THREE-POINT PLAY: While I was away

while i was away attending to academic stuff and having my admission to candidacy retreat over the weekend, here's what i missed in the basketball world: 

1. ricky rubio ends a magnificent rookie season with a torn acl

the season ends for ricky rubio, the rookie sensation from spain who led the minnesota timberwolves to its new-found resurgence in the season, after tearing his acl in a game against the lakers. his nifty passes and crazy dribbles will have to wait for next season. it sucks to see a budding nba star get injured when his time to shine has come. my thoughts go to him as he recovers from this very unfortunate injury.


2. gerard green with the eye-in-the-sky alley-oop

a late addition to the new jersey nets' roster, gerard green has been known as a high-flyer in high school and the nba before playing international ball and even in the d-league. in their game against the houston rockets, he received a lob pass from marshon brooks to finish the break with an insane windmill jam. this should be one of the dunks of the season, perhaps contending with lebron james jumping over john lucas or blake griffin's dunk over kendrick perkins as dunk of the year.

3. who takes credit for the clutch shot: wade of james?

for the past few games, lebron james has been given the blame for "folding" in the fourth quarter like he did in the nba finals last season. armchair coaches from around the internet have lambasted "the king without the ring" for turning the ball over off the pass during the all-star game and passing the ball to udonis haslem when he could have taken it strong to the hole in their game against the jazz. in this game against the pacers, lebron made a three pointer to tie the game and send it to overtime, while dwayne wade hit the winning shot with 0.1 seconds left in the game. now who takes the credit for the win: lebron with his shot sending to overtime or wade with that unorthodox game winner? i say both of them. the miami heat are hungry, but the road to a championship is still under construction.