Bobcats 102, 76ers 87

First of all, rest in peace Dennis Johnson. For anyone too young to remember, Johnson was a fabulous two-way scoring/defending point guard. I’d take an in-his-prime DJ on the Bobcats over any number of today’s superstar guards, including Allen Iverson, Steve Nash, Jason Kidd…even Jeff McInnis. Also, get well, Dwyane Wade. You’re the superstar I love to hate, but you’re also magnificent—the question is, now that Pat Riley’s already missed his customary half-season, what’s coaching’s version of Roger Clemens going to do now?

Next order of business: kudos to management for not making any stupid trading deadline deals. I have to admit I was a little worried when Michael Jordan put out that letter that promised marquee free agent acquisitions. Maybe it’s just that new The Number 23 movie that’s got me paranoid over what MJ’s going to be doing next, but with the Nets dangling Vince Carter’s name out there, plus after hearing little whispers about how VC might be yearning for a homecoming to North Carolina, I had nightmarish visions of us coughing up a bunch of draft picks and promising youngsters in return for about 2-months of half-assed Vince-anity before he inevitably splits town for the next sucker.

I really have no idea why everyone gets so hot-and-bothered about trades. Listen to Chad Ford’s interview with Kidd’s agent Jeff Schwartz that happened just before yesterday's deadline: it sounds like it was recorded at Dennis Johnson’s funeral, the two of them are so mournful that nothing went down with the Lakers. PS—Also listen to the interview to hear how many times two guys can use the phrase “At the end of the day” in ten minutes; the two of them say it more times than probably anyone other than vampires. I kid you not: at one point, Schwartz actually says, “At the end of the day, I think Jason Kidd will be wearing a Nets jersey tomorrow.” Ugh.

As for the game, the score might make it look as if the Bobcats played great defense, but the Sixers missed a ton of lay-ups. The worst of all was an uncontested yet thunderous miss from Andre Iguoldala; I haven’t seen a slam dunk botched that badly since George Tenet. For Charlotte, Emeka Okafor might not have started because of flu-like symptoms, but his performance was still awesome-like (15 points, 16 rebounds), and he inoculated (ha!) Samuel Dalembert. Plus Adam Morrison and Matt Carroll effective performances, copping 19 points off the bench apiece. Question: at one point commentators Matt and Henry were having some discussion about giving credit to Morrison for not hesitating to shoot, and Henry said that it’s all because Adam is “unconscious.” So is that how this whole “unconscious” thing started, because people are mistakenly using it to mean “without conscience?”

I don’t know, but speaking of unconsciousness, it’s time to go to bed. At the end of the day, that’s what I do.