Favorite NBA Player

The other day, while lining up to see the Avengers, I saw Lakers 84-85 Championship DVD and commented to my co-worker that the safest thing to get me for my birthday (not for another 8 months) is anything related to the Lakers (and skinny neck ties)

I have enough checkered shirts to dress like Ben Wyatt but not enough skinny ties

This co-worker then commented that her son is also a Lakers fan and asked me who my favorite NBA Player was.

I was stumped. I was a bit annoyed that nobody in this current Lakers line up is charming enough to be my favorite player. I mean, sure, Kobe dresses nice and is arguably the greatest Laker ever, but that's not enough to be my favorite NBA Player.

The worst thing about this is that I don't have any criteria (I mean, my last favorite player was Allen Iverson and that guy is worse than Kobe) for a favorite player. Should he be a superstar, a good person who gives back to the community, as cool as Chris Kaman and Brad Miller perhaps?

How cool is Brad Miller, right?

The closest person I have in mind is Kevin Durant for a few reasons:

1. He used to play for the Seattle Super Sonics (now OKC Thunder) which is my actual favorite team before the Lakers came around.
2. He has a sweet, sweet jump shot (and everyone knows I like sweet things)
3. He's an overall awesome dude and very professional.

You know what, I can't think of a way to end this post so I'll just say outright that Kevin Durant is my current favorite player.

That doesn't mean I'm gonna start rooting for OKC because he plays there (unlike some sportscasters I know).

The Ultimate NBA All-Star Weekend 2011

Anybody who knows me pretty much has an idea of how much I love the game of basketball and the NBA. I tweet about it all the time that I feel like they are getting annoyed by it.

But let's not talk about how annoying I can get. Let's talk about how appropriately they named the time a bunch of relevant NBA players came to the Philippines to give Filipinos the most magical time ever.

Nine NBA players came to town:

1. Derrick Williams - 2nd overall pick of the 2011 NBA Draft, hasn't played a single NBA game but has an NBA body
2. JaVale McGee - Starting center for the Washington Wizards, one-time triple double haver, plank artist
3. Derek Fisher - 5-time NBA Champion, President of the NBA Players' Union, should be back in the US helping fix the Collective Bargaining Agreement
4. Tyreke Evans - 2010 NBA Rookie of the Year, Sacramento King ball hog
5. James Harden - OKC Thunder 6th month who should be starting, epic beard haver and NBA hipster, my current favorite NBA player
6. Chris Paul - Starting guard for the NO Hornets, future New York Knick, almost beat the Lakers in the first round single-handedly
7. Kevin Durant - Starting forward for OKC Thunder, 2-Time NBA Scoring Champ, older than me
8. Derrick Rose - Starting guard for the Chicago Bulls, reigning NBA MVP, Man of a million facial expressions
9. Kobe Bryant - Starting guard for the LA Lakers (my team), 2nd greatest player ever, calls himself the Black Mamba

Now, only four of these players are actual All-stars. In fact, two of them don't even average double digit in points, one of them comes off the bench, and have I mentioned one of them participates in corny internet meme projects?

Despite this, I still think "The Ultimate NBA All-Star Weekend" is appropriate for this event. 'Cause when a bunch of multi-millionaires decide to come over to a third world country to entertain hundreds of thousands of rabid basketball fans, you got to use the word 'Ultimate' to describe the whole thing. And with the current state of the NBA, every player's practically an All-Star.

Anyway, I'm pretty sure this has been one of the most memorable experiences in my life. I was almost brought to tears when the announcer was introducing Kobe (something that only happened one other time in my lifetime), and seeing an NBA game has always been one of my life-long dreams. For this, I would like to thank Manny V. Pangilinan for almost owning everything in the Philippines, Manny Pacquiao for being so successful that a bunch of multi-millionaires go crazy over him, and of course, Patricia Bermudez-Hizon for indirectly humiliating me from the NBA stars.

Here be crappy pictures.