Two hosts? No "thank you's." Ten Best Picture nominees?
Academy Awards, we hardly know ye.
My favorite gimmick since I starting writing for Sports Central over three years ago was to combine my two favorite things, movies (and along those lines, awards shows, due to all of the unintentional comedy and all-around smugness in the building) and NBA basketball, into one column, which I cleverly called "NBA Oscars."
The Oscars have thrown me a curveball with all the subtle changes this year.
Still, the show must go on.
Being able to make adjustments on the fly is an important trait that all NBA champions must possess to be successful in the playoffs. And, luckily, it's a trait that I possess as well.
At first, I hated the idea of the academy expanding the Best Picture nominees to 10. Everyone knows that there are only two or three movies that even have a chance to win to begin with, so why double the field?
However, when I realized how much easier 10 Best Picture nominees made writing the annual NBA Oscars column, I was all for it.
I've decided to embrace the 10 Best Picture nominees and scrap the old format. Because, unlike the Oscars, where there are only a select few movies that have a chance to win, the NBA seems wide open right now.
Sure, there are some favorites (L.A. and Cleveland), but there are several other teams that can take home the most coveted prize in the game — the Larry O'Brien Trophy.
In today's third annual NBA Oscars column, we take a look at the parallels between the 10 Best Picture nominees and the 10 teams competing for an NBA title.
"Avatar" — Los Angeles Lakers
The Lakers are the "Avatar" of the NBA right now. Everyone knows about them. Everyone has seen them. Every one either loves them or hates them. Their coach/director can probably be best described as a pompous genius.
Winning the title last season for the Lakers and Kobe Bryant is the equivalent of Avatar setting all sorts of box office records. It's great, but it wasn't everything. For as much as Kobe wanted that first ring on his own to step out of Shaq's shadow, he knows that nothing short of a dynasty will put him in the same breath as Michael Jordan.
Just like how making billions of dollars was great for "Avatar," James Cameron knows that history will only remember "Avatar" as little more than a summer blockbuster if it doesn't take home significant hardware Oscar weekend.
"The Hurt Locker" — Cleveland Cavaliers
Much like "The Hurt Locker," the Cavs are the trendy favorite heading into this week. Everyone seems to love them, and everyone wants to make a case for them over the Lakers.
But, just like "The Hurt Locker," I don't think the Cavs are as good as the hype. Yes, they are possibly the best team in the league right now. Yes, they are going to have home-court advantage throughout the playoffs. And yes, they are going to get big Z back for one last big push late in the season.
Still, I can't help but feel like I've heard this story before. I liked "The Hurt Locker," but I feel like I've seen that movie before. I get it, war is intense, and it changes the young men and women who fight in it. I was hoping for a little more from it.
Same with the Cavs. I get it. You can win a ton of games in the Eastern Conference. You can beat good teams in the regular season. Show me something new. Show me that when you play an elite level team in a seven game series that you can overcome that.
Until that happens, the Cleveland Cavaliers are just another good NBA team, the same way "The Hurt Locker" was just another good war movie.
"The Blind Side" — Denver Nuggets
The Nuggets relate more to "The Blind Side" than any other team relates to any movie on this list.
How can you not root for the Nuggets right now? Their biggest star, Carmelo Anthony, seems to have turned the corner and matured into the great, well-rounded pro that we knew he would be, a la Sandra Bullock.
Their driving force, Chauncey Billups, is as likable as any star in the league. It's hard not to root a consummate professional like Chauncey.
And, oh yeah, they have also cornered the "feel-good story" market with George Karl. First of all, he seems like the most likable and personable NBA head coach I've ever seen. He's the kind of guy you like to root for anyway.
But when you throw in the fact that he's one of the winningest coaches to never win an NBA title and he's battling cancer for a second time, you'd have to have a heart of stone not to want to root for a guy like that.
"District 9" — Utah Jazz
The Jazz are "District 9" because, well, I haven't seen "District 9," and I don't really know what it's about. Aliens living in South Africa, maybe?
That's how I feel about the Jazz: I don't really know what they're about. It's the same core of players that has maxed out as "good, but not quite legit contender" over the past three seasons or so, only they are playing better than ever before.
Have they finally turned the corner and reached their max potential, or, like the "District 9," do they just fall into the category of nominated teams because there's 10 now, and we gotta nominate someone?
We'll find out in April.
