Greg in Sports!

At the start of the 2007-08 NBA season, nobody would have thought that the league’s greatest rivals would once again face off for the title.

The Boston Celtics had just acquired two future hall-of-famers in Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett. General Manager brought the two superstars in separate deals in a bid to help Boston’s long time star, Paul Pierce. A lot of people questioned whether the three superstars could co-exist and gel fast enough for the Celtics to become contenders. There was also the question of whether Boston had enough support around its three stars.

Out in LA, Kobe Bryant, arguably the best player in the game today demanded a trade in the off-season. Coming into the season, there were question marks about Kobe’s ability to lead a team on his own.

Once the season started though, it was evident that the Celtics were on a mission. They ran roughshod over the rest of the NBA to finish with the best record. The Lakers meanwhile started well, but became much better with the arrival of Pau Gasol mid-season. They finished the regular season strongly, and ended up on top of the West.

In June, it was time once again for the Celtics and the Lakers to face off for the biggest prize in the game: the NBA title. The Celtics would eventually win in six games, and claim its 17th NBA championship.

Now, both the Celtics and the Lakers are contenders for the NBA title again. Whether they collide in the Finals again is anybody’s guess.

The NFL allows coaches to ask referees to review certain plays using video. The NBA uses instant-replay to check whether a last second shot counts or not. Technology has helped officials in both leagues, and technology is now also helping officials on the tennis tour.

Hawk-eye, which was first used only unofficially during instant replays on the TV broadcast were certified for use in the professional tennis tour back in 2006. The 2006 US Open was the first Grand Slam tournament to ever implement hawk-eye, and though its use has been controversial at times, it has proven to be quite a success.

Hawk-eye uses at least four high-speed cameras placed at different locations around the venue, capturing and tracking the ball from different angles. All the data is processed using a high-speed video processor and a ball tracker.

Hawk-eye provides more accurate line calling that helps the umpire, the linesmen, and the players themselves. Like the NBA and the NFL, which restricts the use of instant-replay to certain circumstances, professional tennis also limits the number of times a player can challenge a call with Hawk-eye.

The Hawk-eye technology used in the professional tennis circuit is owned by Hawk-eye innovations Ltd.

The NBA is undoubtedly the top basketball league in the world, with the biggest stars and the best players from all around the globe. The NBA, unlike the NFL and the MLB, is popular not just in the US but all over the world as well. With superstars like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James who have themselves become global icons, its no surprise that the NBA has become the global juggernaut that it is.

As such, it has been attracting the best players from all over the world. Dirk Nowitzki of Germany, Manu Ginobili of Argentina, Tony Parker of France, all of them have gone to the US to ply their trade in the best basketball league in the world.

However, something unprecedented happened in the last NBA off-season. A player went the other way, and signed to play for a team in Europe. It’s not the first time this has happened, in fact, it happens a lot. There are only so many slots on NBA teams, so other players go overseas to play the game they love. What’s different about what happened last year was that the talent level of the players who signed to play in Europe is clearly the best it has ever been. The likes of Josh Childress and Earl Boykins, key players for their previous NBA teams, went to Europe mostly because of the money.

For now, money is the main motivation for players to sign in Europe, but in the long run, this could be good for basketball. It could finally become the global game that football has long been.

When Dirk Nowitzki was picked 9th in the 1998 NBA draft by the Dallas Mavericks (the Milwaukee Bucks actually, but he was immediately traded for 6th pick Robert Traylor), fans booed and questioned the move. He was not very well-known at the time, having come straight out of Germany, with his only experience in the US coming during a hoops summit in San Antonio. He played one game with the world’s best high school players, and went against a selection of the then best high school players in the US. He went on to dominate that game, and that’s why the Mavs got him.

His NBA career didn’t start well though. He came in firing jump shots from all over, and played little to no defense. He was immediately proclaimed soft, and was widely considered a bust.

Slowly though, he worked his way through, and eventually, became a starter for a Dallas Mavericks team that would become perennial contenders after years of mediocrity. After a few years, Nowitzki became an all-star.

He led the Mavs to several playoff victories and to their one and only NBA Finals appearance in 2006. In 2007, he became the first European to ever win the league’s Most Valuable Player Award.

Indeed, Dirk has come a long way from being the skinny 7-footer who was drafted in 1998 to the NBA superstar that he is now.

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