Five Bests from the Playoffs (thus far)

5. Portland Fans chanting "Lets Go Blazers" last night with 30 seconds to go and the Suns leading by 9 points.

4. Bango's Backflip. Who says a mascot doesn't have any effect on a game?


3. @LeBronsElbow

2. Tie: Durant blocking Kobe to add insult to injury in game 4 and the Irony behind the "Carmelo's People of Utah" ad campaign.

1. Dwyane Wade's 46 point outburst and subsequent yelling at his hand.

Bango the Buck, Et tu Bogut?

Just when Bango thought he was back on top with all the Jennings hype finally wearing off, Andrew Bogut had to go out and do this.

Bango's career is starting to resemble that of one Julius Caesar. Once on top of the world, then a tragic fall from grace ended by a "friendly" knife in the back. It would be one thing if the fans came up with this on their own but when a player subsidizes a coup d'etat like this, well that's just cold.

Then again, the guy bankrolling this operation might not be playing with a full deck.



After a little research, I don't think you have much to worry about Bango.

Long Weekend Roundup

Sacramento Kings Wins: 6, 7, 8

The plate of crow, and the cost of seats, is getting a bit outrageous.

Bango the Buck

Lucky for Bango, he doesn't have to go on road games. The young lefty looking to upstage the most exciting thing in Milwaukee does. Advantage: Bango.

Actual conversation had between Spike and Charlie T.

CTH: "Did you see Brandon Jennings?"

SW: "No, what happened?"

CTH: "Double nickel vs Golden State and an 8-3 record."

SW: "Who else have they played?"

CTH: quickly googling the Bucks schedule and seeing teams like Minnesota, Knicks, GS, Nettes, Bobcats, Grizz "Uh, nobody really. Some real tests coming up though...@Spurs, @NO, Orl."

SW: "Well there is your answer. Talk to me in about a week."

Anybody on the Jennings bandwagon knows how that stretch played out.

Jay Bilas All-Stars: Anthony Randolph

My fantasy team (which is leading my league with a 27-9 record, a 6 game cushion over the second place team and coming off a 9-0 week all thanks to taking D-Wade with the first overall pick) is in a dilemma. I log on today to calculate my lead over the rest of the league and I see a trade has been proposed to me. Derrick Rose (on my roster) for Anthony Randolph. Straight up. No filler, nothing. Just Rose for Randolph. Its an easy decision really, unless your league gets points for upside, second jumpability, length, and freakish athlete. You know what, I'm not so sure he even outmeasures Rose in most of those categories anyway. Sorry Chazzmichaelmichaels, The Adam Keefes are keeping Rose and his fantasy points. Good luck with those length points.

Weekend Roundup

Bango the Buck:
Scoring 55 points as a rookie is impressive, especially 8 games into the season. Brandon Jennings antics have just about upstaged Bango the Buck as the most exciting thing in Milwaukee, but doing it against the Warriors is about as impressive as this. I mean come on, he is using a trampoline.

Boston Celtics Countdown to 10 losses: 3
Mired in a two game losing skid to the formidable Hawks and Psycho T and the Pacers leaves RaSheed's prediction in doubt for the All-Star game let alone the entire season.

Sacramento Kings Wins: 5
Don't book that trip to Hawaii yet Spike, you might be using that money for courtside seats.

Atlanta Hawks - 'Nique or Keefe:
An 8-2 start with some really quality wins so far (POR, DEN, BOS) leaves us leaning 'Nique on this.

Bango the Buck

Before the start of the season we looked at every team in the league and tried to figure out what intrigued us. Milwaukee was difficult because there was nothing that intrigued us at all until we saw this. The mascot of the Milwaukee Bucks, Bango the Buck, seemed to have the most upside as far as intrigue for the season was concerned. And believe us, we consulted intrigue for the season on this one.

It has come to our attention that a newcomer, who shall remain nameless by request of a faithful reader who say "He hasn't done anything as exciting as get hit in the junk by a ball while standing on the rim", is trying to upstage Bango as the most exciting thing in Wisconsin this side of deep fried cheese curds. Bango, a faithful reader of TBC, is none to happy about fans not looking forward to t-shirt cannons, trampoline dunks, ferocious hand clapping, and (according to this) his signature pizza deliveries.

It looks like we'll have to keep closer tabs on the growing tension and potential one-up-manship going on in Wisco.

910 Conversation - Central Division

Chicago Bulls

Derrick Rose, fresh off his rookie season where he won rookie of the year and then took his game to another level in the playoffs, decided he needed to get back to his roots a little bit. So when the invitations came out for the Rose Family Reunion, he naturally thought it would be a good way to do just that. He loaded up the Bentley and headed out to the family farm in Iowa and luckily for you, through a family loophole, we happened to be there for the weekend and followed Derrick around while he caught up with family, got advice from distant relatives and most of all got in touch with his roots. Throughout the season we will drop small excerpts from various conversations had at the Rose Family Reunion.

Cleveland Cavaliers

If you don't know all that has gone on in Cleveland this off season and all that might go on in the future, I'm not sure why you have read this far. So with all the hype and expectation in Cleveland, we have teamed up with the biggest free agent of the summer of 2010 to give us an exclusive insight into the team and into his preparations for free agency. Thats right, all 7 foot 3 inches of Zydrunas Ilgauskus will be checking in from time to as a guest blogger here on The Black Converse. We couldn't be more excited.

Detroit Pistons

Tayshaun and Rip Hamilton remain all that is left from the D that was in Detroit. The hallmark of the 3 different Detroit championship teams was their defensive prowess. Even in the biggest stretch, Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva would never be the missing pieces that would bolster a team defense. So a blue collar team in a blue collar city abandons its blue collar roots. At least they aren't making an electric engine Camaro.
With little interest in how this season plays out for the Pistons, it reminded us here of another Detroit native; Kid Rock. Our level of caring for the Pistons this season is proportional to our level of caring what happens with Kid Rock. We believe the parallels between Kid Rock and the Detroit Pistons don't end there.

Indiana Pacers

Danny Granger will score a lot of points. The Pacers will play 5 white guys at one time. Nobody will think twice about the Pacers as a legitimate threat to make the playoffs. But they did draft Tyler Hansbrough, or Psycho T as he is more affectionately know around here. We have decided to create a Psycho T Intensity Tracker. We will check in periodically to see where the Intensity Nobs have been turned to and with any luck he will turn them up to 11 this year.

Milwaukee Bucks

"There is nothing to see here. Move along."
Don't think Obi-wan Kenobi was talking about this year's Bucks team? You're right. He was talking about every Bucks team since Ray Allen and Big Dog. Unless hell freezes over, or thaws out if you are a Bucks fan, the only thing remotely interesting about this organization is Bango the Buck and his Tales of Intrigue.