"An Education" — Oklahoma City Thunder
OKC is "An Education" because that's exactly what they're going to get this postseason. I've written it before, but it's worth revisiting right now, I don't think that a team can have any success in the postseason without having first suffered some pretty heartbreaking series defeats and learning from them.
Take a look back at all the champions of the past 20 years or so. With minimal exceptions, each team that has won the title has been beaten in the playoffs in heartbreaking fashion, only to learn from it and come back stronger than ever.
"Inglorious Basterds" — Atlanta Hawks
The Hawks look like they might have the best team chemistry of all the Eastern Conference contenders. They play well as a team, have no egos, and have had a lot of recent success — just like the Basterds.
Unfortunately, Brad Pitt and Ryan from "The Office" get captured at the end of the movie by the Jew Hunter. The moral of the story, no matter how good you are at what you do, there's always someone out there that is just as good, if not better.
The Cleveland Cavilers are to the Atlanta Hawks what the Jew Hunter was to the Basterds (I promise that's not nearly as racist as it sounds if you've seen the movie).
I won't spoil the ending, but let's just say that doesn't exactly mean that the Hawks are headed for an early exit.
"Precious" — Boston Celtics
Has there ever been a group of people that took themselves more serious than the cast and crew of "Precious" did last night?
From Mo'nique and the screenwriters' over-the-top acceptance speeches to the best actress chick crying when Oprah introduced her as a best actress nominee, the whole thing reeked of smugness. Honestly, you guys made a movie, you didn't alter the course of history or rid the world of hunger and disease. Get over yourself.
That pretty much sums up how I feel about the 2009-10 Celtics.
"A Serious Man" — Orlando Magic
The Orlando Magic are "A Serious Man," because that seems to be the consensus on what it's going to take for Dwight Howard to become and NBA champion: he needs to get serious.
I don't buy it. Yeah, Howard is a fun-loving goofball, but it doesn't translate onto the floor, at least not all the time.
Take yesterday's game against the Lakers. He may have flashed the million-dollar smile a few times more than Kobe, but don't try and tell me that Dwight Howard wasn't just as intense. Teams feed off their leaders. They emulate them in tough situations.
Dwight Howard is the leader of the Orlando Magic, and if yesterday was any indication, he will have no trouble getting this team mentally ready to go to battle during the playoffs.
The Magic might not win it all, but it they do come up short, it won't be because Dwight Howard isn't serious enough.
"Up" — Dallas Mavericks
Dallas wins the distinction of "Up," because that's what happened to their chances of winning the West at the trade deadline — they went way up.
There are some negative things that you can say about Mark Cuban, but you can never question how much he wants to win. He has a reputation of doing whatever it takes, at any cost, to help the Mavericks win an NBA title.
He delivered on that reputation again at the trade deadline, acquiring Caron Butler and Brendan Haywood from the Wizards.
The move doesn't necessarily put the Mavericks over the top, but it makes them better right now than they were at the start of the season, which is the whole point of making moves at the trade deadline.
In my opinion, Dallas is still in a class below the Lakers and Nuggets, but they still have a fighting chance to surprise those teams and take the West, which is higher praise than anyone had for "Up's" chances of taking home the Best Picture.
"Up in the Air" — San Antonio Spurs
If we are comparing teams to movies, then we should be able to compare actors to players, too. And if we're doing that, isn't Tim Duncan George Clooney?
Think about it, for at least the last decade, both men have been as consistent as it gets at their craft. Duncan goes about his business, quietly makes the first or second team All-NBA, and you can never count him out in the postseason. The Spurs don't always hit home runs, but they are always a threat.
Clooney makes a lot of movies, 22 since 2000, and more often than not, he is good. He's made comedies, dramas, romantic comedies, animated films, and vampire movies, and he's been good in just about all of them. He's made blockbusters, independent films, and everything in between. And when the Oscar nominations come out, you can expect that he's going to be on the list. He's been nominated for five Oscars in the last five years.
When I saw the previews for "Up in the Air" that said it was going to be released on Christmas Day, and I saw that it was starring George Clooney, I immediately thought that it had Oscar written all over it.
When the Spurs acquired Richard Jefferson and Antonio McDyess, then stole DeJuan Blair in the second round this offseason, I immediately thought this season had NBA Finals written all over it.
Well, unfortunately for "Up in the Air," it didn't have Oscar written all over it. It came up short in all six of its Oscar nominations. But the point is, mostly because of Clooney, it took until the final 30 seconds of Oscar night until we found out that "Up in the Air" came up short.
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