—Amar'e and Melo's absence, a string of easy opponents, D'Antoni's point guard-serenading system—was more responsible for his initial success than many are willing to admit. But hasn’t fate been dictating love for years? Haven’t the cosmos controlled how ardor manifests since day one?

Lin may be done for the season, but we’re far from losing our interest. Attraction is fueled in part by mystery, and there are still myriad unanswered questions about Lin. Primarily: Now that the original wave of hype and hashtags has crested, what kind of player is going to wash up on the beach? Who is Jeremy Lin? Is he Flip Murray? Is he Steve Nash? Is he Ramon Sessions? Is he Mitch Richmond? Is he Jimmy Ray?

At this moment, we have no idea. And that's why we're so enamored. And that's why we made this mixtape for the guy. We just want to get to know him better.

A Rebel King with a Cause

In an election year during which the incumbent uses his basketball fandom to gain "everyman" status, it's hard not to think about politics with every pass of the ball, every shot through the hoop, every board ripped down from the glass. Sports are a part of our national fabric as much as, if not more than, debates, primaries, and straw polls.

Several weeks ago, I was pointed to an article about Harrison Barnes in The Atlantic titled "Moneyballer." It was sent by a friend, arguing—incorrectly, if you ask me—against college basketball players being paid, using Barnes' self-branding strategy as an example of how colleges offer enough opportunity already. One nod to Barnes' generally infuriating self-branding decisions particularly got my goat. You've probably heard others complain about it:

Although he founded a Bible-study group in high school and paid particularly close attention when he met Barack Obama before a game aboard a U.S. aircraft carrier earlier this season, he’s reluctant to discuss either experience. “Anytime you want to get into religious or political views,” he said, choosing his words carefully, “that can instantly polarize people.” (In this he seems also to be following in the footsteps of Jordan, who, when asked why he wouldn’t endorse Harvey Gantt in a Senate race against Jesse Helms two decades ago, reportedly answered, “Republicans buy sneakers, too.”)

I railed against Barnes for days, cursed the evilness of MJ's legacy, and lamented the lack of personalized, political passion in the world of athletics—at least from the most meaningful members of that world. But a week and a half ago, a link to a photo you've probably seen by now showed up on my timeline and made me realize that, just maybe, there's been a one-man rebellion growing right under our noses.

Comparing Williamses to Geralds

The 2011-2012 Nets have been defined by two distinct eras. The first: "Williams to the Fourth Power." The second: "Gerald Squared." The former, aptly named because during that period, the team dressed four players with the last name Williams (Shawne, Deron, Sheldon, and Jordan). The latter—and current—version of the Nets is also aptly named (by me) because the team dresses two players with the first name Gerald (Green and Wallace).

In doing a brief, but thorough, statistical analysis, it's clear that these eras define two completely different teams. There's no arguing that New Jersey Net success this season has been wholly dependent on if their game-day program listed four players with the last name Williams or two players with the first name Gerald.

Who'd You Get?!: Vin Baker, Upper Deck (1997)

We at No Regard used to collect basketball cards. Convincing a parent to shuttle us and our friends to the local collector's shop was a consistently important victory. When we found out KMart was selling entire boxes for $20, we almost wore out our bike tires pedaling back and forth.

Now we've unearthed the cache, and the results are stunning. We've been reminded that players named Dino Radja and Wesley Person briefly and forcefully carved out steady roles for themselves in the league. We've been straight tickled by the goofy casual pics. And we've been touched and inspired by the relentless optimism of the copywriters. We hope you enjoy this odd time capsule, a Utopian angle from which to view the league, where everyone is the next somebody and context is pointless.

 Back of the card after the jump.

Welcome Back, T-Will!

Kudos to the Sacramento Kings for signing Terrence Williams, to a 10-day contract. Simply put, this is a massive post-trade deadline splash in the NBA.

When we last saw Terrence (sorry, we zone out sometimes), he was starring in a YouTube video, eloquently taking us through the public transit commute from New York City to Newark in the hopes of coercing fans to check out a Nets game. His performance is flawless and it's one of the best movies of all time. (Take that, Citizen Kane.)

On the court, the Kings can expect dynamism from this athletic forward. Williams averaged 4.5 ppg (.351 FG%, .421 3PT%, .500 FT%), 2.3 rpg, 0.8 apg and 15.1 mpg in his 12 appearances for the Houston Rockets this season before their GM made a horrendous decision, cutting the still-budding superstar. For his career, T-Will has lit it up for 7.4 points a night—which probably equates to a very impressive per-36-minute average. (We're not going to waste our time to checking on this, because you have access to Basketball-Reference.com also, ya know?)

Maybe we didn't know you were gone, but the point is we missed you, Terrence. Don't ever leave us again. 

NBA Middle Names: Derek Fisher

We at No Regard spend a lot of time in our NBA knitting circles trying to figure out the human side of these players. Whether it's musing about their commutes to work, how much "Call of Duty" they play, or what their favorite snack food is, we like to remind ourselves that NBA players are nothing more than young men with enviable jobs. What better way to humanize our heroes than look up their middle names?

Derek Lamar Fisher