Obama or Romney? - St Paul's High School

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26Volume 66, Issue 2 October 31, 2012Carter LiebzeitSenior ContributorLast year’s NationalBasketball Association season wasthreatened by a lockout, yet turnedinto one of the most entertainingseasons in recent memory. The2011-12 season was changed fromthe traditional 82 game schedule to ashortened 66-game campaign. NBAfans saw the emergence of youngpoint cards Russell Westbrook,Ricky Rubio and Kyrie Irving, thesurprising rise to fame of JeremyLin, an entertaining playoffrace, and all capped off byan exciting final betweenthe Miami Heat andOklahoma City Thunder,and a battle of two ofthe league’s best scorers:Miami’s LeBron Jamesand OKC’s Kevin Durant.There’s never been thismany entertaining playersat one time in the NBA:James, Durant, DwayneWade, Kobe Bryant, ChrisPaul, Lin, Derrick Rose,Carmelo Anthony, RajonRondo, Steve Nash, DwightHoward to name a few. The2012-13 season has a lot tolive up to, and there are a lotof questions for NBA fansgoing into this season. I’llhand out some awards topreview this NBA season:Team to Beat: The MiamiHeatEvery team in theNBA is chasing the Miami Heat.There is no doubt that the Heat arethe best team in the league, LeBronJames and Dwayne Wade areperennial first-team all-stars. Jameswon his fourth NBA MVP awardlast season and is one of the bestto ever play the game. Chris Boshsettled in as the third-best playeron the team and played well in the2012 playoffs. Point guards NorrisCole and Mario Chalmers showedthat they are capable of playingdefense reasonably well and ableto hand the ball off to “The Big 3”,James, Wade and Bosh, on offense.Miami not only maintained theirstrong 2011-12 team, they got evenbetter. The Heat signed veteranguard Ray Allen, the NBA all-timeleader in 3-point shots made. MiamiSportsNBA Previewalso signed Rashard Lewis, a decentforward who has bounced around afew different teams the past coupleyears and is finally able to play ona championship contender. ESPNpolled General Managers of all30 NBA teams anonymously, and21 of these 30 (70%) said that theHeat are the best team in the league.Everyone is watching the Heat andit will be a surprise if they are not inthe NBA finals again this season.Most Entertaining Team: The LosAngeles LakersThe Heat may be the bestteam in the league, but everyoneknows what to expect from them.James and Wade play basketballunbelievably well. Having so manygood players allows them to balancethe scoring. Last year the Heat wereso unbeatable in big games becausethere are a number of playerswith good chemistry togetherwho were able to carry the loadwhen teammates were struggling.However, this year’s Lakers teamwill be so fun to watch because notonly do they have a “Big-3”, thereare 5 superstars. This L.A. team willbe so entertaining because each ofthese five players have been the staron a team in the past. Steve Nash,signed by the Lakers in the summer,has been carrying the Phoenix Sunssince 2004. Nash will now have toshare the ball with big-man DwightHoward, forwards Pau Gasol andRon Artest (It’s unacceptable to calla grown man “Metta World Peace”)and of course Kobe Bryant. Each ofthese players have a lot to offer, butplaying together may be a challenge.It’ll definitely be exciting to watchthe Lakers play in the high scoringWestern Conference, with teamslike the rival Clippers, the Thunder,the up-and-coming MinnesotaTimberwolves, and thepowerhouse San AntonioSpurs. The Heat may be thebest team, but the Lakers arethe most entertaining.!Most exciting “bad team”:The New Orleans HornetsThe Hornets have been oneof the worst teams in theNBA the past few seasons,and have only made it pastthe first round of the playoffsonce since they moved fromCharlotte to New Orleansin 2002. The Hornets losttheir only star player infranchise history Chris Paulto the Clippers last year. TheHornets are awful. This yearthey’ll be bad, but they’ll befun to watch. Their flashyuniform is one of the nicest inthe league. First overall pickAnthony Davis is an athleticbig-man who dominated theNCAA last year at Kentucky.The Hornets also draftedAustin Rivers who was an excitingpoint guard at Duke University.Rivers and Davis have not evenreached their 21 st birthday yet andwill be carrying an NBA team ontheir back. Along with shootingguard Eric Gordon, the team isbuilding for the future, and havingAnthony Davis is a good start tobecoming a contender.Best new brand: The BrooklynNetsThe Nets have gained a lot ofnew supporters over the summer of2012. They traded for Joe Johnsonand Gerald Wallace to form a solidcore along with star point guardDeron Williams. The Nets have freshnew black-and-white jerseys, theirnew name and their celebrity part-
