HoopsHype.com NBA Blogs - Jackie Christie

In today’s society, it seems like great sports news take a back seat to controversy and rumors. I ask myself… Isn’t anyone interested in writing the good stuff about sports anymore?

Can’t we just focus a little more on the fact that the Dallas Mavericks are going to be a much tougher team to beat than ever before and the Boston Celtics will be a 60-plus Ws team. Not to mention Gilbert Arenas is back, and not holding back. Let’s talk about all the good things the NBA does for charities and all the good initiatives. Now this is good news to spread, right?

But the fact is haters in the media don’t care about that. They just want controvesy. Now the hot topic is women in the NBA. Doug and I talked about this issue with blogger Henry Abbott on ESPN.com.

We said what we said, but by no means did we ever insinuate that women don’t belong in the league. That could not be further from truth, but we do feel that the lines need to be fully defined. Everybody should know what her or his job consists of. If it doesn’t happen that way, then you are going to have misunderstandings.

The new season is upon us and the summer break will be officially over. All the training that the players have put in over the past few months will now be put to the test.

More great news… The reinstatement of ref Joey Crawford. It’s going to be interesting as he has long been considered among the players (or should I say some of the players) as a very fair guy. I know for a fact Doug really likes him and he says he was always able to ask him questions during game. He would always tell him, “Yes, it was a foul” with a smile on his face. Hopefully he and Tim Duncan can put all that happened behind them.

On a completely unrelated note, I find it sort of alarming that Europe may now be stealing talent from the NBA. Back in the day that was not the case, but now with Euro teams catching up it seems like American players are more interested in going there. Doug was getting calls at the end of last season and over the summer to join some of those Euro teams, but he decided to hold off and see what his future with the NBA is. Many others, like Chris Webber, are thinking of making the move. And it will speak in volumes if they do!