Volume 66, Issue 2 October 31, 2012owner Jay-Z have all contributedto the Nets’ bandwagon. Six NBAteams released new jerseys overthe summer. The Nets’ jerseys aresimple and classic without beingold-fashioned. Brooklyn uniformsare the nicest of the six, as reflectedby jersey sales. In fact, more Netsgear was sold on the first day ofsales than the entire New JerseyNets 2011 season.Worst collapse: Dallas MavericksThe Dallas Mavericks wonthe NBA title in 2010-11, shockingthe Miami Heat thanks to anincredible team effort. Two yearsremoved from that title, the Mavshave definitely fallen from being acontender. Former superstar DirkNowitzki is now 34-years-old andbattling knee problems, and hadSportsa very average 2011-12 season.Forwards Vince Carter and ShawnMarion are washed up. Last yearDallas lost their defensive anchorTyson Chandler as a free agent tothe New York Knicks. This year theMavs lost energetic shooting guardJason Terry to the Boston Celtics.The backcourt is mediocre, guardsO.J. Mayo and Darren Collison arenot good enough to carry an NBAteam. However, the biggest lossfor Dallas this offseason was notimproving via free agency or thedraft. The college draft was verydeep this year, a lot of college talentwas available in the first round, yetDallas traded the pick. They also didnot manage to sign any of the bignamefree agents this year. Dallaslooked old and slow in their firstround playoff sweep at the handsof OKC last season. Dallas didn’tdo much to improve, and they maybe at risk of missing the playoffs in2012-13.These five teams will all beinteresting to watch during the2012-13 season. Many questionswill be answered throughout theseason. Will the Heat repeat aschampions? Will LeBron James winhis fifth MVP trophy? Which newyoung stars will emerge this year?Will Jeremy Lin be able to continuehis success with the Rockets? Howwill new-look teams like the Lakers,Hornets and Nets play this season?Do aging teams like Dallas and SanAntonio have one last playoff run inthem? The NBA is at an excitingtime and it will be interesting to seehow the games play out this season.NHL LockoutWhy the lockout is the worst possible scenario...!John MatthewEditor-in-ChiefIs it a blessing in disguiseor is it suicide? It could be arguedthat, for some teams, having sometime off during the NHL Lockout isbeneficial. Such teams include theMontréal Canadiens (I use the term“team” quite loosely), the TorontoMaple Leafs, and the EdmontonOilers, as they are saved from theembarrassment of losing night innight out. More seriously, however,the lockout allows the top prospectson these teams time to developmore fully in the American HockeyLeague or in the juniors.For teams such as the LAKings, it is a mixed bag. They getthe extra rest time that they lostafter winning the Stanley Cup lastseason, but run the risk of losingpart of a fan base that had built upconsiderable enthusiasm during lastyear’s playoff run.And this is where the problemlies. The irony of the whole situationis that the lockout is supposed to helpto determine methods for revenuesharing;therefore stabilizing smallmarketteams or financially strappedfranchises in struggling Americanmarkets.However, the backlash fromthe lockout could end up hurtingthese teams beyond repair.Of course, the people whoreally lose out in this situation arethe ones who seemingly have novoice. The response to the lockoutfrom a fan standpoint has beenoverwhelmingly negative. Surprisesurprise!This negative responsestems from the fact that the lockout27
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